Insects x 3 = goodbye to my floors*

Just a big old rant here.....what's the worse thing that could happen to a homemaker?   Yesterday I spread the final bits of mulch.   Halfway through I said, self, you deserve a break.   After dusting all the loose bits and pieces and dirt and such off my sweats, I sat back in the recliner with a big glass of water, an orange and my laptop intent on checking email.   Then it happened, did I see what I thought I saw out of the corner of my eye.....no can't be.....there it is again......it can't be....but it was.....a flea!  And I don't even have a cat anymore.   Just sand fleas I guess from working in the yard and rolling around in the grass.  Caught that nasty bugger and squished him I did.

Fast forward to this morning and an 8:30 text to call my contractor who put in our replacement windows last week.   I just figured he was closing the loop and wanted to make sure I was happy with the work.   Wrongo!  he found termite damage.  I told him to put me on his list and come around when he could.   Wrongo again.   So much that he is pulling off the siding, the sheathing and replacing the studs starting at 7:30 tomorrow.  It is an emergency.  He is afraid the front wall of my house which is supporting the roof, will crumble.  So instant headache for the remainder of day.

After a tornado scare at work and me leading all the third floor occupants to the basement and into the corporate vault, I get in the car to head home.   I am sitting at a red light and what do I see....another DAMNED flea and then a second.   What the heck!

It's all good.  I am riding home in my still smelling like a new car car.  I reflected on all I accomplished over the weekend and was able to cross off my to-do list.  Finished the mulch.  Got the patched up pool vacuumed.   Spackled the corner of the dining room where the drywall tape had buckled.  Bought refreshments for and manned the snack table at a puppet show.  I have left-overs for dinner so no cooking necessary.  No where to go tonight.  So life is good.....until I get home and discover ANTS!     Just what I want to be doing at 9:00 on a Monday night, scrubbing floors and countertops and wiping down the backsplash.  I have fleas.   My dining room has termites.   My kitchen has ants.  A real banner day!  Looks like the money I have been squirreling away to have my floors* refinished will be thrown into the termite remediation.  It could be worse:  I guess I could have bees colonizing in my walls!  It is all good, just bump in the road and nothing that can't be remedied.

However, I say that while I sit with my friend for the evening.....

Done did wilt already!

I am not alone having been hit with this heatwave and I know many of us are ready for a break which I am hopeful has arrived today.

It has been a busy busy weekend. My daughter came in from Boston. She had Phillies tickets and took me to the game on Friday night. It's the first time I have been to the new stadium and we went in style....preferred parking, seats in a suite, watching the game in a/c and being waited on with food and drink,  I could easily become a sports fan.   Yes, I know, next time I will be in the cheap seats!

Daughter No. 1 and her husband arrived Friday evening as well. Now we three girls together means laughter and silliness! And not to disappoint, we carried on the tradition. More friends and good food on Saturday with my son-in-law manning the grill. The was a lot of pool time but believe it or not, the water was so hot in the pool it was not really refreshing. Ran that good ole garden hose in it for an hour to no avail.  We suffered through it by floating on rafts and hanging onto noodles and drinking cold beverages.

Sunday brought two more picnics at friends, more food and continued heat. All these picnics mean good salads, good desserts, too hot to bike and I will not be getting on the scale this week.

I arrived home last evening from a picnic in DE and Mr. Wonderful had arrived home for a four-day respite. 

Some may see the RV, I see my poor grass suffering in the heat!

Hmmm, doesn't look like an 18 wheeler to me,

Ever present stuffed squirrel that is always on the dash board of whatever he is driving. 

He saves the parking passes every year and nails them to the ceiling of his man cave.

This is his home away from home....not driving a tractor and trailer on tour this year but rather driving the RV advance vehicle. About an hour out of the housing site, he distances himself out in front to arrive and get the lay of the land, to be ready with doors opened, with parking instructions, sending the kids and staff to lockers rooms and sleeping quarters, etc., when they arrive with the rest of the convoy  I guess it is like living the fantasy of running away and joining the circus if only for just the summer except he has a/c and satellite TV.   

Once he is back on the road again Friday, I will rearrange my bedroom and start to put into play all my restyling ideas with my new purchases and the ideas have been incubating ....my fabric arrived and has been just waiting for me to take scissors to the bolt and start the curtains.

On the stitching front, it has really been rewarding to work on some smaller stitching projects and see finishes happen in a week's time. I think I might have to re-evaluate my choice of patterns when shopping in the future. But alas, I am just delaying the inevitable and need to refocus on two of my larger WIPs if I hope to complete at least one of them by September. I do this all the time - create timelines for myself...self inflicted deadlines. Somehow in and amongst all entertainment and pool time, I managed another finish. 

