Clutter, Clutter and more Clutter

Dear readers, I really hate to tell you this, but the Goddess is a collector. Collector of books, collector of magazines, I am the queen of "I might need this someday."


Well, no more. The goddess has taken this day to don her stylish vinyl gloves and attack the so-called tool cabinet in the basement. Not only did she clear out the cabinet to the bones and create a semblance of order (a semblance, mind you, but some is better than none), she actually went through her precious books and began (gasp!) earmarking those for disposal.

All kidding aside, I did take the time to go down into my dusty basement and reconnoiter the situation. And as my friend Miss C says, all I say was A MESS. Stuff piled everywhere, dusty tools, dried up plumber's putty, you name it, it was downstairs looking me in the face. I got me a garbage bag and started throwing stuff away. Did you know that I had a pasta and cappucino maker??? I did know, but it was hard to tell exactly what they looked like under all that dust. Certainly, I was not throwing my precious wedding gifts away, but they did need to be wiped down!! My aim was to create a place for my breadmaker to sit, which has been chillin in my dining room since the turn of the century, but hey, can't have it all. At least there was some sort of order to the mess.

Now the books. I am a book lover, can't live w/out them, love them to death and HATE throwing them away. Borders loves me, Barnes and Noble loves me, amazon.com, half.com, alibris.com shuts down when I stop ordering. That being said, for me to give up books speaks volumes. So, let the volumes speak, for as you read this, there is a full box of books either waiting to be picked up by some lucky person, or headed to the recycling pile. I'm sick of them, sick of looking at them, and let's face it, I'm not going to save them till my crew gets older, first of all, that's about five years from now and by then they'll pick out their own books.

So, the goddess is feeling free and easy, tossing out stuff to make room for her ever expading shea butter business. What shea butter business, you ask? Well, you must be new - click the banner at the top of the page and you'll see.

Here's a great link to an article about clutter that I found in the NYTimes. Enjoy!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/01/health/01well.html?no_interstitial

Christmas is just around the Corner

Dear readers, I don't have anything especially significant to say today, but just wanted to check in with everyone before the gap between posts got too large and I would have to write yet another 'mea culpa' post. Nevertheless, your entertainment in reading this blog comes first and foremost, so I will attempt to give a quick overview of what has been happening in the last three weeks.

I have been working hard on my website and am in the process of filling basket orders for Christmas. Wow! Last year at this time, I had a barely functional website, only one product and was basically giving the stuff away. Now I have more that four products (yes, I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but when you're making the stuff by hand and testing different formulas, that's a lot!! Now I am considering going natural and totally eliminating the dyes from my product. Notice I said considering!!!I really like the look of some of the colored product, which is why I have an all natural and a nearly all natural section to my website. If you're interested, click the banner at the top of the page.

The little ones are doing quite well - no colds, no one is sick - and my oldest is taking well to his swimming lessons. One day he came home and said to me "I hate swimming." Now, swimming is an integral part of the preschool program, so I wasn't having any of that. So I used that good ol' reverse psychology on him - "Oh really. What's the best thing you like about swimming?" And he proceeded to rattle off a list of things he actually liked about swimming, so another diaster thwarted. I wouldn't want to have to pick him up from school early because he didn't like swimming.

You know, talk about a non sequitur, but what the heck is up with Tyra's hair? Is it me or does it look like she just put a mop on her head? That straw look does not look good on her - I hope she goes back the burgundy!!

Well, that's really it for now - pretty uninteresting, I know, but ya know, that's life....that's what all the people say.....you're riding high in April...Shot down in May.

We're going to be getting our Christmas tree soon - this is the first year that my 19 month old will really be aware of what is going on...let's see how long it take for him to rip all the ornaments off the bottom half of the tree.

I was inspired

By catching about 2 seconds of the Martha Stewart show. She was showing her "plane purse" and stuff that she carried with her while traveling. Well, everything was so well organized and in those cool baggies that when I opened the family room closet to see if my daughter's other sneaker was in there, I decided to clean it. Oh, what a fool am I! As I am writing this, I have found at least 10 coats hanging in the closet as well as a box full of office supplies. Now, I loooooove office supplies so it was like a bonus, but where the heck am I going to put all this stuff???

So, out come the space bags. I wish I had the nerve to post pics of my diaster area family room, but since this is not Clean House (oh how I wish I could be on that show) I am not going to embarrass myself in from of the Internet world!!

The good news is, I discovered a recycling plant that takes paperback books. Now for some, that may not be a big deal, but for me, queen of paperback books, it is a godsend. I can't wait to pack up some of my less favorite books and cart them over to be recycled. I simply hate throwing stuff out but.....since it is being recycled I feel a LOT better.