Whew! I've been busy

 I'm tired and just remembered that I've been so busy with stitching and prepping for stitching that I hadn't posted here.  This will be somewhat of a long post so grab a cup of your favorite beverage and sit down and relax. ....Ready?

I'll first start with the progress on my sewing room.  I managed to pick up shelving units from Home Depot and am using them now.  Thank you to my friend Dan who took me to get them and then stayed to put them together.  I like that they are sturdy.  Each shelf can hold up to 250 pounds in weight and is high enough that I stack my storage units on them.

With it being a bit more organized, I am able to put individual projects in the bins and find things easier.  That has allowed me to finish another UFO which I'm just calling a braid wall hanging.  I wanted to learn how to do the braid and had a little bit of it left so framed it for a small wall hanging.  The border on this is much lighter than what the pictures shows.  Some colors are hard to get right in pictures.

To add to my joy, some fabric that has been ordered for quite awhile has now been delivered.   I'm sure it is not a surprise that I love it all.  First is 4 pounds of Batiks that were on sale. 

Of course one sale led to another and I HAD to get these.  They are 10" wide strips by 110" long.  I hadn't seen them offered that way before and for $7.99 for each strip it was a bargain.  Oh, did I mention that it is Stonehenge fabric?  Yeah, now you know why I said I HAD to get them

I also love fabric from The Intrepid Thread.  These are their Chambray fabrics which recently came out.

They feel so nice!

Also from them came my pre order for Maple Farm.  I haven't decided what to make with them but one day it will come to me.

I am making progress on my Simple Yet Elegant Block of the month.  I put them together to take a picture.  I have three blocks that are fused but need to stitch them yet.  The top left block (yellow) will be placed one block to the left but it didn't fit well to take a picture so I just moved it to where you see it.  

I think it will be pretty when completed.  My friend Susan is doing this also and I hope one day she will let me post her pictures.

I also have been working on Christmas in Jacksonville embroidery blocks.  I'll take a picture of that for my next post since I am close to finishing another block.  That way you get to see the most updated progress.  I need to pick out colors for the pieced blocks.  Hopefully I will have that figured out by the next post.

If that wasn't enough, I have been cooking too.  Dan took me to Little Piggy's BBQ and I came away with enough BBQ Ribs to eat for a couple of days and also have plenty to put in the freezer.

It even tasted good in my noodle bowl as leftovers.

That's it for this post.  I hope you have enjoyed it.  Everybody stay safe and have a great day.

Saturday Updates

August is almost over with and has been pretty much productive.  I am starting to adjust my schedule to try to make my time awake more productive.  Take today.  I woke up around 2 a.m. after going to bed last night around 10:30.  It seems that my body likes to wake me up after around 3-4 hours.  So as I laid in bed this morning, trying convince my body that I really should sleep more.  Then I got up because I was laughing at myself for thinking that, and worked on my House Blocks.  This quilt has been given many names including Coronaville, Home and Heart, and House Block Quilt.  Even I change up the name of what I call it.  Most of the time I call it the House Block. I am making progress on it.  This morning (see?  I can get back on topic) I sewed the top row together.

I'll start to work on the next row next week.  That will be three tree blocks and two house blocks.

Also next week I will be doing some more work on the lattice layer cake quilt. 

I have cut some more of the layer cake but haven't finished matching up which triangles will be paired together.  There will be plenty of repeats since it was a layer cake.  

With the last week of August looming around the corner, what are my plans for September?  I will be working more on my  Mini Owl cross stitch, the cross stitch quilt blocks, Christmas in Jacksonville, and the Simple Yet Elegant blocks.  I think there are more that I've slotted but I'll write about them when I remember.

It's time for me sign off for now and perhaps get some breakfast or take a nap.  I'm never sure which will win out.  

I hope everybody has a great day and enjoy your weekend!

Retirement

 I was asked the other day how is retirement.  Actually I have been asked that quite often since I have only been retired for a couple of months.  That question is usually hypothetical but I thought I'd answer it anyway.

When I went for some retirement meetings and lectures, it was mentioned that retirement is like a vacation.  The first two weeks would go by fast but what about after that?  Will you still feel like you are on a vacation or will the vacation be over and you come back to reality?  That got me to think and I wondered what MY retirement would be like.  I am loving it.  

