Stash Report Week #35

IN this week: 3/4 yard
IN YTD: 106 1/4 yards

OUT this week: 1/2 yards
OUT YTD: 156 yards

YTD Total: 49 3/4 yards OUT!

Saturday, a rush trip to JoAnn's enabled me to make a last-minute gift of a skirt for a birthday party. The Assistant's journey into preschool has thrown everyone for a much bigger loop than we expected, primarily because her elevated anxiety level makes everyone a little crazy. She cries WAY too much. I'll give her a few more weeks, and it should improve.

Bear Cub (also known as Q) has been nursing all night, most nights, lately. I haven't been getting as much sleep between that and the Assistant waking up more because she's anxious.

Maybe this week will slow down enough to sew a little more!

Check out who had a more productive week than me on Judy's blog!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #34

I touched fabric!

I even sewed four blocks.

But I also got my oldest ready for her first day of school (this Monday). My husband sniffled at the thought. I didn't. Does that make me a mean mommy? It's only three afternoons a week, and her teacher is amazing.

I taped and painted more of the stairwell.

I cleaned up after a mouse. A dead mouse. A VERY dead, smelly, rotting mouse under my sink, who was stupid enough to get caught in a mouse trap and then not be visible... stinky.

I canned with a friend: 11 quarts and 1 pint of applesauce. 4 pints of apple juice. Mmmm... I can taste it already!

That sewing thing is just hard as I no longer have a sewing room, just a 5' x 7' space in the hallway. Maybe next week.

Check out the other stash reports on Judy's blog.

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #33

Sewing? Nada. Do I even own a sewing machine? Nah, that must have been a dream.

Lots of laundry. We've been shifting more to cloth diapers (a gift from my MiL), as that should save us close to $50 a month. The Screamer is potty training, but her #1 ends up on the floor in the dining room. A lot. Lots of rags and clothes. The worst (or best) was when she stood up, completely naked, on top of the trunk where I had the pioneer braid folded and awaiting its new home. That's right. Everywhere. EVERYWHERE. It even ran off the quilt, there was so much of it! So the quilt was washed and dried. It was delivered to its new home today, where the new owners (a woman who has thyroid problems and is pregnant and insurance won't pay and her husband) were speechless. I like that reaction.

Tomato chopping. We have wilt, and it requires cutting off lots of dead leaves.

Watering. It's been hovering in the 105 range for going on three weeks. No rain. Not even many clouds. Every morning, I sneak outside to water our food plants. If I'm feeling nice, I water some of the flowers too.

Bathtub swimming. It's so hot, I don't even let the girls swim in their kiddie pool outside. Instead, they put on bathing suits, fill the tub with COLD water, and swim. God bless my girls.

Two teeth. Q (also known as Bear Cub) cut his first two teeth on Tuesday and Friday. Think copious pools of drool. He can lunge/crawl, scoot backwards, roll over, and tries to stand up and walk. Not yet, Bear Cub. You're only four months old!

The Assistant starts preschool in a week. I don't feel sad about it. Let's check back in next Monday!

Check out the other reports on Judy's blog.

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Stash Report Week #32

This week, on our way home from Denver, I stopped at a lovely quilt shop in Hays, Kansas, and bought 4 fat quarters.

I also finished the quilt made of triangles from my Bonnie Hunter "Star Struck" quilt. Woohoo! That's 4 1/4 yards out. It took much longer to finish the binding than it should, but that's what happens when there are Agatha Christie books in the house. It finished approximately 54" square. The layout is original, but the ideas for many of the blocks came from Judy Martin's block book (it's packed, so I can't tell you what it's called). Rather than go out and buy more backing, I opted to take all the strip left over or that matched in color scheme to create the back.

I also cleaned out the closet where I used to keep most of my sewing stuff. I felt like I was packing up my life there, but I did throw out 1 1/4 yards of scraps that would never be useful for anything.

IN this week: 1 yard
IN YTD: 105 1/2 yards

OUT this week: 5 1/2 yards
OUT YTD: 155 1/2 yards

YTD Total: 50 yards OUT!

I've met my goal for the year! Now I just need to control myself for a while. After all, I have a bag of fat quarters, etc., from the summer that haven't been cleaned yet. Oops. I'll just get them out and pretend to go shopping again. With all my fabric in a tub, I suppose that should slow down new projects too.

Oh, and I do have running water again.

Check out the stash reports on Judy's blog.

from the room of Zana's Ninis,
katie z.

Lessons Learned

1. If you feel overwhelmed by the mouse poop in your house (due to a VERY dirty neighbor moving and finally cleaning out their mouse-infested garage, said mice then coming to live in your house), tell your best friend. If she's really your best friend, she'll help you clean up. (Thanks, Auntie J!)

2. If your faucets to your washer start leaking, do all your laundry in one day, turn off the faucets, and call a plumber. Don't ask your DIY husband to learned soldering and plumbing on the fly. Especially on a Friday at 3 p.m. When the weekend means you will be calling a plumber for "emergency" work - the emergency being no running water.

3. If said husband decides to wing it, take your children to your parents' house (or another house with running water). At 7 hours and counting with no running water, it's getting to be an interesting experiment. I know how to flush the toilet by pouring a bucket of water in!

4. Even if said husband fails at the plumbing, be sure to tell him you appreciate how hard he tried.

EDITED TO ADD: DH managed to replace the washer faucets, but then the rubber gasket gave out in the water into our hot water heater, and the main line into the house started leaking. Needless to say, we called Reddi Root'r and had them come by last night. The plumber said DH did a great job soldering. Good for DH!

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.

Colorado

We've been in Colorado since Friday, visiting Nuggette and her parents. My husband has been an amazing child-watcher so I could help my sister with laundry, cooking, sleeping, and taking care of baby Nuggette.

If you should ever visit the Mother Cabrini shrine near Golden, CO, I would recommend you not lock your keys in the car with your wallet. It's hard to convince AAA to come unlock your car when you don't know your AAA number and there are 45 people with the same name as your husband in Kansas. However, the sisters at the shrine were amazingly helpful, even bringing us free snacks while we sat outside, enjoying the breeze and awaiting the locksmith. It only takes 5 seconds to unlock the car. Too bad we didn't have one of those doohickeys ourselves (we wouldn't have waited an hour for the car to be unlocked).

My sister and brother-in-law have done an amazing job with Nuggette. She's a handful, but a beautiful red-headed handful at that!

I love my family.

from the room of Zana's Ninis,
katie z.

Stash Report Week #31

I finished two bonnets this week, and if a mystery novel hadn't gotten in the way, I would have finished the baby quilt for my niece (due at the end of the year). Oh, well, there's always next week!

I also didn't find time to hit the quilt shops while we were in Colorado, so no damage there.

IN this week: 0 yards

IN YTD: 104 1/2 yards

OUT this week: 1 yard

OUT YTD: 150 yards

YTD Total: 45 1/2 yards OUT!

This coming week, I hope to finish the baby quilt and maybe work on the Assistant's pink quilt. Of course, the pink quilt requires the machine, and there's still a little challenge to that - it hasn't been moved up into the sewing room/office yet.

Check out the other stash reports on Judy's blog.

from the room of Zana's Ninis,

katie z.