Orange-striped Office-Mates

Mike took this photo of me at my desk with a cat on either side of me. He thinks it's pretty funny the way the cats have "arranged" my workspace to suit themselves. Actually, this crazy set-up has just sort of evolved over the past week or so.

First, Scout was being a super-pest, always wanting to be in my lap while I'm trying to work. Then Jack would get up on my desk and squeeze himself behind my laptop (where it's warm) and lay on top of the wires and cables for a nap. After awhile I was tired of Scout being on my lap all the time so I opened up one of the top side drawers on my desk and placed a folded blanket in it. She took to it immediately.

Well, it wasn't long before Jack started bulldozing his way onto Scout's spot and then Scout was back to insisting on sitting on my lap.

The other top side drawer was opened, another blanket folded up and placed there, and now they are both happy. Anytime I'm in the office, they are, too. Now, if I could just get them to help me with some of my work!

When I've had enough of the computer I like to relax with a piece of needlework like this:
Just one of my many in-work projects!

I Received a Blog Award!

I'm sooooo slow getting to this (sorry, Tracy)! I received the "I Love Your Blog" award (you can see it on the left-hand side of my blog) from my blogger friend, Tracy, of Scrappin' A Latte'.

Thank you, Tracy!

Tracy is also a digital scrapbooker and we connected online because I am a scrapbooker-for-hire, and she creates awesome digital scrapbook elements. I have bought a number of items from her to use in my digital scrapbook layouts, and we read each others' blogs, too.

ANYWAY! Long way 'round of saying now that I have received the award, I get to pass it along to three of MY fave blogs, and here they are:

JUDY (aka BrizzySis) - this is my BFF who blogs about her life (which includes her two woofies) and any random thoughts float through her same-age-as-mine, interestingly-creative-type brain.

Organized, Naturally - my L.A.-area niece, Seana, who is a Gen-X neat phreak and who has created a business and blog geared toward helping those of us who are organizationally-challenged, and all in an eco-friendly way.

On the Road Again - my fave pet- and house-sitters, and my friends, Richard and Mary, who chronicle (ok, Mary writes most of it but Richard is in the photos) their travels throughout the northern hemisphere as they take excellent care of vacationer's homes and pets.

I hope you'll take a moment to check out each of their blogs, I know you'll enjoy them!

And Judy, Seana, and Mary, now you get to pass this award on to YOUR fave three blogs!

Organizing Chaos

I've been trying to get my house ready (i.e., CLEANED UP) for the housesitters. Knowing someone else will be living in my home for two months, I want it to make a good impression, as well as be comfortable and clean. My house is usually fairly clean except when you start looking in cupboards and cabinets. At that point it's pretty clear that my usual method of cleaning up to have guests is to just shove everything into cupboards and drawers. That's usually fine as the casual dinner guest has no need to open them. The housesitters, however, will be living here full-time and needing access to everything. Yikes! Above is a photo of just one of my cupboards; it's a good example of what most of them look like!

Just coincidentally I came across a great website called The Eco-Organizer. This company will come into your home and organize your living spaces! How cool is that? And they are environmentally-friendly, too, always a plus. Well, I live in northern california and they operate in the Los Angeles area so I can't use their services. dang it. But the website shows lots of before and after pics, and gives tips on getting organized which gave me the motivation I needed to get busy myself.

Below is a photo of the same cupboard after I took everything out of it. My cats, Jack (bottom shelf) and Scout (top shelf) thought I had done it just for their entertainment and immediately took possession of the newly cleared space.

Once I got them out of there I swept it out with a broom, threw away a lot of the stuff (phone books from 2004, good grief!) and then neatly packed everything back in that was staying. Wow! I can go buy more stuff now!

This was highly encouraging, and I've gone on to clean out more cupboards, including the linen closet (always a disaster) and my walk-in closet, which requires a stepladder because the shelves go all the way to the ceiling. I've made a lot of progress in the last couple of days and feel great; I actually feel LIGHTER, as though I've shed some weight. And I didn't even have to diet.