This is my new mantra.

It works for almost every situation.

It’s perfect for those mornings when you wake up and realize you only have six full days to finish your state fair project that is two years overdue, and it’s just as good later in the day when you realize that you haven’t taken any photos and the sun is about to set. Oh. My. Gosh.

As the first days of fall slip past me and each day I accomplish only a fraction of the things on my “to do for the state fair” list, I find that these three words help me find my place and figure out how to go forward.

Today, I had a couple of errands and an appointment that could not be rescheduled, so it was shortly after noon when I finally got to work.

The first thing I wanted to get done was to finish crocheting the border.

As a practical matter, it could have waited until Sunday night if need be, but when working on a project, there is not just the practical to be considered, there is also the ineffable, and finishing the border and getting it blocked would definitely be “getting something done,” and definitely “getting something done” often leads to definitely getting more things done.

So even though it might have been wise to save this “thing that could be done” by artificial light for later in the day, I decided that I needed the finishing mojo finishing it would generate, so I did:

With the bottom of the bordered dampened and pinned, I was free to move on to the center panel, and while it isn’t completed, I finally have an overarching vision and know what direction I am going with it. Here is how it looked with the pieces I have made so far shortly before it was time to run a late afternoon errand:

and here is a detail of some of those pieces:

It has been just over two years since I started this project, and I have five more days in which to finish it.

Oh. My. Gosh.