Nooooo!

Tomorrow (well, today, since I am up after midnight) is the last day of my last summer vacation week. How is this possible? I don't want the fun to end!

I spent my sewing hours the last few days stocking up on some quick gifts. I had planned to make 10 gift card keyrings, but accidentally cut one fabric twice, so I have 11.

My favorite is this green - I may have to keep it for myself.

I also made two crayon rolls, but I have more fabric picked out to make some more. These were a hit last Christmas. Don't you just love the snake fabric?

Both of these are great projects to use up that last little bit of a fabric that isn't really big enough to feature in any other project. I was diligent about cutting any leftover scraps from these fabrics into my scrap squares. Slowly but surely, I am whittling away at my scrap piles.

Those 1.5" squares continue to be fun to work with. Today, I finished GREEN. I would make the G a little differently if I were to do it again, but this works for me, too.

And since I was using black thread, I whipped up another pair of wonky stars.

Tomorrow, I want to do some handwork (sew down the binding of my mini quilt that I machine quilted so I can show you all my maiden efforts) and sew a few more blocks on my Great Grandmother's quilt and visit my mom and watch some TV and read on the porch and nap and whip up another color word (I really want to do YELLOW) and go to the pool with the kids and the list goes on. There's no way I can do everything I want to do on my last day of vacation. What I really need to do is one last load of laundry so I start the week laundry-free and mop my nasty floors. Today, I bought a new mop head, thinking that would motivate me to mop. Nope, didn't work.

Since there is so much I want to do tomorrow, I should go to bed so I can get up early and get started. Make the most of your day, too!

My stars!

I was DREADING coming back to work on Tuesday. Not because of the actual work - I like my job - but because it would be my first time facing my co-workers after my miscarriage and I just didn't want to have to deal with the sidelong looks and awkwardness. I need not have worried; while on vacation I must have forgotten that I work with some of the coolest people on the planet, and everything has been fine!

Well, fine at work, anyway. I seem to have left all of my motivation on vacation somewhere. My house is a wreck, but I don't want to clean. I am hungry, but I don't want to cook anything that takes more than a few minutes. I have a to-do list a mile long, and I don't even have the inclination to pick it up and read what is on it. I've turned into a bum. I haven't even wanted to quilt. (gasp!)

Last night, I thumbed through some magazines hoping for inspiration. It works every time. I found some stars in a Halloween quilt that I just had to try, so once I got the kids tucked in, off I went to the sewing room. I lit a fragrant candle, a gift from Em, turned on some country tunes, and got to piecing. If I had known how LONG it would take me, I never would have started, but I really like the end result. (HUGE YAWN - I was up until 1:30!)

Now, to get to some other projects! I managed to sew another row of my ribbon quilt as my leader/ender for those two blocks, plus I sewed together a couple of the color strips for the karate quilt I want to make for Jason this year. I don't know why, but I just HATE sewing long strips together. That's part of why I have so many UFOs, I get all the blocks done, and then sewn into rows, but I find sewing the rows together to be such a drag. I need to do it though, so I can get that ribbon quilt off my design wall and get something else up there, perhaps these stars. I have three rows left to assemble, and then about 8 or so to sew to the ones I have already sewn together.

But that is for when I am at home. Right now, I am at the office and there is a mountain of work waiting for me here; I should get back to it. As I said before, I really like my job. There are, of course, those days when I don't, but I have a remedy for that. Framed on the wall in my office is an excerpt from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, which I read whenever I need to:

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

Whatever you do today, do it with joy!