A Year in Mourning

Or at least that's what it felt like.  I'll fill you in with the Cliff's Notes version.

While I was visiting with my grandmother for the last time I got the call that Marti, my friend I'd organized all the quilting miniatures for, had passed away. We wouldn't be able to make it home in time for her funeral because we were too far away. Plus she'd have wanted me to stay with my grandmother... so we stayed.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy the time with my family, but it was bittersweet. Even in all the beauty that is our home. Gus enjoyed himself, despite being confused about sledding on dry stuff that didn't melt.

 Our time together was too short, but isn't it always? We headed home and I was numb. My doctor increased my medication doses and I voluntarily increased the visits to my therapist. Many small family dramas last fall made everything seem more intense and less deal-with-able.

 My grandmother passed in November, two days before FH and I were to celebrate his little brother's wedding. I was sewing around that time. Quilting to be more precise. I focused on projects and just tried to make it through the holidays.

I started to come out of my mental shell in March when another friend for guild, who was very close to Marti, passed away suddenly. For me it was like loosing Marti all over again. I hadn't really been able to mourn her before then.

I was starting to come to terms with things when I was rear ended by a hit and run driver. That wasn't very helpful to my mental health at the time. Fortunately I was only bruised and my car just needed new bumpers. Bumpers plural as he pushed my into the car sitting in front of me as we waiting on a red light to turn green.

Spring came and went without me really noticing. I knew there were things I wanted to do each day, but I couldn't make myself wake up enough to do them. Turns out I needed my medication dose lowered, which we did in July. It took a while for the effects of my meds to even out.

That's ok since I had all the time in the world to wait since in July I tore my lower trapezius muscle and right rotator cuff. That was the polar opposite of fun. I'm still fighting the physical pain from the incident as I type this. My doctor thinks there's a bone spur that broke loose and was hidden by tendons, etc during the initial xrays. Hopefully that will get dealt with sooner rather than later.

So that's where things stand at the moment. Oh and my father was diagnosed with Parkinson's too. Like he needed another autoimmune disease to peck away at him... *sigh*

But I finally have enough mental energy to start posting here again. It will likely be only once a week, like it was last year. I have been working on a few projects off and on for the last year. I'll be trying to fill you all in on those in addition to the current projects.

Here's a something I was working on last fall with a little help from Miss Pixel.

I'll tell you more about it next time. Until then!

Rearranging and "Art"

Since my last post several things have happened.

1. FH has to work this weekend, which means the boys are not coming.

2. I decided I needed to not only dust (before I knew #1) but I needed to rearrange things a bit.

3. The wallpaper conundrum that plagued my project from last Thursday was solved by FH.

4. FH told me the story of "the smoking man" so I can relate it here properly.

Here are pictures of the rearranging:
This is the cafe I mentioned months ago. I still haven't finished it. I decided I was irritated for not changing it further once it came into my possession. I will post more on it later.
While I was taking these, I thought you might like to see another project in progress:
It will be a garden when I get it finished. I need to touch up the background and then get the base in place. Then I can go crazy with landscaping.

Here is the story of "the smoking man." We call him "Art."

When FH and his friends were still in high school they were wandering around the local shopping mall. There was an art store there that had several sculptures and framed prints for sale and Art was one of the featured pieces. Unbeknownst to FH, his friend decided at that moment that whenever FH got married he was going to buy Art as the wedding gift. The store eventually closed.

Eight or so years later the friend tracked down Art with the help of his wife. And there you have it. The look on my husband's face when we unwrapped the bloody thing in our hotel room after the ceremony... he laughed and laughed, remembering that day at the mall years before. He laughed more when he saw the look of disgust on my face.

The reason Art now resides in the main part of the house, as opposed to FH's craft room, is because I figured if I keep finishing minis to display in the house FH should have something he likes in the main part of the house. It's only fair. "Fair enough?" is often asked between us, since we take the idea of marriage being a partnership very seriously. I'll just have to finish more minis to make up for the fact that I loathe Art. At least it's not a leg lamp from "A Christmas Story" or a taxidermied fish... or even canines playing cards or billiards. Art is at least art... hence his name.

Minis in the House

I've been cleaning still. It takes a lot longer to sort through things, put them away, vacuum, dust, and what not when you're not completely back to normal. But I'm noticing that my stamina is slowly coming back. This makes me happy.

I cleaned off my two favorite pieces of furniture and cycled the minis on display today. then it occurred to me that you all might be interested in seeing them.

This cabinet was purchased unfinished right after FH and I were married. My first big project after moving was staining and finishing it to match as closely as I could to another piece from the same store. I like to switch the minis on display here, based on holidays or my whim. The clock stays put though. There aren't many places it will fit in this house.
This dry sink is the piece I was trying to match. It's not as glossy as the cabinet, but the color of stain worked out well. The dry sink was finished when we bought it.
I think I might bring out the Conservatory Bag and display it here too. I'm not sure though.

