New Frugality and Becoming Clutter-Free (Repost)

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." William Morris

Morris is one of my personal heroes, and I have this quote hanging in my home office, brought directly from Kelmscott, the William Morris home in the Cotswolds.

This quote alone has been making me think deeply about the many, many things in my house right now... and how some of them need to go to a new home. My second donation of the month--donated to the thrift store for a fund for breast cancer survivors--is growing and growing. Thus far, my 6.5 digital crockpot, my old canister vacuum cleaner, kitchen bakeware (including cookie sheets, pieplates, and a springform pan), 3 rolls of Contac paper, 4 pairs of shoes, purses, clothes, sheets and pillowcases, and a lovely beige throw are in the mix. In addition, I am getting 7 items out of my house and out of my life, back where they belong (7 in 7).

This entire exercise has made me realize that I own three of everything... "Just in case." The funny thing is that my taste makes me buy the same things, but I either forget I have two already or simply think I need three, all evidence to the contrary.

The energy that has come out of getting things out of my life has been tremendous and surprising. As I have said, the incoming new possibilities are also exciting. I am determined to spend the next several months paring down, donating and selling and throwing out. My goal is to create breathing space in my life and to get myself unstuck, in a variety of ways.

This has also been helped by commiting to the Express Lane Checkout Challenge: wearing only 15 items from my closet, not including outerwear, shoes, accessories, and lingerie. Week Two and going strong.

To get specific about my New Frugality, I also hope to generate some monies from selling clothes, books and media. That's Part II of the plan, which can't be initiated until I feel more energy and self-generated movement beyond simply bundling up and dumping off stuff.

Unfortunately, I can't say my spending habits have been exemplary during this month. I will have run through the saved money in my primary savings account by Friday, sadly. Next month I hope to have some left over to move into the secondary, long-term savings account. We'll see. I did make some changes already, paying myself first, by scheduling a transfer of last month's saved grocery monies, etc., into my long-term account as soon as the paycheck comes in (see counter at right); this puts my long-term saved at nearly half my goal.

Beyond that, November means:

• creating a budget for weekly grocery buying, including planning to take advantage of gas discounts from a favorite grocery chain;
• commiting to emptying out the pantry of beans, rice, canned vegetables
• commiting to emptying out the freezer of broth, soups, frozen vegetables
• limiting my eating out/drinking out events to Sunday breakfast, Tuesday dinner, and a weekly drinks with friends

It also means starting to pay down my two remaining credit cards in a serious way, putting me on a schedule to be debt-free of one card by April 2011, and of the other by May 2012. Given that I also plan to stay in Big D over the summer, writing and researching while teaching two courses... I might even get ahead of that schedule. Specifically, by the time I teach at Oxford again, I will be debt-free with savings.

3.2.16: In the spirit of clutter-free and recycling, I am recycling some of my most popular posts from the early years of this blog. Yes, I still have and believe in the Morris quote, I am still recycling items out of my house (this week: clothes, kitchen items, makeup brushes, magazines, books, and health & beauty items given to my students!). While I will never be a minimalist--lightbulb!--I am determined to have 25% less "stuff" in my closets, on my bookshelves, and in the huge plastic tubs that store... things. How about you? Any great stories about decluttering or recycling out there? 

2013 Resolution Bunch #3: Creative Life

Creative Life: writing, style, photographs and painting, new ideas and making them into something tangible. Primarily, for me this refers to my work as a writer and academic and teacher, but I believe creativity extends into all areas of life.

In 2013, I plan to stimulate my creative spark every month into a new project, as well as make collaborations with other creative people. This worked very well last year, mostly in the area of teaching.

But I need new projects, too -- like taking up photography again and getting back to sewing.

Resolutions 2013:

• Finish one new play and have a draft reading.
• Finish three new novels and get them in the publishing pipeline.
• Buy a new camera.
• Set out a local photo project.
• Print and frame three photos from Paris.
• Blog consistently, keeping content fresh.
• Take sewing class.
• Set out photo & blog project for London in June.

