My shopping trip

If the economy were to rely on me to stay strong, that wouldn't happen. I'm not a big shopper. Not on-line, not in person. And the number of marketing e-mails that get blasted to us EACH and EVERY day is totally insane. I don't subscribe to many, but the few that I do? It's become a daily (if not more frequent) barrage of Black Friday madness. STOP!!!!  I know where you are if I need you.

However, from time to time, I do venture out with money in hand to buy something. The weather has been so nice here, that how can you not go for a walk? I could just go for a walk, but I like to do my errands at the same time. The bank, the library, a few groceries, the mall. It's all very close to me.

I take my reusable tote bag and now I have my little cardholder. I'm all set. I ended up at the mall - wait for it. There's this huge Christmas tree in the center and of course, Santa was there and people were lined up to get pictures. So glad those days are over! Love you M, but glad Santa picture days are over.

Christmas tree at the mall

What I was going for is these foaming hand soaps from Bath and Body Works. They are my favorite and I want to say that last Christmas they were not available or perhaps I missed them. Of course, they had a sale - buy 6 for $22. So I stocked up. I love these soaps and they make me want to wash my hands frequently because they smell so nice. My two favorites are Vanilla Bean Noel and Warm Sugar Spice.

Foaming hand soap

They also had a special (when do they not have a special) on body cream so I stocked up on a few of those as well.

Body cream

Oh - I remember now, my real reason to go to the mall was to check out something at Wal-Mart. I was trying to find this really neat container that Liz had brought to Sit n Sew. She found it at her local Wal-Mart for an incredible price. Alas - it was not at my Wal-Mart.

Neat case

The beauty of this case is that it's big enough for a rotary cutter or scissors. I've been looking for a case such as this one. I haven't found one yet. But now I have. I think Liz is going to be kind enough to go back to her Wal-Mart to find one for me. You can buy them on-line but in bulk???  Not sure why.

But while I was there, I picked up two containers of oatmeal since I knew I was running low and sometimes my grocery shopper doesn't get to the store in time.

Two containers of oatmeal

Remember - I'm walking! I normally wouldn't take an extra bag with me and so I did have to get a shopping bag when I bought the soaps. But having the two bags balanced me out.

A quick stop at the Bulk Barn on the way out and I picked up my yogurt cranberries as my snack. I also found their reuseable containers, so no more plastic bags for me. But I found them after I put my cranberries into a plastic bag.

Bulk barn reusable container

I found a great coloring book at the dollar store (more on that on Friday) and two very colorful placemats to make zippered pouches.

Two placemats to make zippered pouches

It took me an hour and a half or something like that. I could have been home sewing, but hey - it's too nice to be sitting in the house. I love doing my errands on foot. No hassles with parking, no hassles with crazy drivers and I got home, refreshed, relaxed and happy!

I wanted to show you my batting situation. Here's the HUGE bag of batting that I have to sort through to cut strips for the rugs or placemats or whatever I choose to make.

A big bag of batting

Here's my bag of cut strips. I added to it yesterday and as you've seen, I've still a long way to go. Should anyone want to use some of my strips (Ronda has already asked!) I might be persuaded to part with some of them.

However, I might have to charge a fee since I'm the one that did all the work to cut them.

My big bag of pre-cut strips

My scraps from cutting the batting that'll go into the pet mats. We don't generate a whole lot of garbage in this house either.

Scraps of batting to soften up the pet mats

Of course, when I was done, my cutting mat looked a mess.

The cutting mat is a mess

Now, look how clean it is. I love these green scrub pads. Yes - they take a wee bit of the mat off with them, but it's worth it. This mat should be retired, but I like to cut batting on it so it stays.

The mat is now clean

Here's one more community project quilt that is added to the pile of tops to deal with in mid-December. It's going to be a busy day to get bindings and backings ready for all these and then, I've got a lot of quilting to do!

One more community projects quilt

I did go for another walk yesterday. I mean seriously - this is the most amazing weather for November. If we don't get out and enjoy it, we cannot complain when it gets cold. Just get outside and enjoy!!!!

It was so nice and I did have work to do, so I was in Studio U so I could enjoy the weather even though I was indoors. In trying to be economical and environmentally friendly, I'm trying to use my tablet to store documents and patterns instead of printing them off.

I also use the tablet as my radio now. I've come a long way and so far, I've been able to figure out the technology to make that happen. I know - it's not rocket science, but it does take getting used to.

Here's the thing - I was actually proofing instructions for someone and I couldn't check things off or make notes as I went. I did make quick annotations on a piece of paper and then e-mailed my comments out later in greater detail.

I guess at some point, I'm going to have to break down and buy a .pdf editor. That would have been great as I should then have been able to make notations right on the screen and send the file back to the author.

High tech set up

For those that know me, I like to be toasty warm and that means, I'm almost always wearing a sweatshirt. However, Studio U was like an oven yesterday. First I ditched the sweatshirt. Then I almost ditched the pants but thought better of that. I did swap the pants for a pair of shorts. And I was tempted to find an elastic for my hair! But it was glorious! The sun was blazing, I was busy working and OH MY GOD - the time just flew. I have so much to do today but I'll just do my thing - slow and steady.

I do so much love what I do. I love how I can marry technology to my job and my hobby and it makes me very happy!

I just need to remember that everything takes time. More time than you realize. One day at a time. Many projects at a time. However, I was focused on just ONE project yesterday. 

Don't forget to check out QUILTsocial today. Some pretty amazing stuff that you can do with the new Husqvarna Viking DESIGNER EPIC 2. Mind-blowing stuff and there's much more to come.

On that note, I'm out of here.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!