The time has come! (and public yarning!)

We are moving!

This weekend we will be out of the house and implementing step one of the 'exit strategy' - moving into the RV! Much of the summer has been taken up with the preparations and the work is not over yet.

There is still much washing of floors and woodwork in preparation of turning the house over to the management company who will (we hope) find us a renter who needs to live in Las Vegas for, oh, 10 years, or so. Or, at least until the housing market makes enough recovery that we can unload the albatross that will no longer be our home.

Finding a place for all the things that are still with us will be a mighty task, as well! I have winnowed my wardrobe down in stages. I still think I have too much for the small RV closet. I am thinking I might have to store my off season clothes under my desk, at work! Not really, but maybe one or two pair of shoes would fit in my bottom desk drawer...

A couple of weeks ago, we picked up the current car project from the paint shop where it has lived most of the year (that is another saga!) We were pulling out of the automotive industrial center after picking it up and saw this bit of yarn graffiti:

I asked The Mister to pull over and took a few snaps to share.

Right in the middle of all that is automotive and manly-ish was this desert tree, decked out in crochet swatches!

Not that desert trees need sweaters to keep them warm, especially in August, but this one didn't seem to mind!

And it gave me a little bit of hope that irony and whimsy can survive in this dry heat!

Vintage Embroidery Transfers and Living Small...

Thank you all, so much for your encouragement! The Mister and I spent the last week doing our further 'looking into' and have come up with a plan! It does involve moving into the camper, but not until the end of this year. At that point, we will have 24 months left!

Yes, we have set a date for retirement! We did the math, (twenty different ways) consulted professionals, and I told my boss. So it is settled.

Of course, I may wind up with a 'second career' at some point, but that is a plan for another day...

In the meanwhile, we are going to spend the summer and fall downsizing, and moving things to storage at our retirement destination in Kansas.

Thinking about what things I will need in a very small space for 24 months (I know it is two years, but 24 months, sounds shorter!) is an interesting exercise. I will need clothes, but if I find myself without some necessity, there are all kinds of places to purchase whatever I might need. I will need some cotton yarn because travel knitting is almost always dishcloths. Again, not scarce, so if I underestimate, there are sources for more. Same with embroidery floss.

One area that will require much thought is books. I have a lot of books. Since I have some time, though, I am going through some of my quilting and craft books and scanning some projects so I can have them with me electronically.

It is hard to imagine, though, that if I had a hankering to start something, that I wouldn't be able to find a pattern or idea on line that would fill the bill!

And, in that vein, I have started scanning my vintage transfers, so that they will be available to me - and to you!

These bunnies apparently have stumbled across a nest of eggs. I wonder if one of them is the Easter Bunny, or if they are hoodlum bunnies that are plundering a chicken coop!

I love the yell-leader bunny! I can't quite figure out what he is wearing, though. Is it a tail coat that is flapping behind him? It doesn't look like he is wearing a coat, so maybe it is a scarf of some sort tucked into the waistband of his pants...

This little donkey cart reminds me of a plaster one that adorned our neighbors front yard when I was little! I think theirs usually had artificial flowers, though.

This one is another mystery. Is the bird decorating the hat, or has the kitty captured it? It kind of looks like he is licking his lips...

These are more of the Betty Burton group. (Since they are iron on transfers, they are meant to be reversed.) My scanner was covered in little flecks of the iron-on ink after I scanned them. I am glad that I have this incentive to do it, though. Some of them are kind of fragile.

I will upload them to my Flikr album and I plan to add more over the next few weeks. Or at least until my craft things get packed away!