Rain and

Finally got some much needed rain Wednesday nite. It rained hard and for almost 2 hours instead of only 15 minutes. Could have done without the high winds and lightning but it was so nice to see the wet stuff falling from the sky. Of course the electricity went out for about an hour and half, which normally I would say no big deal but being out in the country that also means no well water and no septic. uh-oh! Not so bad this time but what if we have a hurricane and we're without electricity for 12 days like at the other house. mmmm. David says he wants to invest in a big generator once we finally close on the other house. Speaking of the other house... The offer we picked out of the 3 offers we got originally couldn't close the deal. We finally cut them loose and said adios'. We already have a new contract and things seem to be progressing well. Hopefully it won't fall apart this time. These buyers seem to be very nice, let's just hope they can close the deal.

Thursday night Pamela and I had a mother-daughter night and went to the movies. We went to see "The Help" We loved the book and while the movie made some slight changes it was a great movie.  Our favorite character has to be Minnie. I may start avoiding chocolate pie from now on.
Pamela went back to school Friday for the orientation.  Pamela's class had to present and help with the orientation for the new student nurses this fall. Pamela's class told the new students what to expect, the do's and the don'ts, gave words of encouragement and what the past year has meant to them personally. This is

Pamela's last year of nursing school.  She and the other class officers created these retractable name badge holders with bling. They handed them out to the new student nurses but are making more to sell so they can raise money for their pinning ceremony in May 2012.

She bought me one already for my badge.



We moved her into Pamela back to school to her new apartment Saturday with her new roommates. One of the 3 roommates is in nursing school with her.  

It's was a mere 107. Houston got to 109. I am so over moving!! 

Boy! It was quiet around the house last nite. David and I already miss her. Pamela always laughs at me because I always get teary eyed as we say goodbye until her next trip home. It's not like I won't talk to her on the phone. And the fact that she's only a little over an hour away but I just can't help myself.

On the home front we do have internet now if we walk upstairs to the gameroom where I have my laptop connected to the modem but who's had time. The gameroom is the only room we can get a full strength signal on the modem. I worked on trying to get our router set up yesterday for almost 3 hours so we could have wireless internet but never could get the router to complete the set up. Grrrrr.

On a good note I finally found my keyboard and mouse for my desk top that I guess I'll have to haul upstairs so I can if that will allow the router to complete the set up. I guess the wireless signal from laptop is somehow messing with the router identification signal. Who knows. All I can do is try.

I will be sew happy when I can sit in my sewing room/office and do something besides unpack boxes. I'm actually going to Quilting Bee tonight. The girls probably forgot what I look like. I haven't told them that I'm bringing my camera. LOL. They've been free of me and my camera for almost 3 months.  

I haven't found all my sewing supplies but I did unpack a box of denim jeans that I stuffed in a bag along with my ruler and rotary cutter, threw them in my car and I will cut them up into squares for future projects. Squares will take up much less room than the jeans themselves.

Until next blog....

"The fact is always obvious much too late, but the most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy is a liquid."

.•*¨`*•. ☆ .•*¨`*•. Be Happy ✿ .•*¨`*•. ☆ .•*¨`*•.  
……………… ....♥ •.Carla.•´♥…………............…

Not Another Fire Hazard!!

Slowly but surely we are getting settled into the new place. Again we avoided yet another fire hazard. My new LG dryer that we had to convert from natural gas to propane was not drying the clothes even after setting the temp to high and choosing the setting very dry. David called the repair guy we have liked to use but he wasn’t much help. He told David that there wasn’t anything more he could do that maybe the vent was clogged up.

Okay now my mind immediately started thinking about a snake being curled up in our vent. Why would I think that…. Because my new neighbor across the street came over and told us not to be alarmed if we hear gun shot. WHAT?  Neighbor tells me that the armadillos are tearing up his yard and proceeds to tell me about the copperhead snake he found in his dryer vent a while back. Okay I’m moving back to the city.Not really. Once I saw where our vent was I felt certain no snake could slither up the side of our house, under and over the eave to the roof. Or at least I hope not.  

So my favorite handy man, the hubby climbs the ladder and slowly  slides up the roof to the vent. I want to close my eyes but can’t. It looks like a bird nest possibly from my spot on the ground and David confirms. So he begins to tug and pull bits and pieces out till he can’t get anything more out so now he decides to go into the attic and try from there….  Holy COW it’s not a small bird nest it’s a pterodactyl nest.

Once he finished that sweaty job he came into the laundry room with a vent cleaner and cleaned from the wall up. Lint had stacked up enough to fill a kitchen garbage bag. It was trapped because of the bird nest. Another Fire just waiting to happen. All I could think and ask “What other fire hazards are lurking in the house” but right now we can’t think of any and we truly hope we’re in good shape. Lo and Behold the dryer worked like a charm. Hallelujah! It took 4 hours of  David’s time and sweat. I'm really lucky to have a smart and handy man. There's not much he can't fix or do.

