Wallet Disaster Area

My wallet has been a complete bomb for quite some time.  Wallets are not made with enough slots to neatly file away all the store cards that everyone has these days.  And I HATE rifling through my wallet, period, but  especially hate doing it while some poor salesperson waits for me to dig their  card out.  I saw a tip somewhere, it might have been a Hint from Heloise, about how to tidy up all those cards and get them out of the wallet.  (Sorry that I can't give full credit to whoever came up with this idea!)  

I got my snap press out with the hole punch dies and got to work.  And, a regular hole punch will work just as well (I tested it out on a card that was expired), but the snap press was the ticket for a very accurate, smaller hole.  I punched all the store cards, taking care not to punch through any bar codes or magnetic strips.  I even punched my insurance cards, because I really don't need to have them in my wallet on a daily basis.  Then, I strung the cards on a small piece of ribbon, because that's what I had on hand.  I think it would work out really well to use a metal ring with a hinge, so you can quickly take one card off, if needed.  I plan on leaving the whole pack of cards in my vehicle  (yeah, its a swagger wagon, whaaaat), and if I go into, say Panera, I can grab the pack and toss it in my bag.  

Do you like how I tried to make you think I was really cool by putting the Anthropologie store card on top?  Yeah, well, when it comes to cool cards, that's as far as it goes.  I have all my regulars too, like Panera, Costco, Library, CVS, Chiropractor, and of course the Lego Store.

A Hooker Kind of Day

A friend of mine invited me to go spend the morning with some women that she heard were amazing hookers.  It was an interesting morning and I snapped a few photos of the ladies in action, as well as some of their tools.  I most enjoyed chatting with one of the women who had been hooking for over 30 years.  

I know, I am so immature for calling them hookers.  Except that's what they call themselves.  No kidding.  These rug hookers were in their 50's, 60's, and beyond and love the craft.  They taught my friend and I how to hook, and though it was fun and interesting, I doubt I will pick this hobby up.  Not only is it time-consuming, but it also requires expensive equipment.  And, you have to painstakingly cut the strips out of wool fabric with a small hand crank cutter thing.  I already  have plenty of creative things I want to do, so I will make a conscious decision here to keep it simple and just say "no, thank you. "

I'd love to attend the group again (they meet every week), because these ladies are so sweet and experienced in life.  Know what I mean?  It is wonderful to hang out with my peers, but how rich to be among creative women who have been married longer than I've been living and they have long since launched their children into adulthood.  But, I don't think I will go to any more meetings because I had to arrange babysitting for my little 15-month-old while my big kid was at school.  Then, I ended up picking up a friend's kids from school (and I will keep them for the rest of the day) because she is sick.  Then I stopped at the store because it is Wednesday and that means Publix Penny Item.  (Today, it was a 5 pound bag of sugar, and I couldn't pass that up.)  It makes for a long day, and though all the kids (minus the napping baby) are playing well outside as I blog on the deck, I realize I want to have more margin in my day for things like caring for my friend's kids.  Adding a regular club meeting doesn't seem like it fits into my life right now.

Anyhow, it was a fascinating morning and I loved seeing all the projects the hookers brought to to show off.  Most of the ladies said they were giving their projects away to friends and I thought, boy, what fortunate friends they have!

Change is Good

I changed my vacuum bag out today.  Exciting, I know.  It was completely packed and causing the "performance indicator" light to come on, meaning the suction was affected by the too-full bag.  Want to know when the last time was I changed the bag?  (Yes, that is my trash can.)

In case you can't read it, it says "9/16/10."

As I've mentioned before, my grandpa used to date most things he bought, like spices and cleaners.  My dad also marks the date on items like the air filters for the A/C system and such.  I suppose writing the date on the vacuum bag isn't really that helpful; its just mildly interesting.  So, now I know that it took 4 months for the bag to get full.  I feel like that is pretty quick.... but then, I do vacuum fairly frequently and most of my house is carpeted.  Here's the new bag ::

I'm curious if anyone else labels the date on stuff that they use.  Please leave a comment!   Or, you could share how often you think you change your bag out.  I mean, this blog is serious, people.  If you want to comment that dating your vacuum bag is totally weird, well, as long as you're nice, I'll allow it.  :)  Happy vacuuming!

Like a Good Quilter Should

I ran across this photo from last summer... it is a small lovey I made for a friend who had a baby in August 2010.

I made it from clothing samples I've been hoarding in my fabric stash for a couple of a years.  I don't hoard much, but I do hoard specific items, such as the samples.  I couldn't bear to get rid of them, because a friend of mine gave them to me when he didn't need them for his business any more.  They are samples of sort of camping/hiking/slightly crunchy clothes.

