30 by 30: 3 Done 5 In Progress

5. Finish painting studio walls

 

9. Make my bed every day for a month (I stole this one from Kim)
     - It's been 21 days and I've only missed 1 day. Forming a new habit. Feels good.

10. Memorize 10 new verses
     2 down 8 to go
     Verse #1 "Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!" -Isaiah 18:30
     Verse #2 "Wait for the Lord, be strong, take heart, and wait for the Lord." -Psalm 27:14

17. Fix front flower beds
     Done! At least until spring anyway.

20. Hang blinds in studio (they’ve been riding around in my back seat for at least 6 weeks)
     Update: blinds have been moved from the car to the top of my dryer, but only because I had to take both cats to the vet and needed the back seat empty. (Sad I know.)

23. Crochet snowflakes to sell for Christmas (First goal 25. Second goal 50)
     I have 15 left to crochet but then I still have to stiffen ALL of them.

26. Re-caulk tub (again – I hate this goal already)
     Done! It was slimy and messy and gross. (I really hope it lasts longer than a week this time!!!)

30. Get involved at church – something short term (maybe several short term things)
     Going to be in the Christmas program - have a couple of huge-ish speeches to memorize.

30 by 30

I was greatly inspired by my friend, Kim's 30 by 30 list and decided to make my own. I'm giving myself 1 year and 4 months to accomplish my goals, but I'm not gonna beat myself up if I don't. This is supposed to inspire me to be productive, not cause me to go bankrupt or kill myself trying to accomplish a goal.

1. Devote more quiet time to God (this has always been a struggle for me)

2. Complete 3 quilts (twin size or larger) without buying any fabric for the front
    a. Personal design (I’ve already started this one . . . almost a year ago)
    b. Drunkard’s Path (I made a baby quilt with a variation of this pattern and LOVED it)
    c. Hankie Quilt (I received a tote full of hankies from my Grandma after she passed away)

3. Complete 5 pieces of jewelry (I tend to make a piece/pendent and never put a chain on it)

4. Sell 1 (or more) quilts

5. Finish painting studio walls

6. Buy treadmill and use consecutively for 40 days (obviously if I’m going to spend money on a treadmill I plan to use it for more than 40 days, but I figure that will give me a jump start)

7. Make curtains for living room (I get to buy fabric for this, but ONLY if it’s on sale or I have a coupon)

8. Try 10 new recipes (getting bored with the ones I have. Any suggestions???)

9. Make my bed every day for a month (I stole this one from Kim)

10. Memorize 10 new verses

11. Put a front porch on my house or Replace my front door (this I will need help with)

12. Replace living room furniture (because mine is not comfy)

13. Read 15 books (I don’t think this will be a problem since I work in a bookstore)

14. Start paying off student loans

15. Make a new lifelong friend (been praying about this one for awhile now)

16. Lose between 5 & 10 lbs. and maintain (no more than 10 and no less than 5)

17. Fix front flower beds

18. Scrapbook more (I hoping to devote at least 1 weekend a month)

19. Move the randomly placed plants in my back yard to more appropriate location

20. Hang blinds in studio (they’ve been riding around in my back seat for at least 6 weeks)

21. Vacuum floors at least every 2 weeks (I used to be really good about this . . . not so much anymore)

22. Replace electrical outlets
    a. Living room
    b. Bedroom
    c. Sewing room

23. Crochet snowflakes to sell for Christmas (First goal 25. Second goal 50)

24. Replace hardware in Kitchen & Laundry room

25. Finish painting cabinets

26. Re-caulk tub (again – I hate this goal already)

27. Replace vent covers (I currently have none)

28. Fix/patch and paint doors in house – 6

29. Clean out and organize the ‘scary’ closet

30. Get involved at church – something short term (maybe several short term things)

October has been a busy project month! Painting, Sewing, even some Metalsmithing (but those aren't finished - so no pictures - sorry!)

First up is Curtains I made for the windows in my apartment. The teal/blue and white ones are in the living room and the green and brown ones are in the bed room.





I made a set of Pillow cases for the new couch and love seat my boss got for the new Children's room at the store. Don't you love those bright colors!?!


The biggest project by far was the train I painted for the walls of the Children's Room. I was told to model the engine after the one in the book "The Little Engine That Could", to make 7 train cars, and to use bright colors. This was the result!

Craziness

My, what a busy couple of weeks I’ve had! It’s been just CRAZY!!!

