Monday, May 22, 2017

It never ends – the shifting, the moving, the reconfiguring! Yesterday afternoon Pat saw a posting on Facebook from one of his friends; he had a Rubbermaid desk that he was giving away. Who knew Rubbermaid even made desks? It took two trips to get all the pieces home. Pat asked if I wanted to use some of the pieces in my sewing room and I took him up on one of the smaller pieces.

I washed the piece down while it was still on the back deck; it had been stored in a basement and it had collected a few webs. Pat helped me move it upstairs this morning and I started to rearrange my room.

The “old” desk is now a printer stand and the shelves hold most of the things I use at my computer desk. The new piece became my new computer desk; it is a little lower but I can use the same chair and just get rid of the pillows I’ve been sitting on. The desktop is much more spacious so, when I get back to doing some paperwork, I will appreciate that.

My paper shredder is right beside my desk (although it doesn’t show it in the photo) so I can shred the new stuff as it collects rather than waiting until I have a bunch and doing it together.

The printer table is now the table my new pressing board sits on.

All in all I’m very pleased!

Sunday, May 21, 2017

Summer must be here! We had supper on the back deck last night, and today I had breakfast and lunch on the front deck.

I was itching to get back to some sewing this weekend and I started (and finished) a new project. For years I’ve wanted to turn Mum’s bread board into a pressing board. At the workshop last weekend the instructor had a small table set up right beside her machine and she was able to press each seam as it was sewn. I often stitch a whole bunch of seams and then go to the ironing board and press them all at the same time. There are two disadvantages to my method – I often forget where each of the pieces belong in my project and it really bothers my back to stand for too long. I watched a couple of videos, picked the easiest one and in an afternoon I transformed an old board into a new one!

And speaking of new uses for old things I did another remodel yesterday afternoon. When Mum’s mixer broke I couldn’t bear to throw it out; I kept the two bowls and have used them often but Barb Elliott (Gorst) suggested I somehow use the mixer as a planter. I thought that was a great idea so yesterday afternoon I planted my alyssum in a pot and set it on the stand. I wish I hadn’t pitched the beaters as they would have been a cute add but I’m happy with it the way it is.

And I earned that iced tea this afternoon after mowing and raking the lawn, and then mowing and raking the lawn on a lower setting!

Saturday, May 20, 2017

Before I was even dressed this morning Pat asked if I would help him load up some junk into the back of his truck so we could take it out to the dump. He had already cleaned up quite a bit of stuff from around the yard but needed help with an old exercise bike (not Dad’s). Since I was happy to be getting rid of things I decided to get the recycling to the depot and the bottles to the bottle recyclers. Our trip to the dump was delayed because Pat had a friend who wanted to stop by at about the time we’d be leaving.

I headed out myself but was only able to get rid of the recycling; the bottle depot was closed for the long weekend. I’ve left all the cans and bottles on the back seat of the car (the trunk is full of Guild library books). When I got home I went through the boxes in the trunk, removing the library cards and getting them ready for sale. I set aside two boxes of books to bring into the house to have a closer look at.

After we made our trip to the dump we stopped for a late lunch. Since I’ve been home I’ve done more work on the Guild library books. When we were sorting the books Nina mentioned a couple of them that she thought were worth some money. I checked, and she was right. So as I went through the boxes of really old books (that had been archived even earlier from our shelves) I checked to see if anything could be sold. I’ve set aside half a dozen books that are selling on eBay for more than $10; after the sale to our members I may list some of the remaining books to see if we can get a bit of extra money for them. I know our members will be generous but I also know there will be a lot of books that no one will want.

I’m not certain whether I can’t stop working or I just don’t want to start sewing because my project isn’t an easy one!

Friday, May 19, 2017

I’ve done nothing but work for the last two days and the only pay I get is the satisfaction of a job done. As I type that I’m smiling as none of my jobs are exactly done and I often wonder if I’ll every be completely caught up.

I spent three hours yesterday morning working on the Guild library. Our new sewing space will have much less room overall, and therefore much less room for our library. It was the Library Committee’s job to downsize our collection; there are only two of us on the Library Committee but I was lucky enough to be working with one of our founding members and someone who knows quilting (and quilting books and authors) backwards and forwards. After the morning session I brought home four boxes of books that will be offered for sale to our members after the move.

As Thursday is a paperwork day for me I spent the afternoon at my desk working on some Cranberry Hall stuff, Pat’s accounting, as well as some of my own work. I also updated our library inventory based on the books we had culled in the morning session.

After dinner I was back at the Guild for demo night. I signed up to learn how to make a folded star but Nina and I ended up spending another two hours in the Library. I added another five boxes of books to the ones I’d already taken out; all those boxes are currently sitting in the trunk of my car. We finished the sorting so we’re ready for the movers on the 30th. I don’t know if we have to pack up the books or if movers do that but, in my mind, the hard part is done. The good part about all this work is that I get first dibs on which of the books I want to keep for myself. In all we lowered our book count from 344 to about 250!

My back and shoulders were quite sore this morning but I wanted to do a bit more desk work. I finished updating our Library sheets; on Tuesday I will go back through the books to be sure my list matches what we still have on the shelves. There were a couple of things I needed to circulate to the Board to prepare for some Cranberry Hall mail-outs so I got those drafts prepared. I had a payment I needed to pick up for the Hall and we needed to stop at the Credit Union to sign some papers so we went out for lunch. On the way home we stopped at the Hall to pick up the mail and then to the garden centre for something a little more fun. I wanted some flowers to plant in a pot under Mum’s mixer (thanks to Barb for the idea) and was looking for pansies. I ended up with some alyssum instead (I couldn’t resist the smell). The centre didn’t have any pansies but they sold me a packet of seeds; I won’t hold my breath on getting them to grow! Pat also got a basket for the table on the front deck.

With what is left of the afternoon I’m going to finish my cross stitching project. I have only a few back stitches to do and then it is done. I’m never caught up on that side of things either as this morning I purchased a new pattern from one of my cross stitch groups.