End of October

Update on the state of the Cross stitch.

This is a REALLY old pattern!  

I know I've had it a long while and it only cost like $2.70!

This is how far I've gotten.

Lots of unstitching happening, sigh

In other stitching, I've managed to get one row of Paper Dolls quilted and assembled, and quite a lot of papers pulled out of tumblers.

I've been suffering from allergy headaches and I would rather not stitch than make big mistakes.

Also, I've been working on the trouble areas of my home.

There are four.

Well, I shouldn't really count the kitchen, messes are made daily in there!

The others are the garage-clean!

My office-also now clean!

My studio-a work in progress.

While my desk will never be totally clean of papers as I'm always researching family!

Once each main person is complete I put their information into plastic sleeves and then into a binder.  I have the general information on the computer but copies of backup information go into the sleeve.  Anyway, there's always a bit of a pile going on.

Other things had migrated into the office as well and I could barely navigate around all the STUFF!

Christmas gifts were stashed in the closet and all the empty totes were toted to the basement and a 4 foot table was taken down which will go into the garage later today.

Much improved now.

The studio.

It doesn't work in some ways so it seems that I'm always trying to re-organized, move furniture, etc to make it work better. 

The biggest issue is that I only have electricity on one wall, the only drywall has 4 outlets but only 3 are really useful. The other walls are cement.  I really need to have an electrician come and run power to the other walls, sigh.

It will likely take a few more days before I feel I can work in there without risking disaster!

There was some excitement Last Monday.

I got into the truck to go get gas and drive to a doctor's appointment.

While waiting for the garage door to fully close, I was slowly rolling downhill.

I pressed that brake pedal until it hit the floor but I was still rolling!

Well, Hum.  I put the truck in park, turned it off and went back in the house.

The brake lines had rusted through.

I knew that was going to happen at some point and luckily it happened on my driveway not on at some random stoplight!

It was towed away and didn't come back home until Friday.

Braydon let me borrow his car (he doesn't have a license yet so it just sits!)  A little Ford Fusion Hybrid.  Fun to drive.

Hopefully, nothing else will go wrong anytime soon, I'd like to get another year or so out of it.

Some decisions were made!  What a relief.

I am not going to sell the house just yet.  The plan was always to stay here until I lost Quinn-she's 10 now but I should have a few more years with her.  It's funny that I couldn't make any progress on cleaning the house until I decided not to sell it!  

I will be selling the trailer later next year-I hardly use it and that will free up enough cash to acquire a new vehicle.  Quinn and I will just have to stay in hotels when we travel (or she can stay home!)

Don't think I'm going to make any lists of things I'd like to do in November-that isn't going well for me!

 

Stitching still missing!

The garage is clean

-ish.

as clean as it will ever be at any rate.

 There are several projects lying about, 

the ladder is awaiting some hooks for hanging 

and the sand bags need to be put into the truck-plus I have to buy more.

Along with cleaning the garage:

All the potted plants are in the house~one place or another.

The umbrella is stored for the winter,

The trees are trimmed~I still have to deal with the limbs,

The plants are moved.

All good progress on my list,

Only cleaning out the gutters and turning over the veggie beds are left.

I tried with the veggie beds but it's like cement at the moment.  Will try again after a rain.

Which may be coming today!

I was always tired after all the outside work so most nights I didn't even go down stairs.  The few that I did, I just ended up pulling papers.  Just a messy project.

Tomorrow, I've promised myself a complete day in the studio!

Can NOT wait.

Stitching is missing in action!

I have done some stitching but little progress has been made as I've been tired after dinner and not wanting to hit the studio!

Instead of stitching I've spent part of the past two days working on this~

Why do garages get so messy? 

Okay I know the answer and it's all my fault!

Cleaning it up is not fun.

I've also begun the process of getting the potted plants ready to come inside.

All the pots and saucers need wiped down and I need to be sure no hitchhikers come in as well.

No spiders, no ants, etc.

This week will be devoted to yard work.

Trees need some trimming, 

a couple of plants need moved, 

the veggie patch turned over~I already pulled the tomatoes!

The weather has finally cooled off.

I turned the A/C off last week and last night turned on the heat.

The house is quite cool and I didn't want to be cold in the night.

Tomorrow I will dig out another quilt for the bed.

Quinn and I have been taking walks~gotta work up to three miles again.

