The Cussing Quilter

Holy crap!

I have cornered the market on best intentions. I suck, I know, and I'm so totally not afraid to admit it. Life has been very busy, yada yada, three kids, yada yada, two Etsy shops...My life is what it is. I want to be here and write and be witty but damn if time gets away from me every.single.day.

_{(My three crazies. I can't remember what was going on when I took this picture. Makena looks like she smelled something bad, Aidan looks like he's trying to decide whether to tell her that he farted, and Nadia looks like she wants to hurry up and eat her cracker before it tastes like Aidan's fart.)}

And things aren't about to get any easier, either. School ends for the summer. In two days. imnotreadyimnotreadyimnotready. For a summer kick-off I plan to take the kids to the dreaded Chuck E. Cheese on Friday and rake $20s from my wallet for tokens so my hyped-up-on-Sprite kiddos can stuff them back into games and cheesy rides with the finesse of wisened Vegas slot junkies. I plan to bring my Fire and watch "Downton Abbey" while sneaking rum into my fountain Diet Coke. Now THAT'S the way to do the Cheese. (I'm only joking about the rum.)(Mostly.)

Then on Monday my dearie from San Diego comes to town for a fabulous stay at Chez Mayo down in Rochester for some godawful cancer treatments. I'll be heading down there with her for several days while she hopefully gets good news and doesn't actually need the treatments and can come stay at Chez Cockburn and go antiquing and thrifting with me, and can help me beat the kids away with sticks while we try to have a decent conversation over coffee out on the deck. (My kids have an uncanny ability to make any grown up anywhere lose their train of thought in a conversation with another grown up. Most of my adult conversations are spent saying, "Now where were we?" and desperately trying to grab the thread that was quite ceremoniously jerked out from under our feet.) My husband would probably rather have the treatments than go antiquing with me, just in case there's any doubt as to how he feels about my shabbyretrojunk hunting excursions, so I'll be glad for the good company. Praying for good news, my dearie.

And then on Friday, as she's leaving, moments after the sheets (vintage, of course) on the guest bed have been laundered and the bed remade, six more folks from San Diego come to stay with us for the weekend. Our good friends and their two awesome kids and a set of their parents will stay with us while they visit other family in town. We are so looking forward to having some California sunshine in our midst for a week!

And then, on Monday morning, 11 days after the end of school, before our guests have finished waving and blowing kisses from their car on their way to Mount Rushmore (or Count Rushmore if you're Joey) a crew of construction workers descend upon our humble home and start tearing it to shreds. Well, the main floor, anyway. They will demo the old kitchen, take down a wall, build a wall, relieve the ceiling of its cottage cheese, remove old gross carpet, lay in new floor, new pot lights, new window, electrical, plumbing, new toilets, new vanity and counter and mirror in the half bath, IKEA comes to assemble the three pallets (!!!) of kitchen parts currently taking up half my garage, install new cabinets, install new appliances, put in tile backsplash, and then they'll get the hell out of my house.

(My new kitchen. Some assembly required.)

And since there's no way we could live in our house with three kids during all of this, we'll be renting a teenytiny house in St. Paul for a month. It's costing us as much to rent this house as it cost to buy all the cabinets for my our new kitchen. And while there's much about that month that will be a real hardship, I'm actually looking forward to exploring St. Paul. If either of my readers have any suggestions on what to do and see in St. Paul, speak up, dear friend.

So, that's what's coming up this week, next week and for a month after that. And here's a few snippets of what we've done these three long months. 

Took the girlies to the MOA for some rides and fun while Aidan and the Hubs went to an all-day scouting thing. $54 and a whole lotta whining later...we went home.

I've gone Paleo. I've been eating better for about a month now and I'm feeling really good. This was an avocado, mango, turkey and tomato salad with olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt and pepper. I'm not too sure how much weight I've lost, but I feel better and I think I look better. Very little sugar (raw honey is pretty much it), some raw foods, lots of fruits and veggies, lean meats and eggs, organic when I can, very limited processed food. No bread, rice, potatoes, dairy, corn or pasta. I have dairy now and then but I pretty much drink coconut milk when I need milk, which I really like anyway. I don't feel hungry and this way of eating just feels right. Weight Watchers was just not a good match for me. I'd like to lose 30 pounds but I'm not making that my goal - eating better and sticking with this plan is the only goal for now. And going gluten-free with the kids this summer (part of Aidan's autism treatment plan) will certainly be easier now. And we'll see how my cholesterol and blood sugar are at my next physical in a week. Last year my cholesterol was around 230 and they said I was pre-diabetic with my blood sugar. 

