Mexican Tiles and clutter

 

This is a piece of my handiwork that has been mostly hidden for the last seven years.  Well, when I first created this counter top it was a showpiece for a while, so maybe it has been hidden for only five or six years.  When we bought this house the kitchen was very compact and lacking cupboard space.  We added cupboards in the actual kitchen, and this lower unit backs up to the half wall that separates the kitchen from the dining area of our living room.  It was to be our dessert or coffee bar.  Little by little things got added and the last was a fancy coffee machine, which was the end of any free space on this counter top. 

The tiles for this top were bought at the Mexican Market and I quickly learned how to lay tiles and then apply the grout. It was a fun and quite rewarding learning experience that I likely will never repeat.  

About 3 days ago I determined that I could replace one coffee maker with a smaller unit, then the fancy coffee maker could be moved onto the stand beside the other coffee maker, and thereby  clearing one end of the counter.  Turns out I did not need to buy a new smaller unit, as the fancy machine had the hot water function... which was the reason to keep the other unit.  

I have become much better about reducing clutter lately.  It is not quite as hard to throw things away as I had thought for so many years.  We have way too many coffee cups and mugs... but some do have sentimental value.  I had a big wooden bowl in the middle of this counter with wrapped pieces of candy in it.  I put the candy in a couple of the cups sitting in the back and voila, I could remove the wooden bowl.  Because I didn't have to take space for a second coffee maker, I had room to move a stack of other items to the stand at the end.  I threw some things away, and I ended up exposing at least 2/3 of the counter top.  Reminiscent of how I remember it when it was first completed.

I am confident I will/can avoid loading this counter up again.  Although it may not always be quite as open as it is today, I truly think I have determined that clutter is not a good thing, and once a space has been de-cluttered... it shall not become re-cluttered.

Renewed Purpose for an Old Desk

 Who would think of saving pieces of cardboard... well I don't let it get too out of hand, but I save the cardboard from cereal boxes and other pieces of that type of material... for craft projects that pop up now and then.  A piece of cardboard (heavy posterboard) can have lots of uses, including a small trash bin.  I am undecided yet whether I need to cover the trash bin with fabric or maybe some pretty scrapbook paper.  Meanwhile, I do not need to have a trash bin sitting on the floor... it can stay hidden away inside my Secretary Desk.

Now I am not sure exactly what this piece of furniture is called, but it has 3 drawers on the bottom and 2 shelves on top, and a middle panel that pulls down to provide a writing surface.  No telling how long Ron had this desk before I came into the picture, but it has been strictly a storage unit for as long as I am aware.  It may not be clear, but I even used a piece of my cardboard to hang a calendar on.  I pulled bits and pieces from my stash to make my desk feel comfortable... a plate rack for miscellaneous receipts, notes, etc., and a tall coffee mug to hold pencils and pens 

This is very compact when it comes to useable surface, but it is perfect sitting in the Living Room.  I can pull the desk out when I want to do something besides just surf on my laptop, and I can close up the pull down panel when not in use.  I have pencils and pens... and paper handy when I want to write a note.  

Two gouramis and a pair of catfish

 It's not often that I gather the energy to tackle the task of cleaning our fish tank.  As that would indicate, it has been at least 6 months since I took on the task.  Now the aquarium is not one of my priorities...  it is Ron who has always so enjoyed having his aquarium.  He used to have live greenery dispersed around the 30 gallon tank, but a couple years back it was determined that the source of all the snails, that can become quite invasive... meaning we could never seem to stay ahead of them, was the greenery.  Once the greenery and the pebbles at the bottom were removed... replacing with new stones, the snails have ceased to be a problem.  

We are down to just 4 fish in this big tank.  Because it is difficult for Ron to tackle such a task anymore, he had thought it best to not replace fish as they expired.  These last 4 seem to thrive quite well with the awesome castle as their safe zone.  Every aquarium should have such a castle, but because of its size, anything less than a 30 gallon tank could not accommodate its height.  What makes the castle awesome is its many escape routes (and entries) which also provides great hiding places.

Tuesday was the day I set aside this week to take on the task required to bring the tank back to a bright and cheery backdrop.  Now there is always ongoing upkeep, but the deep cleaning is a labor intensive process when there is only one person tackling the chore.  I have to admit that I do enjoy sitting and watching their activity most of the time... it's the upkeep that sometimes diminishes its beauty.

Pomegranates

 I'm pretty new to pomegranates... that is growing them.  To the best of my knowledge there is never a time when a ripe fruit is not red inside, or at least pink.  My tree was planted by me maybe 4 or 5 years ago.  The last couple of years it has had a plethora of blossoms, and only a few of them have turned into fruit.  Last year there might have been 6 pomegranates, but none of them ever got to an edible state... never beyond the fruit that is pictured here.  Now there were maybe a dozen this year, but I am having the same issue.  They grew to be what I presume is a good size, and I have left them on the tree to ripen.  They have been at this stage for more than a month, maybe even a couple months.  Based on what I read, these pomegranates are showing signs that tell you they are ripe and should be ready... but there is no difference than when I cut one a month ago.  

