A confession

Yesterday I believe I failed to really express the point of what I was explaining. My point was that we throw away far too much food in America simply because of a date stamp.  At no time in our history have we ever bought so much only to throw it in the trash. The amount of food thrown away in America could possibly feed a whole other country.   Hmm.... quite possibly more than one.

Several months ago I was reading a cookbook I got from the library.  It was published right after WWll when food was really scarce and being rationed all over the world.  I can't remember the name of the book but a quote from it went like this..... "if every household in America saved the grain of just one slice of bread a day for a week, we could send enough grain to foreign countries to produce 1,000,000 loaves of  bread for starving people" which really got me thinking about how we live today.  With even more families in America today, than there were back then, the amount of grain saved would be much higher than that. 

We live by a stamp on a package rather than our own knowledge about food safety.  Yes, the date stamp is useful, but at the same time it shouldn't be our only way of knowing when food is not safe to eat.  We have lost our ability to know how long food can last, what to do with it before it goes bad, and how to buy only enough for our need. 

We (the older generations) have failed to remember how we used food in different ways until the last bit was eaten.  We have also failed to teach this knowledge to our younger generations.  When I talk about frugal meals on this blog I don't mean skimpy, full of filler meals.  I mean using and serving hearty food until it's all eaten.  Here's just one example to give you an idea of what I mean. 

The life of a loaf of bread. 

Day 1 it's served fresh with a meal. 

Day 2 it's sliced for sandwiches. 

Day 3 it's soaked in eggs and fried. 

Day 4 it's made into a soup or a pudding. 

Day 5 it's made into croutons 

Day 6 it's ground up into crumbs to coat a meat or used as a casserole topping. 

Day 7 it's last remaining crumbs are added to a new loaf of bread 

By the end of day six there should be nothing left of that loaf of bread except a few crumbs.  There are many variations for the life of a loaf of bread but you should see my meaning.  Today, instead of using bread until every crumb is gone, there are people who throw half a loaf away and buy another loaf.  Not everyone; though there are plenty who do. 

Throwing food away, like we do today, is not sustainable.  The fields are being overworked to produce ever more throw away foods.  Chemicals are put on the fields to help grow crops and the chemicals are poisoning us.  Even as I do my house clean out I'm painfully aware of the amount of food I'm giving away to charity.  I should never have bought so much food in the first place unless my intention was to donate.  The cost of food is getting higher and higher which means more of our earnings are going toward the purchase of food and less for other things. 

 Other countries are depending on our food more and more.  There are countries of starving people.  I keep wondering..... will there be a war over food someday in the future?  Not tomorrow or the next week or next year but maybe eventually?   

Up until about the time of the economic down turn of 2008 my food budget was an average of $10 a week and I ate really well.  Somewhere along my way I started spending a lot more than that and blamed it on the cost of food getting higher instead of my own failures.  What I failed to remember was how I managed to spend only ten a week and eat everyday.

True, I did buy a lot of discounted foods.  I could find much more of it back then.  These days I believe more people are taking a second look at discounted foods because of the economy.  This makes the discounted foods more scarce.  I believe if I really try, I can get back to a smaller food budget.  I don't think I can get back to $10 a week but I can surely do much better than I've been doing the last couple of years.

What I can do is make better use of the food I do purchase until there is nothing left of it.  It won't be easy for me because I hate cooking for just one.  I'm going to go back through my old cookbooks to help my senior memory remember the way we did our cooking back when I was young.   I don't want to turn this blog into a food blog either.  It's supposed to be all kinds of ways I save money.  At the same time I believe the quickest way to start saving money is in the kitchen. 

Older cookbooks have recipes for using foods we don't think of today. Someone asked about how short dated milk is used other than drinking.  Well, I can use it for gravy or in sauces.  Next I can make cottage cheese which is super simple to do.  I can make some other kinds of cheese as well, like mozzarella, and even hard cheese if I have the right supplies.  My Grandma Mama used milk to make house paint but I don't think I will go that far myself.  

Here, let me show you an example of one of my old cookbooks.  It's from 1963. 

Have a look at an example of what's inside.  Frugal cooking was the theme of the book.

Look at the bottom chapter on this page.   The recipes were "easy on the bank" which is what we call "the budget" today.

Here's another page in the book.  Notice that leftovers were used until the last bite was eaten.

