Tidy up time

 

I had a great day! I got most of the writing done - a wee bit more to finish off this morning. And two e-mails that should be sent today with homework assignments, and then I'm up to date for the moment. The more I write, the easier it becomes, and I'm having fun with it. When my students signed up for a class, they never expected to get a "book" after each class. But all my pictures are there, and it can make or break the class for some. 

And I've been getting some interesting pictures back from the students which are hilarious. I won't share now, but some students have a great sense of humor!

It's a bit more work to do those write-ups, but I look at it this way. I don't have travel time - now I have writing time. I'm OK with it and actually prefer it because I don't have to have half-assembled blocks to show techniques, and I now have a couple of master documents, and I can just send those out. Yeah!!!! Plus, everyone in the class gets a front-row seat and the handout? Why would they want to go back to an in-person class?? I sure don't want to. 

Once the writing is done today, I need to get into planning mode for next week, and that's what I'll be doing for the remainder of the week. 

I doubt that I'll get a chance to get to the sewing machine, but I did get some cutting done, and my goal is to get ALL the cutting done for all the homework before the weekend. Then during the Virtual Retreat, I can sit and sew all day and not have to worry about cutting. Then I write up the documents, and I'll be done for the month. Then I can focus on other things.  WOW -- amazing what can happen when you have a plan!

And I'm so motivated to get the time management thing under control, and it appears that the office is starting to "bother" me. I now poke into a bucket or folder each day and find something easy to deal with. Here's what I found yesterday. 

While it may take longer to do the tidy up this way, at least I'm doing something every day, whereas before, I wasn't doing anything. It doesn't become a HUGE job on any given day. So as long as I keep at it - it's going to happen, and then you are all going to be so jealous. OH - maybe you don't have a messy pile of paperwork like I do. 

Anyway, there is a blue tub in the office that I knew was filled with fabric. I know - MORE fabric. It actually came upstairs a while back. It had been languishing beneath the stairs. I knew that I had a tub of sweaters - more on that in a second, and I was curious to see if there were any sweaters in here. Nope - but I found an ENTIRE Tub filled with silk. Yikes - seriously???  

A tub of silk

OK -- so this needs to be dealt with. It'll be awesome for making samples for machine embroidery. So I need to find a decent box to put it in, and it's going to go under the long-arm - I might just be able to find a spot for ONE more box. Then all the wild fabrics for experimenting and making will be together. Well, not exactly, but it's all in the same place - sort of. That area is going to need a bit more tidy up. 

I also heard that the recycling center is still open and so next week, that might be my errand. Get rid of the stuff in the house that can be dropped there. 

Now - I mentioned sweaters. Who doesn't want a pair of inauguration sweater mittens? I don't have any wool sweaters that I can felt up. OH wait - I might have a box in the stash room. I'll have to check later. But I thought I'd share the fleece mittens that I made a while ago, and I wear them every day. 

I had made them years ago when I first got my embroidery machine. Well, that's not entirely true. I finished ONE of the mittens. The second one was embroidered, but I never finished it. So when I started getting my act together a couple of years ago, I finished the second mitten. They are made of fleece and lined with fleece. I wear a thin pair of gloves inside them, and my hands are toasty warm for walking the dogs. Mine are fancy as they have elastic in the cuffs!!

Polar fleece mittens

Polar bear embroidery

Now I want a pair of sweater mittens, and well - we can't get to the thrift store to buy a sweater. Perhaps, I'll just stick with my fleece mitts. My friend Karen, who lives in Vermont, has some great tips on making mittens. You can check it out here. 

I mentioned junk drawers yesterday. OK - so technically, I don't have a junk drawer, but I have junk containers. I unearthed this one this morning. Good grief. There are all kinds of stuff in there. Some things that just need to be put away and some things that well need to be junked. It was also filled with a bunch of paper, but that got put in a pile of paper to deal with tomorrow or whenever I decided to poke through the piles of paper. Don't worry - those manuals are all gone. The computers and printers they belonged to are long gone. 

A junk container

Actually, I realized that we still have one of the printers, but I think I'm tossing that one in the electronic waste. It's a photo printer, and I'll never use it. I don't even know if it works. 

So this is the desk. I may or may not have shared it with you. This is the worse area in the office. But hey - it's just the TOP of ONE desk. That's very manageable. 

The biggest are of junk in the office

Or does it look better in black and white? Somehow I took this photo this morning. Oh dear - I need to learn how to properly use my phone and all the stuff that I can do with it. 

It looks better in black and white

And there are smaller piles of stuff, like this on top of the filing cabinet. What is all that stuff? No idea, but today is not the day to find out. 

Another area of clutter

I checked out something on the bookcase and discovered some older keys, a ring, and some twine! Good grief. This is clutter!!!!!

