Old sayings...and more on the decluttering project...

My mother was a great one for idioms...(a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (e.g. over the moon, see the light ); many of her favourites live on in our family through my usage and at times, also my daughters use such sayings as well. 

So let's see, what's an example?

How come when the tomatoes being sold in the shops are between $8.98 and $9.98 per kilogram and my homegrown tomatoes are stubbornly green? When mine ripen you can bet that the shops will lower the prices to as low as $1.99 per kilo! 

Even though I do realise that probably the farmers' crops aren't ripening quickly either and supply is low, forcing the prices up, that's surely an example of Murphy's Law, a saying which is used a lot ...' a supposed law of nature, expressed in various humorous popular sayings, to the effect that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.' lol

Now one  saying that my mother didn't use to my knowledge is 'there's an elephant in the room'. Its meaning, '... is an English metaphorical idiom for an obvious truth that is either being ignored or going unaddressed", is quite relevant to me I think...I'll try to explain. I've decided to work through Forever Organised's 31 Days of Decluttering, with a few changes to suit my circumstances. 

So far I've decluttered shoes, appliances, magazines (and some paperbacks) and some chipped mugs and glasses...

The gardening mags were in a crate in the built-in wardrobe in one of the spare bedrooms and I can honestly say that since I put them there a few years ago now, I have never gone back to refer to any of them! While I was removing the mags from the cupboard I noticed a wire hanger on which several men's belts were hung. A check with DH revealed that none of the belts fitted him any more...so out they went too!

Now the items that I've been sorting out in the last few days were not really that cluttered because at various times over the last few years,I've had fairly ruthless 'purges' of unwanted/unnecessary items. But there is definitely 'an elephant in a number of rooms' and it's  my craft stash. At various times I have worked at sorting out the room that I call my sewing room, especially when it was needed to be used as a bedroom for extra guests...I've given away fabrics that I know I won't use, but...well you probably know how it goes :-). Being empty nesters means that I've spread my craft materials into other spare bedrooms...

IKEA Expedit shelves and cubes in one spare bedroom...

 The shelves in one half of the built in in another bedroom aka sewing room...

 Another IKEA set of shelves in the sewing room...

More shelves with cubes of mainly yarns, plus colour coded mohair stash in striped bags on top of the shelves...

Same room's built in...yarns and fabrics are in one half with Christmas decorations and DH's excess shirt collection in the other half.

So during this 31 days, I would like/need to decide on some targeted areas of my crafting storage and then decide what I can realistically use...you know it's all about the SABLE principle...stash acquisition beyond life expectancy!

Day 6 on the decluttering poster is 'Guilt Clutter'...my next post I will write about my interpretation of that.

One coffee mug that will be repurposed as yet again I couldn't part with it. Given to me by a friend one birthday, the much used and loved mug lost its handle after a year or so of use...ahem...that was possibly 13 or so years ago. It has survived 2 house moves and a number of decluttering sessions and survived yesterday's too. But now it will be half filled with pebbles, then potting mix and then I will plant one of my new succulent cuttings in it.

So next time...guilt clutter...what do I think it is and yes I do have some! lol

Flowers that remind me of when I was a girl...

Just like when I was a 'young whippersnapper', I've been picking bunches of nasturtiums from the garden and enjoying these bright and cheerful flowers.  These plants would come up on their own each year and 'sprawl' in drifts around my parents' big yard. 

Another flower that I associate with my childhood is the sweet pea. I can remember my mum comparing notes with the neighbours as to the right time to plant the seeds, (St Patrick's Day) and I also remember how much the adults would groan and complain, if the sweetpeas did not produce prodigious quantities of flowers on  the trellises that the plants climbed over. As a young bride I tried to grow sweet peas but with very limited success...and I very quickly decided to grow other annuals instead :-) . 

But at some local markets in the last few months, I've been able to buy bunches of sweet peas...sweet!!

The bunch of sweet peas (and ferns) I bought at the markets in August....so pretty! My mum used to cut ferns to include in her vase arrangements too...

The bunch/posy that I bought at the markets last week...this month the posy included 2 gerberas; one a double and the other just out of view, a single. 

My mother used to also pick geraniums and arrange them in vases too...hmmm, might be nice to do that too as those plants are starting to flower well...

One of the variegated geraniums grown from a cutting given to me by a knitting friend. 

