Author Archives: Andrej Zivor

Dealing with Stress

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This past summer I was feeling extremely stressed, overwhelmed, and generally hating on my job. I wondered if remodeling my office would help? So I pondered the idea and decided to give it a try.

I first started by sketching out different floor layouts of the items in my office, a desk five filing cabinets, two sets of drawers, and tons of computer components. Considering there are two entry doors and one wall of floor to ceiling windows the options were quite limited, But I did manage to come up with a couple of new options. So with those options I began measuring things to see if the options would really work. Of the two only one was truly feasible when it came to the computer components and not having to reroute Internet wire (and dig through my supply of cardboard boxes hoping to find more supplies that would help out).

Once I had the layout chosen and was sure it would work I began decluttering. I boxed up files that were potential purge items and move them to the storage room to deal with later. I went through filing cabinets and purged many things that I could with minimal effort, in other words I could toss at one glance. Then I had to unload some of the filing cabinets and a three-tier shelving unit so that they could easily be moved around to the new location. Unfortunately, my desk is a metal desk from the 1950s that weighs approximately 500 pounds so it had to be moved into the center of the room and left until it was time to relocate it to a new wall.

Next on the agenda was new window blinds. I couldn’t afford to get new blinds so I opted to buy paper shades and hoped they might work. Unfortunately they did not last and had to be replaced with the old existing blinds. I wouldn’t have minded so much for the money I was out if I had invested so much time installing the paper shades that faded within three months. I will chalk that one up to lesson learned.

Once everything was moved to its new location, the floors cleaned, the personal touches of family photos, cardboard boxes put away in storage, grand dog photos, mottos and core beliefs displayed I truly felt accomplished. I do feel it gave me a new hope for a brighter future, ad I do feel it relieved a little bit of stress. Truly, I do feel it helped me to move on to a new season leading to retirement very soon. So I say to you, if you are feeling the blues and longing for spring a little more than you should, maybe you need an office makeover? Happy remodeling at the job site!

Holiday Candy Sales

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I absolutely love sales, and we all know there are no sales like after Christmas Day sales. As much as I love sales, I equally hate marketing ploys that increase prices only to mark them down, so the true mark down price is not actually as good as one might think. When shopping for sales don’t forget those online sales too. Two years ago I was searching online sales and found some really nice evergreen wreaths for nearly free! The original price was over $50 a piece and I got six wreaths for $48. Needless to say I was ecstatic when the arrived and they were quite nice in quality. This experience helps me to remember to check online sales every year.

Now think about the savings I made on candy boxes! It was immeasurable how much joy I got out of the candy that I found for extremely cheap.

And guess what? I was able to put all that candy to use by making specific holiday wreaths for my friends and family and inserting their favorite candy boxes into the garland. Talk about everyone being pleased! The latest projects coming from the Wreath Shoppe are two wreaths, one is being donated to a fund raiser for a small Christian School called Miss Holly’s House and the second is a wreath for a friend who’s young daughter passed away, leaving a husband and three small children. And what’s cool is that everyone wins when it comes to this sort of stuff, because it cost me next to nothing to buy and produce.

It only takes looking on the bright side of things, letting your hands do the work when crafting, and trying to spread good cheer to everyone in your life. Without positivity and love, where would we be? Absolutely in a darker place than even some seem to think we’re currently in. Whether your hobby is wreaths like mine or you enjoy making other things with your hands (or brain!), try to incorporate it into your holiday experiences. You’ll be surprised at what you find you can do for yourself and for others.

So to you and your post-holiday shopping, I say “good luck and Merry Christmas.” May you enjoy all aspects of your Christmas shopping, both before and after! And may you welcome others into your home with open arms and most importantly may you find the holidays spiritually exciting and grounding.

Preparing Your Decorating for the Winter Holidays

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Let me tell you how I start my Christmas decorating. You may be surprised when I tell you many times I start decorating for next Christmas before this Christmas is even over. I always have my eyes open for neat ideas, for clearance sales and for tweaking this year’s decorating ideas (by reusing my plan in a slightly different way or even a totally different way.)

So when you are out and about Christmas shopping, attending those Christmas parties and generally running errands don’t forget to keep your eyes open for neat ideas to implement into your own Christmas decorating. Bust out the cardboard boxes and get to work!

One year I drove past a house at night that had so many unusual things light up with Christmas lights that it gave me the idea to light up my boys basketball whoop for a two fold reason. One reason, because no one else was lighting up basketball whoops and two, because my boys’ team was doing extremely well and ended up making it to the State Finals. I use ten to fifteen stands of 100 green lights and simply ran the strand around the pole, then drooped the lights over the basketball rim. I even wrapped lights around a ball and sat it in the grass as if the ball had just rolled off once the boys finished playing. It was so neat and one of my fondest memories of an unusual idea turning out extremely well.

