Tag Archives: life

Saturday Musings

It was a tough week.  It generally is the first week of the quarter. I’m pretty swamped with quarterly tasks and I’m generally waking up too early, working too late and dealing with everyone who wanted their tasks finished two days ago.  It’s not fun and this week was made worse because I didn’t stick with my morning ritual each morning and by Thursday I was totally out of sorts.  I have a morning routine that is designed to make sure I do the most important things first thing.  I work from home so it is very easy for me to roll out of bed and start working without doing the most important things.  An example of some of those important things are: drink a glass of water, take my meds, take my blood pressure, write 3 things I’m grateful for in my journal, read for 15 minutes, and knit 5 rounds on my socks.  So I generally spend an hour and a half on my morning ritual and then I can start my work day.  One day of doing this doesn’t really change anything that I notice but one day of NOT doing it really puts me out of sorts.  Especially after I’ve been doing this for a few months.  After many days of doing this, I’ve noticed that I’m much more relaxed, patient, calm, etc.  Well this week I had 2 -3 days of not doing my routine and by Wednesday evening my neck was killing me and by Thursday, I had a migraine, and Friday I had to stop work at noon to take a walk with the hubby for some exercise and to say hello to the sun. Really I spent a lot of time recuperating because I didn’t want to take the time on my morning ritual.  I know this but sometimes I just make bad decisions.

Other than that, I took the girl to Riverside to take a tour of UCR. We both enjoyed the campus. I’d never been to UCR so I was pleasantly surprised at how much we both liked it.

And I was scheduled to take this month’s quilty workshop with my guild.  Luckily the workshop was cancelled.  I can’t remember exactly what happened and I really wanted to attend as it was on machine applique.  But, I’m tired and I’ve got a lot of UFOs and WIPs that I need to take care of.  So I’m going to spend this weekend trying to finish the Rippidy Doo Dah project I showed last week.

~happy crafting

~Melanie

Goodbye Summer

I’ve been away from blogland lately.  Life took a turn a few months ago and I’m barely getting back to a kind of normal.  I’m fine physically, my family is fine.  In the overall scheme of things, I’m very grateful to where we are in life and all the abundance and opportunities we have.  The last couple of weeks I’ve been meaning to get back on and say hello.  I didn’t want to just jump on without acknowledging my disappearance but I also didn’t know how much to say.  I tend to overshare and I struggle with that fine line between what’s too personal and what’s okay.

We’ve experienced so many life changes that I mentally couldn’t do any more than take one day at a time.  And blogging and quilting were beyond me.  Over the last couple of months, we moved.  My daughter started freshman year at her high school and I enrolled my son into the 4th school in 4 years and my stepson moved in.  And randomly, my MIL would come and go as well.  In the middle of all that my big work project was completed.  A lot of changes, a lot of personalities, and things are just now slowly coming together.

In terms of quilting, as soon as we knew we were moving, I started packing my quilting stuff first.  I started with the the non-essentials – the fabric, the projects that have been waiting for me for years, the supplies I didn’t need for current projects, etc.  But then I packed up everything and I packed up my knitting stuff.  Everything was in boxes but for a few hand projects.  I didn’t touch any of them.  I went to work, I came home, I packed, I cleaned and that was my schedule.  If I wasn’t packing I was zoning out in front of the TV.  I usually don’t do that because I’m not a big TV person but I guess that was what I needed at that time.

The new house is nicer than the old house.  There’s a pool, I like the layout of the rooms better.  It’s closer to my office (7 minutes).  It’s closer to the girl’s school (5 minutes).  And the boy can walk to his new school if he had to.  So all in all, the move was a good thing.  The things that are not great affects my quilty habit.  The house is just a bit smaller than the old house and I can’t figure out where to put my cutting table.  Actually I need a new cutting table because I was using a 6″ folding table at the old house and that table will not fit in my new office/sewing room.  The lighting is horrible and I have to do something about it.  But the biggest issue I have is my mid arm Bailey and his frame.  I quilted 1 quilt on it and was just finishing up Tell It To the Stars when we started the moving process.  Tell It To The Stars is sitting in a bag waiting for Bailey to be set up so I can quilt it.  In the old house, Bailey was in the garage.  We didn’t use the garage other than storage and Bailey because we had a long driveway to the back of the house that could fit 10 cars if we wanted to.  We don’t have that in the new house.  In fact, right now the garage just has boxes in it along with Bailey and my grandma’s old Juki and our bikes, etc.  Our cars are in front of the house and we now have limited parking space.  We’ve got most of the boxes in the house and in the backyard unpacked.  I plan on getting the remaining 4-5 done this week.  Then I’ll start working on the garage.

I do have my sewing machines unpacked and I am working on the back for Scrapitude.  I haven’t put up my design wall yet so that has been difficult.  In the meantime, I’m working on my old hand project “Raining Cats and Dogs”.  I’m on the last block so once this is done, I can put the top together.  I have been thinking about quilting as a I go so that I can do the quilting on my Bernina in chunks.  I do not want to quilt this on Bailey because I don’t have the experience on Bailey that I want to quilt this on it.  But I may just finish the top and then quilt the whole thing on the Bernina.  I’ve still got time to figure this out, I’m just glad to be getting something done.