Clutter on the bookcase

But WAIT A MINTUE. Look at what else I found. MORE add-ons for Electric Quilt. Are you kidding me??? OK -- so my goal for this month (before the next EQClub meeting) is to figure out whether any of this is still useable or do I have to toss it. 

More Electric Quilt add-ons

So now, I have this entire stack of EQ related products. Good grief, and the manuals I have for the latest products are downstairs. Oh boy -- I think someone is a bit obsessive here!!!!

Electric Quilt products

But this is how clutter accumulates. You buy something because you think it's great. Then it gets put away, and you don't even remember that you have it. And then you buy the next thing, and the same thing happens. By knowing what you have, you stop buying, and you also learn how to deal with this old stuff. That's the hardest - do we just toss it in the garbage? Well, if that's where it's going, I'll recycle what I can. 

That's for another day to deal with it. Today, it's going to be all about e-mail. I'm now well over 1,000 e-mails, and I can't let it get out of control again. 

I got this small customer quilt done. I hope to get it trimmed later today and ready for pickup. 

Customer quilt

So we had a HUGE dump of snow yesterday. However, that didn't stop me from trekking to the library to return a book. That was an experience as there was a biting wind, and the snow was deep and slippery. I should get double mileage for that trip. Then I was home to shovel the driveway. I have to shovel again this morning, but it won't take long as the snow had mostly stopped when I shoveled yesterday. 

I see the plow passed in the night, and I was anxious to see what they had done. You see, we have a neighbor who insists on putting the snow from her driveway into the street. 

Snow ON the street

I get it that she doesn't have a lot of space on one side of her driveway, but she has a whole front yard on the other. And if I have to get a shovel and LIFT the damn snow out of my driveway, I see no reason why she can't do the same thing or hire someone to do it. What usually happens is that the plow then comes by and distributes all that snow that she dumps in the street into the next two driveways, and mine is one of them. It's because we're all on a curve.  

Well, I see the plow driver has decided to just leave her snow outside her driveway and ignore it. Thank you, Mr. Plow Driver. So we don't have much at the end of our driveway. HEY -- I just shoveled, and it was still too deep for the car to drive through without damaging the front. 

Our driveway this morning

Hey - I'm a good neighbor; not only do I not put snow in the street, which we are NOT supposed to do, but I shovel the sidewalks for both neighbors on either side of me, despite them having a young male in each household. I noticed the one guy did shovel my sidewalk yesterday. The other one? He lives alone at the moment and never even shovels. Oh well - I won't go there. 

On that note, I'm out of here. I've got to walk the dogs, then shovel that drive, and then get back to writing. I want all the writing done by lunch so I can move onto e-mail this afternoon. 

How are you making out on the tidying up??? I'm going to give you a break today. It's a day to catch up on something you didn't get a chance to do before. So - that means under the bathroom sink, the cutlery drawer, the junk drawers, your embroidery software or EQ software, the ironing board, the cutting mat, and the sewing table. I'm sure there are loads of other places, so let's get this junk out of the way. Your mind will be clearer, you'll be more focused, and you'll spend a whole lot less time looking for stuff. 

I'm honestly at the point where I think about what I'll need to use or want to use for the rest of my life (I still have a LOT of life left), but why do I want to hang onto things I will never use again? I'm all about taking pictures and then letting them go. I could really live with very little, and I'm about to make that happen, but it's not going to happen overnight. 

I could literally take everything in my closet and donate it. I've been through the clothes closet once before. And I need to do it once again. I bet I could get to the point where all my shoes and clothes would fit in one large suitcase! Oh yes --- I don't need a lot of variety!

OH MY GOD  -- I just checked back in the blog. You HAVE to read this ost from 2014!!!!  That's when I cleaned the closet. Wow -- who knew that I was on this decluttering kick way back then. What's even more hilarious is that when you see the clothes hanging in the closet? I bet that they are still in the same order! I hardly wear anything from a hanger. I think it's going to be time once again to go through that stuff. Oh my!!!!!

And then read this post from 2015 when I read THE book. I think I folded my shirts like that once, and that's way too much work. I would never consider doing that. What a waste of time - just have fewer shirts. 

Don't forget that this week is my QUILTsocail blog posts on the Husqvarna Viking Designer Sapphire™ 85. Check it out - loads of fun things to do with your sewing and embroidery machine. 

And here are the links for the Virtual Retreat. Stop by to say hi or stay a while and do some handwork or sew with your machine. It's loads of fun and a great way to get in touch or stay in touch with friends. 

Saturday, January 30, 6 PM - 9 PM

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89254233911?pwd=VGQrTnFybW1HMWpleHA4M2Q2NGVwZz09 Meeting ID: 892 5423 3911 Passcode: 982797

Sunday, January 31, 10 AM - 8 PM

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87246635892?pwd=VGY1cUUyLzRaRi9VUVV2ZWFINXc2dz09 Meeting ID: 872 4663 5892 Passcode: 440473

And that's it for today!!!

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!!