Still more dust, dirt and noise

sighhhhhh I don't think this will ever end............

They were supposed to be finished with phase 1 of the remodel last Friday. Here it is Friday a week later and there is still a huge mess. He said they would be done today, but there is no way. In all fairness tho they did run into several "problems" and I have added a couple of things to the list. Like putting up crown molding in my office/sewing room. They are 80% done and it looks awesome. I think when they do the kitchen I'm going to have them add it to the rest of the house. I'll try and take some pics this weekend and put them up. It is looking pretty good.

But omg I'm tired of the mess. And I want to SEW!!!!! I want my room put together and I want to get out my Bernina dang it!!! :( Maybe tomorrow.........

I did manage to go spend a couple hundred dollars at my Bernina shop this morning tho :) I got the Bernina 75th Anniversay embroidery CD, a tube of AquaMesh Plus, several spools of thread, 3 Christmas fabrics for J and a couple more for me. The first thing I think I'll work on is stitching out "Going in Circles" that we just finished up in the Designer+ class. It's placemats that we digitized the designs ourselves. It was fun and I can't wait to see how they turn out.

Then I need to get our logo stitched out, I think I finally figured out how to digitize it. But I'll have to wait until I stitch it out to say for sure lol. Then there are a couple of Christmast gifts I need to get a move on and get started so hopefully I'll have them done by Christmas. Then I want to do a quilt I saw on http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/ . She gave directions for a fabulous black/white/brights quilt back in the summer and I can't wait to do it.

Then there is the remodel...... they are supposed to come to the back patio cover in about 30 days, we'll see lol. Then I think I'm going to put the kitchen part on hold for a few weeks, DH keeps changing and making it bigger and bigger. The first thing we need to do is make sure we want to stay here for lots more years before we spend that much on it. I mean yikes, he's now putting in a convection oven (geez I have NO idea what I'm supposed to cook in it!!), a 6 burner gas professional cooktop (I prefer electric and who needs 6 burners for hamburger helper????) and who knows what else is in his head. So if he does that, those pieces are stainless. My fridge and dw are white........ I'm sure you see where this is heading lol. No way am I having stainless and white appliances! Then the stainless will look awful with my pickle finish cabinets and if we're doing this much "might as well" do granite.

It will never end.......................

But it will be nice to have an up-to-date looking house.

Now for something less stressful. Fall is in the air here. I love this time of year. The colors are just amazing. It was 39 degrees 2 mornings ago and I actually saw a couple of cars that had scraped the frost off their back window. So maybe before I do my placemats I'll do an autumn wall-hanging for my new room.

omg I'm SO ADD. Maybe I'll go sit outside instead.

Where there is no drywall dust

or nail gun going off

Dust, dirt and noise

Well I'm certainly keeping up with this new toy aren't I???? Most days I start out thinking of posting something witty and funny and next thing I know I'm nodding off and the day is done. Where do the days go???? My mother always said "wait till you get older the days will fly by". Yeah but at a speed fast enough to break the sound barrier? And I'm only 47! What happens when I'm 60? Me and Scarlett will think about that tomorrow......................

I still haven't learned anything about blogging. My links on the side STILL don't work, but when they do there are some fun blogs to visit. Hopefully they will still be active by the time I figure out how to fix them. But I wouldn't hold my breath..............


My house...... it's a total disaster right now. I've got a gaping hole in my family room down to the crawl space. It all started out innocently enough. We have our business office here and when I got my fabutastic Bernina it also went in the "office". A little cramped it was. Well with Bryan off to college (I thought, he came home today ugh) I thought I would move into the other bedroom. It's a tad bigger and much better lighting. But the carpet is 10 year old white Berber, and altho it's held up incredibly well it is nasty. It's carpet and it's 10 years old and it's been thru 2 kids and 3 dogs. Need I say more? None of whom particularly like to vaccum, myself included.