My financial situation is what is taking me the longest to adjust to.  I find myself dipping into my savings as I try to get used to living on half of what I made before.  It's doable but let's face it, do we ever like to pull in the reins and force ourselves to be on a stricter budget?  Of course not.  I'm doing OK on meeting my bills so far so I'm not worried.  The house I rent is a fixer upper and is taking the landlord longer to fix up than anticipated, partly due to COVID.  He is a friend so I feel fine talking to him about what I want fixed up and in what time frame.  There is a list of things on my refrigerator door that I want done before winter and when he comes over we look it over and change it up.  Things are coming along according to my schedule.  My basic needs are met and I am comfortable. 

My days and nights are what I dreamed retirement would be like or what I hoped it would be like.  I wake up when my body tells me to and go to sleep when it tells me to.  I went to bed last night around midnight and got up around 4 a.m. this morning.  I do not set an alarm clock.  It was when my body told me it was time to get up.  If I get tired I can take a nap.  :)

I get to craft when I feel like it without the strain of trying to work it in between work and other commitments.  My days are usually sleep for 4 hours, craft for 4 hours, nap for 1 hour.  Get up and repeat.  Oh yes, somewhere in there is yucky things like cleaning.

I am enjoying cooking more than I did before since my kitchen seems so large compared to what I had in Illinois.  I no longer have an apartment sized stove.  It's full size and oh look...baking pans fit in it!  I had to make an apple pie (yummm) and tuna quiche (yummm) to test it out and they turned out great.  Even when it was in the 90s outside, my kitchen stayed cool.  That is because I have a window a/c unit in it.  There is another a/c unit in my living room so overall the house stays in the 70s.

Am I completely unpacked and settled in?  Nope...not at all.  I'm not even sure I will EVER be unpacked.  Most of my boxes and totes have craft things in it so once my craft room is where I want it I might.  Does anybody EVER get totally unpacked?  I'm not in a hurry and a lot can't be unpacked until I get shelves up in the craft room.  I did pick up two DVD/CD shelves and put them in the craft room for some of my fabric.

I am happy with how it looks so decided I had better quickly take a picture to share with you before it gets all cluttered up.  

So, all in all, my days are spent doing what I thought I would like to do.  I guess I might still be on vacation then.  :)  I guess that means the answer to the question of whether or not I am enjoying retirement so far would be YES!

It has enabled me to finish up some projects.  Last night, while chatting via Hangouts with a friend, I was finishing up a table runner.  Here is the front of it...

And the back of it looks like this...

That's it for now.  I hope everybody has a great day and hang in there.  The weekend is right around the corner.

Today's word is lethargic

That's what I am feeling today - lethargic.  My energy seems to have been zapped for today so this will probably be a short post.

It's not a bad day or week just every once in awhile I get into a lethargic mood.  Do I have things to do?  Of course.  Are they written down so I will remember them?  Of course they are.  Will I remember to look at the journal so I know what I wanted to do?  Well I'll try. 

I am working on some UFOs yet as well as the BOMs, etc.  Found out I have to get more green DMC floss for  the Christmas one.  I've got it ordered so that isn't bad.  I do have something new (to me) that I am excited about.  I went to a garage sale and picked up two DVD/CD books cases and put them on top of my table in the sewing room.  I think it looks good there.  I decided I had better take a picture before I fill it up too much.  Little steps to get organized at a time.  :)

Another step in getting my sewing room organized!

That's about it this time.  I have started a new project which shall go together (at least the top) pretty fast.  It is supposed to be simple and perhaps that is what I need.  A quick simple project to kick me back on track.

I hope you all have a good day and I'll chat another time.

Updates and Words to Contemplate

This week started out well and I have made progress on some projects. As some of you know, I am working on various projects as well as trying to finish up some UFOs. Th Simpe Yet Elegant blocks are coming along nicely. I need 4 tulip blocks but have only finished one so far. I will pick it up in between doing other blocks.

The second block is fused down but I am taking a break from it for a bit to work on other projects.  Then I will go back and stitch this.  I need to pick out my DMC thread that I will use yet but once that is done I can get stitching. I hope to have this all stitched down by the end of the month so I will be ready for the 3rd block.  

Another project that I am working on is Christmas in Jacksonville. I have stitched and completed the first two embroidery blocks.

I will probably get the third block ready to stitch next week.  This project also has some pieced blocks that I need to get the fabric picked out for.

Yet another project that is taking shape is the house block exchange from my Our Time To Quilt group,  Those who were wanting to participate exchanged a 8 1/" house block.  I will be adding more 8 1/2" blocks in order to make it a wall hanging.  In order to do that, I will need to figure out what put in those extra blocks and then I figured it out.  Hopefully I have figured it out.  I will be appliqueing a couple of small trees in the squares.  I saw it in the September/October 2014 issue of Quiltmaker Magazine.  it was called Parkview Lane.  I know the greens I will use for the threes and sashings.  I need to pick out my background fabric and then I can start to put it together.

