26 Tuesday Aug 2014
I continue to find and toss/donate much of the same types of items.
Day 13 – The husband even decided to go through his closet. Though he did not have much to donate because he had already sorted through his smaller clothes at the start of the summer because he does that sort of thing at the end of each school year. Me – not so much.
Day 14
21 Thursday Aug 2014
Posted in 30 Day Declutter Challenge, Cleaning house, The Simple Life
I got behind again and now I’m caught up. I can’t seem to find the number of items I need on the day I need them. What’s up with that? It took me three or so days to collect eight and then all of a sudden I have a ton more stuff!
Day 8 – Clothing and body spray
Day 9 – more clothing, including tank tops of which I have a lot. Seriously. It’s out of control. So I’m donating these and only keeping the ones that I wear on a regular basis. The white thing is a sweater that I’ve had since I was 17. It’s 14 years old. Why did I keep it all this time when I have not worn it in the last five years? Well, it was the first white sweater that I bought on my own that I truly fell in love with. Is that even possible? It was just that perfect fit and I looked great in it. But it stopped fitting me. Now it must go to someone else.
Day 10 – I started packing my “back to school boxes” and I had this huge box that everything from my desk fit in. It was a bit ridiculous. Some of it had to go. 
18 Monday Aug 2014
Posted in 30 Day Declutter Challenge, Cleaning house, The Simple Life
For the past three days, I did not have the time to post every night the items I was tossing/donating for the Declutter Challenge, so here they are now.
Day 4 – more bathroom items
Day 5 – no theme purpose here, just stuff I found on the enclosed porch (in the winter, the porch becomes random storage area). In the summer I want it to be the extra-outdoor-room area with comfy couches and what not. The clutter needs to go from the porch. Yes, the husband’s belt was on the porch.
Day 6 – My clothing/shoe stash needs help. I keep thinking I’ll save all these items for my daughters (which btw, I don’t have yet) because my mom saved some of her stuff and it’s retro-awesome-vintage and I can fit in to some of it. When I looked at these items again, I thought, would a daughter say, “wow mom, this is so retro I want to wear it because it’s definitely back in style.” No I don’t believe that. So this pile will be donated.
Day 7 – Another random assortment. I went back through my bathroom shelves, back through the collections on the porch, and then into the frig. How long has the powdered sugar and chocolate chips been in the back?!! Ah!!!
14 Thursday Aug 2014
I’m sensing a theme here with the first three days. All of the items have come from the bathrooms. Why do I hoard lotions? I guess I keep thinking I will use them eventually and then I forget. Or I think when I’ve moved the last two times in two years, the bathroom was the last place I packed and everything just got dumped into boxes without going through and tossing. But seriously, two different kinds of sun tanning gels plus a little fragrance holder thingee. Who needs this stuff?!
And I’ve decided I’m not editing these photos with any special filter to make them look cool. They are as is. True life. True grit and all that jazz. Happy decluttering of your own houses!
(But that orange glitter tanning gel made me super tan!)
13 Wednesday Aug 2014
Sometimes lotion bottles collect. I’m sure there are more. But here’s two for the challenge.
12 Tuesday Aug 2014
An article from this page popped up on my newsfeed on facebook tonight. My husband and I thought it was a swell idea. Well, he thought so more than me because he is all about getting rid of things where as I enjoy collecting. Ha. Woops.
So I already put in reminders on my phone to alert me to find the proper number of things to get rid of. Every day I will post a pic of the item(s) I throw out or donate.
Day 1 – 1 item: old makeup compact
Well now you know what brand I use
11 Monday Aug 2014
You know what makes me laugh? Going back and reading posts where I write things like, “I’m going to totally just focus on making our dresses for Waterloo.” (Okay that’s not a direct quote, but that’s the gist of it). A month after that post, what am I working on? A jacket to wear by Aug 30. It’s a basic 18th century jacket, not needed for Waterloo and not appropriate for any other time period except the 18th century and because as I’ve mentioned before, I crave the rush of sewing right up to the last minute. Ha.
Yesterday I washed my fashion fabric and lining – both delightfully lightweight linens from WM Booth. Then today I started to cut out the pieces. I’ve yet to cut out the striped fashion fabric; so far I only have the lining cut out. However, I’m very excited to work on this *hopefully* simple project. I can’t decide yet if I want to dress up this garment in any way. I really like the style of self-made ruffly ribbon trim from the fashion fabric like these:
And then a neat black little silk bow right in the front center at the top would look really smart. My other jacket is a darker solid blue linen and more of an every day/work/middle class garment. Therefore, I wouldn’t mind having a little bit fancier jacket. But then I think, oh no, I really want/need another working garment. I can’t decide!!!!!
08 Friday Aug 2014
I’ve begun sewing my sister’s gown for Waterloo. We are similar in build, though she is slightly taller than me. Having just hand sewn a dress for myself with this pattern, I thought I might as well get started on hers before I forget everything. While on vaca at the family cottage, I whipped together the three part bodice and we had our first fitting. It fit her well and I’m excited to work on the next parts. After figuring out some interesting parts on my own gown (skirt gores, waist band, setting sleeves), her dress should be a breeze.
I have a lovely blue and white striped cotton that I can’t decide if I want to use for a ball gown for her or another day dress. It’s heavenly and I also hope I have enough fabric to make other things for me!
The color is hard to see because of the yellowish lighting as a result of the setting I used on my camera. But these photos are more for me to remember how it fit her.
I love this above photo because of how she has her head wilting back in annoyance. The things we do for our sisters so they will look awesome at an event. Alas, she was not willing to withstand one more minute of a five minute fitting!
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