Ah...Internet...

is a wonderful thing. How in the world I lived for three years without internet conncetivity I have no idea! I just spent the last 3 days (4 really) chafing that i couldn't check facebook, ihasahotdog, or any of my blogs. Or update my own blog with info about what I have done. And you would think that I could satisfy myself with working on crafts, but no...I can't live with all these boxes lying around whispering "unpack me...unpack me..." Maybe I should have my head examined to check out the "voices", they may be a bad thing!

The sad thing is, I really haven't been able to work on any projects. Unless you call ordering a new mattress and setting up the guest bed a project. Or rearranging the bedroom layout because my head said the bed was in the wrong place, therefore I was sleeping on the wrong side. I have unpacked so many boxes, and arranged so many cabinets and shelves it's sad to realize I'm less than halfway done. But everything has a place this time around! Those spaces are filling up quickly, but they are looking more and more beautiful by the day. When the boxes are gone, and the vacuum has run through, I will post pics of MY HOUSE!!!!

I did finish the last two coats of paint on the baker's rack (yes, it actually needed 3 coats to cover up all the yucky white), but now I'm not sure if I don't need to seal it so the paint doesn't scratch off over time. Its beautiful. I also go the final coat on the chalkboard wall, and have begun sketching out how I want to decorate it for daily use. On graph paper. I'm hopeless. I have drawn it out on the board in chalk as well, just to get an idea of what it would look like.

In regards to the UFO Challenge I joined last month: 1) I did not complete April's project. But that was because the last two weeks of April were spent frantically throwing things into baoxes before carting them to the new house. That will continue to be a project to work on slowly. 2) The project number for May is...3! Which is awesome, because I was hoping to begin work on the 4th of July quilt! Which I can now! So, I have to sew the rows together to complete the top, choose a border fabric to add, and select a backing fabric. I have 5 blocks left from the pattern to set as corners for the border (maybe make a pillow out of the extra? That will become a new UFO if I choose that project). I spent a few hours online looking at quilting stencils, and ordered a few that could look like fireworks if stitched with a pretty variegated or shimmery thread. So, a trip to the LQS is on the schedule for the weekend. Stay tuned to see the selected fabrics!

Moving Update

Only 3 more days til I drive up to the U-Haul to pick up the truck (apparently the only way I get to drive the truck, which I actually like doing, is to pick up the truck. Which, considering I'm the one who thought to reserve the truck, makes sense...) I have now made 7 trips with full car loads (2 on Saturday, and 2 cars one trip yesterday) to the house. Very little actually remains in my house except for the furniture, appliances, and my clothes. Yes, J was really good and packed all his clothes. I, on the other hand, packed my shoes (3 boxes!) and nearly had a cow. I'm scared to pack the clothes and see just how much I have. I may actually have a heart-attack!

Mom came up this week to celebrate our birthdays (4/23 and 5/9), so basically i put her to work! She was more than happy to help though, referencing her own parents assistance when she moved back in the ice age (j/k mom! ;) And why do I love my mommy? Because I knew she would be perfectly suited for a job, and she Loved working on it. --Changing out the shelf liners. The liners on the shelves and drawers WAS an old 70-80s style apple kitschy plaid-like pattern. Green, and dirty. The pantry shelves were BadLy sponge-painted (I will have to post a pic, it's that bad), and they NEED to be replaced. We didn't get the liners complete, and I may end up having to buy another roll of Contact paper, but the finished look is SOOOO much better.

What else have I been doing, you ask? Well, aside from stuffing and taping boxes to load and unload in the car, not to mention the unpacking of said boxes at the new house in an effort to stay as much ahead of the task as possible...very little. I have begun work on the Funky House blocks to swap, and I have already been planning how to put the final quilt together once I receive said blocks. I think I want to make a town, you know, with a Wal-Mart, a church, the school, J's plant, etc. Fuzzy black dog playing in the front yard, trees, street lamps/lights, maybe a car or two...ambitious, I know. Maybe make the sashing be a dark gray for asphalt streets....

I did spray paint the cool baker's rack I picked up at a flea market for $20. It was dirty and rusty, and boring with it's cream paint. I picked up the Hammered finish Rust-Oleum, and it's gorgeous now. No way you would think it came from a flea market. Note to others: spray painting on a windy day= BAD IDEA!! My feet are still slightly bronze. And the porch is too. (oops)

And I have come up with a plan for a boring wall in the kitchen (I mentioned this the other day). It's only about 7 feet long, and is between the dining room entry, and the garage stairs door, so there is not enough room to place any furniture. So what to do with boring, white wall.......This I considered while giving Tigger a bottle last week. It came to me...chalkboard paint. No, don't ask me where the thought came from. No idea. I can't remember the process that got me from his bottle to the paint. But I picked up a quart of the stuff, and will be painting the top half of the wall tomorrow. Once the paint is dry, my acrylics come out, and I am going to turn that board into a Menu and Schedule board. It will be Bee-u-tiful. I think.

