Bad Betty

Confession time: I’ve finally come to terms with it. I don’t like to cook. There I said it. I’m not sure why I was in denial for so long – maybe because my mom and grandma are such good cooks and I feel like I should follow suit, maybe because I engage in a lot of other Martha Stewarty pastimes so it seems like it would be natural. But Betty Crocker I’m not. I can follow a recipe and the food I cook usually tastes fine. But I don’t enjoy it at all and I have been finding more and more ways to cheat – frozen food from Trader Joe’s, Grilled Cheese once a week, and when I’m really scraping the bottom of the motivation barrel, Cereal Night. It got so bad that I would rather just not eat dinner some nights than cook when I get home from work. So Randy stepped in and has become the Head Chef at Chez Marksberry. An actual conversation from the other night:

Randy: (after making that night’s dinner and putting together a casserole for the next night) “I really enjoyed cooking tonight!”

Me: “Oh good – because I really enjoyed NOT cooking tonight.”

So this new set-up is really working for me. Because I like to eat real food – and if it were up to me we’d eat out at a nice-ish restaurant every night. But Randy has sensibly pointed out on more than one occasion that we don’t actually have unlimited restaurant money and we need to eat at home most nights. So I guess this is the next best thing. However my schedule this winter has me working at home on Spotted Elephant business every Tuesday and I have vowed to make Tuesday my real-no-cheat cooking day. I think I can stomach it once a week.

Tonight was meatloaf night featuring green bean casserole and mashed potatoes (okay, Bob Evan’s made the mashed potatoes but give me a break – I made my own mashed potatoes once and they turned out gluey and not nearly worth the time) with baked cinnamon sugar sweet potatoes for dessert. When I have a whole day to work with and the recipe is not too involved, cooking is not total drudgery. But I don’t want to make a habit of it.

Now We’re In Business!

Today we finally turned the corner in the craft room. I can tell because I no longer feel like I’m on the verge of a panic attack every time I enter. I call that success.

The Big Picture:

 

The Details:

Yarn sorted by fiber type AND color! I’ve died and gone to heaven.

 

Fabric scraps folded and sorted by color. Its Christmas all over again.

 

A beautiful basket of my favorite fat quarters. I like just gazing at it.

 

Watch out – get ready for some serious crafting, the likes of which this town has never seen.

Buried Alive

So I had visions of being able to organize the craft room in a couple hours, thanks to my new organizational system. But I failed to take into account the shear volume of crap I had stuffed into the room. And now I keep having visions of being buried alive under piles of ribbon, quilt batting, tulle, yarn balls, safety pins, glue sticks, fabric scraps, sewing templates, silk flowers, wrapping paper, ric rac, velcro, elastic bands, crochet hooks, sewing patterns, beads, tracing paper, felted sweaters, bobbins, and mounds of half-finished projects. I had to take a break after three hours. I think this is going to take a few days and maybe some PTSD therapy. Here’s what we’ve got so far…

These pics are deceptive – things don’t look so bad…

 

The true horror lurks in other places – like the closet picture below.  And this doesn’t even match the deep dark corner of the room I couldn’t even look at long enough to photograph.

 

But seriously – I’m totally psyched that I have the opportunity to create such an organized and functional crafting space. I will feel so official when its all done!

Nick Nack: Photo #363

After five years in this house I finally put some fun stuff on top of our kitchen cabinets. And that cat shaped one put itself up there.

Friend: Photo #355

The couch was lonely so we got him a little friend…

Living: Photo #354

The living room is finally returning to normal – or should I say, better than normal.

Delicious Dish: Photo #345

I got them! Our food is automatically tastier on these!

Dish Lust: Photo # 336

The simple, off-white dishes we’ve had for nearly 8 years that seemed so practical when we registered for them have been laming me out lately.  I’m thinking of going with this collection from Target.  I need color!

And Presents Under the Tree…: Photo #238

Today was present-wrapping day and I was in quite the mood for it.  As in – not in the mood at all.  I had envisioned a cozy night with the fireplace going, sipping tea, watching Miracle on 34th street and getting all kinds of creative on my stack of presents with ribbons and embellishments.  But by the time I made it home from my errands I was just feeling irritable and markedly uncreative.  I started attacking the presents assembly line style  with no fireplace and no movie on, and when I couldn’t locate my cute To/From tags I said ‘screw it’, and Sharpied the name of the recipient directly on the wrapping paper.  Half-way through I was so done with it all that I stopped taking the effort to write mine and Randy’s names and instead lazily scribbled initials like so:  T: Mom P.   F: K&R.  I did get ribbon on every package but I went with the bare minimum – and they ended up still looking pretty good.  Best of all, I didn’t stress over it or let myself feel guilty about it.  I kept it in perspective.  I just rolled with it – following some good advice I got about getting through the season this year.  Roll with it.

One of Them: Photo #194

I spent a good portion of the morning organizing my new coupon binder.  What’s happening to me?  I’m becoming a coupon lady.  (Shudder)