LOOK What I Found....!!!!

I found a treasure!!!
**I would discuss the fact that I could actually forget that I had this stored away somewhere for 7 years, but....I don't want to!**

I was putting something away in a closet in my craft room, and moved some things around, and uncovered this......

Can you see what that is?????  It's a braided rug that I made!!!!  Of course, it's still unfinished, because I didn't realize it was there.....although, I think I always did know it was there, in the back of my mind, but it just never had a chance to move to the front of my mind - you know, the part that I THINK with!  There isn't alot of room there....!! LOL

So here is what happened -- years ago, when I first moved to NC, we lived in (rented) a trailer in a trailer park, and I think that's when I really started to crave primitive decorating....living in that trailer for two years was like being in a desert - there was nothing beautiful to look at, nothing to inspire or excite, and that's when I started checking out antique stores and thrift stores, and I would find old issues of Country Living magazine for 25 cents, and I found the old Time Life American Country books at thrift stores for 50 cents!  WOW, right?!! :-D
Anyway, I got this urge in me that I HAD to have a braided rug, but I couldn't afford to buy one (still can't!), and I figured I could make one myself!! LOL  I had NO computer to research it, so I just had to make it up as I went along....pretty gutsy, wasn't I!  So I bought fabric and, get this, I tea-stained it all in the tub!!  Haha!  Can you picture that??  I boiled giant pots of tea and poured it over the fabric in the tub, then soaked it for a while, rinsed it, and hung it over the shower rod to dry (I didn't have a washer or dryer there).
Then I ironed it, tore it into strips, and started braiding!  When I came to the end of a strip, I just whip-stitched another strip to the end of it, and kept going.  After a certain length, I started sewing the braids together with rug thread, and voila!!  A braided rug emerged!! :-D

Here is the strip I stopped on.....

That pin has been in there for 7 years!! LOL

Here's where I sewed the strips together.....

Here's the back, see the threads I left hanging out.....

Here's the whole thing, it's about 5ft x 4ft......

It's kind of too rounded, I think....I was wanting a more oval shape, but I wasn't sure how that was accomplished.  Also, you can't really tell in this picture, but the center is buckling, probably because I sewed it too tightly together in the beginning!  I figured that out about half-way through the tan, but it was too late to fix that, and I for sure wasn't taking it all apart!!!
So I guess now I've got to get this finished, right?!! :-D  It was SO exciting to find this again, and lay it out....I haven't touched this for over 7 years!  And looking at it and feeling it and remembering back to when I was last working on it, made me realize that I actually have some great memories and feelings about living in that tiny, ugly trailer! :-)

The other thing I did today was throw papers away......PHEW!!  That took most of the day today!  Remember my rant?  Well, I did something about it today, just a part, but still, it felt great!  AND....I cleaned out my purse (yes, that's a huge job with MY purse)....here's what was in it.....

Can you imagine that a person can fit that much in a purse??  I'm telling you, I couldn't find anything in there this past weekend!  It was TIME!! LOL  It's all sorted and cleaned out now!

So, those are my very exciting things about today!!  Tomorrow is another peeling, chopping, cooking, freezing day - you might be getting sick of reading about those....!! ^-^