50 years

Tomorrow, July 1, is my parent's 50th wedding anniversary.

Happy anniversary, Mom & Dad.
Love you.

Confused

Apparently the dogs are confused.

Hubby ran over something on the way home from work yesterday and couldn't get his tire replaced until this morning, so he left at his regular time this morning but came back 15 minutes later. He was here less than an hour and then we left together - when I came back without him the dogs whined at the front door until I opened it up so they could look out. (ignore the snot smudges - I can't keep the doors clean below dog-nose height)

They barked at people on their morning walk. They barked at the landscapers working across the street. They barked at a car that stopped out front (still not sure why - I think she was talking on the phone) and I think Coco must have been out since I thought I heard 3 dogs barking at the same time and I couldn't see anyone walking by with a dog - he must not have stayed long because by the time I got downstairs to see what they were barking at they had stopped. (Chihuahua, lives 3 houses down - thinks he owns the neighborhood) Coco and hubby had a discussion out in the garage last night too.

They didn't give up until close to noon! Almost time for the to start whining for me to open it back up so they can watch for him to come home - unless they are still confused.

Spying on the neighbor

It is too hot to do anything else, so I'm spying on the neighbor.


Seriously - the neighbor has this vine growing in her back yard. I had two options to get a picture - go outside and climb up on the fence or take it out the upstairs window through the screen. The current temp is 101. Yep, I took it through the screen! Anywho - I'm not sure what this thing is called. She had one last summer and it made it to the top of the pole, but didn't creep over on to the porch post. This year it is even bigger! It does die back in the winter. Sorry about the crappy picture - like I said, I took it through the screen.

I have one of these bulbs but I'm unsure where to plant it. I don't have any beds in the back yard and the front beds are full so I'm thinking of just planting it in a pot this year.

I have this trellis - I had morning glories on it at the old house but haven't planted any here yet - so I was thinking I could plant this trellis in the back corner of the yard and sit the pot in front of it. Maybe next spring I will get more beds built and I can decide where to give it proper home.
So - whatcha think?

It is seriously HOT here. Like August hot - and it is still June! Yes, the end of June, but still. As soon as you walk outside it just zaps ya. Like walking into an oven.

Sewing room

I'm not finished, but close enough that I can share pictures. (this is a long and picture heavy post!)


This is what you see when you get to the top of the stairs.The red/white tote on the floor is one is full of stuff I still haven't found a home for.


The stuff on the shelf is just stuck there for now - I told you I'm not finished.


This is looking from the door to the other corner of the room. All that stuff on the sewing table - more stuff that still needs a home. Notice anything missing? Big Bertha has gone on a little trip to the tune-up shop. The chair is wearing her cover. I'm thinking I need to make her a new cover - and I need to make a cute cover for the chair too!


The corner. Looks like the stuff is hanging way too far apart, but there is a light switch there. Sure would be nice if you could just move those things at will. :)


I took the two bookcases out of the closet, painted and put the shelves/hanging racks back. This is the only closet in the house I would dare to show you!


The empty space is for Bertha's travel case. The blue totes are full of beads - from when I was in the fob-making phase.


Quilt batting and stuffing in totes on the left. The smaller tote is full of 'decorating ideas' I have either pulled out of magazines or printed off - all still needs to be organized into binders. The cabinet has all my Gentle Arts and Weeks Dye Works fibers. (the basket on top is full of fibers I found here and there - pulled for projects that are finished or new purchases - that need to be put back in the boxes.


This shelf unit holds most of my cross stitch stuff. The pink and green boxes and totes on this shelf are the only new things I bought for this room. Saw them at Home Goods and they just jumped right in my buggy. Okay - on the top. The box on the left is cross stitch fabrics. The tote on the right (already owned!) - full of kitted projects. Some started, some not.

First shelf boxes on left (I still have to get out the label maker and label boxes - the orange post-its won't stay!) Top box - perle cottons, middle box - buttons and charms, bottom box - misc. fibers. The pink and green tote (already owned!) has misc. cross stitch stuff in it - q-snaps, hoops, etc.

Next shelf. The red tin has silk threads in it. The basket is EMPTY! The plastic boxes have DMC that has been wound on bobbins, metallic threads and the top is beads.

