We forgot to take before photos, but I have a few blurry ones from last year.

This was before the laundry room was walled in at the back of the garage. We did some cleaning out then, but the last photo here probably looks better than it was on Monday.

The biggest problem is that the shelves were supposed to roll out so we could see and put things away. In reality, they were always getting stuck on each other and in cold weather no one wanted to take the time in the unheated garage to bother. Things were getting piled up in no particular order and when we went to look for something, they would get even more out of order. It had reached the point where we couldn't find anything.

So Alex, when he couldn't find something he wanted, agreed to help. He emptied almost everything out of the garage. Then, between the two of us, we figured out how to arrange the shelves so that each one was accessible from the front -- no pulling out necessary. We moved the old kitchen cupboards to the back of the laundry room wall where we can actually use it. That freed up space in the far front corner for four of the shelves. The Christmas stuff is finally all together on two of them.

We also got rid of a car load of Goodwill donations and at least two garbage bags of trash. All the lumber is piled outside under the balcony. I will use what I need of that to put shelves in my fabric cupboard and probably add the rest to the wood pile. (At least two of the 2x4's from there will be used to get the wood pile off the ground, too.) We put the tiles mentioned in the quote above, along with many more unbroken tiles, under the balcony, too. We need to think hard about whether we will actually use them when we redo the kitchen and baths. If so, we'll put them in storage. If not, they will go to Freecycle.

So, now the garage looks like this:

These are books and videos. The corner cupboard and box of hangers sitting on it will be going out to the family room and laundry, respectively. I'm hoping to pare down the extra linens in the boxes at the right, too. They are blocking the window light.

This is the front corner with all the Christmas stuff on the right.

We actually have enough floor space to set up three pieces of exercise equipment. (We can use it in here when it's not too hot or too cold.)

This is the kitchen extras corner. All the seasonal and occasional use stuff is here in the cupboard and on the shelving. The big box behind the mini tramp is my craft paper -- leftover moving paper.

The kitchen shelving and beyond from the other side of the garage. Notice the kitty boxes. They are finally out of the laundry room!! That's traditional "garage stuff" above them.

One day it would be nice to turn this into a room. I'd put patio doors where the garage door is. I'd like to do that anyway.

Tomorrow, I will get my fabric cupboard.

They didn't have an internal photo, but it's a sort of free standing closet. I don't need the side to hang items, so I'm putting in extra shelves. It will be more functional for me that way. I will get the laundry room, where this will be, reorganized this weekend.

Then, if things keep going this well, I will be able to get back to my sewing. Except... I may rearrange my sewing tables, first. I have to wait for Alex to get back, because my one table is a nine foot counter and is way too heavy to move by myself. He should be back sometime Monday, though.

Tonight I'm going to work a bit on my Blessings sampler.

EDIT:
Weird! The code says only "Airy Nothing" and links to http://airynothing.net/Blogs/, but at LiveJournal it still has the old link.

Does anyone know how to fix this? Is it something in my b2evolution or something at LJ?

My tummy was feeling bad when I woke up this morning (yes! morning!!), so I came and sat here at the computer. Long after my tummy felt better, I was still here... I'm still here! Most of the day I've been looking at various needlework sites. It started out with me catching up on my RSS feeds. I have a lot of crafty sites there and I ended up surfing and even adding a few more sites. LOL I can't read a bunch of them. It's the photos and free patterns that made me add them. Those are the Russian sites. There are also a bunch of French sites. I understand a bit of what I read there. That led me add a French English dictionary and a French Language forum to my list of links. Maybe I'll finally get better at French.

Anyway, now I'm all geared up to work on projects again. I still have my windows, 2 meme projects (one is 90% done) and some mending to get done. I wish thinking made it so (or in this case -- sew).

Actually, I'd settle for just being able to get my thoughts recorded somewhere permanent. Obviously, my brain is not a very good file keeper. I know there was something I wanted to write down when I woke up, but by the time I sat here, it was already gone. I also had various ideas when I got up and moved around, but they were gone when I came back. My ideas are in and out again in a flash. I hope as I start to get better sleep, my short term memory gets better, but I don't see it yet.

Yesterday I got out and cut back the rosebushes, hydrangeas and dead stuff. Anyone who has met my cat, Llyan, might blame this

on her, but they would be wrong. It was the fairy roses that got me. They don't really need to be cut back, but they grow with such abandon, that, in order to keep them from rooting in the lawn, I decided to cut them. Because they grow so well, I probably should have taken the hedge shears to them. That would have save my hands and forearms from damage. The scratches are all stingy and itchy -- no great pain, but annoying.

