On being thankful

There is never a good time to be let go from your job. But I want to profusely thank my ex-employer for letting me go when they did. Why? It was the best time of the year for that to happen. I was motivated to get things organized and start a new routine before they let me go and that feeling just intensified once I didn't have to commute to work. They say it takes 6 weeks for new habits to form - well - I don't know, but the timing couldn't be better and I'm very thankful for that.

I'm scaring myself because of what's happening! I'm a Virgo and I feel those tendencies crashing over me. I'm afraid to leave anything on the counter because I have to go back immediately and deal with it. Who took over my body?

Now - we're a long long way from having an ideal environment around here - the office is a mess. I know that. It looks like a hoarder lives here, but the mess is pretty much contained in one room and I made a few inroads yesterday so I feel good about that.

Off to do more errands yesterday and I walked again. It was a glorious day and so nice to get out and get some fresh air. But not before I shoveled the drive twice. And here's my neighborly and not so neighborly story. We live on a pretty nice street, but two doors down from me, there is a house. They don't own the house - they rent. I can't imagine what the house looks like on the inside, but the curtains on the upstairs bedroom windows are always half hanging off, the windows look broken as they hang askew when they're open. And last summer or was that two summers ago, I had to alert the "lady of the house" that her sprinkler system was leaking and had been for weeks.

Let's just say that they never shoveled the driveway ONCE last winter and it annoyed me and anyone else who had to walk up that sidewalk. They also never use their front door but go in and out through the garage door all the time. Although that is their business. As I was shoveling my driveway the second time, I saw her come home and fly into their messy driveway. Then she got out and walked across the street to the mailbox. AHA - time to have a chat with her. So I walked down to nab her as she was back in her driveway. I said that it was the law to shovel her driveway. She gave me all kinds of excuses - it just snowed last night!  No kidding, but you didn't shovel ONCE last year. More excuses. I just said that I would be watching!

I went back to shoveling my driveway and my other neighbor two doors in the other direction - I didn't think they were home so their sidewalk wasn't shoveled either. I shoveled that for them. When we went out for dinner a couple of hours later, I noticed that BOTH driveways and sidewalks were CLEAR!!!    YEAH!!!!!

Let's see what else happened yesterday. 

I got everything shoved into that applique bag. It has a drawstring cover on it so I think it'll work out.

Applique bag - ready to do some applique

 The rest of the room is still in a bit of tizzy. I've got a few things to do in the name of cleaning up and sorting and those items are sitting on the work tables. I'm slowly working my way through them. But I'm so darn disciplined that I'm spending at least half of the day working on the computer, then there is the walk - with and without the dogs. With reading every day, there just doesn't seem to be time to sew!!

The work tables - well they are called work tables

 They are work tables after all and should be used for exactly what I'm using them for at this time. Before they were a horizontal filing system and that wasn't working so I'm pleased with the new situation.

But look at that long arm. This is way too darn tidy! I even had the cordless vacuum out so I could get rid of the dust bunnies! I mean, I've become obsessed with keeping things neat.

All clear

 And even in the area of the "to be quilted" quilts - that's pretty well organized as well.  Yes - I know there are some piles, but it's all organized piles!

To be quilted area is also super tidy!

I got a quilt quilted yesterday. Gosh - what happened to the picture?  A huge shadow - that must be me! The quilt isn't huge, but doesn't matter - it's one more done!  This is from the quilts that were made earlier this year for the Ronald McDonald houses and they never got quilted. My goal is to get them done. I think there are still 8 to do. The next one is on the long arm waiting for me when we get back from the dog park.

Community projects quilt - done!

 I was binding a small project which will be revealed next week and I forgot to put my label on it so I did that this morning and also finished the binding on this community project quilt. That's the scrappy one. I just have to clip all the stray threads from the strips (there were lots of loose threads on the surface) and it's ready to go in the giveaway pile!

Binding on the scrappy quilt!

 Here are my two toys that I get to play with this coming week. I haven't had time to get into either one but I'm hoping to at least open the boxes later today. One I can share with you - the other I can't - not yet. But do you see how disciplined I am? Very!  I'm like M - on Christmas morning that child NEVER touched a present until everyone was in the room. She just sat on the sofa and looked!  What a good kid!

Untouched toys!

 Then as I was tidying the kitchen although there is hardly anything there to tidy up - I'll show you in a couple of days, I was going through a drawer and found this odd lot of stuff. So that has to be dealt with! Some of that stuff, I was looking for, but what the heck is that black ball thing?  No idea!!  It's all these darn little things - that's what creates clutter!  And some of the stuff is so random - what are some of those bits?

Random stuff found in a drawer!

 I thought I would share my new computer setup. Here I am - this is my command station - this is where all my computer work happens. I keep having to tweak it - needed more light so brought up my desktop Ott-Lite that I wasn't using in the studio. Needed to move the monitor so it hangs over the edge of the desk because the card reader is underneath the screen - not a very good location to be sure.  I'm sure there will be a few more tweaks and I hope to get rid of more paper - a lot more paper but that is happening - every day!

Computer desk

On that note - I'm out of here. Not because I want to, but because I can't take the whining any longer. MOM - we NEED to go to the dog park!!!  Check out Miss Lexi's blog as I think she was on the computer yesterday!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!