When it Rains it Pours

I realize I haven't posted for a few days, but I have been both busy and lazy. LOL. Work work work is the theme since Christmas is around the corner. While at my second job yesterday I thought it would be a good idea to take my car for an oil change and get my tires rotated since it's been a year. It's nice the shop is just around the corner. I drop it off in the morning he fits me in and I pick it up before I go home. Anyway, the shop owner is awesome. He is always the bearer of bad news. LOL. I go in to pay for my car and he looks at me and says we have a problem. LOL I said you didn't try to put my window down did you? My passenger side window motor has been shot for a few months, but hey I driver window right? Last thing to fix on my list. He said no, but said did you know you have an oil leak??? What??? He proceeds to take me to my car lay on the ground wipe his hand underneath and sure enough we've struck oil. UGGGHHH... I need new oil cooler lines (whatever those are). Then he says AND you need new back brakes and rotors. WHAT????? So of course me I start bawling like a baby because I know I don't have the money to fix it. He's like it needs to be done next week and you can borrow my jeep while I fix it. OK but how am I going to pay for it??? He says he will let me do a payment plan since he knows my situation. He looks at me and says "your kids are what's important and I can wait on my money." What a great guy huh???? Too bad he's married LOL. To top it off he says and I can't believe you still have the original battery in this car (it's a 2004) come winter you probably won't be able to start it in the morning if it's cold. TOUCHDOWN I am officially depressed. Then of course I come home pick up my mail. Lo and behold there is my final bill from my attorney. Yep more money I don't have and he doesn't accept payment plans. So I decided I may have to donate a kidney just to pay my bills. LOL. Hey anyone want a hand painted sign???? LOL

So as not to end on a sour note my Mom stopped over the other night after church and brought me some of my old cross stitch things I had done way back in the day. She decided it was time to clean out her sewing room so she is bringing me all kinds of stuff. Anyway, I believe I was in high school when I did these... So yep I crafted way back then too.

I think I tried to wash this way back and some of the purple bled down on the left corner by the berries so I just put it away because I was mad. So Mom brought it to me wrinkled and all.



The next one isn't too bad I guess for a kit...



I know she brought me some other ones, but of course I can't remember what I did with them at the moment, but when I find them I'll show you. Other than that I've been working on my swaps here and there. I know not too exciting, but today I hope to go to the thrift store to find some goodies.

Do You Hear It?????

SSSHHHHH!!!!!! Do you hear my heart singing very softly???? It's still soft because I'm just at the beginning of redecorating. However, as promised I will show you some sneak peaks at what I did yesterday. I am really delcuttering and Steve says it looks bigger in my little place. I had to sign some last minute paperwork to put the original Gettysburg Homestead up for sale before I could start. It's kind of sad, but neither one of us can afford it without the other and since my EXs girlfriend that he left me for moved out on him he can't afford it by himself. (snicker snicker SORRY) Anyway, I am no where near done but here are some to start with. I still have a few fall things out, but for the most part they are back in their tubs and I have some Christmas signs and red berries out too. LOL. Steve and I were talking and he said "you should go ahead and decorate for Christmas since you didn't do much last year." So.... look closely for "fwinter" (fall/winter mix LOL)











While I was doing this, Steve was off too. His work is a bit slow these days. So of course he didn't want to get in my way, so he went out to cut more wood for more signs. I now have a total of 13 signs. He is getting better with each one. I told him that we need to prim a few up. But I'll show you my stacks. LOL. Now other than sell a few what am I suppose to do with all of these??? LOL





Almost forgot...

I am thankful for modern conveniences light electric and heat from furnaces. Though sometimes I do like living with the light of my candles for short periods of time. It makes me wonder what it really would of been like to live this way all the time. Hmmmmm no hair dryer, no electric washing machine and dryer, no stove, yeah I think I like my electric LOL.

New Beginnings...

As you all might remember today was my final divorce hearing. Yes it did happen and all papers were signed. I just have to wait on the courts to record them and send me copies. There were no tears shed and no animosity between us. We walked out of the court and he looked at me and said "Well, you're free now." You know he is right. I can now have a new beginning. With new beginnings come changes. No don't worry my decorating style and blogging won't change. LOL. Just other things in my life.

