agilejack

Since I did all the heavy lifting on the next 16 Fresh Start blocks last night, It didn’t take long tonight to finish them up tonight.

And now I have 32 blocks up on my design wall and I’m loving this more and more.

I really wish you could see this in person. The photos really don’t do it justice. I keep finding myself just standing there staring at it!

I’ve been wondering how big I want to make this quilt. I was concerned that I needed to have an even number of blocks across the width of the quilt so that the edges would be symmetrical. What I mean is that I thought it might look better if the left side and right side of one row of the quilt are the same — either an X or an O.

The arrangement above is an odd number of blocks across the width. See how the left side starts with an X and the right side ends with an O?

I don’t think it needs that extra block. I think the quilt is busy enough that you won’t even see that the ends of the rows are different.

I haven’t made a final decision and it will be interesting to see how this looks with more blocks. I’ve been thinking I might make it 7 blocks wide by 8 blocks high. That would make it finish at 63 inches by 72, which is a pretty good size for a throw quilt.

The first thing I had to do this evening to finish these blocks was to cut the fabric for the corners. I cut all of that black fabric that I have left. I’m going to have to buy more! I’m going to call the store where I bought it tomorrow and see if they still have some. I still have plenty of the jumble. I use a LOT of the jumble so always have at least a couple yards in my stash.

I got the squares cut… more than I needed, actually. Then got all the triangles pinned onto the finished center pieces… 8 with black corners, 8 with jumble.

I had exactly the number of pins I needed for these 16 blocks! Three pins per triangle… one triangle left to pin!

Then I sewed them all with the chain piecing method. It went really fast. Then I was on to pressing and squaring up.

I was done with this pretty early. So I got me and my boys all bundled up, lit, and sufficiently covered in reflective materials and we headed out for our evening walk at about 7:30. It was really nice out and we saw lots of people and dogs who were all dressed like us! We had a nice two-mile walk. I decided to give myself the rest of the night off from sewing.

I managed to purchase a new dishwasher today and I did the entire transaction via text. I wonder if people actually go into stores any more to purchase appliances. Well, at least dishwashers. They have literally hundreds of dishwashers available on their website and they all essentially LOOK the same. I can’t imagine that they have more than 15 or so in their store and you can easily read about the features of each one. I bought from a local chain of stores. I didn’t love the idea of using one of the big box stores. I’m not terribly impressed with their customer service.

I selected a Bosch. Everything I hear about them is excellent. I got the one I wanted on sale and upgraded to a stainless steel interior. It was going to take 2-3 weeks to get one ordered, but the rep said that someone else had ordered the exact same item and the store was holding it for them. She asked them if they would let me have that one and order another one for them, and they agreed. So I will have my new dishwasher installed on Friday! They actually wanted to install it tomorrow, but Friday is much better for me.

I think I’m going to stop hand washing dishes so I have some to put in there on Friday.

And look at this distinguished gentleman.

He crosses his feet more and more as he gets older. It’s pretty cute.

As the evening winds down I’m drinking my second-to-last egg nog with bourbon for this year. It looks like the eggnog and bourbon will run out at the same time with my next indulgence. I’ve really enjoyed this little treat this year.

I’m supposed to play pickleball in the morning but it doesn’t look like the weather is going to cooperate. We have a pretty rainy ten days coming up.

We’ve had a very mild and relatively dry winter so far. Fingers crossed we get the water we need so we’re not on fire this summer.

During my lunch break today I stepped into my sewing room and pulled some scrap strips and put them into sets that I would sew later in the evening. It was a good plan because once I hit my sewing room after work I just flew!

I sewed four strip sets and got them all pressed, trimmed and cut into 3.5 inch sections.

I ended up with 16 sections. That’s the same as the number of completed blocks.

And, hey… some of them are wonky and that’s ok! This is free form piecing baby!!! There are no rules here!

Once I had this all done I decided to add the side strips to each section. I had all the sets put together with their trim and stacked up next to my sewing machine. I sat down at the and cranked through them in no time.

Here’s a lovely stack of pressed center sections, ready to be trimmed.

Next I trimmed the side strips on all 16 blocks to 1 inch width. If I make them a little wider than I need, I can trim them precisely after pressing and they look much nicer!

Here’s all 16 center pieces up on my design wall with the finished blocks. All I have to do now is add the black and white triangles and then square up the blocks.

