Still working on the craftroom.  Today saw me going into the closet in there.  I decided to only do one side at a time so as not to overwhelm my poor little brain.  I am not completely done with the first side but should be able to finish it up yet this afternoon.  Hubby and I just stopped for lunch and we are getting ready to get back to it.  He is still working in the office/ front room.

Here is just a little look at what I have removed from the one side of the closet.

Here are 34 jewelry gift boxes my mom and I used when we gave/sold our homemade jewelry.  I have not made any jewelry since my mom passed away.  Three years is long enough to hang onto these things.

Bingo daubers.................26 of them.  Hubby and I only play bingo when we go to Vegas 2-3 times a year.  No need to keep all of these either.

That is just a sampling of the stuff I found when digging through one side of the closet.  Here is a before picture.

Quite a cluttered mess.  Here is the after:

I can actually find things in there now.  What a difference.

Time to head back into the craftroom and finish up going through items I took out of the closet.

Until next time....................................................................

MAKING SPACE

 

Welcome back.  Hope your day is treating you well.  I had a quick eye appointment this morning and had the joy of getting my eyes dilated. So, if here are a lot of typos in this post, please forgive me.  I was informed my eyes will be wonky until close to dinner time.  Oh Joy!  

Yesterday, I continued to work on my craftroom.  I finally finished sections 3 and 4 of the room.  Here are some photos of what left the room yesterday.

It is hard to admit but, I have never used any of these knitting/crochet books.  Hopefully someone will find them and fall in love with them.

I had two of these mini bushel baskets.  I kept one of them to hold my manicure items but there is no reason to keep the other one.

I have had this sewing box for many years.  It is all cleaned up and I loaded it with sewing notions.  It is still in great shape but I have no use for it anymore.

Okay, how many of you have heard of Jamberry?  I had a friend that sold it many years ago and I loved playing with all the different 'decals' on my nails.  Unfortunately, my RA has put deep ridges in my nails and I can no longer wear Jamberry.  Whoosh......off they went.

Everything has been taken to Goodwill.  I still have the walk in closet to go through in there.  Not thinking that is going to happen today.  Not with these eyes LOL.  Tomorrow will be a good day to start on the closet.  It will probably take 2 days to totally go through it.

Yesterday was also one of my son's birthday.  His 47th!  How did that happen?  We went over to his house on Sunday and played games with his family.  That was fun and it is what he likes to do.  

While working on the craftroom I have also been working on the mending that has been sitting in there.  I only have a dress left to hem up but that will not happen today either.  I did unravel a sweater I had crocheted for myself a couple of years ago.  I only wore it once and decided I was not a fan of it.  I reclaimed all the yarn from it.  I am now on the lookout for another top that will work up well in Cascade Ultra Pima Cotton.  Hopefully something I can wear here in the hot weather.

That is about all for today.  I have some dishes that need hand washing and then lunch sounds like a fabulous idea.

Until next time.............................................................

YOP WEEK 31 OF MY 10TH YEAR

 

Hello my friends.  I have so much to talk about today so, let's get started.

CRAFTING

I have another finish this week.

My daughter's Rose City Roller socks.  She loves them and has already worn them.  She even posted about them on Facebook.  That made me feel pretty darn good.  Once those were done, I had to decide what project to work on next.

I have two languishing WIP's still hanging around in my craftroom closet.  I grabbed both of them and gave them a once over.  Nope, not in the mood for either of them.  There is another WIP that will be ongoing for some time to come.  I looked at it and decided that was not going to make me happy either.  What to do?

How about casting on Daughter's next pair of RCR socks.  Brilliant idea, right?  This is some of my much loved Diversity yarn.  Once again, she picked out the color she wanted.  I told her I had cast on the next pair and she was so happy.  That is when she informed me, "You can make me socks anytime you want.  I love them so much."  Since hubby and I both have plenty of socks, she will be receiving many pairs in the future.

But wait, there's more!

Let's go ahead and start making some Victorian Lace Squares again.  These are such a great 'take along' project.  They are even more portable than socks.  Why did I decide to make these squares again?  Well, while cleaning out (decluttering) the craftroom, I ran across two totes full of fingering weight yarn.  It was a mixture of Knit Picks cotton, Happy Feet (Discontinued) and Serenity yarn.  None of these yarns were going to be made into socks.  The Knit Picks cotton does not have much stretch to it and is just a bit thicker than most of my other sock yarns.  The purple square is from the Knit Picks.  Happy Feet was one of the first non-wool yarns I used to make socks but is not very comfy on the feet.  It is the multi colored square.  Then there is the Serenity yarn.

I have made myself a hat and fingerless mitts from this yarn.  I do love it but don't think it would be much good for socks.  It does not feel like it has much 'memory' in the fiber.  My hat and mitts are lovely though.  This yarn is super soft and has all my favorite colors in one skein.  I have about 4/100 gram skeins of this.  It will be fun to make lots of squares with it and see how the colors show up on it.

If all you wanted to read about was my crafting, you are done.  Next up:

DECLUTTERING THE CRAFTROOM!

Oh my goodness.  I started on the craftroom this past week.  There has been many hours spent in there and I am not even halfway completed with it.  Fingers crossed, I will complete it next week.  Here are some photos of what I found this past week.

Buttons...........lots and lots of buttons.  They were in a small ceramic jar but once I completed the sewing area of the room, they no longer fit.  Now they are in a plastic box with a lid so they won't spill all over.

Here is this weeks items leaving my craftroom.

My old sock ruler, a knitting/craft bag and a holy water holder of St Francis.

Two tote bags that were used for going to the shore when we lived in PA, two pillows/seat cushions.

A scrapbook storage container.  I used it to store my Cricut papers and supplies.  Those are now all housed in a file cabinet that used to house Sashay scarf yarn.  (that went to Goodwill last week)

Two pin cushions.  The square one is one I made YEARS ago.  The purple velvet material is from a dress I wore in high school to a dance and the blue is from a dress my mom wore to my brother's wedding in 1969 and some lace from my grandmother.  I have never used it.

After making many masks and project bags, it was time to go through my material and decide what I would keep and what would be given away.  I also found a lot of Wonder Under that I used back in the day when we were applying cut out material to sweatshirts and then painting them.  

The flowered container on the far right was were I originally had my buttons.  Yup, way too small for the amount I now have.

Why I had decks of cards in my sewing cabinet, I have no idea.  But that is three more decks out of the house.

Good golly, here are 15 patterns.  Some of these were ones I used to make baby clothes for my boys who are all now in their 40's.  And I thought my hubby was a pack rat.  Guess I need to look in the mirror once in a while LOL.

It really feels good to be getting rid of so much out of the craft room.  There is also an entire back of trash out of there so far.  This week, I have a feeling there will be more trash than treasure going.

MY LOVES

The week would not be complete if I did not show you photos of my fur babies.

Enrique is so different from any other dog I have owned.  He is fiercely protective of me.  Follows me every where I go.  But has a bit of the devil in him.  

This is him with my daughter.  The last time she visited, he would not go near her.  This week, he was all over her.  We think the reason he would not go to her last time is, she brought her hubby with her.  He loves her husband which is kind of strange.  He is not a lover of males.  There are only about 4 men he really likes.  The rest he tries and nip the back of their legs.  Bad, bad, bad doggie.

And then there is my sweet, sweet Luna.  She is not feeling well today.  Her tummy is a bit upset.  So, I made her some lovely rice this morning to add to her dry kibble.  It seems to have helped a lot.  She is now resting quite comfortably.  Last night she kept running in and out of the doggy door and her tummy was making ugly sounds.  When I went to bed, she curled up right next to me for quite a while before she went into her bed.  I woke up this morning with her curled up next to my head.  This is very unusual for her.  She is quite independent and not really a cuddler.  So, I knew she was not feeling well.  At the age of 14, I know our days are numbered with her.  So, I will spoil her anyway I can, including making jasmine rice for her to eat.

PERSONAL NEWS

Today, I am remembering my brother.  It was 2 years ago my family and I were with him as he took his last breath.  It doesn't seem like 2 years have passed.  My feelings are not 'sad' today but rather melancholy.  

Yesterday, my mom's last living sibling left this world.  He was the first born and the last to pass away.  He had a long life though....................103!  Yes, we have some long life genes in our veins. 

I woke up about 6 this morning.  Since my to do list seemed pretty long, I got started on it right away.  First thing I did was make Luna some rice in the Ninja Foodi.  Next I got a loaf of bread started.  It is doing it's final rise as I type this.  There is still a dessert to prepare for today, menus to make for the next week or two, 2 loads of laundry to do, empty the dishwasher and do a bit of work on the craftroom.  After I do all that, I will sit back and work on the squares and socks.

This coming Friday, hubby and I will be receiving our first Covid Vaccine injection.  We will be going at 1:30 Friday morning!  I made the appointment a couple of weeks ago.  The reason for the odd time is, I do not want to wait in a line for hours.  I don't think there will be a deluge of people waiting for an injection at that time of the night.  I know there are many who will not be getting the vaccine.  Everyone needs to make their own decision on this.  I want to be able to travel again, see my kids in Texas again, be able to use a dressing room at a store again, go to church and sit next to people again, receive hugs from friends again, have a social gathering at my house again, be able to visit Joe's mom without plexiglass separating us,  celebrate weddings, baptisms, funerals without number restricitons.......etc.  You get the picture.  

It is time to get off the computer and get going on the rest of my to do list.

Until Next Time...............................................Happy Crafting & Stay Well!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MAKING SPACE AND WALKING

 

WOW, Thursday already.  This week has flown by.  

Yesterday, hubby and I worked in our own 'spaces' .  He is handling the office while I work on the craft room.  This works out great for us and will get 2 rooms done.  I think he is further along than I am, though.  That's ok, he has another room that will be his to work on.  (The dreaded backroom)

Here is what happened yesterday in MY space.

These are the few treasures I found to donate to Goodwill.  The bookmark is one I cross stitched years ago when I was doing rehab for my mom after her hip replacement surgery.  I don't think I ever used it.  Yes, that is 3 more decks of cards to be given away.  I chuckled with I found them.  They were in one of the drawers of my sewing machine table.  I guess if I got bored sewing I could play a couple of games of solitaire.

The Philly Phanatic!  This belonged to one of my boys.  His leg fell off and I was asked to repair it.  It has been waiting for that surgery for over 20 years!  I have now asked each of the boys who it belongs to and neither of them think it is theirs!  Josie said she will take it as it is kind of cute.  Yes, I procrastinate doing things now and then.

That is all I did yesterday. It was a short day at home.  Hubby and I went over to Josie's around 12:30 and did not get back home until 6pm.  We had a nice time while with Josie and her BFF.  Hubby helped Josie with her homework and I helped her BFF with hers.  It was kind of nice to be back in the "Classroom" again.

Today, I finally was able to get the dogs on their walk.

This is the way they are supposed to walk on their coupler harness.

But, this is normally what happens.  Luna has the coupler wrapped around her neck.  She is at a dead stop.

Enrique, being the brilliant dog he is (not really), figures out she is not moving until the coupler is unwrapped.  He is in the process of doing that in this photo.

We did not go very far today.  Both Enrique and I need to build up our stamina a bit.  Luna, on the other hand, could have walked quite a bit further.  Hopefully she will be patient with us two chubby walking partners while we build up some endurance.

So, I guess this means, knitting is not a cardio sport, huh.  Who knew!

This will be my last post for the week again.  Tomorrow, after our walk, I need to really concentrate on the craft room if I am going to ever get it completed.  I started section 2 yesterday and only got about 1/4 of it done.  I am hoping to complete that section today so I can move onto section 3 and 4 tomorrow.  That leaves the walk in closet for next week.

Until next time..........................................................................

Making Space in my Craft Room......Day 1

 

Yesterday, I told y'all I would be going into my craftroom this week to start the decluttering in there.  I knew it would take quite a bit of time to completely go through that entire room as well as its walk-in closet.  I am dividing the room into 4 sections and the closet will be done in 2 sections.  

Today's sections was the wall that houses my rolling file cabinet, cricut desk and rolling cart that has a stereo on it as well as several drawers in it.  I spent about 4 hours in there today working on that one section.  Let me just say, I must have learned my storage skills from my mother.  LOL  I had flat items against the wall with the desk and rolling cart holding them there.  I was amazed at how many items I was 'rat holing'.  There were many items that got tossed into the trash and lots of items that went into the recycling bin.

Here is a photo of what is going to be heading to Goodwill this weekend.

From the top:  My mom's hearing aids and glasses will be going to the Lion's Club not Goodwill.  Second row: 31 cassette tables, 13 skeins of Sashay yarn and 2 bags.  (One is a bag for the cricut and the other is a bag I got from the mortuary when my mom passed.  Bottom row:  4 ruffled scarves, incense dish, wired ear buds, designer necklace with wooden box and rotating night light.

That is section one completed.  I have a file folder to go through that has all my mom's important documents in it.  Some I will need to keep and others will be shredded.  It really hit hard today, when going through this section of the room.  I found all the cards, photos, church bulletins etc from my mom's death and funeral.  It completely tore me up.  The tears came and there was nothing I could do to stop them.  I did not realize how much I missed her and all the good times we had together.  I am cherishing all those special moments we had. 

   I did find something very special while working in section one.

My sweet friend in Las Vegas sent this to me at Christmas time.  She is the one I call all the time when I run into an issue with stitches or terminology I don't understand.  This is the book she uses to answer my questions.  Now I don't need to call her in a panic anymore LOL.  I have been browsing through it and have found so many helpful ideas already.  If you need a fantastic book to help you in your knitting, this is the one to get.

Other than cleaning section one of the CR, I also took Enrique to Petco to get his rabies vaccine today.  He was not thrilled with the trip as it was still raining.  He had to walk in the rain to get into the building.  He is such a wussy about getting wet.  He doesn't know it, but starting this week, he and I are going to start walking again..............every day.  I was shocked when they weighed him today.  He is 5-7 pounds above what he should be.  Rain or shine, we are going to walk until it gets too hot for his feet to be on pavement.  Of course, that means Luna gets to walk too.  I have a double harness for them so I only need to use 1 leash.  It is pretty funny to watch them walk together.  Luna does not like to stop for anything.  Enrique loves to sniff EVERYTHING.  So, Luna is always yanking him along on the walks.  Me?  I just hold onto the leash and let Luna take over.  For being 14, she is pretty spry and has plenty of spunk.

I was going to bake bread today but never got around to it.  It may still happen tonight after dinner.  The house will smell so good when we go to bed.  

Tomorrow, I will start on section 2 of the CR.  Hubby and I need to leave around 12:30 to go have lunch with the Grand Daughter and our adopted grand daughter (it is Josie's BFF since kindergarten). After lunch, I will be taking her to her school for school photos.  Then hubby and I will stay with her for a little while.  She and my hubby are working on a current events project for one of her classes.  That means I get to play with Thor while they are busy with homework.  Maybe the adopted GD, Thor and I will walk about the neighborhood for a little bit.  Work some of his energy off of him.

Time to pick up some knitting and work on it.  I completely ignored knitting last night.  Just didn't feel the urge to knit.  

Until next time......................................................................

MAKING SPACE

 

It must be Monday.  I had lots of energy today even though I only got 5 hours of sleep.  Last night, I got a text from my grand daughter telling me I did not need to come over today.  The only day she needs help is Tuesday and Wednesday.  Hubby is going to take care of Tuesday for me as I have an appointment for Enrique's rabies shots smack in the middle of the time she wanted me to come over.  That meant I had the day today to work some more on the house.  Here is what I did.

First, all the books from the family room went into the bookcases in the guest room.

Nice empty bookshelves in the family room.

All our books located in one place....finally.  Feels so good to have that done.

That took a couple of hours to complete.  While I was doing that, hubby started working on the office.  Since he was doing such a great job in there, I offered to go and do the weekly grocery shopping.  He was more than happy to let me do that little chore.

Good grief.............The parking lot at the grocery store was FULL!  Yet, there were not that many people inside of the store.  Strange.  I was able to get in and out in about half an hours time.  By the time I got home it was lunch time.  

After lunch, I got a text from our daughter letting me know she was not going to be coming to our side of town tonight.  We have had torrential rain all day yesterday and today.  Streets are flooding, people are driving like idiots and the winds are holding steady at 45 MPH.  Not good weather to be driving on the freeways.  I am glad she decided to cancel tonight's plans with us.  

That means, hubby and I will have LOTS of Italian beef to eat over the next few days.  Not to mention a lovely Nantucket Cranberry Cake I made from scratch.

This is the photo before I put it in the oven.  It is baking right now.  I have never tasted this cake before so am looking forward to trying it tonight after dinner.  Do you see the pink color on top?

It was my first time to use sanding sugar too.  It is not supposed to melt when cooked but just add a bit of pretty to the item it is sprinkled on.  

Here it is after baking.

Hopefully it tastes as good as it smells.

