Another month...

has passed me by - and I am still behind.  It seems like the old saying really is true: "The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get."  I've been working on a project for a client that, I am sad to say, seems more and more like a losing battle.  I've have poured lots of time and energy into it, at the expense of my other clients and their work, my housekeeping and my sanity.  I am at the point of giving up.  When I see him this week, I am afraid I'm going to have to give him an ultimatum: do what you need to do to get your finances in order to get this business loan and stop the financial hemorrhaging your business is suffering from, or find a new bookkeeper.  I just can't deal with the stress any more - especially with tax season looming on the horizon.  And I still have to finish my IRS continuing education before the end of the year.  Yikes!

While I crave perfection, I know that the best I can hope for is progress.  And I have seen no progress at all, on anything work-related, during the month of November.  I know it's my own fault and I'm mad at myself for poor time management and procrastination.  Why aren't there more hours in a day?

If anyone knows the answer to that, please let me know!

I know it's been awhile...

since I've actually blogged about anything of consequence.  My friend, Tom, asked me why and I replied, "The mully grubs."  Isn't that a great expression?  I mean, I thought it was some kind of big-assed Texas bug when my friend, Linda, wrote about cleaning until the mully grubs were gone, but it really just means being down in the dumps - a blue funk as it were.  Sometimes I'm like Mr. Monk, bogged down in the OCD details of obsessing over perfection, or the lack thereof.  For the past couple of months, my whole house looks like each room has had some sort of minor explosion; I start a project, get distracted and move on to something else.  Well, I am happy to report that today something finally got done!

Tom and Al came by to do their monthly sales tax report, drop off their bookkeeping paperwork for October and put up the living room curtain rod.  You know - the one Richard and I puzzled over, cursing the engineer who designed it, until I realized after he left that the decorative ends of the rod unscrewed...  Duh!  They also brought me a case of Greek yogurt and a can of pumpkin from their morning trip to Costco, but I digress...

It didn't take long - since they know what they are doing.  You can see Al supervising the finishing touches once the rod was up and the valance was in place.  There was great gnashing of teeth and more than a few expletives deleted in the sewing room last night as I sewed the wrong edges together and had to rip it apart and start over.  I've been dithering over this thing for a month, worrying about ruining the cheap daybed quilt I bought to turn into this fabulous window treatment!

Of course, there's always too much light when you don't need it - 

but you get the picture. 

You can see that the valance matches the quilted throw and pillow on the chair - and it doesn't clash too badly with the lamp.  Thank you, guys - thank you so much!

I love it when a plan comes together.

I am really happy with the fabric and the wall color coordination - and it was really a happy accident.  Like most of the really good things in life.

At last...

cooler weather has arrived!

Okay - so you can't see your breath outside, but it's still cool.

Happy Fall, ya'll!

The best of friends...

have staked out the reading chair in the living room.  I am pretty amazed that Peter and Bee have taken to each other so quickly - I mean, it's been a couple of months, but still.  Cats are very territorial and Peter has been an only for the last several years.  Maybe it helps that Bee was an only in his previous home.

At any rate, I am very happy that they are each glad to have a buddy.

In other news, I have finally worked up the nerve to cut this quilt into pieces to make the living room window valance.  Fear of failure - for about a month now.

See, I did it!  Now to sew it together, line it and get it hung.  Or hanged.

No, people are hanged; fabulous window treatments are hung.