Holiday weekend. Really?

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 : 

Holiday \Hol"i*day\, n. [Holy + day.]

1. A consecrated day; religious anniversary; a day set apart
        in honor of some person, or in commemoration of some
        event. See Holyday.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A day of exemption from labor; a day of amusement and
        gayety; a festival day.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              And young and old come forth to play
              On a sunshine holiday.                --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Law) A day fixed by law for suspension of business; a
        legal holiday.
        [1913 Webster]

Whatever definition of the word you choose, having not done much useful for the past several weeks it's kind of hard to feel holiday-ish this weekend (no disrespect to Martin Luther King Jr.).  The Tramp has been working at home more than usual and neither of us has had the strength to do anything fun on the weekends.  Besides the ripping-up-carpet aberration, it's been really low-key around here. And The Tramp is now hacking and coughing along with me, poor baby.  I've been to the doctor again and have been given yet another inhaler.  Sheesh!  I wonder what's next?  The medicine cabinet's getting crowded.

I have done some sewing.  I got the Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt top cut out and partially put together.  So a picture of that should be coming soon. :-)

Today was bright and sunny, and warmer than it's been recently.  The Tramp decided to put up some closet shelving, and since it was warm enough I disappeared up into the attic.  One of the compromises when we decided to buy this house was that much of my craft/sewing storage was going to have to be up in the attic.  This sounds just fine, except when you realize that going upstairs is like going outside.  Hot in the spring, summer and fall, and cold in the winter.  Today I lucked out though and just needed a fleece jacket to stay comfortable.

Much needed to be done!

I spent hours up there....to good result! All the moving boxes were finally emptied, much was put aside to take to the thrift shop and everything is labeled.  The old storm door, trash and empty boxes were hauled to the "convenience center."  The set of bi-fold doors that don't fit on the laundry have been listed on Freecycle and will be picked up tomorrow.  :-)

The other downside to the attic is the flooring.  The plywood is very thin.  As I worked I marked all the weak spots with red Xs.  At some point we have to replace it all, but for now I just have to tread very carefully!

Woohoo!  Look how nice!  My kitchen may be cluttered and my sewing area a mess, but I do like my storage to be neat.  :-D

Those white cabinets are full of sewing stuff.  Today I added the labels so I don't have to open every door to find something.  Yes, the cabinet on the left has no labels.  That's because....I'm embarrassed to say....it's stuffed full of UFOs!  No label needed.  Sigh.

The end wall is all organized and labeled.  I'm down to just four bins of clothing.  Yay!  And all the empty bins are now full of fabrics.  I still need to get some bins for my batting and fiberfill.  Or alternatively....I suppose I could use it!

The shelves down the center are neatly filled and the bins labeled on both sides.  After the sorting I ended up with four bins of thrifted clothing! I need to ramp up my scrap quilting.  :-)

One set of shelves is next to the stairs, to stop klutzes like me from falling over the edge.  I filled them with office supply type stuff.

Now I need to take up the rest of the Christmas decorations and sort out and get rid of all the stuff I brought down from the attic.  Wait a minute!  I though tomorrow was a "holiday!"  And oh yeah.  The garage needs the same treatment.

Winter is getting old....

Today I decided to try out the new posting editor in Blogger.  I don't even know how long it's been around but I was messing with settings and there it was!  So here we go.

We woke up to ice again this morning.   Sigh.  It was pretty with the sun sparkling on it but the whole winter thing is getting old fast.  Today I read a news article that said Florida is the only state without snow or ice on the ground.  Sheesh!

The geese don't seem to mind.  They stroll around on the ice and hang out on the bank in the sunshine.  Of course this is when they aren't pooping on my lawn.

Despite the cold wind that whipped up today, the southern sun did it's work and melted the ice on my car.  It was all gone by noon.  Yippee.

And this afternoon there was lots of evidence of the ice beginning to melt on the pond.  The geese start falling through the ice and have to ice-break their way to the open water at the edge, leaving holes and pathways everywhere.

Our front steps are shaded and still slick.  I need to get some ice melt as soon as it comes back in stock in the stores.  If it keeps on like this I guess a shovel would be a prudent purchase as well.  (Darn it!)

The Christmas lights are still mostly up and also encased in ice.  Take-down is on the agenda for the coming weekend.  Hopefully we'll be healthy enough to do it!

I've been spending a lot of time lounging in my pjs the past two weeks and the dogs stay close.  Very close.  Ivy decided to use my footstool as a pillow while she kept my feet warm.  :-)

Ngaire stands guard at the front window. 

