Posts Tagged With: laundry

snowy day

Posted on January 3, 2022 by robynbird

After nearly two weeks of sixty degree weather, we had a surprise snow storm last night into this morning!

It was bucketing down so quickly!
YBW left home between 7:30 and 7:45. I could see his footprints in our driveway and up the road. But by 8:00 they were completely covered, as were tracks from one vehicle that drove around the corner and up the road.

I’ve kept myself busy around the house.
Striped and remade the bed, and washed, dried, and folded sheets and towels.
Cleaned the kitchen.
Finished reorganizing the pantry.
Started styling the dining table…this will be a work in progress until it feels just right.
Wrote in my journal.
Planned dinner.
Baked an apple upside down cake. (from scratch)

As you can see, I haven’t flipped it yet.

It’s stopped snowing.
The wind continues to howl.
The temps keep dropping.

This is the path beside our house through the dining room window.
I’m considering venturing out…but it’s so nice to be all hunkered down in the cozy warm house.

Categories: me | Tags: bake, baking, cleaning, home organization, journaling, laundry, love my life, organizing, snow, snow day, the snowy day, writing | 2 Comments

“that is actual house porn”

Posted on September 2, 2021 by robynbird

(how it started)

We’d lived here all of three days when I announced I wanted to stack the washer and dryer and build a cabinet in the laundry room.
YBW said, “You haven’t even done any laundry yet.”
While I completely agreed with him on that I just knew that’s how it had to be.
He knows that when ‘I know’ I actually do know, and he’s learned to trust that. So he quickly got on my page.
He bought the cabinet.
(which sat in the box for two and a half weeks before we were ready to build and install it)
I bought the laundry stacking kit.
(and we waited until we both had availability at the same time)

Sunday when we got home from Baby K’s house, we got after it.
We got the dryer on the washer without too much trouble.
We built the cabinet on the floor in our bedroom without too much trouble.
We installed the cabinet in the laundry room with great heaping loads of trouble.

(Y’all my husband has patience coming out his ears! After three failed attempts of me planning how to get the cabinet in the laundry room and installed, he came up with the simple plan that worked.)

And(!!) I got two loads of laundry finished before we went to bed that night!

(how it’s going)

I sent this photo in the group chat.
Thing 1 said, “OMG that looks awesome!!!”
Thing 2 said, “That is actual house porn”
They ain’t lyin’, y’all!

Three days in I knew what I needed.
One month later I have it.
That laundry room is absolute perfection.
Well, almost…
It will be when I get the wallpaper up in there!

Categories: around the house | Tags: creating a home, house porn, household chore, laundry, laundry machines, laundry room, small things have big impact | 5 Comments

welcome home

Posted on December 15, 2019 by robynbird

It’s been a month and two days since I boarded a plane to California.
I missed y’all!

Here’s what I haven’t done since returning home thirteen days ago.
Write.
Read any of your blog posts.
Organize and/or edit my photos from the trip.
(All in good time, my little pretties, all in good time.)

Here’s what I have done since returning home thirteen days ago.
Laundry. So. Much. Laundry.
Miscellaneous unpacking.
Put away laundry.
Decorate for the holidays. (We’re low-key Christmasy this year, just enough to feel festive. Not typical balls to the wall Christmasy, mostly because I won’t be here for Christmas this year and YBW isn’t quite as big a freak as I am when it comes to the holidays.)
Shop. For groceries. For gifts.
Wrap gifts.

Cook. (all the things)
Teach.
Address Christmas cards.
One amazing social outing with friends to a show and dinner.

I was feeling terribly overwhelmed, but once I was able to get Christmasy I began to settle down.
I was in a strange place in which on thing must finish before the next thing can start. Normally, I can multitask like a boss. I think it was that feeling of being behind the eight ball, coming home it’s already December, I’ll be gone the week of actual Christmas, that kind of thing.
Traveling is exhausting!
Not the actual trip portion (that was truly magnificent…stay tuned), but the coming home. The day we traveled home nearly did me in. Good Lord, I was so happy to sleep in my own bed!

But now, the stockings are hung, the tree trimmed, and a handful of baby Jesuses around the house.
I’m ready for Christmas.

I leave Friday for Thing 2, we’ll spend a couple of Christmasy days together, brunch and girlie hotel weekend style, before I continue on to Thing 1’s on Sunday. It’s the first night of Hanukkah, Baby K’s first! I’ll be there before sundown, I have to be, I have the menorah candles!

