Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Over the last few days...

Since Saturday I've spent a few hours each afternoon going through 7 years of Elefantz files which took up more space than I can show you. When I could no longer find a shelf to take more of my paperwork I knew it was time to do something drastic.

With my need to de-clutter, re-organise and simplify as a driving force, I was quite ruthless in eliminating the excess paperwork and notes, keeping only my original artwork, pattern notes and sketches.
Being me though, everything needed a place, and that place had to be pretty, functional and co-ordinated. This required two trips to Officeworks (I adore stationary stores, don't you?) for box and folder style file storage.

I chose soft and calming aqua and gold tones...
Today my files are only 15% of what I had last Friday, and my, that is a wonderful thing! Now I know where everything is, and I only have what is truly essential.
I'm almost ready to start on the family and financial files next, but first I need to finish writing all the patterns for this month's Stitchery Club! 
 Keeping me company is a re-run of the first series of The Great British Sewing Bee. I listen while I write, but stop to watch with every sip of my coffee. This could take longer than it usually does...
It's not all work in life, though. 
My darling Blossom has been encouraged by her doctor to take regular light exercise at the pool because she's still quite dizzy (from her blood disorder) and must take life slow for the remainder of her pregnancy. We bought swimsuits last week and today we headed off to the local swimming pool for our first relaxing hour of floating, swimming and generally enjoying the water and sunshine. I love polka dots so was thrilled that Target had spotted navy blue bathers calling my name!

We stayed a bit longer than we'd planned as it was so good to unwind in the water and not think about work or cooking or filing - we just chatted, floated, swam and laughed, oblivious to everything else. On the way home we decided to make this a regular date three times a week, and fortunately, living in the hot tropics means we can swim all through the winter. 

I'd best not tarry here any longer as those patterns refuse to write themselves. Shame about that.

Hope your week brings an opportunity to relax and unwind too.

hugs
 

8 comments:

Águeda said...

I admire that you have left 15% of the paper. ! I have afraid to do that if I regret it later! And the truth is I need to free up space ... I am very attached to my papers. Ugh ... I have a little problem :))
You guys are very lucky to be able to swim outdoors all year round! Here, inside the country, we only have outdoor pools for two months a year. The other ten months there is only indoor pool. On the coast they do have two more months.
You enjoy a lot of water. So then you can tell us :)
Many hugs. Have a blessed day. (A blessed evening :))

Baa. xxx said...

Yay! for the spotty, dotty togs (cossie)

Carmen y Prady said...

Yo tambien necesito liberar espacio en mi taller y es una buena idea la tuya.
Disfruta de tus dias de agua y sol.
Un beso

allthingzsewn said...

So happy to hear all good news this beautiful morning. After two weeks of cold rain we have sunshine, great start to a new day.
Blessings
Tonia

http://thankfullga447 said...

I am fortunate to go swimming 3-4 times a week and it gives me such joy. I love your bookshelf with such wonderful colors. I am glad your daughter is improving.

Brenda said...

Good Morning Jenny! Today you have given me a great amount of inspiration and I want to Thank You for it! I have been slowly going through all of my sewing/crafting and personal items and sorting them; with not much success. It seems they just get reshuffled from room to room instead. LOL. I really think your new storage file boxes are pretty and hope that they work wonderfully for you. I definitely need something of that sort for all of my patterns that I save! How lucky for you and Blossom that you can swim all year round. I bought a swimsuit before moving to Oregon on the plans of swimming at a friends back yard pool, until I found out they had covered it up with dirt and grass. LOL. The local pools and YMCA cost a small fortune and the beautiful Applegate River that runs below our home is Freezing Cold. LOL.

I hope that you and Blossom continue to enjoy your time together exercising and visiting at the pool. They say that water exercises are the least stressful on bones but provide an excellent whole body workout! So glad that Blossom is doing better! Have a fantastic creative day!

Unknown said...

Thank you Jenny for the timely thoughts about simplifying our lives and our homes. The same thought has been going through my mine about keeping a tidy home and work area. Keep us posted on how you are doing. You are a inspiration to all of us.
Thank you
Sally

Anonymous said...

Jenny, your pool time sounds perfect. Especially with Blossom! You know babies love pools, too. ;) I'm expecting one of these next few days to open a message and hear about your new grandchild, Aisha's baby, even without pictures.

I miss that because in southern Arizona everyone either has a pool, or their best friend does, or their housing area has one, or somehow one is available, and almost all year round. My suit is also navy polka dots! But probably I need a new one, it's been so long since I used it ... 4 years, I think!

I'm astonished you reduced things by 85%! You must have scads of shelf space now. I'm imagining lots of new pretties to go in all the space you are liberating!