Two of my biggest problem with working at my home office are focus and clutter. Yes, they are connected and you could say they are the same problem really. But, I see them as individual issues which I try to deal with.

Clutter being actual stuff on the surface of my desk, taking over too much of the space. Focus being how easily distracted I am by things which don't really matter. So you can see the connection.

This little Zen sandbox caught my attention this morning. Not only does it give you an excuse to deal with the clutter on your desk (how else will you find space for it?), but it can bring some peace to your mind to dip a finger into the sand, move a stone, rake a bit of sand and then get back to what you really should be doing. Could this help you?

I'm looking at my desk right now. I can see how nice a mini Zen garden would fit on that right back corner - if I didn't have a stack of paper and a bottle of hand sanitizer there. I don't need to those things there. I have a handy file cabinet with room to spare. I just have not put those things back where they belong. If I made myself responsible for the care and maintenance of a tiny garden... I'd have at least some reason to keep clutter from crowding out the garden. Adding something pretty would help me keep the clutter monster from taking over. (In theory at least, I do know how tough the clutter monster can be).

Focus is really my bigger project. I am too easily distracted. I procrastinate when something starts to get complicated. Often I am working on a project but it unravels on me when more parts come into it and I have to look up facts, figure out how something else works, and so on. So much of what we do when we work from home requires us to be self sufficient and able to focus and stick with it, without a boss expecting or checking on our performance of the job at hand.

I don't think it is possible to stay entirely focused for an eight hour day. There are reasons for coffee breaks, lunch breaks and the addition of smaller and bigger tasks which help to break up your day. Adding a little garden to your work day is a nice way to break things up. Keeping you from straying too far into actual procrastination but letting your mind take a break, find a moment of peace and then gather your focus again before you go back into battle again.

Actually, I'd like to order the mini Zen kit just to have the fun of unpacking it and setting it up. I can think of assorted little miniature accessories, like tiny people. I could build a miniature village in my Zen garden... but that would be something for my spare time... in theory.

For the full Zen garden experience you should be outside in a real garden, with relaxing music. When the mini desktop garden isn't enough... go for at least the video Zen garden to help you unwind and settle back into where you need to be.

I collect bone China bouquets. They are delicate, fragile and romantic.

I started collecting bone China posies when I inherited a small white bowl with three coloured roses in it. I have always had a romantic side and I like history and anything vintage. I loved the China flowers from my Aunt Sally, my Grandmother's sister. I kept them, just a collection of one, for many years.

Then I noticed one in a thrift store. It was larger than mine at home. It also had a variety of flowers: carnations, a violet and the roses too. It had one flower which was an unusual orange sort of colour. I bought it for a dollar.

It was a bit dirty and had two flower petals chipped off at the tips. I put it in a sink of soapy, warm water. Let it soak awhile. I've heard that's a good thing for any kind of China, otherwise it can dry out, especially if it's not being used and washed regularly.

I set it out to dry out well after the washing. I tipped it on different angles to be sure any water had drained out. Having it tipped lets you make sure it won't have water left inside which could gradually drain out and become mould when it's displayed on a shelf. It's not a bad idea to put something under your knickknacks to be sure it can drain and dry out - when it has a hollow inside.

Hunting for Bone China Posies

This morning we are going to the thrift store, on the hunt. It's a big sale day and there are (or were) two large sized bone China posies in the display cabinet earlier this week. I'll get them, if they are still there and if they are in good shape. Today the thrift store has a 75 percent off sale for it's ten year anniversary. So, if they are there, it will be quite a sale price. If they aren't there, I would have liked to at least see them, but I do have enough of them, realistically.

I am a book hoarder. I knew I had passed the collecting versus hoarding limit when I needed a second bookshelf for the non-fiction books I mostly have not read yet. All those good intentions can't last forever. So I have at least a dozen books about computer software which have not been relevant for awhile. Libraries and second hand bookstores do not want them - computer books in particular they tend not to accept at all. But, I can't just throw them away! All that idealism that went into picking them for whatever project I had in mind. All that stuff I wanted to learn but didn't finish... before it became outdated.

Some books are just obsolete. 

Just because you can't find someone who wants that old book about Windows ME, doesn't mean it's not worth more than the paper it's printed on. There are people who would be glad to have those old books for art projects. Consider donating them to schools for children to use in craft projects. I'm thinking paper mâché but I'm sure teachers working with young people could think of other uses. Artists working with paper could use the pages of your books for practicing, creating a mock up/ rough draft of a project - of cleaning their paint brushes. 

There is hope for your old books so stop keeping them all yourself.

Good Housekeeping - Things its Time to Get Rid Of

I never thought about collecting restaurant menus. But I do like to read them while I'm there. Too often there isn't time before serving staff are at your table, wating for you to make a decision. So, I can see how collecting restaurant menus would get started.

I especially like old menus which have the history of the business, explanations about the restaurant name, the family who run it, and so on. It would be nice to take home the menu and have time to read it. Not to mention, the artwork.

What do you think of modern menus compared to vintage menus? Now they can be made on a computer and printed out without going to a professional printer. I think there is less artwork used. Other than the image on the front cover or top of the page, the rest are likely photographs. I'd rather have illustrations.

Of course, I'm not even counting chain restaurants as places to collect menus from. My favourite restaurants are still the individual, little places. Most of them get passed by tourists looking for the cookie-cutter restaurant chains. I prefer the little places, often family owned and run, where the locals still go for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I admit, I'm especially fond of the breakfast places. The bottomless coffee, the bacon and eggs and the slice of orange on the side. My favourite local breakfast restaurant is run by a Mother and son with one of the daughters often stepping in too.  I've seen all the incarnations of their menus. They aren't vintage, but they have that feeling of being homemade and kitschy.

My question for menu collectors is: Do you ask to take them home or walk out with them under your arm and hope no one says anything?

I love reading menus. They are the shop windows of the kitchen and provide a playful sense of gambling for what might just be the best of worst meal of your life. Today I stumbled upon a rather [...]

Source: The Vintage Menu Collector: 25,000 Restaurants by One Woman

There are many obsolete technologies since mobile phones began taking over the world. I miss the elegance of watches in particular. However, some vintage technology is just misplaced and not obsolete. Frogs are one of those.

Not frogs of the living kind, but these frogs which were used in floral arrangements. The frogs usually came with a vase (or flower holder of some kind) which they fit inside. So the frogs were made to fit the vase.

Sadly the frogs were easily lost or misplaced. So not every vase still has the frog it came with originally.

We recently lost the frog to one of our own vintage vases. It was a silver frog, one of those which had to be polished. I hope we find it again, before it gets heavily tarnished. I can clean it but I can't do much if the silver gets pits in it from being tarnished. I'm sure this is why silver has lost it's popularity. As lovely as it still looks, stainless steel is much easier to look after.

Have you seen any frogs lately?

Vintage flower frogs...what are they? How many 'frogs' do you have?  How many did your Mom or Grandma have?   Frogs were used in the bottom of vases to hold the flower stems just right. They are usually metal basket weave grid, or fine textured metal spikes or made of clear or colored glass disk with holes....

Source: Flea Market flower frogs