One Creative Family

With this virus crud going on we had to cancel or vacation plans to Washington DC to see the Cherry Blossom and the sites. So we changed plans to Yellowstone, no they were closed. So we decided to do some repairs around the house. Put that money into things we’ve been putting off. Soounds good right? Well sit back with a cup of coffee or tea and hang on.

April 2020

Had an Air Conditioner company out to do yearly maintance to get ready for the summer and the man told us that the breaker system for the electric was outdated and illegal. The house was built in the 50’s and hadn’t been up dated so we said gotta be done either now or later so why not now. The work was done, we were out of electricty for a total of 2 days , not bad. We needed to call the city to bury the lines (city is going to this). We called April (twice) May called weekly June city came out and were pretty snotty because we were cheating the city. The meter was reinstalled backwards and we were stealing electricity. Their inspector came out and checked things up. They finally came out in July to bury the cable. The long wait due to Covid. These men never came in the house, didn’t even come to the door. OH well.

June letter from IRS wanting us to pay them for the work we had moving the washer and dryer up to the basement and getting a dishwasher installed. The company we had hadn’t paid taxes in years. We had to prove to the IRS we had paid for the work.

While the house was being rewired we found out the dishwasher was not wired in right, so we had to have the electric redone for that.

This month the ice maker went out and we had an appliance repair company come out to fix it and told us the issue was the plumbing. He doesn’t do plumbing. Called the plumber out and while he was fixing the pipes he noticed the dishwasher was hooked up to the cold water instead of hot water. Nice. He fixed it.

This brings us to Saturday. We scheduled to have a new driveway (from single drive to double), porch and patio repoured.

Before

Waiting for the concrete trucks

The patio waiting. The light brown is where the city dug to bury the line. The dark is fresh dirt from the patio and will be spread thru out the yard where there is still a trench from the city.

Now Sunday, I spent baking and when tried to run the dishwasher it wouldn’t work. Filled and Drained, but not run. This morning I called the appliance repair and they asked questions and then said it was the main wash motor and would be cheaper to purchase an new one. This will wait till sometime next week and the driveway is now full of rebar and not drivable for the delivery truck and no steps to walk up.

So now I ask, should we have taken a vacation instead?

You gotta laugh thru all this. Hubby said no more house repairs. Hopefully the last few months of the year will be better.

Find something to laugh at and enjoy your days.

I haven’t been on the computer much lately. Out looking for a new refrigerator, so expensive and so many not in stock and will be months before you can get them. We have put that on hold, hope this keeps working for a while longer.

Getting a new driveway, porch, and patio. These men have benn working hard and by Wednesday the pouring will begin. I can’t wait. Finished the Liberty quilt I’ve been working on. So glad it is finished and now to get ready for something new.

Today brought cookie baking, made Chocolate Chip Cookies and Butter Horns.

Then Destiny and I made little cakes. She decorated them and took them to her Aunt Alicia for her Birthday.

Hope you are enjoying your Sunday.

My week has been an emotional up and downs and not a lot got accomplished, but I did one thing that I have been putting off for a while. I purchased a chair at a garage sale and it needed recoverying so I finally got hubby to help me take it apart and put it together again.

Now I will hope this bright chair will inspire me to get creative. We will see what happens next week.

Stay safe and have a great day

A while back I talked about vitual sales and was wondering if anyone had done them. Well we have been doing some checking into them. They are LOTS of work and here is what I found out.

Facebook is the place to have them, but if you plan on selling often on FB you need to be consistant with time and days you are live. This seems to take at least a month to build your following. This isn’t what I was looking to do. I wanted something not so often.

Most virtual sales I looked into were a week long and usually a group of people went in together and you were given a day and time to post your information. This is what I will be doing, We have a day to sell our items and are asked to invite as many people to participate as you have friends. This will get a large audience and possibily more sales. For this I will be taking more photos of what we have to sell and get ready to post them. I will lelt you know when we are going ot be on FB selling our stuff.

I am starting to work on some Christmas home decorations. I want to make new stockings for us. Trying to decide if I will be making some for the kids and grandkids. We have started our Christmas shopping and I would like to get it done by Thanksgiving. Then I can start having fun wrapping.

If this question you would answer yes, I think we proved this debatable. We ordered 1/2 a calf from my sister in Texas. We got word that it was ready and as hubby and I are 70 and 66 we watch were we go and what we do as he is a prime canidate for this virus, we didn’t want to get sick or not knowingly give it to a sibling we decided a non visiting trip. We had a short time span due to babysitting and Dr visits we forgot our age and left KC MO at 2:30 pm drove 16ish hours to Port O’Connor, TX. We stopped for gas, food, and a couple times at Buckees. (I will explain what Buckees is in a few). When we got to my sister’s there was no hugging and we kept our 6 ft distance, visited for about 30 min. Loaded the car and headed out. Coming home took a little longer due to rush hour traffic. We pulled into the drive about 11:30pm. Gary drove all but about 2-3 hours so he could grab a quick nap.