Finally! 2013 is here!

After a brief vacation from this blog, I'm back and looking forward to writing big and bold in 2013.

That includes more news from Paris about food and sights and the notion of "living French," frugality and minimalism, style, creativity and the spirit, cooking and baking and the body. Yum, just as a sidenote.

Next up: 2013 resolutions! Something to aim at... or for. Hoopla!

Weekend

Such a pleasure to spend two days at home. Cleaning, cooking, washing clothes and bedding. Not doing any work, per se. No negotiating, no chat, no BS.

Temptations: Sherlock, The Closer seasons 6 & 7, The Vampire Diaries, Dexter season 2, and the Nook.

Good news: I feel more relaxed and I am bored. Tomorrow is the last day of the old time, and May 1 I start working on my new goals. I need to get ready for my trip, and to finish cleaning and de-cluttering my house. I have to go back to daily writing in order to get back on a regular routine and complete the present manuscript so I can send it off.

Bad news: two more days of class, plus grading and evaluations. Sigh. Not bad, and not terrible, I just feel like I'm over the school year of 2011-2012. Ready to enjoy a month just about me. Hurrah.

Friday notes & 9 in 9 projects

Yesterday's "No Spend Thursday" was a success, mostly because I was home all day. That doesn't guarantee no spending, of course, thanks to the 'net. I avoided temptation by doing my email and blogging early, then keeping busy with other tasks all day:

• laundry: washing all small rugs
• sweeping and washing the kitchen floor
• shredding and taking out all trash, including recyclables
• cooking a meal completely from my pantry: Sausage and Garbanzo Stew
• going thru my closet for clothes that need maintenance or dry cleaning (at the end of the season)
• planning my next three cooking menus from the pantry and grocery store
• cleaning and fixing the bird feeder
• napping (yes, it was necessary!)

Our Spring Break begins today, so in honor of 10 days of no classes, I am addressing two lists of "to do" tasks I've been putting off for this very occasion.

Instead of a "7 in 7" I'm instituting a "9 in 9" list, meaning 1 task per day for the next 9 days, until classes resume.

1. Get car's bumper repaired
2. Sell books, etc. to local shop
3. Deliver printers to Salvation Army (no, I never...)
4. Visit Tax Man and get 2011 taxes in (early?)
5. Put dress on eBay
6. Sign up with Habitat for Humanity
7. Contact new retirement fund for re-diversification of funds
8. Contact old retirement fund for information
9. Clean apartment top to bottom in one day

Some of these tasks will take an hour, some a whole day. No matter. Several of them center on financial resources because by the end of March I want to be done thinking about monetary tasks on a large scale.

Because I have recently re-discovered that not including creative projects is, for me, the equivalent of going without meals, here are 9 creative tasks I hope to work toward, if not accomplish:

1. finish 2nd manuscript and edit; submit to editor
2. catch up with playwriting binge, for a total of 18 submissions
3. write 5 pages/day on current play
4. read 5 new books
5. blog every day
6. exercise 20 minutes daily
7. edit 20 pages of 1st ms. for editor
8. create two creative assignments for students
9. create/design syllabus for new fall course

Again, some of these will take only a couple of hours over one day, but some will require time everyday.

The goal is to return to classes and the last 7 weeks of the semester with these things behind me, my batteries recharged, and my attitude adjusted for the long haul of the final push.

The Delights, Surprises, and Excitement of the Weekend...

So many good things happened, which left me limp on the couch Sunday night... but happy.

First, Happy 144th birthday to Marie Curie: only winner of TWO Nobel Prizes in two different fields! One of the first memorable biographies I read as a third grader that made me know women could do anything!

I was able to get together with a couple that I like very much; I met them in 2010 at Oxford, but hadn't seen in some time. We got together for drinks at a swanky bar downtown, and what turned out to be great conversation. It was a thoroughly delightful pre-dinner meeting. The best outcome was that the wife, who is also a lawyer, knows a lot about buying land -- which I plan to do and know nothing about. She was more than willing to talk to me about the process, especially since I am buying to build, and -- again -- she knows all about that.

