I started a new quilting project over the weekend:
Lately I’ve been feeling really overwhelmed by all the creative things I see every day on the internet. There are so many very creative people out there, all doing new things — all things that I wish I was doing instead of just sitting on the sidelines watching. There never seem to be enough hours in the day. (I blame my job, mostly.) And sometimes I just start to feel like I am the most uncreative person on the planet. There seems to be a discussion going on out there between creative-types that all feel this way, which makes me feel a little better, but it’s still a bit of an internal struggle with me.
Today’s the day we take Laika over to Florida to begin her search for a new home, so indulge me just one more time, okay? Here’s a family picture, taken last month, just a few days before her 4th birthday.
This morning we took Laika on her last trip to the beach. She likes the beach – lots of things to smell, and sometimes we take the ball along – but hates the car ride there. So a morning at the beach is usually a treat for her, since we can only handle the half-hour drive with her whining and pacing in the back of the car every once in a while. As part of her last weekend with us, I definitely wanted to give her this treat one more time. It turned out to be a great trip.
First of all, many, many thanks to those of you that left a comment on my last entry, either here or on Facebook. Your support and kindness was really overwhelming and made Shawn and I both feel at least a little better. It’s still a sensitive subject around here, of course, but we’re working through it. Adding to the stress this week was the potential shutdown of the federal government. It was pretty rough, particularly toward the end of the week, not knowing if either of us would be furloughed and for how long. Luckily this has been averted for now, but who knows what lies ahead as the debates start for next year’s budget.
For me, life in the Foreign Service stinks right now. There are many reasons for this, and most of them would be inappropriate to discuss in this forum. But one of the big ones is this: three weeks from today, we will be on a plane taking our Dobergirl and best friend Laika dog to find a new home in the US.
One of the things I’m really looking forward to when we move back to the US is that I can cook the way I want to. It is nice that in The Bahamas, we can get American brands, but that mostly applies to junk food and not the things I should be eating. When we went grocery shopping this week, I jumped up and down when I saw that they had kale. The last time I saw fresh kale was August of 2009. Needless to say, I grabbed a couple bunches when I saw it. The checkout girl had no idea what it was — “Kale. K-A-L-E.” I said.
I believe that my last blog post was shortly after I returned from my trip to Charleston. It was not long after that I started experiencing major pain in my right wrist. As a quilter/knitter/computer user, I get pains in my wrists from time to time, along with some tingling sensations in my fingers and forearms. But this was different. This was major, waking-me-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night, unable-to-use-my-hand-at-all-for-the-first-half-of-the-day sort of pain. A trip to the doctor confirmed that it’s carpal tunnel syndrome.
The past week and a half has been a little bit crazy. Approximately 10 days ago was the beginning of the first quilt show I have ever been involved with. Since it was put on by my quilt guild, there were a couple days of set up, and a reception, and work manning the show. In the middle of this, I had to go to Charleston, SC for work. Isn’t that just great timing?
I seem to have a theme going with my craft projects lately. I’m getting ready to start work on a quilt using fabrics from Moda called “Tiny Town.” (I got the fabric several years ago, so I can’t find it online anymore. Sorry. But I’ll post pics of the final product.) Then last week I found a pattern for this calendar: