End of the year......

December and 2009 are drawing to a close. The highlight for me was holding the newest baby in our family, my Grand Niece (my niece's daughter's daughter), 3 weeks old, and absolutely perfect, adorable, sweet, wonderful, and beautiful beyond words.

New Year's resolutions don't last very long for me, but I do hope to bust more of my quilting stash in 2010 so that perhaps I can think about buying some new fabric now and then. Wouldn't that be loverly! My stitching plans include working on some parts of Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow. Losing weight and exercising more is always on my "must do" list, but like Scarlett O'Hara, I'll think about that tomorrow. Today I had a Starbucks Java Chip.

Happy New Year to friends, family and blog lurkers.

Last night's Bee meeting

No pictures..........sorry....... (I lied - there is a new profile picture added.)



Last night Bee was at my house but I did not take pictures. There was some outstanding Show & Tell. I am lucky enough to be in a very talented group of women.



In our discussion we brought up the new "UFO" phrase........PhD (Projects Half Done), and someone also brought up the theory of "Advance Three". In other words, you can start something new as long as you first advance the work on three of your old projects. You don't have to finish them, but make a block, or sew blocks together, or put a border on, etc.



We all think we have too many projects not completed and feel embarassed or guilty when we start something new. The idea of advancing three seemed to strike a chord with some of us last night.



I am so focused on using up my enormous stash that doing some of Judy's projects and some other stash busting things seems to be my concern lately.



Then I have three days in a row when I don't even get down to my quilt studio............ See my sad face.

September

Here it is September 16th and it seems to me that the month has been flying by. With my sister being so sick in a nursing home and now my BIL in the hospital (coming home today), and a million-and-one- other things happening in my family and church life, there has been little time for quilting and other crafts.

Even without quilting things to show, I still want to post to my blog. Here are a few Fall related pictures. The first one is of my calendar snowman for September, holding his pencil, slate, and apple. What would Fall be without apples? I like mine cut up and added to my salads, or dipped in peanut butter, or baked with brown sugar.
This beautiful counted cross-stitch picture "Take Time to Quilt" was made for me by my friend Brenda. It is made in Fall colors and hangs where I can see it all the time.

When I start to complain that I "have no time" I remember that we all have the same time. It is a matter of taking the time to quilt, even when the schedule is busy. Hard to do though, isn't it? It seems I only take the time when my day is clear and I can focus.

Day at home

A whole day at home gave me time to make a little progress on my La-D-Da stitching and knit more rows on my shawl. I finished the last five blocks of Judy's Labor Day weekend quilt and sewed the blocks together. The border will come later after I finish up a few other projects. All the fabric for this quilt came from my stash.
Today I finished reading a book - The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted, by Elizabeth Berg. It is a book of short stories for and about women, some very humorous and some achingly true to life. I'm happy to recommend it as very good reading.

Slump

Not long ago I put up this card table in my office because I was going to start cleaning out files. Instead, the card table has become a dumping ground for mail and things to put away. My desk also has things to file and put away, and on that gold paper is the print out of Judy's Labor Day weekend quilt challenge............as if I don't have enough projects going already.
My laptop computer sits in front of my desktop computer because I was going to switch everything to my laptop and retire the desktop and of course it hasn't happened yet because that would take a day or two of concentrated effort and I can't even seem to find the energy to clear off my desk or the card table.
Why do I fall into these slumps? I got up this morning full of energy and did thirty minutes on the treadmill (a miracle for me) and since then I have moped around the house, reading, playing computer games, and just wasting time.

I'm waiting to hear news about my sister. She is being moved today from the hospital to a rehab facility and I'm waiting to hear when and where so that I can go and make sure she is comfortable. She has a husband and a daughter that can do all that, but I like to get involved too because I love her and want her to be happy. So I wait and can't seem to engage my mind on anything else.

I need to bury myself in a project but I just can't seem to get started. Anyone out there have any good advice? In the mean time, I think I will go back to my book.

