Fall!

We've had a very cool September, which I quite enjoy!  Have considered turning on the heat a couple of mornings already but managed to control myself.  Does my pocketbook good to have neither heat nor air conditioning running!  I noticed while driving to Columbia on Sunday, and more and more since then, that the trees are changing color, the soy beans have gone gold and some farmers have already picked their corn.  The great bowl of a sky has turned the hard and wonderful blue that I love so much-no humidity to soften that blue! I planted mums and asters in the front garden. Fall is my favorite time of the year.  Not yet cold but chilly in the morning and after dark-it so reminds me of my years in the Rocky Mountains.  Rob built a fire in the fire pit on Sunday and it was so lovely to sit around it, chat and watch the flames dance!

I hope to get to stitch again this week as I am cleaning out the extra room today.  I've finished all the painting (for now) and can sit in there at night and stitch.  Just can't seem to do it in my bed room.

My office is getting cleaned out today.  I took the quilt out of the frame and took it down a week or two ago.  The quilt isn't finished but I simply don't have room in there for the frame and I don't like using it so quoting Ann "I make up excuses" not to work on it.  My Mother's cousin, Betty, who was a wonderful quilter always just quilted without any frame so I'll do the same and use a table.  Planning to take it along on the trip to San Diego and work at night.  I always stop early, so the evenings can be long.  I have so many things to do before I go, re-up the plates on the truck, get an oil change, clean the house stem to stern etc, etc, etc!  Guess I'd best get to it.  When Rob gets up we are trimming the kitchen, and working in the yard.  It will be a good day!

OOPS!!

Apparently my Math skills are not what they should be!  I can't measure and divide by two and correctly fit the cabinet!  Also my idea to cut off the fronts of the drawers using the jigsaw and then screw on the new front didn't work, sigh.  So, tomorrow I am ordering drawer boxes and new doors for this cabinet.  I am tired of working on it, although I will still be doing work in there each day with this little set back I won't be finished until well after I return from San Diego.  I feel like the most boring person on earth!  All I've talked about for weeks and weeks is the kitchen-so no more.  When it its all finished I will post before and after photos and I may mention in passing that I've done something (like put my cookbooks on the new bookshelf or trim or something) but no posts just about the remodel.

On that note, this morning I took a look at Lee's Summit's Oktober Fest.  Not very big, although they did have locally made crafts in the craft tents.  I was totally disappointed by the lack of funnel cakes!  I could really have used a funnel cake this morning!

I have done a little quilting in the past couple of weeks.  I have all the bag pieces together and have machine quilted two of them (two I've done by hand with big stitches).  I've never really had any luck with machine quilting but I used my quilting foot (well, duh!) and they went quite quickly and nicely.  I expect I'll be doing the rest this way as I'd like to finish them and use them this Christmas!

I spent the afternoon cleaning the house as Rob and Tanya are having guests tomorrow.  It looks better than it has in a really long time but there is still much cleaning to be done before the holidays.  My office/sewing room looks like a hurricane hit and the extra room (where I do hand work and watch tv) is full of trim, tools, and all the stuff I couldn't figure out where to put!

Tomorrow, I'm off to Columbia to deliver a bed to Scott and Bri.  My Dad no longer needed it but Scott and Bri have empty bedrooms.  Next time I go down for an over night I will have a real bed!

The State of the Kitchen Address.

So, I have eight doors left to hang and eight drawer fronts to put on-then tweek the fit of several-then the cabinets will be officially finished!  Rob, Tanya and I installed the new counter/bench top today and Rob the new sink.  My plumber, Jamie, is coming in the morning to hook up the sink drains etc.

My plan for the next two days:  finish door and drawer fronts, put up the backsplash, and paint (of course).

By the weekend I should have the bookcase installed (and filled-I have four file storage boxes of cookbooks!) and the windows turned into photo frames painted although the photos won't be back.  Then all that will be left will be painting and installing trim.  And cleaning house and cleaning house and cleaning garage!

I do believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel!  I also believe it would be easier to move than remodel a kitchen!  I am going to love it though, I can already tell.

Odd things!

There is an odd thing in my kitchen--there are doors on some of the cabinets.  Weird.  More tomorrow.

A short kitchen update.

In the past week only one visible thing has been finished in the kitchen.

