The White Stuff is Here

Winter came, though it's been pleasant except for drivers.  This week the temperatures are warm and that brings rain, which freezes --no further description necessary.

That means I have very little outdoor work calling me.  Just some in the greenhouse, which I work on when the weather is sunny, since the sun warms up the air inside the greenhouses.

So I've been busy inside.

First I have to--absolutely have to--get my crown mouldings finished before Christmas, preferably before the end of November.  First I had to remove some stipple from the ceiling so the mouldings can sit well, then I had to tape off the lower line to make levelling easier--some of these are almost 14 feet long-- and mark the studs on the tape, then I measured the walls to the nearest 1/8 ".  All the corners are interior, and these are easy to fill if the mouldings are a wee bit short.  Not all the fasteners need to hit studs, but some definitely have to.  I will use finishing nails over some of the studs and my air nailer for the others.  On the longest walls the ceiling joists run the same direction as the wall, so if there doesn't happen to be a joist at the point where the top of the moulding touches the ceiling, there isn't much holding power in nailing into the drywall (although I will put some nails in with the air gun, but in different directions).  The mouldings are in the garage, where the miter saw is, and it's -12 degrees C today, so I won't be cutting lumber.  I have to bring them in before mounting to paint them, as I don't want to paint them once they're up--just touch up the little holes.

 I've been busy with other types of renovations, also.  Sweater renos.  This customer got a new sweater--and a new puppy.  Need I say more?  The damage was a shredded area about 4" in diameter.  No yarn to be salvaged.  I went through my stash of Jamieson and Smith fingering yarns and blended 3 strands as needed to get a close match in color, although it is a bit thicker.  Hardly noticeable.

Kubota Man had a favorite old sweater that had been loved and finally worn for work, and it has definitely seen better days.  I was going to junk it, but he had a very forlorn look on his face.  I didn't have the time or yarn in stash to make a new one (I am on a self-imposed yarn diet to use up my stash), but I did have yarn for repairs.  So here are a couple of "before" shots:

And the "after".  He's a happy man.

I have the patterns for the Winnie the Pooh characters, and plan to make some sets for future grand- and great-grand kids.  But the patterns are quite challenging, and people on Ravelry keep asking me for help.  These are not patterns where you can easily figure it out by the written pattern--you have to do it, so everytime someone asks for help, I make another character.  I had made the original  Tigger for DD3, then the next Tigger came last year in response to a cry for help.  That one was made with Aran yarn and a 4 mm hook.  

The latest--I named him Tigger Jr. was made with a soft worsted and 3.5 mm hook, so he is smaller.  Tigger and Tigger Jr. seem to have a lot to say to one another.

No one needed help, but I was in the mood so I whipped up Piglet.  I should have stuffed him more firmly to give his face more character, but everything is assembled as you go, and opening the head to add more stuffing would have meant doing the ears again.  So I left it alone and made notes for next time.

Piglet is sitting on a Log Cabin blanket in progress.  I am using scraps, some of the squares have unfinished granny square parts I inherited from my MIL.  I am planning to make one for each of the kids.  I like the denim main color between the randomly-colored squares.  Behind Piglet is a shawl waiting to be blocked.

And there are more scrap-- and stash-busting Log Cabin blankets in progress.  Each of the kids is getting one of those unless I run out of yarn (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA). 

So now I'm off to:
1. Steam clean the traffic areas in the Living Room.  We are getting new flooring but not before Christmas--mainly because I can't make up my mind between hardwood (more hygienic) and carpet (chemical off-gases, harder to keep clean, but SOO SOFT AND WARM ON MY OLD FEET--slippers just aren't the same).  And since we had planned new flooring I didn't steam clean in spring, and we weren't particularly careful to look after spots and spills.
2.  Tape and measure the smaller bedroom for its crown mouldings.
3.  Make apple pies and/or other goodies to use up the blemished apples from our tree.
4.  Finish 3 more pairs of Crocodile Stitch Boots.  One pair only needs buttons, two pairs need cuffs and buttons but I ran out of yarn for one so I have to go "shopping" in the storage unit.  That's where the buttons are, too.

/Till next time: Kids overheard talking:  "My mom only spends $25 for her jeans but her genes are priceless".

Oh Dear, Oh Deer!!!

 The biggest news of the time interval since the last post is my encounter with a deer.

Not this particular deer--so beautiful and gentle-looking, yet so destructive.  I had just stopped on my way to the city (a mile and a half from home) for another group of about 20, pulled over to let them cross, slowly proceeded, when another group appeared suddenly, obscured by dense trees and some grain bins. Now the Tundra is in the body shop having $7000+ in repairs done.  No injury to myself, Praise the Lord.

Then I had an all-day Catholic Women's League Meeting on the following Saturday.  Some boring business, lots of fun, good food, and meeting up with good friends.

 And the renos go on (Master Bedroom):
1.  Clean out closets and make a big mess to be sorted through.

2.  Strip off old wallpaper

3.  Patch, prime, and 2 coats of paint (closets and feature wall done)--crown moulding to come later (since the blizzard and very small box rental truck prevent me from going to the lumber store).

3.  Shop for new furniture.  Can't believe that oak is less costly than maple--almost $1000 less on the total cost of all the pieces.

Master Knitter work is going along well--except for keeping the living room tidy.

I finished a sweater for a friend who started it for a Christmas gift (2011) and life--in the form of 3 little boys and a new baby daughter--got in the way, so I finished it for her.

Family Day Pot Luck after Church on Sunday:

A birthday party for Kubota Man, at a fancy restaurant--whole family in attendance.

And a trip down memory lane.  DGD2's boyfriend's sister had twin boys, so DD2 wanted to make the "cookie monster sweater" for the babies.  So, in looking for the pattern, I was missing a page, and had to find DD3's little sweater to make a chart.  I found so many cute baby things in that box.  That would be a good future visit with the kids--look at their baby clothes.

We will start working in the greenhouse this weekend (DH has already been working to get ready), but first we have to find the greenhouse:

Till next time:  A wise lover values not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver.   (Thomas A. Kempis)


















flooring

I Can't Believe I Missed my First Blogiversary

I forgot my own blogiversary.  Mind you, I have a lot of good excuses reasons for that.  We're getting busier in the greenhouse.  The renos are still going on.  I'm sure I will meet my spring goal:  to finish all the upstairs except the Master Bedroom (fall project).  I have only two walls left of the Living room, then the back porch, the remaining baseboards (on the walls that I still have to paint), and several miles rooms of wide crown moulding.  I've raised a lot of dust moving things around.

The Christmas stocking for Daughter #1 is coming along, there's progress on the wedding shawl with beads, and just for a lark, I'm going to swatch for a new sweater for Alpaca Man.

Kubota Man Jr. stopped by today to see us and to visit with his dog, who had to be retired to the farm, since he now has a job in Fort McMurray--3 weeks up, 1 week home.  While we had him for a while, we got him to castrate and dock the tails on the 6 new lambs.  Sadly, we found a new lamb drowned in a large pool of water.  The "fixing" is done bloodlessly, by inserting a tight rubber ring around the male lambs' scrotums, and alsy putting the rubber rings around the tails so they will fall off.  The tail docking is because sheep get their rear ends all poopy, and the long tails make the mess worse.  Then it is possible, even likely that flies may lay eggs there, and the larva may infest the sheep's flesh.  Also, breeding becomes more difficult.

I'm hoping to get the living room all painted this week, and the baseboards done.  While I'm watching the paint dry I will start some of the crown mouldings in the hallway and the kitchen.  I'll be really in the groove by the time I get to the Living room crown moulding.  I bought myself a new toy tool--an air nailer for the baseboards and crown mouldings.

No pictures,since I wasn't going to post today--but couldn't pass up the admission that I forgot my own blogiversary.  How could I do that, since I have met so many nice, interesting folks on the computer (and would probably have been finished the renos weeks ago if I hadn't been on the computer).

I have to make some confessions about myself:  I am addicted to Sudoku (the harder the better) and I love playing Mahjong on the computer.  The sudoku is one of the many kinds of puzzles I like to do--to hopefully stave off memory problems when I get older; the Mahjong--no reason, I just love it.

No Idle Hands Here

My horoscope for today said:  "Those home improvements that you are doing yourself--they have become a matter of urgency.  Get them done a.s.a.p.!"
I've been cutting and staining and varnishing baseboards.  Kubota Man did not want painted baseboards--he wanted real oak, so that's what I got--at $2.39 a lineal foot.  But they are soooo lovely.  Also varnished some doors, and finished the linen cupboard and broom closet.

Angel 3 of the Christmas tree skirt is finished--that means the embroidery is all done.  Just washing and sewing the lining and edging.  Fait accompli!

I'll try to do a better picture next time, or when the skirt is finished.

Madli's Shawl is finished, but not blocked (after the renos are done--no room).

Now I'm working on a shawl for a friend's wedding.  The beads are way more beautiful than the picture shows.  This is the Laurel Leaf shawl from Victorian Lace Today.  I am working double beads (Swarovski Crystals) into the spaces left where the edging is knitted onto the center part of the shawl.  The picture shows the beads strung onto the Kid Mohair (Kid Seta), ready to be inserted.  i am also making the shawl wider

than instructed, and 8 feet long, or till the yarn runs out.

And last, but not least, the Christmas Stocking I have started for Daughter #1.  The grandchildren have received their cross-stitched stockings, but the adult children's aren't all done.  Will post as they are completed.

Today I went to pick up another load of plants for the greenhouse, which all have to be transplanted tomorrow.  There will be greenhouse updates here ,tomorrow.

Happy Valentine's Day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, EVERYONE ♥♥♥

Sorry about last blog post.  At the end of the post, when I had saved it, I got a message that some HTML thing wasn't closed, the whole post, including pictures went into HTML mode, which I can't read, so I couldn't edit after that, nor could I do anything about the formatting.  So, today I began as usual, and as soon as the first five pictures uploaded, everything went to HTML again.
Thanks to Bev,  I tried the new editor,and it sure made everything easier. 

