The Craft Room

Today I tackled the craft room.  I did a lot of throwing and managed to fill 1/3 of the recycle barrel. The bright side of this is that I will never have touch those things again.  Then I went through half of the craft bags and managed to empty 4 bags and 2 baskets.  

I also made the hard choice to to deconstruct several projects that were going no where.  I think I have a few more to deconstruct tommrow too. 

The top of the craft cabinet was emptied, dusted and reorganized. I know later in the week I will also have to tackle the drawers too. 

Then I finished 1 doll blanket. Followed by reorganizing the yarn into new project baskets,  mostly for hats. 

My only problem seems to be it is 9:30 at night and all I want to do is keep cleaning.  I guess it would not be that bad to stay up and clean because tommrow is Johns day with Eric. 

Saturday.

The day started out really well today. By 10:30 am I had the second load of laundry started. I had started organizing my gift and carrier bags   I then went on to organize the gift wrap, it is all in the warping paper box.  I then condensed 5 boxes and large bags into 3/4 of 1 box.  I also found a lot of things that I did not relize that I had.  I even found a cassette gift box from so last century. It found its way into the recycling bin, along with a lot of other unneeded stuff. 

Then the curds that are going around hit. I spent most of the rest of the day in bed.  Later in the evening I had enough energy to get some knitting done.  

I am hoping that Eric has not gotten the curds too.  He has spent the night coughing up a storm. 

Even though I spent most of the day resting, I think I will call it an early night.  

Monday Where Did You Go?

Monday was a very busy day around here. We had a couple of appointments followed by  errands. This left me pretty tired. So I can't figure out for the life of me why after I picked Eric up from his day program I decided to start cleaning the garage. I was dressed in a skirt and blouse for the earlier appointments, not dressed for cleaning. I also forgot to put an apron on.

Thirty minutes latter John and I had made a very small dent. We had filled 1/2 of empty recycling bin, you know the big on that rolls out to the street. Added more to the garbage can and the charity bin. We were even able to move 5 storage boxes from useless piles to easy access. This might not seem like a big deal, but it gave me a better idea of which yarn was going to be used up next in my yarn stash down challenge.

I am just thinking that it will only take a couple of dozen more hats and scarfs before I can refill the cotton basket with more one of a kind skeins of yarn to make more hats and scarfs. This will intern make more room inside for yarn to come from the garage to used. Looking around the house and garage it seems to me that I am about 50% of the way done in my goal of having yarn in only one area of the house with none in the garage.

The only thing that is really hindering my stash down process is my need to spin more yarn. To that end I will try to list a few skeins of yarn either on my Raverly stash down page or my etsy shop. Either way I will add links to my blog.

Being Creative Without Spending Money

My challenge this month for knitting guild was to come up with a very nice gift for our speaker without spending any money. To that end I cut up 2 pairs of worn out jeans, one from each of my kids. I then went on a fabric hunt through my quilting material to find larger scrapes of fabric that were the right color and size.  Then the pinning and sewing commenced. 

I have created 8 unique project bags for knitting, spinning or crochet projects. I also found 6 other larger pieces of fabric that could stand alone and made them into project bags too. 

Then it was off to the ribbon box to find the right ribbon or cording to finish the bags off. So after 2 days of sewing I have 13 bags for the speaker to choose from without spending any money. The rest will be sold off on a first come first serve basis. The project bags are all one of a kind. No 2 are exactly alike.  I like the fact that I could be creative with the bags. They are more artistry than production line ones too. 

The sad news from this is that I did not make a dent in my fabric stash. I only finished 1 spool of cording and only bits of ribbon. No spools of thread got finished either. I will have to work on that stash getting smaller too. 

Yes I know that 6 + 8 = 14, but I decided to keep one of the bags for myself. Here is a picture of mine at the top of the post. 

Bits and Pieces

I don't get to decorate the dead computer as a center piece. Apparently John and I had major differences in how to decorate it. So John boxed it up.  I guess I will have to go with traditional Thanksgiving decorations. 

I am still in the purging junk from the house mode.  I wish I had grown up in a house that did not have to hang on to everything.  I have managed to fill 1/2 the recycle bin since yesterday.  I have learned that once something is gone I don't have to deal with it again.  I am also finding more things that need to go, even in areas I thought were done. I am hoping that all this work now will give me time to play catch up with my on line spinning class next week.  

