Tidying Up {with an Edit}

EDIT: My cell phone has disappeared again. {Insert deep sigh here} I moved all my stuff from the black bag to the more cheerful orange-and-other-color bag this evening. I thought it had maybe slipped out of its pocket in the black bag and had fallen down to the bottom, but no. I will clean out the inside of my car tomorrow. {You may remember that was where it was the last time I lost it.} Think good thoughts for me please…

On a more cheerful note, I DID find my car keys at the bottom of the black bag.

Well, today was a nice day with no diarrhea! I ate what I usually eat but didn’t overeat. I was a bit dubious about putting cream cheese on my bagel this morning,but then I noticed it was the cream cheese made with a less fatty milk and I also didn’t put a lot on the bagel. I am pretty sure it was an over abundance of fat that started the horrid reaction. We have a lovely lemon pie {from Schwan’s} decorated with cream on the top and on the day in question, I had two big slices whereas I usually have one smallish slice at a time. People who have been reading me for a while might remember the effect cafe con panna had on me when I was in Italy. I LOVED the strong coffee piled high with thick cream, but, alas, my digestive and eliminative system didn’t. Fortunately, I did bring anti diarrhea pills with me…

You remember I went to the house of my art class friend, K., on Thursday? I was most impressed with the organization of her materials. They were all in boxes clearly marked and stacked where she could get at them. So, today, I started doing some organizing myself. I actually have some shelves with cardboard boxes labeled with what is inside them. At a quick glance, I see "tissue paper and cheese cloth" {the name of which speaks for itself}and  "art stamps" {which are stamps I have bought} and "making stamps" {which has stamps I have made myself and material and tools for making them} and "textures" which holds corrugated paper and other things I can use for making textures on wet paint.} But I have the bad habit of coming in, dumping stuff down and not putting it away. Then, of course, I cannot find what I want and, even worse, I have no place to work since both my table and desk area have "stuff" piled on them.

Well, today I cleaned off the art table and put the paints back in the boxes which I keep on the table. I keep the "scrapers" and "sponges" boxes on this table too since I use them almost every time I pick up a brush. Looking over at them I am wondering why I put them in separate boxes. But they will have to stay in separate boxes until I get a slightly bigger box since I flattened and put in the trash all the boxes I had piled up.  Then I put down what I call the serendipity sheet. This is a sheet of paper on which I try out colors and stamps and then when it is full, I cut out the bits I want to use for collage!  I have the paper palletes which also get cut up for collages.

I was pretty pleased with myself for getting this done. I set a timer for 30 minutes and worked as hard as I could on getting the area sorted. Then I reset it for 30 minutes in which I either watched part of a movie, or read, or did something totally different from cleaning and organizing. The next 30 minutes was back to the sorting, and so on. Tomorrow I am going to do the same thing with the desk which is PILED with more "stuff!"

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

— Confucius (Chinese Philosopher) 551-479 B.C.

"Anything you’re good at contributes to happiness."

— Bertrand Russell