Generally Looking Up

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After complaining about unpleasant duties hanging over my head yesterday, I can say that they all seem to be resolved. But not without a little work on my part. There was nothing magic about it. The two biggies were copying the tax stuff and sending it off. Gathering it was hard enough, but standing there and copying all those pieces of paper was pretty boring. I should have gone to the post office this afternoon, but I can't be perfect. Procrastination is what I'll be remembered for.

I did call Aetna about my having 2 insurance numbers. I managed to talk to a human after punching in every number associated with my life. She was pleasant and knew exactly what I needed and gave me the correct number. And also answered some general questions about my plan since I have no idea about insurance (or taxes).

So those things taken care of, I was able to do a test run on my newest serger, and it actually worked like it was supposed to, the way it should have done Monday night. Now maybe I'm ready to get creative. Maybe. It still scares me a little. So I got out something I know:

I started cutting the pieces for my mystery quilt. I didn't actually count the pieces involved in this, but it must be in the thousands. I've cut nearly 200 little squares and rectangles so far and have just gotten started. I look at those little pieces, and I'm already thinking that 1-inch pieces with a 1/4-inch seam on each side is going to end up 1/2 inch. In quilting, if the directions call for 1/4-inch seams, they're serious. Any fudging on this little quilt will lead to disaster. I think it'll be worth it in the end, because I saw the finished one hanging on the quilt shop wall, and it's outstanding. I guess anything with 1000+ pieces should be outstanding - if I follow the directions.

Mama is feeling like sewing again, and I hear her machine humming along. She's been embroidering butterflies on pillowcases all week. I would take her picture, but she's 6 days past the beauty shop, and she would want to go put on "something nice." She's been pretty polite about the things I wear for work, although sometimes she'll ask me if I got into some Clorox. Those stains are years old. If I didn't have to go out and get her newspaper every morning, I would probably not get dressed at all some days.

So now, all self-satisfied with half a day's work behind me and unpleasantries out of the way, I can enjoy the wonderfully gloomy afternoon with a cup of Land-O-Lakes hot chocolate (caramel today). The wind is blowing pretty hard, but according to the trusty Weather Channel map, all the rain is going to miss us. I think it's all in Andalusia. Nope, I called down there, and it missed them too. I even scrolled over to Mississippi and Arkansas to see if any promising storms were coming our way but saw only 1 small patch. Oh well, the gray sky and wind are enough to cheer me up until something better comes alone.

January Wrap-ups

It's been a good month, but I can't pretend to enjoy January very much. The only thing good to come out of an otherwise gloomy, cold, bitter, unpredictable month was a baby born at the tail end of it back in 1978, and she was even supposed to be born in February.

I worked hard on my UFO yesterday. Besides the usual meaning, UFO means something unfinished to the crafty world. I've always thought Unfinished Object, but I'm sure it must have a cuter name. Anyway I finished the quilting on the Simplicity table topper and didn't much enjoy it because I was kind of in a hurry, but I nailed that border. Putting the border on a quilt is probably my favorite part of quilting, mainly because I learned from a wonderful quilter in Greensboro in my first quilting class and secondly because it means I'm finishing something! The mitered corners are fun to do (usually) but I was never happy with the way it looked when I joined the beginning and end of the binding. I found these instructions not too long ago here on Heather Bailey's blog and found the answer to a neat finish. With me, nothing is ever really neat, but it's sure an improvement. As I was basking in my beautiful neat (to me) borders, I decided to trim the seams a little. For some reason, all common sense left me, and I trimmed the corners, thinking they would be less bulky. Well, when I went to press and pin, I discovered those beautiful mitered corners were, well, just not there. Just gone. I stomped around a little and muttered about it but just went over and stitched them together, and they'll do but are just not as pretty. I've now taken it to my finisher (Mama) for the final stitching. This still counts as a finished UFO for me because the hard part is done. Mama just needed something to do today and asked if she could hand sew the border. No argument from me.

Back to the real world, I need to work 4 hours today, sometime. Tomorrow is Emily's birthday, and I want to find some pictures of her for my Jan. 31 post. I lost more pictures than I thought when my computer died, so I have to go looking through all those CDs I saved pictures on or scan some. I may not have one of her in the past year unless I can get her or Ryan to send me one. Probably not though. He is going to Warm Springs, her friend Meghan from Atlanta is going to meet them there, and then they're going back to Atlanta Saturday to spend some time with Meghan's parents and see a few more friends. What a nice birthday. I'll try not to worry too much about her being in Atlanta, but that's what mothers are for - and grandaddies!

Today was a another sort of milestone. I managed to get rid of my last Christmas stamp. Whoever opens the Wells Fargo and Dixie Electric envelopes should be cheered by those nutcrackers grinning at them, but I also used return address labels with bright yellow sunflowers, so that shows I'm looking ahead.