Summer Starts in 2 Days

Summer has always been my favorite season. As a kid I always looked forward to the long hot months of no school, and being able to read as much as I wanted. I started spending my summers in libraries at the age of ten, and didn't stop until my mom got me a work permit and found my first summer job for me when I was thirteen. After that I had to work every summer at a part-time job until I left home for the military (Mom was divorced by then and needed the money), but I usually got mornings and weekends to myself, and off I'd go to the library.

I know my liking summer confuses some people, but you have to see the year the way I do. For me spring has always been about taxes and cleaning, and trying to figure out the year ahead, all of which are exhausting at times. As a kid it was the return to school after the Christmas holidays I hated, and then dealing with all the crap of the remainder of the school year. Fall is when the worst hurricanes hit, so it's a scary season every year. Then there's that disgusting pumpkin spice trend that keeps coming back that I really hate (Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, so that's the only bright spot.) Winter is cold and all about the Christmas holidays, both of which I do not like. After the Christmas from Hell last year I'm going to lobby for absolutely minimal festivities this year.

None of those things spoil summer for me. It's bright and hot and everything is green. There are lots of thunder storms, sometimes daily (I love the rain and thunder actually puts me to sleep.) It's also my birthday, the one day of the year I get to do what I want. The kids don't have to go to school so they're out riding bikes and having fun. People seem to be happier, too -- maybe like me they love going to the beach.

This summer I'm planning to have a lot of fun at home. I'll be winding up the last phase of my big work project so I'll be able to take some time off and focus on some projects I have planned. Maybe it's selfish to make this season all about me and what I love to do, but I generally devote the rest of the year to others. Summer is mine!

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Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Valerean

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