Unloaded the car and too wide awake to sleep. Finally got to sleep about 3am and the phone rings at 8am so up I get. I made a list of all the beef we got and being on the coast we got shrimp also. After getting the freezer set up I put shrimp in bags of about 1 lb and sealed the bags. Picked up granddaughter from school at 4pm. 2 other granddaughters came over and we had a great visit till about 10:30 then they left. Destiny and I had our sleep over and got up at 6am to prepare for a garage sale.

I doubt we will ever do this again. Wed -Sat evening only about 12 hours sleep. It took this old body 2 plus days to recoop. We are loosing some of our “wisdom” as we get older.

Now what is Buckees????????

Buckees is a convience store in Texas. some are just the average size and some are a little bigger. Now when I say a little bigger, you ever hear “Everything is bigger in Texas”? Well the largest stores are like a Walmart on steroids.

The two rows of roofs on the left are the gas pumps the one on the right is the building.

The nexr few photos are of the store. Lots of fun wandering thru.

I was given a pattern for an expandable bag about a yr ago and have not made one of them until yesterday. I have tweaked the bag some and love how this turned out. We will start out with size small. The small size measures about 13×20.

Ok so now you take your tote shopping and start buying more than you planned. Just unfold some of the top from the inside of the baf and move your handles to the next set of D-links.

Now your bag measures about 20×21 inches or so. Want to shop more? Just move the handles again and your bag is full size.

Now full size it is about 20×25. This is now my favorite tote to put into the car for shopping sprees. I will be making a few more for Christmas gifts. As the pattern was shared with me I will share it with anyone who wants it I don’t know the original designer of this but it was a great idea.

What fun things are you making today?

Just finished 2 baby quilts yesterday. A friend of mine is waiting for the arrival of 2 greatgrand babies. She wanted 2 very special baby quilts for them One in ble and one in pink. You got it a boy and a girl. After some long and hard thinking I decided on Hunter’s Star. This is a pattern that looks challenging but isn’t.

Now to go bake some cookies and bread. This week has been very fall like here in Missouri and it always puts me in a baking mood.

Have a wonderful Sunday and stay safe.

This quilt is named Trials and Tribulations…my first quilt for someone else(my son) no 2 blocks are the same size. The sashing around them are how I made them fit. Those are different sizes also.

I am a totally self taught quilter. I have sewed since I was about 9 or 10, and when I decided to make quilts I thought it would be a piece of cake. Read a pattern and follow it. Nothing to it. WRONG…. These are things I learned over the years by trial and error. Here are the most important thing I learned in the last 3 years(after 20 years of frustrations, ripping and many start overs)

1. Needle… use the same size and type of needles. I thought with the exception of the size of the needle they are all the same. Just use the same size. NOPE brands may differ. NOW I start with a new package and use from that package all the way thru. Or if there are 3 needles in the package then fine, but I stick to the same brand for all my sewing.
2. Rulers….I found out not all rulers measure the same and not only that not all rulers by the same manufactors are the same. I Always use the same ruler all thru that quilt process.
3. Lining the ruler can make a big difference. I never thought where on the rule I put the edge of my fabric to measure the cut. I heard someone say how they put tape where they line the ruler up to cut, now I do this. It can add up to being wonky.
4. When everyone says to press PRESS!. They didn’t tell me this because they liked to iron.
5. Trim blocks to the finished size. There are some short cuts, but not all short cuts(like not trimming, or eyeballing the block) are good.
6. When putting rows together make sure they are all lining up together as you go.
7. Purchase at least 1/2 yd more than the pattern says just incase you measure wrong. You may not be able to find the same fabric you are using..
8. Seams…This is where I have had the hardest time until I got my 1/4″ foot. I tried taping a marking on the machine, marking the regular foot. Using the 1/4 ” foot it is easier to keep them consistant.

I hope this makes sense as I was explaing this to a friend who wants to learn how to quilt. Do you have any suggestions to add to this? These are things I never thought about but in the end drove me crazy trying to fix.

I am glad I am still learning everyday.

I hope everyone is having a great day todday. So far this is a very quiet morning and just another day in these times. The other day I was out weeding and deadheading my front garden. Today I will be out back yard working in some of the flower beds.

I have finished the Liberty quilt top and am ready to quilt that but I have 2 baby quilts to make.

Have a safe day and enjoy all you do.

I have been working on a wall hanging, and a Liberty Quilt lately. Then a neighbor told me of an Estate Sale selling lots of craft things. So everything went by the wayside and I went. I got lots of Stamps and papers for $30.

Then off to Michael’s for stamps pads and stamp cleaner. I have never done stamping, I am looking for advice. Granddaughter loves them so even if I don’t use them she will get that much fun out of them.

Any suggestions on a good place to get information on using them?

One thing I want to do is using them on fabric. We will see how this goes.

Another question. We normally do craft fairs, and since the virus we can’t and people have been suggesting Virtual Fairs. Does anyone know how these work and are they worth the time and effort? Or just wait till the Spring and see what happens. Or keep working on building an Etsy shop and use that?

Have a fun week and be safe?