A Somewhat Productive Sunday

While I didn't get anything done on the Beach House quilt, I did totally clear the kitchen and breakfast room (and part of the family room) of all things Christmas. And considering the amount of decorations I have, that was quite a feat.

I also managed to tone the biceps using a caulking gun for the first time and sealing every first floor window  with a removable weather-stripping caulk. Of course, we will likely wake up tomorrow minus a few thousand brain cells.....the 'pleasant vanilla scent' advertised on the tube smells more like 1965 Tester's Model Airplane Glue, and it lingered throughout the house for a good 6 hours (which I would expect since I caulked every possible escape route).

I woke up this morning with visions of  coloring my hair after breakfast, but that wound up being trumped by the caulking, which morphed into de-Christmasing part of the house. Today was one of those 'go with the flow' kind of days, and the flow was to undecorate and meticulously clean while restoring the area to normalcy (and stay in my pj's until 3:30).

Is this pic interesting or what? This is what I saw out my newly washed kitchen window when I took a second to sit down after removing all those kugels that were hanging there. Kind of roller-coaster-y, don't you think?No weird lens used, just a straight-up picture taken out the window.  I never really noticed how skateboard-park like our backyard is. Pretty nifty.

And here's some nice, back to normal kitchen photos, so you can see I really did accomplish something today.

I piddle away a lot of time doing things like foraging through the Christmas flower arrangements for stems that have another few days life so I can transfer them to lots of little odd-shaped bottles and set them in little table/windowsill displays. Oh, and repotting in terracotta pots grocery store basil and dill plants that clearly will not live past two weeks, and playing Edward Scissorhands with the holiday rosemary trees. (And I wonder why I seem to accomplish so little over the course of the day.)

Aww, the gingerbread tree has been bagged and sent to exile in the basement. How sad. And now poor Paco has to relearn that this corner is his dining area and will be for the next 11 months. (He's a chihuahua, he's easily confused, this will be a challenge for the next week or so).

Okay, anyway, 1 tree down, 15 to go. I seriously need a nap. But I also need to brush on the magic eyelash  potion (Guideline #2) and watch the paper piecing DVD that has to be returned to the guild tomorrow. I hope it's only 30 minutes long, that's about all I've got in me. (Sorry about that, Guideline #1)

I'm sure you're wondering, did I do something I love today? Well, I think the total cleaning thing is something I'm quite fond of. While it's only fun for a while, the end result of having a super-clean kitchen with no more claustrophobic Christmas clutter underfoot is a sweet payoff. And, when I finished, I flopped my weary self down on the couch with a glass of red wine and a bowl of popcorn, so yeah, I'd say Guideline #3 had a presence today.

Let's see about tomorrow....it's back to the office after a super long weekend (Groan!)

Happy Monday everyone! Stay warm, stay focused and seize the week.