Far From Perfect

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Posted on December 30, 2018

2019 is nearly upon us and although I am not one for New Year’s resolutions it is a good time to start with a clean slate and perhaps set some goals.

While we were at the beach for a week I had plenty of time to give this some thought. I have already started but my goal for 2019 is to have my photos sorted, culled, labelled and catalogued. Any long-term readers of the blog will know that this is not the first time I have tried this but in 2019 it will happen. I fully expect that this project may well take most of the year.

When I mentioned my goal in an online group I received a request ( a little tongue-in-cheek) about doing the same thing for other people. While I will be well-occupied doing my own I can offer a few tips that may help you get started and assist in avoiding some of the pitfalls that have tripped me up on previous attempts.

Photographs are a way of preserving memories and we will all do it differently. There are digital files – most common these days, prints in albums, a digital photo frame and photobooks. They probably all have their place but whatever you do, you need to be able to locate and enjoy your photos as well as sharing them with others.

1. Ask yourself what you are aiming to achieve. This may determine how you approach the task.

I want to create a pictorial record of our lives which will be of interest and potentially useful (eg: family history) for future generations. It needs to be accessible and fun to look at also.

2. Decide on categories.

My broad categories include Holidays, Family, Blogs

3. For digital files, create a naming convention which works for you. It is important to remember to remember how digital files are ordered. For example, if you number things as 1, 2, 3, 4 etc it will end up being 1, 11, 12, 13……………….19, 2, 20, 21 and so on. To avoid this you need to know approximately how many items will potentially be in your sequence and number as 001, 002, 003 etc which will give you up to 999 in correct numerical order.

I use a numeric prefix for each photo before the description, otherwise they will be sorted alphabetically. My London folder from my UK holiday might look like this:

01 Tower of London
02 London Bridge
03 Houses of Parliament
04 Paddington Station

4. Specialised naming conventions may be relevant – or not.

All of my blog photos are in separate folders from the general photos and are named as follows yyyy-mm-dd 00. The date relates to the date the post was published and the number is the first, second or third photo in the post. This way I can locate them in the future if necessary.

5. Decide what is really worth keeping. Refer back to point No. 1. Remember that the photo you took 1, 5, 10 or more years ago may simply not be of any value to you or others now or in the future. Be prepared to be ruthless and discard those images that are duplicated, very similar to another or that you cannot remember the details. If you can’t remember or identify a photo now it is not going change in the future.

6. Make sure you identify people in your descriptions – memories fade as the years pass.

7. Photographic negatives are not required if you have a print. Discard old negatives.

I am sure there are many more things to consider but these are a few to get you started.

Once I have sorted the digital files which include hundreds of prints that I scanned a few years ago, I will then move on to the various piles of prints which are semi-categorised and stored in packets in a shoebox. I am aiming to only have digital files which are all named and sorted. Your goal may be a little different.

Here are some examples of what you may want to keep.

This is a perfectly pleasant scene but it does not really hold any specific memories for me and it would not be of any benefit to future generations. As an aside, it is overlooking the Great Ocean Road in Victoria and was taken in 1982. I only know this because of the other photos in the series and the particular trip was taken when our elder daughter was about 3 months old.

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On the other hand, the photo below is one of the first photos taken which includes all of my siblings. This holds a special place in my heart and with the addition of the names and a year would be both a special memory as well as a valuable resource to my descendants.

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More Shopping

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Posted on December 3, 2018

I do not regard shopping as a pastime and generally do as little as possible. I also endeavour to combine as many tasks as possible when we go out in order to reduce time, petrol, money and energy.

Since we live in a semi-rural area, it is a bit of an expedition if I do need to go to a major shopping centre. So, when we went to stock up the pantry on Saturday, I decided to see if I could buy the Christmas gifts for our granddaughters. I often take them to a show of some sort but this year it was a practical gift as suggested by our daughter. New beach towels were on the shopping list. I decided to check out Spotlight and was in luck. I found these lovely, large towels by Canningvale.

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I decided to wrap them up and then it is all done. A few years ago I made some reusable Christmas gift bags and I managed to find 2 that would fit the towels.

Adorned with some ribbon that has been reused many times and gift tags made from old Christmas cards and it was all done with next to no waste.

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I have a couple more gifts to buy and some home-made goodies to make and that is my Christmas gift-giving sorted.

Pantry Staples & Re-arranging

A Capsule Wardrobe

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Posted on September 13, 2018

Over the past 10 years I have flirted with various versions of a minimalist wardrobe. There seem to be as many versions of how to tackle an over-abundance of clothes as there are people on the planet.

After looking into Project 333 some years ago, I decided that the best option for me was to continue to keep a streamlined, mix-n-match selection that I wear most of the year round. This works for me because I am fortunate to live in a fairly temperate climate.

