Saturday, December 13, 2014

Remember that cleaning I was going to do in my sewing rooms? I finally got to it today.

There were a few “need to do” things waiting for me so I took care of a few of them yesterday. Pat’s accounting is done and I’ve sent it off to the accountant; I think this is the earliest it has been done for years. I’m usually begging to get the year-end file back from the accountant so I can prepare the GST for the end of December. I started asking earlier this year (because we’ll have company during the time I’m usually taking care of it) and it appears to have worked. The task doesn’t seem so difficult because Pat isn’t working (or spending) as much and it didn’t hurt that we’ve been travelling a fair bit since the start of his year in September. I still have some Guild work to take care of but I can’t go to the bank until Monday so that has been set aside for another day.

I often take part in Quilt-Alongs that I read about in the various blogs I follow. Let me rephrase that; I often download the patterns and steps for the quilt-alongs because “someday” I will do them. One of the blogs has a 12 Days of Christmas quilt-along this year. Every other day they send instructions for one block. I haven’t done any Christmas sewing for myself and one small block a day seemed manageable. I got a bit behind while we were in Saskatoon but I took some time yesterday and caught myself up. I have no clue what this is going to be at the end of the 12 days; I’m using up a few of my Christmas scraps and so far the blocks have all gone together well. I’ve also been participating in a 12 Days of Christmas sale at a shop in the Lower Mainland; I haven’t purchased the special every day but I’ll have a nice parcel coming to me very soon! I finished up the last of my December cards today; just in time as my reminder for January cards will come up in a couple of days.

Before I could make much headway in cleaning up I had to finish wrapping the Christmas gifts. Every year I try to spread the task out over a few weeks but, in the end, I’m always tired of it before it is done. Next year I’m going to try very hard not to use any paper (although my wrapping tote has a lot of paper in it from past years). Often it is difficult to wrap a gift in a bag if it is going to be sent through the mail. I have a collection of bags (purchased and fabric) but they never seem to be the right size.

Now that the day is almost over I can walk to and from one of the doors without having to step over obstacles. I’m not saying it is clean, but it is a bit tidier than it was at the beginning of the day. There may be no hope for my cutting room though.