After a Day Away

Greetings, Dear Friends,

After a day away for a sweet picnic, the aftermath of unloading everything from the car reminded me of what ladies of the home face when they come home from a day out!  The packing up was a neat and tidy effort and very fast and simple!  Setting up everything outside was also easy and simple.  It got more complicated when it all had to be brought back into the house, and I got home after 10:00 in the evening because of a detour on the road.  Consequently I was not able to re-organize and put everything away.

There are plenty of things on the web for homemakers on how to get back into being organized after there has been an event of some kind, so I am sure this is no expert advice, but I want to share how I get going again when I have several piles of things that need putting away, pots and pans to wash, floors to clean, and company  coming to my house the next day for teatime.

The first temptation is to cancel the company but they aren't apt to care what my house looks like so they would not take that as a good enough excuse!

If you can't get started with your duties at home after a day out, the first thing most experts that I have read recommend is "appearance before anything!"  It means shower, dress as well as you can (grungy clothes will make some people depressed before they even begin their work) good shoes that don't hurt your feet, a pretty apron, do your hair, makeup, and even wear pearls if you want!

The next thing is a fine cup of tea...and then write a little list, then breakfast preparation, and off you go.

I also make my bed, even though other things seem more urgent, especially the chaos in the living room, the bed will be a surface for temporality ferrying aside some of the clutter. Then at night the bed is already made and all I have to do is remove everything.  But for the day,  it is a good storage area.

Around the house, choose the most important room first.  As I am expecting company, I will do the room nearest the front door, first. If I run out of energy or have an interruption, at room will be presentable and I can put other rooms off limits and no one will know. I take baskets of things that need to be distributed to the right places, and park them out of sight. That way at least the front room is presentable.  I will go back to those collections once the main work is finished.

The next thing is tidying up the bathroom, because there is a chance it will be the first room that is visited after someone arrives.

And of course the kitchen, because that is where I will be preparing the tea and the ladies will bring their empty plates and cups before they leave.

The other rooms, such as sewing room, bedrooms, laundry room, can be closed off and I can work on those later.  Lord willing, I will do them all as well.

Getting yourself presentable is like refueling.  It is like getting ready for a professional job at an exclusive hotel! You ARE doing a great work, of managing your own fine hotel or guest house!  And, wherever your dwelling is, it can be elegant and clean and absolutely beautiful when you add the finishing touches to the cleaning and organizing.  A bouquet of flowers from the grocery store (a bouquet of carnations here are sometimes only $4.00 and with care  they last more than a month!  I refrigerate mine and bring them out when I need them for company)

This is the quilt I took for the picnic, one I made about 20 years ago.  In those days there was a "worst quilt contest) based upon how your quilt hung, and if it sagged and stretched and in general didn't match up with the squares and borders.  I didn't enter mine in he contest because it would not have been fair to the others :-). I found it very useful as a car blanket and a picnic quilt, and after many washing and wearing a it actually has settled down, with no pulled corners and no sagging areas, and looks okay. So don't get rid of all your mistakes.  For a few years I hung it on a quilt rack, showing only the good areas, and now it all hangs quite well and when put on a bed it has none of those original flaws.  It is the favorite blanket in my home.

The corners and borders were vines and flowers; the flowers made from those gathered circles of fabric. You can still see some pulling and sagging on the borders but it's a lot better than it was 20 years ago, and I HAVE improved my quilting skills!  

This was horse country but there were only a few I saw through that iron gate, and they didn't come near.

The sky was so lovely through the tops of the trees.

I am looking forward to seeing if I can get the pink porcelain doll and the blue doll pumpkins this year.  If they are expensive I will attempt making them of cloth.

And when all the mess is put away, go in the room and look at it and say, "It is good."  Create a bit of beautiful indoor scenery for yourself by making each room tour-ready.