Back in the Saddle Again!

 

 Well, the wedding is officially over and my nest is empty!  I am missing my daughter terribly, but I have been filling the hours with rearranging furniture, cleaning, and quilting.  It seemed like a really good time to make a fresh start, so I invited my friend Jo over to help me, and we rearranged my entire family room, moved stuff, and deep cleaned!  The next day, I rearranged and cleaned my bedroom all by myself.  Not so great on my back, but boy was my hubby surprised when he got home that day.  Finally, I have thrown myself into my quilting.  The quilts were kind of piling up during the last two weeks of December with the wedding and Christmas back to back.  I enjoyed six glorious days with my two grandchildren and their delightful mother:)  All my son did was watch football, but my daughter in law and I hung out and drank gallons of coffee.  After they were gone, the cleaning frenzy began.  Right now, I am working on quilts for my dad's cousin.  She brought me four at once that all need done by mid-January.  I am nearly done with the third of four.  I have added pictures of the ones that I have finished, as well as the one currently in progress.  I am using a variety of designs, and it has been fun to get back to work:)

Wedding this Week!

  Needless to say, I have not been quilting for the past couple of weeks!  My daughter is getting married this Friday, and we have been doing quality mother-daughter time, while trying to get all our ducks in a row for the actual wedding day.  At this point, just four days away, we seem to have most things ready to go.  It will be a very hectic day with decorating in the morning, getting everybody all ready to go, and then pictures, ceremony, reception, and dance.  I figure by midnight on Friday I will be about ready to collapse into a heap!  Once the wedding is behind us, it will just be a week until Christmas when my son, his wife, and two grandchildren will be with us for a few days.  That will be wonderful, but I will probably spend much of next week baking and getting ready for Christmas.  The good thing is that I was completely honest with all of my customers about time frames for their quilts, and they were all really great about waiting until January.  I will be one busy beaver come January!

Luck o' the Irish Chain

I have been desperately trying to finish the "must get dones" before my daughter's wedding a week from Friday.  As "luck" would have it, I finished my last big quilt this week.  It was a large queen-sized Irish Chain, which just happens to be my favorite pattern.  It was a relief to get it done, and my customer loved it.  She is giving it to her grandson for Christmas.  I sure hope he appreciates it!  I won't tell how many quilts I have waiting to be done by mid-January, but let's just say that as soon as the wedding is over, I better get hopping on my Nolting!  In the meantime, I have one little table square to quilt tomorrow, and I can shift my focus to working on my Lover's Knot for my daughter.  She already knows that it won't be done in time for the wedding, but I am going to focus on getting it done in time for Christmas.  She is set to arrive back from her honeymoon on Christmas eve, so hopefully, by then I will have it done.  If not, there's always next year!!!

Big Day Ahead!

  Today I will be really busy getting ready for a family Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow with my husband's family.  I am looking forward to it, but also dreading the work that lies ahead.  In the middle of the cooking and cleaning, I need to be working on a quilt today as well.  I have two customer quilts that have to be done in the next week to week and a half, and then I am done with the "pressure" of Christmas quilts.  Everyone else that called got told "no" because of my daughter's wedding on the 16th.  I probably could have finished at least one more, but I just knew that the stress would prove too great.  I already have several to finish before the end of January, though.  For now, I am trying to take one day at a time and will be so glad when the wedding is over and we can relax.  My helpful husband will hopefully spend much of the day being my "minion" as I do have to work on quilting today.  Right now I am trying to decide whether or not to make him a list of all that I need him to do.  I am leaning away from that because I am afraid the list will scare him into a football watching coma!!!

"Gift From the Sea"

 This morning I awoke at 5:30 a.m. (tends to happen when you go to bed the night before at 8:00!), made myself a cranberry, white mocha latte, and settled in to finish reading Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift from the Sea.  Although it was written over 50 years ago, the wisdom contained within those 100ish pages is timeless.  I haven't read anything recently that I have found more thought-provoking and truth-filled.  I plan to buy copies for several people for Christmas.  For those of you that haven't read it, I highly recommend it.  One life-lesson that she presents is the art of simplifying.  In my own life, since the death of my mother-in-law on Christmas Eve two years ago, I have given a lot of thought to striving for the future while never really taking the time to enjoy the present.  Giving up my teaching career and gradually decreasing my workload outside of the home so that I can spend more time in creative pursuits have been a big part of that "simplify" philosophy.  Do I have as much money as I once had?  No.  Can I go to the grocery store and buy whatever I want without thinking about the bill when I get to the checkout?  No.  Do I spend as much time at the mall or shopping for clothing that I really don't need?  No.  Am I less stressed and more content with my life?  YES!