A mental health day

I know we've all had those days. You have the best intentions, and you're fired up to get lots done. Then POOF! You need a mental health day! 

After I finished the writing assignment, I couldn't get myself motivated to do anything. I had to laugh, though, as I needed one last picture for the article, and I was going to take it outside. As I went to go outside, it had started to rain! So I had to wait! 

I wonder if my motivation had to do with going for a car ride. It was something to anticipate, and therefore I couldn't focus on anything else? I know that when my day gets broken up, I lose focus. That's why I love the stay-at-home thing. I'm productive the entire day, not just part of it. 

However, all that doesn't matter. What matters is this. 

The navigation system in my car

This is the navigation system in my car that I purchased in January of 2019. Getting connected to that system was a NIGHTMARE, and that's putting it mildly. It was so bad that I didn't even bother with it. Then COVID hit, and I didn't really need it. A month ago (I know that I already mentioned this), a new app was introduced, and I managed to get the navigation system working. Was that a fluke? 

It was NOT! Yesterday, I plugged my phone into the car, and everything connected AUTOMATICALLY. Trust me that may sound stupid, but the old was far from automatic. Within 30 seconds (more or less) of turning the car on, I plugged the address for my destination. Oh yes -- I was a happy camper. Shame on Toyota for even putting something so terrible on the market, but a HUGE THANK YOU to them for finally fixing it. It only took over two years. That's bad!! But I don't care - it's fixed. 

It was still relatively early when I got back, but I wanted to sit outside in the gazebo for a bit. The lilacs are out, and with a slight wind, it was glorious. I have to admit that it was a tad chilly, so I got a quilt, and well, I had a great sleep!! I needed it, and I felt much better. 

The lilacs around the gazebo

And then I managed to get some tidying up done downstairs. It doesn't matter whether your space is large or small; if it's cluttered, you are NOT going to want to go in. And you certainly are not going to be able to work. I don't know how I did it in the past. OH - maybe that's why I have so many UFOs. It only took me about 1 hour to tidy up. That's the beauty of everything having a home. 

Anyway, things look a whole lot better today, and I think I'll finally be able to get back to work. The first thing I need to do is get that custom quilt off the long arm. Then I can have a couple of days of "fun" sewing for ME!!!

Here's that second mystery quilt with the backing and the binding. It's not in the "to be quilted" pile. 

Quilt moved to the "to be quilted" pile

When I started to clean up the area around the sewing machines - note that is plural, I found bobbins everywhere. So now all the bobbins are back in the bobbin drawer. I know - that's a bit obscene to have an entire drawer devoted to bobbins. But when you need bobbins for machine embroidery and sewing, and there are two different sized bobbins, well, you need a drawer. It's all organized, and I'll be able to find anything quickly. 

The bobbin drawer

And doesn't this look a whole lot more inviting

A tidy work area

Than this? 

Not so tidy

The problem is that stuff gets mixed up with your project or falls on the floor, and you spend a lot of time retrieving the stuff. But all is good now. I feel much better. 

But I didn't stop there. Oh no!! I did a lot of tidying. The ironing board got cleared as well. AH -- so much better. 

The ironing surface is clear

The fabric scraps from paper piecing are gone, and the area around this machine is mostly clear. The stuff that is sitting there is my current project, so that stays. 

My paper piecing area is clean

My spare table is also nice and tidy. Nice and tidy? It's empty!! That's almost unheard of at my house. I hope to get the embroidery machine out later this weekend, and there's a perfect spot to put it. The table in the film studio area is also pretty clear, except for what should be there. Those wires are a huge mess, but not much I can do about that. 

An empty table - unheard of!

All the embroidery units are parked, and the embroidery hoops are back in their appropriate spots. WOW!! What I need to do is take a picture of that poster that's at the bottom of the picture. But there's so much glare that I'm not sure I know how to do that. OH -- I could get it scanned perhaps at the copy shop. That's probably the best solution. OK - so can I get that done during COVID?

Parked embroidery units

The cutting table is almost clear. There are a few things that need to be cut, so they stay until they are done. 

The cutting table - almost clear

So there are a few things on the stairs that need to be brought upstairs to do some computer work. But everything else got put away. WOW!!!  This makes me feel so happy, and I think I will be very motivated to get some work done today. I have computer work - that will never go away. I'm amazed at how much time I spend on the computer, and most of it is NOT frivolous surfing, but actually doing e-mail, designing, learning software, or whatever. 

I hope that I can soon get my computer desk organized the way I want. More on that tomorrow. I will MAKE this happen. 

And here are two pictures from our walks yesterday morning. OK - so this first one isn't the best, but I thought it would be rude to stoop down and take a close-up. There's this house that I pass that is getting some major work done in the front. They started off with a new LARGE concrete path from the sideway to the house. The whole thing (on both sides of the driveway) is several inches HIGHER than the driveway. OK - so I could live with that, I suppose, and I see that they are getting a new driveway as well. But the end of that piece of concrete where it joins the sidewalk is TWO INCHES higher than the sidewalk. That seems like a major fail to me. Perhaps they are not finished in that area. But if they match the driveway to these huge hunks of concrete, there will be a two-inch height difference between the sideway and the driveway. That just begs an accident to happen. Not my house, not my problem. 

A height difference in the concrete to the sidewalk

The second is Miss Lexi. OK  - she gets super excited about all kinds of things in the forest and loves to jump up on the trees. She's a total goof, not a Murphy goof, but a goof in her own way. She thinks she's a jack-in-the-box. All springy and wiry and can twist and turn any which way. 

What's in the tree?

I have several things to leave you with today. The first is my blog post on QUILTsocial. Today it's all about cutwork embroidery. I had a lot of fun with this project. 

And I stumbled across this article on delivery issues during the pandemic. I'm a little disappointed because there was no mention of the mills being late because of COVID issues - Abby mostly talks about logistics and fabric companies, but most stuff is out of their hands. I've heard that actually finding a shipping container in the right location is a HUGE issue. And some loads are being offloaded if a more lucrative shipment is sitting there. Oh yes -- stuff that we want could be sitting on a dock somewhere waiting for a container to put it in. And some US ports are experiencing huge delays in offloading ships - sometimes up to three weeks? Seriously?? That's huge. 

Many people are getting wage supplements from the governments, which is equivalent to their work salary. So if you could sit at home and get paid the same as going to work - which would you choose?  It's time to stop that and get these people back to work! There were several other comments in that article I didn't like. This one in particular "“Both us and the fabric companies could be making more if we were able to take pre-orders, but since the arrival dates seem to just be a shot in the dark, we’d rather sell less and have happy customers.”".  That just seems to totally disregard the entire situation. Do they not realize that it's the entire world that is struggling? Bottom line - higher costs for all of us! 

On that note, I'm out of here. 

Have a super day!!!!!

Ciao!!!