Now that's OLD!!!!

It was one of those days! I got some machine embroidery done, and it turned out amazing. I need to get some more done for my upcoming Facebook Live (April 8), but I just couldn't get my head around it. And I'm supposed to be making another jacket for an upcoming wedding, and I can't wrap my head around that one either. I might just buy pink Lulu lemon pants and go with that! I am NOT one to dress up - ever, and especially not when traveling! 

I did get some binding on some quilts, which was great! The day was not a total loss. 

I only needed one more strip for the black binding, and now both of those table runners are done! Yep—two projects that were in the "to be quilted" pile for a very long time are now done. I quilted them both with the embroidery machine, and once you get the hang of that, it's a snap to do small projects. Yes -- I could have quilted them on the long arm as well, and I could have done it in free-motion sewing mode, but it's good to have samples of all kinds of stitching. 

Two table runners are done!

I made those as part of a series of table runners that I taught at Ruti's Needlebed (now closed) in 2012 or thereabouts!

Then I got to work on this small project, which also needed the binding. It also needed a sleeve in the event I want to hang it up. I made the sleeve for it and will hand-stitch the loose side down later today. 

The hanger is hiding under the binding.

Can you believe that I also needed more binding for this one? What is wrong with my math these days? If you look at the top right-hand corner, I was short about four inches of binding. I'll pin this to my design wall once the hand stitching is complete. 

My word of the year is complete.

But one more project is almost done, and that works for me. I have one last project to put the binding on, and I might work on that today, or I'd better get organized for the machine-embroidery sample I need as soon as I get back from my trip. 

Having gotten reinspired by Margareta's book, I decided to tackle some of the paperwork that has been sitting out for a while. OH MY!!!! This was on the front of the folder. I don't even know where the folder has been stored for all these years. 

A label on the folder of paperwork

And as Margareta mentions in her books, when you are Swedish Death Cleaning, enjoy your things, enjoy the memories, but then get rid of the stuff that you don't need. And boy oh boy, did this folder bring back some memories. 

The oldest bill I found was dated 1993. Yikes!!!!! What the heck is wrong with me? This folder obviously got shoved way back in some drawer and has not seen the light of day for a very long time. That's over 30 years old! 

A 33-year-old receipt

I found several receipts from Consumers Distributing. Remember that store? You ordered from the catalogue, and then they went into the back to pick up the items for you? Well, by the look of two of the items, I was preparing for M's arrival as I had ordered a mobile and a nursery lamp - whatever that is. I bought this on January 20, and she was born on March 1. She's now 30!

A 30-year-old receipt

I rented my maternity clothes and found the bills for that as well. Good lord -- I can't believe how deep this file got buried. 

Invoice for renting maternity clothes

What's even worse is that I found the change-of-address and the moving bill from two moves ago!! And we lived in that one house for 6 years, and we've been living in this one for 23. Oh boy!!!!! 

Change of address from two moves ago!

Can you imagine if I had saddled someone else with dealing with that folder? It would have been quite embarrassing to say the least. I found bills for golf clubs, which DH says were mine. They were? I remember having clubs, but not that those specific ones were mine. 

Anyway, it was fun sorting through it. I'm not quite done, and I'll try to finish it off this morning. I think that's the oldest paperwork in the house. There are still folders sitting on the floor in the office, but as mentioned, slow and steady is my style, and that's all I can say about that. 

I walked to the mall yesterday and saw this beautiful display in a shop window. I didn't get a close-up, but all those flowers are crocheted! They are not for sale - it's a window display. What will happen to them when they change the window display? 

Crocheted flowers in a window display

I also bought a new carry-on piece of luggage, which I brought home. YES -- I carried it home (only 6 pounds), and I didn't want to wear out the wheels on the 15-minute walk home! DH has been wanting a new carry-on for a while, and, of course, he wanted a fancy name-brand one. I decided to buy this one for me ($90 on sale), but the minute he saw it, he wanted to use it! So he is going to test it out today as he flies somewhere. 

And there is that Murphy dog. She is obsessed with her ball, and it's too wet and cool to throw outside, so I throw it in the house, which probably isn't a good thing. The floors are slippery, and she just goes full tilt. Which is not good for her back legs. Thankfully, the weather is warming up, but she is relentless in asking to play ball. I put her ball and her stuffed toy back in her toy box, and within minutes, she was there. Not only did she grab the ball, but she also grabbed the stuffed toy and brought both of them into the family room. 

MOM - I NEED to play ball!

I just missed getting the shot of her with both of them in her mouth. 

OK -- I'm leading up to some very bad news. I'm in total denial. No one got hurt, no one will get hurt, and of course, it's related to technology. 

I have been diligently transferring data from the hard disk I said was going to fail. The way it's been acting up, I knew something bad was going to happen. Last night, I was trying to save some files for my Monday sewing group presentation, and I should have just saved them to the new hard disk. 

Then I got this message. 

NOOOOOOOOOOOO

Sigh --- it was just after dinner, and I gave up. I shut down the computer and went to watch a YouTube video, but even that was too much for my brain. So I went to bed and had the best sleep ever. Over 8 hours, including almost two hours of deep sleep! 

I don't think the disk is completely fried yet, and I will continue to migrate data off it as best I can. But I have a feeling I'm going to have to pay to recover data from the darn thing. I should have been doing the migration faster!! 

I have most of the documents off, but there are still a lot of pictures on that hard disk, and while I need to clean them up, a lot could go; there are many that I want. Sigh........................    I have only myself to blame for not getting it off when I knew it was going. 

How did I know that? When the disk becomes sluggish, the computer doesn't want to recognize it as quickly as it should. That's a sign. I could try a defrag, but it's too late for that. 

Well, live and learn—it's not the first time a hard disk has failed. I need to take note. This disk was over 7 years old and probably older. They have a shelf life—I'm going to start migrating the data over after five years, and, more importantly, I'm going to clean up the darn data and back it up. Thankfully, some of the data is sitting on OneDrive, but there is still a lot that isn't. 

Well, that's a happy thought to start the day!

Here's another happy thought. DH and I were chatting about the new S26 smartphone. I was curious to see what the difference was between S25 and S26. Of course, there is NO change in the phone capabilities -- those have remained the same for years. But the ability to do more AI stuff is HUGE. Sigh --- so our smartphones are now driven by social media since the only place people are using AI is on social media. And these phones are getting more and more expensive every year! 

Well, on that note, I'm out of here and on my way to the gym for spin class. I have a lot of stuff to accomplish today, and we'll see how I make out after my amazing sleep. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!