Guest Book - Family Tradition

During the first visit to my husband's Grandparent's I was introduced to the concept of a guest book for your home. They live at the coast so every time family or friends came over for a visit they insisted that you write in their guest book. The guests write a little summery of what happened and a thank you for putting them up if they spent the night. I fell in love with this concept of documentation right away.

I haven't started a book yet for my own home. Not exactly sure why not because I've hosted out of town guests and family events that would have qualified for a little write up. So, it's a little trendy but this idea struck me of how to combine a guest log with the typewriter i recently acquired. If i pull the typewriter out for when guests arrive, i can start a page or note card off with the date and a little prompt like "Notes" or "Leave a Message". I've yet to know anyone to resist punching a few keys of a typewriter. The only draw back is that this looses the ability to also record someones handwriting... hm...something to consider.

Does anyone else have a guest book for their home? Is this a regional experience? Even in hotels along the coast line will have guest books in the room for you to write in.

House

My husband and I are getting serious about making the commitment to buy a house next spring. This is very scary to me, the commitment, the what the hell will happen to us if one of us loses our job and we can't afford the mortgage? I know, I should be confident in God to take care of us but what if we in our stupid human brains run off and get a mortgage and that wasn't God's plan? You think there will be a warning sign like we can't get a loan or can't find a house?

A loan, there is a big hurdle. We're going in January* to talk to a lender and see if we even qualify. The good things we have going for us is that it's a buyer's market and we're first time home owners so there are all kinds of incentives going on {money (for down payment/closing costs), specific types of loans...}. *Jan because our rental agreement isn't up until March 31st and we're not breaking our agreement which is 1 month rent - we're not giving them any more money then we have to.

I figured this would be our starter home that we're in for 5 years maybe have 1 kid in and then hopefully be in a situation to upgrade homes. Last night i found out that my husband wants to find one we can live in for at least 10. I have never planned so far into the future, it's scary!

Then comes finding THE ONE - our requirements for us to live in a house for 10 years:

• 3 bedrooms
• 2 bathrooms
• at least 1400 sq ft.
• backyard big enough for 2 dogs
• affordable property tax
• good neighborhood (no ghetto)
• good schools (maybe, who knows, if we have kids they may go to private school but in case they don't... )
• closer into town (no 45 min. job commute - of course this is never guaranteed)
• as a bonus we'd love to have the bungalow style home.

Can we get all that for no more than 215,000? I guess we'll find out.

Run Down

Here's a run down of things in my brain:

Projects to be completed & or in the mail by the 18th:
- sister's birth announcements {the baby will be 2 months - that's not too bad right?}
- zine pages {phobias is the theme - got my idea - execution time}
- sketch of picture to go with a story for a collaborative project {again, have idea just gotta get it down!}
- notes/handout on how to use a blog {i'm leading a small blogging 101 type class for the art group i'm part of}

Projects I'd like to do soon:
- Catch up on my block prints - i'm supposed to have 6 by now but only really have 3.
- Make glass coasters for house warming gift to s-i-l {don't worry she doesn't read the blog}
- Start scanning in documents i want to keep but don't want the physical copies of

***
Where are we going to live?! We have to give notice by Aug. 1st if we're renewing our apt. lease or moving. We're toying, a little, with moving downtown {gasp!} Or we might rent a house Or we might stay where we are and try to buy in 6 months.

***
Cleared out 1 more box from the closet. Found my birth certificate, old stamps i'd been searching for for months and varies nick-knacks that i forgot about but now fond of again that i found them. They went back into a box, i don't know what to do with them yet. I did not find: car title or original packaging for my MS Office 2000, I still need the key code for reinstall. {side rant: my usb ports are not working on my computer! I can't access old files on a external hd and i can't unload my camera card. I hate reloading my computer. I'd love hmm, i don't know $5,000 to start over with all the programs i want}

I also went through a box of old journals/sketch books. O.M.G. i tossed several journals filled to the brim with teenage drama. Some people like to hold on to their journals or reread them. I find it painful to go back through them. Painful in the way that i'll catch a line and think "wow i still struggle with that insecurity" or i'll find pages filled about some emotional upheaval i was having over a guy that at the time matter a lot but now i have no clue where he is {nor do i care}. I'd rather just chuck the journal then carry around all that muck.

The other thing about going through all these boxes that have been stashed is how much crap i have. The past 4 years i have been slowly chipping away at all i brought with me to Portland. Still have no clue how it all fit in a 10ft x 10ft room in Texas. I still need to developed that callousness to just toss anything i'm not using because no one really wants it either. I did, finally, go through a few old {2003} Real Simple magazines and pulled out articles and a few receipts i wanted. It's kind of surprising how similar Real Simple issues are from one year to the next. Still love the layout of the mag though and those little inspirational pages in the front.

