A Busy Day Completing Projects

It took me all week, but I've finished the cleaning, culling, and reorganizing of my model horse collection! 

Having finished the shelves in the horse room, I moved into the sewing room early in the afternoon. I was determined to wrap up this project and move on to organizing and photographing all the sales models I'd sorted out.

Just as I did in the office, I left one shelf open. The shelf underneath it has three shelf eaters, models I like to keep close to the sewing table. I use them to ensure that my XLT (extra long traditional) haversacks will fit the models they are intended for.

I always keep a shelf open in my office directly behind my desk chair, too. I use it to photograph sales models (such as the Chevaliere on the left), setting up scenes like the Mini Whinny Advent Calendar, etc. Via Latte is only there temporarily. I will be moving her into the sewing room where she will go with the other three shelf eaters that are used for fitting haversacks.

Craig helped me put some finishing touches to the horse room and the sewing room.

He hung this Christmas gift from my friend Kathy over the door of the office. I can sit here at my computer and see it every time I look up.

This painting of Mary, Joseph, and the boy Jesus, a gift from Local Son Curt and Vanessa, was hung on the wall between his office door and mine. 

And then he hung this clock, a gift from him, over the windows in my sewing room so that all I have to do to tell the time is to glance up.  (I much prefer a clock to a watch or using my phone. Often my hands are full of fabric and pins and a glance up is much easier.)

Of course, yet again I had a little help from my friends. The girls followed me back and forth from the horse room to the sewing room all day as I worked. (Nash did the same with Craig.) Despite Mama's propensity for heavy shedding, I relented and let her stay while I worked. She just wanted to be with me and I didn't have the heart to make her leave.

One last thing I got done yesterday was that, believe it or not, I finally took our Christmas tree down. The ornaments have been put away for weeks; I just hadn't disassembled the tree and put it into its box, a ten minute job at most. Why had I left it on display? Well, I love its colored lights, and have been plugging them in as soon as I got up in the morning and leaving them on until I went to bed. They are cheery during these drab winter days, so why not leave the tree out?

I do still have my mother's Nativity to put away. That's a different story - it big, it's breakable, and it's heavy. I am definitely procrastinating this job. And while Craig would help me in a heartbeat, because it is so fragile, I prefer to do it myself. I've got lots of experience packing china models and since this Nativity means so much to me, I want to pack it up myself.

A little help from your friends is good, but there are some things you just need to do yourself.