Gearing up for our Festival

      The past week was warm, enough I needed the air on here at the house but we have our Spring Festival at Clayville.org this coming weekend and the weather is cooled down some and it looks like a damp and cool Festival again this year. I will wish for a warmer shawl and a winter petticoat if so, but I will hope for a warm Saturday, I have a doll club meeting Sunday so will be there for cleanup after the festival.

     I have to work on the doll club stuff after work, every night, until I have finished what I have here.  I don't know how we will get the entire lot done in time for the convention but I did not commit our club to making 200 sets of bedding for the event we are sponsoring.  I do have experience in cutting many small pieces from length of fabrics, do that making quilts and I have some doubts about the material making the amount someone think it will.  But I can cut some of the blankets so the fold is at the end instead of the side and that should help.  The length that came home with me made 26 blankets, 36 pillow cases and 40 pillow bags, which still need the poly fill cut and stuffed in, the ends sewn shut.  I was originally told 1/4" seams and top stitching on the blanket, glad I only top stitched 1 as it seems the written information says 1/8" for that top stitching.

      This week is city cleanup so I will finally get rid of the old bed frame and mattress and box springs, it will be nice to get it into the truck after work today and haul it over for disposal.  I am seeing very slow improvement on this place but it does improve, a tiny bit every year.

     And I am tent wishing this spring as I no longer have a tent and want to go camping some.  I also want something that could be loaded on the Rebel for taking the bike and running away for a day or so, the scenic river roads, small and quiet out of the way corners, that escape and unwind stuff I like to do but have not for way too many years.  

     But life here is doing ok, I am content for the most part.  I fuss over a varment in the upper garden, by the Inn at Clayville, it has a tunnel/doorway in my beans and I want the critter removed...  And I fuss about the doll bedding but will do my share and more, our club reputation is on the line here and that matters to me.

      My debt load is way too high for my comfort zone but I am working it down, tiny gains every month but I will soon be rid of most of the medical bills, and the credit card debt goes down a bit every month, my savings gains a bit every month.

     Work is going ok, pain but not more than I can cope with, and it pays my bills.  I am glad I learned young to work, to stay working, and to have good ethics and values.  They are part of that foundation I have built my little, quiet life around and they keep making my life workable and in balance.

Already May

     Time seems to fly for me, my to do list does not shrink much but know I stay busy.  Work takes a lot of that time but it pays the bills, and as long as I can work and earn a living, I will keep working.

     Things at Clayville.org are picking up, I am working Saturdays to get the garden planted by the Inn and to work on the herb garden.  And I am also doing a bit of working on my wardrobe for dress up days there, festivals and occasionally when I am tour guide.  My first day cap is done, not the best but from the first I know what I want to tweak with the pattern to make a better fit for my head, and am using low budget fabrics for the first few.

   My white shift is done, and I like the fit and feel better than the first one, and I finally have 2 aprons done, white cotton and 1 in heavy canvas.  The white one is now in the washer and once it is dry, I will get it ironed and have all my outfit ready the the festival this month.

   The scooter still needs an oil change but I did the Rebel today and then took it for a short run.  We are warming up fast now, but it seemed like a cool and slow spring.  The winter was not as cold as last winter, and plants outside wintered much better, so did all the weeds.  Ben is helping a lot with clean up and such outside, and with cooking meals here and some of the housework.

     I need to get some more sewing done for our club's UFDC event and such, I hope to get a blouse cut out and started tonight, the skirt is almost done but I need the blouse for final fitting.  And it looks like Doonell and I will be making most of the 200 sets of white bedding for that event, but we have plans/hopes for a workshop the end of May and hope some of the other club members have time and are willing to help cut, sew and press.

  And I am taking 2 vacation days and going to Galesburg to help Donnell with a BJD event for the club up there, it will be a fun mini vacation for me. Time with a doll friend I enjoy talking with, time away from home for just a short bit and dolls, a tight budget but I can afford a motel and the meals and so forth.

     I do like my life, and know my very tight budget is choices I made and I am working on getting that debt down and making wiser choices on doll and other not necessary spending.

     I am working on trying to stay healthy and accept that iron tablets and probably electrolyte will be part of my daily routine for the rest of my life but I am not having grand meal seizures now, and not having many small glitches, now and then, yes, but that is part of my normal, or at least is now.

     Like my right foot and lower leg, and the right shoulder, the left hand and arm, between the car accident and work in meat packing plants, pain is also a part of my normal.  I may not like it but I am learning to live with what I cannot change and make my life good, my way.

     I am very content without a dating or significant male relationship, I am calmer, happier and get done what I want done, and less stress and irritation over small and petty issues.  So, now that I am fed and still have a some time before I need to tuck into bed, I will get the load into the dryer and go play in my sewing space.