I was going to make a loaf of bread today, but ran out of time to do that.  I will probably do that tomorrow.  The beer has been sitting out for 24 hours.  That is good as it works better if the beer is flat.  There were other errands hubby wanted to do today but with it raining so hard all day long, he decided to put it off until later this week.  No need to go on the road with all the crazies.

Tonight, I will work on the RCR sock some more.

Since yesterday, I have added almost 40 rows to the sock.  Knitting in the round is the perfect TV knitting.  It goes fast too.

Tomorrow, I am going to start decluttering my craft room.  I will have 3 days this week to work on it and all next week to finish it.  I am looking forward to working in there.  It is my little slice of heaven and I love making it all nice and neat.  That gets my creative juices going.  I know there is quite a bit of 'stuff' in there that needs to leave this house.  Stay tuned for updates.

Until next time...........................................................................

WEEK 30 YOP

 

Hey there.  Nice of you to drop by today.  We are getting some much needed rain today.  I love a cold rainy day.  They happen so seldom, I relish the ones we get.  I am hunkered down with a blanket, my hot tea and have a dog cuddled up with me.   Perfect scenario to do some blogging.

This was a very productive week.  Both in knitting/crocheting and in decluttering.  First, the knitting/crocheting.

The Havana is completed and now resides with it's new owner.  (My daughter)  She text me last night to say she took a nap under it yesterday and WOW!  It is certainly not a blanket she will be needing to use this summer.  She said it felt like a lightly weighted blanket and was VERY warm and comfy to sleep under.  I very much enjoyed making this blanket.  I intentionally made it wider than the pattern as I wanted it to fit a queen bed.....and it does.  Instead of doing a crocheted border, I choose to do the twisted fringe border to save on purchasing more yarn.  I already have plans to make another of her patterns.  The next one will be made with DK weight yarn and it will use up most all of my DK stash.  Does this mean I can purchase more yarn?  Hmmmmmmm........

As you know, I started on a Rose City Roller sock a couple of weeks ago, when I was dog/teen watching.  Once the Havana was completed, I turned my attention to the sock.

One sock is completed and the second one is just a wee bit past the heel.  The bright colors make these seem like they are flying off the needles.  I have teen/dog duty again this week so I am sure sock #2 will most likely get completed.  I only have one worry.......running out of yarn for the second sock.  I do have another skein of this yarn but matching up the striping will be interesting.  I hate cutting into a skein to make that happen.  We will see how far I get though.  As you can tell, the stripes do not match up 100% as it is.  My thinking is the toe is where I will need to attach the new skein of yarn so it may not make much difference since that part will be in a shoe.  These will be going to my daughter, also.  She picked out this yarn and another yarn so I could make her two pairs of socks as her others have finally worn out.  (10 years of wear is pretty good.)

As far as decluttering goes..................We actually are further along than the scheduled list.  Most everyone in the group will be starting week 4 (the laundry room) but hubby and I have already done that.  (We are over achievers)  Since I am going to be gone 90% of the week, hubby is going to attack the office.  He is the one that uses it 90% of the time.  Therefore, I will let him organize it the way that makes him happy and he knows what needs to be thrown out and what needs to be kept.  I will say, in October, we did a pretty big clean out in that room so it should not be too hard for him. 

This past week we worked on decluttering our guest room.  It had become a dumping ground for all sorts of things.  We decided to turn it into am exercise/guest room combo.  Hubby was great in helping me in there.  Our main area to go through were 2 six foot tall bookcases.  Those were gone through in 2 days and then hubby was on a roll.  He also went through the 2 built in bookcases on either side of the fireplace as well as a barristers case in the office.  In total we moved 447 books out of our house.  

As you can see, we still have books in our house.  I still need to go and straighten up the books in the cases on the left photo.  I have a feeling I will be able to get them all into one bookcase.

Here is what 407 books in boxes look like.  The other 40 books are in a box in another room as it is only half full and I have some other items that will be going into that box to fill it up for the donation truck.

As more and more items leave our home, I feel lighter and lighter.  It is amazing how having so much 'stuff' can weight you down.

Today I will be making a loaf of bread, planning menus, emptying the dish washer and knitting.  That is all I have on my schedule.  There is left over enchilada soup we will be having for dinner tonight.   Oh, and there are a couple of championship football games to watch today too.  

What is on your list of things to do today?

Until Next Time................................Happy Crafting and Stay Well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!