Living Room Ceiling Repair

The result of the last several hard rainstorms - the stain is about 15' long.











So, every item had to be removed and most was STUFFED into dining room and bedroom.










Now it will look like this for the next 3 days! (Notice how I have absolutely no control over the placement of these photos).

The ceiling was done in that horrible popcorn junk in about 1983. This process is a mess, but I will be so glad to have a ceiling that I can dust. Now, if only I could afford to remove the popcorn in the other 9 rooms! I did successfully paint the bedroom ceiling and it didn't come crashing onto my head in a big messy goo. Maybe I'll try that again.

Anyway, I am going to have a nice clean, (stainless), bright living room ceiling.

And notice the paint chips on the sofa in the third picture. After all those years, living in military housing where you were forbidden to paint the white walls, my creativity has lain dormant. But, I am going to be brave and paint those white walls a nice Craftsman-style green. I DO have a degree in Art, you know. I CAN do this! I WILL do this!?

A Fun Giveaway

An apron giveaway!

Enjoy!!

This'n That

I wouldn't normally chronicle my day at home, but my husband is in Seattle for three weeks and I thought this might keep us in closer touch AND it will also fulfill my blogging goals.

My day usually begins at 0500 hrs (military time for Lieutenant Colonel Husband) and by 0730 I had walked two miles on the treadmill while watching an old movie about Lord Kitchener's defeat of Khartoum - can't remember the name of the movie or the actors. The treadmill is so loud, I really can't hear the dialog - just like the "silents". I really must get wireless headphones for that television.

Just to prove to Husband that I am taking care of his cats. Here are Rusty and Tuxedo Tom having a hearty breakfast.

A quick visual check of the weather

before donning mucking boots and heading out to clean the cow corral, showed the clouds building for a bit

of rain. We do need rain.

Notice the hay field is greening up.

So, alternate plan: move afternoon projects to morning. Hooray! Work-

ed on my Quilt Along wall hanging and the Big Quilt. Also, made and hung a bulletin board for the sewing machine area. That is a big help.

Finally made it to the greenhouse to weed and feed the strawberries. If you look closely you will see one red berry. There were several more, but a rabbit or someone must have sneaked in when I was not looking and ate them all.

This is the start of a second raised bed for lettuces. I tire so quickly that my projects take forever to finish. It doesn't help that the greenhouse doors are too narrow to accept anything larger that a small garden cart. So, there are many, many trips to fill the bed with soil and compost. Good exercise, though.

I did make it back to the cows before the next round of rain. Recharged the fly spray dispenser. We really need to move that down. It was originally put in place for two very tall horses. These guys don't get over 40" tall!

This little guy is still unnamed. He is the son of Sir Aaron and Meadow Rose. We are taking suggestions for a name -- something strong, red and Irish. (Hey! Stoney River Farm. Can you help me?).

After another dash to the house through the rain drops, I decided to reacquaint myself with my manual pasta maker and made some semolina/whole wheat fetticini. I had not forgotten how.

Blogger wouldn't let me add those pictures - something about a label limit.

So, there you have my day on the farm. Today proves to be less productive since I slept in until 0730 and here it is 0900. After all the walking and working, my pain required Tylenol PM last night and that always makes me sleep like a baby. Great stuff.

PIF from Osage Bluff Quilter

I have been very remiss in not showing everyone the wonderful gift I received in a Pay It Forward round. This incredible wall hanging was done by Patti at Osage Bluff Quilter. I wanted to post a picture of the hanging next to a picture of my Border Collie that most resembled it, but none of the little critters would hold still long enough in the proper pose. My next thought was to take a picture as it will hang on the wall (it will displace a painting of Montmartre, Paris, FR that I bought at a street art fair while in Paris) with an artfully arranged plant sitting in an antique fruit scale (purchased at the Metz, FR flea market) which sits atop an antique oak barrister's case (that was purchased at an auction in Virginia). Whew! But, I'm still trying to locate a rod to hang this amazing piece of
fabric art from.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my friend at Osage Bluff Quilter.

