MaryLou's time2cre8

Susan (aka ClinkscalesArts) assembled a beautiful Treasury yesterday, and I'm really thrilled that she included my Victorian Ruffle necklace in it. (That's it in the third row down on the left.)

I am constantly amazed at the variety produced by the members of the Etsy BeadWeavers group. We all start with these tiny little beads and some thread, but then we go in thousands of different directions. Anytime one of the members gets in a beading rut, all she has to do is to try to think of something for one of the monthly challenges. They're always fun, and even though I haven't participated in one in awhile, it's fun to see what everyone else creates.

I didn't have a chance to do any beadweaving at all today. :-(

In fact, I don't think I did any yesterday. :-(

We're trying to get ready to move, so I'm focusing on clearing "stuff" out of our house. It's slow going. Wednesday we had a big pile of boxes and bags picked up by the local Vietnam Vets chapter. I've been posting a few things on craigslist and on eBay. And still, it seems like it's barely making a dent. I'm sure it'll be different when I finally get around to listing some of the furniture and larger things we don't want to move.

One thing I've been doing is trying to eliminate some of my collection of arts and craft supplies. It's really hard to part with them because I know I could still use everything I have (well, okay, I'd have to live to be about 125 years old), but some of it just needs to be gone. I've done my own framing for a long time, and I have quite a stash of matboard. That's not something that's particularly easy to move, as the sheets are 32" x 40", so I've been cutting up all my matboard into ACEO size blanks and listing them on Etsy. That's keeping me pretty busy. Apparently there are lots of ACEO artists out there who just don't want to cut their own cards! It's great because the stack of matboard is dwindling, and I'm almost out of the stack of chipboard I had; but it's a LOT of cutting!!

When I'm not trying to eliminate "stuff," I'm packing it into boxes so it'll be ready when we finally move. I have to admit to being somewhat obsessed about the way I pack things. Every box is coded, and the contents of every box are recorded in a spreadsheet.

Is it wrong that I use spreadsheets for just about everything!??!? I think not. I've used the spreadsheet method before, and it worked wonderfully. (By the way, we don't move very often.) It makes a great household inventory, which will come in handy if we ever need to file an insurance claim for a fire or flood (fingers and toes crossed here that that never happens). It also makes it VERY easy to find things. No more trying to read the labels scribbled on the boxes. I can figure out ahead of time where every box will go in the house, and when I'm looking for something I just have to search in the spreadsheet and then go to the correct box.

See?

There's method in my madness.

:-)