Office reorganization

One of my New Year's resolutions for 2013 is to move forward. What do I mean by that? Simply to do whatever the next step(s) is or are to move forward rather than to sit back and to let whatever happen happen. On a personal level that means to actively pursue those activities that will help me grow, be ready and prepared for whatever challenges I might face. One way that I can do that is to get myself and all the household stuff organized. So I joined the New Year's Organizing Revolution Challenge. This week's challenge was to organize some area of our office. You know that area that becomes the paper pile up center. I confess I had to start this early to accommodate my travel plans but I did manage to get this area under control. I am pleased with the efficiency and pleasure I have found in being able once again to work in this space without the stress of seeing every thing I needed to do glaring at me every time I sat down to blog or spend some time on the Internet.

This photo is what I saw everytime I passed the door to my office. What a mess. I never wanted to enter the room.

My office also doubles as a guest room on occasion unfortunately the day bed gets over run with clutter and is not inviting.

This area also becomes a clutter gathering spot

and because of all the clutter in front of the closet I couldn't get into it to put things away or to retrieve things when needed.

The top of my filing cabinet also became a heap of clutter.

This stand is where most of the work waited to be organized. This is all the papers that needed sorted, filed and dealt with in some manner

along with the run over onto my desk. This was just the pile on the left side of the desk.

Here is the pile on the right side, this is the pile that required immediate attention, such as bills and other items.

Now the day bed is pretty and functional.

I can get into my closet and I was even able to find some space to store some of those things that were sitting on the floor that did not have a home.

I made the top of my file cabinet my grandma's brag station. I have photos of my grand-daughters there and will be able to add some of my grandson as soon as he decides it is time to join us.

This is a shot of my desk. I have done some more editing of it since this photo was taken.

This stack of papers is what was left with that needed to be sorted and filed, many of the items where things that needed to be entered into the corresponding computer files. This is part of the organizing process that you won't see much change in except that the paper trail either got shredded or filed as appropriate once I dealt with them. They have all been dealt with, finally.

Here at my desk I now see that I need to do some additional organizing of the cork board. It is amazing what you see in a photo that you don't notice in person.

I like what I see as I pass the doorway of my office now.

My inbox is cleaned out and all that is on my list is this organizing challenge.

I hope that you have enjoyed seeing what I was able to accomplish in my office. This has been long over due and I plan not to let my office get to the before stage again. I know that with the health issues that I had been dealing with that I let everything else that seemed challenging go and I can't allow myself to get so far behind with my office work again. This new year will be the year of keeping up with all the hard stuff. If I can deal with tough health issues I can deal with clutter.

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

This is in honor of all of my family and friends who have served and/or are serving now in any branch of the military, especially for any who have been away from home and loved ones over Christmas.

Twas the night before Christmas, he lived all alone, in a one bedroom house made of plaster and stone.
I had come down the chimney with presents to give, and to see just who in this home did live.
I looked all about, a strange sight I did see, no tinsel, no presents, not even a tree.

No stocking by mantle, just boots filled with sand, and on the wall pictures of far distant lands.
With medals and badges, awards of all kinds, a sobering thought came to my mind.
For this house was different, so dark and so dreary, the home of a soldier, now I could see clearly.

The soldier lay sleeping, silent, alone, curled up on the floor in this one bedroom home.
The face was so gentle, the room in such disorder, not how I pictured a United States soldier.
Was this the hero of whom I'd just read?
Curled up on a poncho, the floor for a bed?

I realized the families that I saw this night, owed their lives to these soldiers who were willing to fight.
Soon round the world, the children would play, and grownups would celebrate a bright Christmas day.
They all enjoyed freedom each month of the year, because of the soldiers, like the one lying here.

I couldn't help wonder how many lay alone, on a cold Christmas eve in a land far from home.
The very thought brought a tear to my eye, I dropped to my knees and started to cry.
The soldier awakened and I heard a rough voice, "Santa don't cry, this life is my choice; I fight for freedom, I don't ask for more, my life is my God, my country, my corps."
The soldier rolled over and soon drifted to sleep, I couldn't control it, I continued to weep.
I kept watch for hours, so silent and still, and we both shivered from the cold evening's chill.

