Happy 2019!

It's apparently that time of year when we, once again, reflect on the year just passed, and ponder what the new year might hold. I don't know about your year, but mine held the same 57 UFO's that I started 2018 with. I know that's the exact number, cuz I have them on a spreadsheet. For real. But, since I'm an over-achiever, I actually increased my UFO's to an even 61! (That doesn't make sense, but I'll blame it on the bourbon-spiked egg nog.) And I bought a few kits, patterns, books, and jelly rolls - which means the new year holds a minimum of 67 UFO's. I might not quite understand the concept of how that list works. 

I've started quilting for customers again, and my calendar is filling up. If you've got a quilt top in the works, you might want to get on my waiting list. 

Hang on. I lied. My sister finally became a grandmother in 2018, and I actually did finish 2 projects for my new great-nephew. Debbie embroidered and cross-stitched a cute little crib quilt, and gave it to me to quilt for her. They decorated the nursery in a space/universe-type theme, so I made a glow in the dark quilt for the crib. But I'm not sure they count as UFO's as they were never on the list in the first place.

2018 also saw me put the Quilter's Cabin Retreat up for sale. My older daughter and her family moved back to Tomball from Greenville, SC, and moved less than a mile from me. Then, as luck would have it, my son-in-law was offered a terrific job in Austin, and just like that, they were gone. And they even took the 3 grandkids! Now come on!! After 18 months of babysitting, school pick-ups, sleepovers, cookouts...how could I let all that get away? So, I'm going to retire from the retreat business and move to the Hill Country. Most likely, the Liberty Hill area. (Love the name!) 

After the retreat sells, I'll be selling my log cabin next door. And if you're in the market, my daughter's 2 other houses are also for sale. 

You can see them all on Zillow here:

My log cabin 

My daughter's house across from my log cabin

My daughter's house about a mile away

If you think you might like to have as much fun owning a retreat as I have these past 11 years, give me a holler! I have a wonderful business broker who's handling all the details for me, and I can put you in touch with her. 

We'll see what the new year holds, but I'm looking forward to the new chapter I'll be starting. And I hope yours is exciting and fulfilling for you, too! 

March Desktop Calendar

I've got a hugely busy month ahead as Megan and her family get ready for their move to South Carolina. ::sniff:: Alex is taking a fabulous promotion with MINI and even though this is going to be a hard move for all involved, it'll be a good one for their family. ::sob:: And, speaking of moving...we kinda like their house better than ours, so we're considering buying it from them, and downsizing a tad. Go figure...

So, short and sweet - here's your desktop calendar!

Click to expand the image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background.

To really make the calendar "pop" right-click on your background and choose black.

I'll be back in a few - in the meantime, enjoy your desktop calendar, and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Speaking of New Homes...

We were, right? Well, we were a few months back, anyway. I'm still getting my studio in order and it should be picture-perfect in another week or so. I hope.
But for now...I've got two other moving-related things to share. Guess who's moved in with us? No, not any more of our grown kids (for a change).
Mr. Collins and Angelique!


Mr. Collins is wearing the blue collar. Angelique has a pink one, which she promptly lost outside somewhere. They were strays living at the quilt shop in town, and after a week or so, they came to live with us. They're Snowshoe cats which are a relatively new breed, a cross between the American Shorthair and Siamese. He's full grown, but she's an older kitten. They don't talk nearly as much as Siamese do, and are very, very cuddly. Neither is afraid of Libby, our 150lb English Mastiff, and they taught her to back off in the first 30 seconds after meeting. They walk right under her chin to antagonize her, and she struggles to ignore them. They've settled in nicely!

Moving-related item Number 2:
Remember I said my oldest daughter and family moved into the log cabin? Well, they moved out again...and into their own house!

They bought a beautiful 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2.5 car garage that's just perfect for them. Lots of wood flooring, 14' ceilings, formal dining room, state of the art appliances, and an attic that has a stairway not a pull-down ladder! Oh! And a Christmas Closet! We had no idea that it was anything other than an oddly-large hall closet (the size of a bedroom), until my friend Shirley saw it, and told Megan that it's for storing your fully-decorated Christmas tree, along with tons of shelves and cubbies for storing wreaths, garlands, and ornaments. Who'da thunk it?!
And look how big Baby Sofie's gotten! And that Jack is such a cutie! It's not as much fun not having them in the cabin, but it's a good move for them, so we're happy.
Anyway - almost all their stuff is out of the cabin now, so Andy and I have been pondering what to do with it. It sits right in the middle of our 16+ acres, so we don't want to sell it.

Sooo....we've decided to fix it up and make it the retreat annex, the "Cabin Too." (Name subject to change depending on what I can come up with - suggestions welcome!) Some of the logs need to be replaced, and the inside needs some spiffing up, but we're hoping that a year from now, we'll be able to handle more retreaters. As it stands now, our calendar is almost totally full, including weekdays. Usually only holiday weeks are open. And most of my retreats are repeat bookings, which makes it really difficult for new groups to squeeze in. We're thinking we'll just use the downstairs for now (since nobody really likes to haul their luggage upstairs), and we'll be able to sleep a max of 5-6. That'll still give plenty of room for sewing, scrapping, beading, etc, and some of the smaller groups can book it without worrying about the 6 minimum required at the Quilter's Cabin. I'm considering not having a minimum number at all for the Cabin Too. So, rather than settling into a predictable schedule, we're back to planning, budgeting, working with tradesmen, redecorating...the same thing we were doing almost 3 years ago. I'll post updates and photos when we actually get started. And we really hope a year is a workable goal. Wish us luck!