I still need to cut the squares for the triangles. I’ve only been cutting a few at a time. I guess I should just dig in and cut a bunch while I’m cutting!

Once I get the squares cut, these will finish up really fast.

I’m still trying to decide how big this quilt will be. I’m thinking it will either be 8 x 10 blocks, or 7 x 9 blocks. I just have to decide whether or not it needs to be symmetrical. Either way, I’m close to having half the blocks I’ll need completed.

Here’s a closer look.

and an even closer look…

I think my scrap pile is actually bigger than when I started on this two days ago!!!

My foot was feeling so good today that I took the boys out for a 2.5 mile walk in the afternoon. I need to remember to take a photo of them on our next walk!

I started a new quilt today. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a couple months… putting the fabrics and design together in my head.

I’m calling it my NewYear Fresh Start quilt. It’s the perfect project after my palate cleanser. It was inspired by some of the pin cushions I made a couple months ago.

I went on a bit of a tear today and got 16 blocks done. It’s enough to give you a really good idea of what this quilt will look like. True to my tendencies, it’s a little wild but I love it.

To get started I dug in after our early afternoon walk and started sorting and pressing a bunch of Kaffe Fassett Collective and Australian Aboriginal scrap strips.

The good news is that I love making scrap quilts. The bad news is that this isn’t going to use up much in the way of scraps.

I sewed a random collection of strips into strip sets…

Then pressed and cut those into 3.5 inch sections that would be the center of each block.

The strip on the far right was too narrow to cut to 3.5 inches, so I’ll be able to incorporate that into a bag some day.

I’m going to write up a quick tutorial later this week for making these blocks. So I’m not going into too much detail tonight. Suffice it to say that I’m really enjoying this. It’s just the kind of piecing that I love doing… very free form, not much in the way of rules, and no precision required!

I love building production lines when I’m doing projects like this… ways to do things that make it quicker and more efficient. So I’m making four or five blocks at a time — whatever number I can get from one strip set.

These center sections are all ready for a trim and then will have their black or white corners added.

Here’s a finished block before I squared it up.

I squared these up to 9.5 inches. So they’ll finish at 9 inches.

I just love this one!

I’m also liking the combination of KFC and Aboriginal prints. I’m not sure it changes the look of the quilt much, but I like being able to say that the blocks contain both.

A little eye candy…

And I love this close up of the point where four blocks come together.

So, you might be wondering what happened to the neck scarf I was thinking about. Well, I dug in yesterday and nearly finished it. I had thought that I might make it from Brandon Mably’s Octopus fabric in black rather than the jumble and I remembered that my long armer returned some scraps of that fabric that had been used as the quilt back for my Ice Storm quilt. And, amazingly, there was one piece in the scraps that was perfect for this scarf!

So I trimmed it, squared it up and cut off a little of the length. After looking at some of the scarfs in my collection, I decided that about 60 inches was a good length. Then I cut a piece of the jumble to be the other side of the scarf.

I cut the jumble about an inch narrower than the octopus fabric so that the octopus would make what looks like a binding on the jumble side of the scarf.

Then I sewed the two long edges, turned it right side out and gave it a press. Here’s how that self binding looks on the jumble side of the quilt.

Sort of magic!

I left the ends open and left enough Octopus fabric extending beyond the jumble to fold and sew into a binding on the ends of the scarf.

Then I stitched in the ditch all the way around the scarf to keep all those edges in place during wear and laundering.

Then I got busy making twisted cord for fringe.

I got the fringe applied to one end of the scarf. If I was doing this again I would make the cord finer. This is just a little too thick, but I’m guessing no one else would even notice it.

I’ll have to make more fringe and apply it to the other end of the scarf. That will be an evening’s task later this week.

I did try it on even though it’s not done and I really like it!

Something about fringe makes a scarf super sassy!

I like the way the jumble and octopus work together. If you remember, the very first bucket had I made a couple years ago was in this fabric combo.

I’m very excited that my dishwasher repair person is arriving some time tomorrow between 8 am and 5 pm! It’s a good thing I’m working from home and don’t have to leave work to wait for them to arrive… one of the good things about working from home. I’m really tired of hand washing dishes!

This is the face of a dog who does not appreciate New Year’s fireworks.

Poor guy. He really hates them. I could barely hear the fireworks, but he was completely aware of them. Luckily they weren’t as bad as they’ve been in the past.

