Slumber Saturday...

It has been a roller coaster of a week. I live just outside Boston, Massachusetts and the weather this week has gone from the low 60's to the low 20's within days. Crazy weather! We also had a dumping of snow... Not as much as my friends in New Hampsire, but enough of a reminder from Mother Nature.

In addition I was out in that snowy weather for interviews, filing out paperwork, and accepting a temporary position. As of Monday, I will be among the corporate working, once again. No, I will not be giving up on my creative side, I have to work within the corporate world to support my creative world.

Now I need to create some clothing for me to wear. :) Such a problem... I am still going to follow the UIU pledge as my stash has to shrink down to a regular closet size. I would like to set up the 'hidden room' that I use right now, as my crafting space. I will really need to cull through me stash of fabrics, books, craft items, and such to create my space.

I saw a 'pin' on Pinterest the other day that really hit the nail on the head. It stated 'Pinterest is online Hording' and I have to agree. I want to aim to have that space as the only space that looks like I am hoarding.

Ah well, time to get up and start the weekend...

Thanks for stopping by, Ciao for now!

J :)

Friday ... Already!?!

OMG, where have the days gone?

  

I have been buried in sewing projects that I need to have totally completed before the middle of next week... And I need to start working on the samples for the sweatshirt jacket for the Guild class. Top that off with a promise to help my niece sew a slew of hems on costumes and I have lost sight of what day it is...

My sewing table doesn't look that messy right now (the picture is not my table, I could not resist), but it does have my 'new' machine on it :) I am close to the point of petting it, much like a few friends do of theirs. :) It is fun to discover the different things that I can do with the machine, how smoothly it runs, how quickly the others are stored away... what can I say, I'm in love :)  This is a picture of my 'new' machine, it is a Janome Memory Craft 6600P

I am having the best time with it :)

As I have mentioned in the past, I am looking for work (outside of the house) to support my quilting habit, among other items that I need to support. Some times I feel like I apply, have an interview (phone, in-person, on-line) and my brain (pocket) is picked for information that the person interviewing me can use in the future.

Not that I am playing Link... but...

Each and every morning I spend a good one to two hours searching the job boards for the local (within 10 miles) area...

I have had a few interviews, but I am a runner up than the one with the job. Of course I am more of the right brain than left brain... but life is more looking for a left brain position to support the right brain love...

I continue to hear from the individuals that I interview with that I am either "Overqualified" "In the running, but the other candidate is in-house" or "We are in the beginning stages of our search" and in the end I don't hear from them. A tad frustrating, but I continue to search.

I clearly remember an artist telling me that she works to 1) supplement her art, 2) keep herself among individuals who are not artist to 'see' a different perspective, and 3) talk to other adults. She said that working alone, there is no other person to talk to, too share with, to hear different perceptions of life. When you get out of the house/studio you see people, you read newspapers, you see posters/billboards of changes. Staying inside you can read the paper, but you do not see other peoples reaction to what is written, you separate yourself from 'real' life. I can totally understand now, what she said to me so many years ago.

I am off to the gym this morning, to clear my head, and get back on track to shake some of this lethargy off and hopefully clear my head from the cold that I (hope) am on the waning end of it. Wish me luck!

Thanks for stopping by, Ciao for now!

J :)

A Quiet Time?

...staying home should be a quiet life... as I have said before... Life has a way of getting in the way. I spend the major part of every morning reading email, job boards, job information sites, applying for positions, researching positions and postings. I really should be focusing on taking care of myself of which I have not really been doing very well of late. The stress of looking for work is starting to take a toll on me... I need to step away from it and just do some sewing/quilting/designing for the next few days... So if I am among the missing.... I must be sewing...

Ah yes... speaking of sewing...

It was great to catch up with family last night for our granddaughter's 5th birthday celebration. We went to Patriot Place in Foxboro, MA to have dinner at the Red Robin restaurant located there... Everyone is paying attention to the birthday girl...

I always give 'consolation' presents to the siblings until they are around 10 years old... Our grandson is 6, so his present was two shirts... here he is checking them out with dad...

The birthday presents for our granddaughter were stacked & numbered ...

#1 a  Abigail Adams styled dress (sorry, I did not make this one, multiple fabrics that I don't have in my stash), besides, my husband doesn't sew and he wanted to share the gifts that we put together for our granddaughter...

#2 Mom and Daughter... Checking out the doll quilt... I wrote on the side binding... 

#3 Opening the dresses... One for the doll and one for the B-day girl.

Sammy's dress (American Girl doll)

Checking both dresses to see that they are the same... down to the pocket placement...

The Cake... and now she gets very quiet and shy... the staff was singing to her...

Check out the dress that Sammy, the AG doll is wearing in the picture above...
Yes, it is the  Abigail Adams dress... she had to put it on her right away. LOL :)
This is what the dress looks like up close...

Making fun of me because I was taking so many pictures...

So dinner was a success... Birthday Girl... Mom, Dad, and Brother... Papi (what the grand kids call my husband) and all three grandmothers (I'm the 'Step')... Only pictures of our gifts as the other gifts where opened at home, before meeting up with us at the restaurant. I'm glad we all had a chance to get together and celebrate.

Now on to other projects that I want to have finished before the end of the month! I have two blocks of 5 hours of sewing with friends coming up over the next two weeks. I am so looking forward to spending the time with them and finishing up projects that I am so behind with!

Ciao for now!
J :) 

It's BOM time :)

Ah yes, BOM time, I was among those suffering with a teflon brain due totally to sinus issues. Not fun... I missed seeing that Pat Sloan had posted for her contribution to Jackie at CVQW's Month 4 Bloggers BOM.

If you click Pat Sloan's PDF, a new window will pop up with the pdf pattern. Either way, I need to get moving on Month 4! I had been all caught up and do not want to get behind again...

