Where Do I Begin?

It's been almost 2 years since I've written on this blog...can't even begin to fill in the blanks.

Long story short:  My mother passed away, my husband retired, we moved 275 miles away and I've gone through a major emotional upheaval.  Think I'm coming out on the other side now.  It's been a twisting and oftentimes a very difficult road, these past two years.  But now I'm starting to come back into my old self and feeling like I felt before - only in some ways maybe even better.  (For more on that, read my other blog called Mental Pause.)

The things I have accumulated over the past several years are coming to roost here in my new home.  Only now am I beginning to sort through and see what I actually have brought with me.  I had anticipated getting rid of a lot of things before we moved, but then with life's curve ball thrown at me, I brought all of it here and am finally unpacking and putting away all my "treasures".

I've joined two different volunteer organizations where I can put my crafty skills to work and I can also give them a lot of my supplies.  That's a very good thing.  I also plan on continuing my quest to start making items and selling them - both locally and on-line.  One step at a time, but I'm taking baby steps.

Keep posted for more updates on my future ramblings of my fun and finds here in my new home.  Welcome back!

Fabric Galore

Well now, if there were a contest for the person with the most fabric in their collection, I'm sure I'd be up there near the top. I have spent most of the day emptying large plastic tubs filled with fabric and have surprised even myself with the quantity. I'm not quite done yet either. I knew it was a lot, but come on...who needs all this? In spite of the quantity, I must admit I love looking and touching all the different pieces. There are some great vintage pieces I got from a girlfriend's mother who had passed away. When I say "vintage" I mean from the 70's and maybe some 60's. They bring back many memories to me.

During my junior and high school years I made most of my clothes. They were so simple with the shifts, empire dresses, tent dresses, etc. Remember those? I think I still have a few patterns from that time period. That shouldn't surprise anyone. Of course, the idea that I might ever use them again for myself is more than laughable! I just like to look at them and reminisce.

A friend of mine gave me a huge bag of doilies, aprons and tablecloths that used to belong to her mother and grandmother. (Everyone knows of my weakness it seems.) I just love going through those things. I have such a collection of linens - and am thinking of some way to use a lot of these in new ways. Reusing them for alternate purposes is a good idea I think. I can't possibly use all those things myself. I have some ideas but will wait to see how they turn out before I spell it out here.

Tomorrow is another day of opening more containers to see what surprise awaits me. The last shelf unit is waiting for me to fill it up and there's no doubt I'll do just that. One of these days, I'll start to sew and will put all this fabric, trims, buttons, notions, etc. to good use. Just wait and see...I'm gonna do it, I swear I will. I'll finally stop "talking" and start doing. Onward and upward - - -

Aw heck!

My next door neighbor called to tell me an Egret was in my front yard. I couldn't see him so I opened the door and off he flew. Darn it! Next time I'll be more discreet. Would love to get a picture of one in my yard. We have new and exciting wildlife in our new town. Daily visitors are ducks, quail, hawks (overhead) and white tail doves. There are so many other birds that I've never seen before. Will have to get a bird book to tell me their names. There are some beautiful little yellow/green birds that are all around us. There are also some quite a bit larger birds with big bodies and red feathers on their chests. Don't think these are robins, but then again, I'm not really sure.

Been kicking myself for the numerous craft books that I have accumulated. There's going to be some happy craft person when they discover all these books at our yard sale. I know the feeling of finding some cool books...that's how I got so darn many. Trying to be very realistic now and keeping only those I think I will REALLY use - an almost ridiculous optimistic outlook.

Oh well, on we trudge through the muck and mire that makes up my office/craft room. One of these days it will be room I'm proud of - I'm sure of it!!

Still cracking open boxes...

I actually unpacked 11 boxes yesterday and put away a lot of stuff! Was able to make up two pretty full boxes for a yard sale. I'm sure it's not near enough to get rid of, but it's a decent start. It's not easy to part with some of these "things", but I'm making an effort anyway.

