If I only cleared my desk. . .

A number of people in my life have subscribed to the theory that my abodes do not actually have black holes that things disappear into for a period of time.

The standard refrain of these folk is that if I just kept a clear desk, sewing table, work space etc. that things would not go missing. Well, these people also probably don't believe in quantum theory or alternate universes.

Still, occasionally the desk/work space reaches a point where I can't even find the stuff I know is piled up and the clearing and sorting begins.

That clearing and sorting almost always comes with me thinking that I'd love to be proven wrong and that the items I've come to accept are long languishing in the black hole will have been under those stacks of stuff all along. I've yet to be proven wrong.

Still, it is worthwhile to tackle the stacks, put like things with like things and, if I'm honest (and I am) make room for the next round of stacks of stuff.

And so it was that over this holiday, I tackled the right hand side of my desk.

Sure enough, the stuff in the stacks got sorted, filed, recycled and trotted off to where they belong and not only did the residents of the black hole not reappear, two "I just had them a day ago" stitch treasuries decided to take a field trip to the alternate universe beyond the black hole.

I have a relatively clean desk but the missing stitch treasuries seem a high price to pay. And no, my go-to needle gauge was not hiding in the stacks.

This holiday breather also inspired me to, if not clean, at least shake things up a bit by swapping curtains from bedroom to living room and otherwise making some decisions about rearranging things.

I am not going for the heavy lifting tweak the muscles and bring on the bruises campaign this go round but a more subtle stuff shuffle.

Fortunately, my drill is not in the black hole and alothough my clamps are -- how I do not know -- my neighbour came through and the old oak table's leaf is now repaired until the next time the wood glue bond gives out.

Although I am not a big t-day fan, it was productive. Things that should have been mailed long ago got mailed, laundry got done, designs proposals got submitted on time and even the library gods smiled on me and two books on my want to read list appeared on the new non-fiction shelves just as my reading mode shifted from frivolous fiction.

I will not be posting pictures of the office/desk anytime soon but I can't let a blog entry go out unadorned. So the shots here are snippets of design inspiration from local architecture.