Huh! I must of broken down a damn of some sort since I haven't been able to stop "doing stuff" all week. Not that I'm complaining, I'm not. It just feels weird.
I could not get my Betterhalf to come out to the garden with me so I went ahead and did a couple of simple sketches and some preplanning. Turns out, he was 'into' getting the garden sorted out so we spent a couple of hours on the first day and got the front cleaned up and added some new soil and the next day we spent a combined total of about 6 or 7 hours moving, cleaning, removing things from the back gardens. We are both very happy and have only a bit a work left.....after all we just couldn't cut down the only flowers that are still blooming out there just to accommodate some lilies that are on the moving list. There will be time in October for that bit of work once the flowers are spent (or frozen!!!)
I also went to see the doctor for my physical....seems I missed last year. It was not as bad as I thought it would be. He seems to have mellowed over the years and (lucky me) I'm in relatively good health. My only real complaint these days is that my knee is achy when I climb stairs and my shoulder has been cranky for the last couple of weeks. About the shoulder, an interesting thing happened. Since it started hurting me the recurring chant of my Chinese Tai Chi For Health instructor was rolling around in my head. She taught us some tapping techniques that were meant to stimulate the pressure points along the energy pathways of the body. We would do each arm, the chest, the hips and both legs (it's been quite awhile and I can't remember the whole sequence). As we would tap our arms she would say loudly "No more frozen shoulder". Anyway, it hurt to lift my arm and I was trying to figure out what to do about it. I was standing at the ironing board (ironing all those white squares) and decided I would do some leg lifts (no they won't help my shoulder but they could help my thighs) and I stretched out my arm to put use the ironing board for balance. When I brought my hand down to the board I miscalculated the distance (okay, I was watching TV) and touched the inside of my wrist on the tip of the hot iron. AutoResponse kicked in and I yanked my arm straight up and heard a "pop" in my shoulder. Yikes, I didn't know whether I should move arm from the straight up position or not. I did, and you know, it felt better! I told the doctor about this and he thought that perhaps some cartilage or something had been "caught" and it just popped out. He also suggested that I keep it a secret as it could put the chiropractors out of business...hahahaha. It still feels good....as if it is recovering from whatever was wrong with it. Oh and my doctor told me not to do those standing leg lifts as I could throw my back out.....who knew!!!!
The Butterfly quilt is evolving. Seems every time I sit down to sew on it, I change my mind about something....the number of butterflies or how to arrange the colors. It took me 2 'go's' to figure out the weird angles I needed to cut so that my butterflies could fly diagonally. I know that if I was appliqueing them, it would be simple but I was/am determined that this will be a pieced block even if I go nutso doing it. I believe I'm at the stage where I can start putting the blocks together, or at least I will be as soon as I give them some antennae. I'll keep ya updated on this project.
My ah-hah moment this week came, as usual, while walking. I realized that although I did make a list of 'goals', I wasn't honest with myself about my heart-of-the-heart goals. There are several things I would like to work towards, but I'm so intimidated by those goals, that I can't even give them a voice. I have them tucked away in my head and think about them alot, but if I speak them or write them they'll be out there in the Universe and I might actually have to do something about them. I can't right now, I'm hobbled up with my day to day living and the short term future. I feel like I'm waiting for the big SIX OH to come and go, and the next trip to Sunnyville to run it's course. We've just discovered that something is wrong with the wiring for the main floor baseboard heaters. We'll have to call an electrician in and that scares the bejeepers out of me. Who knows what he'll find once he starts digging in there....I see $$$$ flying out the window and am afraid the cost of this may jeopardize Sunnyville - and that would not be good. Really NOT good. I can't get started worrying about the money thing. I have so many issues concerning money and all the places it is going and will need to go over the next 12 months that my chest gets tight thinking about it. Sorry Sweetie, didn't mean to pass that particular hangup on to you. Hopefully, if I tiptoe really softly, everything will work out just fine.
On a happier note, although I weep to see the end of our very short and late summer, Fall is my most favourite time of the year. I am looking forward to the colors, the deep flavours and smells, and my snuggly fleece. Wrap it up, put it on a wreath and send the bill to the Universe!
