June Gloom

. . . is reliably following a long month of May Gray here in my southwest corner of the continent. I love the weather we’re having. The last day of May ended without one single minute of sunshine yesterday. The chilly wet air perfectly matched the Anne Bronte novel I listened to as I worked in my gardens. Aren’t all the Bronte sisters books set in gray mist? Or rather, make that “grey” mist.

New month ahead, new goal for Elm Street Quilts. Here’s the Link. My plan is to finish this teacup trivet and get it delivered to my dear friend.

I used my mom’s fabric stash to make a bunch of these teacups for her friends and family. Here’s a couple I’ve kept for myself. The fabric is SO my mom. And you can tell that I use them, tea stains being the clue.

My dear friend knew she had one coming to her, but for some reason it has languished. She is just now home from a hospital stay, so the time is right to send her a little something.

And it is little. It won’t take much effort to finish the machine quilting and binding. The challenge will be to actually get it in the mail. That’s where I tend to drop the ball. I know that, as in the previous five months, my posting the goal here will be my ticket to success. This monthly accountability somehow works for me where other motivational devices do not.

For example, I have wanted to get a brisk walk in every day, and maybe a visit to the gym once or twice a week. Some people say that putting a star on the calendar for each successful day is the trick. Nope. I’m in an online walking group doing a Continental Challenge. Nope. I have the Fitbit app and the Fitness app. Nope and nope.

Not so with this challenge. In the first four months of this year, my focus was on the basket under my sewing room desk. That is now emptied and removed, much to my satisfaction. So I’ve turned my attention to the closet. Every other space in my house is organized and clutter free. Friends describe us as minimalists. But here in my own space, I practice the “cram and jam” style of closet utilization. Having avoided it for too long, I took a good hard look inside that cluttered cavern, stuffed with bins and bags full of procrastination and indecision. Wouldn’t it be fabulous if my under-the-desk success carried over to my closet? Maybe, just maybe, I could have a clean, spacious, organized space by the end of the year? That’s why I’m adding another challenge to my month of June here. And I’m jumping in on the very first day because I’m going to need all thirty. Each month I’ll grab a bin and deal with its contents. I’ve already pulled out the most offensive one and tripped over it awhile to get the motivating hackles of annoyance up.

I know it’s not fabric, but here’s my goal: Attack this bin and take no prisoners. I will peel out the baby photos from those old magnetic albums and transfer them to these archival safe new ones I bought a few years ago. Four kids = four albums. Let’s do this.

Happy June!