Next - misc. xs books, extra DMC in top box, Anchor in bottom box. The binders hold misc. cross stitch charts along with freebies - none of which is organized. (yet)

Tote on left of tv has small charts, the one on right has small kitted projects.

Bottom shelf. Left tote - larger charts, right tote - more kitted projects.

Whew - lotta stuff on that shelf unit! Moving on. . .


Bulletin board (which I haven't cleaned off yet) Scissor board. File cabinet that needs to be purged. The DMC cabinet needs to be cleaned out too - I really am not sure what all is in there.


On top of the computer cabinet (and no, I won't be showing the inside!) the box on the left has my framing supplies. Punch needle frame on top of the box. Another tote - has punch needle stuff in it. The sewing machine drawer sitting up there needs a new paint job. (empty at the moment)


This bookcase just has misc stuff on it. Some decorating books and magazines. Found the pink file folders at Office Depot the other day - marked down to fifty cents! Empty basket. I love having empty spaces!


This is the little dress hanging above the bookcase. It was mine. My grandmother and great-grandmother made all my clothes when I was a baby/toddler. Not sure which one made this - I'll have to ask mother.


And that brings us back to the bookcases on the wall you see when you come up the stairs. This is all sewing/quilting stuff except for the 'pretties' and two of the bins which have finishing items in them (boxes, etc). I won't go through each shelf here. (more orange post-its!) I showed you the one on the left the other day. The basket on the middle right shelf and totes on the bottom right are kitted projects.

I don't have a cutting table in here. If I'm cutting big pieces of fabric I go down to the breakfast room and I have a folding table I can put up in here if I don't need the big cutting mat. I'm hoping to replace that desk with a round table - eventually - so I won't need the folding table.

Okay - that's the tour. The rest of my house looks like tornado alley. Good thing Bertha is still on vacation and not here to tempt me to make a mess of this room!

Too old?

Am I too old to have blue toenails?


Excuse the chubby feet - they match the rest of the body and the cute toenails are supposed to distract you from the not so cute feet!

While I should have been organizing my sewing room I took a little break and went for a pedi but I forgot to take my favorite polish with me (OPI - Strawberry Margarita, if you wondered) so I took a little walk on the wild side and had them painted blue! While I was watching her paint them I started wondering if I was too old for blue toenails?

Just so you know I haven't been totally slacking off here is a pic of one bookcase. Creatively cropped, of course.


Not at all finished. The fabric is on the shelves - but the only 'organizing' I did was to pull the Christmas and the flannel and put in separate (not at all straight!) stacks. Good enough for now. Once I get everything back in the room I might work on getting like colors together. The Sewing book facing out, basket of floss in front of it and the small jar of buttons were my grandmothers.

I still have a LONG way to go, but at least I've made a little progress!

So long ladybug

I once had this really cute pair of 'ladybug' scissors.


Only pic I could find of the scissors 'before'.

Yesterday I finally got around to starting to put all my stuff back in my room - this is going to be a long process. I'm a '3 day project' kinda girl - I get bored with a project if it takes longer than 3 days, but I'm getting off the subject here.

So anyway - in the process of moving stuff around, I knocked over the frame/board with (part of) my scissor collection on it and of course they all fell off. I didn't get a picture of my hands during the messy part, but let's just say when I picked up the ladybug scissors it was like picking up a piece of melted chocolate. I had red/black, sticky, slimy stuff all over my hands. I grabbed a paper towel and started wiping off my hands and the scissors. The red/black coating just kept wiping off. All of the black came off with just the paper towel and a lot of the red came off but they were still sticky. I tried to clean them up with a q-tip and some alcohol but the red just keep coming off and I started to see the silver under the coating. At this point I decided I might as well try to get it all off - I sure wasn't going to throw them away. (did I mention these are Dovo scissors - not my most expensive pair, but not the least expensive either) I left them with the handles soaking in alcohol and went back to clean up the rest of the scissors. When I started putting the others back on the board I saw this

I would have been very upset if these had been in a kitted project and this was on my fabric! I tried to get it off the fabric on the board and it wasn't happening. I got it off the frame and threw the pin away. Another pair of scissors will cover what is left on the fabric.