So I got inspired by a friend in Phoenix, Missy, that laid her own wook-look laminate in her kids rooms recently. It looks great! So, I decided to lay laminate in my office/sewing room. Not so nasty and dusty. Well maybe still dusty as I live in 5% humidty New Mexico. There's enough dust to choke a horse and small children. When I told DH of this marvelous idea, he looked at me as if I had 3 heads and ignored me. A few days later I told him again. He agreed to help. Well by the next day we thought we probably needed to to both bedrooms. Then that left the hallway and 2 huge stains of unknown dog origin that just will not come out. And the nice replica of the bottom of my iron. A hot iron melts perfect little circles into Berber. So we need to do the hallway also. Then that leaves the stairs...... "might as well"

So I then called someone to give me an estimate. No way am I going to try and do all that. Especially with DH's "help". NO WAY lol. So a week later the floors are in and look great and the trim is almost finished. Then I'll repaint the bedrooms.

BUT WAIT, there's more ~~ as that dorky commercial guy says.

We decided to close off another set of stairs that was a total waste of space (only 6 steps, it's mroe of a bi-level plan) and knock out the back wall of our pantry. They are in the process now of knocking out that wall. They've been in this process for 2 days now.

I'm so tired of the noise...........

and dust.....................


and men.................

and the general mess as I have 2 bedrooms and a good size pantry of stuff cramed in the kitchen.

Good news is there is no way I can cook for several more days. The stove has "stuff" piled on it also along with in front of it. But I'll have a huge wonderful pantry in a few (I hope!) days.

And as the dorky man says: but wait, there's more!

DH wants to extend a wall in the kitchen and cut it in half. He's bound and determined to cut this wall in half. He's making me crazy...............

It might work, but that means retiling the kitchen and new countertops (yeah I know waaaaaa!!) The contractor is "thinking" up ideas. great................

But it is going to be sooo nice when it's completed. And hopefully soon I'll get my machine set back up and actually get to sew.

If anyone is reading this I hope you're having a "smurfilicous" day!


edited to add: whoo hooo I got the links fixed! You can now get to some of my fav blogs out there. now if I can just figure out how to add pics in the middle of a post. it keeps putting them at the beginning. yes I know I did it before, but the mind ya know...............

Where were you?

9/11 . . . . . what a sad day. I remember what I was wearing and the feeling that morning. J had just started her first year of college and was in Lubbock Texas and M was in Midland Texas for business meetings. So it was just me and B at home that morning. I got up a little before 7 and went and started waking B up for school, came down and turned on the TV. It was on NBC and Katie Couric was on altho at that moment I didn't pay much attention to what was going on. I went in the bedroom and got my slippers on and just as I came back thru the family room I looked at the TV and it seemed as if in slow motion I saw the 2nd plane hit. I know it wasn't in slow motion because it was happening live, but it was, and still is, so surreal.

I sat down and just stared at the tv. As they continued to broadcast and I learned about what had happened with the 1st plane all I could think of was to get J on the phone. But of course that wasn't happening, all circuits were bogged down. I finally got hold of her around noon, finally. Didn't talk to M until that evening. His sister's DH was in upstate NY for business that day, he got home only 1 day late. Sending B to catch the bus that morning was sooooo hard. I wanted both my kids at home where I could protect them. And hug them.

Now here it is 6 years later and we are still fighting this monster. And sadly I don't think we've learned from this. The politicians are still fighting between themselves, more than ever. I get so tired of it all. Each one thinks they would have done things so differently and that Bush did it so badly. Do I support Bush? YES Do I think he's made mistakes? YES -- who hasn't?????? Do I think the attacks were a US government conspiracy NO NO and NO

In my opinion that is total bull!!!! Why would someone do this to their own country? It just makes no sense. Republican or Democrat or Libertarian, it makes no sense.

To bad they won't have the chance to walk in his shoes and see what they would have done differently. It's easy to "say" but harder to "do".

ok off my soapbox, this day should not be about the politicians but about the heros that gave their life so that we can bitch about the politicians and so they can talk crap constantly :)
Pray for the men and women serving in the Armed Forces.

