Can you feel it?

Can you feel the crackle and sizzle of electricity??  That's not static electricity my friends.  No siree bob.  That is lightning striking twice!!!  Two posts from me in the same week??  Inconceivable!  LOL!!  I'm trying to be a better blogger this year.  We'll see how long it lasts before life steps in and blows it all to pieces.

In my last post I spoke of all the preparation that went into getting ready for Adam and his girlfriend.  One thing I didn't mention was the lack of a dresser in the guest room.  My sister needed a chest of drawers for her sons room at least 6 months ago and since we didn't really use the one in the guest room I told her she could have that one.  We'd find something else.  Which we did.  A rough around the edges antique walnut dresser that we fell in love with at the thrift store.  Dan loves walnut and the bones were good, it just needed some love.  A lot of love.   When Adam told me he would be bringing M home after the holidays I told Dan the dresser would need to be done before their arrival.  In typical Dan fashion...he waited until the last minute.  Now in his defense he did have other things going on...like the kitchen and the island.   In fact when I thought he was out in the garage working on the dresser, he was actually working on the island so you can imagine the panic I felt when it was January 1 and the dresser was more or less untouched.  Rising to the challenge, in spite of not understanding why having a dresser in the guest room was necessary, he worked his fingers to the bone and pulled off a miracle.  Literally.  Dan does not ever use an electric sander.  He prefers to do all the sanding by hand.  And it was a lot of sanding to get down to the bare wood.  I only have one before picture to show you but it clearly illustrates the amount of work that needed doing.  The left side Dan has sanded, the right is the original finish.

Wow huh?  He spent hours out in the cold garage sanding and staining and moaning and groaning and cursing, and while he might not agree, I think it was worth it.  What do you think?

It shares the room with an antique walnut bed.  Handmade in the 1800's, I first saw it in a store here in Omaha that was part antiques and part Barbies.  It was covered in Barbies and Barbie paraphernalia.  What a waste that was.  Originally, I bought the bed to go in Amy's Harry Potter bedroom.

It worked quite well in there, but after outgrowing her HP room, she wanted something more modern looking and the bed was moved to the guest room.  I think the two pieces were meant to be together.  What do you think?

The visit with M went well.  She was nervous, we were nervous, but I think she had a nice visit and we look forward to getting to know her better the next time.  It was unfortunate that the coldest weather we have had so far this winter coincided with their visit.  Of course the temps moderated once they left.  At least there wasn't snow while she was visiting!

And on the stitching front...an update of The Inn at Fox River Mill.  I'd say I am almost half done.  I'm also working on another piece but I'll save that for next time.

Thank you to all that posted about Gracie.  She is doing fine at the moment.  Still on the antibiotic though so we won't know if they worked until she is done with it.  I'll keep ya posted.

I need to eat breakfast and round my stuff up for work so I better get my butt up off this chair and get moving.  Thanks for all the comments on my last post!   Have a wonderful day everyone!

Take care till next time!!

Julie

Life

You know that quote by John Lennon that goes "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans"?  That sorta describes my world the last 3 weeks.  I'm going to attempt to condense as much as possible the events that have occurred since Christmas but it's still going to be a book!

It all started with Gracie.  She looks innocent enough doesn't she.

Don't let that  sweet face fool you!  She has been nothing but trouble and large amounts of money since right before the holidays when she ate a ton of chicken bones.  Now it could be coincidence that she became sick after that but I'm not sure.  We've been to the vet at least 6 times, had x-rays, blood work, her stools have been checked and her urine has been checked. Anti-biotics have been given, food and water removed, hamburger and rice given, weaned back on regular food and on and on with no real results.  Take her off the drugs and she gets a temp and starts throwing up.  The vets (yes, we've had a second opinion) are somewhat stumped.  She is now on a very strong anti-biotic and we are hoping this will work although the blood work didn't show anything wrong. All this illness has resulted in an extreme loss of sleep for me and lots of cleaning up after her.

