Toes On Tour

It's good to be home, although I had a really swell time in San Diego.  I was there to attend the Junior League Annual Conference, it was an honor to be selected!  It was a great opportunity to learn, network and have fun.  Following is my pictorial diary:

Fresh pedicure (pretty!) at Polished in Fargo

Toes on the gorilla statue at the San Diego Zoo.  Not falling off was quite a trick.

Having a coffee break at the conference. 

Those shoes are absolutely darling, but after a while....

Sea World!  Shamu!

Finally, sand!  The beach on Coronado Island at the Hotel Del Coronado. 

My pedicure is no longer perfect, but I'm still wearing sandals.  Cause I'm not like that Martha chick.

Life with a tiny digital camera is bliss.

Tricky Duck Tip:  Instead of printing pictures to share, burn the pics to a CD. 

Posted by: Bliss on 5/08/2008 at 12:24 PM | Comments (2) | Permalink

Martha Stewart Toes

Lucky me, I have another trip coming up.  Next week I'm off to San Diego, where I've sworn to wear only sandals, except when I'm barefoot.  So I'm getting all worried about my toes, I need to get a pedicure.  Can't have my toes showing without a pedicure.  That was the point I had to give myself a mental headslap, doh!  I'm getting all Martha Stewartized over my toes! 

Martha Stewartized is when you won't do something really swell, like entertain or wear sandals, unless you've reached perfection.  I read an article a few years back that people are entertaining less because they don't have the time, energy, money, etc. to go all out.  So they simply don't.  It's not good enough to order pizza and drink out of mismatched plastic glasses.  Well, actually it is.  And don't you think I can go barefoot, even if I have callouses on my toes?

Now, don't get me wrong, I've nothing against Martha Stewart, per se.  There are a ton of great ideas coming out of her empire, and let's face it, she's made keeping house cool.  It seems I've let the media tell me what my standards should be in some things.  I've organized my life so that I'm organized enough, not perfectly, just enough.  There are apparently a few more things I need to apply that principle to.  Like my toes.

Life with just enough is bliss.

Tricky  Duck Tip:  Your friends will enjoy you no matter what you serve.

Posted by: Bliss on 4/24/2008 at 3:54 PM | Comments (2) | Permalink

That Darn Garage Project

Spring, yay spring!  The weather is warming, ever so slightly, and Clean Up Day is just around the bend.  This year I've made a resolution, I'm going to clean and organize our garage. 

The garage is the last bastion of chaos at the Bliss house.  It's not that we haven't tried, last spring we merrily went out there ready to tackle the project.  Within an hour we were stomping off in different directions.  We didn't say the word "garage" out loud for several weeks.  Just in case.  It's why people hire organizers like me instead of working with their spouses.

So anyway.  I do have a request of the Chief regarding the garage.  There are a number of things we have agreed (Agreed!  We agreed!) can be stored elsewhere and they happen to be too big for me to handle alone.  I've asked him to help me move them and I'll do the rest.  I have visions of my favorite gardening tools hanging together right by the shelves that hold the rest of my gardening goodies.  Never again tripping over a long handled tool left by the door.   Wow.  How cool would that be?

Life with an organized garage is bliss.

Tricky Duck Tip:  Store gardening hand tools in a pot full of sand moistened with a quart of motor oil.  The sand cleans the tools and the oil keeps them lubricated.

Posted by: Bliss on 4/16/2008 at 4:15 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Taxes

A happy dance is going on at the Bliss house today because we mailed our taxes! Woo hoo!  Before I got organized taxes used to be ugly.  Actually, they were really ugly.  My job is to get all the back up material, then the Chief does the rest.  Getting the stuff together sans a filing system was not a fun thing.  Thanks to my handy dandy filing system it's a lot easier for me.  The poor Chief still has the misery of filling out the forms, but hey, that's his deal.

So, here's my wisdom for taxes.  Don't get too carried away with organizing your stuff after your taxes are done.  Keep all your receipts and copies in a manila envelope marked with the year.  Store them in a far off place in a watertight container.  You can worry about sorting by month, etc., in the unlikely event you're audited.  It's called being organized enough.  It's a good concept.

Life without tax preparation hanging over your head is bliss.

Tricky Duck Tip:  Check with your tax preparer for the length of time you should keep copies of your tax returns.

Posted by: Bliss on 4/09/2008 at 4:21 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink

Beading Part Two

It's Beading Part Two because I've been here before.  Recently I took up beading, again.  A friend taught me how to make earrings a long, long time ago.  It was an enjoyable hobby, I made a lot of really cute earrings and accumulated a lot of stuff that I stored in an egg carton.

As it happens with most crafts, I got tired of it, quit, and got rid of the stuff.  Now that I've taken it up again, I'm particularly glad I'm not saddled with any of my old stuff, because the things available now to make beaded jewelry are way cooler than anything I had before!  I treat myself to a weekly visit to the bead store.  There is a strictly adhered to budget.  Prior to my visit I browse design ideas on the web, catalogs, and store displays.  By the time I'm in the bead store I have a design in mind.  There I happily pick through the wares until I've come up with just what I need for my newest piece.  At home that evening I take over the dining room table and make whatever came home in the cute little bag.  I really like it.

It turns out I'm doing this a bit differently than some.  On the web there are a lot of articles on how to manage your bead collection.  I don't have a collection to manage, and I'm glad.  I suppose it would be fun to peruse a bead collection, but I don't think I would.  My creativity needs more of a headstart, a collection would simply be overwhelming.  As it is, I've had to organize some fun new jewelry, which is another story for another day.

Life with pretty things is bliss.

Tricky Duck Tip:  Buy only what you are going to use

Posted by: Bliss on 4/03/2008 at 12:43 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink