Snowed In!! What to do, what to do...

So here's a shocker....there's snow - coming steadily down - in Western, NY - in February!   What ARE the odds???  Here's our Storm Watch Report...

" There will be a wide range in storm total accumulation with areas closest to Lake Ontario, including Rochester, picking up 7 to 12 inches"

Pppffftt...  Walk in the park for us..  So what do we plan for weekends like this?   Stop off at Wegmans on the way home (heck - you're already out in it), grab the essentials - Coffee, Creamer, Splenda. - Cat Food.  Perhaps a few frozen pizzas, couple cans of soup, make sure there's toilet paper...and we are GOOD TO GO!   Since there are no plans for the weekend - I have MUCH progress I intend to make on my current projects!   Need to keep that February List in mind too:

1 - "Bloomin Steps" - This one should be all cut and ready to go on retreat with me next weekend - but I'll double check that I've got everything.

2 - "Jan, Feb, Mar Paper-Pieced Flower of the Month Blocks"   - Yep!  This is the top contender for this weekend - haven't even pulled the fabrics out for them!

3 - "Hand Applique Block - Making good progress on this already - I work on this during my lunch hour at work when I remember to take a lunch.

4 - "Apple-Core" - I've decided to put this goal on hold and remove it from my February Goals.  And since I think that's against the rules - I added TWO to take it's place for this month.  :-)

(Add-on for February) 4.5 (Heh-heh) - I started a NEW project last night that I want to make an enormous amount of progress this weekend on.   Can't even give you a glimpse yet...but it's "so stinkin' cute"  <-- Vicki's famous saying. :-)

(Another Add-On for February) 4.75 - Sewing Room Cross-Stitch Wall Hanging.   I've wanted to do this piece for as long as I can remember, but just haven't been in the mood to do cross-stitch.   I had to dig through the garage last week to find a closet door and the hand rail from the stairs for the Household Projects going on.  Whilst digging through the rafters, I came upon my cross-stitch stand. It looked so sad the way the top hung down to the ground covered in cobwebs.   Guess there was some nostalgia going on there.   So I brought it out of the cold, sat down with it, washed it, gave it a lemon oil rub - pulled out my 3-drawer cabinet with all my cross-stitch supplies, cut the 14-count AIDA cloth, pulled all the DMC colors for the project, rolled the piece up on the scroll frame, and commenced stitching! I've been doing at least three 24" strings a night. (This is my 15-minutes a day challenge).     I'll give a progress report sometime on Sunday on how this is moving along.

So there you have it!  That's what I'll be doing while "SNOWED IN - IN WESTERN, NY!"

Household Projects - Part 1

I am a listmaker...

I make project lists, shopping lists, to do lists, financial lists, inventory lists, <insert anything here> lists.   Most of the time, just the mere act of making the list - motivates me to "get er done".  When it comes to Household Lists - they are usually for shopping, projects that need to be done, or those nagging thoughts that constantly creep into my head - "Geez.  I HAVE to remember to do that!"

 

Now that I'm living alone again, I find myself making lists more frequently and doing more things.  It truly gives me a feeling of accomplishment when I scratch something off of one of my many lists and can put it out of my head forever.   I've also come to realize that this momentary feeling of accomplishment, is what gives me the mindset of "Freedom" to do whatever my choosing!   Lately - I reward myself with working on a project in my sewing studio.   Which is fantastic - because I really missed the pull to my creative side - it was gone far too long.

 

Throughout the week this week - I was looking forward to the weekend to sit, relax, sew, listen to an audio book, call some girlfriends and catch up and a handful of other things.   Surprisingly, I am finding myself drawn to the running "To Do" tasks swimming around in my head instead. They are REALLY distracting!   There is A LOT to do around the house now that the dust has settled and everyone has moved onto the next chapter of their lives.   I've come to realize that boys are really hard on things!  So it's a process to get everything to this girl's standards.  :-)  Momma has been staying with me for the month of January and helping me SUPER CLEAN various rooms of the house. Much of the work needed right now at her house is all outdoors. Obviously WINTER makes that difficult, so we have focused our efforts indoors at my house!  Here's some before pics - and only a few AFTER thus far.

 

Living Room around Moving Day

 

 Living Room Now

 

The Living Room couches were a fabulous find.  It pays to be friends with generous Quilters.  :-)  They were in a "Formal" living room of a 4-story manor off of East Avenue with a couple that are moving to California and didn't want to take them with them!  They are well-constructed and comfortable, and gorgeous!   We have them convered with sheets now though to protect them from the kitties.  The area rug was a find at the VOA.  It was filthy dirty but SUPER Cheap.  I spotted a pretty flower under the filth and snagged it.   Several carpet shampoo's later - it's breathtaking.  It can't stay in the living room though - the cats are a little TOO enamoured with it as well...  Momma had to keep it safe just long enough for the picture!  It's hand-woven wool pile and thick!   They love getting their nails into it.  So it will end up going into one of the guest rooms upstairs, behind a closed door.

 

We have been shampooing our BRAINS out, the results are extraordinary!

 

 

The upstairs has a LOT more work yet.  The boys were free to put whatever they wanted on the walls of their bedrooms, so there are a gazillion nail holes and staple gun holes to fill and more carpets to clean.

 

 

 

Currently - the focus is on what I will call - "The Blue Room" - only because it has a Blue Carpet (for now).  So far - we have washed\scrubbed the walls, used a gallon of spackle, sanded & brushed off the walls.  They are ready to prime!  Lisa (one of my BFF's), and her husband Dave came over last week and helped us pull off the molding and all the carpet tack strips to reveal....beautiful hard-wood flooring.  Somewhere in the back of my head I knew the entire house had hard-wood floors, but they were all covered when I bought the house, so I forgot.  Now - I'm ever so grateful.  :-)

 

 

So I'm anxious to get this room painted and primed so I can throw out that nasty carpet, shine up those floors, and put that pretty flowered VOA rug up here.  But...it's a process.  I have to be patient because materials for these projects have to be purchased in very small stages.  Lisa & family are coming back tonight to help mud the crud that was under the molding.  Because the carpeting will eventually be tossed out (or repurposed to the laundry room if it I can get it to come clean), the molding has to be moved down to touch the hardwood floor, thus revealing 1/2" all the way around, of holes, layers of wallpaper & paint and all kinds of stuff.

 

Eventually, I will find furniture to furnish my empty rooms so that friends and family can come visit and stay.  The boys are super busy with their lives now, but perhaps someday - grandchildren will come and have sleepovers here!!  I know - wishful thinking right?

 

New Block Releases - what to choose!?

So in December - I was trying to decide what new projects I wanted to tackle for 2013.  I wanted to deem 2013 as my NO UFO year!  And only start NEW projects.  :-)   You can see all the choices I came up with HERE.

Let's see what kind of trouble I can get into now that it's a new month!  :-)

February's Paper-Pieced Block is out over at Quiet Play.  So stinkin' cute.  It's a seam ripper!

 

 

The second block for Jingle Applique is delayed at Once Piece at a Time until next week because Erin isn't feeling well - but the first block and the center block is out.

 

 

 

The next Block for Sulky's Sewing BOM is available too!  So cute!!

 

 

 

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