Musings of My Mind
Observations
of the world around me and as I see it.
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February
6, 2010
AWESOME!!
The last time I saw this much snow was when I decided to move to
California from Grand Rapids-- that was 1987 or 88!! It really is
pretty and there are pictures on both Brian's regular site
and on both of our Facebook pages. (I'd post them here but you
wouldn't be able to see them anyway.)
Molly and I went for a walk at one point because she needed to pee but
couldn't get off the deck because it had snowed in the path that Brian
had cleared for her. I had to pull on snow boots (Columbia) and
my parka (Sears) and hat and gloves and scarf before putting on her
harness and letting her take me for a drag up the street. Tons of
fun, really-- she even didn't seem to mind it too much except for the
stuff that was making her feet cold.
I spent a good deal of time sewing today and have almost finished
piecing the wall hanging. Unfortunately, I'm not as far along as
I'd hope to be because I've managed to come down with something of a
bug. Lucky me!! I took a nap this afternoon and felt better
enough to have some dinner but now I'm not feeling well again.
Oh, bother!
February 5, 2010
I mean, REALLY!!
Do you really want to know how many 3" patches I sewed
together? I didn't think so!! Okay, so I worked on the wall
hanging for church a couple of hours last night and today, I didn't
work on it at all. That's because I'm fairly confident that I'll
be practicing my long arm skills by Sunday in preparation for quilting
the quilt over the next couple of weeks. It is really turning out
gorgeous-- I'm so pleased with the look of it!
Today, it is SNOWING-- huge, tons of snow-- I love it!! It is so
pretty outside but then, I'm all nice and warm inside so . . . that
makes a big difference, I'm sure.
I saved my company $311,000.00 today-- yes, it was a good day at work.
I'm currently reading "A Thread of Truth" by Marie Bostwick. It is the
second book in the series that she's written elegantly. (By the
way, it is not a mystery!) Plots flow well, characters are
personable and real-feeling but, the only problem is that she needs to
find a new editor. There are MANY typographical errors which make
it difficult to read but the stories are so endearing it <almost>
makes up for it. I am going to write to her about it when I
finish the current book I'm reading and enjoying, despite the
typos. It's just really annoying.
February 3, 2010
Whoops!!
Oh, well-- I've had a bit of a lapse here because of activity
elsewhere. Monday night and tonight, I worked for a couple of
hours on both a quilt that I'm making for my sister and on the church
wall hanging. I'm really liking the way that the wall hanging is
coming together. It is stunning!!
Just as I thought that I was finished with the design on the quilt for
my sister, I ran the new fabrics, etc. past her and she vetoed them--
that's okay. She's paying for it so she gets to do that.
I've still got the original fabrics that she and I talked about so
it'll work with my new design, too. There are two more designs
that I have to run out of the "topical" embroidery and two of the artsy
designs. It'll be great when it comes together and, of course,
there's plenty of time since the end of May/June is her time
frame. I always like having EXTRA time, ya know?
Last night was Bible Study and it was my turn to feed the group.
Out of the 9 of us that attend, only six were there last night so we've
got plenty of beef stew leftovers. We'll get another meal out of
it tomorrow night and then I'll freezer the rest so that we don't tired
of it completely.
The dilation of my eyes on Tuesday took longer than I expected -- 2-1/2
hours!! The doctor had to check my computer glasses, dilate my eyes
and, then check me out. However, she had two people that were
booked at the same time so there were three of us to check out glasses
on, dilate and then check out the inside of the eyes. The
computer program she uses for appointment making messed up-- it's new
and it triple booked her and got the appointments out of order.
Not good for anyone's schedule!! I made it back to work but had a
hard time focusing-- literally-- the rest of the afternoon. I'll
get my new daily lenses next week some time and the new computer
glasses in April, when I can be without my glasses for a week because
of vacation. I can deal with that delay-- it'll be worth it in
the long run.
