Getting organized

After more than 2 yrs of waiting for the completion of my craft room, I decided to get started by putting together my shelf organizers. These were a Christmas gift from my MIL two years ago if you can believe it and they've finally been put together. Their final resting place will be in my youngest son's former bedroom (most recently our living quarters during the kitchen renovations). The room has been painted but the carpet needs cleaning and that can't be completed until we move out the massive amounts of accumulated junk. I don't figure that will take place until perhaps during my recuperation from surgery. Of course I'll need DH's help which means that we might be waiting until summer when he has more time off of rehearsals. By that time the weather is beautiful and who feels like staying indoors. Get the picture? We may be waiting several more years before this is completed! Retirement perhaps?

In any case, most of the cubicles have been put together with the exception of two. These consist of more of the 4 drawers type so I now know that I need more of the divider cubes. These organizers came from Michaels and I saw them shortly after the holidays so I'm hoping that they still have some around. DH is going to check for me tomorrow in Ottawa since I'm working this weekend and can't get there myself.

It's so great to finally have everything in one place where I know exactly where to find it. No more searching through my huge box of floss for a particular colour. They're now arranged in the small drawers, sorted by DMC number. I store them in floss bags which are arranged on rings by their numbers, 100s, 200s, etc. My WDW and GAST floss as well as other hand dyes are still in another storage box residing on these shelves until such time as I get another one put together. I have such a huge amount of fabric though, particularily hand dyed, that I think they'll remain in their current storage box. All of my freebie patterns are arranged by season in binders and the remainder are stored on CDs. I know that it still looks a bit disorganized but if you could have seen it before you would have died! My God but you don't realize exactly how much stash you have until you see it all in one place. It's easier to fool yourself when it's scattered about the house.

Because I spent a lot of my free time doing this, I spent less time stitching. Plus I'm too caught up in the Olympics at the moment. I thought I could stitch and watch but invariably the stitching is put aside as I get involved in the games. Here's my progress for this week.

First I managed to finish off my LHN Pear Tree ornament. Of course by finished I always mean the stitching since I never have time for the actual finishing until a much later date. The next ornament in the series, He's A Flake, arrived this week and I've made a small start on it as of today. Picture to follow later.

While I was awaiting its arrival, I took out my M Designs name tree for my granddaughter Oceanne. I've only worked on it for one evening but it's progressing fairly quickly. I can only stitch on this one at home because it's over one and I need my magnifying lens.

Finally I've put some time in on Nantucket Sampler. I really love this one and I'm getting lots of positive comments from my coworkers whenever it makes an appearance. Sorry about the bump in the centre. I just didn't feel like taking the whole thing off of the Q snaps.

My floss package and fabric arrived last week for Winter Mandala which recently appeared in an issue of JCS magazine. It's a Tracy Horner design and the silk floss are by Vicky Clayton.

I'm looking forward to this one. In the meantime I would like to start LHN Home of a Needleworker. Add to that another design I spotted in last year's Jan/Feb issue of JCS by Hands To Work designer Tracy Riffle called This is the Day which I fell in love with. It's stitched on 40 ct but I'm thinking more likely 32ct. I have some fabric here that I think will work well. Some of the floss will need to be ordered for this one though so it might take a back seat to one of the others. Then once Oceanne's ornament is done it's time to get started on one for her sister Summer. I think there's enough on my plate for now. But oh my how I love the new PS designs! Tortoise & The Hare is adorable!

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day. DH was involved in a recital that evening. We did manage to make it to dinner but had to share our time with a guest who was also in the concert. We tried out a restaurant that I've been wanting to visit for some time now. Every time I would say to Bob, "We should try that one out some time.", he would respond with "I'm ready any time you want to take me!" Finally he took me. Although it's primarily an Italian restaurant, I had trout done in a balsamic sauce accompanied with a small pasta dish. It was heaven! I behaved though, no dessert.

This Friday following work I took a drive to the bird sanctuary near Morrisburg where I actually do more than check out the birds. The deer are also there in large numbers and are fairly tame. People drop off grain, apples and carrots for them. They know the sound of the cars and after sitting for a few minutes you will see them making their way out of the woods to check out the situation. I counted 16 surrounding me. I managed to get a few photos from the car.

Then it was off to feed the chickadees who land right on your hand to take their seeds. There were so many of them. I was alone so I couldn't get a picture of this but Bob is going to go with me on Monday and hopefully we'll get some good pics then.

I'll leave you with a picture of the sunset that I took on my way home. Hope you all have a good week. I know where I'll be.....parked in front of the TV each night as the Olympics continue. I might even get some stitching in!