Friday, June 30, 2006

Vegging and enjoying it.

For the last few days I've been taking life easy. Rather more like LAZY. Sleeping late, reading a book. Seeing movies. I saw Superman on Wednesday. It is more of a chick flick than an adventure and to that end I was a little dissapointed. It was also a little slow at the start and ended with possibilities for future Superman movies. I generally do not do chick flicks or comedies. But I say Superman, and the Lake House and today I well see The Devil Wears Prada (sp). Is heaven trying to re-direct my thinking as well as my path?

I've been eating out a lot of late, which has done nothing for me and my efforts toward healthy eating. I've been drinking soda which I haven't done in years and eating hamburgers, french fries and ice cream. No I don't do anything by half measure.
I have enjoyed the mild beginning of the summer and hate that I did not planted summer annuals in the pots on my deck after it got too hot for the pansies. Having flowers in those pots have been so much a part of my spring and summer mornings on my balcony and I miss them. I know it is not too late to plants them now, but after next week I will not have time to tend them, plus I will be leaving them to parish when I move to Columbia.

I made and istalled window treatments in my friend Kathy A's living room yesterday and was trying to make it a surprise. (I have a key to her unit, we all do to each others, just in case.)
I had planned to install then, leaving the house as I'd found it and be on my way . I had planned to call her at work and tell her that I couldn't meet her as we planned until Friday because some (white lie) had come up and when she got home she'd see them.

"Curses, foiled again! ", as the comic villian always says.

Just as I was opening the outside door to Kathy's condo building, my little step stool and hammer in hand, making my get-away, there she was.

"Oh Dang"

She was grinning like the perverbal Chesire cat. She said she knew how I operated and she had actually been looking at her windows everyday since I told her I had found the fabric I was looking for for her windows, expecting to see window treatments there when she got home without me telling her they were done.

My husband used to say he knew me better than anyone.
This Kathy is coming in a close second.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Something new

On Sunday I did two new things. One was, I rode in a convertable car with the top down for the first time in my life. Now I know you are probably saying. "Where has she been?"
It's not that I wouldn't have taken the opportunity to ride with the wind in my hair before now, but the opportunity never presented itself to me before Sunday.

Peggy called to ask what I had planned for the day. When I said," Not much." I was invited to come shopping for fabric with her. She is working on making a quilt for her daughter and her son-n-law. And since we were going shopping in the area where my commission piece that I did for the hospital way she wanted me to direct her to the hospital so she could see it.

Coincidentally, her ancesters were Floyds, Prestons and Breckenridges, all founding fathers of settlements in the Kentucky and Indiana area surrounding the Falls of the Ohio River. The Falls area became a port were they off loaded goods and carted them up or down river to load them back on barges in order to by-pass the falls until the locks were built to raise or lower the water level, thus allowing barges and boat to safely traverse the falls. The port or Portland later became Louisville. The hospital is named Floyd Memorial and is in Floyd County not too far from Floyd Knobs a rather high hill above the Ohio River on the Indiana side.

I took her up on the offer. I drove to her house and we went in her 94 Ford Mustang. Top down. The day was partly cloudy and pleasantly in the mid seventies with low humidity. Now I know why convertable riders wear ball caps or scarfs on their heads. The wind whips your hair around and the wind has a nasty way turning each strand of your hair into a miniture whip that STINGS as it hits your face. It doesn't HURT, but it does get you attention.

Dispite that and me trying in vain to hold my hair down I had a great time.
We went to the hospital to see the quilt too. She was dutifully impressed.
I brought two cuts of a soft knit one in varigated pinks and the other in varigated yellows with short stripes of green for myself and some decorator fabric to make Kathy A's living room window treatment which I have been promising her I'd do before I left town.

With the fabric I brought I planned to make two summer weight shawls. I could have used one or both of them yesterday at the movies. The temperature in the theatre was set to freezing and if it wasn't for a little bit you could have seen our breath.

I figured the fastest and most professional way of finishing the edges of the knit fabric I brought was with a serger. I don't have one. Have never wanted one. And I have never used one. Peggy keeps two set up all the time, ready to go. One has light neutal threads in it and the other dark threads. I serged the edges of both cuts, taking less than five minutes to do each one. The yellow one with the neutral that was in her serger. She rethreaded that machine and I did the second cut of fabric. What fun. TWO FINISHED SHAWLS. The fabric was on a super sale and cost $2.07 per 60 inch wide/yard. Two really nice shawls for less than $7.00.
How good canit get.

It doesn't take doing something great to make my day. Just experencing something new will do it. Sunday was a very good day.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

What happening with me

I don't want to say, NOT MUCH, but that's how I feel because I have not sat down at my sewing machine for weeks. I have not looked seriously at a piece of fabric thinking, Now what do you want to be and listen for the answer. I did on Friday teach a 1 day version of my Quilted Collage workshop. Although 15 signed up only 9 showed up. I didn't mind, it allowed each student to have more individual instruction time.

I wish I could show you what they created, but my daughter borrowed my digital camera for her weekend trip with her Girl Scouts. I really feel lost without it. I hope some of the students send me images of their projects when they get home.

Saturday I had a movie date with my friend Kathy A, her daughter Steffie and my newest friend Peggy. We went to see the Lake House. I loved the way the story bounced back and forth from two years in the past to the present with the primise that with knowledge of an events in the future lives can be changed and happy ever afters can bearranged. If you are looking for a light weight movie, light weight in the sense of emotion, adventure, substance but well done go see the Lake House.
The LAke House is not the stuff for which Oscars are awarded, but certainly a good way to spend a few hours on a Summer Saturday afternoon and it was more than an adequate reason for consumming a bag of popcorn.

Here is an update on the house in Columbia. Everyday Lyn calls with something new to report. One thing was her asking me if I remembered the builder saying that they would be installing a surround sound system on the lower level, in the space that will be my studio. I didn't remember that and neither had she, so she really was calling to tell me that the longest wall that I had planned to have 12 feet of design wall space I will no long be able to use. I will have to use the second longest wall space where I had planned to pla comfy chairs, a table and lamps and use aa an in studio hand work sitting area . With plan A no longer possible Plan B is now formulating in the old brain.

Yesterday or rather last nights conversation with her was about her choices of washers and dryers. For 33 plus years my husband worked for General Electric and they were in large part financially responsible for the life I had with my husband and the reason I can still have a life after him. So I am programmed to think GE for all my appliances great and small.

All of the appliances in the new house kitchen are GE no question about that. However Lyn wanting to help me stay loyal looked for a washer and a dryer of the GE variety. She said she could not in all good sense of her own design sense buy a GE, they were just to ordinary.
"The only come in white." , she said.

DUHHHH. Who looks for colored or designer washers and dryers. NOT me, not since since the burnt orange, avacado and pink era of the 60's and 70. Even back then I chose white.

"GE doesn't make them with black trim or stainless steel either to match the kitchen appliance" she reported

IT'S HER FIRST HOUSE. Believe me, I UNDERSTAND

I've been there. I like a nice looking laundry room. I'll do what every it takes to fool myself into thinking doing the laundry is a pleasant task. My current laundry room is decorated. So I understood her point of view. But in all the house I've had I've never thought of buying a decorator washer and dryer. I simply wanted then to wash and dry. White I've had and white I still have.

So she has decided on a LP brand or something like that. They have style and after all we will be coming and going through the laundry room and not the front door and she want the laundry room to LOOK nice.

The yard is leveled but not sodded yet.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Friends old and new and favorite places

Today was for friends, old and new and a visit to a favorite place and doing things that bring me joy. I ordered on-line from Connecting Threads a new to me line of thread in colors I love. I brought two books on line from Amazon.com. I chatting with my newest friend Peggy on the phone. We made plans for a lunch time-movie date on Saturday. All of these I count as joyous things. WHAT COULD BE BETTER? One answer to this question is; eating something you enjoy with someone you love and time spent spending someone elses money in a place you like shopping. All OF WHICH I DID TODAY.

I called my friend Kathy today. I invited her to eat out with me this evening. We choose the Olive Garden. It was easy for me to get to at rush hour and close to where she works so she could avoid the trafic as well. Now I know there are some of you who might turn your nose up at The OG's version of Italian crusine. Not I. I am not Italian. I have not been to Italy. I confess. I have uneducated taste buds as far as most ethnic crusine is concerned. All I know is I like what I like and I am subject to like some foods more than others especially if I do not have to cook it, serve it or clean the kitchen afterwards.