Found I left a soda can in my craft room overnight and attracted a bunch of ants...UGH! I won't do that again. Will be leaving some ant baits to discourage those little buggers from bothering me again. I should know better. Our tenants had a bad ant problem before and I certainly don't want the same situation.

Love having the internet, phone and TV ability now. I'm going to set aside some time this week to work on my reunion stuff. I've got lots of catching up to do on my main list and start keeping stats from the questionnaires we've received. One of my challenge questions the night of the reunion will be to guess how many total years the group who responded has been married. There must be something good about our generation...I notice most of the responses thus far have been married between 20-35+ years. That's really an accomplishment in this day and age. Unfortunately, I can't compete with those numbers, but am at a respectable 12 years [this time around :-)].

Looking forward to seeing some of my friends on my next trip home. Have a birthday next week and hope to have a nice dinner with my sweetheart. I love to celebrate birthdays...not just my own but everyone else's. I think it's a very special day to celebrate and I don't like to let them pass without some kind of mention. Once we are settled in permanently, I'll be sure to make some great cards for our wonderful neighbors. All but one of the 8 of us in our immediate area have summer birthdays. That makes it a lot easier to remember.

Better get back to my unpacking. Listening to some great oldies and that keeps me upbeat and ready to tackle almost anything. There's a great station we pick up on our way here, but we can only hear it for a few miles, then we lose the signal. Fortunately, we can pick it up on the internet. If you like real good oldies (50's and 60's) check it out....KFXM.com I think. Some of the music I hear I haven't heard in 30-40 years. Just love this great old sound. Enjoy!!!

What the heck's been going on?

Where have I been all this time? We are STILL in the process of moving all our stuff to our new home. Geez, we have a lot of stuff. Happily we are doing the moving ourselves and don't have to hear any negative comments from family or friends about all the things we have. I'm sure once we get settled, unpacked and have weeded through everything we will pare it down to a more manageable mess!

It's a wonder to me the quantity of things one can acquire. I've always been so eager to pick up "just this one thing" or buy only "one more of those"...but after packing all those onsies which have become half or full dozensies (?) I can see that I've overdone it a bit. (Understatement!) You can be sure we will have a gigantic yard sale and get back just pennies on the dollar of what we paid, but it will be so nice to get rid of some of this excess baggage.

Our new home is getting pulled together ever so slowly. I managed to paint most of the rooms last summer, with only the dining room and kitchen left to paint. This involves removal of some very stubborn wallpaper before I can paint so I've been putting this off for a while. We brought a new load of boxes with us this last trip, most of which are sitting outside on the patio because there's no place in my "craft room" for them...YET. I've got to organize this room so I can bring up my work table in a couple of weeks.

We have also had several visitors since we've become more moved in. My sister, her daughter and grand daughter came and visited us in March. We had a simply wonderful visit with lots of talking and reminiscing. The visit was short but oh so worth it. In May, we had a firefighter friend and his dad stay in our Bunkhouse for a night while they went fishing locally. They took my husband with them for the day but unfortunately they didn't catch anything.

Every year our town hosts Mule Days over Memorial Day weekend. A red hat lady friend of mine came and stayed with us for 5 days prior to her venturing north to Reno to visit another friend for a few days. We had a wonderful time watching the parade and visiting the mules at the fairgrounds. We got lots of fun pictures and I had a mule make me jump a few inches when he brayed right in my face. (Guess he didn't like having his picture taken quite so much!) That same weekend another firefighter friend and his wife stayed in our backyard in their camper and used the bunkhouse for showering and getting out of the heat. We all had a great time and I look forward to many more visits from everyone.

Today I had a short visit with a friend I worked with about 30 years ago. We have stayed in touch all this time, periodically chatting on the phone. He and his wife stopped by on their way home, after a week of sightseeing and fishing. It was great to see him and talk of some of the folks we used to work with. I amazed myself when I actually remembered last names of some of those long ago workmates. It was so good to see him again and finally meet his wife!