Day 6 of 1,825

My five-year goal is now in day 6 and so far so good. Another five rows each day have been knitted on my blue shawl. Can you see that it is getting longer? A little of the border and the first line of words were stitched on my La-D-Da piece.

My plan for the last two days included some quilting time, however I had two major interruptions - one good and one not so good. The good - my cousin and her husband stopped by on their way home from vacation and we had a nice visit. The not so good - my sister is in the hospital again so I have spent time with her.

Gratitude - Today I am grateful for the nurses, doctors and hospital staff who are taking such excellent care of my sister.

Goal follow-up

On Monday I made the big decision to set a five year goal to finish all my UFO's, clean out my files, and declutter my house. That gives me 1,825 days to reach my goal. Today is day four and I am happy to report that for the last four days I have knit five rows each day on a shawl I started ages ago. I continued to do a little quilting on my Road to Indy quilt.
The Christmas quilt that Lindsay and I are making along with the youth at church got pin basted and some quilting done last night by the youth.
Today I finished up the top motif on a La-D-Da stitching project.
There is still time today to do some more quilting or stitching. I'm not setting any world records, but I'm hoping that by doing a little each day I will happily reach my goal. 1,821 days to go.

Oh, I forgot. I also set-up the card table in the office so that I can more easily clean out files. No files have gotten cleaned out and unfortunately the card table has become another place to dump stuff. Hmmmm. Not good.

Setting a goal.....

My birthday was last week and I turned the grand old age of 70. Oh my. Time to get serious about where my life is going. Some may think I'm a little late in my thinking, but I am forever optimistic so setting a goal at age 70 doesn't seem out of line.

FIVE YEAR GOAL
By the time I am 75, I plan to have all unfinished
projects completed, all files cleaned
out, and all unnecessary clutter gone from
my house.

Now all of you out there that are chuckling please know that this is a serious decision I have made. Can I do it? Well, I'm hoping that my blogging audience will help me be accountable. So please check back with me in August of 2013 to see if I made my goal. Thanks.

Levenger

It is always a pleasure to receive a package from Levenger. Your purchase quite often comes in a very nice box.When you open the box, your merchandise is carefully wrapped in a soft cloth imprinted with the Levenger name.

This is the little "Circa" leather notebook I ordered (on sale) to use as an organization tool.

Inside is my identification card and I have added tabs to section off the areas I need to get organized - project lists, web sites to visit, books to read, etc. A pen holder on the side holds a smooth-writing ballpoint pen.

Neatly written in this new little notebook are my lists.

Life will be exceptionally good from this day forward. Yes, I'm counting on one fancy little notebook to change my life. Think it will work?

Getting things done

There are so many things on my mental "To Do" list that when I have plenty of time to work on this list, I get paralyzed with indecision and end up doing Sudoku puzzles or surfing the Internet. I should clean the bathroom, but I'd rather stitch, yet that quilt needs binding, and I haven't finished the ironing. Yet I probably should pay the bills first, or perhaps start a load of laundry. And the kitchen floor needs scrubbing, but the quilt retreat is coming up and I need to prepare for that. My head starts to spin, I pick up a Sudoku puzzle, and nothing gets done while I look for where the 9 goes in the last grid.

Today I thought about my problem and decided to take a new approach. Instead of having to decide what to do on my long list, I made out little slips of paper for each list item and put them in a big bowl. After mixing them all up, I closed my eyes and reached in to pick out my first item. Then I set my timer for one hour and began on the assigned task. When the timer dinged, I put away the project and reached for another slip of paper, set the timer again for one hour, and began my new task.

It worked!!!!! I finished four projects and got an hour's worth of work done on four others, plus I took an hour out for lunch and dinner, reading my book as I ate which meant I also had almost two hours of reading time. What a productive day. I feel great.

Of course a lot of things did not get done - but they might not have gotten done anyway. Maybe I will pick them out of the bowl tomorrow. Maybe not. So if my kitchen floor does not get scrubbed until next week, well, it's just the luck of the draw.