Raige Creations

Quilting. I have done it before, learning a bit more each one, always using what I have found or saved.  My first quilt, from vintage fabric found in my mothers basement , for my wonderful In-Laws. The second was for my flannel shirt loving hubby while we were in cold Western New York. The third for my little girl (not so little by the time I made it) made with her favorite clothes and fabrics through her childhood years - the Stages of My Little Girl . And, I am at it again. This one is for my youngest, tee shirt only wearing son.  Choosing My youngest, who wore the same skull shirt until it was 2 inches too short and no longer black, seen in every picture snapped of him over probably 6 years of his younger life. Seriously, every picture he had the same shirt on, for like 6 years all through elementary school. It is the very faded worn one in the second row, 3rd from the right. This was jet black when new. Now, so loved and worn and absolutely included in this quilt.  C...

Coming on to the light of day We got many moons that are deep at play So I keep an eye on the shadow smile To see what it has to say Mood of today. Poetic groovy-ness. This Chili Peppers groove hits just right some days. Today is one of those days. A nice holiday Monday, with vacation days the rest of the week. Plenty of time to just listen to music and groove. This song is full of groove. In fact, I was just craving the groove, and didn't even pay attention to the words until today. I didn't even know it was called Dark Necessities ( good lyrics I found out, just now, today).  Just wanted the groove , man.  (An added bonus, I had fun browsing for tickets thinking how fun it would be to go to a Chili Peppers concert ! ) I do hope you get some groove time, whether to just flow with the dark necessities or something a little lighter and necessary, or even unnecessary and just for fun. I don't know what you would prefer this Monday, so choose yourself. Just be sure to add ...

 It has been raining since I got up this morning. It is almost lunchtime.  Though I could have slept in today, I didn't. I am taking vacation. Happy that it is raining today. Otherwise I probably would be running errands and busy busy. Instead, I pulled out all the tee shirts that I have to make a quilt for my youngest. I finally have a working sewing machine, and the time to just sit and think about how I want the quilt to look. I am just sitting and brainstorming.  The sound of the rain on the roof, some S. Pellegrino (fancy water I treat myself to, it's the little things sometimes. Fizzy water it a guilty pleasure for  me.) . Ahhhhhh.  So I will continue to brainstorm, while it is storming. I may cut some tee shirts, may play with placement. I have been trying to do some thinking, some regrouping, some work at balancing life, work, self. Heavy thinking. It has been perfect weather for this. I may have some tea this afternoon. And if the sun comes out, well th...

So I got a new filing cabinet. I am bizarrely excited about this. Like, butterflies in my stomach excited about this. Why?  First of all, it has been more than 7 years since I have had a filing cabinet in my home. When we made the  last BIG move , I left the $3 filing cabinet I scored while in WNY. (I LOVED that filing cabinet too - who gets a metal 2-drawer filing cabinet for $3?? Awe.Some) Second, I had fallen in to the terrible habit of piling up papers that needed to be sorted and filed. I had bins I was keeping files in. Bins that are meant for blankets in the living room that you can put your feet on as an ottoman or sit on. These bins are not meant for filing. So, it was awkward trying to file in them. Instead I just piled up the papers and threw them on top of the few files I DID have in there.  Third, in addition to the above, I had a bankers box full of papers filed somewhat haphazardly, as this box is from when I left my last job (more than 2 years ago). I was...

Almost finished with my first ever 2 week vacation, and I finally am unwound and reminded of life without work taking up all my thoughts and time. It took more than a few days to unwind. And more still to tackle some things that I had let slip. I don't know what it was that gave me the motivation to do that 2.5 mile walk (with hubby!) this morning, not rushed. Then I did 30 minutes of yoga after the walk, no rush. I also wanted to get a swim in before the dreaded grocery trip that was needed, but not as dreaded as usual because I wasn't in a big rush.  I had spinach and sugar snap peas and almonds for lunch, with a nice lime in my water - healthy! (It makes no difference that this was all that was left after throwing out the rest of the rotted spinach - it sat in the fridge untouched for a week and a half.)  Lunch - better than it sounds, especially with a little poppy seed dressing A short rain shower delayed me, and I leisurely started some laundry. Then, for the first time ...

