AMANDA'S BASKETS: Twenty Days and Still Counting Down

Friday, November 5, 2010

Twenty Days and Still Counting Down

Remember these pictures of my office/studio partially packed and sorted? Well, this is what it looks like now...

The things on the shelves are either waiting for space in a box, to be given away or will be going in the car. The guest room is just as far except that now I am using it as a staging are for packing, that means there are several boxes in various stages of packing.

So I am getting there but at the same time there are only 20 days left...that's less than three weeks folks!!!

This is the second weekend of the musical. On Sunday, we strike the stage for good. Sad....I have enjoyed working with everyone. Happy...because I can concentrate on getting the house packed and stored.

I managed three more trips to storage since the last posting. I am now packing about half boxes and have furniture. I have also packed the last of the craft items which I am taking. They will be shipped on Monday. Once we get there and settled in, I'll show you what I decided to take...probably more that I should, but definitely less than I wanted.

Next week I plan on getting everything upstairs packed and either shipped or brought to storage. That will leave the kitchen and cleaning for the following week. Thank goodness for pain pills...I have consumed a lot of those lately.

Have a great weekend and enjoy yourself. Thanks for visiting...hope to see you next week.

CRAFTING IDEAS

I am always looking for a small piece of paper to write down something which will later be disposed of. I decided to use some of the scrap paper of which I have a ton. I mostly use the paper for glueing projects. I decided to cut the paper into a small size. (Six pieces from a piece of copy paper.). But just having them sitting on my desk would get messy without a container. So, using a cardboard box, I cut it down to size and using a hot glue gun I glued the ends together. Using a picture from a magazine cut into pieces and stick craft glue, I glued the pieces to the box inside and out. I also used some decorative tape for the outside edges. And to finish the top corners which were not covered, I used straight pins with colorful tops. Looks nice and works well.

MAGAZINE IDEAS

(New) One article in the Farmer's Almanac 2024 is a list of trends. One I knew about is the trend to downsize in just about every area. Another trend that I was surprised about was called ''The Human Library' which offers people on loan to talk about specific subjects. Finally, more folks are adding pets to their family and as a result, stores are adding more pet food, toys and medication to their offerings. There's also a nice garden article which suggests mixing vegetables and flowers together for success.

RECIPE IDEAS

Have you every made Cherry Dump Cake. It calls for 2 cans of Cherry Pie Filling (21 ounces), a white cake mix, 1/4 -1/2 cup butter, melted & 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans. In a 9 by 13 pan, spread both cans of cherry pie filling. Add the melted butter to the cake mix and break apart the resulting mixture and crumble it evenly over the pie filling. Sprinkle the pecans evenly over the mixture. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 - 45 minutes until the topping is golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Fast, easy and very delicious.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

What if you want to establish better habits, then decide what habit you want to work on. Again, try an easier one first for that good feeling of success. Let's consider more exercise. Start small. Don't try to run a marathon right away. Set the amount of time, the type of exercise and when to do it to begin making sure that it is within your reach. If it works for you each week add a bit more. Walking is one of the best ways to get good overall movement but there are many exercise videos on YouTube of varying lengths and difficulty to check out. Change your exercise routines to eliminate getting bored. For hardcore exercise with weights, give yourself a day in-between to recover. Even on days you would rather not exercise, do it and see if you feel better. It takes an average of 66 days to establish a habit. Just think 66 days to establish a good habit for a lifetime. Sounds like a good thing to me...how about you?