Friday with Erica

 So last Friday, Erica was off and we embarked upon starting the butterflies for her lamp.  We still have more to cut and foil, but after starting to tin the edges, I realized that among some of the things I did not keep was the temperature control for the soldering iron.  So she ordered a rheostat and on her next day off we will cut and foil more.  We did cut a large one and several smaller ones, but she needs even more.  I was so pleased that she took to this so well and feel confident that after she masters the solder, she can do anything she chooses.  I am anxious to make some small projects again also.  I have also started a quilt of valor and intend to make at least 3 more.  This one has been basted with the washable school glue which eliminates all pinning and no wrinkles.  It takes no more time really after you get the hang of it and is so much easier to quilt as there is no shifting of fabric.  I am still working on those other UFO's though.

The Mr. and I went to our new dentist yesterday and really liked the staff there.  All of our records had arrived and even though I have a very small cavity, everything was just fine.  We are just about finished with all of the health issues and established all of those professionals.

Yesterday we had a TV to take to Goodwill and we also checked out the RESTORE here.  We like to haunt the thrift stores and there are some great ones here.  The Mr. picked up a light fixture which was marked at $25.00 and because it was "green tagged", it was half price.  He had a ceiling fan with some lighting which was pretty sad in the room he calls his "hidey hole"...the room in which he does his leather craft.  This will be a great improvement and because he is so handy, he can install it with just a small modification. Raining here this week, but the temp is so moderate and the sun is shining today.  I don't really feel like we have had winter.  The big box stores here are already getting the spring plantings in so that is encouraging.

Busy week

I spoke with one of my friends this past week.  I am still trying to recoup from my sciatica and finally, it is better until the next time.  We spoke about these things at our age now which impact our daily lives and we are realizing that it is just a fact of life.  We spoke of quilting and of some of the things I have done and I mentioned that my daughter, who is learning to do a few more things, has a stained glass project in mind.  Most everyone who follows my blog, knows that I have done some of this in the past, but I don't think I had any of it on display in the past 8 years except for one window in my sewing room.  This is a lamp that I made several years ago and wasn't able to hang it in my last home.  I had lots of specialty tools, saws for glass etc. which I donated to younger artists as I moved from one location to another, but I did keep some basics and hope that my artist daughter will continue to do this craft.  This hangs in my sewing room now above a machine.  Friday, we will do what she wants to do for a lamp.

I titled this blog "busy week" for a specific reason.  We are still adapting this home to our needs.  These windows below are on the west side of the "pool" room and although we have large of trees for shade and privacy isn't a problem, the sun can shine on the felt on the table and the carpet, not to mention the heat generated in the warmer months.  (31 degrees this am and snow)  We also have a glass door out to our deck in back.  Now we have these cordless, cellular shades on all four windows. The Mr. spent part of 2 days installing them and one day involved getting a new doorbell and installing that.  Another 2 days was spent trying to "fix" the new dishwasher.  Really it cleaned great, but the door was not shutting well enough and it finally just would not connect in order to run it.  What an adventure that was.  The front of the door came off (lots of screws), the electrical stuff (not sure what the technical term is) got disconnected and tested.  Then the door wouldn't go back on properly until the Mr. remodeled it(shhhhh), after finally getting it back together and no luck, we decided it would need to be replaced.  He spent the better part of two days on the floor trying to determine what was wrong. It became frustrating as he is really good at fixing just about anything.  Finally as he looked at the top of the dishwasher, trying to decide what to do, he discovered that the little u-shaped arm wan't connecting with the switch on the door and with a 15 second bit of pressure, the arm was adjusted down a small amount and "voila" the dishwasher took off!

These are the kinds of adventures that have kept us laughing and crying.  But the list of things we have wanted to get done is not getting any shorter, so we will keep on and are thankful that we are able still to do most ourselves, but as my friend last week and I realized....we are not getting any younger.

New Year projects

Oops! Should have flipped this picture...So I took a little break from this blog over the Christmas holiday, but not from the many projects in our list.  This entryway runs from the kitchen to the hallway toward the bedrooms and you enter from the front double doors.  It drops down a step to the carpeted room where the pool table resides although I think it was considered a sunken living room at the time the home was built.  We have worked on a myriad of small projects but this entryway was so dark that I didn't realize that the grout wasn't actually dark.  The bricks are of varied colors so being in a high traffic area, and since it was all dark..it wasn't a priority.  With a bucket of water and a scrub brush and some heavy duty cleaner, I have been on my hands and knees scrubbing a little bit every morning.  I am nearly finished and you can see how dirty it was and still is in this area. YUK!  

 The Mr. has been busy with small projects also.  He needed a cue holder and opted for a small one rather than a larger one as he has had in the past. A few years ago, a friend gifted me an old table and 4 chairs as I reuse and repurpose things.  The table was in really bad shape so it couldn't be used so the chairs without seats were reused as stools at the foot of the bed for the dogs to use.  We cut off the backs which I painted as garden angels and returned them to the gifter for her daughters.  The legs were shortened and new cushions fashioned for stools for the dogs.  We used them in 2 homes and when we moved in here, they were not needed.  The wood was old, but nice hardwood so the Mr. took them apart and the pieces were sanded, routed, and cut to size, then glued and painted. He installed them yesterday. This was just a small part of the chair wood.

So as promised, I am slowly finishing some UFO's. This is the quilt that I am assembling with the Farmer's Wife 6" squares.  These are the ones that I had finished, and I have begun to stitch some more. If I make 18 more, I can have a square quilt and I have completed a few this week. I call it "pink caramel" and we'll see how many I can finish.

One of the projects we completed this morning was the light over the dining table.  I don't have a picture, but it has 3 lights and was designed to hang from a chain.  However this kitchen/dining area has really low ceilings, so the chain was just looped up and tied with a wrap.  Removing some chain links seemed like a small project since we have done so much of this kind of remodeling but we neglected to take pictures and struggled to figure out how to reassemble it when it was shortened.  It literally took us all morning to finish this project, but it got cleaned and we finally figured it out, even though there were a few extra pieces left over?  It looks great and the main thing is that it works.

One of our neighbors stopped yesterday as we were taking down our lights and after she left, I thought about our conversation.  She is a master gardener and has been very helpful in informing us of the native plants and offered me some of hers earlier this year.  But reflecting on what I have tried..some successful and some not.  I can do many things...a jack of all trades and a master of none.

"When I was growing up I always wanted to be SOMEONE.  Now I realize I should have been more SPECIFIC."  ~ Lily Tomlin