Monday, April 20, 2009

A Mountain of Magazines and Diet Challenge

A few weeks ago, Mary Ann posted about how she was drowning in magazines. Ugggh!! Unfortunately, I know how she feels! For weeks I watched Mary Ann go through her mountain of magazines either through her blog or on Facebook. It was hard watching her do this alone so I decided to join her and conquer my mountain of magazines, too.

With a happy heart(trying to be positive here!) I went through my house in search of magazines. I cleared out the bathrooms, my bedroom, the family room, and the extra bedroom (of chaos) where I had piled magazines and closed the door;out of sight out of mind! I then sat the piles of magazines by my chair in my "not so formal" formal living room and left them there; for weeksa few days.

Here's part of my pile.





Let's see there's Martha Stewart Living, Country Home, Home Companion, Country Living, Better Homes and Gardens, Southern Living, Creative Home, and Woman's Day. I don't see Family Circle and Good Housekeeping. They must have been camera shy that day.

I have subscriptions to all of these, except now for Creative Home, Country Home, and Home Companion. They are no longer in publication due to the decline of the housing industry.

It was a sad day when I got my little card in the mail from Mary explaining the reasons that the magazine is no longer available. The darn economy!! Mary explains the situation so well here.

So, here was this mountain of magazines staring at me. At first I sat down and would go through 3 or 4 magazines clipping out articles and recipes, but then I had better things to do! Mary Ann had discovered that this was a huge time waster. I agreed. I wanted to sew or blog, but everytime I did anything fun this little voice in my head would say "Hey you! There's a mountain of magazines you should be dealing with! Get up off your butt and get busy!!!"

I got sick of that little voice! I went into my "not so formal" formal living room, turned on some relaxing music, and I sat down in the middle of the floor and started going through them. At first I was overwhelmed. Then, after a little while, I discovered something about myself: Looking through magazines is my way of dreaming. It's good to have a dream; something to hope for. I use my magazines for inspiration in ways to decorate my home, plant my flower beds, and recipes for my family and friends to enjoy. There are places I would love to visit and crafting ideas I would love to make. In a way these magazines are a part of the "me" that I would love to be. I know I can't be perfect like Martha, or have my home look like the pages of Southern Living all the time, but at least I can try. I decided, too, that I needed to start clipping ideas as I go along. It's time to start a new habit.



And then there was the "writing on the wall" or in my case "the writing on the pages of a magazine" right there before my eyes in black and white. It was an article about Spring Cleaning. It said to clear a room out and put back only the things you love. What you don't love, give to someone else, throw it away, or sell it in a garage sale. You have spent way too much time and energy dealing with something that you don't love. Well, it's not that I don't love my magazines, but it was a little much having so many and running out of places to keep them. So yes, they were draining my energy and, besides that, they were making me hear voices in my head!

I came to a decision about some of my magazines. I love Home Companion, so I'm keeping all of those. I mean look at this:


These are antique pot holders made in the 1930's. Now look at this:

I have one of those!! I never knew what it was, though! How cool is that?


I'm keeping my Creative Home ones, too. Better Homes and Gardens has their magazines archived online for their subscribers. I get the annual Southern Living cookbook that has all the recipes for the year. I just can't keep everything! What I can do, though, is pass them along to my Public Library or give to schools.

You may be wondering why you don't see any quilting magazines. I have quilting magazines and there's probably 2 mountains of those! I keep all of them because what doesn't inspire me today may inspire me 6 years from now. For example: baby quilts. In 1995 when I got my first quilting magazine, American Patchwork and Quilting, I wasn't the least bit interested in baby quilts. Then in 2001 when my first grand child, Alexis, was born I was able to go through my magazines and get inspired to make her "coming home from the hospital" baby quilt. The quilt you see in my blog header is that quilt, "Alexis' Butterfly Garden". I have a butterfly garden and she needed one, too! I took three designs from baby quilts I found in past issues of magazines and came up with this quilt. Judy Laquidara beautifully quilted it for me.

I bet you never knew someone could write so much about clearing out magazines! Leave it to me!

Now to my Diet Challenge. Sharon has been patiently waiting for me to post something, and it has been a while. I'm doing pretty well. Of course I have a lot to say (or write) about it, but I'll save it for another day. Just know that I don't know if I've lost weight, but I do know for sure that I have lost inches. I know this because my tape measure told me! My husband has noticed my hips are getting smaller in my jeans, and that's exciting. I've noticed my muffin top ( that stuff that over the top of the waist of my jeans) is smaller, too. I do need to get better about drinking more water and making sure I get in my exercise even though I have been busy clearing things out.



Stay tuned for a possible trip to Paducah to the AQS Quilt Show this week and more. There's lots going on that keeps me busy, busy, busy!



Have a great Monday!



Amanda

8 comments:

  1. I hear ya on the magazine situation. Hubby keeps asking me if I wanna renew certain ones and I say NO!! I cant get thru the ones I have that are still in the plastic. It's crazy. And yes they are overwhelming because they are in every room. This packing thing has got me clearing out stuff that I no longer want/need. It feels good.
    Now for your loser post. Good job. I am waiting for the day my muffin top shrinks. I keep checking and it's still there. lolol

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  2. Amanda -- I received the Moda JR yesterday. What a breath of summer in a dreary cold rainy day! Thanks bunches.

    Re quilt magazines: I keep little post it notes (they are about 1/2" by 2" long, next to me when I read (look at) new quilting magazines. Any quilt, hint, ad I see that strikes my fancy I stick the post it note on the page with part sticking out. Later when I'm looking for something to inspire me or to make, I can go directly to what I was interested in at the time. If I were super organized I could write on the note -- baby quilt, scrap quilt, technique. But I'm not super organised! Oh well. Keep at it! Bonnie

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  3. My first stop here. Reading your blog is like sitting with a friend over a cup of tea. What a breath of fresh air!!

    My brother has been giving me Oprah magazine for about as long as it's been out. He's a psychologist and thinks it will help me. ME?!?!?! I know it's a good magazine, but I don't have time to read it. I look at it, clip, or give it to the Library where they love it.

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  4. I live near Pat, she is my friend and also teaches us about quilting in our neighborhood group. I saw the prize she received and took her advice and came to read your blog. Good Advice Pat! Amanda you are so down to earth, I so enjoyed reading your blogs for the past few days. So many of us can associate with you and your "closed door" room LOL. I too cannot throw away any of my quilting magazines. I have every one since I started to quilt 3 years ago. Time to weed some out???

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  5. Way to go, Amanda! I let mine pile up for years with corners turned down of the pages I want to keep! A couple of years ago it got to be just too much to deal with every few years (and dusty!) so now I force myself every month to rip out those pages and put them in my notebook! I always get a kick out of some of them trying to figure out why I wanted to save a recipe for clams in pineapple sauce or some strange thing like that!
    Cheers!

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  6. Amanda, I think you hit right on the button with all of us as far as magazines. I have them everywhere. All of mine are creative ones and then the Mary E. I can't get rid of them either.
    Love your blog.
    Keep Stitchen'
    Bonnie

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  7. I have one of those potholders with the red flower, too! Never knew anything about it or where it came from.

    I am trying to do the same with my "stuff" that you did with your magazines.

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  8. I've been going through magazines, too. It's rather a losing battle because I just love magazines. I trade quilting magazines with a friend. I bring some to school for our art teacher to use. I too find them so inspirational. Good luck!

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