I also think that the new medical supply company that the insurance company assigned us to bid their contract price to low.  When we needed new supplies for Eric's suction machine they sent us parts from another machine. They also sent us trech supplies. No trech here. When I called to say that the machine was not working right with the wrong parts. I was told that the parts were no longer available.  That I had to kludge the parts together and try to make it work. My only question to the insurance company and the medical supply company is; why are the necessary parts available on Amazon, EBay and at least a dozen other sites.  My search was so exhaustive that it took all of 15 minutes. In that 15 minutes I did notice that the retail price of the wrong parts were between 20 and 40% less expensive than the correct parts.  Which brings me back to the first question, why did the medical supply company make their bid so low that they can not do the job that they are being contracted for?  This was my head desk moment for the day. 

Only one more day until Company comes for the holiday weekend. So the work that is not done tommrow will not get done until after company leaves.  We'll that is not entirely true.  I will try to keep up with the laundry. 

Busy as Usual

Eric is sick again. I did the usual of being up late and waking up early with him.  After a trade off with John I took a nap. 

I managed to get 2 1/2 hours of more deep cleaning in. With 3 more baskets of recycling going out. No matter how much I toss I still seem to find more to toss.  John also started the repair job on the sewing table. 

Tomorrow I will get the the counters done  and the last bastion of clutter will be taken care of.  Although I am not quite sure that I know how to turn a dead computer that is in parts into a center piece for the Thanksgiving table. I am thinking pleanty of candles.  I will also try to get the last of the shopping done. 

Progress is Good

I have been very busy with cleaning around here. The master bathroom is 99.9% done. It is just a few very small things that I have to figure out where they go. I have made enough progress in the craft room to set up the sewing machine. I got 1 repair  and a blanket modification done for some one, that makes 2 things out the door of the craft room today.

For some unknown reason I had a very productive day around here. The bills were paid before anyone one else was awake. I brought at least 2 baskets of recycling out to the bin today and got it hauled to the street tonight. By the way I managed to fill it 3/4's of the way full, not bad. I also started working on my Mondays to do list. I know, what was I thinking? I will never get ahead of the curve ball on this one, but at least I have a plan for tomorrow. The laundry is 3/5 done for today, but then again I know there will be more than 2 loads tomorrow...

John and I stole an hour together and went out for dinner. While we were eating a a cricket ( I think, I am not an bug expert ) hopped on the hood of our car. It must have found a sweet spot on the hood because it made it from the restaurant all the way home with out flying off the hood. I did have to shoo it off the hood before we drove in to the garage.

I also had time for a lot of knitting and a little spinning. I would like to write more but I think I will call it a night.

Close to Almost Perfect

Eric was tired from his week at his day program so he slept most of the day. John had a late night so he rested for most of the day. So what else is a girl to do but spin and wash yarn. I have 5 skeins of newly spun this week yarn on the line to dry. I have one skein that I am in the middle of plying on the wheel. I also found time to do a little knitting with ribbon yarn. and go to the grocery store. I managed to save $52.00 with coupons today.

I also found time to do 4 loads of laundry. Don't worry that I will be bored tomorrow. I will have at least 4 loads of sheets and towels plus what ever laundry we make between now and then. The garage is also at the 5 minute time limit for cleaning so I don't get overwhelmed with it all. The very good news about this is that every thing I touched I was able to recycle. Yes I filled 1/2 of the big roll out half full in just 5 minutes. I am just that awesome at times.

Well my ice cream is finished. It is also about time to give Eric his nightly breathing treatment and night time meds. So Please enjoy your weekend as much as I am enjoying mine.

Well at Least I am up to Something

It has been a while since I last blogged. After Eric being sick and at home for over 6 weeks this time I am a little tired. But the good news is that since giving up diet soda and hfcs my body is not stuck in bed. So my un-scientific real live test subject research shows that the combo of hfcs and diet soda is not good for me.

I have spent the week doing errands and running around getting out of the house. It seems to be a good plan in hindsight because they sent Eric home with a fever of over 100 today, but they sent him home alone on the bus, even so I did not have to finish emptying the car in a hurry to run to school and pick him up.

There has not been much cleaning this week. Hey I can either run errands or clean there are just not enough hours in a 24 hour day and I really don't think I want a long day anyway. I also broke the second tape gun this week. They just don't seem to last as long as I would like, we got them in the late 70's and early 80's. I thought they would last forever. What is this with the poor workmanship.  So I made John an apple pie to ease the news to him. It's in the oven now. Well it is time to go make turkey and avocado sandwiches for dinner.

I will write more tomorrow about my adventures in spinning. I think I am getting fairly good but I will let Kathy Withers be the judge of that.

Well since I did not finish yesterdays blog I will add that today I made up for the rest of the week in getting some cleaning done. I have gotten 5 baskets and 2 full loads of shredded paper out to the what was the nearly empty recycle bin in the back yard. I am hoping that I have enough room for the rest of the week. 

