back to studio work and taming clutter

now that we're back from our weekend adventure, I'm trying to get back into a routine that allows me time in the studio as well as working on some other needed projects

 yesterday afternoon I worked on this piece some more

I haven't yet decided if I'm going to put some smaller crystal bicone beads in that opening there on the right hand side

maybe

I do like the way this is coming together

back to the sewing machine to work on how to stitch the feather sample that is actually the colors I will use in the final project

it took a bit of thought about start and stop spots so it will actually make the feathers look like the proper layers

looking good

traveling means knitting in the car, and these two afghan squares are what I finished while I was gone

the box is slowly filling up

one of the things that a couple of the email lists I belong to have been discussing is taming clutter

I'm a 3rd generation pack rat, and I can tell you, keeping a clean house is not my strong suit

and the DH isn't good at it either (and yes, I believe everyone that lives in the household carries equal responsibility on this subject!)

so in the end I do what I HAVE to do to keep the living areas clean enough to be healthy, but spotless is not the watchword here

and there in is the problem

things get carried to the depths of the basement and there they remain 

all this, however, has got to go, and so I'm trying to break up the job into something I can handle in small pieces without feeling so overwhelmed that I want to just back up a dump truck and trash it all

yesterday I was doing laundry, so during the drying of the last load, I stayed down in the laundry room (about an hour's time) and worked on cleaning up of the side of the laundry room that also serves as the food storage area

now all the shelves are organized, the items that were past their usable dates have been discarded (there wasn't much -- just 3 bottles of home canned salsa that was made from our last garden in California in 2001 -- uh, time for those to go!), the "like items" arranged together, the empty canning jars put into boxes and put back on the shelves instead of sitting on the floor in front of the shelves

in a way this was the easy wall -- decisions about discarding out of date food are easy -- there are no attachments 

my plan is to move a quarter turn in the room and clean there next -- probably not today as we have major shopping to do -- but my current plan is to do that tomorrow

I'm focusing on that new present my daughter gave me!

who knew what would come next when I selected that word!!