A whole lot of not much

I celebrate this Friday with a great week of achieving almost nothing.  Here's why...

• Snow day/ice storm
• Furnace installation
• Dishwasher malfunction

All these things have completely disrupted my plans for doing stuff and as a result I am not much further toward any of my tidying and sewing goals for this month.

On Wednesday, when the schools were closed and the kids were home and the plumbers were making an excessive amount of noise in the basement I finished altering muslin #1 of a jacket I tried to make last year.  I then cut new tissue pieces and made another muslin which needs further alteration.  So I altered muslin #2 and am ready with my new pattern pieces to make muslin #3.  This final (hopefully) one will be made of a heavier weight fabric and have sleeves so I will get a proper idea if it will work for me.  So next week I'll know if I can go ahead and buy nice fabric or if it's back to the drawing board and a new pattern.

I was going to insert a picture here of me in the muslin but when I took one it looked awful.  Mmm, maybe it's back to the drawing board before muslin #3.

I did some more tidying in my closet.  Something I've figured out from sorting out my clothes and jewellery, which incidentally now looks like this...

Is that even if my more boring things don't 'spark joy' individually it does give me a great deal of pleasure having them all arranged nicely and I would really like to get my closet sorted out so that I feel a bit excited to look in it in the morning.  I have to get dressed everyday so I think it would be nice if it was a fun experience.

At the moment the bottom of my closet is a holding bay for the thrift store so I found a nice big plastic box and got everything sorted into that.  Then I arranged all my hanging clothes from longest to shortest, rising to the right which is supposed to be uplifting, not sure about this but am happy to give it a try.  My closet now has barely anything in it.

And finally, now that the basement is finished for the time being it's time to put everything back in it so today I emptied out all the craft, art and stationery supplies onto the floor and made some attempt to sort them into a more rational order.  I've done this many times over the past few years and never had a particularly satisfactory result.  I still haven't because they are currently all over the floor.  Oh well, that will be a great job for this weekend.

And that's it.  Next week I must get out and try to find some quilting cotton for Wonky Wheels and get muslin #3 done and dusted or not!

Have a toptastic weekend

Kirstin

Capsule wardrobe #2

More capsule wardrobe as I've been analysing and finessing with Rose while she was off sick this week.

First we got out everything that I have on the 30 pieces list, here it is folded up on the floor.

 And here's some bags and shoes

Altogether that's 25 out of my 30 pieces. seeing everything in one place like that leads me to this question... Is navy blue a colour or a neutral?  If it's a colour I'm doing very well, if not I've got some work to do.

Next Rose put me an outfit together with 2 key pieces and styled it for a warmer and cooler spring day.  My key pieces are a calf length grey pencil skirt and a navy blue accent top.

For cool days she put them with knee boots and a black baggy cardigan and for warm days she went for sneakers and a cropped denim jacket.

I'd wear both of these outfits but I think I need to accessorize.  What do you think?  (about the outfits not the photgraphy, I know that needs work)

Capsule Wardrobe #1

This week I have been thinking about capsule wardrobes and as having less clothes fits in with the general clear out and organisation theme it is my topic for today.

After all my tidying and throwing out in the Fall I actually already have a capsule wardrobe, I just don't know if it counts when it consists almost entirely of jeans, t-shirts, hoodies and baggy cardigans.  In order to shake it up a bit and find out how to become more stylish and less of a complete scruff I went to the library and borrowed 'The Capsule Wardrobe, 1,000 outfits from 30 pieces' by Wendy Mak.

It does exactly what it says on the tin really, no explanation needed, she lists 30 garments/accessories and then makes 1,000 outfits with them.  I found it pretty inspiring and although her recommended pieces don't all fit well with my current stay at home mum, billy-no-mates lifestyle, and I need 3 seasonal versions for the Canadian climate I will customise it and give it a go.

You can read about Wendy and her book here.

This is my list of 30 pieces for Spring, I have listed things I own in black and things I need to acquire in pink.  I have also crossed out some of Wendy's items and substituted Kirstin lifestyle friendly ones in their place.

