A stitch in time saves nine!

Well, it appears that another friend has those open earbuds. I need to encourage my friends to tell me about NEW things when they get them! I'm behind the times. I wore them for the four hours of Monday sewing, and I thought I might be bothered a bit by the band at the back, but all was good. They were very comfortable - they could hear me well, I could listen to them, and I could move around the house without losing the connection. YEP -- I'm glad I bought them. 

DH will be testing mine out today. He needs something new because he's also having issues with his earbuds. 

Yesterday was all about clearing off that table behind my sewing machine. So, in my silly style, I piled everything on it: stuff draped on the digital cutters, languishing on the floor, and a few things from the cutting table. Studio B looked messy, and I wasn't coping well with it. 

The mess is in one spot

Oh, there's our presentation on my new monitor. I still have to figure this out, and I might need technical assistance to use the monitor for the presentation, as what the group saw was my laptop in presentation mode, NOT the screen. So, I must figure out how that works. I need to share screen 2, not screen 1. 

The screen works well!

One of our wooden vent covers had been damaged, so I put it back together using wood glue. 

Fixing the wood vent

Then I had two socks and a pair of gloves that needed mending. The gloves were inexpensive and could have been tossed, but why? A few stitches, and they were as good as new. 

Repairing my gloves

The socks were too good to throw out, so they all got mended, and it wasn't such a big job. We are so quick to throw things out with holes, but fixing them only takes a few minutes. So the next time you're tempted to watch a reel, think about mending something while you do it. At least something useful would happen with your time. So many of the reels have no beginning, end, or story, and I would hazard a guess that MANY of those reels are now generated by AI, so what you're watching is NOT real!!! I am back to refusing to watch them. I just tell myself -- keep that 30 seconds for something more meaningful. 

My mending is done

I had two different bits of batting that needed to be sorted and put in the appropriate spot. I accomplished that. 

Sorting the batting

The loose ends of these yarn strands needed to be pulled to the back of the work. DONE! 

The yarn bits got pulled to the back

This container had a label stuck on it. I got out the Goo-Gone, and the label is now history. Does anyone want this container? It would be an excellent box to sort your sewing machine needle types. Otherwise, it's going in the giveaway box. 

The label is removed from the box

The stuff that needed to go upstairs was then put on the stairs. Don't worry—it's all gone and in its appropriate home. 

Stuff to carry upstairs

And the table looked pretty decent. Then I decided that since I had done such a good job, I piled all that stuff on it. That now leaves me TWO tables piled with crap and the rolling cart. I aim to try to clear the two tables by the year's end. I need to focus like I did yesterday. 

The table BEFORE I piled all the crap on it

I have two little repair jobs that require glue. My glue is dried up, or I would have done that yesterday. So the glue is history, and I went to get more glue. 

In the past, I've only seen glue in one tube. 

One tube of glue

But now you can get several tiny tubes. That's the one I bought. I'll fix my two things, and then the one tube will be empty, and I'll have glue for the next job. 

Tiny tubes of glue

We were talking about irons the other day, and YES, I know you can get rid of all water issues by using a dry iron. I tried it for over one month and hated it every time I ironed. I even had a spritzer bottle and used that. Nope—I need steam. 

So, I checked out the irons while I was at the mall. I spotted a cheap iron at $35. 

The cheap iron at $35

But the majority of them are now in the $75 range (that's in CDN) dollars. 

Lots of varieties of irons

I have two brand-new irons, so I don't need to buy one. The one I'm working with right now is fine, but it does need to be cleaned inside, and hopefully, I'll remember that this afternoon. 

I think I mentioned that one of my embroidery machines died last week, and I took it to a technician. Well, I now need to move that machine to a different technician. I thought about that before taking it to the first spot. While they diagnosed the problem, they will not fix this machine. It's a long story, and I won't get into details. OK -- it's not a big deal, but it's all about the ownership of the machine. And it needs to go to a specific technician because of that. I should have anticipated that when I dropped it off, but I did not. So that errand will take several hours this morning. Sigh... But I can blame no one but myself. 

I also emptied the last tub of stuff that had been donated to me. Now, that tub is filled with quilt tops, and the last cardboard box is gone. It looks so much neater, and it's nice to know that this space is no longer being filled with tops. I hope to be emptying it of tops, but I have already pulled enough for this year, so we won't see much difference until next year. 

The last cardboard box is gone

Here's something very important when you are considering decluttering. I give myself 15 years before I think we may need (want) to move from our house. I told that to someone the other day, and they said to use a false deadline—12 years! Anyway, it's easy to let things slide. But as I mentioned at one point, there were 300 community project quilt tops to be quilted. I'm unsure of the number now, but hopefully, it's less than 300. 

So if I quilted one a week, which is doable but aggressive, it would take almost SIX years to complete them all. So I need to attack that pile NOW, which is what I'm doing. 

Until you put all the like things together, count them, and then figure out how to process the quantity, you have NO CLUE. Someone can use those quilts as soon as I finish them rather than donating tubs of quilt tops for someone else to quilt.  

If you do not declutter, there's a good chance you are not even aware of what you own and how much. Many people are unaware of their surroundings or how they affect them! Once you are aware (and I mean really aware), you can make a decision. If you can't see the problem, you don't even know it exists!! I hope that makes sense. But we become complacent about stuff and no longer see it unless we look and become aware. 

And until you start to process your possessions, you have zero concept of the time and labor involved! NONE!!! You think it's easy for your kids to deal with. It is NOT. Never mind the increased mental and physical health benefits of decluttering. It's HUGE!!! 

My laptop was ready for pickup, so I was going to sneak out of the house. Murphy was right by the door, and I thought I could take her for a bit of spin in the car, but the split-second Lexi heard the leash, she was at the door! They got a cookie and stayed home! 

Girls -- not taking you both in the car

I don't know what Murphy's problem was last night. I was in bed reading and had the door partially shut so the light wouldn't disturb anyone. She was a bit panicky about something and tried to jump onto the dresser. What was that all about? 

Well, I have that logistical errand to accomplish this morning, more paperwork (the last two class follow-ups), DH has to go to physio, and then whatever time is left is mine to whittle away at that mess. That one table needs to be clear!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!