Project weekend so far!
Friday was a very busy day after Steve and Brenton left. The cutting table got a very good cleaning and then moved into the sitting room. Pretty uneventful but this task was on my list to do. The organizing and arranging of my knitting needles and crochet hooks came next. I know this doesn’t seem like it should be a priority but the yarn bag had some yarn peeping out of the top that was just perfect to use in the bottom of the vase I had chosen to use. Besides, I had brought up the knitting needles and they kept falling off the ironing board. I was barefooted and decided if the needles and hooks were safely tucked in the vase w/ yarn in the bottom there was less opportunity of putting a DPN in the bottom of my foot! I just love the way my needles look in their crystal vase lined with a “cheap” ball of yarn! My crochet hooks are now arranged in a favorite flowerpot, yarn in the bottom. This clay flower pot has been painted white with little birdhouses going around the bottom. Now it is growing inspiration for my future projects!
I got the bed and the dresser moved. The dresser was so heavy I had to remove the drawers from it to get it moved across the room! Then I tackled the bed. Wicker chair has been moved out of the bed room. Oh, my, what treasure under the bed! I found 3 storage bins of fat quarters under the bed! This alone has my fingers starting to itch and my mental design wall working!
After fondling the fabric for a short while, drinking some ice tea, I sorted through the first two piles of books. Yes, 2-foot stacks of books. I’m an avid book person. I love them and don’t feel that anyone can ever have too many. Most of these books are inventory from the quilt shop so I’m going to list them on eBay after I decide which ones NEED to go into my personal library. After refilling the ice tea glass, I settled down with my laptop to start getting the sell books listed into eBay’s Turbo Lister software so I can get them on eBay this week.
Some of my sewing supplies are now in their new home but most of the fabric stash is still waiting on my in the plastic drawer bins in the garage. I know my sweet hubby will be so glad I purchased some bookshelves for the new fabric closet! The freshly washed fabric stash that is in the guestroom is now piled in the crib waiting to be pressed and folded.
Now for the evening, I’m heading downstairs to the recliner to work on a couple of my knitting projects while I watch a movie!
Addendum:
The movie I watched tonight was The Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith. I really enjoyed it so much! Will is able to portray a very realistic father in this film while adding his own touch of humor throughout the film. My daughter warned me to have the box of tissues while watching. While I didn’t shed enough tears to grab the tissues, my heart strings were tugged throughout the 2 hours. Maybe knitting while I watched saved my tissues for another time. I worked on my new ipod with lanyard and a kimono jacket during the evening. What a great way to end my big work day!
Friday, July 27, 2007
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Project weekend!
Steve and Brenton went to PromiseKeepers this weekend! This is a great time for them as father & son but I am getting the weekend to myself! Although I still have regular aviary care and bird clients coming in this weekend, I feel like I have the weekend off!
So this weekend, I’m planning on tackling a project I’ve wanted to work on for a while. Finally, I’m working on my guestroom/sewing space! I know I won’t get it all done this weekend but I’m hoping to get a good start anyway. Our guestroom is actually two rooms; one is a “T” shaped room and the other is a small sitting room in front of the “t” shaped room. We have to go through the sitting room to get to the actual bedroom. I have already got my embroidery machine and my sewing machine setup in the sitting room but I would like to move my cutting table in there and move some of the existing furniture out.
Here’s my TUIT list for the weekend:
· Move bed & dresser
· Sort/toss sewing supplies & fabrics
· Clean cutting table
· Move cutting table to sitting room
· Move wicker chair out of room
· Make display arrangements for knitting needles & crochet hooks
· Sort through books to keep and to sell on eBay
In addition to all this work, I plan to do some major stitching! I have 5 knitting projects in progress, 2 quilts, and a Christening gown for my newest granddaughter. I feel movie watching coming on! Look out on Demand movies ~ here I come!
Oh, when the men are away, the woman of the house will play!
So this weekend, I’m planning on tackling a project I’ve wanted to work on for a while. Finally, I’m working on my guestroom/sewing space! I know I won’t get it all done this weekend but I’m hoping to get a good start anyway. Our guestroom is actually two rooms; one is a “T” shaped room and the other is a small sitting room in front of the “t” shaped room. We have to go through the sitting room to get to the actual bedroom. I have already got my embroidery machine and my sewing machine setup in the sitting room but I would like to move my cutting table in there and move some of the existing furniture out.
Here’s my TUIT list for the weekend:
· Move bed & dresser
· Sort/toss sewing supplies & fabrics
· Clean cutting table
· Move cutting table to sitting room
· Move wicker chair out of room
· Make display arrangements for knitting needles & crochet hooks
· Sort through books to keep and to sell on eBay
In addition to all this work, I plan to do some major stitching! I have 5 knitting projects in progress, 2 quilts, and a Christening gown for my newest granddaughter. I feel movie watching coming on! Look out on Demand movies ~ here I come!
Oh, when the men are away, the woman of the house will play!
Thursday, July 19, 2007
cleaning, podcasts and wet floors!
Good grief! Have I mentioned that I’m not sleeping through the night? Mind you, I sleep very soundly when I sleep but the first part of the night, I just can’t go to sleep unless I’m trying to watch one of my favorite TV shows or reading in the recliner. After I finally go to sleep, I sleep hard until about 2:30 am, then I’m wide awake again! Nope, no hot flashes or anything like that. Usually I’m a little chilly ‘cause my dear hubby steals the sheet! After a little midnight stroll to the bathroom for a drink of water, I can slip right back into dreamland, except I don’t dream. Then I’ll sleep until about 5:30, only to repeat the process… stroll, drink of water, and back to dreamland, where I still don’t dream. I finally gave up and got up to begin the day.
Today was to be a cleaning day…. Well, it was a cleaning day, actually more than I bargained for. I plugged in my trusty ipod with newly downloaded podcasts so I could listen while I clean. I love my ipod and I love podcasts even more! I digress….
I began with the nursery cages. They tend to get more than a little grungy because the weaning babies tend to have food fights with their soft weaning food. At least the cages look like that is what happened in them. Remember the movie Animal House? Now you get the picture.
I pulled perches out of the cages, sprayed them with Clorox solution, and started running the hot soapy water in the sink to soak them. (Remember I’m listening to my ipod.) Then I started pulling the cage liner paper out of the trays and scraping the dried food and poop off the liners. Somehow, my birds always miss the liner paper but hit the side of the cage tray. After pulling papers and scraping 8 cage trays, I gathered them up to take them to the sink for a good scrubbing. My kitchen floor was covered in water! I had gotten so engrossed with the podcast, I left the sink faucet on and forgotten it! there was now water standing all over my kitchen!
I was not planning to do any mopping but hey, the floor was wet! Now it is sparkling clean. I can cross that job off my TUIT list and grab a few extra minutes for stitchin’ on Saturday.
Today was to be a cleaning day…. Well, it was a cleaning day, actually more than I bargained for. I plugged in my trusty ipod with newly downloaded podcasts so I could listen while I clean. I love my ipod and I love podcasts even more! I digress….
I began with the nursery cages. They tend to get more than a little grungy because the weaning babies tend to have food fights with their soft weaning food. At least the cages look like that is what happened in them. Remember the movie Animal House? Now you get the picture.
I pulled perches out of the cages, sprayed them with Clorox solution, and started running the hot soapy water in the sink to soak them. (Remember I’m listening to my ipod.) Then I started pulling the cage liner paper out of the trays and scraping the dried food and poop off the liners. Somehow, my birds always miss the liner paper but hit the side of the cage tray. After pulling papers and scraping 8 cage trays, I gathered them up to take them to the sink for a good scrubbing. My kitchen floor was covered in water! I had gotten so engrossed with the podcast, I left the sink faucet on and forgotten it! there was now water standing all over my kitchen!
I was not planning to do any mopping but hey, the floor was wet! Now it is sparkling clean. I can cross that job off my TUIT list and grab a few extra minutes for stitchin’ on Saturday.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Favorite shop & my stitching projects
I found out this week that one of my favorite quilt/yarn shops is closing its doors. What a sad day! It seems that the owner is retiring but didn’t want to sell the shop so she is selling out and closing the doors! What a great loss! This shop is a favorite place to visit when I visit my parents. My mom has even picked up yarn for me during sales and kept it for me until I got to her house, then of course, I would NEED to go back to the shop for some unknown supplies.
This week, I’ve gone from not having anything on my knitting needles to having two projects on the needles and 4 new books and yarn for projects ordered! What a fun week! I can hardly wait for all this to arrive at my door. I’ll have 6 projects on the needles by next week!
