Forgetful me!

Have you ever misplaced or simply forgotten to do something? Well that's where I am right now. I've been so busy with so many things that I simply forgot to start updating my blog. Talk about having a blonde moment that lasts for months on end! I'm back and will do better at updating and adding in pictures.

My" To Do" list

We all have them, you know- the never ending "to do" list here's mine...

1. Do the actual quilting on those pieced table runners. Currently I need to quilt 10 table runners-ugh!
2. quilt those darn lap quilts! I'm up to what 5? Sheesh!
3. Clean up that guest room! I've got quilting stuff spread out all over the place in there!
4. Laundry...need I say more?
5. Clean upstairs bathrooms (it never ends)
6. Finish putting pictures on digital picture frame and send it to my mom.
7. list stuff for sale on E-bay (I gave up on Craigslist)
8. Haul Hibiscus Tree upstairs
9. Sand large square coffee table, paint and seal it!
10.  Hang up quilted Flag wall hanging
11. Hang up quilted nature scene wall hanging in family room
12. Hang up framed map in eat in kitchen area.
13. Wash my bicycle ( I enjoy riding through puddles and it shows)
14. Dust and mop upstairs hallway
15. Figure out this weeks dinner menu
16. Put paper on back of Hannah's book shelf
17. Rearrange guest bedroom
18. Make list of items to be donated
19. Take donations to Hudson
20. Go Grocery shopping (does this ever really end?)
21. Write to my sister and to my mother

Now for me to get on with getting this stuff OFF of my "to-do" list.

Laughing at life

My goal for myself is to be 50 and fit. I’m working my ass off at the gym- the elliptical machine is one mean lady! I work out on it an hour a day 5 days a week and I feel so much better for it! I also joined a cycling group- oh yeah this is going to be fun!

Now to make you laugh- Bike Shorts! Have you seen them? To say the least, they leave little to the imagination (especially on men, oh yeah). So this cycling group has lunch at the end of each road trip. As you may have guessed it, they dine in their cycling apparel…there’s no way on this planet I will be sporting bike shorts into any kind of eating establishment! So, I bought myself an ultra cool bike skort! Oh yeah, I am the epitome of fashion! Stop laughing!!!  Go ahead and call ME the Girly Girl in this cycling group! There’s no way I’m wearing neon yellow either! I know it’s the big  “safety color”  and it's meant to get you noticed by people behind the wheel; but in all fairness so are those pretty cycling jerseys with floral prints or graphic designs on them! I’ve got a couple of what I call “pretty jerseys” and I plan on getting a couple more. I’m also all about PINK (always have been). My bike skort is made by Castelli and is it ever cute and comfortable! So much so that I bought it in fuchsia and damn if I don’t think it’s the best thing ever! I just ordered another one in white. Every web site I’ve tried for the black ones are out of stock so I’m going to make a black skirt to go over my black bike shorts (I just now ordered them while typing this- I am a woman who can multi-task). I bike because it makes me feel good and I like to dress girly because it too makes me feel good.

Cycling apparel isn’t exactly inexpensive, but then again neither are quality gym clothes. I refuse to wear cotton t-shirts to work out in ever since I  discovered athletic wear that's made from moisture wicking fabric. I would come out of the gym feeling as if I was wearing wear a soaking wet sponge if I was to wear a cotton t-shirt.


 Now this next part will have you laughing with me! 

Finding a comfortable sports bra when you’re a D cup can be quite the challenge. I was laughing uncontrollably while shaking my head in the dressing room last week. Under Armor makes sports bras and are you ready…they also make a “sport thong”- I about died laughing! Sport thong, really now?! Oh do be serious! LMAO! Oh and of course I can’t get my D cups into any of their sports bras!  What the hell is with that zipper in the front? I have to say that it is strange to have a "zipper" on a bra!  The only thing I could think of was it's like putting a zipper on a jock strap...ouch! But I was determined, and I got that sports bra on...OMG!  It lifted my breasts up more than a push-up bra from Victoria's Secret . Holy Catfish, My breasts were practically under my chin. No one and I do mean  no one needs that sort of notice at the gym or other wise!  And to be able to find a sports bra in say beige or white OH that would be way too simple! Nope, at the store I was shopping in, I had colors choices like lime green, safety yellow, neon pink, poke your eye out with a stick florescent purple and my favorite  "hello look at my boobs" electric blue. Apparently these so called sports bras were made to be an article of clothing all on their own as in "not to be covered up with a t-shirt" and of course they are to be worn with the sporty looking short shorts that I saw for sale at the same store (you know, the kind that your butt cheeks peek out of). Oh as if the women wearing these outfits are really going to go to the gym to work out on the machines...uh huh yeah. They are there to catch the eye of a man, there's no getting around that one! Thank the LORD that sort of thing is not happening at the gym I go to!  Now back on topic... of course you can find black in just about everything in athletic wear. I’m fine with bright colors, heck most of my athletic wear tops are in cheery colors, there’s no hiding at the gym for me (as if I could...it's a small gym with lots of windows).  I even have some bright colored gym shorts, they make me feel "pretty" What I'm saying is this...I dress for myself, if I can make myself smile before I leave for the gym then I’m half way there in what I want to accomplish which is to “feel good about myself”.

