Tag Archives: preparation

Stretching My Wings

It’s finally here… the end of the week.

I may have had you looking around for your calendar, or doing a mental check of which day it really is – yes, it’s Thursday.  Thursday signals to me that I need to wrap up my chores for the week.  If there are things that I need to get done, they’d best be on the list for today so that tomorrow is not overwhelmed with them.  I shutdown on Friday evening, so after work on Friday, there is not much time left for “to do” tasks.

This week end preparation caused me to get focused on going “live” with the blog.  You can now link to me on Pinterest or Facebook (see the right sidebar), and I’m preparing for a huge project:  kitchen organization and facelift.  I’m also preparing to start the early garden seedlings.  There’s a lot to do, and a lot to share.  I guess it’s a perfect time to stretch my wings.  :)

Here’s a handy tip for the end of the week:

Make your own Reed Diffuser

Materials:

    • Decorative small mouthed glass jar (I prefer the lovely handcrafted Patron jar, but it meant I had to have a lot of margaritas!)
    • Bamboo reeds (skewer sticks also work well for this)
    • Diffuser base oil (I ordered mine from essentialoil.com — and this simply a personal recommendation)
    • Essential oil for fragrance – choose your favorite (also purchased from essentialoil.com, but there are other options available)
    • Small funnel (you’ll want this funnel reserved for this use only)
    • Optional:  5% – 10% Perfumer’s alcohol (added to assist wicking properties)
Using the funnel (carefully, and preferably over the sink), pour the essential fragrance oil into the jar, filling to the 1/4 or 1/3  mark of the jar.

Still using the funnel, add the essential oil to fill the jar, leaving one inch of  head space.

Add the bamboo reeds and swirl them to mix the oils.

If you find that the oil is not wicking well, you may add perfumer’s alcohol, at no more than 1/4 ratio, to thin the base.

easy DIY reed diffuser from patron bottle

 

larger version of the diy reed diffuser

 

multiple bottles for reed diffusers

There you have it!  Easy peasy!  See you next week!

Dreamin’ Girl

Super Sunday

Another Super Bowl, another Sunday, another game day.  I might feel differently if it were a team I liked… nah, not much different.  I can’t fool myself.

It was a productive day.  Hubby announced early that he was going to town around noon to do some shopping, which meant that I could dig in and get the living area deep cleaned while he was gone!  I strategized that I could do work upstairs in the meantime, so was free to work on things I’ve put off.

First things first – some Pandora to get the mood going, as I weeded the filing cabinet.  Then I started with the office closet.  I’d been meaning to tidy it up since our last visitors – bedding materials had been tossed in and were blocking the entryway.  I also wanted to take a good look at an old quilt that was beyond repair – I have some Pinterest ideas for it.

The bedding tidy was quick and easy.  Inspired, I also dug into the bathroom linen closet (where the primary bedding is stored) and found that I had stashed a few curtains and misc keepsake items there, along with another quilt that might be repaired.  I separated the embroidered items that were in good shape and split them by family line, for inheritance sake, and placed them into the cedar chest.  The items that were not in such good shape were added with the quilts to my new repair and salvage basket.

closet and bedding tidied

tidied linen closet

future project quilt and heirloom linen basket

future project spare clothing recycle

That led me to the master closet, where I found that I’ve been saving the past few (yes, sadly) sizes of clothing that I’ve outgrown.  Time to let go of those ‘fours’.  I sorted the items I could keep for Pinterest projects, the items that currently fit, and those that would fit if I lost 10 pounds or less and gave away the rest.

I finished just in time, as hubby announced he was jumping into the shower and would be ready for his haircut directly after.

Hubby left after his haircut, so I quickly got all of the furniture moved and the floors vacuumed, swept and mopped on the ground floor.  Just as the floors dried, hubby returned.

Time to prep for the big game.  I tossed the partially frozen chicken legs in the crock and turned it on high.  This is the recipe I used, with slight modifications.  http://pinterest.com/pin/236157574180110629/

I also got a package of beef smokies into a small crock with some Curley’s bbq sauce, then whipped up this quick batch of chocolate chip dip:  http://pinterest.com/pin/236157574179897586/

Yum!

Time to wash the dishes – they didn’t get done on Shabbat, so there were plenty to do.  I haven’t washed many dishes lately – hubby has been doing them most of the time.  Consequently, I spent a little extra time wiping down the faucets and shining them up, and scouring the stainless steel to get rid of the stains.  Details, details.

The game was almost ready to start, so I chopped up the celery and sliced up some local cheese.  We also have leftover salsa from the local restaurant, so we’ll have that too.

hot legs, bleu cheese and salsa

Ah, what’s better than easy finger foods for supper for a change.  :)

red beer and leftover snacks

‘Til next time…

Dreamin’ Girl