Giving Back

 Today was my annual trip to Walmart to fill a shopping cart with toys for a reasonable price.  They do it with yearly sales this time of year on a wide variety of toys and sports equipment.  I shop carefully to try to include as many age groups as possible.  I always include at least one Elmo stuffed toy in memory of Eric, who was a big Elmo fan.  I only fill one cart  to keep within my budget and space in my car.  I always include at least 6 Soccer balls in a variety of sizes and colors, soccer is very popular here in Tucson.

Not surprisingly at all, no one wants to get behind me in the checkout line.  It takes a while to put a whole basket of toys on the conveyor belt. I am getting more efficient at packing the shopping cart. The cashiers always ask how big is my family?  Then I explain that I never removed the yearly budget line for toys.  I figured that since my kids are out of the house I might as well use that money for toys, anyway to help the kids in Pima County have a better holiday season.  

So after I check out and load my car up.  I head to the nearest Fire Station to drop off the toys.  This year it took 3 firefighters one trip to empty the entire back of my car.  I thanked them for collecting the toys to help the kids and they thanked me for bringing the toys and sporting equipment.  

All the helpers were doing a good job today.  Please consider being a helper this year for your favorite charity project.   Because of the economy, I personally feel the need will be greater this year.  This is my personal guesstimate since I don’t have any empirical data to back this up. I certainly hope I am wrong, but I don’t think so.

The Sewing Room

 My sewing room has been dubbed the black hole for small mending jobs.  Today I started to remedy that situation.  It did require me to rethread the sewing machine for each repair job. This being said, I repaired 2 pairs of pants, 1 shirt. I decided to giveaway 1 shirt rather than trying to modify the neckline. I could have done it given enough time.  Did I want to spend the time? Definitely not.  

I was in the middle of modifying 1 of 2 skirts when I noticed that I had bought the wrong size elastic for the waistband.  I had 1 inch elastic instead of 1 1/2 inch elastic.  Since Joann’s closed it has been a different store for each item needed for the repair work.  Cathy’s Sewing and Vacuum for thread.  Believe it or not Walmart had the right size elastic that I needed for the 2 skirts.  Also the poly fill for the dog pillow that I have to finish.

While going to find the right colors of thread, I noticed that some polyester thread had made its way into my thread.  It took about 30 minutes to clear out the polyester thread.  John and I decided that it will be going with my friend when she visits her family in Northern Arizona.  As her family lives off the beaten path, it will be a nice surprise to get a whole lot of thread in a lot of colors.  Craft supplies are meant to be shared.  

Given a few weeks maybe the sewing room will no longer be a black hole.  I even cleared off the ironing board. I even know where the iron is stored. I also know where the distilled water is.