1. Jeans
2. Casual trousers - more jeans, cannot visualise life at all without at least 2 pairs
3. Tailored black trousers - wide grey linen trousers
4. Tailored stone trousers - grey pencil skirt
5. Tailored shorts
6. Casual skirt 1 - linen, A-line
7. Casual skirt 2 - black and white, gored
8. Black basic tank - black basic, bingo-wing friendly, t-shirt with sleeves
9. White basic tank - Breton (cannot wear white, will cover it in ketchup/chocolate/miscellaneous where-did-that-come-from? dirt) basic t-shirt with sleeves, see above
10. Accent coloured blouse 1
11. Accent coloured blouse 2
12. long sleeve top in black
13. Long sleeve top in colour
14. Casual day dress
15. Little black dress - basic t-shirt in colour
16. Black parka - baggy cardigan, hopefully will not need a parka by May
17. Trench
18. Black (or neutral) cardigan - baggy
19. Black blazer
20. Stone blazer - another baggy cardigan, that's 3
21. Casual jacket
22. Black tote
23. Tan tote - tan cross body bag
24. Black clutch - alternative nice going out bag for all the times I go out, hmm
25. Black knee high boots
26. Black heels - can I put another baggy cardigan here for now or is that cheating?
27. Nude wedges
28. Strappy black heels - I don't need many shoes (and I can't walk in strappy sandals) so I think I'll have another basic t-shirt or accent coloured top here so I don't have to do laundry so often
29. Dressy sandals
30. Ballet flats - sneakers

My challenge is to buy or make the 5 essential items shown above in pink by May so I can put this into action and become less boring and more stylish.  I may even try to do the #30Pieces30Days challenge with my lovely new selection of clothes.

If anyone has any style tips for me around this list I would be very grateful, especially any easy jacket or blazer patterns so I can make my own.

Tomorrow, when it is light, I will try to photograph a couple of outfits from the book with things I already own from the list and update accordingly.

Folding Things Up

This Weekend I discovered Marie Kondo on Netflix.  I watched the whole first season of her Tidying Up show in 24 hours and have subsequently spent quite a bit of time looking through her videos on YouTube.  I have spent even more time folding things up.

I was a bit sceptical about it at first, greeting the home and 'sparking joy' all seems a bit unnecessarily whimsical and airy-fairy but I am now well and truly converted and will continue in my own tidying journey with lessons learned.

I was particularly struck by two of her concepts.  The first is saying thank you to the things you let go, I think this is very useful for helping to let go of items that you are finding difficult to discard.  I mean the sorts of things that you don't really want but feel like you ought to keep, for me that's things I bought or made but didn't wear.  For people like me the act of saying 'thank you' alleviates any feelings of guilt associated with throwing something out.

The second thing I really, really like is folding up clothes.  I love it, I've folded all mine, I've folded Rose's and then I folded a whole bunch of other stuff too.  Look how nice my tea towels look now...

And my quilting fabric stash looks like a shop.

Storing stuff so you actually see all of it is genius.  In hindsight it's obviously the best way to go about things, you no longer have to empty entire drawers out before you realise the item you need is at the bottom of the washing basket, also using the Konmari folding method makes everything take up much less space.

But what I think I really love is the act of actually spending time folding things.  Marie says that you should smooth out each item with love first then carefully fold it according to her method so it will stand up, this is both practical as you can be checking if the item is still in good condition but it also gives you the chance to contemplate the piece and accord it a bit of respect.  I don't know about you but I feel like I own so much that it's not a bad thing to really look at everything individually once in a while.

So at the moment I love it all.  The only thing I'm not loving is finding small boxes to compartmentalise my dresser drawers.  Marie shows up at everyone's homes with bags of lovely boxes in beautiful colours and tactile materials, where does she get them?  If anyone has any hints and tips for that I would be very grateful.

Towels

So now 2019 has begun and the house is free of contractors for a day or 2, I decided to round up and sort out our vast selection of towels.

Here's the stats...

• Bath towels - 20
• Hand towels - 18
• Bath mats - 6
• Beach towels - 6
• Face cloths - 7
• Total Items - 57

I definitely do not think we need this many between 4 of us.  I have whittled it down to this...

• Bath towels - 10
• Hand towels - 10
• Bath mats - 4
• Beach towels - 5
• Face cloths - 4
• Rags and cleaning cloths - 6
• Total Items - 39

That's not a very round number is it?  I now have the problem of how to get rid of the remaining 18 without putting them all in landfill.

I have 5 that are good enough to donate to thrift, they are hardly used because they were too big or too thick or have Ben Ten emblazoned on them.  The other 13 pose a bit of a problem as they are well used or have mysterious bleach stains on them.  My first thought was the Humane Society but they have a prominent note on their website right now to the effect that they don't need any towels so I guess I'm not the only one with that bright idea.

So after a bit of research I've decided to try to re-purpose them.  Here are some ideas I found online...

• Reusable Swiffer pads
• Dish cloths
• Ironing board cover
• Make up scrubbies
• Home made pillow form
• Spa slippers
• Draft excluder

I'll be trying out a few of these over the next few weeks, my One Monthly Goal jobs will have to come first but I'm quite excited about some of these especially as I might get to use up some of my stash and scraps as well.

