Proud Mom!!!

I have to stop thinking of M as a kid. She's not a kid anymore! Today, she graduates from Vancouver Film School. It was a year-long program and by the sounds of it, the entire class had loads of fun. Yesterday, they had a small show to entertain each other? Anyway - she sent me this video and I thought I'd share it with you.

Who knew that my kid could sing like that? I have to say that I was quite impressed and I can see her on Broadway! Great job M - I'm very proud of you for all that you've done and all that you've become! Now get out there and knock those casting directors out of their seats with your talents and confidence.

I have no idea how this happened, but by the end of the day, my FitBit registered almost 18,000 steps. Seriously??? I did walk to the grocery store to get bananas, but it's not that far away. The wind was bitter cold and every step felt AMAZING. I know, I'm very weird, but life is only as good as YOU make it. We live in Canada - it's going to get cold in winter. Embrace it or move!

OH -- I do have some advice for M. It's not as snappy as what my grandfather told me years ago, but here it is:

1. Don't procrastinate - learn to jump the hurdles and move on. 
2. Don't let things take over your life. Buy what you need, but never acquire so many things that they dictate where you live, how you live and that you spend eons of time managing those things.  

I wish I have lived by those words when I was in my twenties. I wouldn't be happier, but I wouldn't be in the mess that I'm in now. BUT - I'm getting things under control. It's just frustrating that it takes so long to clean up. Thankfully, I've nixed both problems (mostly!)


My younger brother is a wheeler-dealer. He'd sell anything he could get his hands on. So I decided to follow in his footsteps. I've sold several things on Facebook Marketplace and had good luck getting rid of everything I posted for the price I posted. The second set of tires on my old car - gone. The work lights - gone. Just recently, I got rid of my Christmas Tree. It's kind of exciting and nice to get a few dollars for some stuff rather than just giving it away.

I've been doing some research and I had mentioned that I wanted some extra tables for Studio B, but they were going to cost a lot of money to buy new ones. Money that I didn't want to put out. Within hours of me saying that eagle-eyed Shelly spotted two 5-ft tables for sale on Facebook Marketplace. Cheap $30 for the pair. Seriously???  So after texting back and forth with the owner of the tables, I'm now the proud owner of two more tables. I got super lucky in that they were able to deliver the tables almost to my door - otherwise, it was going to be a couple hours round trip to pick them up! They barely squeezed into my car!

I know - after my advice - you're wondering why I'm buying more stuff? Well - I want to make everyone happy with their sewing space on our sewing days. I have six nice tables, but for the rest - they had to sew on smaller, not so stable plastic tables. Have a look.

The main set of work tables

I would love at some point to swap that 6-foot table out for a 5-foot table. So if anyone knows of someone who wants to swap - a nice (great condition) banquet table, I'd be interested.

And here's the second set of work tables. Those two brown tables are my new purchases. They're not in the greatest of shape, but for what I want them for - they're perfect. That gives us nine AWESOME sewing spots for Sit n Sew days, classes or whatever I have going on.

The second set of work tables

Today is a full house for the Sit n Sew day. There are ten of us! So where am I going to sew? I'm tucked back in the corner with my portable sewing machine cabinet (which I love) and a small extra table laden with stuff. God - it looks a mess. This is the stuff that I plan to work on for the remainder of the year (along with a few other things). It's not as bad as it looks. And YES - there is a sewing machine in the back!

My sewing spot 

Got some more tidying up done - slow progress, but progress and that's all that counts. If I can just get those boxes unpacked and FINISH some of the half-completed things before the end of the year - I'm going to be very happy. There's barely anything on the calendar - some group sewing days - four of them and two private classes which I need to book today. That's it until next year!! So if I don't make good use of the rest of the time - well - there's something wrong with me!

However, I'm also trying to clear up the quilting queue. It's not a backlog (there's NO backlog) - just the current queue. A customer queue that is now in the single digits! I'm excited about that. That should be cleared up by the end of next week and then I'm going to focus on community project quilts and a few for myself. But I NEED to get some sewing in!!!!

Speaking of customer quilts - here's two that got done yesterday.

Customer quilt - DONE

Customer quilt - DONE

That's exciting to see them get completed and trimmed. Amazing how quilting makes such a difference. I shouldn't have talked about "how easy" it is to quilt using the robot. TWICE yesterday, I goofed on advancing the quilt by forgetting to mark the spot. DUH!!!!!   However, I've done it so much now, that I can easily figure that out. I do NOT recommend doing it, but with a calculated guess, everything worked out and no one will be the wiser!!!

On that note, I'm out of here! Off to sew on whatever I want today - there is nothing in the immediate queue with a deadline!

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!