A cup of your favorite English breakfast tea with local honey.

A walk with your dog on a crisp fall morning.

The book you had on hold at the public library finally arrived.

Enjoying said book on the screen porch with the dog at your feet.

Shopping the weekly farmer’s market.

Fresh flowers on the kitchen counter.

Baking a batch of banana bread using a favorite recipe.

Homegrown tomatoes straight from your own backyard.

Friday date nights with hubby.

Invitation from a friend to go out to lunch after quilting class on Saturday.

Running into a former neighbor at the grocery store.

The little girl’s excitement at seeing me back at school after missing 2 sessions due to a planned vacation.

My Friday sew days with friends.

Doing handwork (embroidery or EPP) while listening to a favorite podcast.

Trying out craft projects for Monday classes and CraftLAB sessions with the neighborhood kiddos.

Therapy dog visits with Sadie.

Making quilts and other projects for charitable organizations my quilt guild supports.

Journaling, meditation, devotionals, prayer, self-reflection, solitude or similar practice that brings you a sense of peace and calm.

I could go on. There’s a hospice nurse on IG who shares wisdom from her patients in short reels. The most common advice given is that true happiness is found in simple everyday activities with your loved ones and local community. It’s not working excessive hours at your job to pay for a big house, expensive stuff and luxury vacations. As one patient said, “Find joy in the every day.”

Our world continues to be a crazy place that has become even crazier over the past couple of weeks. No one knows what will happen in the coming weeks and months. Turn off the constant news stream. Be present in the here and now with your family, friends and local community. Make your home a refuge from the outside world. Find your joy in the every day – running errands with my furkid here.

It’s that time of year for all sorts of school fundraisers, charity events, capital campaigns and the usual year-end donation push. Given all the solicitations in my email and regular mailbox, I’d say a lot of groups are really in need this year. Give as generously as you can to the organizations that align with your values.

Donations can take many forms – monetary, specific items/services, and your time. Our gifts were usually monetary when we were both working full-time. As retirees, we’re finding we donate a good chunk of our time and specific items/services more than outright monetary donations. K-12 school fundraisers and the local humane society/pet rescue group are about the only places we actually make a monetary donation anymore.

Colleges and universities were removed from my donation list during COVID and will remain so permanently. Why? The upper echelons of academia have lost their ever-loving minds. They realize donations are down, but have they realized it’s partly due to all of their crazy, nonsensical research projects? I worked hard to earn my money and I don’t want to see it go to projects that don’t align with my values. Get a clue, Dean and come join the real world for a hot minute. Who proofread the latest missive? Do not insult and insinuate people who look like me are the cause of all of society’s ills and then turn around ask me to make a sizable donation to support your programs. Nope. This is called biting the hand that feeds you.

Sadie and I took a field trip this week to view the fall foliage and visit one of my favorite quilt shops up in the mountains. On display was a quilt kit that I’d admired online. It was one of those one block wonder quilts featuring all of the fabrics in the designer’s newest line. As is often the case, the pattern was designed specifically for the kit and was not available for sale as a separate pattern. Tip: If you are willing to wait, designers often release exclusive kit patterns a season or two later as an individual pattern for sale.

Or do what I did. I challenged myself to create my own version of the block. If you look closely, you’ll see it’s a a traditional 9 patch block with a little more pizzazz from the HST and FG units. It took a little while to do the math, but I pieced my block at my Friday sew day. I’m very happy with the result:

When I got home this evening, I pulled up EQ8 and designed a throw size quilt using this block. I have a lot of scraps, so I’ll be making mine scrappy!

That’s the beauty of quilting and crafting. You can be inspired and create something lovely using the tools and resources you already have on hand. In fact, when I set limiters on a project, I often find it’s more fun and challenging. Limiters can be time constraints, certain colors, certain fabrics, orphan blocks, UFOs only, no spend, etc. Retirement has meant more time to create The current economy dictates the need to be more mindful with how I spend my quilty dollars.

We are bombarded with new collections, tools, machines, patterns, books, etc. in our email and social media feeds on a daily basis. Appreciate the beauty of the new collection or the innovativeness of the new gizmo, but you do not need that new item to make a quilt. Take a deep breath and look closely. Are you seeing what I’m seeing? The 2024 collection and project previews from different companies feature “new” patterns and projects that are essentially updated versions of previous releases. Nothing wrong with this, but don’t think you automatically need to buy that pattern. You may already have it in your stash or even better – bet you can figure out for yourself!