Back Away From the Vacuum



A variation of the Bali bag I
made for my sister. She
loves purple and ducks. One
of the few projects I
got bound while at
my folks.

 Life is a funny thing. Bad things happen, good things happen and still life goes on. My life has been upside down lately. Lots of stuff going on. Good and bad. I won't bore you with details that's not the point of this posting.

The point is that sometimes we need to step back, let go and relax. With things being so crazy busy around here, I let a few things slide and you know what? Everything and everyone came through fine. I'm not a house keeper by any stretch of the imagination, but while I was spending so much time at my folks house, I did not do one lick of housework when I spent the odd day at home. Did I feel guilty? Absolutely! At first. Then I decided that it really didn't matter that there were cat hair dust bunnies the size of rabbits rolling around the living room. I admit, dirty dishes do bother me and I kept after those and kept the kitchen tidy with the help of my darling hubby. He kept the place picked up and the bathrooms clean. But the sweeping, dusting and vacuuming went by the wayside.

Guess what people, the world didn't explode. Nothing bad happened. As a bonus, when I did get around to vacuuming, it only took me an extra ten minutes to catch up. That's what I call time management at its finest.

While I was gone, I didn't get to spend nearly as much time as I wanted with my children, husband and friends, but through the marvel of technology and text messaging, we kept in touch. No, it wasn't like being together in person, but it was a comfort to text them and vent a bit when things were tough, and to share the lighter moments as well.

Back to the relaxing part. When I first came home I spent a full week just relaxing. I didn't call anyone. I didn't do any work, not even finishing up my accounting for taxes. I sat in my chair with a cup of coffee, read books and did some blog reading. When I felt so inclined I spent time in my studio puttering about. I cleaned it, I sewing long strips together for a scrap quilt. I watched a couple movies and did some hand binding. In short, I did only what I felt like doing. I skipped the detail work and customer quilts hung in their queue calling me but I avoided them.

The most important thing I did do was say NO. When hubby said do you want to go to Home Depot, I said no thanks. When the kids called to see if I was making supper, I said no. That's not my usual way but you know what? I didn't feel guilty, not one bit. Okay, maybe a little. But I needed that time to unwind.

Now, I'm back after it. Things are back to their usual busy state and I'm loving it. I'm perked up, refreshed and raring to go. Just as soon as I finish my coffee.

Late Summer Flowers and Fencing

Wow. I cannot believe the great suggestions for organizing my studio. Jars, plastic bins, shoe-boxes, hangars to hold partially completed quilts and fabric. They are all such wonderful ideas. I love that so many of you have the dedication to clean every day, or after every project. I don’t even clean my house that often. Is it bad that I bought a new mop and it took me four months to get around to using it. I was using the dirty dish-rag, dropping it on the floor and ‘foot scrubbing’. This in is part because I have a lot of irons in the fire and keep pretty busy, but mostly its because I’m lazy. You will be pleased to know that I’m back in the groove and scrubbing about once a week. There’s only my hubby and I living here, and we generally can clean up after ourselves.
The fencing continues. It rained yesterday, so I baked a birthday cake for hubby. I’ll ice it today. Dinner with the kids tonight. Gonna paint some more pickets in the garage, as it is still raining this morning. With luck, it will dry out soon and we can get back at it. We don’t dare take too much time off from the fence building, as one of the pitfalls of living in the north is that snow often comes early. We would like to get this infernal fence finished before the snow flies. That could be days, hours or weeks.

I love winter. It’s the perfect season for my favorite sport. Quilting! I can spend as much time at it as I want and the only yard work worry is an occasional shoveling of the sidewalks. I would be inclined to skip that if I could, but the snow police would give me a ticket and my clients might slip when they stop by to pick up their quilts.

 

Look at this last little flower of summer. Found this ‘volunteer’ pansy growing along side the garage in a crack in the sidewalk. Doesn’t it look like a wee little face?

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What is your favorite winter ‘sport’? And, why do you love it?