My dear hubby and dear 2nd son are going on a father/son trip next weekend. I’m trying to get caught up on all aviary and housework so I can do the basic bird care and knit, quilt, and embroider the whole weekend! I’m having a stitching retreat all by myself! I may even set up the embroidery machine and sewing machine in the den so I can watch movies while I stitch until I can’t see straight. At which time, I will go to bed only to get up and stitch again the next day! I’ll stock up on plenty of frozen dinners so there will be no cooking either! Can you tell I’m excited? I thought about inviting a friend or two down for this stitch-in but truthfully, I think the time alone will be wonderful! Sorry, girls…..
This week, I’ve been working on my continental style knitting skills. I’ve been trying to work the socks for my dad in this manner. I still feel that I’m slower than molasses on a very cold January morning but I’m starting to feel less awkward with the process. My left hand seems to be doing most of the work and so it gets rather tired. Thankfully, I have a 2nd project on the needles –the sweater sampler by Jacqueline Fee. This sampler is, from her book, The Sweater Workshop, is supposed to teach all the elements of making a sweater but can’t be worn when it is complete. Since it doesn’t take as much yarn as a real sweater, I’m hoping to learn a lot with very little expense. I bought Wal-mart yarn for this exercise and will use some scrap yarn for the contrasting color that is called for later in the pattern. I’m knitting this English style so my hands get a little rest after the sock continental knitting session.
On the quilt frame, I have two quilts one in the piecing stage; the other is ready for sandwiching. One of these is for Steve’s nephew and the other one is for Brenton, our 2nd son, who graduated this year. I will be working diligently on it to try to finish it before he leaves for college in august. Hopefully both of these quilts will be new patterns for Prim-tiks by the first of the year.
Since I had set 5 new patterns this year as my design goal I really need to get busy and make every project I do count! In other words, I need to bust a move!
This week, I’ve gone from not having anything on my knitting needles to having two projects on the needles and 4 new books and yarn for projects ordered! What a fun week! I can hardly wait for all this to arrive at my door. I’ll have 6 projects on the needles by next week!
My dear hubby and dear 2nd son are going on a father/son trip next weekend. I’m trying to get caught up on all aviary and housework so I can do the basic bird care and knit, quilt, and embroider the whole weekend! I’m having a stitching retreat all by myself! I may even set up the embroidery machine and sewing machine in the den so I can watch movies while I stitch until I can’t see straight. At which time, I will go to bed only to get up and stitch again the next day! I’ll stock up on plenty of frozen dinners so there will be no cooking either! Can you tell I’m excited? I thought about inviting a friend or two down for this stitch-in but truthfully, I think the time alone will be wonderful! Sorry, girls…..
This week, I’ve been working on my continental style knitting skills. I’ve been trying to work the socks for my dad in this manner. I still feel that I’m slower than molasses on a very cold January morning but I’m starting to feel less awkward with the process. My left hand seems to be doing most of the work and so it gets rather tired. Thankfully, I have a 2nd project on the needles –the sweater sampler by Jacqueline Fee. This sampler is, from her book, The Sweater Workshop, is supposed to teach all the elements of making a sweater but can’t be worn when it is complete. Since it doesn’t take as much yarn as a real sweater, I’m hoping to learn a lot with very little expense. I bought Wal-mart yarn for this exercise and will use some scrap yarn for the contrasting color that is called for later in the pattern. I’m knitting this English style so my hands get a little rest after the sock continental knitting session.
On the quilt frame, I have two quilts one in the piecing stage; the other is ready for sandwiching. One of these is for Steve’s nephew and the other one is for Brenton, our 2nd son, who graduated this year. I will be working diligently on it to try to finish it before he leaves for college in august. Hopefully both of these quilts will be new patterns for Prim-tiks by the first of the year.
Since I had set 5 new patterns this year as my design goal I really need to get busy and make every project I do count! In other words, I need to bust a move!
Monday, July 09, 2007
Today is just a small collection of musings so forgive me that I’m not on just one particular topic. Actually, when I started this blog, it was my intention to cover all aspects of life for me in Thomaston, including topics on aviculture, fiber art, kids, grandkids, and just plain daily life in each post. Most of the time, my posts have only touched on one topic each time. So today, I’m rambling on....
