a cobby little book

in which our plucky heroine remembers "done is better than perfect"...

My 100 day stitch book project is finished, and the pages turned into a book. It didn't look quite how I expected it to, being more chunky, more floppy, and less even about the edges than I imagined at the start. I learned a great deal over the 100 days though. I am thinking that I need to create a clamshell box to store it in, and also that my next 100 days will be dedicated to "progress and process in printmaking", as there are both specific projects, and a number of different skills I really want to explore...

~ 100 day stitch book project - done ~

Last night I stitched together all the pages in the correct order to assemble the book. The tab and slot construction is very clever indeed. I did most of the stitching on the machine, but closed up all the openings with hand overcasting. The more layers I had included in the areas where there were seams, the more bunchy the book became. It looks rather like a little Fjord pony.

If/when I do another stitch book project, I will be sure to choose base fabrics that are thin yet sturdy, and also not run my stitchery all the way to the edges, which should make construction slightly easier. I have no idea how the folks that used, say, denim for their base pages have managed. I also now understand the appeal of leaving the edges of the pages raw, rather than stitched and turned, though that wasn't the effect I was going for here.

Here are all twenty pages, tagged with their page numbers and laid out in the order they will be stitched together (rather than in page order) before being assembled into book form...

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	page 15	taxes done	jars to Mud Bay
2	custom Tullia daypack	shoes painted blue	recycle bin
3	page 16 and 17	shoe elastics transferred	extra plant pots
4	page 18	roses on shoe toeses	yard waste bin
5	page 19	light fixture replaced	grapes to compost
6	page 20	some ferns pruned	yard waste bin
7	stitchbook	hardy fuschia pruned	recycle bin
8	x	apple partly pruned	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. I discovered today that there is a lot more depth to Terry Pratchett than silliness. This delights me and gives me a whole catalog of books to read.
2. cooler weather today, good for walking and bike riding
3. I learned a lot about design and perseverance from the 100 day stitchbook project

Time of Isolation - Day 1047

100 days gone

in which our plucky heroine sleeps in...

Woke up at sunrise, way too early and too warm, so I went ahead and put up the Reflectix in the bedroom window, took my meds, and went back to sleep. Woke up a second time much closer to lunch than to breakfast, so I must have needed it... Despite making sure that I also had enough water and balanced meals, I remained still caught in the zero motivation trap, but did manage to get some laundry and dishes done, and stitchery. Finding one of my music CD's and putting on some tunes was helpful to get me up and moving...

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~ 100 day stitch book project - day 100 ~

Day 100/100 - (page 20) Finished the final page, and now it is time to start assembling the sets into the actual book pieces. I intend to use a combination of hand and machine stitching for this step, and am considering also doing pick-stich around the edges of the pages to help them lay flatter.... stay tuned for further details

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I just love this song, ever since I first heard it back in the day...

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Found the few scraps of grey canvas leftover from making my chore jacket. Once I find the hat pattern it will be possible to check if there is enough to make a replacement hat for the grey one I lost earlier this year. I might cut out a few "project packs" of various things to sew in the future, once I finish the raincoat.

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	page 15	taxes done	jars to Mud Bay
2	custom Tullia daypack	shoes painted blue	recycle bin
3	page 16 and 17	shoe elastics transferred	extra plant pots
4	page 18	roses on shoe toeses	yard waste bin
5	page 19	light fixture replaced	grapes to compost
6	page 20	ferns pruned	yard waste bin
7	x	hardy fuschia pruned	recycle bin
8	x	apple partly pruned	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. successfully finished the 100 days of hand stitchery! Feeling right chuffed...
2. green onion bits frozen and packaged - this is an experiment, based on info in a cookbook I recently read, that rather than letting green-o's become sad in the fridge, they can be prepped and frozen instead. I had to wrap the cookie sheet with plastic lest it make the whole freezer onion-y, but once they were frozen it was easy to transfer them into a talenti tub for storage.
3. remembered to plan meals for today, which worked well and gave me better food balance.

Time of Isolation - Day 1046

you snooze you lose

in which our plucky heroine realises that she should have called earlier...

My stalwart bicycle needs a tune-up, and a number of parts replaced (new brake pads, a new rear tire, and a new chain), and my trusted local-ish bike shop is no longer in business. There is another good shop further away, so I called this morning to find out how far in advance I need to make a work appointment. Turns out that at least two weeks ahead or more (probably due to the sudden heat and sunshine wave we have had; today will be close to 90 F). I should have phoned in last week, when I first figured out that the strange sound I was hearing when I stopped was caused by my rear brake pads being completely worn down! Now I will have to wait until next week to find a way to get it over there to be looked at during their "intake hours".

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~ 100 day stitch book project - day 99 ~

Day 99/100 (page 20) - Decided that simple outline embroidery for the fox would work, as long as I chose a less busy background, so I picked out a scrap of very pale blue tinted linen. This allowed the additional benefit of simply holding it and my sketch up to the window as an informal light box, in order to pencil in the outline of the motif. I'll be finishing up the embroidery, cutting out the tall archway shape and stitching it to the page on day 100, and then it is on to actually assembling the book!

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Mt Dishmore has been undergoing geological uplift, and I need to spend a fair amount of time on excavation of the kitchen countertop... this being a direct result of my actually cooking meals...

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"Sunday Night With The Scribes", which I occasionally visit, had a Zoom workshop on "Diapering, The Prayerbook of Besozzo" last week. I was so very charmed by the source material, which has floral diaper patterns unlike any I have seen, that I tracked it down on Alibris, where I found a very inexpensive used copy. Said copy just arrived today, and truly, I cannot find whatever flaws caused the seller to mark it as only "Good". It is a small hardback book, not quite a facsimile as at 5 x 7 it is slightly larger than the original, with a velvety green cover embossed with golden floral motifs. I think it will be a good resource for scribal projects, scrolls, or perhaps even for charter designs; I am eager to dive into it.

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The weather today is more like, say, July, than is appropriate for April. I am hiding indoors from the unrelenting sunshine, and the temperature on my porch this early afternoon is over 80F. If I am good, perhaps we can return to seasonal moderation and a bit of kindly overcast, at least for a while. There is drizzle and high 60's in the forecast for late next week, and if I hustle, I just might have a raincoat by then...

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	page 15	taxes done	jars to Mud Bay
2	custom Tullia daypack	shoes painted blue	recycle bin
3	page 16 and 17	shoe elastics transferred	extra plant pots
4	page 18	roses on shoe toeses	yard waste bin
5	page 19	light fixture replaced	grapes to compost
6	x	ferns pruned	yard waste bin
7	x	hardy fuschia pruned	recycle bin
8	x	apple partly pruned	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes - 
1. the hot weather is good for drying clothing on the clothesline
2. book ordered from Alibris arrived safely today
3. there are flowers opening on the Quinceling!

Time of Isolation - Day 1045

what does the fox say...

in which our plucky heroine does some outdoor chores and other things...

To finish cutting back the springtime grass growth, a functional extension cord is necessary to run the electric string trimmer. After finding out earlier this week that my venerable extension cord was too damaged to be safe to use any more, I decided that getting two 50 ft cords (rather than one 100 ft cord) would be my best option, and that one could be 16 gauge and the other 14. Mostly what I use the extension cord for is the electric string trimmer. I can reach the entire front yard with one 50 ft cord, but the backyard requires further length.

My thinking was that because of how very low the amperage is for the string trimmer, it doesn't need a more robust cord than 16 ga, as it only draws less than half of what the 16 ga is rated for. I can then use the larger cord when needed to extend it to the backyard, or on the rare occasion it might be needed for a power tool. (my thought about the cords re extending to the back yard was like this:

house -> 14 ga -> 16ga -> string trimmer...

(if this is not a good idea do let me know, it seemed consistent with what I understand about electricity)

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~ 100 day stitch book project ~

Day 98/100 (page 20) - Today is day 98, and I just finished embroidering the kanji for kitsune. Still haven't figured out how I'm going to create the fox motif...

Day 97/100 (page 20) ...played around with some geometric stitchery that ended up looking like a combination of blackwork and sashiko, as a way to lighten one of the darker patches on the page. I think I will then embroider a fox motif and the Japanese kanji for kitsune. which will probably take me the remaining few days...

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trying to spend a bit of time each day in the yard pruning, while it is still easy to see what needs cut away. Today I trimmed up some of the forsythia where it was starting to hang over the sidewalk, and also picked up some broken tree bits that had fallen in the backyard from neighbor trees. Looked at the apple and decided on some chunks that could be taken out to open up the interior. I want to get the side yard ferns trimmed well back in the next few days which will likely take a week of intermittent effort based on what I've done so far, before all the new growth comes in; in the summer they overhang the narrow walkway to the backyard...

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	page 15	taxes done	jars to Mud Bay
2	custom Tullia daypack	shoes painted blue	recycle bin
3	page 16 and 17	shoe elastics transferred	extra plant pots
4	page 18	roses on shoe toeses	yard waste bin
5	page 19	light fixture replaced	grapes to compost
6	x	ferns pruned	yard waste bin
7	x	hardy fuschia pruned	recycle bin
8	x	apple partly pruned	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes - 
1. line dried bedsheets
2. the way the light hits the green yard just as the sun is going down
3. My pal Ursel chivvied me out of my funk by sharing this goofy video of pattycake cats...

Time of Isolation - Day 1044

brickbats and bouquets

in which our plucky heroine has a variable sort of day...

the plus and minus aspects and events of the day sort of evened out, though I feel a bit of whiplash from the back and forth. For one small example, the good news is that I found the damage to the 100 ft extension cord before it cause any harm, but the bad news is I need a new extension cord.

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~ 100 day stitch book project - day 96 ~

Day 96/100 (page 20) - into the home stretch; the final page of twenty... I am eager to actually complete the hundred day challenge, to assemble the pages and hold the finished book in my hands. (here are the book tutorial posts part one and part two) I've applied a rather random assortment of scraps to the backing, and will challenge myself to, as always, add coherence and balance, and also create something that looks well next to page 12.

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Started the day off well,  as Turquoise now has zoom, and we can use that for our Tuesday morning meetings. I am so excited, she wants to join me in my next 100 day project once this one is complete - I had decided to focus on printmaking next, and we will be able to keep each other accountable. My intention is to create tiny prints using either hand techniques or the little Open Press Project intaglio press, and I want to start off by trying a reduction print with a canal boat rose as the subject, since it is simple enough that I understand the necessary layers

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~ out and about ~

I think these once were alder cones, but after spending time in a parking lot, they have been transformed into an interesting visual pattern instead.

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I am most aggravated at my medical clinic, which I visited today for a routine visit. Since there is no longer a government mandate to require masks, not only are patients no longer wearing them, but neither are the receptionists. (if the public face of the facility is masked, it leads by example... no one pays any attention to the small notices on the door "encouraging mask wearing".  It feels horribly unsafe to be there, among potentially ill people breathing in a closed room.While I was there, one person was actively coughing, and no one was masked other than myself. They could, at the very least, have strong portable air filtration in the lobby just as they do at the public library. I shouldn't be in grave danger when visiting an establishment intended to improve or maintain health. I don't know what else I can do to protect myself while accessing needed care, I went to sit outside until my name was called...

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	page 15	taxes done	jars to Mud Bay
2	custom Tullia daypack	shoes painted blue	recycle bin
3	page 16 and 17	shoe elastics transferred	extra plant pots
4	page 18	roses on shoe toeses	yard waste bin
5	page 19	light fixture replaced	grapes to compost
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. The ongoing art support of my pal Turquoise
2. replaced light fixture in small bedroom
3. home use wrist cuff blood pressure gizmo

Time of Isolation - Day 1042

blue roses on toeses...

in which our plucky heroine follows a wild hair down an internet rabbit hole...

I had a sudden desire to add British canal boat style roses to the toes of my just-painted-blue canvas shoes. The blue roses remind me of the 1978 Winterland Grateful Dead poster*, and I hope that these shoes will remind me to keep whimsy in my heart as I continue down the path...

The shoes themselves were originally a (boring) beige canvas, and I painted them blue last week. (The previous pair I painted blue lasted 4 years before they fell apart, but the paint was still in good shape. Just plain ordinary craft acrylic paint is surprisingly durable, unlike whatever the microfiber is that they use for shoe linings.) I found some good step by step tutorials and images online which helped me get the style of rose I wanted, and I used ordinary blackboard chalk to mark out where I wanted to paint the roses, because it wipes away with a damp cloth after the paint is dry...

