Some thoughts on housework...

Confession time. I'm a lax housekeeper. I see it as one of my primary duties as a SAHM (stay at home mom...took me a while when I first saw that too), but if truth be told, I certainly don't keep up with it with any sort of verve or urgency. This is in direct contrast to how I was raised. My mother, another SAHM, was a committed and devout, details oriented housekeeper. That is, until she finally got to an age where she hired a cleaning lady. Honest to goodness, half of the house I grew up in looked like a magazine spread. It was impeccably decorated and impeccably kept, mostly because no one was allowed in those rooms. You know those houses where they have a formal living room that no one sits in and you're just supposed to hurriedly run through on the way to your room? Yeah, that was my house.

This was my psychic landscape as well. Over the years, it's crept into more and more of my subconscious, taking over those parts of the brain that are well suited to adolescent rebellion and keeping all of your worldly belongings in a heap on the floor. Things really started to change in university, where I roomed with perhaps the most disorganized person I've ever met. In first year I ended up with two roommates in residence, one of whom was prone to walking on her bed with her shoes on (books on a shelf up above and she only 4' 10") and a wide variety of food stuffs to be found in amongst her bedding. Whenever she left for a weekend, my other roommate and I, tidy organized people that we were, would pounce on her third of the room and clean it up. I don't think this ever sat well. In any case, my little corner of the universe at that time was always swept, mopped, be-postered and pretty smelling. It was then that I started making my bed on a regular basis. It just calmed me down to come back from my classes (when I went) to see the quilt my grandma made and the afghan my mom made smoothed out and welcoming me to blow off my reading and instead sit down and watch some Star Trek.

Now I live in an unfinished and in perpetual renovation house devoid of baseboard in most rooms or real flooring in the entire upstairs, half finished moldings around the windows and more dog hair and claw scratches than I had ever anticipated living with...ever. Yet my expectation of my home is to live in something resembling House and Home. Thank you mother. I continually endeavour to lower my expectations. In doing so, I've come up with some basic rules of thumb for me to live by.

1) Whenever I get cranky about having to do housework, which we've already established is not often, I try to remember the kind of effort it would've taken to do 100 years ago and then I calm down about it. I put the clothes in the washer and walk away. An hour later, I come back and put them in the dryer, then walk away. I put the dishes in the dishwasher, set the 4 hour delay button and go to bed. When I wake up there are clean dishes (this NEVER ceases to amuse me). So all in all, it's really nothing to get so uptight about.

2) My benchmark for cleanliness is Hoarders. Have you ever watched that show? These people who are literally burying themselves alive with crap (sometimes, literally)? If I can stave off that particular outcome, I think I'm meeting my quota.

3) Really, no one in this house seems to really give a sh*t about this except me. I'm not counting the little one or the dog, so we really know who I'm talking about here. He never complains, so I guess I shouldn't get so bent out of shape over it.

4) When things get to the point where they start to make MY skin crawl, it's time to break out the Lysol.

5) Other than keeping the kitchen and the bathrooms at peak cleanliness at all times, everything else can wait until I have company coming.

This, of course, is all just a series of elaborate excuses to create more time for crafting. Hence;



I'm addicted to granny squares lately. I had some acrylic scraps and I broke into them to try out this rainbow-y blanket. This took me two evenings to do, which is why I heart crochet so much. I've used up as much of the scraps as I can for this, so now I can throw the rest away with a light heart.



I can't stop spinning!! Seriously. I think I've done nerve damage. Both my legs feel tingly all the time. But still, I can't stop. Chicken Betty sent me some fiber eons ago and it's so lovely that it practically spins itself. I've spun up about 400+ yrds already and have roughly 5 oz left to do. I think I'm really starting to get a hang of this too.



Little A is really into ballerinas right now, and on my latest trip to the fabric store I found this ballerina themed flannel. Gimme a bunch, please. I had hoped to make jammies and a fitted sheet for her crib, but instead bought enough for jammies and a top sheet. This is her throwing a mild tantrum over Idon'trememberwhat. But she was still for about ten seconds, so I managed to get a photo in.

This last one comes with a warning. Upon viewing, you may be overcome by an insatiable urge to make this. Just sayin'.



