A Quieter Week....

Good morning all!

After the hectic rushing around of late it's been a much quieter week....

I should have been desk deep in writing new materials, but due to a bit of a hold up sending me the books I ended up with a bit of editing and more breathing space.. lovely!

The first of the books have now arrived and as soon as I get sent the template for the task I'll be at it again. Here's one of the first I'm doing..

It's a great read with a lovely message..

I know I was all confident about Mum's top for Mothering Sunday, but when I got over halfway through I realised that the yarn was going sooo much further than I thought at first so I changed my mind.  Here's what I'm working on now - whether I get it done in time for Sunday could be in the balance, but at least it's a spinning day on Wednesday so I can get some more done during the day.

The 'girls' at spinning are great especially when I'm nearing the end of a task (generally at the sewing up phase). I jsut have to say that I've brought something to finish and they are happy to keep nagging (broken up by plenty of tea and cake) until I've completed the job. I'm looking forward to Wednesday as I haven't been spinning since the first week of January so have missed it a lot. I'm also keen to spin up some more alpaca to get on with one of the shawls where progress has stalled through lack of yarn!

With the 'spare' time this week I've been able to have a good sort out in the study and re-organise everything, putting older work away in the loft and getting the things I'll need for the work that's about to arrive ready at hand. It might not look any more organised to anyone else, but I know where everything is now. It reminded me of when we first moved here and had to get our stuff sorted to change from one way of life/work to another.

So here's 101 tips for thrift number 8..... if you don't need it pass it on...
After we'd moved and put a lot of things in the loft 'just in case' as we didn't know what could be useful, if either of us would need to find teaching work, etc. By the first September we were ready to get rid of some more stuff. (We'd already thinned a lot of things out in a Boot Sale before we moved - getting rid of it rather than packing it up and moving the storage problem with us!) Encouraged by my sister I investigated Ebay, tried it out with one item, found out how easy it was and off I started. With a book from the library for advice I started to clear out the surplus. About £300 later I was stunned and delighted. It was also helped by the fact that the move had left us with tons of bubble wrap and tape stacked up in the loft. Some books and CDs went better on Amazon - you just have to check it out and see. Since then I seem to have regular mini clear outs. A little while ago I dealt with a pile of old badges, photographing them first for posterity and then selling them - it's amazing what you can get! That saying about one man's rubbish being another's treasure certainly seems true.

In the sorting I opened our lounge cabinet door...

 

I'm not sure how long it would take to watch all the DVDs or listen to all the CDs, but I know that we've already got plenty to watch stored on the hard drive too so it looks like tip number 9 has to be prune your collection! I think it's time I used those long drives to listen to some CDs and then discard any that no longer appeal (so that's a no listening to favourites until I've been through the stockpile rule I guess!) and then the evenings in hotels could be put to use with the DVDs that I bought ages ago and not watched. Of course there are plenty that I want to keep and watch again and again (my sister's choices are usually in this category) - you can tell those they're usually the ones at the front!But the older ones that I don't want to revisit can go on Ebay or Amazon or one of the newer sales sites as I get through them!

 

I feel quite exhausted already.. Time for a break and some cake before relaxing over at Handmade Monday...

 The cake is courtesy of Graeham.. we went to our local craft centre for a bit of an outing yesterday only to be a bit disappointed at the way it seems to be developing - there were still some nice pieces here and there, but there seemed to be far more mass produced stuff than ever before. We then wanted to go over to the Craftsman's Guild place at Bovey, but the new exhibition doesn't start until next week. So Graeham decided it was time for some cake.. and quite right too....

Enough from me - sorry about ramblingon - I suppose that's what happens when you have a bit more time!!

See you next week....