Tuesday morning lie-in

... or is it "lay-in"?  I'm not sure, but it felt great to sleep til I woke naturally, even though it was only 8:30!

Yesterday I sewed what I consider the last border on my Friend and Family day challenge quilt, but again it's not showable just yet.  Did you ever have a great design idea in your head, then put it to paper and it looked okay, but in reality it didn't?  Well, that's what this one did to me, but I'm not in the mood to redo it.  Someone will like getting this quilt, I just know it!

Today I have the dentist (yuck!) and I have a boat load of books to donate.  You ever seen this many books outside a library??

And that's just the tip of the iceberg!  Some of my favorite authors are in the box - John Sanford (I really like his "prey" series), James Patterson, Jeffrey Deaver, Ken Follett, Patricia Cornwell...  I used to buy the hardback books and I was reading most of them just one time, then they'd go on the shelf or get stacked wherever they fit.  Then I got smart and started getting them from the library, doh!  But meanwhile I have all these books I won't read again, so the smart thing is to donate them and take the little tax write off; somebody will get a great deal on these books!

Sunday there was an open house on the renovated house next to me and a bunch of us from the 'hood went in to check it out.  They did a nice job, but I wouldn't want to move next door... I mean it's better than it was but well, you know...

I took a picture of the dining room and kitchen area... they moved the kitchen from my side of the common wall to the enclosed porch across the back of the house...

This shot of the kitchen was taken from the dining room doorway; out the window there's a "great" view of electrical wires and a telephone pole.  Notice all the counter space?  I didn't think so, there's hardly any there!

Here's another view taken from the end of the kitchen...

I was standing in the table space at the end of the room.  For reference, the house is about 17 feet wide.

Well, that's all my chat today, I hope you have a great Tuesday - get off the blogs, get outside and enjoy that extra hour!

Sew forth and sew on

Time marches on

omg where did the week go??  I can't believe how long it's been since my last post; I have some good stuff to tell you about but today is one of those whiny posts! 

Started off with my neighbor from two doors down knocking on my door around 9:30 Tuesday morning saying "Well, the good news is - good morning!"  I'm thinking uh-oh... do I want to hear this??  I had just had a mini-dream just before waking that a tree had fallen and crushed part of my roof, which in my dream was about 60 feet away.  Then he says "the bad news is - somebody knocked the mirror off your car!" 

omg I couldn't believe it!  Whoever the heck did this KNEW he did, how can you not know?  So, sometime between 1:30 Monday afternoon when I parked the car and 9:00 Tuesday morning, somebody did it!  There was also damage to my front quarter panel, and a scratch just behind the door.  Looks like they hit the mirror, backed up to straighten out the truck, and went on his way.

I made a police report (hit and run against a vehicle) and called my insurance company; they were great to work with, had me set up for a repair appointment for Wednesday morning at a place 1-1/2 miles away.

These folks were great to work with too.  I didn't have my mirror turned in when it was hit, but the damage inspector said that even if I did, the damage would still have happened.  My mirror is designed to fold either way if bumped... whoever did their thing just mashed it all the way till it broke.  My insurance company (GEICO) had arranged for a rental car and they had it waiting for me...

They gave me this 2012 VW Jetta - if you were watching Oprah's last season, this is the car she gave to each person in her studio audience on one of last her "favorite things" shows.  I'm not impressed though... it's just a car.  I wanted MY car!

They had to remove and repair the front quarter panel, remove the headlight, remove the door handles inside the car, repair the paint on the back door... to the tune of $753.87, $250 of which was on me.  There goes my Kindle Fire...

So here it is, two days later as promised, good as new...

AND they washed it ... AND they detailed the INSIDE!  I go to a drive-thru car wash, and my car hasn't been completely washed on the inside since I bought it in December 2010.  Notice I have the mirror turned in - lesson learned!

The house next door?  Final-final finishing touches now, yaaaay!!  I saw this and had to take a picture, it tickled me!

shoes lined up on the porch!  When I saw them there were four pair all in a row... by the time I grabbed my camera two people had re-shoed themselves.  I guess I have a warped sense of humor but I thought it was funny - probably didn't want to get paint on those new floors. 

