Items 37-66

"Day 9 to 11"

Day 9
- 1 Gift bag
- 1 Magazine - Canada's Style at Home (see 8.4 and 8.5)
- 1 Magazine - Vanity Fair Oct 2010 (on hand for Lindsay Lohan photographed by Norma Jean Roy)
- 1 Purple-pink checkered dress (from when I was skinny and thought it made me look 70s cool)

- 1 plastic food container
- 1 pair of purple tights (colour)
- 1 purple blouse with bell sleeves (again skinnier times)
- 2 floral skirts (from Theresa)

Day 10
- 1 Gift bag
- 3 Cardboard gift boxes
- 1 cotton dress - too small was part of "edits"
- 1 magazine - Vanity Fair Dec 2008 - Turns out (when pressed) I do not have time / interest for Bloomberg news or Rupert Murdoch, but do for the 2008 Wall Street Financial Meltdown ("Wall Street Lays Another Egg" by Niall Ferguson) and Kate Winslet.
- 1 magazine - Vanity Fair Mar 2013 (Special Collector's Edition) - Yes to pictures of beautiful people, no to "Cinema Tarantino: The Making of Pulp Fiction".
- 1 Cuticle oil pen - good for hands... but not so much since the oil's gone rancid
- 1 UK Daily Mail dated Friday, January 10, 2014 (souvenir from our trip)
- 1 Black and grey, velvet rose top (maternity top from Theresa)

Day 11
- 1 Black, high-waisted pants (from Theresa)
- 1 bag of used batteries (over 50 for recycling)
- 1 bag of stale fortune cookies (29 cookies, favours / dessert from our wedding)
- 1 City Palate: The Flavour of Calgary's Food Scene (May June 2013) magazine, loved the cover, from our 1st year anniversary trip to Calgary
- 1 insulated wine gift bag
- 1 Pink with black polka dot circle skirt (great for twirling, but while it was once good to be fashion-inspired by Minnie Mouse, this is no longer the case)
- 3 tealight holders
- 2 floating candles

Merry Christmas 2015

Items 3-36

"Day 3 to 8"

Day 3

- 2 magazines 

- 1 wine bottle, over a year old with just a centimetre of (vinegar?) left 

Day 4 

- 1 magazine 

- 1 paper new year top hat 

- 2 Cardboard decorative boxes 

Day 5 

- 1 magazine, Martha Stewart Living May 2006 (I've given up on making croissants, candles, and collecting vintage glass) 

- 1 Metro newspaper, unread 

- 2 garlic choppers (as seen on t.v.?) Too hard to clean, used once and then I got another as a gift.

- 1 2L bottle of Sprite, over 1/2 full, 2 years old from a party? 

Day 6 

* Found missing phone!  

- 2 reusable shopping bags 

- 2 greeting cards 

- 2 scarves (gifts, never worn) 

Day 7 

- 3 pens, non-working, finally set up recycling program at work! 

- 1 book (Meeting Luciano by Anna Esaki-Smith), library discard finally read and do not need to keep! 

- 1 Mr. Porky snack, souvenir-gift from the UK, much past end date and not something we'd eat anyway

- 1 name tag badge sleeve 

- 1 Christmas wind chime, gift never used.

Day 8 

- 1 bra, ill-fitting and never worn, don't know why I bought it 

- 1 dress shirt, pink-not my colour 

- 1 grocery bag of mint stems - harvested from garden, not well preserved so no longer good to use

- 2 magazines, HGTV, a quick flip through each confirmed we have no time or money to decorate / renovate 

- 3 packs of a Christmas cards (19 cards I won't likely use)

Card-on blue

Paul: Tonight is Christmas cards blitz! 
Me: We could listen to Christmas music and be all Christmasy when we write cards!
Paul: Uh, maybe not.  

Well, at least we got to be a little rude...

Highlands High Street Cash Mob

The perfect time to shop local and check some people off my X-mas list... if I'd been smart :P  Instead, Erica was the smart one.  But, I did get a nice walk (wow, it was warm out) and some potential leads. 

We visited:
Chickies Antiques
Be-a-Bella Candy and Gifts
Wool Revival
Apple Box Boutique
Sabrina Butterfly
Mandolin Books & Coffee Company
Red Sparrow Gallery 

And a "neighbour" that happened to be having a living room craft sale!

Above right: Santa at Chickies reminds us what season it is. 

Above left: Erica was sure it was Bomble in Be-a-Bella's store window.

Right: Other garden club members taking in some local retail therapy

Left and Below right: At Be-a-Bella, signs and a mouse's santa costume on display. 

Below: We spotted some of Coconut's relatives at Wool Revival.

Left: A neighbour's porch we'd kind of like to copy - looks so pretty and cosy!

Life-Changing Magic

Steph's emailed me an idea.  Not in so many words, but she suggested that maybe Fish Griwkowsky's "Minimalism Game" might work for me.  Games motivate me.  I need to get rid of stuff.  I even have The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (what sort of sparked Griwkowsky's game plan) on request at the library.  This might work.  ...if I can stick with it.  (I'm even having trouble keeping up my photo-a-day...)

I guess the main factor might be how much time it would take to choose / find the items each day.  1-5 wouldn't be hard, but 20-31 might take hours.  And would the stuff that I'm buying as gifts or have bought as gifts count when I give them away?  Cards that I'm going to write?  It doesn't quite seem to be in the spirit. Do gifts and cards I receive count as negatives?

When Judge John Hodgman talked about Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic if Tidying Up, her method had seemed so holistic and positive, "Spark joy!"  But, many of the things I own know wouldn't be quite like that, rather they would spark a slight moment of less panic, less guilt when I hold them (that has value too, right?)  (See: "JIT vs JIC and JSN" and "Possessions")

Griwkowky's way at the very least will mean I'll have a goal (496 items) and I'll have to set some time everyday thinking of getting rid of things. :)

OK.  Here goes!  (But I don't hold myself to the timing.)  The easy bit of catching up:

1 - Teal runners - worn and falling apart; no interest to charity or for recycling, but just o.k. perhaps for one more wear in the garden.  Nope - garbage.
2 - Two jars of food much too old for eating, but I'd felt bad about throwing them out.  They go now. (But the jars, I can save, right?)