The Topsy-Turvy and Me

I am willing to admit, without shame, that I love infomercials.  I mean I really, really love them.  As in, I will watch them (over and over) if it's a good one.  Now, despite my love of all things "as seen on TV", I have never actually ordered anything from an informercial...although I have been tempted.  That's not to say of course, that some of these items haven't found their way into my house (hello, George Forman...yes he started as an informercial).

One of the best "as seen on TV" items that I've coveted is the Topsy Turvy. Say what you will, that thing is AWESOME.  I mean, it's tomatoes that hang in the air....sweet!!   I've talked about it, thought about it, and dreamed about it (don't judge me).  I've scoffed at peoples comments that the thing doesn't work, that it's a rip-off, that tomatoes can be easily grown in the ground.  I mean, come on, it's awesome!


This year I got one as a gag gift for my birthday from Bridget.  To say that I was excited is kind of an understatement.  I may have told everyone I knew that I finally had one, and bragged about how awesome my tomatoes would be.

And then the Topsy Turvy sat in my house for several months, mainly due to the fact that the directions said it hung from a post and that would require me to actually hang up a hook on a post which I wasn't terribly motivated to do.  

Luckily my mom heard about my dilemma and told me that she had several Shepards Hooks in her shed that she wasn't using and that I could have one.   With renewed vigor, I headed over to get the hook and to finally get my Topsy Turvy started.  However....when picking up the hook I ran into my mom's friend of who told me that there was NO WAY the shepards hook would work.  She had tried it last year and her husband had ended up having to build a whole new system to support it.

Well, that was simply too much work for me.  I mean, I liked the Topsy Turvy, but I wanted it to be easy.  You know, like it is on the infomercial.  Those old people are happily watering it while enjoying fresh tomatoes, I wanted to be those old people.  And, since I wasn't quite ready to give up,  I headed to the store to buy soil and a tomato plant.  You'd think that would be easy. 

You'd be wrong. 

I bought the wrong kind of soil (who knew there was even such a thing as the wrong kind of soil...dirt is dirt, right?).  Then I couldn't get the shepards hook in the ground.  Then I got seriously annoyed and just planted the whole thing in a pot.

I figured it was still okay.  I had a plant, it was planted (in the wrong soil), and soon I would be enjoying fresh cherry tomatoes (since I had bought a CHERRY tomato plant).  Except, clearly I hadn't.

Here's hoping it at least tastes good. And, in case you're wondering, the Topsy Turvy is still in the box in the backyard where it is turning yellow from sitting in the sun....

Taming the Chaos

If I haven't mentioned it before there are big changes afoot in my house.  My sister and I first started talking about the possiblity of combining households for over a year.  We brought it up last summer when the news was full of gloom and doom regarding school systems and teacher salaries.  We planned, we made lists (well I made lists). and we talked endlessly about the pets and the furniture and the stuff that we have.  We ultimately decided that it would be possible for the three of us (My sister, my niece, and I) to all live comfortabaly in my house....but that we weren't ready just yet.

Fast forward one school year and we've faced salary cuts, furlough days, and more gloom and doom in the news.  She was anxious to pay off some debt and I was anxious to get started on my own adoption so we decided to take the plunge.  We spent several months working to get her house ready to sell and to turn my 2 bedroom (and a loft) house into a 3 bedroom house.  Painting was done, furniture was moved, boxes were packed, and her house was staged and put on the market.  Now I don't want to jinx anything, but she is currently under contract (after only a month on the market) and she closes in just a few weeks.  Woohoo!!!!!  Of course, the sale was a huge relief and we celebrated briefly before realizing that, holy cow, do we have a lot of work to get done!  Right now the house looks like a disaster zone but I just keep telling myself that it has to get messier before it can get cleaner.......right?

My sister insists that I point out that most of the boxes in this picture are, in fact, empty.

There is SO much trash....I was apparently trying to fill all of the kitchen cabinets just because I could and not because I actually needed all that space!!

Our one spot of organized loveliness in the midst of the insanity...I look at it often

I managed to finally clean out the closet in my niece's new room...after talking about doing it for months...

Now I just have to figure out how to get all of this stuff into my closet....