After the hearing I went to a Hospice thrift store and looked around for awhile. They had all their Christmas items up decorating the entire store. I bought a cross stitch book and two ornaments for my tree and that was it. I'll show pics later. Then I went to turn in the last paperwork to join my local fire department where I live. I have procrastinated long enough. I couldn't decide whether to turn it in or not for many reasons. I am suppose to have a physical agility test on Wednesday night in order to prove I can do my job. Duh I do it just about every day at work. LOL. Anyway, after turning that in I went across the street to one of my favorite shops here in town and looked around. Everything was decorated for Christmas here too. I had a few things in my hand but put them back because I know I have too much as it is. I just could not get in the mood to buy, but sure got in the mood to decorate. I asked Steve last night if he minded if I took down the fall stuff and put my Christmas stuff up. He laughed and asked if I could wait a few weeks. LOL. I told him first day after Thanksgiving it's going up!!!! Truthfully he doesn't care he just likes to get my goat. It's my house I'll do what I want anyway. Boy does that feel good to say. However, I did move a few furniture pieces around in preparation for the holidays last night. I am so in the mood to rearrange today but don't know where to start. LOL.

So instead I sat down and darkened up my candle holders with shoe polish. Before and after kinda.





I have decided that with new beginings comes decluttering. I have decided I have way too much stuff. I need to scale back and only keep the things that I LOVE or as many people put "make my heart sing." I work the next two days so it'll have to wait until Thursday to do anything else as for rearranging. By then I hope to have pictures for all to see. My promise will keep me motivated. LOL.

If you haven't noticed I opened up a selling site. Please check out the right side of by blog and click on the picture. For now all I have is Christmas signs, but will add more as I make it.

#3 What I'm thankful for...

I am thankful that I have food to eat, a roof over my head, and clothes on my back.

What I've Been Working On

This post is short and sweet. I'm pooped and have to be to work by 5:30am tomorrow so I need to get some things done.

I keep saying I'm working on my quilt. Well, that's all I've been working on. LOL. I have the top done and pinned to the batting and backing. Now comes the part I think I'm gonna hate. QUILTING!!!! You have to understand I have a very short attention span and jump from project to project. Sometimes I give up on them if they take to long to finish. But I'm hoping to finish this one by next fall. LOL. Seriously, it will take me awhile.

So here you go my first quilt... By the way can you tell I had to piece the green border. If so don't say it out loud LOL. I think it looks pretty good.



Yesterday I decided I needed to find fabric for my Christmas swap partner and send it out. Think I'll be able to find it in this mess? LOL. All those blue tubs have fabric in them. Hmmm.... what to choose... LOL. Hey Kim I sent yours out yesterday.



I got a package in the mail from Kim for my Christmas swap today after work. Isn't this fabric fabulous??? Though my camera has the coloring off a little. It's more of a brown. Oh the wheels are just turning Kim!!!!! This is the last time you will see this until the Christmas swap is complete.



Christmas swap ladies your fabric should be sent out by now. If someone does not receive their fabric by Saturday please email me right away.

#2 What I'm thankful for...

I'm thankful I have a full time job with health benefits that fell into my lap after my ex-hubby left. They may have cut my hours, but I know that if one of us gets sick we can go to the doctor.

Happy Monday!!!!

Happy Monday!!! This day started with my electric going out and being off for who knows how long. I took my daughter to the orthodontist and came home to it. Did you know your heat won't come on either if you have an electric ignitor? LOL It got a little chilly in here. I am still sitting with a light jacket on as I type. Then I wanted to work on my quilt. DUH no electric you can't sew. LOL. So at least I could take pictures. But I couldn't post them until now.

So as promised the Christmas signs Steve painted... None of these signs have been prim'd yet just in case someone wants them un-prim'd.





Bumpy paint... in case you missed it here is the tutorial.





Steve's favorite...he wanted to put a cookie monster on it and I talked him out of it. LOL



One of my favorites...



Absolute favorite one!!!!! Not sure I can part with it. LOL





Not to shabby for the first time. LOL.

I am going to try to write things that I am thankful for during the month of November each time I post. This is number 1.

A year ago today my soon to be ex husband left me. I look back and see how far I've come from that dreadful night. Am I thankful for it? Yes and no for many reasons. It is what it is and I have moved on. I am thankful for all my friends and family who stuck by me and helped me through this year.

Also I just learned that a boy, who's parents I grew up with, broke his neck in a football game Friday night and is having surgery to try to repair the paralysis from his chest down today. Please say an extra prayer for him.