Back to work tomorrow. I’m glad it’s another short work week.

I had planned to play pickleball outdoors this morning at 10:30. The 8:30 session was canceled because it was too wet. But I got notification around 9:30 that the 10:30 session was a go.

When I got there several people were doing what they could to get water off the courts… using squeegees and an absorbent roller. So after a little work we were ready to play. For the first hour it was almost dry… maybe just a little mist. But by the time we finished, there was a steady rain falling.

That’s me in the light blue jacket. One of the guys in the club took some photos for me today. It’s odd to see photos of me playing since I never see myself on the court!

You can see how wet the court was. It was raining pretty good by the time these photos were taken. in fact, this was the last game since we were all pretty wet.

Good grief! I can’t express how much fun pickleball is!!! I just love it!

Once I got home I grabbed some lunch and then settled into the sofa as I iced my foot for an hour. Then I decided to head out to the craft store to pick up some yarn for an idea that’s been rolling around in my head. More about that idea later in this post.

I did get into my sewing room this afternoon to play with the Aboriginal blocks on my design wall. I moved a few things around and then decided that was it. I sewed the first three rows together before dinner, and then got the final two rows done and got it all connected after dinner.

Here’s my coiled up quilt top with the final seam pinned.

Here’s a video showing how I fold up my quilt top to sew that final seam. It’ makes it so much easier to manipulate through the machine.

Here’s the finished quilt top back up on the design wall. It’s not perfect, but it will do.

This “palate-cleansing” project did just what I needed it to do… cleared my head… built up some enthusiasm for starting a new project… gave me some time to think about what to do next. I highly recommend a palate cleanser project!

So, about that idea I’ve had that necessitated my trip to buy yarn today. I’ve been thinking I want to make a comfy little neck scarf out of some Brandon Mably black and white jumble. I just love that fabric and I wear a good deal of black for work. I thought it would be a nice thing to have on a cool day while being soft and not too hot. So I bought some black and white yarn to make fringe for this little project.

I’ll twist the yarn into cord for the trim. I tried two variations this evening. One is thicker and one is thinner. I’m pretty sure I’ll go with the thinner one.

it’s finer and less messy than the option on the right.

I’ve been making cords like this for years for different purposes. If you’ve never done this, you should give it a try. It’s a handy technique to have handy. Here’s a video I found on Youtube with instruction on how to do it.

Her method is exactly how I make my cord. I have heard of people attaching the yarn to their hand mixer rather than twirling it with a pencil. I’ll have to give that a try some day.

I had hoped one width of fabric would be enough length for a scarf, but it’s a little too short. I think I’m going to need to add about 10 inches to make it go around my next twice and add a knot. So I’m going to have to figure out how I’m going to piece the fabrics to make that length.

It’s possible I’ll get this project done tomorrow. It should be a quick and easy project. Famous last words!

The weather wasn’t all gloomy today. I got this view of a glorious sky on the way back home from the craft store.

I took my boys along for the ride to pickleball today and then they got to chase their frisbee in the park as the rain continued. They were pretty happy to get out there.

And tonight these tired dogs are good dogs.

I’ll be on the indoor pickleball courts at 7:30 in the morning. It will be a great way to start a day with a lot of hours and a lot of promise!

I had to work late tonight so I ran some errands early in the afternoon. I had to go to the bank so found a branch on my way to Pioneer Quilts in Milwaukie, Oregon. I received a gift certificate for fabric from a friend and saw on Instagram that they have the new Kaffe Fassett Collective collection in stock. So it was a no brainer.

I made sure I took some extra cash since I knew I would want more than the gift card would purchase. I actually showed some pretty impressive restraint and with a full collection laid out in front of me I only purchased four pieces of fabric.

I took that photo as soon as I got in the car because I wanted to show a friend what I bought. I got two yards of the green and two yards of the brown and one each of the red and pink.

This design is called Lichen and it’s an old Kaffe design that’s been out of print for years. I’ve seen bits and pieces of it in quilts made by people who have stashes that make me envious and I’ve hoped for years that they would bring it back. So you can imagine how happy I am to have some of this in my possession now.

The cutting table at the store has a little LED light on it that makes the colors in the fabrics just POP!

