Of pills, blood pressure and bags

I have sisters. Lots of sisters. Seven, as a matter of fact. 

We all grew up in very close proximity: three bedrooms and one bathroom--for a family of 10. 

Nothing special, all utilitarian.

There are no brothers. That seems to make us unusual: eight girls and no boys. If I had a nickel for every time...

The orange paper is the size
of a medical card or ID.

We are all adults now. Growing old together, it turns out. Most of us are grandmothers. I said just a couple of days ago that it was wonderful to grow up with many sisters close in age, because we always had friends. But as we grow older, we realize that we are experiencing aches and pains at about the same rate. Hmm, I hope we take care of each other like we did when we played together. 

Lots of space for pill bottles

Our families call us "the sisters." And they aren't always being nice about it.  "The sisters" text each other.  "The sisters" have secrets.  "The sisters." It's almost as though we're an anomaly or a rock band. 

Anyway, two of the sisters are experiencing medical issues. One is taking quite a bit of medicine and must carry a blood pressure cuff. Hence these two small bags. The smaller one for her cuff; the larger one for her meds. If there aren't many medicines, the cuff bag can fit into the larger bag. Convenient, no? Do you think they'll work? I didn't take time to quilt them, because hopefully, these are a temporary necessity. I'll be happier when she doesn't need them.

On Friday I brought her a small sampler quilt that I made years ago to cheer her up a bit. It fits nicely in their living room decor, so if it gets tossed on the sofa, it may look like a planned thing. Before we left I held it up to get a picture since I lost the ones I'd taken before.  Can you tell that I'm not tall enough to do this? My arms don't reach to the edges and I was stretched with all I had. There has to be a better way of taking quilt pictures on the fly. Do you see the house in the background? Won't this work?

Pin It Weekly #302

Let's say hello to a few followers. 

The Lincoln MQG has this adorable planner cover that threw me down a rabbit hole of crafty things I'd like to make. Here are a few of the other pins I couldn't resist in that rabbit hole.

Susan Sweeney did me the favor of pinning a few more of these craft items. Which I also pinned to "craft diy make."

Emily Taylor has some interesting pieces of furniture pinned. 

And finally here is The Cheeky Cognoscenti with some fun applique blocks.

And that's today's PIW. Have a great week!

Pin It Weekly #301

Geez, I'm struggling. This bout of depression is really sticking to me, but I'm determined to just wait it out until it gets out. In the meantime, I have managed two minutes in the studio, some babysitting, and some pinning. Yes, I know, but there's been quite a bit of waiting in doctors' offices, so ....

What have I been pinning you ask? Well, I'm not quite over Christmas. I know others have put away their trees and packed up their pretties, but I'm just not ready. I want to wait and enjoy them when the blues are a little more rosy. Take that, depression!

I'm kind of interested in these salt dough ornaments. They look cute and easy.

I'm really into all of these little baubles and bags and beauties. Isn't that little coin purse above fabulous? And the birds! 

Pin It Weekly #288

Would you like to meet new friends? Here are three followers for Fleur de Lis Quilts on Pinterest. Let's begin with Kate Janssens' "bags" board because she has some interesting little DIY bags.

Linda Hains has the sweetest board, titled "art," that has the most precious drawings. How stinkin cute are these?

And finally, Mya Ballard is a girl after my own heart. Check out her "School Survival" board!

I guess surviving school these days takes more than a few pencils and some paper. And for those especially rough days, an emergency kit for true emergencies. I guess the office doesn't keep a bottle of Tylenol for teachers anymore. :) If you're starting back, what do you consider "survival" necessities? Or are you a member of the no-extra-weight-in-the-backpack crowd? I still am the latter.

Flowers, etc. finished!

I've been very busy recently, but not really telling you what I've been up to. I haven't any idea what I've been posting, but it's time to show you two little projects.

The first is a set of flowers that I've recycled for our church. When our youngest son and his wife got married, I bought and arranged flowers to put on the tables during the rehearsal supper. At the time I had four containers of these beautiful deep purple peonies with some greenery. Both the eggplant and greenery were wedding colors.

The wedding was several years ago--Rory and Meggan now have two girls, 6 and 7. My parents died not long after the girls were born, so I thought I'd use the flowers in arrangements on their graves. I have seven sisters, many of whom put flowers on the graves, so the opportunity never presented itself. However, it's time to make some decisions about the extra things in my studio. Use it or toss it, but no more hoarding it.  

The flowers are too pretty to toss, and they are in beautiful condition, so I decided to re-arrange the flowers and give them to our church. One of the smaller vases was cracked, so I removed the flowers, shared them among the other three vases and tossed out the broken vase. I brought the flowers to church this afternoon and put them in church. The larger vase, meant for the head table at the rehearsal dinner, is now on the floor in front of the main altar, and the two smaller vases are on either side of the back altar. 

The other small project is a group of small, round purses. They are just the right size to hold a set of earbuds and cellphone charging wire. I'm hoping that the colors will be appealing to teens and pre-teens. These will go in my booth at the craft fair in a few weeks. I'm no longer concerned about having enough items. 

Anything that I add to my inventory from now will be beyond what I was planning for. If I do have time, I may make a few more of these little purses and a few more rectangular bags to use as pencil cases or makeup bags so that I can have a larger variety of lower price point inventory, but it's not going to be a huge disapointment if I can't get to it.

I've finally gotten the printer working so I can print some price tags and business cards. I've checked on bags and have enough left over from a previous fair, so that's taken care of. 

Hopefully I can get to a practice run on how my booth will look. I plan to set up the canopy, hang quilts, set up tables and two shelves with small items, and figure out where I'll have a "checkout" area.

Several years ago I had a booth at a festival. It was awfully cold, so I was dressed for the weather, not the occasion. I had not really thought so much about how my booth would look, and though I did a dry run, when I looked at the photos later, I was shocked and saddened to discover my booth looked more like a flea market than a micro-store that I'd like for my brand. 

This time around I want to do it right. Whether there are many sales or I barely make enough to cover my costs, I want people to walk away remembering my booth. Of course, I want their memories to be positive.

But just as much I want my booth to have a clean, modern look. I'll post pictures of the booth after I practice. I think taking pictures and looking at them as I add/subtract ideas and things will help me to see the booth the way other people see it. 

If you have suggestions of other things I can do, I'd really appreciate your input, both now and when I post pictures in a few days. By the same token, if you know of interesting posts or articles that might help me, please send the links either to my email (mary.marcotte@gmail.com) or in the comments below. I need and want your opinions and input.

Because it's already Saturday night--we've been working at our annual church fair--so I'm late to all of the linkup parties. Only a few linkups left open, so I'm extra grateful to them.

Loving these Linkups

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish It Up Friday)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or Not Friday)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!)

Scraptastic Tuesday (She Can Quilt)