I know, I know, it's been what, a while, a long long while since I updated. But hey, I've been busy!
I got a job, I'm working at the new little Quilt shop in Interlochen Michigan called Interquilten! My friend Tawni Gilmer is the owner of the shop and we are getting along fantastically. We build off of each other's ideas, and she makes me feel like a valued part of the business which is wonderful.
OK, so in other developments. I am also now the Vice President of the Rumpled Quilts Kin Quilting Guild. As such I am in charge of putting together programs and activities for the guild. Do I have a plans for the guild. They want to do the UFO club again in January, so I figure my job between now and then is to get them to start as many different projects as possible. LOL!
Meanwhile, I've had a fairly busy summer. I did the Cherry Festival 5K race, and came in just over one hour. But hey, I made it and next year I plan on making it again only faster! Imagine, two years ago, I wouldn't have been able to make it even one mile let alone 3 and 1/2!!! Then the film festival came and went! I saw lots of great films and one or two mediocre ones. Then this weekend is our annual Canoe trip down the Platt river, which we will enjoy. The Northwest Michigan fair is coming up this week and I will be out there quilting with some friends. Then my friend Pam from Australia will be in Michigan near the end of August, I hope to see her for at least one day. Then On Labor day is the Bridge Walk. I'm in training for that one as well.
So here it is, my intention for the rest of the summer and into the fall: It is my intention to update my Blog at least weekly, to let you know how I'm doing. The reason for this Blog was to show you my haunts, and to keep myself actively pursuing the goal of being healthier and thinner. It's hard to write anything if I am being a slug and not doing anything toward this goal. But it's even worse when I'm too busy to really dedicate myself to the task at hand. I can't be too busy, this is my health we're talking about. It's too important a task to just leave on the side of the road. Because, like I say every morning in my daily affirmation, I am living on borrowed time, and I intend to live my life as such. I will enjoy every moment I have left. I will not do anything I am not enjoying for longer than 15 minutes. Likewise if I find I am enjoying a task I thought I would not enjoy I will go ahead and spend more time on it. I will not have surgery every again of my own free will. And I will live my life with the idea that I will take care of myself so that further surgery can be avoided. I will live out the rest of my borrowed days, living for the moment and enjoying my life, and with the certain knowledge that I have done my best!
So with that in mind, it is my intention to walk tomorrow, and then come home and work on two or more sewing projects. I went to a yard sale today and bought some fabric, yards and yards of it. Much of it was very good fabric, designer stuff. I got it sorted out and put away in my stash cupboard (which used to be my linen closet) and now I just have to figure out what I'm going to do with it.
OK, so this post has mainly been an over view of my summer thus far. So be it! I will post again in less than a week, and there will be more detail.
I have to say, though. Tonight I saw the movie Julie and Julia. It was kind of film fugue that showed the similarities between the lives of two women. Julia Child (brilliantly played by Meryl Streep) and Julie Powell who wrote a Blog about Julia Child as she cooked her way through Julia Child's book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I have to say that I had a copy of both volumes of that book when I was younger and sold it on e-bay because I just couldn't see my way clear to follow her recipes. I'm thinking I should have tried harder.
Anyway, seeing this movie has inspired me to get back to this Blog. Why my life is so interesting I know not. It probably isn't. But I do like my life.
I like living in Traverse City, I enjoy all the friends I've made here. Wonderful people for sure. I enjoy quilting, handcrafts, scrapbooking and basketry and all the other artistic things that I try, always experimenting and trying to find my niche. I love working at the quilt shop even though it causes me to spend money and start more projects. I love the opportunities for outdoor gatherings that we have here. The movies, the baseball games, the parades, the fire works, the concerts, the festival activities. I love the fact that we can go paddle a canoe on the river one day and take our chairs out into left field at the baseball game the next. I so love that we Traverse City people keep our chairs in the trunks of our cars in case there is a need for them. We will, at the drop of a hat, carry out portable telescoping chairs out into a big field and sit there for hours waiting for something to happen. And it always does. And weather doesn't always matter. We are apt to go to a ski race with our chairs as we are to the open space for a big screen movie. Doesn't matter. Have chair, will be entertained! That's all we really need to know.
I do love my life! Even though I'm really trying to improve it daily, in many ways, it's perfect as it is.
While my spirit still dwells in this body, I will haunt this town! After it finishes it's usefulness though, I won't. Then I'll have better places to be!
Cindy Koch-Krol
Artist/Writer
