Tuesday, June 30, 2009

I cannot tell you how many hours of work it took to get this bookcase looking neat. Probably 6 hours. It will stay this way for a while because I am too tired to get up from the chair and take out a book. I will not show you the rest of the room. Every day, a little more goes into the trash: magazines, the preliminary printouts of the book, and untold amounts of other paper I do not need. What is it that makes some of us such packrats and others, such minimalists? Is it our Myers-Briggs type? Are we hard-wired? Nature or nurture? I tend to think nature, tempered by nurture...but who knows?
In the meantime, this is a lesson in letting go, and I am only on the first page. As I was sorting through the crapola and moving it from one bookcase to another, piling stuff on my table to deal with with tomorrow, I found these
and these.
I will probably never need either of them again. The labels were for the slides I no longer use, and the slide sleeves were purchased about five minutes before everyone went digital. The labels went in the trash and I should do something clever with the slide sleeves, but I probably won't. After lunch, I went to the studio to continue rearranging the fabrics on the wall to my satisfaction. I took countless photos: one for every time I changed out or moved something. By 4:00 I was toast. These are only a few of the dozen versions between yesterday and today, in no particular order. Just as I left the studio today, a thunderstorm broke and my car was pelted with hail as I was coming up Sullivan Drive. My daylilies survived just fine.Another long day tomorrow; I think I will skip my morning walk because I have shin splints. I thought you were only supposed to get those from running. Hmm...

7 comments:

Ruthie Powers said...

I envy your neatness. What is your Myers Briggs type anyway? Ruthie

Sherryl said...

I like how you arranged some of those pieces. I meant to tell you that I am interested in some of your tjaps when you get that far.
You can get shin splints from walking on hard pavement or from shoes that do not have enough cushioning.... ask me how I know that.
So where are you planning on moving to and when?

Karoda said...

I was trying to think of something clever for the slide sleeves...just seems like they are a quilt in the making.

Maybe someone who is really really organized with their dyeing samples could use them.

Maybe they could hold slide sized quilts? there are those inchie things ya know.

Eva said...

This reminds me of my move. I was really scared of my attic.
Collecting -- I rather believe it has something to do with traumatic experiences of our mothers and grandmothers. All the things they lost or had to leave behind. This may not refer to your family; but in mine, they kept talking about losses. I grew up as a custodian, not an owner. At 53, I understood: I am allowed to throw things away, they are mine!

Eva said...

And: I love the first arrangement. It is like stepping up to the light, into a door of brightness with a promising sign.

Anonymous said...

I agree the top layout is really striking. I am trying hard not to become too much of a collector. I try to sort a room a month and give to goodwill or sell items like books and baby clothes. I sometimes think that the same mindset that causes us to over eat also causes us to over "keep". (That our ancestors frequently starved and did without much of what they needed)

Norma Schlager said...

Yeah, I pulled out my slide spiral notebook by mistake the other day and thought "What a waste!" I'm so glad that we've gone digital.

I like the way you've arranged those fabrics. They really work together.

soup weather in June and a little more

DISCLAIMER: Blogger is giving me grief tonight, which you will see by the varying sizes of the type. Ye p, soup weather and it's ...