The Shredding!

 

Earlier this week I was trying to find an old photo of a place my family used to go to during the summer when I was a teen. I know the photo exists, but I can't for the life of me locate it despite having minimalized all my possessions. Photos are the one thing I still have an abundance of. Many of them are in albums that cannot be removed because they are stuck to the pages and will be damaged if I try and pull them out. Anyway, I thought I had a box with old photos from way back when, but I just couldn't find it. I decided to head up to the attic. 

I found a box of photos, but they were framed and not the right ones. Everything in the box smelled musty, so most of it went in the trash Within that box was a big ziploc bag that contained every letter I ever wrote to my inlaws when they lived overseas. I wrote to them a LOT and they saved everything! I was going to shred all the letters, but I asked Megan if she might be interested in reading them as they were all written before she was born. She said yes, so I organized them by year and date. 1984-1993. After letting them air out for a while, I packaged them in a fresh envelope and put them away in a closet.

There were also two large file boxes up there. One was marked "Old Tax Returns" and the other was "Ebay Sales Records." I thought I had destroyed all that years ago, but apparently not. I had a bit of a panic attack. I took everything out and spread it all out and felt so stressed. What was I going to do with all this?

I let it sit on the floor overnight and pondered. The next day, hubby went to work and I decided to start shredding. I played some music loud and went to town. I was surprised at how many ebay sales I had over the years. Wow! And I used a ridiculous amount of paper making copies of every transaction. I think I filled 7 large kitchen trash bags packed full of shreddings. 

It took my two days but I finished it. I was happy to know that there were 3 less boxes of stuff up in the attic. I still haven't found the photo I was looking for and it bugs me. Boy, does it ever bug me!! I'm not giving up just yet, lol.

PVC Pipe Craft Paint Storage Rack

Look what we made!

If you're a crafter, you may find it difficult to keep your supplies in order. I had so many bottles of paint that I didn't know what to do with them. I had them sorted in cardboard boxes piled on top of each other like this:

I like to have them facing out rather than standing up so I can see the colors better. I looked online for storage ideas, but the only one that looked like it would work for me was this:

LINK TO THIS ARTICLE HERE.

The above storage rack was made from off-the-shelf PVC fittings, so they didn't have to do any cutting. Fittings were a little pricey for me at over $2.00 each, so knowing that I'd need much more storage, hubby and I went in search of pipe. As it turned out, we found turquoise colored PVC pipe at Lowe's that's actually sewer pipe. I loved the color and a 10 foot piece of pipe was less than $15. The diameter would hold 5 bottles of paint inside.

Hubby set up the radial arm saw.

As it turned out, the saw blade was not big enough to cut all the way through the pipe, so the pipe had to be turned to complete the cut, which resulted in some rough edges. Each piece was cut 3-1/4" long, allowing for some of the paint bottle to stick out for easy grabbing.

Rough edges were smoothed out on a bench grinder, but a belt sander
would also work I think.

I laid out the pieces as they were cut. 

Hubby made this fixture to hold the bottom row in place for gluing.

We used the extremely stinky PVC adhesive to glue the rings together.

We just kept adding another row. The glue dried very quickly. 

Higher and higher!

We probably could have added one more at the top, but we decided not to, however,
it would have looked like a tree which made us think that this had Christmas decoration
 possibilities. Hmmm!

 So here is the finished rack in place all filled up with my craft paints. It holds quite a bit. I had to prop it up a tad on the bottom with some thin rulers because my work table sags in the middle just a bit. It did not come out perfectly perfect, but it works for me. A few pieces are not touching here and there, but there is enough glue on each section to hold it together. It's pretty sturdy.

If you try project, here are some things you should know:
- Cutting this type of pipe makes a huge mess!
- Gluing is very smelly, so working outside is recommended.
- The pipe has black print all along the outside. We turned each piece as we glued it so that the print would not show.
- White pipe is cheaper if you don't want to use the blue.
- The fittings, if you choose to use those instead, are nicer and smoother, but more expensive plus there is a raised flange inside that I thought would cause issues with the bottles not seating quite right. Still it's an option if you don't have the ability to cut your own pipe.
-To find PVC pipe and fittings, look in the irrigation or plumbing section of your home improvement store.
- The pipe we bought was 10ft long. We had a van so it was easy to get home. You may need to get a shorter section or have it cut in half at the store for easy transport.
- You can probably make this using metal cans, but you would need a lot of E-6000 to glue it together.

