Now that October is here and it's finally cooling off, I'd like to thank my inner Martha for filling my head with the idea that I should make Christmas gifts this year. (Where is my inner Queen of Procrastination when I need her?) My inner Martha nag...er, encourages me every year about this time. She can be very persuasive, convincing me I can do it if I try hard enough. I manage to quickly distract myself with a few word games until the urge goes away.
When I do listen to her I realize that it's never too early to start deluding myself into thinking this would be a good thing to do for myself and my pocketbook. It takes a lot of time, money and patience when one has over two dozen family members on one's gift list. The Queen and I won't tell Martha that it probably isn't going to happen this year either. I will try for a week or two then panic and give up.
I'd like to give thanks to Mother Nature for finally realizing after two weeks into the fall season that it was time to cool things down. I love using the excuse that since it's too cold outside for me I'll stay inside, all cozy and snug. It's also a good excuse for using my remote-controlled fireplace. Is there any better way to spend my leisure time than staying home and making nice things to give away? The older I get, the more I just want to stay indoors regardless of the weather. Staying home used to be easier on my credit card, too, until the advent of online shopping. The founder of one particular online big box store should physically feel my pain every time I make a purchase. LOL. I spend way too much time and money on it these days thanks to the convenience of only leaving my recliner to fetch my credit card. I should never have shown David how to it use it either. He doesn't count it as 'shopping' because all he does is load the cart and expects me to 'check out'. It also makes it harder for me to order things for him since he can now see anything I've ordered. Maybe he uses that excuse as well to not buy anything for me? Nah. Oh, well. I'm sure our delivery driver is thankful for the cooler weather as well. I know I would be.
It's funny because I rarely enjoy shopping in brick-and-mortar stores unless I'm really in the mood, but I hate ordering clothes online. Martha would never expect me to make my clothes. She knows that's one place I draw the line. I don't mind doing a little mending now and then, but clothes-making is definitely out. I leave that kind of thing to my more talented sewer sister. Martha will just have to accept me for my baking skills.
Anyway, I got to thinking the other day that we now have a new grandson- in-law who needs a personalized Christmas stocking to go with the rest of the family's, so off to the craft store I went in search of fabric to make one for him. It's a good thing the Christmas fabric was on sale, or I would have had to wait a little longer. If it isn't at least 30% off, I won't even consider it. I got lucky with a 40% discount which helped because I got sticker shock when I saw how much more the fabric was compared to last year. I don't remember how much it was, but I do know it wasn't nearly that much. If I didn't think it was important, I would have walked out emptyhanded.
When I got home, I realized that we also have a new great-grandson who also needs a stocking to match his two new brothers'. Then I remembered I also need to make him a personalized trickor- treat bag like his brothers'. If I start on the bag now, I might get it done in time for Halloween then, while I have the machine out, I won't have an excuse for not making the stockings. I just hope I can remember how to use my embroidery machine since it's been over a year since I last got it out to make stockings and treat bags for our first two great-grandsons. The items themselves are fairly easy, it's the embroidering of the names where I get into trouble. It's either too high, too low, too far left, or too far right. Thankfully, the grands and great-grands will never notice or care.
Thanks to my Inner Martha for keeping me on track.