One of those days....

Woke up early......
Let dogs out....
Let dogs in.....
Fed dogs......
Got ready for work....
Missplaced purse.....
Upstairs 3 x's in purse hunt.....
Finally found black purse, next to dark cabinet....
Where is work bag?
Find bag.....
Ready to leave for work., go to door....
Dogs want out....again....
Dogs out.....
Dogs back in.....
Ready to go.....
Start driving to work.....
Where are glasses.....
Forget it just drive....
Spill entire cup of coffee in car....
Need gas....
Card reader doesn't work at station....
Pump gas...
Pay inside....
Late for work....
Sitting at working........
LOOK DOWN AND BUG SITTING ON MY HAND.....

I'm going home......

All is not lost....

A couple of weeks ago during a project I managed to break my sewing machine. P. tried to fix it, but first time I tried to use it I made it worse. It had been running very bad and sewing had become a pain. I was talking about taking it in for a "tune-up", but just hadn't gotten around to it. So P and I were out and I was just "looking". I got a demo on a machine and told the woman I'd get back to her. On the way out P asked when we were paying....I was like.."paying for what?". He asked why I wasn't getting the machine?????? Okay, let's get back there and get one! Isn't he the greatest?????

So "30-Something" here's what I got.....

I haven't played with all the bells and whistles yet, but I have used the blind hem stich....gosh, why did I ever hem by hand??????

Come on girls...wake up.....your dress fittings are at 9am!!!!

I have to start resting more on the weekends!

Over the weekend I worked on my challenges with Girlville and 30 Something.

P's office is complete. Today I put the finishing touches on his "wall" of photos. They are enlargements of his original motorcycle, his current one, us, fishing and of course one of he and Chloe on his motorcycle....no he didn't go anywhere with her!

Did you notice the crazy ceramic "Smiley" guys on the shelf???? I made the guy with the motorcycle for P in 1977!!! I think it's an antique...heck, some of you probably weren't even born then!!! I was only 8!!! LOL It was painted to match his Honda 750 he bought that year. The skier came from our ex-SIL. Crazy how they were boxed up in the attic.

This is some of his "collection" of car and card stuff that he has displayed.

When I come in here to use the desktop computer I feel like I'm invading HIS space! I need to work on that laptop for myself so I can be in my own office downstairs.

The furry ones just wanted us to be done with the room and get to bed!!!!

Chloe was trying to tell us what day it was....

and Rosie was worried we would never finish.....

Tonight I started to go through the boxes of sewing/craft supplies I had in the closet of that room....oh dear...not good...not good at all.........

Congrats to Ragus Pugs on the new "baby"

A big Puggy welcome to Emma Lee "Emily". Pop over to Ragus Pugs and read all about this cutie!

Friday morning antics

Zoey...."I'm really tired mom, really give me a break......"Mom - "What are you three up too?"
Rosie - "We're just sitting here, not doing anything..the purple sock under the table? We have no idea how it got there.."Chloe - "Not me, I'm busy licking bowls"

Prize and Pretty

I'm a little backwards in my posting, rather than to really creep you out with a tour of my basement today I'm sharing my recent "win" from GIRLVILLE.....


She wraps so pretty.....

I love these banners!!!! Girlville you need to get them on Etsy!!!!

The same day my prize arrived C's boyfriend picked her up to go out for their "1 year" dating anniversary. Wow, is he the one????? He brought pretty roses, which she wanted to display where everyone could see. The vase I put them in I received as a gift for our one year wedding anniversary...isn't it cute...little love-birds!

January Clean Sweep Continues....

Clean Sweep continued this past weekend. When we moved here we barely had anything in the attic. In fact, my grandparents still had stuff up there when they sold to us....heck they didn't want the junk! LOL

Honestly our attic is a little creepy. There are days that I go up there and all is well and there are others days where I'm just spooked. It is in two sections. The first section is the main part where the stairs go up to the cupola. The back part is completely empty. You have to go through a small 3 x 4 opening to get into that area....I have NEVER been in there, but P insulated that whole area a few years ago and assures me it is quite empty. No bodies, no antiques, nada, zip, nothing.

The entrance to the back attic is that hole on the left side of the dollhouse.....

So Sunday fortified by pancakes and plenty of coffee, we started. There is only flooring in certain spots up there so we first put down some wooden pallets P got to form a good place for the storage. The object being to only have boxes on the palleted area NO WHERE ELSE....lol.