I am truly happy when I know people are coming to visit. It's been such a long time since I've been able to feel good about having people over. I'm hopeful that many more will come our way. We have lots of room and I plan on making some wonderful meals and baked goods to share with our friends and neighbors. I'm really feeling like this is the perfect place for us. Of course, I would go anywhere with my sweetheart...but the Eastern Sierras seem to be just right. We hope to have many years of loving fun here.

Tomorrow I will continue with my quest of getting us settled in prior to my honey's retirement in December. I am so looking forward to spending most every day with him. Being apart so much this past year is hard on both of us. It's funny, we really enjoy each other's company and like being together. We are both looking forward to being able to spend more time together after his retirement. There are many places to see and lots of territory to explore in his vintage Jeep. We hope to spend many days heading out for parts unknown and see what we can find. Just another day in Paradise!

About Face!

Things have a way of turning around, don't they? My husband has not retired, and won't be doing so until December of this year. Another whole year to wait...UGH! But it's important financially that he continue and I understand it, I just don't really like it.

Been slowly moving and trying to get settled in our new house. I still have wallpaper to remove in our dining room and a kitchen to paint. We are waiting for the weather to warm up at our new house so I can continue with that. Once we get that completed, we can finalize the move and start to get our old house painted and ready to sell (hopefully). So many things are going on and I've been busy running back and forth. Trying to keep everything on an even keel and trying not to drop any of the balls I am juggling!

Most of my other activities have come to a crawl, however I'm still actively working on my high school reunion. That alone could be a full-time job. I am totally enjoying it and am looking forward to seeing how many people really attend.

Once we get moved and our house is completely organized, I plan on getting my own web site up and running. I want to sew things to sell for infants and the elderly. That's a way in the future, however it's a goal I'm setting for myself.

Postings have been few and far between because I don't have a computer when I'm at our new house. One of these days very soon, this computer comes with me and I'll be able to update more regularly. Looking forward to the future.

It's Getting Serious!

Here it is the beginning of October and we are really hitting the home stretch. My honey has 24 shifts left to work and reality is setting in hard! Of course, the stock market and economic crunch is making him think twice about retiring right now, but I'm sure he is not serious about staying. That would really be a difficult decision, but I think we're safe.

Been painting the inside of our new house and am down to 3 rooms left...dining room, kitchen and guest bath. Those rooms are the most difficult for a variety of reasons so I've left them for last. My wrist has been giving me fits because I'm aggravating an old injury so I'm wearing a wrist guard. Packing and lifting and all this painting, removing wallpaper, etc. is really enforcing on me the fact that I am not 25 years old anymore. My mind and body are not in sync and the body keeps rebelling against my mind. Guess I'll have to really slow it down a bit.

Had the retirement party last month and it was a great party. My husband was such a good sport since he really didn't want anything done about his retiring, but I figured after 33 years he needed something. We had about 70 people show up and it was great. Had a vintage chuck wagon there to prepare our food and lots of libations added to the festivities. I got him a new banjo - something he says he has always wanted to learn. That was a big surprise for him and I'm glad he was so pleased.

I'm looking into a new venture in Bishop when we move - but more about that later. Also am going to work with several others on my 40th high school reunion next summer. WOW it doesn't seem possible that I've been out of school that long...but I must have. Always something to keep me busy and out of trouble.

My moving is a priority now and I've been packing boxes and stacking them around here and there. We plan on taking the majority of our furniture next month and then we'll slowly get this place here ready to sell. Of course, in today's market that might not happen as quickly as we'd like but we are hopeful things will turn around in the next 6-12 months.

My collection of stuff is still waiting to be gone through. I've done some, but will probably honestly do most of it after we move. Think I'm going to find another outlet for getting rid of my stuff since the people around here are so tough at yard sales. I just don't have the energy for it right now anyway.

All is well in my world and will be only improving in the very near future. With our move, I know things are going to be greater than they've been. More on my "stuff" at a later date. For now...over and out!