It's time to let go...

Yesterday I spent the day with some fantastic friends John and Tracy.  Tracy is the proprietor of Sparkle Connection and I can truly recommend all that she offers from her website. You'll notice when you get there that it's not an "airy fairy" sort of a website - Tracy is a very down to earth person, and takes what she does very seriously - I think that comes through in the products and services that she provides...
 
Anyway - how yesterday got started is quite a few years in the making.  My good friend Michelle plays the Bodhran (an Irish drum) and I have enjoyed having a bash at hers from time to time.  Then when we were in Glen Innes in May this year for the Australian Celtic Festival, Kathy and I attended a Bodhran playing workshop, and we both loved it.  So much so that Kathy has now purchased her own Bodhran from Ireland (to which she actually received two - go figure!!!).  I also decided that I wanted one, but didn't kind of get around to buying one...  which turned out to be a good thing!
 
I saw on the Sparkle Connection newsletter earlier this year that she was running Drum making workshops - one in Victoria, and one in Brisbane.  Less than 30 seconds later I'd shot back an e-mail registering for it...
 
Here are some of the pictures that I have taken and a brief description of them.  I am still absolutely amazed with my Drum, and I am now excitedly waiting for a month for it to dry out so that I can play it!!!
 

 



 

By this stage, we had journeyed to meet the Deer who had gifted it's hide to us, and I had received a message from the Deer for my drum. I had cut out the circle from the centre of the hide, and at this point was (successfully this time!!!) cutting the lacing in one continuous strip like a Mintie wrapper (I was never very good at that and on the first try promptly cut once around the hide and cut my lacing off -d'oh!!!)

 

 

 

 

This is a bit closer up of the lacing that I am creating from the hide. 

 

 

 

 

 

It actually took quite a bit of effort cutting out all that hide! The day was quite physical...

 

 

 

 

There's always room for a little silliness!!!!!

 

 

 

 

Some of the other ladies who didn't want to sit on the floor to do their drum, working on the tables.

 
 

 

This is Di - we shared a table together for our cutting out.  Tracy nicknamed us the "green pants" table...

 

 

 

My pile of lacing and the drum hide.We had punched 24 holes evenly around the edge of the drum so that the lacing could go through.

 

 

I'm starting to lace the drum here.This was really hard to do if you're just one person - I didn't manage it and needed both John and Tracy's help.If you’re doing it yourself, you need to sit on the floor as you need to use both your feet and your hands to hang onto the slippery laces. It turned into a bit of a contortionist effort, but the laces kept slipping away from me!

 

 

Getting closer to the end of the lacing!!!

 

 

 

The lacing’s finished!

 
 
 

 
 

Here I'm tightening and neatening up the laces on the back.  You wind the rest of the lacings around and around, and make a lovely Celtic shape from them.  This helps to keep the drum and the lacing taught. 

 

 

Here's the after photo - the drum's still quite wet, and we're holding it quite carefully!!!  Note it's quite light in colour here...

 

 

The back of the drum when it was still very wet yesterday...

 

This is some of the gorgeous Medicine that Tracy makes. I was really drawn to the smudge fan in the front of the two smudge bowls and so it made its way home with me!!!
 
 
 

 

Tracy has made this gorgeous pouch.  I was really drawn to this too, it's just so lovely and soft. 

 

 

This is my drum today, the morning after the workshop. It's darkening up, and you can see that it's getting tighter as it dries. 

 

 

 

 

The back of my drum today - you can see it's dried out quite a bit already.  It will still take a full month though before I can play it...

And the message from my Deer?  "It's time to let go"...  I have a good idea already of what that will mean for me, and it will be really interesting to see what else comes from that message.  It's really all about the journey that I've been on the past 12 months or so, with some additional connotations.  I understand a couple of them clearly already - now to put them into practice! 

 

I'll let you know how I go...

Says it all really...

Kerrr...................thunk.

Today's Monday, a long weekend Monday.  Nice to have a public holiday this late in the year - something new for us Queenslanders....