During  this same time we were trying to get the house de-Christmased and ready for our son who was bringing his girlfriend home from DC to meet the family.  Naturally, my "everything has to be perfect gene" kicked in and  we have been madly cleaning, repairing and planning to get ready for the visit.  Everything came to a head this past Wednesday.  The new family room carpet was scheduled to be installed that morning...Adam and M were arriving on Thursday evening.  I was fine, had the day planned out, carpet first and then cleaning followed by grocery shopping and cooking.  The day began with Abby coming into the bedroom at 6a.m.  When asked what she was doing she responded with...there's no hot water in my shower, I need to get ready for work.  This was a problem.  Her shower is the shower for guests.  Dan had spent all day on Sunday replacing the shower head and handle in that bathroom and cleaning up all the caulking and such.  But apparently, he never tested to see if it all worked. Dan said he would work on it when he got home from work that night.  Alarm bells and warning lights went off in my head.  I got up, got ready and then Gracie vomited all over the floor before I could get her out the door.  While waiting for the carpet layers to arrive I put in a call to a different vet.  I needed a second opinion.  The receptionist said he would call when he was out of surgery.  The carpet layers arrived and created more problems.  They did not like how the guy that came out to measure instructed us to prepare the floor. When we decided to get new carpet we also decided to remove the railing between the kitchen and the family room.  It served no purpose and was a nuisance when it came to arranging the room.  Dan followed the directions given but the layers said it wasn't right and although they would go ahead and lay the new carpet they were going to make me a sign form saying the carpet would wear poorly and the warranty would not apply.  On top of that, before Missy passed away she apparently had been leaking urine and now with Gracie being sick she was also having issues and they recommended we seal the underlayment with 2 coats of oil based primer before laying the carpet so that further pet damage could be avoided.  I almost started crying.   Instead I called Dan who I might add, was sick as a dog, and asked him what we should do.  After some heated arguments, and an assurance from the layers that they would come at 7a.m. Thursday morning and have the carpet laid by 9:30 so I could be to work by 10, it was decided we would fix the floor to their specifications and we would also seal it.  Dan took the afternoon off  and came home.  Meanwhile, I texted a stitching friend of mine who has a brother that is a plumber and asked if she thought he could help me out with the guest bath.  She responded by giving me her nephew's cell (also a plumber) and calling him to tell him I would be calling. Keep in mind, I was doing this on the sly and hoping I could just present the repaired plumbing to Dan as a fait accompli.  Sadly it was not to be...the plumber was here when Dan arrived and he was not a happy camper.  Chad got the plumbing fixed and it was a good thing that I called him because I am pretty sure if Dan had attempted the repair we'd have had a bigger problem.  Dan and I (mostly Dan) got the floor fixed and painted and I took Gracie to the vet late that afternoon.  No cleaning could be done since the contents of the family room were all over the rest of the house and I was in a panic over how it was going to get done before Adam arrived Thursday night.  But I'm happy to say, the carpet did get laid, I got to work on time, and we cleaned like demons after I got home from work finishing up 20 minutes before he came through the door.  Remind me never to do anything to this house ever, ever again because it's always a disaster when we do!!!!  Here are some updated family room pics for you.

Needless to say, stitching hasn't been a priority the last few weeks but I have gotten some done. I think I will wait and share that on my next post though.

I did want to mention some exciting news regarding our retreat.  Here's an excerpt from our latest newsletter telling all about it.

 "Our “Fear the Frog” Retreat will be held Thursday May 3rd  through Sunday May 6th, 2012.  We are very excited to announce that  Darlene Anderson will present a program on Adam and Eve samplers which will include a powerpoint presentation and a history of each sampler. She will also share her sampler tree ornaments and show a slide  of  each  one.   Darlene   presented   her  program  in  Arizona  at  the  Attic  
Needleworks Sampler Symposium this past weekend to rave reviews.   


Paulette  Stewart  of  Plum  Street  Samplers will once again be designing the shop 
exclusive chart for retreat and hopefully she’ll stop in at some point so you all get a 
chance to visit with her." 

I have never seen Darlene's samplers in person but have heard others talk about them so I was thrilled when she agreed to come to retreat and present her program.
I'm hoping some of you might come too as it would be wonderful to meet you in person!

I need to get caught up on my blog reading and do some planning  for retreat yet today so I will end this sad story now.  I hope to post again in the next couple of days though.  Fingers crossed, knock wood and all that other good stuff.  Thanks for hanging in there and thanks for the comments.  They are much appreciated!

Take care till next time!

Julie