Now to lighter things.......

I haven't touched my Bernina, except to pack it up, in weeks. I'm so not going to get all the things done for Christmas that I had planned. What else is new lol? My house is a disaster right now, they started laying the wood laminate floor today. Should finish up most of it tomorrow and start the pantry reno. It will be so nice to not have the nasty carpet anymore. Altho for white berber it has done remarkably well for the last 10 years. Between 2 kids who don't understand the concept of picking up after themselves and 3 dogs it looked pretty darn good.

Still glad it's gone tho..................

So tomorrow afternoon I'll be able to start putting the office/sewing room back together. Except I haven't painted yet. I bought paint, but after splotching it on the wall I don't like it. It's called Moose Mousse and it's a very pretty brown, but I want green. I keep trying to talk myself out of it, as does my MIL, because I should do something a little more pratical and resaleable. But I still want green! So when I find my paint chips I'm going to get green. I want lime green walls! Practicality and resale be damned! hehe M will bitch about it, but oh well....... again, what else is new?

I did work on my Designer Plus software today, I might actually be getting the hang of it! We'll see when I try to stitch them out lol. This digitizing stuff is hard, but fun. And like someone in my software class said, you shouldn't be intimidated by something you can pick up and throw out the window!

And maybe in the morning I'll try to learn how to make my blog jazzier. I see some really neat ones but I have no idea how to do it. I can't even get my links to other blogs to work! If someone happens to read this (and make it to the end of this ramble) and has a site or book recommendation on blogging I'd love to hear it.

Night all!

Quilting to-do list

Well so far I'm doing a bang up job and blogging lol. Oh well, this obviously won't be one those blogs that is updated each and every day like some out there :)

B left for his second year of college on Friday morning. He stayed here at the local JUCO the first semester and went to Orem Utah his second semester (followed his girlfriend). He loved Utah but he and gf broke up at the end of the semester. They had dated through most of high school, it's to bad she is a nice girl. But they both needed to experience life and all it has to offer. Who knows if they will find their way back to one another some day..........

His leaving this time was a bit harder, last time I knew who he would be with most of the time (try 90%!!), but this time he'll be doing the traditional college "thang". Scarey for a mom!

M also left Friday for a golf weekend and then to Colorado to work, so it's been a very quiet weekend so far. I had plans to immediately start working on B's room to change it to the office/sewing room, but I haven't yet. Typical procrastinator!

Now for the important part...... quilting! Here is a picture if one of the first 2 quilts I've done. I did this I Spy for my great-nephew Aiden at the same time I was working on my parents anniversary quilt.

I'm going to get started on one for our friends little boy for Chirstmas with the scraps. I've got most of it laid out on B's bed now and will start putting it together tonight. Not sure what I'll use for the back of his, not the Baby Genius since he's almost 5. Something buggy or tractors maybe? Should go pretty quickly and be on thing done for Chirstmas!

Then I've got a B's to work on, it's a flannel rag quilt that I had started very early on (read: BEFORE I knew squat about batting!) and I need to take apart what I've done and put good batting in it. After learning about it I don't want cheap wally-world poly batting with $9/yd Moda flannel! I'll save that batting for the potholders I'd like to make to put with Christmas. It's not that I mind cheap at all! I just like the feel of the Warm and Natural now, so I'll change it all out.

I've also found a cool pattern for a quilt for J for Christmas. Then I'd also like to machine embroider towels and make the nieces towel wraps for Christmas and I've got a friend whose baby is due in December and want to make burps for........ geez why do I always have to bite off so much?????? hmmmmm but after 47 years I don't think it's gonna change. I could probably get it all done tho if I would stay OFF the computer :)........................

Day 2 and still going........

I've just spent the last 2 hours lost in blog land when I should be cleaning up the kitchen. Some very interesting people out there, and the cool things they do on their blogs. I did come across the blog for dummies and can't wait to read thru it and learn how to make my blog page pretty also.

