Great Crafting Classes Online!

I discovered Craftsy a couple of months ago and I'm hooked! What I like best besides the quality and reasonable price is that my classes NEVER expire. That's right - I can come and go as I please and as my schedule allows. I'm already enrolled in almost a dozen classes but there are so many more I'd love to take - I just have to find the time...

My Craftsy Wish List:

1. Free Motion Fillers with Leah Day (she's my favorite!)
2. Pictures to Pixel Quilts (and this one is a free mini-class!)
3. Artisan Bread Making (who doesn't love bread?)

Check out all of the other great Craftsy Classes by clicking here.

Want to Cash In on Your Hobby?

Putting my sewing/quilting skills to good use
creating custom memorial quilts.

If you have a hobby (and who doesn't?), you might earn a tidy sum by turning your hobby into a cash-making venture. There are a variety of ways you can do this, including:

• Sell a product or service
• Teach others
• Write a book

I've been actively doing the first for several years (CustomMemorialQuilts.com) and am working on the third. The second idea doesn't really work for me due to my remote location although I suppose I could consider online classes. Hmm...

If you'd like to earn money at home from something you already know you enjoy (and something for which you have the skills, equipment, materials, etc.), consider how you can cash in on your hobby.

March Christmas Prep Report - Hanging in There...

More pillow covers for 2013 kidlet birthdays...

It's been an odd month and truthfully not a whole lot has gotten done. But I'm hanging in there with Christmas Prep 2013. Fortunately, I had the pillow covers for the grands with March and April birthdays already done (remember that Christmas Prep actually covers all gift-giving occasions during the year) so it was just a matter of putting them in the mail to stay caught up. Also, my excess of homemade potholders coupled with my pre-planning on new dishtowels for the adult women on my list came in handy during March, as well. Being prepared is so nice when life starts happening all over the place, stealing away time and derailing plans!

What is Old Age?

Old age can be a blissful time spent enjoying family and the fruits of your labors or it can be hell for you and everyone around you. Is there any middle ground? Of course - there's a lot of space between these two extremes but don't you want to end up closer to the first scenario than the second?

Old age is also a state of being, not a number. Some people are old by 50 while others are still sprightly at 80. As we say in my neck of the woods, it isn't the years, it's the miles that count.

I've been pondering differences in aging of late and clearly see that the way you age has more to do with choices and attitude than anything beyond your control. Some people insist that genetics is the most important factor in how we age but I suspect they're just using their family history as an excuse to avoid making changes in diet and/or lifestyle. Granted, people born with a tendency toward some affliction or another have more challenges than those who aren't, but you just have to take what you're given and work with it, right?

I'm off my intended 2013 posting schedule here at The Best 50 Years because I've spent the entire middle of the month away from home helping with the care of an 83-year-old invalid. Now that I'm home for a few days, I'll try to play catch up but no guarantees - I'm way behind on Project DO and we're kind of off the Cake-a-Week program beings we're rotating in and out (and will be for the foreseeable future). I'm also way behind on my custom memorial quilt orders so need to put all my attention there.

But here's a question for you all: How will old age be for you? Give this some serious thought. The decisions you make today and every day from here on out will determine how you age and how you feel and live when you finally get there.

Project DO Derailed

Between being gone from home for a good portion of Feb and being busy on a memorial quilt (the first of five) since I got home, Project DO has been somewhat derailed. There are two ways I could look at this:

• I can just give up figuring it's obviously unsustainable, or
• I can realize that life happens and continue chipping away at my Project DO list as I have time.

Hmm. What to do...

I think I'll go with option B.

The problem is life will keep happening no matter what I plan. And now that I think about it, that sure beats life NOT happening!

Project DO lessons to date

So what have I learned during the first two months of Project DO?

• Decluttering/organizing is an ongoing, never-ending project. It may get easier over time but requires regular (ok - nearly constant) maintenance to avoid slipping back into old habits.
• It's best to finish a specific area all at one time (not natural for me) because it's easy to forget where you are in the process and what you were even doing and why.

NOTE: If this post looks unfinished, that's because it is! I obviously scheduled it and then forgot to come back and finish it up before it went live. Oh well. Maybe I’ll notice and fix it. But then again…