I continue to declutter using www.foreverorganised.com.au 's suggestions. I skipped bath toys decluttering (we don't have any, lol) and went straight on to 'Magazines'. I had a big cull of these earlier this year but still  had some gardening mags on a shelf in the room DH and I use for an office, some craft mags in the bedroom I use for sewing/craft storage etc and these were bundled up this morning ready to go to the op shop charity collection bin. Ruthless perhaps, but realistic...I won't use them. 

The next item on the list is 'coffee mugs'...again, earlier this year, I packed up a big plastic crate of surplus coffee cups and asked the girls to take any they liked...they didn't want any so DH took them to a nearby Red Cross op shop. However, I do have, on very high shelves in a kitchen cupboard, some coffee mugs that I think I love...but they are missing handles...and are maybe chipped???? So a bit of being sentimental here...ruthlessness may be needed again I think...:-)

A challenge...

I've been 'trawling' through photo folders stored on the computer and also on the portable hard drive, looking for photos for the DVD compilation for DD2's 30th birthday party soiree ...we have so many photos...groan! As well as those stored in digital form, I have been looking through the boxes and albums of old family photos, and if I'm honest, it has been fun; especially discovering 'long lost' photos.

One digital photo that I discovered was something that I've obviously saved from some source on the Internet...it's a poster and I have completely forgotten how I found it...possibly from reading about it in someone's blog post. Luckily the website is on the poster, 'Forever Organised' and I've been back checking it out again. I like it! And I decided on Monday that I would follow the poster...

Clutter in homes is definitely a 'first world problem' and I've been decluttering on and off for a few years now but some more certainly won't hurt!

Some of the days don't apply to me such as decluttering bath toys, Kid's clothes , Kid's Artwork and Kid's toys, but I figure I can use those days decluttering other things. :-)

So Monday I went through the basket of shoes and the boxes of shoes in the wardrobe...so many that I don't wear as they are shabby/ worn out/ heels too high/ they hurt my feet/ affected by water in the rainy years of 2010 and 2011 etc...gone. (into landfill unfortunately as the op shops would not want such battered items)

One pair though will go to the op shop...a pair of Mary Jane's made by HushPuppies, which seemed comfortable when I tried them on in the shop but hurt my toes when I've actually tried to wear them. Hardly worn and just taking up space!

Tuesday, I decluttered appliances. Even though I decluttered appliances the year before last, I found some more not being used...a pre loved coffee machine that my BiL gave us when he bought a new one. We have never really been able to make a decent cup of coffee using it and I ended up putting it away in a laundry cupboard...unused and taking up space.
Languishing unused in a kitchen cupboard was an electric frypan...not used for at least 10 years, so time to go!

Last year our 30 year old clothes drier started making horrible noises...(our neighbour and children used this appliance more than us) so we stopped anyone using it for safety reasons but didn't replace it...it just sat in the laundry...not any more!

 The appliances are being kept downstairs at the moment until the coming Kerbside Cleanup; we will put them out on the footpath then, in case anyone wants elderly appliances. During these cleanups it's a fact that people go around checking out other people's rubbish and helping themselves to anything they find useful.
Today is 'bath toys' so I must think of a substitute...I have lots of items and places to declutter! :-) Hmmm...maybe DH's shoe 'collection' needs a look at!

Ruffle scarves...

Of late in my life, these scarves have come to the fore...just a coincidence, mind you. 

Firstly, at the last Sisters of Stitch meet a fortnight ago, Elizabeth, one of the regulars there, presented me with a bag of these lovely scarves to hand on to K4BN. Elizabeth commented that she finds knitting these scarves rather addictive but she has run out of people to give them to...

The lovely scarves made by Elizabeth...

At the same SoS meetup, another member, Morag, brought in over 130 balls of yarn that she had bought from Spotlight for 10 cents each...a majority of the yarn was the mesh from which the ruffle scarves are made...all the same colours, maroon with a gold fleck. Morag gave me 3 bags of this yarn to pass on to K4BN...which I did. 

The day after I received these scarves and yarn, a friend contacted me and asked if I could possibly make her a ruffle scarf...in red white and blue colourways preferably. This friend wanted to wear such a scarf to her Citizenship ceremony in September. Of course I agreed to make one for her and then embarked on the 'adventure' to find scarf yarn in that colourway. I went to a number of shops but without any luck. As a last resort I decided to try my luck at Lincraft. I wasn't hopeful because the week before when I was at Lincraft, they were selling the mesh yarn for 99c per ball and I expected it to be all gone. Well the shelves were very much depleted on this second trip but hallelujah! Yes there were some balls of red/white and blue. It just so happens that that colour scheme is a football team's colours, which worked in my favour!

