Letting go

 This week I have started downsizing in my dollshouse room.  It has been feeling like an overstuffed disaster area for some time now, even before I had to squash things up to make room for the Mckinley build.  And it was definitely an area on my radar for decluttering in preparation for our eventual house move in 6 or 7 years time.  When I was younger, I had vast ambitions to build all the things, and maybe even build dollshouses to sell. In preparation I collected and hoarded all kinds of furniture, accessories and dollshouse kits. (are we recognising a theme here from my other hobbies?).  It never crossed my mind that in my 60s I would no longer have the physical or mental energy, or even the motivation, to not carry out my grand plan. 

 I watched a decluttering video on Youtube a while ago that talked about the 'seasons' of our life, and how these change, and how something that was a great fit for an earlier season may no longer be who you are in your current season.  I've also been inspired by the ongoing Declutter Challenge by Just Get It Done Quilts on Youtube - which is about sewing but also applicable to other hobbies.

So I've started this week having a look at my dollshouse room and what is taking up space there.  

1) First to go was a room box I made on a workshop about 15 years ago - I did a great job and had put some quality furniture in it - but no sentimental attachment remained.  So I  took out the furniture and sold the roombox on Facebook. 

2) I had an enormous room box inherited from an elderly friend who passed some years ago. She had embarked on a 1:12 model of her father's hair salon where she worked as a young woman.  But she hadn't done very much, and her skill level was low in her older age.  I was going to finish it in her memory and I did some work to decorate the outside and front of the box, and had purchased some hair-related accessories.  But it has sat in the corner of my room for years and in the meantime the little work she had done in terms of internal cubicle divisions had mostly fallen apart.  I realised that I just had no investment in the project, it wasn't my past, it was hers.  And I remember my friend in so many other ways, I don't need to continue to give house room to this large relic.  So that has gone.  It wasn't saleable so I retrieved items that can be reused or given to charity, and the carcass is going to the dump.

3) I had another room box that I made on 'the world's largest mini workshop' at the New Orleans miniatures show in 2003 with Braxton Payne.  The workshop was tremendous fun. The theme that year was 'kitchen' so all participants contributed kitchen related accessory makes which were divided up into gift bags that we all then received back.  The roombox was, of course, a kitchen and we finished it by installing all the freebies we had received.  It was a great memory for a long time.  But now it's over 20 years ago, I only remember highlights of the event, and to be honest most of the freebies were just paper makes or fairly amateur makes, while the fittings were mostly cardboard.  So I emptied that box out (mostly into the rubbish) and will keep it as the box is fairly good and might be useful for something else in future.

4) A long time ago I belonged to an excellent dollshouse club in Shepperton, which included some really talented people and which used to run a great group workshop programme.  I still have some of the club projects that we made for group displays.  One of them was an 'attic' inside a roombox, full of discarded and even broken items.  I did a good job and it looked good, I have enjoyed having it for the last 25 years or so.  But again, the memories are old now, the box is no longer 'me'.  So today I took it to a local charity shop and had a conversation with the manager to doublecheck it was something they could sell.  She was thrilled to have it and said it was going in the window and she was sure someone would buy it quickly. In fact she was tempted to buy it herself.  I'm now going to have a hard look at some of the other club projects as well.

5) I was approached by a woman on Facebook who lives about 40 minutes from me, asking if I had any furniture to downsize.  I have so much furniture that I will probably never use, most of it not great quality as I picked it up on a budget in past years.  She only wanted a modern style of item, which I had little of.  But we did a deal on a few pieces and one of her family members picked those up yesterday.  She also gave me some advice about listing items on ebay, so I should probably get on to that.

So it's a start.

I actually spent about three days in my sewing room this week, despite the cold floor. It felt good to do some sewing. I mentioned last week that I had started on a small Japanese bag using the American Country panel that I bought in Tokyo at Crib Quilts.  I finished that off this week, it's turned out really cute.

Together with some previous American Country panel makes

The rest of my sewing time was on another block for my Double Wedding Ring quilt and pulling together a self-designed stitching organiser which isn't ready yet.

I have continued to plod along on the cross stitch christmas ornament, really disliking it now that there is only sky left, but I'm determined to finish it.  I also have given the frame quilting a rest this week and instead returned my attention to my needletatting beginners books.  I re-learned the basic stitches then picked up a drawstring tatted bag kit that I bought in Tokyo at the Aphyu tatting shop.  I bought two kits there, but this one is the simplest, just rings and thread spaces, so it is a good beginner's project.

The cold snap continues - it's been minus 4C during the day the last few days, we wake up to a heavy frost which just stays there all day.  But lovely and sunny, so not all bad.  I've been wearing my Christmas Kep hat every time I go out, it is keeping my head lovely and warm.