I also came across Marilyn's blog (I would post a link to it but don't know how just yet!) and she lost her beloved Keesha dog. So sad....... My oldest dog, Cinamon, is starting to really slow down and I don't want to think about having to make that decision. They are like my kids, only without the back talk.

I went collecting paint chips today, I'm thinking green that is just a tad on the limey side. Not sure yet tho. I also measured DS's room and got it down on graph paper. Figured out a sleeper sofa will not fit with all the other stuff that has to go in there. DS was so upset, he acts like he won't have a room at all to come back to. All I'm doing is putting his things back in the room that was his for the past 9 years! He switched to his sister's room when she got an apartment at college and took most of her things. He does tend to panic if things happen out of order or if they're not on his list, and moving rooms is definitely NOT on his list. Gotta love him, especially since I can't shoot him :)

Here is a picture of the quilt I made for my parent's 50th Anniversary

My mom was excited. My Grandmother, her mother, tried to show us how to quilt when we were young but no of us seemed to want to learn. My cousin Robbie, who is several years younger than me, has been quilting for quite a few years now and now that I'm 47 I'm learning. Better late than never I guess.

It's "square in squares" pattern. Very easy to do and looks good. Then I meandered the quilting around the pictures. Printing the pictures was a breeze with the new paper/fabric they have out. It's good quality fabric laminated onto either a paper or plastic backing. You run it through your ink jet printer, let dry for a couple of minutes and peel off, then cut to size. The Electric Quilt brand on the plastic type backing was much easier to peel off.

I'm proud of the job I did, especially considering it's only my 2nd quilt.

I'll be glad when I get my room remodeled and moved into so I can start working on my projects again. Running a business out of our home, taking up this hobby and living with a packrat husband sure makes for lots of "stuff". It's "driving me crazie" !! Gotta get some organization going somewhere. I'm going to put in a closet system from easyclosets.com like we did in our master closet. That makes all the difference. I actually like going into my closet now lol. Only this one will be shelves on 2 walls and 1 wall of double hanging. Then I'm trying to decide between laminate wood floor or engineered wood. I'm leaning toward the laminate, mostly because it sounds like I can do it myself.

First Blog, First Post

hmmmm well I've succumbed to the blogging frenzy. For the longest time I wouldn't even look at them, "what???? who cares what I've been up to????" Well I care I've decided. This is for me. But.............if anyone else finds it interesting and maybe a little funy, then I'm glad I could bring a smile to your day. I've found the quilting blogs so interesting and inspiring. Mine won't be very inspiring I'm sure since I've just started and only completed 2 quilts so far. But I'll get there. I'll post about them in the next couple of days.

The name of my blog came from a couple of thoughts, first I love the movie "Driving Miss Daisy" (or maybe I love the Krispy Kreme connection???), and secondly I just spent 10 hours in the car with my 19 year old son driving back from Texas. He nagged (and not nicely) at me the entire day. Well actually the entire week we were in Texas. I have no driving skills at all according to him. How did I manage to make it to 47 (well in a couple of weeks any way) driving this way???? He can't believe I haven't killed myself and countless others.

ahhhh it's so nice to be back home and out of the car and to have him at the golf course and not here continually nagging at me. Even tho I will miss him terribly when he leaves for his 2nd year of college next week. At least until I start turning his room into my new sewing / quilting room :-) hehe

Texas is great. Sometimes I wish we could move back. Until I spend a week there. In the heat and humidity. And that's just in West Texas, I don't even go to the really humid part of Texas!! :) We have the bestest weather here in north west New Mexico, not usually to hot and the evenings and nights cool down and the mornings are the best. Crisp cool clean -- wonderful! Not to mention, no tornadoes or hail storms. Altho we have had wind and mini-dirt storms the past few years.

Tomorrow is laundry and then off to start collecting paint chips for my new room.

Well for someone who didn't think they would have much to say I managed quite the post didn't I? lol