January Stats

To keep myself motivated I'm going to start writing up a post on how I did with my work, creative and household goals every month. This dog bowl mat was the only quilted project I started and finished in January, but it's cute.

I did get the koi quilt pieced, batted, backed and pinned, and started on the hand quilting, however, and it's big (about 68" square), so I feel pretty good about where I am with my needlework.

Other things I accomplished in January, writing-wise: I produced four new pieces for a personal weekly project I started in October of last year. I also outlined and pitched a new big project for work, which was approved, and started that.

On the housework, I cleaned out the kitchen, which had become a semi-cluttered mess over the holidays, and did a little better with getting the rest of my housework done.

I'm not planning anything big for February, just more of the same. I would like to get back to a regular routine with the cleaning but the puppies are still making that a little difficult. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with my efforts.

Bread Box

I'm trying to reduce clutter and increase my counter workspace in the kitchen, so I invested twenty bucks in this bamboo bread box (sadly, currently unavailable on Amazon.) My guy had to assemble it, but he had no problem with that.

I like it because it matches our cabinets, and I can fit two whole loaves of bread in it, although I'll probably never have that much in the house. It has a shelf so I can keep leftover buns and rolls in it along with my bread. It also looks nice, and hopefully will help keep our breads fresher longer.

Icy

It dropped below freezing last week, and it will again in another day or so. This doesn't happen very often here -- maybe a few times every December and January -- and it's always odd to me when it does. This is probably because I spent my childhood in the tropics, where it's usually 85F on Christmas Day, and we never had air conditioning.

When it gets this cold we always cover the citrus trees and our little gardens to prevent damage, although I'm sure the strawberries love it.

Being a tropical kid means I also have almost zero tolerance for cold. My hands and feet and ears and nose went numb just while I was outside snapping a few pics. On the upside, heat doesn't bother me at all.

Hi Neigbor

Some new cows have moved onto the property behind ours; they come to the fence now when they hear the puppies barking as they run around the yard. Since her udders are full I think the spotted white cow might be the small dark brown calf's mother.

The little dark calf skittered away when I got closer to take some pictures, but this bigger red guy stayed and posed for me. Of course we never attempt to pet or touch the cows or any of the farm animals that live around us. Cows can get scared or aggressive, and there's only a couple strands of wire between us and them.

I spent most of my life living in cities and suburbs, so I never get tired of seeing animals in the country. When I see them I'm always calling "Look, Honey, cows!" to my guy, who thinks I'm a dingbat. But hey, cows are cool.

Today's Thought

“You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

― Jack London

Image Credit: ramdlon from Pixabay

Cancelled

Last year my health insurance provider decided to jack up my monthly premiums by so much that the new premium would be $400.00 more a month than I actually earn in gross income. For the record, I made three routine doctor's visits in 2021 and had three rounds of blood tests. That's all I used my insurance for the entire year. Anyway, I could have asked my guy to help me with the payments, or pulled the money out of my savings account, but I decided to see if I qualified for government assistance. As it turns out I did, so I enrolled in that healthcare.gov program where they pay part of the cost, and then paid my first, greatly reduced premium.

My insurance provider got confused by this (I'm still not sure why), didn't log the change or give me credit for the first payment, or the one I made before that, and cancelled my insurance policy -- without telling me or sending me any notification -- retroactive to November 30th.

Fast forward to this month, which I spent in complete, ignorant bliss as to my insurance coverage status. I go and have my quarterly blood tests, and then see the doctor a week later to discuss the results. I'm doing better with my numbers, thanks to increased exercise and some dietary changes. As I go to check out the clerk at the front desk informs me that my insurance is "inactive." That's how I found out they cancelled my policy.

After much effort and confusion, I am insured again. I think. It's been a week, and I have yet to get any confirmation on that. I have one e-mail that says "Thanks for making your first payment" that I got when I made the first payment for the second time, and that's it. I'll have to pay for my January doctor's visit and the blood tests out of pocket because I was uninsured at the time. I also still have no idea why they cancelled my policy.

Health insurance should not be this much of a headache.

