Organizing

Just Checkin’ In

~ Patty Radish ~ Leave a comment

Well, it has been little over a month since I last blogged, it seems like longer! I didn’t announce a break because I didn’t plan one, it just happened.

 I thought I would pop in quickly and let you know I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, or less dramatically, stopped blogging.

With all the whirlwind visits and obligations since the beginning of the year, I just kept falling farther and farther behind on just about everything in my life. So, I decided to drop a few obligations and play catch up…

IMG_1315

I’m slowly getting my house in order.

IMG_4298

The “Great Weeding Project” is well under way.

IMG_1387 2

I’m in the process of reworking another “List Journal”, a summer theme for this one.

IMG_1374 IMG_1394

I have managed to fill my shoppe up a little.

IMG_1424

And, I try to start my day with some faith journaling.

IMG_1431

I have even managed to get a long awaited project off the launching pad, Project Life. This is a digital version, but I have also taken 35 years of photos out of very old photo albums, organized them chronologically, and started putting them into Project Life albums, Yay! I’ll be sharing more on this soon.

This is my life in a nut shell. It has been a mad scramble trying to get everything done, but well worth it!

I’ve decided that writing on this blog once a week will work for me much better than three times a week, at least for a while just to free up some much needed time.

Thank you for stopping by,

See you in about a week,

Patty

Thrifty Thursday…with Wilhold Love!

~ Patty Radish ~ 4 Comments

Okey Dokey, it looks like the Wilhold angels smiled upon me again! Cue angels singing!

…and once again there was some poor soul standing between me and my treasure. Heart pounding, I squeezed passed her and tried to look casual. She smiled sweetly at me knowing we were both in our “Happy Place”, while she contentedly perused the fabric selection. My tribe!

IMG_2862

A root beer colored Wilhold! I hear music…do you hear music!?

She’s smaller than average, but that makes her even more precious. A few cracks and some wear and tear, but I’ll take good care of her!

When I showed her to my husband, he actually had the nerve to ask me how many Wilholds I have. I started to count…he lost interest. Do I ask him how many fishing poles he has? He wishes I was that interested! Now if these were tackle boxes…but I digress.

IMG_2860

I decided that this would be perfect for organizing my Stitched Journal makings. I had been keeping all this in a vintage suitcase for years, I’m really not sure why this didn’t occur to me sooner.

IMG_2857

A perfect fit! A lot of the embellishments are in neutrals for this journal, I went a little haywire on the fabric color choices, and felt it needed some toning down.

IMG_2854

How fun is that!  This has worked out so well, I was inspired to get a couple of pages done.

IMG_2866

A blinged up window box…with one flower…don’t judge…it was fun.

IMG_2870Very much like my art journals, I like to rummage around to see what inspires me. Having things organized, and being able to see what I have to work with, really makes things flow a lot better!

IMG_2871

These little stitched journals are great to have on hand in the evening when you just want to be creative, but don’t want to get out a bunch of supplies and create a mess. You can put your own stitched journal kit together with an inexpensive sewing box, a plastic crafting container, or even a tool box.

Having your embellishments an tools organized is the best way to go, I highly recommend it!

Once again,

Thank you for the visit,

Have a great rest of your week,

~Patty

My “Self Care” Planner

~ Patty Radish ~ 4 Comments

I thought I would share something that I have been working on for the past couple of months, my “Self Care Planner”. A place where I list, dream, plan and track my personal progress.

IMG_2307

I’ve written about this KikkiK planner before. You may recognize it as my business planner. Since my decision to take a step back from my shoppe to spend more time working on my personal, family and home life, I realized I didn’t need two business binders, go figure.

IMG_2311

When I first started working on this, I wondered what I was going to do with all those dividers, it didn’t take long to figure that out!  There are few more tabs labeled “Favorite Recipes”, “Health Care”, and “Lists” behind these.

I’m going to try and tackle those “Wish Lists” and “Fitness” sections asap!

IMG_2315

I wish it was more exciting looking, but the main point of writing this post was to share something that I had a heck of a time finding info on, planners that are all about taking better care of yourself!

I’m happy to say that since I have made taking better care of myself my #1 priority, I have a lot more energy to take care of all the other aspects of my life!

IMG_2321

I thought I would show you my weekly inserts before I write in all my lists and such. I start with decorating with washi, then add the dates.

FYI: these inserts are from Plan2Create on Etsy and that sweet page marker is from TheKiwiRose shop if your interested.

IMG_2319

Monday through Friday is  bit redundant, but that’s the point. This only takes about 20 minutes to write out, but very much worth it! Once the week is set up, ticking things off the lists, either throughout the day or in the evening, takes just a couple of minutes.