Look at all the 'scary' things that are part of the finishing.  

This is from the crazy January 2011 challenge. I look  forward to finishing this finish.....maybe I will get on a finishing spree in August....got several that I should make it a mission to complete before September.

And remember that IRS mess I was working on for my non-profit?   The 12 months of sorting 25 years of records and financials and filling out the required forms and application; the 6 to 9 months of waiting for a response.....got a letter from the IRS that we need to amend our Articles of Incorporation (doable) and send them a copy showing the State's seal of acceptance (doable) and I have 20 days to do it (near impossible when one works and just can't traipse off to Trenton (like I would even know what office to go to!!).   Oh I love my little ladies but they will be the death of me yet!

As hot as it has been I am thankful that  I have been so very fortunate to have not lost power.  I am fortunate to be able to find relief in my pool, I have a/c to keep me cool and allow me to sleep in comfort. I am thankful today brings a break in the heat for us.  Who would have thought we would welcome 90 degrees?  Hopefully it will also curb the damaging storms we have had.   And hopefully those who have been victums of the wildfires will see relief as well.   It is time for Mother Natures  to shine fairly on everyone.

Between IRS and a bedroom re-do, I am may be in absentia for a while.......

The novice gardener - updated

 Ugh! Can't sleep.... Ever have those kind of nights? Can't sleep and too tired to stitch.....what's up with that...I guess it is being overtired. I hit the road at 8:30 a.m. for a fundraiser I was co-hosting.

Pre-event prep on my dining room table Friday night

It started at 3 p.m. and was outside in the heat .....made sure to stay hydrated....lugged all the stuff out of the Y to the park and back...(that should count as my workout for the day right?). .. Got home at 8 p.m. enjoyed nice glass of wine and an hour of floating in the pool to cool off and de-stress...ahhhhh! Off to bed by 11:15 and now I have been WIDE awake since 1:30 a.m.....played solitaire, played Words With Friends, read for awhile, skipped around FB, flipped the channels through idiotic info-mercials, caught up on blog reading, if I stitch I am sure I will frog it later....

This is a quick stitch but Oh, that means I need to dedicated some time to stitching!

I did take my stitching with me today because we always have a little project with us in case we can steal a minute to place a dozen stitches but never had the chance...and I am rambling....sleep depravation is happening here.....

My cages didn't work too well

These plants were loaded.  

We had a heavy thunderstorm Friday night and it trashed my garden. (pix to be taken during daylight hours and uploaded later!). Most of my tomatoes seem to be destroyed. Once the sun comes up....I will stake them and hope for the best. Some areas didn't fare as well and are without power and trees are down so I am grateful I got by with just few broken tomatoes. So in addition to having over planted, I, being the novice gardener, thought caging my tomatoes would be enough...trip to the garden supply store for stakes is in my future.

From one extreme to another, nature just blows me away......

For today, back to the Y to sort and stow all our gear and then it will be pool time for me and my sister!   Life is rough........

I'm a lucky girl!

I finally feel like I am turning the corner on the backlog of work and civic obligations and almost feel like I can catch a breath.  This is in part because I turned in my resignation for 6 of the 7 officers/committees I cover in one organization.   Problem is, it started small and evolved into a time- suck-the-life-out-of-you monster.  I was the one that implemented the website, the email, the facebook accounts, so I became the one who managed them.   Any one by themselves is not a big deal, but add to it Membership Chair, Grant Writer, managing mailings, Secretary and Treasurer and it is time to share the wealth.   I tendered my resignation for January 1, 2012......I think that was decent notice and now the ball is in their court to step up and take on a task.......so I am lucky because I see light at the end of the tunnel and it is not the oncoming train!  Don't they know they have been creeping into my creative time?

I guess maybe I have a 'cattitude"!



I perfect stitch for my daughter!



On another front I am lucky because I won not one but two charts this week!  First from June at Butterfly Wings I got this cutie-patudie.   I was her 75th follower.  Check out her blog.....her followers are growing every day.   Second, I won this one from Tracey at I Stitch Therefore I am.

I am heading off to retreat this week and have been looking forward to it all summer.   Four days at the shore with a bunch of fellow stitchers and a cross stitch store connected to the hotel... what more could a gal ask for??    I took a tour through my stash pile to pick out something new to start..... I always reward myself with a new start on this weekend and I think I will choose Drawn Threads Random Thoughts.   I have wanted to work on this one for quite some time......what's one more in the lost list of WIP's?