In the sewing room, I finished putting this bag together for Mom.  The pattern is "Versatility Tote" by Bloom Creek.  Mom has made several now and we've come up with a system.  She does the English paper piecing of the hexagons, then I put the bag together.  This is one of hers and I gave it back to her today so she can add the handles.

This one's mine.

I have so many UFOs but once in a while I have to be bad and start something new.  So last night I put together this "Abbey Bag."  I bought the pattern at the Fiber Arts Marketplace in Sanford on Saturday.  Connecting Threads has a kit for it and I was intrigued when I saw it in the catalog last week.  So I just had to buy the pattern when I saw it.  :-)  I've been trying to get a bunch of hand work done while I watch TV in the living room and this will be great for my threads and odds and ends.  I dug out four coordinating fat quarters I don't remember buying and was saving for I don't know what.  One of the fat quarters was short an inch so I had to piece the back of the bag.  It doesn't matter though.

The dogs are funny.  The pincushion part is filled with ground walnut shells from the pet store.  As soon as I started messing with the bag, the dogs were right at my side!  They know food when they smell it.  I showed them it was just shells but they sat all in a row next to my sewing table watching me closely.  Right now they are rattling their tags and generally being annoying, trying to tell me it's their dinnertime.  So I guess I better not disappoint them.  :-)

Wonky Letters

I'm still trying to catch up on blog reading after my long hiatus. I find so much inspiration out there. Today I found a surprise! Tonya has posted a photo of the wonky letter name blocks we all sent her. And my name is right in the middle. Hee hee! I think I'll just have to jump right in to her new challenge.... Bah Humbug!

Today was a great day for sewing. We didn't get any snow, unlike south and east of us, but we did get enough ice to stop us from going outside. The roof, deck, stairs and railings were (and are) encased in ice.


Pretty, but treacherous.


Sigh. I guess tomorrow I'll be chipping ice off the cars. Let's hope the sun comes out!

Adrenaline

Since I'm still pretty sick with this cold/virus/plague I'm not absolutely certain where the sudden surge of adrenaline came from today. I feel like I've been sitting around for weeks trying to catch my breath (asthma) and suddenly today....despite the major migraine/sinus headache from the cold/virus/plague....decided to start a major project.

Let me explain. Carpeting is the bane of my/our existence. With three big black/nearly-black dogs and a muddy yard, having fabric on the floor is never a good idea. Ngaire and Ivy in particular, leave big shadows of hair on the carpet wherever they lie down. And paws, large and small, carry dirt. Lots of dirt. So as far as I'm concerned...carpet is evil. Almost as evil as popcorn ceilings.

The house came with thick, light colored carpet in most of the rooms. We did have it cleaned before we moved in. The previous owners were clean people, but had five cats....and I'm allergic! Also, cleaning didn't get rid of the nasty black edges along the walls. Yuck! We planned to allow the dogs to slowly destroy the carpet until such time as we could afford new floors. At least that sounded like a good plan back in August. Fast forward to today.

Not only am I allergic to this house, [which has recently been exacerbated by having the duct work cleaned (SIGH)] but one of the dogs has been feeling off and we woke up again this morning to more nastiness on the carpet. If it was vinyl or tile I wouldn't mind. I clean up after them just like I did for sick kids. But the whole carpet thing is a really bad scene. SO....

We made a sudden decision to start tearing up the carpet and live with sub-floor. Do I sound desperate? I must be. Here I am....massive headache, hacking, coughing, wheezing, nose blowing....determinedly ripping up tack strips and prying out some of the thousand staples holding down the underlay. Filthy work. That's Maisy , one of the reasons for this madness, watching me closely from behind the gate and not understanding why she isn't allowed to participate. The black blob behind her is Ivy, trying to hide from the banging of hammers and pry bars. Ngaire is probably under The Tramp's desk. Charlie thought the whole thing was great, and screeched and talked to himself in the background the whole darned time!


We did the upstairs hallway...


the stairs...


the vanity area of the master bath (yes it had carpet. Gross!)...


and the master closet.
We spent about four hours hard at it and then loaded up the truck and took the debris to a county "convenience center." [Well named since it's very convenient that they are open 7am to 7pm almost every day of the year.]


We still have three bedrooms, the bonus/sewing room/study, and living room to do but this was certainly enough work for one day for a person with a cold/virus/plague and a second one still hobbling around on a sprained ankle. Did I say desperate??

So now we're pretty much collapsed and I think I really should go to bed so I can get up early tomorrow to call the doctor....again. Goodnight.

Sewing!

