Getting a jump start on New Year projects

My dear husband is currently deployed ... so I am home, alone and while I am getting out a bit to enjoy the German Christmas season ... for the most part, I am working on projects and purging out my clutter (and I seem to still have quite a bit even with all the de-cluttering and purging I have done over the last two years).

While roaming around the web today, I ran across this link ...  

 http://www.popsugar.com/smart-living/List-Things-Dispose-24575006

A lot of times I don't know quite where to start .. or I have a limited amount of time (15 minutes, half-hour,  maybe even just five) and while I want to do something productive, am stymied how best to spend that time ... this link has a great list of things to toss, purge, donate or otherwise exile from my home so I don't have to try and come up with ideas (if I don't already have "stuff" screaming "let me GO!!").  
 
I will be adding this list into my Home "Flight Control" binder (that is a long-term work in progress ... but I hope it will be finalized by early next year so I can have it printed off.
Yes ... I am old-school enough to prefer a "printed on paper" list of routine, home maintenance tasks and suggestions.  Having a known maintenance cycle of projects and upkeep will let me take care of most things preventatively ... love that concept!!

Here's to chipping away at the clutter and my projects .... would love to hear your ideas for keeping your life in control.  Please share what works for you.

Back into the dimly, dark corners to see what I can find!!   
Holly

What's up?? Clearing and Purging ...

Howdy! 

Bet you all thought I fell off the end of the earth!  Sometimes it feels like I did!

Been busy purging out things I should have gotten rid of before our move last year ... and each go-round, I find more and more to get rid of.  DH and I went back to Sicily for a month (him for work and me to play, see friends).... and I brought back a ton of stuff ... most of which I am now looking at and saying "why - why - WHY???"

I forgot my codes to get into this blog -- embarassing, right??  I changed them ,,, and then didn't update my passwords chart ...like a goofball, I probably figured "I'll remember that!"  and promptly forgot.  

The last two months or so, I have working hard on organizing digital photos.  Have gathered up all the CDs, memory cards and sticks, old computers (still have to find a place to E-cycle them after getting them wiped clean) and anything else I can find that I've stashed photos on over the years.  Probably will find more as I continuing purging the excess "stuff" I've collected over the years (shudder to think of the money I've wasted ... but so life goes and learn from the mistake).   Getting rid of the fuzzy photos, labeling and organizing the others.  If I make the effort to take them ... may as well have them accessible so they can be enjoyed.

Plan to move photographs over to an online photo storage company like Flickr or Photobucket or such after I research which one works better for my life and also will go old-school and have some photo albums made of many of them.   Quite a few pins on Pinterest show people having photo albums again and using a company like Snapfish, Shutterfly or whatever makes it easy to put one together and with sales, it can be done fairly reasonably. 

Cleaning out my bookshelves (Son, bet that is something you NEVER thought you would hear your mother say) and have sent many books away using Paperbackswap.com.  Love, love, LOVE this FREE website!!  Been a member for about three years now.  You post your good condition books on the site.  If another member wants one of your books, you print off a mailing label, pay the postage and send it off -- the sender pays the postage and has credit posted to his/her account for the book.  That credit can be used to get other books from other members.  The "requester" doesn't pay a cent for the book ... just a credit from books previously sent out.    Over the last two weeks I have sent away 36 books ... but I've gotten in quite a few as well.  Not many reasonably priced English bookstores over here ... so this works great for me.  You can list books you want and if someone posts that book as being available ... you'll be notified so you can request it.   Makes up for the frustration of buying a book and discovering partway through that the book bores you silly ... put it up on Paperbackswap.com ... may find a new home for it.    Not limited to paperbacks ... there are hard-covers, audio books and more -- there's a sister-site for movies (though I haven't been over there). 
Yup ... I'm "Holly-Berry-Elf" on paperbackswap.com.

Been fighting a cold over the last week .. drinking lots of hot water with lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, honey and either ginger, cinnamon or cayenne in it.  Sad part ... I've actually gotten to the point that I LIKE the taste of the stuff !?!

Re-organized our pantry last week.  It was a disaster ... though I think I need one more "canned" shelf in there.  Found (and tossed) a lot of expired stuff and things I have no idea just why I bought them  .. donated the still usable items. 

Before

Before

After 

After

 










Chat with you all soon!   Holly

Dominick the Italian Christmas Donkey

Silly ... but I think it's cute as well.
Brucoli is a small village south of us in the hills on the other side of the Catania plain.

GIGGLE AND THE GOATS

A friend sent this to me last year ... I think it's adorable!

