I am nearly going blind on this computer. David's has quit entirely and I can use this one to check my email and on Facebook but is in such bad shape everything is ghostlike. I had the resident computer genius look at it and he says the motherboard is burning out, or burnt out, toast is a word that comes mind. It won't download pictures from my camera or upload or whatever the correct word is. I had Ambrosina take pictures of this morning's project with her camera and email them to me, and that worked on Facebook so I will see if that works here.

This is a basket, a really big basket, I'm afraid the pictures don't show how big they actually are, Ambrosina didn't spend a lot of time on it being busy. I think she's nice to do it at all, but then I have always bragged about what a good daughter I have. I didn't intend to make them any bigger than the last one I showed, but this one got away from me. I'm afraid it won't hold it's shape, and I will not make anymore this big, it takes a lot of time and materials. I was thinking of putting handles on it, but if someone loaded it full and lifted it by the handles I was afraid it would tear them off.

I am counting the days until my new computer comes, I will have to share it with David, but we will cope, we have shared most things in life, some very hard things so a computer will be relatively easy. However if he eats cookies while using it, it will be at his peril!

No pictures. I've been using David's computer until we could afford one for me, but it quit on us this morning, so now we have to try to afford one sooner than we planned. I am using mine which is working sort of, it won't do anything much with pictures. I will try to borrow Ambrosina's tomorrow and post some of the pictures I have taken this morning. We are getting ready for guests and have been busy, I did do a little sewing, but not a lot. I should never have said I didn't like David's computer, that will teach me to be content with what I have!

This has been a very much back to the job at hand sort of day. We are preparing to entertain on Sunday so we were busy busy busy. Mostly Ambrosina, although I have volunteered for anything she needs me to do. Leon had a project upstairs that the boys were helping him with off and on. David was wandering around wishing he could do some of the things he usually joins in on but can't yet. He will, a couple months more and he won't even remember he had the hip done. It doesn't hurt any more just gets tired easy, and he still has to use the cane, although he is starting to forget it, but that is a good sign too.

Rose said last summer that people were asking if I could make bigger baskets, so I made one, I don't think I could go much bigger or it wouldn't hold it's shape. I would have to use thicker cord which I could not do on the sewing machine, and there is no way I would ever do that by hand. I think I could put handles on it though, so I might try that on the next big one.

I am joining in with Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt En Provence and these are the four patch units for the first clue. I decided to go with light greens for my neutrals because I had to buy fabric anyway. I don't have a very big stash, I tend to use up fabric just about as fast as I can buy it, and I didn't have anything for neutrals at all, so I bought light green because I like the way they play with the other colors and I haven't done much with green for a long time. Here is my assistant guarding my four patches, I didn't get them all done because we have been so busy for the last couple of days, but I should be able to finish them in the morning. If not I have Monday, I'm not doing a lot next week and the boys are back to school.

I did finish basting the hexagons so now I'll be putting together the top I am working on, that is between cleaning and moving furniture, I want to see if I can get rid of at least one piece of furniture to ease up the crowding, but we will see. Cleaning and discarding stuff first. Always discarding stuff. Where does it all come from?

We had a very loud day yesterday.

 We like loud days.

 Lots of food, Ambrosina loves to cook.

Nobody had to work. Timothy and Rosa came over and we watched MST3K off and on all day. MST3K is really bad old movies (really, really bad) With a running commentary of gags throughout the whole thing. It's the way we used to watch movies, so it's right up our alley.

I did a little sewing, most of the hexagons are basted, I will be able to finish them this afternoon and evening. It's nice and noisy upstairs right now too.

Ambrosina did their Black Friday shopping this morning. I worked enough Black Fridays that I never want to go shopping on one. We stayed home with the kids. Leon and Ambrosina use the sales to get the big items they plan to buy for the year, because the prices are so good. The check the sale flyers and plan what they will buy, no impulse shopping. This year they got a snow blower and a shop vac and a tool box. Lots of other odds and ends, pjs for the boys and some blankets, I didn't see everything. But we all know the best thing about buying something is the box.

Sadly it won't be too many more years before they will be too big for that, but I intend to enjoy it while I can. They will always be dear and wonderful, they will be nice adults, Ambrosina and Leon work hard with them, and that always pays off in the long run. So I think I will enjoy the noise for a while longer and look forward to the future with enjoyment also.

This morning a particularly apt song popped into my head as I started to quilt on the log cabin I am currently working on. The song was from my years of Sesame Street while raising my children, "Can you guess which thing is not like the other before my song is done?"  I tried to position the last dark strip under the needle and I couldn't figure out where to start. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out what was wrong.

