Small successes

  Over the past week I managed to achieve things!

First up was a couple hours of work in the sewing room.  I'm cataloging my books and magazines, and this week I went through my Inspirations,  Australian Smocking and Embroidery and Sew Beautiful collections.  They're now in labeled magazine folders in order. This is one of those tasks that takes longer than it should because it's impossible for me to just sort the things:  I have to stop and thumb through some of the issues.

I got most of the Holiday decorations dragged back to the basement, and cleared off a metal shelving unit that has been taking up space in our front room.  Homes have been found for the things that were cluttering it up, and the shelf unit itself has gone up to the sewing room where it can be more useful. 

   I've stitched about another inch of Palestrina stitch on my Flip-Flop Needlebook case, but am stuck now because I have to add a new thread.  I can't remember the process, so I have to experiment.  
   My daughter-in-law sent me home with a jacket which had lost about half its hem.  I got that put back together for her last night, then realized the jacket was missing a button.  I checked with her this morning and she said she hadn't been able to find it at home, so I toddled off to Joann's to find replacements.  I wanted to use one of the funky La Mode Brocade designs, but it only comes in one size and I need two, so that was out.  The experience made me wish I lived much closer to Britex, where they have an entire room full of button designs.  Bet I could have found multiple sizes of cool buttons there!  It's entirely possible that DiL would be just as happy that I had to choose something more subtle.  She's not a funky or flashy gal.
  After finishing that bit of mending I started on a more long-term project: making a plarn shopping tote.  Last night I smoothed out blue plastic bags, cut them into loops and joined them to make a decent-sized ball of plarn.  Sometime this week I'll start crocheting that into a bag using this pattern: http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2010/how-tuesday-how-to-make-plarn-crochet-an-eco-friendly-tote-b/
  It's been a while since I've done any crochet, so I suspect this to take a while as a 15-20 minute at a time project.  [The plastic has been deemed to be too noisy to be a tv project.]