Day 203 - a welcome Caturday

 Today is the 7th day of the 29th week, the 22nd day of the 7th month, the 203rd day of 2023, with only 155 shopping days until Christmas, and:

• Be a Good Teammate Day
• Casual Pi Day - using the calculation of pi is 22 divided by 7
• Hammock Day
• Lion's Share Day
• National Day of the American Cowboy
• National Day of Lament
• National Drowning Prevention Day
• National Fragile X Awareness Day
• National Mango Day
• National Penuche Fudge Day
• National Ratcatcher's Day
• National Sophia Day
• national Thomas Day
• Spoonerism Day
• Summer Leisure Day
• World Brain Day

Quote of the day:
"We can take a wonderful vacation in spirit, even though we are obliged to stay at home, if we will only drop our burdens from our minds for a while."

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder

I have a two bad  habits that I have noted of late, altho neither are new.  

The first one is that I see things online and buy them.  Retail therapy has always been something I enjoyed, and for some reason, the things that I could find in catalogs, or online [thank heavens I broke my QVC addiction, but it took a long time.  And the mailman is VERY happy I am not as avid a catalog shopper as I used to be] always seem quirky and irresistibly attractive -so I buy them.  Thing is?  I let them accumulate, then sit and unbox them all at one time.  I really enjoyed this set of cross-stitchery projects that I had ordered, until I went to put them away.

You see, the second bad habit is that I overestimate my time and energy, especially when it comes to craft projects.  Back in the day, I used to do a lot of cross-stitch, both counted and stamped.  My friends and family received wall hangings, tablecloths, and pillows as gifts; my kids' rooms were decorated with the results of my labors.  Oh I did needlepoint and latch hook as well, but even as a kid, cross stitch was what I enjoyed.  One of my first gifts that I remember giving Grandmom Riley for her birthday was a set of embroidered pillow cases.  I often likened it to coloring - before I learned stitchery, I was one of those kids who loved to color and had many coloring books.  [I had looked forward to coloring with my granddaughters, but have learned they don't consider it fun like I did]  And I was good at making the underneath of my work as neat as the top, to the point where a place that I took my wall pieces to be mounted inquired if I would be interested in doing stitching for them.   Whenever we went family visiting, my current project came along, and I would sit and stitch while talking.  I never sat down just to watch TV without pulling out and working on the current project.  Somewhere in the Disaster area, boxed up, is a set of projects to be completed, with all the tools needed to do so.

Once I went back to work full-time in 1985, the day visits to friends and relatives of course stopped.  And, as there wasn't as much time in the evening to just sit in front of a TV anymore, the projects started to languish.  There was still a bag with a current project lingering behind the sofa, but I pulled it out less and less, sometimes opting to indulge myself with adult coloring books instead.  Then, in 2005, I discovered Second Life, as well as computer gaming.  The urge to 'fill in the spaces' was overtaken by dressing my avatar[s] and creating new looks, then later by getting land and landscaping/decorating.  My TV time shrunk to near zero, and when I do watch, it is a program that demands my attention, unlike the programs of yesterday that were basically radio with pictures that you could listen to and follow along with occasional glances at the screen.  I could listen to an audiobook while I stitch, but I don't even though I tell myself as I hit 'purchase' that I am going to.  

I cleaned out a lot of the old projects and gave them away, altho what I shed was mostly knitting and quilting, and I squirreled away the cross stitch.  Now, just this year, I have gotten a new sewing machine and bought new sewing and stitching projects that are all just sitting and waiting in the Disaster Area.  

And I have absolutely no inclination to go and do any of them.

Think I'll join Triscuit in relaxing and enjoying the day