making order out of chaos

even when you are really excited about a move, it is a lot of hard work

no matter what "stuff" you bring with you there are going to be surprises

and organization can be a key thing

these two pieces of organization happen this week --

in the garage there were brooms and mops and dust pans leaning against the wall next to the freezer (which I'm happy to report survived the move and is already in use here at the new house) -- tripping over all those things was making me a little nuts

in this case, since these hang out in the garage, I opted for the free organizing method -- the DH nailed a long 1x2 to the studs on the wall then I could put up as many other nails as I wanted to hang all those cleaning tools

in the kitchen pantry, however, I needed something a bit more than a piece of 1x2 -- picked up a wire rack system like the one my daughter has in her pantry and made a lot more usable space in there

this move came with some expected expenses

these three items for example --

we had expected to replace our mattress and step up into something that is more comfortable for our aging bodies

and we knew from the day we first looked at it that the refrigerator that was in the house would need to be replaced

the new grill is our reward to ourselves for having spent a year without one because we were not willing to buy one and leave it at the old house after the old one stopped working and could not be repaired (no small hardship since we usually grill all year round!)

and then there were those unexpected things 

one of the things that we moved was the recliner that I had been using for about 20 years

turns out we could have just left it behind as the first night it came out of the moving POD one of the supports for the back broke

the new chair, while it is not what I really would like to have, is quite serviceable and goes well with the other chair in the room, so I'm okay with it

and the little adventure of the dishwasher

there was a dishwasher here, which when the home inspector did is work before we bought the house made note that it was not attached to the counter top so when it was opened it fell forward out of the cabinet

of course we insisted that the previous owner take care of that -- which they did -- sort of

after the first long weekend of unpacking and washing dishing is that dishwasher, my daughter observed that it didn't do a really good job, it was noisy, and if you pulled the top rack out too far it came right off the rail and put you in danger of dropping an entire rack of glasses 

I made some noises about having to make do with it for now, etc., etc., and she said to me "Mom, you DESERVE to have nice things"

uh -- well, she has a point

so we ordered the new dishwasher, and when the installer came, he discovered that the "legs" under that old one were nothing more than some little pieces of raw lumber, and just as he started to work on disconnecting it, it started spewing water all over the kitchen!

I think we avoided a lot of hassle by being proactive on this one!

the work in the house continues, there is still much to do, but I'm going to take some time today to work on some art -- I'm feeling a little "out of sorts" and I know the best cure is to make some art!

stepping out of the comfort zone

we've been hanging out in an extended stay motel for over a week now while we wait to sign the paperwork on our new house

almost every day we've driven by the house -- there is a big tree in the front yard that is starting to leaf out, and I'm trying to figure out what kind of tree it is

I've made the phone calls to set up the utilities and the subscription to the local paper will begin the day we are moving in

yesterday we went to the local farmer's market and were pleased to find that it is indeed LOCAL farmers and craftsmen with their products -- great produce, local meat -- and discovered that the fellow that sharpens knives and scissors lives right in my new neighborhood -- I'll be talking with him soon as I have several pair of scissors that need to be sharpened!

when I signed up for the newspaper, we were given a free paper, and as I usually do, I went right to the arts section checking out what is happening in the arts locally

and let me tell you, there is quite a bit

a few years ago -- back when I was actively doing art shows all over the country -- I did one of the Art Walk shows in this town -- I was pleased to see that they are still doing those shows

on impulse I applied for the May show yesterday -- after all, I have lots of jewelry inventory available as that is what is in my Etsy store, and all of that is with me, so I know right where it is -- we'll see how that all works out -- will a local address make any difference?  who knows!

meantime, I've been working on my piece for the Hoffman Challenge -- I have another dome to attach there on the left hand side and I still have to do the little "balls" at the top of each dome and embroider the crosses on top -- but it is getting very close to done

I had set myself a goal to have this piece ready to be quilted by the time we are into the new house -- it looks like I'm going to make that!

things are moving right along

thoughts about transistions

yesterday we put the rest of our household into the final POD

its strange to walk around in the house that is now so empty -- everything echos

that POD will be picked up tomorrow afternoon and we will go on Tuesday afternoon to put what is left in the 'fridge into a cooler to take with us

right now we are staying in a local hotel -- a nice vacation after all the hard work!

