Finished is better than perfect...

I've learned from fellow quilters that this adage is one we should all take to heart. So the house isn't perfect, but it is as finished as it's gonna get, at least for a while. Pictures are hung... some of them, the china cabinet is loaded and looks wonderful. My sewing room is cleaned out and ready for serious work to be done there. I am satisfied.

As for what I'm grateful for today: I am thankful for Starbucks triple shot short mochas. That's a rather trivial thing, but it got me through this evening after a long day. On a less trivial note, I am grateful for a wonderful, patient and understanding lifemate and husband. I should try harder to make him see how thankful I am that he and I share this life. No promises - I didn't say I WOULD try harder (last thing I need is another load of guilt), only that I should. I pray that after 27 years, he gets it even when I don't show it.

I love you, Joe.

Full Speed Arrears... Retreating!

I am busy preparing to leave on a 4 day quilting retreat.  I'm not folding fabric (much).  I'm not putting things away in my spiffy new cabinets... I am instead prepping all the parts for the placemats I'm making for thanksgiving dinner, and getting my tools together for a trip to the seashore and 4 days of nothing but quilting in my pajamas.

I did hear from my shipper today and my new china cabinet should be arriving on Weds or Thurs.  I hope it'll be Weds, because I'll be leaving for the retreat on Thurs midday.  Would be all kinds of suck for it to come Thurs afternoon after I was on the road.  I told the shipper this, and he said he'd make all effort to arrive here on Weds.  We shall see...

Tonight I ran D&D for my husband and friends, and tomorrow I am going to play some D&D at a friend's house in Pasadena.  Nothing like a little re-direction to focus your drive...  Maybe Monday I'll get back to finishing my prep for retreat.

I love the retreats themselves, but the planning and logistics of taking everything I need without overloading is always stressful.  Whether it's a retreat, a cruise, a weekend vacation... I always take too much stuff.  I'd love to hear how others handle this issue....

Fabriholic Hell

I think I've finally entered fabriholic hell...  I have been folding and sorting fabric for days, and while I've obviously made a dent in the piles of stash bins, I think I've finally reached the saturation point where it's no longer fun to fondle and fold fabric. 

On an up-note, I did get to sew yesterday.   I went to class and finished one small part of a quilt I'm making (one block sewn and three blocks put together.  I also completed the current mystery block from Ula Lenz's website.  It's a ... whoops... that would be telling... I'll post a pic on flickr when she reveals the mystery. 

It was cathartic and healing and fun to sew for a while, surrounded by a whole gruop of like-minded ladies.

Yet somehow, it was not cathartic enough to inspire me to WANT to fold fabric when I got home. 

New Cabinets!

My new cabinets were delivered and installed yesterday!  I am thrilled with them... but daunted as well, for before me lies the task of refolding all my fabric, storing it by color, and figuring what to do with all the fabric that won't fit in the new shelves.

What's really funny is that the folks who built the cabinets are the husband and sons of a quilting friend.  She told me her husband doesn't think I can fill all those shelves... boy has he got a lot to learn.  He has no concept of the amount of fabric I own.

I JUST started on the browns, tans and creams.  I have done about 1/4th of a bin and filled about 1/4th of a shelf.  At this rate I will fill the shelves and still have about 10 bins left over.  sigh.... but it will all be more accessible and controllable... I hope.

Not to mention the fact that I can cycle out what I don't really love and sell the unloved fabric at a huge stash reduction sale next year.

I am getting the tile fixed on my countertops today from when I got my new stove installed... and I get to pick out paint color for the living room later today.  Maybe Friday we will have the painter return to do the work.  One room at a time is all I can afford right now.

Oh, and my dog hates the new floor... she can barely walk on it, poor thing.... all the slipping and sliding... and she can't sneak around any more cuz her claws click and clack on the laminate.  Poor old pup...  sometimes she just stands outside the door and looks pitifully at me, torn between wanting to come in and not wanting to walk on the floors.

Now all I need is, I don't know... TIME to actually SEW???

STRESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSsssssssssssss

The floors are supposed to be done by today.  I'm supposed to drive to Camarillo today on a couple of errands, as well as pick up some new power strips for our house.  I have an appt. at four, bootcamp at 6, had to cancel my housekeeper for today (how can she work in a house with half it's floors, workmen around and cement dust everywhere?  She is coming Monday morning instead.