Breaking the Path

This week I'm beginning my new project for work, which is an exciting but also anxious time for me. I write alone in my home office eight hours a day, and unless there's a big problem I can't resolve by myself I have no one with whom to share this part of the work. Everything I do over the next month will determine what I do, and how well I do it, for the next half of the year. I need to be creative, original and inventive every day. I try not to think about the weight of that burden so it doesn't get between me and the work, but it's always there, like a big angry cow ready to trample me if I hesitate on the path.

When I begin a project I am very good to myself. I quilt every day on my breaks, which helps keep me from tensing up or brooding. I drink my favorite teas (including an herbal blend that helps me sleep better) and give myself little rewards when I reach my daily goals. I increase my efforts to stay away from things that depress (news) or upset me (politics) or make me angry (toxic people). I read my favorite books for pleasure, and I also write a lot in my desk journal.

I don't mind working alone -- I prefer it -- and I have a lot of experience with bearing the responsibilities. I will remind myself frequently of how lucky I am to have a creative profession, and how happy I feel to be able to do what I love for a living. More than anything that keeps the big angry cow out of my way.

Image credit: matak from Pixabay

Love Cursed

Lovers of the Red Sky is not a typical historical k-drama; it adds a demon king, royal curses and art into the mix. It's also beautifully filmed and written, and the special effects are extraordinary for a Korean television series.

The basic premise revolves around Ma-Won, the demon king of death, and the efforts that a fictional Dan dynasty monarchy and some female goddesses of life go to in order to contain this vengeful supernatural creature. After he gets out of hand Ma-Won is imprisoned in a royal portrait of the king, but curses the two children of the official who presided over the imprisoning ceremony, and the artist who painted the portrait. A few years later Ma-Won tricks his way out of the portrait and escapes, and things get better and worse for the kids, who then grow up to be a very talented female painter (Kim Yoo-jung) and a blind astrologer (Ahn Hyo-seop).

The painter's storyline becomes entangled with the astrologer's as these two end up as the central figures in the second round of efforts to imprison the demon king. They also fall in love, which is charming and romantic while seriously adding to the suspense of the drama.

I don't want to reveal too much about the story because the surprises and twists are fun. I think Ahn Hyo-seop did a stellar job as the blind astrologer who bears the brunt of the cursing, and still manages to lead a fascinating life. I've liked this actor ever since I saw him play a secondary cast role in Seventeen but Thirty, and he really shines as a lead. Kim Yoo-jung was delightful in her role as a female painter, something that women rarely did in the extremely patriarchal Joseon era (1392-1910). I'm guessing a lot of her role was more wishful thinking than historical fact, but you won't mind. I'll be watching this series again soon. Available on Viki.com.

Now I Get Boring

I've been making slow but steady progress with hand-quilting the koi quilt. This is my favorite part of the quilt-making process, but now that I'm sharing my work with quilters and textile artists on Twitter I feel a bit self-conscious about how slow I work and how long it takes for me to finish a bigger project. I am really boring.

I know it would be faster to learn how to machine quilt, or even take my quilt to be long-arm quilted at the local indy quilting shop, but I really like stitching it by hand. It helps me improve my stitching, and just feels right for me. Also, I only do quilting for pleasure, so there's no pressure to finish anything quickly. I know professionals have to produce a lot to sell; I'm just playing with design ideas. Honestly, I don't even know what I'll do with this quilt when I finish it (probably send it to my favorite person.)

I can already tell the backing fabric was a good choice; it looks really nice quilted. Stay tuned for more snail's-pace updates on this project.

Not Too Sweet

I needed to use up a bag of pecans leftover from holiday baking, so I tried out a new low-sugar pecan crescent cookie recipe (very close to this one; mine just used 5 tblspns. of powdered sugar, and I sprinkled the tops instead of rolling them in more powdered sugar after baking.) After the first batch of crescent-shaped cookies came out they seemed a bit too thick to me, so I rolled the rest of the dough into balls and flattened them with a fork dipped in powdered sugar before baking.

They're like shortbread with nuts, and not too sweet. My guy is not a fan of sweets, so he liked them a lot. I still think they're too thick, but I might try rolling out the dough and doing thinner cutouts next time.

