Goofin' Off and Tapping Into My Strengths

I apologize for a partial hijacking of my normal stitching and quilting blog to mix in some time management stuff.  I am working through time management on my own so that I can get back to the activities that give me the sanity I need to get through the other "stuff" that goes on in my day-to-day life.  I have a great life and am not complaining--I just feel like the past year has gotten away from me.  Feel free to read through if you think you're interested or just scroll on down to the day-to-day fun stuff with quilting and stitching pictures.

"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. 

We only have today. Let us begin."  --Mother Teresa

There is so much truth to this.  I can't worry about what time is past.  I can't recoup the time I've lost.  I just need to reorganize myself and my time so that I can just begin with today.  

Tapping into my time-management strengths

This past year has come and gone.  I wasn’t able to accomplish many of the things I would have liked to.  Recognizing I want to get more done in 2020, I’ve realized that I’ve got to treat my time like an investment.  If I want to make 20 charity quilt tops in 2020, that means I’ve got to invest my time in gathering fabrics, rulers, rotary cutters, and other quilting supplies; cutting out shapes; and sewing these precious squares and triangles to create completed tops.  That precious quilt top is the return on my investment…and the interest on that return is knowing that children, families and seniors will be able to enjoy a warm quilt that was made with my time, sewing machine and love.  (Isn’t love the most important investment to include in a quilt?)  

That’s what my 2020 is going to be about…taking back control of my time so that I know that I’m spending it the way I need to so that I can feel fulfilled and still be of service to others.  I’ve come to realize that even though I don’t always feel in control of my time—like when a Disney comes out with a new discount promotion and I have loads of vacation requests coming from clients unexpectedly OR the dishwasher breaks two months after the warranty runs out and all dishes need to be washed by hand during the holidays OR a family member is having an emergency and I need to go spend a large chunk of time at the hospital—despite all of that, I really am in control of many aspects of my time.

In order to take back control of my time, I need to take a deep dive into my life and look at my tasks and see how I can restructure them and put a new schedule in place.  I know this will me to take a self-examination and be honest with myself about some things.  In addition, I’ll need to some tools to help me along.  I have read more than my fair share of self-help books, so I need to go back over my notes and thoughts that stood out to me and see if I can recognize what has helped me in the past.

Assessing my strengths (and weaknesses)

I have reached a point in my life where I have begun to discover my strengths and appreciate them for what they are.  

• I am a great listener.  
• I accomplish the most when I am using a checklist.  Some self-help gurus say not to make checklists.  Without my checklists I would not get much accomplished.  
• I am organized (although that organization may occasionally look chaotic at times to an outsider).  There is a method to my madness.  
• I have a love and compassion for people and a desire to help them.  
• I am good with numbers and enjoy looking for a good bargain without sacrificing value.  
• I believe in quality over quantity—once I have mastered something to the point I can produce great quality, the ability to produce more quantity follows suit.  

Like any investment, I need to figure out which of these brings the greatest returns towards my end goals for the coming year.  I really missed the mark for my goals in 2019, and looking at the list I can see how not leveraging those strengths changed things.  I need to remember that I can’t try to do everything…or I’ll have time for nothing.

Now that I’ve talked about some of my strengths, I guess I should admit to and come to terms with my weaknesses.  

• I try to do too many things.  
• I try to please too many people and often don’t leave enough time to do things for myself.  
• I sometimes suffer a little too much FOMO (fear of missing out).  For example, I want to join a quilt-a-long because I see so many of my friends doing them…except the projects that I really want to work on like a charity quilt don’t fit the guidelines of said stitch-a-long.  

It's time for me to set some guidelines for meeting my goals in 2020 and recognizing and embracing which of my strengths will help me accomplish these goals.  It's also time for me to diagnose which of my weaknesses are hindering me the most so that I can work towards eliminating them or improving them.

What are your strengths?  I am glad we don't all have the same strengths.  The world needs a variety of talents and strengths to create balance that helps us function as a whole.  Thank you to all my fellow bloggers who share their strengths, tips, and talents.  I have grown so much because of you and all that you so willingly give impart!

Elf-ing Around Last Week

I was able to attend a work conference last week for my travel business.  It was held at the Sheraton Grand Seattle.  Since the conference included complimentary valet parking, Mr. Goofin' Off and I decided to carpool in together for the day.  He starts work at 7:00 a.m. and the conference didn't start until 10:00 a.m., so that gave me about three hours to do some reading, catch up on emails, and visit the gingerbread display at the hotel.  You could actually see his building from the room where the conference took place. 