I've just found out that the installation of our new cabinets starts Monday in a room full of fabric, papers, furniture and electronics from the living room.


No problem, just move the stuff out... We are going to the theatre Friday night, have an engagement from about 11am til 10pm Saturday.  So we have Sunday... To clear out a room FULL of fabric and papers.  Not to mention OrganizeThis is coming on Monday as well to help put the house back in order.  HAH!... This is going to be a fiasco.  sigh

Out of chaos comes order (or is it the other way around... if so, I'm screwed)...

TGIF

So today was my first weekday in almost two weeks that OrganizeThis hasn't been here.  I miss the team (Shannon, Mary and Tina).  Still, I did some of my homework today - I sorted books.  I bound a quilt. I made a label for the quilt, put a hanging sleeve on it.  And it's only a week late for Kathy's birthday.  I made blocks for a BOM, a paper pieced mystery block, and I did a little walking and a little shopping.  I did a few changes on the blog so it displays only my own quilts on the main page slideshow. 

Tomorrow I have a BOM meeting in the morning, exercise in the park with our trainer at 9am, then off to the Conejo Guild quilt show for the rest of the day.  I hope I survive it! 

Sunday should be a day of rest, but the flooring installers are coming first thing Monday morning and we still have a few last minute things to move out of the rooms so they can work.  One day to do the house and I think he said another day for the stairs. 

Not sure when, but the cabinets for my studio should be done and ready for install any day now - he said two weeks and it's been almost that now.  Can't wait - I can put away all my fabric and have room to WORK in my studio.  New ceilings in there too, then the skylights in both studio and kitchen.  I think then it will be time to stop and enjoy the house for a while as it is before we start thinking about the interior paint.  (I know, I know - we should have painted first... but we might have never gotten to the floors if we'd done that... it might be months before we actually get to the painting, and these carpets have GOT TO GO!)...

I can't wait for my studio to be done and to be able to use the photo studio again soon to take pictures of the quilts... I missed out one show already this year because of inability to get a decent photo... next year for sure!

Oh... and I've discovered the joy of using a stiletto... I have always resisted using them, but I've come so close to sewing through a nail (and the finger underneath, and got to watch someone do that on Project Runway last episode), so while I was sewing all these tiny points, I figured wth, I'll try it... and WOW.. what was I waiting for??? what an idiot I am... I LOVE it... I may use it for everything from now on... sigh

AND I got to play with my new quilting toy today.  A friend recommended this thing called a gachunk?  anyway, came from theclipstore.com - large size... OMG... are these wonderful binding clips!  they stay in place, don't stick out from the edge like those hair clip thingies.... and just pull off when done.. It took about 30 of them to clip an entire wallhanging, but they are great!...  Had to share.

Talked to an old friend today.  She moved to South Carolina a few years ago and I miss her a lot.  Made tentative plans to go out to visit her in February.  I hope they are more than idle plans, I really do want to see her.  She saw me through some pretty dark times when my mother passed away, and she is just a comfortable, warm friend to be around.  I could use a hug from her, and to give one right back.  Soon, soon...

Racing to the Finish...

It's Wednesday.  I finished a quilt top last night.  Fell asleep early.  Woke up at 2:30 am and put the last border on the quilt... does that count as last night or this morning?  I watched TV with my husband who also woke up early.  We had breakfast and I fell asleep after he left for work.  I barely made it to class on time.  I got another quilt almost done being quilted... it's ready for binding already.

OrganizeThis has been working in my son's room for 2 days.  I don't even recognize the room!  Awesome! 

Two more days is the final push to prep the house for new floors.  I have lots of homework for tonight, tomorrow night and the weekend.

My new china cabinet is due to be delivered early next week.  I think I'm finally going to love my space.  We never did get to the upstairs or the master closet... at least not yet... but I dunno... maybe now I'll have the skills (or some of them), to do this for myself.  We were supposed to do the kitchen too.... they ARE coming back for a few days the following week. 

I think I will reward myself by going to a quilt show this weekend.  This of course will also reward my husband with a day on his own to work on his aquaponics project.  We both win!

Tackling MySpace...