Can you see it?

How about this in this one. Yup I got two of  the blocks rotated wrong. At this stage in the game I am not going to take it apart for repairs. It is a memorial to my imperfection. It will keep me humble. I will just work around it. In years past I would have worked until I was sick to get things perfect, it spoiled the joy in my work, now not so much, maybe not at all. I just chalk it up to life experience and get on with the work in hand. It makes me more versatile, more relaxed, easier to live with. For many years I expected perfection in myself and since I was perfect (not) I expected perfection in others. I was frustrated a lot, and serves me right. Now I have learned to be more tolerant. I have a long way to go, but now that I can allow myself to not be perfect life is a lot more enjoyable for myself and everyone around me. I am just sorry it took so long.

Today the kids are off school, but they are over at Grandma's, she loves them to pieces and they have such a good time. Tomorrow Timothy and Rosa are going to spend the day and we are going to have an MST3K (Mystery Science Theater 3,000) marathon. For the uninitiated it's really bad old movies with an hysterically funny sort of narration by a guy and 2 robots. It's just the way we always watched tv and very funny. Abrosina is fixing a lot of good food and we will enjoy the company of family. Pretty good.

I am now going to turn to basting my hexagons, when they are all basted then I am going to take a day and clean down here, I've let it go again. Surely in all this clutter there is some more junk I can get rid of!

It took me a full day to get back in stride and I am still not feeling very good, but at least I got something done.

Sort of. I know that I have a proclivity for turning under and catching the wrong edge of the quilt when I am quilting, I know that I have to be careful, and I wasn't. So I had to do some ripping out this morning. Nothing new in that.

Waddles is still a young cat and he is playful, not only that he thinks he is up for the position of assistant. It took some time to get it ripped out and I had to keep putting him on the floor. Happy is my assistant and he needs to learn that.

Despite my goof up I managed to get my quilt to the half way point, here it is being inspected by my assistant. These two cats may look a lot alike, but in person they are easy to tell apart. Today was one of those days where I feel like it was all uphill, so I am surprised I got anything done, but I kept pushing and made a basket and did a little quilting so the day wasn't entirely a loss. Now that the quilt is half done I have to be thinking of which top to do next and what I want to use for the back, always fun.

The house is pretty torn up today, we had a new dryer and dishwasher delivered. They installed the dryer but not the dishwasher, saying they don't install dishwasher's but Leon paid to have it installed, so it is going to be a difficult couple of days until they get it figured out where the problem is. Meanwhile the old dishwasher doesn't work. The new dryer works great though.

So back to basting hexagons for me. I want to get them all prepped this week. If I feel I need a change I can knit more booties, I still haven't got a very big stock of them. There is always something to do.

Yesterday was not a good day and I spent most of it in bed with a headache and stomach ailments. Better today although still kind of peaky.

A couple of weeks ago I showed you this basket full to the point of overflowing with hexagons that needed basting; it is down to one half of one layer, and I hope to finish the prep by the end of the week. After that it will be fast to finish one top that I have started, and probably the next I have in mind.

I had taken Ambrosina's word for it that new kitty Waddles was a female, after all one doesn't want to get too personal. However Waddles was grooming himself on my bed the other night, and I can state definitely that he is a neutered male. David is now calling him Sir Waddles. This brings the total among pets and people to 8 males and 3 females. It's a man's world.

I was right when I said the current quilt was going to go fast; I am about halfway. I am not quilting it densely, it's going to be puffier than most of my quilts, but I like it. The point to me is not making the best quilt in the world, I wouldn't want my quilts to be put under close scrutiny, I just want to enjoy the process, make something that has some beauty. If I could sell them that would be nice, I wouldn't make much more than replacing the cost of the materials. When I am working on them I feel very close to my Creater, making something the way He did. I meditate a lot when I am sewing, it's my peaceful time. I think I am a better person for it, and I thank Him for it.

I was very happy to start quilting this morning, but when I went upstairs I saw this.

This is new kitty Waddles. I was really afraid my assistant Happy was going to be really annoyed, and who could blame her. So I put Waddles on the floor and immediately Happy was there.

They spent about a half an hour glaring at each other, and finally Waddles got up and left. This is progress, 2 days ago they wouldn't even stay in the same room as each other, and I think they will become friends in time if no one tries to push them into it. They are both such nice kitties and we enjoy them a lot.