Had some insane rain a few weeks back. One storm brought 3.5 inches of rain. Our sump pump was going every 5 minutes for several days after. It's so green and gorgeous here now, and my tiny vegetable patch is showing serious potential. More on that some other time. Probably in October when I eek out another hour or two for my next post. 

The Etsy shops are going really great, and I have a sheetload of sheets I'm trying desperately to get up in the sheet store by the weekend, and just today I added a few new items to the bunting shop.

Oh, and check this out. I did a custom quilt and bunting order for this amazing Aussie blogger mom, and she did a great post about her kids' room. Love it!

 

 

 

 

Wednesday Thrift Report.

Great hauls from my favorite haunts. That huge Pyrex bowl almost made me squeal with surprise. Such a rarity to find a great piece in such good condition.

Some notes on thrifting:

When you find a good thrift store, ask the manager or pay attention to their in-store posters and ads for discount days. Some of my favorite places have certain days when certain departments are 25% off. Others have punch cards or member cards that are good for 25% to 30% entire purchases on certain days. And most will give you a discount coupon if you bring in items for donation. 

Almost all thrift stores stock their racks and shelves throughout the day, so it is best to check back often. I tend to avoid weekends since they tend to be most crowded and pretty well picked over. The chain thrift stores (Savers, Goodwill, etc.) have some pretty strict rules, but the smaller independent shops can be a bit friendlier about checking in back for items not yet on the floor. I ask about sheets a lot at some of the independent stores I go to, and most are willing to look for me.

When looking for sheets, it is important to look through the racks carefully. I've found some great treasures hidden away that if I hadn't been aggressively looking, I would have missed a gem or two. This is especially true with pillowcases. They love to hide.

If there is a bin at the store with fabric items still in the packaging, look through! I've found several vintage sheets still in their original packaging by digging. Dig away, dear friends!

Spring and summer are great seasons for thrifting. Folks are spring cleaning and having garage sales and there's usually a bit more to be found.

And always carry some anti-bacterial wet wipes for your hands after shopping. My hands always feel dusty and grimy after manhandling the merchandise at thrift stores.

Oh, and for the book lovers out there, thrift stores are a great place to find those old-fashioned paper books for around $2.00. I've even found some awesome vintage Hardy Boys books for my hearty boy who loves to read.

Back soon!

Pyrex.

Oh, jeez, like I needed another reason to go to thrift stores and scour estate sales. I've been bitten by the same collecting bug that seems to have bitten countless others - Pyrex. I always head through the kitchen and bakeware isles after I've combed through the sheets and pillowcases. And I've found some gems. These are just two from my collection. It's small collection and a bit heavy on the avocado greens, oranges and harvest golds from the 60s and 70s, but that's okay. 

I found another piece today that had some stains, like the ones you can see on the green bowl in this photo. I really liked the piece, so I bought it, knowing the Internet would surely have information on how to safely clean collectible Pyrex. And, sure enough, I found this. Yes, there really is a whole website out there devoted to all things Pyrex. Proof for my husband that though I may be crazy, I'm certainly not the only one.

I read through the whole cleaning page and when I saw that they recommended a Magic Eraser to clean both inside and outside stains, I got to work. Magic indeed!

Here's that green bowl again, without the stain. 

If you have any vintage Pyrex or want to start collecting, this little cleaning tidbit should come in handy!

I also added a few new FQ bundles to my shop, and more sheets, pillowcases and some new bundles coming early next week.

I totally didn't get my items made for the MMQG meeting last night. The shops and the kids have been keeping me busy!

Have a lovely weekend!