this morning at breakfast (which is provided as part of our room fee) this great couple were sitting a few tables over

it reminded me of a latter day American Gothic

after breakfast in the elevator we chatted with them a bit

sweet people on their way back home to Kansas -- we wished them safe journey as they did us

it's strange being here now that our home really isn't -- definitely feeling like strangers in a place we've lived in for over a decade

until then I'll keep working on the embellishment of this piece

there are two more panels that get all of that gold metallic thread cross hatching -- I went to my local quilt store for the last time and picked up some more of the DMC thread that I'm using for this just to make sure I don't run out of what I need before I know which new to me local store has these things

time to say goodbye

we are in the final countdown

a week from today we will leave Colorado Springs and set off for our new home town

we have been very busy packing and cleaning

at the end of last week we had to say a very different kind of goodbye

Elphie was my "empty nest" baby, the dog we rescued and adopted the year our daughter went out into the world on her own

she went to art shows with us when she was little, served as the guard and nursemaid when each of us had surgeries and made us laugh at her antics

hard as it is to say goodbye, it was harder to see her suffer, so we made that most painful choice


at some point in the future there will be another fur baby in our life -- first we need time to heal

while you're making other plans

back on the first of March I posted a picture of where we thought we would be moving to -- we were pretty excited that it would be a pretty easy move with just a few days between one house and the next one

apparently, it was not supposed to be, as the whole deal fell apart early last week because so many problems were uncovered in the inspection that the seller refused to fix or pay for us to fix ---- no, I'm not paying you full asking price under those conditions!!

so the end of last week it was off again to find someplace to move to

and here are the pictures of the new house

it has a 3 car garage which means I will be able to store things in part of it, the DH will be able to have his wood workshop in part of it, and I will be able to part my vehicle in it (WOW! I've never been able to do that!!!)

in addition to that it has an unfinished basement that we will be finishing to my specifications to create the studio that I want (I figure I've been working out of makeshift studios for quite a while, I can wait a few more months to have exactly what I want!)

we are supposed to close on this on April 15 ---- Happy Tax Day!

meantime, in an effort to clean out the freezer, we've been eating some very creative menus

and because the growing season last year yielded a lot of pumpkins, there were a large number of bags of pumpkin there which I decided to reduce by making a pie

except I decided to use egg beaters in it -- uh, not a good idea!  it rose up like an amazing souffle only to crash over the edge creating a very messy looking pie and a huge mess in the over (I'm really glad I hadn't cleaned that yet!!)

it tasted good, although the texture was somewhat softer than a usual custard pie

I'll be making one more pie, but I'm sticking to "real" eggs this time!

we've been trying to tie up the end of projects before the items go into the POD -- last week we got the new seat onto the  first of the 6 dining room chairs that the DH cleaned up and restored the finish on ---- I hope we get the rest of these done before the crew gets here on Saturday

last week before the house deal fell apart I was working on this piece again

it's coming right along, but it will be getting packed up later this week -- beading requires really good lighting, and since we'll be in a hotel for a couple of weeks between houses, this will be put on hold until the move is complete

sewing projects are much more portable!

this is the quilt top I'm working on for my daughter's bed, and it will travel with us in the van so I can work on it while we're waiting

and then there is this

the beginning of my 2015 Hoffman Challenge piece

this year's fabric is a very busy print, so it took me a long time to figure out what to do with it

the red tone ring in this picture is part of that challenge fabric

I'll be using pieces like that in various places in this design, and now that I've started working on it I'm getting pretty excited about it

Today we start the last serious packing of rooms --- need to get to the point that we're "camping out" in just a couple of rooms by the end of the week!

deadline met!

I actually got it done in time

the deadline for Sacred Threads is the 9th of March

I put in my entry yesterday --- yippee!!

and here is the sketch for the next deadline -- which is in July

along the way there we will be moving from one place to another --- we've passed all the hurdles except the packing and cleaning at this end --- now on to the challenges at the new house!

moving along

there is actually much more quilting done on this than appears in this picture --

I took this picture right after I had finished doing all the machine quilting of the tiles and the arches

the sky has all been quilted now, and I'm working my way through the "sky windows" of the arches

I need to keep at this because I have only 8 days left to the deadline --- I'll be back at this again today!

because of that looming deadline, I haven't touched this piece for over a week, but just before I put it aside, I did finish the portion that will be red brick --- looks pretty good

and under the real title of "moving along", we have accepted an offer on our house and made an offer on a new one

if all goes well, this is where we will call home in April

March is going to be a very busy month!

A progress report

last week was busier for showings, but I still got some work done on projects!

the beading continues

it actually surprises me how much this actually looks like brick in the picture!

I got two more of the shed doors painted

this has been fun as each one has given me a new challenge in getting the "look" I want

the silk organza finally arrived late in the week and I got the sky finished on this piece

looking at the picture of this gives me that "did I do that?" chill -- it looks very like the vision in my head

today I plan to trim this piece and get it ready for quilting

there have been a few evenings of working on this piece too

I can put together 6 "blocks" in an hour --- setting them in with all those "Y" seams takes a bit longer, but I'm very pleased with how this looks

when I first saw this year's Hoffman Challenge fabric last August, it didn't do much for me -- I just didn't have an instant "vision" for what could be done with it

on Saturday we had to be out of the house for about five hours while people tromped through to take a look

we decided to make a stop in our local quilt shop to take another look at the fabric

one of the good things about this shop is that they cut fat quarters of both the challenge fabric and the coordinates so you don't have to buy a whole yard of the stuff

it also has no problem with you spending a long time putting pieces of fabric side by side to try out ideas

in the end I only bought a fat quarter of this fabric, and I plan to cut it in very small pieces to be part of the decoration on these lovely onion domes

yesterday the DH spent quite a while working with different onion dome shapes and arrangements and this is the one that I decided I would do

looking forward to starting on this project ---- as soon as the piece for Sacred Threads is finished!

