It's all about the birds

Don't you feel great when you discover (reaffirm) things about yourself that make you happy? I have always been a neat person. By that I mean, I love having my stuff organized, in place, and readily available. I love organizing. 

However, when I started quilting and had a baby around the same time, my brain went totally mush, and my organizing skills went downhill rapidly. On top of that, I became something of a collector (OK—read: hoarder). And while I had great intentions of getting everything I had accumulated read or made, that wasn't happening. 

And then the clutter began. And it grew and grew until our house was overwhelmed. NOT like some of the places you see, but on the firemen's scale of 1 to 10, our house was probably a five. WAIT -- I just Googled a hoarding scale and OH MY --- I think we only qualified for a level 2. Check this out. It's pretty scary, but we were never beyond level 2 - thank goodness. 

Yikes—in some of those areas, my parents would have qualified as level 9! Not all areas, but a couple of them for sure!

Anyway, more than 10 years ago, I saw the light of day and realized that things needed to change. 

And, in particular, I realized that, for me to function well —OK, in Studio B at least —I need to be neat and tidy. The cutting table, the puzzle table, the ironing surface, and the sewing tables need to be clear. The projects table can be a jumble (it's organized chaos), but I can work with that. 

In the last couple of days, things have gone awry, and there was stuff everywhere, so I spent a few minutes this morning tidying it up, and I feel ZEN!!!! While I'm OK with having multiple projects on the go, I also feel at peace working on one at a time or finishing one at a time. YES --- I have found my groove, and I need to keep it maintained! 

There are a few things still on the puzzle table, and I need to repair that frame today, so I can hang it back up. I haven't been puzzling the last couple of days as I sat outside in the evening, enjoying the weather and reading.

The puzzle table is almost clear again!

And in case you are wondering about the puzzle table, let's just say it will definitely be busy tomorrow evening. I'll share that with you later. 

In addition to keeping things organized, I keep finding things as I go through some of the piles, which is great, except there is one small thing that I had recently, and I put it in a safe place, but where? I'd really like to find it, but it will come one day. 

I started the day by washing the suet feeder and restocking it with one suet bar. I need to buy another one and put that in the feeder. The cardinals were on my case, and hopefully, they will be back this morning to get their fill. I really love this Brome squirrel-proof suet feeder. It wasn't cheap, but I've never seen a squirrel hanging off it. They don't even bother it. 

The suet feeder is restocked.

That should make the Cardinals happy. I need to get my new bird feeder out as well, and then the rest of the birds will be happy, and I'll have removed one more thing from the office. YES -- while I have gotten control of my working environment in Studio B, I have NOT accomplished the same thing in the office. I'm close -- the supply cabinet is organized, as is most of the filing cabinet. I just need to permanently clear some flat work surfaces around and deal with some excess. I'm getting there - slow and steady is better than not tackling it at all. 

I had an appointment for a mani/pedi yesterday. I hate colored nails, so I just got things tidied up for the wedding.

That is relaxing!

 DH dropped me off as he needed the car, and once I was done, I walked home. There is a shortcut from the parking lot to the road, rather than walking completely around the block. 

The shortcut through the ditch.

As I approached the shortcut and was pulling my camera out to take a picture, a red-winged blackbird appeared from nowhere and attempted to divebomb me. The bird was hanging out in the air and was not happy at all. I snapped the photo and took off into the shortcut as quick as I could!

It's about a 40-minute walk back from the spa (at the gym) to the house. One day, I might get brave enough to try out an e-scooter since there are so many around. You just need to set up the app (of course!) to unlock the e-scooter. Hmmm—I may continue to walk—I think it's much safer! 

Lots of e-scooters! 

Here is the pond and all the lilies. They are growing like weeds!!! 

The lilies are growing like mad.

And OH MY -- I see the first bloom!!!

The first bud!

It's not quite fully open yet. Interestingly, these blooms close up at night and reopen during the day. Do you know why they do that? For survival and protection. By folding up, their delicate pollen is protected from early-morning dew and prevents the flowers from being eaten by bad bugs. It also helps them to conserve energy! 

Almost open flower

I don't plant annuals, but I try to help the bees with my lilies, lilacs, landlocked lilies, and peonies, which will bloom later in the summer. I think I need a couple more peonies in the area by the gazebo - it's a bit bare, so I must tackle that job. 

By the way, in case you are curious, that pond is quite old. I must dig out the original pictures of our backyard. Most of what you see (shed, pond, gazebo) was here when we moved 23 years ago. BUT we have enlarged the pond and changed the deck, etc. 

And of course, Murphy is never far away when I'm outside. 

MOM -- do you need help?

In an effort to get a handle on the stuff hanging around Studio B, I trimmed the community project quilt. 

Community project quilt is trimmed!

And these are the cutoff edges, which will go back into the pile of blue flannel that I'll use to make the next five quilt backings for that group. NOTHING goes to waste at my house. Don't worry  - the use of scrappuy quilt backings will be discussed in the scrap class in the fall. 

The cutoffs from the flannel backing

A few more half-square triangles were trimmed. I only have a few more to trim to be up to date with my current sewing, and, of course, there is that bag of a bit smaller ones that I'm whittling away at. 

Trimming HSTs

This large snowflake, cut out with the Singer Momento (24" die cutter), was finally fused to the background fabric. It's sure nice to not have to trace and cut out something that large. It was super simple. Now to do some satin stitching around it! 

My large snowflake is fused to the background.

I finished the little cushion cover, except that I put the envelope backing on upside down. GRRRR -- that is going to bug me, so I'll likely take it apart later today. And now you know why it takes me so long to make anything! I am constantly taking it apart to make it right. What I needed to do was check it before I pinned. Sigh..............

The complete cushion cover

Then, instead of working on the remaining project for the upcoming wedding, I decided to figure out the puzzle that was Tequila Lime. Once I got things laid out, I realized that the large pieces of the 8 sections are assembled, but the large pieces (4 per section) need to be stitched together. Two sections are already together to make one quarter of the quilt. 

Anyway, I managed to get one section done - three down, and five to go. 

One section of Tequile Lime

It was just the figuring out that needed to happen, but after spending a few minutes, it all worked out just fine. The pieces for each section are pinned to the design wall, and I'll grab what I need as I sew a few more sections. The sections need to be sewn in a specific order because of the coloring of the petals in the center. So I must be careful how I start the sewing process. I do NOT want to rip this out. 

Progress on Tequila Lime

I did some embroidery and loaded a quilt, but I can't share that with you. OH -- so many secrets!!! But all will be revealed in due course. For sure, by the end of the month, you'll see everything that I've been working on. Some of you will see it sooner! 

I also did some tidying in the furnace room. I will admit that tidying up is way easier and faster than a deep clean. The furnace room is in order, so it was just a matter of putting a few things in a better location, and all is good. That took all of a few minutes, but I see DH has some excess golf things, so I'll have to ask before I toss! 

And on that note, I'm out of here. I'm still working on that very long To-Do list I created a couple of weeks ago. It's much shorter now, but there are still things to address. 

Do I need to remind you how important tidying/decluttering is? If you have time -- grab a drawer and start decluttering. And if you have been decluttering, are you able to maintain it? That is hard, but in the areas I have decluttered, I can keep things super clean. My "junk" drawer is as neat and tidy as when I organized it many years ago! 

Have a super day!!!!

Caio!!!!