It seemed like a good idea at the time!

I didn't get as much done as I would have liked yesterday, but then who cares! I'm not in panic mode at this time of year. However, I did get a design off to the magazine and that took longer than originally planned as I kept adding options.

Went for an hour long massage so I'm pretty stiff this morning. But not too bad. Went to Fabricland to find more of that cording and well - I thought that what I have is a different size than what they had in the store. Did I take my sample with me? Of course not!!!!  They even looked in the book for me. I think I know what I need to buy, but not buying it yet. I'll go back today with the sample. Besides there are a few other things I'd like to check and I did see some gorgeous faux leathers that would be awesome to do some embroidery on!

I went for a long, long walk and I have another post office story for you. I arrived at the post office with five things that needed to be mailed. One was a letter and it had something other than paper in it. However, I put a regular stamp on it and it was gone. Two things already had prepaid postage and addresses on them. That was easy, but I did have to buy a padded envelope for one. It's about time after how many years that I return the old transponder for the 407 toll highway.  I had to buy another envelope to send some fabric to Terry in BC. And the last item, I had was a box - yes - at last sending those two quilts and a book to my Mom.

The box wasn't heavy - it had two small wall hangings in it, a small piece of dowel, and a small book. It cost over $20 to mail it. I almost had a heart attack. Are you serious????  I paid - this way, I get my Mom off my back. But wow - it just goes to show that I could NEVER deal with participating in a swap. I could NOT handle the price of shipping stuff.

I did feel sorry for the man who had been standing in line and was filling a form out on the side. When he was finished, he asked if the clerk could continue with him, but she made him go to the back of the LONG line. I didn't think that was fair.

It's like buying a car. NO - I haven't heard a thing about the car yet. I'm going to call today or look at the file on the internet. Yep - that's how you check today on your claim. I could call, but I can also just look at the file.

Not sure if I'm going to need to buy new, but I'm pretty sure. I've got a number in my head of what I'll get for my car and another number at how much additional I'll have to shell out to get a new set of wheels. For my entire life, I've had a Toyota car and it's always been red (oh - there was one car that was a blue), but you get the picture. They've always been manual as well. I think you see where this is going.

Well before the Matrix, I had an Echo which was a small car and very inexpensive to operate. I could get almost 600 KM to a tank of gas and I was happy. When I bought the Matrix, I can barely get 400 KM from a tank of gas. I was totally dismayed and annoyed. But the car was much heavier and consumed more gas. This time, I'm very aware of that and am going to forsake a larger (Rav 4) car for a smaller one (Corolla). That's assuming I'm buying a new car.

I also looked at the Prius C which is a hybrid car. I decided that the extra money it costs to buy that car (which is smaller than the Corolla) doesn't justify the gas savings I would get. Let's say that I fill my tank once a week at an average cost of $50. That's average of what I put in my Matrix right now. I could NEVER have a huge vehicle that took $100 to fill. Anyway - that works out to about $2,500 for the year in gas. If I were to save 1/3 of that by buying a Prius, I would save $800 a year. But it would take 4 or 5 years to recognize the savings in the price difference between the two and the car is much smaller so I wouldn't be able to shove rolls of batting in the back and sewing machine boxes.

I guess I'm trying to be conscientious of my carbon footprint and trying to reduce it as much as possible. OH - here's another thing about carbon footprints and then I'll get to the quilting stuff. Did you know that buying online actually INCREASES your carbon footprint rather than reducing it? Why? Things like rush or failed deliveries, porch pirates, returns, split shipments and traffic congestion (to get the package to you). All those factors are about equal to the "cost" of you going to the store and buying 24 items. So if you think buying online is green - it isn't. And besides - we need to get out of the house!!!!!  I felt so good after my walk yesterday that I didn't feel guilty about having a hot chocolate.

All that to tell you that I didn't get much done in the sewing department yesterday. But I did get more paperwork cleaned up and in the recycle bin.


And of course, this morning, I ran out of bobbin thread so that took 15 minutes to clean out the machine and rewind my five bobbins.

I now have five columns of Misty Pines completed. Column 1 an 2 are sewn together, as are 3 and 4.

Five of the eight columns are done!!!

 There are 5 blocks left to sew together. The last three columns should go together very quickly if I can get to the sewing machine.

The last three columns

What's exciting is that this is a UFO. I'm good if it gets to the "to be quilted" stage. I don't need to finish it, but it might get quilted this year. I'm going to try and reduce the pile or at the very least, not allow it to get bigger. If things go well, I should have ONE of my TWELVE UFOs done by the end of the week. Of course, there are technically 24 UFOs on that list (carry over from previous years) so I must get another one done this month. It's already pulled out and I don't think it will cause me too much grief. Wait until you see it!

Here's my ender/leader project. I'm almost at the stage where I need to do some more cutting. I'm making great progress and so nice to have everything prepped and ready to go.

Ender/leader project

Then I dug this out. Recognize that fabric? Yes - this is the same fabric as that big ball of string that I showed you yesterday. I must have been having fun cutting all those strips. This was years ago. Anyway - what is all that mess?

Another mess of strips

This is a crocheted basket. I know - it did seem like a good idea at the time. 

Crocheted basket

That's what the cording in the other pile was for. The cord was inserted into the fabric tubes and then used as crochet cotton. There's still yards of the cording. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it and what am I going to do with this big basket???  Hm - actually I have a thought and I might just do it. Bottom line - it would be great to have this mess cleaned up before the end of this year.

Clothesline inserted in fabric tubes

I found this project inside a laundry basket that is LOADED with small projects. Half completed projects so that'll help out with the 100 finished items for the year.

Now I'm off to make a list of things to look at when I'm at Fabricland today. Not adding anything new to the list. I'm trying to make samples for embroidery and to finish up some projects.

On that note, I'm out of here.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!