Since I am who I am, I always have more projects then time so of course I decided to add another one to the list.  It's a small one.  It's Sindy Rodenmayers Merry Christmas Wall Hanging from Fat Cat Patterns.  I'll talk about this in upcoming posts.  Perhaps I can call it an UFO since the pattern goes back to 2018?

Speaking of UFOs, I'm almost done with another one.  It is a log cabin table runner from Jordan Fabrics.  It's all ready for the binding to be put on.  I might even finish it this week but if not then next week.

I will be using a light green for the binding.

I know that this post is a little long but I seem to have more words to say.  In yesterdays mail I received my American Quilter Magazine and found it to be one of the best issues (in my opinion).  Besides a lot of eye candy in "A Retrospective Exhibit:  Quilts by Judy Niemeyer and Quiltwork", there is an excellent article by Karen Kay Buckley whose scissors I LOVE!  She wrote an excellent article on how to keep seam allowance "shadowing" from happening.  It was another article that REALLY caught my eye though.  It was about "Peaceful Quilting" by Diane L. Murtha.  While I don't agree with all the tips there were a few that I wanted to share with you.  These tips can apply to life and not just quilting.

One tip talked about making plans and what happens when you don't finish everything that you added to or have on your "to do" list.  It should not surprise anybody if I just condense it by saying that you probably get more stressed.  Right?  How many times do you carry over projects to the next day, the next week, month, year?  Maybe we need to cut back a bit on the list.  Make the list more doable,  If you know you can't get a project done in one day, week, or whenever, put it on the list for another day.  Why not just put it on the list for when you realistically can finish it.  Let yourself feel better by seeing what you DID accomplish instead of looking at what you didn't.  Keep things as positive as possible instead of concentrating on the negative.  There is enough negative thinking going on right now.  Let's start to try and tip the scales towards positivity.

To help with that, "Establish Positive Rituals."  Surround yourself with things that make you happy.  A picture that makes you smile or perhaps play music that you like.  What is your stitching area like?  I "managed" ok in my old apartment but it wasn't until after the move that I realized that my stitching area is so much better now and that inspires me to tackle more projects and UFOs.

It was the last point in the article that made me smile.  It was about how to designate time for certain things.  Boy did that section hit home.  I don't know how many times I've told people that I don't do math after Noon.  While I say it in jest, there is some truth in that.  When I was working, I always tried to do my excel projects in the morning.  I am more alert in the morning.  That wasn't always possible but it was preferable.  You need to know what your best time s are to do things.  Then find other things to do in the other times.  Is morning best for your sewing?  Perhaps the afternoon or evening is good for planning on what craft you will be doing the next morning.  Perhaps you can use the other time to gather some things to work on so you will having everything all ready to start the day in a more productive day.  

Basically, no matter what you do, find out what works best to hep you be more peaceful and positive.  No matter what project you do, if you are not positive or at least calm, it will affect your work.  Give it a try.  Maybe pick one thing each day to find about the day that is positive.  Today I would pick the weather.  It is a cooler start to the day and a high of 80F predicted.  Also no rain in the forecast.  That's a good thing.

I've chatted enough.  Now it is time for me to plan what to do for the rest of the day, besides eating the apple pie I baked yesterday.

Have a wonderful day my friends. 

UFO and House updates

Hi everybody!

This last week has been productive.  I finished two UFOs!  You read that right.  I finished 2 UFOs.  They were small projects but they count anyway right?  For Searching for UFO week with Pattern Pastiche I finished my Suduko Quilt (had the binding to do) and I finished 3 Friends from Bird Brain Designs.  

After I finished those, I started on a search for more UFOs.  Not to get them all done at once, but just to see what I have and how to organize them.  That is the key to getting it down and being able to work on them without feeling like you are drowning.  I have a TON or UFOs and will post pictures, names, and strategy to attack them sometime.  

In between  working on the UFOs, my friend Susan and I are going to do Simple but Elegant and Christmas in Jacksonville.  Simple but Elegant is offered through Pattern Pastiche and it is just starting.  I cut all my squares first to make sure that I had enough fabric that would match and then was also able to fuse down the first tulip block.  There will be a total of four tulip blocks that will go in the center.  So if I finish up a block before the next one comes along, I can work on another tulip block.

