Erm... still no sewing.

Yes, there is no sewing to report. There's been some thinking about sewing though - I am planning a trip to Kay's Bridal Fabrics (conveniently right around the corner from work) for the supplies for the Bridal Memories Box from Clotilde's Sewing Savvy mag (link in previous blog entry). And I've been considering finishing off the denim chair cushion (only one, am testing suitability of size and my own ability to use the piping foot and also make covered buttons - neither of which I've done before).

Fleece Release - last year, I foolishly bought 3 large bags of fleece remnants from Malden Mills' online store. Somehow I had the impression these bags would be like kitchen-garbage-bag sized. Alas, they were industrial-tall-as-my-waist-and-much-much-bigger-around sized. I foolishly (again) opened them up, and they promptly expanded to fill my sewing room. I sorted by color and weight, cut out the stained bits, and stacked them in the closet. Every shelf was taken, and the leftovers towered higher than my head in the corner. I bought Space Bags, which helped contain them, but have not done a Damn Thing with any of it until this week, when I gave a big chunk away to a cow-orker's wife, who plans to make a few dog beds with the stuff. I could make a dog bed for my parents' dogs Daisy and Beau, if I ever get motivated to sew again.

FlyLady - I mostly blame FlyLady, by way of Kate, who put a link to her page in her blog - I'd never heard of her before then, for my current lack of sewing. I am now overwhelmed with a need to declutter the house. Newly minted husband James is tiring of this quickly, as it usually involves a) him moving things b) him being pushed by me to throw things away and c) him being annoyed because I've "hidden" everything and he can't find it. The good news is he'll be away for three nights this week in the Windy City, so I can declutter, consolidate, relocate and clean, and then announce to him that I have rearranged the kitchen. Normally when he's informed after the fact, he doesn't complain. I decluttered the pantry the other day without prior warning, and he's not bitching. He even put my aluminum foil box holders up on the walls without needing to be asked twice. Gotta love that. :-)

House Plans - So there are many things left to do on the house - even the rooms we repainted have a few small things left to do.

• Guest Room - the guest room (and associated bathroom) are just about complete, just need a few small things left to put in there. Mom mentioned a full-length mirror would be nice to have in there (I agree) and I wanted to get a couple of luggage racks (like you find in hotel rooms) as I doubt anyone will actually stay long enough to unpack and use the tallboy dresser in there. In fact, I should get our friend Frank to make the top half of that sucker a TV cabinet and throw a TV in there.
  
  
• Sewing Room/Second Guest Room - repainting the ceiling and two of the walls for better light in there is definitely first on the list. Other than that, probably more baskets for shelves and a better organization of stuff in there would be good. I need to duplicate things like thread snips and pincushions and such - I find myself constantly leaving them at the machine when I've moved to the cutting table, and vice-versa. Another pencil holder wouldn't go amiss either. My VW Beetle CD player has died, so I need another source of music in there too, although I find I don't really notice or mind the silence when I'm in there.
  
  
• Brady Bunch Bathroom - ugh. Well, it unfortunately needs to be repainted - the blue wash paint effect that looked so good in the purple bathroom just looks a nightmare in the green one. The walls look mossy, fer Chrissakes. In my defense, when the painters were doing it, they showed me a little test patch, and it looked pretty good. However, take that test patch and cover the room with it, and it looks awful. So that's gotta go. Other than proper towels for guests who may use it (we barely go in there) that's probably the extent of it.
  
  
• Office - sitting in here right now, the only thing is that it is awfully crowded in here. We have two full-size computer desks facing each other, with two full computer systems, plus a built in desk behind me, an entertainment center with 36" TV plus two large Ikea bookshelves. These are leftover from my Munich apartment, where they dominated the living room. Now they are towering in the corners of the room. There's so much furniture in here! Closet is packed with the holiday decorations and leftover computer crap and gift wrapping crap and financial files and old guitar cases and... you get the picture. Window could use some drapes too - the whole house has 2" wood blinds, which are good for keeping the sun out, but not good for looking pretty. I really should do some drapes for them, but I could also pay my friend Pascale to do them for me. She's got her own business Seams to Me that she runs out of her home. She's not cheap though!
  

So that's what needs to be done upstairs, anyway. There's much more to do on the ground floor, but this post has become Steven King sized. And James wants to go out for a walk around the duck pond soon-ish, which would be nice. We haven't visited the ducks and geese and turtles and frogs and cranes and egrets in a while...