Saturday, July 20, 2013

Look Who's Back

Three days out of four! I'm on a roll. 

Let's talk about what I did this week. For most of us in the U.S. this week has been barely bearable outside. High heat coupled with high humidity that smacks you in the face every time you walk outside your door. That meant weeding my small front yard was literally out of the question. Especially as the new crop of Asian Tiger mosquitoes has finally hatched. These little buggers don't respect the daylight hours which means you need to apply bug spray if you're going to outside more than two minutes. Ask my petunias in hanging pots. They know I haven't dedicated time to them for deadheading. I did cut back some mint and lavender - exactly what I could hack off in a minute or less. LOL Guerrilla gardening. But at least they aren't encroaching too much on the sidewalk. And we won't begin to talk about the boxwood that is reaching epic proportions. 

With gardening out of the question, I knew one place inside that was begging for my attention. My studio. I hadn't been able to sit in my chair in 5 or 6 months. I could no longer see my rug. I had stacks and piles all over the place. I admit that for months I've been going in there rummaging around to find something and dropping off newly acquired things. I created a big, ugly mess. 

On Tuesday, I decided I had some time I could devote to fixing my mess. I'm not a Feng Shui kind of gal, but sometimes there is something about a room that is just flat out wrong for me. And in this room it was my extra large Elfa unit that was on the left as I entered the room. Its drawers were crammed full of stuff - one was beading, one was paper/office stuff, one was still empty, and two were miscellaneous. It's top was covered by a basket full of other things that needed home. In fact, there were things in that basket that I had totally forgotten I had. 

Out with the cart. It's much more useful in my bedroom closet. Which meant the old oak dresser in my closet had to go. Move the dresser to the guest room where it replaced my son's old painted pine dresser. At this point, I really wanted to just give that dresser away on freecycle, but I had this big hole in my studio. And that meant I had to move everything down the wall by a couple of inches to squeeze the dresser in where the Elfa unit had been. 

You know that even with the AC running, upstairs isn't as cool as downstairs. And as soon as I started moving things, boy, did I work up a sweat. On my trip to the recycle bin outside I stopped to admire the heat and felt much cooler when I went back inside. 

I got my closet and guest room put back together. And spent some time organizing my studio. But I eventually gave up and hit the shower around 2 p.m. That meant on Wednesday I had to go back to my studio for the second round. I'm happy to report the floor has been located. And my striped rug is still there. 

On Thursday morning I was thrilled to run up to room and find something I needed and put two other things away. Ah, that feels so good. 

 But this Sampler Girl chart definitely reflects how I felt this week!


And this is the basket of threads that still needs to be sorted and put away.Most everything else is taken care off. No more piles of books. They are all properly on shelves. And with that Elfa thing gone, the room feels so much better when I go in there.

 In stitching progress, this is where I am on my Loudoun Sampler Guild mystery sampler. I finished my fourth band and its lovely! I think it's my favorite. On the fifth band I'm choosing to do only part of the blackwork band in order to have another skinnier band. And I barely started my sixth band just to see how my colors are working. This project is amazing in the variety of things that are happening when we all get together and share.

And here's my granddaughter's first Christmas ornament. I need to complete this soon and get it off to the finisher. I'd really like to give this when the baby's born. That date is fast approaching.

But I'm also trying to meet my Presidents' Challenge for my guild meeting next week. And I gladly spent a few hours yesterday catching up on Drop Dead Diva and stitching in my chair in my studio!
 

3 comments:

Sara Leigh said...

"I stopped to admire the heat." Hahahahaha.

That's all. I just really enjoyed that phrase.

Margaret said...

Oh I'm in love with your sampler guild's sampler -- it's gorgeous!

Dresdens said...

Like Sara Leigh, I chuckled over the "I stopped to admire the heat" comment. You could have come to my place where for a week we admired the heat inside as our HVAC unit died on Friday 12 July and it was replaced on Thursday, 18 July.