These are the attic stairs. They are located in the front bedroom landing area...

Once you get through the doorway, there is another set of stairs that go up to the cupola...

My grandmother used to let my girlfriend and I play up here when we were younger. The door in the floor actually shuts, so you can be up there and not worry about falling down through the staircase. She gave us "free" choice about paint colors...hence the purples.

We discovered that every time R cleaned his room, he obviously put "stuff" in large garbage bags and put them in the attic...GAH!!!! We also discovered that we had the original "box and packaging materials" for every item we ever purchased...pots and pans, vcr, dvd, tv, stereo, computer...you know they tell you to save the packaging for return????? We also found a broken fish tank, broken toys, magazines from the 40's, a 1938 Pennysaver, a race car track that belonged to P, my maternity clothes (what????) and 4 boxes of baby clothes. I guess I do recall thinking someday we might have a third child. We are saving a few things for each of the kids. C's Playmobile doll house, the American Girl stuff, a few baby clothes, the Brio train set, wooden blocks, legos, Ghostbusters, and Ninja Turtles...and one box of their children's books. That's it. I have one rubbermaid container of my school stuff and a portfolio of my art pieces from college. I feel liberated!




Goodwill is going to love us and the garbage men are going to hate us...

Marty is keeping an eye out for the garbage men.

It's okay Marty they're gone....

You think it snowed at your house?

So you think you want snow???? This is Oswego. It is one hour east of our house and 15 minutes from our camp. They got 3 feet (yes, I said FEET) of snow this weekend. We were going to drive up to camp on Saturday to check things out....there's 20 inches there! I lived in Oswego for 2 years while attending college there. The campus is right on Lake Ontario and the snow really dumps there. So as much as you all wish for snow, we're happy at our house that this storm missed us!

My rescues....

I've been thinking about the "rescues" I have done over the past few years. When considering adding another Pug (or any other pet) to your family, please consider rescue....they have so much love to give...

Stuff

I save stuff. If something has sentiment attached to it, I save it. I am sentimental about stuff. I have tried to not have my love of "stuff" take over my life, but most of my stuff has a story. It may not be a best selling novel kind of story, but nonetheless....a story. I think it is very important to know where we have come from. The little stuff that makes it our story. The one we pass on, the ones our kids or niece and nephews, or friends remember us by. It's how our spirit stays alive, it's the fabric of our life.

Little Stuff.....these are my baby beads. Yes, when I was born you got REAL beads with your name spelled out! Along with these beads is the rosary my grandmother gave to me when I was born. My mom had saved them both and before she died gave them to me...

Now remember "saving stuff" is not the same as saving "junk", although saving stuff can be known also as "collecting". "Collecting" has a theme... like collecting baseball cards, tea cups, furniture, cars, Pugs, whatever. Wow, did I say Pugs????

So, where was I going with this post? Oh yeah, "stuff".....got any?????

65 Breaths for Tricia

A different kind of post today.


Last week Lisa posted about Tricia, Nathan and their baby Gwyneth. Tricia has CF and due to declining health was getting ready for a double lung transplant, but God had different plans and along came baby Gwyneth. Please visit Nathan's blog and read about their incredible faith and their journey. Even asleep Tricia is an inspiration into faith.


Today my challenge to you all....take 65 breaths for Tricia and Gwyneth. A breath, so easy for most of us, so taken for granted, yes, take a breath for Tricia and Gwyneth and pray......

Sometimes I just don't get it....

Honestly, sometimes I wonder what I could change and get away with. After 28 years of marriage I have noticed that P doesn't always pay attention to what I do to things around the house and "things" around the house.

Sunday, A (my dad's gf) had us stop over and pick up the tv she no longer wanted. Now you all know I'm not a huge fan of tv, but we thought we'd replace the tv in our bedroom with this one. It's 32 inches, doesn't everyone need a 32 inch tv in their bedroom??? The idea was to move that tv in the bedroom, our current bedroom tv to C's room, C's tv to my office, and the office tv (black and white, one channel!) to the garbage. A lot of tv talk for someone who doesn't watch much tv. The thing is that the 32 inch tv is really HEAVY and really BIG and hefting it up 2 flights of stairs and then up on top of the armoire seemed like way too much work. So the tv made it's way into our living room. There hasn't been a tv in there since 1991. So P hooks up the tv and turns it on. I switch to HGTV, sit on the sofa and say to myself...heh, this is nice. So, I'm sitting on the sofa, looking around and think to myself...oh, and one little Puggy.....