I didn't want to leave on that cold, dark, night, this guardian of honor so willing to fight.
Then the soldier roller over, with a voice soft and pure, whispered, "Carry on Santa, it's Christmas day, all is secure."
One look at my watch, and I knew he was right.
"Merry Christmas my friend, and to all a good night."

by Lance Corporal James M. Schmidt

Thank you to all the soldiers far and near this Christmas Eve who have defended our country to preserve our freedom. May God bless you and keep you safe in His loving arms. You are my heros.

I worked hard all day yesterday to get those gifts done that I am making for my quilting friends and I must say that I was not very productive. I got one gift done and a second one that is so lame that I have to make another one to replace that one. I messed up somewhere and so now I am really behind. Maybe I can get it right today. I still have 4 to do and I can average 2 a day so I will be working over Christmas to get them done.

Tomorrow I am going to go to see the Nutcracker. My sister-in-law called me and told me about it and asked if I wanted to go. Can you believe that I have never seen the Nutcracker. I am excited to see it but more so to be sharing it with my sister-in-law. The rest of the weekend will be spent finishing up the shopping, wrapping and straightening up the house. I feel very unprepared for Christmas this year.

Well, this is a short post today as I am already behind and I have so much to do. Have a wonderful day and I hope you have plenty of time to get all of your Christmas preparations done stress free.

Wind is howling...

I wonder what today will bring, as I sit down to begin this post the wind is howling outside. Checking the weather it looks like we are in for some rain today. I need to go to town and do some banking so I will do that as soon as I finish this post before it rolls in. Yesterday's trip to Pittsburgh and back was uneventful. The scans were done in a timely manner but then I had to sit for 2 1/2 hours before I saw the dr, when he came in he had tons of questions about my symptoms that I had had which have all since resolved themselves and never did tell me the results of the scans. I was 20 minutes down the road before I realized that we never discussed them. I am scheduled for my next treatment on the 28th so I am sure nothing has changed or that would have been cancelled. Anyways, on the way home I stopped in Cranberry at the Joann's Fabric Store and I picked up 2 Accuquilt Go die cutters. Remember last week I got the fabric cutter, well I have been interested in a couple of their applique shape cutters. Well, this Joanne's had both of them and they were on sale for 25% off. In the future I will have to wait till they go on sale for more because you can't use the store coupons for the Accuquilt products. Bummer, but I am sure that they will put them on sale once in a while for 50% off. I just have to be ready when they do. Anyways, when I got home I went to work cutting out some shapes and just playing around with ideas and I whipped fused up these 2 pieces.

I had the background already prepped to do another Laura Wasilowski inspired design on it and I think the flowers looking like they are blowing away in the wind is so cute. Who knew that today the wind could whip those little flowers into the next county.

For this second piece I cut out a 13" square to lay out some of the shapes that I had cut out onto and came up with this adorable center block for a table runner, I am still weighing in the option to add some cutouts to the beige end pieces but what I really want to do there is some great fancy quilting so if I do add some applique it would be to enhance the quilting instead of the quilting to enhance the applique. It was such great fun. I broke my rule though and had to pay for it. I didn't stop playing with this last night until 10:00 and then I couldn't fall asleep until after 12:30. I heard Jeff come in from his office at 12:30 and still couldn't fall asleep for a while after that. I know better than to do any creative work after 8 PM but I was having sooo much fun. Normally, after a trip to Pittsburgh I am so wiped out that I don't have the energy to do anything so this was a bonus. Today, I am going to work on some Christmas gifts for next week's party for the Sewjourner's group. I need 5 and I know what I want to make so I just have to get them cranked out. It will be fun too (although it won't involve any applique shapes).

I am off to town and then back to work on those gifts so I need to get moving. I pray that you will have a wonderful day and don't get blown away by any howling winds. Be safe and happy this Christmas season.

Road trip...

I have to leave in 5 minutes for Pittsburgh. I am getting scans done today with a follow-up appointment with the doctor afterwards for the results so that I can get my treatment next week. Have a good day and be safe.

Baby quilt is almost finished...

I loaded the baby quilt on Lola yesterday morning and got the majority of it quilted. I have 2 outside borders to do and the inner dark brown border. The center area is all quilted. Here is a shot of the quilt before any quilting and the second photo is detail shot of the quilting in the center blocks and the bottom border.

