March 28, 2006

It’s been over a month since I last posted an entry! Goodness time has flown by!!!

I haven’t been doing much personal stitching. Sigh? But there are good reasons why?

We started a project to finish our basement at the beginning of March, 2006. The original plan was to start construction at the end of March, 2006. When we met with the contractor to sign the contract at the beginning of March, he asked if he could start the following Tuesday, exactly one week later from when we signed the contract and three weeks earlier than originally planned!

I’m not complaining as its sooooo nice to have someone want to start a project early as opposed to nagging them as to when they would start and when they would finish (remind me someday to write up what happened with our screening in the deck project from last summer which was finally finished in February, 2006. On second thought, I think I just did! It took that contractor nine months to screen in an already built deck with an existing roof. Don’t worry we aren’t using them for this project? Sigh!), but there went my plans to spend time getting organized and sorting and pitching before packing up items to move upstairs. It’s panic time!!!

The kids and my husband were terrific. The kids actually downsized more than I thought they would. We sent over six boxes of toys and about 6 bags of books to charity! We were able to sort and then pack up the toys and books that they wanted to keep and move them upstairs all on Saturday. We celebrated by taking them out to dinner. Plus I was toooo tired to cook!

On Sunday it was my husband’s and my turn. He was able to quickly pack up his stuff into Rubbermaid containers and set it aside to be sorted and dealt with later. Now my husband has a lively sense of humor and he frequently refers to himself as labor and I’m management! He definitely has the easy end of this project so far and he knows it! He didnt have to negotiate between two kids as to what was kept and what was donated!!!

Sigh… I was the challenge! During the Holidays I had begun a project to finally organize my needlework stash. I had set up Rubbermaid containers throughout our dining room. It was a funny sight to see the containers as they were all lined up against two walls with their lids propped up behind them. My daughter kept calling them my coffin collection. Aren’t teenagers fun?! Each of the containers were then labeled with the different categories such as Painted Canvases, Painted Canvases with Fibers, Stretcher Bars, Fibers, Needlepoint Books, Christmas Books, etc. I was startled to see that there are over 20 categories and now 20 containers! At the end of January, 2006 these containers had been labeled but they were still empty. During January, we had decided that we were going to finish our basement this year and we started looking for a contractor. I moved the labeled empty containers down to the basement where I lined them up against the wall. My plan was that when I had time, I would open a container/bag that contained stash and I would sort into the already labeled containers. This way, I could work in short amounts of time as I don’t have a whole day that I can set aside to organize stash (working full time with two kids). And with the size of my stash it would take longer than one day! The basement finishing project wasn’t supposed to start to the end of March, 2006 so I have plenty of time to sort? Right? Sigh…

Note I do have a container set aside for donations so hopefully I’ll be able to donate some stash for the Baltimore ANG Seminar in 2007!

When the contractor asked to move the date of constructor forward three weeks I knew that my plans to organize my stash would have to wait. The 20+ empty containers were moved up to our bedroom. Now that they are stacked up against the wall next to my dresser they make a lovely place to put decorative items!

On that Sunday I knew I had to deal with my unorganized stash as I would not have time on Monday after work. I had already placed a lot of my stash in large plastic containers over the years so they were quickly moved up to the dining room next to the kid’s stuff. The loose stash was my next problem area. I finally decided to place all of this in new plastic containers to be sorted later. Off I went to my local hardware store to purchase $150.00+ of plastic containers. Yes, I have that much stash but some of the new containers were to pack up the books that we couldn’t fit in the containers that we already had! Did I mention that we are all avid readers and we have a very large book collection which was also originally in the basement?!

The funny part is it took two trips/purchases in and out of the store to buy what I needed and to load it into the van. Thank goodness I could fit everything in the van in one trip to the store. I had to ask one of the sales personnel to help me by moving some of the plastic containers down to a lower shelf so that I could reach them. The man was very nice and helpful. He reminded me that for the containers he was moving I would need lids and he handed down the lids only to be startled when I said that I had already loaded the lids that I would need into my cart. He didn’t know that he was dealing with a profession plastic container buyer!

By the end of Sunday, I couldn’t move! But all of the kid’s toys and books had been moved up to the dining room. My stash had also been placed in containers and moved upstairs.

Now over the years I have been asked how many painted canvases and charted projects do I have in my stash and I have always side stepped the question. Since my stash has still not been organized I can’t answer this question but I can tell you that I have 20 containers full of stash that need to be sorted! Does anyone have more? Now in my defense I should say that each of these containers is a 45 gallon container but they all aren’t full. Does that help? Hey, it’s cheaper than therapy! Giggle, giggle, giggle?

I’m still buying as I see beautiful things that I’m hoping that someday I’ll be able to stitch! Actually it is a fun harmless hobby so I decided years ago that not only am I a stitcher, but I am also a collector of fine potential needlework and works in progress!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

Originally Posted: March 28, 2006