I think my good mood went with it. I spent the whole afternoon making a WIP/UFO page. It’s in the side bar. However, it is by no means complete.

⬆️That’s all I wrote on April 10. I’ve forgotten now what interrupted me, as well as what I was going to say. Obviously, it wasn’t really important.

I’ve been doing practically no stitching, which makes me sad, but other things keep jumping ahead. Mostly it’s been the machine embroidery files. I want them to be done. I’m in the ‘M’s now. The current folder is one that was a mess when I received it. Did the digitizer have a plan? There are so many duplicates. There are also old erroneous files that have been corrected which almost had me deleting the corrected version as another duplicate! It kind of looks like she just zipped up her working files.

Anyway, once they are done, I’ll be able to use them more easily. What I want to do is stitch a gazillion blocks to have them ready to use in quilts, and hand stitching projects. I want to use up as much as possible of the quilting cottons my sister gave me, so that means making a lot of quilts. I have a couple traditional patterns I want to make/finish on the machine. I also want to do some Spirit Cloth type quilts, but the majority I want to make to use up the fabric will probably be given to various charities, so will not be complicated patterns, nor make-it-up-as-I-go, but simple squares and rectangles, thoughtfully arranged, some with and some without the embroidered blocks. I have bunches of flowers, hearts, gnomes and child themes. Some military themes, bible verses, and sassy sayings, too.

Almost all my machine work is on hold until I can get my rooms in order. And one room depends on another, so I’m waiting for dry weather so I can empty the key room. I need to give away a ton of stuff and probably toss some, too. I’m a natural packrat, born into a family of packrats, so it can be very difficult.

Sometimes I wonder what it’s like to get something like that done all at once. Most of my big projects are done in parts.

One big project that will be done all at once, by the middle of May, is my deck. Woo! Hoo! It won’t be quite as large nor the roughly hexagonal shape as the current accident-waiting-to-happen, but it will be at the same level as the kitchen and 90% maintenance free. I had to compromise on the railing. I wanted wrought iron to match the balcony and front porch. I’ll get wood. I think I’ll paint it black. Our neighbor did that with his fence and it looked good. (Until after he died and it got neglected and rotted. See pic below.) I wonder if I can also cover it with marine polyurethane with the idea of making it much less necessary to repaint very often. We’ll see.

Another project, that I probably should have started today, is a small wall next to the ferns by the back door and the little patio. They’re planted on the edge of a mound and the dirt keeps washing away from their roots. Last weekend I bought a dozen bricks, but it has been raining until today. I ended up doing laundry today (although not as much as I could have). Hopefully, two bricks (maybe three) high right next to those roots will hold the dirt in. I’ve considered doing the tiny wall all along the mound where it’s next to the sidewalk. I’ll decide that later. For now it’ll be just for the ferns.

I need a hummingbird feeder! In the summer they come for the petunias and butterfly bush, but I’ve been seeing one flitting around the deck in what looks like a “Where are they?” mode. If I put it where the cats can’t reach it, it’ll be safer than those flowers.

Speaking of which . . . We have sort of acquired another apparently homeless cat. I’ve caught her in the box I made for Hector, that he never uses . . . well, I’ve seen her jumping out and running. She also eats the food. Which is ok because Hector has gotten very plump and doesn’t care if he gets it or not. (Pretty sure our neighbor feeds him, too.) She’s smaller than Hector, but not as friendly, so I’m not even sure it’s a she. I don’t even know for sure that she’s homeless. Can’t get close enough to look for a collar or chip. She runs from Hector as much as me as he doesn’t seem to want her around. I hope they learn to get along.

This was taken from the kitchen. She’s looking at Hector, who chased her up the post. I’m guessing a male would be more aggressive. And that Hector would not have been content for another male even to be on the post.