Friday, I went to a dance concert with several friends, with dinner beforehand. I also had a thoroughly good time on this occasion. The dance concert was quite stunning, with six of the nine pieces really impressing me; the pieces were choreographed by alumni of the program, reaching back to the mid-70s, which was equally impressive. And, again, the conversation among friends was delightful and challenging.

I also had a mightly productive meeting about next summer's trip/teaching at Oxford. Halleluyah! Now all I need is an apartment for 3 weeks in June.... anyone?

On Saturday, I ran errands. I racked up another $15 in credit at a local vintage clothing shop: I sold only two pieces, but they were quality. I also gained two bags of clothing for Goodwill -- out of the house, is my mantra right now! This weekend, those two bags will join the other three bags of clothing, household goods, and "stuff" at the donation center (tax deduction!).

I also figured out how to work the small grant I got on My U's ID at our bookstore. Nothing like credit, especially when coupled with my faculty discount... now if I can remember to go in there and buy, rather than the regular B&N stores!

I graded a pile of papers, scenes, monologues, and exercises over the weekend as well, pushing ahead like a good little worker bee. The result: a very nice pile of graded papers (complete with notes) for students. Makes them feel good, makes me feel good.

Friday was all social and creative. Saturday was all errands and cleaning. Sunday was all grading, cooking, planning. So happy to feel productive!

And then there was cleaning... bathroom, laundry, kitchen. Cooking... salad chopping for the week, salmon with Old Bay, cranberry-orange muffins, and tonight, crockpot chickpea soup.

Binging... in a good way

As I noted last week, I recently participated in a submission binge with other playwrights. Throughout the month of September, fellow writers and I shared submission opportunities as well as advice, support, and cautions.

I chose to focus on submitting only short pieces: monologues and ten-minute plays. I did so because I knew I had one monologue and two short plays ready--in my opinion--for submission, unlike the longer pieces I have written. All of these different pieces are older, not written recently, and because I didn't really plan ahead, I hadn't read and "rid up" the longer pieces. And I thought that with only a few short pieces I'd be more able to determine what I should send where: only short pieces, with certain styles or subject matter, or number of actors, or minimal set.

What happened was a surprise, on several levels. First, I ended by submitting one monologue and eight different ten-minute plays to a total of thirty-nine different sites, with a total of 54 submissions. Since my goal was 30 total submissions, this was far and away a success.

Second, although I started out planning on submitting only one monologue and two plays because they were "ready," I ended by making minor and major fixes on six more plays and sending those out, too. In one case,only to one site, but still: that's one play to one site more than I had done in August.

Finally, this was good for my writer's morale, since I hadn't felt much like a playwright in some time. I'd been concentrating on the novel and the conference papers-turned-articles, and mutli-tasking as a writer is difficult, as I've learned. It's not the writing itself that is difficult, but keeping the energy of the different genres and subjects focused and moving forward, as well as finding depth in each piece when you're splitting your attention. But now I've thrown out 54 submissions into destiny's wind, and I'm waiting for the results.

Of course, it will be two to six months before I hear from most of them, and up to a year for a couple. So being ready to send more submissions as they roll across my desk (and I'll be checking every Friday and Saturday among various sites)... which they certainly will.

News: Novel

So... yes, I am going to be a published author for fiction. I've already been published as a scholar, but this is new territory for me. I've written a novel, that's due to be published in 2012. I'm waiting on a specific date, because I'm just about to start the editing process with my official editor.

When I know more, I'll pass it along. I am very pleased and excited about this: it is certainly what I would term a "popular" novel, not intended to be considered great literary fare. But I wrote a compelling story with interesting characters. In my opinion.

And frankly my aspirations are not to be literary--which I consider in most senses to be pretentious--but read.

