day 14 couch 1.14.2010

day 14 couch 1.14.2010
Originally uploaded by bareblueskin

Here it is, my beautiful new ikea couch! It's the Karlstad in Korndal Blue. I love it! Now I need to get something on the walls...

Clementines

01.12.2010
Originally uploaded by bareblueskin

Two weeks ago I split a box of Clementines with a friend. We bought it as a healthy treat after going to the gym. Last Tuesday I finally remembered to bring a Clementine to work to eat at lunch. I'm not a big fan of citrus, but these are so small I can eat the whole thing. The thing is, it wasn't all that tasty. I thought the flavor would be a lot stronger. Maybe they're getting past their prime...

Winter Birds

I'm sitting at my desk at work and I can see five robins and a blue jay skittering around on the brick steps, looking for a meal of bugs from in between the cracks of the stone wall. Here is the view from my office. My work is in the lower level of a house, sunken basement, so I see the steps, garden and driveway. There is so much activity outside this window! I know it's hard to see in the picture, but there are 3 robins on the stairs. Maybe it shows up better if you click on the picture. Today is the first day I've seen these birds. The winter here has been so cold even the squirrels have been in hiding.

Day 5 -1.5.2010

It's 11:30 am and I'm just now eating breakfast at work.

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2010 Stitching Project - Soul of the Rose

For the past two weeks I've been thinking a lot about all the projects I have going - cross stitch, knitting, home improvement, gardening, self improvement, etc. I start lots of things, and I even talk myself out of starting a lot more than I have started. I'd like to chip away at the projects that are laying around, but you know starting a new project is more fun! I've decided I can start one new cross stitch this year, and I'm going to use it as my stitch-a-long project to post updates on every week. That means I have to actually work on it every week. Even if it's just 10 minutes. I think I can do that.

Making excellent progress so far - I finished the stitching on 2 santa ornaments from the same pattern and I even put the away the remaining lengths of floss. Now I just need to do the finishing on these - find the backing fabric, stitch them up and stuff them. This time I'll be ready with an extra finished ornament for a swap or a gift. Yay! This is the same pattern I used for a swap last year and I wanted one for myself.

I bought a kit from the Dimensions Gold collection called Soul of the Rose, a Waterhouse painting January 19, 2009. I had wanted this kit for ages, and I even bought the mat and gold frame to go with it, so I was all set. But did I start it last year? No. Did I even sort out the floss in the kit so I was ready? No.

Today I managed to sort out two of the four bundles of floss. This is a very well put together kit, but it still takes time to pull the threads out and put them in groups.

The New Year Purge

It's become a New Year's tradition for me to spend Januery 1st organizing my closet. I mean everything. The entire closet gets emptied, dusted, vacummed, and then put back in an orderly fashion. I need at leat a full day for this because my closet is about 10 wide so it's mostly storage. I decided not to tackle the closet for my January tradition becuase I can't actually get to it. My whole apartment has reached a mess level that makes me anxious. SO, I spent today focusing on the living room. I did work a little in each of the other rooms, but this is where I spent the most time.

The sheer volume of my paperwork mess has me overwhelmed, but at least all the financial/health papers i have come across so far are filed. i know there are more piles of it lurking in the bedroom but i'm okay with not finishing everything by monday. i think everyone else has the same idea. i took 1 bag each of paper and jar recyling outside and their are piles of bags of trash and recyling along the side of the building. yikes! I did finish a craft project too and find my old aquarium rocks for the paperwhite. The desk resettling will be tomorrow. I think it's time to break for dinner.