Anybody Have a Shoehorn?

So we bought the neighbor's 25 year old farmhouse 6 weeks ago, and we've been slo-o-o-wly moving out of the log cabin, less than 1/4 mile away. Probably about 20% of our stuff has made it over here in the past month and a half. Which makes it really hard to find anything. If it's in the new house, it's in a box. If it's in the cabin, it's in a pile waiting to be put in a box. But that won't happen any time soon for 2 reasons:

1) I'm wanting to re-use the boxes we've already packed/moved so far - but not unpacked yet

2) I'm too cheap to go buy new boxes

It's driving my older daughter and her family nuts. They're waiting to get their stuff unpacked, but can't, as our stuff is still in the rooms, closets, and cubby holes. They'd like to settle into the cabin before the new baby comes in July. I get that. And I want that for them. I just need 6 more arms and legs. (I don't want to be confused with Octomom, though.)

Ok, so where was I going with that?

Oh yeah. A shoehorn.

My temporary studio at the new house is the size of a closet - a nice-sized closet - and I can only get a fraction of my stuff in there. Just to illustrate, here's some shots of my studio at the cabin:

Ok. Now how do I get all that in here:

And the one, sad little closet

It is so not going to happen!

Since these pictures were taken about 2 weeks ago, I've gotten quite a bit in there, after adding a mess of Elfa shelving in the closet, and wrapping folded yardage on more of those Fabric Organizers by DeNiece. And I've gotten my sewing table in there, too. No to the giant cutting table, so I'm using my old Singer Model 42 sewing cabinet (with my 201 inside) as a cutting table. I just finished cutting 240 3.5" squares and I can't get back to vertical...I feel like Quasimoto.

I could squeeze a little more stuff in there, but I've decided to commandeer my husband's new garage instead. He's waited a quarter of a century for a garage (all this time, we've only had a barn with no floor), and I feel kind of bad about it, but really, honey...priorities.

We compromised and decided to split the garage: he gets 25% and I get 75%. That sounds fair to me. The contractor says it should be finished by the end of next week. Maybe.

They put in a new French door and knocked holes in the brick for 4 windows. I'll post some progress photos as they get further along.

And just for fun, this is what I've been working on in my temporary studio: my first feathered star - it'll end up being a little under 60" sq; and an autograph wallhanging with signatures from Paula Nadelstern, Nancy Zieman, Mark Lipinski, Ricky Tims, and 12 other quilting celebrities. I'll post when I get them both finished.

Time to hit the sack...

Spring Has Sprung in Texas!

My first spring in our new house has brought so much beauty, I don't think I can stand it. I really appreciate our old neighbors' (from whom we bought the house) efforts when they planted dozens of azaleas 25 years ago. They have literally exploded with blooms and color, and even fragrance. I had no idea they even had a scent since the 2 puny little azaleas back at my log cabin never had enough blooms to even take a picture of. So pathetic.
But now, we've got these:

and several dogwoods

Unfortunately, along with the beautiful weather, has come another harbinger of spring, the ever-hungry Blue Heron. 

He ate my last blasted koi. So now we have a pond filled with algae, some unknown variety of vine, and little else. That koi was big enough to make a good-size serving of sushi. If it was going to be eaten, it should have been by us!

Damn bird - I hope he chokes.

We're Moving!

After almost a year of trying to obtain a construction loan to build on our 8 acres, we've finally thrown in the towel. We've had permanent financing in place for the past 8 months, but no one is giving interim loans on naked real estate. Not even short term. I will say that the builder mentioned he knew a guy, who knew a guy, who was a "hard money lender" and he'd be happy to give us a short term loan at 15% interest. His name was Nick "Knuckles" Something-or-other. I'm not kidding. Except maybe for the 'knuckles' part.

Anyway. Our neighbors of 25 years put their house and land on the market 18 months ago, but haven't been able to sell it. The house has been empty for all that time, even though they lowered the price several times. I've been promoting it to the various retreaters that I've had at the retreat, but no takers.

During the night last Wednesday, it occurred to me that maybe we weren't supposed to build. Maybe we were supposed to buy. But we don't want to leave our little 1/2 mile stretch of dirt road in the woods. BUT there are two houses on our road that are for sale. One is on less than 3 acres, with a gorgeous 4 yr old Italianesque house on it, (for almost a mil!) and the other is our friends' 25 year old Texas farmhouse on 8 acres. It abuts the far end of our 8 acres, so the location is perfect. We went to look at it as buyers instead of neighbors and who'da thunk it - it's perfect for us! And they'll finance it at a very competitive rate, and to top it off - we can start moving in now - even before we close!

3200 sq.ft., 2 story, front and back wrap-around porches, a screen porch, an almost 800 sq ft living room (plenty of room for my grand piano), a huge game/media room, an extra bedroom (we've NEVER had that), and I'll have 2 sewing spaces: a small studio in the house along the back porch, with French doors, as well as a longarm studio in the garage.

This is the view from Gillian's window towards the pond and Spring Creek.Anyway - from the time the thought popped into my head til we close at the title company will be a grand total of five (5) days. It was meant to be! So now, we'll have 16 acres with 3 houses, including the retreat. My oldest daughter and her family will be living in the log cabin for the next couple of years, and after that...who knows? Off to the hardware store to buy paint, and then to start moving!