Carribean Chicken Jerk Wraps

Found this recipe a few months ago on scribbit.blogspot.com (it was posted in July 2010).... finally tried it out this weekend.
We'll be making it again.
Skipped investing in either the nuts or the mint this time (thought about it until I saw what the store wanted for each) ... maybe next time. 
The store only had marinade --so it was probably spicier than if we used the jerk sauce.

salt to taste (I didn't use any)
1/2-teas. cinnamon
1/2-teas. allspice
1/3-cup jerk sauce (liquid, not the dry spice)
1-1/2 lbs. of chicken, cooked and shredded (we had some leftover grilled chicken)
2-cups cooked rice
3/4-cup pineapple (the original post said fresh, I used canned crushed, well drained)
1/4-cup chopped macademia nuts (didn't have any, maybe next time)
3-TB. chopped fresh mint (skipped this time)
2-teas. lime juice (I just sprinkle a few drops of lime juice on each wrap as I made it)
4   10-inch flour tortillas for wraps

In a bowl mix the spices and jerk sauce together.
Warm the tortllas and spread the spiced jerk sauce evenly on each.
Top with warm cooked rice, warm shredded chicken.
Top with nuts, mint, lime juice.
Roll up like a burrito and serve immediately.

Holly's notes:
Our tortillas fell apart as we were eating them ...next time I think I'll put the sauce on top of the rice or heat the shredded chicken in it.
Makes a quick, filling meal that tastes great.
Since I could only find marinade -- the sauce was probably spicier than regular jerk sauce.

Rainbow Jello

Found Rainbow Jello while poking around Funky Polkadot Giraffe a few days  ago.
What a cool way to brighten up the doldrums of the end of winter!

Only had small packages of cherry and lemon jello in the house ... so made a mini-recipe.

Used half the jello for each layer ... it has evaporated sweetened milk mixed with Knox plain gelatin inbetween the layers.


Super easy to make .... just takes a bit of time waiting for each layer to set.   DH and I ate all of it today ... like I said, it was a mini-batch.

Will pick up some more jello tomorrow and make a full-sized batch to take to a  volunteer luncheon on Thursday.


Here's the link for the recipe ...
http://funkypolkadotgiraffe.blogspot.com/2011/02/happiness-rainbow-jell-o.html

Tutorial "How to let me how to let me reply to your Email"

I love responding to all the comments I get on the blog.

Love it.

I like connecting with you.

However, sometimes when I hit {REPLY}

I get this sad little email address.

noreply-comment@blogger.com

And when that happens, I can't reply.       Sad, sad days.

But I've found a cure for that!

Go over to House of Smith's

and Shelley will show you how to fix it.

Hooray!

http://www.thehouseofsmiths.com/2011/01/tutorial-how-to-let-me-reply-to-your.html

CUTE CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT

http://raisingolives.com/2009/12/domino-christmas-ornament-tutorial/

Found this link on FrugalUpstate.com  ...have been wandering Raising Olives for the last few hours looking at the various posts.

If I can find some white dominos, I may make some to donate for next year's Santa Workshop.

I AM MY OWN GRANDPA ???

On one of my genealogy newsletters, there was a mention of this song from WW2.  I looked it up on YouTube (found recordings by several people) and while the clip with Guy Lombardo was the clearest to listen to,  I just liked the personality of this recording...even though it's a bit fuzzy.

HUNDRED GOALS

Clearing out the in-box on one of my Email accounts - yes, I have multiples.  One for famly and friends, one for work, one for my blogs, one for some E-groups I belong to and the last for the junk mail and other things that want an Email listed.   

Found an link to a blog I sent myself months ago .. always meaning to check it out:  100 Goals  @  http://hundredgoals.com/   -- so went and looked at it today.  I really like how it is laid out and what Steven has to share.

DH and I have been working off and on over several years on a list of experiences we want to try and places we'd like to go.  I've been working on decluttering and purging out the "stuff" that just doesn't mean anything to me any longer.

Hundredgoals re-enforces the concept.

NEW MILITARY SPOUSE IN THE COMICS!

Pentagon Channel (it's one of the Armed Forces TV channels over here in Europe) had a story tonight about a comic strip centered around a young military couple and the trials (or maybe I should say) the circus that life becomes as a military family.

http://jennyspouse.com/

I laughed and I cried reading the comics ... lots of memories here.

45 Lessons of Life

45lessons In Life

View more presentations from He Yan.

