There's No Place Like Home

Randomly, I woke up this morning at 8 am. Sounds like a normal day, right? Sure, except I go to bed at 3am. Say whaaaaaaaat? I am a night owl. I don't wake up early. But when I woke up this morning, before the sun was even fully out, all I could think about was buying a Dremel and cleaning my room. No joke. I sat there in bed for at least a half an hour debating the merits of buying a Dremel, or buying groceries. The Dremel won, for the record, but luckily I have a friend who has one and might let me borrow hers to decide if I want one! Anyway. After I was totally amped up, I decided to just give up and fiddle around the house until I was tired enough to nap. I never napped. I had such a great day of cleaning and getting projects done that I didn't have time! I didn't even have time to make dinner!

First things first, I decided to make breakfast:

Bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits

These are really delicious. They look nothing like the recipe picture (which are neat little pucks of breakfast goodness with clearly defined strata), but they definitely fill you up. The only thing I would do differently than the recipe is to cook the biscuits for a few minutes before adding the egg. They rose so much they went right through the egg and there's nothing on the bottom (although they are still tasty!)

I also made these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Brownies. They are divine. I'm making a huge batch to bring to work on Halloween for all my poor little dears stuck at work and not out... I dunno.... trick or treating. Or whatever it is that kids do these days. It says to put them in an 11X7, but for a single batch I think I would just do a 9X9 and see if they came out a bit thicker. No pictures because I literally made these instead of getting ready for work, and ran out the door with steaming hot brownies in my paws.

I did a bunch of other stuff, but the bulk of my day was spent trying to to get my room in some semblance of order. I stayed up til 3 last night because I spent an hour and a half folding and putting away clothes, I kid you not. With everything put away (other than a small pile of hanging stuff that is hiding in my closet...), I had a LOT more room to work with and could start really putting things away.

Downsizing from having my stuff spread over pretty much an entire acre to a townhouse is a bit shocking. I've always known I have a lot of stuff, but it's amazing to see it all shoved in a small area. It's also amazing to see how little of it I actually use! I'm trying to be judicious as I unpack and put things away (the Roomie witnessed me recycling an iced tea bottle instead of saving it. I swear!) but also not get rid of things and then have to re-buy them (or worse, regret getting rid of them and NOT being able to replace them.)

So here's a quick run-through of what I've been up to! I also have no shame in showing the piles of stuff still left to do. You'll be able to appreciate my progress as we go :-)

Dresser wall got the most attention of the day.The dresser got cleared of junk (a lot of it was re-located when I freed up space elsewhere.) Then there is the addition of my street-side rescue shelf (holla to Savannah for stopping in the middle of the parking lot for me. You are a true friend to indulge my furniture-rescuing compulsion.)  I just used 2 sets of L-brackets to attach it to a stud, easy peasy. The shelf itself is pretty rough, and obviously homemade, but it was free, and it holds stuff, so it works for me!

Here's a close-up of what's on the shelf right now. A lot of random stuff that I'm sure will be moved around. Right now it's my half-dead orchids, my jewelry tray, library books, kids toys, glitter glue, and glue sticks in a tin. The hatbox and winebox are both empty. I'm sure I'll remedy that.

This cute little silver tray works perfectly for catching all kinds of jewelry as I take it off, without risking the cats knocking it around. Salvation Army find!

Moving clockwise is the bunny hutch! I gave up on trying to teach Boo to go up to the second level, so I just took out the ramp and now the upstairs is bunny supply storage (treats, towels, vinegar spray, etc.) The top got cleared off, my last few bottles from my bottle collection found a home, and pictures were finally hung! All of those are special. Top left is a sheep print from VA that reminds me of my 3 sheep babies, top right is a hand-printed picture Lindsay took of my old cat, Gato, bottom right is a peacock girl print from Lindsay, and bottom left is a smocking piece that my grandma made. My vanilla is also still there, steeping :-)

Here comes the messy part! Hats, gloves, and scarves are living in the big wall hanging. The prints are Ikea. The red desk finally made it inside and now will house the sewing machine and craft supplies. Right now it's just piled with flotsam.

Here's the long view of the crap side. The pile is getting smaller though! My Barbara Arnett dance sword has a proud place over the door :-)

 Inside the closet we have my medicine chest and earrings.

And a surprising amount of my craft crap fits in the top of the closet. No, that is not even close to all of my yarn.

This corner is much the same. Fish tank is in a black-out period to kill algae. The big pile is really just a box of vintage sheets (project!) and aprons. Hoarder.

Finally hung up my hair-accessory bins, and pared the bed side table down to just Day of the Dead skulls :-) Good stuff!

What happened to the papisan chair, you ask?

It migrated to the kitchen, where we can now cook and hang out indefinitely :-)

And someone wore herself out with all that work :-)

Hope you all are having a good start to your week too!~Sarah