I should move things around a bit and move the living room lamps into the dining room on the buffet. I mean honestly, the lamps are a shade of mauve/pink. My grandmother left them for us when she moved out. How did I not notice they were that color before???

I'm really loving lamps in the dining room....

But back to where I was really going with this whole story. I call P into the dining room to show him what I've done. He comes in and says "heh, did you buy new lamps"??????

I mean really where has he been? Is he not sitting right next to one of these lamps in this photos? Click on photo for details.....

Oh, I moved things around on the mantle too...

Do you think he'd notice if I got a new counter in the kitchen??????

How come we can't come in and see the lamps?

Weekend - unfinished projects

Two years ago I started a quilt to work on at camp on the weekends. As I worked on the quilt, I got side-tracked, as I often do! I branched off due to requests and the "squares" started becoming pillows. I made a LOT of pillows. I donated pillows, sold pillows, gave pillows for gifts. I think I made at least 30 pillows. It was just crazy! When we changed camps last year, the sewing time diminished. Too much to do to sit alone and sew!

Anyhow, back to my unfinished project this past weekend I decided that I would work on my Pug Quilt. The challenge I gave was to get the quilt top done. Saturday, P had to work, so it would be a perfect morning for sewing. I got up early and got ready to start....

First, I needed to find my rotary cutter. I had previously started to put the squares together and tried to "eyeball" making them the same size. Honestly, I've sewed long enough to know that doesn't always work! My sewing room used to be upstairs and the desk up their still contains "some" of my odds and ends. I hoped I would find the rotary cutter in there....

Heh, what do you know, it was in there, along with and odd collection of other crafting items. I guess maybe a junk drawer for the craft junkie? Not allowing myself to get into all the bits I was finding, I took the cutter downstairs and got to work.

First I had to un-do all the seams where I had previously put it together. I have to admit that little seam-ripper bothered my wrist.

Next I stacked to see the real difference in the sizes of the squares I was going to use.....

Then I cut border pieces and layed it all out to my liking. This took several rounds of moving blocks.

Then I set to sewing everything together. I started sewing around 8:30 and was finished and cleaning up at 12:30. This time frame included 4 telephone calls, feeding pugs, watering pugs, letting pug out, letting pugs in....and on and on.

On Sunday I bought a twin flat sheet and quilt binding. I layed out the backing, batting, and the top. Now I just need to pin it all, baste, do some machine quilting, and bind it! Hopefully I'll be able to cross this project off my unfinished list real soon!

Zoey found all this sewing just exhauting.....

One man's junk.....

If your a crafter you know we all end up with tons of stuff. Sewers have buttons, trims, fabric, threads, and patterns, those that knit and crochet have yarn, patterns, needles, hooks, and markers. There are those that paint, do ceramics, make candy, you name it. When my mom died I ended up with her craft supplies, which included around 75 spools of ribbon, and jewelry making stuff...earring backers, pins, beads, feathers.

ANYHOW....Girlville and 30Something had started a mini-challenge between them to finish some of the unfinished projects they have. In November I joined them and we give each other MORE idea for more projects! BAD BAD BAD.

In the theme of finishing projects I knew I needed a few more items and decided to visit a shop in the village where I work. How have I NEVER gone in here before????????

This shop is run entirely by volunteers. The "inventory" consists of donations....I guess like a Goodwill for crafters???? All proceeds go to local senior citizen's groups and anything donated is tax deductible! Honestly a win, win, situtation. You can read more about it here: Craft Bits & Pieces

Unfortunately their hours are short in the Winter and they sadly told me they were closing at 2pm (it was 1:55!) I had actually only gotten through a little of the stuff and seriously had to hold myself back from buying NEEDLESSLY. I really wanted to go through the pattern books and buttons and stuff for scrapbooking.

I only spent $1.00 and scored a box or plastic hearts for my Valentine tree (25cents) and 2 packages of quilt binding and one package of piping. Woohoo! The woman in front of me spent $66!!! With stuff only being 25 cents, 50 cents, $1.00, she had 4 huge bags! Crazy!

So this weekend I am going to start going through my own supplies and my mom's and get a donation box ready.

One man's junk........