It's So Easy

NOT!

I know, it's been more than a week. And what a week it's been. I started the new writing gig and truth to tell, it was more of a rough start than I'm used to - mainly because Handmade News is big news and I didn't map out the internal resources I needed to in order to do it all justice. So, I spent several restless, sleepless nights causing myself stress before beginning to calm myself down and put it all back into perspective.

Add to that, my online knitting group StitchCraft on meetup.com is growing! The last time I really looked, we had about 40 or so members - we are now over 70! So somewhere between stressing out over the new job and making myself crazy are plans to get that group together for a fun night. It has to be at night and it has to be planned right so I'm thinking somewhere in September when folks are done with summer and will want to pick up the needles to do the holiday knitting that will be just around the corner. This is a good problem to have but sometimes it's hard to balance the bad stress with the good stress. At some point, it's just stress.

But wait...there's more.

I think I told you our bazaar was successful. We had over $400 in sales. That's the good part. The not really bad but has to be dealt with part is that our supply of prayer shawls and afghans were seriously depleted. Baby blankets we have, but afghans and prayer shawls are practically sold out. Which means the group (of which I am a leader) has to have one or the other on their needles for the foreseeable future. And I do have one on my needles, but it's going into the shop. There's an afghan that's an expired listing that's going to the group.

There's good news...

My office is 95% organized. I can step into it and not have to step over a clutter bomb. The only boxes left are my stash boxes (now down to two!!) and the boxes of craft goodies I inherited from my mother in law. Not much left to do but vacuum the carpet, put the new speaker wires into the speakers and let Joe clean the carpet. Alas, it looks like an office instead of a craft room - but I smile every time I walk into it. Yes, when it's all done, I'll take a photo.

I will also take a photo of the beautiful afghan on my needles. It should be done sometime this weekend - I'm hoping for tomorrow. I would take a pic now, but it's 2 in the morning and the light isn't good. Besides, if I finish it tomorrow, I can take the shop photos and blog photo during the same session.

Forgive me for being away so long - I have missed you - but sometimes you have to ride the breakdown so you know when to get off.

Gracias a la Vida

Sometimes you just have to go by faith. I know God has a sense of humor. I know he knows my thoughts and has said: "I knew you were gonna think that a thousand years ago...still funny!"

I have a new goal. Sorry to say the sock phase has moved from my life. However, I will not just casually flip over a sock pattern in the future. I will now look at it can consider it the way I do other patterns and decide if I wish to do them or not. I believe this to be progress.

No, this new goal is something which will please me, please my hubby and provide me with increased efficiency and peace of mind.

I am going to clean my office. I mean really clean my office. Someone in one of the Etsy forums was so proud of their cleaning their space they posted a picture of it on line - for the entire world to see.

I want some of that madness. (No, I'm not competitive - what a thing to suggest.)

She asked to see what our spaces looked like - hear that, God is laughing again. I would like to be able to comply with her request but in order to do so, I need to get busy. So this is my new goal - and your job, dear friends, is to hold me to it. It is for my own good and the good of the community.

I Don't Have A Stash

Imagine my utter amazement to discover I no longer have a yarn stash. I mean, if you've followed me even for a little bit, you know I have yarn bombs all over the house. There's yarn, in some degree, in every room of the house. I wouldn't be surprised to find yarn in the garage - I mean everything else but a car is in there.

However, this afternoon, I have it on good authority that I don't have a yarn stash.

A 'stash' according to Dictionary.com is something put away or hidden.

This - and the other twelve boxes or containers are neither hidden or put away. Therefore, not a stash.

No stash. Nothing to organize.

My work here is done.

In The New Era of Hope

I went to my office early this morning (all of a five second commute) so I didn't come downstairs at all until it was almost noon. I came downstairs to this:









The carpet needs to have the biannual carpet cleaning, and I really need to knit Duke a new bed, but that's not the amazing thing. The amazing thing is yesterday when I came down.

this and






this








and this







along with this







and also this







was all over this









I wish I could say it was all put in nice little cubby holes that would make Martha Stewart declare my house a 'good thing.' But it is not so. There are now little piles of things in the perimeter. The good new is there is a path so I can shampoo the carpet. And the better news is I can tackle one little pile at a time. The bad part (but which could be a good part because it involves inventiveness) is I need to create a space for my goods to be nicely stowed while they wait for me. My office is incredibly small. So the only space is to be found in the basement where my little gym is. I will not be sacrificing fitness because I now work out upstairs since my little VCR stopped working down there. And also with good weather comes walking. I see a box system in my future since there is a semblance of one already down there.

On to step two: prepping the new space!

Less is Less

There should be a photograph of something to the left. Alas, there are no new photos to show. Oh, there's a lot to take pictures of. Like the scarf I knitted up in a day.
Or the progress I'm making on the cable afghan (which is haunting me) or
the little preemie hats I made or
the WIP cotton place mats.

Or how my yarn stash has grown even larger than before I had the contest that gave away dozens of skeins ( I replaced those with just what I bought yesterday.)

But I cannot bring myself to share my shame with you. Less is not more. Less is less and more is way more than should be allowed in such close quarters. Poor Joe. I believe he is overwhelmed with it all. And now I feel his pain.

Today is a pretty free day as far as any work going on. I only have some church and garden work on - the rest of the schedule is filled with colored blocks (which means nothing planned.) I usually knit during those times and I suspect I will again. But I will put down the needles and attempt to do something that even remotely resembles.....organization.

I am a complete goober when it comes to this stuff. My mother never really forced me to clean my room as a child and now that I can really get away with stuff, I have on blinders until one day when I walk into a room and say "What the he--?" Then I clean it. But I don't like it. Now, the living room is in dire need of an intervention because whatever is going on in there can't be called 'living' so I need to organize. I googled 'how to organize stuff' and up popped 'howtoorganizestuff.com. (Google is great! In fact, I wonder if anyone has tried to google Osama Bin Laden to see if his secret Facebook profile would come up.)

The site has a ton of articles that talk you through how to organize people, places and things. Alas, it does not have 'how to organize a yarn stash that has gotten so out of hand that only people who actually live in the house will come in the house and even the dog is considering moving."

So I had to settle to how to organize the bedroom and garage.
Wish me luck - I'm going in!!