Supposedly, my Microsoft Office account was good for one year after I left the school district. I now know this only applies to students – not staff.

My account was deactivated as of yesterday.

Whoops! Tried to use the limited O365 free version online. Not enough features to do what I needed to get done.

Fortunately, I was able to quickly obtain my own license so I could have access to documents I needed to edit.

The fun never ends..

Months ago, I made a list of things I wanted to learn how to do/explore when I retired. Some were tech-related like learn Adobe Illustrator and InDesign while others were decidedly non-tech like learn to speak Spanish and how to crochet.

Of course, the list had some quilty related skills:

(1) Learn how to really use my Cricut Maker for quilting, sewing and general crafting.

(2) Learn how to FMQ with rulers.

I’ve played with the Cricut Design Space enough to be able to import fonts to design large alphabet letters and create basic shapes to cut for fabric appliqués. I want to learn how to cut out a quilt using the device and how to convert an easier quilt pattern for cutting with the Cricut Maker. Looks like the process will be very similar to converting a quilt pattern for cutting using my manual die cutting system.

This afternoon was spent watching several videos on how to locate free SVG files, upload them and manipulate the files in the Cricut Design Space. Definitely going to try my hand at paper flowers after watching Jennifer Maker demonstrate the steps. Cricut Design space has some free quilt patterns. I’ll give one of those a go and then use my new meander ruler to FMQ the project for a donation quilt. There are some Riley Blake patterns listed, as well. I’ll try free before I go with a paid version. 🙂

We leave for our long-awaited anniversary trip in two weeks. I can’t wait! We had so much fun on our Utah trip that we agreed we needed to get away more often. Going forward, we’ll shorten the our typical 7-10 day trip time to 4-5 days and try to take Sadie with us. Big girl travels well and more hotels are pet friendly. The Home2Suites we stayed at in Utah made us realize we could travel with the dog as long as we go to places that are dog-friendly. We may even decide to do an RV rental as a test run at some point. Sadie would have loved Park City, Utah! I’ve never seen so many doodle dog mixes in one area!

My yearning to travel is tempered by the uneasiness in the stock market, lack of staff at locations when traveling and high prices of hotels, car rental and air travel. Everything keeps going up, including our COBRA insurance by $200 a month starting in January. One of my neighbors, who is in HR, noted that she’s seen an increase in entrepreneurs who are returning to traditional employment. The #1 reason given – health insurance. I totally get it. I’m so grateful we have access to coverage that meets our needs, even if it is a tad expensive. I keep reminding myself It won’t be this way forever. There are days when the “play it safe at all costs” inner voice implores me to go back to work in January (especially after this week’s stock market decline). Then, the rational side of me reviews our financial plan and weighs the opportunity cost of returning to work right now. Nah, I’m good. I’ll remain retired unless an opportunity presents itself that I simply can’t resist.

Enabler alert: Hobby Lobby is discontinuing its current European-made quilting thread. All of my sewing machines ADORE this thread. IMHO, it’s a great alternative to Aurifil. At $2.24/spool on close-out, you have a good reason to stock-up. I understand from my local HL staff, that a replacement product is forthcoming.

Stay quilting my friends!