A weekend of Selfishness?

I get a whole weekend to myself this coming up weekend. Peg is going to visit friends in New Hampshire and I get to stay at home with the cat. Yay, me!

Every once in a while, I think I just need to take time off and cloister myself away. This seems to recharge my creative batteries... as long as I ignore that "should be working on" list (which, also for me, is very, VERY long.)

My should list includes: Images/Lowell Quilt Festival. I love going to the show and seeing other people's work. I love shopping. I even have a list of things I should get for the class I'm taking at A Quilter's Gathering in November (never too early to start prep!) Am I going? Probably not, because the times that I can hang out by myself in my apartment (with just Ed, who sleeps a lot) are rare and precious.

I should be marking and quilting three quilt tops: The mini Amish that my mother pieced (above), "Don't Worry, Be Scrappy" (to the right), and "Omiyage" (to be photographed.) Will I get them marked and/or started? Probably not.

I should cut out fabric to replace my pink Tencel jumper. I bought a sage green tencel at the same time, intending to have two dresses. (I wore the pink one as sleeveless dres, but I never got the green cut out, so now I can use the fabric to replace the pink one which got to be too worn and stained to be worn in public.

Of course, there's the ongoing struggle to update my jewelry web site and etsy store... maybe the less said about that the better!

...And the Chelmsford Quilter's Guild page....

I have a ton of research to be done for a variety of project, one of which is a Quest to find an ophthalmologist or even just a place which will sell me a new pair of glasses and takes my insurance. (Insurance supposedly pays for a free pair every two years, but the problem has been finding someone who takes it. My soon-to-be-former guy takes the insurance but not my particular policy. *sigh*)

What I will end up doing? If I want to be rested and refreshed after this weekend I'll probably go out for "supplies" (Diet Barq's, Uno's Potato Skins, KFC, Wheaties), and hunker down to watch Nero Wolfe episodes or "Pride and Prejudice" (with Colin Firth!) with breaks to do a bit of weeding outdoors, and maybe peek at email and Facebook (hoping not to get sucked in). If I get to any of the other projects, maybe I'll count that as a plus.

But I really should find a place to get a new pair of glasses...

CPAP Run, Run, PAP, Run

In the never-ending battle to get a good night's sleep, I have now been armed with a CPAP machine.

CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Air Pressure (although my CPAP machine isn't actually Continuous, since it "breathes" with me.)

It's sort of a glorified fan which sends slightly pressurized air into a mask (and into me) at night, so that my airways don't close. It hasn't helped with the getting to sleep, but it seems to be helping with the staying asleep.

I've been on it two weeks, and now I'm finally not having dreams of scuba diving. (Although I am having really weird dreams about high school and the SCA.

And, while I do wake up with a slight headache about half the time, my concentration seems to have improved enough for me to start creating the "odd but pretty" jewelry that forms the "Amy half" of Piece by Piece.

The other big project, of course, is my sister's web site, Sport & Spool Antiques. It's still in the programming stages, but I now have hope that I will be able to muster the intelligence to do the javascript programming needed to go live in the next month (or two.)

Now, if I could only squeeze Piece by Piece's web site update in between S&P and the Puppet Showplace Theatre's updates. Oh, and adding new content to Rafael Sabatini, as well (though, poor old Raf has gotten pushed to the bottom of the todo list these days.

I've also taking to actually updating my etsy site, which, of course means new photographs. 

After trolling the internet looking for information on how to take better product photographs, I finally took the suggestion that I a) buy a tripod, and b) take some shots outdoors.

The results were somewhat less than spectacular given that the day was overcast, and I didn't like the way the earrings looked on the earring cards.  

However, I will probably upload the first photos to my etsy store within a few days. So look out.

But now, I'm running to the store, and then taking Peg to therapy (occupational, this time, although she's been doing physical for the last several weeks.

...And that's all she wrote.