Stash Busting

I was inspired by the children. Some friends of ours visited recently, and their daughters are nine and 13. They are into the friendship bracelets that I used to make...ahem...over 20 years ago. The oldest had 12 bracelets on one arm and 13 on the other, but she didn't know how to make them! She was relying on friends to make them for her. She saw my box of embroidery floss skeins and asked what I do with them.
Well, I explained how embroidery works, and then I pulled out a friendship bracelet that I had begun a very long time ago and had never finished. I then used that start to refresh my memory of technique, and then I taught them both how to make a basic 1/2 chevron stripe bracelet.

I was so refreshed that I came home on Friday and made myself a bracelet and a necklace. I pulled out my stash of hemp twine and glass beads and have decided that, in addition to knitted items for Christmas, my younger recipients might also be sporting some handmade arm and neck embellishments.

This has been a hoard de-stash inspirational anecdote...

LIST MAKING

I have always been a list maker. I used to get teased about it. Then my youngest daughter came along. When she was a sophomore in high school she wrote out a list of whom she would be inviting to her graduation party, two years away! I was no longer teased; instead we teased her, and still do.

There is value in making lists so it's not all a laughing matter! I've known for myself at least that writing something down makes it more real. Once you have written something, it seems to "stick" better. Making lists helps to prioritize. It might be a grocery list, maybe a list of chores, a list of errands to run downtown. Once you get the list made, you can peruse it and see which items are more important or need to be done sooner than others.

Making a list enables you to "forget" about what you have written, no need to remember, just look at the list. So it is time saving and stress reducing to make lists. When you reach a certain age, your memory begins to slip a little. A little here, a little there. If you write things down, you don't have to try to remember what it was you wanted to remember! And a very nice reward for making lists is the feeling you get when you cross something off the list!

I also tend to write things down on slips of paper and then those get misplaced. Having a tablet handy to write things down and knowing that is where your list(s) live will be very helpful. I recently bought a white dry erase board to write down items that I would like to make with my hoarded supplies. Sometimes I will get a brainstorm and if I don't jot it down it flies off to foreign lands, thus the board. So far, so good.

Making lists is just another organizational tool that we can all benefit from.

~Nancy ~Garmenture~Victorian Visions by Nanalee~