My book collection once threatened to reach 10,000 volumes. Last inventory before I hit the road had me at just a little over 1,500 volumes. I now have 152 volumes!
This number includes my ‘to be read pile’ and could therefore dwindle if none of those books are worth keeping.
I can’t believe I catalogued and organized my entire book library in under an hour!
Today, I decided to gather up all the books in the rig so that I can reorganize them and catalogue their location. I sorted the books by categories. It’s amazing that this pile contains ALL my books; once upon a time a pile like this would have been a single book case!
Still, looking at this picture, I can just hear the minimalists say “Wow, you’ve got a book problem!”
I disagree.
The majority of these books, I’d say 95%, came with me when I hit the road. They are my core library; the books I refer to all the time and which are well annotated. A small amount were added along the way and some removed. When I stocked Miranda, I weighed everything that went into her and I made the necessary sacrifices to enable me to bring these beloved books with me.
I know I don’t have a book problem because I can get rid of tomes that are no longer relevant to me. I noticed quite a few cookbooks that I haven’t cracked open in ages that will be headed for the donation pile. There was a time when my books were very much clutter, but I’m happy to say I’ve got the addiction licked.
Now, I just need to get through the ‘I’ve been meaning to read this’ pile. 😀
One of the hobbies I gave up when I hit the road was cross-stitching (a type of embroidery). I have really missed doing it, but I couldn’t find any reason to continue with it. You only need so much artwork on the walls, or embroidered pillows and hand towels!
Well, I’ve been looking for a piece of artwork to fill up one spot in the kitchen/library; something that would tie in all my colours, including the orange of The Chair I’m Working On, without having too much yellow, and which would clearly reflect me. Tall order! After combing through some antique shops, I had an epiphany and decided to combine this search with my growing desire to get my hands on some Aida cloth: why not embroider the ‘perfect’ artwork?
So, I shifted my search to cross-stitching kits and came across the most perfect thing on eBay. So, this is what I’m working this month while on ‘vacation’, although I expect it’ll take a year or two to complete it:
This is what I’ve done since the kit arrived on Saturday and represents about nine hours worth of stitching, not counting the time spent separating the floss:
Once I get the bulk of the white done, the rest of the stitching will take a lot less time since most of the counting will have already been done. Undoing a large section of cross stitching is very demoralizing, so you definitely want to start slow and get it right the first time!
It’s nice to be able to spend a couple of hours a day on a craft project and not look up periodically to see a bunch of more pressing things to deal with. I’ll say it again, I’m glad the renos are done!
We’ve entered a deep freeze that should last only a couple of days, and then we’re going to start climbing back into spring-like conditions.
I ran out of propane this morning. I was shocked since I’d filled the on board tank when I left Osoyoos on January 31st! I’m betting the culprit is the fridge, which was on LP mode for nearly a week.
Thankfully, I’d noticed a propane refill centre at a nearby Texaco, so I knew where to go to fill up. There, I learned that 30lbs is 7.1.25 gallons. I forget what the litre amount is.
Both propane and gas are much more expensive than I would have expected, but less than in Canada. The 30lb tank cost me $23 to fill here. In Osoyoos, it was $27 in town, but $20 at the RV park. So, it’s less here for Joe Public, but more than what I was paying. Gas is about $3.50 a gallon, so a fill is $35, about $10 less than what I was paying in Canada. Last time I filled up in Washington, a tank cost me $25.
None of this pricing irks me since last night I discovered that a meal’s worth of fresh shrimp costs 50 cents here. So long as shrimp is the cheapest protein I can buy, I will feel very rich! 😀
Today, I did a seasonal clothes purge. Since I get so many of my clothes at little to no cost, I like to rotate them out pretty quickly, keeping only my most favourite and highest quality items.
One of the best ways to manage clutter is to practise the one in, one out, rule. That is, for everything you bring into your home, you should take out an item. I’m not always good at doing this, but days like today more than make up for it.
There’s a Value Village in Bellingham, where I knew I could offload more than just clothes, so I was highly motivated to make the trek worth my while. I loaded two garbage bags full of clothes into the trunk of the car and added a box of kitchen items. This donation got me a ‘$3 off a $10 purchase’ voucher for the store, plus some stamps for their reward program, the details of which I haven’t researched.
I decided to go into the store to see if I could find a decent top or skirt for $10, hoping that the Value Villages in the States wouldn’t be as overpriced as those in Canada. They are. 🙁 But this store was particularly well laid out and I was able to easily find $10 worth of merchandise: two tops, and a skirt. Two outfits for $7 isn’t a record for me, but it’s still a sweet deal!
Doing this clothes purge had a side benefit: I found a gorgeous teal blue fleece sweater I didn’t even know I had! I honestly have no idea where it came from! Last night, I found myself wishing I had a cozy sweater for wearing at home and going for walks. Perhaps the sweater faery paid me a visit last night?