Everything is new....

Well not really. The house was built in 1951 I believe.

Anyway, I have not been able to do anything crafty due to all the packing and moving and cleaning and painting and carpet removal and electrical work and whatnot. We are almost entirely in the new house--we have a few things to get out of the garage at the old place. We are also awaiting the arrival of some of Grandma Phyllis's furniture so that we can properly put things away.

But it almost feels like home--sometimes I can't believe this beautiful house is ours. I can't wait to get the kids play area set up and my play--err--craft area established. Chas's play area will take longer to establish, but we have plans for that as well.

I love that new house sensation.

Other new things:

One of my favorite cross stitch designers (Martina Weber of Chatelaine of course) has a few new designs in the works: a classical mandala and a peacock mandala. I have two thoughts:

1. I can't wait until I'm done with boxes because my hands are so dry that I do not want to stitch and snag all the silks.
2. I will need more walls to display all the mandalas. Or maybe I just need to rotate them. Of course it would help if I would actually finish one.

Also, one of my favorite fabric designers (Lila Tueller) has a new line and is having a giveaway on her blog. I love her Santorini line--lavenders, greens, pinks and olives (not the color--actual olives), and the new Eden line looks pretty as well.

I can't wait until I can start being crafty again.

Gone Moving

We are eyeball deep in moving stuff to the new house.

Two floods + one house fire and we still have a lot of things (mostly books--how can we get rid of books? They aren't luxuries; they're bare essentials).

Here is my little tidbit to you: Pack things you don't like as much on the bottom of every box you store in your home. Then, when the flood hits, the things you least like are destroyed first.

What's that? Most homes don't flood regularly?

Oh. (so that is why the air quality is better at our new home.)

Anyway....

Thanks to our friends Cathy and Steve for putting in monumental work to help us.

My Dad has been up to help. My Mom and StepDad are here now too.

Thanks goodness for that. We have lots more to do, but it is ours at last.

Yes we accept-no we don't-yes we do.

We were on a roller coaster last week--the short sale was finally approved, then the loan company pulled back and put extremely unreasonable conditions on the sale. After many phone calls from the seller's realtor, the sale was and is back on. It looks like we will close in September.

Chas and I have branched out to looking for paint and counter tops. Our home inspection on Saturday showed that we will need to replace the counter top in the kitchen. I seem to be drawn to the most expensive choices. Sigh. Chas will spend the next few weeks talking me down I guess. We will need to pick something that works for both white cabinets (currently installed) and natural wood (our eventual renovation). I love the darkest blues and Juniper in this line. What do you think?

As for colors, well, I think there will be a lot of blues. I hope our friends Cathy and Steve will still visit us--they have attempted to banish all blue from their home. There are so many beautiful colors and I have to choose. I can't use them all. Can I?

It's exciting and all very hard to visualize. Everything is happening all at once at home and at work. I really need a vacation.

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly: The July 2009 edition

Cue Ennio Morricone.

The Good: We put an offer on our house. The seller has accepted but we are still waiting his bank needs to approve a short sale. Also, my brother married his fiance Tina Monday morning.

The Bad: Tina's battle against lymphoma ended Monday night.

The Ugly: The resulting sadness and stress has completely cut off any patience I once had and my parenting skills are at their worst in ages. At this point, I'm just hoping the kids have not been permanently emotionally scarred from my current mood.

You know it's been rough when...

You find yourself sitting at the computer late at night with a spoon in one hand and a tub of chocolate icing in the other.

At least I didn't do it in front of the kids.