Not the virtual one... In this case, I meant the master bedroom.  That was the agenda for Monday.  OMG, They did it so fast and with such organization.. I can see surfaces I haven't seen in years (and I mean that literally).  Dressertops, floorspace... I can move my exercycle in now (after the new floors are done)!  And it wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it would be.  Of course there were a few things they kinda of looked at me like I was crazy when I said I was keeping them, but I got rid of a lot more stuff today - including more stuffed animals... still have too many - more than I need, but less than before.  I have a LOT of homework in there still - boxes to go through... and a lot still in the family room - but we are making progress.

My son's room was the agenda for today, but he informed me late last night that has to go in to work early today, so maybe more in the garage today?  I will be working on homework today when they don't need me - I think in the bedroom though - the homework in the family room can actually wait - the family room floors are not being redone.

Really the only floorspace still needing work pre-flooring is the master closet and my son's room, though I think more work has to be done in the guest room too.  I'll have to check in there.

I am so thrilled I did this even though it's costing me a lot... it is SO worth it.  Now the process is to KEEP it this way... that is something my husband and I will have to work on.  While he is not the packrat I am, he's not much better than I am about the whole dropping things on whatever surface is handy bit.  Maybe now, with a little work (but without getting anal about it), we can live less cluttered lives.  I'm SO looking forward to the future now...

After the new floors - new cabinets in the quilting room, organizing the kitchen, studio and garage - and maybe I will be able to park my car in there again (oh, happy day!).   And the pièce de résistance... Delivery day!  I will be able to have my longarm delivered and installed.  In my studio initially, but eventually I will have a dedicated room for it - my son has to move out someday!

Somehow this entire blog has been usurped by cleaning and organizing - I didn't intend for that to happen - but I suppose it is a temporary thing...  Back to quilting soon, I hope.

Sunday on the Road with Joe...

Today we decided to walk to a nearby restaurant for breakfast.  Part of our exercise regime is to walk an hour a day.  So a half hour after we started walking, we arrived at the restaurant... no cars... no smoke from the bbq... sign on the door saying 'closed for renovations and remodeling'.  However we suspect they are closed forever - there were no signs of work inside, lots of mail on the floor inside the door and many many final notices from the utilities hanging on the door.  Oh well... long walk for nothing... we headed back home but at least we got our hour walk in.

I worked on a quilt in progress for a bit, met with a friend, sorted and folded some fabric, prepped to run D&D, ran D&D, took a friend to dinner and to see Surrogates (don't waste your money) for her birthday.  Somehow I managed to sort through 5 boxes of crap among the homework and it doesn't even look like I made a dent.... sigh.

Joe and I shelved a lot of books upstairs in the library (emptied some of those boxes too).  Tomorrow is Day 1 of Hell Week 2.  The team will be back, no more goofing off... wonder what we will work on tomorrow.  I know Tuesday is for my son's bedroom.... and I guess while that is going on, I'll work on the homework more.  Maybe the master bedroom tomorrow.  We'll see...

Today was day four - I was too exhausted and in too much pain to post last night - fell asleep early after taking pain meds and letting my husband massage a massive knot out of my calf muscle.

Day 3 went fairly well, got a lot of stuff sorted - most everything in the living room.  Joe and I had homework to do - sorting papers and such.. we got some of it done - got it down from five bins to three.  I gave up a lot of things I thought I'd never be able to part with... But they are just things... I can live without those things.

Day 4, Joe took the day off work.  Time was split between the guest room, where Joe's office is, and the dining room.  The wonderful team from OrganizeThis stripped out the hutch and bookcase in the dining room, and lots of crap and old clothes out of the guest room.  Joe was here and was able to identify a lot of the stuff I couldn't.  I parted with my grandmother's china and my mother's crystal.  Hard, but not my style.  There is absolutely no reason for me to be burdened with these things just because someone else treasured them.  Let someone else learn to treasure them.... I am free.

And of course that means I can finally buy my own crystal if I want any... Have to think about that... I have wine glasses from our wine tasting trips... We don't do much formal entertaining, and aren't likely to in the future, so is there a point to it.. just more stuff to take care of that we don't use much.  Maybe I'll just stick with what I have... Regardless, I'm really starting to feel relieved of the weight of this stuff...

Probably harder than the china and the crystal, while we waited for the team to be ready for our participation, Joe and I went upstairs and culled a lot of books from our collection.  We have a huge collection of books upstairs in the library, but so many of them are outdated, or more easily replaced with information on the internet.  Joe and I are both savvy enough to avoid being duped by misinformation on the net, so why keep outdated textbooks, references and encyclopedias.  6 bins of books gone to the library for their fundraising sale.  Tonight we will load up another truckload for delivery tomorrow.  We actually have space on our shelves for the books that have been piling up off shelves and maybe even the occasional new book!  Wow... that's new.

