On buying magazines

Things slowed down in the decluttering process a wee bit yesterday. I did go to the recycling depot again! I got rid of stuff at the Donation center which is located in the building outside the depot. It's all part of the same complex. And they took everything except the silly calendar holder that I forgot to give them. That will go back maybe today.

The car was full of wood and a couple of plexiglass items. I merrily tossed them in their respective bins. One for the wood and the plexiglass items went in the garbage. This time I had to pay. They weigh your car when you go in and then when you leave. Apparently, I unloaded 60 K of stuff. Seriously????  I wouldn't have believed it, but wood is heavy. I gladly paid my $6 and I was on my way.

I emptied the small storage room - I'm going to call it the puzzle room for the sake of clarity. Well, I didn't empty it, but I removed all the tools and everything related to fabric dying. I found tubs of EMPTY jars. Then I went for a walk to the local hardware store to see what I could find for shelves. NO - I wasn't going to carry a shelf home as DH thought I was going to do. I had a few other errands and I'm always looking for an excuse to go for a walk. It was a 17,000 + step day. I found the perfect shelf that fits that space. Except it was out of stock. I'm going to check a couple other Ronas to see if I can find it at another store. I'll do that online so I'm not driving around like an idiot.

That was it for the cleaning session. The mess is laying on the floor beside the long arm but doesn't interfere with the long arm. I'm going to sweep the floor in preparation for the new shelf. Maybe I can find it today. I hope so - I want to get that room tidied up!

Then I looked in the furnace room (which is pretty clean as I had already been through that room when we had our water issue). ACK - I found three more pieces of baseboard! I might take another load to the depot today and I'll have to take some junk with me to fill the car. I'm OK with that. It's just so fulfilling to get rid of this stuff.

Think of all the free time I'll have once this is all done. And as I'm getting rid of this stuff, I'm envisioning myself doing the same thing with the office. That'll take a bit longer since there's a lot of small stuff, but I see it happening. Yes - bring it on!!!!  And not one single thank-you to any of the stuff from yesterday for bringing me joy! All I've been getting from anything I've gotten rid of so far is a pain in the neck from thinking about it. My brain is going to be clutter-free soon!!

When I was on my way back home from the depot, I decided to take a detour to visit Indigo. Hmm - this used to be the location to hit when I wanted a magazine fix. Now look..........

I've never seen the shelves so bare. The top section is knitting, the middle is crochet and the bottom is quilting. Pretty sparse.

A sparse looking shelf

The papercrafts section was jammed as was the puzzle section.

Papercrafts section was jammed

I went looking for this magazine called Love Patchwork and Quilting. It's a British magazine. First - do you see what I see???

British magazine

It's in a stupid plastic bag. I bought the magazine so that's why the plastic is ripped. I can't see a thing about what's in the magazine. There's a big blue sticker on the outside "How to Guide Inside". How to for what??? I HATE HATE HATE these plastic bags. I won't rip them open in the store so I don't normally buy them.

And look at this one from the US. No plastic cover which allows me to see read and see what's inside. Thank you to American Quilter Society for that.

No plastic bag

OH - now that I've wrestled the magazine from its plastic sheath, I can see what's inside. Why can't I see that to start with???

Cover of the magazine

Here's another reason I don't buy this magazine often. Look at the price!!!  $15.99 CANADIAN. For those of you in the US, the price is $15.99 US. That's totally crazy!!!!!! Why I would be willing to fork over $16 for MYSTERY content????  The magazine has a more modern flair. I think it used to be called British Patchwork and Quilting or just Patchwork and Quilting and was a bit more traditional. I could be totally wrong on that point. But there was a Patchwork and Quilting. I'll check my shelves for tomorrow to let you know the scoop. Bottom line - this magazine is modern which isn't a bad thing - you just need to know that since you can't see inside!

Expensive!!!!!

OH - I get a freebie. Seven quilting stencils by Karlee Porter. What if I don't want or use stencils? Or hexie papers or a ruler as I've seen in previous issues????  I don't want CRAP with my magazines. So that's another reason to NOT buy this one. On top of it all, the article that I was looking for wasn't in this issue because of the time delay in getting this magazine to North America. The next issue is on sale August 7. Oh well.

