The Week that Was

After my last two busy weeks, this one was supposed to be calm and peaceful. But then the painter came a week early to do the ceilings.The purpose being to cover up the water damage in the kitchen.Turns out that it's a really big deal to paint "popcorn" ceilings.It took them 4 hours to get everything taped and draped off. And about 20 minutes to spray the ceiling to get the stains and look like this.Then the handy guy had time, and it was cool enough to get rid of my poor dead tree that was the victim of our 17 degree cold spell last winter.He hooked up his truck to the tree.And then it was just a hole in the ground.To end the week, I had a birthday. And wasn't it a lovely one?!?

Guests for Breakfast

On Friday night I hauled all of my quilting stuff from the car down into the basement. On Saturday, I hauled tables, chairs, etc. from the basement upstairs to set up for the Sunday School class breakfast that was at my house on Sunday.Everyone brought food, and we ate all over. Some braved the heat and humidity to enjoy the porch.There was a table set up in the "library."Several of the men settled in the living room and stayed the whole time.And the women took the kitchen table first thing. I think there were 20-ish people here. They left, and I hauled all of the tables and chairs and stuff back down to the basement. By noon, it was all cleaned up and back to normal, bringing my very busy two weeks to an end. I then put my behind in the chair and didn't move for three hours.

4-Day Quilt Retreat

Tuesday through Friday I attended a quilt retreat that was held at a conference center near Hesston. There were 54 women, almost all of whom stayed overnight. They slept four to five in a room and shared a bathroom and shower. Needless to say, I did not sleep over. Oh, no, I was a commuter. Home with the cats and my own bed each evening.Everyone brought their stuff -- sewing machines, lamps, extra tables, irons, comfy chairs, cutting boards, rulers of all types, equipment, temporary design walls and TONS of fabric! It was a very interesting experience to watch these women load in and set up camp.And so, all day we quilted. The sleep over people quilted late into the night too. Nothing but the soft sound of women's voices, occasional outbursts of glee at a finished project, some occasional laughter and the sound of sewing machines. And this is me at my tidy little camp site. I didn't realize how much different it was from everyone else's until I looked through the photos I took.My four day accomplishments don't seem too impressive. I learned how to make pillow cases. Anyone need any? And I mastered the techniques for making these very tedious blocks. Seven blocks and two setting triangles in four days. How long do you think it will take me to finish the whole quilt???!!

New Reader

Welcome to Randy as a new "regular" to the blog. I finally figured out how to add him to the e-mail notification, but it took a while. Couldn't find the right place for anything. There is a max of 10 e-mail slots, so I took myself off to add Randy. No room for anyone else, unless one of you decides that you don't need to receive e-mail notifications, but would rather just check the site periodically. If you do, that won't hurt my feelings, you know.

Busy days, not so good news and good news....

I'm in the middle of a busy two weeks. This past week included two Quilt Guild meetings, a day long quilt workshop, and a visit from Sandy. During that time we had breakfast at Cracker Barrel, watched 'Lincoln Lawyer' on DVD, went to two yarn shops and one quilt shop, toured Barbara's new church which is 130-ish years old and incredibly beautiful, went to see "The Help," had breakfast at Barbara's house and did some miscellaneous shopping. Still there was time for my REALLY BIG EVENT.......

Background: I wrote a check for new carpeting and then the market started to slide culminating with a big dive mid-week. And then, Good Morning America ran a segment on the record high price of gold and the windfall one might discover by selling their jewelry. So, I gathered up everything except for Grandpa's wedding band, my last engagement ring, and the black pearl ring that I couldn't find. With Baggie in hand, Sandy and I stopped at CN CASH FOR GOLD.Yep, there it is. Are you crying, Kellie? I know you had your heart set on the big gold bracelet. And, of course, the not so good news is that you girls will not get to divvy the stuff up when I'm gone. But my good news was.........yes....a check for $3,662.72. I did have a few tugs of sentiment at parting with some of the pieces. Although I hadn't worn any of it for at least 10 years, I could nevertheless recall the occasion by which each piece came into my posession. But.....I certainly feel better now about spending the $$ for the carpeting!

I do admit, however, that I also felt a big redneck-y. Kind of like hitting the pawn shop to make the month's rent.

Birthday Time Report

Grandma had a great time celebrating her birthday last week. We did the annual luncheon.Her guests were all people from her Sunday School class. The menu was chef's salad and sunshine cake.Mrs. Parker was invited this year, and she sent along warm greetings to Carrie, Kellie, and especially, Terilee. She always tells me she was one of her very special students, but she does not define the meaning of "special" when used in that context.Grandma got lovely flowers from Linda.Beautiful flowers from Kellie.And her favorite candles from Carrie.She also got lots of cards which she saves and reads over and over, and insists that I read every one of them.
Unrelated to the birthday are my cute little peppers. Aren't they just too sweet? I've never grown peppers before and was surprised to find these on the plants yesterday.The heat wave has broken with no 100's for the past couple of days and none predicted for the next week. It has even remembered how to rain!! We've had nearly 2 inches in the last week. Things are looking green again which is so nice.

BIRTHDAYS -- TWO OF THEM!!

It's their day. Grandma is 89 years old today.And Shelby is 14.Happy, Happy Birthday to both.

Getting Our Houses in Order

The last week or so has all been about getting our houses in order -- Barbara's and mine. On Saturday, I went up to help her with unpacking. Yes.....she's been there two months and still has boxes to unpack. Clearly she doesn't share my mania for speedy unpacking. So, while she worked on opening and sorting boxes....I took on the task of organizing things in the storage closet. Just 5 years ago, I introduced Barbara to rug-making as an indoor hobby that she could occupy herself with while recovering from her first hip replacement. She now has an entire large shelving unit full of rug making materials! Hmmmm....And at my own house, I finally took the steps to get new carpeting. The carpet guy came out to measure. Nice enough guy, but I don't think he would make it as a Cox Boy.I brought some samples and put them out for review. Toby promptly selected his favorite.I bit the bullet, made a selection, and wrote a check. I'm thinking that the new carpet will be here sometime in mid-September.

And then the Handy-guy spent the afternoon here yesterday. He replaced the hardware on my cabinets. Handles on the doors.And knobs on the drawers.While he was here, he fixed the go-rounder in my corner cabinet. What a wonderful bonus! It's been broken for at least 3 years with stuff stuck between the shelves that I couldn't get to.And then he mounted my bedroom TV to the wall. Isn't it nice?And so I was all set to spend today getting ready for Grandma's birthday luncheon tomorrow.