In the 17 days post-Christmas, I've been doing a lot of the same things you all've been doing. Here's my express lane list, by the numbers. It's about 15 items, but who's counting?
- Spent 16.5 hours undecorating Christmas, over the course of 3 days, in 13, 31-gal tubs, plus 2 trees (see #2).
- Chris Missy did not sell at the antique mall during the holidays, much to my dismay (because I had to haul and store her). I spent 4 hours undecorating and fluffing the antique mall spaces while my other two Panoply sisters spent 7 days in FL. Sound fair? Spent another 4 hours readying things for the next space overhauls.
- After putting all that Christmas stuff away, I had the nerve to purchase MORE at 50% or more off the retail price. I do NOT want to expand to 31-gal tub #14 for storage, so there will be some purging to come.
After Christmas Sale Items - Speaking of purging, I spent 1/2 day purging paper and transporting to the recycle station (Mr. P. is totally retired!).
- Spent 1/2 day making my holiday music inactive, and then syncing and updating software on my various technological tools.
- Soaked, laundered, pressed and folded 40 dinner napkins - then found 3 dozen more that needed pressed when I was stowing the 40 away. They remain unpressed - maybe next January.
- Spent an hour loading TurboTax and transferring data from prior years' returns - for ours and a few family members' - which I prepare. I spent another 4 hours or so working on our return, reconciling Panoply activity, along with other detailed support records.
- Read at least 1 dozen magazines and 1 book (Carly Simon's, Boys in the Trees, her memoir).
- Walked over 50 miles for routine exercise - an average of 3 per day. Mr. P. and I solve a lot of the world's problems on these walks, but no one seems to care or listen.
- Spent a good 10 hours on my blog, mostly updating my template and cleaning things up. I added a drop down menu, and organized nearly 250 old posts with labels. I've been wanting to do this for at least two years. It was way overdue, and I hope it makes for smoother navigation for readers, beyond my search button. I also created and ordered a Blog2Print 2015 yearbook, my third in as many years blogging.
- In the days immediately following our Christmas Eve buffet, we ate a lot of comfort foods: at least 10 meals (lunch & dinner) from our immediate leftovers. I also made spaghetti/meatballs, beef stew and ham/bean soup with frozen leftovers, racking up another 10 meals. That doesn't even count the food family took home after the buffet.
- I bought new bed pillows and pillow protectors in the January white sale - yay! It can be costly, but I found good deals and a good mix (and use them all). We still need a new mattress.
MBR Pillows, Textiles Winter 2016 - I even managed to add a little warmth to the otherwise bare and cold look throughout the house after the holiday decor was gone, mostly with textiles and garden greens.
Winter 2016 Textiles, Greens - With an eye looking toward February, I pulled out a couple things which hint at romance while trying to embrace what winter we're having (none would be okay with me, except I do enjoy this so-called down time to get other things accomplished inside the house vs. outside in the garden. Down time, yea, right).
Winter Vignette - Hearts and Birds - Being raised Catholic, I caught a little grief for having my Christmas put away before the Epiphany (January 6th). It was just too much to leave out the nativity when it's stored at the bottom of 31-gal tub #11 in the stack, you know what I mean? So, I left my lamb vignette out, and updated it a bit, with an eye toward spring, but still representing the concept.
Christmas Vignette in Transition toward Spring - I have been on an 11 month timeline of having some dental restorative work done - two implants and crowns - following a first abscess of a tooth and another with cracked root in 2015. Yesterday marked the completion of the implant process, followed by measurements for permanent crowns scheduled for February. Patience is key for this complex process; being knocked out at every opportunity is also key IMHO. I deplore dental work.
Dental Purgatory - Pamela from From My Front Porch to Yours had a giveaway in collaboration with Antique Farmhouse (one of her sponsors) in mid-December. Guess who won, taking delivery last weekend? It's a great reproduction of an antique dress form, yet much lighter to handle. I won't ever say I have too many, but I definitely have an accidental collection of these dress forms. It's rather nice in that they're each different. All 7 of them. :D Thank you again, Pamela!
AFH Giveaway Prize - Oh, and that $1 BILLION that's sitting in the jackpot for the next powerball winner? They say ya gotta play to win, but I don't play. I will say this, though - I hope some West Virginian wins. That way, our state will be out of its $300 Million projected budgetary debt for this next fiscal year with the state income tax it will collect on the payout. We might even have a few million cushion to go forward, I don't know, but it makes my head hurt to count how high the odds are that one person might win.
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| Down time Activities, clockwise, starting top L: Updating Tech Tools; Ironing; Preparing Taxes; Leisure Reading |
That's about 15 items. Thanks for being one of my readers today, stopping by to catch up with me. Your visits are always fun, and your comments welcome!
Oops, one more thing, which is very important to me: no name brands mentioned here were sponsored. I am a non-revenue producing blog. I only mention what I want to, and don't get paid to do it.
Oops, one more thing, which is very important to me: no name brands mentioned here were sponsored. I am a non-revenue producing blog. I only mention what I want to, and don't get paid to do it.
Rita C. at Panoply
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