Fly Dragonflies and be free....

Okay, a bit dramatic, I know.

I collect dragonflies. Well, not the actual dragonflies, not the bugs. That would be just mean and icky. I collect things that have dragonflies on them, things decorated with dragonflies, and dragonfly jewelry, accessories and knick-knacks. I have a great collection of dragonfly pins, and I often wear them. Unfortunately, a few of them are broken. I have been hanging on to them, and I guess it's time to let them go.

So, here's two of the broken ones for Wednesday and Thursday:

This is a pretty rhinestone and silver pin.


If you look carefully, you can see where the clasp part is broken.


This was one of my favourites for a long time. It's shimmery and irridescent.


But one of the blue enamel parts broke off a while ago, and I was never able to find it.


Ah well, I have lots more dragonflies to wear. These will be missed, though.

Hair Supply

This was a busy weekend, but I managed to get through it with only 2 new acquisitions. I went to Borders BookStore and bought the book Katherine of Aragon by Jean Plaidy. I also went to the Syracuse basketball game in the Carrier Dome and got a new travel mug. So, in addition to yesterday and today, I have 2 extra items to toss.

This week it's hair stuff. I have been cleaning out the hair accessories in my basket, and have stockpiled lots of it to discard. Here's the first 4 hair entries.

These are two stretchy headbands that I bought thinking they'd be good for pulling my hair back for facials and the like. Nope. My hair is too fine for them to stay put.


This is one of my former favourite barrettes. It broke a while back and I have been unable to fix it. I have finally given up trying and so out it goes.


These are much too big for my hair and have sat on my dresser for as long as i have had them. Unused. Out they go.


Unused, unwanted, unneeded ponytailers. I have lots that I do use, but these are going.


And there we go. Four things out the door and I'm caught up.

Cookbooks, yes again

Boring entry tonight. I'm tired and cranky and not in the mood.

I went through another shelf of cookbooks this morning. (Even my time between getting ready and leaving for work has become productive.)

I need to catch up from yesterday and I'll be busy this weekend, so I decided to select a few cookbooks to donate. I ended up selecting 5, one for each day Wednesday through Sunday.

Great American Favorite Brand Name Cookbook
Recipe Encyclopedia
New York Times Cookbook
Creative Cooking
BH&G Annual Recipes 1998

That's it. Bye. :)

Busting the Carbs

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am beginning to really focus on nutrition and diet. That's diet, as in what I eat and how much of it ~ not diet as in deprivation and starvation and no chocolate. I have a great app on my iPod to count calories and nutrition. And so far it seems to be working. I'm beginning to be more conscious of portion size and it's making me very aware of quality versus quantity.

So, for Tuesday, I'm donationg 3 books to the library, all on carb counting and protein dieting. (I'm getting rid of all 3 in one day because I also got my digital TV converters yesterday, so I have to discard an extra 2 things.)

And here they are:



That's it for Tuesday. I'll be back later for today's entry.

Sunglasses for Sunday...

...and Monday, too. (And even an extra pair)

I was going through a "junk" drawer earlier, and you know that always turns into a much bigger job than intended. I found stuff I thought was lost, stuff I'm not sure what it is, and I also found my stash of no longer (or never) used sunglasses.

Now mind you, I wear sunglasses all year long, and I can never remember where I set them. So I have a lot of sunglasses. For today (and yesterday) I'm going to deal with three pair. (Sunday, Monday and to make up for my Valentine's Day gift from my luv.)

I got a lovely Celtic charm necklace, so I have to get rid of something extra this weekend. I think it's worth it, though. It's a crane, for protection:


So here are the three sunglasses I'm getting rid of.

There's these, which are just too big for my face:


These, which are pretty self-explanatory. Yes, those are rhinestones in the corners:


And these, which I just don't like:


And so we start another week. I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day and long weekend!

Thursday seems a week away

It's been a quick and busy week and weekend, and somehow I let the blog slip past. So I find myself playing catch up once again.

Nothing very exciting went away in the past few days.

Thursday it was a bunch of never (or rarely) worn headbands. The ones in the multipacks that just sat in the basket collecting dust.


Friday's item was a set of cute little garden things, painted and decorative. The have been in my kitchen for the past five years or so. I have been recently redecorating a bit, more Celtic less clutter. They were a perfect item to give to my boss for her church's rummage sale.