Proving my point that a crafter's work is never done, I have a project planned for a vaca in June - felt food. I've been saving empty food boxes to stuff and tape to use in the "kitchen area" at the babies' house. Then I found tutorials on making play food. Which I can't find at yard sales, and I'm not allowed to buy new stuff for children I haven't given birth to. Since I have felt left over from making felt board stories, this will use the rest of that felt, and be a great project to work on for the 6 hour drive both ways. It will fit in a small bag, and since it is hand-work, easy to do in the car! I will also probably make some as a Christmas gift for a special someone, but telling who might ruin the surprise.

Now, you may be wondering, where are the pics of what I have worked on this week. Um.. they are on the camera, which is at the babies' house, because I had two 9 month-olds today, and they were adorable playing together, so I got the camera out, took some great pics...and left the camera on the couch, where I placed it out of the reach of grubby fingers that could have pulled it to the floor to suffer an ignoble death. So I will rescue the camera and load pics tomorrow.

Now, as I am both physically and mentally tired from all the work this week, I am going to go take my shower, and go to bed early. Pepe thinks this is a great idea, and has thought so for the last 3 hours, since he's been stretched out across the couch that long. I am sitting on just enough cushion to hold me, as he thinks nose to tail-tip is how much he requires! Smart-aleck.

Uh oh...

I've done a BAD thing..... I promised DH I wouldn't start any quilting projects until I had completely finished 2. Um, what was I thinking??? I have now broken that promise (HUBBY--IF YOU'RE READING THIS NOW, STOP!!! I CAN EXPLAIN!!!) I found a block swap for funky houses, and I thought in honor of moving to an actual house and getting out of apartments, that would be an awesome project. And I've already been to the quilt shop to get the fabric! I can have my new town in my new house as a cute wall hanging. I'm gonna pattern my "funky house" after the new house, so as I sketch out what I'm planning and start sewing, I will post those pics.

Anybody else doing good on finishing some projects? As soon as I can stop packing and moving boxes, I can get back to work hard-core to finish projects. See ya soon!

Moving Part 1

It's official, we are moving early. U-haul reserved for next Saturday morning, keys in hand, almost half of the boxes packed. And just last night, we took the first car load of boxes up to the new house! I made sure that they were all for the craft room, and since I'm going back up tonight with another car load, I will probably go ahead and unpack and organize the craft room! That way, once we have "moved" and are living in the new house, I can unpack slowly, but still be able to work on projects! (Can you tell that I am excited about having an actual room to put my supplies in a work in?) I explained to Jon that he should not expect perfection in cleaning out of that room. Even when it's clean, it may "look" disorganized! But as any crafter knows, disorganization is probably exactly the way it needs to be so we can find the things we need!

And, just 10 minutes ago, I had a great idea for how to decorate one of the walls in the kitchen: a chalkboard wall. Chalkboard paint down to about chair rail height, decorated 1/2 for the weekly menu, and the other 1/2 with out projected schedule! Then as small children arrive, the chalkboard paint can be extended down to the bottom half as a drawing wall! OOooh, the ideas are flowing. And I saw an idea in an HGTV commercial about painting tone-on-tone stencils on the wall to be "cheap" wllpaper. Which would be perfect for the dining room! Yay! My own house, to decorate the way I choose!

Additions and Changes

Did I mention that my dh and I are moving in the next month? To a bigger house (okay, any house is bigger when you've been living in an apartment!), with a craft room for me, and a game room/"man-cave" for him. And a front yard for the dog, with less worry about cleaning up the poo on a regular basis - lawn mowers and rain take care of that! So the pile of boxes you see before you is my recent work over the last few days. That's around 30 boxes so far, and it's mostly games, dvds, cds, and books. I always have this trouble when it comes to packing: what can I pack today that I won't need until I'm in the new place? And can do without when I can't remember which box it's in? (ALL craft supplies and UFOs will be clearly labeled, if not in a clear plastic storage bin - I will not lose where those are, I promise!)

Anyway, I said that we went to visit my mom this weekend, and while there, I picked up a new sewing machine! Well, she's actually quite old, but new to me. I've used her before, but she really belonged to an aunt, who has decided she doesn't want her anymore! So I get her! I'm really excited about this, because there are a few sewing techniques I've seen recently I wanted to try, but my drop-in bobbins don't work with the process, so now I can try them! (More UFOs?)

But now I have a problem. I've never named my current sewing machine.I never really needed to, and actually never really thought about it. I named my car (Fred), and dh's car (the Count), but not the machine. And now that I have two, they need names. Or else how will you know which machine I'm using when I talk about a project? So I need some ideas people! Neither one of these girls does anything fancy, like embroidery, but for the Kenmore, I have attachments that should allow me to monogram correctly. But I also have to change out pattern cams if I want decorative stitches, and that's always a gamble. The Singer is also pretty basic, but more of a student model. And I can't figure out their individual personalities enough to "hear" their names, they're pretty silent in this respect. Maybe I'll figure it out as things slow down around here...or ya'll will have some good ideas!

And in terms of UFO finishing: for the challenge, those 3 shirts posted earlier were out of 5 that I worked on, and that's out of about 8-10 ideas, so I'm about halfway through those. My cross-stitch projects at the baby's house, I finished the crosses, and get to begin on back stitch for the small angel tomorrow! Add to that the moving project....I'll never finish!