Zoom

A few years ago I pitched a series project idea at work that ended up on the back burner while we did other things. I wasn't upset; this kind of thing happens to every working writer. I never forgot about that idea, though, as I liked it a lot and thought it would be fun to write.

When I got a chance to submit it again this year I revised it, of course, but the basic concept was the same. I then got some great feedback on my first pass review, which I incorporated before I submitted it a second time. Sometimes this process can take several attempts before I get approval. Sometimes even with revisions it still doesn't work and the idea gets bounced or back-burnered. For these reasons I try not to get too attached to any project, but I was cautiously hopeful.

Turned out that the third time was a charm, as the project idea got approved this week. I have to do a bit of research this weekend, and then on Monday I'll get started on the new series.

I'm so happy. I love my job. :)

Belated Lights

Every year during the holidays I like to see the light displays in town and around our neighborhood. There is one family that has been doing a huge display on their property that is always spectacular, and includes golden lights on a massive black oak tree that is probably 200+ years old.

With the rush of finishing up my final project for work I didn't get to see the lights last year. While we were driving back from our walk by the lake at sunset my guy went through town and by this one neighbor's house, and most of the lights were still on display. We noticed that the memorable black oak tree appears to be dying now, so it may be the last year we will see it done up in lights.

None of my pictures of the black oak tree turned out well, either (my camera doesn't work well at night.) So now it will have to remain in my memory.

Golden Path

Winter sunsets here tend to be beautiful, especially when the temperature drops below 60F, so I asked my guy to take me to our favorite lake to walk by last night.

Got to see some gorgeous birds, too.

For a few seconds it looked as if there was a golden path leading straight to the sub on the water.

Very peaceful and inspiring. We need to do this more often.

Scrap Masks

Every day this week I'll be making new cloth masks for me, my guy and my favorite person, but I've added an extra challenge by using only the scrap fabric I have on hand to make them. I use this pattern from JoAnn as my basic template, although I've adjusted the dimensions to fit my guy's nose.

My guy wanted his made in basic manly black, but I prefer low-volume white or light prints because they're cooler. Pretty much the two of us in a nutshell. :)

Normal

Last week I took my guy to get some take-out lunch, which we had at this little park down by the lake. All the tourists have descended in town, but hardly anyone was here, so we had the park to ourselves. Eating take-out where we can avoid people -- usually sitting in the truck in a parking lot -- is one of the new normals for us.

There is no more good news lately. I read an article in The Atlantic the other day about the terrible impact the latest wave of the virus and the unvaccinated are having on hospitals and our exhausted health care workers. The author warned the readers to stay off ladders and not take any risks that could injure them, because expecting timely emergency care is no longer a normal. There were also a few hints that our healthcare system could simply collapse and basically everyone would be on their own. I wonder if this was fact-based, or simply more fear-mongering to sell online subscriptions. I can't tell anymore.

Writing makes me happy, and quilting keeps me calm. My guy is trying to be a better companion, the puppies are a constant delight, and I have my online friends to remind me that I am not alone in this. I expect as long as I stay healthy I'll be okay. I don't know for sure what the future holds, but no one else does, either. We just have to keep going, day by day.

Disappointing

Sometimes k-dramas have all the elements to make a blockbuster series (great actors, cool story line, excellent plot twists, etc.) and even start off with a couple of episodes anyone would call wonderful. Then something happens and they go flat and become repetitious. That's pretty much the whole story with Now, We Are Breaking Up.

I won't name names, but I will mention spoilers, so if you don't want to know ahead of time how the series plays out, you should stop reading now.

To be fair, the story for this series could have been stellar: overworked and underappreciated fashion designer has a one-night stand with a hot guy and then walks away without even knowing his name, because she's determined not to fall in love or have relationships. She doesn't know that the guy is the hottest and most unattainable fashion photographer in the business. Or that he's the younger brother of the man whom she believes unceremoniously dumped her ten years ago. Or that she's been blamed by his family all this time for the death of that brother, as he didn't dump her but died in a car crash on his way to her. This after drinking a lot with the wealthy fiancee who chased after him and actually caused the accident.

Take a breath. There's a little more.

