Give Your Stuff Away Day

No, I'm not making this up - there's an organization out there who is encouraging a new Day - Give Your Stuff Away Day (formerly known as Curb Day). It seems pretty straight forward - they have guidelines on their website http://giveyourstuffaway.com/. I've copied their email posted on their homepage below - they encourage you to forward the info to everyone you know to get the word out. This is a Day I can really get behind - I hope to have some stuff at the curb, maybe I'll see some of yours out there too! Let me know if you participate, this could be fun! 

 

May 14, 2011

Give Your Stuff Away Day - free stuff all over the place 

Free stuff will be available in neighborhoods all over the World (hopefully) on May 14, 2011. It’s an event Mike Morone is hoping to establish twice annually. This event, called Give Your Stuff Away Day, could help millions, while shrinking landfills, reducing clutter, saving municipalities money, and boosting the economy a bit.

Because of all the shopping we've done, many of us now own lots of great stuff we never use anymore. And for some reason, we don't sell or give it away. Lots of valuable stuff - just wasting away.

Let's take all this stuff and over one weekend, make it available to others for free.

On May 14th, bring your unwanted stuff to your curb. Some guidelines - no trash, recyclables, illegal or dangerous items. No food, drugs, chemicals, or weapons. Just safe, valuable items we would like to donate. Then watch the fun – or better yet, take a walk and find some free stuff you can use.

This event will create the World's largest giveaway / recycling event - please be a part of it!

Want to help?
• Forward this email to EVERYONE
• Join us on Facebook
• Contact your local government and ask for their endorsements
• Put your stuff out on May 14, 2011

Flannel Pants to Flannel Pants and Shorts

To inspire myself to keep sewing for my baby boy this week, here’s a project I did a few weeks ago:

I made flannel pants into flannel pants! Yay!

Ok, before you think I’m a total nut, I made a pair of hubby’s flannel pants into a pair of flannel pants and shorts for Max.

The legs of hubby’s pants were worn and torn, so using a pair of Max’s pants as a guide I cut out pieces for a pair of itty-bitty pants and shorts.

The pants came out great, and I even used the cord to make a little false drawstring.

The shorts came out way too small, so I took them back apart and added the waistband to the width of the leg and made a new waistband out of coordinating flannel (an old pillowcase).

before

after

And since I just used the legs from the pants, I hemmed them up and hubby now has a pair of flannel lounging shorts just in time for summer!

hubby's shorts

Max loves his new shorts and pants – so much so that I couldn’t get a clean photo. I love my wiggly little boy!

Baby on Board at Work

I brought Max to work with me a little while ago. He had a Dr.’s appointment to check his ears and to show me how to clean them since normal methods weren’t working so well (he produces a lot of ear wax, like champion amounts of ear wax if there was a competition). After his appointment he came to work for the afternoon.

First things first, a nap.

Once he was nice and rested we went down the hall to say hi to everyone. They just love babies, and he just loves attention.

Then it was time to explore the office.

And help mama with the filing.

Then he took off down the hall to find A, who he was just fascinated by. He loves grammies with white hair almost as much as he loves bananas. I was pretty impressed that he remembered the way and found her office with no wrong turns. Our building is like a rabbit warren and people often get turned around, but not my little boy. He was on a mission!

We had a lot of fun, and I am encouraged to try bringing him in again. Previous attempts ended in screaming (his, not mine). This time he was happy to play and was just charming. Phew!

Sewing Kids Clothes Week



image source



http://www.elsiemarley.com/kids-clothes-week-spring-2011.html

ElsieMarley is challenging people to sew an hour a day all week (including weekends!) for kids. Seven hours of sewing in a week, eek! I’m going to attempt to do this. Probably not an hour every day since I like to eat and sleep too – but I’m going to try and do some sewing for Max. He has no shorts for this summer, and his jammies are quickly becoming too small.

I got a head start last week, making a pair of pants and two button down shirts (all out of hubby's old button-downs). I'll put up photos and such next week.

Can I do it? I can, theoretically. Will I? We’ll find out!