It rained today, but fortunately not before Iqbal got the lawn mowed. Had he not got out there, I might have had to call it a field. Spots of lawn were about a foot high, already. Shoot! I forgot to cut some of that and bring it in to Llyan. That's the tasty grass. I wish the whole lawn were made of it. It may be a rough lawn, but it doesn't dry out as fast as the softer grass does.

I have misplaced my boring book. I have never taken so long to read a book. The main reason is that, usually, if I find a book boring, I stop trying to read it. I glanced at the reviews on LibraryThing. A lot of people liked this book. I'm just not one of them.

What annoys me, though is that I feel obligated to finish and write a review of the book and that makes me feel guilty every time I pick up another book. As a result, I've finish one book all year and it's March already. I should have finished at least eight books by now. It's not like I don't have a gazillion her to be read.

(1:05 a.m.)



Wednesday
Now it's 2:55 p.m. and I found and finally finished that book! Yippee! I read about two hours last night and another hour this afternoon. It's like a weight has been lifted. I hope to have a review up by Friday. Briefly it will sum up as "Show, don't tell!!!"

I think I'll spend some time reading Louis L'Amour.

Today is almost as gray as it can get. I have four lamps in this room and have them all on. Every little bit helps, but the work lamp is best. It's almost as bright as the therapy lamp. I have that next to my bed, set to come on automatically a couple of hours before I get up. Kinda like a sunrise, I guess. Everything helps, but nothing works as well as real sunlight. But the days are noticeably longer!

Well, if I was going to say something else, I've lost it again. I think I will go spend a couple of hours working on projects

I don't know if FlyLady would approve or not, but I spent two hours cleaning, today. The fifteen minutes at a time just doesn't work for me for most things. It's a great way to sort through stuff that needs to be taken care of, but I'm too ADDy to get anything done in fifteen minutes, most of the time. It takes me that long to get focused. I may switch all her missions or flight plans to 30 or more minutes. Well, not all. Some things really don't take even fifteen minutes

Anyway, I accomplished what I wanted to do. Yesterday we rearranged the living room furniture a bit. Today, I got the floor steam cleaned. Everything is dusted and the cobwebs are gone. The window sills are cleaned off. HoneyBear helped me put the furniture back. I also tried to get everything out that doesn't belong in there and put away the extra decorative items that just looked cluttery.

It's still not where I want it to be, but it's better. I need to re-do the pictures on the walls. I don't like how they look right now. I'm not sure where everything will go, but the Chinese shell pictures will be flanking the fireplace and the black and white painting on rice paper will be take down. It just doesn't go.

With any luck of energy, I will deep clean the kitchen, tomorrow. We're not having guests, (going to Whimsylady's for T-day), but I want this house ready for them, anyway! Next weekend I want to be able to start my Christmas preparations.

After dinner, I will work on my curtains (except for an hour for House). I might be able to get one pair up before I go to bed (which I hope will be considerably earlier than last night!). I have the one pair cut out. It's just a matter of doing the hems and rod sleeve.

And that's been my exciting day.

(Posted everywhere)

[Should have been posted on Monday, 11/23/'09, but my computer was being cranky.]

When I was writing this, I was listening to:
張國榮 (LESLIE CHEUNG) - 愛有萬萬千
陳奕迅 (Eason Chan) - 新曲+精選
Yo-Yo Ma: Silk Road Ensemble - Trad: Blue Little Flower
張學友 (Jacky Cheung) - 祝福
劉德華 (Andy Lau) - 峰迴路轉
成龍 (Jackie Chan) - 這個晚上
張國榮 (LESLIE CHEUNG) - 當愛已成往事

There are some photos behind the cut.

Puttering Around That's what I've been doing for a few days now. A little this. A little that. Click pictures for full size. I did some re-potting. Mouse over to see what these plants are. I may have to redo the Burro's Tai... read more

When I was writing this, I was listening to:
George Winston - The Venice Dreamer (Part 2)
George Winston - Cloudy This Morning
NatureQuest - Seaside Serenade
George Winston - Living in the Country
George Winston - Living without You
George Winston - Goodbye Montana - Part 2
George Winston - Treat Street
Don Shetterly - A Mother's Day Gift
George Winston - Merry Go Round
Dan Gibson - Beauty Abounds