Hello, It's Me!

At last! I have settled on a stitching spot in this teeny tiny house! This teeny tiny house that has only seven electric outlets! I never realized just how dependent on electricity we are! Or how many things we have that need to be plugged in or charged! We are constantly asking each other questions like, "Do you need to charge your phone, or can we have the lamp on tonight?" "Are you done with the curling iron so I can finish charging my toothbrush?" We're using those splitter things in three places but I'm afraid we'll blow a fuse or something worse just because I wanted the fan on while I was drying my hair!

So my stitching spot is at the kitchen table. My Ott Lite shares an outlet with two laptop chargers, the iron, and a fan. There's a big window over the table and usually a kitty or two will be sitting on the sill, watching the birds hopping around in the neighbor's yard. My daughter will sit across the table from me, tapping away on her laptop, while mine is tuned in to KLUV in Dallas. With our IM's blooping and familiar voices on the 'radio', we don't feel so far from home.

I've been working on my LK Double Flip piece. This month is "Believe". It's a bit rumpled and the picture is dark, but here is my progress so far...
You finally get to see "Learn" from last month, too, since I never posted a picture of that finish!

We've been busy working on House #2 aka The Fixer-Upper. The kids and I spent a day over there cleaning up cobwebs and all sorts of dust and crud. Next on the list, we're completely re-doing the bathroom, ripping out all the fixtures and tearing out walls to open it up a bit more. The before pictures are on my other computer or I'd show you why it had to be gutted, LOL! I'd also show you the floor tile that's been glued to the kitchen counter and the "popcorn" texture that was sprayed on the walls as well as the ceiling. Most of it I can only stare at, completely bewildered. Who were these people and what were they thinking??? I may have to devote a whole other blog to this project!

Other than working on the house and doing the "plug shuffle", we've been spending some time out at the lake. The Fourth of July was amazing, with tons of fireworks being set off. It was quite a show and the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves! Jim (my sweetie) spoiled them with a generous assortment of things that went BOOM!

Yesterday morning we ventured out to a local U-Pick farm and filled up several buckets with fat, juicy blueberries. It was a gorgeous day, and we couldn't have found a more perfect way to spend it.

Yummy!

Me? Act normal? Never!

Before and After

Our 26' Penske rental was packed to the gills. The good news is I didn't have to leave behind one bit of stash! I even packed my orts!
Six of us worked for about four hours to get everything unloaded. It was a bumpy trip and a few things were damaged in transit, but my Ott Lite made it through unharmed! Woohoo! Now, if I could find my stitching bag I'd be in good shape!

We're slowly settling into a routine here. I found a fabric shop during one of our explores and there's a Michael's a couple of towns north of us, but I'll need to check online to see if there are any needlework shops nearby. Keeping my fingers crossed that there is something not too too far away since gas is over $4.00/gallon here.

Our internet was hooked up this morning so I'll be catching up on my blog reading over the next couple of days. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone has been working on lately!

We're Here!

Woohoo! I finally arrived in Michigan, along with two children, six pets, two cars, and a 26' truck full of all our worldly possessions. Tired does not even begin to describe how I'm feeling at the moment! Tomorrow we'll start unloading and deciding what needs to go where. We will be living in Temporary House #1 before we can move into Temporary House #2, which turned out to need more work than we originally thought it would. Heck, this whole move turned out to be 100 times more work than I thought it would, LOL! But I had some great helpers and things went reasonably smoothly. And I honestly believe in time I will get over having to give away my patio furniture... and my dining room set... and my Christmas china... and my filing cabinet... and my vacuum cleaner...

Okay, maybe not the vacuum cleaner so much.

We're Back!

It's great to be home again, even if it means being 1000 miles away from my sweetie. The trip went well and we had a wonderful Christmas with plenty of presents, good food, friends, and family. I can't wait for next year when we'll be celebrating in our new home!

And speaking of homes, here is my big surprise...

We closed on this little Fixer-Upper the day after Christmas. Don't be fooled by the outside... the inside is a complete disaster! But the foundation, roof, and other vitals are in good shape, plus it's in a decent neighborhood. Not to mention, being a foreclosure, it was dirt cheap! This will be our temporary residence while we're finishing the addition/remodeling on our "real house". If all goes smoothly (haha!) we'll have it livable by the time my house here in Texas sells.

Now I have got to get to the grocery store! We're out of everything!

Michigan Pics

Here are a few pictures from my trip to Michigan.

This is the house as it is today. The inside is completely gutted. This part will become the master bedroom/bathroom plus the kitchen and dining area. We will be building an addition on the left side which will be the living room, plus adding a second story for two more bedrooms. I'm really happy with our plans.

This is the view of the lake from the bottom of our driveway.

And me...

I saw a lot of this white stuff while I was there. Everyone kept telling me it was unusual for them to have that much snow in April. Of course every time someone said that it would start snowing again! We did have some gorgeous, springy days, however. Here is proof...

AWOL!

I slipped out the back when no one was looking and hopped a plane to Michigan to visit my sweetie. I have tons of e-catching up to do but it will have to wait until I've tackled some laundry and housework and figured out where that smell in the kitchen is coming from. My children's standards clearly aren't as high as my own!

So, a big wave to everyone! I'll be making my blog rounds over the next few days, checking in to see what you've all been up to and hopefully firing up my needle soon! I think the FGBB Stitch-a-Thon is this weekend, so YAY! I could use a break after my vacation! ;-)