Evidence of a small world....

When I moved the rather large TV armoire out of my living room so I could rearrange and make room for the smaller, cuter one, I parked it temporarily on the front porch. When a woman I have known for a long time stopped by to pick up her slipcovered ottoman, she said "If you don't want that anymore, I think I know someone who might be able to use it." I was thrilled. I traded some sewing labor for it (used) about 12 years ago and since it doesn't even have a real back on it, I didn't want to sell it. Her friend turned out to be Susi who owns my favorite flower shop. She will be using it for storage at her shop and she gave me a beautiful "thank you" bouquet of flowers.

After I had my yard sale from a couple of posts back, I put some of the items that didn't sell on Craigs List, and Susi contacted me about my tables, not knowing it was me. We both laughed. She bought them to use in her shop.
So of course I had to take a field trip and take some pictures. She didn't have this table in the shop yet:



But this one fits right in.




Her tiny shop is filled with great stuff. It's one of the places I suggest to my family when they are looking for a gift for me.




Of course I had to buy something while I was there. I got this nice stand to put something on. (Christmas decorations maybe?) And some fireplace matches for my lovebird.




Oh yes, I also finally sold that checked slipper chair (not to Susi). After being in two shops and one yardsale it finally has a new home.

Tis the season......

...for sharing, lots of activity, sneaky surprises, opportunities for giving in our communities, and for me lots of sewing work!



Just wanted to check in real quick before I go off to deliver a sectional slipcover in the next county over (complete with new down cushions and completely filling up my station wagon). I'm "snowed in" with lots of pillows, cushions and slipcovers. I will try to keep in touch. I haven't had time to do much blog visiting and am sad to think about what I am missing.

Things once hunted down are now set free.

My middle daughter is moving to a new place soon, so we combined her extras with my extras and had a garage sale today. Technically it wasn't in the garage, it was in the front yard, except we don't have a yard, really, we have a nice big driveway. I think our house was originally built as a vacation house and therefore a low, excuse me, NO maintenance yard seemed like the best option. It also allows for lots of parking. It was foggy/overcast all morning, so I took some pictures.

Sold it:



Sold some of it:



Didn't sell it:



Sold it:



Didn't sell it:



Sold it:



Didn't sell it:


We did sell two sewing machines, a microwave oven, some books, a teapot, a teakettle, some rope, lots of sweatshirts and other smallish clothing, baskets, wooden fruit, seashells,etc.,etc. Wish you could have stopped by.

Think, thank, thunk.

Oops! Just dropped over-easy egg yolk on my keyboard. Hope the keys don't stick together. Over Easy Slipcovers was the original name of my slipcover business. It makes sense right? The cover goes over your furniture and makes it so easy to change the look and is easy to take care of. Oh well. It probably just made people think of eggs. Now I just use my name. That way I don't have to renew a fictitious business name every five years.

I want to thank Vallen for naming me as a thinking blog the other day. I do enjoy a good ponder. She said some nice things about me. (she has tendencies towards extreme niceness)

I am choosing to pass on naming 5 thinking blogs in return, because I am up to my eyeballs in holiday fabrics and pillow forms for holiday parties, studio open-houses, and the like and need to get busy. I would like to mention one blog though, that I discovered through a blog I visited, that I will figure out who it belongs to later when it is too late. It is a great and clever book review site by Yann Martel who wrote LIFE OF PI. Visiting the site led me to get a copy of LIFE OF PI and I am enjoying it. It seems, according to the author's note at the beginning of the book, that it is a true story.



Lots of silk and velvet.



Taking a little break.


I wanted to report that Colleen came over, as mentioned in my last post, and brought her talented friend (and mine), Kate and they made my living room look great. I love it. I never would have thought to arrange the furniture the way they did, and they gave me some great tips. Now I just need to make some slipcovers, etc.

What I did today....

I wore my red poppy. I was at the post office a couple of days ago and made a donation to the VFW through the Poppy Buddy program. Thanks, Dad, by the way, for serving your country, and thanks to all others who have been, or are in our military. May God watch over you.



I stood up in front of a room full of people and talked for a couple of minutes. A friend, one time told me that she would rather eat mud than stand up in front of a group and speak. That is usually how I feel too, but sometimes you just have something that you have to say. And if it is an opportunity to honor someone (and it was), then why not?

I bought a TV. Well, actually I took one back that I bought yesterday and exchanged it for a different one. Colleen is going to be here tomorrow to help me spiff up the place, mostly by using her expertise to rearrange what I already have. But I really wanted to get rid of the big clunky tv armoire since my living room is pretty small. Therefore, I also needed a less big and clunky tv.
So we plugged in the one I got yesterday, that took an hour and a half to buy, by the way, due to sales trainee/ older salesman combo, not that I have anything against either, it just took a while, thats all, and to continue this record breaking run-on sentence.... it sounded like the people on the screen were talking into empty tin cans. (Very annoying). So I did what I should have in the first place. I went on the afore mentioned store's website, compared, studied, selected, and printed out info before I packed the tv back in the box and took it back. The transaction took about five minutes. Whew, what a relief. The new tv has 20 watts of sound power, as apposed to 1 in the other one. Yes that's a 1, as in one. No wonder it sounded weak.

When we were first married 30 years ago, I didn't want a tv, but people kept giving them to us. "You have to have a tv!" They said. Now, sadly, I would have some major withdrawals without one.

Speaking of addictions.... I heard today that cats that live in the homes of smokers get a nicotine residue on their coats that they ingest when they clean themselves and that leads to a cigarette-butt eating habit. I never thought about that before.

to plan or not to plan

A couple of months ago I ordered a "quilt wall". It's was advertised as a 6 foot by 6 foot piece of felted fabric to put up on the wall. You can put your quilt pieces, flannel board style, on it to see in advance how they will look. It was back-ordered and I waited for it with excitement. When it finally came I was sad to see that it was simply a 2 yard piece of 72 inch wide craft felt that I could have bought at the local fabric store. So....don't order one for yourself, buy some craft felt, it's a LOT cheaper.
I put it up on a hallway wall in an out-of-the-way part of the house by my workroom. I put batting behind it to make it easier to pin to since heavier pieces like my truck squares don't stay up by themselves.


The truck quilt started out without a definite plan, just a general idea and I was having great fun putting squares together.
I got them up on the quilt wall just in time though. I hadn't thought about how the placement of the trucks going the different directions needed to be spaced somewhat evenly. (key word: somewhat)



And then, getting them up there all together, I saw that I'd really like it better if squares with the same colors are not right next to each other, or trucks with similar items in them, like plants. (Am I obsessing?)



So, maybe making a plan is a better way to go, or at least GETTING a plan once the creative spontaneity is well on it's way. The remaining squares will be carefully thought out.

An evening at home....

just fiddling around,




me, working on the truck quilt.



Max processing information gathered on his evening walk.