Many of my favorite authors "aspired" to the stature of popular or "low culture" status: Charles Dickens, George Sand, Edith Wharton, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Robert Crais, and J. K. Rowling, for example. And every playwright prior to the advent of the avant-garde in the late 19th century.

A wonderful gallery of colleagues.

The Dreaded Study--in progress!

I did make progress yesterday, in putting up the new shelves and reorganizing both sets overall. I also started the process of identifying what will become "Goodwill" donations and what will stay, among my office supplies and organizing tools.

Basically? The second bookshelf is in place, the floor is clean, the cardboard/paper clutter removed. (Photos to come!) Lots more to do in here, but substantially less than yesterday.

I keep focusing on two ideas. First, that organized clutter is still clutter. Second, for me, out of sight = unused clutter. So labeling and open/clear containers will work best.

Here are some pictures I found around the 'net of offices that seem dreamy to me. Most are small spaces, smaller than my own and focused only on "office" work. But I like the minimalism, the clean design, and the colors. Although I would never have an office in avocado--a brighter green, yes, but avocado reminds me too much of the kitchen we had when I was about 7: 1970s avocado greeeeeeeeeen.

These next ones are another kind of office I crave: the one "out back," away from the house.

I love these! They suggest a lack of household distractions--like laundry, the phone, the state of the kitchen floor. One's own little island paradise.

This one's crazy:

And this one's self-evident.

Ooh la la!

Frenzy update

11 days, 31 pages... of the 30 days, 100 pages.

Time to step it up a bit.

Writing in April: 100 pages in 30 days

I just signed up for something called "Script Frenzy." The challenge is to write 100 pages in 30 days: so every day in April, I need to write between 3 and 5 pages, which will certainly get me on track with my current play.

This is not to say that the pages will be great, but my basic goal is to GET IT DONE! Have a completed script between 90 and 100 pages by April 30, with the summer to get it in better shape.

And I'll get a certificate!

The point is that I need to get myself back on track as a writer, now that my students' work is completed and up. I am incredibly motivated right now, and this seems a very good notion. I like routine: settling in to work at the same time, under the same conditions, with the same music playing.

Here's a sidenote: yesterday I was talking to my master class students (the senior undergraduates who just finished their reading project) and told them about this as an opportunity to start the new project they claim to want to write. They asked what was the pay-off--and hearing that simply completing 100 pages in 30 days was it, they shrugged it off as something they "could do anyway." When I asked if it would motivate them to write this new project they are all kicking at me about, they blinked at me. Ah, to be young!

I wish I had their confidence in a writer's discipline. Like, mine!

Frugal Pantry Challenge, Week 4

This week I cooked (and thus ate) lentil soup with bacon (Moosewood Cookbook recipe with added bacon), chicken breasts with roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, and green olives in a yogurt sauce (my own made-up recipe I'll share), and banana bread. One night I cooked Annie's organic white shells in cheese sauce; that night, I nearly ate it out of the box, I was so hungry and stretched thin for time...

As I thought, there was too little time to cook or eat at home most nights, so having something prepared was smart. Having something to come home to at 11 pm was even smarter, as after rehearsals I have a terrible desire to nosh and snack and stuff myself with empty calories.

This week, I will cook the potato-leek soup, the cranberry muffins, and something defrosted from the freezer... maybe. All of it is pantry-ready, with no extra stuff. My grocery lists have been limited to fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy, and cat foods. Oh, and wine.

My students' plays run through the week, till Friday.

Then, starting Saturday, I'll be on Spring Break. And I'll moving to the new apartment in dribs and drabs, starting with clothing. I'm going to use my spring break (9 days!) to simultaneously move and de-clutter once again. Clothes, kitchenware, paper records, and household goods. I'll be back to cooking and living like a regular person, not a theatre person.

Unfortunately that means I won't be visiting my friend in D.C., but I do plan to schedule a three-day weekend with her soon.

Crazy Week--not done!

