Prosperous & Creative Soul & MFW Year 3

Orangetoes

Happy Christmas 🎄 glad you had fun 

LadyWithAPlan

Glad you had fun and merry Xmas festivities ! 

savingholmes

Thanks Skint, KK, LWAP and Orangetoes

I've agreed with DS I'll aim to come and see him for an extended weekend around Mother's Day which will be nice. He left something here so he may call in tomorrow. DD came with us Xmas day to see our wider family which was full on. DD and I are going to meet up again the first weekend in the new year - potentially with BF - as she's super busy over the festive break with her Dad and her BF's family. I'll need to go over to see Sis at some point as I brought most of their Xmas stuff home with me as there wasn't enough room in their car. That should be nice anyway.

DS gave me some oil pastels so I used them to recreate a fun picture I had of him. I am now trying to do a larger scale painting - but it is hard to adjust to doing something on a larger scale. All a learning experience. I've given DS some of my surplus art stuff so that made him happy and he's taken some things from his room.

I've decluttered a couple of bags from the garage. Need to continue decluttering. I'm hoping to spend most of today making art - and an hour or two reviewing what's in the garage perhaps a box at a time (and bringing it into the warmer parts of the house) and seeing if it can go. I may use a timer. There's a chest of drawers in the garage that I've looked in once this year so I'm planning to empty and sell that and only keep essentials from it. I've found my labeller - so likely to also use that to label what I'm keeping. I've found even more art paint as I was decluttering some stuff from the garage and the fourth bedroom. I may also start dating some of the paint I buy though to help me let it go as older paint doesn't work as well. I emptied a plastic craft drawer unit last week into a prettier one - and I'm planning to perhaps put tools from the garage into the old one. 

The realisation from the decluttering stuff I watched / listened to over the last year or two that I don't remember I have something if it's not in see through storage has been revelatory. It's not 'seeing' how much I already have that drives me to buy more. I can't however cope with too much 'visual noise' so there's still a balance to be had. I'm determined to deal with the 'delayed decisions' the clutter in the garage represents. Some of it is just stuff I'm unsure how to dispose of. I did 'drown' my old fireworks from the shed - so when I get around to it I can bin those. Too cold and windy today though.

I've updated my spreadsheets - and I'm doing well. Sent another £400 as planned to savings. TBF - I had lots of backpay in December so that has made everything so much easier plus a gift voucher from work. I also got given a voucher from a friend and a little money from my parents.

jwil

You're making great progress with the decluttering.  I struggle with visual noise as well.  As you get further with the decluttering, if you are grouping like with like, then maybe that might help as you might not need see through storage?  Perhaps knowing that x is stored in x unit might help, so you could check what you had?

Glad you had a nice Christmas.

savingholmes

Thanks Jwil.

I agree that over time I may not need see through storage the same. It probably paints a picture - excuse the pun - if I tell you I got a 10 drawer tower unit with multicoloured drawers to store my art paint in and they each have at least 6 tubes of 120ml or more paint in... some have closer to 10. This is why grouping like with like pays off - and having it somewhere more visible and accessible as over time it should reduce my purchases. I've found more paint just since I broke up for Xmas in the fourth bedroom and the garage and another little unit in the hall.

I've got better with my clothes than I used to be - and now use the wardrobes and chest of drawers and bedside cabinet for what they were intended for - although I do sometimes get my cleaner to fold/hang the stuff from the clean washing pile and put them away. In the past my drawers were just full of clutter and old journals and my wardrobes were stuffed with boxes and bags we'd stuffed in there when we had unexpected or planned visitors... I was too cold today to do the garage although I did wander in there and looked for something in the shed too. 

I unpacked and packed the dishwasher today so that felt like progress - and I emptied the bins. I've had leftovers for lunch and tea. My front room is back to being an art studio for the holidays. I did a mini portrait of DD today using transparent blue, red and yellow. I used a computer programme to change the colours on the reference photo I was using which made it a lot easier to do - a utube tip I was happy to implement. I took out a free trial on a pro site I've used before. I am trying to learn 'tone' and understand light and shadow better - and taking the portrait away from more naturalistic colours definitely made it easier to see what worked and where the creases, deepest shadow and highlights needed to be. I think the finished portrait is more visually appealing and interesting.

I ordered new toner cartridges today - it was almost as cheap to order all 4 colours than 1 (within £7) but at close to £50 it was a wrench but I've not had to buy new toner in 2 years so trying to be relaxed about it. The canvas panel I used today was part of a group I rescued from around the house - in bringing like things together so again that felt worthwhile.

