~ Planning for the New Year ~

We did!  We made it through the holiday season...sigh...doesn't it feel good to be at the beginning of a new calendar?  A clean slate to fill with whatever our little ole hearts desires!  So what's on the calendar for this year?

First thing to do is finish up last year...Ha!  I can't tell you how much I want to finish up the Good Fortune Mystery quilt.  Yes I'm getting tired of waiting for clues, tired of not knowing what I'm making.  JUST SHOW ME THE QUILT!  Mystery quilts are not my thing.  It requires a bit of patience that I just do not have.  Throwing it in a box and starting something new sounds really good right now.  It's getting to the point where I will find anything to do besides work on this quilt.  Laundry, dusting, and washing the dishes all sound better than sewing.  What I really want to do is make my own quilts.   I've designed some really cute quilts for this year and I'm eager to get things in motion.   Sigh....just a few more days....a couple more weeks and I'm free to do as I please.  I can do this!  I think I can, I think I can, I think I'll go do something else.

So..... even though the new office isn't complete I decided to move in anyway.  It's usable but not pretty.  We still need to put the finishing touches on the trim, add some decor, a new chair.  All in due time.  We're over budget on the remodel, we are now doing what with can when we get the extra money.  We don't want to add anymore to the debt since we plan to retire someday.

Today's avoiding the mystery quilt project will be adding more patterns to the quick grab pattern boxes.  This is where I store patterns for shipping, so I can quickly grab the right pattern for orders from my Etsy Store.  

After refilling the patterns and shipping orders, I'm going to paint this ugly old stand for my printer.  It's not pretty but it's functional for now.

One my recent splurges was this cute rug.   A great little buy from the Christmas Tree Store thanks to dad and his cash Christmas gift.  With the remaining money I hope to find a good older chair that I can refinish.  Like I need another project!  Maybe Mr. Podunk can be coerced into a new refinishing project?

And then there's this mess of wires. The wires are the satellite internet and WIFI. This room was Mr. Podunk's den.  It worked when it was his room, the desk hid the wires.   Now all I can do is wait for the new fiber optic internet through our electric company.  They strung up the wires on the poles out by the road last month and promised we would able to connect to it sometime this month.  As soon as it's available we are switching our internet provider and ripping out the mess of wires.  Once again I sigh, there's just so much to do.  Well all I can do is tackle it one little project at a time.  Someday we'll look back and laugh about all the remodeling hiccups.  No matter how well you plan there's always hiccups.  And you know it's a blessing to have little projects to sidetrack me from that crazy mystery quilt!

Linking up this post with Miss Bonnies Blog

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2018/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-6.html

#quiltvillemystery #goodfortunequilt 

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~ Making the cut ~

I find it hard to believe some quilters dislike cutting fabric.  It's one of my favorite things to do.  Petting fabric for hours on end, how can you not like that?   Sure it can be a chore but I never get tired of playing with fabric.  The darling little stacks of fabric below are for my On Podunk Pond quilt.  I'll be making a GAGGLE of flying geese units in red and yellow.  From start to finish it was about 4 hours worth of cutting.  Not all at once of course.  Not that I couldn't cut them all in one 4 hour session. I started cutting late at night and had to call it a night, finishing up the next morning.  Hopefully I can start piecing these sometime today.  

This morning I need to do a few boring chores, laundry and dusting.  Then it's off to the dentist for a root canal.  Oh what a fun day. Merry Christmas to me, huh?  Mr. Podunk has assured me there's nothing to worry about when it comes to getting a root canal.  The dentist told me the same thing but you know he'll say anything to get you in the chair and get paid.  If Mr. Podunk is right I should be able to go the dentist and continue with my day as planned.  The plan is to work on my office today.  We've had a few set backs but with any remodel there's always issues.  So I'm not upset about the setbacks.  The latest issue was flooring.  Here's the first flooring we started laying.  It was given to us by our neighbor.  Everything was going along beautifully....then at about the halfway point the boards start becoming difficult to snap together.  The veneer on the top would buckle and break off.  Now my hubby doesn't get mad very often. He's one of the most happy go lucky people I know.  After several buckling issues he picks up the board and tosses it across the room.  I froze, stood there wide eyed as he ranted for about 5 minutes.  After his rant we decided to rip out this flooring.  No big deal I really didn't care for the color of this stuff anyway, it's a little too dark.  But when it's free you can live with it.  It was expensive flooring so it was a shame to just throw it away.

We decided to use the same flooring that is in our laundry/mud room.  I like this color much better.  I know dark floors are really popular right now but I'm not a fan.  This flooring is also less expensive but rated as more durable.  We've had no issues with the previous installations.  These vinyl planks are a breeze to cut and assemble. So that's what I'll be doing today instead of sewing.  When the floor is done then I can sew.

It shouldn't take too long to finish the last few rows of planks.  The closet will be the hardest but I'm confident in my ability to measure twice and cut once.  Did you see my eggshell blue wall?  I LOVE IT!  The closet will become an office.  There will be a desk, shelves for patterns, paper and shipping supplies.  Having a hard time visualizing this?

It will look something like this but without so much decor.  I need a functional work space for pattern writing and shipping.

The rest of the room will be used for staging quilts for photos to be used as pattern covers.  That's why everything is white.  And I'm considering leaving the windows bare, no window treatments. 

The window trim and new fan light have been installed.

Once the floor is finished he can add the baseboard and trim while I paint the door.  We were planning to paint the old wood trim but he made the executive decision to buy new pre-painted trim.  Good for me because I'm the painter!  I've mention before our home is a Ranch style home from the 60's/70's.  Some of the original wiring still exist.  He wanted to remove the old fixtures.  To me it is  not necessary.  My printer will be in this little nook, so the old fixture won't be visible.

I'm pretty sure most of you will be able to identify this odd plug.  But I bet there's a few that can't.  My kids were clueless. Most people don't even use the newer updated plug.  Well if your still guessing I'll let you in on the secret.  It's a phone jack!  It's seen better days.  Someone has stained it with wood stain.  I got a little messy with the paint, but since it will be hidden I wasn't worried about how it looks.  A fun little blast from the past and believe it or not it still works.

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