Hopefully, I'll have some more interesting things to show this week!

(Like a clean garage?)

 

Sunrise

I rarely get to see a nice sunrise from my patio.

Now that the days are shorter and the sun is further south the sun comes up in the "Tree Gap"-earlier in the summer it rose behind the tree on your left!

 

Tumblers

 

This box hold 672 tumblers!

I still have some pink/purple strips but I won't use them unless I need more.

Next steps:

Paper layout and stripping all the paper off the back!

October Possibilities and some musing

This is a long one~grab a cuppa.

This is beginning of the changing of leaves.

I have four maple trees on my lot~none of them turn the scarlet that Maples are known for!

Big sigh.

Leaves are falling some as well, although not to the "Raining leaves" stage yet.

That's next.

I'm not even discussing how the September Possibilities List came out!  It's enough to say 

NOT WELL.

The October Possibilities list seems shorter.

I'm probably dreaming that!

Get Paper Dolls quilted~that's already begun but I have a LONG way to go.

Trail Mix~ just make some progress, no matter how small, on the quilting.  I'm getting better but it's still slow.

Tumber Confetti~ How about getting it to flimsy stage?  I am almost finished making tumblers  so progress already!

Civil War Sampler and Hexies~ the never ending WISPS~ a bit further on if you will

Cross Stitch~ Forward progress on the Sleigh, it's 16 count so harder to see.

Maybe, that's why so much un-stitching is happening?  

Also there's that pesky biscornu pin cushion to make, sigh

Make the window treatments for Ceili.  They are all cut, I just need to sew.

Deal with all the odds and ends of batting.

Speaking of Ceili, I want to go out again~ possibly somewhere that isn't the farm.

I don't know, the farm is amazing in Ceili.  I can probably keep Quinn out of the pool.

At any rate, another trip to the farm will happen.

Work on the Family History at least an hour daily.

I can't get Ancestry to load today so maybe not today.

I'll never get finished but that's okay, I'm learning a LOT!

Try new recipes.  One of the few things I did last month!

Bake!

Stretch and walk every day.

Convert the bottom of the chest on chest (used the top in Ceili) into a storage bench.

Paint it blue and make a cushion for the top. 

(I think I have the fabric for that!)

Read 2 Non-fiction books.  I'm well into one at the moment.  Will do a book report later!

This time of the year I have to do a bunch of "get ready for the cold" things.

Deal with leaves,

Clean out the gutters~more than once most likely.

Knock down the spider webs.

Bring in the potted plants, table umbrella, and hoses.

Touch up some paint and replace a piece of siding that came off when I had the house washed.

Clean the garage.

Now for the musing.

I find it tremendously difficult to make decisions~and not making one IS a decision.

I've known for a while that something was holding me back from selling the house.

Besides being lazy that is.

So, I figured some of it out this past week:

1.  All the "Staying Safe" during the pandemic~that's a fear response.  Anyway, that fear has leaked into other areas of my life.  Staying here in this house would be SAFER.  I have this tattoo of a Celtic symbol of courage on my arm to remind me to have some!  

This one is a bit easier to get past.  Also, while I love the house I DO NOT want to live in Greenwood.

2.  There aren't enough campsites in the US for all the folks who own RV's etc.  That means that to live in Ceili takes a lot of planning and plotting and I haven't done ANY of that yet.  I don't even really know where I want to go.  Here's the big one~I DO NOT really want to live full time in Ceili.

3.  This is a little foolish but I don't want to be without my things.  Oh, there are some things that I wouldn't miss at all!  My Mother's China comes to mind, never did like it.  BUT there are small collections that make me smile that I would seriously miss.  Some I've figured out a way to take along in Ceili but others it just won't be possible and my crystals won't refract into rainbows.  (Ceili has tinted windows.)  Plus, you know as well as I do that the sewing tools (or any other tools), fabric etc that you leave behind will be just what you need when you are far away from that storage unit.

4.  Lastly, my truck has developed several issues which suggest that I need to replace it.

I DO NOT want another truck.  While Ceilie is light and I could get a SUV or Jeep I really DO NOT want a tow vehicle.  If I have to buy a new vehicle I'd like one of the small SUVs like the Rav 4.

So there's a lot I don't want.

I just need to figure out what I do want.

Easier said than done.