My self-care tasks are as follows:

Morning Routine, Breakfast, Reading, Planning

Stretch, Water log

Evening Routine, Gratitude Journal, Planners

The “Routines” consist of medications, vitamins, teeth care, that sort of thing. I’m sure most people do these things automatically, but if I don’t check it off a list, I’ll procrastinate until my next life, and I’m afraid my teeth won’t follow! I’m not exactly falling apart at the seams, but I am starting to feel life’s wear and tear! So, these things need to be a priority!

On the weekends, I’m a little more flexible about my tasks. Sundays have become my “Spa” days as of late. I soak in the tub, take care of my nails, all kinds of “me” stuff, it’s a great way to start the new week!

IMG_2323

My awesome little planner pocket care of TheKiwiRose shop, I adore it! I’m  stepping up the decorating in this planner because that seems the best way to get familiar with it. It’s still a work in progress, like I said, I haven’t found very much info on self care planners.

I hope to go into a bit more detail on the various dividers when I’m able to put more work into them, I’ll keep you posted. I hope you found this post helpful. If you have any suggestions or info you’d like to share, I would really appreciate your input!

Thank you once again for the visit,

Have a wonderful day,

~Patty

Throw Back Thursday 3.3

~ Patty Radish ~ 7 Comments

I have been wanting to do one of these TBT’s for a long time. But, because of the type of scheduling I do for my blog posts, this is the first Thursday I’ve landed on in a long time.

This is going to be a pretty photo heavy blog post, so I hope you have a beverage at hand!

IMG_2198

My first keepsake journal! I read some of my old journaling in it, I spend a lot of time talking about how much I love it!

The majority of it is sewn together, this was my “sewing” phase, and an excellent way to use up scraps! What you will see inside is the flotsam and jetsam that I pulled out of drawers and envelopes that I had collected over the years.

Let’s get started…

IMG_2223

My favorite postcard ever! It was sent to me back in the ’90s from my brother when he lived in Ireland. I made a pocket out of velum so that you could see the whole card.

On the left is a handmade postcard and a pocket made from a paint swatch with some journaling tucked inside.

IMG_2225

The page on the right is a piece of the freezer paper I use to protect my desk when I’m painting. I love the effect of an instant background. I made a pocket to store things too!

On the left is a postcard from my mother-in-law from Italy.

IMG_2226

Another postcard and a journaling pocket. If you look closely, you can see some of the stitching on the pages.

IMG_2228More journaling. That envelope on the right is one  I took apart and glued back together inside out. I stamped the word “safe” onto a piece of paper and glued it into the window.

If you’ve noticed the aqua rub ons and faux stamps, I thought the eclectic mix of colors and styles in this journal could use a little cohesiveness, so I added them throughout, and I needed to use them up!

IMG_2234

IMG_2238

More postcards and journaling…with pockets…

IMG_2241

On the left, there is a photo of my first article in Art Journaling magazine and in the pocket is a friend’s doodle. She doodles a lot and I always keep them. I sewed some fabric onto it and journaled inside.

On the right is a pocket with an anniversary card from my husband and some journaling in an envelope.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane, and I hope I gave you a few good ideas for using up some random crap! It all seems random until you put it all together in one place.

Once again,

Thank you for visiting,

Have a great day,

~Patty

Nothing Like A Good Tidy!

~ Patty Radish ~ 2 Comments

Admittedly, this is not going to be the most exciting blog post I’ve ever written. But, because the only thing I have been working on over the last week is giving my creative spaces a good tidy, I thought I’d share.

Now, I’d love to get all philosophical about the positive results of having things organized and tidy, goodness knows I have enough books on the subject, but I’d much rather share the fruits of my labor and leave the theories to the experts.

The Art Room:

IMG_2098

See what I mean, not too exciting, but boy does it feel good! The drawback is remembering where I put things!

Some before photos would have been nice, but this has been kind of a long drawn out process due to recent circumstances.

IMG_2082

I’ve been working on getting my spaces cleaned up and streamlined for a few months now, but this week I had fun with the decorating bits.

IMG_2084

One of my goals was to calm down some of the color with wood and natural elements, I may officially have enough cigar boxes!

The Sewing Room:

IMG_2090

Probably my favorite corner in the house.

Orange? Don’t mind if I do!

IMG_2092

Nothing like a Lazy-Susan or two…or four! Not the most practical, but really fun to use.

IMG_2096

My creative space will not make it into a decor magazine by any stretch of the imagination, but each piece is very much loved! A couple of those suitcases were sitting empty for months until I figured out what to use them for, vintage, thrifted lace! perfect!

IMG_2109

Add a couple of plants and your good to go! Again, nested, unused vintage tins until I figured out what to use them for.

It’s been an awesome experience to finally let go of some projects and supplies that were holding me back. There is more to do of course, but the sense of urgency has passed. Now it’s time to create!

Well, I hope you enjoyed the tour!

Have a great day,

~Patty