a happy DO year update

Happy Wednesday. 

There is a serious issue in my life right now. I am about to share a detail that many may know, but putting it into words is going to make it very REAL to all of you. 

Here we go. I have a real, crazy, unpredictable, over-the-top, drives me crazy,  never imagined I would love what I am doing but I do --- FULL TIME JOB.

I sell something everyone needs and something everyone IMMEDIATELY knows when it is not working. 

I sell plumbing materials --- yup --- pipe and water heaters and toilets and sewage pumps. Bathtubs ant faucets and sinks and and and. I know how to put said things together. I know a lot of troubleshooting steps. I can operate a set of hand trucks. I have blatantly refused to learn to operate a shovel. But a "sharkbite" fitting, that I can handle. 

Some days it is crazy. 

Some days it is fun.

Some days I teach.

Some days I wrangle idiots.

Some days I learn. (well most days I learn something from somebody. Lots of it is useless, but I make a really great member of a Trivia game team  - just saying)

The picture below was taken at my desk. 

Now for the very ugly secret.  Actually, it is not a secret and, well, depending on who you are, it's not all that ugly. And it directly ties in to the happy DO year part of the title.

I have hoarding issues.

After the wedding, and the subsequent mess that is still being sorted and put away, I determined to reclaim my studio. I am actually doing quite well on that front.

I pulled the lace from several paper hearts that were on the chair backs at the wedding. Then I added those lengths to the lace that I had pulled from and dug through and such and so forth. I carried all of that back to the studio on Monday night. I then pulled out the other boxes of lace and started putting away and detangling  all of the scrummy beauty of pile.

First I boxed several spools of assorted laces. yards and yards of it.

That left me with this pile.

I attacked it. If a piece was less than 12 inches long, I stuffed it in a jar on my table. I WILL USE THOSE FIRST in my creations.

I folded the 2 inch or wider lace and separated those.

I also pulled out some bright purple and lavender that will be used for the RELAY FOR LIFE event decorations at the church.

Then I grabbed the scrap cardstock pile and started smoothing and wrapping the lengths around scraps of paper.

After two hours last night --- the pile looked like this.

And the storage box looked like this.

I will work in this pile again tonight. After I get this sorted and put away, I will make a few skeleton key necklaces.

I reward myself with "making" after I get one of these areas cleaned up.

Another phase of the HAPPY DO YEAR is to complete and utilize this wonderful hoarded material stash.

There are seven new Bundles of Joy coming into our lives. Friends of mine (who are obviously  MUCH older than I am) are becoming Grandparents. Some of my favorite people are adding littles to their lives. It is a wonderful time in the life of all those folks.

I have made a goal to do all seven of these baby gifts without purchasing anything.

I delivered the first one last night. A blue crocheted blanket for Kris Youngblood's new Grandson. Yarn I bought for making a blanket, then never got around to it.

Then while I was in the studio, I gathered the things for baby #2. A plain white flannel blanket (a flat flannel piece with surged edges) a strip of floral cotton, some crochet thread, and some bias tape. I bought several of these blankets at a fabric warehouse a long time ago, they are sold to hospitals for the infant nurseries and are a very high quality of flannel.

Here is the little grouping ---

It will be my travel project for the next several ball game trips.

There you go -- confession  ---- and a plan to continue destashing.

Have a wonderful day.