Stayed Home and Painters

I stayed home all day today!!  :). My intent was to sew all day on my POF Mystery quilt but the painters showed up...woooo hoooo.  I worked at getting the mess from the tuck tape off the wall and ceiling upstairs where we taped off the stairway to the basement.  I'll make sure tuck tape (nor duck tape!) is never used on the wall again!  What a mess!!!!  Then I baked some banana pineapple muffins....they were okay...not great but they used up some old bananas I had.  And then I sewed.  Our painter/dry waller is a super nice guy but he smokes.  His girlfriend helps him paint and she smokes......they chain smoke!!!!!  They didn't smoke in the basement but I think they smoked right outside the open door.  I could smell it up two levels in my sewing room!!!!!!  After a few hours I wasn't feeling the best.  I know, I should have told them to move further from the house but I am so happy the painting is getting done!!!!!!!!  They won't be here much longer.....I'd say two more days.  I think he said he needs to do three coats.  They did more sanding and put the first coat on today.  I'm loving the colors!!!  They don't look much different right now but I'm hoping once all three coats are on you will be able to tell Amy's room is a bit darker.

Family room:

Amy's room:

I'm going with white trim down there...eventually!!  I can't wait!

I did keep sewing today.  Step 9 is done and I've started step 10.  Once the blocks are made (step 9 and 10) I can lay it out and sew the rows together.  I hope it turns out alright!  I'm ready for this one to be done!!!!!!!  Here's hoping I make more progress tomorrow!

I Sewed Today!!!!

Yep, I sewed today!!!!  Wasn't until after supper but I continued work on my POF Mystery quilt that should have been done already!!!  The new Cracked Pots one starts on Sunday!!!!!  I just finished Step 8 of 12.....I still have some work to do!!  But it sure felt great and my ironing board and cutting table worked perfectly!  This quilt involves a lot of chain piecing.  I saw this gadget at our local quilt shop some time ago and thought it would be a gadget I'd never use so I didn't buy it.  While at the Red Deer quilt show, a vendor had them in her booth on sale and well, being caught up in the buying frenzy at a quilt show (I'm not the only one who does that right???) I bought it.....and I LOVE it!!!!!!!!!  The Cutting Gizmo!!  It stays by my machine always!

This morning I found a picture on google of the flooring I had picked out yesterday.  Candice Olson used it in a bedroom she remodeled.  I quickly sent the link off to my friends...and as soon as I did that, the phone rang and it was the flooring people saying that flooring wasn't available until the first week in October!!!!  So off I went to pick out something different.  I really liked what I had picked out....I had my vision of furniture, etc remember???  I think I like what I picked out today better!!!  Sorry for the paint swatches on the sample.  My colors are third on the left and fourth on the right!

I took pictures of the bathroom tile but they basically look white in the pictures but they do have texture and some lines.  The flooring guy thinks he can put the tile in sooner than the vinyl flooring but he says that will likely be somewhere around the 10th to 18th of September.  No painters AGAIN today!!!  I sure hope he is okay!!!!!!!!!  He had said he would be done tomorrow....but there's only primer on the walls.  I think the ceiling is done.

I guess we will see if he shows up tomorrow.

Guess that's the scoop for the day...more sewing tomorrow!  I'm going to try and go no where!!!!

The Day

It's after supper so I consider myself having survived the day.  There were tears on and off and will likely be at least one more session before bed.  But that's okay.  :). My Mom is deserving of the tears.

I went in to Okotoks and picked out flooring.  The lady there was so helpful and it took minutes!!!  I showed her my paint colors and she knew exactly what I needed!  I can't believe I didn't take any pictures while there!  That's how fast it happened!!!!!!!  Hahaha. Now I know what I need to find for furniture and vanity.....I have a vision!  Yay!!  No painters today.  Not sure why.  I'm sure they will be here tomorrow.  Then I hope the flooring works and is within our quote, can arrive soon and be installed!  I can't wait to see it in with the paint colors.  I'm going with white trim down there.....I hope that works too.(and we find a carpenter to do it)

The big pump came off the lake today.  It looks weird....I hope it means clean up is going to start soon.  They flew around with the lawnmower too.

Flowers I bought myself today....for my "happy".  They look like fall flowers but I thought they were pretty:

Tomorrow is a new day.....

