I am so sorry! I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted! Life has been crazy and it totally slipped my mind that I hadn't posted.
So, Life. Yep, that's been a crazy ride this last month. First I had a baby quilt to make quick for my husband's cousin who's new little boy is due next weekend, then I got all ready for an event in Bethany, OK, about an hour and a half from home, had my car loaded and my husband even took off work for the day to help.....and it decides to start sleeting two hours after I loaded the car.
You guessed it, I didn't go. It was too icy here. So I felt really bad having to send a message to the coordinator for the guild meetings to say I wouldn't be able to attend to bring my hand dyed fabrics. Thankfully later that day I got an email from her saying the meetings for the next day had been canceled because they had received ice there as well! So all turned out good in the end, and I got rescheduled for August 23!
That's the first opening they had where I either wasn't already scheduled for an event and thought I would have new stock made (I have two large shows in June back to back and hope I sell out at both!)
Then I took our oldest pup (nearly 14) to the vet to see if it was old age or a UTI that was causing her to have accidents in the house at all hours of the day and night. After a urinalysis and bladder ultrasound, all was negative. So doc took some blood and sent it off to the lab.
The next day I get call that he wants to do a STEM test of some sort and a liver ultrasound because she has elevated liver enzymes, and he's suspecting Cushing's disease. So I took her back in the next day for that, and we're waiting for test results (should be in today) to see what's wrong with my girl.
Then if that wasn't enough, the new fish that we had purchased less than two weeks before started dying! I called the pet shop because they have a replacement guarantee and was told to bring in another water sample (tested perfect the day we bought the fish) and the dead fish and we should be reimbursed or can get new fish.
The next morning, another dead fish, and I had to go to my husband's grandma's that day to care for her, so I couldn't go to the pet shop until that evening. I called again, talked to them, and discovered some white gunk on my living fish, even the ones who were still breathing but sitting on the bottom of the tank!
Turns out the lady at the pet shop suspected Ich or a fungus. So I go to hubs' grandma's house, fully expecting to have no fish still alive when I got home nearly 8 hours later. But guess what, they were almost all still alive--except one!
So I take the now 3 dead fish and a water sample and off I go back to the pet store. They look at the fish, test the water, and the water is still almost perfect, but the Ich or fungus explains the slightly off pH of the water. So I am directed to which treatment to get and to add aquarium salt to the tank. I get the stuff, head home, and treat the tank with the first dose of meds.
So we now have a tank that instead of clear water has water that is stained a lovely clear acid green! I have to treat it again in 48 hours, then wait another 48 hours to put the carbon filter back in and do a water change. So we wait and see how the fish do. So far so good, as the ones left are all still alive and mostly swimming around. I do have a couple that stay mostly on the bottom even though they come up for food, so I don't know if those two will survive or not.
On top of all that, I'm teaching an art quilt mini class next weekend at a quilt retreat and I'm still trying to get the class samples finished and get all the fabric dyed and fusible web put on it and everything kitted up and I only have 4 days to get it all done before I leave early Thursday morning (I have today and Sunday with hubs' grandma still ). So lots to do and I'm feeling so overwhelmed!
After the retreat, I have two client quilts to quilt and by then my large fabric order should be in so I can start dyeing fabric for my shows this season. My first show is just next month!
Friday, March 2, 2018
Monday, January 29, 2018
Prepping for the new month!
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
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
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
Sunday, December 31, 2017
New Year, New Growth!
Greeting Quilters!
This year I decided to try several new things for my shop, A Quilter's Easel. One of those things is this blog!
I'm not sure what all will be in it, but I am going to try to post at least once a week on Sundays. These will have a LOT of quilty content, as my life has a lot of quilty content, but they'll probably also be about family, shows, organizing, travel, our dogs, and yes, my dehydrator adventures. I have recently discovered dehydrating and received a 10 tray dehydrator from my husband for Christmas. It hasn't been off pretty much since I got it!
So, for those of you who don't know me, let me introduce myself!
I have a mix of modern and old-world style of likes and personality I guess. I'm all about being a strong and independent woman but love having the love and support of my family and friends. You'll probably see me talk about my 'girls' a bit. My husband Rob and I don't have kids, but we do have dogs. Five of them! (don't worry, they aren't allowed in my studio or around any of my dyes or fabrics!)