Let me know if you try this!

Hey! CLAMCO is celebrating 8 years on blogger this month. Woo!

Furry Friday: Crowned.

Yes, we love our boy!

Well, so far my summer break has been largely uneventful. I'm tackling my to-do list a little each day. One of the things I wanted to get done was pack up a set of dishes and some glassware I offered to my daughter for when/if she ever gets her own place. I got that done and the boxes are up in the attic. I have gone through drawers, storage containers and closets getting rid of more stuff, either by donating or tossing it in the trash. It's a constant re-evaluation-of-what's-left method of downsizing. Eventually I hope to have very few possessions by the time I retire and get that beachfront condo. Yes, that's my goal!                                                                          

 My biggest "possession burden" is photos. This closet holds 3 shelves of them. On the top shelf are old photo albums that belonged to hubby's parents and they contain memories of his childhood and pictures of people from the "old country" in Austria. The second and third shelves hold all of our photos for the last 40 years including all of Megan's baby and growing up photos and videotapes. I know I have to get them transferred to DVD, but that sounds like too much trouble and cost at this time. At least now they are all organized and in one place instead of scattered here and there.

I got my crown on Tuesday. It went well except for the fact that I don't deal well with the injections.

It's not the needles so much as it is the after effects. Whatever that stuff is, it makes my heart race, my hands shake, and I start to cry. It happened once before as well. After a few minutes I was okay. My dentist has a high tech operation where they make the crowns onsite, so it all got finished on one day. I had a headache for a while afterwards, but I'm amazed at my new tooth, how perfect it fits and how natural it looks. Hubby had four done in one day last week. He needs them as anchors for the partial he's getting later this month. He'll be having some extractions to complete the whole project. It's a huge bill, and even with two dental insurance policies, I'm afraid we had no choice but to go into debt on this one. What can you do? You need teeth.

This morning Zoey will be going to the vet for her yearly checkup and vaccinations, (another big bill). On Saturday I'm going to a brunch for county democrats where a member of the Alabama state legislature will be speaking. I'm very excited to meet some fellow blue dots in person. Next week I have a lunch date with another blogger. Other than that, the summer is wide open. 

Have a great Friday and an awesome weekend!

Furry Friday: Summer Break!

My chubby boy watching me wash dishes
this morning.

Wee! I'm off for the summer! Wednesday was my last day of work and I don't have to return until August 7th. Kids return to school on Aug 21st. It's so weird not having to be anywhere. The first night I woke up at 1:30 in the morning and couldn't get back to sleep. This morning I slept until 4am. Wow! Crazy, huh?

So what will I be doing for the next 9 weeks? I have no idea, but I have no money to spend, so I can't do much. I'm getting a crown done next week. I've been putting it off for so long, that I decided to just go ahead and git 'er done. I had scheduled that appointment back in March and about a month later, hubby had some issues with his teeth and it turns out that he requires some very extensive, and very expensive dental work done. He had the first part of it done last week and then later this month it will be finished. Even with two dental insurance policies, the cost of it all is going to hurt us big time, but we just have to suck it up as they say. Our dog Zoey is due for her annual checkup/shots and our car insurance premium is also coming up, so we're crossing our fingers that no other unforeseen emergencies pop up anytime soon.

Meanwhile, I have a list of things to do around the house that don't cost much except time and a little elbow grease..

- Clean the carpets.
- Pull out the stove and clean underneath.
- Pull out the fridge and clean underneath (done already)
- Wash all the windows, inside and out.
- Go through boxes of old photos and throw out as much as possible. (I did this yesterday)
- Polish my kitchen counters. I've never done this before, but I found this polish and I hope it gives my counters a little more shine. Has anyone ever tried this stuff? It's called Hope's Perfect Countertop.

