Sister's Choice Quilts

Ack

Doesn't this look inviting?  It is a watermelon inspired quilt that I made years ago, that I rediscovered during our move.  It looks great on the chaise lounge under the deck gazebo.  It is such fun to make these finds and look at them with fresh eyes. 

I had started a post and had it all ready to post yesterday.  It was called Good News.  That good news was that we had found an assisted care place for my husband's parents.  We have looked at a dozen of these places and talked and talked to various care providers and finally found a place we thought would be perfect for them.  We put down a deposit, and guess what?  They don't want to go. 

I believe what they want is for my husband to move back home with them and live as they did years ago when it was just the three of them!!!  They are back to calling him by his childhood nickname, and are phoning him to please come over right away, forgetting that he now lives three hours away from them. 

We have hired an agency who provides home care to have caregivers come and look after them in shifts day and night, but we can't keep that up.  You would truly not believe what the cost is.  So now, we are back to square one with them, trying to figure out a solution as to what to do with two 90 year olds who no longer can do anything for themselves.  Well, that isn't entirely true.  They have both completely mastered falling down.  I would laugh, but it is all too true.

At this point, they really don't have an option to live independently.   I don't know what the answer is, right at this moment, but we will be figuring out something this week.

In the meantime, I need sewing therapy.  Look for my solution to my sewing/fabric withdrawal in tomorrow's post!

 

 

My New Best Friend, Bill

I have a new best friend these days.  He never lets me down, comes over whenever I need him, and always is willing to give more than he gets.  His name is Bill, and he is a custom cabinet installer.

Our new house has plenty of storage cabinets, but one thing that I have noticed about them is that the shelves are all the wrong heights.  In the kitchen, the space between shelves was all too short.  In the garage and in the bathroom, the space was ridiculously high.  In the bathroom cabinet shown in the picture above, the shelves were about three feet high.  Why?  What a lot of completely wasted space where a girl could be storing her beauty products and grooming aids!

I am not sure what the previous owners kept in these bathroom cupboards that they needed such high shelves.  Maybe they stacked rolls of toilet tissue sky high, or had towels folded in tall stacks.  It just wasn't my idea of how to best use these great cupboards.  So, along came Bill, who inserted an extra shelf between all the too tall shelves.  Now, that is what I am talking about.  Now I have room for all my goodies, with space to spare!

You all know from previous posts of mine, that I am a bit of a shoe junkie.  In my last house, we had California Closets customize things for us and they put in shoe cubbies, which were my favorite thing ever.  Well, who needs California Closets when Bill can customize my closet for half the cost?  Here is my shoe tower.  I couldn't get back far enough to get a picture of the entire thing, but you get the idea. Love it.  All his materials came from either Home Depot or Lowes, so you know he got a good price on materials.  The shoe cubbies are made by ClosetMaid, and came from Lowes.

You can never have enough shelving for linens in my opinion, so I had Bill add in some extra shelving in the guest room closet.  I can store most of my table linens here on these shelves, and free up the linen closet in the hall for bedding and bath linens.  Yes, that is another shoe cubby underneath.  Shhh.  I told you I had a thing for shoes.

Bill doesn't paint (his ONLY fault), so I have to touch up the unfinished ends of the shelf brackets next time I have my paints out.

No progress yet on the quilting studio.  I am about to set up things on the bare concrete floor and just start sewing.  I am in complete fabric withdrawal.

 

 

 

Dog Days

Can you tell it's hot here?  Ozzie and I are both feeling the heat.  The house stays nice and cool, but neither one of us seem to have much energy after the move.   Both of us have been requiring an afternoon nap lately.

When I am not unpacking a box or napping, I am drawn to a perfect spot in the living room for doing hand sewing or reading a book.  In fact, it is one of my favorite spots to sit.  As you see, I have my hand applique project out (finding it took some doing, I tell you), and have been working on it a bit.

The only problem is, Ozzie has decided that my favorite chair is also his.  This is where he can be found nearly all the time.  I tossed a quilt over it to try to protect the light colored upholstery, but he manages to shift it around with ease.  He will permit me to sit on the chair with him, but who wants a hot furry dog on the back of their neck?

One of the first things I did upon moving up here was to join a local book club, hosted by the owner of the yarn shop in Murphy's "Maisie Blue".  I hope to meet some nice folks in the reading group.  And who knows?  Maybe I will progress beyond knitting scarves by the good influence of the surroundings!

This is the July book club selection:

So far I am finding it educational, but very slow going.  I read two pages and fall asleep (I mentioned my need for frequent naps--this book isn't helping!).  The story is about the life of Pierre Auguste Renoir and how he painted his famous work "Luncheon of the Boating Party".  The book is full of references to other famous artists of the day and the models many of them shared.  I am forever running to my computer to Google an artist or a painting.  If anything, I am going to learn something by the time I get to the end of it!  Have any of you read this book?  Did you enjoy it? 

What's Not Happening

I am having the hardest time being patient.  I have such vivid images of what I want my sewing studio to be like, and so far all I have are my dreams!

There, in the cool empty space, sit my cutting table and sewing table.  I visit them a couple of times each day, and they continue to sit frozen in time.  Before they will be put back to use, the first thing to be done is to install flooring over the bare concrete.  I have decided to go with hardwood, but it has yet to be picked out and brought home for installation.

Next up will be paint.  I have in mind a cool khaki green color, but could change my mind before the brushes and rollers come out!  After that, my new best friend Bill will install the cabinetry that will house all my stash and supplies.  One entire long wall will be cabinetry, with a space in the middle open to allow me to hang a display quilt.  The Quilt of the Month if you will. 

