OCD

A list of my compulsive behaviors:

-Making Lists (haha)
-Checking Facebook
-Checking my email
-Checking the weather (more than three times in a hour)
-Checking my plenty of fish account
-Going to NPR on my iphone
-unlocking my iphone to then only lock it back, repeat, repeat, and repeat.

Maybe I'll take a friend's advice and get a tv again, but then I'll just watch TV all the time.

A good book- here I come! Or perhaps more blog posts?

Locavore

The coffee company were I work (Little River Roasting Company) has been setting up a stand at the local market (Hub-City Farmers' Market) for the past few Saturdays. Being around the farmers with all their fresh produce got me thinking about how food is grown, and how much we depend on farmers to weed, harvest, care for and labor over their crops, all so we can eat. I admit that I have been an uneducated shopper until the market. I knew that bananas weren't grown in South Carolina and that most of the produce I was buying at the local grocery store had traveled a good distance, but I never really thought about buying local produce and meat.

Now, thanks to the Farmers' Market I have been purchasing some local items to supplement my grocery shopping and while that works well, I was thinking the other day what it would be like if I restricted my weekly grocery shopping to the Saturday Market.

All that background information to lay down my week-long plan of attack:
This Saturday at the Market I will purchase all the items for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the week. I hope to be able to get meat, vegetables, fruit, and eggs. I have crafted a list of things to purchase with hopes that they will be available. After I collect my ingredients I will make a menu plan.

Here are the ground rules that I am giving myself for the project:

1. I can only purchase items at the Hub-City Farmers' Market this Saturday
2. I will only used the items I purchase to make myself breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the week.*
3. I will not go out to eat, or go to a friends house to eat during the week.
4. I will have friends over to eat with me.
5. I will drink only water, coffee, and RJ Rockers Beer for the week. A local brewery. (thanks for the suggestion Joe)
   
6. *I will use salt, pepper, and olive oil from my pantry, but nothing else.
7. I will keep a record of the meals I prepare and post the "recipes" here.

More after the market on Saturday!

IceFrogTangle

I am alive

Yes, I'm still breathing. It has been too long, and I'm afraid this is entry will be short.
I'll be moving this weekend, and I hope when I get settled in that I will have some exciting things to say and some pictures to finally share.

The room mate is gone away and for a couple of days I was so busy that it wasn't really in my face, but now each day when I come home it feels strange and I feel a little sad. I know that my new place will have the strange feeling, but it won't be because something is missing, it will just be new. I'm thankful for that.

24 plates, 12 bowls, and 30 plus glasses too many

In my continued effort to get rid of things that I don't need/use, I'm donating most of my dishes, silverware, and glassware to a local artist-in-residence group here in Spartanburg, SC. Hub-Culture is a non-profit group that consists of The Hub City Writer's Project, and Hub-Bub. Hub-Bub in itself is an artist in residence, a gallery, and a concert hall. It's basically the epicenter of all things culture in Spartanburg. Anyway, they have one of the longest, comprehensive residence programs in the nation. I'm so lucky to live in a city with so much going on. Please do check out their website, and if you are in the area do come by to a concert or see the gallery. You will be glad you did.

Craig and the Dollar Store

Everyone already knows about craigslist.com, right? I have heard some horror stories about being swindled, but I have sold some stuff on there, and my roommate bought a piano! I hope that it becomes a great resource in my down-sizing. I have posted my luggage set that is almost like new because I have three additional pieces that are just fine- why do I need so much? If that does well I may sell some other stuff. I don't really have enough stuff to sell to warrant a yard sale, so this could turn out to be a great option. I will keep you updated.

I read online today that there is a couple who tried to only make purchases at their local Dollar Store for one month- they cheated quite a bit, and I'm not entirely sure if it has anything to do with what I'm doing, you be the judge. Check it out

Some exciting news, I've put a deposit on a new apartment and I will be living on my own again- more on the new place later.

Letting Go

I gave up a large chunk of my wardrobe yesterday. I made piles of clothes to give away and then for the past week or so left them in my room and put off giving them away in fear of something- what I don't know- surely not nakedness I still have plenty of clothes. Perhaps I was scared of giving away something that I would want to wear in a month. This could still happen but now there is nothing I can do about that, and it kinda feels good. My load is getting lighter, and just in time for a move in September. My roomie is moving to California and I'm getting a one bedroom with not a lot of storage- which ironically is great. Who needs so much stuff? I'm becoming more and more anti stuff as this process goes on. The next thing I'm going to tackle is the kitchen, which is going to be hard because I love kitchen stuff. We will see how that goes.

In the meantime, I wanted to reccomend that if you decide to give away stuff, don't only think about the Salvation Army or Goodwill as places to donate. Of course they are great places to donate to, but I found that a small crisis center here in Spartanburg really needed some mens clothes so I decided to give to them instead of the normal GoodWill drop off. Check your local area's needs- maybe you'll find a place that you can really help.

Clothing for a family of four?