I have been full of sour moods lately. I didn't even realize until I started scrolling through my FB rantings.  And, apparently I really have been ranting. My comments without a picture are the most telling. I guess mornings have been rough. Luckily, some old humor found me. Thanks hubby, that one still makes me giggle. Still, it has been a rough road, for over a month apparently.... But, little rewards are helpful. I sure hope the next month and a half gets better.  On a more happy note.  Today is Mango Day.  I got some leftover jars ready to hand out / sell. And pulled some Mango from the freezer for popsicles and smoothies.  Today is not the day to make more jam. After the several weeks I have had, I am taking it a bit easy today. Just some happy popsicles, please. Even just the smell of mangos lifts my spirits. I have been sneaking tastes as the mango defrosts. The first smell literally made me smile. The first taste reminded me life ain't so bad really....

 Talk about a break in blogging. Yes, guilty again. But as I sit here, procrastinating on writing my paper for my Leadership and Management class, pondering the last few days, I can only say life happens in the little things.  I try not to over-share. I like my privacy, and try to only share the lessons learned and not too many of the details of how I got there. But the last week has been a lesson in the little things. It is the little milestones, the little every day things, the little (but often seemingly huge) interruptions to normal life. The little things help you see how lucky you are. So here and now I will share, perhaps over-share, my latest little interruption, and how the little things made all the difference. A little backstory, I had a milestone this year. I reached an age where my doctors said, "Oh, you are ' this age ' (Not 37, which I stayed at for a number of years, nor 42, a nice number I stayed at for a number of years as well. A big milestone, the big o...

Just a few reminders we all need to hear every now and again.  Nothing changes if nothing changes.  from  laurengleisberg.com   What you allow is what will continue. from lifehack.org Never accept anything less than you deserve. Remember you teach people how to treat you. from Dr. Anne Brown on Twitter I happened to need to hear these now, as I am having to teach people some things.  It can be difficult, because if allowed, people will take advantage of you and when you say - ' hey, no more ' - they don't like to hear that. This is part of the ugly path I was forced in to at the beginning of the week, and alluded to yesterday. But it is time. It is time to remind people to respect me, to treat me like I deserve to be treated.  Period. 

  A difficult path, not taken this day from Raige Creations T his is not the first time I have thought about paths , the paths we take , the path of living , and choosing paths . It is not the first time a path has intrigued me . Heck, Walking on Wednesday is all about walking on paths.  This path above is one, on this particular day, I chose NOT to take. We have before. But this day I was not up for it. It just seemed too tough.  And that is okay. Some days we just cannot walk down a difficult path.  I was going through some stresses at work, which I cannot go in to details about. I can only say some days as a manager are frustratingly tough. It will work itself out, but dang the emotions of the past couple day took me down some ugly paths.  And next time, I WILL go down the path pictured above, as it leads to somewhere totally different, and some days you just need to mix it up a bit.  But this day, the same old path was just fine. There was comfort the...

Surprisingly, this song had the distinct effect of making my day...well....lovely.  I was driving to work one day last week, in heavy traffic. I have mentioned before , perhaps a few times , how bad traffic is. A normal 20 minute drive takes me 40 or 45 minutes during rush hours. I was getting more and more irritated, going 4 miles per hour, then 12, then 4, then stop. Oh, and excuse me I was leaving space between vehicles, not saying please cut me off.  Geeze. And then this song came on. Well, it was just a lovely song really. So mellow. It has quite a nice message too. I mean how sweet the lyrics are! Just lovely. By the time I got to work, it actually WAS a lovely day. No the traffic didn't get better. My mood did. I was noticeably in a better mood, humming along this quite , well frankly quite repetitive, song.  After so many lovely days you just start having a lovely day! Just goes to show you, we can change our moods and perspectives. Sometimes all it takes is...

Wow I haven't blogged since December. Sorry folks. I am still getting used to the whirlwind that work is. It is non-stop from the moment I walk in until I force myself to leave as close to 5pm as I can. Yes, it is difficult to get out of there at 5, after skipping lunch and working straight through. It is so busy, so many different things happening, so exhausting. After December, which was full of vacation days and holidays, I have had to adjust to full work weeks with full staff in office. Mostly this adjustment has been dozing off shortly after dinner, if we actually have dinner..... Yes, some nights we don't have dinner. Just snack. I had carrots and dip one night for dinner. I found we had lots of carrots and hardly ever ate them, so carrots and dip for dinner. Which is a nice lead in to the state of our refrigerator. Let me just say we could not take the smell any longer. Finding the smell was the tough part. Long story short, a full cleaning of the fridge was necessary. T...