*Much Ado About Nothing-#1
Friday, September 18, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
BusyBee
So we're a couple of days down the road and true to my word I sat down and wrote out some goals. I was so flush with the doing of that small task that I have actually gotten back on track with my walking and weight loss. My Accomplishment List reads like a "Get off you butt and finish it" list, but it has proven successful in that I was able to pick up the discarded second purse and spent the day finishing it. I absolutely love it and it has turned out just the way I saw it in my head. I also went to the fabric store and selected the fabrics to get on with a butterfly quilt for my second granddaughter and even managed to figure out the layout, batting and backing. (Everything is a huge list of choices and decisions for me...nothing simple). I cut out a pile of 9" white on white blocks , stitched, turned and pressed them ready to be sewn into the cathedral windows quilt I'm working on for my oldest granddaughter. Repaired a dresser drawer that was dragging, splurged on a floating glass shelf for my sewing room so now I have a place to set my pin cushion and rotary cutter and finally, finally, finally, my rulers have a home. I love that it doesn't even look like it's there...no ugly brackets to look at. And lastly I've spent a total of about 5 hours trying to figure out how to repair my corner lazy susan in the kitchen. It did something weird a couple of months ago and it took my Betterhalf and I two days to get it sorted out. Apparently we didn't since whatever we did came undone but worse. I have no idea if this new "fix" will hold or not, but I took the front panels off the turntables, cleaned underneath all that stuff, lifted up the shelves a bit, shimmed up the panels so I could reinstall them (that was a flash of brilliance so thank you Guardian Angel) and it is again running like a dream.
I have even gone so far as to allow the new unfinished projects to come into my thoughts. I volunteered to make a couple of stained glass panels for my daughter's front door sidelights. I did take a sketch of the windows but that's as far as it had gone. Now I have a great idea for the design (thank's for the suggestions sweetie) and I think I've figured out what I want to do for the framing and just need to get a little help to implement that part of the project.
With September being here I am already anxious to plot out the garden for next year, and do some of the fall clean up/moving. And I am vowing now to work at little harder at helping the garden to be it's best. I have a bunch of ideas but the trick it to meld my ideas with those of my Betterhalf. It's on the list for us to go out there together with a pencil and paper and discuss what each of us would like to see done and make notes of it all. Here's hoping someone doesn't have that pencil sticking out of a body part when we're done.
#1Son is settling in nicely I think, although we have to do a bit of tweaking in his room to make it a little more functional. I know it is early days yet, but it is kind of nice of have him back home again.
Can you believe Halloween stuff is in the stores? That's just way too fast for me. I want to savour these final Indian Summer days while reviewing my Goals List. I have way to much to accomplish before the big BD arrives and I know for sure that I want to stand up on that day in front of a mirror and say "You did a good job! Enjoy the next 30 years of your life!"
I have even gone so far as to allow the new unfinished projects to come into my thoughts. I volunteered to make a couple of stained glass panels for my daughter's front door sidelights. I did take a sketch of the windows but that's as far as it had gone. Now I have a great idea for the design (thank's for the suggestions sweetie) and I think I've figured out what I want to do for the framing and just need to get a little help to implement that part of the project.
With September being here I am already anxious to plot out the garden for next year, and do some of the fall clean up/moving. And I am vowing now to work at little harder at helping the garden to be it's best. I have a bunch of ideas but the trick it to meld my ideas with those of my Betterhalf. It's on the list for us to go out there together with a pencil and paper and discuss what each of us would like to see done and make notes of it all. Here's hoping someone doesn't have that pencil sticking out of a body part when we're done.
#1Son is settling in nicely I think, although we have to do a bit of tweaking in his room to make it a little more functional. I know it is early days yet, but it is kind of nice of have him back home again.
Can you believe Halloween stuff is in the stores? That's just way too fast for me. I want to savour these final Indian Summer days while reviewing my Goals List. I have way to much to accomplish before the big BD arrives and I know for sure that I want to stand up on that day in front of a mirror and say "You did a good job! Enjoy the next 30 years of your life!"