Here is what my ladybug scissors look like now. After soaking I still had to use a q-tip and a toothpick to get some of the coating off but the majority just peeled right off.

I have to say these scissors have always been in a climate controlled environment. They haven't been left in the car or out in the sun. When we moved, my scissors did not go to storage. If you have the ladybug scissors (I don't think that is the official Dovo name for them) you might want to be careful with them. I also have the 'bumble bee' ones but they have a different type of handle on them. The ladybug ones almost felt like some kind of rubber.

Don't get me wrong - I LOVE Dovo scissors, have many and will certainly by more in the future, but I will not buy any more with the 'rubber' coated handles.

Now I guess I should get back to my 'taking way longer than I would like' project. I'll check back in a few days - unless I'm buried under a pile of junk somewhere!

Have a great week.

Just saying hi

Who, me? It's pretty hard to get a pic of Nicholas actually looking at the camera - but I caught this one last week and since I have nothing new to post I thought I would let him say hi. :)

The only progress I've made on the 'pile 'o crap' is that I have it all in one room now. We were gone all day Tuesday and yesterday I had grocery shopping and errands to do. One of the kiddos is coming for Father's Day so I got one room cleaned up enough for him to have a place to sleep.

I'll pop back in to say hi in a few days - not sure I'll have anything new to report but we will see!

Hope you are having a great week. (it is just HOT, HOT, HOT here!)

A little pink!

This post is picture heavy - you have been warned!

How did you spend your weekend? Mine was spent covered in pink paint.


This is what my office/sewing room looked like right after we moved in. (sorry for the dark photo)


I guess I don't have any pictures between then and now - if I do, I can't find them.


I didn't think to take any pictures before I started taking the room apart but I snapped one while I was taping off.


Now I have pink walls!


I haven't started loading stuff back in yet (you will see why if you stick it out to the end!) but the furniture is in place - at least for now. This is the room you see when you get to the top of the stairs.


These are the bookcases you see in that last pic. They were in the closet but I pulled them out and put the hanging racks/shelves back up. (I hate that wire stuff but it is what it is) I have plans to replace that desk with a table - eventually. The table I plan to use is in storage so I have to get it, bring it back here and paint it so it might be awhile.


This window is at the front of the house - I took this one with the blinds open so you could see my view when I'm sewing. (there won't be any of that going on for awhile!)


Closed the blinds - this is a little better pic, but still it is hard to get good pics on a sunny day. The 'sewing table' was built to fit the room in the other house. It is exactly the width that room was. Eventually I want to replace it, but I'm trying to use what I have for now.


If you keep turning to the right the closet is just past that white cabinet. I even emptied it out and painted in there. Every wall/ceiling in this house was that flat, fugly builder beige, and that includes the closets. Not that beige doesn't have it's place, but there are better shades of beige. This is almost a 'non-color' - I guess it just makes it look like no thought was given to it at all. Boring.


To the right of the closet is where my computer was - I just hated it in that corner so I moved it over and put the big bookcase there. Once I get the bookcase loaded you won't be able to see the wires under the tv (that is the only shelf it will fit on!)


And that wall leads back to the door. None of the furniture is what I 'envision' for this room, but it is all stuff we already have so I'm making do for now. I would love to have all white furniture in here - I'll get there.


If you don't have a supply of these handy-dandy doo-dads, you need to get some! Makes moving furniture soooo much easier - especially when it doesn't work the way you thought you wanted it and have to move it again! We moved the computer cabinet and file cabinet with all the stuff still in them! (if you don't have carpet, they make ones to work on hard floors too!)

That was the fun part. Now the real work begins!


All that stuff had to go somewhere! Terry - the chart you asked about should be in there somewhere! This is the next room on the list to be painted - might be awhile!


And it wouldn't all fit in one room. (I should have taken a pic of the closet in the twin bed room - it is stuffed too! This is the other guest room.


I have a little 'tote' issue! My 'plan' is to sort through everything as I put it back in. Everything got all mixed together when we put stuff in storage and I didn't sort when we moved in.

If you don't' see me for awhile, you know where I am! I will probably pop my head in from time to time to read but I'm not sure when the next post will be!

