Gee, I am re-reading last week’s post, and life seemed so much simpler then.  LOL.  Isn’t everything in life just relative?

My three year old great-granddaughter did indeed help me decorate the tree last Monday.  I put her in charge of adding my favorite icicles to the bottom half of the tree.  (I have 24 of these, so probably 20 of them are at the bottom now.)

After EACH addition, she made sure I looked at it, and then, EACH time asked “Isn’t it just beautiful where I put it?”.   Now remember, she is only three.  She has been talking full conversational paragraphs since she was 18 months old.  And boy does it get entertaining at times!  She brightens our lives for sure!

We then moved onto the very fragile glass ornaments that she insisted on unpacking and handing me one at a time, with much commentary on each.  So fun!  I am just happy to have the tree decorated.  And the week did a fast decline from there, so it is VERY good to know at least that is done.

 

Tuesday included attending an elementary school Christmas Sing Along (my youngest daughter is the music teacher) an hour away.  Then afterward texts and calls were flying back and forth as a two year old grand was taken to the ER with difficulty breathing and an almost four year old grand was covered in hives and the question was “Do we go to the ER?”.   Do hospitals do group discounts?  We thought we were going to find out.  All is good with them now.  Wednesday was good.  The Sewing Connection sold out of Snowflake kits, and I had a good evening playing with lasers.  Playing with lasers and quilting are my happy place, so good times.  Then the creepy crud hit me very early Thursday morning, and that was pretty much the end of my week.  I spent two days in the recliner (And it takes A LOT to put me down.  I don’t sit still well!) and spent the next two feeling like I should be back in the recliner, and now it is Monday!  And we are even CLOSER to Christmas.  Yikes!

So, when you have no energy, feel like crap, and feel like there is way too much you should be doing to just be snoozing in a recliner, what do you do?  First of all, you realize that there are legions of people in way worse shape, and you thank God for your life, and move forward. Then you take a good look at what you CAN do, which for me was “Good Fortune” (in very short bursts), online Christmas shopping (also in very short bursts), and store stuff (even shorter bursts).  I am so thankful my husband was willing to run errands and go to the basement work area and bring me what I needed.  I am also so thankful for online shopping!

Last night I even set up my YouTube account, so I could start adding tutorial videos to my store.  I have added ONE!  You can click here to see it.  It took six hours to upload!  So ONE it is!  And now that I know, I will add them before I go to bed at night, and sleep while they load!

I am also so thankful that this week’s assignment for Bonnie Hunter’s Mystery Quilt, “Good Fortune” was foundation string piecing, which did not require accuracy.  The accuracy comes with the trimming into rectangles, and I didn’t have to deal with that until I was ready.  I still haven’t taken the paper out, and I think that is just going to wait until after Christmas.  I DID get all my pieces from Week 3 sewn, but didn’t trim those up after either.  I sure hope I have the break after Christmas that I see in my mind.

So here is what I have for this week, and what I have done so far, and yes, I am keeping my eyes open for a larger basket.  I know there is one around here somewhere!

I was not thrilled with the idea of orange.  I am not a huge orange fan, so I went with more of a sherbet shade, which I like, but I am still not convinced that these colors will mesh together in the end.  This is my first ever mystery quilt, and I have found the color palette to be my largest issue.  Color is something I am usually pretty good at, and maybe that makes me even more nervous of whether or not I am going to like this when all is said and done.  I also am trying very hard to keep to my scraps and stash on this one, which is limiting as well, however I did purchase a bit of orange, as it is not something I use much of.  I am enjoying the mystery from week to week, and doing things I haven’t done before (like these strings) and learning new tips, including what I will do differently next time with the color palette.  Someone will think it is lovely when all is said and done, and it can always be passed along to that someone.  But who knows?  There is the possibility that that will be me!  It most certainly would not be my first project that I doubted while in progress, and then turned out great.

Please consider heading over to the Quiltville Blog and getting involved for yourself.  It really is fun, and you can download the instructions from the past weeks and save them, start where we all are and get involved in the community,  and catch up later.

I wish you “Good Fortune” and that all your Christmas plans go forth smoothly!