Yes indeed. Yesterday sewing happened here. I've been sick, The Tramp is still hobbling around, but I finally got enough focus to just sit down and accomplish something. *happy dance* Of course there were the usual interruptions, but it was still good. :-)

Cell phone photos, so they aren't the best, but you get the idea. My bee is (was) doing a block swap. Twice a month during 2010 we swapped a 6" half-square triangle block and 6" four-patch block made from a medium/dark and a neutral. The idea is you can easily cut down both those blocks to any size you need. Because of the house move I'm six months behind so this is one of the items I really want to check off my 2011 Sandbox List. I've been observing all the lists of finishes coming up on other blogs and I think doing the same will give me the motivational push I need this year. We shall see.

I decided to put my swap blocks towards making Bonnie Hunter's Patches & Pinwheels quilt. This means however, I have to cut all my blocks down to 3 1/2". Ouch! That means cutting down almost 400 blocks. And I'll still have to make plenty more to make the large quilt. Arrggghhh. :-) So yesterday I sewed about half of what I owe to hand out at the next bee meeting and then got down to the cutting. I was very happy to have a little revolving mat!

I know this is scrap quilting, but I can be pretty OCD about the placement of my scraps. So I set aside a pile of untrimmed blocks to take apart and sew back together in different configurations. The contrast was bugging me. And actually, the quilt doesn't require nice neat four-patches, but twelve-patches. So some of the high contrast four-patches will probably stick out like sore thumbs in those twelve-patch blocks. That blue and white one up above is probably one I should have taken apart, but.....I'm darned if I'm going to be that OCD. I am not crazy enough to take apart all 200 four-patches. Really! (says me while sitting on my hands) :-)

This was also an opportunity to get back to my "leaders and enders" quilt. Blue Ridge Beauty, also by Bonnie Hunter.
I keep the pieces sorted in gift bags in a basket next to my sewing chair. Progress is slow but it's so fun to watch it grow.

The dogs spent most of the day either getting in my way, or barking at neighborhood sounds, of which there seemed to be an awful lot. Sigh.

Ivy lay with her nose helpfully between my chair wheels.
Ngaire gracefully commandeered the open space in front of my ironing table.
And after sitting and peering one-eyed up at me through the clear acrylic part of my sewing table, Maisy finally settled down underneath.....
which is why there is pipe insulation covering my most important and expensive wired connections!
Interruptions included bread baking. Yum!

And calls from the always needy laundry equipment. At least it seems very needy. The machines are always plaintively beeping for attention! It's a recurring theme here. The stove beeps, the microwave beeps, the timers beep, the cell phones beep, the computers beep, the weather radio beeps, the UPSs beep, and now even the new dishwasher beeps. Sigh.

I'm really liking the laundry on the second floor. Between the bedrooms and the sewing room. What could be better? Right away we had a proper laundry valve installed to lessen the likelihood of a flood. When I paint the upstairs we'll finish closing in the hole in the wall. But for now....it works just fine!


We also had the dryer re-vented with proper solid ducting rather than the old fashioned vinyl spiral stuff. It was completely jammed with lint and the dryer wasn't drying anything. Scary. We were doing fine with the new ducting then a joint pulled apart on Tuesday. Urg. A real pain because we had to haul both machines out again and add a connector, but it works fine now and I'm thrilled. It's the small things that make life comfortable. :-) Of course, with modern machines there is no chance we could leave up the bi-fold doors, but I found a retro looking shower curtain at Target and I think it looks just fine.


A little bit of clearance fabric buying today for finishing the swap blocks, and tomorrow I'm going to Sanford with a quilty friend to The Quilting and Fiber Art Marketplace. I can't wait! It's so nice to be sewing again.

One week later

Last Sunday we lived in a winter wonderland and today it was 65F and the snow is all gone. Kind of amazing. It was hard to know when to stop taking pictures!



The Tramp and I decided to go for a walk in the snow to the mall which was open, but many of the stores were not. Kind of weird for the day after Christmas, but for the best considering the condition of the roads.

The geese and ducks were unperturbed by the weather and these four were seriously foraging for something at the bottom of the pond.

It was odd seeing the big southern magnolias heavy with snow. Unfortunately, on that walk, The Tramp slipped on a wet rock while helping me jump the creek, and twisted his ankle. So this has been a quiet week at home with only a trip to the doctor and for xrays. I have been able to do some sorting out of the sewing room and did put together an "Accidental Landscape" of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It still needs to be quilted though.

Today Mom and Dad came over to watch the Rose Parade and partake of the Christmas dinner we missed because of the storm. It was so warm out a mist developed over the pond.


And there were birds singing all around, including a flock of robins. :-) Robins have become rare in my experience and it's wonderful seeing them every day lately.




It was neat watching the mist ebb and flow across pond and then finally slide away to envelope the neighbor's house.

And then it was gone.

Happy New Year!