 

Tuesday Thrift Report

Had some great thrifting luck the last few days:

Seems totally fitting to be finding some lovely spring fabrics. It's early March here in MinneSNOWta and the next 10 days are forecast to be in the 40s and 50s. We did have a pretty good snow last week and some colder temps which kept the snow around, but now our backyard is quickly becoming a lake. A big, messy, mucky, muddy lake which will probably stick around until July. I wonder if our crazy Winter weather is a precurser of a wacky Spring?

The other day I was messing around with some of the leftover half-square triangles from the chevron quilt in my last post, and came up with a fun new block:

I'm sure it's been done before, but it's new to me and I think it's pretty freakin' cool. I think this pattern would be great for a boy quilt, maybe in solids? I love that this canted pattern is achieved without having to lay out the blocks in a canted pattern. (That sentence totally made sense in my head.)

I love half-square triangles and the oodles of possibilities, but I also love some of the plain-Jane HST quilts I've seen around the internet, like this one from Cluck Cluck Sew:

 

And someday I want to make a value quilt, like this one from Sew Katie Did: 

But, alas, the only quilting I'll be doing in the next week is working on my March April project for the Minneapolis Modern Quilt Guild. Our project is an upcycled quilt. Right up my alley, eh? I'm still working on the quilt top but I hope to have a photo to share in a few days. (Thanks, Flaun, for reminding me that I have a whole nother month to finish the quilt. Whew!). So, I'll also be working on my 36-patch block and the name tag I need to make for Annik which really are due next week. =) 

L8R.

 

On my design wall.

I've had these half-square triangles made forever and I've arranged, taken down, and rearranged them six different times, for reasons like sump pump disasters (the sump pump and catchment tank are in the closet of my sewing room - it's really classy) and sewing dungeon reconfigurations. The fabric is a few charm packs in white and in Moda's Hunky Dory fabric line. I'm pretty sure that this quilt will be for my aunt Nancy, my mom's youngest sister. Now I just need to hunker dunker down and get this thing finished. Her birthday is in December - that MIGHT give me enough time. I've managed to find enough yardage in this line for the backing and I know once I get going sewing up the rows it'll come together quickly.

For the curious, my "design wall" is a big piece of white felt affixed to the only available wall space in my sewing dungeon, using colorful and ubiquitous thumbtacks. I told you - classy.

Some photos from my week:

Me and my sweet boy.

Love the soft clouds and angular metal tower.

When thinking about giving up something for Lent, I wanted to make sure I was giving up something unnecessary and frivilous. Starbucks immediately came to mind. So here I am. Day two and surviving. Oh, I've not given up coffee. Coffee is totally necessary. 

Finally found a great Thai restaurant today in Minneapolis on Nicollet. Oh, my. It was delish and long overdue. Pad Thai is the meal by which I judge any Thai restaurant. If they can nail this, anything else on the menu should be stellar.

Over and out.

Hump Day.

I've had some great thrifting luck this week. I've been needing more red in my vintage sheet stash, and I found one. Still in the package. Nice.

Getting a wee bit of snow today. I love big, fat snowflakes.

I don't love it when they melt as soon as they hit the ground. Yes, that is my backyard in mid-February in MinneSNOWta. I've talked to tons of people who have said that they can't recall ever having a winter like this one. Bring it on, Mother Nature. We've been waiting.

 

Fat Quarter Love

One of the new additions to my new vintage sheet shop. More items are added daily!

Whoa.

Now that was a blogging break.  A long, unannounced but seriously necessary break.

Let's see now. Where to begin. How about some bullet points? 

* The Etsy shop did very well heading up to the Holidays. I made and sold 1,530 feet of felt garland, and made and sold about 55 pennant banners (that's 495 feet of garland), including one special order in January for 15 pennant banners. Yowza! I also made and sold quite a few coffee cozies, and completed some custom quilt orders. I'm so thankful to my customers for such a great year.

(One of my bunting banners in action. Love it!)

* The house and the settling in to our new digs is coming along. We're able to park our cars in the garage (thanks, honey!) and we haven't had any more basement flooding (knocking on wood). We're hoping to remodel our kitchen and most of the main floor this year. More on that in an upcoming post.