I have plans to make a permanent design wall, and will have plenty of wall space left over for my cutting area, pressing area, bookcase, dresser and maybe even that rocking chair and reading lamp!

Can you tell that I am itching to get going with the set up of my new space?  The hardest thing is to wait for the work to begin.

 

 

Life Chez Nicole

This is the scene at the local watering hole in my backyard.  I inherited two large hummingbird feeders from the previous owners of the house, which in a note to me, they begged me to keep filled.  They even provided a five pound sack of sugar for me to use to make the nectar!  They promised that a little effort on my part would be paid back by hours of entertainment on the part of the little birds who so appreciate the nourishment.  The most birds I have seen at one time at the feeder has been seven, but who knows what goes on when I am not looking? 

In my past experience with hummingbirds, there has always been one bully who dominates the feeder and chases off all other comers.  In my backyard however, the hummingbirds live in peace with one another and seem to realize that there is enough for all.

It is hot on my new planet, I am telling you.  Flip flops and iced tea days for sure.  And I don't dare go outside without my hat and sunglasses.  My husband and I tried to sit out on the deck for awhile yesterday afternoon, but didn't last long, even in the shade.  The only time anyone seems to venture out is before 10:00 in the morning and around sunset!   It is such a change from the endless overcast 65 degree days we experienced on the Monterey Peninsula!  So far, I like the warmth and think we actually will spend more time outside than we did in our previous backyard. 

 

How Cute is This?

Just a quick post this morning, just to show you what my family is up to.  Sara has three or four more weeks to go with her pregnancy!  She is feeling the heat--the temperatures have been around 100 the past few days, but is keeping her feet up as much as possible.  Won't be long and her swollen feet and tummy will be a distant memory, as we focus on our sweet Baby E.   Her obstetrician has her buying sports equipment lately:  a gigantic purple yoga ball and a package of tennis balls.  All will come into play during her labor.  I guess she is supposed to sit on the yoga ball and bounce around to get things moving, and the tennis balls are for the rest of us to use to massage her aching back.  Things sure have changed since I had my babies.  They told me to walk around the block, not bounce on a yoga ball.

Ozzie is so funny.  He keeps jumping up on Sara's lap and nudging her tummy with his nose, as if to try to see what the heck is in there.  It is pretty hilarious.  He even tries to look up her shirt to see what she is hiding, but she isn't having any of that.

Ryan is proudly holding a bottle of his wine in the photo above (taken by Hanna Aldrin of Aldrin Photography).  His La Folia label Barbera took a double gold at the Calaveras County Fair a few weeks ago!! And Ryan's La Folia Pinot Grigio received a Silver medal and his Zinfandel and Chardonnay both received Bronzes!  The kid knows how to make wine, that is for sure.  They don't call Sara "The Winemaker's Wife" for nothin'.  Ryan now has a tasting bar at Marisolio in downtown Murphys, CA.  Stop in and try some if you are in the vicinity.  If you go on a weekend, he may even be pouring for you in his top hat and tails.

So proud.  Feeling the family love.

On the home front, we are busy hanging shelves and trying to figure out where to put things still.  I will share more of that later this week as we make some progress.  I am continuing to meet neighbors, and really like what I see.  My neighbor across the street has an impeccably groomed home.  I met the woman today and was so excited to tell her how wonderful it is to look out my front window and see her beautifully landscaped yard.  Assuming of course that she either had a gardening service or a husband whose hobby it was to maintain the garden.  Turns out she is a recent widow and does all the work herself!  Don't make assumptions Nicole.  Since my husband will be away for several days each week looking after his parents and doing work in the San Francisco Bay area, I was thrilled to meet someone who I may be able to do things with.  I hope we will become friends.

Hope you all had a safe and sane 4th of July.  My goodness, have the dogs in the neighborhood been carrying on during the evenings when the young folks are setting off their fireworks!  They do not care for it one bit!

 

 

Downsizing Isn't Easy

 
Here I am again, all moved into my new house!  I missed you all this past week and hope that you haven't totally given up on me.  I will be back to my regular blogging self by Monday morning.

As you can see by the packed moving van, there wasn't much air space between our belongings!  My husband and brother in law Rick are expert packers and got about 75 percent of our things into the truck.  We also had the help of my nephew and a strong friend, as well as another one of my brothers in law.  When you are moving yourselves, it sure does help to have male relatives!  On the Angels Camp end of the move, we had my son in law and one of his friends lend a hand getting things unloaded off the truck.  The concensus is that I own the heaviest furniture on the planet.

I adore my new little house, but have to admit that trying to figure out where to put all the furniture, nick nacks and possessions has been daunting.  At first it seemed as if nothing was going to work.  My furniture is all too big, my brilliant stackable pantry containers can't stack on the too close together shelves, I have no place to put my gazillion pairs of shoes, and worst of all, I don't have a clue where to put on my makeup and do my toilette.  Don't even ask where I am going to put my 40 boxes of books.  Slowly but surely, things are getting sorted out.

I miss my big rooms, my built in vanity, my deep and tall pantry shelves, my shoe cubbies, and my built in bookcases.  However, shelves can be repositioned, book cases purchased, and I will get the makeup thing figured out.  And we bought four shoe cubby units at Lowe's in Sonora yesterday!  On the plus side, I have seen my daughter every day, my new back yard is a haven for hummingbirds, and my new neighbors seem super friendly.  I am going to a 4th of July barbeque tomorrow and will contribute a wonderful summery sounding strawberry/blueberry pie for dessert.  And if I can find the box where I put my camera batteries, I will take a picture!

Internet was set up today, and you can tell how devoted I am to all of you, that posting to my blog was my first priority!  Have a safe and happy 4th of July everyone.