Another thing on my list of things to do is to start walking every morning. I have already walked the past two mornings. I go out at 5am and walk for at least 45 minutes. I figured out a good route that I can easily add on to if necessary. I need to stay physically fit for my job. I'd also like to lose a few pounds. As you can see from the photo above, I've got jelly rolls on my muffin top! Eek!

Mister (left) and The Muffin. They like this water fountain.

While I need to lose some weight, I have to try and get some weight back on The Muffin, (she's 10 years old). She has gotten thin and bony while Mister is getting huge (16 pounds!). The Baby, (14 years old),  has also lost a lot of weight, but she needed to because she used to be the fatty cat around here. I worry about The Muffin because she once had bladder stones that had to be removed surgically and I sure do hope that's not the case again because that was an $800 bill. I've started giving her wet food which she seems to like and she's drinking plenty of water which is good. We brought this outdoor water fountain inside and all the pets love drinking from it.

Megan needs more driving lessons and hopefully she will let me take her out. Right now hubby has been teaching her, but he doesn't have as much free time as I do. She's been getting more hours in at Publix and so far it's going well. It's hard, physical work that she's not used to, but I think it's good for her to be doing it. We're not sure if we are going to keep the big blue van we bought for her. Hubby can't get the air conditioning to work and if we have to have it repaired professionally, it's going to cost a lot of money. Megan also has trouble driving it. She seems to do better in my little Fiat. That decision is still up in the air right now. I think we can sell it for more than what we bought it for now that it's been thoroughly cleaned and fixed up with new front tires and a new radio.

Summer is definitely here, weather wise. It's humid again and getting uncomfortable to be outside. I enjoy working in the garden, but I can only stand a few hours in the morning and then I need a second shower. The gardenias are in bloom and we're lucky to have a couple of large variety shrubs on our property. They smell wonderful.

Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!

It's the Fur-Furriest Friday of All!

It's the last Furry Friday post of 2016 and it's furrier than ever, thanks to our new addition, Mr. Red. 

We took him to the vet Tuesday morning for neutering and micro-chipping and we didn't get him back until Wednesday morning. The vet did a blood workup which showed no signs of anything awry with his health, thank goodness. Red was quite distraught when he got home and not really happy to see us at all. Finally he settled down and did his pancake thing and then slept most of that day.

Is it too late to change his name to Pancake? lol A friend of mine suggested the name Plank.

Wednesday night we decided to keep him in hubby's workroom by himself because we still weren't confident about him using the litter box. He can really hold it in for a long time and he hadn't gone all day, so I didn't want to take any chances. In the morning we found (and smelled) that he had taken care of business in both departments, if you know what I mean. That was a really good sign.

We thought he'd be happy to be let into the rest of the house, but all he did was search frantically for a way out. This frenzy lasted quite a few hours and then he finally settled down and slept most of Thursday.

It was warm and humid Thursday morning so I had some windows open for him.
He likes this one in the kitchen best because he can see down the street, (his old territory),

Seriously. Is indoor living really that bad? He looks pretty happy to me.

He hadn't used the litter box all day Thursday and I knew I wouldn't sleep until I was certain he had at least done #1. I usually have to encourage him to enter the litter box by wiggling a toy inside or by moving the litter around with a scoop. Finally, he went inside and peed, so we let him have free range of the house overnight. He has a little bell on his breakaway collar so we know when he's on the move. He was actually pretty good and he and The Muffin got to check each other out a little more in the cover of darkness. She is still not happy about him being here, but I have high hopes she will eventually come around.

Then 4 am arrived, which must be when the big outdoors starts calling his name because his torment began once again and he went door to door, window to window, crying. At 7 am, he finally settled down under the dishwasher door.

The other day he was sleeping on the washing machine in the laundry room.
He seems to like appliances. Perhaps we should have named him Maytag. lol

While Mister was away at the vet on Tuesday, I used the opportunity to mop the floors and take the tree down. The Christmas tree was in front of that window, but I admit that I prefer the sunshine pouring into the room instead. Hubby wanted to keep the garland on the fireplace mantle up a little longer, so I just took the big gold bows off.

