It seems I need to "Catch UP" again!

 After a long day stitching along on ZOOM with the Chookshed Stitchers, including the amazing Chooky, last Friday I haven't taken a stitch!

First, On Saturday I drove to Columbia (MO about 2 Hours east of me) to visit my youngest son and his family.  I never know what we'll get up to while I'm there!  This time we were off to watch Ryan(age 7) play Soccer! Number 52 is quite serious about soccer-I think he and his cousin Kolby(age 13) will have fun together.

His team won and he scored a goal!

There was some sort of traffic mess on I-70 and both westbound lanes were at a dead stop.  I decided that there were other ways for me to get home so I took the nearest exit, well the highway patrol was pretty much insisting I get off but I had planned to anyway.  I got out the GPS function on my phone and had a lovely backroads trip between I-70 and 50 hwy.  I love back roads!  Everything is lovely , so lush and green - much rain and not enough heat to bake everything!  It might have added 15 minutes to the trip but it was so worth it-I might take that trip again!

Usually, the day after one of those trips I am pretty tired and this time was no different.  I'm getting old.  I've been sucked into the YouTube universe and I can't get out!  Strangely enough I like watching Chinese TV programs- thank goodness for subtitles.  I do think they need help saying exactly what they mean so the translations must be fairly literal.  Anyway, they are fun-who can resist watching a show called "My Girlfriend is an Alien?" Not me.

I have been trying really hard to get my veggies in the past week but there have been glitches.

Rain, for one. 

Asthma attacks for another.

I can't do anything about the rain but with medications and a face mask I CAN manage to breathe well enough to work a couple of hours or so every day.  Then, in the afternoon I just sleep.  Everything is just exhausting-even grocery shopping. This is not normal for me and I can't say that I am liking  it.  If it gets worse I will call the doctor, I'm pretty sure I can't get in to see her so if it gets really bad I'll be heading to the Emergency Room.

Today, I'm trying to get caught up a bit with housework-cause it rained last night!

Tomorrow is to be dry and Monday until evening so perhaps I can get some flowers planted.  I've found the kitchen at least! Hopefully, I can run the vacuum later.

Maybe, I'll even take some stitches later.

Yet another re-arrangement of my Studio.

 I know I've complained  and complained this past winter about how cold it was in the basement studio, I even moved upstairs for a few months. What a mess that was!  I've tried and tried to think up a way to heat the space better.  Obviously, the perfect solution would be to have it rewired, new heat, Cement walls built out, insulated and drywalled.  Then there's the ceiling and floor.  All of that would be VERY expensive and most of it beyond my carpentry skills!  So, I thought some more and came up with an idea that I hope will work.

The basement is a rectangular cement room divided in length and along side of the stairs into an L-shaped space.  It's not enormous but it is large.  Only the dividing wall has electricity-4 outlets in all.  At one point I had 3 or 4 long heavy duty extension cords running either in the ceiling or along the floor to provide power.  I'm down to only 1 now.  Still when the lights are on, and a space heater running turning on the iron will throw the breaker and leave me in the dark!

The studio is the portion of the L that runs along side the stairs and that's where my sewing machines are plugged in.  I don't think the arrangement there has changed much-just little tweaks.  (If you want you can see the last arrangement Here)

In this arrangement, I moved furniture again.

The bookcases from across the studio were shifted to where the cutting station was just beyond the corner.

The rolling shelves that have held toys (that are dwindling in number!)

moved opposite the bookshelves.  Both units where backed with 4'x8' sheets of rigid insulation board (basically styrofoam) and those covered with sheets.

The rigid insulation lets you hang things on them with straight pins!  

I hung a curtain between the two units to form a "Wall".  It's not perfect nor permanent but it should keep heat in the studio.

Ironing board-you can see my machine area a little.

Then I finished it off by

Moving these cabinets that hold my stash and do my cutting to the old location of the bookshelves.

Well, the iron was moved as well.

Then,  to tidy everything up I organized the non-studio section into a work out space.

It's dark down there, especially on this end.

All the overhead lights are on the same circuit with the outlets, since I don't need those on unless I'm actually in that space I got adaptors for the lights with pull chains so I can turn them off.

I won't know for sure if it helps the heat until November but it does seem somewhat warmer at the moment.  Since the temperature is yo-yoing between the 50F/12C to 70F/20C I still need a jacket but not long johns!

One more photo-of actual stitching!

Paper Dolls-STILL!