Therefore I am not the one to judge whether theOG is doing it right or not so right. I do not eat everything on their menu. Most of the stuff I have never tried. When I find something I like I tend to stick with it. My two favorite things I eat there when I go, which isn't very often of late, is their salad mainly because of their salad dressing. Even when I have brought a jar of it to take home, my salads just do not taste the same.

I love bread. Good bread and Baskin Robbin's ice cream , not eaten together. But jointly there are to blame for the extra pounds I carry. Forget the fact that neither one of these thing has the ability to jump into my mouth, decend into my stomach without me first lifting my hand, opening my mouth and swollening.

Forget Basking Robbins for the moments, let's get back to the bread. I do not eat the bread at the Olive Garden. Unless my stomach is eating the lining because I am SOOOOOOOO hungry I can't wait for the main course. I find no joy in eating long skinny air filled white bread thinly disguised as FRENCH BREAD. As uneducated as my taste buds might be, believe me, French bread by any stretch of the imagination this bread is NOT.

The other thing I eat is a dish I designed for myself. It begins with the ingredients they use for their shrimp scampi appetizer. Their shrimp scampi is a combination of boiled shrimp, black olives, onion, garlic, cherry tomatoes, grated cheese and olive oil which is served over toasted bread of a better quality then the long skinny stuff. For my dish I leave off the toast and have them serve the shrimp scampi mixture over angel hair pasta instead. WONDERFUL.

That is what I had for dinner followed by a glass of fresh seasonal berry served cold with a light vanilla custard sauce over the top. Very good!

After dinner Kathy and I went to Lowes to shop. This is where the second best thing of the day happened. I love hardware store and home improvement centers. Better still as I said, I got to spend HER MONEY. Kathy moved into an older condo several months ago and has been updating and decorating it a project at a time, as time permits between her working for a living, and being a Grandmother. The Motherly-Grandmothering things she takes very seriously.

I have put in my two cents into her decorating projects since the beginning along with two helping hands and some sweat helping her get settled in. Today's task was to select new counter tops, a new sink, faucet, over the stove venting hood and a garbage disposal. That done we looked at bead board for a short focal wall in her kitchen. We looked at and tore off several samples of wall paper and the co-ordinating border paper too.

Her house is being done in what I call comfy New England. She being originally from that part of the country I think this style suits her very well. It was fun to find home dec stuff that fits her decor and color scheme. She often tells me she doesn't know what she wants or likes. That not entirely true. I offer lots of suggestions. No one can tell you when it comes to home decorating, my house or others that I bite my tongue keeping my opinions to myself. Some advise she has taken and some she has dismissed. Which is okay with me. I feel less dominating and intrusive when she does.

I have always believed that half the job of making a decision is done when someone can tell you what they definately don't like or want.

We got a third thing done after dinner too. That third thing was EXERCISE---WALKING. It was NOT PLANNED. We did three times the amount of walking it should have taken in selecting the above list of stuff all because I laid my car keys done somewhere along the many aisle we transversed from one side of the store to the other in search of the above list of stuff. I discovered the missing keys as I was feeling in my jean pockets for them as we were exiting the store, with a samples of formica and wall paper in hand and visions of a newly re-done kitchen in our heads. (Oh well, maybe not Kathy's head, but definitely in mine.)

I did check with a man behind the service counter who said he did not know of any keys that had been turned in in the last 15 to 20 minutes before we went back to retrace our steps through the store, twice.

As we went we recited our conversations and rethought our decisions hoping that would jog our memory of where I could possibly have lain the keys. No luck, no keys. As a last prayful hope filled resort I checked at the Service Counter again. This time a little further down the counter then where I checked the first time. I asked of the man behind the counter if he could tell me where the Lost and Found was located. What luck. I was standing where the Lost and Found was located. When I identified my keys for the man, out of a locked drawer he pulled then. OH JOY....OH JOY!!!

I was in such a good mood for having had a good meal, a good time shopping and finding my keys, I stopped at Baskin Robbins on the way home for some ice cream.
Now I am on my way to lift my hand, open my mouth and swollow. Here's to friends old and new, found keys and spending someone elses money.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Meeting Peggy... a very good day

Today I met in person someone I had had a 15 minute conversation with on the phone just once.
When she phoned me last week and introduced herself, I knew after the first two sentences out of her mouth that she was going to be someone I would like to know better. She is new to Louisville, having moved her from the Chicago area last winter and was looking for some like minded quilters.

