Wednesday, January 5, 2022

We had some snow overnight but we are expecting even more tonight. There was a bit of snow that came down just after lunch and the temperature is low enough that everything is still white. When I looked out the patio door before I went to bed last night there were two deer visiting in the yard next door. I haven’t seen any deer in town for quite awhile and it was nice to know they are still in the neighbourhood.

Our package from Elizabeth arrived today with most of our Christmas goodies enclosed. I haven’t put away the one decoration I set out and our new banjo-playing Santa will get put away soon. I purchased a case for storing ornaments (on Christy’s recommendation) so I’ll wait for it to arrive before I put things away. Once I have that I know there will be some reorganizing that I’ll want to do.

For a cross stitch day I haven’t accomplished much. Those half-hour sessions can really eat up a day. More Hall work and more Guild work and then the impossible task of sorting through quilting patterns.

I went through my patterns a month or so ago so my decluttering task was a little easier than starting from scratch. I put the patterns I really really want to make in a bin and left the others in a magazine rack. So today I went through the magazine rack and cleared out a few more. I’ll offer them to the Guild and then they will be added to my ever-growing pile of bags for the thrift shop. Not only were we to go through our paper patterns but she also suggested we should go through our digital patterns. I have more digital patterns than I have paper patterns so I’m going to need about 30 days to go through and organize them.

I was two weeks behind on my 2021 Peppermint Purple stitch-along so today I caught myself up on those patterns. That still leaves a substantial amount of border to take care of. And today the first pattern for the 2022 stitch-along was released and I was in no way ready. This afternoon I picked out my fabric, organized the threads I need and marked the centre of my fabric. Pat has an online event tonight so I might be able to get started on some actual stitching.

Tuesday, January 4, 2022

What can you get done in thirty minutes?

I’m taking my decluttering guidelines and putting them to work on other projects I have in my task list. I spent half an hour working on some Hall stuff; I didn’t get it finished but I think I’ll be able to wrap it up tomorrow. I spent half an hour on some Guild work and didn’t accomplish much but I have some files lined up and ready to work on the next time that task appears.

We made a trip out to do some recycling this morning. I convinced/guilted Pat into coming along; although it probably took longer than thirty minutes it didn’t take as long as it would have had I been on my own. I was given some mis-information on where to recycle some old paint so I will have to deal with that another day.

After lunch I worked on the decluttering tasks we were given for today – fifteen minutes sorting through quilting books and half an hour with a UFO. I’ll need several more sessions before I get through my quilting books. I didn’t get much done on my UFO as I had to redo a couple of things from yesterday and I know I have to redo something else the next time I’m working on the project.

I’ve had a pretty good afternoon doing some prep work for the project Stacia, Deloise and I will be doing next week. It is slow and messy but if I can get this part sorted out before our stitching date I’ll have a hope of having at least a block or so to show before they are both finished.

For the past several evenings I’ve thought my crocheting project would be done but not so. I have at least one more night to go but I have managed to empty a yarn bin and that makes me very happy.

Monday, January 3, 2020

I had a couple of errands I wanted to take care of before I started on my task list for the day. I have a package to get in the mail and yesterday when Pat and I were talking I expected the Post Office would be closed today. I checked their website this morning and it said they were open. So off I went only to find it closed until tomorrow.

Next stop was the pharmacy as I wanted to return our KN95 masks. Based on a Market Place report there was some doubt as to the efficacy of their masks. I explained to them what I had read; they didn’t know who the manufacturer was but assured me the box they came in had the name. They were sold out so no further help there. The clerk said that the masks they sold were better than “these ones” as she pointed to her cloth mask. I bit my tongue but you know my head was saying, “Well why aren’t you wearing your own KN95 masks then?”.

My cleaning and divesting challenge spurred Pat on to clear out some things on his side of the closet; he found three bags of shirts and T-shirts that he was able to part with! I wanted to take them to the thrift store but they are closed until the 10th. So home I came with nothing taken care of.

My decluttering tasks were relatively pleasant today. I took 15 minutes to go through the quilting magazines on my shelf. I didn’t get through all of them but there were only three in the pile that I thought I still wanted to keep. Then I was to do 30 minutes of work on a UFO. It is debatable whether or not what I worked on was a UFO. I need cards for February and I use my Splendid Sampler patterns for them. None of the cards were started but the SS1 and SS2 blocks are on my UFO challenge for the year.

When Pat shopped yesterday he brought home more ground beef and pork than I needed for my Tourtiere so I used it up today making meatballs. I freeze them individually and then put them in a bag to be pulled out whenever we need them. There are more than two dozen in the freezer; I may be done with cooking and food prep for the rest of the year!

Once that was finished I did a little bit of work on a new scrappy quilt using Mum’s fabrics. I haven’t made a lot of progress but I’m in no rush to get it done.

Sunday, January 2, 2022

I woke up this morning to the sound of dripping water. I was happy to know that the rain had arrived and the snow was melting. I didn’t go back to sleep but then I realized that the drip was a lot closer than outside. When I got up to investigate the bathroom fan had water dripping (dare I say running at times); I think the snow on the roof was melting and until it slid off it was melting beneath and running through the vent. It stopped dripping by mid-morning and even though it is raining heavily now there doesn’t seem to be any more drips.

I was determined to keep up to date on my task list today. I had removed or re-dated many of the tasks from last year that I hadn’t managed to complete. Most of them are tied in with my Challenges for the year and I added in several steps from both my e-mail and my “occasional” challenges. I’ve spent almost all day working at them and I’m happy to say I’m either caught up or have them slotted into times over the next week.

Pat went for some groceries this morning and I added a few things to his list. I’ve made a Tourtiere for supper, and we’ll have a spinach salad with it. That meant a lot more cooking than I usually do – the pie itself, plus bacon and boiled eggs for the salad. While I had the bacon out Pat suggested I cook it all and throw it in the freezer so that is what I did. I had planned to make up some meatballs to keep in the freezer but I ran out of energy so I’ll make them tomorrow. I don’t cook often and today I’ve had a good reminder why – it takes so much time and then there is all the cleaning up to do.

I want to get a start on some of my stitching challenges for the rest of the day. One of the decluttering tasks was to clear off the sewing table and clean your machine. Both my machines really needed it so I’m all set to go.