Our littlest is Katie. She's a Chihuahua and jack russel mix. Seven years old and a little spitfire full of energy and loves to give kisses.
Tessa is next. She's also seven and is a mix of Papillion and Italian greyhound (we think, she's a shelter pup). She was found on the streets and was brought to the shelter. We think she was beaten prior to being tossed out or escaping. We adopted her at about 5 1/2 months old. She now has occasional seizures, probably due to the abuse.
Next up is Luna. She's the youngest at almost four years old and is full of energy, stubborn, and very attached to me. We adopted her from our veterinarian. Her previous owners brought her in at 3 months old and wanted her put down because her jaw was broken in 2 places. They kept changing the story of how she got hurt so we suspect they were actually the cause. Thankfully my vet refused to kill her and instead performed a 3 hour complicated surgery to repair her jaw. Four weeks later I started working in the hospital kennel and fell in love with her. I started teaching her and potty training her and two weeks later she joined our family. Now she won't even go outside in the morning without having to come snuggle with me first!
Our oldest is Chella. She's a treeing walker coonhound and yellow lab mix and will be 14 years old in April. She is also a rescue from a no-kill shelter. I went there and the lady told me to go pick out which one I wanted (there was a litter of pups). I went out to play with them and pick one out and she came up and sat at my feet and just waited while the rest were all crazy playing. I picked her up and told the lady (who had went back in the building) that she was the one I wanted. She couldn't believe I had been able to 'catch' her because she always ran from others! So she picked me and came home with me. We've been through a lot together, including 4 cancer surgeries and 2 ACL repair surgeries for her and she now has arthritis and is mostly deaf and partially blind, but she still rough houses with Luna!
Our last and biggest is Cameo, a 112 pound blue merle great dane. She's the only purchased pup we have, all the rest are rescues. Rob bought her for me shortly after we began dating for Christmas because I've always wanted a great dane. She loves to (try) to lay in my lap and I have the bruises to prove it!
My husband is a wonderful man, especially with all the quilting, dyeing, and pups he puts up with :) He works hard as a computer tech and relaxes just as hard, gaming and watching anime and The Walking Dead and also WWE with me. He's very supportive of what I do and of my creativity and is always there to help with the day-to-day life chores like laundry and dishes so I can spend time in the studio.
So that's my house. Lots of love, kisses, barks, and 20 muddy paws when it rains, but I wouldn't change a bit of it.
Other than that I'm pretty basic. I love the old world style of canning, dehydrating, quilting, crochet, and things like that, though you'll only catch me in dresses and skirts at church, weddings, or funerals. I'm a jeans and t-shirts kind of girl. I do love to read though, especially series' like The Mortal Instruments and Harry Potter. I also watch The Librarians and Shadowhunters and the like while quilting or creating.
I did surprise our vet though when he found out that not only am I very 'into' quilting (something I talk about all the time), I also love NASCAR and WWE wrestling. He said he'd never guess someone who loved quilting as much as I do would even think about any kind of sport, let alone two of the more 'male directed' sports. I guess I'm just a conundrum!
We just remodeled our two car garage into a quilt studio (I say just but it was summer of 2016). It still isn't all that organized and it looks like a whirlwind came through with the Christmas rush, so I'll be cleaning and organizing soon. I'll try to share before and after pics with y'all (yes I'm from Texas, so expect 'y'all' to come up in my posts. After all, its a proper word in Texas :) )
I'll get off here and let you get back to your world. I hope to share parts of my world each week with everyone who wants to read this. There will be cooking, recipes, pup antics, and who knows what else along with the quilty things. After all, our lives are not just one thing but a combination of many things!
Blessings and Happy Quilting!
Michelle
This year I decided to try several new things for my shop, A Quilter's Easel. One of those things is this blog!
I'm not sure what all will be in it, but I am going to try to post at least once a week on Sundays. These will have a LOT of quilty content, as my life has a lot of quilty content, but they'll probably also be about family, shows, organizing, travel, our dogs, and yes, my dehydrator adventures. I have recently discovered dehydrating and received a 10 tray dehydrator from my husband for Christmas. It hasn't been off pretty much since I got it!