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Saturday I took a small adventure and went to see my friend's display at an outdoor "art picnic" in one of the local parks. It was a treat to see them, and their artwork in person, as well as to get a sense of the hyperlocal and mostly youthful art scene. There was a wide range of media and imagery, of course, and it rather reminded me of my youth, when folks would gather on Cambridge Common on Saturdays to vend and be social.

I was totally wearing my P100 the whole time, and the middle of the day on a Saturday afternoon the bus was not terribly crowded. It felt fairly safe as the location and layout meant that there was plenty of fresh air, and enough distance between folks for comfort. Almost no one these days seems to be wearing masks, which makes me sad though.

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~ 100 day stitch book project - day 94~

Day 94/100 (page 19) - Sunday added some more subtle hillocks to the landscape, with stem stitch and a bit of French knots, and I began adding stars to the sky at the top to better balance the geology at the base... Today I plan on finishing up the starry sky, which will complete this colophon page.

(Saturday) Day 93/100 (page 19) - finished stitching the various hillocks in place...

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Saturday I took a small adventure and went to see my friend's display at an outdoor "art picnic" in one of the local parks. It was a treat to see them, and their artwork in person, as well as to get a sense of the hyperlocal and mostly youthful art scene. There was a wide range of media and imagery, of course, and it rather reminded me of my youth, when folks would gather on Cambridge Common on Saturdays to vend and be social.

I was totally wearing my P100 the whole time, and the middle of the day on a Saturday afternoon the bus was not terribly crowded. It felt fairly safe as the location and layout meant that there was plenty of fresh air, and enough distance between folks for comfort. Almost no one these days seems to be wearing masks, which makes me sad though.

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well dang... making haste slowly would have been better! Trying to clean up the kitchen by carrying all the jars of quince jelly to the pantry shelves, and I dropped one. Glass shards mixed with jelly are a Big Mess. I hope I got it all; wiped repeatedly with damp paper towels until I couldn't see any more "sparkle"... And I still have the rest of the putting away and washing dishes left to do.

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	page 15	taxes done	jars to Mud Bay
2	custom Tullia daypack	shoes painted blue	recycle bin
3	page 16 and 17	shoe elastics transferred	extra plant pots
4	page 18	roses on shoe toeses	yard waste bin
5	-	-	grapes to compost
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. The roses for my shoes turned out just fun as I imagined them
2. Avgolemono (aka demonology soup)... always good
3. The person I hand embroidered a label for their quilt was quite happy with my efforts. And I learned how to better estimate how long it takes, and managed to get a successful result on double gauze, which is not trivial.

Time of Isolation - Day 1041



* This is the concert poster I had in mind...

Friday fragments

in which our plucky heroine suffers insomnia...

the last two nights I just couldn't settle down to sleep. I am beginning to be filled with despair when I look at the number of days in the Time of Isolation; I also know that exhaustion fuels those sorts of hopeless feelings. I do have several pleasant online social things planned for the weekend, which hopefully will contradict the despair.

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~ 100 day stitch book project - day 92 ~

Day 91 and 92/100 (page 19) - There was, in fact, just enough remaining light blue floss to finish embroidering the words for the colophon yesterday. Today was all about attaching the words to the backing page, a piece of ikat left from making a teacher pinafore years ago for Ariadne. With the colophon words stitched in place, assorted hillock shaped patches are pinned down for tomorrow stitchery. Something about the shape, proportion, and colors of the text, combined with the surrounding "scenery"makes me think of national park signage!

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Last night the shoes I ordered from Ebay* arrived, whoo! black leather Xeros, which were only made for one season before being discontinued. I think that they are actually deadstock rather than used, since they show absolutely no signs of wear. Now I have two fresh pairs of warm season shoes, which should last me for at least several years.

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TIL - do not embroider on double gauze. or rather, do not take a commission to do hand embroidery on double gauze... it is rather like embroidering on cheesecloth, which is to say it is much less feasible and more difficult than I imagined. Live and learn, and in the future just say no... It will look quite good when it is done, but ugh, so much slower than normal speed because the fabric is most uncooperative.

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Today I replaced the shoelaces on both pairs of the new shoes with the elastic cord, stoppers and tag ends from the old shoes, all of which were still in very good condition, and which make the shoes eversomuch easier to take on and off. I am also thinking of adding some blue canal boat style roses**  to the toes of the blue shoes, which would be fun!

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	page 15	taxes done	jars to Mud Bay
2	custom Tullia daypack	shoes painted blue	recycle bin
3	page 16 and 17	shoe elastics transferred	extra plant pots
4	page 18	-	yard waste bin
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. the shoe elastics ties were in good enough condition to transfer to the new shoes
2. Wanda was able to give me a second ride to Costco today, to pick up the meds that were incorrect yesterday
3. I made a good start on work today, and tomorrow I will time how long it takes for embroidery per letter...

Time of Isolation - Day 1038

* I have never ordered anything from Ebay before, though friends do so all the time. Years ago when I considered it, the process was much more complicated than it now seems to be, or else I am just more experienced with ordering online, or both... If I find another pair of the shoes, to keep on hand as backup, it might be a good idea to acquire them

** The roses on the headboard of the blue-painted bed are "canal boat style":

a very damp day

in which our plucky heroine stays home...

Today is all about returning Acorn Cottage to a pre-taxes-madness state of tidy, and then back to my everyday work in the studio, and hopefully a bit of time for personal creativity as well. Finally caught back up on my sleep last night. Woke up at around 5 feeling really puny and raspy, which was frightening, given my recent time spent on crowded transit, but a few more hours of sleep, and plenty of water later, I feel like my normal self.

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~ 100 day stitch book project - day 91 ~

a somewhat less than fortuitous stopping point after a bit more than 15 minutes last night... I decided to first attempt embroidering words for a non-title page, on scraps of my beloved black/brown stripey African fabric. I don't even have enough of the pale blue floss to to all the words, so will switch to a pale grey when the blue runs out.

I tried placing the words atop page 18 (the one with the circles) and it just didn't look good - the words need their own page designed around them instead. I'll finish up the words later today, and begin a full size page 19.

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Today I finished painting the remaining canvas pair of Xero shoes (that I purchased several years ago on clearance, with the intention of wearing them once the earlier pairs were too worn to be useful...) It remains frustrating to repeatedly hunt to find suitable shoes to fit my feet, only to have them stop being manufactured, but at least I will get a few more years wear from this pair, and with great joy at indigoblue shoes!

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	page 15	taxes done	jars to Mud Bay
2	custom Tullia daypack	shoes painted blue	recycle bin
3	page 16 and 17	-	extra plant pots
4	page 18	-	yard waste bin
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. I wasn't sick, just dehydrated
2. my remaining pair of Xero shoes are now painted blue instead of tan.
3. it looks like there is just enough of the light blue floss to finish embroidering the words

Time of Isolation - Day 1037

done and dusted

in which our plucky heroine is relieved...

Today was significantly better than Monday, with the only trauma being pelted with mid sized hail while riding my bike home after mailing my taxes. But yay! Taxes are done for 2022, and I have a system set up for better admin keeping track of various bits of data so next year will be much easier!

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~ 100 day stitch book project - day 89 ~

Day 89/100 (page 18) - Over the last few days I gradually stitched the small circles in place, first with running stitches inside the circles, and then with an overlaid grid of light blue running stitch. Today I added a dark mesh layer across the center of the page. I am not sure of where else to take this page, which somehow feels less complete than most of my other pages.

I'd initially considered maybe embroidering words along the center "100 day stitch book 2023", but I feel like just waiting to see how I feel about that tomorrow, or simply starting on page 19 a day early. One of these last three pages needs to be tagged with those words...Oh, it just occurred to me that I could use my alphabet stamps and fabric paint to create those words, eversomuch faster than with embroidery!

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Monday was pretty miserable... started out with a missed bus. So I took different bus to the Max, only to find that a big chunk is shut down for repairs (for weeks), so had to ride a crowded shuttle bus instead. When finally at the bank,  it turned out that the printer was  unexpectedly broken so could not get cashier's check. So I had to ride another crowded shuttle in reverse, that didn't stop at the place with the sign for the temporary stop. Ended up then taking Max in reverse all the way to the post office to get money order. Since I thought bank trip would be fast and simple I neglected breakfast, and finally returned home around a quarter to three in the afternoon. Oh, and did I mention the rain?

