Parting is such sweet sorrow

 Phew! The guests are gone, and the house is quiet. I'm sad, but life goes on! 

I took the little guy for his last walk in the forest, and he gave me his EVIL eye when I tried to take his picture!  

Bear's EVIL eye

He had only wanted to walk so far and then wanted to go back because he knew something was going on and didn't want to get left behind, but I made him walk to the forest! He wasn't happy with me and practically ran all the way back to the house! 

Well, these guys do NOT pack light. Here they are at the airport. I wasn't sure that all their luggage was going to fit in the car!

At the airport

And it's not just the quantity, but the WEIGHT!!!  I swear those suitcases are filled with books and all the stuff that most people leave at home. There were only here for 10 days. But not my kid - nope -- she is not a light traveler, to say the least. 

One last photo of all of us. I am NOT that short -- those two tricksters were standing on the sidewalk. I swear!!! Of course, Mr. Bear did not want to cooperate. 

M, me, Little Bear, and Mattie

They had a good flight, and Little Bear was happy to be home. But he looks very sad to me -- he misses his friends, Murphy and Lexi!!

I'm sad to be home by myself!

Speaking of Murphy, there she is in that tiny bed again, this time with her head sticking out. Why she finds this comfortable, I have no idea! But I get a kick out of her. 

Murphy sleeping

OK -- so two or three nights in a row, I've had the same dream or the same theme. There's a GIANT white tiger - or primarily white, trying to get at Murphy and Lexi. But although it has a chance to attack them, it doesn't. Hmm -- what is my mind trying to tell me? A larger-than-life Bear? 

When M moved out, she took most of her stuff, but there are still two bookcases of books and a closet jammed with stuff. I have asked numerous times that she deal with the closet. Not to give everything away, but to clean out what she doesn't want. At last, my wish came true. Bags of stuff was left in the upstairs hallway, and I brought them down after they left. 

Bags of stuff to sort through

Then I added the contents of the big Halloween tub living in our living room for the last two years. I started sorting this mess and have filled a couple of donation boxes. I still have a couple of bags to go through, and I hope to drop it all off later today or early next week. 

Plus, the Halloween stuff

I've thrown stuff in the recycling, and some things went into the garbage. Speaking of garbage, my child does not seem to know that that is. The last two times she was here, there are bags of stuff left in her room. Shopping bags, recycling, and garbage, and guess what? I get the pleasure of sorting it out and dealing with it. I think next time, we're going to have a lesson on what to do with things you don't want. 

It's interesting to note that while the younger generation (and I'm generalizing here) wants to take care of the planet, they have no idea how to sort and recycle and don't seem to care about their consumption levels. Why do you have tons of bags from shopping - I use a reusable shopping bag every time I go out. Sigh....................

Yes -- I am getting rid of all our Halloween costumes. We won't use them again. I did find a few decorations, and those are going as well. The other decorations were given away last year. I don't have room to store them, so it's all going. 

And as a bonus, I get another giant tub to put stuff in!

An empty tub

We had our One Block Wonder class yesterday, and I must confess that I used it as an opportunity to sew. 

Sewing during the class

I was sewing my hexagons, so that was OK. Yep -- I'm now chain piecing those things, which speeds up the process a lot. I got 24 hexagons made yesterday, and the last strip is cut and ready to sew together this morning. So only 12 more to make -- that should take an hour at the most. 

Cutting the last strip

Then I need to get the All in a Row quilt off the wall and get this up, and it needs to be done before 12:30 when we have our little One Block Wonder discussion. I sent an invitation to 9 people for our session today, plus myself. A couple audited the class, so they won't have anything to show, but they are welcome to join in the discussion. Can you believe that I already have pictures from FOUR of the group? I know one other person is done - I just haven't gotten her pictures yet. I'm almost done. 

Now that's peer pressure to be sure!!!!!

And there's a quilt on the long arm, and I NEED to get it done today. 

Here's the next link to QUILTsocial with my very cool projects this month. I had so much fun with these projects. I have a small stack of things that I want to embroider, and I had better get started because everything takes way more time than you think it will. I found a few things in those bags that M took from the closet that will be good projects to embroider! 

By the way, there is still a lot of stuff in the closet, but at least we started, and at least most of the stuff that she will never wear or use is gone - I hope! 

Don't forget the Facebook live for QUILTsocial is happening TODAY!!!! We had a run-through yesterday just to test the equipment. We are all learning things!  

AND if that isn't enough excitement for the day, the new Cherrywood Challenge will be announced this morning at 9:15 AM EST. That's also a Facebook live presentation. They've used green for Wicked, yellow for Lion King, blue for Van Gogh, purple for Prince, landscape colors for Bob Ross, and pink for Princess Diana. I made a blue one (I didn't get accepted), started the purple one but never finished it, and am happy to report that my Bob Ross and Princess Diana pieces are traveling! I'm so excited -- what will it be?? 

Could it be reds? Oranges? What will the theme be??? So many questions, and we'll soon have the answers!!!

On that note, it's time to get moving. 

Have a super day!

Ciao!!!