Sunday, October 23, 2011

Big project revealed

What was taking up all of my time in all of September and most of October?

A new room for the girls. The girls and I struck a deal that I would redecorate their room complete with new quilts and a mural for both of their birthdays. #3's birthday was in September, and #1's is in January.

Here are my results so far:




Two happy girls:


I made both quilts and did the free motion quilting on them. They wanted "matching but different colored" quilts. After looking for over a year, and only finding something that they only mildly liked but was $200 each, I ended up deciding now was as good as a time as any to start my quilt making career. I hope I made Grandma proud.

I also redid the two side tables that I found at a thrift store for a song.

In time for #1's birthday, I hope to complete the rag rug for the center of their rooms, and add in table lamps and embroider the towels for their bathrooms.

After dealing with a chair I was trying to recover (and had all of $10 invest in), I finally decided that I just wasn't going to remember what went where, so I threw the rest of it together stuck it in the library and called it good. Dividing a project up with a birth in the middle just isn't working for my poor brain. I'm glad to have it out of the way.

What have I not accomplished still? The library is still not finished, nor is the pantry, and I am nowhere near where I wanted to be for the craft items to sell. On the bright side, we pulled off a pretty good scarecrow family for the Master Gardeners, the laundry is almost caught up, and I've finally managed to put away all of the items from our annual Sam's trip from 3 weeks ago!

Monday, October 3, 2011

Still working

I've noticed this phenomenon in my mothering days: things that used to take me merely a day to accomplish now take me a week. Weekly goals- good luck getting it done in a month. So, I really should have known better when I declared with all authority that I would be finishing up all outstanding projects by the end of Sept. I did finish the girl's refinished night tables yesterday (that still counts, right??), but the rest of my list still sadly sits in the "uncompleted"category.

As weeks often do, this past one came with its own agenda. Two large boxes of plants arrived that had to be planted. I had run out of labels, so when they arrived, I had a total of 4 boxes to label. The temperatures finally decided to be under 90 (but just barely!) this week, so I also planted all of the brassicas. That is on top giving my honest attempt at spending every spare moment trying to get the girl's projects finished and school planning finished.

I also had extra work things to do this week. I generally put in 3-4 hours every day of business, which is fairly difficult to squeeze in some times. Last week I had to make extra phone calls, and do extra research than usual. Although that might extend into this week as well, I'm hoping that it flows a bit smoother.

At least I can say that nothing else has fallen apart while I am trying to get caught up. That usually happens when I am trying to get extras done. We're doing school just fine, just planning as we go the parts that haven't been planned yet. Yes, it creates more work for me, which is why I like to plan ahead, but I honestly haven't had a spare second to finish up! I haven't even managed to get the October menu planned yet.

Perhaps this week won't be filled with so many extras, and I'll be able to complete the projects.