I got this through the Martha Stewart Craft a Day email. I pretty much get only newsletters in my inbox anymore. Anyhow, this looked irresistible so I had to try it. Felted sweater teacup pincushions. Really too easy. I raided Frenchy's for all the wool sweaters they had and came up with these two...so far. I still need some i-cord trim for the saucers, but really, in an evening (sans i-cord mind you...I did those another evening), they were done. And adorable. They're from designer Betz White.

Speaking of housework, I've gotta go figure out what to make for dinner. That's a whole other post.

Until later...

Output...

The other night, during our bedtime routine, I was singing my usual repertoire of songs to miss Bean when I decided to ask her what she might like to hear next. We'd already been through several renditions of 'Koopa' (Kookaburra), 'Rock-a-Baby' (Rock-a-bye-Baby) and 'Fwisee Song' (Not sure of the actual title, but it's the one where the two fishies 'swam and they swam all over the dam.' I'm going with The Fishy Song). She answered with 'Deedle-dee'.'Deedle-dee?' I repeated. It took me a moment to search my mental Rolodex for what this might be. Then it dawned on me. Sometimes, for no discernible reason, I hum the Super Mario Bros. theme song, substituting in 'deedle dee's' here and there. She did a celebratory dance when I figured it out.

So some of the following is going back a while. I thought I had deleted photos of some of my Christmas crafts, but they suddenly appeared when I plugged the memory card into the reader on the desk top. Weird. I don't understand computers and I don't have the patience to try and understand them. I know 'working' and 'not working' as defined by me. That is all. The entire spectrum of my understanding of computer science. Anyhow...



This is a scarf I started knitting when I first received the yarn from a friend of mine (Colinette Jitterbug, not sure of the colourway other than to say that it is LOUD). I wasn't sure who it's recipient might be until about half way in when it seemed to suggest that a hip and stylish young lady might appreciate such an accessory. Fortunately for me, I know such a young lady! So it was to her that this was gifted at Christmas and I think it was pretty well received.



This was a cowl I knit for my sister (Ridged Lace Cowl) which, I think, turned out quite pretty and soft. In retrospect though, I think I may have eliminated a repeat or two. I like cowls to be, well, cowly, but this might be a bit too much so. Either way, it was fun and fast to knit and blocked out really nicely.



Crochet made a good showing this year as well. These were a couple of lunch sets I made for some culinary-inclined toddlers in my life. Shamefully, my own was not among them. Another of my goals this year is to craft more specifically for her. I made virtually nothing for her for Christmas this year, and that's just not acceptable.



I also made a bunch of Chicken Betty's Summer Coaster Set's (pattern available through Ravelry) this year. They're perfect little gifts. Quick, easy, festive...can't ask for more than that.



Once I was all done with Christmas, I was itching to get back to my wheel and starting working on my spinning again. I pulled out some pencil roving from the stash and within a few days had it all spun up.



Singles ready for plying.



Finished product. I have a confession to make. Once I'm done spinning and plying some skeins of yarn, I carry it around with me for a while, like a security blanket or a teddy bear. I'm just so amused with the fact that I can actually turn roving, raw wool (okay, it's been washed and carded by the time it gets to me, and in most cases, dyed as well), into actual yarn. And it's not half bad either. This is roughly 266 yrds. I'm trying to get up the nerve to actually knit it into something. Any suggestions?



Finally, on an organizational tear at the opening of the new year and in keeping with my resolution to make-over my craft room, I cleared out the corner I had designated as Miss A's space for creating...



...and ordered my pneumonia-stricken husband to put up shelves. Yes, I am ruthless in pursuit of my own goals (relax...he'd already been on a weeks worth of anti-biotics by then. I'm not totally heartless). It's a little sparse and bare at the moment, there's lots of ways in which I can cute it up, but for now, it's fitting the bill. She has somewhere to colour and Play-Doh (which she is a little freakishly attached to I have to say) and we can hang together in our collective creative space which is a dream come true.

I've got other WIP's to show, but the clock is running out on nap time here, so I'd like to spend a little time at the wheel before I have to put the mommy hat back on. More later...

Resolutions...

My dog has a flatulence issue.

I just thought I would share, since enjoying it all to myself seemed so unfair. Luckily for me, his hours of operation seem to co-incide with my relaxing time, the evening. Isn't he considerate.