Mom

I guess it's not Mothers Day.....but I love the sentiment of this picture.  I miss my Mom every day...every-single-day.  I imagine I will miss her forever.  She was a huge part of my life, not just as a mother but as a best friend.  Today marks the second anniversary of her passing.  Thankful she is no longer in pain but missing her with all my heart.  I love you Mom  <3  <3
 

Quilty Comforts

When you are a quilter having the right equipment and tools are just as important as if you were a carpenter, painter, etc.  Equipment not only includes a sewing machine and such but also furniture....cutting tables, ironing boards....and the proper height of these pieces saves on a quilters back.  My cutting table and ironing mat were not the right heights.  I'm not a tall person but even these were too short for me.  I've looked for a table to use for my cutting mat that was the correct height and width as the plastic folding table I was using was not.  Finally I just got Hubby to help me make what I was using work.  He raised the height by adding conduit to the legs:

The table top was not the right width for my mat so we went to Home Depot and found a nice piece of wood in a pile that was miss-cut and they were going to throw out!!!  It was the perfect size and we got it for FREE!!  Got it home and attached it to the plastic table top with just Velcro command strips!

But it wasn't very pretty.....handy, the correct size but a person didn't have to know we rigged up a plastic folding table so I got out my bolt of burlap and got to work, measuring, hemming then stapling and here she is:

I would like to find some ribbon or something to put around the top...I had nothing that I thought looked right so I will be on the lookout in the future.

So now the ironing mat.  I was using my old sewing cabinet for my pressing mat...it was way too low and not near big enough.  I had bought a pattern for an ironing board cover...so the top is a nice big rectangle but you can use the ironing board which is the perfect height and adjustable.  So my handy Dad made one and brought it down when he came for Amy's grad.

Before:

And now all covered up and ready to go:

Now I have no excuse why I can't sew, press, and cut all day long!!

August is Almost Over

Wowzers....where did this month go???????  Where did the summer go?????  I was texting a friend the other day and she asked me if we went anywhere this summer.  I laughed and said "yes, we spent two weeks at the Lazy J Motel in Claresholm then at the "lake" in High River!"  I guess that's where summer has gone.  I laughed again this morning when I heard sawing and nailing being done over at a neighbors.  When we looked at houses and neighborhoods in High River in July 2012, we specifically wanted a move-in ready house we didn't have to do anything to as we had done enough renovations in our old house and a older, established community as we didn't want to live in a construction zone!  Well, we have to laugh at ourselves now!!!!!!!!!!  Both things we didn't want have come true.  But the sounds of construction are good sounds considering the situation.  It's means re-building and a road back to normalcy.  It's happy noises in my opinion.  It means our neighborhood is alive and will be back to the way it was one day....and the quiet will return.

Our drywall is done and the painting will be complete on Saturday.  Tomorrow I go and pick out flooring and tile for the bathroom.  I'm hoping our windows and door are almost here and then the bigger things will be complete.  Furnace and water softener will be installed next week.  One step at a time.......

One of the things I miss about our old place up north was whenever it rained and the sun came out, we always saw the rainbows.  This past weekend we were driving into Okotoks and this is what we saw:

Not just one rainbow but a double FULL rainbow!  I couldn't get a picture of the whole thing with my cell phone.  I love rainbows!!!!!!!!!!  :)

Graduation & Family

Thursday (August 22) was Amy's graduation...finally.  It was a beautiful day and all of our children were here along with my Dad. 

Here she is at the gown ceremony listening to Premier Allison Redford.  We had every news station there filming this and because she was behind the speakers podium, she was on the news!

 

Our family:

                                                       Back at home on the front step

The grandkids with Grandpa:

 

Our beautiful grad:

Jenna took and edited the photos.  She did an awesome job especially with some of our family not being very photogenic.  Morgan Nesom did Amy's hair and it turned out perfect and held all day long!!  It was a nice, very special day.

This morning Brandyn and Jenna left (Dad and Jaret left yesterday) and Blair and I went off to the Millarville Farmers Market.  Amy and her friend Kendra left for Kamloops, BC then Seattle, Washington for the week.  A big adventure for the highschool graduate.  I pray they stay safe.