The card monster...

The process of sorting through paper craft stuff has begun, but it has not been nearly as straightforward as I imagined it might be.  More on that in another post, perhaps, but for now I will talk about some success I've had.

I decided to start with cards, and card-making supplies.  And here enters the character of my fantasy self.  I trust by now everyone has heard of this concept of a fantasy self - a version of ourselves that we, perhaps, aspire to, or just wish we were.  One facet of my fantasy self is that I am a card maker, and sender of cards for any and all occasions - birthdays, holidays, get well, thinking of you...  This fantasy self pats herself on the back for being thoughtful and timely with good wishes.  And everyone who is fortunate to receive a card from her is in awe.

The truth is, I am a terrible sender of cards.  Except for my immediate family, and my sisters, I don't even TRY to remember peoples' birthdays, and long ago, we stopped sending out holiday cards.  I also got honest with myself, and admitted that while I love the idea of beautifully hand-decorated cards, I don't actually have the desire to make them.  I do sometimes like to make simple or funny or quirky cards for certain people.  Not everyone.  Just the lucky few who I trust will get my sense of humor or who have no choice but to indulge my other fantasy self who likes to imagine herself as a sort of artist (note the emphasis on sort of).  

Long before I ever collected the first card-making item, I had a small stash of store bought cards.  My original card collection started innocently enough with Current cards and a little spiral bound book that had a pocketed page for each month.  Inside the pocket I could put birthday or anniversary cards, and there was space on the front of each pocket to write special dates and names of anyone I wanted to send a card to that month.  For the longest time, this was a very handy and sufficient system. Until it wasn't.

At some point, I collected enough cards (admittedly many were blank cards purchased for thank you notes) that I needed something larger to put them in.  This pretty box was purchased for the purpose, and for another decade or so, this was a perfect container of cards.

I would sort through it it occasionally and it never got out of hand.  I have dividers to keep the cards organized by categories.  Have I already mentioned how perfect it is?

When my MIL passed in 2020, and we were clearing her house, we uncovered a massive collection of cards she had been storing.  Unlike me, she was probably a true sender of cards, even if she had too many.  Corralling them from their various hiding places, I sorted them into categories into a dozen or more boxes.  Before donating them, everyone took what they wanted.  I thought I was being selective, and not taking all that many, but when I got them home and tried to figure out where to put them, I began to realize I had more cards than I could use in what's left of my lifetime.

I'm happy to say, this week, using the container concept, I decided to get back to only having as many cards as will fit in my perfect-sized card box.  And I (mostly) succeeded. 

Sorting through them all, I packaged up a bunch of cards to donate to a thrift store in town, and a large box of Christmas cards are going to wait to be sorted through and most of them donated next winter.  The only other cards I've kept are a photograph box full of blank cards for whatever crafty card making I might be inspired to do.  It's all still too many cards, but at least they're whittled down, and more space is made in the office.  Most importantly, the cards I've kept fit us, and the scenarios we might actually send a card for. 

Most of the cards below have a new home in a local happy-to-have-them thrift store.  

The card monster has been tamed.  The other paper-crafting supplies will be addressed another day

So many thoughts at once...

 

Why do ideas come to me so many at a time?  Is it like this for you?  It seems I either drag along for days on end, not overly motivated, or the ideas for things to do are so many and varied and come so fast that I feel overwhelmed by the choices.

 
I'm going to let you inside my brain for a bit and let you see how the train of thought winds its way around in there.  Tell me if you relate.  

Things on my mind at the moment:
 
Finishing organizing this office I’m sitting in 
 
Organizing and streamlining my craft stuff 
 
Making some (maybe hard) decisions about what crafts I even want to do at this point
 
It’s occurring to me that my papercraft stuff is mostly what's left to organize in the office, and that thought gives me comfort as I realize this job shouldn't be as overwhelming as I've been allowing myself to feel about it.
 
My craft stuff, in general, is a big chunk of what is weighing me down, causing my motivation to lag.  I've known this for years.  It's time to come to terms with it.
 
Figuring out the entirety of my craft stuff is going to be a process.  I enjoy different hobbies, but having a sufficient (sometimes an abundance of) supplies to pursue those hobbies can be detrimental to the creative process.  This is going to take time.  I will do well to accept that up front.
 
