I write my first drafts longhand on my bed. I transcribe them to my computer and revise and rework them on my laptop while sitting on my upstairs sofa.

This week we’ve been having a couple new floors installed upstairs which means my bedroom and the sitting room upstairs were off limits. Our floors are in now, but the sititng room is still filled with things which belong in the kitchen. Things like our fridge, the stove, the table — you get the idea. Jo has to work today and I’m not quite uber enough to move those things myself, but I also have a non-fiction column to revise before tomorrow.

So here I sit. On the sofa downstairs, trying to revise this. I am failing. I’m failing because it’s not right. The light is wrong, the tension in the sofa is wrong, the height of the sofa is wrong. It’s just wrong.

Wah!

It is not safe to be a paperclip around my house. I bend them, twist them, chew on them…I’m not easy on paperclips.

It’s becoming a bit of a problem, actually. Not only because I am running out and thus, don’t always have them handy for times when I want to actually clip paper, but for a couple other reasons too.

Firstly, they get everywhere. They are in my pockets, on the table, on the counter, beside my computer, on the floor. You name it, there is likely a mangled paperclip there.

Forgetting them in my pockets when I do laundry? Yeah, not so good for the clothes.

Forgetting I have one in my mouth (like some people do toothpicks?) and kissing Jo? Yeah. Also not so good.

I need to go to paperclips anonymous or something.

I think I’ll start using binder clips like these instead.

Or I could use a stapleless stapler like I Jo has ( http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/8b70/ ). The binder clips seem like a better idea though, because I have a whack of them kicking around here already.

Sure, mine aren’t pretty colors like these ones (How cool are they, by the way?), they are just straight up black, but they’ll do the trick. When I say I have oodles of them, I am not kidding. Jo tells me I always guess very high, but I’d guess there are 150 of em at my sewing table, because I use them when I’m quilting.

That’s right, they are multi-purpose and they won’t poke my loved ones when I try to kiss them. I think this realisation will help me kick the paperclip habit for good, actually. After all, the binder clips helped me make this quilt for my bedroom.

(sorry about the horrible picture, if you turn your head at just the right angle it’s almost okay)

Paperclips can’t do that, can they?

One last picture for the quilters I know visit my blog from time to time (hi mom!):

(Click for a bigger picture. Really, I fail at quilt pictures, especially king-sized quilts LOL)

Paperclips? Your days are numbered!

I’ve long wanted to start posting occasional random facts about me that might be interesting or unexpected but I didn’t know where to start. However, Aubrie Dionne asked a question on her Livejournal today that inspired my first random fact about myself.

We were pretty poor when I was a kid and one year my Halloween costume was a garbage bag. It was orange and had holes cut out for my head and arms. You guessed it, I was a pumpkin.

That definitely counts as my worst Halloween costume ever. What was yours?