The older generation (like me) has failed to teach our children the value of being thrifty, frugal, conservative, sustainable, green living, or whatever it's called these days.   Too many years we've listened to the ads telling us to buy, buy, buy, spend, spend, spend.  We've been told "there's plenty more where that came from so throw it away and you can buy more". 

I don't want to live that way anymore!  I don't believe "there's plenty more" is going to be there for us in the future.  I want to go back to a simpler life.  I want a life where the stuff I own has real meaning to me instead of the stuff owning me. 

When my generation was young we ate foods that young people of today hear about and say.... eeewww!  you really ate that?  Foods like beef tongue sandwiches, rabbit stew, fried squirrel for breakfast instead of bacon or sausage and many other foods like that.   When I was young we knew how to make our own lunch meats and hot dogs.  We made a lot of things that are considered convenience foods today. 

Ok, I could go on and on about the past but my work is not getting done with me sitting here type-talking.  I hope I've explained a little better what I was talking about yesterday.

Organizing in the studio

My one 2011 goal (and resolution) is to make my house a home again and not let it get this way ever again.  Fewer new year goals and resolutions mean a greater rate of success don't ya think?  Ok, the holidays are over and it's time to get back to accomplishing my goal.  I start back to work quilting today so the cleaning and organizing will go at a slower pace the rest of the year. 

I talked about "no junk drawers" a few days ago.  So how about a whole tower of junk drawers?  That's 10 junk drawers all together in one unit.  This thing has been bugging me for the longest time.  It's handy to have stuff close at hand but this thing is always in my way when walking to the backside of my machine.  AND, it's absolutely not organized.  Stuff gets lost in there.  It's time for me to clean it out. 

I won't bore you with 10 photos of 10 junk drawers.  I'll just show you a couple of them so you understand what I'm talking about.  This is the top drawer.  It doesn't look too awfully bad seeing it like this.

Now look at it all dumped out onto the table.  That's a lot of disorganized stuff in one junk drawer!  Hmm... maybe I need to finally learn how to use my MP3 player?  I've only had it two or three years without ever using it.  I can't figure out how to get books put onto it.

Ok, back to what I was type-talking about.  Here's the second junk drawer.  Not too bad looking either.

Look at it all dumped out on the table.  No, it's not both drawers dumped out together.  It's just one drawer.

All the drawers are out of the tower and this is what I find.  Look at all the dust and cob webs. 

I told you I had lots of spiders living in my house?  Eeeeewwww!  Here's where... uh... some of them died.  I found more in other drawers too.

I take the drawer tower completely apart to wash it really good. 

When cleaning out the drawers I found a box I've been looking for since 2007.  It contained spare parts for my quilting machine.  I knew I had these.   I simply couldn't figure out where I had stashed them.   Well cleaning out the drawer tower has saved me some money this year.  I don't have to buy these when I do a yearly tune up on my machine.

When I was cleaning and organizing the drawers; I stopped long enough to make this bobbin organizer out of cardboard and chopsticks.  Now my quilting machine bobbins are ready for me to start working.  If you want to see how I made it, look here on my cardboard blog.  It's simple, easy, and free.

Well, that's what I did yesterday.  The tower will not be going back into the corner.  I divided it in half and it will now fit under my quilting machine table along with the other 10 drawer units already there.  One down and about eleventy million more of those plastic things to go.  I have a lot of plastic drawer units around my house.

it's my birthday

Ok, today is my birthday.  I'm taking a day for just me.  No cleaning, no sorting, no sewing, no worry.  I decided to use the comments made by Anonymous as part of my post today.  It's sort of an unofficial guest post.  Unofficial since I couldn't email to ask if it was ok.  I can't figure out why other people can leave long comments but I'm told by blogger that I have too many words on my own blog comments?

FROM ANONYMOUS:

You wrote: What I saw was stockpiles far greater than one family could use in one lifetime... or two lifetimes and was going to be left in a will rather than give any of it to charity.

That goes back to the writers of the story only picked the most extreme people/stories to appear on their show. They may or may not be donating to others, but the writers for the show are not going to include it even if they are helping others as they are going for the shock factor. But I am sure there are a few people who are hoarders and do....... well go to the extreme, but it is a very small percentage of people.

You wrote: How long do you think coupons will be offered if the 2-3% of coupons turned in right now suddenly became 60 - 80% turned in?