Does anyone else out there have any great ideas for reusing or disposing of old towels?  If you do I'd love to hear them or see some pictures.

Winter Wardrobe

The weather here in Southern Ontario is being typically capricious for this season.  A couple of weeks ago it was a balmy 26 degrees, but now we are barely in double figures and it snowed on Tuesday.  Here's photographic evidence and more can be seen in my Instagram feed.

So time for the biannual wardrobe change over I think and a jolly good clean out while I'm at it.

I read quite a bit in my resource books about cleaning out your clothes.  One good technique is to take everything out of your wardrobe, get rid of 5 coat hangers and then put back only what will fit on the remaining hangers.  Another is to throw out everything you haven't worn for one year.  I'm feeling quite good about streamlining my possessions right now so I decided to disregard both of these methods and just go on a trashing binge.  I did pretty well and managed to get rid of all this...

• 8 summer tops and t-shirts
• 4 hoodies and sweaters
• 3 skirts
• 2 pairs of trousers
• 2 dressy tops
• 2 pairs of shorts
• 5 pairs of tights

Summer stuff has been stowed under the bed and in the back of the spare room closet and everything else is sorted into trash and donate.

My problem area in the wardrobe department is jeans and I'm only writing about it in order to shame myself into getting rid of some more.  I have 2 pairs of skinny jeans (1 white, really?), 4 pairs of boot cut and 3 pairs of gardening and painting jeans.  A grand total of 9.  3 pairs don't really fit, in fact I bought 1 pair 4 years ago after a few weeks of very strict dieting and they haven't really fitted since the day I tried them on in the store.  Also, why 3 pairs of gardening jeans? I don't spend that much time in the garden.

I fear that this is not the full extent of the jean hoarding and when I tackle the basement I will find more in my sewing stash waiting to be turned into something else.  They may be waiting a very long time!

Am I the only person who holds onto denim or do other people?  Do you have an irrational fear of throwing other items of clothes out?  Please tell, I'd love to know that I'm not the only one.  Tune in next week to discover if I have managed to part with some more of the Jeans.  After all I can always buy some more!

More Shoes?

Rose was quite taken by my shoe sorting and arranging the other week and wanted to join in.  So here are 11 of her 12 pairs of shoes (her indoor school shoes are at school so not included in this picture).

She's cheating a bit because she pinched 3 pairs of old sneakers out of the donate pile in the garage so she can look like she's all carefree and bohemian with no need for possessions.  Nothing is further from the truth believe me.

She is getting rid of 3 pairs of sneakers (that are too small, I'm sure that doesn't count) and 2 pairs of sandals.  Here's her newly amended shoe selection.

This slimline selection will not last long as I owe her a pair of birthday boots and we'll be off to the store for snow boots soon.  Winter lasted so long last year that the soles of her old ones wore right through.  In April I resorted to filling the holes up with silicon bathroom sealant to try to keep us going for a bit longer.  This technique didn't work for me, if anyone out there has any tips for prolonging the life of a pair of well loved shoes please tell.

Finishing up the Closets

I thought of writing 3 more posts about finishing off the closet clear out, but the idea of that is so dull its making me reach for a bottle of something strong so I'm just going to write a list of everything.

• 7 Jackets (1 bought in 2010 with the labels still attached)
• 1 summer dress worn once in 2012
• 1 strange wrap style sleeveless top, don't know what I was thinking
• 1 unfinished silver top made from old t-shirt, unfinished because looks terrible
• 1 boys hoodie with only 1 sleeve, unfinished mending/conversion job
• 2 age 10 girls dresses, given to us and never worn
• 1 feather trimmed cape, Rose's not mine
• 1 iron that stopped working 3 years ago
• 1 box that its replacement came in
• 1 pop up gazebo that's still in the shipping company packing from our emigration
• 3 backpacks
• 2 lunch bags
• 2 sneaker bags
• 8 matching blue kids size coat hangers
• 5 matching white kids size coat hangers
• 1 fancy girls coat hanger
• 13 assorted plastic coat hangers with age/size printed on
• 1 light bulb changing pole with fittings

Lessons learned this week

• Buy less clothes in sales that don't really fit properly because they are a bargain
• Insist that coat hangers are removed from clothes before they leave the store

So much unwanted plastic seems to slip into the house unnoticed these days, especially with the kids, and coat hangers are the worst.  You know the ones I mean, the flimsy ones with age/size on coloured plastic bits stuck on them.  The problem is that they really don't last very long or look nice in the closet/wardrobe but you can't take them anywhere for reuse.  There must be acres of landfill filled with those alone.

If anyone out there has any coat hanger solutions, knows anywhere they can be taken or wants to start a campaign for only producing coat hangers from recycled materials please let me know.

Drowning in Gloves

The front hall closet is home to baskets and bins of all the hats, mitts and other paraphernalia that help keep us warm, dry or shaded when we go out.  Everyone was available to help at the weekend so we changed over ball caps for toques and went through the giant box of winter stuff that vacations in the spare room closet in the summer.

I'm starting with a list of everything I found in all the closets.  There may be more that I've not found yet lurking under beds and in other forgotten corners but this is plenty for now.

• 26 toques (see this post for definition of toque if you're not Canadian)
• 38 pairs of gloves
• 9 neck warmers
• 11 baseball caps and summer hats
• 4 pairs of earmuffs
• 4 scarves that don't belong to me

That's a total of 91 items of outerwear between the 4 people living in this house.  These statistics suggest that I have 2 problems.

1. I don't seem to be able to pass a bin full of bargain Thinsulate gloves without buying at least 2 new pairs.  This goes for tiny stretchy ones in all different colours too.
2. I like to knit and have a knitting-itchy-hats-for-children-who-don't-really-want-one habit, might be in training to be someone's grandma.

If it's neither of these things then i think there might have been an outerwear breeding programme in the cupboard.

I found these tiny gloves that belonged to Jacob when he was 4, not sure if he's going to wear them again.

To illustrate the extent of my glove-retention issue here's a picture of the rest (except for the pair in Rose's school bag).

We've gone through it all and got 3 bags all packed up and ready to be donated to people who need warming up this winter but somehow there are still 62 items.  I could blame it on Rose who insists that she NEEDS 8 winter hats but really its me and my glove thing.  I've got 8 pairs in the closet and 6 'just in case' upstairs.  I think I need help!

I've reread this post and it has struck me how ridiculous it is that I own 14 pairs of gloves just for me, I shall endeavour to cut that further to 7/8 before I get to the thrift store.  I might regret it when the apocalypse comes and there is a world glove shortage but for now I'll probably be OK.

Shoes

So I actually decided to begin not by emptying the closets as planned, but by sorting out my shoes. I was quite surprised to discover that I'm the proud owner of 14 pairs of boots, shoes and sandals not including numerous pairs of slippers. That's even more than Rose who has only 12.

Here they are in all their glory.

Rose modelling her favourite pair of my boots

I did some brief googling and discovered that the average woman owns around 20 pairs of shoes so my 14 are by no means excessive. My problem is that I am completely aware that I only wear half of them on a regular basis and some not at all and if you'e going to own 14 of something they may as well all be fabulous or functional. Also (and more importantly) it's Fall which is my favourite footwear season and I want to buy some more.

I will be keeping the back 2 rows, they are my everyday, wear them until they fall apart shoes.

The rest are questionable.

• Only one pair is a definite keeper, the nude, suede wedges. Love these and do wear them about 3 times a year, honest.
• Also only one pair is a dead cert for the trash, the odd blue coloured heels that I last wore on a trip to Manchester in 2011.

Some of the others are more difficult to part with.

• My wedding shoes.
• The sandals that I bought at great expense for my first date with my husband.

I don't remember if I ever wore either pair again and I certainly haven't worn them since we moved to Canada in 2012. Francine Jay (author of The Joy of Less, see resources) says that "once something has memories, it's a bugger to get rid of" How right she is. But I guess I still have the husband (who probably has no idea what shoes he was wearing on our first date) so do I need to keep the shoes? I think that's 2 more pairs to donate.

• The not very attractive brown heels. I was going to keep those 'just in case' and because they are comfortable but writing that down is embarrassing and makes me sound very old so they are also going.

I am left with 2 maybes which are tricky.

• The cowboy/biker boots were much worn and loved over a period of 10 years from 1992. I'm pretty sure I'll never wear them again but they are now moulded to the shape of my feet and I'm having problems with the 'memories' thing, they remind me of when life was simple and unencumbered.
• The barefoot trainers were my everyday walking the kids to the beach shoes when we lived in Grand Bend. If I'm completely honest they pinch my toes a but they represent a lifestyle that I cling to the hope of one day returning to.

I can't decide about these so I might start an undecided box in the basement, is that cheating?

So bearing all that in mind here are my remaining shoes.

That's 4 pairs out the door. Can I indulge in a new pair now? How many shoes are too many do you think? Here in Southern Ontario quite a number of pairs is necessary because of the extremes that the climate throws at us. Looking at my collection now, I've got to say that it's a bit dull. I'd probably better go out and get something sparkly just to jolly things up a bit. A girl has to have some fun right?