Today was a day of cleaning. I took 3 boxes to the AA PTO thrift shop, packaged 3 large bags of clothes and toys, and a box of books, for Purple Heart, and filled a trash bag. I moved some shelves, and put all my sons’ stored books and mementos onto them. I sorted 3 bins of toys, and discarded a whole bin of them. I relocated many books, from table piles to shelves, chose a bunch of bead magazines to offer to friends. I stacked about 50 books I want to keep, into a large box.
It was a day of high energy, so we walked around the block 3 times, for almost 3 miles. And I gathered all the things I need for a class in a couple weeks, reworked the collage I posted the other day, and packed a box of china teacups to send my daughter. There is a stack of art zines a friend gave me, and I’ve been reading through them all. Today I read 5 of them, in between activity.
Some friends and I are playing  10 Word games on the phone, so I have been keeping up with that too. Maybe tomorrow I’ll feel like laying around, and eating bonbons.

 This is a sample for a Mixed Media Collage Class. It includes modeling paste 3D texture, hand dyed gauze and lace, buttons, beads, letter tiles, a key, wallpaper, a press molded hand,, jewelry bits, an old photo of a mother and child, and sheet music. Whew! Number 157

You saw this embroidery before, but guess what! I made it into a pillow. I am teaching a Beginning Embroidery class soon, and this is the image we’ll use.

 Another new pillow! made today, from a top started last September in California. This is called Scrap Garden Pillow. I show you a detail below. Number 156

I’ve had a head cold for the last few days. Sounds minor, but feels like a big sandbag is on my face. I have been drawing in my art journal, but that’s about all the creative stuff I can do, besides clearing stuff from the bedroom for the painting process. Which is done now, and looks great. Instead of medium turquoise, we now have light lemon lime. My daughter will call it brilliant yellow green, I say pastel. I can tell the walls are lighter when the lights are off.
So, what do you do after painting a room? I say, paint another. I am working on getting my painter to agree. The guest room is looking quite dim, and the office is definitely a note of discord, being yellow, in a green and aqua house. I believe if I start the job, he may decide I don’t know what I’m doing, and take over. That’s the plan, once I can breathe again.

There are big goings on at my house. Rick is painting the bedroom. I had to empty the bookshelf, so we could move it. I took 5 bags of books to the library book sale as a result. I wanted to move the shelf to my sewing room, so got rid of all I could bear to lose. (Mostly it was Rick’s books.) Don’t feel sorry for him, my mother kept giving him Civil War books, and he doesn’t like to read.

The shelf fits exactly into the space I cleared for it. It’s replacing a small bookshelf that was not working for me. I have a huge library of sewing and art books, and want them in my studio. I moved the small shelf to the guest room, just around the corner from my studio. There has been a tall pile of mostly magazines on the dresser there, but no more. Looking through the books, I sorted them into likeliness-of-use piles. Those least likely I’ll want soon, go in the guest room. Maybe they’ll be the next to go to the library. The books on paper art go downstairs, to the paper art room (basement).

All the inspiration pictures I have saved, are in 2 bulging folders for now. I will sort them, some cold winter day, and file them into page protectors, and put them in one of my inspiration binders.
Much of the stuff in my studio closet has been pulled out too. It’s all over the room, and has to be sorted and stored, because it’s blocking me from working. Rick says if he’d known I would get rid of stuff, he would have painted a couple years ago.

Two walls of my bedroom are pale lemon lime already. I think I’ll like it, although paint always looks brighter on the wall than the chip. I have to make a new quilt for us. It was time anyway. Maybe I’ll use Hawaiian fabric! I already have a box full. Fresh, light color is inspiring, now I want to paint the guest room.

I spent the day with my personal geek squad of one, my granddaughter. She did research and put some things for sale on Craigs list for me, and helped clarify some other issues. Her fingers are a blur. She was born with a computer in her hands.
I am selling my embroidery cards, no longer use them. In fact, most of them I have never used. Ten years ago I had dreams of embellishing kids clothes with all manner of Disney characters. I grew out of it rather quickly. I am also selling my embroidery machine, a Brother 180D, stands for Disney. That means it has built in Disney figures, and can use many cards. I am hoping a friend takes it off my hands, so I don’t have to list it too. But if you’re interested, drop me a line.

Another new pillow. This is fun. I am picking up partly done projects, and making them into pillows.  A good deed, and a good use. Number 155

These are the Baguettes. It’s a diamond, or a loaf of bread. We met today, and for a change, all of us were there. Usually Sarah is at work, teaching school.
It was so nice to see each other, we talked so much, it was like music. We have been meeting twice a month, for about 10 years. These are my peeps. We are held together by threads, of knitting, sewing, beading, and love.

This is after hand stitching. Can you see the sequins? She is dropping them. Number 154

 This is how the quilt looked after machine quilting.  Notice I forgot to stitch the legs, I will.