Now on a couple cute notes. Dexter our sheltie is getting used to the new place but still follows us around like we might leave him. The other morning when I got out of bed he crawled up in my spot and went back to sleep. As I tried to make the bed he woke up and looked at me like “Lady you’re disturbing me”

David realized that he may be rough and tough but the idea of trying to mow what grass is still living on the 1.31 acre with the push mower probably wasn’t such a good idea. Took him something like 4 hours and 4 tanks of gas and he still didn't finish it completely in one attempt. He made himself sick when he did it the first time. I can’t imagine how that could happen in the cool 102-105 temps we’ve been having for the last 20 days. So he bought a used riding mower. Isn’t he cute? 

It’s not red but it’s not green either so maybe my dad won't give him too bad of a time.

According to my 4 yr old nephew Josiah tells me green tractors are bad except for maybe the one he has that does wheely’s.  My nephew Josiah learned about red and green tractors from his grandpa who only likes red tractors.

Anyway as David drove by in the back yard all I saw flying was dust and no grass.

While he mowed we could see the possibilities of rain…oh oh ....nope just a teaser didn’t make to our house.



The only clear area

I have emptied all boxes in the master bedroom, den, kitchen and dining and only a few items laying on the dresser, floor or counter tops now. I hope to complete those tasks and move on to the guest room, laundry room and sewing room. YIKES!

You can hardly move in my sewing room.

So many boxes. Not much better in the guest room.  I did manage to get a couple of boxes emptied and put away in both the guest room and the sewing room. Starting setting up my computer but I can't find my keyboard or mouse yet. Terrific. I'm a little overwhelmed.

No pictures will be hung until boxes are emptied and things put away. Then we’ll decide where to hang pictures.

We’re almost into the 21^st Century. We have running water, working washer and dryer. The microwave has been repaired and put to use and yesterday I was able to connect to the internet. Still have to hook up the router so we can be wireless unless we want to leave a computer connected up in the gameroom.....Upstairs.....Nay I don't think so.

All in all Life is good and I love the peace and quiet out here. I think Pamela even likes it a little. She wasn't keen on moving at all but she's coming along. Dexter is even getting braver now when he goes outside and snoops around the yard. All kinds of new smells and sites for him to check out like the armadillo that had been in the yard. Pam saw it as she drove off to work one morning.
There's no fence so we have to watch Dexter but he's slowed down in his old age and he don't move too far or fast. 

Until next time...........  "Mama always said life was like a box a chocolates, never know what you're gonna get" Forrest Gump 

   .•*¨`*•. ☆ .•*¨`*•. Be Happy ✿ .•*¨`*•. ☆ .•*¨`*•.  
……………… ....♥ •.Carla.•´♥…………............…

Moving Sucks! Disaster Avoided!

What was I thinking? Trying to move in triple digit weather!
So we found a 1 1/2 story foreclosure house with the gameroom being up. It was a blank slate in and out. Sits on 1.31 acres so David can plant a real garden next spring. All the walls were apartment white and there's very little landscaping. Click here to see the before pictures.  The lack of landscaping was hard to take after all of David's hard work at the other house but David's mind is already working on a plan. Prior to moving in we did have the entire house painted. I'll post pictures of changes after I get some boxes put away. Things are a little messy right now.

I say we're in the country A friend says we're in the suburbs. Now I say you don't have horses neighing, cows mooing, turtles, ducks, geese in your yard, or how about the rooster I've heard that last few mornings when I'm leaving for work. Pamela saw a fox as she was coming home from work Thursday night and Sunday we saw plenty of deer in peoples front lawns.

Sounds like country to me. Green Acres is the place to be. Only nothing is very green right now with the heat and lack of rain.

Our plan was to get the new home fixed up prior to moving in and while waiting for our Lakewood home to sell. We had no idea that we would have 3-4 offers in less than 10 days of going on the market. Closing was scheduled for the 29th and we were to be out of the house 48 hours later. We packed like crazy people so when the movers arrived on Thursday they moved furniture and boxes. By mid afternoon that day we got the call that we wouldn't be closing due to a glitch with the buyers lender.
We moved to the new home with no microwave, beat up driveway, no sidewalks, a dryer that needs to be converted to propane, no kitchen faucet, a dishwasher that's ify, couldn't drink the well water until it was tested internet and no cable. Then 2 days after moving only 1 (the one upstairs of course) out of 4 toilets were working. Had to call the plumber and the septic guy. All this happened when some friends came by to visit.  What a welcome.
Good news is we now have 4 new pretty toilets, water test finally came back and we can drink the water (yippee now if we only had an ice maker), David bought and installed a new kitchen faucet so we have running water, the dishwasher works, we can now watch TV as of yesterday but still don't have internet or a home phone. Maybe by tonight we'll have internet.
Going to bed at midnight or later, getting up betweeen 5:45 and 7am, and not eating until after 8:30pm is driving us all nutz. And I'm feeling my age. Actually I'm feeling about double my age.
We still have to finish moving that last 2% to move out of the old house but until the glitch with the buyers has been worked out I think we'll focus on unpacking some boxes.

While the plumber was there installing the toilets David asked him to check out the water flow to the various faucets and the tempurature settings. You could turn the hot water on full blast but it never really got hot so up to the attic they go to check on the 2 water heaters.

 OMG. This is what they found!  Can you say FIRE?! 

The flame was melting the plastic around the drain valve and that's black soot going up the side. Needless to say the heater was shut down immediately. The 2nd heater won't stay lite so he had to order a part that we hope fixes the problem. Cross your fingers! No hot water for the night but the plumber came back next morning and put in the 1 new water heater and we have to wait on the part for the 2nd heater.

Okay life is moving forward and all this shall pass.. And Jupiter aligns with Mars.then peace will guide the planet......oops sorry I was thinking of the song Aquarius....

Now we just need to hear when we can close on the sale of our old house. Should know by no later than Wednesday at midnight. 

Until next time~ To get through the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping ~   Chinese Proverb  

✿.•*¨`*•. ☆ .•*¨`*•. .•*¨Be Happy``•..•*¨`*•. ☆ .•*¨`*•. ✿  
……………… ....♥ •.Carla.•´♥…………............…

6 Shops - 2 Days 40 Quilters and a "Bus Mom"

This is my 3rd attempt to get something posted about my weekend adventure on July 16 and 17th. I've some how deleted  or copied over my story or for some reason never saved to draft. So hopefully the Third time is the charm. Like many of my quilter friends I've joined quilt shop mailing lists via on-line or while visiting the shop. Last year my friend Carol took me to the big town of Giddings and introduced me to a quilt shop called All Around the Block .

Of course I got on their email list. In April  I received an email about the Quilter’s Quest Bus Tour on July 16-17^th. The price was right and sounded like fun so I called Carol to see if she could go and be my roommate….   She said “yes”

Like most quilters or admirers of quilting we love to admire, drool and  touch the fabric. And the Quilter's Quest gave me ample opportunity to do it all. Oh okay so maybe I purchased a few items.

So after work Friday the 15th  I picked up Carol and we headed to Giddings. Being that neither of us are morning people we went up the night before and stayed in a local hotel  so we could catch our bus at the shop before it left at 8am. The luxury bus tour included 6 shops plus All Around the Block where our journey began.  A bus was to leave from each shop at 8am. Only the poor quilter's in Victoria had to wait for 2 1/2 hours for a new bus since the first bus broke down before it got to the shop. 

 Our bus driver "Mona" greeted us and took our bags as we boarded .

Mona was awesome. She got us safely to each shop  and was able to maneuver that bus on a dime. There were a couple of parking lots I thought there was no way a bus could get in or out. Mona knew how to drive that bus.

Prior to boarding the bus all 40 participates received a goody bag filled with a pattern, crackers, fruit snack and other little items. The bus pulled out promptly at 8 am and we're headed for Victoria our first stop of the day. Over the bus speaker comes the voice a man who announces that he is our "Bus Mom" . He's the husband of one of the shop owners. He begins to tell us about tour, the games we'll be playing and the rules. He also passes around a notebook for us to put our name and phone number in.

Meet Harvey Fisher our "Bus Mom". LOL  

His job was to keep us in line, on time and having fun. He did a great job! Harvey also taught us how to play "receipt" poker and black jack. Fun! Carol nor I ever won. Darn it. Now how many men do you know that could ride a bus with 39 women (the 40 participate was the husband of one of the quilters. he claimed to be the wallet and bag carrier) and with permission from the wife collect names and phones numbers in a little black book.

We arrive at our first stop Quilter's Patch in Victoria around 10 am. There was a large crowd of women standing around and the shop doesn't look all that big. Well these poor gals had been at the shop since 7:30am waiting for their bus that had broke down. Shortly after our arrival the cheers roared as their bus arrived and their Quest began. The shop was small but it  packed in the fabric of all colors and brands. There was something for everyone and more.