Exersize...like your life depends on it!

I've been going to the gym 3 times a week for a while now and I'm about to step it up to 5 times.  I'm serious about getting back into shape and being MORE active than I have been in the past.  I'm pretty sure that my doctor will be thrilled to learn that I've jumped off of the ledge and have taken up all sorts of things. I've lost weight and I do feel better about myself and my endurance.

 When I first started going to the gym I thought that the personal trainer was out to kill me.  Now she looks at me and smiles and nods at me as I get on the elipticle machine and torture myself. When I leave the gym I'm a sweaty mess but I no longer hurt like I did when I first started going. Life is Good!

My latest obsession...

No, it's not a new "craft" rather it's an activity.  I've wanted to get back into bicycling for ages. So, when my husband and I were at a bike shop getting a bicycle packed up so we can ship it to our son in South Dakota- well I started checking out the bikes there. You see, I'd gotten hooked on watching the Tour de France and knew pretty much which bike companies bicycles I wanted to take for a test drive. It was down to 3; Trek, Specialized and Cannondale. I left with a new bike helmet and a new bike. What did I buy? I got the work bike by Specialized and I love it! Here's a picture of my new bike

I also happened to have bought myself something else that I've wanted for quite some time...a Nantucket Bike Basket.

Needless to say, I took BOTH with me on a recent trip to Martha's Vineyard. All 3 of us (myself, my husband and daughter) road all over the place on our bikes and had a blast! I want to ride and explore the area in which I live on my bicycle! Now unlike riding in California, around here there aren't any designated bike lanes. There are loads of bicycle enthusiasts out here. I'm excited to say that I see a great number of bike teams riding around in our area. I'm working on my endurance levels and bike riding makes me feel good about myself.

Okay now for the funny side (with me there's always a funny side)...I'm a skirt wearing kind of girl, everyone knows that. Alas if there's one thing I know, it's not to wear a skirt while riding a bike. I did wear one on our trip to the bike shop and even while taking a bike for a test drive- that was a hoot! I kept worrying about flashing my panties to everyone in the bike shop (talk about a laugh out loud moment). I didn't realize that I was getting myself a bike that day. So any way I need to finish this to make you see the funny side of things and have you laughing with me...
I'm on Martha's Vineyard riding my bike with my family in tow. My saddle (that's the bike seat) was just a little out of adjustment and yes it felt off (I thought I'd just ride through it). Heck after crashing my bike and landing in a gravel filled ditch ( yes, I was scraped up and bruised up), having my saddle feel a little off was nothing! Apparently it wasn't just nothing. I ended up with bruises on the inside of my right though like no one knows and a very sore crotch! Those bruises were the ugliest scariest looking things I'd ever seen! I had to go to the gym and work out and every single person there who looked at me grimaced when they saw my leg. Okay lessons learned- 1-no you just can't pedal through it and 2- I need to wear padded bike shorts.  Alright now for the laughter part- Unless you are model skinny and even then, bike shorts are not a good look as they do hug every curve! And lets face it, we women are curvy. You've got to have a lot of confidence in order to feel comfortable walking around in padded bike shorts and I'll admit it right now, I'm not feeling that confident with having people look at me while wearing them. Now, unless you are a professional cyclist and you happen to be say...Lance Armstrong, Christian Vande Velde, Tommy Danielson, or Tyler Farrar, well then by all means please do walk around in those bike shorts ;-) Now where was I going with this? Oh yeah...I'm not about to go out and about in said bike shorts (did I mention that they have a padded crotch/seat in them? As if I need to have that shown to the public eye) and that's when I discovered something super cool- there are some companies out there that make skirts to go over said bike shorts! So I ordered myself some swanky bike riding apparel! Once it all gets here, well then I will get my daughter to take some pictures of me sporting said apparel! No more will I suffer with having a sore crotch or bruised thighs when going on long bike rides for me! There,  I know I just made you laugh! Trust me the more I think about it the more I laugh!

