House work of a different sort

the planned deadline for listing the house is fast approaching -- in fact, we've already told the agent that we need an additional week past that Nov 1 date, just because a couple of the projects we need to finish proved to be much more complex than we imagined

the downstairs bathroom is complete

it originally had a pink/blue/white wallpaper, but after a coat of wall board compound applied with a roller to give some texture, it is now painted a warm yellow tone

and I replaced all of the light bulbs in the fixture so they all match which is a little detail, but it would be one I would notice if I was the one looking at the house

meantime, the upstairs bathroom is one of the projects that is making me crazy

before we bought the house, the shower had been painted -- and while there is now an epoxy paint on the market that is designed for that purpose, we're not sure what was used to paint this with

and of course, in order to put on new paint (which was what I thought I was going to do), you have to have a clean surface, so I started at the places that were already peeling and scrapped

which revealed some truly beautiful ceramic tile

and let me tell you, getting paint off of ceramic tile is no easy job -- after several days of just scrapping, I headed off to the local hardware store and asked for some advice -- and came home with a bottle of citrus based paint stripper

it's making it easier, but I've still got several days of scrapping off the now "rumpled" paint before it's all clean

and as for the idea of putting on new paint -- unless I discover some reason to "hide" a tile somewhere in this, it's not happening -- I'll just finish the clean up and re caulk it

and while I've been doing the bathrooms, the DH has been working in the kitchen -- removing the doors, removing the hardware, scrubbing the walls and the cabinet frames, repainting the cabinet doors and the frames and presently we'll be repainting the walls

and we'll be removing everything from the shelves and putting in new contact paper as the old stuff is quite worn at this point

another time consuming process

in the evenings, when I'm too tired to do any more physical work, I'm still doing a little work on art projects

the bead embroidery on this piece is finished and I'm preparing to do the backing and the rest of the finishing on it

I'm pretty amazed by how well this design came together

and this piece is ready for the next step

it is the next to last of the shed doors -- one more to go!

and when I get to the very end of the day I do a bit of knitting

this is slowly becoming a Ninja Turtle for Mr Cute -- the one with the orange mask of course, since Mr Cute's favorite color is orange

all in a day's work!

Art Abandonment

last week was full of interesting experiences

on Tuesday I had to report for jury duty -- 150 people in a room and no one would meet your eye or let you start a conversation

weird

I used the corner of the jury questionnaire  to do some art work -- art in public places rather they want it or not!

another shed door got completed -- and I have started the next one

when I began this series, the DH asked me if I had any plans for where I might be able to actually hang all of them together where they could be seen

Wednesday evening at my local art group meeting, I got an answer for that -- once I get them all done I have a place to hang them all together

yeah!

this piece is moving along

the beads are slowly covering the surface

the Christmas knitting continues

finished the tractor hat -- it only took four tries!

that little green blob there is the head of a knitted Ninja Turtle -- I'll be doing the one with the orange mask of course, since Mr Cute's favorite color is orange

my daughter and son-in-law were here over the weekend

I have to say that my son-in-law did as much painting in one day as it would have taken me a week to do

I'm so grateful to have their help!!

this picture is one of the walls in the family room -- much better than the way it looked before!!!

while they were here my daughter and I put together this fireman's jacket for Mr Cute -- she had already found a pair of boots he can wear with this, and a fire hat that had been with us since she was little has a brand new sticker from the local fire department where they live to complete the look

he was one happy little boy!  no doubt this will be like the dinosaur costume from last year -- he'll play in it for a long time

who says dress up is only for girls!!

Hippos in tutus?

well, that's what this made the DH think of

I painted the bathroom this week (undoubtedly the most difficult room in the house to paint!) and I wanted to keep any splatters of paint off of the shower head and the lamp tops

a flat bottom coffee filter split to the center and then wrapped around each one and taped shut did a great job

but I agree -- it's hippos in tutus

this is the latest of the shed door pieces -- the main pieces are in place and now I'm putting in the smaller ones -- moving right along

this piece, titled "The Eagle Flies" is progressing nicely too

this one has been a very loosely designed piece -- last night I decided to try adding the bronze bugle beads along the edges of the eagle's wings just to see how it looks and I love it!

the more I do on this one, the better I like it

last Sunday's post talked about the hat I was working on for Mr Cute -- in the end after I had it all knit I ripped it all out and started over again because it was still just too big

this one is much better -- and the bonus is not just one tractor, but tractors all around the hat!

one of the things I love about this time of year is the pumpkins in all the stores

this year I've seen some particularly "warty" ones -- love that texture!

Finding a new "normal"

the packing continues

yesterday we had a small crew that came and moved all of the boxes that we had packed up in the past couple of weeks out into the garage so we can get them loaded into the pod this week

as we were chatting with them we mentioned that there was a doll house here that we would give to anyone that was interested in coming after it

a little later in the day one of the fellows came back and got it

I'm delighted!! it's gone to a little girl (and her mama) that are excited to have it, and I now have a large empty space --- yippee!!

yesterday's activities also included painting the primer coat of paint under the front door (that area had been really beat up over the past 12 years) and a coat of primer on the wall I had skim coated with wall board compound a couple of weeks ago

last year when I was working on my entry for the Hoffman Challenge, I was working on some techniques that I had not tried before -- in the process of doing that, I created this piece, which I titled "Feather Duster"

this year I donated it to the SAQA auction

and I learned yesterday that it was purchased during the auction

even though I don't get any monetary gain from this, it feels wonderful to know that someone thought it was worth paying for!

