Goals: Help or hindrance? And – easily distracted by fabric!

A comment regarding a comment got me to thinking about goals. I think goals are good things. I think my thinking about goals is counterproductive. When I set a goal for myself, there seems to be a lot of negative stuff underneath it. If I set a goal to lose weight, the implied reason I am setting this goal is because I have “let myself go.” I have 8 or so pounds over my lowest weight to lose to get back there. I felt a heck of a lot better 8 pounds ago, but the fact that I keep criticizing myself for gaining means I am stubbornly refusing to lose it! Arguing with myself is a tiring process, and the end result is that I am headed for vacation feeling a lot like a beached whale. Which is a lousy feeling. And it sets up a lot of guilt and general all around feeling lousy about myself kind of emotions. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I focused on healthy eating and fitness without weighing myself. I am terrified that I would blow up without the scale to act as a sort of “governor” keeping my weight from getting too far out of control. I dunno.

Okay – despite the previous paragraph, I had a nice weekend and got a lot of cool stuff done! And I even took pictures! I’ll post a link in the next week or so. I finished the day shade cover – so my square “ez-up” day shade from Northern Tool now looks a lot like a medieval pavilion. I got my painted wall hangings lined and tabs put on them for hanging.

I went shopping for stuff for the trip (of course), and one of the things I bought was one of those cubby-hole kinda things that you hang from the bar in your closet. The one I bought is for shoes. One of the things about living in a tent for two weeks is having places to store your stuff – I mean, yes we have a bed, but we don’t pack chests of drawers or anything. But yes, I do have a clothes rack. So I can hang this from the clothes bar, and we can then store stuff live underwear, socks, etc that you’d keep in a drawer at home. But of course I don’t want just anyone seeing my underwear, so I needed a way to cover the front. Simple enough – all you need is a piece of fabric the size of the front, pinned at the top to attach it. The thing itself folds up accordion style (which makes it perfect for packing), and the fabric can just be folded up. Cut rectangle of fabric – a 5 minute project, right? Sure! Except it has to be nice fabric, and of course I need to hem the edges. And I have all those small pieces of Asian fabric left from that time 6 years ago when I thought I’d try my hand at quilting…. Yeah, 2 hours later I have a hanging which involves something like 20 pieces of fabric – 10 squares with fabric rectangles acting as borders in between and down the sides. A lot like a quilt! And of course it needed to be reversible… and maybe some fringe at the end!! All it takes is a little bit of fabric, and I am off and running!

And of course garb for the event itself (you gotta wear something…) – old stuff needed mending, and new stuff must be made! Last year I spent all my time making new stuff for my son (who had outgrown all his old stuff). This year I get new stuff! Plus I am making a gift for a friend. I started on that yesterday – I made a mend pile, ironed the other stuff, and stacked and prioritized fabric. Fun times!