I’m overjoyed to be with my girls at Christmastime! And even though she doesn’t really get it, I’m thrilled to be with Baby K for her first holiday season!
After starting at a new company in September, and being away for three weeks in November, YBW has no available leave. Though he’s disappointed to miss Baby K’s first Christmas, he knows we have many more to come. I’m sad to be away from him at Christmas, but we’ve got a plan to celebrate when I come home.
Even making our annual pilgrimage to the Cathedral for the creche exhibit. And our hearts are content.

In the meantime, here’s what I have to do before Friday.
Laundry.
Pack. (say it ain’t so)
Teach.
Fuel my car.

May your days be merry and bright, because mine sure are!

Categories: me | Tags: Christmas, coming home, family, holidays, laundry, love, unpacking, vacation, welcome home | 3 Comments

Y’all want to know a secret?

Posted on May 16, 2018 by robynbird

Y’all want to know a secret?
About certain things, I’m lazy as f**k.

When YBW said to me, “You need to capitalize on some sort of ‘floor based’ dressing system.” after I finished laughing, I knew it was time to do something.
Interestingly enough that something was rat myself out to y’all, not put away the laundry.
I love that he was remarking in such a way as to not shame me. He kind of just called it like he saw it and we both laughed. LOTS! I appreciate that he didn’t shame me. I appreciate that he accepts this particular quirk, even though it’s ridiculous.

It would be easy for me to make excuses.
Busy busy.
YBW’s mom died, I’m planning, etc.
YBW’s birthday.
My birthday.
But y’all, it’s not those things. Truthfully, I have no excuse.

I love to wash, dry, and especially fold laundry.
But the putting away?

Meh. I simply cannot be bothered.
Makes no sense, especially with my mad organizational skills.

Mostly I’ll hang up dresses, skirts, sweaters. But everything else just kind of sits there until I get around to putting it away. And sometimes, that takes longer than one might imagine.

But now that YBW called me out, I have two choices.
1) Put away the laundry like a proper human
2) Be stubborn as f**k and let that shit sit there
Y’all check back in to see which I chose.

Who knows?
Perhaps I’ll actually come up with some new ‘floor based’ system that works for me. (Even I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one.)

I’m curious.
What’s your guilty secret when it comes to the way you keep your home?
Let me know in the comments.
And if you’re not as lazy as I am, please make up something. Help a girl out, so I’m not over here feeling like a complete and total loser. K? Thanks!

Categories: around the house | Tags: closet, clothes, clothes whore, dresser, home organization, household chore, laundry, lazy, quirk | 9 Comments

if you give a girl a shelf

Posted on February 9, 2018 by robynbird

Y’all know I’m a sucker for an around-the-house project. And with this unpredictable weather we’ve been having, icy days close school even though the ice turns to rain, which means I’ve had some time on my hands.
So…I decided to paint and add another shelf in the laundry room (closet?).

Years ago, YBW put up a shelf and hanging bar. But recently I realized how underutilized is the vertical space in there and decided we needed a second shelf.

And just like with If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, another shelf needs cute and practical storage bins, and while I’m at it, might as well paint. And I might need some fun laundry signs to go over the door…and so on…and so on.
Until at last…

Tada!

Cute, right?

Tuesday after school I got to painting.

Two good coats of Waterscape by Sherwin Williams (SW6470) and I rocked it!

Of course I had to do one last load of laundry before I could get started.

Y’all, that was one sad coat of builder grade paint up in there and the walls just soaked in the new paint.

Tuesday evening just after nine, we got the email that county schools would be closed Wednesday. Hot damn! That meant I could sleep in and finish all my laundry room work without interruption!
The drill/screw gun and I are total BFFLs. Up went the old shelf brackets. Up went the new shelf brackets. Boom! Shelves went up. Great washable storage bins on the shelves and lastly, hang the dryer shelf on the wall.

Two days of my time + approximately $60 = a gorgeously organized and functional place to perform my absolute favorite household chore.
Yassssss!
It’s good to be me.

Categories: me | Tags: around the house, children's books, decorative storage bins, home improvement, home organization, household chore, if you give a mouse a cookie, labor of love, laundry, laundry room, lowe's, paint, project, shelves, sherwin williams, snow day, Target | 6 Comments

“dusting” day

Posted on January 4, 2018 by robynbird

The bombogenesis currently kicking the living hell out of the east coast of the US is kind of disappointing here in Virginia. Where we live is on the very western edge of the storm (in that < 1" section) which means we only have a dusting of snow.