If you don't have anything to do this week. . .

A pink weekend!

It is time to paint the office/sewing room!


I tried 3 pinks. I want a 'barely pink' but I still want it to be pink. I don't want baby pink and I don't want 'pepto' pink. It makes sense in my head. Anyway - the bottom sample was the first one I tried. Looks too much like the beige that is already on the wall so I headed back to Lowe's for more samples. The top one is too pink so I'm going for the middle one. I've already taken the sample jars to the garage so I can't tell you what the top and bottom colors are, but the one I'm going with is Chalk Pink.


Here it is on the opposite wall, next to the curtains. I didn't even try the first one on this wall and I knew as soon as the top one hit the wall it was wrong. On the one hand, it is a good thing that there are so many colors/shades of colors to choose from, but it also makes it really hard! I could have gone back and got more samples but I decided to go with the Chalk Pink. The mister thinks it is going to be too pink. We will see. I'm thinking about using the same pink in the bathroom up here, I'll finish this room before I make that decision.

I'm off to finish moving furniture and filling nail holes.

Have a great weekend!

I can do anything

Except center a design on a pre-made pillow.

I saw this pillow kit and fell in love with it! Not sure if it was the colors or the quote, maybe both! reminds me of the fabric I have for a quilt (that I will make someday!) Anywho - it is a Pine Mountain kit. Comes with the pre-made pillow, floss and even a needle. (doesn't come w/ the pillow form - I just made my own) It was a pretty quick stitch. A little brighter than the bedding in our room but I've got it on our bed for the moment.

For the record - it actually is centered if you use the outside dimensions of the pattern - it just doesn't look centered (to me) because of the vertical lines on the sides. I'm mad at myself because I thought it didn't seem right when I started, but I didn't listen to myself and kept right on stitching. Now that I am looking at the picture on the kit - it looks just like mine and I didn't notice it there either until now! Oh well - it is just for me so even though it bothers me, I'm not fixing it. But - if you decide to stitch this one, you might want to think about moving the design two or three stitches to the left. Personal preference I suppose.

Back to work - I'm emptying my little room so we can paint! How did I get so much stuff?

Table topper

Thought I needed something for the island in the kitchen

So I pulled out a charm pack I've had for awhile (Recipe for Friendship - Mary Engelbreit for Moda) and started sewing squares together. I didn't put any effort into figuring out what size I needed - I just sewed rows together until it looked like it might be about right.


I found this pink w/cherries fabric at Joann's and used it for the backing and binding. Threw it in the wash to get the 'used' look. (I like working with the fabric before it is washed, but I love the look of it being washed after) I really like the pink/cherries and had a hard time deciding which side to use!


I've got it 'topside up' for now but ya never know - I could change my mind at any time. I think the size turned out okay - another row added to either side would have made it too big and I like a little of the wood showing.

It is still hot here (about 10 degrees less than earlier in the week - still hot, but at least we aren't still in the triple digits!) I'm staying in and working on getting the office/sewing room ready to paint. Lots of stuff in here - and none of it is organized!

My 'new' chair

Isn't she lovely? LOL

This chair belonged to my great-grandmother, then to my grandmother. I'm not sure exactly how old it is but it is at least 50+. This is what it looked like when I got it - way back before Christmas.
I finally got around to working on it in April. I should have taken a picture of the seat cushion folded in half. It was pretty much just two pieces of fabric - nothing was left inside! Might as well have been a wet dish rag!


I started taking it apart.


One step at a time


Just a little on the 'past due for a make-over' side


I'm surprised someone didn't fall through!


She had more than a few tacks and staples.


I sanded her up a bit and got out the spray paint. (tip - spray paint and rubber garden shoes do not make a great pair. 6 weeks later the bottoms were still sticky - I finally threw them away!)


I guess I didn't get a good pic once I had painted and distressed - I got in a hurry to take her in for upholstery!
This was more than just re-covering. The cushions had to be completely re-made. I knew that was way more than I could do myself.


I finally got her back this weekend! Now - isn't she lovely?

Nice, thick seat cushion. She just might make it another 50 years!

BTW - we hit 105 yesterday. Ugh.