Wordless Wednesday #25

Construction

Not household construction just stitching construction.   I thought I was approaching the windows brilliantly for the upper floor of the yellow house.   O contraire my dear friends.   I had the spacing wrong so....out came windows and their trim and now I put them in correctly spaced.   Que sera sera. The house is not bad to work on because once windows are spaced correctly it can be mindless stitching.  However, after stitching all morning it is hard to feel like progress has been made.   At least I am getting the meditative benefit from the repetitive motion.

I returned to the wallpaper removal project of mine.  I don’t know what interrupted my progress...... something came up and I slacked off for about ten days.   I am now working my way down the stairs.  Tricky....and messy and don’t even suggest a tarp on the steps.  Trust me there is a reason my children won't let me play in the reindeer games.   The only bright side is the amount of wall space does decrease as I go down.   I am determined to get this off my To-Do list so give me another couple weeks and I think I should be ready to paint.

I feel like I have settled into a workable wintertime stitching routine.   I have been spending a week to ten days working on the monthly HOD piece.  Once stitched, I work on finishing it right away.   

Since I am in finishing mood at that point I am dragging one UFO out of the bin.   This month I selected this snowman kit I purchased when in Memphis for Prim Stitchers Retreat a couple years back.    

And of course I am off on any other tangent.....one evening on FaceTime with my daughter she showed me her gorgeous, well done bullet journal.  (Check out this post to see what Lisa does.)  My daughter thought this was something right up my alley. A few Pinterest dives and then a few YouTube videos and I was hooked.   I have always been a list maker and as an Executive Assistant using a Franklin Planner for years made me ever so more productive.  I remember the VP of Information Technology, a young whipper snapper of 39, used to tease me that I could do the same on an ap on my phone..... but my planner was my security blanket and bible and it saved his butt a time or two when I could immediately turn to the info he wanted.   Of course I had to dive in with both feet and head right to Amazon.   As justification I seriously think I have been training for this my whole life.    I will definitely have to share any progress......I just hope this is not yet another great idea that I lose interest in.   

I am trying different layouts.  I am finding sitting for an hour drawing is very relaxing.  

It goes without saying ....those poor people in Texas.  I pray they get relief soon and start the slow process of recovery.  It must look like a war zone in their homes with broken pipes and destruction.   I cannot begin to imagine.  I've messaged a few friends I know that live there to check on them and offer prayers.

So that’s what is going on in my life.  A project or three to keep my busy while staying cozy inside.  And to just make sure I don't get bored, .....I have jury duty!  Selection via Zoom in the morning  Fingers crossed I don't get selected.

Thanks for stopping by, stay safe, stay healthy, wear your mask, get your shot and keep on stitching.

Wordless Wednesday #24

Ups and Downs

One door closes and another opens is all I can say.   My D-in-L was head-hunted for a job but it is nowhere near where they live.   The company contacted the Engineering Dept at Penn State and asked for their recommendation for a Electro-Chemical Engineer and she was their recommendation.   She wasn’t even looking for a job.  Lots of FaceTime calls back and forth, could they/should they; could I/would I help babysitting; do they get daycare; would she rent someplace Monday to Friday or commute from my house; could my son transfer; what about the scheduled settlement on their current house in two weeks.  All these what-ifs while she waiting for confirmation she was the chosen candidate.  

Closing for the house they have been renting was scheduled for February 15th. When will D-in-L know if she has the job; how soon would she start the job; should she move for the initial training and return to work from home after that?  ACK.    More FaceTime calls to try to help work out logistics, offering advice/suggestions, child care, what about settlement on the house?    And then 96 hours later, job offer was made, accepted and we are all scouring Zillow and real estate sites to find possible houses in eastern PA for them.    No worries about the house they were scheduled to settle on.  Although they were approved for the mortgage, following the appraisal the mortgage company said no way as the seller wanted more than the appraisal so it became an easy out for them.  My son's transfer has been approved ....And YES! instead of being four hours from my babies I will be an hour tops!  I can see me waking up at 6 some mornings and thinking I want to have breakfast with them and hopping in  the car!   Oh course I am doing the happiest  💃 of happy dances.  The job offer comes with two months to relocate and once trained she will be working from home three days a week.  So what was two weeks filled with anxiety turned into a week of excitement and anticipation.   Bring on the bubble wrap I say.  I had told them what I tell myself in a situation where a choice is needed.......when you don't know what to do, do nothing and the answer with come.  I am thankful for how the planets somehow fell into line and all is well with our world again......my only struggles are because of Covid, do I travel out to help them move or not?

I did already break  my isolation.  My son and his family came east to look at houses and stayed with me overnight.  He is only allowed to be out of state for 23 hours or he has to quarantine.   Which all I can do in conjure up a bunch of minions standing under a count down clock waiting to attack at 23 hours and one second.  I Lysol wiped and/or sprayed every possible surface in the house after they left and I did a boat load of laundry of bedding, towels, etc. on the sanitize cycle after they left.  Since my son is considered an essential worker  and is probably exposed to Covid on a daily basis, I now anxiously will count off the next ten days watching for any symptoms of Covid.  

With all the distractions of the last couple of weeks I was  making a lot of stitching mistakes with the  interruptions from text updates and Zillow listings and questions.   Instead of stitching I did a bit of internet searching and reading.    I bought this awesome quilt book.   I can't wait until I can scrap bust and work on this.   

I also bought some fabrics to complete the blue and yellow quilt I started a couple of years ago.   I ran out of blues and yellows and just couldn't seem to find anything that hit me right until I saw this on the Fat Quarter Shop site.   

And I bought all these Kona solids.   William loves MineCraft so I am going to make him a couple of pillows.  Well at least one since they are made with more than a hundred 1 1/2 inch squares!    This has to be the first sewing project I start because I fear it may not go well.

I did put down Land That I Love for a couple of days to do some finishing because I needed a change of pace.   

The first three are EGA pieces.  The Curious Needlebook is a canvas piece from a 2018 NeedleArts Magazine and was a bit of a bugger to finish.  It could be because I am not a canvas person.   I tried to get fancy but putting in a 'spine' and it didn't come out as the neatest job.  At any rate, it is now an FFO.  

 

The second is this little snowman ornament from an EGA Christmas in July a few years back.  Stitched in 2020 and FFO'd in 2021.

The next is a hand towel completed with huck weaving.  I removed all the stitches of my previous attempt, searched Pinterest for patterns and restarted/completed it all on Super Bowl Sunday.  

I finished HOD Year of Celebration January and started February.   Each month I will change them out on this hornbook from Pine Dale Woodworks, in color cottonball.  

For HOD February, I am not always so good at picking my own fibers but I selected left-over threads and linen from the Drawn Thread Love Letters.  I know they work well for that but......I finally accepted my color choice of  not using the Valentine's tradition red when I thought of dark chocolate with raspberry cream filling .... here's hoping I fully finish this one before the end of the month and get on track for completing each month.

   Thanks for stopping by, stay safe, stay healthy and keep on stitching.