The good, the bad, and the why did I keep this?

 

The writing assignments are up-to-date. However, I owe a few people some e-mails confirming classes. I'm working on it. I need to get some invoices put together. I'm working on that too. Well, those will be tasks for today, and I'm working on the next group of presentations! The fun never ends!

But that doesn't mean that I'm slacking off in other areas. I'm still walking over 10 K a day. I think it's the only way I'm surviving! The fresh air, the exercise, and just getting out of the house are beneficial to my mental health and ability to get things done. 

And it was on the walk yesterday morning with Murphy that I found something GOOD. For the most part, people seem to be pretty good about their garbage/recycling, although I'm amazed at the quantities since we put our carts out once a month if that. Some households do not appreciate what it is to prep the garbage for the trucks to pick up. I think those people should be made to do garbage truck duty for one day so they can appreciate the garbage trucks and the drivers who do a great job of keeping our city functioning. 

But I saw this yesterday, and I wanted to jump for joy. I wanted to shout to the heavens. I should have knocked on their door and thanked them for brightening my day. 

The yard waste VERY neatly assembled

These people moved in a couple of weeks ago, and they obviously trimmed a lot of the bushes on their property. See how neatly they filled the bags, and then when they probably ran out of bags, they bundled the twigs neatly and tied them up, and placed the bundles neatly in the driveway. I could have wept with joy!!! 

I know it doesn't take much to get me excited. I bet the garbage guys took pictures as well! This house deserves a gold star. 

When I got back from my walk, the Bell technician was already here. Wow - we were the first appointment of the day. He seemed to take a LONG time doing his testing and whatever else he needed to do. I'm going to know more about how our connections work than I ever want to know. There are two phone lines to bring the service into the house. There are two connectors at the junction box, a block away from the house, and there is another box with two connectors right outside our house. It's for our street - just happens to be in front of our house. 

He changed three of the four connections saying that they were not good. So, if they were not good, how come the other people couldn't see that? I'm a patient person, but I'm losing my patience, and I feel that we have no options. Yes, we could change service providers, but who is to say that we won't have issues. I don't see anyone else on our street having problems. Maybe they don't have the same provider? Maybe I need to set up in my neighbor's house and see if that makes a difference. 

However, despite his efforts to fix the problem, the internet went down AGAIN. THREE times during the same presentation. All I can say is that the attendees are patient. I don't know what else to do. I was on the phone immediately after my presentation was over, and we have another technician looking into it today. I'm going to escalate it yet again if this doesn't work. 

The way the modem should look ALL the time

This is what our modem should look like all the time. But it seemed to like to reboot itself throughout the day. It took longer than usual to get it back up on one of the drops. I'm on Zoom, a LOT - I need a stable connection. I know we can't go back in the past, but I REGRET that I ever called to make a change to the service!!! But I won't go there! 

If it doesn't get fixed after today's visit, I might have no other choice but to switch providers and PRAY a lot that nothing gets screwed up. I hate to do that, but I might not have a choice. I don't think they use the same lines. For whatever reason, the addition of the second line has screwed us up big time. I might call around and see what my options are. 

Then I was going through a box of scraps to find some fabrics for a project. Oh boy - what the heck is this???

A skinny strip in the scrap box

Seriously?? I kept a strip of fabric that was ½" wide? What was I going to do with that? It must have been one of my thrifty days! Needless to say, the scrap is now in the pet mat box. 

I did get a laugh as I looked at the shoebox of black scraps. I tipped it upside down so I could dig through it. 

The contents of the black scrap box

The fabrics were so compacted that they retained the shape of the box. This was supposed to be a box of black fabrics. Well, it was, but there was black with colors and tone on tone black. The solid black scraps are in another box. 

I only wanted the tone on tone blacks. So then it became an archeological dig as I worked my way through the layers and sorted the fabrics. 

Black prints with colors 

The shoebox is pretty much filled (with a lid that now closes) with black scraps with colors. What to do with them?? I could cut the pieces up and make a string quilt. I might just do that because what else would I do? Well, there are lots of things to do with them. But this now becomes the box of black scraps with color. I have a new box for the tone on tone black fabrics. I did cut what I needed from the box, and I'm good. 

I was busy all day, and there was no time to get to the long arm as I had two embroidery machines going all day. 

The PFAFF creative icon doing embroidery

And the Husqvarna Viking Designer EPIC 2, which was tucked in the back corner, was also fired up and doing machine embroidery. 

The Husqvarna Viking Designer EPIC 2 doing embroidery

That kept me hopping as I babysat both of them and stitched out some samples. I'm making a book which I'll show you soon. It's almost done - I think. Just when I'm almost done, I think of something else to add!

What was I stitching? Remember all that ribbon that I bought? Some of it was to make this lion using the ribbon embroidery attachment. The face gets embroidered first, and then I wound the gold ribbon onto the attachment, and away it went. 

The ribbon embroidery attachment hard at work

You can see a bit more of the ribbon in this photo. 

The embroidery machine stitching out the lion

The lion is absolutely gorgeous. 

Embroidered lion head

You can check out the official version of the lion on mySewnew library.  And if you want to see what one of the other educators did with the lion head, check this out. 

I love it!!! So this ribbon embroidery attachment was available for the Designer EPIC 2, but it wasn't available for the PFAFF machines. Guess what? Very soon, it can also be used on the PFAFF creative icon. 

OH -- when I walked to the grocery store yesterday afternoon, that guy was hanging out at the bus stop. Then he walked to a palette leaning up against the fence nearby and spent a long time messing with it. I don't know what's going on, but he's become a permanent fixture on that corner. I had crossed the street, so I didn't have to deal with him, although at this point, he appears to be perfectly harmless. 

On that note, it's time to get the day started. A lot to do, one presentation this evening, and all the prep work is done. I just have to switch the brands in my film studio and pull out the basket of samples, and I should be good to go!! But I've got two presentations on the weekend, and I need to prep for one of them. So never a dull moment in this house!!

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!