I'm tempted to buy water mixable oil paints - I don't know whether any lurkers / posters have tried them? I tried the real stuff recently in an art class but couldn't cope with the smell but I like the idea of having more luminous paintings... I'm also too lazy to clean the brushes the way that is needed if you use non-water mixable stuff so this feels a bit more realistic. I even threw away the pictures I had made as to me they smelled like petrol and it caught in my throat. There's an art course I'm considering doing in the new year which requires oil paints... I'm also tempted to see if I can use fluid acrylics to create a portrait and experiment with a variety of mixed media techniques. Trying not to get sucked into buying more and more items though. I already have lots of fluid acrylics - so wouldn't need to buy those and have stuff to mix my own but there's always another thing that gets added to the list of things 'I need' to fulfil a particular art 'recipe'. 

Hope you are having fun wherever you are. 

savingholmes

From my little trip into the shed earlier I think at least half of what is in there should be binned/donated rather than go with me. DD has said she wants one of the surf boards in the garage but not the other. I don't need a lot of what's in the garage either. I still have a cot bed, collapsed dresser, proper dresser, a cupboard full of decorating paint, various bookshelves as well as tools and liquids I don't know how to use... Old blinds... Who knows what else. A nativity set where half the items are broken that I need to bin... 

I need to let more of it go as in Dana's words - I wouldn't remember that I had it - and even if I remembered - I wouldn't know where to look for it to find it. Most are things that could be replaced cheaply. I may text the handyman in the new year to see what he wants as at my new place my garden is due to be a lot smaller and I should therefore need less. Most of what is in the garage and shed also hasn't been used for the last 2 years or more so I am unlikely to need it. The buyers are happy enough for me to leave storage and shelving so that's not an issue... I may just buy some stickers and put them on everything I'm happy for him to take or dispose of and that way it's done without me having to spend a lot of time on it. At this point my time feels more valuable than the stuff. I know he had a recent bereavement though so don't know if he's back working or not. I leave it to the start of January to contact him.

KajiKita

Mentally, knowing that most of the shed is neither needed nor wanted must be a huge relief 😊 A whole space that can just be emptied rather than packed up and moved! 👏🤩🎉

KK

savingholmes

Thanks KK - yes it felt like I'd reclaimed some of my relaxation time.

One utuber described the stuff in our house as being like 'inventory' to manage - therefore reducing that inventory makes life easier. I used the slow cooker this Xmas but don't know when I last used it before that - but think I'll hang on to it in case there are any unknown issues with the kitchen where I'm going. Seriously debating whether I should keep the juicer however - although it is possible it's already gone. If I still have it - it's in the garage. My cleaner asked me recently if I wanted a bowl and blades that go with my food processor that I've pretty much never used or the related coffee grinder. I couldn't let it go as it was part of the 'set' even though that is illogical. There are other parts of it I use regularly.

I said to my counsellor recently if I took my clothes, bed, laptop and art stuff - including pictures - and laptop and a couple of glass desk tops - they were my minimum and the rest can all easily be replaced. If that is really true it should be a lot easier than it is to let things go.

I want to go through a couple of plastic lidded boxes of books that have been in the shed for years - and see if any are suitable for my parents or my sister's kids and whether I can donate any of the remainder to charity. From memory they are slightly older more unusual books that would be harder to replace which is why I haven't quite let them go. In addition to those I have 3 boxes of books on a shelf in my wardrobe that I haven't managed to let go as they are from the 40s-60s (my Mum's childhood) so they feel like historical treasures. My kids had zero interest in them though. I've let some of my childhood books go to my sisters but again - the style of modern books has changed drastically...

savingholmes

I enjoyed my art experiments yesterday - I traced the image of my DD - her bone structure - on to a couple of small square panels and then messed with transparent paints. What struck me though is I wouldn't recognise either as DD - and even though I did them one after the other there are subtle changes in the shape of the face and angles of the cheekbones etc that make them look like different people.

Linked to autism - I've always found faces difficult which could be driving my current fascination with painting them but also explain my difficulties recognising them when done in unrealistic colours. I struggle to recognise people in RL if they apply very different makeup or have a change of hair style or colour... It's why celebrities feel largely irrelevant as most of the time I struggle to recognise them when they swap to a new film etc.

I'm skipping my ADHD meds today as yesterday I didn't get to sleep until 3am and I would rather try and reset my body clock so I get up earlier. I've had breakfast but still need to shower and get dressed. I realised this morning my HRT patch had also come off which may also have contributed to difficulties getting to sleep.

I got the survey report the Friday before Xmas and started to read it before my brain did an auto-reject and shut down. Not been able to face it again yet. It feels irrelevant until 2 Jan at the earliest so I've put it aside for now. I need to ask my sis when she wants me to drop the kids gifts off. DS said he might pop over today so I could do with checking his plans too.

mark55man

Glad you had a nice break and saw lots of family.  Good luck with next few days / weeks / months - just keep doing as much as you can as early as you can - last thing you need is a full on panic at the end