KonMari All Over Again - Starting on My Studio

KonMari in our main house is done!

So it's now time to start all over again...in my studio.

Remember the first sort is "cloth".  I have so much of that.  There is cloth from other countries, cloth for crafting, cloth for sewing, cloth for quilting...

...and just 'cloth'.

There were blankets and afghans and throws.

And there were rugs.

There was a LOT of sorting and culling.

Keepers were carefully packed into tubs that were labeled and photo inventoried (I like to swap out rugs and throws).

The various fabric/cloth pieces were sorted by type or by what I am going to do with them.  The above are my ethnic fabrics.  Then they either went into my fabric dresser in my studio or tubs out into my extra storage area in the garage.

It took me several days but the results are fantastic!

Pottery Painting

Ceramic painting can become addictive...

I did another painting session with my Team Red, White, and Blue group.  This time I worked on a pattern rather than another flower.

I just kind of doodled and made it up as I went.

Himself came along this time for the social fun...not the painting.

Didn't thing about the fact that with a bowl you have two sides to decorate!

I like the way it turned out.  What the camera didn't pick up is that the red areas are sparkly.  Fun!

Can't wait til the next painting social!

Bah Humbug Walmart! - Seriously?

On Wednesday I had to make a run to a Walmart store.  There I saw this set-up...

I smiled because I love 'Angel Trees' however they are done, whoever they are done for.  I looked first on the small tree at the wishes.  There were not many so I moved over to the larger tree.

I was shocked.

THIS was what was on the large tree!

The store was using the 'Angel Tree' to lure people over to look at the stupid Walmart credit card applications!!  

That is just garbage.

Wishing You a Most Blessed Thanksgiving

Enough...

Iguana vs Snakes (BBC Planet Earth II) Sis... Do Not Watch!!

OK, this ends well.  But DANG...

I want to know where this was filmed so it is NEVER on my bucket list!!!

KonMari in the Pantry and the Freezers

Food KonMari is done. 

It was SO hard. Not in effort but in seeing all the stupid waste of freezer burned or expired food. But I KonMari-ed hard and only good stuff is left. And we're going to make the next few months our 'use it up' project before we buy more.

From a tiny pantry, a side-by-side fridge, and a small deep freeze we discarded 5 bags. -shameful- 

On the funny side, we won't need to buy green peas until New Years...found EIGHT bags hidden behind/under other stuff.

Our new plan is to check expiration dates the first week of each month and use those that are getting close.

Basilica of St. Stanislaus Kostka in Winona, MN

In cleaning up my blogging photo files, I found I had not done this one!

One our MN trip in August we had the pleasure of touring another basilica.

Basilica of St. Stanislaus Kostka

I'm going to cheat here...I photoed some of the history so I didn't have to write so much.

Pretty interesting!

Now let's see what it looks like on the inside...

Do you see me next to the column?

Love their sense of humor!!

Just beautiful!  

If you are near Winona, it is very much worth a visit.  Do stop by!

Making A Flag

There was another painting class hosted by Team Red, White, and Blue, this time it was a couples class to paint a folk art American flag.

We started with this wood blank that already had the lines burned in.

Himself painting the blue of the flag's field.

It was a fun social.

My turn to paint the white stripes.

We took turns on the red...

...because it got a bit tiring trying to be sooooo neat.

Then it was time to put the stars on.

The large size flags had a stencil for the stars but there wasn't one for the small flags.  

I didn't like the free hand drawn ones so I pulled pencil out of my purse and borrowed an exacto knife.

Ta-da!  A star stamp.

Once we were done painting, Laura (the shop owner) put antiquing glaze on the flags.

Then cleaned it off and took it outside to top coat.

Now isn't that a great looking bunch of flags (even our rogue Texan!☺)?

Our flag.  I just love it.