Anyhow, most of my sewing confidence started with quilting.  A lovely woman named Barb, who was the wife of a fellow student while I was in grad school, invited over any interested novice quilters over to her home every week for her to pass along her home economic skillz.

[Incidentally, during the first week of grad school, I learned that her husband, Reeder, was a former Air Force guy, who was (I think) a navigator on B-52 bombers.  I knew they were from North Dakota (we were in Pennsylvania at the time) and since he appeared to be about my dad's age, I got to chatting with him about his career in the military.  Turns out, he totally knew my dad and even flew with him back in the day (the 1970's).  Crazy, small world.]

So, back to the title of this post... historically, quilters are super frugal and back before Americans were, well, so *American* (read :: wealthy), quilters would use worn out clothing, blankets, flour sacks and anything else made out of textiles to create their bed coverings with.  So, in that tradition, I figure hoarding my little stash of clothing samples is totally justified.  Totally.  And, I'm not sentimental about much, but the samples are special.  They remind of days where I stayed up til the wee hours of the morning, sewing and quilting with women who loved the craft, loved each other and loved Jesus.  We called ourselves the Quilting Church Ladies.

Bootcut to Skinny :: Nothing to do with Order

My good, good friend Dan inspired me to do this project.  Dan, may you be an inspiration to sewers everywhere.  


Bootcut before  ::

Skinny after  ::

This project took me about an hour.  There was a bit of trial and error getting my seam correct, and I also had to hem the bottoms because they were badly frayed.  If I do this again, I am sure it will go much faster.  I'd rate this "easy" when it comes to sewing projects.  Even a new sewer could do this.  Here's a youtube video with instructions.  Love the song.  Awwww, yeah, brings me back to high school.  Anyhow, can't wait to put together an outfit so I can wear them tomorrow.  

Hooks in the Closet

I have posted before on my love of hooks, and here is another post about how they make my life slightly easier!

My master closet has been a disaster area for a few months.  Its one of those things that I chose to let go because... well, I don't know why.  Wait, yes I do, its because not everything can be ideal.  There!  Ha!  Die, Perfectionist.  That's why this blog is not called "In Perfect Order."  Its "Decent".  You know, definitely "Good Enough."

Anyhow, it got to the point that the door would not fully swing open and my husband and I would trip over clothes, shoes, and suitcases every time we went in there.  I had a closet installer come over to give me an estimate on getting some nice shelving done.  $5000.  Oh  yes, not $500, it was $5000.  I guess that's because I said I hated horrible wire shelving and I pretty much wanted the whole thing built out with drawers, shelves, hanging rods, cubbies galore and so on.  Well,  for me& my family, it is not appropriate to spend that kind of money on a stupid closet, when there are orphans all over the world who need parents.  And I just finished reading "Radical" by David Platt.  As much as I would love a closet like this one  ::

So, I decided that I will live with my horrible wire shelving and make the best of the unused space that existed above all the shelves.  (Side note  ::  if I lived near Ikea, it is very affordable to build out a closet using some of their systems and I would consider it.  But, I have no plans to hit Atlanta's Ikea any time soon, so whatever, I think I will let go of this dream.  My husband will be happy that he doesn't have to build any thing.  And that, my friends, is worth a lot.)

There are 2 main categories of items that have no proper home in my closet  ::  suitcases and folded clothing.  We have plenty of hanging space, but for jeans and tee's, there is simply not enough room in the dresser that already lives in there.  I will probably solve that problem down the road with an inexpensive Ikea dresser like the one below.  Until then, I'll attempt to keep my jeans and tee's nicely folded and stacked on the horrible wire shelving.  I can't help myself, I have to say "horrible" every time I say "wire shelving."

So, on to the suitcases.  We store our suitcases in the closet because we need easy access to them for various travels.  In case you haven't seen the blog before, we tromp all over the place.  Sure would be nice to live next door (or even in a bordering state) to family and good friends, but we are modern-day nomads.  We wander.  And therefore need our suitcases, which don't fit under the bed (that would be convenient, though, no?).  The offenders  ::

My husband suggested hanging the suitcases on hooks in the "white spaces" above the horrible wire shelves.  That would have worked, but I didn't love the idea of entering the closet and seeing a lot of visual clutter on the walls right away.  What about hanging them in the white spaces above the door way on the opposite wall?  Still easy to access, yet you don't really notice them unless you walk in, turn around and look up.  My husband went to town converting our pile-o-suitcases into a purposeful, neatly organized set up.

One last side note... my husband Dave is a hoarder of hooks.  I don't know why.  But, in this case, the hoarding came in handy, as we had many matching hooks to choose from and didn't have to run to the store for supplies.  This project was totally free, well other than the hour or so that Dave spent with the drill.  For the record, that hour of work was SO worth not stumbling in and out of the closet.  Good work, my darling husband.