Oh how busy have I been!
Life has been crazy busy, as it always is when you juggle home duties, family, pups, and a business! These last couple of weeks have been my crazy life as usual. But I actually got a lot accomplished!
I have discovered how wonderful written to do lists are for me. I have had so much stuff in my head-tasks that needed completion, orders to make, food to put on the dehydrator, and many small little ten minute tasks-that I seem to get nothing done. I start something and then remember something else I need to do and move to that without finishing the first task. Or I'll remember something I need to do while I'm out, promptly forget, then remember as I'm trying to get my mind to shut off at night so I can sleep.
So the other day my head was so full of things to do, I decided to write them down to hopefully stop feeling so frazzled and focus. Do you know what? It worked! I wrote down 23 things in about ten minutes that I needed to get accomplished. Of course I knew not all of them were going to get done that day, or even that week, but having them written down allowed me to focus on one task at a time and to actually get things completed without trying not to forget something else I needed to be doing.
To my amazement, I knocked out ten things in that one day! Granted a couple of them only took five minutes or so, but still, they got done! I felt so good going to bed that night at seeing a visual list of what I needed to do plus having those things accomplished that were then marked off the list, I was able to fall asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow! It's a great feeling!
Now, a week later, I've got a one subject, college ruled, spiral notebook that is just my on-going to do list. So far there are 53 items on that list, but 16 of those items have been marked off! Just today before noon I'm about to knock off three more items! By the time this afternoon is over, I should have another (large) task marked off! I love having this tangible reminder of not only what needs to be done but of what I have been able to get done as well.
Why don't you try it? You may find you rest better, focus easier, and get more accomplished with a dedicated to do list. I don't put due dates on anything unless I have a specific due date (like a quilt that I have due to be returned to my client) but I find I don't need them as much because I don't forget to do something and have to do it last minute now. I know I've just been doing this for a week or so, but the amount of tasks I have been able to complete during this short time has been wonderful and motivating! I hope you'll find it as successful a tool as I have!
Next month is sure to test my new to do list. I have my first event, a vending opportunity at two quilt guild meetings. Hopefully it will go well as I gear up for quilt shows this year. I hope to see you at the shows! For a list of where we'll be, please visit the website at www.aquilterseasel.com and check out the bottom of the first page. If you visit a quilt show let me know you follow my blog!
Have a great day! Maybe next week I'll post pictures of my (finally organized!) quilt studio I've been working on these last two weeks! Have a great week!
~Michelle
Monday, January 29, 2018
Thursday, January 11, 2018
The Less Exciting Days of Business
Hello Quilters!
I hope you've all gotten to do a lot of quilting this nearly two weeks since I last posted. It's been a really busy time for me, but not much quilting done unfortunately.
I love owning my own business with my only bosses being my amazing clients! Except, that is, for the tax season part. Can we all just join in a big Ugh!
So the last two weeks I've been compiling my tax information. You know, all the income, expenses, and sales taxes collected over the year, so that I can do my year-end tax report and payments (yuck!). I am happy to say that as of an hour ago they are all completed and I have everything set for this year to (hopefully) be a bit smoother and easier!
Now, on to more fun stuff. I'm nearly finished (just 64 butterflies left!) quilting a quilt that my sister made for our mom for a church friend of hers who always gets cold during the service. Its a pretty dark purple cross on a cream-on-white background with a frame of light purple and light blue lattice work. Very pretty! It's all made of 3 inch finished squares, and each square (288 of them!) is being quilted with a coordinating color thread with a butterfly in every block. I'm so thankful I have a computer guided long arm! I expected to be done last night, but a storm rolled in ahead of the cold front and I won't run my machine or even leave it plugged in during a storm just to be safe, even though I have a great UPS system for it. I just don't want to take the chance!
So the craziness that is my life continues. Yesterday I was out tossing the Frisbee to Luna and the wind caught it. But instead of it going up and over the back yard fence as usual, it slipped the Frisbee under the edge of the platform we have our storage shed sitting on! The poor pup of mine was pawing and whining at it trying to get it out, so I had to go rescue her....after I stopped laughing at her spinning in circles trying to locate it!
We've been having some trouble getting Cameo to eat. No idea why, as she'll eat anything you give her except her regular food. This went on for 3 days and I was getting concerned and was about to call the vet when I saw another poster on a pet page on Facebook mention she had been giving her dogs coconut oil for allergies to help. Since Cameo and Luna both have allergies, I decided to ask the vet and do a lot of research on my own. I spent most of the day researching and learned there are a lot of benefits of taking a measured amount (based on weight) of coconut oil daily for both humans and dogs.