Mr. Goofin' Off's Building is the One With the Large Diagonal Beam

The theme for the gingerbread display this year was "ElfLife".  Often, the lines for the displays can get very long.  Fortunately for me, when it opened at 9:00 a.m. in the middle of the week, I was the only person there.  I got to spend quite a bit of time enjoying the gingerbread displays.  Here are a few shots of my favorites: 

Gingerbread Display Inspired by the Movie "Elf" - (Santa, I know him!!!)

Inspired by the Keebler Elves

Santa's Workshop and Elves--Wait, Is That Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks as an Elf?

Aren't they just so delightful!  

Goofin' Off With Update from the Week of 12/08/2019

Okay, so it wasn't much...but it was something.  As the winter begins to wear on, I needed to work on something with color.  I went to Etsy and found a design I fell in love with.  I made a new start and will be rotating this with my Mickey and Pirate Friends piece.  This new project's pattern is only four pages...and three of those pages are partial pages.  I'm not telling you what it is just yet.  But here is my start.  

Progress on New Project as of 12/16/2019

This may not look like much stitching to you, but for me this was a real win to sit down and work on this.  I am so excited to see how it will turn out.  This will be a block that I will be sending and donating to Love Quilts. 

Any guesses yet?  It's hard to tell from this picture, but this is going to be loaded with lots of purples and pinks...just what I need to beat the winter blahs.

Goofin' Off With a Return in 2018

Well, it’s been months…four months to be exact since my last post.  The time has just flown by.  Thank you to those who have contacted me to see how things are going.  I appreciate your care and concern.  Everything has been just great the past four months in the Goofin’ Off household.  There have been a lot of great things happening here, but I’ll get to that in a little further down in the post.  I know a lot of you are just here for the project updates, so let’s get started there. 

I did manage to finish the quilt top for the Toy Story Woody quilt.  It’s a happy little quilt.  Now all I need to do get it all finished and sent off to the recipients.  

Woody/Toy Story Quilt Top Finish

Mickey and Minnie "Love" This Finish

Mickey says it’s a happy little quilt.  He is very pleased with how it turned out.  Now all I need to do get it all finished and sent off to the recipients.  I had hoped to get this done months ago...but...well, life gets in the ways sometimes.   

In my spare moments the past few months, it has been easiest to work on my cross stitch project, so this is where I have made the most progress.  Mickey and Pirate Friends is coming along quite nicely.  I didn’t always take pictures as I finished each section, but here are the latest sections I completed.  I am excited because the corner of the pirate flag is beginning to show in the bottom right corner.  

Mickey and Pirate Friends Cross Stitch - 01/26/2018

Mickey and Pirate Friends Cross Stitch 02/14/2018

In my last blog post, I had mentioned that I was excited about landing my dream job as a travel agent/travel consultant with a company that specialized in Disney travel.  I was supposed to begin training the first part of November…then it was middle of November...but it was really the end of November before training began.  It was a bit disappointing that training took so long to get started...one of many red flags I should have seen...but the bright side of that was a trip Mr. Goofin’ Off and I were able to take to Disney World in mid-November…at least I didn’t have to do training while I was in the happiest place on earth.  

Our visit to Disney World just happened to coincide with the transition of decorations into the holiday season.  As you can see from a few of the pictures I took, when Disney does decorations, they do them big…quite literally. 

Life-Sized Gingerbread at Disney's Grand Floridian Hotel

The Detail of the Gingerbread House - The "Frozen" Window

Giant Christmas Teapot

We had a great time and enjoyed the warm weather while it rained and poured back home in Seattle.  A week after I got home, the training for the dream job began…but would it really be my job? 

The first week I became certified to sell Disney travel.  I was in heaven.  I was an official graduate of the “Disney College of Knowledge.”  Certifications to sell vacations to Universal Studios (and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter) came next.  Then certifications to sell Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines…all in all, I was spending 40 to 60 hours a week doing training and became certified to sell all of the major cruise lines, all-inclusive resorts, and tour companies. 

