Thursday, January 4, 2018

My plan for today was to do a couple of quick things that resulted from the Board meeting last night, get a deposit ready, and head out for a few errands – the bottle and recycle depot as well as get some gas. Then I remembered that I had to do the cleaning at the Hall for awhile (our regular cleaner is having surgery), but if there wasn’t anything in the Hall over the weekend it could wait until Monday. As luck would have it there is an event there on Sunday so I’ll do my running around and cleaning tomorrow. Those full days at home are so hard to come by!

First on my “quick list” was changing a wrong mailing address with Revenue Canada. I spoke to someone who couldn’t change it because I wasn’t on the list of Directors that she had. I had our last filing in front of me but she didn’t and wouldn’t budge on making the change. I demanded (yes, I had to demand) to speak to someone higher up who would have access to our latest records and I finally got someone who could help me. Sorting it all out took a long time, but hopefully the address has been changed in all the right places.

The deposit was quite quick, as were the other items on my list. I had barely moved on to something else (shredding more paper) when the phone rang and someone wanted to drop off money for Sunday’s Hall rental; it was either redo my deposit or create a new one so now I have two deposits to make tomorrow. I have to let the renter into the Hall (and check her out) on Sunday afternoon; I’ll stay for at least part of her event and then go back to the Hall, do the cleaning for next week and lock up.

I was ready to do a bit of sewing by the time lunch was over. I put the binding on my card, as well as the binding on the quilt that I used as practice with the long-arm. Both are ready for some hand stitching so I’ll do that until it is time to get ready for the Guild meeting tonight.

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

I have less than ten minutes before we head off to the Cranberry Hall Board meeting. I spent all day in my studio – most of the morning was spent getting reports ready for the meeting tonight and for the Guild meeting tomorrow.

When the work was done I got busy on a card; since I was using a Splendid Sampler pattern I did an extra block for my Second Time Around quilt. It’s the first sampler block I’ve done for ages and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have the binding left to do on the card and some stay-stitching around the edges of the block but it feels like a productive day.

I found a suggestion for 31 days of decluttering. It’s going to take me longer than that but I thought I could work at the Day One suggestion until it is done and then move on. Paperwork was the first de-cluttering goal so I shredded a couple of bins of paper today; I still have a box full and there would be more if I cleaned out my filing cabinet, but first things first!

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

I’m back to my routine today and I’m glad; by the end of the holiday I was ready. I was back at the bee today after a quick stop to drop books at the Library and get a parcel mailed. I’m trying to do as much running around on Tuesday as possible, but I decided that the recycle and bottle depots would have to wait until tomorrow (or later if I take too long getting meeting reports ready). I neglected to take my camera to the bee today so my blog post there will be a bit shorter (and less time-consuming) than usual.

I’ve started the New Year by working on a UFO – I’ll keep at it on Tuesdays until I finish it. I rechecked my pattern a few minutes ago because I thought I had only eight blocks (two or three of each) to finish. Sadly I see in the final step I need 120 half-square triangles; perhaps I’ll still be working on this when we turn over to 2019!

Today I thought I’d share some of the things that made me smile over the holidays.

• The Christmas concert on the 23rd – lots of favourites as well as new-to-me songs. They closed with a version of Silent Night that was the nicest I’ve ever heard – each verse was set to a different tempo. I must find out who arranged it – perhaps our own Walter Martella? I had Pat check with Walter and it was based on the version that Pentatonix do; I purchased the CD and listened to it all day yesterday while I cleaned up my sewing space (well half of it anyway).
• The drive from the ferry to the studio on the 24th – was it frost or had there been snow at some point? Whatever the cause the trees and ditches were beautiful. We don’t get a White Christmas often and it is even better when you are settled in and don’t need to go anywhere. There is still snow on the ground today and I’m ready for it to be gone. Rain is expected later in the week and that will take care of it.
• As we unwrapped the Christmas boxes we received in the mail it is apparent my girls learned at least one thing from me – how to tape a parcel so it is indestructible!
• The things we forgot. Cream cheese was on sale so I bought three different kinds, as well as two different kinds of bagels. The bagels made it into the packing but the cream cheese was forgotten. One of the meals we planned was a Tortiere – the filling and pie plate came with us but the pie shell remained in the freezer in Powell River. Fortunately the market opened after Christmas and we were able to buy another pie shell and some cream cheese.
• Organized floss bins. It took all day but I wound all my skeins of floss onto bobbins. I had a few extra floss bins so I went from four bins to six and each of the bins have room should I find any colours I don’t currently have, and need. I even wound all the skeins of floss for my current project. I had lots of time to work on that current project, as well as start a massive book – the complete works of the Bronte sisters!

Monday, January 1, 2018

Here’s my list for 2018!

• It really is time to get something done with my boxes and bins of photos. I probably have just as many photos stored digitally too.
• We’ll continue with the House Concerts – three more scheduled for the Spring. We don’t have to make a decision until the summer as to whether or not we will sign up for another year. They are a lot of work but people enjoy the shows and Pat enjoys being involved.
• I’m already committed to another year with the Guild Library and I can’t seem to get out of writing their blog or monitoring their Facebook page. My time on the Cranberry Hall Board could end in April, but I’m planning to volunteer for another year – I hate to give it up when I kind of know what I’m doing!
• My needlework for the next year will likely be finishes rather than starts – although I have lots of starts waiting. I currently have two cross stitches that are in plain sight in the studio on Texada, with another two sitting in one of the cupboards. Dad’s cedar chest is full of UFOs and a few new kits so perhaps I’ll be able to make a dent in some of them.
• I’m going to continue to try and use up my yarn supplies. The Prayer Shawls have been very helpful with this and I’ll continue to knit for the Salvation Army.
• One of our challenges with the Guild this year was to try to get six UFOs finished – I have four left on my list so maybe I’ll concentrate on getting them done. I was in charge of the member’s challenge this year and I still don’t have my own done. We do a scrap block of the month (which I’ve kept up with) and a row by row of the month (I’m one behind right now and, as of January’s meeting, I’ll be getting two more).
• I don’t know if Goodreads will have their challenge again but I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest I’ll get 35 books read this year. Getting rid of my books continues to be a challenge and one that I don’t have a good solution to (although I think the Texada library will accept books).
• Although I’ll cut down on the number of cards I make this year I still hope to send some. I’ve started to use some of my other projects as cards (watch January birthday posts to see what I mean) so being more diverse might make it more interesting and less like a “have-to”.

That’s enough don’t you think?