Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Wednesday is hand stitching day and I look forward to it all week. But first I had to take care of a bit of cleaning and decluttering.

Today’s specific decluttering task for the sewing room was to clear out electronics that are no longer in use. I don’t have any sewing-related electronics and I recycled my old iPads a few weeks ago. So it was onto a cleaning task – the bedroom closet.

I had beach towels in a basket that hadn’t been put away since Christy and the kids were here at the end of August. They are back in the bag where they belong. That gave me room to get at the shelf to put away my summer shoes. Then I packaged up the pads for the outdoor furniture and moved them to the shed; I have room for them in the closet but decided they should go to the shed with the other seasonal things. I was really motivated by then and cleared out a few more bags for donation. I checked out a couple of suitcases for hidden treasures and got them ready to recycle. I’ve debated for a long time about getting rid of them but pulling them bothers my back and hips and I haven’t used them for years. From now on I’ll be backpacking on my travels.

I wanted to get everything off to the thrift shops today in case I changed my mind about any of my donations but apparently no one takes donations on Wednesday. I’ll go out tomorrow and I’ll take everything to one shop; I don’t think they have a limit on how much they take.

The rest of my day was spent on my hand stitching. I got the binding stitched down on yesterday’s project and finished this week’s Peppermint Purple block. I found another stitch along online this morning; I’ve downloaded the files but I haven’t pulled any fabric or threads for it. I’m hoping by next week when block three comes out I’ll have my mind back!

I’m still working my way around the border of last year’s Peppermint Purple project and I’m ready to start a new knitting project tonight.

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Because I would normally be at the Guild bee on a Tuesday I hadn’t scheduled any cleaning tasks for the day. Since I was home though I did a few loads of laundry just to keep up. My decluttering task was to sort through my scissors and rotary cutters. I put my extra scissors together in a bag a couple of days ago as I worked through another task and I only have a couple of rotary cutters so it was an easy day.

I worked on cards today and I expected to get a couple done but the day is almost over and I only have one finished and ready for binding; it is a larger version than my usual cards so I guess it makes sense that it would take longer. I’ll work on the hand stitching until it is time for me to make supper; Pat teaches guitar tonight so I’m in charge. It’s just bacon and pancakes so definitely something I can handle.

It’s been raining most of the day and isn’t expected to stop anytime soon – better than snow though.

Monday, January 10, 2022

We didn’t wake up to rain this morning but it made an appearance not long into the day. Apparently we have another atmospheric river happening between now and Thursday. I’m thankful it isn’t snow but really, enough is enough.

I hoped to get some bags out to the thrift shop today even though I hated to go out in the weather. Cleaning up the laundry room was on my task list and the bags have been sitting in there for a long time. First they were closed until today but when I checked their page (and I’m glad I did) they had a burst water pipe yesterday so were closed until further notice. The bags aren’t in my way but I have another set of bags in the hallway upstairs that I’d like to get out of the house.

I started quilting on my Log Cabin quilt this afternoon. All I’ve accomplished are some stabilizing rows. I’ve printed out photos of the various blocks so I can play around with some quilting that I might be able to handle.

There wasn’t much going on at the watering hole today – at least not while I was watching. Quite a few jackals but they aren’t that interesting after the first dozen.

Sunday, January 9, 2022

Pat watches some odd things in the evening after I go to bed. Often they are YouTube videos on the music equipment he has and occasionally he’ll watch various lava flows from volcanoes around the world. But the other night he switched to something completely different – a web cam in the Namib Desert in Africa.

I’ve been watching all day. It is the sort of thing where nothing much happens for long periods of time and then there will be all sorts of activity. So far today I’ve seen lots of gemsbok (a type of antelope) both alone and in pairs, two feral horses, jackals, an ostrich, a porcupine family, and a rabbit. And who knows what came around while I wasn’t looking. There is a chat window you can watch and someone identifies most of the animals that come through. When I stitch I seldom have even music playing but this is going to be on my computer constantly – I love it. I’ll be able to load it up on my iPad too so if I’m at my stitching desk downstairs I won’t miss anything.

As well as watching for wildlife I have accomplished a few things. Today’s declutter task was threads. My spools of thread were in good shape but I re-organized my bobbins, cleared a few things I don’t use into the give-away bag, and sorted through a few little storage trays I have next to my sewing machine.

It took me most of the day but I also got a quilt sandwiched. I thought I’d have to bring my tables inside and pin baste the quilt but the sun was shining so I was able to go out on the deck and spray baste. It was cool but I was in my bare feet the whole time I was setting things up and I was without a sweater the entire time.

I’m going to move downstairs and do a bit of cross stitching and wildlife watching before supper.