It will never happen!!! Most people can't be bothered to use even one coupon. Some are in the mindset that people will look down on me as being poor if I do. Some will not even use them if they are cut and given to them. Some will not take the time, they think that it does not save them money. And some are just too lazy (not saying any of you are), but they want stuff handed to them on a silver platter. There are a hundred different reasons.

If it was going to jump to that high of a percentage we would be see more than a CONSISTANT 2-3% usage over the last several decades. Since the 1960's really as that is when the coupons were more or less started. Before that they put the item/gift into the product (towels in soap/ glasses in laundry detergents, etc) Several of the manufacturers and companies are trying to move into the internet coupons, and not print the paper coupons. Times change, but still historically ONLY 2-3% are ever redeemed.

You wrote: Yes, I did pick stuff out of other people's trash to earn a few dollars. Back in those days I was probably the ONLY one around doing that in this area.

I agree you were probally one of the few in your area. But then again some people don't share with others what they do, buy with coupons, shopping goodwill or whatever. They have to maintain appearences, its human nature. They don't want to be looked down on. But there again over the whole USA there were thousands who did this, but it was still only 2-3% of the total refunds put out each year.

If you follow coupons and refunds which are printed, they are on a cycle. These large companies are well aware of the dollar amounts released in their advertising, and they keep doing it year after year at about the same time frame each year. But everything changes and grows, more people don't buy the product, the product gets discontinued, etc, etc. If the companies weren't aware of this, it maybe different, but they employ a large staff to keep up with it.

Someone said that the stores would start raising prices if more and more coupons were turned in.

If you have ever read the coupons you will note the stores ARE NOT paying for the coupons, they are getting reimbursed by the companies/manufactures and are getting usually a 7 or 8 percent handling fee on top of the coupon value. Yes some of the stores did double and triple coupons, the double and triple was on the stores part, there again they employ a research staff which follows those figures for their store and they still offered the "extra". They were not losing money or they would have stopped.

The stores which follow this practice still do it, in the areas of the country in which they are making the money. They are the large chain stores and not the little mom and pop operations. All stores around here have been doubling for over 20 years and have not changed their policies. Sometimes certain NEW management will come in and try to change how they run their stores, but the General management has not changed, usually a simple phone call to headquarters in a nice polite manner will get your answer and the local store will have to honor whatever the headquarters has in place for their policy.

part 2

Some of the extreme couponers may be spending hours and hours, but if they are working with the coupons on a regular basics and have a good system in place they could spend as little as 2-3 hours a week. If in that time they are savings 60% of their grocery budget, they are averaging $15-20 and hour. More than most can make working for someone else.

Someone commented about the extreme couponer cleaning off the shelf and not leaving any for others.

IT IS NOT JUST THE COUPONERS doing this. There are certain numbers that the stores order in of each item, and if it is on sale they may sell out of that item within a short amount of time, but if you stood at checkout and watched most of those same items would not have a coupon used at checkout. or there is not a coupon even out for that item at that time. If there is only a couple dozen items on the shelf and say a hundred people go through the store during the day, if everyone bought just one item there still would not be enough. The stores only carry a 2-3 day supply of food on premises at any given time, if say a snow storm shut down the roads for 3 days, they (if they could even open) the store would be without food in that amount of time.

Yes there are a few extreme couponers who do clear the shelves, but alot of them will even have the store special order in a case of the items for them. But the companies are also aware of what coupons are out at any given time. They employ people to track this. Some store managers will order in extra when they know something will sell out, some won't. It is at the descretion of the store managers.

I agree that alot of the coupons are for junk. I also know there are not alot of coupons out for the meats, fruits and veggies. But they do exist, they are just harder to come by. Or are only released at certain times of the year. That is why stockpiling is important. But if people just used coupons on personal care, laundry, cleaning, etc they would save money, but most people cannot be bothered.

Whoever wrote: One thing the Bible says that I try to live by, "is not to bring attention to oneself". If anyone gives to charity, it is to be done with a willing heart and in secret so to speak. God knows what we do and why we do it. One does not need to "brag" about how much and which charity you give to. Give because it is in your heart to give, not to show to others. As I said, I try.

Its a very thin line between knowing what is teaching/helping, and what may be showing off. I know alot of the couponers do live by this and do not call attention to themselves.  They summed it up in alot fewer words than I have been rambling about.