* I'm going gray. I've decided to never color my hair everever again. Since moving here I've met and seen so many women who proudly and beautifully wear their gray and silver, and I found that I was so ready to join them. I've earned every. single. one. of my grays and I'm proud of that. Same for wrinkles and stretch marks.

* Considering how much snow was on the ground and still coming when we moved here just over a year ago, this winter has been a serious let down. There's very little snow left on the ground because whatever has fallen has melted. I need some snow. The kids need some snow. Please!

* In December we took a trip to Trinidad for two weeks with the kids for Christmas. It was Chris' first Trini Christmas in 25 years or so, and my first ever. It was time. Overall the trip went really well. The kids traveled pretty well - except for the trip home during which we were all ready to kill each other. They made travel journals (I'll share those in another post) and were eager to write in them and pick their photos everyday (got me an Instax) and I think they really enjoyed the process. I love Trinidad and being with my in-laws but I don't ever want to travel over Christmas again. Not even to LA. We all just need to be at home in our jammies with our decorated house and our tree and hot cocoa and a warm fire in the fireplace. This year we only had up some lights. No decorations and not a whole lot of shopping. And while it was fun and great to be in the Caribbean and drinking and eating way too much, it just didn't feel like Christmas. I was kinda bummed.

Getting ready to land in Miami. Love this photo.

Maracas Bay, Trinidad.

Store Bay, Tobago

Poolside at the Trinidad Hilton

* Aidan, our amazing 9-year-old-best-reader-in-the-world kid, received a diagnosis of PDD NOS in early December, and ADHD combined-type and a learning disability. He'd been diagnosed with ADHD at around 4 years old, but we were never convinced that was the right diagnosis, or that it was the only diagnosis. After many, many struggles in school and at home, we found a neuropsychologist and had him tested. PDD NOS is an Autism Spectrum Disorder, but neither Autism or Asperger's Syndrome. However, since the diagnosis and after reading about 10 books on ASD and Asperger's, I'm convinced that Aidan is more an Aspie than anything else. I've found "The Completed Guide to Asperger's Syndrome" and "Kids in the Syndrome Mix" to be extremely helpful to finally understanding our boy and to start doing the right things to help him. An incredibly wise friend, who is also an pediatric occupational therapist and parent to an ADHD child, recently told me, "It's time to change your expectations of him and of yourselves." Best advice ever. He's now back in OT and doing therapeutic listening, and the school (best school ever) is being very proactive and helpful in getting him in a better place in the classroom. We've all witnessed a great improvement these last few weeks. And my heart is very, very happy. We have a long way to go but any steps forward are very, very good.

* So, in order to be more available to take Aidan to appointments, help in school and be more available at home, I took a break from my Etsy shop a few weeks ago. Inventory is limited to what is in stock and ready to ship, which isn't much. Most of what I sell in my shop is pretty much made-to-order. It's been nice to have a break.

* But then this week I decided that, after a re-org of my crafting dungeon, I needed to unload some of my vintage sheet stash. 

and opened another Etsy shop:  shabbysheets.etsy.com  At this very moment inventory is limited to some pillowcases, but I'm working on adding fat quarters and yardage as well. 

* Makena is a Girl Scout and as such will be selling cookies starting Saturday. And as such, we will be consuming copious cookies in the coming weeks. And my rule has always been that no diet shall be started until after the cookies are gone. I'll try to be good, but hey - I'm a realist. If there are Thin Mints in my house, I will eat them. 

* My mom just came for a visit for Makena's 8th birthday. We went to our standard birthday dinner extravaganza at Benihana, had a wee princess party for five girls, and then had to take my mom to the airport. I love her. I miss her. I want her to move here.

* Chris still loves his new job which he's now been doing for over a year. Working for everyone's favorite retailer has been very, very good. And now I get to think of shopping as job security for our family. Niiiice.

So I've got a few more ideas for how to keep things going on a regular basis here on this blog, like weekly posts for "Shit I've Made from Pinterest" and some quilting and sewing tutorials and other shenanigans.

Keep your fingers crossed.

A to Z

Because I've been sucking so badly at blogging, I jumped at the chance to complete this little survey I saw on my friend Joy's blog as great way to try to get back in the groove.

