Woolythyme

25-thing-a-day-purge month...

January...the clean-sweep month...time to organize and reorganize...decorate and redecorate.  The Christmas stuff is put away...the house looks sleeker...cleaner....and now it needs the  (mini drum roll here, please....) --- 25-thing-a-day-purge.

 

I did this sometime last year for a month---and it really felt good.  Got rid of some clutter.  Since then, I found a book entitled Throw out 50 Things: clear the clutter, find your life.   (Of course, I had to buy it to add to my clutter)  In it--each 'category' is counted as one thing (ie, if you throw out 50 books, it only counts as one thing)...I'm afraid I'd most likely cheat and not get rid of as many things as I really could.  I think I like my system better.  By January 31st, I'll be 725 'things' lighter.

 

I sort of got a jump start.  A woman I know slightly through some regional church functions was  the victim of a fire -- yesterday.  She and her brother and dog got out--with the clothes on their backs--, they have a place to stay, they have insurance--they will be OK, but everything smells smokey.  We're about the same size.....three giant bags of clothes, hats, mittens, a bunch of handknits!!!! are headed her way.  (PapaGeek is on a church committee with her and they meet today.)  I think she'll be pleased, and I got a start on my January letting-go.  I'm counting that as January 1 and 2--she's getting a lot of stuff.

 

Now....off to the freezer.... that should be good for 10+ tosses....

 

scary stuff down there!!!! 

 

 

 

 

weekending....making an AG doll skirt

 Last weekend when our out of town Grands were visiting, The Bling (age 3, almost 4) asked for Grandma clothes for her American Girl (facsimile, but we're not discriminating) doll for Christmas.  I'm on it!  I've done some for her older sisters' dolls, so I have patterns in hand.  Polished off a sweater lickedy-split; and the granny afghan that might have gotten finished sometime mid-century got some edging and, ta-dah!! dolly has a blanket.  

The sweater needed a skirt--so that was the project this weekend.  But first, I thought the other things needed to go into a little doll suitcase that had belonged to the Bling's great-grandma when she was a little girl.  I knew exactly where it was; I just forgot that these dolls were in it---in pieces.

A friend of my mom's brought them from her homeland in Czechoslovakia in the mid 50's; they are beautifully dressed in hand sewn clothes and are much happier now that they have their legs and heads back on.  (The Chuckie look was pretty scary; glad I didn't open the case while the little ones were here.)

Back to the skirt.  I've stashed odds and ends of fabric in a pie safe.  It looked like this.

YUCK!  How can you find a darn thing in that mess?  So, a couple hours later....and massive rearranging in a corner cupboard, things look like this....

Not perfect by any means, but considerably better.  See those brown fabric bins?  They used to hold yarn.  Since I just dumped the yarn to get to the bins, I had a huge yarny mess to clean up, made more messy by Freddy who had a field day ripping labels off skeins of yarn.  (I was too busy chasing him and rescuing stash to take a picture.  Sorry.)    Luckily, I had enough empty project bags to accommodate the dumped yarn.  But I stuffed randomly---that redo will have to wait for another day.  Today, I'm making a skirt.

But, before I settle in---I better get the cast-offs still scattered on the floor into the scary basement with the rest of the rummage sale stuff.  Done.  

WOW.  Look at all that space cleared in front of the French doors....and I really need to bring in all the houseplants that have been vacationing outside.  I repotted the ones that needed it...

.dragged in the plant stand....

 

Was that corner always so dark?  It needed a lamp.  I stole one from the kitchen...which left an empty space on the plate rack---I'll bring in the vase of flowers from the dining room table---and put a bowl of fruit in ITS place---BUT, the only fruit I have are some apples that really need to be used, so I guess I'll make an apple (with frozen blueberries) pie.

 I had no idea it would be so hard to make a little skirt.  Maybe next week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

weekending.....

the weekend has been full of.........

:: venturing to an out of town wedding....a fairy-tale event!

:: ending the third week of the 25-thing-a-day household purge  (am I "finished"?  heavens, no!!  but stopping for awhile, 525+ "things" lighter--but, I'm the only one who can tell~)

:: wishing all the CSA corn this week wasn't  full of mushy bugs  (ick-o)

:: packing up a dozen little tea-ny caps for the Seaman's church project with Starbucks to mail tomorrow

 :: smelling cookies baking!!!

:: packing once again

:: trying a new lamb stuffed pepper recipe (and not thinking too hard about that poor wooly sheep)

:: reading my latest knitting project pattern wrong---and hoping I erred for the good (this sometimes happens--not often, but sometimes!  I'm having an optimistic weekend)

and.... 