It doesn’t help that even as I type, I want to craft, draw, paint, sew, crochet - just make stuff.  But I can't cull through and organize, and create the mess involved in making stuff at the same time. 
 

Things other than crafts I'm thinking about:

I also want to go through my closet and see what I will feel good about wearing for spring.  My body has changed, and much of what I wore last spring just isn't going to work well now.
 
I’m continuing to deep clean the house.  Fortunately, this doesn’t require a lot of thought, and my strength and energy seem up to the task for the most part.  Keeping up the momentum is the main thing.  With all the sunshine we’ve been having recently, dusty windows are starting to bother me, so maybe I’ll tackle some strategic ones this week.  Or not.  It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, so maybe I can just put that thought off for later.
 
I also want to plan a garden, maybe order seeds, and maybe even try to get some seedlings going.
 
And, with this crazy warm weather we’ve been having, I can't believe I'm already starting to wonder if I should uncover the strawberries and get that bed ready for spring.  The strawberries usually don’t get uncovered until late March or April.  And what about the asparagus?  Could I possibly have any coming through the soil already?  Surely not, but I should check sometime this week.
 
And none of this touches the personal disciplines I feel the need to be about, too.  Exercise, planning and cooking healthy meals, Bible study, even pleasure reading…   That list seems to go on, too.
 
And somewhere in between deciding on things I want to do, is the necessary and often mundane stuff like laundry, grocery shopping, dishes, sleeping…  I don’t find these things particularly onerous to do, but they do slow me down.
 
Earlier this month I printed out a free habit tracker from here.   I've mostly failed at habit tracking in February, but a new month (which feels like a new beginning) is right around the corner.   I love new beginnings.  I seem to live for them – wanting to cast old failures aside as soon as I can turn a calendar page.
 
Last week I began reading Atomic Habits by James Clear.  When I put it on "hold" a couple of weeks ago, I was something like 36th in line.  Even with four or five copies in our library system, I figured it would be months before I would rise to the top of the pack of people wanting to read this book.  I was shocked to get it last week, and assuming there are others behind me, I must be disciplined if I'm going to finish this book before I have to return it.  I’m in the second chapter, and I can say right from the beginning James Clear has some real gems to share. 

As I consider whether or not to publish this post, I will be the first to say I'm not sure it's worthy of publishing.  But I do know it was worth writing.   Getting my jumbled and competing thoughts in print is often the route to clearer thinking – eventually.

 
Since I've decided to go ahead and hit "Publish", and since I’m putting myself out on a limb with this post, I’ll invite you to watch this space for more posts I’m thinking may be a series as I tackle some of my organizational projects. 
 
The first project being papercraft supplies.

Don't think for one minute that this is the total of my paper crafting stash. This is just a teaser to pique your interest.  In a future post, I'll invite you into my actual process.  Dawn (The Minimal Mom) would say I'm about to embark on an inventory process, Dana White (AKA A Slob Comes Clean) would encourage me to use the container concept.  James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, would say I'm deciding on the type of person I want to be.  They would all be right.  And since this isn't my first rodeo, I'll be adding their wisdom to my lifetime of experience of, yet again, tackling my stuff.

Beans, beans, the magical fruit...

15-bean soup mix

Overnight-soaked, wrinkly-skinned 

Prelude to dinner

The finished tan-gray soup can never do justice to these beautiful, colorful beans, so appreciating them before cooking seems a worthy thing to do.

Adding ham, onions, garlic, and chopped carrots (pretty much according to my post here), Ham & Beans Soup was enjoyed this week, and extra was shared with friends.

I don't know why I only seem to make this yummy soup once, at most twice a year, but this week was a perfect time for it.   The last of it was enjoyed on this snowy, wet February day.  

On the crochet front...

What better time than Valentine's week to post about finishing a blanket I've dubbed "Sweetheart Blanket".

Can you see little hearts in the shell pattern of this blanket?

