the week ahead #13

The weather in Aurora CO
warmer, and sunny this week til Thur when it may snow again. Glad to see the sun!
Good Poodle Grooming weather!

eating
I know I should stop eating fat, and carbs and only eat vegan food, but I can't do it without a lot of sacrifice and the holidays with all their demands to be jolly and hap-hap-happiest are not the time for me to feel deprived. I'm having what tastes good, what is easy to make, what feels comfortable.
And cookies.

Watching
DH got me the Jacquie Lawson Advent calendar on line, and it's an interactive daily fun romp.
I can decorate trees, cookies, cut snowflakes online, play games, watch videos, read about traditions in Scotland... Love going there each day.

The great American Baking show is  on Thursdays for the month and it's as good as the British version with one of the British judges.

I am fully into Survivor but I am a bit tired of Hallmark Christmas movies. It didn't help that they were on in July, then again before Halloween. It's just overdone. I looked forward to them more when they were once a week.

We found out Brokenwood's new season is available on ACORN so we are enjoying those. We finished the recent season of Murdoch, and no new Midsomer Murders yet, but we are in the recent season still of Striking Out (Female Lawyer in Dublin) and 800 words (Journalist moves to quirky island in NZ)

Reading
Enjoying the latest Teahouse mystery now. Glad it's in paperback so it's lighter to hold at night.

Writing
Achieved a goal... all Christmas cards mailed around the globe! I survived the Post Office! Yea! 
There was only one meltdown... one woman wanted the package she got notice of... rightly so. She started loudly complaining that the first employee was rude to her. 

The second one handled himself wonderfully... just stayed to the facts, that she needed authorization to pick up mail (she was renting and didn't have it) but she escalated and unfortunately the first "rude" employee was loudly being passive aggressive, saying to the whole room how she was in the right and she had witnesses and yadda yadda. 

I say, if she was in the right, she should have said nothing to make the customer more upset... just let the second employee handle it. The defensive posture and loud nasty comments kind of proved she was indeed rude. 

As another customer, I didn't need or want to hear the argument and the first employee's unnecessary loud comments, right as she may have been, served to make every one of 50 onlookers uncomfortable. 

Sheesh! as if the Post office wasn't tense enough! 
Writing Fiction
I'm writing a lot more fiction for the 31 days of posts in December. I hope you like them, they are all about Joy. If you have an idea/prompt for a story please let me know. It's my job as a writer to come up with the stories but I love a collaboration. Thanks to those of you reading them, I love reading the words as my fingers type them out! 

Listening to
I found my CD's with unusual Christmas songs and am jollying along my old stereo (with space for 5 cd/s to randomly play). I think I enjoy the cowboy (not country) group the most! Next the jazzy one. I like them all though, the more unique the better.

To Do
finish decorating the tree and the poodle. We started the arduous task of grooming Milo, who sees the whole exercise as a waste of time! I did a lot yesterday but there are always touch up scissor snips needed, and nail trimming, etc. It takes a few days. 
I'd love to make some soup this week. And find some supplies so my friend Mary and I can make icicle ornaments with beads, and fabric stars on Friday. Got to go to the chiro on Tues... 
Try to get the snowman banner to stick in the frozen ground and put new lights around the old burnt out tree for the back yard. This time... no unwrapping, just putting new ones over the whole kaboodle.

  Making
I am slowly hand stitching my hexies, look how cute this section is (top of post)! And I'm using some holiday fabrics in 2.5" strips and Bonnie Hunter's scrappy Bargello pattern to make something. I want to try the technique.

I've been collecting the paper piecing patterns (free each day only) from https://quiltartdesigns.blogspot.com/
Haven't made them yet, but I've made others from her and they are fun!



What I learned this week
From putting up the new artificial tree, I learned there are "no bit players"

I am in process of fluffing out the branches, to fill in gaps and look fuller. I learned I need to also fluff the ones sort of behind the tree in the back corner, because you may not notice them, but they cause the whole tree to look fuller.

When I did musical theater in Florida, I was always in the chorus. I sang and danced, a "filler" sort of to support the stars. I would have a few lines, a few solos, but was mainly support staff.

When I make quilts, fabrics are the same way. There are "stars" the fabrics you notice, and support staff to make the stars shine.

When I cook, I almost always use onions and garlic in some amount, to fill in flavor profiles. Salt is like that.

It occurred to me it's the same with people... in real life there are moments when you are the star, and more times when you're the support player. We are quite important either way. Each of us plays a part in the moment. Isn't it difficult to be around people who always, ALWAYS expect to be the star? It's tiring to have to constantly tell them they're the "greatest".  We all play a part.
In each moment.

Support staff is VERY important, maybe more important than the stars although we don't get as much attention.

I want to be aware of these supporting elements in life, to respect and thank them for their support.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED7XB6Gc4Rc

Linking to
all seasons
ruby tuesdays
 Free motion by the River Tuesdays   
Our World Tuesday
happy Homemaker
design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts
lovelaughquilt.mondays