Simple but Elegant is a Baltimore inspired project as is Christmas in Jacksonville.  Christmas in Jacksonville has been going for a bit so I have to catch up.  The blocks are embroidered with some Courthouse Steps/Log Cabin blocks in there too.  Here is my first one done.  I can't wait to start on the second block.

Other non crafting news, is that I now have both sides of my kitchen sink working.  Shalom came over and fixed it so it doesn't leak there any longer but did discovered another leak which will require him to turn off the water.  He didn't have the parts for it so he couldn't fix it last night.  He has to come back to replace and fix parts in the bathroom sink. That would require him to turn off the water also so he will be doing that on the same day.  If you have to turn off the water, you might as well get it all done in one day.

He will be contacting a friend to bring his drone over to do an aerial survey of the roof to see how bad that is.  It's kind of a cool thought that you can do a lot of that without even getting on the roof.  Oh the fun and joy of living in an older house that previous occupants hadn't kept up like they said they had.

I can see the backyard now.  That is good and bad.  It's good that most of the brush has been cleared out.  It's bad because I can see the junk the previous tenants just left there.  That is in the process of getting cleaned up.  Shalom's son needs to get more exercise and do something besides being on the computer or playing games all day.  Shalom will have him start to do more yard work.  He only does it max of 1 hour a day but in heat/humidity temps in the low 100s I don't blame him.

That is it for now.  Everybody stay safe and I'll chat with you another time.

The Grim Ripper

I'm sure that most of you know about Jack the Ripper.  He lives yet today in the form of the Grim Ripper.  Perhaps he thought he could change his name and it wouldn't be noticed.  Well *I* noticed it.  I even caught him in the act of ripping and captured his image.  Here it is.

This small and seamingly innocent character lurks around the sewing area just waiting to pounce,  Sometimes it hides and calls its relatives to join him so that there are more than one around.  I think it would be safe to say that all quilter's, as well as anybody who sews, has at one time or another been introduced to The Grim Ripper.  Jack, my name for Grim,  is well known to me.  I shouldn't be surprised.  Early on I learned that the dark side is your friend.  You are always being told to press towards the dark side.  Perhaps that was the beginning of my relationship with Jack.

This mug rug/small hanging was going along so well until Jack appeared.  I give three strikes to a project before I set it aside.  The first strike in this project was when I was quilting it, I didn't notice my backing fabric folded over.  Ok.  That's not TOO bad since it was black fabric and on the back.  It was trike two and three that got me.  Strike two was when I was trimming the top and batting before folding the back fabric over for the binding.

There I was, minding my own business and watching to make sure that I didn't cut the fabric where it wasn't supposed to be cut.  Then I thought I heard something.  Wasn't sure what it was, but now I think it was one of Jack's relatives in the other room laughing.  I stopped what I was doing and went to look.  There he was!  On the floor was Jack's cousin.  He had jumped down from my couch where I was stitching earlier.  I stared at him, shook my finger at him, and told him to stay put as I laid him back on the couch.  You'd think that he would like having it easy just laying on the  couch.  After putting Cousin Jack on the couch, I went back to finishing up dealing with Jack...or so I thought.

That's when I discovered strike two and three.  Everything was going along ok at first.  I was sure that Jack wasn't going to seduce my fabric to go and meet him.  Surely little polka dots could resist the dark side.  Sigh.  No, they couldn't.  As i was folding over the binding on one side, I saw it.  Up in my face, was a hole.  A HOLE!  Where did that come from?  Yeah, you know what I'm going to say next.  It came from Jack calling to my fabric to go to the dark side.  Given in and fall down that rabbit hole.  What was one to do?  I did what I usually do when I get an ouchie.  I put a band aid on it.  Oh not a true plastic band aid.  I took some of the cutting from the black fabric and laid it UNDERNEATH the binding and then stitched it down.  Would that like darning?  Anyway I was sure that was it.  Nope.  Jack had also seduced another section to go to the dark side.  This too was on the same side as the band aid and right in the corner.  Luckily it wasn't as bad as strike two but it was hard enough to stitch since it was right in the corner.  So that was Strike three.  

I almost threw it out but I knew that somewhere deep down in that worm hole of all thrown out projects Jack was thinking he had won.  I am either keeping this project or sending it to a friend who was with me all along the journey into the dark side.

It's a good thing I have other small projects that I can send in place of Jack.  I hate to say it, but Jack is sort of growing on me and I smile knowing that ultimately I won!  If I say that often enough it must be true....right?