I played Donna Summer Live on Pandora while I did the tile floors with Pine Sol Fresh Scent. I used Orange Glo on the wood floor in the living room and everything was smelling fresh and clean.

 The jelly cupboard and the tall sideboard are two pieces I want to paint. I said that last year. Let's see if I can get those pieces done in 2017. I don't have any resolutions or goals for the upcoming year. I mostly just want to feel like this place is home and I want Mr. Red to feel that way too.

My sweet boy.

2016 goals revisited.

Okay, so I went back to my post from December 31, 2015 and checked out my goals for the new year. Oh dear.  I haven't done so well on a couple of my items. Eek!

#1. Try to cut down on my sugar intake. Um, yeah...that was a total fail. No excuses. It's like I never even made the goal at all. Let's move on.

#2. Lose some weight. Er...umm...another total fail. However, I have not gained any weight! I am pretty much the same as I was a year ago.

#3. Stop shopping at the big "W" big box discount store. I have totally achieved this! I admit to only one small purchase of an item that I could not find anywhere else, but that was all and I bought it online. I went into the store once with hubby (who has not totally abstained), but I personally did not purchase anything. I do all my food shopping at Publix. I buy what's on sale or the bogo deals. I get a few fill in items at the Dollar General and the Dollar Tree.

#4. Paint some furniture. I achieved this goal but did not take it as far as I had planned. I painted a sideboard.

And I painted this cute little chest I bought for $5 at a garage sale.

#5. Stop selling online. Achieved! I have pretty much given up selling on ebay entirely. My etsy store is also empty. I have no desire to do resale anymore. I've totally lost the feeling for it. Sad, I know, but my life is a lot simpler now and I love not having to store all that merchandise in my house.

#6. Help hubby make merchandise for his booth. Achieved! The items I've made don't sell well in the booth, but they sell on etsy, so I help hubby with that. I've sold quite a few of my mixed media magnets. Since I've been working though, I haven't had much time to devote to crafting, but I plan to get back at it in the summer. 

#7. Turn my office into a cozy retreat for me. Achieved! My office has gone through a multitude of changes since we moved here two years ago. check it out.

In the beginning. OMG! No organization.

Then I got these shelves. Organized, but not exactly Zen.

I decided to stop doing ebay and put the shelves in the garage for hubby to use for his stuff. I got rid of all my ebay and etsy merchandise. Then I bought this bed secondhand which I had planned to paint white. After sanding it and struggling with it, I found it was way too heavy and too big of a job for me, so I got rid of it and bought a day bed.

I didn't realize what a pain in the neck it is to put linens on a daybed. I had this quilt and bed skirt, but I was not happy with the way it looked at all. Still, it was better than all that stuff surrounding me. I wanted a peaceful room. 

I bought this inexpensive comforter and it looks better, but I'm still not entirely thrilled with it. The mattress is memory foam and hard as a rock. It makes the bed look like a cardboard box. There is no "loft." And again, trying to make up a daybed is impossible as you cannot bring anything down around the sides. It's really aggravating and something I didn't take into consideration when I bought it.  But there it is. My office/guest room/Muffin's hangout/craft room.

The closet that hubby turned into a shipping table for me is now where I do my crafting.

So that's it. How did you do on your 2016 goals/resolutions? Any better than me? 

Taco soup and other good stuff!

I had a good week. Actually I had a great week. I was sitting at lunch one day and this feeling came over me. I didn't know what it was and then suddenly I realized that I was feeling happy. Imagine that?

Taco soup with tortilla chips.

It was my turn on main dish this week and I had entrees to cook that I had never made before, so as usual, I was anxiety ridden. On Monday we had beef sliders. Something new. Little mini burgers that went on little mini buns. Since we usually prepare for 450 lunches, that meant we had to prepare 900 sliders because a serving was two. They were easy to cook, but it took a while to pan them up because there were so many. Well, the kids just loved them, so that was a new menu hit. I forgot to get a picture though. Sorry.

