Kat, I hope you'll start a special design album over at photobucket or flickr, wherever you keep your photos.

I just sent this to a friend, but since it is so germane to this thread, I'll post it here also. I've been cranky the last couple of days and I think it is because there is so much I want to be doing, but I have to force myself to get this extra stuff out of here. Like Kat getting to her beading now. Case in point:

Tonight I was going to run the tiller over this new bed, but I couldn't find the spark plug wrench I needed for starting it. The trick to these old garden machines is to remove the spark plug, spray a little starter fluid into the hole, then put the plug back. None of my crescent wrenches would fit. This is one of the reasons I've been decluttering--I knew perfectly well I had the wrench SOMEWHERE, but after wasting time looking for it I took a hoe out and worked the dirt to mix in the amendments I scattered yesterday.

Tonight I decided to see what I could do about that lost wrench, and I attacked the cupboards in my utility room. A tall one, two doors opening onto two shelves, over each side of the room. I mostly needed to do the dryer side, and along with a gazillion lightbulbs I found things I didn't remember I had that came from my Dad's house (switches for the halogen pole lamps, at least four of them), the rounded halogen bulbs on bought on a great sale ($1.99 for four bulbs when the store discontinued them), lots of bug spray, painters hats, solvents, and garden chemicals. Shelf liner, night lights, one-to-three wall plugs, and three sets of garden pruners! I didn't know I had all of those (and I still didn't find the pair I was looking for the last couple of days. I'd left it in my back pocket and took it out somewhere not-typical, and can't remember where that was.)

The coup-de-grace was over the washer. I pulled out a basket with extension cords and found lots of phone cords. Then I pulled out another container full of phone cords. I must have 1000 feet of phone cords. How on earth did I do that? I think some came from my Dad's house, because he had his computer way across the room from his phone, and used a couple of those. And when I was in the apartment before moving here I think I had to run a long one for the computer. But this many? They all were neatly wound and dropped into a bag for the Goodwill.

And guess what? I found my spark plug wrench. :)

SRS