Company!!!

The e-mail recreation continues. The only people I have yet to contact are those in the UFO groups and the Heartfelt Sampler. But if you were interested in anything else (Many Blocks, Out of the Box, Machine Embroidery, Digital Cutter), you should have received an e-mail from me. If you have NOT, send me a note, and I'll add you to the appropriate list. 

Then, once that is organized, I can delete the rest of the class e-mails for 2023. That's going to free up a whole lot of space! 

Based on some of the advice I've received, MANY people are even more clueless about e-mail than I am. So I'm going to muddle along -- I've got enough knowledge to be MORE than dangerous, and as long as it all works, I'm good! NO -- as long as I KNOW how it works, I'm good. It may not be right, but it works! 

The company has arrived! 

M and Bear at the airport

Yep -- that's M in the airport, but she safely arrived here, along with her traveling companion - Little Bear. They are here for a short time - WAIT -- she is here for a short time, Little Bear gets to stay - for MONTHS. Personally, I think he should stay forever! But seriously? Matching outfits? Oh well --- if it makes them all happy. 

Should she ever have children -- what does that mean? Mommy and Me outfits? My mother did that to me! She always made us matching dresses - I'll have to dig out one of the photos. 

Me and my Mom

It's amazing what you can find on my blog. Did you know that you can search my blog? If you go to the blog, there is a BIG LONG WHITE bar at the top. Type in a topic or a phrase, and VOILA -- you can find many things! I typed in matching dresses, and the post with this popped up! We kind of blend into the curtains behind!

And I even found one of the dresses in December! 

M had not had lunch, so we planned something that we'd been meaning to do for a long, long time. After dumping Bear at the house to play with Murphy and Lexi, we went to the mall for CREPES. 

There is a small restaurant in the space where Teavana used to be, and M used to work at Teavana. So that's where we went. This restaurant is small, and they have even expanded their seating area into the aisle of the mall. It's packed - ALWAYS. It was 2:30 when we arrived, and there were no tables available, and there were people in front of us. 

But at last, we got a table and sat down to eat. 

A late lunch

She had a savory crepe.

Savoury crepe

And I had a sweet crepe. 

The sweet crepe

It was apple pie, and it was delicious!!! I splurged and had a hot chocolate as well. 

Hot chocolate

Then we came home and chatted, and well, we couldn't help ourselves; we had to get the EXIT game out. 

The EXIT Game continues

This one has rated two stars out of five on the difficulty level, but we needed help in a couple of spots. One of them we should have gotten easily, but the other time we looked? That was a bit more complicated. I see the logic, but not sure that I would have figured it out! We don't look at the entire clue -- I only go as far as that lightbulb moment and then back to the game. We have TWO puzzles left to finish this one, and hopefully, we can complete it before she leaves bright and early on Saturday morning. 

The little guy was content as ever in his favorite spot in the front window. To facilitate things, I bought him portable stairs to help him up! I won't run after him and put him up there whenever he wants up or down. He used them several times, and I'm sure he'll be used to them by the end of the weekend. 

Our watchdog returns

He also hopped right into his bed like he had never left it! He now has one at home, just like it. It's the cutest little bed and has a built-in blanket. I had thrown it on the floor in the bedroom last night, and I saw Murphy trying to sleep in it. I think her head fit, and that was about it! 

Little Bear in his bed

But here are the two buds --- hanging out together. Hanging out is beyond Lexi: she can barely hang out with her sister, let alone Bear. But she wants to play with him! 

Two buds sharing a bed

OH, I should have posted this long ago, but look at the fun candy cane holder! It's super adorable and made on the embroidery machine. Thanks to Sharon -- I LOVE IT!!!! Can you imagine a garland or an entire Christmas tree decorated with them? How about a name tag on a gift? Hey -- if you don't have an embroidery machine, it's something to contemplate!!!! 

My candy cane holder

I got my steps in before my company came and made two trips -- one to the grocery store in one direction from my house and the second to the library in the opposite direction. I did WELL over my daily quota, but that's OK. I need to be careful because every time I go to the library, I don't come home with just the book I went to get -- NOPE -- borrowing books is FREE, and I usually come home with one or two extra. Sigh.................... But I'm trying to spend the evenings reading now, so hopefully, I can get through those books more quickly. 

I don't know what was in that crepe, but I was NOT hungry for the remainder of the day! Yikes! But I can only imagine how many calories and sugar were in it. I'm not worried but might want to lay off the sugar for a while. 

I was up bright and early this morning and tackling the homework prep for the weekend. I've finished most of the cutting and am ready to follow the silly instructions. I love the quilts from this pattern designer, but I HATE (with a passion) her instructions. And I hate everything about her instructions -- the fabric requirements, the cutting, the sewing - it's such a waste of fabric and time. So I'll do it once per her instructions and then do it my way! 

I did NOT get to tackle a kitchen drawer, but something happened with that drawer I tidied the other day. It's so empty and light that everything moves around when we pull it open (one must have access to scissors and pens when doing EXIT games). So I had to rejig things to prevent that. Since when has that happened when a drawer was too empty, and nothing stayed in place? 

I'll try to tackle two more drawers later today. My company is off to stay with a friend for the day, so I'll have the day to myself. Well, and three dogs! 

How is your decluttering coming along? I hope you are sticking with it --- it's going to be challenging at the beginning. Very tough, but once you start, it gets easier. One of the biggest things to remember is that you must try to put all the similar things together, which can make your place very messy. How do you find a place for one thing when you store that one thing in multiple places around your home? But once all the like things are together, you can evaluate how much of that one thing you have. 

Here's a silly little example - but take glue sticks. Do you store them in the office supply drawer? And the kitchen drawer? And then in your arts and crafts spot? Maybe with the kid's stuff? And perhaps there are a few extra? If you combine them -- how many glue sticks do you have? And then comes the question - how many of them are still good? And how many do you really need? Glue sticks seem to dry up very quickly and, most times, are only partially used. 

This is where you start asking questions. Do you ever use the one in the office supply drawer? Then perhaps you don't need to keep one there. Put the tool/supply ONLY where you need it, and try to have it in only one place unless you use it in multiple places. This makes total sense, but we don't follow it! 

And once you know what you have, you know whether you need to buy more! I can't believe how many duplicates of things I've purchased over the years because I didn't think I had any or felt I needed it when I already had loads at home. 

The new me knows pretty much where things are and what I need. I do NOT need to buy office supplies again -- EVER in my lifetime! 

Well, that's it for me. Have fun with the decluttering. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!