5/31/22

Goodwill Glamour Girl

After three trips to the Goodwill in three days, I figure we're best friends by now. It's been an eclectic collection that I've turned over to them. We've now emptied one wall unit, one bookcase, and one whole closet. It sure feels good to be unloading 47 years of accumulated junk. There is still one closet left to sort through. It's the closet in my sewing room. On one side are my sewing things. On the other are two big boxes of family memorabilia and some other stuff. The family memorabilia will probably take the place of the silver serving pieces shoved to the back of the closet under the stairs. The rest of the stuff will be sold or donated. Today we're taking a day off from it, though. I really need to sort through my sewing stuff before we tackle the rest. And there's actually no rush since we're waiting for the final mold test to come back from the lab. They won't take up the old carpet until they're certain the mold has been removed.

Smitty was chomping at the bit to get outside yesterday. He was watching squirrels charging back and forth across the deck, and he wanted to play with them.


And when I say he wanted to play with them, I mean that literally. He caught two of them, and that's just fine with us. We have so many, and they do so much damage, and get into so much mischief. His efforts are always rewarded with extra skritches, and treats of valor.

I'm happy to report that my cucumbers are getting their true leaves. All of my seeds have sprouted now.


We're expecting several days of good weather this week, and so I'll be doing some planting outside. I have sunflowers to plant along the garage wall behind the blueberries. The cucumbers will be going into the greenhouse. For the time being, we'll probably give them little protective cages, just in case the squirrels get ideas about digging in their pots. We'll probably set a trap in the greenhouse as well. Any squirrels caught in the trap get relocated to a different zip code.

Before anything else happened yesterday, I did some slow-stitching. Now I've stitched enough to move my hoop to the last position.


What you see below is all that's left. I'll probably finish it this morning.


After that I did my little workout. When I came back downstairs I found Himself relaxing comfortably on the table. The dining room table is off-limits to kitties. Smitty wonders why we put a quilt there if he isn't supposed to lie on it. He makes an excellent point. He thinks this one would make an purrfect surface for him to lie on when he does his next sexiest cat alive photo shoot (swimsuit edition) next month.


I had some housekeeping chores to do, but then I had some time for sewing later in the afternoon. Sadie assisted while I sorted through my scraps, re-establishing the color value piles.


When we had that finished, she gave me her purrmission to continue with my purroject.


The animal's whole face is finished now. I was just getting started on the body when it was time to quit for the day. Here's your peek.


Any guesses as to what kind of animal it is?

We have a lot of stuff to do today. We need to do a couple of things in town. We generated a lot of garbage in our cleaning out of stuff, and so Mike wants to make a run to the dump rather than stuffing it all into our trash can. It would take several weeks before we could dispense with all of it. The dump will take it off our hands in a matter of minutes. There's also one housekeeping chore to do. 

We'll be picking up my old Nikon camera at the repair shop today. You might remember we took two cameras in to them, and they were going to take parts from the older model to repair the newer one. As it turns out, they were able to repair the newer camera without destroying the older one. I guess that one will get listed on Craig's List along with all the rest of the stuff we've listed for sale. I'm happy with my new Panasonic camera, and so Mike will lay claim to the Nikon.

If there's time for sewing after all that is accomplished, then I'll make some more progress on my challenge quilt. 

14 comments:

Barbara said...

Buy, buy, says the sign in the shop window; Why, why, says the junk in the yard. ~ Paul McCartney

NancyA said...

My guess for mystery project: Squirrel?😉

Magpie's Mumblings said...

I'm sure the Goodwill is more than happy to see you arriving.
Your comment about the table being off-limits to the kitties - our kitchen counter (and the table) were no-no's when we had cats. At one point our Mitzy was madly chasing a fly which made the mistake of landing in the kitchen window (right above the counter). She made a mad leap and then, in mid air, remembered that she wasn't to set foot on that kitchen counter. The back-pedaling that cat did was food for the Funniest Home Videos show had I only been in possession of my camera. We still laugh about it.

piecefulwendy said...

You've done a great job on cleaning out those spaces! I have a pile of stuff I need to bring to Goodwill, but that will have to wait a bit. I want to go through a few more things first. Smitty looks pretty regal in the table photo!

Cathy Smith said...

When I moved from my "big" house (four bedrooms, 2500 sq feet) after 19 years into my two bedroom half the size townhouse, I also made MANY trips to the local Goodwill trailer. You know you have too much stuff when the guy manning the trailer knows you by name!

Sara said...

I have one bag of clothes to go to Goodwill, but keep putting the bag in the closet thinking I'll wait until I have more to take. LOL Smitty probably earned a little nap time on the table as a reward for squirrel catching.

Sandra W said...

Well you have been busy--dejunking and donating. If I had it to do over again I think I would buy very little. It is a big job. Family items are always an issue. What will our children keep? Probably very little.
At our various charity shops silverware is often in a big barrel marked "free." Same with Norman Rockwell plates. I worry about where my quilts will end up. Then I wonder why I continue to make then. Then I wonder....
But I continue to make them because I enjoy making them. I believe this is your sentiment as well.
And cameras--I also have many many old Nikon bodies and a lot of lenses. I don't know what to do with them or what they are worth.
And I haven't even mentioned my watercolour supplies! I have about 40 brushes and a few of them I paid $200-$300 each. That's what a prosperous life gets you.
Getting rid of stuff is so liberating--Well done Barbara.

Anonymous said...

I have no idea what animal you are making, but I will keeping looking at it in hopes that a “light bulb moment” will happen!
I am intrigued by all the colors….adds to the mystery!
Sandra B
scb304@juno.com

Katie said...

Good boy Smitty! Except for the table, but we cat owners all know better than to think they follow rules when no one is looking. Hooray for all the progress on cleaning out. I know how good that feels, even on a small scale. And I'm guessing a wolf for your animal?

Julierose said...

I don't know for the animal: maybe an alpaca or llama? such a puzzler...;)))
Great progress on your stitching...
DH keeps on wanting to rent a cart to do our basement and attic...we have way too much stuff left from my family. I need to go through my old yarn stash as I am not really knitting anymore; and clothes and shoes, too.
Good for you de=stashing like that. big job.
Hugs, Julierose

Cathy said...

My guess for your creature is a chicken. It will be fun to see the reveal down the road.

We’ve been getting rid of things for a couple years now, but have yet to tackle the basement storage (**shudders**). Replacements wasn’t interested in our older vintage China set that belonged to my grandmother - no demand for it. The newer set that belonged to my mom (American Limoges) has a lot of family interest, as does the crystal. My silverware was monogrammed and has gone to the family members who still bear the correct initials.

Carole @ From My Carolina Home said...

I hear you! We spent the last couple of months clearing out my MILs house after moving her to assisted living. No one wants silverware or dishes, people just don't entertain in their homes anymore. We had to sell the sterling for scrap - lots of it - and it was sad. But I don't need it either. My last dinner party was in 2019, and at that time I hadn't been invited to have a meal in anyone else's home in years. So, I decided to stop as well. Now I don't need the beautiful dining room table we have. Nor the three sets of silverplate flatware, or the china, or.....or...! But the resale shops don't want it either.

Susan said...

Kudos to Smitty for the squirrel catches, to the seeds all sprouting, and to you for all the stuff you have been able to get rid of. As for your challenge project, I really can't tell, but for now I will go with some kind of feline.

Kathy said...


Your new quilt animal looks like a wolf, to me.
I'm in the process of starting to downsize, as well. It's going a lot slower than it should- I need to start looking at probabilities for a lot of my crafty doo-dads rather than possibilities.
Smitty is a champion hunter!