Hello Everyone

Wow, what a way to start off the New Year!  Can you believe it is almost the end of January already?  I don’t make resolutions any longer but strive to keep a goal.  Doesn’t always work that way, especially this past month, but I have no regrets.

As most of you know, my Mother passed in December and it has been a bit of a roller coaster ride, emotion wise but I am feeling better and am at peace with her passing.  When I said my goodbyes to her, it was truly amazing!  She actually looked younger than 86, hardly a line or worry wrinkle on her.  She looked like she was totally at peace, and had no cares or worries; that they had all just rolled off of her.  She looked like she was lying down for a nap and would be up soon, ready to go shopping!  When I saw her, I had a feeling of peace come over me and I knew that she was okay and a lot happier than she was ever before.  That was a true comfort, a true Christmas present and miracle for me.

I still have my moments but I am working past them.  I started a self-Bible study called “Become A Better You” by Joel Osteen and that has been very helpful for me in learning not to look back but ahead.  Not to have regrets, but to turn those regrets around into a positive rather than a negative and to live in God’s peace and glory and what He wants for me.  I truly believe that I am anointed, creative, talented, successful, and that I have the favor of God; that people like me and that I am a Victor not a victim.   My potential is not diminished or reduced by my past.  That is my Mantra every day and it really is powerful and helps keep me going.  If you have a chance, check out this book and see that it really does help.  I strongly recommend it!

Another goal that I am striving for is to downsize and give away, throw away or use up objects that have no real meaning for me.  I had been planning to do this with my computer later this year, but SURPRISE!  It happened sooner rather than later.  Someone hacked into my computer and made a real mess of it and took control of my computer.  So, for the past 2 weeks, I have been in the process of cleaning, scanning, running virus scans and dumping whatever I could and rebooting from scratch, not once but TWICE!  The second time was my fault, I made the mistake of allowing the scan to include compressing my hard drive and I lost EVERYTHING!  I have gone through all my email accounts and deleted all but one main account that seems to be fine and being super careful about what I download, how I download, etc.  What a MESS!  I am now back online and virus-free!  At first, I was very angry about this situation but I am okay with it, now.  This has given me a lot of pause to think and work this out in my mind.  It does no good to be angry.  At least, I know that my computer is secure, clean, streamlined and ready to work again.  By streamlined, I mean that I cannot believe how many programs “hitch a ride” when you download something and what damage those “innocent hitch hikers” can do.  Just be careful is my motto and SCAN frequently!

As for my sewing, I have done a couple Jelly Roll Race quilts and they are so much fun to make.  I made them both in 3 hours! Very addictive!  So simple!  Here’s a link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bEJLnaZQOU.   Perfect for baby quilts!  Since I have been busy with my computer, that’s about all that I have made for this month.  Though, that doesn’t stop my mind or wallet from adding more projects.  I had planned to show pictures online, but then my computer problem started, so I decided to wait until everything was stable again before posting.

Sorry about not posting much before this, but for a while I literally was not able to post.  Oh, in order to get back into Stash_Quilters, I actually had to rejoin the group (I’m the owner) and have Jill approve me as a member!  I then had to go in and change my email accounts in the group, after a hassle with Yahoo, and change everything in there.  I can laugh about it now, but boy, Yahoo is not the most cooperative business to work with in resolving issues, especially with passwords.  The account I’m using now is an old one and I had forgotten my password, much less my correct username, after so many years.

Anyway, going back to sewing, I did manage to finish my charity quilts for Christmas and worked for 15 minutes or more on different projects.  That too was a goal that I haven’t reached yet.  But I am still going to Curves and Weight Watchers on a regular basis (so-so) and have lost some weight.  Still have a long way to go, but you will see “less of me” and not more when next we meet!   Darn, another tangent.  Sorry.

Last weekend, I talked hubby into going down to Visalia for the day just to get away for a bit.  I was sick of looking at my computer and needed a change of pace for a bit.  It was really a very pleasant day and we did some shopping, of course.  I went to one of my favorite fabric stores, Beverly’s and stocked up on, you guessed it, fabric.  Well, I found out that they are closing the store (it’s a chain) as they are not making any money from Joann’s there in town, and they had everything 25% off, plus 40% off certain items.  Needless to say, I got a good deal!  They have been there for 30+ years, so sad to see them close.  I believe they said their last day was sometime in the spring, that means I need to go and buy more before all the good stuff is gone.  Yea, like I really need more fabric…  LOL!  But they do have thread and other goodies there.

Then, on Sunday, I finally used my gift card to Joann’s and bought the BOM kit called Kalidescope.  It is so pretty,  I’m going to make that for my bed.  Can you believe it, after quilting for so many years, I haven’t made one for my own bed yet!

I will be posting more about our group and ideas and goals for this year in a separate email.

I think that brings me up to the present and not much else exciting happening here.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting.

Donna