February Wrap Up

Results: 

• Read five or more books
• "Wildwood Dancing" Juliet Marillier
• "The Poison Eaters" Holly Black
• "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" JK Rowling
• "The Stars for a Light" Lynn Morris and Gilbert Morris
• "Withering Tights" Louise Rennison
• Finish quilting on stacked coin quilt 

               - Does it count if instead I decided not to add extra quilting? 

• Mail N's 1st Birthday Package 
• Purge nail polish stash  
• Hang small shelf by computer  

• Mail Valentine's Package  
• Late Christmas Gifts delivered 
• Pinterest Challenge Made "Crack Broccoli"
• Complete 2010 Cross Stitch Portrait 
• Remove 5 subscriptions from my Google Reader 

               - I think I've added 15. This week. Current weakness? Sherlock. 

Sewing or Quilting Projects: 

• Stacked Coin Quilt (ready for binding)
• Pansy Patch Quilt (no progress)

And I guess I could add: 

• Start a blog

Compared to what I accomplished on my January Goals list, February was a huge success. So far, I think this experiment in motivation has worked in my favor. I've got a lot on my list for the next few months, so I hope I can continue to keep up this momentum and continue crossing things off my list. 

De-Clutter: Nail Polish Edition

In college, I went a little wild for nail polish. At the high point, I had nearly 100 bottles in a variety of mostly loud colors.

Until a few months before my wedding, I'd never spent more than $2 on a bottle of nail polish. When I finally did, I was surprised by the increase in quality. Which ultimately means I stopped using my cheap college collection and started buying slightly more expensive bottles instead.

Now days, my college collection mostly sits in a box and attracts dust while I wear the same longer lasting ones over and over again.

A year ago, I forced myself to toss anything that was beyond help - including three bottles that had completely dried up inside.

Which left me with this:

With work this week keeping me too worn out to turn on the sewing machine, I thought a quick purge of my nail polish stash would be easy and painless.

The goal: If I haven't worn it in a year, it goes.

Almost. Some of those colors were sentimental favorites (the one I wore on my first date with my husband). I let myself have three sentimental keepers. Everything else that I hadn't worn or that was gunky, dried out, or full of cat hair (how?) went away.

Leaving me with this:

Ah. Much more manageable.

While I'm sure there will come a day when I talk myself into bringing another one home, right now I'm feeling a little lighter. I will never be a minimalist, but it feels good to let go of some of the stuff that's been taking up space in my life.

Shelf in Progress

Confession time.

Just about every surface in my office/creative space is covered.

Projects in progress. Projects I haven't started yet. An empty iced tea glass. Three tape measures. 11 bottles of nail polish. A belt. A box of pins for basting. Stationary. Baby clothes (not for me). A quilt waiting for binding. Three mini quilts waiting for backs. Thread I haven't put away. 10 tiny sample bottles of perfume.

For over a year, I've been wanting to add a little shelf to the open space on the wall next to my computer's tower so that those 10 tiny bottles could have a better home. The spot I wanted to fill was only about 8 inches square, so it can't be much of a shelf.

When I was digging through some give away items and found this:

 (Poor photography. It was about 11:30 pm. This will be an ongoing issue.) 

Pros: price (free), size (6 by 5). 

Cons: frame color, greeting card background, and I'm not sold on the depth. The frame is 2 inches deep, but there's only a little more than an inch 'shelf' space in front of the glass.

I didn't want to go to the effort of painting the frame if the depth wasn't going to work, so I attempted a minimal change by adding a piece of scrap fabric and re-positioning the hanger.

Three minutes of effort and I had this:

Better. The fabric is an improvement, but I'm still not a fan of yellow.

On the wall. Ignore the wallpaper design. Please.

In place, the background fights with my beloved green-framed cross stitch.

The yellow frame doesn't go with my green frame either.

Actually, it doesn't work well with any of the things on the wall.

I'm still going to give it a chance to grow on me.

If it stays, I'm coming back with some paint and a different background.

For the moment though, I'm going to enjoy having a little bit more space on my desk.



What do you think - make it work or look for another solution?

February Goals

• Read five or more books
• Finish quilting on stacked coin quilt
• Mail N's 1st Birthday Package 
• Purge nail polish stash
• Hang small shelf by computer
• Mail Valentine's Package 
• Late Christmas Gifts delivered
• Pinterest Challenge
• Complete 2010 Cross Stitch Portrait
• Remove 5 subscriptions from my Google Reader 

Meet Me

This is where I usually quit making up a blog in my head. I never know what to say – but it seems rude to jump in without giving the wide, wild Internet out there some idea who I am.

I’m a very private person. I’m not even sure I’ll really do this.

But.

I’ve got hundreds of things book marked under titles like

·         DIY

·         Crafty

·         Try This

·         Cook This

·         Make This

But that’s about as far as I get.

So, I decided to challenge myself to do something.

I thought I’d do one a week. But that seems like a lot of effort. So maybe I’ll do one a month. And before I know it, I’ve talked myself out of doing anything at all.

I have a hard time motivating myself. And that’s what this is going to be. Motivation to move from the computer to the sewing machine or the kitchen or the bike path – or whatever else catches my eye.