Day 43 of 365

My daughter tells me all the time, "Don't jinx it, mom". Guess I should have listened to her.

Yesterday I was bragging all about how, now 40 some days later, I thought that taking a picture a day was getting me somewhere. That it gave me a reason to get up in the morning and how every night before I go to bed I run through in my mind what I want to accomplish for the next day. And that I was learning that if I kept myself focused enough on something else, I could ignore my pain for short periods of time.

Yeah, right.

Not so much today. Actually, not at all today. I went to bed last night not feeling well and not caring about today, woke up not feeling well, and spent the entire day not feeling well.

What did I get done today? I took a shower. I wiped down the counters. I fixed my husband's tie. To quote the late Chris Farley on a Saturday Night Live sketch, "Well, la di fricken da!"

What changed? I've been keeping myself busy doing something every day - maybe my body just needed a break. Last night was my chemotherapy drug night, so it could account for me not feeling so hot.  Or it could be that my daughter is right. Don't talk about things going well or you'll jinx them.

This picture of a bus at the salvage yard down the road sums up how I feel today.

Here's hoping for a better tomorrow.

Day 42 of 365

It seems as though this blog, which originally was planned just to be a picture-a-day blog, has turned into a "look what I made" picture-a-day. And today isn't any different.

When I first started writing this 40+ days ago, I knew I had to make some changes. I was just coming off of my last rotator cuff surgery, still going to physical therapy several times a week, and was getting ready to start new arthritis medicine. I was struggling with pain all day, every day, and knew that I had to change my outlook. I had looked back and realized after living in the previous year and a half I had nothing to show for it. I didn't know if taking a picture a day would get me anywhere, but now 40 some days later, I think it's starting to.

It has given me a reason to get up in the morning. Now, every night before I go to bed I run through in my mind what I want to accomplish for the next day. It's small things. Like yesterday. I wanted to get through all the old receipts for the year and get the Dick and Jane magnets done. Today I wanted to gather all the old magazines in the house into a pile and decide what to keep and what to discard. I also wanted to do something with one of the cake mixes I bought on sale the other day. I still can't keep myself working throughout the entire day. And there are some days it takes all I have just to get out of bed and write.

But as I'm writing every day, I am finding hope. I have documentation that I've already lived (and baked, and sewed, and wrote) for a month and a half. Even on my worst days, I can pull myself out of my pain. It's still there - always - but I'm learning that if I keep myself focused enough on something else, I can ignore it for short periods of time.

Baby steps. I hope that I can continue to take these small steps forward.

Speaking of baby steps, I made some baby chicks today out of a chocolate cake mix, homemade buttercream frosting, and some yellow candy coating.

They're called Cake Pops, and I got the idea from Bakerella here. She also has a book with LOTS of ideas for cake pops.

Day 41 of 365

You can win the items in today's picture of the day!

Yep, my newest creation is my next good deed for the day, my service to others, my way of paying it forward. And if you have fond memories of the Dick and Jane reading series, you'll probably like today's project. 

If you've been following my blog, you know that I use sewing, baking, and charity/donation projects to get my mind off of my pain and problems and focus on service to others. And that I take a picture every single day of what I did or saw. You also know that I get frustrated with the quality of work sometimes because I use patterns and tutorials off the internet that are incomplete or that have measurements off.

But I found a clear tutorial on how to make fabric covered magnets (here) that guided me step by step. My collection of Dick and Jane fabrics have still gone unused, other than the camera bag I made. So it was time to get back into them. So at yesterday's great Sale-A-Bration Day that I had, I picked up some button cover kits (at 50% off) and some magnets (using a 50% off coupon).

I used my Dick and Jane fabric stash to cut select pictures and words to make the magnets. I used both 1 1/8" and 1 1/2" sized buttons. It was a quick and easy project and I loved how they turned out!

So now you can love them, too. To win this set of five magnets all you have to do is comment on this post telling us why you'd like to win. Be sure to leave your name or a screen name.

The fine print:
*A winner will be chosen randomly Friday, April 15 at 5 PM Mountain Time. Since I don't collect e-mails on my comment page, you will have to come back to see if you won.
*Winner will have until Sunday at noon to claim their prize. Otherwise, a new winner will be chosen.
*Only one entry per person, please.

Good luck!

