Live each day to the max

A couple of months ago, I met up with a friend whom I hadn't seen in a long time. Our kids used to hang out together and we spent many hours sitting and chatting at dance class or gymnastics or birthday parties while the kids did their thing. I heard from her daughter that Teresa wasn't well. I had coffee with her in May and she told me that she has advanced lung cancer. I was stunned. This woman and no one in her family smoked. She would have had limited access to second-hand smoke. She was told the likely cause was environmental which leaves a wide-open interpretation. She looked amazing. Always well dressed and made up. After we left in our respective cars that day, I later bumped into her at Chapters.

I got word from her daughter yesterday that she passed. She was WAY TOO YOUNG. She was younger than I am. I'm so glad I connected with her and sorry that our lives took us in different directions and that we didn't stay connected. Life must go on.

Life isn't fair and we often say that we can't do anything about it. That's true - we're all going to die at some point. But here's the thing - you can do something about it! You can live EACH and EVERY day with as much in it as you want. If you want to do something or try something - DO IT NOW. There should be no regrets on your death bed. You only have yourself to blame if you do.

As a result, instead of working yesterday afternoon after I heard the news, I sat in the gazebo and enjoyed the beautiful weather. The colder weather is coming and there'll be plenty of time to do stuff in the house!!!

There is one thing that I do want to do and that's to get my stuff cleaned up. I'm a long way from making that happen and I really need to get off my butt and make it so. The last thing I want is to leave my family saddled with my mess. I've got to figure out some way to make that happen and SOONER rather than LATER is the operative word. Then I can stop talking about it!!! How will I do that? I need to book some dates in my calendar - dates that do not get changed. I've done it before, I can do it again. OK -- Just booked FIVE dates between now and the end of the year. The fall is extremely busy and there aren't a lot of free days.

We have so much going on in our lives that we get busy and we abandon things. That's my biggest problem. Or we get so bogged down in the details that we forget our motivations. Sometimes, we just need some encouragement. I LOVE words and there are so many small sayings that are motivating and encouraging. I have FOUR big word posters in Studio U. A couple of weeks ago, I was prepping for an event and I was having a lot of trouble with a particular task. It was new to me and I was struggling. I was frustrated and I was ready to throw in the towel. I sat back in my chair and looked up. Guess what I saw???

Wall hanging in Studio U

What do you think popped out???  YEP - it was the NEVER GIVE UP. I laughed. How absolutely perfect! I laughed again. Took a wee break and went back to finish up the task. There are so many neat sayings on this poster - I should pick one each day and make that the motto of the day.

While some people do not have complete control over their feelings and emotions, I still believe that we are the owners of our own HAPPINESS. If we want to be happy, then we need to figure out how to make that happen. Life is too short and before you know it - your life will be over.

RIP Teresa!!!! I know you're no longer in pain but that doesn't make it any easier to accept.

I take time in the morning to walk the girls and in the last couple of weeks, I've added on a few minutes reflection by the pond when I feed the fish twice a day. They are quite the clowns and eager to show off. It's a beautiful few minutes in the day.

Enough philosophical thoughts for the day. I was out walking the other day and took pictures of this building. I'm totally fascinated by the darn thing but I'm always in the car so no chance to take pictures. No one was in danger as I snapped the photos.

I don't know the name of the building, but it's supposed to resemble a cruise ship which I guess it does. It's still under construction but is getting close to completion at least on the outside. There's retail/commercial in the bottom five floors. AHA -- a wee bit of research (you got to love Google). The building is called the Arc. 

From one side

From the front

From the other side

I'm not sure that I can see myself living in a place like that, but you never know. It'll be a long while because I love our backyard and I'm not willing to give that up!

I did get that paperwork completed yesterday so it wasn't a complete wash. Here's a couple of quilt pictures that I've taken over the past week.

This was from Monday sewing. This is a One Block Wonder by Helen Anne. Can you see that she had to insert two blocks of the original fabric to make the quilt a decent size??  I learned that day about a website that you can visit where you plunk in a picture of your yardage and you get a visual of what the quilt will look like when it's sewn into a One Block Wonder? A great tool, but what happened to the element of surprise which was always the fun thing about these quilts?

Here's a link to the web site. Thanks to Susan who also mentioned it to me this past week. How weird is that? Two people in the same week.

One block wonder by Helen Anne

We all know that pressing matters. We finished up a two-part class last night at Oh Look Fabric on Triangles. Two of the students were eager to move ahead and so they came to class last night with a couple of blocks sewn together. They did not press any of the seams as they sewed. Can you tell which of the two blocks was not pressed?? It's pretty obvious and they went home much happier once they realized they had to press as they went along. They are new sewists and had no idea.

The block on the left is not pressed while the block on the right is pressed

I haven't totally been ignoring the studios. I've been puttering but not seriously and I need to change that. I haven't even touched the long arm. I came across this small project in a box. The center part was complete, but it needs two borders.

Starting the first border

And now that first border is completely sewn on.

Border one is completed

The next one is appliqued on and I'll try to get that done in the next day or so or it'll be a good project for a sit n sew day.

We rarely use our A/C. We haven't turned it on once this year and the windows in our house are usually wide open. However, the temperature has changed a wee bit and I had left the door open this morning for the girls to come and go as they want. Ah - it's a tad chilly outside! I'm now sitting here with a blanket on my bare legs to keep me warm!!! At least, it does warm up during the day and I'm perfectly fine with that.

Two days until the road trip! Lots of planning (not on my part) went into the road trip and now Dorian may have something to say about our final destination!

Remember, our time on earth is precious. Hug your loved ones today or call them and tell them you love them. Have coffee with a friend. Whatever you do - make sure that you make each day count - even if that means sitting in the gazebo and reading a book. If it's important to you - then DO IT.

On that note, I'm out of here. It's going to be a busy day and NO time in the gazebo!!!!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!