I love history.  I have a great imagination.  When I drive by old, abandoned farmsteads, I stop and walk in, and as I look around I can see and hear the pioneers working and playing.  So it's no wonder I love my old church.  It was built by the Polish settlers in about 1915--they built a church even before they had good houses of their own.  At the time, an artist named Peter Lipinski travelled around this area, painting churches.  He hand-painted our Church--it was completed in 1928. 

Faux-marble--the modern decorators only think they invented the ragging technique.


The panels of the altar area and the pulpit.  I think he must have had a template of sorts, but looking close up, the individual brushstrokes are evident.

The church dome.  This scene was first painted on canvas, then the canvas applied to the dome.  After that he painted out from the canvas onto the dome to blend the two together.

I love being in the church alone.  I really have a spiritual sense in this historic place.  The church seems to breathe with the thousands of breaths of all who labored to build it, and all who have worshipped there in almost 100 years.

On the way home this is what I encountered.  We are having fairly warm weather, but with strong, cold winds.  I love to look at snowdrifts.  The delicate patterns and edges, but I don't like driving through drifted roads.

Our greenhouses.  The smaller greenhouse in the foreground is half-buried in the snow that had slid off its curved surface all winter long.


Beautiful hoar frost.                                                           

Now an update on the renos.  I have 2-10'lengths of crown mouldings up in the Living Room.  They are hiding the speaker wires of our surround-sound system.  I love the look of these crown mouldings.  I was supposed to put more of these on today, as well as baseboards, but the mouldings and saw (my new toy:  Makita compund sliding mitre saw) are in the garage.  Since I am very allergic to sawdust, I can't cut in the house, but the thought of fighting the cold wind to get to the garage and back likely means I'm not doing those today.  The color is a strange sage-greenish-greyish-tan by Behr, called "Koala Bear".













Varnishing doors in the downstairs kitchen.  You can just see a glimpse of the new cabinets.
















The Angel Tree Skirt is coming along.  Angel #2 is close to finished.  Angel #1 is finished.  There will be one more angel on the far right.

 

Kubota Man fired up the small greenhouse yesterday.  Tomorrow we start working in the greenhouse.  There are tags to sort and inventory so I can place the order.  Here is a glimpse of a new Supertunia color.  It's called "Pretty Much Picasso".I'm looking forward to seeing it in person.  All I've seen so far is pictures.









Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to Painting I go.  And maybe I'll put on my woolies and cut some millwork, too.


Till next time:  One day we think, at last, we have escaped the ties of children, their troubles and their demands. And then we feel a little tug---and find ourselves bound, once more, by the needs of our grandchildren.  And their love. (Pamela Brown)

Second Thoughts

I would never phone a friend to whom I hadn't spoken in a long time, and say, "Hi, I'm alive and well, and busy. Goodbye." and hang up. And that's exactly what I did in the earlier post. So, I hurried through my work and made it a point to show you what I have been doing.

Renovations: That sort of went on hold over Christmas, but right after Christmas, I did the suspended ceiling in my basement kitchen, while waiting for the plumber and electrician.

Behold:
It was really easy, took only a couple of hours. After I had completed it, and one of the flourescent lights went out, I realized that I hadn't dropped it low enough to work on the lights easily, so, this is what I did. (Remember, the ceiling grid is suspended by wires, and supported around the edges by an L-shaped track) I drew a line all around the edges, 1" below the track. Then I lifted up the panels and released the screws and rescrewed them along the new lines. Then I released the wires and lowered it to the right depth. Voilà, 30 min. later, the ceiling is in its new place. Light changed. Fini.

The cabinets are coming in on Monday. I bought more of the same wall tiles as upstairs, since I had to open a new box of grout to use only 1 out of 10 lbs. I love those tiles. Will post later about upstairs.

Knitting/Crocheting/Embroidery

Madli's Shawl from Knitted Lace of Estonia, for my cousin's wife (Germany) who sent me a batch of lovely sock yarn for Christmas. I will be making a pair of socks for him, too.

Rainbow Baby Shawl. Although crocheting is not my favorite pasttime, I love making this shawl. Two evenings of work. It's for a very special young lady who is expecting at the end of February, it will be blessed at church--it is a joyful prayer shawl.

Cross-stitch Christmas Tree Skirt: before I retired, I made up my mind to give each of the kids a Christmas tree skirt. While I still had a paycheck, I assembled the materials. So far I have one all finished, and have been working on this one in 2010. I want them all finished by the next Christmas. I also want to have a cross-stitch Christmas Stocking for everyone. The four grandkids got theirs last Christmas. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures.

Wedding Update: The wedding plans had been all finalized for Labor Day Weekend, then my daughter got the news that the groom's mom, who is a radio announcer in Fiji, could not get the time off work, due to some special event for the Muslim population. So we tried August 14--the caterer wasn't available; Aug 7-- the hall wasn't available; July 31--Maid of honor can't get time off work; Aug 24--no caterers available, local town's 100th anniversary; so now everything is (I think) all set for July 17. Keeping our fingers crossed.

Till next time: You can't wrap love in a box, but you can wrap a person in a hug. (Author unknown)