Crocs with Socks

For as long as I can remember my Mom can make me see myself in a way that no one else can. She can make me frustrated, annoyed, cranky and sad, but most of all she can have me laughing and seeing the silly side of things.
Oh my word I laughed so darn hard I almost peed myself, twice!
We talked about bedding...this is something I'm a stickler about. You see, I like solid colored sheets, in colors that compliment the quilt or comforter on the bed versus ones that fight for visual attention with the bed covering. All my life my mom has been obsessed with patterned sheets. There were at least 15 different sets of printed sheets for our beds! From those wildly colored floral prints to one set with what I thought of as an insane geometric pattern to those crazy Asian inspired bird sheets right down to Christmas themed sheets. Believe it or not, that sort of thing drove me crazy as a kid. My mom and I had a good laugh about the time I begged her for solid colored sheets. Apparently normal kids don't ask for sheets for Christmas or birthdays (who knew?).

She had me laughing about life's little things...when she would be so thick into a sewing project that she would "forget" to make dinner for us. Oh yeah we called it "fend for yourself night". If she was into a sewing project, we'd be going hungry. My family has a similar thing going on when I'm into a crafting project, they call it "cheese and cracker night".

  My mom had me seeing how we are the same but also very different.  She made me laugh with my obsession with dishes. Growing up, I remember my Mom and her love of all things Corelle. I remember how she would buy a new set of Corelle dishes and just add it to her existing set. There must be 30 or more Corelle dinner plates of various patterns stacked in her kitchen cabinet! We laughed pretty hard at that. She poked fun at me and my huge dislike using paper plates. I can't help it if I'm a little odd. We all have our hang ups and mine is disposable dinnerware. I did tell her that I used disposable stuff when we had the house warming party (it was plastic and I was able to recycle it all, which makes me feel better about the stuff).

There are so many things we laughed at, for example- how I wear Crocs with socks and how she wears socks with sandals. 

Silly is as silly does.

The time to purge is now!

What do you do when you have lots of stuff that you keep for sentimental reasons but don't use? For me, I keep it all packed up in boxes. Today I'm going through those boxes and am making myself part with those items.

I have openly admitted that I am a dish hound, well I've got a few boxes of dishes to go through and weed out. Who am I kidding, it's A LOT of boxes! I've decided that it's just plain nuts for me to keep dinnerware that we don't use. I thought about saving it for my kids...what a joke! I can wish as much as I like that they could appreciate quality made in the USA dinnerware but it still isn't going to happen (insert small chuckle here). 

At the same time, it's also insane for me to keep dishes that I never liked, even if they were a wedding gift. This is a different set than the ones I was just talking about. Now it's been over 20 years and we've been dragging this stuff from assignment to assignment and state to state. At times it was in permanent storage (one of those out of sight out of mind sort of deals). Well the time to purge them is now. Seriously, why am I keep something that's been stored in cardboard boxes for years? I should not feel guilty for wanting to get rid of something that I don't ever use- but yet I do. Is it because it was a wedding gift? I need to move past that. I just need to get rid of it all right now, kind of like tearing off a band-aid off in one swift yank! 

Inspired

It's safe to say that I feel rather inspired today. I have a basic planned outlined and now to fill in the blanks and make it happen. I have to give credit to my husband as a large part of my inspiration stems from him having taken me to a really nice craft store over the weekend. This crafting store puts on events and  does outreach events to local communities not to mention that it's also hiring. I have applied for the job. I figure that will all of my experience in hosting military spouse functions, co-managing the base thrift shop and and hosting crafting groups that I'm well suited for a job with their company. We shall see what they think. Now for me to get things organized for me to create my latest crafty endeavor :-)

Getting involved locally

I am who I am- creative, dedicated, hard working and so much more. So here I am this afternoon having just come back from my first meeting with a new to me social group in my little neck of the woods. It was fun. Am I the youngest woman in this group? Probably. But this is my first big group social interaction with civilian spouses- that right there is a HUGE change for me. They do a lot of community service work and fund raisers for college scholarships. There's some smaller committees for various sub groups- looks to be like it could be a lot of fun. So I joined!

I'm also getting myself back into being creative. I've got projects that I want to finish, heck I've got projects that I want to start. But until I start on new projects I want to finish up a few little things here and there around the house. First off is getting the rest of the Christmas decorations wrapped up and put away-ugh! It's down to a few little things that need to go into boxes but it's just dragging on. That's why I'm getting rid of at least half of our Christmas ornaments. I plan on boxing up the kids special to them ornaments and labeling each box with thier name on it and giving to to them for their first Christmas away from home. Well with our son being in college and all , well that does pose a small problem. So maybe I'll wait until he's married.