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Today I met with a woman referred to me via Bolt Fabrics, to hand embroider a patch to go on the reverse side of a baby quilt, with the name and date and salutation. I'll be starting that tomorrow, to get it finished quickly, since she is only here for a week or two. I've never timed how long hand embroidery takes, although I do a fair amount, since it is all usually either for my own amusement or for love. I hope I made a good estimate of the time involved, and it will be at the very least educational, and fingers crossed also at least somewhat profitable.

※※※

Looking forward to clearing away the taxes detritus, picking up the various bits I let slide for the last few days (hello Mt Dishmore), and returning to both my enameling commissions and my raincoat sewing. I am wondering what project to take up once the stitch book is completed...

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	page 15	taxes done	jars to Mud Bay
2	custom Tullia daypack	-	recycle bin
3	page 16 and 17	-	extra plant pots
4	-	-	yard waste bin
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. most of my bike riding today was relatively dry
2. Wanda messaged me and we are setting up a Costco run. Yay for medication, and frozen blueberries, and other necessities that can be stored
3. the spot where I stabbed my finger with the carving gouge is much improved, no longer needs bandaged and New Skin is enough to keep the area clean and sealed
4. yesterday may have been awful, but I did walk almost five miles

Time of Isolation - Day 1035

Saturday snippets

in which our plucky heroine spends a chunk of the day dithering...

I had rather exhausting dreams, so woke up rather much later than desirable. I'm still not done with my taxes, though further along than yesterday. Tomorrow should see everything ready for all the final fair copying and ready to mail stuff off hither and yon.

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~ 100 day stitch book project - day 86 ~

Day 86/100 (page 18) - Nothing too fancy today, just stitching the initial circles in place with some simple running stitches, and using up some thread scraps...

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Yesterday I found and ordered a pair of the Xero shoes that usually fit my feet. This pair is the Hana style of their men's* shoes, but instead of being made from canvas lined with (the ohso dreadfully flimsy) microfiber, these are leather, lined with (fingers crossed) leather... I remember seeing these in their online offerings several years ago, but only for a short while.

※※※

I think I better get busy fixing some things this month, it is more than half over and that entire column is empty... Hmmm could do some pruning or yard clearing. Or I could see what I can do about installing the ceiling lamp I bought earlier... or...

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	page 15	-	jars to Mud Bay
2	custom Tullia daypack	-	recycle bin
3	page 16 and 17	-	extra plant pots
4	-	-	yard waste bin
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. realised I could use Libby on the laptop, thereby giving myself a larger screen to read ebooks (or watch films) from the library...
2. another day warm enough to keep the windows open and the heat off.
3. always good to connect up with my Mud Bay pals via Zoom

Time of Isolation - Day 1032

* my feet are not shaped in a way that fits most of what is commonly sold as "women's" shoes, at least here in the US. My feet are wide across the front, but narrower at the heel. I was told by one shoe clerk at REI that the reason early editions of Keen shoes fit me well was that they started out only making mens shoes, and when a few years in after they shifted to both, suddenly their women's shoes no longer fit my feet, that was why. I'm glad my feet are still pretty functional after my tromping around on them for almost 70 years, but they will never have the dainty and delicate appearance that shoe gender expects...

so mysterious...

in which our plucky heroine is baffled, if delighted...

found two large file folders of Mom's writings underneath a pile of fabric! I have put them aside on my nightstand to look through once I've finished the taxes. Hoping for treasure... The odd thing is that I have zero memory of ever seeing these folders before.

Opened them up for a glimpse inside, and there are pages and pages of longhand cursive journal pages from early in her married life, travel tales from when they moved to Germany so my dad could work on the space shuttle, as well as drafts for some of the poetry and essays that were lost forever with the missing manila envelopes. Treasure indeed!...

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~ japanese quince ~

Today really began to feel like springtime.  I opened the sliding windows in the middle of the day to allow fresh air in the house, and even though I forgot about the thermostat, the heat stayed off. I have been taking repeated breaks from dealing with taxes, and going for short rambles around the neighborhood. The Japanese flowering quince over near the alley garden is in full bloom, and all kinds of small bulbs are doing the same. I really want more small bulbs in my front yard, some grape hyacinths, and blue and white stripey crocus, and some of the narcissus that are yellow and orange...