I think it is really cute. I cut the squares out with my Accuquilt Go cutter and I didn't do very well getting the horses cut out. I cut off all of there heads. So I made sure I got a good horse for the corner stone blocks in the outside border. LOL. Well, I learned that I have to vary my strip cuts so that I get a more varied selection of blocks when the print is a scattered print rather than an all-over print. The die cutter makes cutting out quilt patches really fast and accurate. I cut out all the squares for this quilt in a matter of 15 minutes and it only took me that long because I was demonstrating the machine and what it does to Stephanie and then again to Dan. I was cutting 3 1/2" squares and there wasn't very much fabric waste at all either. I watched some Youtube videos last evening and got some more ideas on how to use the die cutters. I am excited to use it to do a little stash busting and maybe crank out some scrappy quilts or make some kits that can be made up into charity quilts. I am already thinking of some of the other dies that I want to add to my collection like the Dresden plate, the circle, the hexagon, some of the fancy flourishes that Ricky Tims has designed, oh there are so many but for now I am going to enjoy playing with the ones I have. I am going to have lots of fun with this.

I got highlights and lowlights put in my hair yesterday. I snapped a photo of myself which I find hard to do but here it is I hope you can see them.

Today I am going to finish the baby quilt. I have a customer coming over to pick up a few pieces. BTW, I finished the table runner for her. The quilting turned out really nice. (I am having trouble uploading a photo of this. Sorry.)
I am going to clean up the studio again. Every project that I work on causes such a mess in the studio. I have a project to do for Jeff once I get the baby quilt done. He bought a blanket that needs to be cut in half and the edges hemmed, so I want to get that done for him today.

Kate called yesterday and except for some heavy traffic leaving work she had a wonderful birthday. My baby is so grown up and living in Hawaii and traveling the world on her own. She is a beautiful strong young woman. I love you Kate.

I hope that you all are having a wonderful week in preparation of Jesus' birth. We all have so much to be thankful for and the birth of our Savior is the most precious gift we can receive at Christmas. Do not let others steal Christ out of your Christmas. Do not let political correctness take the very reason we celebrate this season out of the season. You wouldn't like to have a big party thrown for your birthday and then be told you weren't allow to attend it, would you? Remember that Jesus is the reason for the season and give Him the rightful spot in your plans and especially in your heart today. I love you all, Merry Christmas.

A prayer...

In the wake of the tragedy that has captured the attention of our nation that occurred in Newtown Conneticut, I just want to share a prayer today. Our hearts are heavy while grieving for those lost children and teachers and at the same time if we allow it, fear can enter in and cause us to begin to look for answers through our government, the media, or our own flawed selves instead of living by faith and trusting in an Almighty God. If we believe that we can do a better job of caring for ourselves than God can, which is our daily state of affairs if we don't reliquish control of our daily lives to Him, then why do we look to Him to blame when horrible terrible things that are mankind's doing hit too close to home to ignore and cause us question how a good God can let such terrible things happen especially to the innocent children He left in our care? Besides Jesus being born into this world as a baby in a lowly manger, which we are preparing to celebrate in just a few days, the second greatest gift that God gave us was a free will. That means that we get to choose for ourselves what we do with our lives. Some people choose to help others, some people choose to abuse others and some people choose to make a name for themselves by the most brutal means and then take their own lives before we can get any answers to why they chose to do what they did. May this prayer be shared and begin to heal the wounds inflicted on us. The question today is what choices are you making everyday and what effect are they having on the lives of those around you? Perhaps we need to fight to get God back into our schools so that His protection can be with our loved babies while they are being taught about this wonderful freedom of choice they have. One person fought and won to get God expelled from school, perhaps we need to fight hard to get Him back in. It's our choice.

Dear Heavenly Father,

This morning as our children head off to school, we ask that you will keep them safe under your wing of protection. Lord we also ask that for those children who have been exposed to the news that you will keep their hearts and minds safe from fear.

We pray asking that these children would both feel and be protected by those in their care. For parents we ask that you open doors at this time that they might seek You as they are searching for stability in a messed up world. Times like these cause us to search for answers, Lord, and as we do I pray that we learn to lean on your wisdom and trust in Your sovereignty.

May we hold strong to the firm foundation that is built on faith in something so much more than this world has to give--the hope that you promise to all who believe.

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.

In thy Son's name we pray.
Amen.

This prayer came from http://time-warp-wife.blogspot.com. Darlene has some wonderful insights if you want to read any of her recent posts since this tragedy has occured.

May you have a wonderful day and remember to think about what you choose to do today because it will impact your eternity in a huge way.