Now to some not so amazing fabric art. This is my progress so far on a wall-hanging that I am doing with Judy's Quilt Along. I have had a really hard time doing this. I have a spatial relationship cognitive problem, so it took me several days to work out a system where I could see how it all fit together. I can't just look at a picture and figure it out - I have to get one section correct (after numerous incidents of ripping out seams), then memorize how I did it. (Beware of me when parallel parking or backing a vehicle!!). In spite of my mental limitation, I am enjoying this project and it is a good exercise for my brain.

Sunday is always my day for my hobbies - even though I should be doing farm or garden work. So, in addition to working on the above wall-hanging, I also worked on the BIG quilt for my bed. I am still in the process of tracing the pattern from one of my sister's books - 100 Best Quilt Blocks and Borders by Phyllis Dobbs. I'm doing the pattern, Hearts, Bars and Shooting Stars. I'm working under a handicap here, too -- my husband. Since this is for HIS bed, he wants no flowers (he's getting tiny flowers), no feminine colors (is pink a feminine color?). At least I added lots of green and a strong brown (with tiny flowers). He doesn't understand how hard it is to avoid flowers when I want to use colors and patterns that will compliment our dressers that are from 1890 to 1920.

I chose this pattern because we have a heart theme going - two framed quilted heart pictures, a cross-stitch alphabet sampler, and this chalk and crayola drawing that our granddaughter did for us when she was 8 years old. The chalk is beginning to fade - K. is 16 years old, now - so, I plan on transferring it as exactly as I can onto fabric. One will be a wall-hanging to replace this picture and I will do another which will be a quilt for K. I'm hoping to get the quilt done by her high school graduation in May 2010. Wish me luck! And offer advice!
Copyright 2009 K. Nessle

Speaking of high school, ya'll should read the book I just finished - Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. Chilling! I am so glad I don't have children in high school and that my two grandchildren will be finished by 2010. And, don't miss my cousin's blog about her grandparents . She has sent me into research mode concerning something I have never heard of about the Depression.

And, here is a link to just a hint of what I found out about another government policy during the Depression.

"There's No Place Like Home"

The next time I say that I am going on vacation for 3 weeks, hide my car keys!  I swear it will take me 3 months to get caught up on all the work that was not done and repairing all the the things that BROKE while I was gone.  The rain gutter that BROKE from the ice storm has been replaced; the water pipes in the well house that BROKE from freezing have been replaced; the window that BROKE while cleaning windows is repaired, but not installed (still have plywood over that window); the water line to the corral that BROKE for whatever reason is still not repaired; the electric line to the barn that BROKE simply to join the crowd has a temporary fix (3 electric extension cords stretched from house to barn); the chicken house door that the cows BROKE has been torn all the way off during someone's (?) lack of patience with it all;  the roof leak that appeared after a frog-strangler of a rain storm has been repaired (we hope!).  

Thanks to my Dear Sister, all the animals and plants were healthy, happy and safe under her care.  Usually, there is some major event that she has to take care of -- birth and/or death emergencies.  Once, she discovered that during her after-work plant watering, she had been watering one of my deceased cats -- that's a story she doesn't want me to tell.

While in CO, I began a Quilt Along with Judy at Patchwork Times.  I purchased all the fabrics and began the cutting and was looking forward to getting back to my sewing machine. Well,? guess what?  It couldn't be left out of the fun of making my life miserable.  It is a 40 year - old Pfaff 1199 and something BROKE! 

After a few days of trying to keep up with the Quilt Along by doing piecing by hand, I gave up and bought a Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.0.  Of course,  I am so far behind on sewing machine technology that 

I am required to take classes to figure out how to use it.  And a new sewing machine meant reorganizing the sewing room, of course.

Sooo, Judy,  I am behind on the Quilt Along, BUT since I am only making a wall hanging, I am sure I can catch up.  It took me all day learning to use the 1/4" quilting foot 

 to get this far -- only need 2 1/2 more squares!