I bought a couple of new counted cross stitching projects- cute stuff abounds here at my house! Well I've got to wait for the one of the charts to arrive in the mail but it's gonna be adorable once it's finished! I'm all about instant gratification and this dish towel project will fit the bill! The other is a two toned counted cross stitching project that is a little more intricate but will look nice framed and hanging on a wall.

Time for me to change from this dress and high heels to clothing more appropriate to schlepping around cardboard boxes to the recycle bin and then working some more in the basement getting Christmas decorations stored away fro another 11 months.

Is it 2012 already?

I know, I know...I've turned into this horrible blogger who hardly ever posts anymore. Shame on me for not updating this blog! But since I've had to put all of my crafty endeavours on hold because of this move, not a whole lot of sewing or paper crafting is going on around here. My plans on having a crafting emporium in my basement are coming along.  I've got loads of cardboard boxes full of crafting goodies-but until I get the room finished I'm leaving it all in the boxes. Funny thing though, I will be setting up my sewing table and sewing machine amidst all of the cardboard, I love my ¾ size travel sewing machine but I've used it for 2½ years and frankly I've had enough of it! I want to using my regular sewing machine!

I have pictures- oh do I have pictures to share! We've painted a couple of rooms and wow what a difference a new coat of paint makes to brighten up a room! I've got furniture arriving this week and I'm hanging up pictures on the walls! I know, I'm behind the curve on getting things done around here but hey! We moved in on Halloween, had Thanksgiving, then it was Christmas and all that went on while I was unpacking! I'm still unpacking! So hang in there with me, I'm getting with the program and I'll keep you all up to speed I promise!

An Ocean of Cardboard

All I can see in our basement is what seems to be to be an unending ocean of cardboard boxes. Some people tell me "It's just like Christmas". Christmas in hell maybe but it certainly has no resemblance to Christmases I know, LOL! I'm shaking my head at the fact that all of this stuff fit into our house in South Dakota. Okay so most of it fit. We did buy some stuff while we lived in England, we had to buy a new push mower (we did get rid of our old one while in SD). I went through and donated all sorts of miscellaneous furniture, tons of books, paper crafting tools &  crafting supplies, not to mention all kinds of house-ware items. Now I find myself opening boxes and instantly wanting to put stuff back into those boxes. I'm ready to "reduce and recycle" the "reuse" part of this phrase is for someone else to do because I am going to reduce the amount of stuff I have.

I have to laugh at the amount of towels we have. Once upon a time we  had a house that had 3 full bathrooms (and loads of visitors.) I had shower curtains and bath towels for all 3. Well we're down to 2 full bathrooms and only 1 of those bathrooms needs a shower curtain.  My visitors now live locally and drive back to their homes. Yup, it's reduce time! Break time is now over and I have to get back to work since I don't have any house elves to help me.

I'm an over achiever

Well at least I admit what I am. It's hard to not want to get this house set up as soon as possible. I've waited so long for this "forever home" that I want to enjoy it as soon as possible. Granted, we've not gotten as far as getting the walls painted (yet) but we have our new curtain rods up! I'm about to hang the sheers in the family room (thanks honey for buying them for me yesterday). I'm waiting on my latest order from Amazon (you can get just about anything from them) the  gauzy weave type-Waverly© sheers for the formal living room and I'm in the process of ironing all 6 drape panels for the living room (what a chore). But it's a chore that will end up giving me great satisfaction in the end. I'm enjoying piecing together all of the rooms, giving them each a different look and feel.

I'm almost ready to take pictures and then of course I'll post them :-)

Getting on with it...

It's really happening, I'm able to get on with moving into this house! So in one of my metaphoric terms- I've got a better grip on my greased pig! I found out at around 5:30 last night that our HHG shipment from VA is here. My husband tried to get the moving company to bring it today but alas there was not enough time to get that happening. So I get my stuff at 8am Friday morning! I am doing the happy dance! I say "Bring it ON"! The household goods shipment that was in New Hampshire was transfered down to Virginia. That's why there will be 10 crates arriving tomorrow, 8 from one shipment and 2 from another. Next week it'll be the HHG shipment from South Dakota. As long as it's all here before Thanksgiving I'll be happy!

Poke me in the eye with a stick

...and get it over with! Moving is like wrestling a greased pig- just when you think you have a handle on it, it slips from your grasp!

It's the little things that make me smile

From watching my cat spaz out and jump in the air all because I surprised her to listening to the little melody that my dryer plays when the load is finished (the washing machine does it too). It's raining now, the soft sound it makes as the rain drops splash against the windows sound rather musical to me. As I take the time to appreciate the peace and quiet of living in my own home I find myself enjoying simple things like listening to the rain or my appliances letting me know that the cycle is completed. Life is indeed Good!