Now, I'm going to stop right here and say I'm in no way encouraging you to start eating coconut oil or giving it to your animals. If you're interested, do it right and research and talk to your vet and/or personal doctor before you do anything different first.
So anyway, I started giving each of our girls a bit of melted organic virgin coconut oil drizzled over their food twice daily (amount for each depends on their weight). They all, including Cameo, took to it like crazy, begging for more and loving every bite! It's been a week, and Cameo and Luna are already itching less and the redness on their skin is less and Chella has been getting around a bit better. I can't wait to tell my vet how well they're doing since he ok'ed the oil!
Hmmmm....well, that's about it for these last twoish weeks. Just a lot of the boring side of business and worrying over Cameo not eating and a little quilting.
Tomorrow I hope to finish this quilt because I need to take it back to my sister Saturday when my husband, his cousin, and I head to Wichita Falls for a WWE Live event show. I can't wait to go! My favorite wrestler should be there, Finn Balor. It should be a great night of fun to celebrate my birthday (it's the 16th).
Then next week its back to work to finally get my studio in some kind of organized mess instead of just the disaster mess it's in. Once that's done I hope to finally be able to pull out my new Silhouette Cameo cutter and play with it (aka. learn how to run it)!
So I guess that's it. Back to work with some of the fun part of business ownership---making new labels for my product line! Hope you enjoyed this post!
Michelle
I hope you've all gotten to do a lot of quilting this nearly two weeks since I last posted. It's been a really busy time for me, but not much quilting done unfortunately.
I love owning my own business with my only bosses being my amazing clients! Except, that is, for the tax season part. Can we all just join in a big Ugh!
So the last two weeks I've been compiling my tax information. You know, all the income, expenses, and sales taxes collected over the year, so that I can do my year-end tax report and payments (yuck!). I am happy to say that as of an hour ago they are all completed and I have everything set for this year to (hopefully) be a bit smoother and easier!
Now, on to more fun stuff. I'm nearly finished (just 64 butterflies left!) quilting a quilt that my sister made for our mom for a church friend of hers who always gets cold during the service. Its a pretty dark purple cross on a cream-on-white background with a frame of light purple and light blue lattice work. Very pretty! It's all made of 3 inch finished squares, and each square (288 of them!) is being quilted with a coordinating color thread with a butterfly in every block. I'm so thankful I have a computer guided long arm! I expected to be done last night, but a storm rolled in ahead of the cold front and I won't run my machine or even leave it plugged in during a storm just to be safe, even though I have a great UPS system for it. I just don't want to take the chance!
So the craziness that is my life continues. Yesterday I was out tossing the Frisbee to Luna and the wind caught it. But instead of it going up and over the back yard fence as usual, it slipped the Frisbee under the edge of the platform we have our storage shed sitting on! The poor pup of mine was pawing and whining at it trying to get it out, so I had to go rescue her....after I stopped laughing at her spinning in circles trying to locate it!
We've been having some trouble getting Cameo to eat. No idea why, as she'll eat anything you give her except her regular food. This went on for 3 days and I was getting concerned and was about to call the vet when I saw another poster on a pet page on Facebook mention she had been giving her dogs coconut oil for allergies to help. Since Cameo and Luna both have allergies, I decided to ask the vet and do a lot of research on my own. I spent most of the day researching and learned there are a lot of benefits of taking a measured amount (based on weight) of coconut oil daily for both humans and dogs.
Now, I'm going to stop right here and say I'm in no way encouraging you to start eating coconut oil or giving it to your animals. If you're interested, do it right and research and talk to your vet and/or personal doctor before you do anything different first.
So anyway, I started giving each of our girls a bit of melted organic virgin coconut oil drizzled over their food twice daily (amount for each depends on their weight). They all, including Cameo, took to it like crazy, begging for more and loving every bite! It's been a week, and Cameo and Luna are already itching less and the redness on their skin is less and Chella has been getting around a bit better. I can't wait to tell my vet how well they're doing since he ok'ed the oil!
Hmmmm....well, that's about it for these last twoish weeks. Just a lot of the boring side of business and worrying over Cameo not eating and a little quilting.
Tomorrow I hope to finish this quilt because I need to take it back to my sister Saturday when my husband, his cousin, and I head to Wichita Falls for a WWE Live event show. I can't wait to go! My favorite wrestler should be there, Finn Balor. It should be a great night of fun to celebrate my birthday (it's the 16th).
Then next week its back to work to finally get my studio in some kind of organized mess instead of just the disaster mess it's in. Once that's done I hope to finally be able to pull out my new Silhouette Cameo cutter and play with it (aka. learn how to run it)!
So I guess that's it. Back to work with some of the fun part of business ownership---making new labels for my product line! Hope you enjoyed this post!
Michelle
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