Overwhelmed

I'm overwhelmed today...lots to do and it seems there's never enough time to do it all. I need to take a deep breath...to be honest I know I can finish everything, just not in the amount of time I want to finish it in.

I walked into our pantry this morning and inhaled the delicously sweet scent of ripe pears...nice right? Well to show you how stressed I feel today, my first thought when I smelled those lovely pears was "Crap, now I've got to figure out when to do the canning, I thought I could hold off until Saturday, guess not"...again, deep breath!

I'm working on finishing up the training for my new job, I still have some nursing covers to finish up, the garden could use some attention, the chicken coop needs to be cleaned out by tomorrow - Friday at the latest, I still need to come up with some aprons to show to a gal who owns a local wine shop, and I need to go by Bungalow Bay and give Michelle some new stuff (and pick up the $$ I've made - yay!). To top it off I've watched a few of the episodes of the A&E show "Hoarders", which brings up some of the horrible habits that my maternal grandmother had when she was alive (definitely a long story there). The show gives me these OCD impulses to clean our house, organize things and purge things. In the end probably not a bad thing, but still, it doesn't help with the stressed out feeling I'm having.

On a bright note, I'm wearing my DMB Toms shoes which make me happy, and I am going to meet up for coffee with the friend whose baby I made the quilt for, even better, I get to meet the baby too.

One thing at a time, one thing at a time!

A Weekend Away In Review

On our getaway this past weekend we...

Had a weird situation where part of the dash by the cigarette lighter on my current car popped out when I was trying to take the unit that charges our iPod out as we were heading into a restaurant for lunch. We ended up stopping by the service department at a nearby dealer and they fixed it for free, but the delay made us miss our chance to check our another vehicle at a dealership on the way to the concert by 25 minutes. Random strange things like this have happened several times over the last week as we've been going through a vehicle transition, at this point, we both feel like there's some kind of reason that we haven't been able to find the right next car yet. It's been frustrating, but it's one of those times where you have to believe that there is more than coincidence going on.

Visited my favorite place to buy fruit. They had 25 lb. boxes of nectarines for $7.50, so we bought two along with a box of peaches and a box of pears. None of the fruit is quite ready for canning yet, a few more days are needed for ripening. It is more than I'd planned on, but it was all a fantastic deal. A hundred pounds of fruit for about $35. I also bought my first hubbard squash, a beautiful specimen in the most gorgeous shade of blue, I will definately share pictures sometime soon.

Went to the DMB concert, with more of an intent to see G-Love and Special Sauce. It was raining pretty hard at first, though eventually the clouds did part some and we had a beautiful rainbow and a fantastic sunset to enjoy. I also bought my first pair of TOMS shoes at the concert, a little souvenier. They are a very comfortable pair of red canvas shoes, the design on them came from the creative mind of Dave Matthews himself, kind of cool! I love wearing them and I'm convinced that they will be my first but not my last pair of TOMS. By the way, TOMS is a very cool company, check it out if you've never heard of them!

Visited the farmer's market in Yakima on Sunday morning, there was an abundance of beautiful produce, we picked up a few things there to make dinners this week. It was also nice to be on the other side and be a "shopper" at the market. I've enjoyed being a vendor, but I'm glad that I decided to wind down my season early. I've appreciated my time to myself on the weekends much more.

Went to four wineries along the "Rattlesnake Trail"...it was my first time there and I enjoyed it. The wine country reminded me a little of the wine country in Livermore Valley near where I used to live. For about two years I worked part-time there in the tasting room of Murrieta's Well. I miss the atmosphere of wineries and the fun of being around other people that enjoy wine. Even though it's not really the husband's interest, he does make a point of suggesting we take a wine tasting trip about two or three times a year. So the wineries were beautiful, the wines we tasted were mostly really good. Most of the wineries specialize in late harvest sweet wines, I'm assuming because of the temperature there in the late fall and early winter. It was fun be able to try several sweet wines in a flight, I'm used to there typically being just one. It makes it easier to compare and decide what you like best when you can have them one after another or side by side.

So I'm back to the grind now. In the last day I've finished up 5 more nursing covers which fills 3 more orders. I have two more to make later in the week. That will bring my total since I started making them to 10. They get easier and easier to put together. They are not the most exciting thing to make, but because I've been making them for friends, it has felt special. I've found that when I know who it is that I am making something for, I end up thinking of that person as I do the sewing. A little bit of my heart goes into it every time I make something for a particular person...

One last thought, I wanted to thank those who have posted ideas and advice about my chicken situation...I read every comment, learn new things, and appreciate the feedback very much. It is all very new stuff to me, I've been learning as I go and gleaning information from folks who've had chickens longer than me...the waiting is frustrating, but I do like being able to share what is going on here.

Not What She Seems To Be...

Soooo, unfortunately this is not an update to celebrate our first egg - yet! I actually have two other pieces of news to share...First, I mentioned the other day that I had placed three decoy eggs in my chicken's nesting boxes. Well, when we returned from our little trip this evening I went out to check on the ladies...when I looked in their coop, all three eggs had been moved from where I'd put them. Two had been rolled out to the main wire floor area...The third egg had, well, you can see in the picture below what happened to that third egg. Weird! What kind of chickens crack open eggs? I'm kind of concerned! Not only have they still not laid yet, now they're being destructive! I guess I'll be taking the decoy eggs out tomorrow - especially if there is more destructive behavior! Okay, so here's the second piece of news...yesterday while at the concert, I got a text message from my neighbor. In effect what it said was that she had heard one of my chickens crowing back and forth with her rooster while she was outside. I hate to say it, but I had kind of suspected that...I actually thought for a while that it was one of my birds that sort of has "narrow hips"...more recently though, it has seemed like Berkeley was sticking out in more than one way. She/he has been pretty aggressive with the other chickens and has been attacking them, charging them and sometimes jumping on their backs....suspicious huh? While sharing the news with the husband and talking about this latest development, I realized that I wouldn't want to do anything about it, until I knew for sure who it was. So when I got home and was out by the coop, I spent a few minutes watching "the girls". It didn't take long for it to become clear that my hunch that Berkeley was my potential rooster was correct. Let's just say that while I didn't see her, excuse me him, crow, I did see him in another act that left no doubt about his gender. So I now know that I've got seven hens and one rooster. I suppose I'm a little disappointed...if his crowing becomes an issue we'll have to figure out what to do with him. Roosters are not illegal here, we don't live in the city, but if Berkeley's crowing starts interrupting our sleep, he may as well be illegal!

So, hopefully the next time I have news to share about the chickens, it will be positive egg-laying news!

Fresh Cut Flower Friday

I'm trying to do better about bringing in some of the beautiful flowers that have grown in my yard...I haven't thought too long or hard about why, but it is hard for me to cut them sometimes. Quick update on the chickens, still no eggs, but I gave their coop a very thorough cleaning this morning, complete with fresh straw in their nesting boxes. I also gave each of them another round of spray for mites (just in case), and their coop was also given a good spray down. My neighbor suggested putting a decoy egg into each nesting box...apparently hens can be a bit competitive, so when they see an egg sitting there they may just feel the need to add their own to the pile. Anyway, can't hurt, all we're out is three store bought eggs if it doesn't work. Besides, it wouldn't be the first time that feminine competition hurried things along.

We're heading into a 3-day weekend for Labor Day. Somehow now that I'm working at home that doesn't seem as big of a deal, but I do like it when people everywhere have a day off, good moods abound! We do have some fun plans for a little weekend get-a-way. We've been through some car selling/purchasing (well, almost purchasing, long story...) hurdles this week, so both the husband and I are looking forward to getting out of town, even for just a short while. I'll take pictures to share next week.

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend, find some way to refresh yourself!

Custom Baby Quilt

Here are the promised pictures of the quilt I made for a friend's new baby...I love how it turned out, making it was such a good experience for me! My friend specifically asked for the map fabric and the elephant and giraff applique's. The rest was pretty much my choices. I have had the backing fabric for a while, it is a very soft flannel, the colors worked perfectly, so I had to use it. I wanted to use the blue polka dot fabric to make it a little bit whimsical. The light brown linen type fabric was my way of keeping the quilt from being too busy, it is meant for a boy, so I wanted it to have a simpler feel, not too overdone. I used a natural cotton batting material. When I washed and dried the quilt, the texture became very soft and fluffy, exactly what I was going for, actually. I will definately use that brand of batting again when I make my next quilt. It's a heavier quilt than I would have predicted, not too overwhelming, but it's definately not lightweight. Again, it was a good experience, I can see now why so many people are "addicted" to making quilts, they are very satisfying!

I know I already mentioned this...

But I have to say again just how much I am loving myh new desk as I am now working from home...it has all made me feel very lucky! Here are a couple of pictures from morning... ...and from afternoon.

There are lots of sides to the contentment and serenity I've been feeling as I've been making this transition! By the way, the beer was for when I'd finished my work. I'm just sayin'!

My New (Upcycled) Desk

First of all I have to say Welcome to September! I am feeling very much in the fall spirit, yesterday on my grocery trip I picked up a six pack of my favorite fall beer. For the long Labor Day weekend, the husband and I are going out to the Gorge to a Dave Matthews Band concert this weekend, actually our real reason for going is to see G-Love and Special Sauce, one of our favorite singers/bands, DMB just happens to be the main attraction for most people going. We are going to stay out that way in Yakima and do some wine tasting as well. I think we both need the break, life has been busy. We are still feeling the economic crunch, we'll survive all of it, but the anxiety has been rough at times. A little get-a-way will help with that.

