Moving day!

They got here mid-morning.  You can't see it but the truck was already half full with stuff from the storage place.  Living room stuff, another bedroom set, washer and dryer, dishes, pictures, and lots of nick nacks.  She didn't have to hire a moving company after all.  Her cousin helped her.  He used to work for a furniture store as their delivery person.

Whew!  Moving is exhausting.  Running around telling everyone that stuff is going to "my new house" is a lot of work. Good thing NaNa's intake table still is a good place for naps.  Her bed was already loaded on the truck.  A minky blanket given to NaNa (from a customer) is her favorite. 

I have an empty room!  There's still stuff in the other bedroom but it will be gone in a few days.  The only thing left in this room is what's in my office.  Can you see that?  I can get to the computer without tripping over anything.

I'm not going to go to their new house for a few days.  I could go if I wanted but I promised I would wait until she has all her stuff put away.  She wants me to see it all finished when I go the first time.

This house seems so empty.  At the same time it feels more relaxed.  Hmm..... what do I want to do first? 

My garden

My little side-yard garden is taking shape a bit at a time.  I got the pieces made that will hold the string supports.  The pvc pipe is quite flimsy so I may change these before my plants get big enough to climb.  That's why there aren't any strings yet and why I have it attached to the side of the house.  I'm thinking about it for a few days before doing more to it.  I'm thinking I should get some fence posts which will be sturdy.  My plants will get put into the ground this weekend or on Monday, depending on the time I have for working outside.

One more day and I can start getting my own routines back.....maybe.  I will be with an empty nest once again.  This time won't be nearly as hard to handle as the first time.  This time I'm proud that my daughter has her own house.  She's put down her roots and started making her own nest. 

My mother has decided to go on a hunger strike at the hospital.  She's also refused to take her medications.  That's not good for an insulin dependant diabetic.  I just don't know what to do about her anymore.  She's becoming increasingly angry and abusive to other patients at the nursing home.  She hurts people.  She runs over their feet with her wheelchair on purpose.  She sneaks up on people and hits them or throws things.  She sneaks into patient rooms and tries to hurt the bedridden patients.  She's started hitting or biting the staff. She is then sent to the hospital where she can only stay 14 days and then she's sent to another hospital where she stays 14 days to be sent back to the nursing home.  The cycle is then started over.

Each time she is transferred to another place they change her medications....again.  On average the medications are changed every 14 days.  After about 60 years of taking different medications, the meds have lost their ability to control her anger and psychotic episodes.  The dilusions are getting much worse.  The times between are much shorter.  At most she is her normal self for only a day or a few hours.

Her anger is quite often taken out on me over the phone.  I'm much too old to let someone abuse me even over the phone.  I take up for myself and then feel guilty about it because I know she can't help herself.  This makes the rest of my day very unpleasant.  I feel very sorry for the nursing home staff that must deal with her hour after hour and day after day.  I can barely handle a few minutes on the phone dealing with the anger.

It's becoming more and more likely she may need to be sent out of state to another facility that's better equipped to handle her.  She will need much more supervision than the current nursing home can provide.  I think it's time for my brother and I to get educated (on the only available nursing facilities) so we will be prepared to make that decision. 

The studio is clear

Well, I finally got something productive done.  My daughter moved what she could with her van.  Most of the boxes are at her house now.... but the beds and dressers are still here.  She'll go to her house after work and come here for bedtime.

I worked on a paperclip rug.  I stopped when I ran out of strips.  I'll have to find the fabric before I can cut more.

I managed to work on the door quilt for awhile.   At first I tried to be very careful with the quilting.  Then I decided...."done is better than good" so I just started getting it quilted without care if it's good or not.  It's only for me so it doesn't have to be perfect. 

Ladybug gave me a manicure while we waited for mommie to take boxes to the new house.

Then she gave herself a manicure.

We had asked lots of different men to help move her.  She offered to pay them.  There are "very lazy" men around here.  They do nothing but sit around and drink most of the time.  None have jobs.  They depend on their women to support them.  That's the getto life.  We don't know any teenagers who could help.

My daughter is going to use "Two guys and a Truck" moving service to get the rest of her things two weeks from now.  With some of her small stuff.... like clothes and dishes and computer..... moved to her house she can at least feel like she's living there.  She'll take more of the smaller things each day until she get's it all there. 

I can't spread out my things yet.  I have to wait until the bedroom furniture has been moved.  I'm glad that I can at least get into my studio and be a little creative.  The thought of two weeks without working in the studio was simply depressing.  Hmm.... I best get in there and do something before there's another problem of some kind.

Ok, lil' sis

(Thanks Kathi for the email.) 

I'm fine, just a little bummed out.  I'm soooo ready to have my house back!  I'm so ready to have the space to be creative again.  I want my life to stop being on hold while it waits on someone else's life to move on.  I'm ready to get my creative life moving forward again.  I love my daughter and grand-daughter but it's time that my life was a little less dependant on their needs.  Know what I mean? 

My daughter was all set to move into her new home this past weekend.  We got stuff packed and moved around so it would be easier to load onto a truck.  Some stuff sitting in my studio.  Some stuff sitting in the kitchen.  So what happened?  Absolutely no one willing to help her move.  Everyone kept telling her to call back later.  By Saturday evening her things were still sitting where they were.  Sunday.... same excuses.   Right now it appears she may not get another chance to move for another two weeks..... providing she finds someone willing to help that weekend.  She has to work next weekend.

