Mar 16 2004
Spring Cleaning
It doesn’t look much like spring, what with the skies above Massachusetts in the process of dumping 10-12″ of snow on our lawn. However, I’m slowly starting to get into the spring cleaning mode. At least, the mental list of items that need to get tackled in the coming months is being made; this, for me, is a start.
Not only does that breath of fresh air need to be added to the content here, I’m bored with the interface and want to tackle a redesign this spring. Unfortunately I tend to be much more interested in fiddling with technology and getting things to work than I am in actually maintaining the output once it’s running like clockwork; this poses somewhat of a problem when it comes to updates, as the frequency of entries over the last several months indicates. With luck, I’ll find a new look-and-feel to be more inspiring. 
This spring will hopefully mark the start of our landscaping plans at the house. The back yard is in desperate need of regrading, which fortunately requires the removal of our back porch (a very good thing, since we’ve discovered a few rotting steps). I can’t wait to have a real back yard, free of the strangling vines and vine-like plants (bittersweet, possibly?) that have overrun a rather large section of it, and I’m hoping to find the time to get some more day lilies planted along the perimeter (gotta love the low-maintenance plants). The plan was to start some of the preparation this coming weekend, but it looks like tonight’s snowfall is going to delay those plans for at least a week or so.
As usual, the house itself is in need of spring cleaning (we suffer from serious CHAOS - “can’t have anyone over syndrome”). A while back, L pointed me to FlyLady.com, a neat site with some great tips on how to avoid the chaos and keep the house in shape. Unfortunately I always seem to be in need of the crisis cleaning hints (boy, I wish I had remembered these tips this weekend, as my folks are planning to be in town for part of this upcoming weekend). Mom’s always said that just a few minutes each evening will help keep the messes at bay, but I never seem to be able to follow that wisdom.
One of the target areas for the spring is what I like to call the “craft room.” The ultimate goal is to get the boxes out of the way so I can comfortably set up my sewing machine and actually spend some time working on some quilting projects (I seem to have the same hoarding tendencies with fabric that I do with books; my fabric stash is getting quite large these days). Husband and I both have a fondness for modern tech toys, but my sewing machine is one thing that isn’t state-of-the art, and I love it. It’s a Singer Featherweight that belonged to my great-grandmother, and it does everything that my newbie projects require:
I’m definitely envious of the motivation the folks at ATQ have for their projects; reading that site always makes me want to seek out a local quilting (or knitting or crocheting, for that matter) group to join, but alas, that’ll probably have to wait until I finish my degree program.
And summer’ll be here before we know it…