So, for those of you who don't know me, let me introduce myself!
I have a mix of modern and old-world style of likes and personality I guess. I'm all about being a strong and independent woman but love having the love and support of my family and friends. You'll probably see me talk about my 'girls' a bit. My husband Rob and I don't have kids, but we do have dogs. Five of them! (don't worry, they aren't allowed in my studio or around any of my dyes or fabrics!)
Our littlest is Katie. She's a Chihuahua and jack russel mix. Seven years old and a little spitfire full of energy and loves to give kisses.
Tessa is next. She's also seven and is a mix of Papillion and Italian greyhound (we think, she's a shelter pup). She was found on the streets and was brought to the shelter. We think she was beaten prior to being tossed out or escaping. We adopted her at about 5 1/2 months old. She now has occasional seizures, probably due to the abuse.
Next up is Luna. She's the youngest at almost four years old and is full of energy, stubborn, and very attached to me. We adopted her from our veterinarian. Her previous owners brought her in at 3 months old and wanted her put down because her jaw was broken in 2 places. They kept changing the story of how she got hurt so we suspect they were actually the cause. Thankfully my vet refused to kill her and instead performed a 3 hour complicated surgery to repair her jaw. Four weeks later I started working in the hospital kennel and fell in love with her. I started teaching her and potty training her and two weeks later she joined our family. Now she won't even go outside in the morning without having to come snuggle with me first!
Our oldest is Chella. She's a treeing walker coonhound and yellow lab mix and will be 14 years old in April. She is also a rescue from a no-kill shelter. I went there and the lady told me to go pick out which one I wanted (there was a litter of pups). I went out to play with them and pick one out and she came up and sat at my feet and just waited while the rest were all crazy playing. I picked her up and told the lady (who had went back in the building) that she was the one I wanted. She couldn't believe I had been able to 'catch' her because she always ran from others! So she picked me and came home with me. We've been through a lot together, including 4 cancer surgeries and 2 ACL repair surgeries for her and she now has arthritis and is mostly deaf and partially blind, but she still rough houses with Luna!
Our last and biggest is Cameo, a 112 pound blue merle great dane. She's the only purchased pup we have, all the rest are rescues. Rob bought her for me shortly after we began dating for Christmas because I've always wanted a great dane. She loves to (try) to lay in my lap and I have the bruises to prove it!
My husband is a wonderful man, especially with all the quilting, dyeing, and pups he puts up with :) He works hard as a computer tech and relaxes just as hard, gaming and watching anime and The Walking Dead and also WWE with me. He's very supportive of what I do and of my creativity and is always there to help with the day-to-day life chores like laundry and dishes so I can spend time in the studio.
So that's my house. Lots of love, kisses, barks, and 20 muddy paws when it rains, but I wouldn't change a bit of it.
Other than that I'm pretty basic. I love the old world style of canning, dehydrating, quilting, crochet, and things like that, though you'll only catch me in dresses and skirts at church, weddings, or funerals. I'm a jeans and t-shirts kind of girl. I do love to read though, especially series' like The Mortal Instruments and Harry Potter. I also watch The Librarians and Shadowhunters and the like while quilting or creating.
I did surprise our vet though when he found out that not only am I very 'into' quilting (something I talk about all the time), I also love NASCAR and WWE wrestling. He said he'd never guess someone who loved quilting as much as I do would even think about any kind of sport, let alone two of the more 'male directed' sports. I guess I'm just a conundrum!
We just remodeled our two car garage into a quilt studio (I say just but it was summer of 2016). It still isn't all that organized and it looks like a whirlwind came through with the Christmas rush, so I'll be cleaning and organizing soon. I'll try to share before and after pics with y'all (yes I'm from Texas, so expect 'y'all' to come up in my posts. After all, its a proper word in Texas :) )
I'll get off here and let you get back to your world. I hope to share parts of my world each week with everyone who wants to read this. There will be cooking, recipes, pup antics, and who knows what else along with the quilty things. After all, our lives are not just one thing but a combination of many things!
Blessings and Happy Quilting!
Michelle
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