I began training for my new job last night (fall is always go-back-to-work time for teachers)Now that I'm going to be working from home, I have been in the midst of turning my sewing room/guest room into my sewing room/home office...and I need a real desk. Looking around I realized that any of the desks that were the right size and that I liked were typically at least $900, the one I really liked was $1200. That's just not the kind of money that I want to spend on a piece of furniture right now - actually I wouldn't want to spend that kind of money on a desk - ever. Maybe on the right dining room table, but even that wouldn't happen right now. I had about a $500 budget in mind for a new desk, but ask I looked around, anything at that price is going to be made of cheap particle board and wood laminate...basically junky furniture that will have to be replaced in a few years. I want a solid wood desk to have for a very long time. My husband is pretty handy, so even though he's been pretty busy, I thought I might ask him about making my desk...he agreed to and we went looking for material. We ended up at a store up in Bellingham, The Re-Store, that sells recycled parts of torn down buildings. We'd been there a while ago and spotted these cool chunks of gym floor. On our way there the husband mentioned in passing that he could possibly make the desk out of one of the pieces. I latched on to the idea immediately, that's just right up my alley. Of course it was still just an idea, I wanted him to be sure he could do it and that it wouldn't be too difficult or time consuming. So after checking out the pieces they had a bit, he decided to return the next day with his truck to buy a piece of the floor.This piece here measured about 4'x12' and was so heavy that it had to be loaded in the truck by 3 men. See the cool lines on the floor - they were hand painted, when you look closely you can see where the lines aren't completely perfect, the tape must not have been completely straight.He cut the piece right in his truck so it would be easier to unload it single-handedly at his shop.He spent two days at his shop turning the piece of floor into my new desk. Because his shop is not at our house, I only saw pictures at first.Once the desk was home, it had to be sprayed with a laquer, then brought up to my new home office. We also had to get drawer pulls attached. I spent a good amount of yesterday moving all of my things into the desk, it has very smooth, deep drawers, my belongings fit excellently. Before I moved everything into it (and onto the desk top as well), I snapped several pictures. I am incredibly impressed with my new desk, it makes me soooooo happy! Eventually I want to get a new desk chair, but all in good time. The picture below shows how the husband used the original floor boards, with their tounge in groove joints to make new drawer fronts.

The top drawers are shallow, perfect for small items, the middle drawer is fairly deep, and the bottom drawer is the deepest, the right size for files. All the sizes were to my specifications, I love the proportions.

Although he could have sanded the old gym floor lines off, I asked the husband not to, I like the character they give the desk...it's unique. The lines are reminders that this desk had a past life in a gym.

I took this picture to show that there are still sneaker skuffs on the floor - that's what the black streak at the bottom-left of the picture is. Again, that could have been sanded out, but seeing it makes the history of my desk come alive.

On the center drawer there is a red scuff, I guess some athlete had red rubber on their Nike's.

On his way out of the Re-Store, the husband happened to ask what gym the floor had been in. The employees informed him that it had been in Carver Gym at Western Washington University...I've since found this story about the gym floor removal. I love it that my desk had a former life, it's probably the coolest piece of furniture I've ever owned. It seems appropriate that I'm starting my new job as an online instructor with this desk as my main hub...it also makes this transition feel official and special. I've longed for a while now to be able to continue my career while still being able to make my home my center. It's been a good amount of work to turn our former guest room into an appropriate office (and sewing room!) for me...this desk really makes the room! Once again, I know how lucky I am that my spouse thinks of what I want and what is right for me and is willing to do more and put out extra effort so those things happen.

By the way, I am not sure of a final figure on the cost of the desk, some of the materials to make the drawers were things that were already on hand - my husband makes cabinets for the kitchens in the houses he builds, so even though there was an original price tag on some things, they were already purchased and available for this project. The actual piece of flooring was about $100, the charge per square foot was $2 and like I mentioned before the piece was about 4'x12'. I got the drawer pulls at Target - I know I originally said I was planning to go to Anthropologie, but Target had the style that I liked and they were convenient and a good price, about $24 for all seven drawer pulls. There was also the cost of the laquer, some maple plywood for parts of the frame, the tracks that the drawers slide on - they slide so smoothly, I love it! All in all, it was probably about $200-$250. Less than I'd budgeted for a one of a kind desk. Obviously I couldn't have made it by myself, and paying a cabinet maker (that I am not married to) to make it, would have made the whole thing much more expensive. Okay, I love my desk, end of story!