Where does the weekend go?

I want to live in a country/planet where one only has to go to work for 4 days and has a 3 day weekend, but I don't want to cram 40 hours into those 4 days. I would like the 32 hours that you work during those 4 days,  to be considered full time, so you still get all the benefits, vacation time, etc. Is there such a place? 

I was working 'part-time', 31.5 hours a week, but spread out over 5 days. It left me more time to do the fun things I like, but I still had to be there 5 days a week, so it really didn't feel like part time.  

I'm now back to 40 hours and it sure has cut into my sewing time.  

And it seems like I am cramming everything into that little 2 day weekend.  I even get up at 5 and go to bed after 11, just so I can have more weekend hours.  

So this weekend, I managed to weed my vegetable garden, transplanted some pumpkin plants that came up out of no where, planted some other plants that my best friend had grown for me, cleaned and swept the garage, washed, vacuumed and Armor-Alled the inside of my car, trimmed a couple of bushes, visited with my daughter and my sister-in-law and brother-in-law, got a hair cut, went for  DQ Blizzard, went to the grocery store and the fabric store, cleaned my laundry room, family room, vacuumed the whole house, and took a walk through the woods where we had to fight off the mosquitoes. 

Whew!

And I still found a little time to sew.    

I finished about 20 items for my Etsy shop,  got all the pictures taken and most of the descriptions written.  I even started to making a tote bag for a girl at work. 

Every day she brings in her lunch and newspaper in a plastic grocery sack and it drives me crazy.  So I thought maybe if I made her a tote bag, she would lose the goofy plastic bag.  And I'm thinking that even if she doesn't like it, that she'll still carry it, only because she doesn't want to hurt my feelings.  

Well, at least that's the plan.  I'm just not sure if the colors are right for her. Oh, heck, who am I fooling?  If she carries a gaudy plastic sack everyday, surely she'll like the colors on this one!

Spring can't come fast enough

I know that spring is still 6 days away, and that this is Michigan and we probably will have a couple more snow storms before it's all said and done, but today there was lots of sunshine and 50 degree weather and if I closed my eyes, I could see spring.  It gave me just the tiniest bit of hope that it can't be long before we'll have green grass and flowers, and hands that don't hurt when you walk outside to the mailbox.  

I checked the upcoming 7 day weather forecast and not one of those days will be below freezing. Yippee.  It might only be 33 or 34 degrees, but that's not freezing, so it sounds pretty good.

I trimmed a couple of plants in the  front flower garden, in anticipation of spring, but as I was wheeling the wheelbarrow across the frozen grass, through the shaded areas that still have some snow accumulation, I realized the neighbors are probably laughing at my eagerness.  So, I came into the house and sewed. 

I got a few things done for my Etsy shop, and did a little cleaning of the scraps. I have a habit of saving very small scraps and tucking them into bin and every once in a while I'll pull them out and sew them all together to make my patchwork pouches.  It takes me twice as long as the other pouches, but there is something satisfying about cutting up fabric and sewing it back together again.  

More Etsy

Still working on the upcoming sale in my shop.

This cold weather seems to have zapped my desire to sew. You'd think the cold weather would be a great excuse to sit at the sewing machine for hours, but apparently I don't think like most people. As for this cold weather, it's supposed to get to minus 10 tonight, without the windchill. I know it's Michigan and it's January, but even this is a little too much cold and snow for me.

Today was my early day at work and instead of coming straight home, I went to the local yarn store because I think I need to knit this scarf.

I don't like my scarf flapping around in the wind and thought this might be something I'd actually finish. We'll see.......

I finished up a few new pouches for the shop over the weekend and will be listing them tonight. I wish I could talk my husband into taking the pictures and doing the listings, all the stuff I find tedious, but he just won't jump at it, no matter how fun I make it sound.