The quilting is going to go pretty fast. I am not going to quilt this one as dense as I usually do, so it won't take as long. I got 2 of the ten rows of blocks done this morning and would have been able to do more but the needle broke and I couldn't find the needles I bought the other day. I suspect they are in the sitting room and I just forgot to take them upstairs, a not uncommon occurance.

I decided to use yellow thread and large feathers. The top picture is the front and the bottom picture is the back; it's a little hard to see in the pictures. I love doing feathers so I won't find it tedious. I wouldn't anyway now that I stop to think about it. So with one thing and another I've had a busy morning. Leon and Ambrosina and the kids were all gone this morning, and they are invited out to dinner this evening so it will be a quiet Saturday for us. I love having the kids around, but they will all be here tomorrow so I can look forward to that. So now I am going to sit back with my feet up and drink my coffee and start my hand sewing for the day. What bliss!

We got our winter storm, about 4 inches of it so far, but it's still snowing.

It's pretty dark still with a lot of blowing snow, but it's supposed to taper off this afternoon. The kids were wild with excitement this morning, but we adults much less so. They will go to Grandma Rose's this afternoon, their usual Friday afternoon visit, so she will bear the brunt of it, but she loves it and will be happy.

I finished off the last bobbin in Juki this morning, so I will wind bobbins and start quilting tomorrow.

I am always amazed at how much lint and dust the machine collects during a quilt. I always clean and oil the machine when I finish a quilt and before I start another, they will live a lot longer that way and run better with a more even tension and stitch. I love my machines and try to treat them the best way I can.

And the new kitty's name is Waddles, Ambrosina named her that because she does waddle, her hind legs toe out, it's pretty funny. In the picture you can see her on the chair, while my assistant is on the tubs. They are still wary of each other, but I think they will adjust soon. Waddles is very friendly to all the people in the household, and Chester just ignores her and carries on as usual but Happy still feels the need to establish the appropriate pecking order, with herself on top of course. The boys are home from school and looking for her. She is down her asleep on my bed, I suspect she is hiding, they are pretty rambunctious. I prefer to be down here when they get home from school too. After things calm down I go upstairs. I let their mother deal with their after school boisterousness, I feel like I've done my time, although they are a lot of fun and I do enjoy their company. If something really exciting has happened during the day they will come down and tell us, otherwise we will hear about it at suppertime.

I've still several things to get done this afternoon before then, and I think I will venture upstairs for a cup of coffee, they will be leaving in a few minutes and all will be quiet for a time, but not long enough to get used to it. Having a lot of boys around is so very enjoyable, I hate to think of how much I would miss my large noisy family if we weren't living here with this wonderful family.

I took the morning and watched a movie Ambrosina recorded for me. I've always loved the Horatio Hornblower books but had never seen the movies. Even with Gregory Peck I like the books better, the movie was a sort of glitzy version of a couple of the books. While I was watching I did this:

It was the last of the sharks I put together a couple of years ago and never got around to finishing. I got it done today, and also used up all the filling I have had stored around here for the last few years. Since there was only one of them I didn't give it to the boys but put it on Anthony's bed, if he doesn't want it he can give it to the boys and let them fight over it. Ambrosina should love that. Anyway I am done with sharks, it is the last one I'll ever do if I can help it. Now I have more storage room and can get a little more organized.

I didn't get much else done, I just seem to be so tired today, so I am just going to hang out and baste my hexagons. We are under a winter storm watch and are supposed to get ice and snow storms over the next 48 hours, with up to 6 inches accumulation. It had to happen sometime and we are ready, so let it snow!

At first glance this may look like my assistant Happy, but it is not. This is a little lady that showed up 3 days ago. In our neighborhood it is not uncommon for people to drive by, open their windows and toss out a cat that they are too stupid, cruel, irresponsible or lazy to find a new home for when it becomes inconvenient for them to keep it. That is how we got Happy as a kitten, and people who do that anger me. What a sweetheart they missed out on with our Happy, and I think this one will be as sweet even though she comes to us as an adult. We have several feral cats that live around here who can't be tamed, and we feed them when the weather gets really cold, but we can't take care of them all, as much as we would like to. So it looks like we are a 3 cat family again. We will advertise in the found column, but doubt if it will do any good. Anyway there is no use getting angry people will always be people, and there will always be those who will do something like this.

Stanley almost came in the house this morning, there was a squirrel in the hanging plant basket so I went to get a picture and Stanley almost came into the house. Ambrosina feeds him nuts and I guess he thought everyone who come out the door will feed him, he's not shy at all. There were 3 squirrels on the porch when I went out, I guess they are trying to have one more big feed before the snow comes on Friday.

