Organizing madness...

Hello everyone!  It's one week to Thanksgving.  Are you ready?  We're heading to Moses Lake to spend the day with Jeremy and Alicia and the boys since none of our kids will be out west this year.  But our church had it's annual Thanksgiving potluck last Sunday after church.  Here is the fellowship hall all decorated and ready for the feast to begin.  There was so  much turkey, ham, stuffing and all of the trimmings that I think everyone went away 10 lbs. heavier!

 I used to be in the kitchen for this every year but some of the younger ladies are dong it now and it's wonderful to relax and enjoy the festivities.  Lots of us pitch in for the clean up afterwards so no one get "stuck" with it all.

 Mandy sent me this photo and asked if I recognized this dress.  It was the dress the flower girls wore in her wedding!  I thought that one of them had given it to Piper as a hand-me-down, but no!  Brad's mom found this one at a garage sale!  Isn't that crazy.  The wedding was in Oregon and the garage sale was in Nebraska!  It fits little miss perfectly.

Thank you for all of the well wishes for Mandy and Piper.  They are both much, much better.  Tamiflu is amazing!  And just in time too, because Piper has a new baby cousin.  This is Brad's mom Marilyn with Piper and her newest grandchild, Shelby.  Piper is thrilled to have her "own" baby to play with.

 I was asked to make a hat and scarf for a friends granddaughter who is moving here in December.  She doesn't have any warm weather clothes and so she definitely needs some winter things.  This is a pattern I adapted from a favorite baby blanket pattern to scarf size.  you use size 10 needles so it goes fairly fast with a 4 row pattern repeat.

 This close up shows the stitch definition a bit more.  The red heart is a progress keeper.  I haven't decided on a hat pattern yet.

After watching some organizing podcasts and being totally frustrated with our bathroom cabinets I decided to organize and purge.  A trip to the Dollar Tree and $7.00 spent and I'm really happy with the results.  This is my side of the bathroom vanity.

Here is Dennis' side.  Much less "stuff" and the cleaning products are in there too!  Guys just don't seem to collect as much do they?  Although to be fair, that shoebox under my side on the left has travel size toiletries that we've picked up on trips and at Bath and Bodyworks.  I use them in my purse, knitting bags, etc.  I have a weakness for nice smelling lotions.

 The top drawer of the vanity which always seems to become a "catch all" drawer. 

Then, since I was on a roll and still had a few of the storage items left, I tweaked my yarn closet a bit.  I keep cards and wrapping things in here too as well as completed items not given away yet.  On the left side of this section behind the closet door is a set of plastic drawers that holds my cross stitch supplies. You can't see that in this picture.  On top of the shelves where you also  can't see are two more plastic totes full of crochet cotton thread.  Those white tubs at the bottom left hold all of my specialty sock yarns. I try to arrange the yarns by weight.  Baby, DK, worsted, etc.  Now this may not look like much yarn, but this isn't all of it.  Hold on.....

 I have three tubs in the top of our master bedroom closet that have 18-one pound balls of worsted and baby weight yarn, 6 balls in each tub. I use lots of this in my charity knitting as they usually prefer acrylics over wool for washability.  I try to buy it when it's on sale.  There will be a serious dent put into this yarn in the near future.  I want to get some baby blankets done soon.

Under the television in the living room is this bookcase with cloth bins.  It's full of the yarn that I use almost exclusively for the mittens for the school children.  I have no idea why I bought white.  I never, ever have used white in mittens for children!

 Here is a basket with the scraps from the mittens.  I'm going to use these somehow I just haven't figured out how yet.  Maybe some mittens with stripes although that adds a lot to the knitting time.  That's my childhood teddy bear guarding the basket. :-)

I also have three shelves of yarn in the bookshelves downstairs!  It was given to me by a lady at church who moved and didn't want to take it with her.  It isn't my favorite yarn to use, Lion Brand Homespun.  I find it splits when knitting and crocheting with it but I will find a use for it.  I promise.

Chloe is shedding her summer coat.  I put a TV remote next to this pile of hair I brushed this morning so you could get an idea of how much hair she's losing.  I have done this every day this week.  I don't know how she isn't completely bald!  She's so good though.  It must feel wonderful to be brushed and get all of this hair off of her.  Yuck!  I love my dog utterly and completely, but I don't like the shedding at all.

I had my endoscopy done on Monday morning.  It was a little rough.  I think I've told you before that I have never been sick to my stomach in well over 40 years except for when my heart stopped.  Mandy tells me that's not unusual for that to happen.  Other than that, I really don't remember the last time.  It was long, long before I married Dennis.  Well, I was sick, sick, sick when I came out of the anesthesia.  They removed several polyps in my esophagus and have sent them off for testing.  Otherwise I think everything is okay.  They fiddled with my meds though while I was there and I've had chest pain off and on since Monday.  Today is better so I'm hopeful that all is on the upswing.  Sometimes it seems like nothing goes easy for me and I'm not sure why.  I have my semi-annual visit with the cardiologist on Tuesday so if anything is still off, I'm sure he will catch it.

We've had a gray and gloomy week of rain that washed all of the snow away.  I kind of like it.  I've been huddled inside, getting some cleaning done, knitting on my mystery  project and watching Hallmark Christmas movies.  Yes, I'm one of those.  I love the corniness of the movies.  With all of the yuck in the world, the innocence and guaranteed happy endings is a bright spot and an escape.

I have two Knit Picks orders on the way.  Yes, I said two orders.  Looking at the photos above, it sure doesn't look like I need more yarn does it?  I plan to make lots of socks though and I want to re-knit Taci's new pattern with some nicer DK yarn than what I used for the first one.  One order should be here tomorrow and the other next Monday so I'll have some yarn goodness to show you next week.  It's my Christmas present so I don't feel too bad.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and are staying warm wherever you may be.

"Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name." 1 Chronicles 29:13

Blessings,

Betsy