and the winner is . . .

. . . SAFIEH! safieh was closest with her guess of seven cents. my actual out of pocket cost for all the items in the giveaway post was a paltry twenty cents. congrats!

now onto other stuff . . .

i finally got all my september bee blocks finished and sent off, but now i have to start october, and the month is already halfway over. this is my favorite block i made - it's for angela in the ravishing in red bee:


my co-worker and his wife had their first baby, and i've started work on a quilt for little p.j. mr. bat has been very, very helpful:


two weeks ago, during sunday afternoon football, i had mark put together a cutting table i bought long before we were married. i thought i could put it in the living room in place of the folding table where i keep one of my sewing machines, and it would look neater, plus the table has doors you can close to hide stuff. i was wrong! the table's too high to sit at for sewing, though it is perfect for cutting, so into the sewing room it went. i moved a few items into it, and tom helped make sure i was doing it right:


i meant to work on my october blocks today, but instead i cleaned up in my kitchen. my house is awfully cluttered, and it drives me crazy. my house was the right size for just me and all of my stuff, but then mark and all his stuff came along, and now it's too small. it seems pretty selfish to say that a 1700 square foot house is too small for two people with no kids in the house, but we have a lot of stuff. i did go through and unload a whole lot of crap before mark moved in, and he did get rid of most of his furniture. nonetheless, he still brought a crapload of other stuff, especially kitchen stuff, and this house just doesn't have good closet space!

so, we had our guild meeting at tammy's house yesterday, and i was exposed to such a lack of clutter, despite the presence of a toddler, a dog and a cat, in addition to tammy and her husband. i wish i were that organized and clutter-free! anyway, her house inspired me to work on the kitchen today. while the kitchen isn't the worst cluttered room in the house, it's one you see when you first walk in, and it's where we (and guests) spend a lot of time. it's also a room i could tackle without having to move any of mark's paper clutter. i spent a couple of hours moving things around, putting things away, and sorting through stuff. i culled a few things to give away, threw away some broken stuff that had gotten returned to cabinets, and moved some things off of the counters and into cupboards. it's not 100% clutter-free, and i still need to find homes for some larger items like the whirlypop and a cast iron dutch oven, but it looks a whole lot better and i feel like i achieved something today. now if i can just whip the rest of the house into shape before my parents arrive for thanksgiving!