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progress on the taxes today was steady... I was able to locate the missing data in other more stable records, and have set up a new administrative accounts book and reciept collection box. I do wish that the gummint didn't think that simplifying the forms only consisted of putting half the amount of information on each page while also doubling the number of pages. It might look less "intimidating" to some people, but it also means that one must print out twice the number of pages, at our own expense. Long gone are the days when either they mailed us the needed forms, or at least we could go to an IRS office and pick up the needed forms. Once I have filled in all my federal, state, city, and transit forms, I will then have to not only copy those, but also make copies of assorted required pages of the federal forms to then send in with my state forms. I think of the dead trees and sigh. Needs must, and taxes are inescapable.

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~ 100 day stitchbook project - day 85 ~

Day 85/100 (page 18) Inspired by some of the pages I've seen posted online, I thought that adding an assortment of discs would be fun. Easy to cut out by simply holding a five cent piece against fabric and snipping around it. I may change out some of the discs depending on what other scraps of fabric I find. And I have ideas about an overlay of embroidery in more than one layer, which will have to be experimented with...

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speaking of embroidery... I was contacted by someone about doing a bit of hand embroidery to create a label for the quilt they made for their grandchild. We had a delightful conversation, exchanged text and photo messages, and I think I can make it work with the materials she has available. I've never done a hand embroidered commission, indeed all my embroidery not for myself has been done for love, so I am not really sure how to estimate a price. I guess I will find out how long it takes "per letter" which will be useful in the future!

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Speaking of taxes... this is a charming story: "Two Certainties in Life"

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	page 15	-	jars to Mud Bay
2	custom Tullia daypack	-	recycle bin
3	page 16 and 17	-	extra plant pots
4	-	-	yard waste bin
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. a multitude of hardcopy files of my mother's writings found !!
2. avgolemono - so good, so warming, so lemony!!
3. warmth on a spring day between rains, so many flowers

Time of Isolation - Day 1031

throwback Thursday and other thoughts...

in which our plucky heroine has a firm grasp on bootstraps...

For some reason the past week has felt rougher than usual for me, not sure why. I seem to be alternating between days when I am pretty functional and days when just dragging self out of bed feels almost impossible. My sleep/wake hygiene is improving, perhaps as a result of daylight earlier in the morning, perhaps as a result of my ongoing attempt to put outdoor daylight into my eyeballs as early as possible once I am up and dressed.

And, of course, it is the annual festival of arithmetic as I gird my loins and fill out all the multiple tax forms all due next week. Every year in April I swear I will set up a good system to keep my assorted records in good order all the year round, but I have yet to manage that. Will this year be the one? It didn't help that sometime in the middle of the dumpster fire that was 2022 I decided to "tidy up" my computer/desk workspace, which resulted (at this point) in my entirely losing track of where I thought it made sense to put said record books. Which has resulted in much gnashing of teeth, virtual tearing out of hair, and rather a lot of picking up and sorting through random piles of stuff. I think I have recovered the paperwork, and will soon spend a goodly number of hours this weekend sitting at the dining table with papers, forms, and my trusty vintage calculator.

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~ 100 day stitch book project - day 84 ~

Day 84/100 (page 17) - In all this, my 15 minutes hand stitching each day have been a tiny respite. This page is basically done. I started with a piece of Japanese crepe fabric patterned with allover butterflies, which for some reason reminded me of mushroom gills. When I found a scrap of the mushroom printed fabric leftover from a blouse I made back in February 2019, I couldn't resist cutting out some of them to applique all over the base fabric. There was just enough room left in the center to outline stitch a larger mushroom.  At this point, there are only three pages left before all the pages are completed and we move on to assemble the stitchbook!

I think I also forgot to post the final result of page 16 (day 80/100) - I added running stitch filling, in a very slightly darker shade and different hue that the base fabric, to some of the background, which has given more dimension to this page, I think, without taking away from the focal point of the embroidered words... Once the remaining pages are complete, I will have to sort out what order I want the pages to be in for the book, since I didn't make any plans about that ahead of time. I think this one for the "cover" page, as the sentiment really speaks to whole 100 days stitch book concept, as well as being my personal motto!

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Betwixt decluttering and gathering all the tax paperwork, I also started on painting a new pair of blue shoes. My old pairs of Xero shoes are really too raggedy to continue wearing. While their guarantee of 5,000 miles on the soles is realistic (the soles on mine are somewhat worn after four years, but still very functional) the interior of the shoes, made from "microfiber" became shredded well before the first year of intermittent wear, and now are completely raveled away. The shoe exteriors are in fair shape, but the join between the sole and the upper has started to come apart. I wish that all the parts of the shoes were equally as durable as the soles.

