Back to work after my vacation

Very reasonably productive day today, in spite of a late start. I ate well, did laundry, cooked two different vegetable stocks, stretched briefly every half hour, and went for an evening walk. I also revised my weekly to-do list based on the past two weeks’ activity and this week’s goals, transcribed some stories my parents told me about the family history, did some more brainstorming on my novel, washed and ironed some more fabrics, and finished the work for an Etsy order:

Click on the image to see more photos of this case and the eye pillow that goes inside it. I find this case unexpectedly sexy, for having such old-fashioned fabrics and colors. I’m very pleased with it.

I’m having a holiday promotion for newsletter subscribers: free gift-wrapping and handmade card. Here’s my first one:

The buyer requested a relaxing/lavender theme and color palette, and I didn’t have any papers like that, so I went through my scrap bag and found a big piece of unbleached muslin and some pretty pieces of fabric. I stitched them together, using lavender thread, into a simple flap pouch, and tied it with a lavender ribbon. I’m going to need to go buy more ribbon soon. I spent a good bit of time on the wrapping so I decided to keep the card simple: I spray-glued cardstock to a piece of wallpaper and used a bought envelope.

Now I’m going to turn off the computer and do something nonverbal for a while. Last night I began wondering whether my frequent trouble falling asleep is because my brain is too occupied doing left-brain-y, analytical, verbal activity in the evening.  This week I’m going to experiment with this: do something right-brain-y and nonverbal every night before my wind-down with Erik. We’ll see how it goes.