I had a productive and busy weekend! Having Friday off gave me that extra time I need to recover my energy. I need a four day work-week! Normally, by the time the weekend comes, I need most of Saturday just to catch up on my sleep, errands, and whatever committments I've already made. Sometimes the whole day is already taken with something social which only leaves me Sunday to mow, do laundry. clean...and play. It's generally mid afternoon before I can start any kind of project and I avoid big projects because I know I won't get back to them until the next weekend and sometimes many weeks later. Any time I can do most of my catching up on Friday is a bonus.

I didn't really do much - went to some garage sales in the afternoon mostly to find some wool or fleece for the bobbin lace pillow I was determined to make at the weekend. I did find a nice fleece blanket, black, which I then didn't want to cut up. LOL!
I also got a metal stand for 75¢ and a shirt and some magazines. I started painting the metal stand yesterday. It will make a holder for blankets and throws I tend to keep on the sofa and chairs in the living room. It looks a lot like this except there are more bars across the top and there is a wire shelf at the bottom. It won't hold anything too heavy but it's great for the throws I have. It was white and had some spots - hence the 75¢ price, but my first coat of rust-buster black is makin' it look pretty darned good.

(FROM THIS) I got my bobbinlace pillow pretty much done. I had purchased two wool suits at a second hand store as the cheapest source of 100% wool that I could find. Turns out only the skirts had fabric wide enough to use. I pieced a few strips togther but it still made a very shallow layer. Then I remembered a bag of wool someone gave me for pincushions! I will never make that many pincushions so I used it. I still have wool left over too.

(TO THIS!) All I have left to do is make a final cover for it. There are several kinds of instructions on the web now - more than when I looked just a few months ago. If I can find some ethafoam, I'll use it for the second bulletin board disk I have. Some of this is in preparation for a program for my lace group. It's about making your own lace tools. Two of the members will be guiding us through making paper bobbins and dowel rod bobbins.


When I went to JoAnn Fabrics to find a good sturdy cloth to cover my pillow with....they had buttons on clearance. 25¢ and 50¢ each for selected buttons. And I also found some beads in the back row on clearance, for the same prices. Ooooohhhhh sweet mama! I LUV it when that happens!

Saturday night I went to the baptism of the baby of some friends. I didn't go to the dinner after, but it was so nice to be around them and share this special moment. They are such a happy family!

Sunday morning I was primed. Wide awake and full of energy! My goal was to get through all my boxes of Christmas storage. I need that corner of the basement for other storage and I knew I was ready to part with a lot of holiday decorations. In less than two hours, I had emptied 7 boxes. There were 4 boxes packed to go to charity, an overflowing wastebasket, and what I wanted to keep was in many fewer containers, mostly plastic to protect from water seepage. Actually I emptied more than 7 boxes but there were 7 empty boxes when I was done - maybe more. The 4 packed for charity had been emptied and refilled (and dropped off today!) so that actually means there are 11 fewer boxes!!!! I've also got a big walnut blanket chest emptied - just need to vacuum and wipe down - which is going to my neice. As soon as I get back from farm inspections later this week, I'll list my big chest freezer and that will open up a big space too. I want to get a little freezer. The refrigerator freezer is not quite big enough but I don't need this big one anymore either. I LUV it when space opens up!


Last night I tatted 2 more insertions from Sharon's book, but this is only the first one. It was just called "insertion". I only make small samples and used the yarn needle threader for sizing. The next one is a clover leaf insertion but I'm not finished with it yet. Next post......

Saturday I also went through a few non-holiday storage bins from the basement. There is another box in the living room for charity now but I need to document it. These are mostly craft things I'm going through now. Harder to part with. LOL! In fact, the next post will be a give-away but I want to wait until I'm back in town before I offer it so be sure to check back in a few days. In the meantime, you have this hint....