We Have a Floor!

Finally, finally, we have a kitchen floor! It's wonderful and feels so much nicer on your bare feet first thing in the morning than nasty cold concrete! There is still a lot of detail work to be done, like the little trim pieces around the edges and the doors painted and put back up in the pantry and laundry 'room' (closet) but I'm going to be patient about that stuff because WE FINALLY HAVE A KITCHEN FLOOR!

Keith has vowed to never ever do a wood floor ever ever again. Jobs like that are best left to the professionals.


And in celebration of having a new floor (finally!), yesterday I did some long overdue major cleaning in the living room, taking all the books out of the bookshelves and all of the doodads out of the cupboard, cleaning all the books, doodads, bookshelves, and cupboard, and actually MOVING the bookshelves and cupboard to clean behind them. Which apparently hasn't been done in years judging from the huge amounts of dust behind them. Not to mention the huge amounts of fuzzy mice cat toys that were under the cupboard which you can't get to unless you move the darn thing. Buddy has been in kitty cat toy heaven since I found all the fuzzy mice for him to play with.


I dusted everything and did some rearranging of books and doodads.


Then later in the day I was working on my shops and attempting to put merchandise away with a little help from Mimi.


It was a good day with me feeling like I actually accomplished something. And today I have some orders to go out, which makes today a good day too. And I'll even go clean that new wood floor!

Caturday and Stuff

I guess Mimi really likes to be close to me even when I'm not right there. Besides jumping onto my shoulders to purr away any chance she gets, she is fond of where my behind has been, too.

Besides taking over my recently vacated stool,

She also likes to lay on my recently vacated pants.


I did get some cleaning done yesterday, even dusting things in the bathroom that hadn't been dusted in a very very long time, judging by the thick layer of dust on them. I cleaned the toilet, the bedroom, vacuumed the workroom, and finished redoing my entire shop with new more colorful pictures. Such as:
I also have a new shop on a brand spanking new site! http://geelizzie.trendyindie.com

So far, I'm just double listing all my etsy stuff onto the new shop, since sales are so slow and the site is so new, I think the risk of possibly double selling something is next to none, what I'm doing is just removing whatever sells on etsy from trendyindie. I'm really excited about this new site, it's got all the features you could ever want, plus a really nice look to it, all for 6.49 a month for unlimited listings. My etsy bill is 6.49 a day sometimes!

Yesterday

I did clean the living room and even dusted all the knick knack/glassware/dishware stuff on the cupboard in the dining area. I can't call it the dining room since it's just a corner of the living room, since the people who built this house apparently thought that just one not so big room would be just fine for both living and dining.

We went to Spencers for our weekly tortilla soup night dinner last night, our little way of helping the local economy, or at least that's our justification for spending $30.00 on a dinner out. It was really drizzly last night, heavy fog or whatever, and the windshield wipers in the truck haven't been working right for a long time, so it was kind of interesting driving over there. When we got home Keith tore the wiper motor apart and kind of duct tape fixed it so it works now. We were picturing him driving to work this morning with his head hanging out the window madly squeegy-ing off the windshield with one hand while the other hand is trying to steer.

We stopped in at Target to pick up a few things and an end cap of frying pans attacked me and made me buy one. We've been using one of those '3 pans for 5.00' type sets that are thin and warped and have no non stick left on them for quite a few years now, so I got one good frying pan to try out and if I like it I'll go back and get a few more. The label on the pan has a caution that has me a little perplexed, though. 'For safety, please keep pet birds out of the kitchen. Birds' respiratory systems are sensitive to many kinds of household fumes, including the fumes from extremely overheated non-stick pans.'

Huh. Apparently there are a lot of bird owners that let their birds fly around the kitchen while they are cooking and somebody's bird got killed by frying pan fumes so they have to put this warning on the pan label.

Cleaning House

Okay, well one resolution is already shot to hell, blogging every day. There's just not that much to blog about unless you want to hear about how many hours I spent on the internet or what stupid TV show we watched last night, so, okay, we're done with that one.

And the apple a day, I just didn't feel like eating one today.