And the winner is Lisa from Sherwood, Oregon who said:
I love the magnets, especially the ones with the words. I currently only have 3 magnets on my frig..so I'm in need of more! :)

Congrats, Lisa! Please contact me at debzdays@yahoo.com before noon on Sunday to claim your prize. Prize claimed.

Day 40 of 365

I think I'm going to call today a Sale-A-Bration day.

I had to go to the fabric store to get some quilt batting for the kids quilts I'm making. I also needed several other things and was hoping they were on sale. I got my batting (40% off), new rotary cutter blades (50% off), some basting spray (50% off), sewing machine needles (50% off), some buttons you cover with fabric for another (yikes) non-quilting project (50% off), and some magnets (yikes again) for that same non-quilting project (50% off coupon). Guess I hit the store on a good sales day!

As I drove by Goodwill on the way to the grocery store, the Goodwill had "50% off red tag items" on their sign. I stopped in and found some gorgeous floral silky-type fabric that was red tagged. Grabbed that.

At the grocery store I picked up chicken (on sale), fish oil (buy one get one free plus I had a $4 off coupon), salad mix (buy one get one free), some orange juice and chocolate milk (both on sale), and walnuts (alas, not on sale but hubby needed them for his breakfast), and cakes mixes (on sale).

But my biggest haul was again at my favorite place to combine manufacturer's coupons and store coupons - Target.

My take:
Purina One Cat Food $7.49 minus a $3 coupon and a $2 Target coupon
2 tubes of Pro Pet Hairball Eliminator $6.28 minus a $2.50 coupon and a $2.50 coupon
6 trays of Whiskas Cat food $3 minus $1.50 in buy one get one free coupons
Zantac 24 count $7.59 minus $5 coupon and $2 Target coupon
2 packs Up & Up pantiliners $1.78 minus a .50 and a .50 coupon
Bic Twin Disposable Razors $2.59 minus $2 coupon
Orbit Gum .99 minus .75 Target coupon
1 M&M and 1 Snickers Easter eggs $1.98 minus $2 coupon
2 travel size packs of BandAids $1.98 minus $1.98 coupon

Before the coupons, the price was $33.68
After coupons, the price was $7.45 + $1.68 tax

Total cost of all items was $9.13

$9.13 for almost $34 worth of items. A Sale-A-Bration Day!

Day 39 of 365

When I was at school the other day dropping off my Elton John concert tickets it occurred to me that I haven't been doing much quilting lately. Actually, it took the school secretary to make me realize that.

She was asking if I'd been doing lots of quilting to which I replied that I had and that it was on my blog. So we got onto my blog to look. Except I didn't have many quilting projects pictured on there. Sewing pictures, baking pictures, but only a couple quilting pictures.

Looking back over the last 38 days I have sewed:
Pincushions
Cloth Memory Games
A Camera Bag
A Baby Quilt
Pillowcases
T-Shirt Grocery Bags
A Clothespin Bag
Potholders
A Make Up Bag
Bread Basket Liner

One quilt. That's it. Way back at the beginning I also had mailed out a flag quilt top, but that had already been finished. But to actively work and finish a quilt? Nope.

So that's why I've decided to cut back on my sewing and move ahead quickly on my quilting.

That's why I wound up fighting with my quilting frame yesterday. That's also why in the last two days I have put together another baby quilt top. Quilts for Kids sent me the fabric for the top and back as well as the pattern. The top is now complete, but I still have to add the batting and start quilting it. It's small enough I think I can use my sewing machine for it. It's the closest thing to a boy's quilt that I've ever made.

Speaking of the Elton John concert, the gal that I gave the tickets to sent me an e-mail:
The concert was AWESOME!!   The seats were only 21 rows from the stage!  It appeared to be a sold out crowd from where we were sitting.  He played for 3 hours straight without any breaks. I don't know how someone can do that for such a long time and not look even a little tired. The crowd was on their feet at the end of every song. He got up from his piano and walked around the stage bowing and waving to each side after most of the songs. He played all of his classics with the addition of some selections from his new duet CD with Leon Russell. The crowd exploded (and sang along) when he played Crocodile Rock and Benny and the Jets near the end of the concert  For his encore presentation he came out and signed some autographs for some of those "groupies" up next to the stage, and then he thanked the fans of Boise with "Your Song". He said that he is enjoying playing for the fans more now than ever.  My husband, Rick enjoyed it thoroughly too.  I can't thank you enough for sharing your tickets with me.  I read your blog about how badly you had wanted to attend. Hopefully, next time he comes to town you will be feeling 100% better and able to get up and dance on the stage with him!!!   I have attached a few pictures from the concert.   Again, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!!       