Well, yesterday was a long day, but I did manage to get everything done I had to do and then some. Today includes performances of two plays (one at 2 pm and one at 8 pm), and, prior to that, seeing rehearsals.

Last night I dreamed a minimalist dream. I was living on a long corridor of apartments--really, rooms... well, really, closets. A long corridor of closets used as apartments. It was like a 5' x 8' space that was my living room/kitchen/library/bedroom/closet in one.

Perhaps I have been thinking and reading too much about minimalism, or perhaps the new apartment and the old apartment are weighing on my mind (moving!), or perhaps it was just a dream.

Yoko Ono -- Aquarian

I wonder what women aged 25 or younger think of Yoko, or if she even makes their consciousness, beyond the widow of John Lennon, ex-Beatle.

For women my age, Yoko was most famous for being "the reason the Beatles broke up." A strange, exotic figure who remains a mystery after four decades since we first met her on John's arm.

But that's the outside, perhaps, a mask Yoko has worn or a joke she has played on us to retain what tiny pieces of privacy she could as first the notorious band-smasher, then the faithful wife and artistic partner, and then the widow who must constantly mourn for us the loss of a genius. I think it must be very difficult to wear these roles and, at the same time, live the private life and in truth mourn the loss of what seemed honestly to be a soulmate, raise his children, and keep making music as a public performer.

Of course, the fact that John's first wife was white and blonde, a wife John left for Yoko, who was older than he, Japanese, already an activist for peace (meaning anti-war, in the 60s), and friends with "weird" avant-garde artists... had nothing to do with the constant attacks of fans and the press.

Yoko always seems to be seen through the lens of John Lennon, but in fact she was an artist in her own right since the early 1960s. She was a performance artist before there was really an awareness outside the avant-garde of what that was. Ono's apartment became the site of "happenings," and she herself performed. Apparently, she was driven to write, perform, and organize constantly, and she came to be friends or at least acquaintances with everyone in this world, from John Cage to Andy Warhol to Judith Malina. She was a filmmaker, a conceptual artist, a writer, and a performer of her own works.

She was also married twice, was confined to a mental institution by her family, and, after a bitter divorce from her second husband, saw her daughter kidnapped by him although Ono had full custody; both disappeared in 1971 and it wasn't until 23 years later Ono met her daughter again.

Despite fans' notions, her life with Lennon wasn't perfect. He himself admitted that he hit his first wife, and credited Ono with changing his violent ways--teaching him about feminism, peace, and political activism. Obviously, Lennon was a smart man, but Ono's influence seemed to have offered him a new direction and outlet for his creative works. Since he died, Ono has continued to work toward peace, tolerance, and equality, including her work for gay rights, autism, and (still!) world peace.

In terms of her image, Yoko's hats, glasses, and crazy outfits serve her. She is an iconic figure, a survivor, and an artist. This song, "Walking on Thin Ice," gives a good idea of her style as a performer, a songwriter, and an artist... except she is mercurial, multi-faceted, and indefinable.



Paul McCartney said of her, "I thought she was a cold woman. I think that's wrong... she's just the opposite... I think she's just determined than most people to be herself." That's an Aquarius.



Carmen Miranda -- Aquarius

Carmen Miranda was a singer, actress, and personality, best known in America for her signature fruit hats and Brazilian carnival gear throughout the 1940s and 50s.

She was Charo before Charo, with a crazy Latin accent and comic/sexy persona. Or, if you're in a different generation, Shakira before Shakira. She was incredibly popular as a singer and actress in South America prior to coming to the US to make movies and sing in clubs--by the time she was 21 she was the most popular samba singer in Brazil.

Love this crazy picture. The shoes!

By 1946 she was the highest-paid women entertainer in the US,making more than $200K annually. She'd done Broadway, radio, records, movies, and clubs.

Her style was iconic, initiating a craze for "Brazilian" jewelry, midriff-baring skirts and tops, platforms, and fruity hats. It is probably what she is best remembered for now, in the US, based on the cartoons and films left behind.

