Gadgets, Gizmos, and Getting Organised

I still find it hard to believe I have a diary with "Organised Mum" on the cover...! It's very useful, I particularly like the detachable shopping lists and space to write up plans and ideas.

Anyway, over the last few days I have aquired some new gadgets (and a new chart for a Indigo Rose sampler of the Desiderata poem - oops), so I've been working on organising my thread stash. The plan is to wind all my DMC threads onto bobbins (luckily I aquired a large number of these cheaply a few months ago) and put them into thread boxes with spreadsheets tacked to the inside, so that I can always see which numbers I've got in before starting a new project. My previous lack of organisation has led to rather a lot of duplication of thread (but on the bright side, I have plenty of 310 to start some blackwork with, which is something I want to try this year!). In addition I can now file all the leftover DMC threads from old projects - I am very efficient with my stitching, somehow, and tend to have a lot left over from kits. Being a packrat by nature I've hoarded them all, which takes up far too much space. Now I can lay my hands on the thread at any time and also file the charts away nicely in a file (in theory). The small amount of Anchor threads I've got can be used for blackwork or single-colour designs; once summer comes I might make some bookmarks for PostPals or something.

I've also finally bought some more magazine box files for sorting mags into. I have far too many, but I really can't decide what to do with them - should I cut out the patterns I want to keep, file them and recycle, or make my "personal use" copy of just the charts and sell/give away the mags as a job lot? Ideally I'd sell them but it's a lot of work to copy everything. I am leaning towards tearing out the patterns, but it's such flimsy paper - it doesn't stand up well to being knocked about while you stitch. Although if I put everything in nice plastic wallets...I may have some of those knocking about, too...hmm.

Oh, my gizmos. I have to mention these as they have speeded up my stitching no end - a Clover Cutter Pendant , a Lo Ran Needle Threader, some Thread Heaven and a Mighty Bright lamp. I also bought a Bead Nabber for when I go back to Purple. Not sure when I'll get to try that out as the Round Robin is being posted today, so I think I should be getting Becky's by the weekend. No idea what that is - very exciting!

All links go to Wimblebees, btw - not always the cheapest, but certainly very reliable, fast delivery and with a big range (gift tokens always appreciated ).