Sick again

I have another quilt finished. I got it done yesterday morning after taking Ladybug to daycare.






A curly vine design on the outside border and loops on the inside border.

Cross hatching through the center area.

A view of the stitching from the back.

I finished this one in the morning and my SIL had brought her quilt. She needed it quilted before her bunco party on Thursday. Why does she wait until the very last minute? Because she can I guess. Anyway we got hers done before time to pick up Ladybug at day care at 4:30.

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Long about lunch time I started feeling icky. I started coughing and sneezing like crazy and starting to ache all over. By 4 o'clock I felt absolutely awful. The daycare said Ladybug was coughing and sneezing too. I made some chicken soup for us for dinner then we cuddled together and read some books. A dose of meds for us both and we were asleep by 8 pm. Neither of us wanted to get up this morning so we just slept in. She's eating right now and then we'll go back to bed and rest again.

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There is one more quilt I really, really wanted to finish this week. It doesn't look like it will get done though. Rest seems much more alluring than quilting. I think bed sounds really good right now. Ladybug thinks so too.

What happened to my house?

I spent weeks.... I mean months... clearing stuff out of my house. Now look at it.

This is only the kitchen. You should see the two bedrooms that were empty a couple of days ago. Geeze!






You ever hear the saying.... college students leave home just temporarily, they always return, and they bring more with them.

Mommie and Ladybug now have their stuff in my previously semi organized house. Mommie had to leave town for a business trip so she brought their stuff, set up the beds, packed a bag, and left. Ladybug and I had an adventure putting things away in her room. Ooo whee, that is one very independent thinking child! Put something in the wrong place and I get told where it really belongs. Books go here Na Na. Shoes go here Na Na. Jammies go here Na Na. Pull ups go in the bathroom Na Na. Well, at least she's organized. Her Mommie never was. Her Mommie liked piles of stuff instead. I'm sure glad the floor work was finished before they moved back home.

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Yesterday, after picking up Ladybug from daycare, about two blocks from home, 6 police cars came racing past me. As I got closer to home there were about 20 police cars and a couple of ambulances at the corner where I turn toward home. I didn't know whether to turn around and go someplace else or not. I thought the trouble might be something we should stay clear of for awhile. I kept going though because home was just around the corner. I believed the trouble was at the motorcycle club at the corner but it turned out to be at the store on the opposite corner. A bunch of people had gotten into a fight and several got hurt. No one died that I know of. This neighborhood is going through a bad time again. It comes and it goes.

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I have another quilt on the machine but more stuff needs to be put away first. I best get off the computer and get started.

The bathroom floor is done

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I finished another quilt. I realized I forgot to say these are not Christmas commitment quilts. The last 4 or 5 have been "only if I have time" quilt tops that belong to friends. The quilts kept me busy as I stayed out of the way of workmen moving around the house. There's no better place to stay out of the way than against the wall behind a quilting machine.

I did a simple feather on the outside border and a curly vine on the inside border. I think my brain is stuck on curly vine designs.

The inside of the quilt got square dance panto.

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Finally! The floor in the bathroom is finished. This is how it looked before.

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Water damage had caused the vinyl tiles to start coming loose.
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This is how it looks now.

Much better! It looks like real tile instead of linoleum.

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Only a few things left to do, like level the washer and put the closet doors back up. I want to paint the doors first. Lots to do before Saturday's moving day and tomorrow I'll be gone all day. It's shopping day for my SIL and I'll be picking up a few things while I'm out. Chauffeuring has it's advantages. (smile)

Am I prepared?

Yesterday, I saw the news report of a wicked winter weather system racing across the country. It reminded me of these scenes from last year.





This was the ice storm that caused power outages for days, several deaths from misuse of generators, and lots of damaged homes.

Seeing the news reports got me to thinking.... am I prepared? Could we survive a power outage like we've had before?

Over the last year there has been a wind storm, an ice storm, and a flood in my area. Numerous disasters happen all over the country ever year. Right now there are people out west suffering from record snow fall, wind storms heading east, and lots of rain in other places.

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I'm only partially prepared. I have lots of things to consider before I can call myself "prepared" and ready for just about any emergency. I let things kind of fall by the wayside as I continued to finish quilts. Out of sight, out of mind. There wasn't any pending disaster so why worry? Well, hopefully I can change this in the next few weeks. A person needs to be prepared for just about anything, including job loss. Yes, that's a very big emergency too.

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I'm going to put the things I do on this blog so I can keep it for future reference. If you choose to follow along I'd be happy to have you join me. Just change what I do to things that will help you in your area. Everything I do to prepare for emergencies will be done with a frugal mind. As little spending as possible while not sacrificing quality. So if you are a tightwad or penny pincher, like me, maybe you can offer suggestions along the way?

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I hope to have the preparedness hints as a regular feature of this blog. Now that I have fewer quilt commitments it shouldn't be so hard to continue adding to the saga of my frugal living blog. I have forgotten so many things I did over the years and now it's all flooding back into my mind. I feel a little guilty for giving up so much of my frugal ways. I think of all the money I wasted trying to live up to the life expected of me..... going for convenience instead of frugality.

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I repeat what I said in an earlier post.... several weeks back.... it's much easier to tell other people how to live on very little money if I live the life. Even when I was earning money from quilting, I wasn't well off. With very careful planning I could buy things instead of make them myself. I still had to scrape by.... just not so much as when there is NO money.

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I will be making some changes to this blog during the holidays. Hopefully to make it easier to search for posts on different subjects. Please be patient about the changes because I'm not a computer person. It takes a few trial and errors to find the blog features I like and eliminate those I don't. I hope the changes will make this blog into one that blog steppers find very helpful!

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What's a blog stepper? Hmm.... you know how you find a great blog which has a list of favorite blogs on it? You click on one of the blog links which takes you to another great blog with a favorite list.... you click on one of them.... which takes you to another. That's blog stepping. It's not a term yet. I just made it up to describe how I see moving from one blog to the next. You think it will catch on?

They're back

First, the next finished quilt. A crib size. The owner wanted it very lightly quilted.





I did line dancing on the outside border and a small loop design on the inside border.

Clam shell panto in the center.

These guys are back. I was really hoping to show you a before and after picture of my new bathroom floor. If you ever have need of emergency fixes.... these guys are fantastic! Extremely helpful, reliable, and honest.

When the washer and dryer were moved to put in the new floor they found this mess. More wet wood. Apparently when my new washer and dryer were delivered the delivery guys didn't want to tell me there was a problem under the old ones. Hmm.... I hope it was the old ones. I'll have to check the new ones just to be sure.

Well, the new washer and dryer are sitting in the kitchen. It's the only place in the house with room for them to sit a couple of days. It's ok though because I can still cook.

Those dreaded blowers and dehumidifiers are back. They do the job but the electric meter goes crazy while these things run.

There's three machines running this time.

The guys are due back here today. Hopefully the old floor will be dry enough to put in the new floor. I hope I never have to get any more floor work done. It's such a mess. Everything removed to do something new.... finds more problems. I'm ready for all the extra problems to go away!