Some assembly required

You know that I've not been happy with my desk set up for the computer. When I didn't spend much time here, it didn't really matter if the desk was messy. But now that I have more and more work on the computer, it's become an issue. There is zero room on the right of the mouse to work, and the left side was covered with stuff that needed to be done—just a disaster. 

My messy desk

I had tidied up the little shelf that's behind the monitor, and all the cords and such were taken care of. But no place to work. And I've been contemplating whether I need a second monitor. I want one, but not sure that I'll make enough use of it. It's easy enough to switch between windows using the taskbar on the bottom of the screen. 

A lot of the paperwork lives on the floor, which isn't the best, especially when Murphy decides to get lovey and walks all over it. 

Paperwork on the floor

There's space beside me on the left, so I was looking for something inexpensive that I could put in place of these two chairs, which could reside at the table. 

Two chairs filled with stuff

I knew I didn't have anything in the house that could be repurposed, so I went surfing the internet to see what I could find. And I found something at IKEA, so that's where I was the other day - picking up my order. Do you know they charge $5 to do curbside pickup? What's that all about? Then Carol said that they are a self-serve warehouse, so we're getting charged to have someone pick up the order and deliver it to the car. Oh well. 

Then I got the box in the house. 

The box from IKEA

I'm usually pretty good with assembling stuff. I'm a maker, after all! Well, I should have guessed that something was wrong when the piece wouldn't fit properly, and I grabbed the mallet to put it in place. Then onto the next step, and OOPS - I just put the wrong piece in the wrong place, and it's really tight. I told myself that I could live with the thing upside down and no backing on it. 

DH suggested that since I hammered it in place, I might have to hammer it back out. "That'll never work," says I. I set it aside as I didn't want to deal with it at that moment. Five minutes later, I had the entire thing out on the deck with the mallet to see if I could, in fact, hammer it off. And YES - it worked. Now, why didn't I think of that? 

Then it was a snap to finish the assembly. My hired help wasn't much help, but she's darn cute. 

Murphy supervising the build

I swear, she has to be everywhere. She just can't help herself. Lexi? She was likely under the shed, having ZERO interest in anything unless it involves cuddles JUST for her or a treat. 

And then it was done except for the castors. Yep - it's got castors on the bottom. And this thing is pretty solid. You know how the backs of some IKEA stuff are just cheap. This was the real deal. It's fairly heavy. 

It's together, and no pieces left over

I quickly moved the chairs out of the way and moved the shelf unit in. It would have been nice if it were a bit shorter to fit under the desk shelf, but I don't care. I couldn't even wait to take a picture as I grabbed some of the stuff on one of the chairs and put it on the new shelf. 

My new shelf

I cleared the paperwork off the desk and put it on the shelf. Oh yes -- I'm going to like this. I kind of need a staging area to have things to work on. So this needs to be sorted and organized, and then hopefully, it'll help me get stuff done, stay organized, and give me a bit extra space to work. Since it's on castors, I can move it to the other side of the desk if I need a bit of extra space to lay stuff out on that side. I need to make sure that I deal with at least THREE items on that shelf EVERY DAY. It's the only way to get this mess cleaned up, and while three pieces aren't much, it's way better than ZERO. 

More junk on the shelf

OK -- so here's some good news that we've all been waiting for. That custom quilt is OFF the long arm. It's DONE!!!! I'll trim it later today. I was so excited that I couldn't even celebrate when it was done. 

Customer quilt - DONE

Why did this need to be custom?  Each of those borders has a black FLANGE between them. There was no choice but to quilt each border on its own. 

Flanges between each border

And since I was doing that, I used a wide variety of threads to make it happen. There were those bold Celtic prints on most of the borders, so the trick was to not have the quilting compete. By using the right color thread, the quilting does NOT compete with the design. I'm pleased with it. 

Thread colors for the quilt

I have to laugh at how long it took me to get that quilt done. We all have things that we just don't cope well with. Plus, I had a busy week last week, and other things were occupying my mind. It would appear that I wasn't coping very well. 

Here's a book that I'm currently reading. 

The Pursuit of Endurance by Jennifer Pharr Davis

It's about long-distance endurance athletes and how they cope with pain, adverse conditions, mental boredom, etc. I can so relate to this. While I would NEVER want to attempt the type of feats that these extreme athletes are doing, I've done my fair share of crazy stuff. And when you do crazy stuff, you quickly realize that the task is about 10% physical and 90% mental. How do you keep cycling when every day is the same? How do you keep going when it's rainy and cold and wet and no place to warm your toes by the fire? How do you cope with the death of two members of your group in an accident? How do you deal with the tedium of riding your bike for 8 - 10 hours a day, every day (well - there were some rest days in there), for 10 weeks? 

Somewhere along the way, I've learned many of the techniques described in the book. The ability to remove your mind from your body - I know that sounds weird, but it's how I gave birth without drugs. The ability to love yourself (yep - I'm big on this one), the ability to let the small things slide, and so many other traits. 

I really think that's how I can get so much done. I don't care for fancy details, I'm pretty level-headed in a crisis, and well - I just move on. Oh - having a mantra is another one, and I remember being hospitalized years ago with a severe asthma attack, and I said "warm sand" over and over - a million times to get me through that one. 

It's weird how I developed that mental toughness, but I have NO desire to push myself to that limit. Here's a story on the person who holds the current record on the Appalachian Trail - 2,190 miles in just over 41 days. That's insanity!!

Me - I just need to learn to challenge my mind so that future custom quilts don't become a mountain that I can't get over!!!

And I was listening to an episode of The Quilt Show and listening to an artist (Laura Cater-Woods) explain how she sets her day by starting with a little session, outlining what she was going to get done, and I swear that's what happens to me with the blog. As I write, I reflect on what happened the day before and what needs to be done today!!

Oh - back to the mental toughness. I swear that we don't have enough people in the world with mental toughness. It seems that today, failure is a bad thing. The author talks about welcoming failure in the book, and I welcome failure every day! Mistakes are the ONLY way to really learn something. People are making safe choices for fear of failing - they will never get mental toughness if they do that. People are just taking the easy way out these days, and what is the fun in that? There's no ability to cope with the slightest hardship. 

Anyway, I digress, but you have more insight into how I function and why I usually get lots of stuff done in a day. 

Seriously?? I just put the dogs out - it's raining, and it's cold!! Suck it up, sister, and get out there and walk those dogs!!    😉😉

Don't forget there's a Virtual Retreat this weekend.

Saturday, May 29    6 PM -- 9 PM

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86290033234?pwd=cWpvaks5L05RVTF1d0htVlE1SURmQT09 Meeting ID: 862 9003 3234 Passcode: 016601

Sunday, May 30 2 PM -- 8 PM

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87654746667?pwd=S0lyZHpvMWVxQzQzZkZhWnkwZHdSUT09

Meeting ID: 876 5474 6667
Passcode: 457858

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!