Finally, the hot guy took a bad photo when he was just starting out that the fashion designer bought on the street in Paris. That purchase made him decide to keep working at his photography, and also becomes the only thing that gets the fashion designer through the next ten years of overwork, underappreciation, and associated misery. That's classic destiny.

It's Korean, so all the elements are pretty much standard. Anyway, after all that, of course hot guy falls completely in love with fashion designer, who takes a little longer to do the same with him.

There's a kissing scene toward the end of Episode 3 that marks the end of the wonderful and the start of the flat and repetitious. From the moment these two characters decide they're falling in love with each other, all they do is walk around and hug and give little speeches about love to each other while literally everyone in their lives tries to break them up, or makes it impossible for them to be together. The designer's wealthy, spoiled boss decides she wants hot guy for herself, and her best friend develops cancer and begins slowly dying. The former fiancee of the dead brother tries to sabotage the designer's career. The designer's divorcing parents (whom she's financially supported all this time) go berserk and forbid the relationship; hot guy's step mother (who is a truly genteel monster) even threatens to kill herself if they don't break up. It wouldn't be a Korean series if the parents weren't making their kids' lives miserable, but this part seemed especially unnecessary and kind of tedious.

And then after a couple more walks, hugs and noble love speeches, they break up and go their separate ways. They meet up again two years later and smile at each other. The end.

Taking thirteen episodes to do what could have been done in one was a genuine shame. The waste of the actors was a horrible shame, too; the two leads are not only beautiful to look at but very good at acting, too. The secondary cast did a fine job with their roles, and most of the time were even more interesting than the leads, which is the only reason I kept watching the series. The subplot with the dying friend was particularly poignant, too. The series also showcases lots of interesting conservative clothes, if you're into Asian modern fashion, and takes an inside look at the fashion industry in Korea (I can't say how accurate it is, but it seemed to be.) Otherwise I can't recommend this one.

Progress

This is going to be my creative spot for the next month or so as I hand stitch the koi quilt. Quilting by hand is very slow, of course, so I don't have a lot to show off every day. I can only devote a couple of hours to this piece while I'm on my mid-day work break, and I'm trying to make my stitches smaller, so I'm even slower than usual.

Despite that this is my favorite part of making a quilt. I get a lot of time to think as I work, and the act of stitching together patchwork is very soothing. I also do some reading and watch videos on my lap top as I work.

This is the quilting I've finished so far this week: one bar block and about half of a log cabin block (aka not much). I'm using nine different colors of hand quilting thread, and have pre-threaded nine needles so whenever I need to switch colors, so I'm set.

A Little Art

My favorite person sent us this small watercolor as a belated holiday gift (name blocked out for privacy.) Definitely worth the wait.

Finding the Calm

This morning I have a doctor's appointment, but I've already seen my test results (thank you, Quest Diagnostics, for allowing patients to access their labwork online) and my numbers have improved. I have to do blood tests every quarter now to monitor a couple of borderline health issues, and keep close watch on my diet and the amount of exercise I get every day. It's a pain, but the alternative would be much more painful.

I also had a very bad day earlier this week, during which I almost lost my temper. I've been trying to work on my mindset so that I don't give in to anger anymore. Anyway, I stopped myself from letting the things that triggered it overwhelm me, and instead focused on work, quilting and housecleaning, which always help me find some calm. I probably need to get out of the house and take some long walks while the weather is nice, too.

A Small Haul

I haven't been to JoAnn (or any fabric shop) in over a year, but I really needed hand quilting thread which I first needed to see in person, so I finally made the trek. I gave myself a strict budget, printed out a 40% off coupon and brought bits of fabric with me to color-match the threads. I was just going to buy thread. Not fabric, not magazines, just thread.

Well, that went as you might expect.

In my defense, it is completely unfair of JoAnn to reduce their fabric remnants to 75% off when I need to make some new liners for the puppies' crates. Also, 25% off cutting tools is pure torture, especially as my rotary cutter blade has started to skip and the blades of my fabric scissors are blunted and dinged (and the local scissor sharpening guy went out of business last year.)

Anyway, I invested a little extra $$$ in what I truly needed, and stayed away from the fabric bolt aisles and did not even glance at the quilting magazine rack. I promise.