Quilting Senstils as the freebie

Don't get me started with freebies. Too late!  Here's the thing. Free things are NOT FREE. Those little prizes in kids meals, the free fat quarter at your guild meeting, the secret sister parcels, the grab bags from anywhere are usually filled with things that we DO NOT WANT. Guess what - that stuff becomes clutter in your house. Yet we COVET winning or getting this stuff. Can you tell me WHY????  I do not want anything like that EVER. Maybe not until I've worked my way out from under what I've got.

I had to laugh when I was at the cash at Indigo. If you bought the latest Margaret Atwood book - you got a free tote bag! NOOOOOOOOOOOO.   I'm getting rid of the LAST (hopefully) of my reusable tote bags. Jane is picking them up and they are going to the food bank.

Don't get me wrong, I've got a lot of nice little gifts and freebies over the years. But many were thoughtfully chosen specifically for me! And I appreciate them all. It's the random stuff that I don't want.

I did more work on that blog post which just doesn't seem to want to be finished. I had a bit more sewing to do and then more pictures. I should be done very shortly this morning. Then onto the last two posts which are partially completed.

I managed to get a customer quilt done. I love this quilt - it's flannel and very cozy looking.

Customer quilt is done

I finally found a seam ripper so I could rip out that corner of my Tonga Rhapsody quilt and fix it. It looks much better. It's for this very reason that we measure, measure and measure the borders on our quilts. Can you imagine what would have happened if I had of just sewed on fabric???  That quilt would have a very ruffled outer edge once I was done all four borders.

The corner is fixed!!!

And why when we're ripping, do we not remove all the threads before we sew it back together? I see that on customer quilts sometimes. Sorry - but I'm NOT picking your threads out!!!

Threads that didn't get picked out!!!

I see there were no takers or ideas for my lattice from yesterday. That might go to the donation center today.

Today I've got pieces of cork. There are 7 squares here - 12 inches square. What the heck to do with them???  I guess I could glue them to some board and make a corkboard, but I don't have room. I guess they'll go in the donation box as well. Now how long has this been kicking around the house???

Cork squares

And I have this gorgeous container. It's like a hatbox although I don't know that it's officially a hatbox. It's about 15" in diameter. Maybe 10" high?  Well - that was a pretty good guess. I just measured it - it's 14" in diameter and 10" high!!!  It's made of wood and covered with fabric.

Hatbox

This is the inside of the hatbox. I love it, but I have no use for it.

The inside of the hatbox

In case you're thinking that the kitchen table is piled with junk because it's my staging area. It actually looks pretty good. There's a pile of my reading material at the end and a few other things. Some day, the table in the dining room will be the staging area. I'm getting close!

The kitchen table is not in bad shape

My local library branch has a book club. I used to belong to the book club, but then for some reason, I didn't attend. I would look at the list of books and often read some or all of the selections. That's how I move away from my usual genre of books. I decided to join again this year. I finished the first book mere minutes before I walked to the library for the meeting. It was called The Spy by Paulo Coelho.

The Spy by Paulo Coelho

The book is based on a true story. Hmm - EVERYONE HATED THE BOOK. That's hilarious!!!  It wasn't my favorite - the writing style was very confusing, although I didn't mind it. Obviously, my brain is not wired the way the rest of the members are!!!  We spent a good part of the time chatting about other books. I know why I don't like this book club. I think the lady leading it could be more engaging!!!  We should have chatted about stuff in the book rather than abandon it! Oh well - I'll go for some of the books and others I won't. It'll all depend on my schedule.

Speaking of schedules, can you believe that my 2020 calendar with all the MAJOR events is already booked. I did that yesterday. Well, the weeks for certain events, my sit n sew days, the charity sewing days, and my ongoing quilting clubs - it's all booked!!!  That's totally insane, but it needed to be done.

On that note, I'm out of here. Got to find that shelf today!

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!