And the walk every day. I didn't want to do that today either.

What I wanted to do was do some house cleaning, but not much of that got done, either. I don't really get why it's so hard to keep such a tiny house (999 square feet) with only two people (and six cats) living in it clean, but it is. It's not so much the dirt that bothers me, I'm the type that if it's swept under the rug (so to speak) it's out of sight, out of mind. It's more the dirty dishes in the sink that are there because the dishwasher is full of clean dishes, or the jackets and shoes left in the living room, or the magazines and papers and mail that we need but don't feel like filing away or even reading at the moment, it's the daily clutter that bothers me the most. I like a tidy house, but the effort to get it to stay tidy is just too much these days. If I had a big enough junk drawer, I could just stuff everything in there. Out of sight, out of mind.

I did empty the dishwasher and put the new dirty dishes in and wiped off the counters and stacked all the odds and ends of mail and magazines in one pile, so it looks a little better, now. The living room doesn't get that bad if you overlook the myriad of cat toys strewn about. Six cats is very similar to six toddlers with short attention spans. Play with a toy for a few minutes, carry it around for a little while, and then just drop it and let it lay wherever it falls. Or, bat them under the stove or sofa never to be seen again, or hide them in one of the many pairs of shoes by the front door where we take them off in an effort to keep the carpet somewhat clean. Or, do like Mimi, and just drop them in your food bowl to save for later.

But, I did get a lot of soldering, necklace putting together, and picture taking done today so I can work on my shops some more. So, it wasn't a total loss.

I'm Going To

Try to be a little more productive today. I did already make the bed-well, only because I am making myself make the bed before I turn on the computer which is right next to the bed, and also to prevent lots of cat hair from getting in the sheets since the cats like to sleep on the bed. And I did fold the clothes (and even put them away) that were in the dryer from yesterday. And, I even put another load into the washer. I'm even going to empty the dishwasher!

It's hard getting excited about cleaning house, not that we are total slobs, but I haven't been much of a housekeeper lately. The bathroom, especially, gets a little grungy before I'll force myself to clean it. So, I'd better get that done today.

It's really difficult to get motivated when your house is STILL not finished and you STILL have no kitchen or hallway floor. I don't want to constantly nag Keith about it, but I have hinted around that I might spend more time in the kitchen cooking delicious entrees for him IF I HAD A KITCHEN FLOOR TO STAND ON!!!

I'm really tired of walking around on ripped up linoleum and bare concrete that is never clean even if I do damp mop it once in a while. And since I go barefoot around the house, my feet are always dirty, too.

So, in a few minutes I'll drag the vacuum out and scare all the kitties with it and then maybe get the bathroom clean although I really hate cleaning the shower and sometimes make Keith do it while he's taking his shower after work. He's actually a much better shower cleaner than me, I just give it a quick once over and he actually gets it clean.

Clean Kitchen

Yesterday we went grocery shopping and had to take the Big Dog aka Big Blue aka Keith's big ass truck, (which has no air conditioning) since my car is in the shop because the new timing belt broke. So, a hot un-air conditioned ride to the store and then even with some meal planning and a list a huge amount of money was spent. It helps if Keith comes with me because then he can get what he wants for his lunches, but at the same time it is similar to taking a small child with you to the store. They want everything. Everything that doesn't fit into the meal plan and usually ends up rotting in the fridge or on a shelf in the pantry.

But, anyway, we got all the stuff home and I was worn out from the ordeal, so I just stuffed everything in the general direction of where it belongs and said 'I'll clean the kitchen tomorrow.'

And, son of a gun, I did clean the kitchen this morning! High five! And I even put all the stove parts in the sink to soak and halfheartedly clean later.

I even cleaned out under the sink, which should be called the lost land of cleaning products that you buy, use once, and shove under the sink and forget about. Oven cleaner? When's the last time I used oven cleaner? Our oven is 'self cleaning' not that I even bother to do that. And four different kinds of all purpose spray cleaner, each with that last inch or so in the bottom that won't spray out? And some of those little scrubby pads with the soapy stuff in them that I bought to use when I clean all the stove parts and forgot were in there. And a bonus- a half full bottle of liquid soap that I emptied into the soap dispenser on the counter.