Yardwork and UFO Week

This week is starting out with a busy schedule.  Pattern Pastiche is having a UFO (unfinished objects) week challenge which I am participating in.  It is basically a week to help us concentrate on finishing up projects.  My first one is going to be the Sudoku wall hanging.  I have it all done except for the binding so I 

was working on that today.  The binding will be the same fabric that is on the back.  

Here is a close up of the binding.

Hmm.  If I ever figure out the new blogger, I'll get the left justified for my margins again.  LOL.  Oh well.  Forgive the formatting but you get the general idea.

The other thing that I worked on was another block for the cross stitch quilt blocks.  I now have four of them done.

Sooner of later they will all get done and then I'll have other decisions to make on them.  :)

I've started the Christmas in Jacksonville blocks.  These  are Baltimore Album inspired 

blocks but they are hand embroidered.  I will be using two colors for the blocks.  One will be the red that I use in redwork (nicknamed turkey red) and then a green.  This is the first block that I've started. There are five blocks up and all are still available.  If interested  you can find information at:

https://my.modafabrics.com/inspiration-resources/christmas-jacksonville

I notice that one of the centers of the rose isn't perfect but then neither am I.  I'll wait until I get the rest sewn and see if it bugs me or not.

Another thing that is going on today is Shalom, his son, and Boromir (you might remember Boromir from helping me move) came over and they are doing some yard work.  Finally the front is mowed and trimmed a bit.  Boromir started to whack the mess in the backyard.  I didn't know I had a backyard.  I'm still debating if it is a myth or not.  Nothing has been done to it for at least over a year.  After chopping things down, he discovered that the cable line and the electric line are on top of each other.  I will call about that tomorrow.  He also discovered some more bottles and stuff that the previous owners were too lazy to get rid of.  It will all get cleaned up but it will take awhile.  Here are some progress pictures.  This first one is the before picture as taken from the window in front of my sink.

This one is after some progress was made.  You can start to see a bit of a path which he had to do with a machete.

The front yard got a cutting also.

The dead tree is still there.  The guy who was to come and take it out got sick so he couldn't come.  When he feels better the logs and tree will be added to the pile to be picked up.

So far for this week, this is what is put to the curb.  

That's it for the post this week.  I'm back to pinning on the binding to the wall hanging.  Wish me luck towards the end of it.  I haven't mastered the art of sewing the two pieces together yet to finish.  Fingers crossed.

Have a great day everybody.

Scenic Arkansas

Shalom took me grocery shopping the other day and on the way it turned into a scenic tour on the way home.  Knowing that I came from corn country, he started out showing me Milo crops.  The picture didn't turn out so you have to settle for this information instead. 

"Milo is used for several things, but in the United States, primarily it is used as cattle and hog feed. It is priced most often at a discount to corn, so it is a cheaper alternative to corn when used as feed. It is considered a slight inferior substitute to corn in livestock rations."

Milo looks a lot like corn when it starts out but after it gets up higher you can start to see the differences.  The main one that I saw as Shalom went by was that the leaves on the stalks aren't as spread out as corn is.  I'm used to seeing the leaves on the corn reach out pretty far on each side.  With Milo it stays closer to the stalk.

That got us on the topic of rice.  The area I'm in is the home of Riceland Rice so you see rice everywhere.  I had never seen rice grow before so he took me to find a nice field of it.  It was interesting but what interested me most was irrigation system.

First is the rice on either side of the irrigation dyke.  They create little dykes in the fields so when it rains, or they water the rice, the overflow will each out to all the other areas.  It is built up but there also are little areas where they flatten the dyke so water can flow out.

This picture will show the irrigation tubing that the water flows through.  As you can see, as the water runs through it, there are holes which forces the water to up and out.  It's fun to watch and reminds me of old garden hoses that spring leaks when they need replacing.  LOL.

This pictures shows how they run the generator.  Basically it is just a diesel engine that gets set up and used as a generator.  I found it pretty efficient and interesting.

Shalom also took me to see the river which is only 4 miles from my house.  Of course that 4 miles is crooked and i wouldn't walk it!  He almost got stuck in the sand as he was taking me around to get my pictures.

This was the Payneway Acess  and there is a Dam there that can be locked down or opened up a bit to help with the control of the water in the delta.  This was the lowest the river has been in a long time but you can still see that on one side of the dam the water is still rolling/turbelent.

One side of the bridge...

and the other side of the bridge/dam.

We saw some people fishing in the area and you can park there etc.