That fabric design and the colors gives me a physical reaction! I don’t know what it is about color combos and patterns that does that to me. But when I have it, I know I have to buy some fabric!

Hmmm. I’m thinking that brown fabric would work well with some Australian Aboriginal fabrics. Hmmm. That fabric would also look amazing in my living room! I’m having a few ideas… maybe a lamp shade!

And look at this one. Gorgeous in its own right!

I don’t have any plans for this fabric. I would love to have ten yards of each one but that would be ridiculous. It’s entirely possible that I’ll buy more when I have time to give this some thought.

While I was there I took a gander at their Australian Aboriginal fabrics just to make sure there wasn’t anything I was missing. They have a pretty good selection but I’m waiting for more color to arrive!

I’m craving more reds, yellows and greens!

After my late work shift I fed my boys and myself and then forced myself to get up and take a look at the Aboriginal blocks on my design wall. I changed a few things around and am feeling ok about it.

I moved the lower contrast blocks to the corners and edges and I think it looks better and is bothering me much less. I’ve decided I’m not going to make any additional blocks. I’m going to live with what I have since the purpose of this project was to be fast and easy. I’ll leave this on the design wall for a day or two, will probably move a few more things, and will then sew it all together. And I’m ok with that.

I’ve really enjoyed my egg nog and bourbon during the holidays. I usually only allow myself one pint of eggnog for the season. But this year I’ve been enjoying it so much I bought a second pint a few days ago. And tonight I poured my final egg nog of 2023.

It’s really delicious and I’m savoring every sip. But it makes me a little sad to say good bye for twelve months.

And with my late shift today, my hectic December fundraising season comes to a close. People will continue to give at amazing levels through Dec 31, but all I can do now is sit back and watch it all come in and hope it’s enough to reach our revenue goals. December is looking really good so far.

So with New Years Day on Monday, I have another long weekend. I’m playing pickleball tomorrow outdoors with the club. Then I’ll be on the indoor courts with my coach Sunday at 7:30 am. I haven’t played since last Sunday. I’m looking forward to getting out there!

My boss will bring me a tamale dinner with all the fixings on New Years Eve. It’s a tradition that she’s kept up for quite a number of years. It’s a great meal with a LOT of left overs!

Happy New Year to everyone! Thanks for reading along for another year!

During my lunch break today I hurried and sewed together the initial blocks for the remaining 11 large blocks for this palate-cleansing quilt top. I chain pieced them and it didn’t take any time. Then I pressed them all to have them ready to square up after work.

I have to be live on the radio early tomorrow morning for our end of year fundraising campaign so stopped working a little early today. I had the 11 larger blocks sewn together and pressed pretty quickly and up on the design wall.

Here they are just tossed up with all the blocks in the same orientation, which is not the final layout. I just wanted to see them all up there.

This does look better in person. The fabrics are more interesting in person. Some of them look a little flat in this photo.

Here’s a closer look.

And another one…

Since it was still early I decided to orient the blocks to show the design on the written pattern.

Some of the blocks don’t have enough contrast and that makes the design a little hard to see. Here’s this photo with some drawing to emphasize the pattern.

I will pull out the most offending blocks with no contrast. Maybe three or four blocks. But I’m not going to spend a ton of time, effort and fabric on this quilt top.

Even though this isn’t quite where I want it to be, it’s been exactly what I needed at the end of the year… something fast, easy, and mind clearing made from fabrics in my stash.

I came home from Christmas dinner the other night with a turkey carcass in tow. This is not an unusual thing for me. I can’t stand seeing someone just throw away their turkey carcass. There is such good soup potential in there and I LOVE soup.

So after work I pulled out the carcass and removed all the turkey that was left on the bones. I got nearly two pounds of meat off this thing! I can have a couple sandwiches and still have plenty left for soup.

Then I tossed the bones and everything that fell off into a big stock pot with onions, carrots, celery, some seasoning and bay leaves and let it simmer for a few hours. I turned the heat off as we headed out for our evening walk and when we got home the house smelled incredible. Then was the biggest job… getting all the flotsam and jetsam out of the pot and running the broth through a fine sieve. I’ll skim the fat off of it tomorrow.

It feels good to have a large container of delicious broth and plenty of turkey meat in my fridge, just waiting to be combined into a wonderful winter soup.