I'm glad the Olympics is finally over, now maybe I won't park myself on the couch until midnight each night. The closing ceremonies were very odd and kind of boring, I thought. I wasn't too impressed with the double decker bus nonsense, and what was the point of having David Beckham come all the way to Beijing to stand there like an idiot and throw the soccer ball? Did they have to pay him hundreds of thousands of dollars for that 2 second appearance? I hope not.

Another reason I'm glad the Olympics is over is that now I can finish watching season one of Heroes, get season two when it comes out tomorrow, and watch that really quick so that when season three starts I know what the heck is going on. I'm not that much of a TV watcher, but this show has managed to get me hooked. I think Hiro is the main reason, without him the show just wouldn't be as interesting.

So, now I have to go wash the stove parts and put them back on the stove.

Vacuuming in Your Underwear

It's been hot here. Really hot. But my house still needs cleaning at least once in a while, and cleaning makes me hot and sweaty, especially when it's really hot here.

So, my solution this morning was to clean in my underwear.

Our house is laid out so that there are no windows that face the street except for the front bedroom. The living room/great room, which as I've said before is not so great, has the sliding door onto the backyard and a side window that faces a fence, so there is not much of a chance of anyone seeing me cleaning in my underwear, and if they did happen to climb up onto the six foot fence to see anything, it's not a pretty sight anyway and I'm sure they would be very disappointed. So, cleaning in my underwear is a good solution to the getting hot and sweaty while cleaning issue. And I was even organized about it, leaving the bathroom for last, so that I could just get in the shower and clean that while taking my shower and getting un-hot and un-sweaty.

Sorry, no pictures.

Oh, and I finally hit 2500 sales in my original etsy shop:
http://geelizzie.etsy.com
(shameless plug there)
I actually would have hit that number before now but I moved all of my non-glass jewelry over to my collage shop:
http://geelizziecollage.etsy.com
another shameless plug
so the sales on the jewelry in that shop would have counted in the first shop and helped to reach that particular goal
Now on to 3000 sales!

More Random Junk

I'm actually going to clean the house this morning so that when Keith gets home tonight it doesn't look like I didn't do much of anything while he was gone-which I didn't.

We have one of those bagless vacuums where you can see all the stuff that gets sucked up off the floor. Ours is always full with a huge clump of grey kitty hair. Like a HUGE clump. Grey. We have 2 cats who are grey, Bear and Pepper, and right now Bear is leaving little wads of shedded hair everywhere she goes and if you just barely touch Pepper hair flies all over the place, accelerated by the ceiling and floor fans that are helping to keep our house cool and helping to get that hair on as many surfaces as possible.

I got some movies to watch while Keith was gone, ones that I know he would never be interested in. Juno-pretty good, Waitress-pretty good, Dreamgirls-got bored after a while, and Enchanted, which I haven't watched yet.

We had real live clouds in the sky yesterday-real clouds, not smog! But no rain of course.
I know it's weird to get excited by clouds in the sky, but summers here are really boring weather-wise. Hot, sunny, hot, sunny, hot, sunny, hot, sunny. With maybe a hot, sunny, smoggy thrown in there too.

You Heard it Here First!

I'm going to actually DO SOME HOUSE CLEANING today. Maybe. If I get my fat butt up out of this chair and get started!

We're heading down to the coast this afternoon for a weekend o' fun. A family reunion/graduation/80th birthday/father's day/Keith's birthday extravaganza. Not really sure how much fun it will be, family reunions can get messy sometimes, but we're going. I thought it might be nice if we come home to a halfway clean house. Not that it's easy to get the house looking halfway clean-we STILL don't have kitchen or hallway floors, just glue stained concrete and remnants of linoleum, so even if you mop those floors, vacuum the carpet, and dust all the knick knacky stuff, it still feels dirty and messy. But, I'll do my best. Maybe. If I can just get my fat butt up off of this chair.