its all about the art

since we are in waiting mode here on the house, I have time between episodes of grabbing the dog and "bugging out" so strangers can walk through to work on projects

this project for instance

that's the "before" on the left side and the "after" on the right

it's amazing what a little well placed color can do

making progress on this piece too

I'm into the creating of the sunrise sky, and last week I ordered a piece of silk organza to put over that sky which will slightly mute the color and give it the sort of "glow" that I'm looking for

the silk should get here tomorrow, which should be just about the right time for me to put it to use

after some considerable fiddling, the quilt top for the new queen size quilt for my daughter's house has been begun

these three blocks took me about an hour to stitch up by hand in front of the TV (and the fabrics are really a lot more attractive than this picture shows --- I'll get a better picture for the next posting!)

looking good!

one of the surprise "finds" came when I was looking for a container to put the queen size quilt pieces in 

I like using those 13x13x3 plastic containers that were developed for scrapbookers (something my daughter introduced me to a couple of years ago), and right now most of mine are packed

the one I decided to appropriate for that quilt project had a zip lock bag in it with two of these pieces in it

this is a project I started back in 2005 based on some photos I took at an art show we did in Atchison, Kansas

these pieces use paint, fabric and beads to create the bank, the restaurant  and the boutique 

yesterday I decided that since I wasn't working on any other beading project and I don't want to buy any new materials, that I could work on the boutique and that I should think about where these are going

I'm thinking these are going to get mounted on stretcher bars --- they are mixed media art

we'll see how this all goes

time to get back to those projects!

still testing

after I made that first "block", (there on the left)  I really did not like how big it was

sure, the quilt top would have gone together really quick, but it just looked like the lazy way out

so, here we have block size number 3 (number 2 was, um, something not to be discussed!)

I like this size much better, and while it will be quicker than a double wedding ring to piece, it doesn't look like I'm being lazy

there's something about a pieced quilt top that just calls out for a certain "look", and I think we've reached it

I think we're ready to cut into the fabric that I bought for the project now -- hurrah!

the "anniversary quilt" (which is what I have dubbed that pieced piece) is not the only thing I'm working on

this week I have started creating the sky behind this piece

along the way I decided I wanted to put a layer of silk organza over the top of it to give it the "glow" that I see in my "vision" of this piece, and right now I'm waiting for that piece of fabric to arrive in the mail

I think I'm going to be pleased with the result of this

this piece of bead work is all done (and it's available for sale in my Etsy store)

I haven't started another beaded piece yet -- just haven't come up with an idea that seems worth the work

we'll see what ideas develop

in the evenings I've been working on another pair of slipper socks -- for the DH this time

one sock is knit and the second one has just had the heel turned -- moving right along

and yesterday I ordered materials for a Christmas project -- it's never too early to do that!

just keep chugging along

the end of an era

taking a little trip down memory lane this morning

all the way back to the early 1980's when I decided that if I was going to do a dozen in home boutiques (remember those?) every fall, that it would be a good idea to run it like a business

so I did all the business stuff --- registered a fictitious name, got a sales tax permit, kept records and reported the income and expenses on Schedule C of my taxes every year

when I first started I was making the usual home boutique crafty stuff -- Christmas ornaments, hot pads, place mat -- and I started making soft dolls

during the Cabbage Patch craze I made and sold as many outfits as I could squeeze in between working a full time job and taking care of a toddler

along the way I started making bears

but not toys

these bears were made out of mohair pile fabric that came from England or Germany -- and these bears were for adults

I made bears for just over 25 years and did a lot of shows


but markets change, and bears were not so profitable anymore

and about the time I retired from that day job and the now grown up toddler went off to college, I started making jewelry

 at first it was simple stuff -- strings of stone beads, earrings and bracelets

then I rediscovered seed beads and started doing bead embroidery and bead weaving to make those necklaces and bracelets

and that took me all over the country doing summer art fairs for several years

but like I said, markets change, and it was not so easy any more to do the physical part of setting up tents and working for several days in a row in the heat



and about that time Etsy came along, and I opened an Etsy store to sell some of the stuff I still had that was not jewelry

and then I opened a shop that I put my jewelry in

along the way there I made a quilted piece

and then I made a few more

which took me into a whole new adventure


every year I still did that Schedule C tax thing --- but Uncle Sam has certain rules about what you can call a business and what they decide is actually just a hobby that you are trying to write off the expenses for

one of those rules has to do with showing a profit a certain number of years

and that brings us to the end of the era -- the past few years the business has not shown a profit --

and so this year I will not be filing that Schedule C --- I no longer have a business

but I don't consider this just a hobby either

I am still serious about making art

I will still keep those receipts and price my work as if it was a business, but until I sell enough to make a profit, there will be no more tax schedules

it feels odd

just one more twist in the journey