Ah, the woes of a pack-rat.

***
When a prayer request is voiced don't confuse it with a request for human advice. If you're offering unsolicited advice don't be offended if the intended receiver disagrees with you and don't try to explain the advice again in an attempted to persuade them. No need to over explain and only explain a point if the person requests it {this is really good with anything not just advice}.

So, there's my unsolicited advice to you.

***

Ikea Love

It all started on a Sunday morning with one little question from M. "Do you want to go get a new shower curtain?"

I excitedly replied that I did and I wanted to go to Ikea to get it. A new one opened last year and we had yet to go make a pilgrimage to it. Plus a few other things like a dvd box storage system because we had out grown our one shelf they were sitting on. And curtains and a new silverware holder for the kitchen.... we had gathered up a list of small items and made our way.

It was glorious. We talked our selves into buying a new tv stand w/ a pull out drawer for the dvds. Then we had to get the matching bookcase and deep chest drawer because we can put blankets in the drawer and replace an ugly bookcase hand-me-down. We did end up buying part of our new backdoor curtains but we haven't purchased the second half in order to hang them. So, that was it for the trip in January.

Then this past weekend my husband unexpectedly had Saturday off. We found our selves in Ikea again. I can't remember exactly what our motivation was. This time we walked out with a new dining room table and 2 new chairs. We love our new table though. It replaced another hand-me-down that i had sworn to repaint for 2 years and it never happened.

The new table also serves a duel purpose. Once in Ikea I had the thought that I would like a little bookcase/shelving thing that could become our mail/bill way station. The table ended up being a good solution for this because of the drawers it has in the middle. The drawers can serve as mail sorting/bill storage and a small file box can sit next to it for when i'm ready to file some mail away. I have also plugged in our shredder next to it for disposal of some things. The second purpose is of course to eat at but this is unusual for us because we normally eat on the couch with a movie. The best part is it saves so much room which is nice!

Here is a video of our new furniture:

It feels good to own our own furniture.

We picked up this lamp that is also art on Saturday too:

What i loved doing was taking pictures of things we'd like to have in the near and far future.

We would love to buy these chairs with the foot rests not shown here:

M. wants this loft bed for his future office. Not exactly sure why he loves it so but it hey, it would be his office. It could also work as a guest bed ;-)


This wall unite of shelves for my future studio (ignore the bad stitching of the photos):

Here are shots of a kitchen we like. Love the blue on the front of the cabinets. I also like the shelves with the clear glass, would be good to show off my mug collections.

Kitchen Rant

Whenever I clean the kitchen after its been neglected for days a rant builds up inside me. It should be understood that neither my husband nor I like cleaning the kitchen, it’s at the top of our least liked chores. However, my threshold for what is tolerable is shorter than his and mine is pretty long. I once conducted a personal observation to see how long it would take for him to break and clean the kitchen. At three weeks* with no practical dishes left in the cupboards and a weird smell, I broke.

*get married with a lot of dishes and 2 people can go a long time with out washing them.

I say that to say this: If he doesn’t do it for his mother he won’t do it for you.

When we were dating he was till living at home. I would go over and hang out and be there for dinner. I always felt a little guilty when we’d be upstairs playing pool or whatever and his mom was down stairs cooking. I’d ask if we needed to go down and help and he always said no. Every now and then I’d go down and offer anyway and sometimes she’d find me something to do and sometimes she’d decline my help. Four years later I’m still trying to figure out the balance of help and being in the way. Now that we’re married, he doesn’t help cook. He will cook on occasion though.

After dinner I’d say 90% of the time his mom did the dishes with usually one of the boys (my hubs is the oldest of five boys) unloading and then loading the dishes when she handed them off. I got into the routine of putting away the leftovers. Hubs would be nowhere to be found. Now that we’re married, he doesn’t do the dishes, even when he cooks.

I know I should have the mind set that I am cleaning this house not just for him but for me. So I can function appropriately and healthy inside this house that is supposed to be a haven. Although, honestly, this past year I’d say it’s been more of a burden then a haven. It is difficult to strike a balance between two people that work full time with a lot of extra activities and add the fact that cleaning does not come naturally to them.

I could ramble in several different directions from here. I’ll do a summery and wrap up in bullet points to keep it short.
- Cleaning the kitchen makes me feel resentful
- Resentful makes me feel guilt
- There are things you should pay attention to when dating, if you don’t like it when you’re dating you’re going to hate it when you’re married.
- I should talk to him
- Doubtful things will change
- How can I change my self?
- Realize this is for me just as much as for him
- Establish a routine – I liked that week when I actually did the dishes daily, it was manageable.