This is a cutie:


Of course I will be doing mine in brights... with yellow being the base color... hmm, to follow the color ideas or not? That is what I am pondering at present. I really am thinking that I am going to have to make 2 additional sets of all of the blocks. If I made a total of 3 sets of the BOM's and mix in 2" sashing, I would have enough to make a cute quilt top for a Christmas present... Just a thought... We are having a DIY Christmas once again...

In the meantime I have spent the better part of the day applying for different positions within the Boston area... Enough... I need to get back to looking.

Ciao for now!
J :)

Hectic Unemployment Life...

Let me say that life is not stagnant for me... As I remember that I have not posted in a few days...

I am still chuckling over a comment that I overheard last night. We went out to dinner with my folks and at the table next to us, seven women where enjoying a Christmas Office Dinner along with gifts for one another. During the course of their conversation, one of the women sayed "my sister is a stay@home mother, who is a re-incarnation of Martha Stewart, she has themed Christmas trees in every public place in her house... She went on to explain how one in particular was only homemade gingerbread cookies, with the matching hole for the ribbon, icing for the clothing... She obviously has too much time on her hands." everyone at the table was chuckling, as was I (as I was seated not more than 5 feet away from her and heard her very clearly).

It got me thinking how most people think that I have "too much time on my hands" where as the truth is that mine are full of errands, job searching, applying to different jobs (and the different requirements that each and every job is looking for), preparing for phone interviews, preparing for in-person interviews, reality is that all of these items really fill most of my days... Add to that, that somewhere in there I need to keep my skills current, study for the classes that I have signed up for and am taking... Personally I also need time to sew/quilt/create...

Oh... Did I mention errands? For others? Because I have so much time on my hands? Which brings me back to the seven women chuckling over the stay at home sister... We all think that if you stay at home you are trying to find things to fill your day... There are so many things to fill your day that I find it is the opposite issue.

As I think about all this I remind myself that I really need to check today's To Do List... Yes, I do have a daily To Do List... It started after I had overbooked myself and missed a very important interview... and I don't want to repeat that ever again.

Enough of my rambling for today, I need to get to the sewing machine for an hour, get ready for an interview, and try to fit some gym time and cleaning time into the schedule today!

Thanks for stopping by, I do hope you enjoyed your coffee break and that you had the opportunity to have a chuckle or two :)

Caio for now!
J =)

Work...

Work may refer to:

  Human labor:
    Employment
    House work
    Labor (economics), measure of the work done by human beings
    Manual labor, physical work done by people
    Wage labor, in which a worker sells their labor and an employer buys it
    Work (project management), the effort applied to produce a deliverable or accomplish a task

  In Film/Media:
    Work (1915 film), a 1915 silent film co-starring Edna Purviance
    WORK (FM), an American FM radio station licensed to serve Barre, Vermont
    Work (professional wrestling), a staged event
    Work (painting), by Ford Madox Brown
    Work: A Story of Experience, a novel by Louisa May Alcott
    Work, a 1978 play by Ron Milner

  In Music
    The Work, band
    Work Records (aka "WORK" or "The WORK Group"), a music label under Sony Records
    Work 1989-2002, a release by the electronic music duo Orbital
    "Work" (Ciara song), a single by Ciara
    "Work" (Jars of Clay song), a song by Jars of Clay
    "Work" (Jimmy Eat World song), a song by the rock band Jimmy Eat World
    "Work", a song by Bob Marley from his album Uprising
    "Work" (Kelly Rowland song), a single by Kelly Rowland
    "Work" (The Saturdays song), a song by British pop group The Saturdays
    Work Work, a song by N Dubz
    Work (album), an album by Shout Out Louds

  Working may refer to:
    Working (musical), a 1978 musical
    Working (TV series), a situation comedy
    Working (book), a book by Studs Terkel
    Working!!, a manga by Karino Takatsu
    Holbrook Working, a statistician and economist

After all of these references to work you must be wondering why... Well, it is a fact that I have been looking for work, and would love to have a part-time position to support my quilting/fabric habit as well as some bills that need to be paid. One does need to eat after all.

This reminded me of the book by Studs Terkel "Working" (it is within the above list) published in 1976. It is about People talking about what they do all day and how they feel about what they do...

Work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying. Once you become active in something, something happens to you. You get excited and suddenly you realize you count.- Studs Terkel

Anyway, I was looking for the meaning of "Work" because today I found out that the latest position that I went out on an interview for, last week, is looking at an internal candidate. A tad frustrating as I had not known prior to going to the interview... But, I would have done the same in their situation.

A known quantity is much stronger than an unknown quantity.

Still... Ah well, the exercise was a good one... It cleared the mind, It gave me a chuckle,

~♥~ Someday everything will all make perfect sense. So for now, laugh at the confusion, smile through the tears, and keep reminding yourself that everything happens for a reason. ~♥~

Ok, back to working on my projects :) That list of mine is not getting any smaller :)

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are enjoying your coffee break :)    

Ciao for now :)

J :)  

Sorry... I have been among the missing

To say that I have forgotten to post is an understatement.

I have been working at trying to find a permanent job for the past year. I did work for about two and a half months, but that did not last. So I have been trying since January of this year. I have hit a wall... that one that you don't want to do anything. Unfortunately this also applies to my sewing/quilting/crafts and I have so many to work on!

Still, I keep trying, up until this past week I had not had an interview since April 1st. Yes, I do wish that was a joke, but it has taken close to 3 months for me to even be called and invited. It does not help that along the way I have put back on any and all weight that I had lost and even 'found' some more... Not a good thing... if you know what I mean :)

Today it is off to the MFA to see the glass exhibit before it closes this weekend... so away I go :)

Thanks for stopping by :)
J