Middle of February
10:27 a.m. - 2012-02-19


My efforts to reduce clutter are becoming noticeable, finally. The dining area looks much better, and the spouse has removed the large mound of boxes and papers from the office that sat at the end of the living room. The biggest project will be to have some new white shelving put in along the long LR wall so that the many stacks of books can find a home. I was looking for my Encyclopedia of Needlework yesterday and had to move three big stacks of books on the shelves that are there now to find it. But on the plus side, I DID find it.

There was a sale at Joann's this week and I bought a length of the most lovely butter yellow fleece. I made a pillow cover for the long body pillow that sits across the pillows at the head of the bed. It is cozy and pretty. Making pillow cases is easy and quick, and you really feel like you accomplished something.

On Friday I took a quick jaunt over to IKEA to see if there were any organizational things I could get, but I ended up finding nothing I needed, except for a pink, king-sized sheet set that was on clearance. IKEA isn't selling the sheets singly anymore, the salesguy told me. That's too bad for me because I was buying them for yardage for bag linings and aprons and once in awhile I'd make a top out of one. It was very inexpensive for cotton yardage, but alas, the opportunity is gone. I read on the sewing blogs that lots of ladies buy old pretty sheets at the thrift stores and make them into quilts and clothing, but the ewwww factor is too high for me to use a sheet strangers had been sleeping (and more) on. You couldn't wash it enough for me. I do have a lot of old white cotton sheets that were my mom's, and will eventually sew something out of them, but that's different since those were ours.

I am between sewing projects and am starting to feel like getting back on the knitting machine, so I am in the floundering-around stage as my creative urge refocuses itself. Or not, as the case may be.

Today I plan on making Arroz Con Pollo using a really good recipe from the Sunset Best Of Low-Fat Cooking cookbook. It has the most delicious rice, and I could just eat the rice and forget about the chicken. I also need to make some more bread and some cookies for the spouse. But right now I'd better eat some breakfast.