A Day Trip

We took the day off to go to Daytona today!

Before the guys went to get an oil change for the Yaris (free for life!) , they dropped us off at JoAnn Fabrics to spend our gift cards and then some!  We bought some quilt backing fabric, bamboo fiber for weaving, a quilt ruler, batting, thread and some notions.............it was a delightful hour!  When the men picked us up, we went to Olive Garden for a late lunch.  Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Mom and I enjoyed a little sit in the sun while the guys finished their shopping at Sam's Club.

A trip to the ocean always restores our senses.  A little chilly in the ocean breeze but not too bad for a January visit!

Another foursome enjoying the scenery.

We had a request for a special message in the sand..........this is for you, Jim!

Simple sock knitting accompanied me today.  These will be a pair for Caleb.  I am hurrying to get them done for you, my son!

This is a view of the moon on our trip home........

We ended the day with a game of Wahoo; the men beat tonight.  (It was good they did because they were going to go fishing instead of playing another game if we whomped them again!)

PS to C O L O R

I forgot to include our new bathroom..........you know, the one that will soon have water, hot even!  (This color is called Toasty  6095 , a nice warm brown which will pull together our coral/brown quilt and theme for our room.  I am thrilled and Bill is trying to warm up to the idea.) 

C O L O R ! ! !

First work order began with a second coat on the livingroom. 

Then on to the master bedroom (Constant Coral, 6325)

Isn't is such a Florida color!  I am so pleased with the choice. This color covered in one coat but we are going to apply the second coat because this is on new, primed sheetrock and I purchased the second gallon so I might as well apply it.

Mom and I tackled the guest room after lunch. (I am wearing my pants inside out because I do not own 'old' clothes , so I have found if I turn them inside out the paint will only stain the wrong side!)

This room was painted to match my batik quilt, it will also hold my loom so I am excited by the color saturation. (Spearmint 6465)

While we have been painting, Dad has been installing outdoor outlets and these carriage lights.

And Bill is being a plumber, not one of his favorite jobs but he gets the job done! 

He is drilling from the outside to reach the hot water source, the old bathroom!

The houses in Florida do not have basements so the water pipes go through the slab.  The only way to get hot water into the new bathroom is to connect to the old and so Bill is digging, busting away old cement and trying to be cheerful.  The end is in sight , Darlin'!

I am off to the heating pad and some knitting again!

Painting and Piecing

Mom and I began our painting today!  We began in the biggest room so the rest will feel easier.   Well, that is the theory anyway. 

The hall is the same neutral color, Sherwin Willisms Reticence 6064 in satin.  This paint is a dream to work with; Mom is the cutter and I do the rolling.  We make a good team and managed a few laughs amid the muscle strains!

When we quit for the day, I did some unwinding at the sewing machine.  I have 42 big blocks done and only need 90 more.........

And I completely pieced the men's suiting samples.  Nyki's assistance was invaluable!  (I was holding her mousie above my head to get her attention because she generally looks away when I get the camera out-it must look threatening or something!)

A soak in a jacuzzi would feel good tonight but I will settle for a heating pad, recliner and some knitting!

A Typical Kind of Day

The washer and dryer were delivered and hooked up with relative ease.......but our wiring is not up to snuff for the dryer and Bill has to make some adjustments!  I pushed the button to start the dryer and heard a loud pop and flash and arching sparking! I was so grateful the Lord protected me from death by electrocution! Bill found the mistake in the wiring.  He has had to make changes to most of the wiring in the existing house, let alone run a mile of wiring in the additions!  He is a pro now if he wasn't before!  (He and Dad finished Mom's dryer hook up today, too!)  Thanks, Bill; he just yelled he fixed the problem!

These are the quilt blocks Mom cut out the other day......it is going to be a very pretty twin sized quilt.

My neighbor gave me a fun little pkg of Fimo clay-I baked a few as buttons and the others will be used for necklaces.  It was fun but too quick; I am going to look for some more little packages when I get to a JoAnns store next week!

I started the next dishtowel, this one is for Marsel.  I have blended two patterns so this one will have a colored band on each end.  ( from Handweaver's Pattern Directory, page 39 bottom of page )

This afternoon, Mom and I went to the ladies group to make some more of the sleeping bags/tied quilts for the homeless shelter.  It was good to see friends we haven't seen for a year!  Good laughs, catching-up and being part of a long line of ladies charity work; a nice way to spend the afternoon.

We shared a dinner with Mom and Dad tonight and then played 3 rousing games of Wahoo; the ladies are the night's winners!

(Yes, we had a busy day of storms in Florida but here,  we just had a variety of rain/thunder storms and no real threats of tornadoes.  Matthew did miss one by a few hours while making deliveries today and was a little disappointed (think frustrated storm chaser) but I wasn't!  They did get to have some powerful thunder and lightening storms today.)

Color and Texture

Picking out color statuated choices for our new rooms............and doing the math to have the paint tinted accordingly.

The men put the knockdown on the ceiling (textured mud) and it looks just like I imagined it would!

and orange peel (another texture) on the walls.

Here is a close-up of the wall.  See the resemblance to an orange peel?!

Mom and I each worked to cut out fabric for a quilt.  I forgot a pic of her's so I will get it next time.

Mine is a kit I had bought a while ago from Timeless Treasures, 32 batik fat quarters.

The camillias look like they had been killed by the freezing temps but a whole new set of buds have opened and the bush is brilliant all over again!

Even the fussy pink one has brought out tons of new blooms.  It is so good to see color again with so much brown evidenced by the cold.  Today Mom and I sat out and had lunch on the back patio.  We soaked up the warmth like a couple of solar panels!

While we were playing with fabric at my house, Dad was working to install a dryer in the spare bedroom for 

Mom!  She had a new washer put in a few years ago but has really missed the dryer part of the laundry day.

Since installing a dryer requires a bit more work (think wiring and venting) picking out the dryer was the easy part.

Dad has to vent the dryer out the old trailer part of the house which means he has to work around the curve of the structure and remove the skirting to have access. 

Then he has to run the wiring under the trailer from the pole and fish it up through the hole in the floor.

It is a smart wife who leaves the area when she has generated such a task.  It is good to be retired, right Dad?!

I will be finishing this sock and beginning the second one tonight .

Cleaning and Knitting

I finished clue three of the mystery shawl I am knitting.  This one really challenged me which is a different kind of project than ...

my basic socks which I enjoy to unwind.  (My hands know what to do by themselves with very little mental output!)
                             
I am almost done with the dishtowel for Mom.  It has been a good primer for using a floating warp.  I need to pick out the next dishtowel pattern.......

We cleaned up some of the sheetrock detritus; that stuff is a misery of dust!  I swept up all the rooms to try to reduce some of the stuff Nyki has tracked all over the house-evidenced by little kitty pawprints! 
I think that it is almost impossible until they are done.

But the men at back to work today and it is exciting to have tangible progress on the grounds!

Its Good

I picked up stitches around the hairpin lace length (20") and made a hat........in fact I made two hats!  Mom and I had fun learning another technique.  It might be a good way to use up some scraps for an afghan, too.

As for knitting, I am working to finish the orange socks and the two shawls that are on the needles-and to think I only used to knit one project at a time!  I am nearing the end of the blue dishtowel which is on the loom.

Nyki likes to steal Bill's seat when he gets up, it is extra warm with his heating pad which he uses for his shoulder.  Doesn't she look like a pampered pet!  (She is!)

Bill and I are off to go dryer shopping with Dad and Mom and then out to dinner. 

Much Better

After going into town and signing our loan papers at the bank today (-we are now officially average Americans-in debt!) I spent some time with Mom teaching ourselves to make hairpin lace.  It was touch and go for a bit but two pros like us finally made sense of the instructions and whipped out a few feet of this.  Tomorrow we will try to make it into a brim of a hat.....saga to continue!

I started a new pair of socks with store bought yarn-these for Mattew.

The men got the south addition all mudded today-wow, are they faster than we could think of being!

Bill had a last minute emergency door frame to build-gratefully, the men mentioned it was odd that we had no door to our master bedroom.........somehow it just got overlooked and as soon as Bill had it framed, they finished it with the sheetrocking!  What a nice addition to our addition!

A much better day today............

Good News/Bad News!

                           
I ordered a pirn winder for weaving; a Schact for single or double ended bobbins.............it arrived without a shaft for winding my single ended pirns. (HalcyonYarns has wonderful customer service and the part is on its way to me.)  I kind of, sort of got it to wind two pirns......it is going to be a great asset as I wound one in less than  a minute when it takes 5 minutes to do so by hand.

I cut the corner off of a block I embroidered for my friend. (She had cut the block oversized so I think we can salvage the block.)

The new washer/dryer  arrived!  The washer didn't come with all its parts. Bill  and I removed the old washer and dryer and now he has to bring the old one back in and hook it up again! 

   (A replacement comes next week.) Nyki approves the new dryer.

I misunderstood the closing date for our loan.  We missed it.  (They were able to reschedule for Thursday!)

I did finish the pair of Targhee socks, without mishap and stabbed no one with the needle. 

It was one of those days.

Fill It Up!

Due to a death in my sister-in-law's family, she and my brother can't stay for a visit all week as planned.  So, we filled this day up with activities together before they fly out at dawn tomorrow(Tues morn). 

When they came to pick me up, they wanted a tour with the workermen-my brother,

drew around Bill so they could custom cut out the sheetrock!  [Bill had to stay home and help with the project :'(    ]

On the way, we saw many orchards like this-cracking and groaning due to the cold temperatures.

We visited the Harley Complex-my brother's fav place to shop.  Had an icecream, even tho the temp was still too cold out for FL visitors and then to Daytona for lunch and-

a visit to the beach-

just a glimpse really because it was too cold to linger!

We found walls when we got home!  Family room.......

guestroom.........

master bedroom....

master bath and closet........

hall........

old window opening/ now a display nook.......

The cats love running through the new rooms after the men left-they are too noisy for the cats!

It is still cold this afternoon, even though the thermometer read 52, there is still ice in any standing water!
We ended our time together with a great dinner at our parents', enjoyed a few games of Spinners (a domino game), lot's of laughter and great conversation.