Eric's temperature went back to normal a few hours after he got home, but I had to keep him home anyway because they sent him home with a fever. He was very content to kick back most of the day, after all what young adult would pass up a day to kick back and watch TV?

Well I have decided to make pizza for dinner so it is time to go make the dough and get things going for home made pizza and salad for dinner. I am seriously thinking a wedge cut salad for dinner tonight not that I am tired after a full day of Eric care and cleaning.

Have a Great evening and enjoy your families.

Not a Cookie in Sight

There was not a cookie in sight but I decided to to some very deep cleaning anyway today. Well maybe not so deep, an area of of about 1 square foot covered with 12 inches or so of papers. It took a long time to get that deep. From the papers on the bottom of the stack, I would say about 2 years. I did find my way to the counter top; but the best part was I put 1 box of papers in the recycle barrel and shredded 1 1/2 bags of other stuff.

The lesson I learned from the whole process today was you can get rid of paper. It really does not hurt. It is fun to fill the recycle bin as full as possible. Next time though I am going to get a box of cookies or make a small pan of brownies to quell my anxiety about the cleaning process.

I do come from a long line of pack rats, I know this because I have help clean out a house or 2 in my time and do not intend to let Teri deal with my mess of papers and unneeded objects. I am trying to do my best not to follow in their foot steps.

For those in the U.S. I hope you had a great Flag Day. Well have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Why Don't Things last forever?

It has been a very good day today. If you can’t tell Eric slept for most of the night and I got a lot of running around done today. Eric and I almost finished watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Vancouver you have a very nice city. I shall add your city to a list of places I would like to go someday.


I was in the throwing mood so before and during breakfast I went through a lot of papers and made a good start to filling the recycling barrel. The bad news is my recycling basket is starting to fall apart; I will have to look and see what basket we can destroy next in the name of recycling. You should not feel bad for this basket though I have had it since my first apartment in 198? and it was a hand me down way back then. Don’t you just hate it when things wear out before their time? I sure do, things I like are suppose to last forever. I think I will add the quilt on my bed to that list; I made it the year before Teri was born and it has the audacity to start falling apart this year when she is only in her first year of grad school. And I can only blame the poor workmanship on myself. Well a new one will have to be added to the long term to do list.

To make the planning of the quilt more interesting if you will send me the names and or pictures of your favorite quilt blocks or patterns it would be very nice. I am also looking for something that has a lot of strip work and not any flowers. I want to make it husband friendly.

Well it is time to go and make dinner. So have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Playing Catch Up or As We Know it My Life.

OK so it has been quite a while since I blogged. So what has been going on in my life? Well here goes.

Since I blogged last Eric has been sick twice with two near all nighters, He is doing better today and I really slept last night. I have been playing catchup with the laundry. Did I mention that Eric can make 2 loads over night when he is sick. I want to thank all my laundry folders. In weeks like this I abide by my motto:
"Laundry is like fine wine, no laundry shall be folded before it's time."

I have agreed to teach knitting to Eric's friends at school, they will be making a wash cloth and a scarf. My inclination is to go for a square wash cloth and a thin rectangular scarf. I want the things to be useful for them. So today I went through my stash and picked out 10 skeins of cotton for wash cloths and 10 skeins of wool and rayon for the scarfs. I have 7 of the 10 set of needles that I will need, the knitting guild has not come through for me so I will take my coupons and buy the last 3 pairs. I will be using size 7 and 8 straight needles and am using metal needles so we don't have breakage to deal with.

I have gone to 2 white elephant holiday parties and have manage to get the white elephants I received out of the house. For the 1st white elephant I gave away 10 skeins of yarn and a knitting bag that I did not like, but the recipient was very happy with them. For the second one I gave away red mobius scarf that John did not like on me and I could not sell. For the Guild holiday party I might just do the same thing and fill another bag with yarn ( but don't tell anyone).

I gave up Diet Coke and aspartame cold turkey last Saturday and have had a few headaches and feel really weird, but so far this has been the only change in my diet and I have lost 3 pounds since Saturday. This is all due to my friend Kay sending me an article on the effects of aspartame/diet coke on auto immune diseases. It too soon to tell if it is making a difference, but I will keep you updated.

I finished the shawl pattern and got it to the beta testers and I still need John to take a picture of it on me, it does not look good flat, but on it's wonderful.

We have a new 96 Gallon recycling bin on wheels and it is very easy to fill so the house is a little less cluttered. Monday night we put out twice as much recycling than we did for trash. Yeah us!!!

So I think even thought it has been hectic I have made headway in de-stashing yarn(30 skeins by my count), and getting rid of clutter. Not much knitting has been done, oh, well there is always later.

Have a great evening and enjoy your families.