I finished another Tim Downs
suspense novel today-- I do so enjoy his work! I haven't decided
what to read yet but I've got a Barbara
Kingsolver ("The Lacuna") on my To Be Read shelf-- I haven't read
anything by her in a number of years! I think I'll give it a try.
January
31, 2010
Okay, so the problem is . . .
The editing tool that I use for this space is SeaMonkey and that
isn't working with what I'm using for photos (or something) like that
so nothing I publish pictorially is going to show up until Brian finds
me some new kind of posting tool to use. I can still write-- and
will, of course, be continuing to do so-- but, pictures won't be
published for a bit.
I've been working on a quilt for my sister, Karen, and have come to a
cross roads where I have to decide how to design the actual quilt, as
opposed to running the embroidery designs. I pulled the fabrics
together and I sorta liked them. I showed them to Brian and he
hated them. Oh, well . . . we started throwing ideas around and,
yes, he
did help me design the quilt that I'm going to make now. I'm
changing all of the fabrics that I was going to use but it will still
be along the same themes, with just a bit of a different look.
This is not the first time he's helped with quilting. Often Brian
helps choose fabrics, colors, and coordinating styles of things-- it
comes fairly natural to him because he's an engineer in his
brain. The hard part comes in getting him to speak "People" to
me, instead of "computerese" or "engineerese". :>)
Sunday morning was church and then home to work on the stew.
Again Brian helped-- he had a different way of doing it but, since I
didn't get it all together until 2pm, it wasn't ready for dinner but it
will be ready for my Bible study class on Tuesday. It needs to
steep and brew together in order to get the potatoes to break down a
bit and the stew meat to tenderize. A woman in my Bible study is
allergic to onions (poor thing!) so I can't put them in the majority of
the stew until everything blends together. Then I'll take out a
generous portion for her and put onions in the stew for the rest of us.
Tomorrow it's back to work and I'm good with that-- I think I've
finally caught up with my lack of sleep from last weekend because Molly
let us sleep in yesterday and today, I read while I ran embroidery
designs. In order to get at my design wall, I shifted some of the
plastic thread rolling carts around in my sewing room. I'll need
the design wall by tomorrow night in order to get started on the Lent
wall hanging.
January 30, 2010
Snow . . . AGAIN?!?!?
Wow-- It snowed again today . . . quite a bit actually. I
managed to drive in it for a change because I had an eye doctor
appointment. I'd already postponed it once waiting until I had my
A1C number to tell the optha-- ophthalma-- the eye doctor (she's an MD)
so I didn't want to postpone it again. As it is, because I chose
not to have my eyes dialated today (because I didn't think it would be
smart to drive that way), I have to go back on Tuesday. My eyes
have changed which will mean new lenses-- I have to wait on the frames
but I'm okay with that for another year.
The biggest deal about it was that I haven't actually DRIVEN in snow
for about five years-- I work from home and don't get out much, ya
know? That leaves for limited exposure to snow-driving . . .
well, truth be told, driving in general (nearly 3 year old car has a
little over 13,000 miles on it!). It was fun to drive in the snow
and see what I remembered from when I was a teenager and early-20 year
old about snow-driving. You know: things like steering into a
skid, pumping your brakes (although these days there's the downshift
gear that's built into my car which eliminates the need to pump
brakes), and generally driving like a "granny". The only problem
was the SUVs on the road that thought they should go fast and ride mere
inches from my trunk. Didn't like them too much, needless to say.
Hopefully it'll be clear enough tomorrow that church won't be cancelled
and then it's my turn to call my sister, Sue, in Brasil. Then,
more embroidery to be run in the sewing room. I have cut out the
strips and squares for the Lent wall hanging that I'm going to make for
the church. It's a cool concept if it works out the way I'd like
it to when it's finished.
And NO, I still haven't figured out why my pictures don't
publish. One of these days . . .
January 29, 2010
I coulda swore!!
I was certain I put something up here last night-- sorry about
that! Now I can't think of what I would've written but, I suppose
that's not at issue anymore any way.
Ready for the weekend and my share of sewing/embroidering. I can
hardly wait but of course, there are errands to do first. Then
the rest of the time is mine-- I hope.