They painted the brick front earlier in the week, and yesterday they repaired the porch railing...

I took this picture from inside my storm door... it was windy and the sparks were a-flying.  There's supposed to be an open house tomorrow, but they let me go inside and nose around on Wednesday.  I have to admit it looks great from the outside...

I was sure they'd replace those steps though... they're really worn, some old patched work shows through on the short horizontal part.  And surely they'll put a storm door on there??

Well, that's enough for now, I'm off to a yard sale.  Have a great Saturday everybody!

Sew forth and sew on

Linda

She can't help it

Hi everybody, howdy followers!!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) Smuckers jam
(2) retreating to your lair
(3) Chia pets

Did anybody ever have one of those chia pets that actually worked?  I remember getting one years and years ago that started growing, then the little shoots just dried up and died.  No amount of water would bring it back, so I think the problem was with the base it was made of.

At our guild meeting Saturday I was reminded of the opening lyrics to the Little Richard song

She can't help it, the girl can't help it
She can't help it, the girl can't help it

I'm trying really hard to cut down on my fabric purchase (been doing great so far!) but Cynthia had a bag of scraps to sell... and ...

well, to be honest it was just too tempting!  "She can't help it, the girl can't help it!"

When you say the "S" word it gets my attention, so I went ahead and bought it - just look at all those great scraps!  There were a lot of batik pieces in the bag, all those great colors made it just too tempting to pass up.  I know y'all understand how it can be...

Regarding the renovations next door, the house was purchased by a development company which is planning to flip it.  According to a rep I spoke with at their office, they're "putting a new house in an old shell," so that's why there's been so much demolishing and rebuilding going on.  It shouldn't be much longer now, they started the first Monday in December so they're going into their 11th week.  Probably another two weeks or so.

On News 4 the other morning they were answering questions from viewers, and this one got my attention -  One person said his fiancee had the habit of taking pictures of her food when they went out to dinner and posting it on facebook, then constantly checking to see if there were comments.  He wanted to know if he was unreasonable to ask her not to do it.  You know I had to laugh!  The general consensus was that it was okay if she took pictures, but she should wait til she got home to post it. 

With that being said, here's a picture of the salad I had for dinner at Golden Corral, after guild meeting Saturday  ;o)

Sew forth and sew on

To the roof, boys!

... or, "A day in which nothing important happens"

If you've been following me awhile you'll probably guess I'm whining talking about the renovations to the house next door to me.  Yesterday they started work on the roof and they're back up there again today,  which is fine with me up to the point all that debris comes flying down into my back yard.

It looks like old guttering or something, it's a lucky thing my car wasn't parked back there!

One of the guys picked it up, but I'm a bit tired of all the trash back there

and this is the third yard full of stuff! 

And lookit that grin after he picked up the pipe...

doesn't it just say "I know I'm wrong but if I grin real nice it'll all go away"?

So much for that nonsense. 

Yesterday was one of those "I don't want to think about a pattern, I just want to massage my fabric" kind of day, so I made some more crumb blocks...

I like the mix of colors and I do try to sneak in  bits of ugly fabric every now and then; I think crumb blocks are the perfect camoflage!

I haven't decided what to do with these yet, but crumb blocks will always have a place in my repertoire, so to speak.  Take a look at blocks from a quilt I made using crumbs for the star centers:

 

If you want to see the full post, you can find it here.  I'm also thinking of a churn dash or monkey wrench block, with crumbs in the center.

Well, this is a late post for me but I hope you enjoy the rest of your day! 

Sew forth and sew on

What to do...

what to do???   I'm being driven off my nut, out of my tree, bananas, off my gourd!! 

What in the world is she talking about??

They're STILL working on the house next door to me and yesterday I felt like I was
going
out
of
my
HEAD!

There were about 6 men working inside yesterday; among other things they were installing new wood flooring and the noise was louder and more intense than ever before!