She arrived at my door at 8:50 for our scheduled 9:00AM meeting. I was still in my pj's, no bra and still sporting bed hair. She didn't seem to notice as she entered with a bin full of her in process and finished quilt projects.

She had asked that I give her my opion of her work and tell her where she could use some help. Color? Composition? Or her general overall craftsmanship.

I could tell immediately that she had a good sense of design and a definate preference for a fall/earth color pallet.
She is about 2 years new to quilting but not to sewing. She has sewn most of her life. Like most of us who have a love of sewing she owns more than one machine.
Actually three, two sergers and a long arm. She has also taken many workshops from the teachers on the National circuit. Having come from a large Illinois guild she had the opportunity to do so and took advantage of that fact.

I hope to be her mentor, from afar that is, since I am moving. Computers and digital camera's which we both have are a good thing for long distance communication.

We sat and talked across my dining room table for hours until she took me out to lunch where we lingered over our meal and talked some more in the car when she dropped me off. And no there was never an awkward pause in the conversation or any sign of uncomfortableness from her nor any with me.
It was as if I had known her FOREVER.

I am off tomorrow morning to see her newly built house with a customed quilt built studio on her lower level. Maybe I can get some ideas from her on how to set up my own new space in Columbia.

I am in between two place and I don't have enough of anything in one place to really get into any thing serious or any thing simply playful either. So I have been knitting. Finishing a shrug I have no hope of wearing until late Autumn.

I'll be away all day Friday, teaching a one day workshop for KHQS KY Heriage Quilt Society) I guess I should be getting everything I need for them together in the next two days.

Hope your day was GOOD TOO.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

DOG vs CAR

As I said, I came back to Louisville from Columbia and found my middle grandson, age 18 was there smiling with a look not unlike his grandad, dimpled cheeks and all and so was the cutest little 5 week old black and white puppy you have ever seen.
I was not happy.
And middle grandson was soon not to be happy either.

I DO NOT DO DIRT.... I DO NOT DO DOGS!
My kids and grandkids have known this fact from the time they could hold a thought in there heads for more than 1 minute.

Yes I'll own up to the fact that I tend to spoil the grandkids and I think they think they can talk me into anything or accept anything they want to do as long as they say P-L-E-A-S-E.

And there have been times when I have wavered on a decision I've made. But I have NEVER... NOT EVER... NOT ONCE CHANGED MY MIND ABOUT HAVING A D O G.

I wasn't raised with animals and neither were my kids. My youngest daughter would begin to scream and literally climb up my body and into my arms if she saw a dog as far away as a city block let alone one within two feet of her. In which case; I've wondered more than once, how Rene' could climbed up my entire body, to sit on my shoulder, and wrap her arms around my head in a death grip, so fast.

I helped my mother care for my three younger brothers. Carried one of them around with me everywhere I went from morning to night the summer I was 15 like he was a PET. When I had four children of my own, I had no need for or a desire for a pet of the four leg variety.

Justin, because I love him thought he could outlast my no no no no no's.
Justin also wanted a CAR. Now mind you he works 4 hours a day and needs transportation and to keep him out of my Jeep, a car for him was a necessary yes. But the dog was not and the dog had to go.

"But I've paid to get him de-flea-ed." "NO!"
"But I've brought food and a feeding bowl and.." "NO"
"But I got him for free." "NO!"
"But I will be moving out of here and in with two friends in a month." "NO"
"But I've always wanted a dog." "NO."
"PLEASE: "NO"
"But if I give him back he will die, because my friend can not afford to keep another dog." "NO."
"But.." "No."

Now you might think I am being mean about the dog, but I don't do dogs remember and I knew I would be the one who would have to take the dog out during the night. Justin works at night and like all teenage boys he likes to party on the weekend and I knew he wouldn't stay home to care for or train a dog. I knew I would be the one to walk and feed it HIS DOG, because Justin doesn't come home and get into bed until the sun is rising most days and he sleeps like someone without a care in the world until the last afternoon. Believe me when Justin goes to sleep he would forget he had a dog. Yes it would be walking the dog and picking up POOP because we have a Pooper Scooper Law in our community. No, no no not me!!!!