That said, I had purchased an extra pair of the Hana model while they were on sale back then, and put it aside for later. Now has become that "later", and rather than leave the shoe the boring beige color, I am going to once again paint them blue, just as I did back in 2019. I might have to purchase another pair to save for later on, it is so very difficult for me to find any shoes at all that fit the shape of my feet...

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I remember back in March of 2020, I think it was on Siderea's Dreamwidth blog, where she posted a link to the story "So Much Cooking" by Naomi Kritzer, rather in the midst of all her Very Useful posts that helped me prepare both mentally and physically for the pandemic, (though I never dreamed it would continue so long). "So Much Cooking was written back in the Before Times, in 2015! but tastes still very valid as far as how life can change radically, slide sideways, and yet people are still good-hearted. I have to believe that somehow, despite contrary evidence...

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I found all my assorted origami paper while digging through piles of papers looking for tax tidbits. This is good, as I still very much want to learn how to make Zhen Xian Bao, the chinese pamphlet of layered multiple boxes. There is a bit more info online now (as far as tutorials) than when I first ran across the concept, and it will be an interesting thing to explore later this year. First I must get past the double jump of taxes and enamel commissions...

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	page 15	-	jars to Mud Bay
2	custom Tullia daypack	-	recycle bin
3	page 16 and 17	-	extra plant pots
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. My Aged Mother is recovered from her second bout with Covid, and no longer in isolation in her room. I was able to speak with her yesterday, and while she was tired, she also made a few cogent replies to what I was talking to her about, which hasn't happened for quite some time.
2. Steady progress with bending wires for the various enamel commissions, and I will be ready to turn on the kiln next week and enamel like a madwoman.
3. It occurred to me to look on Ebay for the Xero shoes that fit me. I could get two (like new) pair for only a little more than the cost of one ordered direct, and there are options available that are no longer on the Xero website.
4. So many pink magnolia trees are starting to flower right now... so beautiful!

Time of Isolation - Day 1030

a very few Friday fragments

in which our plucky heroine starts the day early...

Probably one of the very best things I do in this world is when my handicraft gives someone the exact object that they wish for, that would never exist other than through their asking and my making...

I had to set the alarm extra early so I could meet with Tullia ; she wanted to pick up the day pack I just finished for her, long in the works here, so she could use it while at a weekend conference. I was up and breakfasted and dressed in time to meet with her on my porch at 7:30, and I wish there was no pandammit so I could see her whole face smiling not just her eyes.

We have been hashing out the plans and details of this project ever since last year when she saw the day pack I made for myself, and realised that a custom project was an option. Starting way back in late December, I began tablet weaving trim bands to match her preferred color palette, using my handy warp weighted hallway loom setup, and as the bands were striped, it was fairly straightforward. There were other details about how the bag was decorated, and what sort of internal pockets would be best for her needs, but it was finally completed last night, and is now off to hopefully serve her well for many years...

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~ pink hellebore ~

There are so many flowers starting to bloom now... we have the last of the hellebore blossoms, and forsythia, ornamental plum and star magnolia, all the little bulbs like narcissus and grape hyacinth. While I was out walking, some nearby houses have daphne in bloom that are the most delectably scented.

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Yesterdays minor annoyance. I had a call on Wednesday (which was a super busy day for me) from some man who was very eager to arrange for some custom sewing. Since I could not meet with him right then in person to give him an estimate, indeed nor can I give an estimate without seeing what needs done, I set up an appointment for a porch meeting on Thursday in the middle of the day. Crickets all afternoon, not even an oops phone call or text. Since I was busy with the daypack project, it was less annoying than if I had made a special time out for the meeting, but still, a big sigh for lost courtesy...

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~ 100 day stitch book project - day 78 ~

Day 78/100 (page 16) - just added some additional cross stitches to help balance the page; wondering what else I can add over the next two days...

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Page 15	-	jars to Mud Bay
2	custom Tullia daypack	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. short but sweet porch visit with Tullia early this morning
2. the scent of daphne
3. despite being tired, I managed to walk almost three miles today

Time of Isolation - Day 1024