I thought it would be traumatic to part with books... We are both such inveterate bibliophiles.  It seemed sacrilegious to part with a book, even a bad one.  I'm over that now... I don't think I'll keep any books I don't love anymore.  Now, true, we parted with almost no fantasy or science fiction books, but I think that will come in time too... maybe tonight?  We'll see.. those will be the hardest to part with.  Then again, we do re-read some of them from time to time.

They left us with a HUGE amount of homework for the weekend, and I'm sure we won't finish it all, but we'll make an effort..   I know it's SUCH a cliche, but 'it is what it is'.  Can't do more than we can do in limited time over two days... we already have a full weekend without the homework.

Anyway - I'm terrified of Monday - probably get to the master bedroom on Monday, unless we work in the garage again.  We're supposed to be down under three digit temperatures after Sunday, so it might be tolerable to be outdoors.  We shall see, the meteorologists have been damned inaccurate lately.  Mid-eighties (the prediction for Mon & Tues) would be a nice change, mid-seventies (Weds & Thurs) should be even better.

What I'm really looking forward to is sweater weather... we get damned little enough of it in So Cal.  Would be nice to have a chilly Halloween for a change.

Oh, my... a Halloween where I'm not embarassed to answer the door!  What a novel concept...

Day 2

Today was a bit crazy.  Went to class, then came home to day 2 of hell week.  It wasn't really that bad, in fact none of it has been quite as bad as I thought it was gonna be.  Basically, they go through things, sort everything into bins, then go through items one at a time, 'keep, donate or trash?' Sometimes I feel guilty about things I say keep on... and maybe they count on a little of that guilt, because then I say, never mind, donate it.' 

Really when it comes down to it, most of this stuff, I don't really need.  My son won't want it when I'm gone... what is the point of keeping it all?  And yet there's still 'STUFF' I can't let go of.  I'm just a packrat.. that's all there is to it. 

I was chatting with my friend Sue today.  She recently downsized a lot of stuff too.  One of the things she mentioned, and it's SO true, is that no matter how hard it is to let go of something, once you do, no matter how much you think 'I might need that someday', in reality, once it's gone, it won't really be missed.  And she's right. 

I let a lot of stuff go in the past couple of days that I thought I needed, and I don't really miss it... a lot of the things I said goodbye to before they went and it felt right and good. Some things I kept because I really did think I might use or need them someday.  I'm finally in my life in a position to just buy a new one if I need it, so bye bye old crap. 

And there's still a lot of old crap to go... Tomorrow is another day... a little more STUFF gone, a little more burden lifted, a little more freedom.

Hooray for OrganizeThis... Hooray for me!

Day 1 of Hell Week

Today was the first day of the worst of my life. Actually it wasn't that bad. Except for the high winds and all. Still.. lots got thrown out or recycled, even stuff I haven't been able to let go of for a long time. If I were working alone, I wouldn't have gone through nearly as much stuff, and I wouldn't have been able to say goodbye to so many things that I've had an emotional attachment to for so long ... like my grandmother's sewing box. It's old, the lid disintegrated years ago, and I don't use it anymore... but I let it go... and so many toys and other things... It wasn't easy to see so many things go away, but I really didn't need or want any of this stuff.

Yet... I feel like it wasn't enough... more stuff should have gone away... maybe because we only worked in the garage and the house hasn't changed yet? Tomorrow and Thursday, the work will be in the house because it's still supposed to be high winds all day both days. I'm not looking forward to this part... the house is full of my stuff and I'm not sure how to let go of the things I don't need anymore... but that is why I've got help.

I'd never be able to do it alone, I DO know that...

It will be a busy day - I've got lots to do in addition to the work in the house - class & errands... Hopefully I will survive it.

On an upnote, the pain from doing pushups is fading a little... I can lift my left arm over my head as long as I go up to the side... My right arm is still has very limited movement. Lots of hip pain, so even though I was supposed to walk for an hour, I didn't. Tomorrow I might walk 1/2 way to class (drive halfway and walk the rest). But I have to get out early to do it. I need the walking and I need the social interaction of being in class for a while before I have to get home to work with the organizers.

Hooray for surviving day 1!