When I get to a few more places where minis normally are I will get pictures...after cleaning them of course.

Between the two of us, FH and I got about 85% of the things from my to-do list today finished. Of course he was helping after a full day at the office. Really the only big thing that I didn't get to today was the rabbit houses. I will be tackling that tomorrow after a doctor's appointment and lunch with the girls.

I'm really looking forward to the company this weekend. One, possibly two friends of FH's from high school are coming up from Missouri. I adore these two guys. They were more welcoming to me as his lady than some of his college friends. They are both fun too.

I think I will be sending the boys off to play without me a bit this weekend. I will get mini time and FH will get "guy" time with two of his best friends. It will be a win win. :-)

Maybe this weekend I will finally find some way of getting my revenge on one of them for giving this:as a wedding gift. There's a long story involved and it's pretty funny since it originated when the boys were still in high school. But I will tell it another day. ;-)

Bits and Pieces

Today was a so-so mini day. While I stopped working on my project for a bit of lunch I heard glass clink and water pouring...

Confetti had knocked over my vase of flowers and water was all over my project, the floors on both sides of the counter, and one of my favorite books from childhood: "The Teeny Tiny Witches." Needless to say I was less than pleased at this state of affairs.

I managed to not kill my cat, save my book, and rescue most of my project. However I couldn't do any more work on it for the remainder of the day while things dried. So I don't have anything to show you.

Hopefully I can get it presentable tomorrow.

FH came home long enough to pick me up and drive me over to a restaurant where two of my local mini friends were having dinner prior to tonight's meeting. Then he went back to work until I called him to pick me up. He works right around the corner from where our group meets, so if he needs to work late we carpool. Hopefully soon we'll have a second working car again.

Dinner was good. And I taught my red velvet cake to the club.
Everyone had a good time, especially since we glossed over the usual "business" part of the meeting and went straight to playing.

*****

I know some people are wondering about the whole inspection deal with our house, so here's the situation. We rent our home from a corporation that owns the 85 houses in the neighborhood. Every year they have to estimate the cost of repairs and damages done to their properties so they send their twit, I mean inspector, to the neighborhood.

I'm not sure how renters in other countries behave, but usually the normal situation in this country is people don't care about places they rent. It didn't used to be this way, but it is now. Most of the people in our neighborhood are good people, who do care but we'be had a few who didn't.

There was a woman who lived across the street from us who did not take her dogs outside to poop and then didn't clean inside when they went on the floor. The people who lived in our house before we moved here never told the maintenance men that the dishwasher leaked, so before we could live here the foundation had to be cleaned, sealed, and new floors put in.

It's absolutely crazy. And really disgusting how some people choose to exist in these houses. FH and I grew up being taught that if something doesn't belong to us and we are using it to take care of it. That's why the property manager and the maintenance crew like us.

If something breaks, we tell them. If it breaks due to something we did, we pay for the repairs. I clean things. Our pets are cleaned up after. We helped them get baby trees for free when the neighborhood lost 20 in the storms last year. Oh yeah, our rent is always either one time or a week early.

I don't think we will have to worry about the inspector when he actually bothers to come back and follow the signs to the office. The maintenance crew comes by enough to know what our house is like. If I know them they'll tell him to skip our place and point out a house they know is bad. I bake for these people and take care of the house. They like us. ;-)

That reminds me... I need to ask them to come change the lightbulbs in the livingroom. The ceiling is vaulted and we don't own a ladder. This crew will happily change any lights for us, but we only ask them to get the ones where a ladder is required.

During spring, summer, and fall they mow all the lawns unless you tell them you want to do your own. They trim hedges too and weed around the houses and fences. Anyone can plant anything in their own yards. Several people have gardens enclosed by decprative fencing in the front yards. The crew just mows around them. Last sumer they all got fresh veggies from our patio garden.

In the winter they are only required to clear the sidewalks of snow, but for any resident who asks they will do driveways if they have time. They make time to do the driveways of the elderly residents here. I'm not the only person who bakes for them ;-)

It's also the only rental neighborhood that allows pets, with no limit. Some places try to say you can have only two cats at a time. Lots of places won't allow rabbits. When we found this place we were extatic because we didn't have to worry about the critters.

Sometime in the next couple of weeks they're going to come and pull the nasty, smelly bushes out from under my front windows so I can plant flowers. One of the crew is an excellent gardener and she and I have been tossing around ideas about what I can plant in the space. She's responsible for the new landscaping around the office and the entrance to the neighborhood.

So other than the occasional bad neighbor (or kids) and the twit inspector, this really is a great place to live if you have to rent. As long as we're in this area and until we can afford to buy a house, we're going to stay right here.

*****

Almost forgot. I took my stash of Kat's Hats to the meeting and everyone oohed and ahhed. I think more witchy hats might be coming to the states in the future. ;-)