This is the pattern. Very pretty, but I'm just a little tired of them.



For Saturday, I added the guest room clock to the list. It has been hanging in the room with a dead battery for a few years now. I guess it's a safe bet that it's an unnecessary possession.


And so I am caught up to today, Sunday. I still have to decide what to discard today, so I'll be back later.
:)

The Duchess in

One more Tigger out. I bought a DVD today. The Duchess. I'm a sucker for period films and eye candy costuming. I've held out as long as I could and ordered it from Amazon. It came in today. So I have to get rid of an extra something.

This time a Tigger tie. Yes, a men's necktie.



With Tigger.


I used to work at a video rental store where we had to wear a white shirt and a tie. So I collected all sorts of funky ties. Most of them have gone away, been given away, been tossed away. This is the last of them. It's going to the white elephant sale at a local church. I hope someone can still use it; it's still in great shape.

Yes, another hat

A cheap, plastic, green hat with shamrocks and other designs printed all over it. Saved or left over from some long forgotten St. Patrick's Day bash, I am sure.



And I don't have just one of these beauties. No, I have two!



Well, I did have two. Now I have none.

Learning new strategies

One thing I have gotten pretty good at is improvising. I have lots of stuff (well, that is why I am doing this experiment and writing this blog, after all), and I have been getting pretty creative about using some of it for unique things.

For example, I have lots of candle holders. I mean I have LOTS of candle holders. I just can't seem to ever get rid of them. They are all different, and they are all pretty, and they all sit around collecting dust and taking up shelf or storage space.

The other day I was cleaning the bedroom and I was at the point of organizing the top of my dresser. I keep my makeup and lotions and moisturizers and other such stuff there. Well, I wanted a better way to store my lipsticks and eye pencils than just tossed in a bin together.

So, I wandered through the apartment thinking about it, and came across two matching votive holders that were just sitting on a shelf collecting dust. They would probably have been in the "to toss" box before long.

I cleaned them up and:

Perfect!

It's just a matter of finding the right item for the right job, even if it's not the job that item was originally intended to do.

I love learning new things!

Boot straps

As in "pull yourself up by your..."? Well, not exactly. More like along the lines of biker bootstraps. Leather and silver and chains. Decorative (well, i thought they were at one time).
See:


Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Even Bailey is wondering "What were you thinking?"




Ok, out they go.

The wonderful thing about Tiggers....

....is I have lots of them. :) Yes, I confess: I used to collect Tiggers. I even have a Tigger tattoo. I call it my homage to my profession ~ Children's Librarian.

While I won't be getting rid of the tattoo, I will probably be discarding many of the various Tiggers throughout my apartment (actually, most of them are packed up in my "guest room").

So, let's start with this one:



Isn't he cute? I think Bailey likes him, too.



Yep, definitely some interest there.



Aww. Sorry Bailey, he's going. The last thing I need is a Tiggerful of stuffing strewn around the house.

A productive weekend

This was a working weekend; actually it still is. A solitary weekend, just me and Bailey. A productive weekend. I spent yesterday ~ Saturday ~ cleaning, organizing, sorting through, and rearranging the bedroom. It was time. Actually, it was WAY past time. I had intended to do it that week I had off in January, but I spent more time away from home than I had intended.

It was a dusty, sweaty, back aching weekend. Moving furniture, vacuuming in places not vacuumed in over 6 months (oooh, the dust bunnies), and just all around deep cleaning.

I also found many items that will be discarded and logged here over the next weeks. Many, many items. And I am still going through stuff.

For today (actually, for today and yesterday) I am settling on 2 items long overdue for the haul out. My old comforter and my VHS/DVD combo.

The comforter has been long for the road; I just had to remember where I packed it away at the end of last winter. It is well used, well washed, much repaired and missing lots of the filling. It was time to say good bye.

The VCR/DVD player has been hanging around, collecting dust and taking up space for several years now. The DVD part stopped working about 2 years ago, so I have had a separate DVD player hooked up, too. I tested the VCR part yesterday, and it creaked and whined and ultimately stopped. So, I guess it's time to toss it.

And now I am off to more organizing and sorting and arranging and........