So I knitted the scarf for Debbie and it has been sent on its way to her...

 The 'scarf saga' continues...on Saturday I visited some local markets. I was very taken with one stall...and one lady's use of the mesh ruffle scarf yarn...so much so that I bought one item...
A beautiful Christmas wreath! Beryl Warrington from Redcliffe, is the lady who made this and apparently the yarn is used to make a scarf and then the length of knitting is wrapped around a ring which has first been wrapped with batting or something similar.

Beryl also had made some beautiful shawl like collars, also made with the scarf yarn. I would have bought one of those too but I had already spent my cash on these items below which were on the stall near the entrance...

Thank you to all those who sent me best wishes for the problems with my forearms and wrists to be gone...the soreness had gone by Sunday night and I'm still racking my brains to come up with what triggered the discomfort of Friday and Saturday. ????

Friday Night with Friends...

Last night, being the first Friday of the month, was FNwF...although I should add that due to the number of time zones around the world, it is still Friday night in many places! lol, Cheryll organised this event each month and this time 52 people signed up to join in.

I traced a design for a new stitching project...just a glimpse as once again this is a secret project :-)

And I knitted...yet again a secret project but the recipient doesn't read my blog so I can show more than a glimpse.

Unfortunately my forearms and wrists were a bit troublesome again for some reason when I knitted yesterday afternoon, so during FNwF, I only knitted in 'fits and starts'. Consequently  during the evening I just did 3 colour changes.

So for some of the evening whilst resting my arms, I googled using the iPad and subsequently visited some interesting sites...hmmm...in this case the word 'interesting' probably means sites with the potential for spending money on even more fabrics :-/

I particularly liked this  2011 post from Cabbage Quilts blog where this blogger shares all the sources that she used to build up her Liberty prints stash. I still haven't visited all the sites in her suggestions (and possibly some of the site no longer exist as it is 3 years!) but the ones that I have visited had me 'drooling'. lol. I must be good though and remember that I have signed up for a Westwood Acres Liberty Club for the next 11 months...but those scrapbags at Liberty Charms and Alice Caroline Supply are tempting interesting! 

The unexpected places you find quilts...

On Tuesday afternoon I attended the Breastscreen clinic at Chermside for my biennial mammogram. It's a pretty quick, streamlined process these days but I had a few minutes in the waiting room as I was a little early. That's when I saw it! A Calendar Girls ( and one man, Mr December!) style quilt...and what a smile it brought to my face!
I took some photos with my phone but as the quilt is behind glass the photos have a lot of glare...

 I took a closer photo of Miss October, as with that knitting she is doing and that rather buxom body...I thought 'she could be me'! lol

 I've tried to find information online about this quilt but without success...but I will keep trying.

Liberty...

That's 'Liberty' as in the Liberty shop in London.

Standing outside the iconic store in March this year...

On our trip earlier this year, DH took photos as I flitted from department to department...

To make up for only buying 4 pansy buttons on a visit in 2008, I bought some lovely goodies this year.

I love the Tana Lawn fabrics made by Liberty but they are a bit pricey...the sign in the Liberty store...

Last month, on the spur of the moment I signed up for the Liberty Club of Westwood Acres, an online fabric store. I don't need more fabrics but I was tempted by the idea of getting bundles of 10 lovely Tana Lawn cottons sent to my home monthly for 12 months. There were 3 options of the size of the pieces of fabric and I chose the fat sixteenths...still plenty of fabric to cut charm squares and some hexies.
Last week, my first mail out arrived...and I wasn't disappointed...( shipping from the US is extremely reasonable. Originally I had put my name on a waiting list for the club and it was only a few weeks until I got the invitation to join a new mail out club)

When DH and I visited the Liberty store in March, we looked through all the departments and it was on a lower level that we encountered items that were...shall we say...a bit different to what we would have expected the store to be selling... I did a doubletake when I started to read the labels....DH took a few photos for me...

You may be wondering whether we purchased any of these items????....

The answer is a resounding no...lol!

 But we have the photos to prove what we saw ...

Unfortunately we will never know what actually was in the jars! lol