If you can't, don't stress.  The blanket is actually called Corn on the Cob, and it's from the book Weekend Afghans (ISBN-10: 0806964871).  It was originally crocheted in all yellow yarn - which is where its likeness to corn on the cob ended, so if you don't see corn on the cob, don't stress that either.  For some reason, the first time I came across the pattern, I saw heart shapes in all those pretty shells.  I don't see them so much this time, but the name has stuck, and I have now made my second Sweetheart Blanket in a pink gradient.  

So that's two blankets now on the books in my quest to burn through some yarn stash this year.

Also crochet related...  In January I decided to join again with a Block-A-Month Crochet-A-Long (BAMCAL, for short) group on Ravelry.  The idea behind this group is that you crochet along with others two different blocks each month (that are picked out by the moderators of the group), and by the end of the year you've made enough blocks to make a large blanket.   I think it was 2017 that I joined this group and crocheted my first block for my "blanket of many blocks".  It is now 2024 and I have taken stock and see that I've made a total of seven blocks in all this time.  In case I've lost you, let me do the math...  

That's an average of one-block-a-year!  

Now, a lap blanket is made up 12 squares, a throw is 20 squares, and a full size blanket would be made up of around 30 squares.  Clearly, I need to rethink this project, as I will not live long enough to complete a blanket at the rate I am going on this.

Fortunately for me, I've learned some things in my 7 years of slow-poking my way to a blanket made of various and diverse squares.

While I love the idea of crochet-a-longs, I have questionable follow-through.  What I love is the camaraderie and encouragement one gets when doing something as part of a group.  What I don't love is making something (anything, really) that someone else has picked out.  So, just a month after declaring I was rejoining the 2024 BAMCAL, I'm parting from the pack and going my own way on this.  Fortunately, the group has a thread where participants can share their "non-cal" squares, so that will allow me to be in on some of the fun.  And no one seems to mind if anyone completes a blanket made up entirely of the monthly squares, so it appears I can still hang out with these peeps and do my own thing to some degree.

I've already created a file on Ravelry of square patterns that look like ones I'd enjoy making, and ought to work well with the colors I've chosen to work with.

Currently, I'm working on a square called Sage Advice (which, actually, was one of the January BAMCAL squares):

I'm almost done crocheting it, and will soon move on to sewing in the ends.

It looks like a mess, and like something that would be tedious to do.  While I don't love this part of a project, if I put on the right mindset, I can find sewing in ends almost as meditative as crocheting.  It's all a part of the process.

Now, that I've gotten some clarity about how to finish this blanket-of-many-squares project, wish me well on the follow-through and execution!

New gutters... in February?

With close to spring-like temperatures these last two weeks, we've been getting some outside work done on the house. 

We recently suffered some leaks onto our living room ceiling and after having it inspected by two different companies (one that does not do gutters, so they had no vested interest), it was concluded that our gutters were to blame.  

Greg climbs a ladder a few times a year to remove debris from the gutters, but that, evidently, wasn't good enough for this winter.   While we've known the slope on the old gutters wasn't great, we didn't realize just how bad of a problem it was.   What appears to have happened during the deep freeze most of the country experienced a few weeks ago, is that after a lot of rain and a bit of snow, an ice dam built up in the guttering on the front of our house.  At some point it must have encroached into the soffit and worked its way into the attic - how much it's hard to know.  A warm day finally allowed it to start melting, resulting in a series of wet spots across the front outside edge of our living room ceiling.  For the moment, the stains left don't look very bad, and likely no one visiting would even notice them, but we know they are there.  At some point, a ceiling paint job will likely be hired out, but we first addressed the gutters.

On Friday of last week, we got new gutters with a leaf filtering guard system.  It's a beautiful installation.  

The company offered us multiple discounts (because it was February, and we're seniors, and the salesman treated us to a friends and family discount, AND we were extremely flexible with the timing of the installation) and the price finally came down to merely expensive, instead of the insane amount the salesperson started with.  I suppose they have to do stuff like that to make you feel a little better about parting with your cash.  At the end of the day, with today's inflation, while I don't expect that we got a "deal", we think the price is reflective of the current economy, but more importantly, Greg got freedom from having to climb a ladder again to clean the gutters every spring and fall.  And, hopefully, a new gutter with a good leaf filtering system will be a nice feature when we decide to sell.

