It's Official!

Been holding my breath all day and trying not to be too anxious, but now I'm ok! Obama wins the Presidency! YAY! Truly an historic day in the history of this country. Maybe now things will start to turn around and we can return to being a proud, honorable country.

This Historical Day

I hope you're all out there rocking the vote today! I will be going with DH when he gets home from work this afternoon. My son already has voted, C is mad that she's not old enough to vote. She is doing her school work in my sewing room with the TV on CNN watching the election coverage. I think it's educational, don't you?

I'll be on pins and needles all day. Sure hope this turns out the way I want it to, but then again, don't we all?

Go VOTE!

Deb

October

Halloween has come and gone. *sigh* Our favorite holiday. We did drag it out through the weekend though. I had a Halloween party to go to Saturday and then my nephew, JT, came over last night to watch scary movies with us. A tradition of sorts. But today, all the jack o' lanterns got put away, the Headless Horseman was brought in and dismantled and the black candles left the mantle in the living room. So sad.

Yesterday afternoon, C and I went to a book signing of one of our favorite authors, John Green. His new book, "Paper Towns" just came out in October. We picked it up Saturday morning. I finished it yesterday and C finished today. John's brother, Hank (of Ecogeek.com) was there with him and together they make up Brotherhood 2.0 and lead the community of Nerdfighters we belong to. It's a great story, the Nerdfighters. 2 years ago, the brothers decided to go a whole year without any textual communication. They switched off making video blogs (vlogs) and posting them on their website and also on YouTube. People started watching, then more people started watching, then participating and a whole new classification of people was born. All the band geeks and Star Wars groupies and drama kids and everyone else who's ever been called a Nerd, all of a sudden had a community where they fit in and had folks to discuss the latest LOTR movie and Harry Potter book with others who also had the same interests. Nerdfighters fight injustices in the world and "decrease world suck". It's pretty cool. There is now a book club for Nerdfighters, since most of us are avid readers, and a message board and a forum "My Pants". Anyway, the booksigning was the first stop in the Tour de Nerdfighting that is going on across the country. We got our picture with the brothers. It was great fun!

I've got some stuff still growing out in the garden. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and okra. Lettuce and brussells sprouts. I've just sprouted some beets indoors that will be transplanted outside this week. I've also got some galvanized tubs ready for some lettuces and spinach and herbs to grow overwinter on the front porch. Weird fall, so far. Still in the 80s during the days. I did get all the sunflowers cut down and into the compost pile, plus a few other items that I had let sit.

Working on items to put up in my Etsy store. All I've got up now are 2 Doodlestein patterns and a Halloween trick or treat bag, but I've got 2 quilts almost done for it and some aprons that we need to photograph and post. It's a great site. I've taken the Handmade pledge, to give gifts that were handmade either by me or by another and to not shop the big stores. Time to give unique gifts, so I'm doing my best to decide what those that I love would like.

I guess that's about it for today. And no, I still haven't finished the hallway. :)

peace out,

Deb

ps: Don't forget to vote!

Out of a rut

Things around here seem to be going so fast that I can barely keep up. I only seem to be able to complete my regular daily chores before it's time to go to bed. Everything is piling up and I can't seem to find my way. Last week I was sick for most of the time, then I worked Thursday and Friday, a friend's wedding rehearsal Friday night, then the wedding Saturday night. Sunday was spent selling some books for gas money and then kicking around the McKinney square, then home to try to start getting caught up. I just seem to be so tired all the time. Maybe it's the weather change. It's chilly here at night, which is welcome, and still in the 80s during the day. My goal today was to actually get up and get right to work, no computer, no tv, no reading. I did pretty well, got some laundry done and some other chores. Then I went and gassed up the truck and picked up an ice chest from the neighbors. Tomorrow is "spa day" again for the babies. We have 33 this time, and they'll be 7 weeks old on Wednesday. They've been really good this time around. We learned a lot with the first batch. A lot of what not to do. This batch has been living in the dog run, and then free ranging during the day. I think these guys are a lot healthier as far as running around chasing bugs and eating a lot of grass. I'll be getting up early, loading them up and heading out.

I also finally got the Headless Horseman set up for the front porch. He's sitting in the rocking chair by the front door with a scull in his lap. Pretty spooky. I've only carved one pumpkin so far this year. One for a friend, so I can't reveal what it is until it's delivered.

I guess that's about it. Just trying to get a routine re-established, get some energy and get some things done.

Wish me luck

All Burned Out

The title says it all. I'm soooo burned out on summer. I'm ready for some cool weather and crisp nights and all that goes with it. We don't get much fall color here in Texas. The leaves sorta turn brown and fall, or just fall off when they're still green. I need to be outside, putting in the fall garden, but it's still in the upper 80s and lower 90s and I just can't bring myself to do much out there. I'm setting a goal for myself though. I've gotta get that stuff in next week. DH will be off next tuesday and he said he'd help with building the new beds and putting up another section of rails for the stick fence. That will complete one whole side of the fence. And then, while I've got the air compressor out, I'll go ahead and get the cornice trim in the hallway put up. I just get so far into a project and then it stalls and I leave it. So weird. So annoying.

I bought a whole bag of "scratch and dent" organic bananas at the grocery store the other day for 50 cents, and this morning I've made a couple of loaves of banana nut bread with cranberries. I'll freeze one and leave one out. Nice healthy snacks for the family.