This weekend past has been busy.  Mal has been here and has removed 8 out of 9 trees, he'll be back tomorrow to remove # 9, the one that started off this whole process....

In the meantime, I need to whinge....  Really, I do. 

I belong to a website that's all about people doing what they can, saving money, saving resources, just doing the best that they can.  Having said that, there's... well, there's... well.... mixed messages.

Here's some....

"I have spent too much money so what can I do to cut back"
"I bought an XYZ - it will save me so much money"
"I love my routines - it keeps me under control"
"I'm so out of control - what do other mum's do to keep track of things at home"
"Studying - I have so many units to do to keep up with where everyone else is at - how do I catch up"
"I've sent in 6 out of 10 of the units I have to do with my TAFE course"
"I love spending time with my children - we are doing XYZ during the holidays"
"God I wish that others would do what they say they're to do with the kiddies"
"Why am I the only one that thinks of XYZ when the kiddies are going out with their father/grandmother/aunt/uncle etc. that never ever ever has them and probably has zero information about their special needs......"

ARGH!!!!!

Just in case you need more.....

20 mins is the same as weeds pulled, straw for the chickens chucked and collected. Such a small amt of time and stess but makes a huge difference to how it looks out there :)

Nice full garbage bag of clutter removed from my laundry cupboard and 3 whole shelves to go LOL... amazing how much just gets shoved outta the way

Most yard work done in a while LOL... full length of the driveway weeded and rubbish out :D Garden still looks blah but it looks heaps better already

Vines pruned and garden is much more 'light' now :P Full trash bag collected of rubbish from around the yard, 1.5 green bins full and 3/4 recycle bin full :P Yard is looking SOOOOOOO much better!


Seriously - how much can be done in one backyard???????

ARGH!!!

Must have had enough for one day - bed time for moi!!!!!

The Fridge is clean!!! Just the top to do next!!!

I finally got the clean fridge!!!  Woo-hoo!!

 

Just the top to do now!!!!

 

 

 

 

This is the inside of the pantry door now.  Yes, it's got lots of stuff on it, but we use it all.  It's easy to use, conveniently placed and all there so I think it'll be good...

 

 

This is the table after I'd just started with the metho and steel wool.  I did about 3 or 4 goes with the metho/steel wool.  Each time I used a new piece of steel wool and a cloth, and it got progressively cleaner.

 

 

 
Here's the table after I'd sanded it lightly.  We bought a new triangle shaped sander yesterday, which was really good!!!

 

Here's the table with one layer of the shellac on it.  Wow - it was sooooo easy to do the shellac, I can't believe it!  I used a thick terry cloth and just wiped it on.

 

 

We've been doing all sorts of oiling and protecting the timber around here.  Yesterday afternoon I sealed each of the beams here with more decking oil.  They look really good when they're not weathered!!!  This is a job we'll need to do about every 6 months, but we won't need to sand them each time any more...


I reckon I'm going to go and do another coat on the shellac, then I might skive off and go do something more fun for the rest of the afternoon..... 

Fridge Organisation

I promised you that I would show you a little project that I’ve been working on for a couple of weeks now.  Here it is!!!

I got inspiration from the Organised Housewife – where I’ve been following the challenge but haven’t really been doing all the tasks every day that she sets.  Anyway, one of them was to organise the pantry, so that took me a whole Sunday. Then I saw on here website a photo and a post about organising the inside of the pantry door, so I started on that (yes, I know the title of this blog is fridge organisation, NOT pantry door organisation!!!)

The thing I really wanted to achieve was a clean fridge.  God there was so much stuff on it, it was awful.  I’m still a little way from the fridge being clean, but I do have pics of the cork board that I’ve put in the pantry door. 

This is the cork board inside the pantry door.  Not quite finished yet, but you get the idea...

 

 



The other thing we did was de-furminate the kittens.  Wow - lots and lots of fur...  check this out!!!  From two short-haired kittens, that's a lot of fur...   

 

 

 

'tis a lot of fur on two kittens!!!

I'm off to paint the beams on the patio this afternoon, and sand and oil the chairs on the outdoor setting.  Photo's later!!!!