Tweaking ideas from past years is also a great way to decorate. I love tweaking my ideas because I’m bound and determined to not ever decorate the same way twice.  Oh I know, many people have had the exact same tree, sitting in the exact same spot, decorated with the exact same 25 ornaments for years and years. That is just not me! And by no means am I disrespecting anyone that wouldn’t consider deviating from duplicating the same tree year after year.

But that’s definitely not my style! I have so many ideas running through my head that I don’t believe I will ever use up all my ideas. So whether it’s simply putting the tree in a different spot than last year, or decorating the small tree the way the big tree was last year, I’m always able to find ways to improve upon what was done in the past. And when January comes around, all the trees go back in my cardboard boxes.

Using Box Cutting Tools

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Now that Valentine’s Day has come and gone, you probably have a lot of candy boxes laying around your house ready to be recycled and broken down. One thing a lot of people love using for their cardboard is box cutters. And these seem simple to use at first glance, but so many people use them irresponsibly and end up cutting themselves.

The problem with using boxcutters is that it’s easy to hurt yourself pretty badly if you’ve never used one or are using it as if it’s not a harmful device. Whether you’re in a hurry or don’t know how to use one, just know you need to slow down and use them carefully. Let’s dig into a few things you can keep in mind.

Look at the blade whenever using it.

We know you need to keep an eye on the candy boxes when cutting them, but seriously, don’t look away from the blade. It’s not about where you’re going to be cutting, since cutting into cardboard boxes isn’t ever a precise and perfect thing you need to worry about messing up. There’s always more cardboard to cut if you really mess up. But if you mess up and cut your fingers, you could seriously harm yourself.

Keep it pointed away from yourself.

And that means making sure no one is near you when you’re about to cut something. This is what you’ll hear most often from anyone teaching you to cut, because you don’t want to stab yourself by cutting towards your body. And as often as this is said, you wouldn’t believe how many people don’t do this right. It’s more than 50%, I can guarantee you that.

Keep your box cutter stored in a specific place.

This is because you want to make sure your blade is covered and locked when not in use. Even if it’s fully retracted, it can still come loose on accident. You just want to make sure that you, or someone else, don’t end up cutting your fingers or worse.

Similarly, don’t try to catch a box cutter if it’s ever falling from the table or something you were just using. This is a good way to get cut. And we get it, it’s natural instinct to reach for something that fell because you don’t want it to break. But whether the blade was in or not, don’t try to catch it or else there will be a lot of blood to clean up.

Doing Holidays Differently

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It’s always weird for me to say that I’m looking forward to a holiday such as Valentine’s Day, but this year has got me stoked for it. And no, it’s not for the reasons you would really think about (i.e., “love” or “dating”). Rather, I’m stoked because one of my favorite musical artists is dropping their 4th full length album. And it’s been 4 or 5 years since his last record, so it’s sort of a big deal for my partner and I.

We’ll be celebrating by hosting a small listening party on our record player in our apartment. Not many of our friends like his music, but that’s what is going to make it so much fun (and so special). Those that are there will absolutely love it, because it will be the first time we all listen to his stuff.

What’s fun is that we own one or two records of his on vinyl already, so we’ll be adding this to the collection that we have stored in some old cardboard boxes underneath our home entertainment system. In fact, I think it’s about time to upgrade our storage system from those very cardboard boxes. They’ve served us well over time, but I think it’s about time we get something more fitting for our collection that is growing (and becoming filled with rarer records worth more).

So yeah, Valentine’s Day will be quite special for us this year, if only because we’re doing something we never have before with a handful of close friends. I think that it’s these sorts of experiences that define how you handle life. Rather than buying into the entire idea of Valentine’s Day as a holiday where you’ve got to buy all sorts of candies, all sorts of chocolates, some cards, some stuffed bears, and some sort of nice “fancy” dinner for the person you like . . . why not do something more in line with your tastes and interests? I just feel like too many people let others (companies or people) decide for them what they’ll be doing on any given day. Holidays are especially bad about this, because people feel like there’s only one way to celebrate a special occasion.

Perhaps I’m getting off on a rant about this sort of stuff that doesn’t really matter though. In reality, everyone is going to be doing the same old thing they always do on Valentine’s Day, no matter how compelling my argument may come off to them. So, for what it’s worth, I hope this resonated with you more than the next average lemming!