However, I have recently joined a Facebook group focused on capsule wardrobes. Someone posted about creating a Spring capsule based on the principle enunciated in The Vivienne Files.

One of the things that bothers me about many of the pieces chosen in limited collections tend to be pale/soft/neutral colours which are definitely not my style. It would not matter how many pieces I had to choose from, I would still not be able to find anything to wear! For those who follow the principle of colour analysis, I am a ‘winter’ which means I can wear black and other strong, clear blue-based colours. When I had this analysis done back in the early 80s it really just confirmed what I already knew and I very rarely deviate from my preferred palette.

Based on this knowledge and the selection in my wardrobe, I chose the following 16 pieces for my capsule for the next 3 months.

The suggested configuration was:

Neutral – 2 bottoms and 2 tops, 1 of which should be a cardigan or jacket.

Naturally, I chose black.

Shorts and jeans.

A cardigan and short sleeve top, both in cashmere/merino.

Choose another neutral with the same configuration of 2 tops and 2 bottoms.

I am not sure that red is a neutral but it is definitely a base colour in my wardrobe.

capri pants and shorts.

A long sleeve knit top and a ‘denim’ jacket.

The next suggested category is 4 more tops which obviously need to mix and match as well as meet the vagaries of the local weather.

10 Black and white striped sleeveless top

11 Black and white check short sleeve shirt

12 Red and white stripe 3 quarter sleeve shirt

The final 4 items are open to personal preference and any categories you feel need an extra.

As the weather warms up I will definitely need these white cropped pants.

15 White cropped pants

A couple of patterned tops to add interest.

And a dress.

16 Multi-colour dress

While I followed the guidelines as suggested, I also know that there are dozens of outfits that can be created with this selection because I regularly do it. Almost all of these pieces are several years old and are well-established in my wardrobe.

I am not entirely convinced that these will cover a couple of short holidays and special events that fall in the next 3 months but they will definitely account for 95% of my day-to-day outfits.

I will do a follow-up post in the next few days about a couple of accessories and the shoes that I will add to this collection.

Gone

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Posted on September 9, 2018

Decluttering and streamlining what we own is a recurring theme here. I have never had a huge cleanout but have tended to gradually reduce what we have by not replacing things as they are used or removing things that no longer have a purpose in our home.

However, I want to share a couple of things that we have re-homed in the last week.

The first was actually at work. It is nearly 18 months ago that I wrote this post about a bulk amount of paper clips being discarded. Unfortunately, I received very little support from the sustainability team so the bag of paper clips was still languishing in the cupboard beside my desk. Every time I opened the cupboard I was bothered by the thought of what was going to happen to them. Last week I noticed a small bag of assorted paper clips/bulldog clips in the ‘Mail Out’ tray. These were being returned to the mail room so I asked the courier from the mail room if they could take the bag of paper clips and she was delighted and said they would be so useful. The quantity did not daunt her in the least! YAY!!! The rescued paper clips now have a new home.

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Today my sister and brother-in-law came and collected a pile of old broken pavers. This post from 3 months ago was about removing the old pavers from an outdoor staircase. We gave some of the salvaged pavers to our neighbour to make an outdoor path and kept the remainder for a small landscaping project we have to do. Of course, in the process of lifting them some broke and others had been cut to fit the space. We did not want these but my brother-in-law was happy to take them for solid fill at his place. Today was the day that they went to their new home so that is something else gone.

These are some of the good used pavers but the pile of broken ones have been moved along.

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Recalibrated

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Posted on September 1, 2018

This blog post has been unfolding in my mind over the past few days as the next phase of our lives – retirement – is on the horizon but looming ever closer.

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We have been ’empty-nesters’, with no children at home for over 12 years. This coincided with our move from Brisbane to our current home on a semi-rural block of 1.5 acres. There has been no shortage of things to do as we have developed the garden as well as undertaken several renovations to the house. There are other projects which we are looking forward to working on once we have more time but most of the major work has been done. Additionally, we have gradually sorted, culled, decluttered and generally streamlined a lot of stuff so the day-to-day cleaning and maintenance is becoming simpler and easier.

To add to the busyness we have both continued to work full-time, however, this will change when we retire in the middle of next year.

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I am regularly quizzed by well-meaning people as to what I am going to when I retire and my somewhat truthful but flippant answer is ‘travel’. Of course, travel will be only a small part of what we do. I think my comment to GMan a few weeks ago really summed it up when I said that I was looking forward to having 7 days to do what I currently try to fit into 2 days of the weekend.