I'm getting a bit enthused about this decluttering and organising business!!!  I didn't declutter the froggie though that we found in one of the chair backs... he got to go and sit in the plants!  If he's still there I'll take a photo...

How did I go???

Not toooooooo bad I guess..... 

Friday

Finish off bookmark & get ready the things that I’m going to send to Corinne
Pick out 5 things to list on Gumtree for sale from the “pile”
Spend 15 minutes decluttering my office desk
Paint the first coat on my clipboards
30 minutes of crochet

Saturday

9.00 am – Sewing
2.00 pm – leave sewing and head home.  Shower and change and go to Brisbane
6.30 pm – TS Norfolk (Navy Cadet) Dining In night at Redland Bay.    (I stayed at mum’s place...)

Sunday

Paint second coat on my clipboards. 
Put up the corkboard & admire the progress!!!
Water the long suffering plants
15 minutes decluttering on my desk
30 minutes of crochet
4.00 pm – Lance & Christine’s for Sunday afternoon “before they go away again to Adelaide for god knows how long” drinks  (This turned into drinks & then dinner at our house...  you get that around here!!!)

What is interesting is that I didn't get the crochet done that I wanted.  I guess part of that is that I wound up with such a sore arm and wrist that I put Nurofen gel on it.  Ouchies!!!

I have just about finished my cork board organisation thingy, and will share it with you soon...  Just a few final touches to go!!!

Have a lovely week everyone - mine is busy, with dinner out tonight, Katie Rose Cottage tomorrow night, a haircut on Thursday night, staying down at Noosa on Friday night, and my brother coming for a visit on Saturday night.... phew!!!

Decluttering musings... it's Friday again!!!

I’m still feeling really good inside about all the work that I did last Sunday on the pantry.  I feel very satisfied each time I open the pantry door and everything is neat and tidy and, more importantly, I can see everything!!!

I had a little surprise this morning – I went to look at our joint bank account and discovered that the interest only period on our home loan had finished, with the result that the loan repayments had increased.  By quite a bit!!!  Ken and I had a chat about it and decided to keep it as principal and interest – the interest rates are quite good at the moment, and we’re going to have to start paying off the principal eventually anyway.  That then led me to do our budget for the house.  Not real hard, and it’s a good opportunity to add in the things that we buy that we haven’t budgeted for, like cat food etc.,  Ooops – better go and put kitty litter in there too!!!

This then got me to thinking about what I’m going to tackle this weekend in the cleaning up/decluttering of the house challenge.  It fits in with my HBDI profile – when I’m under stress, I head from my normal “square, 1 foot in each quadrant” profile to a little less yellow, lots more green (detail) shape.  So it fits perfectly that while I’m a little stressed over other things, I plunge headlong into being organised!!!

So – this weekend, my plan goes like this:

Friday

Hmmmm.... what will I do tonight???
Finish off bookmark & get ready the things that I’m going to send to Corinne
Pick out 5 things to list on Gumtree for sale from the “pile”
Spend 15 minutes decluttering my office desk
Paint the first coat on my clipboards
30 minutes of crochet

Saturday

9.00 am – Sewing
2.00 pm – leave sewing and head home.  Shower and change and go to Brisbane
6.30 pm – TS Norfolk (Navy Cadet) Dining In night at Redland Bay.  Still haven’t decided if I’m staying in Brisbane or coming home!!!  I’m procrastinating because I know I really want to go but I’m a bit afraid of it at the same time... 

Sunday

Paint second coat on my clipboards. 
Put up the corkboard & admire the progress!!!
Water the long suffering plants
15 minutes decluttering on my desk
30 minutes of crochet
4.00 pm – Lance & Christine’s for Sunday afternoon “before they go away again to Adelaide for god knows how long” drinks

Whatever you have planned this weekend, I hope it’s a lovely, productive one.  The sun is shining here, and it’s likely that it will continue to do so over the weekend with only a slim chance of some showers on Saturday.  Hopefully on Tuesday the prediction by the Bureau of Meteorology of rain will come true!!!