In fact, she also gave a great deal of her money to charitable outlets in Brazil. She was born in Brazil but adopted Brazil as her home country, and took on a role of "Good Will Ambassador" promoted by the US government. She brought her family out of relative poverty, as well.

Virginia Woolf -- Aquarian

Virginia Woolf is obviously one of the originators of the modern novel, a ground-breaking writer whose personal life was nearly as interesting as her work.

I think that would embarrass Virginia, to be honest.

The best biography of this fascinating woman (and Aquarian) is the one by Hermoine Lee (who is  Pisces, if we want to go on...).

Her family was a very strong connection for her, and had a huge impact on her as an artist and a woman. Her father was a Victorian phenomenon, well-known throughout London and a very opinionated man.

Lee's biography contextualizes Woolf's work within her life and within the nexus of a post-Victorian world. WWI changed everything--in essence, ended everything--about the world Woolf had grown up in. Clearly, Woolf also had a recurring mental disorder; whether she was bipolar, clinically depressed, or manic-depressive is unclear. There was also the possibility that she and her sister were sexually abused by their half-brothers, although nothing was documented at the time and there is no conclusive evidence. She remained close to her sister Vanessa throughout her life.

In 1900, she was first published; her first novel was published in 1915. In 1912, she married Leonard Woolf. Around 1910 was the forming of the Bloomsbury Group, where Virginia found herself in a mix wth writers, artists, and contemporary critics. In 1917, Leonard and Virginia founded The Hogarth Press, where her novels were subsequently published.

Her novels are experiments in space and time, where the narratives twist around and the notion of "story" is something other than it was during her childhood, in the great novels of Dickens and James, for example. Perhaps this is in part because she is a woman writing in a post-WWI world. Her suicide in 1941 rather brackets her work between the wars and captures a time and mindset of the 1920s and 1930s in Britain, perhaps Europe, in the same manner Fitzgerald and Hemingway capture the American point of view.

Her novels are difficult. Reading them is an exercise in mental gymnastics, in the best possible way. I am still working through them, thanks to Lee's biography which reignited my interest.

I find it amazing that despite the depression, she was so productive. In her time, the solution to her depression was to refrain from writing... which must have made her worse, as a creative person and a driven artist. But no chemical solutions, either. Bed rest and no work... and yet she continued to write and write innovative structures and narratives. Wow.

2011 Goal #5 -- Seeing Creative Work to Closure

Last goal of 2011!

This issue of "closure" is double-edged: I have several creative projects "in process" right now, and my plan is to a/ finish them off successfully and b/ begin new ones. Yes!

This is again an issue of focus, in my opinion. Focusing on seeing a project through to the end and, by completing it, moving myself on to the next one. On the principle of moving one thing out, to move something else in.

I feel better when I am creative: when I write, when I research, when I do needlework and beading, when I cook. A spiritual de-cluttering, if you will. A ton of energy comes into my house when I am actively producing creative work, and, like my students, I need to work on the same stuff they struggle with:
First: perfectionism. Yeah, making work that is NOT perfect... but good. My mentor used to say, there's good work, and there's done work, and there's good/done work: aim for the third. Not "perfect" or "great" work--because that aim is unreal and self-defeating. of course, while it may turn out to be great, that's not the goal I need to aim at. I need to aim at "done": completion is my bete noire right now.

Second: focus. Oh, yeah. Removing distraction but keeping a place to work on each creative act. In terms of needlework and jewelry, that means organizing my materials so I can store them and work without messing up any workspace (Michael's, here I come!). My kitchen is minuscule, which means cleaning off the counter and (probably) getting rid of the pots, pans, and items I don't use (my beloved Wolfgang Puck pans!) so that I can store the appliances I loooove and actually use.

Third: process vs. product. Again, oh yeah! OH yeah. I tell my students--and believe!--that focusing on the process of the work will make the product great... or even just plain ol' good. And encourage growth  & risk (fourth thing to work on, in fact!).

Right now I've got one big project started... and plan to finish it by month's end.