First I had to take Benz to the vet; he was sooo good. I put him in his pet taxi and he just curled up and watched me drive. Didn’t cry even once!! He has to go back next week for booster shots, so I hope he does as good then as he did this last time. The next day I went down to Pratt and watched Tyler and T’Lane play baseball. That was fun but tiring, I ended up with a few Mosquito bites (one of them swelled up to the size of a dime!)

A friend of mine saw some pictures of some of the quilts I’ve made and asked me to finish one that she had started. All I had to do was put a binding around the edge, got it done in one day. (I might mention that it was only a baby quilt so it went fast.) I also hung a curtain rod in my bedroom and made a curtain. Now I just have to hang one in the living room and make that curtain! (hmm . . . maybe I should plan to do that tomorrow.)

Today I found a leak! The hose going from the toilet to the wall was dripping water all over my floor! Luckily I was able to turn off the water to the toilet while I waited for maintenance to come. (Thank you Google!) 6 hours later they finally showed up and replaced the hose. It took them about 5 minutes. I would have done it myself it I’d of known I would have to wait that long! (ha there was a date on the old hose from 1995! No wonder it was leaking! The rubber washers inside were disintegrated!!!) I also baked some pumpkin bread and read a couple of plays that a friend recommended. The bread was good; the plays were not.

Benz is asleep behind me and he must be dreaming because his toes keep twitching! Mercedes is asleep on my foot stool, she all disgruntled because I changed the blanket on the chair she likes to sleep in. Apparently the new (clean) blanket is the wrong color, wrong fabric, and definitely the wrong smell! Oh well, she’ll get over it soon.

Kitties, Hips, and Art

Since it's been almost 6 months since my last post I figure I owe you all an update of some kind.

I moved into my apartment at the end of January. It is wonderful to be living alone again!

In February I was given an 11 year old cat, her name is Mercedes and she makes me laugh almost everyday.

In March I added a tiny little kitten and named him Benz. He is full of so much energy! Although he's not really little anymore, he still manages to spend most of his time in trouble.

April resulted in a hip replacement surgery for my mom. The surgery was successful except for the fact that her femur was broken during the surgery. As a result she had to walk with a walker for 10 weeks, and is only now able to put some weight on that leg. She is walking with a cane now and has even driven herself to town a few times.

At the end of May one of the girls I work with quit. So we're all trying to get used to the new schedule; the hard part is that some one has been gone for one thing or another every week since!

Kayla and I recently found this awesome little stained glass shop by our favorite Chinese restaurant that offers classes! As soon as I can scrape up the money I'm gonna take a class! Their gallery room was so beautiful! There were pieces EVERYWHERE!!! There's no way we say everything; there's just to much! But so pretty!

I spend my free time working on quilts and getting my studio ready. Soon I'll be spending more time in the studio, playing with metal and a torch!

Moving! Hooray!

I sign the papers for my new apt tomorrow!!! Hooray! I'm so excited! I can't wait to get reacquainted with all my stuff! (I haven't seen most of it in over a year!)

Book-A-Holic & Life with Tammy

Definitely time for an update!

On August 30th I packed up my car with the essentials and moved in with my sis Tammy in Wichita. I started my new job at Book-A-Holic on September 1st.

So far I really like my job. It's a very casual environment. However it can get hectic at times. Saturday was a prime example. I walk in the door a few minutes before noon, there is a line of 5 or 6 people wanting to turn in books for trade credit. I take care of 3 customers and figure their trade, then Kaleb (co-worker) asked me to help him go through 6 huge boxes that had been turned in for trade by 1 person. We have to sort through the books, taking only what we can use based on what is already on the shelves and the condition of the books. We took about half of the books. Meanwhile, Sarah (co-worker) is helping other customers and taking in more trade. This was all in the first 10 to 15 minutes of my shift. It continued in a similar pattern for the next 4 hours! I hope it's not like this next Saturday.

Living with Tammy has been a new experience. Since there is such a huge age gap between us we've never actually lived together. We were both a little apprehensive when it came to living together as we've had our fair share of arguments over the years, but things are going well. Our schedules are quite different so we don't see much of each other. I count this as a blessing! Occasionally we get on each other's nerves but usually we can separate and get over it.

I'm saving the majority of my money so that I'll be able to move into my own place. I'm hoping to move sometime in January. (Hopefully Christmas wont completely destroy that goal!)