So it came down to the C-A-R or the D-O-G. Guess what W-O-N. It wasn't the D-O-G.

Friday, June 16, 2006

July Symposium

Mastering the Quilted Surface III
Inspiration and Techniques for creating original art quilts
July 8-14, 2006
Marriott East Hotel - 100 Embassy Square Blvd
Louisville, KY
502-499-6220 for reservations. Room not included with class fees.

The hotel/symposium site is located 1.5 miles from Interstate 64.
If driving, take Exit 15 South toward Jeffersontown.
Turn left from the right hand lane at the traffic light onto Plantside Drive or get immediately into the right hand lane after turning and make a quick right turn onto Embassy Square Blvd at the CARMAX dealership.
If you miss the street, turn around at the Dairy Queen and come back.
Southwest and all other major airlines fly into Louisville.
However, there is no shuttle service from the Marriott East.
The hotel is approximately 15 minute from the airport by automobile.

You may ship your machine to me prior to the symposium and any other items you do not want to handle.

Forget something. A Walmart, a Hancock's or in walking distance and a well stocked Quilt Shop is a 5 minute drive away.

Saturday - July 8
Expressive Machine Quilting - Valerie White - ½ day Morning Session
The Final Presentation - Marti Plager - ½ day Afternoon session
Beyond Basic Piecing - Marti Plager - 3 hours Evening Session

Sunday - July 9
Expressing Yourself: mixed media on fabric -Valerie White - Full day
Discharged Surface Design - Kathy Loomis - Full Day
Surface Design Techniques: cotton & other fibers - Joanne Weis - E’ning Session.

Monday - July 10
Ideas & Inspiration - Juanita Yeager - ½ day Morning Session
Designing an Original Block - Marti Plager - ½ day Afternoon Session
Making the colors you love Sing: - Juanita Yeager - Evening Session

Tuesday July - 11
Strips & Slivers - Kathy Loomis - ½ day Morning Session
Working With a Motif - Kathy Loomis - ½ day Afternoon Session
Getting down to business: Juanita Yeager - Evening session

Wednesday - July 12
Paducah Trip … Visiting the MAQS and other sites

Thursday - Friday July 13-14
Working with a Mentor : Loomis, Plager, White & /or Yeager

Class fee vary from $50.00 to $150.00. Fee includes cost of at least one meal and all material needed except your basis supplies: such as sewing machine, cutting mat and cutter, ruler, pin, fabric & paper - scissors, machine sewing needles, thread. Etc.
To register contact Juanita Yeager at
Juanita.yeager@insightbb.com
or call 502-244-8812
Hotel reservations: Call the Marriott Hotel 502-499-6220

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Up close and the bigger picture


On the way back from the Galley at Smithville we stopped at this overlook since we were 2 hours ahead of schedule getting on the road for home and had more than a few minutes to spare.
Isn't this view wonderful when you take in the distant view. Notice the sign thanking everyone for keeping the Country Clean.

Up close the view at this wonderful sight was a different story. There was trash of every discription including a pair of male jockey shorts.




I've hear the saying that "... knocked me for a loop" or "knocked my socks off." But your shorts.

Our travel plans for the day were based on the last time we hung quilts in Smithville, three - four years ago. Smithville is about 70 miles east of Nashville and they are on Central time. One hour behind us.

Back then, it was a four and one half hour drive from Louisville to Smithville, just as it was today. Last time there was more road construction to deal with. Today wasn't too bad according to Kathy.

I picked Marti up at 6:40 AM, drove us to Kathy's house where I promptly handed her the keys and retired to the back seat to sip on a cup of coffee and go back to sleep since 7:00 AM is NOT MY TIME OF DAY. Occassionally I would rouse to hear Marti and Kathy chatting. It was a comforting sound not unlike listening to a talk show.

Over the past three years of Marti, Kathy and I working together hanging exhibition we have gotten the task down to a science. Marti who my late husband fondly called the Major General had everything under control. We have our own light weight ladders, Marti has her own hammer and level that fit her small hands, we have scissors for stray threads and a masking tape roller to remove pieces of lint and hair. We brought our own nails too, which was a GOD THING since the ones they provided had some kind of black oily coating on them that rubbed off on you fingers. NOT GOOD FOR FABRIC!!!!