What a weird feeling

This thing the "forever home" things, it's got me doing things I've only ever dreamed of. The #1 thing I've done for years and now am happy to do but feel weird doing it is...tossing out all of the boxes to things that I've kept for "the next move". Boxes to little things like my special to me items such as my Willow Tree Angels. Those huge boxes we all drag around with us from assignment to assignment like those for our TVs and other little and not so little boxes are all going to the recycle bin! Its a strange feeling but a good one at the same time!

Each day I find myself going through my mental list of things I want to accomplish. I've got to take those curtain rods down in the master bedroom, I've got to get that bed skirt on our bed, I need to put away that box full of books...I'm getting closer to getting our bedroom organized. Take each room and make it my own- that's the goal!

Getting ready for the move and getting myself motivated

Finding my motivation to go through things (again) in preparation for this move is simple...all I have to do is to listen to my clueless upstairs neighbor who has no sense of common courtesy when it comes to apartment living and I've found my motivation! There's her kid who seems to have this need to scream uncontrollably every single time they in the stairwell, their nonstop barking dogs and the fact that it sounds as if there's a bowling alley AND a herd of elephants living above us.  Oh my gosh I'm so ready to move it isn't even a laughable subject any more. I pity the people that get this place after us. The apartment it's self has been great, it's the people who live above us that make this place (at times) rather miserable.

Yesterday I went though our shared walk in closet. Organized it, and found more things to donate :-) Today it's the spare bedroom/craft room. I went through the closet and was able to condense several boxes and WOW! Look at that, there's oodles of closet space in there now! Too bad that the bedroom is so darn small though (it could use to be bigger, LOL). Next stop is Hannah's closet, just thinking about it gives me the heebie jeebies! I'm sure there's stuff in there that she could use to get rid of, but do I really want to go there today? No not really. I should have her go through it, but that would be like nails on a chalkboard, eewwww!

Now to get on with the chores at hand...laundry!

Liking where you live...

As you know, I'm moving. It's a great little place kind of in the country per-say. There were lots of things I liked especially the 'home town' feel the place has about it. Well you could only imagine my surprise in finding out that one of my all time favorite TV show hosts Nate Berkus along with Oprah Winfrey had built a home for a woman who has lost her limbs to a horrible flesh eating bacteria. It doesn't surprise me that they would do such a kind and wonderful thing such as that as they are very compassionate and philanthropic people. The big surprise for me was that this happened in the town to which we are buying a home. To read about the community and how so many people pulled together for this family fills me with so much pride and joy I can hardly contain myself. To know that we are moving to a town that does reach out into the community and pull together is wonderful beyond words. I look forward to being able to volunteer in my new hometown, to be a part of something good and wonderful. So here's a link for you to read http://www.ayermovingandstoragereviews.com/221199/2011/09/07/area-businesses-pull-together-for-ayer-resident--ayer-moving--storage-inc-ayer-ma.html
enjoy!

Shopping with my husband

My husband and I decided to go do some window shopping- to check out things for our new home. To our surprise we found many lovely items, and we even came home with a few. Some wall art pieces for our Bella Cucina (that's Italian for "beautiful kitchen"), a lovely 5 foot round oriental rug for the entry way and a new Le Creuset 3½ quart braiser (little gift for my soon to be new kitchen). One of the things on my list is to get some new drinking glasses. Ours seem to be dwindling down due to breakage over the years. So that's something else to look for in the future.

We looked at loads of carpets- oriental style rugs for the formal dining room. I know what I'm looking for- now to quest to find it. I don't want to rush the process, I want to get a quality wool rug. I can't wait to be reunited with the rug we bought while in Germany from the Turkish rug store. I get all warm and fuzzy inside thinking about it. From bathroom items to kitchen goods and more- I am excited about getting things together for this soon to be new home of ours!

Eeeeeeee!

I'm all nerves right now. You see, today is inspection day for the house we are buying. A professional house inspector is checking everything out making sure it's all up to par. If there happens to be anything wrong with the house, the inspector will make note of it and the current home owner has to either get it repaired  or schedule it to be repaired before we sign the paper work to buy the house. I'll be there with my note book, camera and tape measure. I've got to measure the space for the refrigerator and the laundry room as we will need to buy new appliances as we left those appliances with our house in South Dakota. Woo hoo I get to order a new refrigerator, washer and dryer to be delivered on move in day!

To say that I am excited about this is an understatement!