January 27, 2010
Getting ready for the weekend!
I've just gotten back my Designer Ones (both of them) and the
936 Serger from getting cleaned last week; after that, I immediately
left for the retreat so I had no time to play! BUT, now that both
machines are cleaned up and pretty looking, both of the D1s are going
to be put to work this weekend, actually starting today. I've got
embroidery designs to run for a quilt for Karen and t-shirts that I'm
making for my brother's business. Both machines will definitely
be burning through Schmetz needles by the end of the weekend!!
On a lighter note, after many recommendations, I finally picked up a
Dana Stabenow "Kate Shugak" book or two while we were in North Carolina
at Thanksgiving. Barbara Thompson
heavily recommends her work and with good reason-- I'm thoroughly
enjoying the book "Killing Grounds" with well-written scenery
descriptions and dialog. Definitely recommend these books, too!!
Other than that and work, I've been busy but I can't remember why half
the time. The other half of the time, I can't remember why either
so it all evens out, right? Oh, yeah!
January 26, 2010
Catching Up
I'm catching up on my sleep it seems. I was actually awake
until a decent hour-- 10:something last night. There is a light
at the end of the tunnel!! YAYY!!!
I've noticed that, since our recycling picker-uppers gave the
neighborhood a bigger container for recycling stuff, people are
recycling MORE stuff-- that's GOOD!! I always bring recycleables
home if there isn't a specific place to put the containers when I'm out
and about. If I just throw them in the trash, I feel
guilty. I used to live in California and that's what that does to
you! It's okay, as there are worse habits that I have broken
since leaving there.
I continued embroidery work on a quilt that I'm making for my sister
last night. I've also sorted, washed and dried the fabrics I'm
going to use for a wall hanging for church that I've been asked to
sew. I asked the members of my Quilter's Bible Study to help with
the sewing but there may not be time for that as Lent comes early this
year. I can piece and quilt the wall hanging and run the designs
for my sister's quilt at the same time so that helps. It's still
January and I'm already over-committed!!
January 25, 2010
I Survived ROCK!!
As I suspected, the teens in my room were not the ones who kept
me awake-- it was the other adult!! Because of anticipation, I
didn't sleep well on Thursday night and then Friday night, we were kept
up late by Katie. Saturday night ran late and, frankly, my head
hit the pillow and that's all I remember until someone was trying to
wake me up-- unwilling as I was to WAKE up!!
The reason we ran late on Saturday night was because they split the
men/boys from the women/girls and then split the women from the
girls. Soooo, us adult women went to a separate room and talked
about how the night went for us.
My Saturday night didn't start out so great. The reason that I
went to the retreat in the first place is because one of the girls
wanted me to "bond" (her word) with the group so that they would let me
be a part of their group. At the session Saturday night, I had an
empty seat on each side of me-- so much for bonding, eh? I
invited several of the girls to sit with me-- I invited several of the
guys to sit with me but they all had folks that they wanted to sit with
OTHER than me.
If you don't want to believe in the devil or Satan, that's fine but let
me tell you . . . he was there and he was trying to work in me that
night. My thoughts were all negative-- Why am I here? So I
could bond? Bond with WHO? They won't let me!! This
is a waste of time!! When we get back from here, I'll subtly drop
out of Sunday School for the youth and I'll drop from the Youth Group
and since I've only just been invited to join the Youth Council, I'm
pretty sure they won't miss me if I don't go to the next meeting-- I
haven't been to any of the meetings so far anyway.
THEN, I realized what was happening. No. No.
No. Noooo. Nooooooooo.
NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I fought the devil and I won because
when they asked who wants to renew their faith in Jesus Christ, I stood
and then we were asked to reach out to someone else who was
standing. I reached out to a teen from our group who was standing
in front of me. At the same time, the woman to the right of me
and the woman to the left of me, reached out FOR ME!!!! I knew
right then that I, Marcia Bilbrey, had defeated Satan that
night!!!!! He was not going to win at getting me out of the youth
activities at my church! I have something to offer to the kids
and I'm going to STAY with them and help them and nurture them in their
love and faith in Jesus.