The thought of selling and moving ever again makes me numb, but realistically, we won't likely be here more than 10 years, considering our ages.  That's the way Greg talks, anyway.  I can't think about it.

It's supposed to reach 60 degrees here on Friday, and I'm nearly giddy about it!  I know this unseasonably warm weather won't last long, but it's that many fewer cold days 'till spring! 

Spare time...

There are seasons in life when spare time is easy to distinguish from, well...  committed time.  No matter where we are on the spectrum of having commitments, it's likely many of us would say we don't have enough spare time.  The funny thing I've come to realize is we can have both too much spare time, and feel like we have too little at the same time.  Transitions in life can cause one to think more deeply about time.

Regret for wasting time...

Maybe next time...

There's plenty of time for...

Time is going too fast...

Realizing it's too late to do some things...

As I've gotten older, it has become less true that time is money, but rather... time is opportunity.

While I didn't retire from a full-time job as I grew into senior citizen status, I did retire from my previous full-time and part-time responsibilities.  The first was retirement from being a homeschooling mom - and the myriad jobs that title was spread thinly across.  That retirement came in 2014 when our youngest son graduated from high school.   What I felt at that time was both glorious freedom to do what I wanted with my time, mixed with a fair amount of angst over not having any clear purpose to my days.  Fortunately, I have always been a maker, a DIYer of sorts, a person who's rarely bored.  Not never bored, but I can easily find things of interest to fill my time.  

I had been coasting in that space for a couple of years when I was asked if I'd be interested in working as a part-time caregiver for an elderly lady with dementia.  I substituted for a couple of weeks when the full-time caregiver went on vacation and I discovered I enjoyed this type of work.  At least, I enjoyed this type of work with this particularly lady.  That two weeks turned into me becoming a permanent sub, which turned out to provide a pretty perfect amount of work for me each week.  It was deeply satisfying work.

That job ended abruptly when COVID struck, and the work of the elderly lady's husband came to an end.  And then in a fairly short amount time, this dear lady's dementia and frailness required that she have more full time care than could be offered at home.

Suddenly, in early 2020 I was swimming in a sea of time again.  In the early weeks of COVID, I crocheted and cross stitched to my heart's content, but that was short-lived.  Without recounting my personal 2020, '21, '22 and '23, let's just say that the many and varied twists and turns of life dictated what needing doing, and I found myself over and over again very thankful to be "retired" and have plenty of "spare" time.  Of course, in reality, my spare time simply shrank to accommodate commitments I had no choice over.  

That is the way life goes sometimes.  And for the moment, life appears to have opened up more time for me again.  And yet, as 2024 has now moved into February, I'm already lamenting that the year is going too fast.   Even though I have plenty of time, there isn't enough.   I am finding this to be one of the painful paradoxes that accompanies growing older. 

With this new year, I'm in transition again.  I'm feeling stronger from all that last year held.  I feel mostly positive, and I'm ready to do things - like planning a garden.   

On this sunny day, the garden (way back there) looks almost as eager to be planted as I feel to start turning the soil again.

But it is still winter, and, fortunately, I have inside projects to choose from.  Some are house projects (like painting a wall here or there, or maybe even a linen closet, or sewing some curtains, or finally putting something on the walls after living here for over two years now.  And, of course, there are always craft projects calling.  And there's downsizing our "stuff" that needs to continue.  Speaking of which, I need to bring some better order to this office I'm sitting in...

Life just broke into my writing here.  A few minutes ago, a friend called to see if I have just a cup or so of milk she can use for making mashed potatoes.  Guests are coming and I'm significantly closer than the grocery store.  Such a quaint thing that doesn't happen much anymore.  I happily invited her to stop by, enjoyed a short chat, and then she was off - toting a 3/4's empty gallon of milk from the fridge.  Good feels all around.

I need to finish this up.  We are soon heading out to dinner and a concert with friends tonight.  While it will be cold and dark when we get back home, it will be pleasant to make the half hour drive in what remains of the warm sunshine.

I hope you have a beautiful week ahead.  And I hope you find you have plenty of time to do some things you truly want to do! 

Beautiful music enjoyed by all.