Yo-yo day! Updates and confessions...

Finally! Here's the next installment of Yo-yo Day, all about picking up and putting down and picking up and putting down...

We found the cloth base to the baby gym from this past yo-yo. We'd wrapped a glass lamp in it when we moved, and it was hidden in a box.

We outsmarted ourselves with multipurposing, and left that box unopened for too long.  But the base has now also been donated.

The digital camera yo-yo found new life and energy at our Explorers' Technojunk day. The kids take apart any old technical junk we can find, and they loved discovering the insides of this camera.

The dragon yo-yo is now guarding an outdoor rose plant. They can both be prickly, and they don't seem to mind.

The yo-yo power is strong in this one. 

Yes, the china cup and saucer (the inaugural yo-yo) did not leave our house until last week.

I couldn't think of a use for them.

I tried several times to sell them on TradeMe.

But at last I tucked them in with a pretty collectible plate (also worth something, probably) and I sent them all to seek their fortune in my favourite charity shop.

As a memento of my grandmother, I still have two of her hair ribbons.

Decluttering - thinking big and sewing it up

My grandmother bought the latest model sewing machine some decades ago and put it to very good use.  She loved to sew, and we still have a few of the baby clothes she sewed when we were young.

In another millennium, in another hemisphere, I am not using it at all.

No, I'm using it to hold up stuff on its way out of the house.  It's built into a quite nice solid wood table on wheels, and takes up a small table's share of room.

It's nice, potentially so useful, and sentimental as well, so I have kept it.  I do not love to sew.  It's Living the Life You Have all over again (instead of the one I wish I did).

If I want to have an occasional sewing machine, just in case, to show the kids how it's done, this is not the machine for me.  I can easily buy a compact sewing machine...

IF!

Serendipity

I did some research on TradeMe to price the machine (after the obCheck with the rest of the family), but then stalled again.  Freecycle saved the day:  "Wanted: sewing machine..."

Nice guy picked it up yesterday, and the new owner says she loves it.  Grandma Eileen would be pleased, I'm sure.

As a bonus, I also released a small stack of sewing manuals.

Dollars and sense

New sewing machine?         $1 reserve or $30 buy now on TradeMe

Old sewing machine table?  $unknown, satisfaction guaranteed

Brand new clear space?      Priceless

Yo-yo day success!

I've been quiet for longer than I meant to.  Sometimes life just gets so darned exciting that it's hard to sit down and write it all down.  But along with

1. surviving school holidays
2. editing the next issue of La Leche League New Zealand's magazine
3. attending the La Leche League New Zealand Conference (and hopefully getting the T-shirt)
4. organising the La Leche League New Zealand photo competition

 ...I have kept on minimising my life's burdens. 

Now you see it....
Today I got rid of a yo-yo before even posting about it - how good am I?

This little bouquet was a gift from DH's work when DS Alex was born.  

Hmmmm, I must have decluttered the photo, too.  Onward and upward!

It was a cunning blue arrangement of fabric flowers and rolled up baby washcloths and onesies.  I obviously  valued it because it was a true yo-yo - I can't count how many times I looked at it and then put it down again.  Until recently, I hadn't even removed all the baby items from the arrangement, and that meant that instead of using some of the onesies (like, 5 years ago when they would have fit), they are now in my gifting box!

But I have today passed the remains along to my favourite charity shop, and hopefully some crafty soul will breathe new life into it.

But wait, there's more!
I also donated the crossbars of a baby gym  - because I've lost faith that we are ever going to find the fabric part of it.  I mean, we lost a digital camera in that move, so I'm sure we could have lost a piece of fabric not much bigger than a pillowcase.   And those crossbars got used as weapons just once too often.

Yo-yo day again...plus an update

Today's yo-yo is another keepsake from my grandmother:

It's very wee - about the size of a man's thumb tip, so you can see the detail is lovely.  Doesn't take up much room.

The tough thing is, although beautiful and sentimental it is not particularly useful or (as far as I know) valuable.  I can't think of anything really small I want to keep in it.

I wonder if one of my nieces would enjoy it...not that either of them need more clutter!

Suggestions welcome...  Do you have a limit on the number of sentimental items you keep?


Yo-yo updates

• Potpourri jar - donated
• Dragon - repair failed and a bit too prickly for the garden so headed for happy hunting grounds
• Cup and saucers - having a go on TradeMe
• Camera #2 - still a yo-yo!

I'm making more progress than before, so I claim success, just not 100%.

Yo-yo day again!

I'm still looking for inspiration on my last yo-yo, the camera that was...

This one should be a no-brainer as I'm not into dust-collectors, but it is a little potpourri jar and I want the room to smell nice!

