NLUFO

Sorting out the clutter brings to light all sorts of forgotten projects.

Several years ago I decided that I would like to have a small business making and selling personalised bags so I started sewing.  My plan was to go to local craft fairs and take bags with local views in the hope that people would then order bags with their special photographs on.  However, it became obvious that it wasn't really a feasible plan so I abandoned it and the half-made bags got consigned to the bottom of a box.

Decluttering however has brought them to light again so yesterday I completed two of them.  The top one is a local beauty spot and the lower one a local church where my great uncle used to be Rector.  They will be presents or maybe something to give next time I am asked for a raffle prize

And NLUFO?  No Longer Un Finished Object!

240 days to Christmas

Can I be honest - I fund decluttering difficult.  It is tedious going through one's old mistakes, sad to part with things which once had meaning, shaming to realise how much money one has wasted.


What I like about decluttering is the results.  I like the space.  I like the freedom  Most of all I like finding things which I had forgotten about.

And I had forgotten about this bunting.  I started it before Christmas 2014 but never got it finished.  So yesterday I sat down at the sewing machine and voila!  first gift ready for Christmas 2015.  

Now how many more do I need to make?

Fourteen on a Friday

The final haul for this series.  Ten books, four audiobooks.  The books are for Sally Ann, the audiobooks for the residential home.

This has been a really good exercise, just promising myself that I will find a set number of items to be given away. ( Flylady does something similar with her 27 Fling Boogie.)  Some days I felt quite desperate to find the final couple of items but I know full well that I could find many, many more.

However, it is a bit of a distraction from my main decluttering project - The Room of Doom.  Some things are from that place of horror but some are not.  I know that I need to get back to an item-by-item consideration of everything in there.

So, Monday starts a whole new dig in there.  I wonder what else I will find?

Thirteen on a Thursday

Today's haul is again from the bakeware cupboard.

That is five cooling racks, two loaf tins, two baking sheets, two packs of silicone bun cases, one quiche tin and one plastic spoon.




And when I have done fourteen on a Friday that is it for this series of sling outs!

Wimp out Wednesday

As I said, today is a day for me to collapse.  I've been sorting a few things in the kitchen and I realised that I have quite a lot of milk which ought to be used soon so there's two litres of the white stuff being transformed into rice pudding in the slow cooker as I write.  A large dollop will find its way to Auntie Hettie who dearly loves a home-made rice pud.  For her, it's definitely A Treat.

This morning I had an e mail from my friend Sarah who is visiting her family in California.  While she is there it is her son's twentieth wedding anniversary and she will be cooking a special meal.  On the menu - Shepherd's Pie.  Who would have thought Shepherd's Pie would ever be a treat?  When I was a child it was the last incarnation of the Sunday roast or a way of spinning out some mince but it's now been lifted to the luxury class and as Sarah is a first class cook I'm feeling a bit jealous!

Those of us who have more years behind us than we are likely to have ahead of us have seen a lot of foods go in and out of fashion.  When I was a girl fresh salmon was very exotic, as was fresh pineapple, chicken was a special treat and mango unheard of outside a rare jar of bought chutney.  Those can be bought at any supermarket now.   However the once cheap thrifty things of my youth, like oxtail, lamb shanks and bubble and squeak like are now foodie desirables!  How so?

And so the "humble" Shepherds Pie, home made bread (in fact anything home baked) and rice pud with a good skin are real treats.  Not that I'm complaining.

Ten on a Tuesday

This can't go on!  The stuff today isn't from the Room of Doom but from my kitchen.  

I decided that any bake-ware which wasn't used for the mammoth baking sessions prior to Hettie's party wasn't going to get used.  Here's my ten items for Tuesday.

Most of it is silicon bake-ware which I've decided I don't like but I added a plastic funnel (I've got another one) and a small basin (I've got more than another one).  
Tomorrow could be the best day of them all.  It's WOW!  (Wimp Out Wednesday.)

More on a Monday

OK, it feels as though Tara threw down a gauntlet yesterday by saying I could do Many on a Monday but I've decided on the less ambitious More on a Monday to follow on from Six on a Saturday and Seven on a Sunday .  Again I've sorted audiobooks to go to the residential home.

This time there are some Agatha Christie short stories read by the wonderful Joan Hickson.  In case you hadn't guessed I'm a great fan of Dame Agatha's offerings and for me Ms Hickson was the perfect Miss Marple.  There are more adaptions of Christie stuff for radio (plus an abridged novel) and also a radio version of the P D James novel "A Certain justice".  I think "The Camomile lawn" is unabridged.   The Peter Ustinov reminiscences are wonderful and I hope they give as much pleasure to someone else as they have given me.

I shall try for Ten on a Tuesday but then it's Wimp out Wednesday!

Seven on a Sunday

I think I'm on a roll!  Well, a mini wiggle anyway.  Having found six (items to give away) on a Saturday I decided that I could do seven on a Sunday.  

This time I decided to cull my collection of talking books a little more and I found this lot.  

Three unabridged Agath Christie novels, and some radio plays based on her work, a Colin Dexter novel (abridged), a radio adaptation of some P G Wodehouse, and a performance by Victoria Wood.  They can all go to the residential home I think.

Six on a Saturday, seven on a Sunday.  Thank goodness I can't think of a numerical alliteration for Monday.  

Six on a Saturday

It's no good.  I can't just flop around feeling lazy any longer.

Ever felt like that?  Today is the day when I realised that I Have To Take Myself In Hand.

So I decided that I would just find six things to get rid of on a Saturday.  And here are the six things I found..

The only thing not brand new is the book "Spendsmart" by Jay Hunt and Benjamin Fry.  I read it but obviously not well enough as two things, the sandcastle cake mould and the proggy rug kit, were bought by me and never used.  The toiletries gift box, the picture frame and the Cadbury's Roses jigsaw puzzle are all unwanted gifts.  

I hope Sally Ann can make use of them all.

Still in a daze

I'm still recovering from Hettie's party!  

Yesterday I sorted all the leftovers and I have in my freezer enough sandwiches to feed the nation to say nothing of cakes, cupcakes and more cakes and cupcakes.  Today I went to Tyneside to a funeral (fortunately someone else drove) and tomorrow I'm going to have me a very self indulgent day.

After that I shall open the door to the Room of Doom again.  You Have Been Warned.

Shattered - very

The party was a huge success

Hettie had a whale of a time.

I am shattered.

Sorry - that's all folks

Challenged - very!

Today I have been making cupcakes. 

Tomorrow is Auntie Hettie's birthday party. 

Monday I shall collapse.  

That is, if I make it to Monday.

Normal service may be resumed.  

Eventually

Things I am glad about.

I’m glad I did a tenner week.

I’m glad I paid for my garden needs by using Tesco vouchers.

I’m glad I earn about £60 a month doing market research surveys.

I’m glad I’ve (almost) trained myself not to have a coffee every time I go out.

I’m glad I shop around for energy, insurance, broadband etc.

I’m glad I take the trouble to shop for clothes on eBay and to mend the things I have.

Why all this gladness?

Because the £170 needed to repair my trundle truck and buy two new batteries for it won’t cause me a sleepless night and tomorrow I will have my freedom back.

That’s worth a bit of effort.

Oh dear, mark 2

Wrecking the shredder was not good.

My trundle truck in happier times

A flat tyre on my mobility scooter is even worse.

Apart from the fact that it will doubtless be expensive to repair, I am stuck without it.

Definitely Oh Dear.