All day long, until about 5 pm, there was banging and banging and some kind of continuous buzzzzzzzzzing sound!  Above you see one installer using a skillsaw; that's not the sound I was hearing from inside, it was probably an air cleaner.

At one point I was on my porch and I said something to the guy like "Sounds like you're doing a great job in there!"  Then he asked me if I wanted to see what they were doing.  And, being a nosy inquisitive sort of person, I went inside to take a look...

This is the only picture I took:  standing just inside the front hallway, looking into the living room and dining room.  They've removed the far dining room wall which was technically the back wall of the house (that's probably where all that brick came from a few weeks ago).  The kitchen has been completely dismantled, I think they're moving it out to the enclosed porch area to make a very large kitchen/dining room combination. 

As far as I could tell, they're making what's left of the old kitchen into some sort of large storage area (or powder room), hence all the banging and scraping I've been hearing on the common wall the last week or so. At the same time they were also working in the basement doing who knows what.

So much for that nonsense, I'll keep my nose pressed to the window for more snooping ops or whatever.

I wasn't able to make it to the Red & White, Too artists' reception Saturday but I understand it was very well attended with a positive response!  Here are some more pictures from the exhibit:



"King's Fancy" by Bernerdette King



"Petals on a Pond" by Loretta Tatum

The quilt above is a cutwork technique that Loretta taught us at our 2011 Scrapbagger's retreat in Deep Creek, Maryland.

And last but not least, this beauty was done by Deb Sanger:


"I Heart New York" by Deb Sanger.

 I still have more pictures that I may share later - enjoy your Valentine's Day!

Sew forth and sew on

Another day older and business as usual

Thanks everybody for my wonderful birthday wishes!!  It makes a lady feel right loved  :o*)

I had planned on goofing off yesterday but I didn't get around to it!  The only thing I did differently was, I didn't blog hop ... but isn't blog hopping sometimes called "goofing off"??  Oh, I know - it's considered goofing off if you do it all day long!!  Didn't happen for me yesterday  ;o)


I won these lovely red fat quarters on a Mystery Monday giveaway from Annie at Ruby Slipperz...

the color came out all wonky but they're pretty in real life!

And this great giveaway I won came yesterday from Sue at Snippets of My Life

She crocheted these herself, aren't the colors great?  It's a dishcloth, a coaster and a scrubbie on top.  The coaster can also be used as a face scrubber - I think that's what I'll use it for because it'll be so soft!

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday, but not before I got a shot of the latest in the remodeling going on next door...

See that hose coming out the side?  They were blowing in insulation, this is very interesting stuff to me!  They were also installing some insulating pads, probably wrapping the new air exchanger system they put in.  The company bought it for $312,500, which is less than the previous owner's asking price.  It'll be interesting to see how much they flip it for, with all the work they're putting in it!  I called the office yesterday to ask some nosey questions, and he told me they're "putting a new house in an old shell" and he's inviting me to the open house they'll have in March.  I was going anyway.

Now, just so you know I didn't spend the entire day minding other people's business, I deconstructed some shirts I've had for awhile, so I could put them where they belong (wherever that is - but it's not tossed in a pile on the cutting table).  I need to press these and cut them into strips, and remove the buttons from the collars and cuffs.  I'll get whatever I can from them (nothing smaller than 1-1/2" strips), then toss the rest in the trash.

I also sorted and folded some more fabric. I was surprised at how many scrap pieces I had in my yardage bins... no wonder they were so tumbled!  I've needed to redefine my definition of "scraps."

I've had a dry cough/sneeze combination for a few days and the doctor told me the same thing he told me in early November:  I need to get a humidifier for the bedroom -- he recommended a sonic one.  So yesterday when I left his office (with a coupon his wife gave me) I got a Sharper Image one from BuyBuyBaby.  I'm impressed with how quiet it runs, we'll see if it makes a difference.  I'm also taking MucinexD twice a day for a few days... wish me luck, I've had enough of this cough/sneeze.

So today it's business as usual again, sew forth and sew on