Friday, September 4, 2009
FunkyTimes
So I feel as though I’ve been dragging myself from one thing to another. Drag myself out of bed in the morning, drag myself away from the TV after sipping coffee for about an hour, drag myself back upstairs to get dressed, drag myself into the sewing room to stand and look at my USP's (unfinished sewing projects), heave numerous sighs and re-establish myself on the sofa to waste yet more time watching TV. It’s interesting that I cannot seem to drag myself out for a walk or even as far as the garden to pull a weed or share a drop of water. I am not sure if this depression is “sixty” related, or seasonal, or sheer boredom. I’m hoping to explore this with this post.
I haven’t been totally inactive since my last post. I did finish the ‘spare’ room and it is ready for my son to move into, I did decide to have a TV jack installed in my sewing room which opened a 2 day job. It is a VERY small room and everything is against the walls, so I had to move stuff (lots of stuff) in order for the installer to work. That got my brain working and I decided to graph the room and my essential pieces and see what I could come up with. (The cable installation ended up a nightmare and took 3 days to get a 15 minute job done…good news, they did it for free). So from the graphing I did I was sure that if I moved my sewing table to the back wall, moved the cutting table to the wall opposite from where it was and put the ironing board where the cutting table was I could get more room….how is that possible??? Up I went and started moving stuff around and as it seemed to be working I had a flash of brilliance--if I brought up the old 2-drawer file cabinet I was going to ditch I could use it to set the tv on, put a false top on it to marry up with the false top on the sewing table and could actually double my counter space. So I moved those pieces in and sure enough they worked AND I still had space so I was able to bring back in the two multi-drawer towers I thought I was going to lose, so I have even more storage. Funny how things work…since I’ve been in the room for about 3 or 4 years and thought I had tried every configuration. Apparently not. The bonus is that for the $25 I invested I got a stool the right height, a magnet strip with very cool magnets, and a 4 x 4 felt board mounted on the wall for laying out my quilt blocks. Not bad at all.
I was encouraged enough by the moving success to haul out, start and complete one of my sewing projects. I had decided to make 2 purses to donate to a silent auction. I finished one and am struggling with the second one (I don’t know why it won’t go together right) so I have left it limp and ragged on the ironing board for another day.
That little failure or semi-failure got me feeling sorry for myself yet again. I feel almost desperate to find something useful to do with my time. I have even seriously considered going back to work part-time but with a 4 month winter holiday planned and my pension just starting it doesn’t make much sense. I’m thinking of looking into volunteer work…maybe I can get something officey to do where they wouldn’t mind if I took 4 months off. I also went down to our local senior’s center to see what classes are starting up (tis the season after all). There are several quilting class and about 4 different types of painting. Nice thoughts but I’m already up to my eyeballs in quilt projects and my previous attempts at watercolor and acrylic have indicated that I need some drawing lessons for sure. I did sign up for a one-day basket weaving class so am looking forward to that.
It all makes me ‘wish’ that I had a skill I could offer to teach others. I noticed that a lady I used to work with is now doing a couple of ‘demo-classes’ that include cookie baking with kids at one of our local grocery stores. I am envious that she has this to plan, organize and look forward to. My ideal would be to have enough money to buy a building where I could live upstairs and have a quilt-shop-drop-in-coffee place below. I wouldn’t want to have to earn my rent from the shop so I’d need to be financially independent. Know where I can buy a winning lottery ticket?
I think that part of my problem is from not setting goals. I used to sit down every December and draw up a new budget sheet, write out a “List of Accomplishments for XXXX (year)” and make a list of “Goals for XXXX (year)”. It used to be things like “visit my folks 4 times this year”, “pay cash for summer holiday” “save $xxx by December 31st”. I used to have about 10-20 things on my Goals list and usually way more than that on my Accomplishment list. Accomplishment is very important to me and I think it is the ruler against which I measure the rest of my life. Whether that accomplishment is getting the dusting done or helping my daughter out or phoning a friend…I really need to accomplish something everyday for that day to be worthwhile. Because I haven’t set any goals for this year (or last year for that matter) I feel very adrift, kind of meandering from day to day with no purpose and no destination. (I believe I have had an AH HA moment here, and will commit to writing myself some goals).