The floating shelves!  I still need to repaint jar lids-they get a hammered pewter color which mimics the zinc lids on  some of the antique jars and make labels.  I like to have everything close at hand when I cook and bake so this arrangement works quite well for me.

I've finished painting the first set of doors and have begun the second.  Found space for a few more this time and have found a way to shave a day off the whole process so I am hoping to finish all the doors by this time next week.  I think I'll wait to hang them until they are all finished and the handles arrive.

I've also been stripping multiple layers of paint off the two windows I bought and Rob has made me a bookcase (for my cook books).  All will need painted.  I have the trim and my brother, Bobby, is going to rip some board for the kick space-that will need paint as well.  I am really starting to hate this painting!  But,  things are coming together, thank goodness.

The counter(bench) tops are due in Tuesday, I say due in because I was told it was the earliest they would be here.  The truck only comes once a week so if they don't come this week it will be the Tuesday after.  I have all my fingers and toes crossed for this week!

Remembering September 11

Today makes ten years since September 11, 2001.  While I haven't (and won't) watched any of the many tv programs on the subject, it is hard not to remember what happened that day.  The live video of the towers collapsing is etched in my memory along with President Kennedy's  death and the Challenger explosion.  The act of  men who hate my country and cloak it in terms of religion.  I grieve for those who were lost, knowing that their families will never be the same.  I hurt for the survivors who must feel some "survivors guilt" along with great gratitude.  I will never forget.

Holiday Weekends!

Hope all those in the US are enjoying the Labor Day Holiday!  I've had a terrific weekend, so far.  Saturday Scott, Bri and Coco (their adorable little dog) came up from Columbia to visit.  We generally all gather to attend my town's annual street festival, Santa-Cali-Gon (so named because Independence was once the "jumping off" point for the long overland trips to Santa Fe, NM; Oregon and California.) Mostly we go to eat funnel cakes, corn dogs, walking tacos and other "junk food" and to buy homemade Cream Soda or Root Beer.  (We all save our bottles from year to year and they re-fill them for us.)

Then we walk through the craft tents.  It was pretty exciting on Saturday as a big thunder storm hit right over the top of us and the tent we were in began swaying and things started falling off displays etc.  Bri managed to get outside and the rest of us headed that way but by the time we got to the doorway it had let up some.  Started up again though and was surely in danger of falling down except some really intelligent person shouted that we should grab onto the poles and hold them up!  One of the other  tents did fall in so thank you intelligent person!  As soon as it let up we made a run for the cars and headed home!

One great thing about the storm, it brought a cold front with it!  After the high 90's of last week, today's 71 is delightful!

Sunday morning Beth and her boys joined us for a biscuits and gravy brunch (apparently their favorite breakfast-or maybe they just don't get it very often?)  Then we split up.  Rob, Tanya, Beth, Brayden and Kolby along with Rob's friend Das met up with other friends Thomas and Heather at the Carnival part of Santa-Cali-Gon while Bri and I headed to the Flea Mart.  I scored a really cute sewing box (always wanted one) I plan to put my cross-stitch in it for now, hum it would work well for hexi-gons too.  I wanted to attend a memorial service for a lovely lady I knew from my historical work here at 2:30 and I did.  While Scott and Bri took Coco back to Columbia and demo'd their current project, their den.  Later I met up with the others to walk through the tents again and eat more "junk food"-- Didn't buy too much there this year just a snowman for Tanya and a long magnet to hold up the calendar on the frig.

When I woke up this morning, after sleeping with the windows open, it was 54 degrees!  A beautiful clear day, with a lovely blue bowl of a sky.  I mowed the lawn this morning and I found a hint of things to come.

Already the hills in back are getting slippery, rolling on these as I walk and I hear them hitting the trailer all the time!

A short kitchen update:  The shelves arrived on Friday, the doors and drawer fronts on Saturday.  I already have primer on one side of 5 doors (that's all I can fit on my 6 foot table).   Everything is here now except the counter tops (bench tops) which won't be in until the 13th.  I bought the old windows for the wall decor on Friday and Rob installed the second fan on Saturday.  I still hope to be 90 percent finished when I go to San Diego next month, won't be finished until I get back as I'm bringing home IKEA stuff for in there.