Last night I started what I know now will be a long hard battle. Getting rid of stuff. I decided to tackle the biggest monster first- clothes. Who knew I was a such a clothes horse? I went through my clothing and came away with one large garbage bag full of t-shirts, shorts, and even a pair of shoes to give away to charity. I was still left with three drawers of clothes, 10 t-shirts, four pairs of jeans, and five collared shirts. That plus two hampers full of clothes that need to be washed.

After everything is clean, I have to decide how many t-shirts, pants, etc. I am going to keep. What is reasonable? Two pairs of jeans enough? I guess "enough" would be one pair, or none at all even. This is all very confusing...what I need and what I want are so blurred I can't decipher the two.

I will say that it feels good to have even downsized a little so far- getting rid of some clothes I never wear I found the chap stick I thought was lost and gone forever. I also made about $2 in all the change I found in various pockets. This is going to be a long processes but I think a rewarding one as well.

How about 100 items per room?

I had my first stumbling block today in my effort to downsize. I almost purchased so kitchen gadgets, a new silverware set, and a thick cutting block. I'm so glad that I decided to downsize, because that is the only think that kept me from making those purchases.
While I'm talking about kitchen stuff, that makes me think- does downsizing to 100 personal items include things like plates, cups, pots and pans? To start out with, I think I'll focus on just things that I use, not things that my roommate and I both use.

This is going to be even harder than I thought.

Do I really need 7 pairs of jeans?

So I read this article in Time, and I've been thinking about doing something like it, and have come up with some options.
1) count all the things that are in my posession to see what I'm dealing with and then downsize.
2) get rid of any article of clothing that I haven't worn in the past two months, minus "winter wear" and then go through other belongings that haven't been used in the past 6 months and get rid of them.
3) go through my belongings and keep 100 things, trash, give away, sell the rest.
4) get rid of everything except a weeks worth of clothes, all my books, and a shoe box full of things that mean something to me.

What I'd like to do is #4, but I think realistically I'll be doing something like #2 and #3. I'll keep you updated as it goes along. Whenever I move again it will be so much easier, and my room won't be overrun by stuff. Anyone want to take the journey with me?

Abode

Here are some more picture from the new place.

I wanted to build my own bookshelf, but when I went to the Salvation Army last week I found one that would fit perfectly in my new room. I had to sand it and paint it but I think it turned out pretty well. I also got some curtains, plain, but they keep out the sun. If you look closely you will see two plants. No names yet, but I like taking care of them so far. It's nice having something to take care of.

My bed is flanked by my dressers that double as night stands. I also have a little reading area.









Old family Photos and some junk on the dressers and in the reading area a poster from an arts festival in Tampa. Ah, memories.

You should see it in 3-D.

As promised, here are some shots of the new place:

And if that wasn't exciting enough for you:

My room isn't photo ready and Barrett's room is his to share if he wants.
The bathroom is small, but newly remodeled.
It is a great shower, no nasty mildew window)

Oh why not, two more-

Barrett cutting the chicken for our first "meal" at Spring Street.
It looks better than it tasted.

Lesson #1 about our new life- Don't buy bone-in chicken from Save-a-Lot.

Ketchup

Whoa. I have neglected the blog in a bad way. Sorry if you have been checking and waiting for another entry. I'll try and make it up to you.

Since my last blog I have moved into the new pad on Spring Street. Woo-hoo! I really liked it when we decided to rent it and so far I'm liking it more and more. I think it fits my personality better than Woodland did. It has a great layout. There is any easy flow between spaces here, unlike "the corridor" that was Woodland Street.
I would say that the only downside to Spring Street is the kitchen. I'll post some pictures of Barrett trying to use the kitchen when we made our first "meal" the other night.
Gio and Bailey are in love with the place. As much as dogs can love that is. They have their own little fenced in yard that they hang out in while Barrett and I are at work, and when Barrett gets home they peer up over the fence and get very excited that their owner/friend is home. I don't like to admit it, but its cute.

I was going to write a Valentine's Day blog full of gender-bending quips and wallow in my own unvalentine's feelings but feeling bad wasn't on my list yesterday. I wasn't going to let it get me down- so I didn't.
Barrett's family is coming down at the end of this month and my mom is paying a visit in April. Hopefully the visits will inspire some art work hanging and some "putting things together" times.
I'll do a photo blog possibly this afternoon, and if I feel very adventerous a video blog this weekend (for H.H.)

House of the SETTING Sun.

I've really missed blogging. The whole time I was home in Tampa I wanted to blog about all the funny family type things that went on, unfortunately my family kinda lives in the stone age when it comes to computers. Guess those moments will go undocumented. eh.

I have some photos from New Years Eve and New Years Day to upload on my computer- so I might share a few here soon.

On Feb. 1 when my lease runs out on my apartment I'll need new housing and I haven't found anything yet. Granted I haven't looked very hard either, but hey, it was the Holidays. Starting tonight its time to search on the internet for something. Maybe Government Assisted Housing or I could be someone's cabana boy, but I guess cabana boys are more likely to be hired when its warm outside. Crap! haha. I could do the Craigs' List "looking for a roommate/room" thing like Amber suggested, but it sounds shady. However, if it comes to that then maybe I'll give it a whirl.

Let the excitement begin!