The birds seem to be quite happy with our current setup. The little bird aviary is almost arranged so that when I make the feed and nestbox rounds that I’m going in a circle. This seems to make my round more time efficient. At the very least, my rounds seem to go more smoothly. The large birds are still spread out all over the place so I tend to have to walk our 3 acres twice a day to care for them. Of course, this has me moving and walking twice a day in addition to my daily exercise regime. Guess that isn’t such a bad thing. I’m not entirely pleased to have my nursery divided between my laundry room (neonate babies) and my breakfast room for weaning babies. Oh, and I have a large cage for larger weaning babies in the den. This keeps me pretty busy with daily housework to keep the health department from condemning us. This brings me to my organization projects.
First of all, I’ve been working on the organization of my home, the aviary, and setting up a special place for my creative space. I think life does go in a complete circle. When we moved into this house, my studio/office was where the little bird aviary is now, completely away from the house. I spent a very cold winter and a very hot summer the first year down there, so I moved my office/studio to our guestroom upstairs. At that point, the studio building became a storage area for retail merchandise. Once the grandchildren started coming, we moved me back to the studio/office building so the guestroom could house visiting family members. We added a woodstove to heat the building and a window a/c, so the retail merchandise and a small classroom area occupied the main floor and my creative space was setup in the attic. After struggling for over 2 years, my dear husband and I decided to close the retail side of my quilting/fiber art business and expand the aviary. So we sold off most of the merchandise and packed up the rest so my studio/office building could house our little birds. My sewing equipment then went back to the guest room and my office/desk has moved from the breakfast room to the den in the last year. I guess you could say I occupy a large percentage of the place but still have no space that is uniquely my own. My sewing space has to stay fairly put together and straight since our guestroom must be ready for kids and grandkids to visit at any time.
I’ve been trying for four years to get us unpacked and organized so life could just flow along. Yes, four years. During those four years, I’ve tried flylady, David Allen, and various other systems. None of them seem to work just right for me. It seems I am right-brained as well as left-handed. So my idea of being organized is not a type-A person's at all. I want everything that I use daily out where I can see it. I do keep a calendar as well as my day runner is my absolute brain. But my dear hubby and I are both packrats! That is the part that just drives me nuts. If I could get through the clutter of things, aka junk, I think I would breathe easier. Steve is not the only stacker in this house but the stacks of stuff never seem to bother him. I can take it for just a certain amount of time and then my little read-headed stack blows. So I’ve sorting/tossing and driving Steve insane right now. He never knows where his boots are going to be -- the bedroom closet is my goal. Steve has taken to going through the trash bin before he takes it down to the road for weekly pickup --- I might have put something valuable, like the dog, in there.
The stitching side of my life has been sorely neglected lately. While I finally have both my embroidery machine and my sewing machine setup, the basic fabric, threads, and embellishment stashes are still stacked all over the guest room. Not only does this make it a little difficult to design or have the basic S.E.X. session, I can only hope I have no overnight guests anytime soon.
About 6 pm, it all stopped and we both had the antsy pants. We took a very long walk around the duck pond across the road. I had our supper simmering in the crock-pot so it was a very nice, unhurried walk.
I did put a pair of green wool socks on my needles yesterday while DH & I watched numerous movies. It was a perfect day for staying home, popping popcorn, movies, and knitting. It, slowly and gently, rained most of the day. I finally figured out how to get 2 socks on 2 circular needles! Woohoo! When the first sock is finished, both of them will be finished! No more 2nd sock syndrome for me!
The birds seem to be quite happy with our current setup. The little bird aviary is almost arranged so that when I make the feed and nestbox rounds that I’m going in a circle. This seems to make my round more time efficient. At the very least, my rounds seem to go more smoothly. The large birds are still spread out all over the place so I tend to have to walk our 3 acres twice a day to care for them. Of course, this has me moving and walking twice a day in addition to my daily exercise regime. Guess that isn’t such a bad thing. I’m not entirely pleased to have my nursery divided between my laundry room (neonate babies) and my breakfast room for weaning babies. Oh, and I have a large cage for larger weaning babies in the den. This keeps me pretty busy with daily housework to keep the health department from condemning us. This brings me to my organization projects.