Satan tried to make me feel like I was alone and no one cared about me
but people DID care and the kids who reached out to hug me and have me
hug them after the session was over cared. It's Satan who doesn't
care because Jesus is LOVE and He LOVES me and the other adults and
teens-- more than 6,000 strong from Maryland-- that were at that
conference this weekend.
Let your light shine
Whoa
Let your light shine
Whoa
Let Your light shine and
let Jesus shine through you
Can't get that song out of my
head!!
January 21, 2010
Okay, so I'm off . . .
Tomorrow afternoon after work I leave for a weekend retreat
centered around the young people (ages 12-18) of our church. Even
in all of my years growing up and as an adult, I never went to a
retreat so that experience will be new and, the exciting part, is being
one of a dozen or so chaperones. This will definitely be the
stuff that test's my fortitude, strength, and belief system.
I'll let you know when I get back how it all goes--
January 20, 2010
That's not good!!
I tripped on my way up the stairs just now-- jammed my elbow
onto the steps in front of me and spilled water all over the
place. <Sigh> Well, at least it was only water . . .
Of course, in addition to my elbow and forearm feeling the rug burn
from the carpet on the steps but my shoulder is feeling a bit jammed
up, too. Lovely.
I went to the doctor yesterday and had my hopes shattered.
Instead of my A1C number going down, it went up!! Yeah, I wasn't
pleased about that either. We're going to check my blood again in
2 months and then start talking about getting me off of the medication
that turns to poison in my system with the wrong combination of
things. Yeesh!! This just isn't fair!!
Hair trimmed tonight and another perm on the schedule for April, right
before my trip to Paducah-- gotta have care free hair for Paducah,
don'tcha know?
January 19, 2010
Not so much . . .
Yesterday was not so much a holiday for me . . . not at all, as
a matter of fact. My company takes no holidays between New Years'
Day until Memorial Day. Frankly, that's too long for anyone to go
without a break and although some things are less generous now, they
are more generous on floating holidays and "PTO" than they used to be
so I'll be taking a break long about Presidents' Day . . . for no
apparent reason whatsoever, okay? Yes, I've also got a break in
April (I mentioned that last week) but even
that's a long time to wait.
This weekend, I'm going to go on a retreat with the teens from our
church, joining together apparently with a number of state-wide
churches, in Ocean City, Maryland. The kids from my church are,
for the most part, great kids and I like working with them. My
sister Sue and I spent the better part of ten or fifteen minutes trying
to remember what our "Young People's Society" at the church we grew up
in did during our tenure. Neither of us could remember. I
don't want the Youth Group and Sunday School from my church to feel the
same way when they're our age so I want to make it memorable for them,
along with being a learning experience.
Brian and I didn't have time to do anything about the picture links
this past weekend and I won't be here for working on it this coming
weekend but it will get caught up, okay? Plus, I've got pictures
of the girls' clothes so I'm determined to show you pictures--
eventually. We will work on it!!
January 17, 2010
I don't know why . . .
Sundays are harder than other days when it comes to missing my
little Lucy Mae. She would wait for me at the doors to the master
bath when I took my shower or outside the shower stall in the
morning. Then, when I came home from church, usually she was
waiting for me at the back door. Then, we'd spend the day
together, she and I, me walking with her following, never letting me
far from her sight line.
There's almost something every day that reminds me of her but Sundays
are . . .
January
16, 2010
Saturday went fast!!
I went to a "Leadership Meeting" at church today-- I thought I
was going because of the Quilter's Bible Study that I lead but it turns
out that I was invited because of my involvement with the Youth
Group. Whatever! It was time well spent, even though we
went longer than the meeting was intended to run.
After that ended my friend, Mary Grace, helped me deliver the clothes
to the mother of the two girls for whom I was doing the clothing (and
yes, pictures for that will be forthcoming). She was surprised at
how many items there were but, when you're doing sewing like that and
you buy one type of fabric that can be spread over a number of outfits,
you end up with more. It was fun to sew the girly-things!!