when I get to the end of the day of physical work, I'm still spending some time working on art projects

this week I finished the hand work on this piece -- number 10 in the series

and it's exciting to know that I'm getting closer to the time when I'll actually be able to start doing more than the hand work as my sewing machine will probably be back in a usable condition in the next week -- (another reward for all the hard work rearranging things!)

so this is the next piece -- which I started working on last night while enjoying a movie on PBS

I have been working on this piece of jewelry this week

I've had that piece of picture jasper and the carved bone moon face for a while, but only recently was able to get the porcelain eagle that I was searching for

and I've changed the glue I'm using to attach things to the backing so I don't have to build up so much of a bezel around the pieces with beads

so far I'm very pleased with how this piece is going

and the tractor hat is nearly done -- last night I started on the decreases for the top of the head

yup, lots of things are getting done

just keep chugging along!!

third time the charm?

not long ago  made Mr Cute a new sweater with all kinds of construction equipment on it (pictures of it in this post)

there was some yarn left over from that project, so I decided I would make him a hat with a tractor knit in from that left over yarn as a Christmas present

the hat knitting has not gone well (you'd think it would, I've literally knit over 100 hats in the past few years)

there is no picture of the first attempt -- shall we say that a mobius hat is not desirable -- and somewhere between the cast on and the 2nd row of ribbing in the round I managed to get it twisted, so it was quickly ripped out

the picture on the left here was the next attempt -- no mobius!  all good, right?  uh, not so much as it wasn't until I had the ribbing finished and started to think about the pattern knitting that I realized that my brain must have been on vacation --

unless you are doing an all over repeating pattern of some sort, you can't do pattern knitting in the round -- the knitting of a tractor requires carrying the yarn back and forth over the back of the work -- so last night I ripped all that out AGAIN! and started again, working back and forth in rows

we'll get this figured out yet

it's finally finished

I started this piece back in August, originally intending to enter it in a "mini fest" of one of my beading groups, but with all the other things I've been doing, I just couldn't get it done by the deadline

I do like the way it came out -- I had forgotten that doing the inside edge of the open work was so difficult (I hadn't done that on a piece for a very long time) -- and I would do another one with that open work because I really like the way it looks

since the last post, when I was still working on this piece, I did the rest of the hand stitching on this piece

and I've started working on this one

somehow at the beginning of this one I started working at the top edge with all those little pieces and then realized I should have started at the bottom edge -- so I've been working both ends to the middle -- it's coming along

while the DH was having his cataract surgeries, I spent some time in the waiting area of the surgery center

this was the view out those windows -- pretty amazing!  it was fascinating to watch the shadows on the mountain change as the clouds moved across the sky

the packing continues -- books, music, dishes into boxes -- several trips to donate van loads full of "stuff" -- we've lived in this house the longest of anywhere I've lived since I left my parents house and we've not been good at keeping down the clutter -- I'm resolving to not let this happen again!!

last week I painted a wall in the living room and did a "skim coat" of wall board compound over a wallpapered wall in the kitchen that I plan to paint white -- its a struggle to just keep moving even when my knee and my back hurt -- I have moments when I would like to just walk away (but so far the adult side does return -- reluctantly -- )  we want to get the house on the market by Nov 1 and some days I feel like that is a pipe dream --- just keep putting one foot in front of the other

now where was I?

things are quite crazy here

packing continues -- I'll be painting a wall in the living room this week, and this morning I took another van full of clothing, toys, books and household items to donate

meantime, the DH had one cataract surgery last Tuesday and will have the same surgery on the other eye tomorrow

the MRI I had on my back didn't tell me a whole lot more than the xray did -- I have bone spurs and a disc that is basically gone in my lower back which causes pain if I overdo or sometimes just for no reason at all that is apparent to me -- the doctor wants to do injections along that area -- which might work -- or might not -- but will deplete my bank account for sure -- I think those will have to wait

I'm trying to do a little bit of work on art projects every day -- just to keep me from having to be shipped off to the funny farm!

this is the shed door piece I'm working on right now

I've been working on this too -- it was supposed to be for a competition, but the deadline for it was yesterday, so that's not happening -- but I do like it, so I'm going to finish it anyway

and I've just finished working out what I'm going to do for the new quilt for my daughter and son in law -- they like the look of this design and the colors, so as soon as I can get the fabric that will be one of my hand work projects

just rolling along as best I can

it's time to vote!

it's time to vote for this competition!

you can use this link to get to the place to vote:  etsy-beadweavers

with relish?

at least that is what my sister suggested I should title this post since the last one was titled "catch up" (groan?!)

it's probably as good a choice as any idea that I had!

last weekend we did a lot of loading of boxes and furniture into the pod

on Saturday morning, when I made a run to the closest convenience store for a bag of ice to keep the bottles of water cool, I got to see part of the balloons from the balloon festival that took place here last weekend

my daughter and son in law, along with Mr Cute and their two dogs came to our house to help out for that weekend

on Sunday evening I caught this photo of their big dog and our dog sleeping all curled up on the couch

I didn't know when I snapped it that it would be the last such picture I would have the opportunity to take -- because of ongoing health issues, the red dog has now crossed over the rainbow bridge

at some point in the near future I will be making this photo into an art quilt

I started working on this piece a couple of weeks ago - or longer -- and haven't gotten to it for over a week --- I hope the commotion dies down soon so I can get back to it

I have been working on this, which is another piece in the shed door series

yesterday I had an MRI done on my lower back --- I would not describe it as a pleasant experience, and I hope not to have to go there again --- I'm also hoping that by some amazing chance it will actually tell them something that will help --- I see the doctor next Thursday

for now it's back to the packing and cleaning and painting

time to get moving