Perhaps someone could explain that I don't need to use a little jar to make the room smell nice?  How do you freshen your rooms in wintertime?

And in other news, I really did it!  I cut the cord on my cleaners, like I promised.  

• I planned one last session (as notice for them) but they delayed me for a new client until it was too late.  So I still have our $42, my thank you card, and my box of homemade chocolate coconut ice.  And I did my own vacuuming and wiping, and the house hasn't fallen to bits.  

That's one small step for me, and one giant leap for minimalism.

Yo-yo day - say chocolate!

• Help mothers beat the Booby Traps and vote for BestForBabes!

OK, this is one of our toughest and most interesting yo-yos.  And a very valuable (and expensive lesson for me).

This is our lovely IXY 910IS digital camera - this picture was taken with our slightly newer but just as lovely IXY 910IS digital camera.  Confused?  Just wait.

The camera in the picture (let's call it #2, which is ironic if you happen to be into toilet humour) was our replacement camera that we bought after our perfectly good previous Canon digital camera (#1) went AWOL during our house move in 2007.  We kept assuming it would show up somewhere after the chaos of the move, but it never did (and neither did the pictures on it!)  So we got to upgrade as a reward for our carelessness.

We moved in August.  Fast forward a few months - Alex was 2 and a half and just loves cameras (and remotes and DVD players and anything at all that has buttons than make something light up or go whirr).  In a moment of madness, I let him have the precious new replacement camera (#2), thinking "he's got the strap round his wrist, he's not much more than 1/2 metre tall and he's on carpet so what harm could he possibly do?"

Well, now we know one significant answer to that question.  (Let's face it, there are probably more.)  What he can do is grasp the extended lens in his surprisingly strong grip and twist it hard enough to break the automatic mechanism.  Look closely at the photo and you may note that the lens is out... sort of....twisted 90 degrees from its originally designed stopping point.

Shocked and appalled but being the the frugal and savvy consumer that I am (if not so savvy childminder :-) we investigated repairs.  'Twas something like the week before Christmas and I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that estimated repairs (for the known damage) would at least be a large proportion of the cost of a new camera, plus several weeks' waiting time.  We just couldn't be without the camera for Christmas with a deal like that.  Thus, we winced again, and camera #3 has been doing fine duty ever since.

And yet we still have the other camera which is now literally just #2, and I think the mistake that we are making financially is called valuing sunk costs.  Is there any chance that someone else would take the risk and hassle of getting it fixed to save a small amount on the purchase of a new camera?  We've waited so long that now it's not even attractive as a latest model.  Yet it is still on our shelf  - even if it's DH's office junk shelf.

I am open to imaginative suggestions for this yo-yo that beat just throwing it in the rubbish.  Feel free also to share stories that make me feel not so alone in my poor judgements about children's capabilities :-)

Yo-yo day again!

 The last yo-yo is ready for donation and I'm brainstorming ideas for actually using the matched cup and saucer set...

You know the drill - vote on what I should do with this next yo-yo...

This feisty dragon lady was a gift from my mother.  In her previous home on a windowsill she fell victim to my underestimation of my son's climbing abilities.

She's missing a head spike and her tail needs reattaching.  She has a great expression, but I can't decide whether I want to display a broken piece.


It's up to you....

1. Fix and keep
2. Fix and donate
3. Send to dragon happy hunting ground...
4. ?

I also have some really good news!

Look!  Isn't it beautiful?  Sigh....

What do you mean?  Can't you see?  There's no cube shelf there anymore!  Hooray!

And many thanks to DH for his assistance in both phases of this operation.  Mwah, mwah!

Brand new reality blog - it's Yoyo Day and YOU get to vote!

I have too many yoyos in my house.

What is a yoyo?  
This isn't like my marble collection - I bet you have yoyos in your house too.

Something catches my eye. I pick it up, turn it over in my hands, think "should I keep this?" can't really decide either way or a good way to get rid of it, and then whoops!  Down it goes.  Again.  Bingo, a yoyo!

I need your help!
Each week, on Yoyo Day, I will post a photo and history of a classic yoyo.   And you get to vote on what I should do with it.

Today's Yoyo

This is a really tough one for me.  This china was my grandmother's - it is vintage Royal Albert circa 1930 in OK condition and is probably worth something but I don't know what.  My mother shed it from her cupboards into mine and I have no china collection.  I have struggled with the choices:

1. Post pic and sell on Trademe
2. Donate and let worthy charity pick up whatever bonanza is in store
3. Keep because it is pretty and does have sentimental value

It's in your hands - vote now!