The paperwork I signed had indicated we (myself and the other three trainees) would be allowed to actually sell with the company about three weeks into the training.  More than three months later, I was getting excuses from the back office as to why I wasn’t able to sell despite the fact that I had clients waiting to book and was OK to sell according to Disney and the cruise lines.  They suggested I send my clients to one of their other travel agents.  I asked if I would get to split the commission since I brought the client.  Nope.  I had enough, and they had breached our contract already several times, I had lost confidence in the company, so I said a goodbye to the them.  This was mid-January. 

So what have I been doing the past month, you ask?  I have been working on projects which gave me some time to think about what I wanted to do.  It’s amazing how much I can focus and think things through when I am working on a project. 

Even though I hadn’t personally booked my clients, I went ahead and worked with them to book their trips on their own.  I saved several of them from $500 to $800 from what they had been able to put together on their own.  I was hooked.  This is what I had always intended to do…provide people with the vacation they want at the best price I could find.  So…after interviewing several new travel agencies, I signed on with a new one on Monday and should be able to start booking my clients within two business days.  Yippee!!! 

Rest assured, this blog will be all about my stitching, quilting, and love of Disney…not selling (although I will always be happy to help my blogging friends book their trips – fee free). 

Thanks for allowing me to ramble today and catch you up on what has been going on.  My life is returning to a semi-routine normal again, so I should have blog updates more often and hopefully will be able to join some stitch-a-longs and quilt-a-longs.  I have missed you all more than you can know.  

Goofin' Off With a Sweet Mystery Revealed

Well, the mystery quilt has been finished for a few days now. I've been waiting for an opportunity to hop on here and update the blog. I will give you a forewarning, however, there is a minor cake mix rant at the end...with a solution I found.

Also, I just wanted to slip in here that I was honored when I was asked to be blogger of the week over at the Blogger of the Week blog. I've met a lot of great new friends there. A new blogger is featured every week. If you're interested in making new blogging friends, this is a great place to start.

Clue #4 left me with these blocks joined together:

Clue #4 Revealed

And Clue #5 joined these pieces together:

Clue #5 Revealed

And the final finish after Clue #6:

Clue #6 - Mystery Solved

The name of the mystery was "Which Way". I can see where the name came from with the arrows point each way in the center. However, the top feels incomplete as is. It really needs a border. I think the white would wash it out, and I don't have enough of the pink left to do a border. I'll have to go through my stash to see what would look good.

But the month isn't over yet. And I still have a hankering for sweets. So I went through my stash remembering these fabrics I bought a couple of years ago and decided to see if I could slip in one more quilt finish before month end. 

Sweet Holiday Fabrics with Cakes and Gingerbread Houses, Red Floral Tonal, and Light Brown Waffle Cone Print

It seems Project Linus will be inheriting some pretty sweet quilts in the near future.  And I've made a dent in my stash at the same time. It's a win/win situation for sure.

I also got a little stitching in this week. I've been working on a few pieces from the August 2017 edition of Cross Stitch Crazy magazine from the patterns titled "Frozen Fun".

My First "Frozen Fun" - Just Needs Back Stitch

Second Piece from "Frozen Fun"

I wasn't able to complete the back stitch of the first piece as I didn't have the recommended color for the pattern. I'll need to get out and pick that up this weekend. 

Now for a slight cake mix rant.  I have, for the past few years, noticed my cakes were coming out smaller and flatter. I assumed that it was something that I was doing. After all, I am not a master baker like some of my friends and family. And then I ran across someone saying they had noticed that the amount of cake mix included in a box had shrunk by 3 ounces...from 18.25 ounces to 15.25 ounces. 

Cake Mix Now Only Contains 15.25 ounces of Cake Mix

What in the world was Betty Crocker thinking?  My 9" x 13" pan has not shrunk. My 9" rounds have not shrunk. The recipes in my Cake Mix Magic cookbook have not changed. How could they possibly think it's okay to change the amount? I'd rather pay a little more than to not have enough cake mix.

Am I the only one who didn't know this had happened?  

After some Googling on the internet, I was able to find what appears to be a common "fix" to the solution. Really, you're just adding your own ingredients to the mix to make it fit your pans or work in your recipes. But here it is:  

I'll give the three-ounce cake upsizer a try in the next few days and let you know how it went for me. 

If you've had the same issue and have come up with a good fix, feel free to let me know in the comments.  

Here is wishing all my blogging friends a sweet weekend!

Linking Up With:
Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?
Finished Or Not Friday
Flaunt It Friday
Scrap Happy Saturday