By the way YOU did not make me mad. I think people should see that there is another side of the story and usually it never gets discussed. These shows want to only show the extreme.

By Anonymous on Anonymous comment answer

FROM ME:

Hey Anonymous,  I wanna shop in your area.  I live in Louisville, Kentucky, how far away is your area?  Ok I'm kidding. 

I'm always on the lookout for ways to live more frugally. I'm open to all ideas.  If good coupons were put out in this area again, I might go back to using more of them.  If stores in this area started doubling more than two coupons for each particular item again (on products I use), I would be one of the first ones to start buying multiples.  Not to the extreme shown on tv though.  I would buy enough multiples to last me awhile and give some to charity.  Some would go to my neighbors that are of the "too lazy" catagory but are never too lazy to ask to "borrow" my stuff.

Even though I've stopped using coupons, I still keep up with what's going on with them.  I keep hoping things will change and I can go back to being a major couponer again.  I even signed up my Kroger card so coupons can be downloaded to it instead of having to clip coupons.   So far, I've not found a single coupon I wanted to download to my card. 

Hmm...... Maybe I'm too much of a DIY person these days to use many coupons.  I make my own products before buying what is commercially made.  I don't have a need for laundry soap coupons if I make it myself.  I don't have a need for deodorant coupons if I make it myself.  I don't have a need for kleenix tissue or paper towel coupons if I use cloth.  I don't have a need for bath soap coupons if I make it myself.  I don't have a need for vitamins if I eat healthy enough.  You see my point? 

True, not everyone has the time for a lot of DIY and for those people coupons will save money.  Coupons are just not right for me now that I'm doing more and more DIY.  Ok, time for me to get off the internet and go have a do nothing birthday.

NO Junk drawers

Professional organizer Peter Wash says..... "have no junk drawers" and I see his point exactly.  Here's my former junk drawer.  As you can see, I had little plastic organizer boxes for this drawer but didn't use them.  They just didn't work for me.  I couldn't keep them in place.  They were constantly sliding around and coming apart plus nothing seemed to fit correctly in the boxes.  A junk drawer is a burial place to keep stuff you will never use..... well almost.  I do use the hammer.  I do use the alfalfa seeds to sprout something green to eat in the winter.  Or at least I used to grow sprouts.  It's been about a year or two since I did.  Hmm.... what else?  Well, I do need the matches for my emergency preparedness kit.  I don't see anything else I really need from the junk coffin.  Time for a clean out and give the drawer a better use.

Okie dokie, it's empty.  Time to give it a three time cleaning just in case any critters has wandered through there lately. 

I took a little break to create my own custom divider to fit exactly what I want in there.  It took me about an hour to create my drawer divider out of cardboard.  There is actually more room in the drawer beyond the end of the divider.  I chose not to use that area because it's very hard to reach anything back there.  The drawer doesn't come out as far as it should.  These utensils used to live in a basket on the counter.  They have a better home in this drawer next to the stove.  Getting them off the counter frees up more room for mixing and things.   I may change this later if it doesn't work right for me.  I have to give it a fair try out before deciding.  Notice the little white box?  I realized I regularly used the rubber bands that were in the junk coffin. 

While I'm in this area I decided to clear off the top of the fridge.  I removed some stuff before remembering to take a before photo. 

On top of the fridge were these Ramen noodle packages.  I had planned to make a purse and a couple of baskets from those.  The ice cream sticks were in the junk drawer.  I had planned to use those for another craft idea.  Out they go!  If I ever decide I want to make those crafts I can save again. 

So now the top of the fridge is better.  I didn't three times clean the top yet.  I'll do that when I clean the whole fridge, top and all the sides.  I wasn't ready to pull it away from the wall just yet either.  I'm afraid of what might be lurking back there and I was not in the mood for getting into a panicked cleaning frenzy.  I'm busy enough already.  Cleaning the fridge will probably be the last project I do after cleaning out the whole kitchen.

I'm very determined to do a complete house clean out.  I'm hoping I can do most of the kitchen area and part of the studio area by the end of this week.  Next week I'll be a bit slower cleaning stuff out because I have a couple of customer quilts I promised to do right after the holidays.  It's taken me years to let my house get this crowded with STUFF, it's going to take more than one week to do a complete house clean out. 

To be continued.......

