January 16, 2005

Work and more work...
Richard has been carefully painting the hallway closets. We have 4 linen closets in this house. The color scheme was white shelves and rod and creamy walls/white ceiling. He is being very meticulous and the results look fabulous. I almost don't want to put anything back in them! However, we packed must of the stuff we stuffed in there (grin) and then carefully put stuff back that we still need. The hall closet now has the vacuum cleaner and the rubber broom with some baskets on the shelf. The linen closet has some pretty towels and the emergency blankets. I packed all Alma's crocheted afghans. They were the last ones she made before she forgot how to crochet, so I'm careful with them, anyway. The coat closet now has half the coats in it. There's a bag on the shelf with the small carry-on totes we use for various travels. The last closet is for Richard's tools and things that he keeps locked up. I've been cleaning my sewing room. ACK! How do I do this? I clean it up, it becomes a junk heap again. I've removed one bag of garbage and have packed a box of fabric for Jill's animals (see links page on my website), and even had a box of Goodwill stuff! As I run across things, I'm trying to organize them into an order so I can quilt and be done with some of this. My problem is the puppies. They MUST see everything I do and I have to lay unfinished quilts out on the floor, I have no table space to do it. We then must walk across it, sniff, climb in Mom's lap just to show love and be loved because they're so neurotic when ANYTHING is different in the house, even my routine! (Which tells you how long it’s been since I REALLY worked on a quilt...yikes!).Even after eliminating a book box crammed full with fabric, my fabric stash is still quite large. Sigh. Oh, well, it will keep me busy in the future during those Missouri winters. I've fixed Jenny's favorite pair of jammie pants, I've fixed a pair of mine and I've repaired a few other things that were laying around needing something sewn. Jenny's favorite traveling bag needs repair...its heavy duty nylon/canvas. Not sure of the old machine can take it. I may have to try on the new machine. And yes, my repaired Singer 401A, my favorite machine, is running like a pro again! It was one of my Christmas presents, to have that machine repaired and tuned up. This is the first chance I've had to really try it out. Tension seems a little tight, but that will loosen some as I sew. I can loosen it to an extent, but don't want to go to far or I'll have skipping and twists of balled up thread. That would wreck it again. For a 50+ year old machine, its doing well. I'm a list maker, so I am trying to list out things that need to be done before this move. This includes all the running around town to get things in order, repairs, picking up parts for maintenance and so on. Plus all that needs to be done here. I must say, the kitchen and living/dining rooms look good. They still need paint, but we packed most everything extraneous so it would look lived in, but not cluttered. I told Richard we seriously need to consider a large built-in bookcase with glass doors along one whole wall of our future home for our "collections." I have Lladros, Hummels, Waterford, Galway and my Nativities I'd like to display year round. We shall see how the new home shapes up in that department (grin). Anyway, Richard is cleaning out his closet and packing some things. We will then put his stuff in MY closet so he can paint his closet. I think it’s the last closet to paint. And on that note...Back to work!