No Things isn't really nothing, right?

Five months since I posted on this blog. Holy cow. Part of it is a shortage of time, part of it is because I have done nothing on the list. Let's see...

Thing 11. Sort, organize, label and back-up pictures on home PC -- I did sort, organize and label. I even bought a new external hard drive to back them up onto. A little bit of progress here... hoping to actually FINISH this one so I can cross it off the list already!

Thing 12: Make a Kat Quilt -- I found 2 patterns that I like a lot, but nothing that I LOVE yet. I'm planning to make my "Kat Quilt" to go on the bed in the guest room and hopefully decorate the room to match the quilt. I'm not rushing this one... if I'm going to take the time to make a queen size quilt, I want to be completely in love with the pattern. It'll happen... eventually. In the meantime, I have been doing some other sewing. Pictures of some of my recent projects are below.

Thing 14. Average 20 crunches/day for 30 days -- Ha! And that's all I have to say about that.

Thing 15. Make window treatments for master bathroom -- Not sure what possessed me to put this on the list in the first place. I have 2 windows in the bathroom over the tub and the wall certainly looks a bit empty. However, what kind of window treatments should go in a bathroom?? I have NO idea. I'm calling this one a challenge and leaving it on the list. Maybe I'll find something perfect for this in the same pattern book where I find the Kat Quilt. Maybe.

Thing 16. Update Jessica's baby book -- OK, so the kid will be 3 in June and still, the baby book is in the plastic wrapper it came in. Three months to do this before her 3rd birthday. I'll try. Hard. Really, I will.

In the meantime, here's some of the other stuff I've been doing. None of them were anywhere near The List but hey, I sure had fun working on this stuff while neglecting my 5 Things!

My brother and his wife bought a new house in September. I made this for them as a housewarming gift:


I've had this pattern for a long time. I downloaded the paper-piecing templates from a free website at least a year ago. Of course, I didn't download / print the full directions and when I tried to find them again, I couldn't. Oh well... wingin' it is what I do best! I've wanted to try paper-piecing (a quilting technique) for a while so decided to give it a shot on this wall hanging. I gave it to my friend Elissa for Hanukkah:

My friend Mel -- who is my partner is Sewing crime, and the only other person I know who has as much fabric as I do -- was the recipient of this one. It's pretty "folksy" and not really her style, but the "sew crazy" stuff and the antique sewing machine applique are so "us" so it had to be made. I thought about changing the colors to ones more her taste but we have a running joke about how I NEVER follow a pattern... so part of my gift to her was to make it EXACTLY the way the pattern showed it:

Of course, what are the holidays without gifts for your kid's teacher? My 5-year-old is in Kindergarten and her class' theme is "the busy bees." Mrs. J got this wall hanging for Christmas. Those bees are tiny wooden shapes (think of an egg sliced in half) and took longer to paint than the rest of the wall hanging took to make. Oh well... turned out pretty cute:

My friend Luanne has blessed my family with her friendship and kindness in many, many ways over the past year or so. She loves Disney as much as we do so this Mickey wall hanging was her Christmas gift. On the upper left hanger of the wall hanging, you can see a small Snowman Mickey pin. I used that pin as the inspiration to make up the rest of the pattern. Mickey himself is a hand-stitched felt applique. I love the little Mickey-head buttons and am quite impressed with myself for thinking to make "Mickey heads" on the black wooden hanger rod, too:

Here's a (badly lit) close-up:

Last but certainly not least is a quilt I made to auction off on yet another blog I started. Three blogs wasn't enough, you know. Of all the blogs I have, this new one, Angels for Ana, is by far the most important one to me. I don't have the picture of that quilt on the computer I'm using, so I hope you'll take a minute to click over and see it for yourself.

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So, there's my non-Things update. Hoping to get at least one of my 5 Things done soon, but hoping you'll agree that "no things" isn't really "nothing," right?

Thing 8 - The smell of smoke and dirty diapers

Day 4 of my medication, and I've graduated from 1 pill day (half strength) to 2 pills/day. I've had to start eating breakfast (this is new to me, I'm not an "eat before noon" person) so the meds will not upset my stomach, but I can live with that. (We'll add "weight loss" to the list once Thing 8 is done!)

This will sound strange to anyone who's never been a smoker, and will make perfect sense to anyone who is/was... but yesterday, for the first time in years, I actually smelled smoke on my clothes. I know, it's strange... but when you smoke, you just don't smell it. Not sure if it's that your nose really gets that messed up, or if you just get that used to it... but by the middle of yesterday, I was disgusted with myself and had to change my shirt. Gross? Yes. Progress? Yes!

Mind you, I get to keep smoking until Quit Day (Day 8 - this Friday). It takes the full 7 days to get the meds into my system. And then on Magic Quit Day, I increase the dosage again from 2 half-strength pills/day to 2 full-strength pills/day (blue ones, instead of white). Here's what I'm up against, and this is only one month's worth (out of 3)!

Oh... and yesterday, I actually smelled a dirty diaper. Gosh, those things stink! I suppose it's a drawback I can live with, though for at least a few more weeks, I may actually pretend (as my husband accuses me of anyway!) that I just can't smell them...

Thing 3 - Done!

We now interrupt "The Steps of Thing 8" to interject an update on Thing 3 - Finish 1 more quilt. Drum roll, please.......

Yippee!!! Of course, as I mentioned in my original post when I put this on the list, this is quilt #12 or 13 out of 25, and I have at least 5 more to make (someone else is sewing some also, thank Heaven!). So, Thing 3 - Finish 1 more quilt will finally be crossed off the list, only to be replaced by Thing 9 - Finish 1 more quilt.....