Kitchen is next

I decided to move to a different area for the house clean out and leave the office for another day.  I could have kept working on the office but changed because I had some help for the afternoon.  I got out these sorter boxes I had in a closet.  I put a numbered label on them from 1 to 10.  I put these on the floor of the empty room.  This room is going to be my sorting area for a little while.  I'll create a list of what is in each box and use these for food storage until I come up with something better.

I put my helper to work clearing out the hard to reach cabinets.  Well, she is closer to the floor than me so it's easier for her to clean out bottom cabinets don't you think? 

Na Na carried the heavy bags to the sorting room where Ladybug unloaded them into the sorting boxes.  It really doesn't matter which box anything goes into for now.  I'll do a better sort after I do some major kitchen cleaning. The tops should keep the critters out if there are any more lingering around.

As a reward for all that hard work of climbing inside cabinets and putting food into sorting boxes it was time for a  tea party.  She really wasn't happy to have chocolate all over her hands.  She was saying eeeewww Na Na.

Later, after Ladybug went home, I moved the cabinets from the corner so I could do a thorough cleaning behind and underneath them.  You really don't want to see pictures of the black pellets left on the floor by wandering mice or rats.  I wish I had a better place to store those ladders.

You know how the hoarder shows always have photo close ups of the spiders and other creatures living in the hoarder houses?  Well, here's one of mine.  It's a black widow.  One of two that met their death by fly swatter.  It's finding critters like this that make me even more determined to keep going with my house clean out.

I did a really good cleaning in this area.  Washed walls, baseboards, and floor.  Then cleaned the cabinets inside and out.  Top and bottom too.  Everything got cleaned three times.  Once with bleach and soap.  A second time with peroxide and a third time with vinegar.  Any germs that might be left are surely doomed after all that cleaning.  

It was just a small area to clean.  It felt really good though. I put some cotton balls soaked in peppermint oil into each cabinet hoping to keep the mice and rats away.  Smells really good in the cabinets. I also put a box of Dcon and a box of Tomcat behind them too.  I'll not put anything back into the cabinets just yet.  The food can stay in the sorter boxes until I'm sure where I want things to go when put back. 

Critters really don't like clean places to live.  They prefer dirty, dusty, dark, and smelly places to set up homes.  If the critters live fairly well in an area then they leave a message to other critters before moving on.   Mice leave black pellets and urine, spiders leave their webs, and so forth.  Hopefully, a good cleaning and the smell of peppermint will tell all the critters my home is too clean for them to live.  Gosh, every time I walk near those cabinets it smells like candy. 

To be continued.....

Where are the chairs

A few years ago I was talking with my friend Martha.  She lives in Indianapolis.  During our conversation I happen to mention.... I was much happier when I had no customers and had very little money.  Don't get me wrong, I really like all my customers.  I was remembering the time before I had customers.  The time when I had no quilting income and a lot less stress in my life.

Not long after that I was type-talking with my friend Kathi.  Kathi is my long time internet friend.  I happened to mention..... I was so much happier when money was so tight I had to be very creative to clothe and feed us.   That's when the thought of giving up my income as a machine quilter really started to take hold of me.  

In the time before I had customers, I had to be very creative in order to survive.  I created my own patterns and sewed clothes or other things we needed.  I made cardboard furniture and found object art to decorate my home.  I cooked creative meals based on what I could find in discount bins or what I got from the food bank.  In other words, I had fun because I was creating everyday.  Being creative is happiness for me.

A few weeks later I was looking through some older photos when I came across these.  This is my DIL and two grandsons. 

This is my son standing at the window.

This is when Ladybug was just learning to walk.  It's taken at my daughter's apartment before she got a house.  My daughter is getting her hair done by the sister who works at a hair salon. 

This is another sister with her daughter.

Did you notice how my DIL and son are standing and not sitting?  That's because it was the only room of my house with chairs.  Only two chairs.  The rest of the house was filled with STUFF.  I went to my daughter's apartment that day because there wasn't any place at my house for company to sit.

I have a another son and his family living right here in Kentucky but none of the grand kids or the DIL have ever been to my house.  I've been to their house but not the other way around.  I have grand kids living in Alaska.  Only one of those grand kids has ever been to my house.  He slept in my bed and I slept on the floor when he was here visiting because there is no bed for company to sleep on.

