company’s coming

Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow! I’m so excited that Lauri and Aidan are coming – what a great Christmas present. Richard will drive into Portland and pick them up in the morning. Me, I’ll be here getting the last of things ready.
With Ryan here last weekend, and Gretchen and Tom on the heels of his leaving, it’s been sort of a company blitz around here.

Today and tomorrow I plan on finishing up some sewing. That and making a trip to Astoria for yet a few more items. Richard has some shop things to work on for Christmas. And I have only one package to mail for Christmas this year – hooray!

The weather has warmed up considerably – it should be in the mid-fifties today. Who cares if it’s raining off and on, so long as it’s not freezing.

Two weeks ago I finally got some things listed on etsy, and one of my items sold! Just one little elf ornament, but it’s a beginning. Hooray! So, it’s off to the post office for me. Enough of this goofing around online.

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getting ready

The weather has been COLD here. Really cold for this area. This morning it was 20 outside. Clear and beautiful, but damn cold. Too cold to be outside, so we spent yesterday cleaning through boxes in the den. Shredding old paperwork, sorting, boring stuff. We need to get things in order for our new house member. In another month it looks like little Richard will come to live with us. We need to meet with the high school( we have talked to the principal already ) and iron out a few other things. It will be mighty different around here with a teenager in the house – its been fourteen years. I’m both excited and nervous.

We took down a near falling over tree across the street on Sunday, and cleaned up the mess from the fallen trees over there. Even though its not our property ( he gave us permission to cut down any trees and keep the wood ) it seems only right that if we want the wood we do the cleanup. The owner will come this spring or summer and burn the slash, which we made into a huge pile. Our view is nearly restored to what it was when we bought the house. We have another big pile of wood to split, and a lot more to come.

I finally got the tree decorated; it is sparse with ornaments. I think I’ll end up using this silver tree every other year. I made a couple wreath-things to put above the mantle.

It looks like company this weekend, and in another ten days Lauri and Aidan will be here for a week. In between, there is the rest of Christmas to finish up with.

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 I’m enjoying a day of quiet as all of the Richards are taking a day drip to Mount St. Helens.  The Richards arrived here a couple days early, on Sunday, so things have been somewhat hectic around here. 

And (my) Richard has for the most part finished the water project. After two whole days, the acid neutralizer and iron filter ( which also filters out a bunch of other unwanted stuff ) tanks are in place and plumbed in.  There are a couple things that he need to do to finish it, but as of yesterday we had better than bottled water quality with nearly normal ph levels. So, yay! Maybe the rust staining and the weird smell will end now.

We also had another company come and measure for just windows for the whole house, and when the bid comes in we’ll make a decision on which direction to go. The new doors – all five sliders – will be installed just after we return from the San Diego trip. And, the fireplace guy came to measure for the new insert. If all goes according to my plan, we’ll have the fireplace insert ready to burn before we need it – by mid September!
We began to pressure wash the house on Sunday – using a cleaning agent – and wow, it worked so well, that I kinda can’t wait to do the rest of it.  Oh, and to begin painting. 

Tomorrow, I’ll drive into Seattle, spend the night and pick up Lauri and Aidan from the airport and drive back here on Saturday. Today I have to finish some sewing, then I’m set to go. 
And, Happy Birthday

don_quixote

   !

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company & curtains

Well, last week I worked on the curtains for the living room and dining room sliding doors. It ended up being one of the bigger projects that I’ve ever attempted, and I’m glad its done. Each of the panels are 81″ long by 90″ wide, unpleated and hemmed, and there are four of them. My huge cutting table was a help in laying out and cutting them, but to put them together with the insulated lining I had to bring the whole mess upstairs and pin them together on the kitchen floor. They are pretty heavy all finished, but they will certainly insulate those sliding doors nicely in the colder months. Of course they took way longer than I planned.  I hung them up on Friday, but after looking at them all evening I decided that they needed to come down, and the pleats taken out and re-spaced.  Saturday I did just that, and they fit much better and I’m happy with the finished product:       And a closeup:    . 

Justin came on Monday and was here until yesterday morning. I got his christmas-present-coat all laid out and luckily I have just enough wool to make it. He solved my computer issues, and walked me through setting up my emusic account (  a mother’s day gift from Ryan ). Now, I need to figure out what I’m going to play all of this accumulating music on. 
A bit after he left I drove to Portland to pick up my friend Julie, who will be here for a couple days. After leaving the airport, we headed over to Fabric Depot, and browsed most of the store for a couple of unhurried hours before heading back here. Since they were having a sale, I managed to choose this cotton for the dress that I mentioned the other day.  I think it will be a subtle but interesting print to make the dress out of without being a solid color. We’ll drive Julie into Seattle on Saturday or Sunday, and stay for a few days. 
So, we’re off to do a couple of crafty-type things, then go for a walk on the beach.

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