Double Whammy!!!

The good news is that when I looked at my Cherrywood Challenge in the morning, the chalk lines were pretty much gone, so I didn't have to do any further work on it. I trimmed the quilt top, made the two-color binding, and stitched it to the top of the piece. Then I settled in and watched some YouTube videos while hand-stitching the binding in place! 

All that's left is to touch up a few spots with markers where the lighter-colored bobbin thread peeked through during the appliqué process, take three pictures, and then submit the entry. I checked last night and saw a couple of pieces that several others had done and submitted. Oh my!!! So cute. But mine is different, and well, I don't care if it gets in. I'm just happy that I did it and on time!

Then I put all the supplies away, except the entry instructions. I have a spot for all my Cherrywood fabric, but do you think I knew where that was yesterday? So it's on a shelf, and when I remember where the rest of the stuff is, I'll put it all together. 

The leftovers from the Cherrywood Challenge

That was the good news. There are two pieces of bad news, and of course, one of them has to do with technology. I live and breathe by my distribution lists, as they make it easy to send notes to my groups. Since I moved to the new computer, the distribution lists are still on the old one. And when I went to send my emails yesterday, the LISTs are GONE!!!! Yes—it appears there was an update on the old computer, and the way distribution lists are handled is different.

I do NOT understand why everything else can be migrated but not the contact list? Why?

What's even worse is that I BCC everyone on my group emails, so I can't even use an old email to forward anything. And I don't have a printout. I might see if the original version of Outlook is still on the old computer. I have no idea why Microsoft would perform this update without accounting for distribution lists. 

I can print a copy of an email I've sent to each group and retrieve the emails from there, but there is no name associated with them. It's ridiculous. When I tried to recreate a distribution list on the new computer, it accepted the email addresses, but NO names from my contact list. It won't let me use my contact list to create a distribution list. I MUST be doing something incorrectly. 

After I created a list with 17 names and could see them, when I tried to use the list to BCC a note, it said the list was empty. If I put the list in the TO box, it worked. Are you kidding me? I am deathly afraid of using "TO"-it just isn't appropriate. There's a long story behind that fear!

I know you must think I'm a dolt when it comes to technology, but I'm not. I tend to do things the average person wouldn't use, and it drives me mad when things change, and when there isn't an intuitive, logical way to recreate them or to fix them easily. 

Thankfully, with fewer classes, I have fewer distribution lists. If I'm counting correctly, I only have eight, so it's not a huge deal to recreate them, but if I don't do it right, that's a problem. 

So that is an issue I must work on today, but I might hobble along for today and tomorrow and then call Microsoft on Tuesday. But they are sometimes totally useless with their own products. I'll play and see what I can come up with!

The other bad news is the roof. While there was no water leaking in the window, I spotted this in the morning. And the towel did need to be changed at one point, and I'm not sure why. 

The current leak situation

Yep --- the water is now coming in under the shingles on the roof because it can't go anywhere due to the ice dam. Oh, happy day! I took this picture and forwarded it to the engineers, so hopefully they will feel sorry for me and take a better look. I'm not overly worried, since all this drywall has to come down due to past issues. The walls and the ceiling in that room are toast. 

On a positive note, the icicle melted so fast yesterday that it's almost gone. What I need is someone to remove all the snow from that section of the roof, so no more water comes in, but the damage is already done, so what's the point of that? 

It froze last night, so I suspect there is no more damage, and I haven't turned on the lights yet this morning. 

I was on a tear yesterday and got to work on trimming those half-square triangles. I finished all the ones that I had pressed the day before. 

Trimming half-square triangles

Then, because I'm in relax mode these days, I did this. 

The EMPTY container where the half-square triangles resided.

Yes, I emptied that little container and started pressing. 

All the half-square triangles on the ironing surface

And then I kept pressing until all of them were pressed. 

The pressing continues

I didn't get them all trimmed last night, so I will do a few each day. But here's the thing - I am COMMITTED to cleaning up that mess, and it will happen. I CAN & I WILL. Watch me!!!

Half-square triangles to trim

All my trimmed half-square triangles have a home in Studio U. All these containers are chock-a-block full of trimmed units in various sizes, but predominantly 1½". 

Containers of trimmed half-square triangles

There is no risk of running out of these units, as three packed containers above the blue bin still need to be sewn, pressed, and trimmed. Yep -- I was just hoarding them without doing anything with them, and I now know that that is wrong! So I'm planning on getting control of that mess. Baby steps, and I'm making good progress. 

OH -- once I send in the submission form for the Cherrywood Challenge, I can officially remove one more item from the Visual To-Do list. It's a pretty exciting thing to do, and I'm loving that whole setup!

Looking at what's coming up next weekend, the items that need to be completed are now sitting out and ready for me to tackle this week. And I have the entire week to get them done, including today! Where did all this time come from? No more rushing around at the last minute, no more only completing part of what I said I would do. I love it!!!

And I'm slowly making progress on this border. You can't really tell the progress because I keep the one end rolled up so it'll fit on that mini design board. But all the seams are being twirled on the back, and I hope I have enough white fabric. It's amazing, as you would think white is white, but it's not. So I must have a peek at that, and it may require a trip to the fabric store, as I've already pulled what works from my stash. 

Progress on the border

As you know, I'm an avid reader, and while I'm open to reading most genres, I love mysteries and thrillers the best. I've been ripping through the audiobooks like mad as I get some sewing done. I just finished reading "Everyone Here is Lying" by Shari Lapena. 

OH OH OH ---- All I can say is that Shari has a very twisted mind. She used to be a lawyer and an English teacher, but now lives on a farm somewhere in Ontario and writes full-time. I wonder if she's afraid to turn off the lights at night? 

True to the book's title, everyone was lying in the book, and I won't spoil it for anyone who wants to read it, but it's warped. Right down to the very last word in the book --- WARPED!!! And evil!!! But good! 

Her books are disturbing because, for the most part, they are about secrets that best friends or family members are keeping from one another. And well, she must spend days walking around the farm dreaming up new evils. 

I think this quote by Ruth Ware (also a great author) is so fitting: 

I got that title from the book list of the top ten most circulated books in Canadian libraries, and another one of her books was on the list - "What have you done?", which I'm reading now. I rarely read back-to-back books by the same author, but it just happened to come in my Libby App, so I'm reading it. 

I see my sleep score is back to normal, and I got 1 hour and 24 minutes of deep sleep! I'm excited that I have the entire day (almost) ahead of me to do whatever I want! I might even crack open a jigsaw puzzle. 

Just turned on the light, and I see the paint is bubbling just below where the ceiling meets the wall, and about two feet down in the corner. Sigh...............   You can actually see that starting in the photo I posted from yesterday. It's just more pronounced now. 

On that happy note, I'm out of here!!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!