Puppy pictures!

Well, Shit!

Yesterday, I posted on a forum that I'd been a member of for over ten years. I was trying to say goodbye, It's been great, but my head is just not into this craft any more. Today, I wanted to check in and see who had said goodbye, back.

Nope. I've been permanently banned from the group. All my comments, all those years of discussions, deleted.

Other People's Children...

Limp Pile of Pink Linen

I saw an ad for a Bento Bag that seemed to cost a heck of a lot more than it should. I looked up how to sew a bento bag and it is stupid simple, but still has plenty of room for getting fiddly bits wrong. You need to hem certain sides of the bag before assembly and if you don't do it right, you will have issues at a the very visible intersections at the front and back centers.

I've been sewing things for long enough that I did not have any problems. However, I chose to use a lovely, soft linen that I have far too many yards of. Sigh. I now have a bento bag that is a shapeless pile of pink linen.

I wanted to test the pattern and figure out if it would make a thing that I could use. The pattern works. My fabric choice does not. I have canvas that I could use to make a bento bag that would probably work quite well. Or I could create a lined version with not much effort. But not today.

Dog Harness for Bon Bon

Bon Bon needed a secure harness that didn't get anywhere near his trachea. I was working on sewing one for him, but didn't have the right hardware in my stash and couldn't find it in the size that I wanted. Hubby has HUGE hands and can't manage small clips and buckles easily. I was also failing to create a harness that I liked using fabric. It would gap in funky ways and looked awful. I had a set of criteria I didn't think I could meet in a single harness.

• Must actually have a clip to close, not close by having the lead clip on to it.
• Clip must be large enough for husband to open and close with his large hands.
• Must not get anywhere near the trachea.
• Must be made of sturdy fabric, leather or webbing.
• Minimal sagging or gapping.
• Must be small enough to fit. 

I spotted a harness in Wally World that had the exact hardware set up I had been looking for. The webbing wasn't too wide, but it was too large for my 4.5 pound dog.

I got out a seam ripper and a pair of scissors. After a few trial fittings, I was able to sew a harness for Bon Bon that fit him, is adjustable, has the hardware that we need and doesn't get anywhere near his trachea! Total cost was about $7.00 and 30 minutes of cutting and stitching and trial fittings. 

Now that we have one that's good, I'm planning on getting another harness, taking it apart for the hardware and sewing one that's not adjustable, as the sliders are not in the best spot for comfort.

I make lots of Bon Bon's things. I had to cut down his raincoat, as it was too large for him. I can find shirts that are small enough for him, but not much else. Frankly, I think even his food and water bowls are too large, but they are the smallest I could find.

Stuff Shifting

I did some decluttering of my needlework book collection. I also sorted my references and got them in order by both subject and size. I found several texts that I knew had to go. Instead of re-shelving them, I did a stuff shift and created a pile of texts that I wanted to get rid of. That pile has outgrown the space I designated for books I want to get rid of and is now a problem I have to solve.

I must now actually deal with the pile of books that I have created by stuff shifting. Stuff shifting is not decluttering. It is the shuffle that makes you think you are decluttering. Unless the clutter leaves your house, you haven’t decluttered.

But what about the things that are in a box, ready to go? Nope. Shifted stuff in a box. But I put the stuff in a cupboard (or wherever) because I want to use it for such and such project. I can’t see it any more. Isn’t that decluttered? No. You have done a stuff shift. Just because you can’t see it, if you know you want to get rid of it and it is still in your possession, it is still clutter and you need to deal with it.

In short, it ain’t over until it is out of your house. Period.

Some of your decluttering time has to be spent on using the things you have saved for a project on actually completing that project. If you can’t do that, you need to acknowledge that the project is a dream, and get rid of the shifted stuff you set aside for that dream project. Either that, or pay someone to do the project for you.

I have a lot of scrapbook pages that I want to scan, so I can save the digital file and get rid of the large, bulky scrapbooks. The scrapbooks are shifted stuff. I must set aside time to scan before I can stop shifting the scrapbooks and get rid of them. Many of the pages are too large for a home scanner. I will have to pay to get them scanned. Then the scrapbooks will not be shifted, they will be gone.

The Size of a Life

Is your space too large for the life you are living?

When we had visitors and adult children that were needing space in our house, we needed a house that was large enough for them. During the years we lived in Florida, we had friends and family staying with us more often than not. At one point we were a 6 person household with a three car garage and four bedrooms. I had three sets of dishes and stacks of sheets and towels. We used the space. Now the kids have houses of their own. Our life still includes them, but we don’t need to include space for them in our house.

In many different ways, we can downsize and simplify. A nest doesn’t have to be empty, it can be a new and smaller nest.

Inbox Clutter and Shopping

Every so often, I go through the emails I get and do an unsubscribe binge. Usually, I simply delete emails, but when the pile to delete gets to be too big and annoying, I stop instantly deleting and start doing the unsubscribe and then delete.

This helps me clear out the mental clutter that is digital. It also helps me avoid random shopping on line that is encouraged by these emails. Not that I actually do random on-line shopping. These days, I go grocery shopping and that's it.

I recently looked at the pile of boxes of stuff that I have in our basement and I realized that I've not only made a dent, I've made a big dent. If I had to move out of this house tomorrow, I have less stuff than I had when we moved into this house. A lot less.

I'm working on getting rid of even more stuff. This is the stuff to get rid of that is difficult. I have to find a market for it. I've got an inkle loom and a spinning wheel to get rid of. The first step is to get pictures, and the second is to post them on a buy/sell website that has people that might actually purchase them.

The Burden of Ability

This step is a mental step and it took me a while to organize my thinking into something I could put words to. I call it the burden of ability.

My mother wanted us kids to be busy. She made sure that there were always a variety of craft projects available to us. I learned to do many things and as an adult, I kept adding to my skill set. I picked up new and different hobbies like some folks try different restaurants. And that also required that I collect a stash of supplies, tools and references.

When I decided to simplify, I thought about what I really liked to do and the kinds of things I wanted to continue to work on. Sewing, embroidery, knitting, crochet and photography were the things that I always liked and returned to, time and again. I call them "My Big Five." I stopped working other projects and got rid of a lot of stash that went with them.

After several months with this mindset, I realized that I don't miss all the other projects. Nope. Not a bit. I have reached a level of calmness with my crafting. I don't wander through craft stores seeking something new to do. I don't even feel the need to go into a craft store much. I've got a few complex projects on the table and they are enough.

I have not even thought about going through my stash of books, tools, and supplies for My Big Five to see if there is something that I don't need. I consider them to be on an untouchable list. Truth to tell, I don't have a large yarn stash or even a large fabric stash.

By choosing what I want to do, I feel a lot less burdened about getting rid of stuff associated with what I don't want to do. The things that I held on to 'just in case' are things I can't imagine using again. Now I need to figure out the most effective way of getting rid of them.

Holy Icicles, Batman! It's COLD!

Yeah. This morning I woke up grateful to be warm and to have a roof over my head. It was about -20 degrees outside and a cozy, warm temperature inside. Thinking about how lucky I was to be cozy made me very, very happy.

I'm getting over a cold, so the projects to be completed pile isn't getting a lot smaller very fast. Eh. I'd rather not have to rip out errors from illness induced foggybrain.