The power of positive thinking!

OH OH OH !!!!! I had to laugh when I read Elle's comment this morning! YES --- tidying up a drawer or anything is a snap once the JUNK is gone. I'm shocked at how easy everything is to maintain in the areas where we have eliminated all the junk. By junk, that may be literally garbage that should be thrown away, or it may mean those things you no longer need or want. GET RID OF IT!!! 

It takes a long time to get there, but once you do, the amount of FREE time you'll have will shock you! Daily cleaning and tidying up is a breeze! 

But the reason I laughed at Elle's comment was this! The other day, someone on a Zoom call mentioned a small item, and I HAD to have that item. I put it in the cart of my "favorite" online store. 

That was in the last couple of days of 2025. Imagine my surprise when I opened the cart in 2026 and found the price of the item had gone up by $3.32. And the cost of the other two items in my cart has also gone up, but only a few cents. It's to be expected -- a new year! 

Alert of a price increase!

What is the item? Well, I had an epiphany and thought, "I bet I already have that item." And sure enough, when I looked in the bag of knitting tools, there it was!!!! It's called a Soft Touch Thread Pick by Clover. It probably shouldn't be in with the knitting tools, but it's better off at the long arm, where you get a small errant stitch from time to time. 

Soft Touch Thread Pick

I even have this one, which is much larger, and should be in with the knitting tools. Good grief—thank goodness I caught that!!! I deleted this item from the cart and saved myself from a duplicate tool! 

A Fix-An-Knit tool

When I look at the clutter in this office, I must remind myself of how easy it is to find any utensil in our kitchen because I eliminated what we didn't use and tidied up what we do use! Wouldn't it be amazing to walk in here and immediately put my hands on anything I want? That's my goal! Continue dealing with the junk, even if it means putting some things aside for later. The next time will be that much easier! 

I've got a few piles on the kitchen island and will work my way through some each time I pass. I WILL NOT let this mess get the better of me! And when it's time to downsize? Well, it's going to be a piece of cake! 

I think one of the big things about downsizing or decluttering is the ability to finally LET GO of things we deemed necessary because of sentimentality, guilt, or whatever other reason we thought we needed to keep them. It's such a freeing feeling knowing that you do NOT have to be the gatekeeper of items. Let them go - find a new home, recycle, reuse, or whatever, but GET RID OF THAT JUNK!!!

If you want a quick peek at my kitchen drawers and some stuff behind the doors, check this out. I redid the drawers in 2024, and they are in the same condition today. When I want a big spoon, I know exactly where to find it and exactly where to put it away when emptying the dishwasher. That is HUGE!!! The only thing I have to do is remove everything, give it a quick wipe, and put it all back. 

And in case you are interested, here is the status of the Pony Express staging area at the house. Only a few things on it, and I will continue to use this to pass along things. It's worked great in the past, and well, I hope it gets used frequently in 2026! 

The Pony Express staging area

And now let's take a look at Studio B. I know that Studio B is overflowing with stuff. But I have a plan, and with the new arrangement, I think I'll see improvement this year! I can feel it!!! I've specifically targeted projects in my current project as goals for 2026, so anything I get done will be a step in the right direction! 

Here's a tip to start the year. I was sewing the extra blocks for Farm Girl Vintage, and the sewing machine was struggling to start a new seam. It's a top-of-the-line sewing machine, so I can't blame the quality. OH CRAP -- look, I still have the decorative stitch plate on the machine. GET THAT THING OFF!!! Use your single-stitch throat plate for piecing—you will be a much happier camper!!! The minute I switched the stitch plates, there was no issue with the fabric getting sucked into the bobbin case. If you don't have one, check with your local dealer and buy one! It's not a luxury - it's a NECESSITY!!! And if you have to move your needle to find your 1/4" seam allowance, get a 1/4" foot that allows you to stitch with your needle in the center! You shouldn't have to struggle! 

This is NOT the stitch plate to use for picing! 

And then the nine-patch got sewn. 

The nine-patch for Farm Girl Vintage

Oh, wait -- I threw the die to see what I should be working on. Good answer!!!

The task of the day!

Farm Girl Vintage is a UFO. I taught it as a class in 2016 and 2018. I think it's time to bring this one home! 

I didn't take a picture of the other block with the half-square triangles, but it's done, too. Then it was time to rejig the borders, and those got done as well. The quilt is NOW the size in the book, with NO extra blocks, and I used up a bunch of small scraps. You can't even tell that I added an additional row. Was that at the top or the bottom? 

I had hoped to get the flying geese border stitched on this morning, and I'm very close. Here's the status of the quilt. Hmmm -- that bottom looks a bit wavy, but I'm sure it'll be fine when I sew the border on. The last flying geese border is made and just needs to be stitched on. I had to fudge many seams when sewing the flying geese units together. I have no idea what happened, but no one will know! 

Farm Girl Vintage quilt top - almost done!

However, I had a wee dilemma: I was missing ONE flying geese unit. I was just about to make a new one when I spotted this. 

WAIT - the missing flying geese unit! 

It was attempting to fly away!!!! Imagine if there had been all kinds of junk on my work table. Would I have found that? I don't think so! I can't say enough about clean work surfaces to be efficient in sewing. It was not always like that at my studio, and I wish I had photos to show you how I used to work. My cutting table literally had a 12" corner free to cut stuff. That is NOT good. The sewing tables were strewn with projects I hoped to work on, and the ironing surface was barely visible. I will NEVER let that happen again. I've learned that neat, tidy, and CLEAR make for a much easier place to work. 