You can just hear the excitement of the night and her appreciation for the tickets. Those tickets definitely went to the right person. Here's one of her pictures.

Day 38 of 365

I had a fight today. Not with a person, but with a thing. A quilting thing.

A quilting frame, to be exact. I have a large Grace hand quilting frame that stands on the floor. It's been hanging on the wall of my sewing room holding my unfinished projects for quite some time now. I decided to finally finish up on one of my larger quilts (I think it's about 60" x 65") and wanted to hand quilt it. So it was time to get the frame off the wall and onto the floor.

I usually do all my hand quilting on that frame in front of our big picture window in the living room. That way I get the morning sun and get to look out at the river when I need to give my eyes a break. I used to do all my quilts on it. Since I was working I mostly quilted on the weekends, 5-6 hours a day. But that amount of time of the hands was tough, so I just stopped doing hand quilting and went to smaller projects that I could machine quilt on my plain old machine.

So this new larger quilt was going to be a refreshing change. And with me not working right now, I could spread the time I worked on it throughout the week.

Except the frame is a pain to put up. Setting it upright isn't too tough, but this quilt was just a couple inches too wide for the bars I had on the frame. Which meant I had to get my extension bars and attach them. Which is the pain in the rear part. Which means bolts and nuts and screws and washers and pliers and wrenches and Allen wrenches. And bars falling down and washers rolling away and nuts coming oh-so-close to falling down the heat vent.

And me getting frustrated, cursing at myself, at the quilt, at the frame. Finally, after several hours and lots of breaks to clear my head, it is up. And the quilt and the batting and the backing are secured. And it's ready to go. And time for me to relax. But not with that quilt.

There are two things I like to do best to relax. If you've read many of my posts, you know it's all about the baking and the sewing. So this afternoon I did both, as you can see in today's picture.

Homemade buttermilk biscuits and a new homemade bread basket liner. Ahh, relaxation.

Day 37 of 365

It was an eventful day today.

The mail itself was exciting. I received a little makeup bag from Target with samples of lip gloss, shampoos, and lotion. I also got a check from Aflac to help cover some of my physical therapy costs. If that wasn't enough, UPS came with my three free quilt kits that I'll be making for the Quilts for Kids organization. Nice, bright fabrics! It even made up a bit for the internet being down all day.

Earlier this week, I had received an e-mail I had won some tickets to tomorrow's Elton John concert. When we first heard he was coming a couple months back, we knew we wanted to go. But with me recovering from surgery, I never got around to ordering tickets. Then a few weeks back I entered a contest put on by the Boise paper. And I won! So today on my way over to Boise to take my daughter back home, I picked up the tickets.

My husband and I had been talking about the tickets all week. I've been having more bad days than good so I was contemplating not going to the concert. Now I love Elton John and all, but knowing I had to sit/stand for 3 hours was worrying me. As time goes by, I'm learning what I can and can't put my body through. I knew if I went to the concert, I would pay for it for several days to come. And I wasn't willing to experience any more pain than necessary. It seems I'm becoming more of a pain avoider instead of a pleasure seeker these days.

So the question became - as I was sitting in the parking lot of the ticket office today- do I go or not? I decided not to. Then the decision had to be made about what to do with the tickets. So in between the time I left the parking lot and the time I pulled into the auto service center to have my burned out headlight replaced, I had an idea. I texted a friend from work to see if she wanted them. Nope. I also worked with her sister. How about her?

As I was sitting waiting for the headlight to get fixed, her sister called. Told me about being a big Elton John fan, having his albums growing up, having been to his concert last time he was in Boise, and how she had been trying to win tickets herself. A perfect match for my tickets.

So I drove out to work this afternoon to give her the tickets. For free. No charge. No strings attached. My good deed for the day. My service to others, my own version of paying it forward.

Enjoy the concert, Marcie. Can't wait to hear all about it!