Bye Bye Studio...

...otherwise known as what I've spent the last two days doing. 

This summer my studio is getting a makeover.  The roof leaked all last winter and there's no quick and easy fix, so we really have to redo the whole roof, including half of the garage roof.  And since redoing the roof means we have to rebuild the walls anyway, my sweetie asked me if I'd like to have a bigger studio.  Well, I could hardly say no, could I? 

I picked up the building permit on Tuesday and since I have to leave to go to my mom's on Friday, that left just a few days to get everything packed up.  I started Tuesday evening and packed 8 boxes of books before I went to bed.   I took some pics of it in its almost normal state when I got up on Wednesday morning.

art table area

                           

sewing area

 jewelry area

Wednesday morning I hit it hard and worked all day packing stuff.  I had to go into Lowes once to get more boxes (yikes, I packed a whole lot of boxes) and I stopped to eat dinner, but all told, I spent about 14 hours packing.  It seemed like every time I turned around, there was something else to pack.  :)  Here's what it looked like this morning before I started in again.  

nothing but bare shelves

35 boxes of stuff stacked to the rafters in the garage

                                             

This morning I took the time to finish the the buttonholes on the shirt I made on Monday so I could pack up the sewing machine and the last of the sewing stuff.  Once that was done, it was a quick half hour for my husband and son and a few neighbor boys to haul all the furniture out to the garage, and presto chango, it was all done. 

 

looks pretty much like it did when we moved in two years ago

all my stuff, anxiously awaiting its new home in a few months--a few months, right sweetie?

Happy Birthday Giggle!

Today is my sister Gayle's birthday.  In honor of that I decided I'd post some pics of the mini quilt I'm working on for her last year's birthday.  So like me to be a year behind, huh?  :)  

I think I'm about finished adding flowers so now I have to add the beading for the centers.  I did a few centers on the small flowers last night but I don't like them so I'm going to have to cut the beads off and start over.  I think I might have to buy some different beads to get the look I want.  When the beading is all done, I have to decide if I'm going to add a border to the quilt.  I think I want to machine quilt the words of the song that was the inspiration for this quilt on a border but it's something that I'm going to have to think about for a while. 

Nestled In My Backyard...

Last weekend, Al finished the siding on my new garden shed (thank you so much sweetie!) so now I can show it off.    I still need to paint the trim and bring the door up from my mom's and get in installed but even with that still undone, isn't it awesome?  If I were a little girl, I'd be finding furniture and a tea set to take out there and make it my playhouse. 

I can't wait for a sunny day when I can get out in the yard with a sketchbook and my paints and try my hand at capturing it on paper.

Sneak Peaks

I've been spending a lot of time on the road the last few weeks, alternately going to my mom's and bringing her up here to stay, so I haven't had much time to blog lately.  But I couldn't let any more time go without showing some sneak peaks of my almost finished garden shed.  I have to find time to search out an old door and then the rest of the siding and shingles can be put on and the trim painted.  I'm very, very excited about how it looks so far--exactly what I wanted!

I can't wait until it's all finished!  How can it not be cool?  It has two of my absolute favorite things--old windows with peeling paint and old metal roofing.  The windows were found on Craigslist for cheap and the roofing scrounged from my folks house.