If I were to cook a big holiday meal for lots of company, they'd have to eat at the intake table standing up.  I ask myself some really difficult questions after looking at the photos.  Why is it that no one is setting down?  Why have I let my life get to this point?  Where did my life go?  Why have I surrounded myself with STUFF when I'd rather be surrounded by kids and grand kids?

I drove them all away by surrounding myself with stuff.  I neglected what really should have mattered in my life; all for the sake of being a really good professional machine quilter.  It wasn't my customers fault, it was mine.  I became a workaholic. While being a really good business person, I let my kids and grand kids.... my life..... slip away from me.  That's when I decided to take this backward journey to my life before.  It's too late to get back what I've lost; but, I can surely simplify my life.  If I can tell my story, and in doing so, prevent just one single person from making the same mistakes I did, then the story is worth telling. 

True, not every person going into or already in the business of machine quilting will go to the extremes I did.  Definitely, most have much more sense about it than me.  Still, I read whats talked about by other machine quilters and I can see small glimpses of what happened to me starting to happen to them.  I read about the over booking because it's hard to say no to a customer or turn down the extra money.  I see some machine quilters talking about the need to figure out which quilts must be finished by Christmas and what can be left until after.  I see where machine quilters are running two machines and still aren't ahead of the tops waiting.  These could be just fleeting times of holiday rush stress or it could be warning signs of what could happen. 

Now that I've started my backward journey, my goal is to clear the clutter from my house.  I'm talking about quilting stuff in every room except the one room where it should be located... the studio.  I'm talking about the need to clear up the rest of the clutter blocking the path to a people friendly home.  That means other craft stuff and food storage stuff too.  I'm clearing out anything that gets in the way of me having a people friendly home again. 

To be continued....

A Ladybug weekend

I spent the weekend with Ladybug because the Mommie went out of town.  I forgot to take the camera.

We had a good time "cleaning" Mommie's house and cookng.  It's not easy to let children make messies while learning.  Her Mommie would have had a fit seeing what we did.  Well she was out of town and by the time she got back everything was normal.  Besides, these were the exact same ways she and her brothers learned when they were little.

Not many are willing to let children learn by creating extra work.  So I ask ya, what harm can it do to let a child wash dishes when you know you'll see lots of dish water land on the floor?  It mops up doesn't it?  What harm can it do teaching a child to mop a floor if the floor becomes a skating rink for a few minutes of fun?  Na Na taught Ladybug a thing or two about standing up on a wet floor.  Ha!  You need to hold onto the mop for balance.   Even falling became a game.   For her, not me.  My senior bones couldn't take that kind of fall.

Picking up toys became a game of toss it.  Before we knew it, all the blocks and little stuff was back in the bins.  Taking dirty clothes to the laundry room became a game of sliding down the basement steps on our bottoms with the clothes on our laps.  Shhh.... don't tell Ladybug but my bottom is quite bruised this morning. 

When my sons were little they discovered a soapy wet kitchen table and an empty plastic cup makes a great homemade version of an air hocky game.  I don't know if they remember that.  Probably not.

Ladybug tried her very best to pick up and carry a bag of trash so we could take it outside to the trash can.  When Na Na showed her the bag didn't have to be carried, it could be dragged behind her, her eyes lit up.  She felt very grown up taking out the trash for Mommie.  A little help from Na Na to open the trash can top and lift the bag was all she needed.

Mixing up a batch of muffins was no trouble.  A package mix, a little water, Ladybug learned to strir with a spoon then helped spoon it into a muffin pan.  She doesn't like blueberry muffins anymore so they were left for Mommie to eat.  Fish sticks and french fries from the freezer for supper became a counting game.  6 fish sticks for Na Na and 3 for Ladybug, one handfull of french fries for Ladybug, two for Na Na.  Everything onto a pan and into the oven.  Breaking eggs for breakfast got a little messy too.  She needs more practice to keep the egg shells out of the scrambling bowl.  Ladybug has a mean swing for cracking eggs. 

True, I did have quite a bit of cleaning up to do after the cleaning and cooking.  The fun we had was well worth it.  I hope I created a few memories while we were "cleaning" the house.   She probably won't remember this past weekend when she's older.  Not many people remember things from their age 2 experiences.  What she will remember is Na Na is fun.  After a long day of cleaning house Ladybug was ready for bed.  No trouble at all.  One bedtime book, a blankie in the hand, a thumb in the mouth, and it was restful sleep.   Na Na was exhausted so she fell asleep too. 