I know there has to be so much more to getting a fruit tree to produce than I even have a clue about.  I don't have space to plant multiples that would allow cross pollination, and the soil here is not the best.  I don't like to use chemical fertilizers, but in desperation I have used some fertizlizer spikes... still to no avail.  It is so hard to learn how to water plants here in South Texas.  If you water every day it's too much, if you water once a week it's not enough.  I've tried everything in between, and still not getting better results.  

The blossoms were abundant, but even the few fruit that it did produce never seemed to ripen.  I will leave what fruit is left on the tree there, but I don't expect any of them to get to the "ripened" stage.  

Should I give up on ever getting any fruit and just enjoy a pretty tree?  Fruit trees can be quite beautiful, especially when they are in blossom, but I'm thinking I'm not cut out to be a fruit grower.

Mums the word

My mailbox finally has flowers again.  It has been very hot and the marigolds that I had planted there gave up a few weeks back.  I have been reluctant to jump at buying any new plants to put in that flowerbed because of the heat.  Recently I had a neighbor ask me if I could hem some work pants for her husband, and if I would, how much would I charge.  There were 4 pair of pants and I told her that I typically don't charge, but I would consider bartering.  She wanted to know what I wanted to barter for... I told her flowers around my mailbox.  When they came to pick up the pants they had two really big Chrysanthemum plants in their arms.  Mums always remind me of the town where I grew up, way back in Connecticut.  They had a Mum Festival every Fall.   I initially tried to separate the big beautiful plants, but it was going to cause too much damage to be worth the attempt.  I'm quite pleased with how they turned out.

There is another story that goes with the mailbox that didn't really involve the flowers, but when our mailbox got whacked a few months back I had to dig up around the base to straighten the post in the ground and repair the part of the post on the top that is PVC. The blue patch is where the big crack was. We had no real clue who did it, or really how it happened until one day another neighbor told me there was a video that the neighbor directly across from us caught on his security camera.  A car came down the road and appeared to head straight into the mailbox.  Shoved everything out of place and actually cracked the PVC.  No, it was dark and not real close, so no plate number was visible... we still don't know who did it, other than it was an oblivious driver who may have fallen asleep.  I had not met these neighbors yet, but these are the neighbors that brought me my new flowers for my mailbox

Little things can make a difference

 

Sometimes it is just little things that can make you smile.  This is still a work in progress, but I swapped the position of my mixer and my counter top oven.  Overall they both take up about the same amount of space.  Of course in the process of moving things you find lots of little treasures you didn't know fell down behind... and the oven in its previous place made it difficult to get to things in the corner, and I think the air space at each end of the little oven was semi restricted, which means possibly it will run more efficiently and safer operation.  Besides the hook rack for the other beaters for the mixer are now right behind the mixer.  If you look close you will see the banana at one corner of the oven... the banana hook got moved to the other end when I started juggling things around down there.

Now it took just one look at the other end of the counter and I knew I had to make more changes.  I got more inspiration when I spotted two coffee canisters sitting way up on top of the cupboards.  I brought them down and dusted them off, gave them a good wash, and filled them with coffee beans.  Followed by moving the coffee pot and grinder... they needed to move to a new spot.  I did some juggling around, but came up with a pretty awesome new setup for that end of the counter.  At least much better from my perspective.  

When you have a limited amount of counter space, things can get crowded sometimes.  I threw a bunch of stuff away also... I'm getting really good on throwing stuff away.  I'm from the old-school, "I better hang onto this cause I am sure I will need it later"... for something.  It was quite invigorating to actually throw some things in the trash basket.

A thousand words...

"A picture is worth a thousand words" came to mind when I reviewed this picture after I took it.  There may not be that many words here... but it is possible, if you were curious enough.  Butters still isn't quite sure why things got moved around, but she is adjusting quite well.

The other day I moved some things around to remove a furniture obstacle in the path to a nearby doorway.  This was previously kind of a music corner, but arranged slightly different. There was another shelf stand in the corner and the top of that stand was one of the kitties favorite spots.  At first I didn't have the table topper on the corner of the piano after the move, but that was the topper from their perch on the previous corner stand... as soon as I put that back, it kind of looked like a good napping spot had returned, although the second picture is the other kitty who snatched the opportunity to try it out first.  The picture with Sugar is not very clear, but you can see that she enjoys this new napping spot.

There is a big star under the red mat on the bench, and on the side a couple trains, and a glimpse of the mini quilts on the corners. Earl Scruggs is an old time favorite. The blinds are left partially raised for viewing spots for Butters and Sugar.  Did you notice the puzzles? Oh, and the golf balls...

I could expand on most of these, and I might come close to a thousand words, but even without words, I enjoy looking at these pictures... they make me smile.