I guess it's not really entirely his fault. We've had to switch types of dog food. Not the brand mind you, just had to go from big chunks to mini chunks because Superstore in their INFINITE wisdom, have randomly decided not to carry the big chunks anymore. I'm adding this to the long list of things I really super adore about the Superstore in town and just living on the edge of civilization in general, where basic goods and services are a luxury at the best of times.

Anyhow, that was the dry stuff. Mini chunks. Then they stopped carrying the wet crap we mixed in with the dry crap, so we had to switch that up as well. Ever since then, it's been methane city. Honest to goodness, one night last week it was so relentless and noxious during the night that it woke me up. This is my life people. This is my life.

So here we are, it's 2011. It dawned on me late on Jan. 2nd that Jan. 1 was 1/1/11. And that was only because my iPod told me so. Things that make you go 'huh'.

I know resolutions are, I dunno, overdone, outdated, cliche, never followed through, but really, what could it hurt to at least make up a vague list of things I'd like to do differently this year than last. 2010, for me, as far as years go, hmmm...how to put this delicately...sucked ass, so I'm endeavouring to do my best to go into 2011 with an open mind and a hopefully less cynical attitude.

Thing the first; I was quite close to ditching the blog last year, but I think I'll hang onto it for a little while longer with the express understanding that I'm more going to just write what I want to write about. I think I have a better chance of actually making a point of stopping by and throwing some thoughts around, see what sticks. I think the general mood will be less crafty at times. Crafts don't rule my world like they once did, although they've made an impressive come back in the last few months. But I still have a lot on my mind and I think I can make it funny to read.

Thing the second; Less Facebook, more actual books. I'd like to make a list of at least 12 books I'd like to read or have always wanted to read or maybe should read just for the sake of being well read. I miss books and I really do think I've gotten stupider since I stopped making them a priority in my life.

3rd; Less tv. This is a no brainer. The DVR makes this stupid easy to do. I never watch anything when it's on anyway, so most of the time I'm just sitting here crafting with some background noise. That could be radio instead.

4th; Re-do the craft room, make it more functional for me and my Bean. I'm brimming with ideas and already went on a tear this afternoon decluttering and reorganizing. I have plans for furniture purchases, window treatment sewing and some mild painting, all of which is totally do-able and will hopefully yield a much more pleasant and efficient space to be in. I've designated a couple of corners for Miss A and her arts and crafts and I can't wait to get her little areas set up.

5th; Try to do one thing this year that I've always wanted to do. Last year it was yoga, which I did and really enjoyed. Haven't decided what it might be this year yet though. What would you do?

That's a modest start anyway. I'm also going to try and get this laptop out of my living room. Hopefully once the craft room (slash-office slash-playroom) is up and running, I can put it up there and leave it there (there's already a desk top occupying real estate on the desk. Ideally I'd like to ditch both of them, or at least the desk top, and get a Mac. But we'll see). It interferes too much with little A being around. I sit here and putz around on it while she's trying to play with me, the constable sits here and plays computer games on it while she's trying to play with him...it's insane. Out of sight is so out of mind it's not even funny. And the time has come.

To answer some of the comments from the previous post, I just thought I would quickly update Miss A and her screeching. She hasn't exactly outgrown it yet, but I did try a few avenues of dissuasion. Time out in her room wasn't effective since she saw that as a prime opportunity to just keep at it, only louder and longer (and I got kinda tired going up and down the stairs all the time. I know...I'm lazy). Getting cross and raising my voice was an exercise in futility because loud begets loud. So one day, in the van, at the end of my rope, I used up the only ammunition left in my arsenal, the oldest trick in the book.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Trapped in the confines of my 2001 Chevy Venture Mom-mobile, I let loose with the longest, loudest, high pitchiest screech I could possibly screech. And didn't that shut her up right quick.

Then the very next day, she was at it again in the living room, only her father was standing right next to me. I didn't even hesitate, just belted one right back at her. He went a little cross eyed and his ears bled a little bit, and he even commented on 'wow, that really hurts the ears' to which I replied 'Yes. I know. That's how I feel every time she does it to me. All day long. For days on end.' The post script to that would be, 'DO YOU GET WHERE I'M COMING FROM NOW, HUH???'

I have to say...things have been much quieter around here since then. She still attempts a screech from time to time, a very little one, almost a whisper, but she is ever wide-eyed and watchful of mommy, should she make good on her threat of 'Keep it up, and I'll do it too.'

Until later...