Just 5 minutes :)

I took just 5 minutes and cleaned off the top of my nightstand. Dusted it too. Later on I will take 15 minutes & clean another area of my bedroom. (Yes I will use a timer.) That way I will accomplish something positive without taking forever and not feeling overwhelmed. I figure if I can do a 5 minute clean up here or there then a 15 minute to 30 minute on some larger area each day eventually my cluttered areas will no longer be cluttered. Yes in that 5 minutes I had to decide to put things away and to throw out some others. I expect that when I handle the 15 minutes I will be forced to decide what to give away and what to keep, and if I keep it where to put it away. But I also think it will be fairly easy based on the rule if you haven't used it in a year don't hold on to it any longer. I know I have clothes that I haven't used in a year based on my current weight & I can't just hold on to them thinking one day I will be able to use them again. So a lot of my clothes will be tossed into a give away pile. Making my cluttered drawers & closet much more managable. (yep those will be more 30 minute sessions ;-)

Finished Adriana's afghan ... forgot to take a picture so will get a photo soon. Half way thru on my mom's hat ~ will take photos when that is finished also.

Ahhh close my eyes & just think about the glass demonstration. We were brought into a large area and directed to take a seat along the wall where we could see from a safe distance. Across from where we sat I saw what looked like a large furnace and a smaller furnace. There was a setup for the master glass worker to demonstrate his skills for us and behind him was a work area for several artists to learn & hone their craft. From where I was seated I really could not take in much of what was going on behind the glass master who was showing us his skills. Our guide showed us some things and told us what we were witnessing. One glass worker "set up" the project for the master who then came and began working with the hot glass on the end of a very long pipe. He had a bucket with water in it and when he brought some water up with to handle the pipe you could hear it sizzle. (They place the pipe with the glass into the furnace so it is surprising that they can handle those long pipes when they get so hot.) We saw how he used various tools to shape the glass after he blew into the pipe to get the glass to take some shape other than looking like a "blob". A bit of shaping this way a bit of blowing into the pipe and before our eyes this hot blob of glass became a vase. But he wasn't finished yet he wanted to embellish it more so back to the furnace to get the glass hot enough so he could work it some more and when he worked on it more with his tools it was a much prettier vase. And he didn't stop there he then began another project & he chose to make a horse. We saw him use some glass blowing techniques and saw how he worked rapidly with a few tools to make the vase so I was surprised when he took this hot blob of glass on the end of a long pipe and shaped a horse out of it with a couple of tools. It was so fast and amazing to watch. The end result was a beautiful glass horse. Just remembering it still takes my breath away. Thinking we were finished and going to move on to the sales floor for a sales pitch (now that we saw how the glass is made we were prepared for the prices) we were surprised with one final demonstration. Pure glass blowing ... the glass master took a hot piece of glass and blew it so thin and big ~ like blowing bubbles and getting to see the largest most delicate bubble for your efforts~ then just as suddenly he let it hit the ground and the sound that exploded out of that thin bubble of glass was astounding.