Valerean

Once I finished creating, stocking and organizing our emergency pantry, I thought "Done." Actually, I wasn't. While cleaning out our closet in the master bedroom I decided to also unload and clean out the adjoining hidden closet under the stairs. That created a whole new space with shelves to use, which was ideal for our emergency pantry. So I packed up the emergency pantry and moved it in there. I know it may seem like I'm hiding the food, but this space really works better for me than the laundry room cabinet, as I have to use my stepping stool to reach the top shelves in that. Here I can see everything, reach everything easily, and I have more space, so I moved our paper goods and bottled water supplies in here, too. I'll keep the non-food hurricane season supplies in the laundry room for now, but eventually they may move here too so everything is in one place.

During spring cleaning I've unearthed a lot of little stashes that I couldn't remembering stashing, like this pretty tin. Thanks to my old lady sketchy memory opening them was a bit like Christmas. This was a trinket stash I bought on Etsy with all sorts of little bits and bobs for my art quilts. Should have some fun with this in the months ahead. I don't even remember where I got this vintage bag. Probably at the flea market. Aha, that's why I bought it. I love old thread and embroidery stuff. This sewing basket I got from my good pal Karen (14carrot) on Etsy, if I remember correctly. I also love and collect old sewing boxes, and this one is chock full of vintage notions. Wasn't that fun? Ha.

Because I am a klutzy old lady now I break things. Like my yarn bowl, which was so cute (and cheaply made, apparently. It exploded like a ceramic shrapnel bomb when I knocked it off the sewing table and it landed on this chair.) A replacement is $24.99 on Amazon; I think I paid like ten bucks for mine. Before I bought a new replacement, however, I tried to thrift one by bidding on this lot of yarn plus a yarn bowl on Goodwill.com. Someone outbid me, alas. Then I suddenly remembered the extra large yarn bowl that my guy bought for me while we were visiting Cedar Key, and dug that out of my closet. Problem solved! Image credit: the second pic in this post came from the original auction listing at ShopGoodwill.com.

This vintage afghan kit that came with my Potential yarn lot dates back to the seventies, according to my research. I remember seeing these somewhere back then -- my aunt might have made a couple. This was one that was sold on eBay, to give you a better view of what it makes. There are a few Sultana kits out there of the same age and similar condition being sold for $50.00 to $60.00. The kit was likely stored in a closet, and while the packaging definitely seemed about 50 years old the yarn turned out to be in pristine condition for its age. The instructions for the afghan were also still in the box, so I might try making it when winter comes around. Image credit: the second pic in this post came from an eBay listing.

This is my home office, which I've just tidied during spring cleaning. I spend as much time in this room as I do sleeping in our bedroom. I've just hung pictures of things as I've acquired or made them, so the walls are covered with a hodge podge. I've also not minimized this room, as a lot of these items on the walls were gifts or things that added greatly to my inspiration. The problem is there is too much in here now, and it's become more of a distraction. I didn't clean off my inspiration board from last month so you can see how chaotic things can get. Anyway, now that I've finished the main goals with spring cleaning I can do something about the office. Right now I'm just figuring out what I can part with now, and how I want to display the rest. More to come as I get the room under control.

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.

Last month I finished buying and storing an extra supply of nonperishable foods along with beverages, sides, snacks and things I'll need to make bread and such in our emergency pantry. It's a big relief for me to have this project done, as it provides a sense of food security I've really needed. My math was a bit off. My goal was 180 individual meals, which would be a three month supply for me and my guy. I calculated the number of meals I could make from all the emergency supplies I've collected, and it's about 290, or about four and a half months of food for each of us. In my defense I didn't know that 4 lbs. of peanut butter would actually make 128 sandwiches! Now my task is to make sure we use up the food before it expires, and then replace it as we do. My inventory list will help a lot with that. :)