Garden Monster

Our broccoli plant has just started showing some baby floret. This is our first time growing it, so we're super excited.

I can't believe how tall the plant itself is growing. My guy says it may top three feet.

The Fun Part Begins

Any quilt I make that is bigger than my sewing table I have to put together on the tile floor in the front hall. I tape down the backing fabric to keep it from shifting before I add the batting and the quilt top and start pinning. It took two hours, as I'm pretty slow with safety pins, and I jabbed myself a bunch of times. Happily I didn't bleed anywhere on the quilt.

I was super happy this time to find I had a large section of batting leftover from another project that fit this quilt with room to spare, so I didn't have to open my very last bag of new batting.

I considered using just a vivid blue cotton thread for the hand quilting, but that will blend in the dark patches and stand out too much with the light patches, so I'm going to use threads that match (or are close to) each color in the patchwork. I don't have any thread in the charcoal or the orange shades, so I'll make a trip to JoAnn tomorrow for that.

This is how using different shades of quilting thread looks.

Top Done

I hand sewed my koi furoshiki on top of the scrap and bolt end solids patchwork to finish the top for what will be my first big quilt of the year.

I decided to keep the blocks straight versus on pointe so I could use all of them. Also I liked the way it looked this way best.

Tomorrow I'll make the backing out of this pretty seaglass-colored print, and then put the whole quilt together.

Small First

I like to warm up before starting a big quilt project by making something small, like this dog bowl mat from two vintage patchwork blocks I bought from an estate sale lot. I used only scrap fabric, batting and binding to make it as well. I'm having some trouble with my hands again due to a flare-up of arthritis, so this helped work out some of the stiffness (it's also why the quilting stitches are so big.)

The puppies are sloppy drinkers and think their water bowl is a toy sometimes, so the mat helps keep my tile floor from becoming into a giant slip-n-slide.

The boys seem to like it.

Citrus Imminent

The two memorial trees we planted last May to honor my parents are nearly ready to provide us with our first (tiny) crop of citrus.

Mom's tree is doing very well, and the grapefruit are starting to turn yellow now. We need one more cold snap and they'll be ready to pick.

There is only one orange on Dad's tree, but it's hanging in there and also starting to change color.

Some of my happiest memories from childhood involve going out to pick fruit for breakfast. There is just nothing better than homegrown grapefruit. If all goes well these trees will continue to provide citrus for whoever lives here in the future, too, which is one of the nicer things you can leave behind for future generations.

2021 in Numbers

Every year I tally how much I write for work. Here is 2021 in a heap: 955 pages and 288,913 words. That's not including what I write for my journals, the blog or the stories I write for fun; I count only what I get paid to write.

I used to save one hard copy of everything I wrote, but that became cumbersome, so now I just store them digitally. I also usually shred the editing printouts of my books (the heap here), but this year I'm going to recycle them by printing on the blank side.

I pitched another big project for 2022 and got the green light, so once I write up all of the individual project outlines and get them approved I'll begin work on the first one. I'm very fortunate in that I have a brilliant editor, too.

It's not very glamorous, or exciting to anyone but me, but this is what being a professional writer really looks like. A big heap of paper and a lot of dreams. :)

Horses as Neighbors

Last night I was sewing and my guy came out and told me something was going in in the back yard. There were cop cars and flood lights in front of our back neighbor's property; not something that usually happens around midnight.

We watched for a bit, and saw the silhouettes of three or four horses trotting along our back fence (happily on the other side, not in our yard.) This reminded me of the New Year's Day some years ago when we found three runaway horses peacefully grazing under our big oak tree.

This morning it seems like they've rounded up the runaways, so all's well. It's just one of those odd things that happens now and again when you live in the country around a lot of farms.

January Project

Finishing my final work project for 2021 gave me a couple of days to catch up on my housework. I also cleaned out my sewing room.

That only lasted about five minutes, but it really was clean, I swear.

I cut up the last of my scraps and made nine log cabin blocks for my koi furoshiki quilt; more than I needed but I'll use the extras as corner fillers.

Now I just have to figure out how to arrange everything.