We had to replace our water heater on monday. Sunday, we smelled gas in the house and found that the bottom of our old water heater had rusted out just enough for a small spray of water to hit directly on the pilot light/burner. We turned everything off and waited for monday morning to call our plumber. We were supposed to have gone camping this weekend, but ended up canceling because the baby chicks weren't old enough to be left for the weekend. Thank goodness for that. If the house hadn't exploded, we would have had extensive water damage. God was watching out for us there.

The banana bread is almost ready to come out of the oven, and it smells really good. I've got a chicken boiling on the stove so I can use the meat in a couple of casseroles. I've got a bunch of okra to process and the rest of the small onions to pickle. I need to baste a vintage quilt top today for hand quilting and C and I have haircuts this afternoon. (Bring on the SASS!) Plenty to keep me busy while I (im)patiently wait for the days when I don't have to run the a/c.

Peace Out,

Deb

Procrastination strikes again

Yeah, I know, I never posted pictures of the finished hallway. Know why? It's not finished. I was SO CLOSE! And then it happened. I couldn't get the moulding for the door cut b/c of old rusty tools, and I just stopped. Well, I was talking to one of my co-workers and she said her husband does wood working all the time and that if I brought by the moulding, he could miter cut it for me in no time. I'll be painting it today and measuring the door frames and I'll take it by tomorrow evening after I get off of work. They live in the same town that I work in, and really, they're on the way home. I work again on Friday, so Saturday should see me putting up the moulding! I still need to purchase the crown moulding, but that stuff's expensive. But I'll be closer than I am right now.

I spent part of yesterday preparing for the arrival of my second batch of broiler chicks. They should be here either this afternoon or tomorrow morning. The sewing room is all rearranged and I moved my sewing machine into the front room so I can keep the chick room warm enough without having to use the heat lamp. I'll just turn off the a/c in there, close the doors and it will be plenty warm for the little critters. I'm excited for them to arrive. I'm going to try to house them in the dog run this time. It'll give them a little more room to run around and I won't have to sequester the big girls.

I have 2 regular egg customers now! 2 of my co-workers have both asked for a dozen a week, which is pretty cool. Only took 5 years for the girls to start paying for themselves. LOL. I have another customer here in town, but he's not so regular. Every other week or so. But that's okay. Hope we can keep up with the demand. My older ladies don't lay as much as they used to, but I can't just get rid of them. I'm running an old hen home. :) But they're pets.

I canned 5 pints of green beans yesterday. First time that I've done that. I didn't grow the beans, they're from the Farmer's Market, but that's okay. They're in my pantry and I know what went into the jar. I hope they're tasty. I'm focusing my grocery money on buying one item in bulk at the market, then canning it. So, I'll probably do green beans again this week, and maybe some cucumbers for pickles. Then when the tomatoes get going again, i'll hit that pretty hard as well. I've started some seedlings for broccoli, cabbage and lettuce, and also pinto beans, and I'll be putting in a whole bed of beets and carrots soon, and get those canned and into the pantry to feed us over the winter. And of course, the okra is still going strong. I'm going to attempt to freeze some uncooked okra fritters to use some of them up. I've frozen some for frying, and I'll most likely put up some for pickling. Soooo, the season is not over yet. I can probably even get some peas in and even have a couple to eat.

That's about it for now. Keeping very busy. I assembled a quilt top yesterday, need to border it today and have another one to work on as well. 2 full size shop samples, so there's a deadline on both of them.

Keep the faith!

Deb

Just a quick note

Man, the past month has been a whirl wind. I got the job, got trained and then I've been filling in for every employee that needed a vacation! I've been working 4-5 days a week, which is a lot for this homebody. I have been realizing just how spoiled that I've been. When getting to work at 9:30 is hard, you know you've been spoiled. I have to actually get up "early" (7:30)! I also started the FLYlady program, so I've been cleaning and de-cluttering and getting things to where I like them to be. I'm always tidy, I just sometimes don't deep clean, and then it gets overwhelming. The FLYlady lets you join the program and start learning cleaning habits in babysteps, setting the timer and doing chores for ONLY that amount of time. As she says, "I can do anything for 15 minutes". I really like her system, and I'm finding out that some of her systems I already have in place, like doing a load of laundry every day if there's enough for a load. And my favorite of hers is not going to bed with a dirty kitchen. That way, when you wake up, you don't already feel overwhelmed.

We've been having crazy weather, down into the 60s at night and only topping out at 75-80 during the day. Plus, the 4 inches of rain we've gotten in the past couple of days. We're forecast for rain for the rest of the week, but the temp will be going back up to the 90s. Some of my plants think it's fall and are starting to go to seed before the big freeze. I keep trying to tell them that it will heat up again, but they never listen.

I need to get my fall garden started and cut down all those sunflowers and clean everything up, but between all the working and the rain, I just haven't had a chance. One of these days I'll get caught up. Hahahaha!

I'm starting a new program at the shop called the Hard Times Social Club. The 3rd Thursday of the month, I'll have a pot of soup and a scrappy pattern and a stash swap. It's free to attend and nothing is required of the customers except to come in and sit a spell. Everyone needs a place to go where they don't feel pressured, especially during this downturn in the economy. I hope it takes off and people like it. It will be from 5-8. They'll get a bite to eat, some company, a free pattern, maybe a recipe or two and maybe be able to swap some of their old fabric for someone else's old fabric...a win/win proposition, I think.

I hear the oven timer going off. Need to go check on that fabulous smelling chicken!

Take care of each other

deb