Today I've got to do something about cleaning my own house.   Mopping needs doing and laundry too.  Maybe Ladybug will help me when she gets here.  That might be fun for a couple of hours.  Hmm... maybe not.  I'm gonna have to find something not quite so active in order to rest up.  I'll think of something useful and quiet by then.

Craft/quilt intervention

Ladybug arrives and comes through the door.  As I help remove her coat I notice a small bruise mark on her face.  I look at the bruise carefully and ask.... did someone hit you?  She says.... no.  I say..... well what happened?  She says....  I hugged the door Na Na.  

I used to get fabric delivered to me by the truck load.  I'm serious!  People would bring pickup truck loads of fabric and leave it for me.  I called those people the fabric fairies because sometimes it was left on the porch when I was away from home.  I did tell people it was ok to do that.

I long ago printed out and deleted many of  my early posts and photos but here are a couple pictures from my memory book.  This is from just one load of fabric.  These photos are from 2007.  You can click on the photo to get a closer look.

Here is another load from another day.  It too was all one load.

Another picture of just one load brought to me.  Those are boxes like computer paper comes in. 

Whenever someone cleaned out a fabric/craft stash it was brought to me.  Can you imagine what my house would look like if I kept all of that fabric and had it here today?  I also bought fabric.  Lots of fabric!  One time, when a fabric store went out of business in Indianapolis, I asked my friend Martha to go buy $200 worth of it for me and she did.  I didn't know the store would be selling the fabric for $1 a yard on the day she went.  Martha shipped it to me.  Cost me a small fortune in shipping fees.  I ended up giving it all away during one of my organizing frenzies.

Hmm... looking through my memory books made me sad. I found some really good posts that should never have been deleted.  There were some posts of backward pieced quilts I designed and wrote the instructions to do them.  A couple of the backward pieced quilt designs may still be on one of my blogs someplace.  I'll post the links when I find them again.  At least one of the backward pieced designs can still be found in my webshots albums.  Look for the album called technique testing.  I called this technique "10 to what?" quilting.  I believe after I get myself together I'll re write those posts as new ones.  I'll have to make the quilts over though because the photos have been deleted too.  I wish I knew how to put webshot photos on my blog.

Some of the deleted posts were instructions on how to make a perfect pieced star quilt with not one fabric wart anywhere.  A fabric wart is what machine quilters call a hard knot from too many seams at one intersection.  Fabric warts can break a needle very easily.  I deleted posts about machine maintenance not found in any instruction books.  I deleted posts and photos of quilt issues machine quilters often get and how a machine quilter could work around those to give the customer a great finished quilt.

I deleted posts about scheduling and other helpful things for running a successful quilting business.  Some of my posts were published in Unlimited Possibilities Magazine in earlier times.  The magazine is now called Machine Quilting Unlimited.   A few of the deleted posts were about quilting designs of mine used on quilts published in books or magazines.  I deleted posts of new and novel ways of machine quilting long before those ways became popular. 

How sad for me I had to delete so much useful information.  It was necessary at the time.

Looking through my memory books also reminded me of just how long I've struggled with fabric/craft hoarding.  I think I seriously need an intervention to keep me from accumulating so much stuff time after time.  Accumulating fabric or craft supplies is just another form of addiction.   Very similar to a street drug addiction.  Hmm... you don't see the connection?  Let me explain my thinking. 

A street drug addict goes to a street drug dealer to get their fix. A craft addict goes to a dealer of craft stuff to get a fix.  A street drug addict will go to several different dealers depending on where they want to go.  A craft addict will go to several craft dealers too.  Craft addict dealers are places like a fabric store, an online store, a thrift store,  a yard sale, and any number of places to find a fix. 

A street drug addict won't admit to having a problem or else will admit to having a problem but refuse to change.  The urge to keep using the street drugs is too strong.  A street drug addict would never dream of throwing away their drugs either.  A street drug addict will however share the street drug with another street drug addict.  A craft addict doesn't like throwing away craft supplies.  It's their drug.  A craft addict will however share their crafting drugs with other crafters in the form of boxing it up and leaving it on the porch or donating it to one charity or another. 