Cooking

Tonight I went to a Pampered Chef event at a friend's house. I'd never been to one, it was fun! I've admired the round cooking stone and I finally got one. I agreed to host a party in late January. It was funny, one of the other woman there said she'd come to mine too - she loves the cooking stuff.

The ironic thing is, I don't do a lot of cooking but love the gadgets. The other hard thing is just being married, i have a lot of kitchen stuff that doesn't need replacing but then again there is always a chopper or new cheese grater needed. Both my grandmothers cook and they both cooked with and around me. My mother cooked out of necessity. I just don't love doing it as an everyday thing. It may be more the planning and clean up than the actual act of cooking.

I've asked for cook books for Christmas. Something along the lines of 30 minute meals and the like because i really lack the skill to plan a menu. Also, trying to eat healthy, i'm not really sure what to cook. I know the general rule is that you can eat just about anything just in smaller portions and in general less white flower and sugar and corn starch.

Maybe with my new cooking stone I'll get inspired to cook more. Maybe.

Shifting

I slept until 11am this morning which I rarely ever do. So now, I'm not exactly tired and chose to post actual thoughts and not just a meme. Bare with me this might get rambly...

I have been thinking frequently about my home and how to keep it clean/organized enough for us to live in and enjoy it. I recently read a wonderful book called "Hannah's Art of Home: Managing Your Home Around Your Personality". I picked it up at the library because it was basically the only book left in the "Home Management" section. It must be a popular topic to read. I often read books on self improvement and find it overwhelming but not this one. I connected right away with her style of writing because she wasn't condemning me for being messy or talking down to me like a child. She gets it. I have been classified as a "Stary Eyed Dreamer" - basically a really nice way of saying "sentimental packrat", among other things. She's inspired me to really clean out my home and apply a few basic things to keep it managed.

I have felt that cleaning my house is a lot like playing one of those tile puzzle games - there is only 1 empty space and you have to move around the tiles until it makes a picture. I don't really like this game.

My motivation today came from a resent urge to create but not having a clean office to do it in. I had the thought that if i had the Christmas boxes out of the office I could clean my office and then create. I started with my hall closet, it's bugged me for months and I believed it was the key to being able to move other tiles (ie Christmas boxes out of office). So, I put in "You've Got Mail" in my living room, turned the volume up and worked in the hall.

I should say that I live in a 950sq ft 2 bedroom apartment with only my husband and 2 dogs - you'd think that we'd have plenty of space but it's amazing when two artiest (him photography, me collage/print/graphic design) move in together how much stuff they have. Plus, all the misc. stuff for the dogs, which include 2 large crates.

By the end of the movie, which i love, i have finished the hall and everything that needs to be in there is - including the Christmas boxes that were stacked in my office or what was the dinning area. As Hannah has instructed (and i'll admit it, my mother also imparted this wisdom at some point in my life...) I made three piles: Trash, Give Away, Put away somewhere else. I'm pleased to say there was no "Put away somewhere else" which means the other two piles were used.

Then I started on my office which I'm suppose to use for so many things, personal art, side work, bills, dog food storage... This is where my "I might need this later for my art" "Oh, that's inspiring" "Awww a wedding card..." thoughts come into play and the Trash pile becomes very very small and my anxiety about how to organize and store gets very large. I can't say I had a lot of success in that room tonight but then again i didn't make the mess in a day either. Mostly I just re-stacked stuff and threw away a little bit of stuff here and there.

I did have some thoughts about that room. First is i must get more sinsable storage for things - not everything is made for a book shelf or easy to access/use placed inside a cardobard box. Second, I do not want any more nic-nacks, I like having my one shelf of special misc. things and that's it. Third, I do not think i'm going to become one of the woman that love candles, I have a few and I never burn them.

I kept remembering a section in the book when Hannah talks about sintamental clutter. She explains that when someone receives something they get this emotional burst. Often people hold on to that object hoping that every time they look at it they will get that same emotional burst but very often it won't and that object just because clutter the person starts to feel guilty/resentful over. She encourages you remembering that you liked that object and it did it's job that one time but now it's time to let it go. I keep having to remind my self of this. Case in point, I have 3 small boxes full of cards from different periods of my life. I have a small box full of "graduation" certificates and ribbons from our dogs going through obedience classes - i have conflicting urges to throw it away because we'll never do anything with them and another to put them in slip covers and store them in a binder to look over later. I could go on but i think i've made my case of sentimentality.

So, I think i'm going to have to really go through things and choose to keep or part with it. She also encourages that if you really feel like you can't part with something to put in a box, store it somewhere and go through it again in a year and choose then... well, I would like to say that half of the stuff in my office hasn't been touched in a year and it's time to make that choice. And I might choose to keep some stuff for another year...

I started the tiles moving today thought and I have enough space on my table to at least do a little bit of work.