Chicken Alfredo with rotini pasta.

On Tuesday we had chicken Alfredo which was not terribly difficult to make, but it involved using the tilt skillet.  60lbs of frozen cubed chicken went into the skillet. After heating the meat, I added twenty five-5lb bags of Alfredo sauce. I steamed 27lbs of rotini pasta and then added it to the mixture. It looked like a ton and filled seven 6" deep pans, but there was none left at the end of service which was great. I should mention that part of the stress of using the tilt skillet is ensuring that you don't burn whatever you're cooking, especially cheese. After you're done cooking, you have to clean the tilt skillet which you have to figure into your time management.

A lunch lady in her habitat. Yeah, that's me.

Wednesday was chicken bites. Easy peazy. Heat and serve. Thursday was taco soup (shown above). Another tilt skillet preparation. 50 pounds of ground beef, heated and drained. Then I added lots of canned stuff which included diced tomatoes, kidney beans, pinto beans, black beans, plus 25 pounds of frozen corn and then some seasoning packets. It came out really good. But here's the best part. The assistant manager helped me make it! Yes! I could have done it all on my own, but she helped. In fact all the other ladies have been nicer to me, so suddenly I don't feel like a fifth wheel at work anymore. Hence the happy feeling. I don't know what changed, but I hope it continues.

We have two more weeks to go before the Christmas break. I'll be on veggies next week and fruit the next, so things should go rather smoothly and then I'll have 2 glorious weeks off. I can't wait!


In other good news, (yes, there's more!), hubby started his crossing guard job this week. He got a couple days of training from a police sergeant and after that he flew solo. All is going well and he likes it. They gave him a reflective vest and a raincoat to wear which ironically he needed. After weeks and weeks of no rain and being in a serious drought situation here in Alabama, it finally rained...on his first day. Who knew that's all it would take to end the drought? lol

So now hubby is basically working 7 days a week. Crossing guard on the weekdays (mornings and afternoons), and Lowe's on the weekends (full days). He still has lots of time during the weekdays to get other things done. He's been really helpful running errands, going food shopping and even cooking some dinners, doing odd jobs around the house, taking care of the yard and playing with Zoey too. I miss him on the weekends when I'm off, but I know we'll have time together on Christmas break.

In more good news (can you stand it?), Megan is going on a trip. Yes, she actually planned it all by herself. She's visiting her friend in Texas, the one who came here to spend a week this past summer. She arranged everything herself and even shopped for new clothes. This is huge. HUGE I TELL YOU! Hubby took her to Old Navy and she found clothes she liked. She has never worn jeans in her life because they felt stiff and heavy to her. Now they make soft and stretchy legging type jeans and she found out she loves them. She's a whopping size 00, but she bought size 2 just for a little extra room. lol. She ordered more from Old Navy online during their cyber weekend sale and she got some good deals on items that were not available in her size at the store. 

THEN CAME THE PURGE!

The Muffin wants to keep the tee shirts for herself. They make a comfy bed.

I came home from work and found Megan going through everything in her room, making piles of stuff to get rid of. Whaaaat? This was awesome to me! She decided to part with 26 graphic tees, and a slew of books. The tees are going to my niece and Megan hopes to sell the books online. This made lots of room in her closet and on her bookshelves. There's a ton of her stuff in the attic as well and she said she's ready to part with some of that too. Is this my lil punkin' growing up?

Well, that's more happiness in one week than I can stand. But actually a couple more cool things happened. I posted a photo of The Muffin on the Hill's Pet Nutrition Facebook page to enter a "featured pet" contest. They messaged me through FB that they loved the photo and that they wanted to send Muffin a special gift. So, something is coming in the mail soon for that furry beast. Cool!

Then, last night, I went out to walk Zoey. It was turning dark, but I could hear our neighborhood owl hooting as usual. I looked up and actually saw it at the tippity top of a pine tree. I could tell by the silhouette that it was a great horned owl. I've never seen an owl in the wild so that was just thrilling for me. What an awesome sight and what a way to end a great week! 

Have a fantastic weekend and may all good things come your way!