I have been collecting yarn for ... years, storing it in big boxes that I then hide in a closet. When Y moved in and needed the closet, I relocated the yarn to the livingroom, where it overtook a corner. Some of it I actually used, but there was a lot of it I would never use as I kept going to the JoAnn's Fabric store up the street from the Costco and WalMart across the street. Easy to make both stops in an afternoon, and I always bought yarn that I said I could use for ... whatever.
The bottom line is that my yarn hoarding was out of hand, taking up too much room without providing me with a finished project in return. So, I made it my mission to clean out the yarn stash, beginning with buying 6 clear plastic tubs for storage. I figured if I could see what was in the storage boxes, I would be more inclined to use what I have on hand than I would be tempted to stop at JoAnn' or WalMart. I can proudly admit that I now have just 6 clear plastic bins of yarn stash, and it's only that I think I will use. If there were any doubt, it went into another pile dubbed donation.
Okay, the final step was just as important as the actual starting to clean up the hordes of yarn: I had to get it out of the house. We have a senior center, the Mizell Center, and a couple of volunteers there conduct both knitting and crocheting classes each week. I put all the donations into the SUV and drove directly to the Mizell Center, where I dropped off all the boxes and plastic shopping bags full of yarn.
I did it. After talking about needing to complete this project for the past 3 or so years, I did it! I have moved from living in the Don'tNation to the DoNation and it feels good. The final step will be driving by JoAnn's and refraining from walking the yarn aisle at WalMart as I am committed to using what I have on hand, rather than buying more yarn, and I'm not sure yet how firm that commitment is.
And Red Heart is coming out with a collection of soft green shades that they call Succulents. I'm already dreaming about what I can make ... .
Success is not determined so much by the position one has reached in life, but more so by the obstacles one has overcome while attempting to succeed. --Unknown
Vegetation
What happens when one forgets the basket of onions one left on top of the 'fridge
Soaring above the competition is all in how you see it.
"... there are great perils in rising too quickly in any organization. Hawks may soar, but chipmunks don't get sucked into jet engines."
--Joseph Finder, Paranoia, p.183
--Joseph Finder, Paranoia, p.183
Metal Sculpture
photo by Monique
Ignorance is so not Bliss
As Issac Asimov said, "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States ... nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge'." (Jan. 21, 1980).
Ranger
Our little guy grows up
Another perspective
If you think you're a leader but no one is following you, you're just taking a walk.
When Mia shares her floor cushion,
you know the dogs have bonded.
Every Day is Mother's Day
He asked, "What's your mother going to say when you tell her?"
The round black face screwed up in astonishment. "I ain' gonna tell her. That'd be fucked up. You never win no arguments 'gainst yo' mother." --Jeffery Deaver, The Broken Window (266)
The round black face screwed up in astonishment. "I ain' gonna tell her. That'd be fucked up. You never win no arguments 'gainst yo' mother." --Jeffery Deaver, The Broken Window (266)
Perspective on Self
"But with adults I see absolutely no justification for setting other people's views of what is good for them above their own ideas of what is good for themselves." --The Reader, Bernhard Schlink, p 141-42
I'm Watching You ...
but you can't see me!
Explaining the Moment
"You know ... sometimes you do things you don't really understand. You just have to do them. Sense or no sense--it really doesn't matter much." --Scott Turow, Innocent, p 64.
Albert Einstein on teaching ...
"One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community."
Blog Archive
from The Innocent, by author Harlan Coben
"The world is neither cruel nor joyous. It is simply random, full of particles hurtling, chemicals mixing and reacting. There is no real order. There is no preordained cursing of the evil and protecting of the righteous.
Chaos, baby, It's all about chaos."
Chaos, baby, It's all about chaos."
Spotting Daisy
... casing the neighborhood from the front room window.
Confucius said ...
By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
About Me
- Liza
- I am the person who lives inside my soul; I just have to figure out who she is and where she's been all these years.
Please, don't disturb me: I'm reading a book
"I love the solitude of reading. I love the deep dive into someone else's story, the delicious ache of a last page."
--Naomi Shihab Nye
--Naomi Shihab Nye
Primary Motivation: an unread book
"Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier." --Kathleen Norris
George Orwell
Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
Life Lesson
One of the things I noticed in all of this was the simultaneous delicacy and brutality of the scalpel. How much people can hurt, the ways they hurt, and how sometimes they have to get hurt even more so they'll get better in the long run.
--John Sandford, Preface, Eyes of Prey
--John Sandford, Preface, Eyes of Prey
A Book Makes Any Day a Better Day
"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers."--Charles W. Eliot
Quotation
The most ridiculous example I can think of is that the people who run public education promote the stupid and idle along with the industrious -- because all men are created equal, educators will gravely tell you, the children left behind suffer terrible feelings of inferiority. We know all men are not created equal in the sense some people would have us believe -- some people are smarter than others, some people have more opportunity because they're born with it, some men make more money than others, some ladies make better cakes than others--some people are born gifted beyond the normal scope of most men.
--Atticus Finch, closing remarks to the jury, To Kill a Mockingbird
--Atticus Finch, closing remarks to the jury, To Kill a Mockingbird
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