Stinky House

Tile - in the bathroom. Waiting for other floors to be done before they can grout.


House floor is getting its first coat of finish on today. Tomorrow - second, and Thursday - the final coat.
El stinko.
I climbed into my bedroom via a small stepstool. I had already removed the screen. But you gotta do what ya gotta do if you need to use the facilities. Good luck on the bugs. Boy - is it stinky.
We're doing the Glitsa Finish and it's supposed to be tough.
It's oil based so it sinks into the wood but - this is it for blogging for a few days. Too stinky.
Tonight, we sleep in the garage.

Serging

On Friday, Pencil Girl and I went to the NW Quilt Show at the Expo.  We talked about taking the bus in and riding the yellow Max but time constraints made us drive in. Parking at the Expo is eight bucks now! I was so shocked.
 I expected this show to be more quilt related - which it is, but it had more to offer... We ended up spending a good five hours there - getting creatively charged up. And, getting a lot of catching up done.

Pencil Girl's necklace that she bought last year.

 One vendor was selling these t-shirts. With the extra fabric on the front, they were oddly 'stiff'. 
But you can see where they added a panel of fabric on top, sewed parallel lines at a diagonal angle and then took scissors to snip in-between the stitching lines.

This t-shirt on a sales person was from Anthropology. It's done with elastic thread. Kinda random and I think -done before the t-shirt is constructed. Elastic thread goes in the bobbin.

 I've been once to the Sister's Quilt Show.
This sponsoring fabric store is always worth going to. They have the cutest greeting cards which open up for a small project.

And - I bought my serger at this booth.
Yes - after forty years of sewing and making do, I now can play on my very own serger.

More Quilt Bug photos.

EFT or Emotional Freedom Technique

EFT is a very useful and powerful technique for dealing with emotions inside your body. It involves tapping on your meridian points and talking through reasons why you do things. Or, how you perceive limiting beliefs.  

The premise is that our physical limitations are caused by or held up by our emotions.

Sometimes our energy is 'stuck'.

EFT is supposed to clear the pathways.

 Many of the ideas are downloadable free or can be bought for a nominal fee.
I have had success utilizing this technique. Most of them have been festering emotional wounds. I have 'cured' a deformed fingernail by allowing the stress to 'grow out'.
 EFT is not something you do once and it is cured. It's best if you think of EFT as part of your continuous daily meditation ritual. If you have health problems, I believe it is wise to keep an open mind and see if this could work for you.

There are many youtube.com videos out now on how to tap and how to say the statements, if you care to research it yourself.

The EFT people have also done a huge documentary dealing with gulf war veterans and post traumatic syndrome with some pretty amazing results.

This week, their free audio is an interview with Dr. Carol Look. 

Flock and Fiber Festival

It's this weekend!
I've been to the Flock & Fiber Festival several times now and there is always something different as well as the same. It's held at the Clackamas County Fairgrounds in Canby.
Here's the schedule.
Some borrowed photos from Julie Lawson.

If you knit, crochet, felt or just create- this is a hands-on festival from the people who raise the animals. 
See the beginning product make its way into the dye vats, the spinning wheel, into a gorgeous rug, or a stunning sweater.
Animal judging, cook-offs, and classes are all part of the fun.

Apron

Finally.

A new work apron was desparately needed. That pesky bellybutton hole went through both layers but I have had no inspiration. Zero. Zippo. Nada.
I found some denim material last Thursday at a rummage sale. I went to a few more garage sales with a friend on Friday and found the 6" squares of the frogs and dragonflies.

I simply sewed an outline around the body of the appliqué and trimmed close to the sewing line. I even put a line of fray-check around the edges.
To make construction of numerous aprons possible, I re-use the apron ties and neck strap and sew them onto the new apron body.
The top pocket is for my MP3 player.

I am back in the business of looking half-way neat at work.

This would be the bathroom tile - laid out in the garage. A little lighter than originally planned. Our first place said they didn't have any more of these big tiles but the second had them - only someone got scared of the color when he bought them and went with the slightly lighter version.
It will work.

Lawrence of Arabia

I am watching Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia on the advice of my janitor at work. He's a big fan of Peter O'Toole. I tried to get Lord Jim from the library also,  but Clackamas County doesn't have a copy.  
It's going to take many renewals to finish Lawrence of Arabia. It's more than three hours long.
I hardly ever watch TV or movies. First reason - my job and an early bedtime. Second reason? The current crop of movies do not have gorgeous soundtracks.
I started Lawrence last week and I was blown away by the opening music. Then the camels came,  and now an airplane has appeared!
It's got everything - action, romance, airplanes.

Enjoy a couple of youtube listings:

Campstoves & Soup

Taking care of myself throughout the remodel is a huge goal for me. Especially with all of my food issues (allergic to just about everything). Not to mention my six days a week job.
Last week, I cooked a gigantic arm roast that barely fit into my dutch oven. That got me over the hump. 
We have stray people coming over to do some of the remodeling subcontracting job. We have lookylou neighbors dropping in. Not a whole lot of quiet with my husband thinking of new decisions to torture me with at 4:30am. That's my time for self-meditation- to get me in the frame of mind where I can deal with my bipolar boss.
Throughout the remodel, I have made decisions as simple as I can. Such as, using up paint we already have. I don't know about you, but trying to decide on a new paint color can be a treacherous road. When my husband mentioned wallpaper last Wednesday, I told him I would rather have my nails pulled out than look at another wallpaper book AND deal with the sizing that remains after you decide you don't like the wallpaper anymore (been there, done that).
We are down to the bathroom to repaint - before the 'new' tile guy comes and the toilet goes back in. We finished the kitchen today.
Last night, we bought a 'fake' turkish rug off Craig's List that was  over by the Alemeda area where my daughter lives. 

Removing carpets just to put in rugs is still a  fairly odd concept that I am adjusting to, but we will learn what we like as we go.
First off, I had in mind an oriental/turkish rug for the living room in reds/maroons. The Dapper Tan walls would coordinate, the fireplace brick would be okay and we even had a line on a hand-tied rug for $1600 at Upscale Consignments. New, these rugs go for well over $5000.00. But then, we stepped back, remembered we have two dogs and new wood floors and the point is to protect the floors.  And the other question that popped is "Do we want turkish style rugs in every room?". No answers yet.
Buying used appears to answer my need for less chemicals swirling around, but this is still synthetic fibers and I would like some cotton or wool rugs as well.
Anyway - this rug was much cheaper (much cheaper) - it's synthetic, not wool. But, if the dogs decide they want to chew it up because of the strangeness of it all, no worries. Not so much red as a rose which goes with the brick very well.

This afternoon, I made my non-dairy Butternut Squash Soup - on a campstove.
I wanted a meal that would last most of the week and be quick to heat up - trying to take care of myself here.


This soup involves grinding of coriander spice, pureeing the peppers in the blender, and blending the soup - also in the blender. The campstove managed to blacken up those peppers just fine and it cooked down the squash in the usual time. In my mind, the juxtaposition of the campstove and electric appliances was to be photographed. But I was too tired to style and the oddity did not come through.

And, a little too tired to eat.