:: smiling--because my zinnias just keep on blooming, when everything else is dried up and gone

 

joining amanda at the habitofbeing for weekending....hope yours was grand

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

The Santas are all put away.  But "he" and all his little elf helpers were very good to us again this year!  Family pictures and picture calendars, notecards designed by budding artists (JayBob and the Candyman!),  donations in our name to some of our favorite charities (I actually got a share of Heifer International's knitting basket--is that perfect, or what???) and some amazingly funky wonderful antique-y tchotchkes.   Hope you all had a wonderful day as well.

But when Christmas day is over, I just have to put the Santas away.  He's been here, he's gone, and the Santa decorations just have to go, too.  The lights are OK, the greenery stays, and of course, the creches will be out until Epiphany, but Santa....sorry, big guy.  But, when Santa leaves..... Frosty and all his snowman friends appear!  This might be as close as we get to snow....so I'm counting it!

A moment....

A single picture...joining Amanda at Soulemama.

 

Weekending...

: I snuck away from the retreat long enough to have a little walk by the lake and through the woods on a perfect autumn day

: started lots of red scarves for the red scarf project   (and taught two people to knit!)

: saw knitting friends at the community-wide wienie roast (but didn't stay for Monsters, Inc under the stars)

: helped #1 Daughter pack a few boxes for the move

: lit the first fire of the season

I just love this time of year so much!

 

Weekending with Amanda at habit of being.

Weekending.....

 
What better way to spend a beautiful fall day than taking to the road and antiquing junking  with a friend?

Passed up a couple of real treasures....

I LOVE the Steelers!  Every 4-5 years we even have a Steelers party.  Wouldn't this be great?  I passed it up.  (I live in a really really really small cottage--storage is at a premium and this would be stored 99.9% of its life with us.  Can't do it.)

Or how about this treasure???

 

A silk lobster (creel sold separately), and we all know how I LOVE lobsters!  ????Nope.

It breaks my heart to see wonderful handknit/handcrocheted things in these kinds of shops going for next to nothing--knowing the time, effort, talent, and $$ that went in to the creating.  Sometimes I feel I just have to rescue them....

 
Can you read that tag....$200!!!  They obviously treasured it enough for both of us. 

So...what did I buy???

 
a little frog planter...isn't he cute?

and....

 

BOO!!!  Isn't he creepy??  (I LOVE decorating for Halloween!)

 

But, I've saved the best for last.  We went in to this mall.....
antiques? fleas? furniture? treasure?

 
and found this....

yep--no doubt about it....treasure!!!!!!

 

Won't this.... 

 

look great made into this?  I checked the pattern, and I was 2 balls short, but....

THEY SHIP!!!!!!

weekending with amanda

 

 

Weekending.....

It's labor day weekend here in the States, so it just made sense to do some laboring....

 

  

zucchini bread--almost

 

 
CSA box (our Amish friends are very generous--this is just a 1/2 box)

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

sweet, old girl, inspite of the scary eyes (I think this must be red-eye in cataract doggie eyes, but the red-eye corrector in the camera couldn't detect it.  Anyone out there have a solution for this problem????)

 

 

* made zucchini bread to use up last week's CSA squash, to make room in the fridge for this week's bounty.

* did laundry

* cleaned out the freezer, which was sort of like going on an archeological dig in the Antarctica.  Found some real scary ice-encrusted unidentifiable relics, and rescued a myriad of freezer containers so I can freeze more stuff to drop in the black hole of the freezer.  I really felt like I accomplished something there.  (Also found something for dinner--it was a win-win.)

*removed summer decorations (and some spring ones that I apparently missed when I changed seasons earlier) and dug out some fall things.  It's really hard to pretend that fall is just around the corner when it's 101 degrees outside, but the weatherman has assured us that this week, the temps are going to drop--and I'm holding him to it.  Fall is my favorite of all the seasons--and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it.  (I did NOT get out my sweaters though)

* cheered on PapaGeek as he labored in the yard; he has a vendetta against the houttuynia (very, very nasty invasive groundcover) in the front flower beds and has diligently worked most of the summer to eradicate the beast  He thinks he's winning.  My money is still on the houttuynia.  I really hope I'm wrong.

* walked #1-Daughter's dog (they're camping) more times than I'd like to think.  Ordinarily, this wouldn't count as labor (or at least only as a labor of love), but in these temps, I'm counting it.

*did my little job at the library; this week it was a big job.

* I knit. (oops, that's not labor...that's fun!)

 
Acorns