Thank Goodness Carol is a good sport. I had warned her to be prepared that I would have my camera along and she would be in the pictures most likely.  The shop asked that I not take pictures in the shop so I behaved myself  ;o( 

They had a demonstration in the back on a 10 minute table runner. So that means about an hour for me to complete. I think this fabric will make the perfect table runner for Christmas for my new home. I even won a door prize before heading out the door. A bag with little quilty goodies. Upon that good ending we loaded up the bus and headed for stop 2.

Our 2nd stop was The Quilt Haus in New Braunfels. The Victoria gals were still there shopping so it was crowded but the shop was spacious enough to accommodate all of us and the cash register was humming. 

There was plenty of pretty fabric and quilty stuff to touch and view.

 We arrive at our 3rd and final stop for the day.. The Cotton Cupboard in Lakeway near Lake Travis. This was where we found out just how good our bus driver was. Mona pulled into an area of the parking lot that wasn't much bigger than the bus. When I looked out the window all I could see was a deep ravine to the front and the side. Mona backed that bus up and turned it around on a dime. The cheers went up, Everyone was so impressed. I believe this shop was a little green. As you enter you saw frog quilts, frogs in 3D, frog fabric and a frog on a Lily pad. Too cute. But they had lots of other fun and pretty fabric. Now I couldn't pass this little guy up. Just too cute. All I need is time and someone to make a baby quilt for. 

Back on the bus one of the gals showed off her purchases and leave it to me to snap the picture at the wrong time. Honest it's not what it looks like. There was lots of ooooo's and ahhhh's over her fabric choices.

The first day of  the tour came to an end and we headed to our hotel.
Sunday we were up and at'em at 7am for a complementary breakfast. We sat around discussing the shops and our finds so far while waiting for the bus and  folks to finish eating .  Everyone was having fun.

 Carol must of had a profound thought or a vision.  

By 8:30 am we're on the bus and off to our first stop of the day. .. Poppy Quilt N' Sew in Georgetown. They had lots of pretty Christmas fabric and western motif fabric and Fat Quarters galore. How about some Dr Seuss fabric? They had it and more. Some of the group still had some change after their purchases so they slid in next door to the donut shop for a soda and a sugary donut. And before you knew it, it was time to head to our 2nd stop.  

It was around lunch time when we rolled into Tomorrow's Quilts in Waco. At first all I saw was a brick building but nothing that said quilts or fabric then I walked around the corner of the building and there it was. The staff was ready and waiting on us. They even played a couple of games for a door prizes. As I entered the shop I saw a whole corner of batiks, novelty, western and Christmas fabrics for everyone. The shop had several 3D quilts hanging up. Such as Frogs, butterflies, planes and  babies. And there was a corner of solids of every color. So many choices, how does one choose?

Linda the shop's owner made homemade potato salad, cole slaw, chicken salad and everyone's favorite ... a brownie to die for.......Divine .    She packed all this in a lime green lunch kit along with a bottle of water and a Crystal Light flavor packet. Everyone finished up their lunch and made their purchases and we were off to our last shop.

 

We rolled into Lonestar Quiltworks in Bryan/College Station. I try to visit this shop every time I visit my daughter an Aggie Grad and now Blinn Nursing School student but hadn't been in a while. To my surprise they moved the shop next door to a MUCH larger space. It was bright and roomy. Fabric everywhere and classrooms in the back. Very nice. Terri the shop owner and staff had snacks and iced tea waiting for us weary but happy travelers. I found some fat quarters to use with my cute zebra fabric I bought earlier. 

Before leaving Terri gave each participate a different fabric panel to incorporate into a quilt. My picture here doesn't do my panel justice. It has cute sayings on it like "Kiss your Dad ".

It's back on the bus to head back Giddings.

It's Sunday evening but the owners and staff  at All Around the Block are there to Welcome us back and here all about our quest. They even allowed us to come in shop before crawling into our cars and driving home... be it Houston or Halletsville.

At first glance the shop is very deceiving in size..

You walk in and think dang look at all the fabric choices and thread in the small space. But wait I see more fabric pass the cutting table and "oh wow" you can turn left and go into yet another larger area where there's even more fabric. Can't judge a shop by it's cover.

You may walk in for a yard of fabric but I bet you'll walk out with more. There are just so many choices it's hard to choose just one. In the hallway shown in the picture is where I found the novelty prints.   I had been keeping my eye open at each of the shops for a fabric to make a laundry room curtain. Just when I thought I would give up... I saw it.   

This print caught my eye so off to the cutting table I went. I think it will be just perfect. With our bags in the car and our last minute purchases in hand..... it was time to head back to Cypress.

I'll be ready to do this again next year!

Thanks to all the shops who made this happen. 

I had sew much fun zig zagging thru each of the shops.

So until next blog.................... Happy Quilting

.•*´¨ ) ¸.•*¨) -:¦:-
(¸.•´(¸ ;.•Carla.♥