Right now everything is still sitting where it was.  I can either move it back to their rooms, out of my way, or leave it like it is and do nothing.  I'm doing nothing because I don't want to have to move it twice.  I can't even locate the camera right now.  It's probably hidden by a box or a bag or something.

I've got a quilt on the machine.... which is one of my own.  It's not fancy.  It's a printed whole cloth that was given to me several years ago.  I believe it was originally supposed to be the backing for a quilt and the owner changed their mind.  I plan to use it for a window quilt,but not on a window.  It's going to go in the opening between my studio and the kitchen area.  I can close it to keep everyone who comes into the studio from seeing the dirty dishes in the kitchen.  Oh yeah, it will help with the utility bills too.  I can turn the heat down in the house and use a small ceramic heater to heat the studio.  I can't work on it because there are boxes sitting around the machine. 

I haven't had a chance to plant my square foot garden.  My brother is still waiting for his son to let him use the truck.  We have a lot of compost to buy which would be too heavy for his car.  I can't buy plants either.  I need the compost before the plants can go in the ground. 

I did order the supplies for my drawing class.  I'm waiting for those to arrive.  In the meantime I practiced drawing straight sketch lines on printer paper.  I'm bored with just doing straight lines and want to move onto the next step.  I sure wish those supplies would get here already!

I couldn't get to the computer the last couple of days because I had Ladybug with me the whole weekend. 
The mommie spent time on the phone trying to persuade someone to help her move and some time finishing up the painting..... which I haven't had a chance to go see yet.  I'll take pictures of everything when I visit the first time. 

Ok, I'll post again tomorrow providing I can get to the computer.  I never know from day to day if I can get to it or not.  Right now I've got to find something to be creative with.  Maybe I'll work on a rug or something.

Here I am

I wish I could show pictures of all the quilts I've been cranking out the last few days.... but the truth is that I've gotten very little quilting work accomplished.  Most of my time has been spent either playing with Ladybug or picking up after my daughter.  No, I'm not complaining but it is getting rather old.  Ladybug is too sick to go to daycare which means the mommie works at home.  This means the computer is tied up and I can't get on it.  Right now they are at the doctor and I've got a brief time to write a post. 

Hopefully, it won't be too much longer till they move into their own place again and I'll have everything to myself.  She expects to have everything done and ready for the closing in about 4 more weeks.  While the house is quiet for a little while, I'm going to get onto the quilting machine.  I just wanted to let everyone know I'm not sick.  

Hardware and thrift store

My brother took me to the hardware to get boards for my square foot garden space.  While out we stopped at a couple of thrift stores.  When we came out of one store he was carrying this and grinning like a cat.
He hands it to me and says "here, I bought you something."  I love the case.  Thank you!

He says, "open it" so I do.  This is what was inside.

He tells me he thought I might be able to use it on my art quilts.  Fantastic!  I think I got a good brother.  I'm not sure of it's value as new but he paid $10 for it.  I believe the case alone is worth much more than that.  I'm not sure how these will work on fabrics but you can be sure I'm going to test them all.  I got this for $3.  It will be good for fusible applique work.

After our trip, he built these for me.  There are three boxes, 2' x 6' and they are 6 inches deep.  Sometime in the next few days we'll take a trip to get the compost and peat moss to fill them. 

We have the black plastic down temporarily to kill grass.  Before we fill it we'll remove the plastic.  I'm going to paint them too.  I still need pvc pipes to create the upright supports for tomatoes and cucumbers. 

My reaction to the boxes..... finally, after all these years, I'm gonna have a small garden space again.  Now if only I can keep the neighborhood kids from messing with it.  They play football in that lot.  The ball hits my house quite a bit.  Now that I have a spot where I don't want the ball to land, it will probably land in the garden a lot.   Somehow, what we don't want to happen usually does. 

My daughter found out that she can have a defferment on part of her closing costs.  Whew, what a relief.  For a while we thought she would need to start looking for another house.  She's doing the inspection today.  We hope nothing major shows up.  As far as we could tell, there are only minor cosmetic details to get finished. 

Resist Resist Resist

Yesterday a good friend took me to her house so I could go through some fabrics she was getting rid of.  She has an absolutely beautiful house.  This is what I came home with.  I kept telling myself not to look too closely because I knew I would be tempted to sit and play with fabrics.  I told myself over and over again.... resist the temptation, resist the temptation.  I knew I had a quilt on the machine I really wanted to finish quilting.

At first I said, maybe, just one look at one of the fabrics.  Then it was too late.  I sat the rest of the afternoon sorting and thinking about crafts and quilts.  These are upholstery fabrics.  Lots of potential for crafts or quilts.  Don't these just say art quilts to you?  They do to me.  But what art quilt?  That's what makes playing with fabrics so much fun.

I like those but these are my favorites of the whole batch.  I like them because the pieces are large, thin like cotton, and like art pieces already.  They "speak" to me.  I hear them saying "make me into this or make me into that".  Oh my goodness.... I have to resist the temptation to create any new things until some of my UFOs and PIGs have been finished. 

Well, I finally stored all the fabrics out of sight for now.  They will wait until my daughter moves and I've more time for creating.  About my daughter.... it's not going to be easy getting her into her house.  The closing costs are going to be way more than we thought.  About $3,000 more than the both of us have if we each clear out all of our savings and she borrows from her 401K.  Today she will apply for a deferral of the amount she is short.  All we can do is wait to see if if can be deferred.  We have faith.... if she is meant to be in that house, it will somehow happen.