To learn more about the St. Francis River go to:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Francis_River  

I hoped you enjoyed the pictures and little scenic tour.  Happy Friday and have a great day!

What's on the Agenda Today

It's Sunday and time for me to plan what to make or eat this week and what to do.  Can you believe that it is almost one month since I retired?  I guess I must be on the 'vacation' feeling yet because it is not old and my daily routine hasn't settled in yet.  That's what the experts call it.  They say that the first weeks of retirement are usually considered to be vacation.  You know, that two weeks off that you always wanted to take but never thought you could.  So when you consider what to do in retirement or where to settle in retirement take that into consideration.

That is one reason I chose Arkansas.  The other reasons are more financial (as in cheaper to live).  Still, I am not sorry I have retired here, even though the house isn't as finished as i hoped.  Wait...I'm retired and my landlord is not...I can let things happen at its own pace.  So what do I do all day?  That is a question I wondered about myself just this morning.

I get up around 6 a.m.  The house is so quiet that I can hear the birds singing and wish I could curse the sun a little bit because it is what woke me up.  In Illinois the sun never woke me up because I didn't have enough windows for it to happen.  I knew there was a downfall to all these windows.  Actually it is only the window in the door that wakes me up.  The drapes on the other windows block out the sun pretty good.  Now that I am awake and take care of that normal morning stuff nature reminds you that you need to do, what to do for the rest of the day?

I have never been one to just sit and empty out box after box all in the first day (or month) of moving.  Heck, I'll be lucky if I get everything emptied out in the first year!  I'm trying to take my time so that I can go through things and make final decisions on whether or not to keep something.  That means needing caffeine!  LOTS of caffeine!  Even MORE caffeine!   Luckily there is a Valero gas station which has fountain soda and even has some limited selection of food like potato wedges, biscuits and gravy, Chester's chicken, breakfast sandwiches, etc.  It is 2 blocks from my house so I can walk it without any problems.  It IS a convenience store though so even though it is convenient it is not cheap.  Still it gets me out of the house for a limited amount of time.

Once I get back to the house and finish eating breakfast it is time to see what else I need to do.  THAT'S easy enough to figure out.  Go through more boxes and try to find my sewing room.  I cannot do that 24/7 and even if I could I doubt I would.  So for now, I unpack a bit, watch Netflix a bit (ok more than a bit) and try to fix lunch or think of what to fix for meals.  Normally I don't have a problem with thinking on what to fix for meals BUT my refrig is going out.  The freezer portion keeps things frozen but the refrigerator portion is reading 60 degrees.  Not good for keeping food in.  I have a new refrigerator on order and it should be here around the 6th of July.  Can't wait!!!!

I found my sewing machine one day.  Then it took me two more days to find the foot pedal.  I need to make some house blocks so I was excited to learn that the sewing machine was working ok.  THEN it took me a couple more days to find my rulers and rotary cutter and another couple of days to figure out what colors to use.  Finally I got enough material to make a test block and this is how it turned out.

After I finish these blocks, or perhaps in between making these blocks, I will be making Churn Dash blocks to send in for a member of one of my quilting groups who died.  We are sending in Churn Dash blocks and another women will be making quilts to go to the family members.  that will be nice.  I like the Churn Dash.

It is a bad allergy day so I am going to stop here.  Did I finish explaining my day?  Well see above and repeat.  That's my day.  Get caffeine, bake something, plan meals for only 2 days at a time, try and do some crafting...nap and repeat.  :)

Eventually I will be branching out and go visiting some place with friends.  Tennessee is probably at the top of the list because they have a big farmers market.  Who knows.  I'll keep you all informed and updated.  

Have a great day!

More Paperwork and Chinese Buffet

It seems that I needed to get more paperwork to SURS (State University Retirement System) for my retirement.  I think it is a bit like the right and left hands don't talk to each other and know what they are doing.  Dan picked me up and it didn't take long to make my copies and get them in the mail.  Afterwards he took me to a Chinese Buffet that had a Coi Pond in it. 

The restaurant was called the Hibachi Grill Supreme Buffet and they had an indoor coi pond.  Here is a picture of it as well as a link to the small vid.  Like before, you would click on the link and then look for the symbol (upper right side?) to open it up and play it.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/piPSoJoaN2HVDWX57 

In case you have trouble viewing the video, here is a picture of the Coi Pond.

I also managed to find some of my quilt blocks and took a couple of stitches on it again.  Hopefully by this weekend I will be able to start on some house blocks that I owe people.