With that said I feel as if I have accomplished the purpose of this particular post. I have discovered an answer of sorts and am willing to cling to it as if it were a life raft. Thanks for listening.
I haven’t been totally inactive since my last post. I did finish the ‘spare’ room and it is ready for my son to move into, I did decide to have a TV jack installed in my sewing room which opened a 2 day job. It is a VERY small room and everything is against the walls, so I had to move stuff (lots of stuff) in order for the installer to work. That got my brain working and I decided to graph the room and my essential pieces and see what I could come up with. (The cable installation ended up a nightmare and took 3 days to get a 15 minute job done…good news, they did it for free). So from the graphing I did I was sure that if I moved my sewing table to the back wall, moved the cutting table to the wall opposite from where it was and put the ironing board where the cutting table was I could get more room….how is that possible??? Up I went and started moving stuff around and as it seemed to be working I had a flash of brilliance--if I brought up the old 2-drawer file cabinet I was going to ditch I could use it to set the tv on, put a false top on it to marry up with the false top on the sewing table and could actually double my counter space. So I moved those pieces in and sure enough they worked AND I still had space so I was able to bring back in the two multi-drawer towers I thought I was going to lose, so I have even more storage. Funny how things work…since I’ve been in the room for about 3 or 4 years and thought I had tried every configuration. Apparently not. The bonus is that for the $25 I invested I got a stool the right height, a magnet strip with very cool magnets, and a 4 x 4 felt board mounted on the wall for laying out my quilt blocks. Not bad at all.
I was encouraged enough by the moving success to haul out, start and complete one of my sewing projects. I had decided to make 2 purses to donate to a silent auction. I finished one and am struggling with the second one (I don’t know why it won’t go together right) so I have left it limp and ragged on the ironing board for another day.
That little failure or semi-failure got me feeling sorry for myself yet again. I feel almost desperate to find something useful to do with my time. I have even seriously considered going back to work part-time but with a 4 month winter holiday planned and my pension just starting it doesn’t make much sense. I’m thinking of looking into volunteer work…maybe I can get something officey to do where they wouldn’t mind if I took 4 months off. I also went down to our local senior’s center to see what classes are starting up (tis the season after all). There are several quilting class and about 4 different types of painting. Nice thoughts but I’m already up to my eyeballs in quilt projects and my previous attempts at watercolor and acrylic have indicated that I need some drawing lessons for sure. I did sign up for a one-day basket weaving class so am looking forward to that.
It all makes me ‘wish’ that I had a skill I could offer to teach others. I noticed that a lady I used to work with is now doing a couple of ‘demo-classes’ that include cookie baking with kids at one of our local grocery stores. I am envious that she has this to plan, organize and look forward to. My ideal would be to have enough money to buy a building where I could live upstairs and have a quilt-shop-drop-in-coffee place below. I wouldn’t want to have to earn my rent from the shop so I’d need to be financially independent. Know where I can buy a winning lottery ticket?
I think that part of my problem is from not setting goals. I used to sit down every December and draw up a new budget sheet, write out a “List of Accomplishments for XXXX (year)” and make a list of “Goals for XXXX (year)”. It used to be things like “visit my folks 4 times this year”, “pay cash for summer holiday” “save $xxx by December 31st”. I used to have about 10-20 things on my Goals list and usually way more than that on my Accomplishment list. Accomplishment is very important to me and I think it is the ruler against which I measure the rest of my life. Whether that accomplishment is getting the dusting done or helping my daughter out or phoning a friend…I really need to accomplish something everyday for that day to be worthwhile. Because I haven’t set any goals for this year (or last year for that matter) I feel very adrift, kind of meandering from day to day with no purpose and no destination. (I believe I have had an AH HA moment here, and will commit to writing myself some goals).
With that said I feel as if I have accomplished the purpose of this particular post. I have discovered an answer of sorts and am willing to cling to it as if it were a life raft. Thanks for listening.
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