Happy Halloween

Today Steve and I decided just to hang out at home since the kids weren't here. They both went to their Dad's this weekend. We went to IHOP for breakfast, a new flea market we had never been to, and Menard's (basically a Home Depot or Lowe's but HUGE. We bought wood for signs. You know since I bought all those new Christmas stencils I had to try them out.

No I'm not gonna show you Christmas signs on Halloween LOL. Wait til Monday. Anyway, I asked Steve to get me some nice 1X8X8 planks and thought we could cut them down for signs. I was so excited to be able to use my stencils. Yea, well I thought Steve was going to unload them into my garage and come in. I was happily working on my quilt top when I kept hearing him in the garage cutting. Then in and out and water running. So I go outside to see what's up and here he is cutting the boards and painting them the colors he had chosen for each stencil. The boards were numbered to correspond with the stencil. HELLO this was my project. LOL. Then I start smelling burnt wood again out I go he is doing our bumpy paint technique on some of the boards. I figured I could always buy more boards. LOL. Next I tell him he has to stencil and of course he has never done it. We go upstairs he sits down at the table and is ready to learn. I give him a Reader's Digest Condensed version on how to stencil and off he goes. I check in periodically to see how things are going and he say "Fine." I'm quilting away and I here him humming "Oh Come Let Us Adore Him." He humming Christmas carols. LOLOLOL. Finally he comes down to the basement where I'm sewing and we chat. He admits that he LIKES to stencil and not to tell anyone. So yes I had to tell all of you. He is hooked. He made 7 different signs and not only stenciled, but added his own personal touches to them. I will take pics and show you. We have decided to sell some of them because I just don't have room. Stay tuned next week because he is still messing with some of them right now.

Anyway, I'm stuck on my quilt because my fabric is too short to make my borders and I don't know what to do. Do I add extra to the strips to make it long enough? But then there will be seams showing. If so do I do it in the middle or off center? Now I remember why I never attempted a quilt before. :Sigh: So I sit stuck. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Mental Health Day in 1 1/2 hours

Warning: Long post BUT with pictures. LOL.

Today I decided I needed a mental health day. Sure there was laundry to do and a house to clean, but I decided to take some me time. I took a whole 1 and 1/2 hours to myself. I decided to head to Kidron Ohio which is only about 15 minutes away from my home. There is so much to do and see and today is Thursday so it is flea market and auction day too. There is an awesome quilt/fabric shop that I was mainly looking to go to. But of course there is a thrift store too that I haven't gone to in about a year since the divorce started so I figured I'd stop there too. So my mental health day is your mental health day. I took my camera along for the ride. LOL.

First stop the thrift store... MCC Connections a church based thrift store where the workers are purely volunteer and the money raised goes to missions. On the other side is the quilt side.



This is why I love this store... I was trying to be discreet taking pictures. LOOK at all the fabulous quilts!!!!! They have throws on up to queen size.




See that one on the left in between the windows? It was beautiful fall colors and was a double bed size. Guess how much???? $95.00 Yep that's it. I looked at prices and a twin ranges from $45-$79



Sometimes when you come in these tables will be full of ladies quilting. Plain (Amish),Mennonite, and English people enjoying each others company. I saw about three or four quilt frames set up with quilts on them.



Now on to my bargains... I spent $9.93. I bought another stencil but forgot to take a pic of it.





The washed out thing is cross stitch cloth.









Alright time to move on. Just about 1/8 of mile is downtown Kidron. This is where Lehmans is. This is a famous hardware store where everyone who comes to Amish country visits. It is not just hardware. It's kitchen gadgets, toys, crocks, books, paint, fireplaces, non electric lamps, and old looking stoves and refrigerators. It is a really neat place to visit.



I thought this was hilarious!!!



This is another part of the building. Look how they just built it right over the creek.



Next is the quilt shop I went to.



Remember my quilt blocks awhile back? Well I had the extremely nice lady who worked there help me pick some colors to finish my quilt. So I will finish this quilt. I just am not gonna promise when. LOL.



Then I decided to walk over to the outdoor flea market acorss the street. There really wasn't much to take pictures of. Plus I didn't want to disrespect any Amish by taking pictures and them being in them.

So instead colors of fall and a few horse and buggies...









Now I'm home threw some laundry in and contemplating dinner for tonight. I am so rejuvenated that I just want to immerse myself in my quilt. I think that house work will win over though.

SWAP LADIES I sent each of you an email yesterday with your partners name and email. If you did not get that eamil please let me know. I would like all fabric sent out by Nov. 3.