A. Age: 42

B. Bed size: King - and almost time for a new one!

C. Chore that you hate: Laundry - it is never done

D. Dogs: only the stuffed kind

E. Essential start to your day: Strong coffee or chai tea

F. Favorite color: I never met a blue I didn't like

G. Gold or Silver: silver

H. Height: 5′7"ish

I. Instruments you play: The vocal chords

J. Job title: wife, mother, quilter, crafter, Chief Cleanliness Officer

K. Kids: 3

L. Live: Shorewood, MN

M. Mother’s name: Katy

N. Nicknames: Teen-teen, TeeCee, Hey You 

O. Overnight hospital stays: As a teenager with a tonsular absess

P. Pet peeves: Drivers who cut me off, parents who don't make their kids wear helmets on their bikes and scooters, mean people, racists, bigots, and hangnails

Q. Quote from a movie: "Patricia makes coffee nervous." You've Got Mail

R. Right or left handed: Right 

S. Siblings: 1 brother, two half-sisters, one half-brother

U. Underwear: I've gone granny

V. Vegetable you hate: None!

W. What makes you run late: See K above!

X. X-Rays you’ve had: dental, hip, shoulder, wrist

Y. Yummy food that you make: Ginger molasses cookies

Z. Zoo animal: Giraffes

We're all doing great, adjusting to being back in school, enjoying our first Minnesota fall (so freakin' awesome!), getting ready for winter, and settling in more and more. 

Here's a picture of us taken in August by my cousin Elizabeth in front of our house. I love my beautiful family!

My next update will cover my decision to go gray, how I'm doing back on Weight Watchers, and my first sale in my Etsy shop.

See ya!

The Power of Staging.

I've learned so much about staging in the last year or so. From selling and buying houses to the items in my Etsy shop, it's so amazing how proper staging and good photography makes all the difference. I'm an HGTV addict and every.single.word. I've heard on those property staging shows is 100% true. 

In selling our house, it took about a year, working with our amazing realtors in San Diego, to get our house really ready for market. Painting, painting, and painting, landscaping, storing, cleaning, remodeling, flooring. Our house was lovely to being with, and many of the things we had done were finished before we decided to get the heck outta Dodge. And it's possible that our house would have sold just fine at a reasonable price without the time, effort and coin we put into getting it ready. But it sold and for exactly what we were hoping for. In four days. And with two competing listings in the neighborhood. Sweet. Totally worth all that effort.

In buying a house, it is very true that when all you see is the work you have to do to make it liveable, the less you want to buy. Porches and railings in disrepair. Cha-ching! Windows that need replacing. Cha-ching! Flooring that is old and stained? Yuk. You want to see what you're buying in a nice, clean package so you can see yourself moving right in, and justify the price.

And when browsing homes online, if there was only one photo or if the photos were bad (some looked like they were taken by a near-sighted toddler), we were not compelled to see the home in person. A picture is worth a thousand words. It's cliche, but it's so true.

Nice, clean packages are no guarantee that there won't be issues. Like the sump pump in our new house failing three weeks after we moved in and flooding our basement. Shit! Like the lovely, huge, soaker jacuzzi tub in our master bath that can't fill up with enough blissfully hot water to reach the jets because the hot water heater isn't big enough to handle it. Double shit! And a few other irritating-but-livable-for-now functionality issues that I hope will be taken care of in a year or two. 

But I love our house with the huge back yard and awesome basement and killer school district. We're making it ours and that feels really good.

And then yesterday, when taking photos for my Esty shop and posting some new items, I wasn't feeling the photos of my products. They were techincally fine and showed the items well, but there didn't seem to be anything about the photos that would grab a buyer's attention. And my crazy idea to use a pegboard for the background was not a good one. Bad staging.

So I tried a few different things and came up with this instead:

I'm still not sure I'm 100% into this arrangement (what am I selling? a globe? some jars? an old metal tray? oh yeah, the garland) but my product looks much better. The other photos are still in the listing, but this is what will hopefully catch the eye of buyers and browsers. In this photo a buyer can see what my product might look like in a room, on a wall above a table in their own home. Maybe next I'll try making a cake and setting up a little party table. Lots of possiblities.

Staging, baby. Gotta love it.