A Happy Memorial Day!

     A little late on this post... it started as "Happy Memorial Day," so I changed it to "A Happy Memorial Day" to update it-- clever, huh!

     The huge spring cleaning has progressed nicely, again, to the detriment of sewing-- I'll show you what little I did accomplish this week, before the cleaning news, so you can tune it out if you want to.

     Block 14 of A Ribbon Runs Through it is complete-- it took three weeks to get this done instead of one, so I'm left with two blocks, and two weeks behind. I'm giving myself a deadline of June 15th-- it's kind of exciting, because that would complete the center portion of the quilt. All sixteen blocks are different coloration, some I love, some not-- thank goodness I decided against changing them up!

    This one has just way too much gold for me:

     Now that we have all fifty Carefree Highways stitched, I started making some gifts for people with individual states. This is for someone in Maine. I'm turning it into an American flag pillow, and I need it Monday-- LOL-- so I will definitely have a finish to show next week. (fingers crossed)

If it comes out, I'm going to make three or four more for Christmas gifts. Who doesn't need a fresh pillow-- a personalized, nice fresh pillow at that! I'm customizing it with a town name.

     And last, here I am, slogging through the last of the Sandy Orton Autumn Sampler! 

I got through the dreaded ruler on the right there, then completed the dreaded top, above the ruler, which had 2 or three stitches each of 100 colors. All that's left is a little bit of dreaded back stitch, and it is COMPLETE! I'll just note that I absolute HATE getting up in the morning lately-- such a shame since the summer has finally arrived, but I think this morning stitch is a big part of my malaise. I am done with cross stitch for quite some time, thank you.

     That's all for sewing-- here's what I really did work at this week.  

Before:

and after:

     If you are ever searching for a new home, and the realtor mentions "plenty of cabinet space," do yourself a favor and leave the premises immediately! I have a SICK amount of cabinet space, and when I realize how fully packed out everything got with God knows what in it, I finally tackled a bit of cleanup. The last straw was when I realized my husband and I were really only using the top two plates of a stacked up service for 12.

     This represents only three of dozens of cabinets that I methodically sorted into: donate, box up, and keep, then rubbed and buffed with the magic RESTORE Golden Oak oil. So the kitchen is looking fantastic, so much so, that Mr. SFO is going to have a battle on his hands if the time comes to put the old family house on MLS listings in a couple of months.

    I'd totally encourage you to tackle your similar cabinet problems now, and enjoy your kitchen, instead of feeling like you are doing it for something else. This is my all-time favorite mug my girlfriend, Anna, gave me and certainly sums up the effort. It's a keeper.

Then, for Memorial Day, we pulled the Gypsies off the Appalachian Trail (you can get on and off the AT as many times as you like, and as long as you finish in a calendar year, your hike is still considered "official," if that sort of thing is important to you) and my brother drove 22 hours from Minnesota to visit.

Why? Well my mom is really failing, and the hospice people encouraged us to open our doors for last family visits. It is strange to say, we all had a great time considering the circumstances and Mom was well enough the entire visit. This is so much better than getting together for a funeral.

    I pulled out all the stops with displays of fine quilting on Memorial day-- hee,hee, we grilled out, and the artist-in-residence baked what is most likely her last cake in this establishment. Evan and she will not be off trail again for three or four months, I believe.

    So that is the strange mix of emotions for the week-- happy/sad, hellos/goodbyes, change/constancy. Just riding the roller coaster that is my life for right now, with you, my dear bloggy friends.

xox

Carol