Colorful Garden Accessory!

I was at the farm and garden supply store last weekend and a rainbow caught my eye. Can you guess what it is?

Any ideas? A hint - it goes in the garden, not the farm. 

Colorful tomato cages! What a fantastic idea!

I know, I know, if you have giant tomato plants like I do then you won't be able to see them after a month - but still awesome!

You could totally do this at home with some plain cages and spray paint (and patience). If you give it a try, let me know!

Love love love!

Work Hacks: Writing During Breaks

image source

As you’ve probably figured out, I like to utilize my breaks for more than just hanging out and relaxing. Though sometimes I do relax and read, and I enjoy surfing the internet during lunch as much as the next person, I prefer being productive.

You may wonder how I’m able to manage a blog while having a full-time job, an infant, a husband, a mid-reno home, and the plethora of projects I work on. Here it is - I do some of my blog writing during my breaks. This helps me write posts ahead of time and schedule them to post at 12:30 every day. That’s a very strategic move on my part, as I wouldn’t be able to put something together every single morning or evening.

My method is this:

When I get an idea for a post, I make a mental note, jot down a few key words on a piece of paper, or make a note on my cell phone.

Then I mentally draft the post while I do fun things like data management, filing, or one of the other mindless but necessary tasks that make up a sizable chunk of my job. (Oh, the thrills.)

Once I have a good idea of what I want to say and how I want to say it, I start to write it out during a break (generally lunch). If I finish the post in one sitting then I’m pretty impressed with myself. Normally I have two or three ideas that I partially write (this is one such post, the other one I started drafting was about exercising during breaks), getting enough down that I can go back later and finish writing and proofing the post in 5-10 minutes.

Once or twice a week I’ll use part of my lunch hour to proof and schedule the finished posts, adding photos, etc.

I schedule all of my posts to go live at 12:30pm so that if I need to make a last minute change, or if I plan on writing a fresh post for that day, I have time at the beginning of my lunch hour to do so.

This works really well for me and my situation. I’m able to be productive during leisure time – just today (and by today, I mean the day the majority of this post was written) for my lunch hour I exercised for 20 minutes, wrote for 20 minutes, and checked my personal email for 5 minutes. Now, I have 15 minutes left of my hour, so I’m going to wolf down that sandwich and do a little light reading. Time well spent!

Posts Worth Reading: Leisure Time Not Idle Time

layers 3, 4 & 5 of kitchen flooring

Leisure Time Not Idle Time, Written by Trent at The Simple Dollar.

I’m not going to bother re-write what someone has already done such a great job of doing: explaining the difference between leisure time and idle time.

I spend almost all of my spare time as leisure time – as in I’m doing something, generally something productive. It’s this great big gray area between work and play. Idle time drives me nuts, unless I’m too sick or tired to care. In which case, as Trent points out, there’s always the option to take a nap which is productive because you are taking care of a problem (being tired).

On a recent, somewhat warm day I had the whole house to myself. I considered flopping on the couch and eating pie while I watched TV. Instead, I cleaned the bathroom (including scrubbing the floor on my hands and knees), put dry cleaner on the carpet in the back room (again, scrubbing on my hands and knees), picked up and thoroughly vacuumed the computer/craft/side entry room, moved the yard sale items from the side room to the garage, went in the basement/glorified crawl space to put out mouse poison (I gave them a fair chance with live traps, but now they're P-ing me off), sprayed insect repellent around the base of the house, refilled the cat food bin, refilled the litterboxes, sprayed the cat pee smelling areas, and then settled down in the kitchen to work on ripping up some more old flooring for an hour. Now that's some leisure time! haha

I don’t just use my leisure time at home, I use it at work. Hence all of my Work Hack posts I’ve been writing lately where I make note of what I do on my breaks. Even while driving I’ll listen to audio books, given the chance.

This whole blog was inspired because I use my leisure time in a way that, through documentation, others might find a glimmer of inspiration by what I do, as I find inspiration in what they do.

Now go get your leisure on.