Getting a bit ahead of myself

As I mentioned in a few previous posts, I have a new iPod, a Touch.
And I love it! See, isn't it pretty?


Although it's only 16G, as opposed to the 40G of my old 4th Gen iPod, it does so much more!! Email, music, videos, games, ebooks, sports scores, WiFi, and lots of other things.

So now I have an older iPod, plus accessories, to get rid of. I was going to post each in its own blog entry, but that really makes no sense. So, instead I'm just going to consider myself done through Friday of this week. That's four days worth of stuff. See, there's:

The iPod, 40G, 4th Generation, Clickwheel


A Battery Backup Pack


A Media Reader


And a set of Firewire Chargers


Lots of stuff.


At least 4 days' worth. These are all being packed up to sell.
Perhaps to a co-worker, maybe on eBay. We'll see. Either way, they are going.

Making changes

This is my year for making changes. Positive changes. Helpful changes. Hopefully, lifelong changes.

January was the month for getting started with the organizing of my stuff. I've done well so far, and I'm in the routine of getting rid of stuff every day. I've also gotten out of the splurge and just because shopping habit. It's always right on the top of my mind that if I get something, I have to get rid of something.

Now we are beginning a new month, and I'm adding a new change. I'm going to begin focusing on nutrition and healthy eating. I added a new app to my iPod Touch ~ Lose It. (Thanks, Peter!) It's a great application! It lets you program in all of your personal data, where you are and where you want to be. Then you set a goal and it sets up a daily calorie quota. You can add in all that you eat, as well as the exercise you do, and it keeps track for you. You can use the foods they have in the database, or add your own custom ones, including recipes. It keeps track of calories, nutrients (fiber, fat, protein, etc.)It's fun, it's easy, and it's going to keep me on track.

I don't plan to keep a seperate blog for this new "resolution" I am starting, but I may give updates now and again. I am loving my new iPod!!

Thanks for listening. I'll be back to posting about Living Simply later tonight....

And the winner is....

Well, not the winner exactly. Third place. See:

Ah, good times. It's the only trophy I ever won. And out it goes.
After all, I still have the memories. And I don't have to dust those!

Nashville anyone?

I was planing a trip to Nashville a few years ago, and it fell through. A lot fell through right around then. Things fell through the cracks. The whole relationship fell through, actually. And the last hang-abouts of that time are a couple of pop-out maps. (Oh, I may come across another little thing down the road. We'll see.) But for now, this is it.



I'll put these in the to sell or give away box. I may or may not plan another trip there someday, but if I do, I can always buy a new map.

Free with purchase....

Tempting words. "Free with purchase." or "But wait, there's more!" Actually, they are great words to hear, and they have tempted me into many a splurge. Especially at the cosmetics counter or in the make-up department (depending on the store). Thus, I now have a collection of freely obtained bags, totes, clutches, and organizers that I never use.

Like these:


I know I have more of these around here somewhere, but this will do for now. I'm counting them all as one item because they were all free and obtained with other purchases.

Not much else to say about these except out they go. And on to Monday we go.

Bits and pieces of leather

I've been away from my computer for a few days, so I have a bit of catching up to do. Five days' worth, actually. Here goes....

I mentioned in the last post that I have a lot of jewelry. Well, I also have a lot of hair things. Bands, bows, clips, barrettes, etc. I have already posted about a few of them, and now it's time for more. I have some terrific hair things from my days as a biker chick. I haven't worn them in years, and I am quite sure I never will again. So for the next two items I am getting rid of these:

Black leather hair wrap with a barrette back and purple and silver beads. This one is a lot prettier than the picture shows. I used to wear it all the time to stop my hair feom getting all tangled on the back of the bike.


Black leather hair wrap with a barrette vback and red and silver beads.

I am counting them as two individual items because they were each selected at different times (and I paid a pretty penny for them, too.) I almost kept the purple one, but I just know I won't wear it again. I'm putting these in the box of things to perhaps sell, perhaps give away. (If you want one, let me know *grin*)

Actually, now that I am thinking of it, I have a ton of leather packed away ~ jackets, vests, chaps, even a duster. Hmmm, I should start sorting through that stuff, too. Ah well, that's a job for another day (or week).

So, that's it for Friday and Saturday. Stay tuned for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday....