I just love this stuff!

Anything organizational that is! Earlier this week, I went over to Connie's to help her sort out all of her needlework supplies. Now, mind you, I thought I had already done her fibers last fall. Well, apparently she was holding out on me!

The first thing I had her do was gather everything in one place. I didn't think to take pictures until we were already in to the job, so this is not quite what it looked like to begin, but you'll get the idea.

All of those bags you see are lined up in front of the fireplace and contain various projects and supplies. I had Connie measure and mark all of her stretcher bars. It's amazing to me that we both have so many, but yet when we need them, we never have exactly what we need!! Luckily, those are pretty cheap.

 These are already the bags I've emptied and sorted.

These are all the floss bags with assorted fibers. I didn't think to take any of the "after" photos. The bags are all sorted by color and put on to large book rings. They all fit in to a large Vera Bradley bag and can be tucked away. Then when you have a project you want to work on, you can easily see what you have. Of course, you never have everything you need. Believe it or not, those little fibers are pricey, so it's important to be able to use what we already have.

The other thing Connie wanted to accomplish was to prioritize all of her upcoming projects. We did that, but ran out of time. There were two things I still wanted to do. 1. Go through the fiber rings and consolidate them---I'm sure she has 2 or 3 bags of the exact same fiber---I know I did when I organized mine a couple years ago. 2. I wanted to go over the supply lists for her upcoming projects to see if she had everything she needed to get started. I guess she'll be on her own for that. But it makes me feel like I didn't complete the job. Afterwards, I thought that I should have just taken her fibers home and gone through them myself. I hate leaving a project half finished!

This took us 2 hours to do. Connie thought it would take longer while I thought it would only take an hour. I always tend to underestimate how long something will take. I work fast and always think a job won't take long! Of course, it doesn't help that in the middle of the job, I noticed something was missing. I asked Connie where it was. She said, "oh, it's still in the closet." I "made" her get it and then asked if there was anything else she was holding out on. She assured me that was it. Okay, just like I thought I had already organized the fibers!

Now I know how Butch feels when he's packing the car and thinks he has everything. When he's about half loaded, the girls would come out with tons more stuff!  Yeah, it's like that!

Speaking of packing, we head off to our family vacation to the beach on Saturday. There's a "no swim" order as there is bad bacteria in the ocean---I don't really want to say what they are calling it. Let's just say that maybe a thousand babies have been playing in the ocean without a swim diaper! No big deal to me as I don't swim in the ocean anyway. I can't stand the taste of the water---and it always splashes in your mouth!l On top of that, the weather is supposed to be crappy. We'll make the best of it. Beach vacations are always hit or miss!