First of all, I’ve been working on the organization of my home, the aviary, and setting up a special place for my creative space. I think life does go in a complete circle. When we moved into this house, my studio/office was where the little bird aviary is now, completely away from the house. I spent a very cold winter and a very hot summer the first year down there, so I moved my office/studio to our guestroom upstairs. At that point, the studio building became a storage area for retail merchandise. Once the grandchildren started coming, we moved me back to the studio/office building so the guestroom could house visiting family members. We added a woodstove to heat the building and a window a/c, so the retail merchandise and a small classroom area occupied the main floor and my creative space was setup in the attic. After struggling for over 2 years, my dear husband and I decided to close the retail side of my quilting/fiber art business and expand the aviary. So we sold off most of the merchandise and packed up the rest so my studio/office building could house our little birds. My sewing equipment then went back to the guest room and my office/desk has moved from the breakfast room to the den in the last year. I guess you could say I occupy a large percentage of the place but still have no space that is uniquely my own. My sewing space has to stay fairly put together and straight since our guestroom must be ready for kids and grandkids to visit at any time.
I’ve been trying for four years to get us unpacked and organized so life could just flow along. Yes, four years. During those four years, I’ve tried flylady, David Allen, and various other systems. None of them seem to work just right for me. It seems I am right-brained as well as left-handed. So my idea of being organized is not a type-A person's at all. I want everything that I use daily out where I can see it. I do keep a calendar as well as my day runner is my absolute brain. But my dear hubby and I are both packrats! That is the part that just drives me nuts. If I could get through the clutter of things, aka junk, I think I would breathe easier. Steve is not the only stacker in this house but the stacks of stuff never seem to bother him. I can take it for just a certain amount of time and then my little read-headed stack blows. So I’ve sorting/tossing and driving Steve insane right now. He never knows where his boots are going to be -- the bedroom closet is my goal. Steve has taken to going through the trash bin before he takes it down to the road for weekly pickup --- I might have put something valuable, like the dog, in there.
The stitching side of my life has been sorely neglected lately. While I finally have both my embroidery machine and my sewing machine setup, the basic fabric, threads, and embellishment stashes are still stacked all over the guest room. Not only does this make it a little difficult to design or have the basic S.E.X. session, I can only hope I have no overnight guests anytime soon.
About 6 pm, it all stopped and we both had the antsy pants. We took a very long walk around the duck pond across the road. I had our supper simmering in the crock-pot so it was a very nice, unhurried walk.
I did put a pair of green wool socks on my needles yesterday while DH & I watched numerous movies. It was a perfect day for staying home, popping popcorn, movies, and knitting. It, slowly and gently, rained most of the day. I finally figured out how to get 2 socks on 2 circular needles! Woohoo! When the first sock is finished, both of them will be finished! No more 2nd sock syndrome for me!
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Happy 4th of July!
Happy 4th of July -- red, white, and blue! i guess it would be unAmerican not to love red, white, and blue together. there is just something exciting and comforting about those colors together. i know, exciting and comforting at the same time is like saying hearing rock 'n' roll will put a baby to sleep. But to see those colors flying in our flag just is comforting while the sense of pride in being an American is exciting! no matter what political party you belong too, no matter what religion, what ethnic culture you embrace, there is a kinship for our fellow American brothers and sisters everytime the Red, white, & blue is flying over head.
I've been so busy this summer. this is my summer of getting everything sorted, tossed, and organized. i know I've been talking about getting organized since i began this blog, but I'm truly starting to see some progress being made. I've condensed my daily tuit list down to three "tasks" besides the normal daily routine. it is inspiring to see my list completely crossed off by the end of each day. while I'm busy every day the stress of a 10 task tuit list, in addition to aviary, home, and office daily stuff, has lifted! I'm not baking for the peach stand this summer and can't believe what a relief it is not to have 12 loaves of bread to make every day! Steve brought in 5 baskets of peaches Sunday evening just for us to eat and freeze. i think I'll bake a peach cobbler today. what a pleasure it is to have the freedom to choose how to spend our summer in this great country of ours!
have a great day!
I've been so busy this summer. this is my summer of getting everything sorted, tossed, and organized. i know I've been talking about getting organized since i began this blog, but I'm truly starting to see some progress being made. I've condensed my daily tuit list down to three "tasks" besides the normal daily routine. it is inspiring to see my list completely crossed off by the end of each day. while I'm busy every day the stress of a 10 task tuit list, in addition to aviary, home, and office daily stuff, has lifted! I'm not baking for the peach stand this summer and can't believe what a relief it is not to have 12 loaves of bread to make every day! Steve brought in 5 baskets of peaches Sunday evening just for us to eat and freeze. i think I'll bake a peach cobbler today. what a pleasure it is to have the freedom to choose how to spend our summer in this great country of ours!
have a great day!
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