Am I still here???

My life has gone on hyperdrive since my birthday last month. I've now become the official back-up babysitter for my sister's 2 boys. Which is taking up a fairly good amount of time. And Kendrick has hit the stage where he is testing to see how far he can get away with things..and he doesn't seem to like his little brother, so there is a LOT of hitting going on. Good thing Grayson is so laid back about it. Anyway, life is very full with this new responsibility - and I've only watched them 5 days out of the last 3 weeks - wow, it seems like it's been a lot more than that! LOL

I've also discovered the fabric/clothesline bowls craze that was going around a year ago or so. Man these things are addictive!! I made a couple for my mom and sis for Mother's Day and am now trying to build up a small stash of them to offer for sale at the yard sale we're planning to have this weekend. I currently have 3 made - hopefully at least 2 more will join the party.

I also spent today painting the living room with DH. Talk about hard work!! I was in charge of trimming the ceiling and baseboards so DH could follow with the roller....which meant I was up and down the ladder alllllll day. And did I mention we have 10 foot ceilings in our house? That's a long way up!!! The first time I went up the ladder this morning I thought I was going to have a panic attack (I have issues with heights) and DH would have to to the ceiling bits. But I finally conquered my fears and didn't look back. We now have a lovely green living room and we even got 2 coats on in one day!! All the neighbors were impressed (yes, we had to show it off to someone!).

Let's see....oh yes, I'm also working on a surprise gift for Mom for her birthday in July. I had some blue and cream log cabin blocks floating around my sewing room for years. I had originally bought the fabric to make a log cabin quilt for my little brother and his first wife. He's now on to his second wife and I never managed to finish the quilt. In fact, I only had 6 blocks made. So I got this bright idea to round out the number of blocks to 8, and sew them in 2 rows of 4 blocks to make a tablerunner. I'm going to cut the corners off to make the ends pointy and am in the process of hand quilting it now. I'm about 2/3 of the way finished with that and am still on schedule to get it to her by her birthday. And I repurposed the blue and cream fabrics to make my pineapple quilt.

I've also been working on my pink and brown Candied Hexagons quilt blocks. I've got 3 rows of blocks completed and on my design wall. I'm waiting until I get all the blocks pieced before I decide on an actual layout. In the meantime, I'm placing them in position the same way the quilt I'm following for the pattern has the blocks placed. I'll rearrange to make the colors flow right once they're all made.

I was able to get my grandmother's sewing machine fixed recently, too. Apparently the ceramic plate in the foot pedal had cracked, which made the entire machine not usable. The local quilt shop's father (a retired electrician) replaced the foot pedal for me for only the cost of the pedal. How awesome was that!

I've had another interview since my birthday rejection. And they didn't want me this time, either. My mom and sis think I need to dye my hair. I went gray really early - first one found in high school, major additions in college. I'm really starting to think they might be right...sigh...

Now that I have access to my blogger account again (I was locked out for a week or so) I hope I'll keep up with somewhat regular posts....but we'll see.

A New Chapter to the Same Old Story...

I will be jobless again by Valentine's Day. It has been three years now since I've done more than temp at a place. Three years...

It's really hard to keep telling myself that it's not my fault - it's not personal. But this is my thrid temp job I've had in the three years - I've been at the last one for over a year - and once again they've decided to let me go. Once again I'll be on unemployment. And once again, we'll be trying to keep a roof over our heads and heat in the house on a much smaller income. I'm not even sure we'll succeed this time - it's been tight for months.

My family and DH keep telling me it's the economy or the particular boss I'm dealing with. I just don't know anymore. Is it even possible to get three bosses that don't think they need you enough to hire you? The only common factor is me.

Maybe I should start looking ahead rather than looking back. DH and I do have an escape plan if things go too badly - that's more than some people we know. I am grateful for certain things, as well. I was given two weeks of notice - supposedly to give my temp agency time to find another position for me. This allows us to make February's house payment before unemployment kicks in. I will now have lots of time to get all of that fabric washed. I will have more time to visit my mom in her new apartment. I'll also have more time to work on that impossible dream - to start a quilt shop. I might even get that quilt started for my dear nephew. He's about to move into his big boy's bed and that's when I like to give them their first quilt from Aunt Erin.

Yeah, there will be lots of time now. Not much money, but lots of time...