My assistant wanted me to be sure to realize that she was going to stay loyal to me even with the interloper in the house, I am still working on emptying white filled bobbins before I fill them for the next quilt. I am working on the postage stamp quilt until they are empty and then I will put that away for the next time. I've got a quilt in mind that I want to make soon, it will be big enough for my bed and I need another one for the winter. It would go together really fast, and I can't work on Tina's quilt until I can find some blue polka dot fabric. Blue fabric with white polka dots is easy to find. White fabric with any color polka dot is more difficult, and white fabric with blue polka dots the hardest of all. But it will turn up eventually, I can't be the only one who wants it. I've got plenty to do before I can work on it.

David is doing very well, twice now he has taken his walker and gone out to the his shop and tinkered around, how much he love doing that, the only thing that makes it better for him is when our Sammy is out there with him. He is getting restless and has started to do a couple of other things around here. Ambrosina told him he wasn't to try to do the dishes or laundry yet, and I'm not sure that he was very pleased about that, but he will get over it.

I'm feeling really sleepy, I think I might take a nap. I've done quite a lot today, some cleaning down here and some sewing, so I needn't feel guilty about taking a nap, and the idea is getting more and more attractive by the minute. Sooo yawn. Catch you later.

My husband, David, fights off aliens in his sleep, and Indians and who knows what or who else. He yells and sings in his sleep. He makes fists and hits hard, really hard. I've known him to skin his knuckles on his nightstand. If I connect with one of his wild swings I get hurt. We have this agreement that he never goes to sleep facing me because then I am on the side of his flailing fists. On his back or on his right side I am ok. Well, since his surgery he can't sleep on his right side. Sometimes he needs a change of position so he has been going to sleep on his left side, and last night he connected. A hard fist under my right shoulder blade and I am crippled today. I know that this is not his fault, and he is contrite, but I am still a little angry, I did warn him every evening when he was falling asleep in that position that if he hit me I was going to be mad. I am mad. I'll get over it. I always do. After he has full recovery he is going to have a sleep study done to see if he has apnea. I do and use a c-pap. It made a huge difference in how I feel and if David has that problem I might be safer at night. I would hate to have to go to sleeping in twin beds, but for my safety we might have to.

My assistance is mostly Happy again. I got the next quilt pin basted and worked for a while on my postage stamp quilt. I have one more bobbin to use up before I wind bobbins for this quilt. I am thinking I might use light yellow, but I am not sure, it might be better to go with white since this quilt is tans and browns and white. I love the log cabin pattern, I have made many and I probably will make many more. When I get a big pile of strips that I want to use up the log cabin goes so fast and is so much fun. Now that I am quilting each top as I finish it I am getting a large number of quilts piling up on my shelves. I am hoping that my listing on Etsy will produce some sales, but if not I suppose that I could hoard them like a miser. "Look at all my beautiful quilts, not good for anything sitting there getting dusty, but they are mine, all mine. Mwahaaa!!" I would rather sell them. Or give them away if they don't sell. Someone might love them the way I do.

I will give it time, it's not hurting anything for them to sit there on Etsy. It doesn't cost very much to list them and I can wait.

We are supposed to get snow on Friday, the first of the season. Five months until spring. I wonder how many quilts I will have done by then?

Yes, once again she is quiltless. What you see here is the back being pieced for the next one. My turn around time is getting quite brief, only a couple of days where it used to be a week. She sat there and every time I pulled on the strips I was piecing she would slap me, with her claws out, until I finally had to chase her down. I finished the back this morning, and I will baste tomorrow. And yes, it is another pink back. I don't know how many more pink backs there will be, but I will use out of the tub of different colors for the next one, because I am getting really tired of that pink!

This is Sammy the fire chief, my hero! His kindergarten class got to go to one of the fire houses, I learned from him all about stop, drop, and roll, also how to pry the door open if it is stuck with a prybar. I don't think he learned that on the field trip, I think he saw that on tv and was impressed enough to want to try it. He knows where the tools are kept, and I can see some difficulties with that might lie ahead. Pretty cute though.

Two more large baskets ready to go, I will bead one of them, since the beaded ones were popular. I had to go to Walmart to get some prescriptions filled so I bought all the clothesline that was there so I won't run out too soon, I hope the price doesn't go up when they get the next shipment in.

So things are in train for another busy week. I like busy weeks. I don't think I have ever been bored in my life. I may get very tired, and hurt a lot, but I can't imagine being bored. I think I might try it sometime to see what it is like, but I wouldn't know how to do it. Oh yes I have been bored, I was watching a tv show and I didn't have any handwork available at the time. I made sure that never happened again! We are supposed to get our first snow on Friday. I can't really complain these last few weeks have been wonderfully warm that we have only had to wear light sweatshirts if that. I've even been wearing my sandals. Sandals in November, that doesn't happen very often, but now I'm going to have to dig out my heavy coat and hats and gloves. It had to happen, but it's been better this year than last. There is a real beauty in the snowfall too, and I can always stay indoors!

It's done, I finished Pineapple quilt this morning, and I have already started the back for the next top that I will be quilting, a log cabin Streak of Lightening, it was on top in the tub.

 This is the back, and the lower one is the front.

The pictures aren't very good, I need to find a place where they will be in the sun to take them. It's a little iffy this time of year. I love this quilt. It seems to me that it pulsates and is alive. I thoroughly enjoyed making this quilt, and I may make another with a different color palate. I still have the other top I made, same colors but with one inch wide strips and a square in a square center instead of the 4 patch. I didn't want to quilt the same colors two quilts in a row, and I am trying out some different quilting patterns to do on it.

I think I will go back to feathers for the log cabin though, I enjoy feathers and I love how they look.

 My assistant was seriously annoyed, she can tell the difference between quilting and binding. She knows when I am binding that there will soon be no quilt on her sewing table, and she will have to make do with whatever I am working on at the time.

Seen here with Sammy (who moved as I took the picture) and Gramps she is trying to decide whether to move or stand her ground. She laid down and when I tried to feed the quilt under the needle she slapped me. Some days you can't please anybody.

Well, tomorrow if I have time before meeting, I'll work some more on the back for the next one, maybe I'll be ready to baste on Monday. If so she will be Happy again, if not, I guess it's just too bad for her isn't it?

This morning as I finished sewing on Brunhilde I turned around to quilt on Juki and I found my assistant waiting for me. If you look behind her to the right you will notice a thread, this is the thread from Juki, Happy delights in unthreading the sewing machines and she did a pretty good job this time.

 Not a record, has managed to spread it all the way to the other side of the house and halfway up the stairs, but still pretty good. It's all in the tail. When I finally got the machine rethreaded I was able to get the quilting done on the Pineapple quilt. I think that it's pretty good considering that I didn't get a lot of time to work on it. Tomorrow the binding and then I will get a good picture of it out on the porch.

The next top is the one that my assistant is laying on in the first picture. It is a log cabin Streak of Lightening that I pieced several years ago shortly after we moved to Sioux Falls from Aberdeen. I've had so many tops stored in tubs in the attic that it feels really good to be getting to some of the older ones. I'll soon have a couple of tops coming off the machines down here and they are not going to get stuck in a tub, they will get quilted next in my newer quilt as you get them done policy. Give myself a pat on the back!

David's last doctor trip using his walker. He's doing so well that he can put it away and use just his cane. Also after a couple of weeks if his balance is ok (it will be) he can start practicing without his cane. This is not normal! Even the doctor was impress and amazed. I am relieved, he's been upstairs all afternoon, and I have had some alone time! I do love David, of course, but I need my alone time just to relax and do my handsewing or read, or even nap. I am a much nicer person if I get some alone time.

Because of our early start I didn't get any sewing time in. The doctor's visit was early because he has surgery in the afternoon. I don't do well getting up early. I can do it without much problem, but I have to say my mood is strictly sinister and I have to work hard at even using a pleasant tone. Now David and I have been married for forty-two years and the man still doesn't understand that I just want to be left alone. It doesn't have to be for long, just left alone for a while. I will drive him anywhere he needs to go, do anything he needs, but I don't want to engage in conversation, or field his bad jokes or answer questions. That can come later and I will even be nice, even happy, but not first thing in the morning. I guess David has to put up with a lot from me, but couldn't he do it later in the day?

Another one of those days spent running around doing errands. I had my monthly class for BPD (borderline personalitiy disorder) this afternoon, and I set everything aside and concentrate on that for the day. After the errands of course. I find it fatiguing but worthwhile.

I also had to go to Hobby Lobby to get some sport weight yarn for  the baby booties and I found a couple of green fabrics that I like. I don't know why but I have never had much in the way of green. While green has never been my favorite color there is a definate place for it, and so I am building up a small stock of it in my stash. Money spent on Fabric is never wasted, but I can't spend any more this month because the month is only a third of the way gone and we will need what money we have to make it through the rest of the month.