Damn storm couldn’t move a teeny bit more the the west, the bastard.

This is my view out the front door of our house.

My beloved back porch.

Even though there isn’t much snow, there will be no porch life for this girl today!

The bone chilling cold and 40 mph wind closed schools today. So I’m happy about that! I’m cozy here at home watching the snow taper off and listening to the wind howl. According to my local weather service app, the ‘feels like’ temp is only 7°. And that’s generous. I’m crossing my fingers for at least a delayed opening tomorrow due to the frigid temps…the windchill tomorrow at 6:00 am will be -14° That wind is no freaking joke, y’all! We’re meant to be suffering this wind for another 48 hours.
Yay. (Sarcasm, can you taste it?)
But if it gets me another snow day, I’ll say Yay! with genuine enthusiasm. Mid-day news is on, reporting more sleet, snow, ice, etc arriving Monday morning. Yes, please! I’ll take another snow day, thanks!

Turns out Thing 1 and Husband N got more snow down in Georgia than we did here!

She hasn’t seen snow like this since our family moved from Virginia to South Carolina in 2006. She, Husband N and their doggies were out enjoying their winter wonderland. They went on a walk around their property and shot photos.
I love this one at their pond.

I need some beef broth to get that veggie-beef soup in the slow cooker…only I’m not sure I want to brave this wind to make my way to the grocery store. The slow cooker made ropa vieja overnight and I’ve already got it in the freezer.
I’ll get the stew in and maybe call it a day, turn on some HGTV, and do some laundry.
If you’re in the path of this bomb cycle, I send you love and light to keep you warm and safe.
Enjoy your snow day, y’all. You know I am!

Categories: me | Tags: bomb cycle, bombogenesis, frigid, HGTV, laundry, slow cooker meals, snow day, wind chills, windy | 3 Comments

laundry, sushi, fresh produce, and Cousins on Friday

Posted on July 29, 2016 by robynbird

It’s Friday.
Laundry and grocery store day…only I’m having some difficulty getting motivated to leave the house. Laundry is well sorted because laundry is my “jam”.
YBW requested sushi because my plan is to go over Wegmans to grocery shop. It’s cloudy and I’m feeling lazy. I just want to snuggle up with a good book. But I think I want fresh produce even more…so off to Wegmans I’ll go.

Perhaps a bit later though.
Right now I’m going to listen to a little Vampire Weekend.
You can too!
This is ‘Cousins’ from their sophomore album, ‘Contra’.
Please listen responsibly.

Categories: me | Tags: cloudy skies, contra, cousins, fresh produce, grocery shopping, i dig music, laundry, lazy day, music, sushi, Vampire Weekend, Wegmans | 4 Comments

appliance day

Posted on March 8, 2016 by robynbird

Appliance Day!
It’s not a holiday for the general public, just for me!
It’s like Christmas and my Birthday and something else SUPER GREAT all rolled into one.

First the old washer was removed:

Bye, Felicia!

The new washer in the garage waiting to be brought inside:

Hello, Lover!

Both machines all set up!:

Eeeeeeeeee!

Just in case I need to know something about these particular models:

I read nothing I didn’t already know…
But they’re all laminated and have little suction cups to attach them to the machines. How cute is that?

A load running in each machine:

Tuesday is my scheduled laundry day and these new machines are kicking ass!

Categories: around the house, love, me | Tags: appliance day, appliance whore, appliances, bye felicia, dryer, kenmore, laundry, laundry machines, sears, washer, washing machine | Leave a comment

Merry Happy

Posted on August 31, 2015 by robynbird

It’s my first Monday morning as a brain healing writer, wedding planner extraordinaire and temporary hausfrau. So far so good. As the hausfrau, I’ve stripped and remade our bed, switched two loads of laundry, fed myself and done the dishes. All before 8:30.
As the writer…well the proof is in the pudding. (What does that even mean? I’m going to google that asap.)

I’ve got the music going and when I sat down to eat, a song came on that Thing 2 shared with me.
It’s obviously a break-up song. But it’s so perky and I love her message: ‘Sure, you made me happy, but I can do things on my own.’
“Cause you can grow flowers from where dirt used to be.”

I’ve learned to love this unusually voiced girl and her meaningful lyrics delivered in a bouncy way.
This song perked up my Monday morning and I hope it will do the same for you!