I have been meaning to get this cupboard cleaned up, too, those lunchboxes are from my studio, we had brought all the junk from in there out to the living room when Keith was putting the carpet tile in, and these have just somehow never found their way back to where they belong. Maybe I should just start packing Keith's lunches in them. Then all the other kids at work could make fun of him.
All of the rest of that stuff needs a good dusting, too. Okay, I'm going to go start cleaning now. In just a minute. Maybe.

Kitty pictures of the day-the girls are ready for their close-ups, Mr. Demille!
Little Miss MimiAnd Little Miss Lucy. These two are just the sweetest little girls!

The Marquis de Sade School of Dentistry

Yup, I'm positive that the dentist I went to today graduated with honors from that particular school. I really think she totally enjoyed watching me wince at each jab and scrape.
I have to go in every three months for a periodontal cleaning since I am having periodontal issues. The last time I went in I had my teeth cleaned by the hygienist and it was relatively pain free.
Not this time.
The hygienist is out on some kind of medical leave-stress related maybe?-so the regular dentist had to clean my teeth. I had never seen this woman before, the dental office we go to seems to change dentists about as often as I change my underwear, and I don't think she was too happy at having to do hygienist work today. She used that supersonic water jet thing and when you have sensitive teeth and gums anyway, that is like having little tiny needles jabbed into your gums. And then after she was done with that, she scraped the heck out of some of my teeth, jabbed my gums some more, and then told me to come back in three months for some more torture. Can't wait.
Remember the Dustin Hoffman movie 'Marathon Man', where he is being tortured by having holes drilled in his teeth while being asked 'is it safe'? That was me today, I kept wanting to yell out 'it's safe, it's safe!'

Tomorrow Bear goes to the vet to get her teeth cleaned. They use general anesthesia. So, next time I think I will just go to the vet to get my teeth cleaned. It sounds much more humane.

Clean-well sort of clean-Table

I did it! I finished cleaning my 'studio'-still love using that word even though it makes me sound kind of pretentious. My stuff is organized and I can walk across the floor without fear of tripping over something.
Here is my work table ready to go. And I even cleaned it back up after soldering some pendants today.

Below-these are the storage bins that Keith got for me and installed in the closet to keep all the stuff for my supply shop on etsy-insert shameless plug-geelizzietwo.etsy.com. So much easier that having everything in plastic bags stuffed in a box in the corner.
And now for today's kitty pictures. This little blue trash can sits behind the printer on top of my desk and Mimi is fascinated by it. She climbed up there and went head first into the trash can. They used to play in it when they were really little. One would be hiding inside and batting at the other ones and then all three would squish themselves inside.

I still haven't gotten in the mood to clean the bathroom...

Time To Clean

I actually got in the mood to do some much needed cleaning in my studio today. I get to working on a bunch of different projects and end up with a nice big mess in there.
This is my work table. It almost always looks like this.
This is all my baskets of finished pendants, earrings, unfinished pendants, chains, beads, etc. on my vintage wood ironing board. Makes a handy little extra table. The walls are freshly painted and I put my collection of art and oddities on the walls all around the room. No carpet yet, still concrete, but that came in handy today when I stepped in the middle of a stray cat turd next to the cat box. I'm glad I had socks on. I think Pepper is the one who doesn't finish before leaving the cat box, and she also is lazy about covering up her poo. Nothing like the smell of a big cat poo poo to get your attention.
This shows the new cabinets that Keith put up all around the room-he still hasn't put the handles on yet even though I keep nagging.
And this is the big mess in the corner. No place to put all this junk until we finish the carpet and closet door. Keith made the window seat out of an old headboard-it's perfect for all the kitties to line up and look out the window-that's their pillow and towel that you see.

So, I did get about half the room done today, sorting stuff out and throwing away a bunch of junk. I found a lot of supplies that I'm listing in my supply shop, things I'm not going to use or have a lot of. Hopefully tomorrow I'll still be in the mood to clean and finish the other half.
Now, if I could just get in the mood to clean the bathroom...