David sees his orthopedist tomorrow, and we are hoping he can put the walker away. It will make it easier for him to get up and down the stairs if I don't have to carry the walker up and down for him. I don't mean to complain however. He is doing very well and starting to chafe at the confinement a little. The weather has been so nice, in the low seventies this week that he would  like to be out in his shop working. I would like him to be out in his shop working. I am going to start him on a couple of small projects we have in mind this week, he loves his leatherwork so it's about time he got started on that. Winter is always a little bit difficult anyway, but this winter I a going to try to make it easier by keeping him busier. It will make me busier too, but I can cope.

I know that this must sound odd, but I am much more tired than David is, even though he is the one who had the surgery. Now that he is somewhat on his feet again I am not running up and down the stairs as many times a day, but still a lot. He is starting to want to be independant of the the walker, just using a cane and that will make it easier because even though he can go up and down the stairs unaided now I still have to carry the walker up and down for him. Thursday is his doctor's appointment and he is hoping to get the word that he can put the walker away and just use the cane. I hope so too.

I like the way the back is looking on the Pineapple quilt.

So does my assistant Happy, in fact I barely got time to take the first picture before she got there. We reached the three quarters of the way done this morning, so I have to find the fabric I plan to use for the binding and get the next top out so I can work on piecing the back for it. To some people it might seem same old, same old, but I so enjoy the process and find it endlessly fascinating. One takes little pieces of fabric, one could call them rags, that most people would throw away, sew them together and turn them into a big piece of useful cloth. Amazing. I never get tired of it. Sometimes they are even beautiful, although I have made some pretty ugly quilts in my time.

Well anyway, I am getting a pretty good stack of coasters, trivets, mug rugs, whatever one wants to call them. I hope they are as popular next summer as they were this last summer.

These are all of a similar color because I have white thread on the machine, when I get to other colored thread there will be a greater variety of colors in the product, I'll probably do red or yellow next. To me there is a great satisfaction in being able to see what I have accomplished during the day. I hate wasting time by not being busy, and even when I am watching tv I am working on something by hand. If I had to sit and  my hands be idle I would go crazy. The only place I sit with my hands idle is at meeting and even then I have my Bible to use so it's not quite so bad as just sitting would be.

So now I am going to go look into my tub of quilt tops and decide which to quilt next. Fun!

My assistant and I got half way done quilting Pineapple today, or rather I did; she was busy grooming herself.

I always feel good when I get the halfway point, I feel a sense of accomplishment and I also start to think of the next top I am going to quilt and since I haven't finished a new top I will dig one out of the tub the tops are in. I will also have to piece a back so I will have to dig into that tub too. I have a lot of tops yet to be done, which gives me plenty of variety.

David isn't doing as well today and spent most of the day in bed, he was upstairs for a while and then came downstairs, his first trip on the stairs alone, and he did just fine. I stayed upstairs working, but came down to check on him and he was asleep every time, the best thing for him. I think the time change is affecting him, it usually does, and I know that most teachers really hate it because the kids get so cranky and tired. I think he will be better tomorrow for sleeping today.  I even took a short nap, so now I am ready to get to work on something else.

I feel refreshed and peaceful, it makes a huge difference to me when I can get upstairs to work on my sewing machines and watch my little boys upstairs.

 

They are firemen today.

 David is doing really well and we were upstairs until lunchtime. Ambrosina and Leon had errands to run so we kept an eye on the boys while they were gone, and now they are raking leaves and roasting marshmallows in the firepit. The weather has been incredible almost 70 degrees outside so they can have outdoors time this late in the year without bundling up so heavy they can't move.

 My assistant was pleased and Happy to be useful. I finished with the green diagonal rows and filled the pink bobbins ready to start on the pink diagonal rows next time we are upstairs.

I also got started on next summer's wares. These are coasters/trivets; last sale all that I had went like hotcakes so I am starting with them. They are fast and don't take up much space for storage. I don't really suppose it matters what I make as long as I work towards the goal of getting the stuff I need to make ready for next summer. I think that have a large variety of stuff is key, and I have some other ideas of things to do that might sell. If they don't I always have gifts, right?

David is doing fine, napping now, he went outdoors and sat in the sun while Sammy played, and they both enjoyed that. No working in the shop yet, but he is hoping when he sees his orthopedist next week he can put the walker away and just use the cane. He's almost doing better on the stairs now than me. It seems like there is some irony there to me. I'll have to think about it.