Looking into 2022.............................

 I have been mulling over this post for awhile now, in fact for all of January and trying to think about how to put down my thoughts. I better post soon as January is more than half gone.

I have been reading a lot of posts in blog land and note that lots of people are setting goals for each month and some stating a word to live up to for the coming year. I tried the word thing for a few years and went back into my blog to remind myself of what I said. One year it was Balance, and another year it was Organisation. Well I failed on both of those for that year, so have decided not to do that again. I do have a few goals, or should I say plans that I hope to achieve, but not saying them out too loud either, as it is really hard in the current world in which we live to guarantee our plans. One day, or even a week at a time sounds achievable. 

I do like what I read on one blog that she had reached SABLE status in her life!! Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy.... it fits me so well. So one of my plans is to keep on with the packing of fabric packs and Quilt kits ready to do some online selling, in the future somewhere, as well as a couple of markets that are lined up. This is what my cutting table looks like tonight..... and there is lots more where this lot came from. Some will be packed into bundles and some into the kits and a lot will be sewn into donation quilts.

Another site I read talked about squirrels happening.......meaning a distraction that pulls you away from what you are currently working on and sends you in another direction. As we don't have squirrels in Australia, (well I don't think we do??), perhaps it might be more appropriate to talk about going down a rabbit hole?? I have so many different things I want to do now, sometimes I don't know where to go first?? (Photo from online - This pic takes me back to a whole other lifetime in our farming days).

It was always easy to plan my day, as it was mostly just to load the next customer quilt and keep up with the queue. The motivation to get them done was the momentum (and perhaps the push?) I needed. While I am still doing customer quilts, as I head into partial retirement, I have reduced the numbers I take in, and mostly they don't have a deadline. Which means the stress of keeping up is absent. Perhaps that is not such a good thing for me as I struggle to find a new routine and work out what the priority should be??? Which is why it is easy to 'go down the rabbit hole', or even let a whole day go by and wonder what I have achieved? 

Some of my plans for 2022 are, (and I am whispering these, not saying them out loud) - The Windy Hill farm quilt, but it has been put away for now and I will get back to it, sometime...... Cutting and planning for a selling table at a group quilt show, just over the border. I have been told this morning that this has been deferred until later in the year, so I now have breathing space......Learning Power Point programme so that I can go on the roster at the church......... sewing scrappy donation quilts.......finishing all the UFO's that I have in progress and not saying how many....... cleaning out old files in the filing cabinet.

Mostly I spend mornings in the garden and find there is lots to keep me occupied. I did post about that hedge and how progress was very slow. I made a decision this week and have passed the job onto my mowing man, who I decided was better qualified to do the job. Plus he has much better and bigger pruning equipment than I do and he will finish the task in no time at all. And gives me more time to work in other areas.

The computer issues are being sorted and that's another dilemma I have. I have a desktop computer, a laptop that I use when I travel and a computer on my Statler machine. They are all running Windows 7, and I know that is no longer supported by Microsoft. I've been thinking about a new laptop and even though I don't travel with it much at present, it is good to take into other areas of the house when I want to use it. The other dilemma I have is that if I update my laptop, some of the software that I use (including Quickbooks) will not be compatible on a later version of Windows. I don't know why "they" need to update things and give us a new learning curve for it!!?? - I know this is probably a minor problem when many in the world don't even have a computer, and I'm not really complaining, just stating how it is.

I made mention in a December post of a special event and party time for February. I'm not too sure just how it has come around so fast, but in February it will be 20 years since Cornerstone Creations Machine Quilting commenced!! It has been an amazing journey and I have been very blessed. There were plans for a great celebration and a party of some sort, but as I said before plans change easily in current conditions. In the hope that 'things' will ease in time, I have now thought about celebrations in April, from Easter until the end of the month. There will be more details in due course about how and what will happen. I hope to combine this with the BCNA Pink fundraiser that I did not hold last September. 

Reaching 20 years of CCMQ has sent me down another "rabbit hole" and in another unplanned direction!! This cupboard below had been packed with books and papers and stuff! There were lots of magazines that had articles about quilt show results and quilts that I had made published in them. There were newspaper clippings about my business, CCMQ. Brochures, advertising flyers and photos and lots and lots of information and history of my journey over the last 20 years. I know that 'one day' and I don't know when, I will have to make a move from here, and 'stuff' will need to be packed, or even thrown out! So sorting has begun.............

This tub now contains the information that I need from the cupboard above. My plans are to scan the documents and put them into a computer document.

In another box, back behind Max where noone can see 'stuff' was this collection of work diaries going back to 2002 when I started CCMQ!! Oh, what a collection of memories and information is in these!! I have spent most of this week going back and taking notes. 

They are now sitting in this pile, until I have finished with them. My plan now is to write a book of my Cornerstone Creations journey. I have many photos on hard drives to add to this story and I can see much time being spent at the computer. About 3 years ago I started writing my life story book and had worked my way through my first 18 years. This has remained dormant since then, but in the back of my mind, I knew I wanted to get back to this and hopefully this is one of my goals for this year. 

Some people might say I am a hoarder for having kept a lot of this information, but I did have a reason. When it's all recorded in book format it can be discarded. Not too sure if anyone will want to read it at all, hopefully some of my family might be interested, but it's something I feel led to do. 

I found this entry from 2008 and sent the photo to my DIL!! It says Carly to sew! She sent a message back, with a laughing face emoji, saying "Back when I was trying to impress my boyfriends mother!!" (She must have given up trying to impress me, as there is no sewing happening these days!)

I got this far with this post and had a phone call. During the call I received a message from Raylene. I looked at it and saw this message with the photo.

                                                   " Do you have this sky at your place?"

 By the time I went outside to look it was almost dark, but did manage to get this photo! I almost missed it!

Time to finish off and head to bed ready for another day tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be much cooler, so time in the garden will be a good start, to see if I can get some strawberries before the birds get them.

Blessings, From Jude