I've been thinking about things tonight that are so small but so useful. Like the little things my youngest daughter brings to me sometimes. This afternoon she brought me something she'd found on the street on her way over to see me. She said she thinks it's something cafes use to put condiment bottles in to serve at tables. But she said she thought I could use it to put my cones of crochet thread on. I tried it and it works perfectly for that. I've been fighting a losing battle trying to keep my threads from tangling when I'm working with them. This turns out to not only be the perfect tool for that, I could even put several colors on at one time if I'm working with more than one color. It's stainless steel and so sturdy that it will last for more years than I probably will myself.
Last night when she and Cory took out my trash they came back with a big bookshelf thing that I put right to use for my beads and crafting stuff. They found it out by the dumpster and it was in perfectly fine shape once I wiped it down to get the rain and dust off.
Then I went to check my mail late this evening and found that a book I'd ordered was in my mailbox. It was so interesting I read it cover to cover. I just finished. It's 3am and I checked the mail around 9pm. The book was Behind the Candelabra written by Scott Thorson who had been Liberace's lover for several years. Very interesting. Now I can get back to finishing the first volume of a 2-volume set about the writings from World War Two. The second volume is on the way, along with a 2 volume set on the Vietnam war. These war chronicles are part of the library I'm building for Gabriel.
So here I am, still wide awake at after 3am. I'd been burning the candle at both ends lately and had just gotten myself back onto a more moderate shedule for the last few days and now I've blown that by getting a book in the mail that was too good to put down. Sigh.
I found a recipe online for some air drying clay and gave it to my daughter before Christmas. She brought me the cutest little tiny gnome she made for me with it. When I first moved here, she gave me a cute little sea otter she'd carved from soap.
Just little things here and there but they bring so much into my life. As we go along every day, it's easy to get into a run of thinking about what we don't have, can't do, don't want in our lives. But if we think differently and stop to think about the little things that make a difference for us in one way or another, life can be so much more fulfilling and rich in the little ways that count.
I've always hated throwing things away. I'm not a hoarder. I get cluttery because of my beadwork and other crafts. But everything I can find a second or third use for cuts down on what I add to the garbage mountains of the US. I'm using empty egg cartons to put my smaller balls of thread in for crochet. I was given a big box of thread and to make it all tidy, I wound most of it into balls.
I use a cake cover from the bakery for a mixing bowl. Right now it has potato salad in it, though, And when I made a split in one of my cake topper mixing bowls, I just washed it good and cut it up into smaller pieces to use as the stuff in between two pieces of leather for the barrettes I make. The bottom of a cake container has grooves in it that can be used like those premade things that are purposely made to lay out beads for stringing necklaces so I kept that, too. I've also kept a lot of small plastic bottles with lids to free in the summer to put in with a picnic lunch instead of messy ice.
Well, enough for this time. I'm working on some items to put into the Jewels'n'Jeans Boutique. This weekend I'll be taking photos and putting some of my Tarot decks in there that I've decided to part with. I've crocheted simple bags for them. I'll also put in some other things I've made, too, because this New Year's season there's a resolution I've kept and that's to be working on beadwork and things every day of this year. I'm doing well so far. When that free table comes around in November, I'm going to be able to have piles of good stuff on it this year. I missed the first one because I was so busy moving and settling in here in Washington.