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A few things recently have led me to rethink how I manage my working hours which I am fortunate enough to have very flexible arrangements. However, this has led to me not working in the most efficient manner at times. Even though I will still be working full-time I have decided to structure my office and working from home times so that I will only work 4 days each week with Mondays off each week apart from once a month when I will swap it for a Tuesday so that I can continue my involvement in a community project. Thursdays will a full day of working from home and I will be in the office on the other 3 days. There is still a degree of flexibility if I need to swap my days around for a particular reason.

I believe that having a 3 day weekend most weeks will allow me to do things I want to do at home without feeling quite so rushed and be be organised for the remainder of the week. I am thinking particularly of cooking and meal preparation and gardening.

With only 10 months (but who’s counting) until I retire I also need to consider how I will manage the workload whilst handing over the role to my replacement in the first half of next year.

There are certainly different seasons of our lives and what was necessary when I had young children is not relevant in my current situation. We are all at different stages of our lives and sometimes the biggest hurdle is actually identifying what is best for you and your family now. It will not be the same as mine but by finding what works for you will help to promote a sense of calm, peace and gratitude while minimising angst and stress.

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It is admirable to strive for goals and targets but do not wish your life away. Be grateful for what you have today because this stage of your life will not last forever.

Blue Suede Shoes

A Peek Inside

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Posted on January 4, 2018

On the weekend I did a bit of organising in the cupboard opposite the office/library. The catalyst was a Christmas gift – a set of decorated peg magnets. The are 7 which are labelled for each day of the week as well as some extras.

I decided not to clutter up the door of the refrigerator with them. Additionally, I felt that they would not be strong enough to withstand the breeze which can be quite strong.

Instead, I opted to mount them inside one of the doors of this cupboard. First, I had to create a surface suitable for the magnets.

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We called in to Bunnings and bought a flat metal bar which GMan cut in half and I mounted them on the door. The pegs were placed at intervals and it looked great.

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Perfect!! Or so I thought until I shut the door. I did not realise but if you take a closer look at the first photograph you will see that the vertical divider in this cupboard is not centred. The door should sit flush against it but the metal bar prevented that.

So, it was back to the drawing board. I removed my handiwork, trimmed a small amount off each bar, re-drilled the holes at one end and tried again. This time I placed them almost flush with the hinged side of the door rather than centering the bar. The final job was to fill the holes from the original screws. These are yet to be sanded and touched up with paint. That may be a job for the coming weekend.

Here is the second version of my handiwork.

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I am not a great fan of diaries but I do love a list so I have started fairly simply with some small notes for the coming days. My goal is to write down all of the little things I need to do or remember and each day I can refer to them.

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The rest of the cupboard needs some work as it is the mostly the repository for the many photos accumulated over the years which have yet to be sorted, culled and scanned. That is a a future project. However, tonight I did tidy one file of the filing cabinet. It was several old work diaries which I have discarded. I ripped all of the pages out and bagged them up to take to work tomorrow and they will go in the shredding bin. It is a small step, but definitely one in the right direction when it comes to removing unwanted stuff from your home.

Before and After

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Posted on December 8, 2017

It is now almost a week since we arrived back home from overseas. In some ways it seems like a lifetime ago. We went back to work on Monday and after 4 very busy days it feels as though I have never been away.

I managed to do some washing last weekend and prepare meals for us but that was about it until today which was my day off. We have 3 Air BnB guests arriving tomorrow and that will necessitate the use of both of the spare rooms. The second bedroom is always set up as a guest room but third bedroom also doubles as my sewing room and ironing space.

So my focus today was the third bedroom. It had been used for packing and preparation for the trip so there were a few random things left from that. I stripped the bed and washed the bedding during the week. There was ironing piled on the ironing board. Then there was the small matter of the sewing projects that had got out of control and been abandoned in the lead-up to the holiday.

This was what I had to tackle.

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I started by moving the bed and vacuuming that side of the room as well as removing the inevitable cobwebs and cleaning the skirting boards and picture frames.

The bed was made and put back in position. I had also cleaned the window by the time I took this photo.

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From there it was simply a matter of working my way around the room – and doing the ironing.

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I managed to fit the small cabinet of mini drawers into the bookshelves rather than having it standing on the table. I am happy with the change.

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This bookshelf hand been swapped over with the one that we now have in the office. However, I had not organised my sewing things properly so it was a good opportunity to do some rearranging.

Having a major clean up of my sewing things has meant that I have rediscovered some UFO’s (unfinished projects) which I have earmarked to do.

I even tidied the contents of the wardrobe.

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I have never been completely successful in getting this room organised but I am hopeful that my effort today will be the basis of keeping it under control.

The thing that I am looking forward to most is getting back to doing some more sewing. I am reminded of the comment that Francine Jay makes in her book, Miss Minimalist, that having clear surfaces simply affords opportunity. Whether it is a table to eat your meal, a bed to sleep in or a craft table to work at, you need a clear surface. It really makes a lot of sense.