Easter Baskets on the digital cutter

AHA --- Someone mentioned that it might help if one person read the EXIT story. That's what we typically do, except this is a graphic novel, so that won't work. We'll each read and then collaborate on the puzzle solving. We didn't get a chance last night as DH was working late. 

I must remember to focus on what I did! But that's usually what I do on the blog anyway. It's kind of a recap of everything that happened the day before!

Oh, the second thing I made on my digital cutter arrived at its destination, so I can share it with you. I sent it to M on Friday, and it was scheduled to arrive on Thursday. Then, all of a sudden, it arrived on Tuesday. That always happens, so that's pretty darn good service to arrive so quickly. I've never (knock on wood) had an issue with mailing anything with Canada Post, and I will continue to use their service. 

I love their flat-rate boxes. They come in four sizes. Did you know you can pre-purchase a box, fill it out at home, and then drop it off? When you pre-buy like that, you are paying for the shipping upfront, so I wouldn't go ahead and buy many of them, but I am just letting you know that you can do that. 

However, I think part of the fun is taking all the bits and pieces that I typically send and having the post office manager help me shove them all in the box! I had to be more careful this time as I was sending these. 

My Easter baskets

Yep --- I also had a hat of M's that wouldn't fit in the last box, and it was perfect to nestle these two Easter baskets in. They loved them. This reminds me of all the Easter egg hunts we had around our house when she was little, and it would take days for her to find them all. Speaking of which, I still have her Easter basket that I made, and I need to send that to her at some point. 

In terms of getting things done, it took me 2½ hours to accomplish three tasks in the car, but I got rid of quite a bit of stuff sitting at the front door. I need one more trip with the car, but at least the next drop-offs are all close by. 

I dropped off a few more items at Sheridan College (after checking with them, of course), and that felt good. But you should have seen me trying to take everything in one trip! That was funny, but I did it! 

Then I dropped off boxes of books for the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra. Thankfully, they have carts to facilitate that task. 

Books for Mississauga Symphony Book Sale

Oh my—did you know there was a spring sale? I didn't know that until I was checking the details of dropping off the books. It's on April 26th!!!!

Drat - I have Zoom until 2 PM that day and the sale ends at 4 PM, but I could still go for an hour as it's not far from me. 

Other people dropped books off yesterday, and you never know what treasures you can find. 

So, because of what I got rid of, it was a good day. Another couple of hours of silly errands and almost all of that crap by the door will be gone. I have to make several phone calls before dropping the stuff off. 

I laid that backing out on the floor, and it was just fine. It just looked very wonky when it was placed over the rail on the long arm, but all is good, so I even took a few minutes to load this one on the long arm. I need to get back to that machine!!!

The quilt back is fine! 

I even had time to trim all five of those hexagonal placemats. 

The placemats are trimmed!

Now I must find and make some binding for them. I also did some machine embroidery and made a good dent in writing the next article. I'm working on the edit—my drafts are so rough, but it's a great way to just ramble on with my thoughts and then go back and check grammar, clarity, etc. 

I love this quote from my morning tea! 

Great quote

This reminds me of a video I spotted on Instagram. Max is an eight-year-old fashion designer who has been doing this since he was four. He's an ambassador for Baby Lock, and well, that kid is NOT afraid of anything. Check this video out—it's short. This is what we need to be teaching kids of all ages and even adults—you have to let go. Yes, you can mess things up, but learning to recover is absolutely priceless in terms of moving ahead! Wouldn't you want your 8-year-old to be this knowledgeable about machine embroidery rather than a video game? 

I make so many mistakes and will continue to do so, but boy, I've learned so much. 

Here are my girls after their morning walk! Lexi looks exhausted, while Murphy is always alert! Murphy is doing OK with her new harness. I think it's slightly too big, but I think it's at the smallest setting it can be. I must have another look to see if I can adjust it, but it's fine! 

The girls, after their walk

But what is with Muprhy? She NEEDS to be right where I am! She needs to have her head through the arm if I'm in a chair. She could put her head on my knee? No - that's not good enough. So I stop to give her a good pat, and then she flops on the floor at my feet. Good grief - how can I pet her when she's on the floor? 

MOM - I NEED to be close!

And of course, when I loaded my quilt on the long arm, guess where she was! Hanging out on the floor, I would have to step over her as I worked. I swear, she knows exactly what she is doing. None of this is a casual sleep on the floor. 

Mom - nothing going on here! 

I did not get out for a walk in the afternoon, and I was OK with that. I had work to do, and I'm trying to be cognizant of not filling my days with things I have to do. But I also have deadlines that I'm trying to respect. There was an interview a couple of weeks ago in The Globe and Mail with the author of the book I mentioned yesterday. I need to sign up for an online news service, as so many of them have paid subscriptions, which they should. But which one? 

Gosh, I see my email getting away from me again! Based on what I read in that book, I need to go through my email box, group the messages by sender, and then DELETE, DELETE, DELETE. I know I will never get back to read some of them for those amazing nuggets of knowledge, so I should do myself a favor and get rid of them. I will unsubscribe from some, but not all, as occasionally I stumble across something good. 

Maybe I'll start with the As later today. 

I'm off to spin class, so I  had better get moving! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!