A street drug addict spends every dime they can find, earn, borrow, or steal to get the street drugs.  A crafter often spends tons of money on craft supplies.  Money is spent on craft supplies that really should be used to pay a bill or to help a relative or _________   You fill in the blank because I believe you know what I mean.  A crafter cannot resist the urge to get a fix whenever they are near their dealer either.  Try walking through a fabric store and coming out with nothing bought.

Often street drugs involve a needle to use the drug.  Many crafts involve needles of one type or another. 

Now do you see the connection between a street drug addict and a craft addict?  I'm planning to break my addiction to hoarding fabric and craft stuff.  I wrote a magazine article about why we buy fabric a few years ago.  One version of it can be found here.  I also wrote a post with the perfect excuse for having a large fabric stash, here.

There is a saying among crafters..... She/he who dies with the biggest fabric/craft stash wins.  Well, that's one contest I do not want to win.  I don't want my kids to be boxing up thousands of yards of fabric and other craft stuff and dropping it off on someones porch or behind a thrift store. 

There is absolutely no reason for a crafter to have a house full of stuff when it's so easily available.  There's not any fabric or craft supply shortage that I know about.  Yes, the cost of fabric is higher than ever before.  Who says we have to pay retail for it?  Why can't we be like our ancestors when it comes to making quilts or other crafts?  Our ancestors didn't have fabric/craft stores everywhere and they didn't have whole rooms dedicated to a fabric/craft  stash yet some really beautiful quilts were made.  Some really beautiful other crafts got made too. 

There's no shortage of trash that can't be turned into one craft or another.... is there?  Do you know something I don't? 

To be continued.....

Neglected house

Now what was I talking about?  Oh yes, about my journey back to a simpler life. 

I have a three bedroom house.  As I look around I can see quilting and crafting stuff in every room including the kitchen and my own bedroom.  Yet, there is not one single place where anyone can sit to visit.  Not one place where grand kids could spend a weekend with me getting to know me.   This is just one room (before I cleaned it up a bit) showing the accumulation of stuff.  Do you see any place for a visitor to sit?  Neither do I.  That's the point.  What good is all the STUFF if it doesn't allow me to have a life.   Everything happened gradually, over time.  Some things happened over years of time.

I bought food.  Far more food than only one person needs.  I convinced myself all of it was such a good bargain I couldn't pass it up.  Then one day my daughter told me.... Mom, you buy stuff but then you give it away.  So true!  I would get frustrated having so much food and no place to really store it.  I'd go on a frenzy gathering up items to give to her, her sisters, the neighbors, the food banks, or anyone who would take it.  I wasn't eating much of it myself because I was too busy quilting to cook.  Many days I would be so busy I'd forget to eat until supper time.  Super was often a peanut butter sandwich, a bowl of cereal, a delivered pizza or something just so I could keep on quilting 16 hours a day.  After a frenzy of clearing all the food out, I'd start buying more bargains.  

The crazy part is that I stopped shopping except for every four to six months.  I'd still find myself with tons of foods.  My odd food buying behavior has a lot to do with remembering how there were times in my life when I had less than $5 a week to feed us but we ate everyday.  I could take one loaf of bread, bought for 50 cents, add a few simple ingredients, to make three meals, a desert, and a bedtime snack from that one loaf.  That definitely was not healthy but kept us alive.

I got so good at finding discount bin stuff, that when I actually had quilting income money to spend on food, I couldn't resist buying as much as I could get.  The economic nose dive only re-enforced my desire to hoard food.  There was no one here to tell me to stop buying it and no one to help me eat it because by then I had an empty nest. 

I neglected my house.  Staying at the quilting machine all day, every day, I rarely went outside around my house.  I paid to have the grass cut so I saw no reason to be outside.  One day, several years ago, I can't remember for what reason, I took a really good look at my house and found things like this.  For heavens sake, how did that happen?  When?  It was termites that started the damage.  Weather made it worse. 

I had termite damage in the house too.  Sub floors had to be replaced.   Exterminator was contracted to kill the termites and a yearly maintenance plan started.  Well, by this time there's no money for fixing the outside.  The best estimate I got for fixing the outside was more than the value of the house.  I needed a handyman to patch it up and couldn't find anyone who does "honey do" jobs.  I wrote this onto my fix it someday list.  Thank goodness I've finally found a handyman willing to work within my budget.

To be continued.....