quiet good friday

I've been having peaceful quiet days since yesterday. I beat my procrastination and made myself pick up the paintbrush and start painting my walls. My home started to feel different as the colors emerged. After the originally planned turquoise walls, I followed my instinct and re-opened the cans of yellow-green and orange and started painting the edges of my kitchen. This morning I painted the wash area which I had converted into a kitchen extension.

In the process I found some clutter hiding in corners and rarely visited shelves. And out they went. It is amazing how we can accumulate clutter without realizing it! As my home starts to breathe and beat with its new summer mood I vowed to get rid of everything I no longer use. No just-in-cases. I will further reduce all my possessions to those that I use on a regular basis. Everything I take out will be sold in a garage sale so I can make a bit of extra money to help pay for a trip I will take next month.

I actually do have some project work to do but I have parked them for a while until I am done with the summer cleaning of my home. By the time Easter comes around I should have caught up with everything. That would be such a relief, to clean my inboxes and to-do lists and keep everything updated and current with no back logs.

Easter -- resurrection --- I could certainly use a good restart on many aspects of my life right now. I do what I can to help the energies along, like painting my walls and always, always clearing the old to make way for the new.

paprika and paper

Yes! I am finally seriously fixing my meal plan so I will eat well and on time for the rest of the year.

I was derailed for the past four or five days because of projects (from the Other Business) that came and needed to be attended to. Meetings alone ate up a lot of time and I had to postpone the grocery shopping many times. On the other hand, it also made me think even more seriously about having a meal plan that can withstand work loads and lazy modes.

Last night I found myself organizing my digital files (trying to find old work files) and realized that my digital clutter is more horrible than my physical clutter (which, I am rather proud to say, has been managed not too badly since the start of the new year).

So I made a craft file-book where I collated important articles, e-courses, references -- everything I will need and use over and over again as I move forward with my creative pursuits. I (re)discovered articles I had saved for reading at a later date. I un-bookmarked old articles that are no longer relevant. Basically I cleaned up and organized. And no matter what app or software comes out there, nothing yet can match the tangible order and versatility and flexibility of folders and paper. Yes I printed on paper but I was selective and the file-book itself is promising to grow into a beautiful collage and collection. I  have blank pages where I can write and draw as my notes and comments to the articles.

This led me to the idea of doing the same for my meal plan and recipe collection. I have lots of cookbooks and food magazines and I subscribe to a lot of online food blogs and websites yet it is such an effort to find something to cook for dinner. It really is time to have a system so I also get to cook or bake something new at least every week. I also want to keep vegetables as regular mainstays in every meal.

Paprika is an iPad app that I am finding to be very useful in collating all my online recipes from across all the blogs and websites. It is accessible offline and it has a wonderful amazing system for capturing recipes. From my physical cookbooks I intend to put together a recipe file-book (or file-box!) just like what I did with the crafts and re-write the recipes in my own kitchen shorthand so it is also easier to use and refer to. Then I will also turn it into a kitchen diary of sorts and paste photos of what I have cooked or baked. This way I can also easily check ingredients.

I am now wondering if there are printing papers out there that are made of recycled materials? I think I will be using a bit as I do more organizing. Perhaps I should check the bookstores thoroughly. I am sure something is bound to turn up.

:)