Happy Dancing on a Pumpkin

Perched on a Pumpkin
Blue Ribbon Designs
Stitched with DMC on 36-count Summer Khaki linen
I finished the border the other night while watching The Shawshank Redemption (which is easily one of my top ten favorite movies), so this guy now resides in the Fuppie Box. I'll have my sewing machine back in my possession in a couple of weeks so I'm hoping to get a couple of projects finished finished before Halloween.

I've had the Halloween stocking booklet from Blackbird Designs in my stash for a while so I think it's about time to pick one to stitch. I've looked through it a few times already and out of the 13 designs there's probably 12 I want to do. Suffice to say, it's going to be a hard choice!


House projects continue. We got the shelves cut and installed in the bathroom. At last! That was one of those projects which kept getting put off so it feels really good to finally have it done. All it lacks now is some trim work and that room will be complete. Oh, and a toilet paper holder that I like and is what I would call 'reasonably priced'. It's really hard to justify spending $21 for this particular item.

Here they are in all their glory:


And this is what lurks behind the wall:


We built this little cubby so we could conveniently pull electric lines and duct work to the second floor. The only heat up there was from it rising through grates in the floor which apparently was how it was done back in the day. I'm sure it kept it acceptably warm for most people but I can just imagine how hard it would be to crawl out from under the covers on cold mornings. This Southerner likes it warm and cozy so when we replaced the furnace we went ahead and installed duct work and vents upstairs. (And that, dear readers, is a horror story for another day!)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a happy Monday!

Safety First

Let's see...
Gloves? Check!
Goggles? Check!
Face shield? Check!
Mask? Check!
Apron? Check!

This is on the back of a sheet of sandpaper! I'm risking certain injury because all I ever do is wear gloves, and that's only because I don't want to ruin my nails!

Better make sure we have 9-1-1 in the speed dial!

Too Pooped to Pucker

We're having carpet installed in the morning (hooray!) so today was spent cleaning up all the messes that we've let fall by the wayside. I didn't realize what a slob I was with the drywall mud until I had to clean all the dried on drips and globs off the floor. There was also a lot of overspray from when we textured the walls. The attitude at that time was hey, who cares if some gets on the floor? We'll be covering all that up! I should have known I'd get all AR and have to make sure every single speck was cleaned off.

I'm way too tired to pick up a needle tonight but I thought I'd pop in and show you my progress on Boo Bunny. It's not much but here ya go:


(Is it just me, or does that shade of orange make you want to run out and buy stuff like plywood and duct tape?)

Hopefully next time I post a progress picture it'll show some actual progress! I've already announced that I'm taking Saturday off and I plan to work on a nice case of Stitchass. I hear Michigan is playing Notre Dame so I think I'll do a little 'when in Rome'-ing and watch the game. I've been needing an excuse to make my jalapeno popper dip!

Fingers crossed that the install goes well tomorrow! And toes crossed that we start sanding the hardwoods on Sunday!

Two New Projects

A heartfelt thank you to everyone for the sweet comments on my Winter Wonderland finish! It's so nice to hear from folks who stop by my little corner of the webbernet!

As promised, I started A Wish For You. I started with the easy peasy part of the checkerboard house but I'm going to have to start being careful because some of it looks a bit tricksy when you get around the windows and door. It might behoove me to pop over to the library tomorrow and make a working copy of the chart. I can just see me getting off by one set of squares and then spending three days scratching my head trying to find the mistake. Anyhoosie, here's how she's lookin' after last night's stitchin':


I also have another DIY project in the works. This time it's an upstairs closet that needed some 'revision'. The sheetrock on the walls was about 1/4" thick and full of holes. I swear, the stuff they used was more like cardboard than sheetrock. And when I say holes I don't mean nail holes. These were more like somebody put their fist through the wall. Again and again.


I'd never be happy with just patching the stuff and hoping it looked okay, so out it all came.


We're taking the opportunity to put in some insulation while we can. The only insulation in this house is in the attic, and I know this is just a closet but the way I look at it is every little bit helps, especially up here in the frozen north. I'd hate to not make the extra effort to do it and then regret it later on.


In closing, my work gloves (yes, I know they're actually garden gloves but I like them because they're thicker than the cloth ones but not as thick as the heavy duty leathery type) would like to offer a round of applause to all of my bloggy friends, commenters, followers, stitchers, and DIY'ers!

Hooray! And thanks for stopping by!

Another Project

This one is of the DIY variety and, like Winter Wonderland, is almost complete.

The old house I bought back in 2007 was in need of some major repairs and updating. Okay, that's putting it a little mildly. Check out the bathroom...


Yeesh! It's hard to imagine anyone actually using this bathroom!

First order of business was to remove all the old fixtures and flooring. We also opened up the little closet-sized area where the toilet was, planning to completely rearrange where things were...



Next came all new plumbing and electric, tub, toilet, sink, vanity, lighting, mirror, faucets, tile, paint. I'll skip over the bazillion pictures of the work in progress and show you how it looks today...





Quite an improvement, don't you think? There's still more trim work to be done, and I'll be adding some shelves in the area to the left of the sink but those things have been put on the back burner while I work on other projects.

I've just realized this means my bathroom has officially become a UFO!