Bethany, one of the little girls (she's 6 years old) LOVED her
clothes!! She gave me huge hugs!!
When I got home, Brian and I left to pick out the paint for the guest
room and to get a couple of fire extinguishers for the basement sewing
and fabric rooms. Not that I expect any fires to start but,
between the number of appliances I have running at any one time and the
fabric, I don't want things to go up in smoke!! I'd much rather
be prepared and stop anything from starting and taking off!
While I was there earlier in the day, I dug out the fabric for the
curtains that will go in the new guest bedroom. I'll need to
measure and see how I want to put them together soonish so I wanted to
dig them out while I was thinking of it.
I guess that's about all for now!
January
15, 2010
Or not . . .
Apparently the publishing isn't working and you still can't see
pictures-- maybe we'll get to that this weekend?? Sure,
anything's worth a try!!
My sewing/serger machines are still in for repair/cleaning but I'll use
this weekend, after a meeting at church on Saturday morning, to run
some errands (dropping off the clothes for the little girls, included)
and then spend the balance of Saturday and Sunday organizing my
quilt/embroidery/sewing binders. That'll be a task and then some!
Threw a book in the pile to be resold last night-- I don't even know
(or care) how it ends. Laura Childs writes a series about her
protagonist who runs a tea shop. There's so much internal dialog
(by multiple characters) that I just got bored with the silly
thing!! There's nothing worse than superfluous wording for the
second of word count! I
had bought it used from one of the two used bookstores we stopped in at
in Winston-Salem and to them, it will be returned for resale to someone
who can tolerate that nothingness known as "Lack of Plot" (similar to
"lackluster").
January
13, 2010
And thus begins anew . . .
I've had a rough month so far so you'll forgive me for being tardy in
my arrival for the new year. I'm trying to see how publishing
things are going and testing here and there and not having much
success. Tell
me if you can see a "Dutch girl" wearing a yellow skirt to the
left, okay? Also, let me know if you can see the pictures on this
page-- it's the new Sewing and
Fabric Rooms that have been relocated to the basement. When I
go to view it, I don't see the pictures so let me
know if you do or don't, okay? If I can get this figured out,
then I can move on to other things . . . hopefully. (If the links
don't work, let me know and Brian will help me figure out what I've
messed up!)
The whole moving-the-sewing-and-fabric-rooms to the basement didn't go
to badly. Intelligent as he is, Brian wouldn't
let me do a lot of the running up and down the stairs. Certainly
I would injure my knee with little or not effort on my part-- I'm that
way, as you all well know.
After finishing some little girls' clothes for two sisters at my church
(pictures will follow this weekend and/or whenever I get the publishing
thing fixed), I hauled my serger (Sergio) and both Designer Ones (DeOne
and DeTwo) to get cleaned and serviced for the year. I need to
make a quilt for my sister (a paying gig-- how about that?!?) so as
soon as they get back, I'll get started on that.
The new digs allow me to concentrate on sewing-- I was always terribly
distracted by my personal computer and checking email and whatever
during the course of a Saturday or Sunday sewing and now I don't do
that. Yes, I have a computer there but the purpose is not for
surfing the 'Net but to work on my designs. I find that I am much
less susceptible to surfing the net when I'm not within close proximity
to my email.
Work is . . . plans for going to Paducah to the American
Quilt Show are firmed up. I'm going to meet my cousin Barb in
Champaign, Illinois and will drive with her and a friend the rest of
the way. It saves over $100 on airfare and, it'll be fun driving
with them. Return trip will work out, as well so all-in-all, a
good plan will come into focus in April. I'm really excited since
I haven't been there since 2007; I don't need fabric but I will look
for new techniques, patterns and interests to be piqued at/during the
show.
More to come . . . Happy New Year.
This journal was started many
(more than ten-- that's "many", right?)
years ago.
The opinions stated herein are my own,
much to the
chagrin of my husband, at times.