Yesterday I took a Danish Whitework class and I think I have a new love.   Wow, I love the symentry, I love the look and I particularly love how easy it is.     I definitely will be taking this on retreat with me to work on. 

And to make me four times a lucky girl, I picked up a book I had started earlier in the summer.  With all the OT  I haven't read in forever!   This book is special since I know the author.  And that is really him dressed in his regalia on the cover of the book.

Truly a rambling rant of a post.......

Stitching Slump

Not much stitching completed lately.   Kind of been in a stitching slump but hope I am coming out of it.    I have been doing a lot of financial reports for the Board I sit on  as well as updates to their website.   I am still working my way through the 2011 Challenge.  

A box of chocolates  with no calories!!!  I am enjoying this one in my rotation and confess to it being the one that had me change my project a day approach to the 2011 Challenge.   I am liking spending a week or so on each one now.  

Liberty by Little House

Lizze Kate's ABC's of Aging - I am also enjoying this one.   Stitching letters/alphabets seems to go fast.  I am already thinking I will finish as a big fluffy throw pillow.

Notice a theme here?    I am getting ready to stitch - "Eat Chocolate"!

.....so I ate cupcakes!

I have had a busy ten days capped off with two fundraisers in the same day.  And of course, true to form, I am not talking attending fundraisers, I am talking working at fundraisers.    It is all good though.   I did pack my stitching with a glimmer of hope that I would be able to get in a stitch or two between hot dog and soda sales but was only able to accomplish about a dozen stitches.  

A brief re-cap of my schedule includes straight from work Friday to the Y to set up for the Saturday a.m. vendor and craft fair.  When the vendor fair closed mid-afternoon, we wrapped up, loaded up concession supplies into my car, headed home for a quick change of clothes and headed to the local high school where the we (and when I say "we", it means only me and one other fool), were selling refreshments at the county pageant for the Miss New Jersey Pageant.   A friend is the County Director and recruited our 'services'.

All this is just the build up to the cupcake incident and contributing factors to why I am heading to be the 500 lb woman.

I finally roll into the house about 11 last night and just wanted some mindless entertainment.  Well, Mr. Wonderful has been in action again.   While I was busying myself for 36 hours with volunteer work, Mr. W. had set about to change our satelite tv to a cable provider.  I just wanted to scroll aimlessly through tv channels last night or perhaps watch a show I had DVR'd earlier in the week and I couldn't get anything but a green screen.   We went from having to use three controlers to activate all the "devices" to one - which will be nice - but there is an obvious learning curve on my end.   So, what to do next, hmmmm, log onto my laptop and surf some blogs while I unwind......not going to happen last night.   My laptop was not recognized by the new cable internet.   Like with the remote, I tried to maneuver around and access tools, etc. to no avail.   I guess I didn't retain too much of my five minutes of instructions Mr. W. gave me as I was tallying the cash box from the morning event  and setting up the cash box for the evening event and setting my hair  and doing my nails to get out the door.   I know I can multitask with the best of them but it was not the best of times to try to teach me all about the electronic nuances of our new set up.   At this point, I figure I have irrevocably changed and scrambled controler  settings, Comcast will be needed to undo what I have done and will get the fuzzy eyeball in the morning along with the "what were you trying to do conversation".....   So disgusted and just wanted some comfort,  I sat and played a couple of rounds of solitaire while eating two leftover cupcakes that were a casualty of transportation between venues when a inattentive youth skateboarded into my path on the road causing me to swerve and cupcakes to slide and flip.

Today, yes, today, I plan to stitch, and veg out, and do as little as possible.  Oops!  Forgot, got a ton of concession paraphanailia stuffed into my car that needs to be taken back to the YMCA.   Well, it was nice for about 30 seconds to dream of a lazy day.

I hope to post more about my trip to the AQS show in Lancaster PA last weekend.   Oh boy, a shopping frenzy was had. 

As always, thanks for visiting and I love all your comments.

A semi free weekend and what do I do??

Clean!   Crazy I know.   In my parts of the county we are just starting to see the signs of spring.   Robins are hopping here and there.  Folks out walking their dogs; kids on bikes and my tulips are just starting to poke through the mulch.  I have to say that I just love all seasons!  Just when you've had enough cold, comes the anticipation of spring and warmer days.  



Drat!  Can never turn photos when I try to!!

Yesterday, I enjoyed going to my guild meeting.   A too busy calendar and snow storm has kept me away since the November meeting.   For shame on me.  These ladies are so diverse and so talented with each bringing something special to our meetings.   One guilty pleasure was my copies of Inspirations.  Jane, one of our lovely ladies, takes orders for the subscription and sorts out everyone's copy.  It saves on the postage.   I wonder if Jane realizes the guilty pleasure she is bringing to all of us?   I for one, curled up on the sofa last night and just drooled over the pages.   I have never seen instructions documented so well.

Look at their instructions! 

  

Bookmarks for Literacy

Our Service Project this month is to make bookmarks for literacy.   We used card stock and punch holes in it and then stitch.    I kind of didn't stay within the punched holes!    Oh well.....

So, I got home from guild, and decided I needed to rearrange my living room.   Huh?   How do I get from one to the other?   I am maintaining my closet/cupboard a weekend cleanout.   I mean seriously, if I can't remember using it in the last two years or let alone remember I have something, there is no sense in keeping it for the sake of keeping it.   I am accumulating xerox boxes full of stuff for either a yard sale or to donate.  That brings me to the point of the living room.   I emptied two free standing bookcases.  They were the sides of an entertainment center that had long since been used as one.  These two monsters have been center stage of my living room for two weeks.   I convinced Mr. Wonderful to get them outside to the shed and THAT is what starting the rearranging frenzy.   I sorted and cleaned and wiped baseboards and rearranged furniture as well as what was on the walls.   I love rearranging the knick knacks and wall art because it is always like getting something new or rediscovering an old favorite.  

I actually started yesterday in my dining room and laundry room.   I had stacked the various Valentine decorations on the table just waiting to be put away.    I haven't got my spring flowers out yet but I did 'green'  up my table.  My sister had a great agate tray on her table and it looked so clever so I came home and copied her idea.

Geez!  The wrinkles.  I could have ironed it before the entire world was to see it!

For today, I did my next best favorite (house cleaning related) thing - I washed windows.   Really, I do love to wash windows.   Goofy I know.  I guess because I love the end result. 

They really are gleaming!

Please pardon the wrinkles.   Hazard of working on several projects at once.

Not a whole lot of stitching progress happening here for a myriad of reasons.  Too many evening meetings and fundraisers and the accompanying paperwork and also my resolve not to be a couch potato.   Me and Mr. Arthur Right-us have an issue.   The more I sit on the couch, the more I stiffen and the joints start to aching.   I am trying a new approach - trying to keep my physically active and jumping on the treadmill each morning for 20 minutes instead of stitching.   I wonder if we could put our little stitchy heads together and figure out a way to stitch AND exercise?   Well there would be a lot of very svelt stitchers out there I am sure. 

Trust me, they may not look like tulips but they are.

I see my tulips have broken through the ground. I just planted these last fall and have been anticipating their arrival ever since. The Crocus and Early Snow Drops are up as well. For now, I feel like I have a jump on spring, at least with the spring house cleaning, so much that I will be ready to get outside when it finally it warm enough to work out there. I guess that only leaves the mounds of paperwork to catch up on. Yuck, the last thing I want to see after a day of paperwork at the office!

Aren't husbands just the funniest?

I have been working feverishly the last few nights on a grant to be submitted to the Cultural and Heritage Commission to benefit the arts board for my community.   Of course, down to the wire ----but that is a whole other issue/we really submitted early and were 'critiqued' and some suggestions were made to improve so it ended up being the last 5% of the ap was last minute.  Just feeling the need to explain so that every aspect of my life does not seem like a fire drill---- but anyway......

Wednesday I made changes into the wee hours of the morning with every intention to print Thursday morning and drop at my director's house on my way to work.   Well of course when you are mission critical, something goes wrong.   The printer won't work.   I did the uninstall/reinstall, etc, etc.  to no avail.   After work, I try again and fail again and tell Mr. (not-so) Wonderful and his reaction is....:
"What did you do to it?"  
"umm, try to use it???"   
He does his manipulations and computer gyrations and disconnects and replugs everything (same as I had done at 5:45 a.m.) but for him, all is good and I am printing......half way through, it stops and shuts off.   I say to  Mr. (n.s.) Wonderful and again

"What did you do to it?"  

"Nothing.  It just stopped"   
There is grumbling.  So we repeat this exercise a whole nother couple of cycles with comments like ...."You're killing me here!"  I was afterall now interrupting Jeopardy.   What ailed me? 

 "What exactly are you trying to do?  What is this file of you are messing with and trying to print?"  

and I am on the verge of saying but resisted "I must have screwed it up when I drop kicked it"  

Each time he gets it started and it stops and turns itself off after several pages... ....not to go on and on, but this morning the damned thing just kind of imploded, no lights, no reaction, just a sad silent death.   I came home and Mr. Wonderful had been to Best Buy for a  new printer!  Now of course, the eulogy went something like....."the other one was old, we just wore the poor little thing out,  we've got a lot of use out of it, printed many a tax returns.....yadda yadda yadda"  I am afraid he may want to bury the hunk a junk and place a tombstone with the name Old Yeller on it!  Now it is OK that I drop kicked (sic) the other one because he got to spend money on a new toy.  Men, gotta love them.

Week 11 - My Small Changes

I consider myself pretty 'with it' considering others I know my age.   I mean, I blog, I have a Facebook account, I have a Twitter account, I pay my bills online, I shop online, have a Paypal account, I buy on eBay, visit Craigslist, I backup my systems, I've eaten tofu for Pete's sake!   My filing system, however,  has not evolved with me.    It is still in the 90's.   In this age of more and more electronic files and fewer paper files, I need to do something.    About 10 years ago my husband took over the bill paying to my great relief.   I hate to say it but we are in better financial straights than we were when I did it but there are contributing factors.   a. better salaries; b. kids out of college; c. kids out of the house!  And he has the whole electronic filing system down.   It is me that needs to catch up.    shhh! we can't tell him that.

So look at my current system(ssss).  This is the filing cabinet that I hope to downsize to.  

I have a file cabinet which still houses interims reports from grammer school and my baby is almost 30!    (Maybe I should give them to him at his upcoming birthday!)  Look at the valuable space this is taking up in my craft room!

I have every tax return, just recently shredded the paystubs from my first job in 1973....those paystubs that were banded by year and stored away with my husband's from 1973 til (almost) current.  Fortunately for us, his company went electronic a few years ago.    I recently heard on TV on a tax tip the time frame for keeping files.  I need to destroy this time capsule I am keeping.   Not only do I have EVERYTHING from day one, I have it stored in 3 or 4 places. 

Trust me, this antique trunk holds all the tax returns,  my father's final tax returns and my mother's estate papers. 

One plastic file under my desk; another plastic file in my walk in closet!  Wouldn't it be nice if something were to happen to my husband and I that my kids would not have to play huckle-buckle bean stalk and go on a scavenger hunt to find things... ..and then they probably wouldn't find things til years later!And this is the stack 'o stuff on the shelf in my closet waiting to be filed. 

I have been sorting and purging closets and cabinets in my efforts to downsize as a pre-emptive strike prior  to  any thoughts of moving so why not my filing system?   I know I have owner's manuals to items that have gone the wayside.   So this week my small change is to be pro-active on cleaning and consolidating my filing.   This is going to involve much more than a week.   I need to make the start this week, one file, one folder at a time.   What a pile of shredding I will create.   It may require me taking an entire lunchtime at the company shredder!

On to stitchie stuff......not a whole lot of stitching time this week.   Stayed a few nights late at work because I am involved with the corporate annual report (saw the proto type Friday - it is awesome!!  We are going totally electronic to be green and I will post the link when done.  It is so pretty!!!)  I am doing no more than creating the schedule, coordinating the schedule and maintaining the schedule to keep everything on time.  Not to worry, I am not belittling that task.   Days of meetings, seriously Thursday was 8:30 - 12:30, Lunch meeting 12:30 - 2 and meeting 3 - 5.....so how do you get your normal tasks done without staying a few extra hours.   And I had two days like that this week!!!!!  It's all good.  We all know we have those push times. 

And then there is the additional office I have taken on with my volunteer organization.   In addition to being the webmaster/secretary/membership chair, I am now the treasurer as well!  You know these volunteer organizations...there are never enough bodies to go around and we all wear multiple hats.   Long ago I learned that there are givers and takers in this world and that you can pretty much go through every situation and easily identify which line people fall into.....I know which line I end up in!   It is a good thing to give back and I am proud that my children all fall into that same line.

But to continue on the stitching......progress made on my Nan Tyson Euler piece and a couple of observations.    The progress part is the lettering in the center is now complete, I have extended the borders up the side to meet the band's progress and I learned I really dislike the stepped herringbone.   It is not a fast stitch.   Also, I have decided, even though the colors of the silks are beautilful and the feel is awesome, I am not a big fan of the *quick* change of the colors.  Literally, one stitch is light green and the next jumps right to dark green.    Personally I like the subtle varigation better but to each his own......like I say....it's all good. 

We had our monthly guild meeting yesterday and again it was no disappointment.   These ladies are awesome.   Awesomely friendly, awesomely talented.   We had a speaker in and although it takes from the stitching time the knowledge you gain is well worth it.  We are planning our annual retreat to Ocean City, Maryland and I can't wait.  It is 3 days of nothing but good food, good friends, good stitching, and good shopping in Salty Yarns - which adjoins the hotel, and it is on the boardwalk!   What could be a better?