But that's when things did NOT have a home, and there was no place to put them. Now, I'm hypersensitive to putting things away! OCD? Perhaps, but I LOVE the change. 

And I"m making great progrss on the little triangles as enders and leaders. When those units were shoved in a drawer, I ignored them. Now they are front and center and get worked on every time I sew! They are sorted by color! 

My ender and leaders tray

This tray is the only thing sitting on my sewing table. I only need THREE tools when I'm sewing, so they are in front of the sewing machine on the table. The extra thread (black) and the extra bobbins are on the telescoping thread stand. NOTHING else is on the table. I don't need markers, rulers, and gosh knows what else messing up the sewing table. I will mainly use those at the cutting table, so that is where they reside - in a holder on the wall! If I need something, I simply get up to get it. Simple!! 

I got another chuckle when I was finishing the editing, and YES --- all that writing is done, and all the projects I worked on are COMPLETELY finished. That took a bit of time, but I persevered. Anyway, Grammarly HATES passive language, which I still struggle with. But when I managed to rewrite the sentence so it was NOT passive, I got this message. 

Yeah -- Grammarly approves my new sentence structure!

OH my!!!! I'm not practising - I just fly by the seat of my pants, and hopefully one day, I'll get the hang of writing without it being passive! I struggle with what that even means, which is why it's hard to correct. Grammar was never my strong point! 

I've been cleaning out the cupboards a little bit each day, and I knew there was muffin mix in there. So I pulled the mix and all the cupcake papers out. I think it's time to use them up! If I don't use them up, I need to get rid of them. There is NO SENSE in keeping things that we will never use. 

My cupcake papers

I have Scrabble cupcake papers, cycling, and some polka dots. And a few that are just white! Why keep them? I should enjoy them while I can. Instead of buying bran muffins for my afternoon snack, I'm going to make them. At least until the cupcake holders and the bag of muffin mix are gone! 

And when I walked to the grocery store, I thought about buying a treat for myself - chocolate milk. I am trying to cut out any extra refined sugar in my diet, and I KNOW that chocolate milk is high in sugar. But when I saw this on the packaging, that was enough for me. I left it in the store.

OH -- that's a deterrent to buying chocolate milk!

In case you can't read that, it says HIGH IN SUGARS!!! I will only indulge in chocolate milk if I'm hiking or doing a long bicycle trip. Otherwise, I'm good with water. 

I seemed to be laughing a lot yesterday. At one point in the day, this was the shelf by the front door. FOUR pairs of mittens. HEY -- if I have them, I need to use them. If it's somewhat cold out, I wear two pairs of mittens for walking the dogs. A thin dollar store pair inside my fleece mittens. That allows me to pick up after them without completely exposing my hands to the cold. Those are the two black pairs. 

Then I have the gorgeous orange felted mittens that I wear for walking, with no dog leashes to deal with. And the other pair I use if I need to drive the car or walk with my hands in my pockets. I know—that's pretty specific, but hey—I have them. I'd better wear them, or I need to give them away! Don't worry, I was letting them air out. They are back in the closet! 

My daily mitten selection

I also have numerous coats that I wear depending on the weather. And last night, DH was disgusted at the state of my down sweater. It's a bit dirty, but who cares! He called me a homeless person! I could wash it, but it doesn't come clean, and it's all because of walking the dogs and putting dirty gloves (from the leashes) in my pockets. Even though that jacket is now 13 years old, I'm not ready to retire it. 

I read quite a bit yesterday, since I have a couple of books that are close to their due dates. NO cheating on the due date with the app. At the appointed time, they disappear even if you aren't finished! And guess who came to entertain me while I sat in the living room?

MOM - we're too tired to stand up and play!

And no, Murphy is not looking adoringly at Lexi. They were in a lazy mood to play and were content to lie on the floor and natter. 

While you think they are relaxing, they are NOT. They are actively listening to each other to see who will make the first move! They are so funny to watch!! And look how close they are! 

MOM -- she's bothering me! 

I spotted this on Facebook yesterday and OH MY!!!! 

Could any words be more truthful? How many times have you gone somewhere or listened to someone, and it's all negative? I get it that people need to vent and that for some, times are very tough. But there is a silver lining in everything. Not only that, but if you constantly talk in the negative, how the heck will you ever dig yourself out of that doomsday prophecy? Many doctors also believe in the power of positive thinking as a healing agent. There's a lot to be said about positivity. Like with the weather! 

Yep -- -I'm all about the power of positive thinking! Life can be bad, but it's not the end of the world. Fix the problem, find the good side of everything, and move on! That positive thinking provides energy, and energy means getting things done! Yes -- I totally get that some people have issues with depression, etc., and that the positive side of things isn't within their grasp. So do not yell at me for that. 

I've had the occasional day where I feel like the world is closing in on me, but I have the power to dig myself out of that hole. I cannot imagine someone who can't. 

And that about sums up today! The temperature is only minus 6, and the sidewalks are wet and sort of slushy, but you can walk with confidence, as there is no ice! How much better can it get in the middle of winter? 

Have a wonderful day!!!!

Ciao!!!