I’ll stop at the grocery store on the way home from my early shift on the radio tomorrow morning and pick up some noodles. I usually like to make home made noodles for my home made soup but with my dishwasher still on the fritz I’m trying to make as little mess as possible.

We have two on air fundraising days this week and that will basically wrap up a hectic month. I’m glad I have another long weekend and plan to take advantage of that extra time.

Often, after working intently on projects for a period of time, I feel like I need something impulsive, quick and easy to cleanse my palate and get me ready for another more involved project. So tonight I started on just such a project.

I had this pattern in mind…

And I decided to make it from Australian Aboriginal fabrics from my stash. Several months ago I purchased some online on a really good sale. I didn’t really have any plans for these fabrics so I pulled them out tonight.

These are all one yard cuts. I need a total of 20 different fabrics for this quilt so dug into my stash and pulled out some 1/3 yard cuts that have been in my stash for some time. And then I started cutting.

The pattern has you prepare a bunch of 10 inch squares. You need a total of 80 ten-inch squares. I had them all cut in no time, then I paired them up making sure that each pair had contrast between the two fabrics.

Once the squares were cut and paired up I cut them in half using my new ruler.

Here’s the pile of paired up pieces that will make up this quilt.

Some of my pairs don’t have the contrast I want. I might have to pull out some of them before the quilt is done.

Once they were all cut I sat down at my machine and chain pieced the two halves of the blocks together.

Once these were all pressed, I combined them into larger blocks made up of four smaller blocks. Then I tossed them all up on my design wall.

There’s one block in there that doesn’t have much contrast — top row center. It’s better in person than in the photo.

These blocks aren’t designed yet. I just tossed them up on my design wall as I made them and got them pressed.

These blocks are big. Probably just shy of 18 inches. I finished nine of the twenty blocks needed for this quilt top. So only 11 more blocks to go. They will whip up quickly.

it’s definitely going to be a quick and fun make.

I let myself sleep in a little this morning then after a shower and breakfast of lemon cake and ice cream I started in on finishing the binding for my table topper.

Getting the binding sewn onto the topper was a bit of a wrestling match. But that’s why I’m usually really happy to pay someone to do my bindings!

Even with that I had it sewn on and joined in no time and it was ready for hand finishing.

I turned on White Christmas, one of my favorite holiday movies, and started hand stitching.

My right hand it really hurting tonight. Another reason I don’t love all that hand finishing.

But in less than an hour I had it all done and tossed in onto my table to see how it looks.

Here’s another view that shows with quilting well.

And one last view…

I had a couple hours to spare between finishing this and when I needed to head out for dinner.

I’m so happy that my friend absolutely LOVES the table runner! I was worried that it was a lot of color and pattern for her. But she was so happy with it!

With a couple free hours before dinner I curled up on the sofa with a cup of coffee and watched some more holiday programming. While I watched TV my boys played with the holiday gift I gave them.

Bender got a little tangled up in it while I was wrapping gifts.

I did get a couple of quilting related gifts today. One gift certificate to my favorite local quilt store, and a friend gave me this ruler… which I need for a pattern I bought recently!

That might help narrow down what quilt I make next!

Back to work for a short yet hectic week. There’s a lot money I still have to raise before December 31!

I played pickleball this morning. I was on a very foggy and cold court at 8:30 and played until 10:30. it was a great way to start a Saturday. When I was done I hit the road for Washington for Rico’s sheep herding lesson. He was amazing and did some pretty impressive work.

When I got home I iced my sore foot and dug into my recipes to put together my shopping list.

After getting dinner for me and the dogs later in the day, I went to the grocery store to get my Christmas Eve dinner shopping done. My list seemed really long but I had it done in no time. I got everything I needed except for fresh Rosemary. So I bought some dried instead. I might stop tomorrow and see if I can find some fresh.

After shopping I hit my sewing room with the goal of finishing the quilting on my table topper. So I rolled it up and clipped it so it would be easier to manipulate through my machine.

Then I started stitching.

Not only did I finish the quilting on the center of the topper, but I finished the more detailed quilting on the border.

Once it was done I trimmed all the edges and pinned it up on my design wall.

I’m really happy with how this has turned out. And I’m really glad I’m done with all that quilting! Not my favorite part.

I’m thinking I might need to make a quilt from these fabrics!

Here’s some detail.

And a little more

And one more just because I like it!

While it was up on the design wall I decided to try a couple different options for the binding. One is the same fabric as the backing. The black Shaggy.

