Sunny Summer.

After a rainy week, we've had a great start to Summer with blue skies and warm air. It's going to get super hot next week, so I'm taking in the current forecast, which is decent temperatures but not brutally hot. This is my last week to work and then I'm going to be off for 2 weeks. No big plans yet but landscaping is high on the list, as well as re~staining this deck in the soft grey we chose, we do the front stairs as our builder didn't extend them to the columns like we asked, re~do the front path to the driveway (landscape pavers arrive this week), and re~stain the back deck in "Willow Mist" which is the lovely soft sage green we chose for back there. We did build the decking to hold the new shed this past weekend, so at some point, we'll also put the shed together, which makes me so happy as its a great size and we have a number of items that can come out of the garage and be housed in the shed instead. Then our plan is on a rainy day when we can't work outside, we'll re~organize the garage for the Summer. Can't wait to have that out of the way. Right now, the shed in its 2 gigantic boxes takes up an entire bay and its making it very difficult to move around in the garage. Frustrating. But we're almost there!

Work has been super busy and I'm looking forward to a nice break. We've settled in to a pretty good routine onsite. But the big change will be on July 5th, when all of our staff will be back together, in person, every day! I'll miss that as I won't be back to work until July 12th but we do see each other on Zoom all the time and most staff have come in a day here and a day there, so I won't miss anything. It will be fun to be back onsite once my holiday is over and see the offices filled up with staff. Right now, I'm at the end of the hall and can play my music thru the day as everyone who is currently onsite is at the other end of the hall. I'm going to have to get used to NOT playing my music so loud!

The birds woke me up extra early this morning so I'm now off to workout and shower, then drive in to work for the morning. I'll head home at lunch and work away this afternoon in our little office. No plans for tonight but likely I'll do some gardening as it will be cooler tonight. Last night, we were just going to head outside and stopped as the mama deer who frequents our forest had her brand new, still wobbly on his little legs baby deer with her. We froze then tried to capture some pictures. Mine are looking fuzzy so I'll ask my dd if hers turned out okay. They were so sweet together. I hope they continue to visit so we can watch the sweet baby grow. This happens each Spring but it still makes us stop and marvel. The moose family that visits has 2 babies this year as well. Tiny but impressive as well.

Wishing you a beautiful Tuesday.

Namaste my blogging buddies.

~ Chy

Clear Island.

The top of the island in the art studio

on Monday when I started the purge.

The top of the island on Thursday when

I completed the purge! So beautiful!!

~ Chy

Dreary Day.

Such a grey and dreary day. A bit of rain, which we do need to get rid of the last of the snow and start to bring the green back. I've taken this week off and originally I was hoping to get the garage re~organized for Spring but with the cool air, dense fog, rain and no sun in sight, it's been actually good to keep me inside and purge the house while I'm off. Really makes senses to do this first anyway. I'll save the garage for the warm and sunny days that should be around the corner soon! Then everything will be organized.

How is your Spring Break going?

Any big plans for this week off?

~ Chy

Real Life.

 While we cooked our 1st dinner

today for Thanksgiving, I took a

half hour to tidy up our laundry

room. It was quite the big disaster! 

Isn't it awful? It had become a dumping 

ground that I was embarrassed to admit.

The counter is cluttered, the cupboards

not organized and the floor is a mess.

I can't believe it had somehow become

our "laundry basket" for dirty clothes.

But after a short time, I had it back under 

control and you could see the floor again.

Now you can even see the sweet vintage floral

and birdhouse pictures I've collected over the 

years. One day, they will actually all be hung up

on the walls but for now, they line our counter.

Figuring out curtains now for this bright and 

now tidy again space. A floral print for sure.

Do you have a messy spot in your home?

What are your plans for that space?

Organizing the Pantry.

We've lived in our new house now for 8 months and I'm still thrilled each time I open up our pantry. It's such a treat to have a place to store food and to stock up when there's a good sale. But it can get messy at times and I've been searching for some nice bins to help create "zones" on the shelves. This will be a work in process. I finally found a system that I decided to try out and I love them.

See, it's getting messy again!

Too much stuff. But stuff we will consume.

The lovely bins, on sale, at HomeSense.

I took everything out and created my "zones" and

now look how sweet it all is. Nothing was thrown out.

Even a bin for hot chocolate mixes and popcorn packs.

And one for our teas, both hot and cold. I need more

and will be back to the store soon to pick up extras.

How do you keep your pantry organized?

Do you use bins or baskets or just stack items?

Inspired!

I have been inspired this weekend to get life in to order. A big announcement is brewing in my world, created by me, supported by my boss, encouraged by my family ~ an announcement that will take my job to a new level and add to my workload. A good move, a great plan and part of the legacy project my husband and I have been working on for the last 16 years. Now all the small pieces are fitting in to place and the big stuff begins!

But to do this, it was really important to me to have life in order. Phase one was this weekend. Here's what we accomplished:

* took apart our leased office and program space to sort out what is not needed, what we still need and to move things into the middle so we can patch and paint the walls, make new curtains, sand and paint the furniture, hang new pictures and dejunk! More to do but this was the biggest piece to get the rest going.

* our son came over and helped us get the garage under control again. Still need to do a bit more but most of it is now complete.

* took apart our makeshift pantry we created a few years ago in our laundry room, that really didn't in the end, work well. Too cramped and we forever throwing our coats over the shelf because we couldn't reach the actual closet to hang them up properly. And because we couldn't always see what we had, we often would buy something then come home to put it away, only to discover we already had it! Not very efficient. So we created a new pantry today, in the kitchen, accessible, without any barriers and it looks great.

* cleaned out and sorted the kitchen cupboards. This resulted in many items being donated as we discovered we had doubles of some many "things". Yikes! But from there, we went thru the house and came up with lots to donate, including clothes, toys and books we no longer need. Love the feeling of purging.

* cleaned all the bathrooms, dusted the entire house, vacummed and scrubbed all the floors, and took all the recycling in.

* caught up the laundry. Never ending job. But all is well now, clothes hung up or folded and put in drawers, towels away in both the bathroom cupboard and the kitchen drawer, all bedding washed and back on the beds. The laundry basket now has just a few things to be washed by hand.

* rearranged our bedroom so that it functions better, leaving us more room to move. Created a new desk area and am so relieved that I now have a dedicated spot for my writing.

* sorted out the art studio/sewing room/guest room and the library/scrapbooking so that the items needed are back in their respective places.

* found our Brita that had been stored away. Ironically, Home Depot had the filters on sale this weekend. Tonight, we enjoyed fresh, cold, filtered water. No need to buy water now!

In between all this, we did treat ourselves to some fun Canada Day fun, including spending time at the activities our community organized, took our grandson for at least 6 long walks, visited the Antique Mall and visited with our son. It was a great weekend and I`m now focused to carry out this new project with a renewed energy and a house that is all put back together.

To reward myself and inspired by Mrs. Thrifty over at New Beginning http://craftthriftandlove.blogspot.ca/, I am now enjoying this yummy, fresh, warm Raspberry and White Chocolate Scone from Cobs Bread. Yum!