Most of the lessons I agree with ...but not all. Sure do like the pictures though,

10 FEB WAS A LUCKY DAY!

We had a potluck after caseworker training today at the Navy Marine Corps Relief Office here .... welcome in the new volunteers, say farewell to the ones who are leaving ...I won the "Guess the Number of Kisses" ....isn't it pretty?
And in the mail, the spices and giftcard I was awarded in Jenn's (FrugalUpstate.com) giftaway got here ....


Yup...all in all...a very good day!

WOW! UKRAINE GOT TALENT WINNER 2009

A dear friend, Candy, shared this with me .... it's amazing.

Part 1:


Part 2:


http://www.kseniyasimonova.com/
Kseniya Simonova is an Ukrainian artist who won Ukraine's Got Talent 2009. She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and "sand painting" skills to interpret Germany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII.

MY FIRST EVER BLOGGER AWARD!

How cool! Welshcakes Limoncello, SicilyScene.blogspot.com, gave me this award (it was yesterday when I started this - now it's a month ago). What a warm fuzzy feeling to know that someone (other than family) acknowledges what I have done.

A condition of the award is that I have to tell you 7 things you may not know about me.

1. I am lactose-intolerant -- my childhood doctor finally figured it out when I was in middle school.

2. I have a fear of falling -- bad enough that I can't even ride on ferris-wheels.

3. I detest peppermint candy! The candy canes on our small tree this year are strawberry flavour ....I like the green apple-flavoured ones too.

4. Until recently, I didn't like roses....even now, I don't really care for red roses -- yellow, pink or apricot color ones are not a problem -- just no red ones - please.

5. I've gone all the way around the world...just in two segments. Went west-ward from California to the Arabian Gulf one time and east-ward from California to Bahrain another time.

6. I've worked as a real estate agent...LOVED it! It is such a magical, wonderful feeling to help someone find and buy a home they truly love. A lot of work is involved and takes lots of time....but it's a fantastic feeling when it all comes together! Am currently a referral agent associated with RNI California, a division of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage ..... interested in buying or selling a property? I can connect you with some of the best agents in the real estate business .... people that take care of their clients and really do put the client first.

7. Right now my three favorite movies are "Somewhere in Time", "Auntie Mame" (with Rosalind Russell) and "Cool Runnings" -- I just realized that all three deal with overcoming challenges.

The other condition of the award is to pass the award onto seven other bloggers...(this was really hard for me to choose just seven...so many that I really enjoy...how can I exclude any of my favorites?) I tried to stay away from the "big" bloggers - most of us frequent them already ... but just couldn't drop FrugalUpstate off my list.

http://aglimpseoflondon.blogspot.com/ London - a different picture everyday!

http://lifeinthesecondhalf.blogspot.com/ She makes me think!

http://sixtyfivewhatnow.blogspot.com/ Another who makes me think - and I regret to say I don't let lakeviewer know as often as I should that I have visited.

http://www.frugalupstate.com/ Ways to have quality life without spending it all!

http://amatterofpreparedness.blogspot.com/ Never know when I will need to care for my family and friends.

and two that are related (sorta) one springboards off the other right now...

http://52paintedhouseprojects.blogspot.com/ and http://dianascreativeinsanity.blogspot.com/ Got to get our of my rut ...

It's taken me over a month to decide which seven (yes, I really have been trying that long to decide) .... looking back now, I'm thinking ...why did I stress over this so much? We all know there are hundreds of thousands of wonderful blogs out there.

Well, those are my (current) favorites .... ask me in ten minutes and you'll get quite a different list.

Hope you enjoy wandering through them ... Now to let everyone know.

NEW FLAG COUNTER

My son saw a counter on a blog and suggested I add it to my sidebar.
Pretty cool! It posts the flags for the countries my visitors hail from.

The same blog also has a map that adds dots for the locations my visitors come from as well. May or may not add that one ... that just may be way too busy.

GREEN CHILE CHICKEN LASAGNA - FRUGALUPSTATE.COM

May look strange -- but it tastes pretty good! Granted I didn't take the time to shred the cheese on top ...but for a dish made from leftovers ...it is a keeper!
The recipe is from a blog I follow -- www.frugalupstate.com, posted on 28 August 2009.

A note added the following day: Jenn from FrugalUpstate.com Emailed me the exact link so you all can find the recipe easily....it is at http://bit.ly/4wFFCE

I went the long way trying to avoid the perception of violating any copyrights.

ERIC DODGE SINGS "I PLEDGE"

One of my favorite artists....I wanted to have this played at my command Navy retirement ceremony...unfortuantely, my ceremony was cancelled due to mission requirements. Oh well ... so it goes.