January - Goals

I find myself sewing in the kitchen simply because my sewing room has become so cluttered! I made a goal to purge, re-organize, de-clutter my sewing room this month. It is almost the end of January, so this weekend I made my move.

So I spent most of Saturday emptying the cardboard boxes I had stacked in the middle of the room. There were photo albums from my parents house; all my daughter's high school memorabilia and odd and ends that really needed to go! It is a terrible misuse of this space - but I find myself dumping things in my sewing space that I just don't want to deal with.  Then I run from the room closing the door behind me!  I am such a procrastinator.

So nice to purge - really it is,  and now that I have cleared everything that was in the way, satisfying to see what really is important to me. 

I spent hours pressing, folding and wrapping all my fabrics.  Sigh.... I love vintage style fabrics.

 This is what my cupboard looked like after I reorganized. It is like playing 'doll house'; at least that is what it feels like.  All my sewing accessories: my vintage patterns, pins, button tins & bolts of fabrics are like the 'doll house' furniture.

I may need a bigger cabinet.  Happy new year all.

January vision for 2012

I attended a very inspiring & fun workshop this weekend designed around envisioning your goals for the new year. We were a large and enthusiastic group.
Apparently, a big part of my vision is keeping my 'vintage vibe' strong  while deciding what 'treasures' are worth keeping.  If you don't get what that is about..... purging!

 

 

Being middle-aged, for me, means having alot of stuff.   But you eventually must ask yourself, what is worth keeping or letting go?

My fabrics stay!

Mini Bolts

See the bolts of fabric, to the left of the wicker basket?  There is a clever idea circulating around the blogosphere lately.... a way to display and sort  quilt fabrics.  This method is called 'mini bolts', whereby a piece of sturdy cardstock/cardboard (approx 7" x 11") is wrapped with half a yard or more of quilting cotton. It is folded/wrapped and then I use one of my crazy quilt pins to secure it.  The result .... a mini bolt of quilt fabric that is much easier to display than having everything in baskets!  You know, a mini version of a bolt of fabric from a quilt shop. This reminds of playing 'house' when I was a kid, except now I can pretend my sewing room is my own fabric store.  I will have to come up with a name for my store!  Also, I have re-discovered fabric purchases from a year or so ago... wow I have lots of fabrics.

Outer Order adds to Inner Calm

Working on house projects... & enjoying putting finishing touches on our 'library' (aka our old dining-room, kid's computer room) but hub & I now realize that we need more shelving - as there are lots more books to shelve yet.  I enjoy sorting through the books we stored away - never to be given away - like Goosebumps & The Babysitter's Club chapter books. Volumes of memories... However there are a couple of very messy closets that I have pledged to clean out this coming month so further puttering with our book collections will have to wait! 

But this afternoon I am savoring our library books collected over the years.

Productive week

Booked a week off from work to work on some house projects.  The project list is long. What can I say?  I always envision getting more accomplished than I can, but it was a productive week.

Didn't really think I would get through my long list, not in one week, just the same it is fun to look back at our progress.

First, the process of elimination of the paint colour - there were three contenders; our final choice was nothing too wild this time around (Benjamin Moore "Old Prairie"), actually the most neutral color choice in decades.

  Then always a favourite part of the job, taking the room apart. Love doing that!  It is probably because we have lived in the same house so long (25 years) and this is close to simulating that 'new house' feel. You know, the empty rooms that echo when you talk, & blank walls waiting for you to make your move.

Hub is a good sport about my re-decorating bug, mostly. Motorhead fans aren't normally occupied with decorating ideas.  He never really sees the need, but is great about moving furniture from floor to floor of the house. My grand plan always unfolds while in progress - I begin with a notion and then let it take us wherever it goes.

So this week, we had a notion to go to IKEA - always good for ideas. We really enjoy seeing the young couples and families shopping for home stuff.  I really liked these Jennylund chairs, especially the one hub is sitting in - but he wasn't as enchanted as I was.

I really liked these Jennylund chairs, especially the one hub is sitting in - but he wasn't as enchanted as I was.

  Our big IKEA purchase this week were these Vallvik shelves - however we managed to fill them up very quickly, (shhhh!) we really should've bought at least another two sections. There are still boxes of books & all our CD's that we aren't ready to part with yet.....Oh well, next time.

We did stop by my favourite furniture store in Langley and hub bought this beautiful hutch for all of my dishes.

Magazine Collections

Isn't everyone familiar with the story of the vast National Geographic collection? You know the story... someone has a complete set of National Geographic magazines stashed in their basement and if you were to stack them on top of each other, they would probably stand several stories high! The magazine collection takes up half of the basement and it was necessary to hire a truck to haul them all away!  These stories usually surface when a house owner has passed on, and the family members who have come to clear out the house have made the 'grisly' discovery in the basement; a vast collection of the familiar yellow publications moldering away.

I don't know what I find the most unsettling about this urban legend (actually true story), the amount of magazines one can collect over a few decades or how much stuff can be 'stashed' away in a basement.

Hub & I have lived in the same house now for 24 years, which is a long time. I have lived longer in this house than any other during my whole life.  I really like this fact. And truthfully I have prided myself on how well I have kept our home 'thinned' out. 'Thinning', is the word I use to describe de-cluttering with a purpose. We're all familiar with how to de-clutter - this concept is well circulated these days!  Perhaps I don't always adhere strictly to the rules, but I am aware of them. . So we try to stay on the phoning lists for great organizations such as Canadian Diabetes or Big Sisters & Brothers of the Fraser Valley to assure that their  wonderful volunteers will call our house every other month asking if we have clothing or small household items to donate. I always say yes!

Further, I have always generously given away mine & my children's clothing to our local thrift shops and our local church charity stores. I have made a concerted effort to keep our possessions current, useful and relevant.

I keep our family photos in photo-boxes (most of the time), & my now-grown children's old school artwork & report cards in special totes (hopefully I will be able to give these collections to them in the near future). As for anything else not necessary to our lives during the year (necessities would include seasonal decorations & all my gardening accessories), it must go!

I was a bit shocked at the number of Real Simple & Martha Stewart magazines that I had stashed in our basement, under my night stand & in the closet of my sewing room, plus a very large amount in our laundry room!  I am talking hundreds of them. I couldn't believe it. I would hate to do the math, you know where you add up how much you had spent on magazine subscriptions over the years. And I do mean over the years as I have magazines dating back as far as 1993. Oh my. 

Well they are all boxed up now, in the back of my minivan, ready to go to our local thrift store drop off. I will breath a sigh of relief today as I drive away from the drop-off zone; a narrow escape from a nasty urban legend.