Candles, Flashlights and Smart Phones

My electricity just went out this evening, for no apparent reason. In most cases when the electricity goes out it is because of weather and you are able to prepare for the possibility of an outage. This evening was beautiful weather, I was by myself in the house watching TV and out goes the lights. Thank goodness I was texting my sister at the time and had my phone with me to use the flashlight to search for supplies.

After several calls to the electric company and getting the "all circuits are busy" message, I realized I was not prepared for the possibility of an outage. First, I had to use my phone flashlight to find some candles and a lighter.  Second, I used my phone to find a real flashlight. Lastly, because it was late in the evening and my phone battery was low, I needed to find a way to charge my phone.

Lessons learned tonight, have a phone battery and cord stored in a specific place for power outages. Make sure that all flash lights have working batteries in them. Do not use the candle with the special wick that craclkles. The biggest lesson I learned tonight is that I need to purchase unscented candles for power outages. After burning five candles with different scents, not having electricity wasn't the only thing giving me a headache.

Nursery Curtains

My Granddaughter's nursery is decorated in a Peter Rabbit theme. The window in the nursery is huge, taking up almost an entire wall. I knew I wanted to hang curtains that were soft, pretty and girly. My daughter and I decided to go with white ruffled curtains. I got online and found some shear white ruffled curtains on Amazon. I bought the "Gypsy Ruffled" panels that were 60" wide and 84" long. The panels were wide enough, but not long enough.  I needed them to be about 120" long, so I bought three panels and used the extra panel to lengthen the other two. This ended up being pretty easy to do because I could just cut off several ruffles of the extra panel, and sewed them onto the bottom of the other two panels.

We also wanted the curtains lined for the black-out effect to keep the room dark for naps in the afternoon. Instead of lining the curtains I bought the black out lining and made them into a pair of "shears" to hang behind the curtains. My daughter already had the double curtain rod so it worked out wonderfully.

Just to add a little color I added a small gingham ribbon to the top of the curtains. This matched the Pottery Barn Peter Rabbit quilt that was purchased for the crib, and I used the same ribbon  to put around a stuffed rabbit's neck we included in the nursery's wall arrangement. I thought about adding some bows here and there too, but I honestly liked the simple look of the ribbon.

Check-out Lane Rants

I would write a top ten list of the things that bother me in the check-out lane, but I really could not rate them as they all are equally annoying, and then there is the fact that there are only seven listed. So, I will list them in no particular order of annoyance.

Talking on the phone while checking-out with the cashier. Have we really gotten to the point where we cannot get off the phone for the few minutes it takes to pay for our purchases? It is not only rude to the cashier, but also to the person you are talking to on the phone. Neither one knows who you are talking to.

Don't take items to the counter that you are not sure you want to purchase. I cannot tell you how many people I have stood behind in line that went through 20 or more items of clothing at the check-out counter and decided on each item one at a time as to what to pay for and what to send back.

If you have more than 15 items then do not get in the quick check out lane. Rest assured that we are all counting.

Sort your coupons before you check out. Going through the stack of 100 coupons trying to remember what you bought is not the most efficient way to shop, not to mention is takes forever! You are not only annoying me, but you are annoying the cashier too.

Do you really have to barter the price of every item? I would understand maybe one item that you thought was a lot less expensive than it scanned, but every item?  Some items we are only talking about a few cents. Go to a garage sale if you want a pair of pants for a quarter.

Recognize my personal space. Keep a reasonable distance from me when I am checking out. If I can feel your breath on my neck while I am using the credit card reader, then you are too close!

Why do you stop and talk to your friends right in the doorway, or in the middle of the aisle? You are not the only people in the store.

I am sure there are more that I could not remember, but I am sure I will be reminded of them the next time I go shopping.

Texas Garages

The definition of a garage is: a building or shed for housing a motor vehicle.  The Texas definition of a garage is: a building or shed used to store all of your extra furniture or household items that do not fit in your house, because your house does not have enough storage space, or a basement. This definition may be a bit long, but everything in Texas is Big!

When my husband and I were looking for a house we wanted a three car garage, because we have three cars. See how that works. The cars go in the garage. We found many homes with three car garages and it was amazing because most of the sellers were using them as a two car garage and a storage space. It was very hard to find a home with storage that was actually in the house. That is a necessity for us as people that have always had a basement for storage.

Common look for a Texas garage

The worst part about using your garage as a storage space, and not a shelter for your car, is you have to leave your car outside in the elements. By elements I mean hail.  After two major hail storms in as many weeks there were thousands of cars damaged, and many totaled by hail. Many of these cars were parked in driveways and on streets because the owner's garages were full of stuff.

One week later there was a warning of inclement weather that included possible hail. The storm was predicted to hit around 10pm. My husband and I had tickets to a hockey game that started at 7pm and we knew we had plenty of time to go to the game, and still get home before the storm. We also knew that if the storm came early we would be safe in the arena, and the car would be in the arena parking garage.  When we got to the parking garage it was pretty full and we assumed there was some other event going on in the complex in addition to the game. The manager of ticket sales came to our seats and apologized to us and asked it we were able to get a spot in the garage. We said yes, and he said people were parking in the garage because of the incoming storm. By people we thought he meant the workers at the event, until we left the game and got to the garage to go home. People from nearby neighborhoods and apartments were bringing their cars to the garage, leaving them there, and getting a ride back home. There were cars everywhere. They were double parked, parked in no parking spots, and parked along the exit ramps. All of this so their cars would be protected from hail. The crazy part was, the storm was a mild thunderstorm at best and a big waste of their time for a dud storm.

There should be a lesson in this situation, like maybe you should rent a storage unit, or better yet, have a garage sale and clean out your garage. Cowboys don't leave their horses out of the barn in a hail storm, but they will leave there $60k pickup trucks out of the garage. The only people that win in the whole situation are the insurance companies and the rental car companies. They are making a hail of a lot of money!

The Art of Folding Clothes

My daughter bought the book "the life-changing magic of tidying up" by Marie Kondo. Yes, I do know I did not capitalize the letter in the name. Just copying the title on the book. Back to my daughter, during the Holidays she was going through a cleaning and purging stage, and used the book to guide her. She was telling me and my Son's girlfriend about how Marie Kondo folds clothes and puts them in the drawers. Forever the skeptic, I poo pooed the whole thing until I saw my daughters dresser. I was a convert.

Now this book has a lot of ideas on how to go through your clothes and household items to organize and purge. I followed some of the suggestions, but mostly I fell in love with the folding.

This is how I folded my long sleeve Ts. First fold the arms in and about 1/4 in on each side.

Fold again in half length wise.

Fold in half from bottom to top.

Fold in half again.

I love that I can see every item in all my drawers and do not have to dig through stacks of shirts, for example, to find what I am looking for. There were always the clothes on the bottom that were never worn, because It was easier to just grab what was close to the top of the stack in the drawer. To be able to open my drawers and see every item has made me feel like I am wearing all my clothes, and not just the same items all the time.

All of my long sleeve t-shirts fit in one drawer and I can see all of them.

Shells and camisoles all easy to be seen and in one drawer.

Don't even get me started on my husbands dress socks. I can get over 60 pairs of socks in a small drawer and he can see every pair. It is life changing. Well, maybe not life changing, but it definitely makes it easier to find the right color. Not to mention it is much more pleasing to the eye. My husband loves his sock drawer.

The dreaded sock balls that we use to fill my husband sock drawer.

New sock drawer!

My husband has not come from the dark side to the magic of folding, with the exception of his sock drawer, but I have seen the light!