A tidy (ish) desk with your {pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ {pretty, happy, funny, real} ~

Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

Where to start, where to start.

First — a quick note. You know that I love the Ordinariate. I’ve been telling you about St. Gregory the Great and how coming up on Monday they will have a big Mass to celebrate the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter and the anniversary of the erection of the Ordinariate (click on the links to know what those things are). The Mass is at 7:30 p.m. here (near Boston).

I will be there and I will be so happy to meet up with you afterwards — do come say hi! I know that it’s hard to go to an evening Mass on a weeknight, I know the kids need to go to bed, I know that it’s a long shot — but if you are anywhere nearby, do come! If you are someone who’s wondering if the Catholic Church is for you, come! Anglican, Episcopalian, any sort of Protestant, or anything else. I will be in the “Our Lady of Providence Hall” where there will be a reception after the Mass. It will be easy to find me. I’ll be there to encourage young families to come see how beautiful this worship is.

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I finished my wrist warmers the other day. The pattern is called “Onion Market” which I think is brilliant. How do people come up with these names? I would have called it “Round Lacy Thingies” or something.

If you are very knitting-savvy, you will note that I made some mistakes in between some of the round lacy thingies, but don’t worry, I carefully replicated them on the other mitt so we’re good.

If these look heavy to you, you are looking at them all wrong. They are light and fluffy — warm alpaca yarn of cloud-like softness making my wrists and the tops of my hands happy.

A tidy desk {pretty, happy, funny, real} ~ Like Mother, Like Daughter

My notes are on my Ravelry page.

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And now I am working on a shawl. It’s also there on Ravelry, so take a peek. It’s going to be like this shawl I made Habou, called Holden.

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The other day Deirdre posted about her planner and how having a tidy desk and staying off of the internet until she has a plan are the benefit and secret, respectively, of her new regime for starting the year off right (and note that it’s mid-February and we’re still “starting the year off right” and probably will continue to do so right up until Thanksgiving).

Besides a tidy desk, she’s finding room for creativity and recreation, which is so good. I’ve written about how important that is here. And here.

But right now, let’s focus on the tidy desk idea!

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Mine is a work in progress.

The desk is {pretty}, if shabby. The cords are {real}.

My plan (not going to happen, most likely) would be to put some fabric around my desk. Or maybe wait for all these things to become wireless?

The piles of envelopes are {funny (and real)} — on that little table is some wedding detritus of some daughters who will remain anonymous lest you judge their tidy desks by my untidy work area that is all their fault. I’m trying to move the things on out. They’ve made it from the corner to the table. We’ll track their progress carefully…

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I moved out all the books in this bookcase, as I told you before, and have been bringing in my books that I consult often or are just not of general interest to the rest of the household — but if they turn out to be, they are right here!

But I haven’t organized them yet. They are just there, all random-like.

And I made more room for my cards, papers, and bills. Deirdre had said that her upright paper organizer was ending up as a vertical “stack” (until she deployed another system and some clothespins, smart!). Mine was similar. Just another place for papers to go and die. But I cleaned it out and at least the first slot really is “live bills,” even if the rest of it is somewhat backwater-ish. See my post-its back there? Handy.

The super beat-up stool under the desk is for me to rest my feet on when I’ve had it with sitting up at my desk. I tried a different desk chair and it was terrible. I’m not designed for sitting upright in chairs, really. I think I need a desk… hammock.

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