It is easier to organize and hang an exhibit when you are familiar with the art work and the artist. As was the case with us this time. We also had the assistance of a young lady named Sarah who is a senior art sudent at the Univeristy of Tennessee, her specialty is jewery making and silversmithing who help speed up the process.

She had young knees and was willing to climb the ladder. If I did not have an allergy to silver I would have been tempted to purchase several of her pieces.

My credit card came home in GREAT SHAPE.

Will try to remember to upload some images of the Art galley and workshop setting.
The art and craft center is not unlike Arrowmont if any of you are familiar with that Art and Craft school in Gattlinbrg, Tennessee.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Rubber balling it

I'm back in Louisville again and begining to feel a lot like a rubber ball. I wish there was someway to earn milage points for driving that I could used toward getting I don't know what at this moment, because I am racking them up.

I used to hate driving and for years I didn't do much more then drive myself to work. When my husband was alive, I had no problem riding shot gun. And he was happy to dive me ANYWHERE. I would read the maps and give directions. Of course I had to tell him three exits ahead that I needed a potty stop. He like most men hated to stop. His philosphy was "Lets just get from point A to point B, please" Riding with him was never boring. I would read, knit some or crochet in the old day, embroider and I could hand quilt without stabbing myself too.

HERE'S A CONFESSION. dispite the many miles I have traveled in a car I could not truly say that I really knew the fine points of driving. Driving was just something I did when I had too.

When I drove on a straight road Phil likened me to Mario Andrette. I zoomed. But let me come upon a curve or a series of "S" curves especially those that went downhill at steep grades, it was all I could do to navigate them successfullly without braking to below the speed limit. More than likely POing the drives behind me. But as I was driving back to Louisville today I finally got it.

My friend Kathy A told me several years ago; as I was driving us back from New England one Autumn ,that I didn't know how to drive. Of course I DID I told myself under my breath, least there be an unfriendly exchange of words. Why would she say that anyway, I'd been driving since the late 60's. Some 30 plus years. I knew when and how to pass. I used my turn signals. I let people into the flow of traffic. I've never had a wreck that was my fault. Sure I knew how to drive.

Driving myself back and forth to Columbia on somewhat of a regular bases of late I discovered driving curves was a lot like free motion quilting. You do not look where you are. You look ahead to where you want to go. That how I began driving. When I did that I flowed into and out of the curves smoothly. Now not only can I drive the flats I can drive the curves, up hill and down, wha-hoo with the car in cruise control. NO BRAKING ya-hoo!!! A few more trips west and I just might be ready for NASCAR.

I had to call Kathy on my cell phone to tell her she'd been right. And I didn't get my feathers ruffled when she said, I told you that years ago. Don't you just love friends?

Last week at Lyn was uneventful. John and I got along well, we went off to buy him some clay to work with. We went to look at the house too. The kitchen except for the appliances is complete so off to Sears we went to choose them. The carpet was in. Dispite our hopes of being able to choose what we wanted we learn that the carpeting had already been ordered. DID YOU KNOW THAT SHAG IS BACK. We have a short shag that I can't tell if it is a soft yellow or a yellow beige. I suppose it will depend on the wall color and what else is in the room.

They began leveling the back yard this week too. Shucky darn, I was growing fond of the two large mounds of dirt, but alas we will have the typical suburban flat yard all the way back to the point where the lot falls off into a raven. I haven't the nerve to walk that far back in the yard yet, least I come upon some critters in the overgrowth that will make me scream and run.

I never was a Girl Scout. I never camped out. Spent the summers of my youth in NYC at Coney Island, the Bronx Zoo and Time Square, never in the country with uncaged critters and I don't do dirt unless it is sterile and in a pot. We're getting a yard-man.

Spent most of my free time while in Columbia getting the rest of the paper work I need for the Smithville exhibit together. Went to Lyn's office to use a printer, but couldn't connect my laptop to her printer network, so I went off to Kinko's.

That's one of the disadvantaces of living between two places. You get one place and realize you left something you need at the other place. I can not and do not want to travel with EVERYTHING.

I will be in Louisville until after my July Symposium. Getting ready for that and doing some more packing. If I don't get a buyer soon I am going out to buy a stature of St Joseph, have him blessed and bury him in a flower pot on the deck. I wonder if that works as well as burying him in the ground?

