An Important Announcement

John and I will no longer be sheltering in place. Sheltering in place is drab and dreary. It fills me with unnecessary anxiety.  It bring unnecessary tension to our lives.

We have decided to share an Artist Retreat here in the beautiful Sonoran desert. We we’ll be surrounded by beautiful cactus. There is a large lizard guarding the walkway to discourage interruptions. We will also have a wonderful view of the Santa Catalina Mountains. The residence includes a kitchen and fully stocked pantry. Room for John’s 3-D Printing with plenty of filament. Also separate area for fiber arts. As a bonus there is as much fiber as I can use. There is also a full library of fiber arts books.

I will try to get a few new patterns published.  Of course Grandmas Spinning Wheel should have the supplies.

Candles and Cleaning

Today I helped on a 5th grade history project. I got to help Lisa's son Matthew learn to make hand dipped candles. We almost got 50% of the project finished today. I think a good time was had by all. Although I did forget to take a picture of the finished project.  Hint, hint Lisa. 

The unpacking the kitchen is still going on. Another box was emptied today, and I will finish putting it away tomorrow.  I also went through my weaving supplies with a realistic look at the warp and some weft.  Lisa left with some. Some more is going to Jody and I kept just about 50% of it.  Although more might leave with Jody. I have already re pourpsed one of the boxes for my shrinking box of candle making supplies.  

A nice chunk of of Teri's floor was cleared and more things are finding their way to a new home in the house or out the door.  I am working on knitting UFO's too. I am hoping to make a lot of progress on all my knitting and sewing  UFO's. The Zennig of the house is going very good, but the pace has slowed down a lot.  I still believe in the 5 minute method. 

The Kitchen and Craft Room Remodel

The morning started sorting out spinning and knitting magazines and putting them in workable order.  By 10 am I finished with the spinning magazines and put the duplicates in one of the Bookman's boxes. I have more magazines than I thought.  The box that was suppose to hold all the magazines is just about full with the spinning magazines.  This is going to turn into one of those "If you give a mouse a cookie" projects. Now I have to rearrange more boxes so that I don't have to buy more storage contIners. I am also going through patterns right now.  I think that should take a day or so.  

While finding more containers, I found more knitting books. They just barely fit into the allotted spaces. After the major work is finished I need to find time to reread the books to decide which books are really wanted now. I have some that I bought as a brand new knitter that might not be as useful to me now.  

On the remodel front some walls were patched. A kitchen light was installed. And a little more painting was done, the rest of the painting will be done on Monday. I also took a picture of the inside of the new light fixture. Look how small the transformer is.  We also said goodby to our old fridge.  

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff is a delightful children's book that both of my children enjoyed. You will also enjoy the illustration by Felicia BondIf you have not read this book to your children or grandchildren please take time to do so.  

1975 and More

Today was spent doing laundry, I only had 7 loads today. All but the last 3 are finished and put away.   One of the loads was the last 2 rag rugs for the sale on the 21st of October at the Tucson JCC to benefit the Taglit program. All I have to do is trim the little bits and pieces.  I also finished one scarf and started another scarf.  

The big news of the day is that I started working on the next phase of the remodel, yes I know the kitchen is not finished yet.  I am so excited that my craft room is our very next project, that I started working on that project today.   While I was sewing the edging of the rag rugs it occurred to me that I had a whole lot of cake decorating patterns that were so politically incorrect that they had to go. Don't get me wrong, they were ok to make in the mid 1970's, but this is not the 1970's anymore.   So I gained a whole 5 inches of shelf space back.  Yes, they were recycled. It may not sound like much, but it is a start.  

Rumor has it that the rest of the cabinets and the granite are arriving tomorrow.  

Electrical and More

Today work continued on the electrical work. The wall was partially opened and the plumbing was started.  Three layers of lenolium were also removed.  John and I traded off spending the day with Eric in his room, because he had the day off.  

Be Careful How You Ask For Things

Yesterday Eric had me up at 4 am, because he kicked his covers off and was cold. So I asked Eric last night before he went to sleep not to wake me up at 4 am again. He followed my instructions to a 

T.   He did not wake me up at 4 am, but instead at 3 am with the wild eyrps.  Yes, I know it was not 4 am and that being eyrpy is just a fact of life. I still wonder if I had said don't wake me up before 6 am if the results would have been different?

On the bright side, I am caught up with all the eyrpy laundry at the moment. I also got to sneak out of the house for 30 minutes to pick up a Brugers Bagle breakfast sandwich and a cuppa tea.  I also picked up a hot Starbucks treat too, so that I am in the tea this morning.  It still won't be enough to keep me awake, but it's a start. Did I mention that it started raining at 7 am? And because Eric is sick today, that I will not have to get Eric and his chair from the car to his day program while trying to keep us and the chair dry.  

