1-21-13: MLK Day

What a weekend!  I'm happy that my current full-time job honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by giving us this day as a holiday.  I reflected on his legacy and also read through Little Olive's first-grade view on him and caught up on what she is learning in the classroom.  I love that the kids get insight into all the holidays, big and small.  She had a great little "book" she put together on him.

With regard to my resolutions, I did take a teensy step backward.  I had to go up to Joann's Fabric to get brown strapping to complete two tote bags I started last summer.  Of course, after a 45 minute drive, I had to look and see what else was available and on sale.  I was also manned with three, 50% off coupons on non-sale items (namely, the strapping because it is never on sale).  I came home with this:

Fabrics for more new totes and for four new baby gift sets.  I also bought more of the owl-on-branch and woodland fabric because I think the sets will quickly sell.  Plus, SIL Olive #2, just had Nephew Olive #3 and she wanted the Owl blanket....so I was already down to three. 

I did get a quilt top completed.  I used two charm packs of Tula Pink's fabric line "The Birds and the Bees", but that numbered only 60, six-inch squares.  I could make a 10x6 top, but that is too long....8x7 is more-balanced, but then I'd have four squares leftover.  I decided to use three squares of extra fabric in my stash that had birds on it so I would have enough for 63 squares for a 9x7 layout.  It will be a great lap quilt size once Mother Olive finishes it up:

I did make 24 squares to make a "Rail Fence" quilt, but haven't figured how best to construct.  I have another jelly-roll of the same fabric, so I may make another 24 squares and make three, 16-square tops, or one each of a 3x4, 4x4, and 5x4 tops. Decisions.....decisions.....

 As far as the de-cluttering goes, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.  This is our dining room before.....

....and here it is after.............

All the stuff was either TOSSED or PUT AWAY in its proper place.  Most wound up in the trash.

Happy Monday Night!

Addendum to my 2013 New Year's Resolutions....

I had the nagging feeling I was forgetting to include something and you know how that feeling always turns out to be right? It was again.

During Christmas vacation while I was sick, I happened upon a show called "Hoarders".  I think it has been on for a couple years, but this was the first time I saw it - and it was purely by chance as the station was tuned when I turned on the set.  So I watched.  And watched for another hour given the back-to-back episodes.  What I saw was CRAZY.  While I can no way relate to the lady who hoarded cats, those both living and dead (which weren't buried, but socked away in her refrigerator and freezer), when they showed the artsy-craftsy lady who could no longer BE artsy or craftsy because she had no space due to the magnitude of STUFF she'd accumulated, part of me related to her plight.  My first resolution is to sew-down my fabric stash.  And I will have pictures on Sunday to show what I completed.  But other snippets of these women's lives (all four story lines were female hoarders) showed piles of newspapers, magazines, bottles, books, supplies for any need - and some never bothered to wash a dish or clean their remaining living space at all.  NOW, I'm not anywhere near that level, but I do have piles of stuff around the house that I reason I will go through before throwing out, or will put away into the place it belongs.  I also have a supple of beauty products since I love lotions and potions.  Which brings me to the addendum....

#6) Go through the piles of "stuff" and make a decision - KEEP or TOSS.  What is kept needs to go where it needs to be, which it likely not on my dining room table.  I'm keeping this resolution manageable for me....one "area" a weekend.  If I bite off more than I can chew, it won't work. I need to feel like I've accomplished and closed.  New Years weekend, I did the first pile and tossed 97% of it.  The remaining KEEP was readily put away.  Last weekend I tacked the two drawers under my sewing machine on the sewing table.  The stuff that stayed in the drawers was fine, but I also threw alot out - and organized an email list for periodic mailings for Olive Street Studio when we have new items or a sale. :-)

#7) Use up my products before buying new ones.  I am a complete sucker for Bath & Body Works clearance sales because they have delicious scents.  And because I'm not a make-up girl, but rather a soaps and lotions, I cannot pass up a good scent, so I buy it.  In 2013, like I had in a prior year's resolution list, I am also going to use up the soaps and lotions I have and not buy more until needed.  I've accumulated many little sample bottles from hotel stays because I can't bear the thought of using two days of shampoo and conditioner and housekeeping tossing the remainder into the can.  I'm going to keep a running total of the number I've used up with the empties hitting the recycling bin.  I decided to use the hotel samples first since I can clear out faster.

Running total: 2 hotel samples; 1 medium size lotion.

Whew!  Now THAT is my complete resolution list.  I'm encouraged by my two weeks progress.  Let's see if by Sunday, I've made more....

Happy Friday!