Catching up...

It has been almost two weeks since I have posted, and I am not sure that I have anything to say today, but I am going to try to get back into the routine.

This past week, The Mister and I drove East to take some of our stuff to storage for the 'duration'. (30 months to retirement. Have I mentioned that, already?) Along the way, we visited with family and enjoyed the rainy weather. Most everyone there was tired of the rain, but we enjoyed the change from the heat.

We celebrated my birthday, midweek, with a morning of fun garage sales. I had lunch with Sister G at our favorite special occasion (or any excuse for an occasion) lunch spot.

I went to a church sale in the afternoon. The '$3 to get in preview' started at 4 and I got there about a half hour early. I had never been one of the early birds at a church sale. It was totally worth the wait and the $3! I haven't gotten organized enough to take any photos of my treasures, but suffice to say that my overloaded carrying capacity only cost me $20 - until I bought a sewing machine - a Singer 403 Slant-o-matic! The Mister thought I was kidding when I told him I bought the machine - until he saw the cabinet that came with it in the back of the pick up... I bought it with someone else in mind, though. It will not be added to the stable!

That evening, we planned to go to dinner at our favorite fried chicken restaurant and The Mister surprised me by inviting eight of our nearest and dearest to join us.

So, all in all, it was a very fun birthday and a very successful trip!

And, I found out there will be a new baby in the family, before next spring! I guess that answers the question of 'what project shall I start next?'

My Life in Boxes - Finding Forgotten Treasures

Well, we are 'underway' with the plan. Stuff is in boxes, and boxes are everywhere. Five more work days until I have a week's vacation, so we have loaded the car trailer with the first wave of boxes making the Eastward Migration. We will probably have two more loads, since the trailer was made to carry the weight of a car, which is apparently a lot less that the weight of all the stuff I have accumulated over the years.

We had the trailer about two-thirds full yesterday, when The Mister decided to take it to the truck stop and put it on the scale, just to be sure we weren't getting over the capacity. When he came home, he announced that all the weight that we could carry, was already loaded. So, we had to reorganize the load to fill up the floor space so that stuff could not shift in transit. And we also had to take out some, so that there would be a margin for me and our luggage, cooler, etc. (The Mister was in the truck when it was weighed, so he was already accounted for)

I have to tell you that loading boxes is something that I am really good at. It was a skill that has served me well in my career, and I have sharpened it over the years. I had that trailer locked in from side to side and front to back. It just about killed me to dis-assemble it into a less efficient load! But, I also don't want to be one of the unfortunates along the side of the road with a blown tire on an overloaded trailer. We closed it up as it sat, since it was 110 degrees and went back at it this morning at 6am, when it was only 85 degrees! We unloaded 9 boxes of books and spread everything else out into one layer on the floor in the back half.

And now that it is loaded, I can slow down and be more deliberate in packing, since the next trip will not be until the end of July.

I planned to pack up my sewing things last, but this afternoon I started pulling stuff out of the closet and I came across this little embroidered quilt.

It is an estate sale treasure that shows some use, but is in really excellent shape.

It is the story of the Kitty Mother who lived in a shoe.

In this version, they may have all gotten broth without bread for supper...

...but I don't think any of them were spanked soundly.


They all look like they sure love their mama's broth!


I think that it was stamped with the colors, but some of the clothing is applique.

I don't remember if I have tried to soak out the age darkening, or not.

Perhaps I will do that when we get back from our trip. Or, maybe I will put that on the list of things to do in 2013...