I am not going back for the closing on June 26 which is the tenative date at this point. THE builder has 10 DAYS TO 2 WEEKS TO FINISH IT UP and there's still the house inspection to be done and a walk through that Lyn can do.

I came home to find my middle grandson had acquired a 5 week old puppy. Right now I am NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS. More on this subject later.

Friday, June 02, 2006

It begins.

The adventure began several months ago when I decided to move. Up until yesterday it was still a plan in my mind so to speak. Yes the new house has been selected, yes the mortgage process was begun. Yes I've told all my friends and family I am moving. But reality sank in with a BANG yesterday when I started to pack my studio 9 boxes and counting at this point, plus four boxes of yarn that was stored in my bedroom. I looked around at all the stuff that was left to be packed.

I hadn't made a dent.

BAM! BAM!

Lord, what have I gotten myself into? Are you sure you want to do this a little voice is saying. The other voice said, yes you do, you know you do. BUT. No buts. Just take a deep breath and get on with it. Are you sure? Yes, JUST DO IT.

When I moved to this condo my previous studio space was an unused bedroom and on the rather small side, but that space served the purpose. I produced a lot ribbon winning quilts and quilts that were sold. But bigger for me has proved to be better. More ribbons and more sales on one hand then on the other hand, the saying that goes the more space the more stuff is TRUE. Five years of living here and boy do I have a LOT OF STUFF.

Several months ago I donated several boxes of books on the subject of quilting to the Public Library . But I left just as many more books in the studio. And since then, I've brought more books to fill the space vacated by the donated ones. As far as the other stuff that needs to be packed, I will tell you that I've never met a Doodley-Dad (notion) that I didn't think looked interesting enough to buy at least one and try.

My excuse for that indolence has always been; I teach therefore I should know what everything does, who knows when a student might inquires. RIGHT!!!

And when I began to augment my work with paint and ink and crayons and markers I brought and tried many brands. I have lots. And of course there are beads and other found objects. We will not touch on the subject of thread.

BOY DO I HAVE STUFF.

I thought when I was planning this move I had plenty of time and I could and would approach it in a systematic and organized manner. WRONG!

Operating under the delusion that LIFE would wait, I told myself that I would pick up each item, make a decision about it on the spot, keep, toss, donate or adopt out to a worthy home. NOT!!! None of that happened yesterday nor this morning. What I did do was fill each box as fast as I could, keeping like items together. Rulers with rulers, thread with thread, paper with paper., etc. As I did that I knew I was packing stuff that will only be tossed out in Columbia. OH WELL!

Of course in the mist of my plans to move and the funeral; me taking time out to dye 100 yards of fabric that has to be moved to Columbia did not help make me want to move less stuff. But that new fabric all folded and packed in three bankers boxes; I think that is what they are called, you know the ones made of cardboard that you put together yourself.

I would show you the fruits of our labors if I could but I forgot to take my camera with me when I went to Marti's yesterday to retrieve my pile. Marti took some shots with a digital camera but she will wait tell George comes home to show her how to download them into the computer and forward them to me. Those fabric are in the trunk of the car at this moment and will go with me to Columbia when I leave for there tomorrow along with as many other boxes as I can haul in the Jeep. Getting to use the fabric in those boxes will be my reward; for unpacking on the other end when the time comes. I can not wait to get my studio up and functioning in Columbia.

They still sell the standard grey colored bankers boxes, but now they come in colors, blue, red orange and green too, which makes organizing simpler. Some, not even half of my knitting stuff, yarns needles, books and notion was packed in orange bankers boxes yesterday. Four of the orange boxes went to Columbia with Lyn and John. I will still have to buy more boxes and pack at least four more to get all my yarn and knitting stuff moved.

I am packing my studio related stuff in red boxes, All the fabric will be in green boxes which will include all the fabric that now resides in my wire basket system. I still have four plastic 40 gallon tubs of fabric, mostly hand dyes and solids that were acquired for two weeks of classes with Nancy Crow that were never incorporated into the wire basket organizers. I will separate out the hand dyes in these bins later because I haven't developed a fondness for solid colored fabric as yet.

So many ideas, so much fabric waiting to become...
All I need is the space to work and time....