So today I will knit and do finishing work. Then I will count rows in the finished basket for the one million row challenge on Raverly. Then try to get as much as possible in plastic bags and containers because the demolition on the kitchen starts Thursday morning.  So anything I don't want to be dusty will have to be in the craft room or in plastic containers. Yes, I will take you along for the  journey, sometimes with just pictures.  

Unusaly Good

Yesterday was an extraordinary day in my Etsy shop. I have sold out of all of my hand spun yarn. So last night I started spinning more. It will take me a few days to restock. I will be making skeins with more yardage, so if you have a color preference please let me know. Also let me know if you want some art yarn, as the majority of the skeins that I have spun never made it past my Tuesday knitting group.

Things have reached a new level of crazy and will get crazier around here. We are redoing the kitchen. The memories of the last remodel project 6 1/2 years ago is fading. So we are taking the plunge again. This time I have a bit more time so I will be decluttering the kitchen as I pack it up. I hope to get rid of things that I do not use or don't know why I have them. There will be some exceptions of course like my grandmothers grinder, I have good memories of her using it. My cake decorating supplies will also be off the chopping block for the most part. I still do make an occasional cake. I just wonder what I have hiding in the backs of the cabinets after 21 years in this house. Just maybe with more cabinets and less clutter everything will fit into my cabinets once we finish.

I need to go get ready for tomorrow.

Busy as a Bee

I think that I have too much on my plate right now. I feel that I am burning the candle in too many places at once.  I think that this had made it difficult for me to get a really good nights sleep.  Which in turn has made progress fall behind schedule. 

We are also looking at redoing the kitchen. Just the wood choices are enough to drive me crazy.  At one place alder wood is the lowest cost wood and at another it is the highest priced wood.  Most offer fiber board cabinets with wood exteriors. Some offer solid wood cabinets and doors.  The pricing makes no sense to me.  At least I have the oven and dishwasher picked out. Picking out wood is like picking a new fridge, there were less choices 21 years ago when I picked out the last fridge.  

Well I will try to sleep tonight.  

Busy

Last week Eric had a 5 day vacation from his day program. All he wanted to do was rest in bed and watch tv. My plans included going to a movie and a haircut for Eric. Guess who won? Did you really need to think about that?

So I spent my days spinning, weaving and knitting. I think I should have spent a little more time cleaning.  Well there is always what is left from this week to clean. 

This week I also started the initial shopping for a kitchen re-do. There are so many decision to be made.  I think the hardest part will be is finding a glass top cooking surface that is compatable with my LeCresut cast iron cookware.  Other than that I seem to be drawn to the less expensive appliances.  

It seems my eyrpy boy has settled down for the night. So I think it is time to call it a day. 

The Day that Could Not Get Any Better

Today has just been a very wonderful day. I got the last of the holiday presents finished and mailed. This made John happy that there were 4 fewer hand knit items in the house. I really hope that Malie and her kids like what I made. I am always nervous when I send out hand knit items as gifts. I know that I do a great job but not everyone feels the same about handcrafted items.


Teri and I went shopping at Savers today and we got some great gangas*. Teri managed to get 2 pair of Seventh Generation Jeans that were lightly used and fit her like they were custom made for her. The best part was the tab was under $30.00. I don’t think I would ever have the spare money to buy them at full price.

We then headed to the dentist and got there 1 ½ hours early, but we were lucky to be able to get in early. All I had to do was to help the hygienist with her bobbles on a new pattern. By the way she had them done perfectly and did not need the help. They were even able to get Teri in for a filling before she goes back to school.

Then it was off to lunch at the 5th Street Deli. Teri has not had good deli food since she has been away. I am almost positive that they should have a good Kosher Deli in Santa Clara, but being busy with school she did not find one her 1st semester there. She enjoyed her corned beef sandwich and fries. I was nice to see her so happy and enjoying a meal so much.

We made a stop at Nadine’s Bakery for a sweet treat to take home. I still have not had the energy to do as much baking as I had planned.

While we were out shopping, John over saw the instillation of the new garbage disposal. The original one that was installed when the house was built was worn out. So now with the addition of the new kitchen faucet and garbage disposal I think I can put off the remodel of the kitchen till after Teri finishes law school.

Now it’s time to get back to work and organize under the sink, as you know this is never my favorite job and I have delayed as long as I could. Have a wonderful day and enjoy your families.

*Gangas- an extremely good deal.