I like it, but I think the recipient will like the black Luscious better.

I’ll probably work on this a little tomorrow if I have time. I don’t have to gift this until 6 pm Christmas Day so I have time to hand stitch the binding as I watch Christmas movies and drink egg nog!

I’m playing pickleball at an indoor facility with my coach tomorrow morning at 7:30. When I get home I have to do a little housekeeping and then get busy on meal prep. This will be complicated by the fact that my dishwasher is on the fritz and I’m not due for a repair person until January 2. Christmas is not a good time to need a dishwasher repair. I’ll be hand washing a lot of pots and pans, dishes, glasses and utensils tomorrow.

I leave you with this sweetie pie…

Ernie’s owner came and picked him up this evening. I miss him already. He’s so much fun to have around and so easy. I love that he gets along so well with my boys.

His owner said she might take me up on my offer to drop him by occasionally on her way to work so he can spend the day with us rather than all by himself. It will be fun to have him around every now and again.

I had today off but didn’t do much. I took Bender to his annual check up with his neurologist and he passed with flying colors. The annual exam is almost just a formality so that I can continue to get his prescriptions filled and can get some help if something happens. If you’re not up to date on your annual exams, they can’t legally prescribe drugs. It’s so important to be up to date!

I left Rico and Ernie at home and only took Bender with me. I stopped on the way home to get some wine colored thread to use for the quilting on the table topper I’m making.

Once I got home I grabbed some lunch than took the dogs for a nice two mile walk. When we got home that had an extended rambunctious play session.

I wish you could hear all the growling!

After Ernie left and I had a chance to get some dinner I hit my sewing room to get moving. I finished the border on the topper last night.

I played pickleball yesterday morning and took a detour on the way home to pick up the piece of fabric I needed. While I was there I purchased a few new pieces of Australian Aboriginal fabric they had.

They have a really nice selection of Aboriginal fabrics. And because several people will ask, the store is Pioneer Quilts in Milwaukie Oregon. They have an online store and you can find them with a google search.

I was too tired last night to start quilting on this, so I decided that Just getting the backing and batting cut was good progress for the night.

So first thing tonight was to make the quilt sandwich. I use spray basting when I do quilting, When I’m making bags, I do the spray basting on the top of my washing machine. But this piece is too big for that, so I took my portable design wall and laid it fuzzy side down on my guest bed. Then I put an old sheet over the top of it and covering the entire top of the bed. Then I laid out the backing, batting and the topper and started the basting.

I’ve heard people say that they don’t have good luck with the basting spray… that it gums up their needle and cause all kinds of issues. But I have really good luck with is and use it all the time.

Once I got it basted I trimmed off the corners so I would have less bulk.

Then I started stitching. I decided I would do straight line stitching diagonally through the little squares.

I got all the lines done in one direction. So tomorrow I’ll stitch the lines in the opposite direction, then do some quilting on the border and it will be ready to bind.

I really dislike manhandling all this bulk through my machine. I rolled the top up and used some little metal clips to keep it all together as I sewed and rotated.

Every time I quilt a piece like this I’m reminded why I will NEVER quilt a full size quilt on my domestic machine. NEVER!

I’ll probably do some lines with 1/2 inch spacing around the border. I think it will be a nice touch and finish for this. Once it’s done I’ll sew on the binding and will hand sew the binding for a nice finish.

I’m playing pickleball early tomorrow morning, Then we have Rico’s weekly sheep herding lesson. After that I’m going to get some lunch with a friend to celebrate the holidays. I haven’t seen her for months. I’m looking forward to it.

Then my big task for tomorrow is to do my grocery shopping for Christmas Eve dinner. I have my menu all planned so all I have to do it reference my recipes and make a list. I am going to make a different lemon cake for dessert the year. The one I made last year is really good but it’s a little more involved than I want to tackle. So I’m going to make a lemon pound cake recipe from Ina Garten. It sounds really good! I’ll probably serve it with some vanilla Ice cream.

And now I have to make sure I have everything ready for my day tomorrow:

  Make sure I have my rubber boots and rain gear in the car for sheep herding.

   Pick out a pin cushion for my lunch friend and get it wrapped

   Fold the laundry that’s in the dryer

   Drink some egg nog with whiskey!

Better get busy so I can have that egg nog! Talk about motivation!