An instore shopping trip for craft supplies

 Well, it appears I can't see the forest for the trees. I went to attend the virtual funeral service and was stumped when I was asked for a password. I should have texted another friend who I know was going to attend. She found the password - it was right BELOW the link. Why didn't I do that? I feel bad that I didn't attend. 

I realized this morning that this is a third party company that organizes the live stream. Who knew? But I guess there's now a business to make those important events accessible to anyone regardless of where they are. Isn't this a wonderful thing? Imagine this service going forward - you don't always need to physically attend an event, but you want to be part of it. Or sometimes, you can't attend - bedridden, too far away, etc. This live stream option is good. Just pay attention to the instructions. 

I don't know if they recorded them - I sent them a notice. I don't think so. Recording a funeral service sounds a bit morbid.  

I'm almost done reading the book about the royal couple who split from The Firm. I don't want to get into a discussion here, but they sound like two spoiled kids. H is not as important as his brother, M wants to be the queen of the castle, so they are gone because they didn't get as much money and attention as they felt they deserved. 

I didn't realize the extent of the negative press they received from day one, especially the racial harassment. Now M can be the queen of her domain. I feel bad for H and the baby. I don't have high hopes for that relationship. I'm not a fan of what happened, and let's just leave it at that.  

And OH MY GOD - I slept like a log last night. So well that I woke up remembering an extremely vivid dream that I had. I was being accused of having an affair and not by my current partner. Nope - that would be my ex from years ago. Seriously??? Where did this come from? But what was even scarier was the technology he used. I'm guessing that this stuff is real - but he had this little device that somehow had all these videos. 

He grabbed a photo of my face and was able to pick out my face in crowds at different places. All while wearing my bright orange jacket, of course! WOW!!  Where did that come from? I'm not having an affair - hey - how could you have an affair under our current circumstances anyway? We're now supposed to stay in our houses for the next 28 days. We're allowed to make necessary trips - groceries, medicine, medical appointments, walking the dogs, and exercise. Phew - I'm good!

Speaking of walking, I was walking Murphy yesterday morning when I spotted this by the curb. Oh my - I almost caved and went back. Then I thought - what am I going to do with these when I already have extra containers under the stairs. They were still there last night. 

Bright orange containers up for grabs

I offered to audit a class for a friend, so I needed something to keep my hands busy while I was doing that. I got out some coloring stuff. But here's the thing - I needed some supplies. So I went shopping. Nope - I didn't need to go to the local craft shop. I went shopping at Chez Elaine, and I found EVERYTHING and more than I needed. 

It makes me realize that while similar things are in the same area, I need to pull a few things off the shelf and get them a bit more organized. I knew that was going to happen, but pretty hard to do when everything was scattered. I found all kinds of gesso, mediums, paint, and a ton of other things that I had no idea I had. 

Shopping for fabric painting medium

The other day, I found a very nice set of water brushes. 

Water brushes

And one marker has been missing from this set for some time. Which color? Where is it? 

A missing marker

So I went shopping in the marking device drawer. Oh my - I had no idea there was so much stuff in there. But at least it was all in ONE PLACE. 

The marking device drawer

Guess what? I found the marker - it was the black one that was missing. Now the set is complete, and it will stay that way. 

AH - the missing marker

So I did a bit of coloring on this piece of machine embroidery. I'm just experimenting and trying different things. This design has been stitched through three layers - so it's essentially a quilt block. Doesn't the center look 3-D?? I love it. This is what I had done previously. 

Using markers to color on fabric

I did a bit more yesterday, and I've even started on the next color but didn't take a picture. How cool is that? I've got to find a color to use as the background? Or maybe not. I'll see how it goes, but I'm quite pleased with the results. 

Coloring fabric with markers

Then I wanted to try the INKTENSE pencils that I had found. I decided to use my set of 12 to do my experimenting. I had some embroidery designs that I had not done anything with, so I pulled them out. Actually, this stuff has been sitting on the craft table that's set up in that area. Do you know how exciting this is???  All that hard work at sorting, cleaning, and tidying is finally paying off. 

Getting ready to use the INKTENSE pencils

That set of INKTENSE pencils is BRAND new (of course). I had to remove the plastic wrap from the pencils. 

Brand new pencils

So let's get started. 

Getting ready to color with pencils

This is my finished fish. There were a few things (steps and products) that I forgot, but after consulting with a couple of friends, I went shopping again, found the supplies I need, and I'm good to try this again. I see that I've got to fire up the embroidery machines to make more outlines to color. I could trace designs and stitch them or just trace them with a black marker (I got lots of those) or do some machine embroidery. I have another class to audit on Friday, so I'll be prepared to do some more coloring. 

My finished fish

Then it was time to get to work. And just in case you think it's fun taking pictures - it's NOT. I have this giant reflector to get rid of the glare on the sewing machine. Then I toss my camera on a tripod in front of the sewing machine, and guess what? There's no room for me!! But I got what I wanted. Now to edit and write today and then move onto the next topic. 

Taking pictures of a sewing machine

I got a customer quilt done as well. The color of this is so rich and blue. It's beautiful. 

Customer quilt - DONE

 I did trim the remainder of the quarter-square triangles that were sitting on the current projects table. And I pressed and trimmed a few half-square triangles. A few a day - that's what I need to do. 

Some units that got trimmed

I decided I needed to get to work on the red scraps. So I grabbed the red/white box in addition to the two boxes I had already pulled off the shelf. I sorted through the two boxes and took out all the monochromatic reds. Those are in the rightmost tub. The red/white scraps are in the leftmost tub, and everything else is in the middle. Those need to be made into string quilts, but not right now. 

My red scraps are sorted

Again - it feels AMAZING to sort through those scraps in mere MINUTES, not hours. It was a struggle - a HUGE struggle to get things to where I want them to be, but now that I'm there - at least in the sewing studios - it's a breeze to do anything! It may not be spic and span and pretty looking, but it's the most functional it's ever been. I'm thrilled, and every minute that I spend making it so - was so worth it. 

Someday, the office will be the same, but not now, and I now have too much to do to focus on that area. At least for the next couple of weeks. But that's OK. 

I see that I have a few more e-mails to deal with today. All these class sign-ups take some administration time. But I worked out a system there as well, and so I'm good. I did manage to get the third library attached to my account and ordered my book. It's like the password to the live stream. Go back and look at things carefully, and it will happen. So I'm good there. But with the new shut-down rules, will we be allowed to do curbside pickup? Technically no! So we'll see what the library says. I'm not worried as I have loads of books to read here and audiobooks which don't require going to the library. I won't be running out of reading material any time soon. 

I'm down to one and a half sides of binding left on that quilt!! Yeah - a couple more nights and I'll be done and ready to pick a new hand project to work on. Wow -- I'm getting things done, and I'm a happy camper!!!

On that note, I'm out of here. Don't forget to set that time for TEN minutes. You'd be surprised at how much you can tidy up in ten minutes. When we need to tidy in our house, it takes so little time and everything is neat. I LOVE it. Pick an area - any area, and if you want to share your before and after photos, I'd love to share it. Or perhaps you can share the one organization system you have that you're the proudest of. I can post those so others can get inspired as well. 

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!!