In my life, when things get rough or difficult, I can honestly say that it is usually for a good reason.  God looks out for me and my family and even if I can’t see why something is happening, I know that it’s happening for a good reason and it will all turn out eventually.  So the move brought us all down, me, my husband, the kids, none of us wanted to move.  But we’re in a better house with better landlords and I shaved off 200 miles a week from my commute, not to mention the time spent in the car.

I’m having problems uploading pictures from my phone.  It probably has to do with an update or something.  When I get that resolved I’ll start posting pictures again.

Happy Saturday!

Happy quilting!

~Melanie

Weekend Recap

If you’ve followed my blog over the last few weeks, you know that this weekend I was off to the 2nd of 2 cheer competitions this month.  This weekend was in Visalia and my daughter and I had a little weekend girls getaway.  Valentines evening we drove about 4 hours and that’s when I realized how far south it really was.  We’ve driven the Fremont to Los Angeles and back often over the last 18 years and the Harris Ranch/Coalinga exit is our usual pit stop.  Much to my surprise that was our exit towards Visalia.  We arrived around 10:30 that night, unpacked, and promptly went to sleep.  The following day, she was ready and I dropped her off at the competition.  I know I should have stayed but there was a knitting shop within walking distance.  I wandered for a couple of hours until I needed to get back to watch her.  The shop , called Creekside Yarns  was a wonderful shop.  I do not normally go into knitting shops. I’m a quilter and periodically I dabble in knitting.  But since I spend a whole lot of money on fabric I usually buy the cheap yarn from the big box stores.  However, the girl is starting to learn how to knit and we’re learning together.  So, I wandered in and the staff was super friendly.  I loved the atmosphere in the shop.  There was a group of ladies knitting around the table.  I’m not sure which of them worked there and which of them were just hanging out but a couple of them came by to see if I needed help.  I didn’t and I enjoyed hanging out with them as I shopped.  They also had a whole room of yarn on sale – 50% off sale.  So I purchased a bit of yarn and some needles and walked around main street.  There was a lot of eateries and cute shops to visit.  I watched the girl’s performance and they placed 2nd  in their division.  This was a vast improvement from their performance last week and everyone was happy with their success.

she's the one on the right of the two middle girls

my girl’s the one on the right of the two middle girls on top

After her awards, I had a couple of hours to drive over to the quilt shop a couple of miles away.  Thanks to DesertSuz for giving me the info of the local quilt shop and her other suggestions.  I checked out Thimble Town and purchased 4 yards!  I liked Thimble Town.  The staffers were friendly and very helpful.  The shop was busy with people streaming in.  I’m not familiar with all the fabric lines so I can’t say if they had everything but it wasn’t hard to find something to buy.  🙂 I enjoyed myself.  The best thing that happened was that they had me pick a Hershey’s kiss out of a bucket and at the bottom of the kiss was the number 25… meaning I got 25% off everything I bought.  I had to restrain myself from purchasing more than the 4 yards. 🙂

On Sunday, we drove over to Clovis which was about an hour north of Visalia, again thanks to DesertSuz’ suggestion.  There was a yarn shop called “knitaddiction” and unfortunately I didn’t enjoy it as much as Creekside Yarns in Visalia.  The girl and I walked in and we were the only two customers in the store.  The gal at the register, which I later found out was the owners daughter, asked if we needed help and we declined.  I believe the owner was in the back either knitting or winding a ball.  I’m not sure.  However, we walked around, and found a lot of pretty yarn.  But after the sales I found at Creekside Yarns, was not inclined to purchase something at full price.  Especially when I’m not so knowledgeable about good yarn and okay yarn and really good yarn.  So I trekked it over to the quilt shop, Quilter’s Paradise, and I LOVED IT!  DesertSuz’ suggestion was spot on.  Everyone was friendly, they had a wool section which I haven’t seen in any of the quilt shops I’ve visited these last few months.  They had baby boy sample quilts and kits available.  I usually see baby girl quilts around but hardly ever see baby boy ones.  My only suggestion would be for them to have both kits made up for those who do want to do a baby girl quilt.  They had a little bit on crocheting for baby gifts too.  I would have loved to take a class or two there if I lived close by. I broke my budget at this shop and couldn’t get the pin cushion I eyed at the antique shop DesertSuz suggested I visit also.  The antique shop in the corner was like a mini museum and the girl was amazed at some of the things on display.  She was wearing a very puffy jacket, though, and she was deathly afraid of bumping into something and breaking it.  Even though she’s a cheerleader, my girl is a bit of a clutz when not dancing, cheering or flying. 🙂

We had lunch and then headed home.  About 10 minutes away from our exit, we got a flat.  It wasn’t a very nice way to end a nice weekend but we were safe.  Considering the flat happened while I was on the fast lane of 880 I’m really happy I was able to make it over to the shoulder okay.  And since we were so close, the hubby came by and he waited for AAA while the girl and I went home in his car to rest.

So next Sunday I’ll be adding some yardage to my stash report.  I conveniently missed this Sunday’s report and I may miss next Sunday too.  I’ll be in Vegas next weekend helping the hubby celebrate his big 4-0 b’day.  In between gambling, a show, dancing and some eateries, I’m hoping to make it out to a quilt shop there too.  If you happen to know of any that I must absolutely check out, please let me know.  I will not be renting a car so it has to be conveniently located where I can easily take a taxi to.

I did get some quilty stuff done this weekend (mostly today since it is President’s Day) but I’m tired and that post will have to wait. 🙂

~I hope you got your quilty on this weekend!

~Melanie