Basement Update Post #1

I pulled my hair back in a headband as I got ready for my day...did you hear me? I said, I put a headband in my hair (LONG ENOUGH hair to pull back!!!!) Anyway, after getting super giddy about having to pull my hair back out of my eyes,  I got down to the basement over the weekend! I am excited to share the little bit of the progress even though it isn't that much in the whole scheme of things. Actually, I will take that back. It is a huge thing for me because it got the wheels turning to go through the things that I haven't even touched since we moved! (Refer back to the fact that a year ago I was still wearing a wig and well, before that it was radiation, and before that chemo, and before that eight surgeries. I guess you could say I have gotten a bit sidetracked). But, more about how I have been sad about the years I haven't been "me" on a different day.





Instead, lets talk about how I started with the paper and yarn craft area trying to organized the shelves with the things that we need. I went through so much and have a garbage bag full to show for it! I should have probably taken a picture last week before the moving began because even though I have barely touched the things in this part of the house in years, it was organized pretty good (at least all of the puzzle pieces aka bins and drawers fit nicely on the shelves). I set up a card table and I was able to go through about four bins/baskets of things that have just been shoved into something to get it out of the way. Now it all has a place on the shelf.


I went through pictures...lots of pictures and found some favorites. It was therapeutic and fun all at the same time.

Look at these...oh so many fun memories just about the actual day each one of these pictures were taken! A story for each one. Stacey was down with me for a little while and we just kept pulling out pictures and saying "OOOH, look at THIS one!" This is the fun part of the work I did this weekend. Pulling out memories and smiling. One of the poses when the triplets were two has them laying on their tummies in a row. We opted for that pose because little did we know that Stacey had a fractured leg we didn't find out about til the next day. We just knew she wasn't wanting to put any weight on it. Like I said, each one has a vivid memory with each pose!

Oh and then this little man...I didn't lay pictures out for each kid although I certainly could, there were plenty that I paged through. Lots of great memories of Zach's picture days too. (He has some hilarious stories from his portrait days!)

Now that I have had a little fun down there it will be easier to go and get to work. This week however, it doesn't look like I will get back down there til around Wednesday afternoon. I hope to jump to my cutting table so that I can work on a quilt that I have in my head.

Baby steps...I told myself that before I started all of this. So, I am pretty pleased that I took a few over the weekend. David even had Matt and Zach help move some of the lighting fixtures so that the will be centered over my sewing and cutting tables. I am positive already that I will love it more than my old space.

Okay...I'm Gonna Do It!

Here I go, posting the MESS that is my sewing/crafting "room". Let me give you a disclaimer, none of my children or anyone else's children are buried anywhere in the mess although there were a few tense moments as I put some of them to work moving all the stuff! You see, the best "bang for our buck" in our basement would be for us to put the two bedrooms and bathroom where my sewing machines and craft tables were. That means that my sewing "room" needed to move.

First things first...I had to set up an area where I could
sew no matter what the place looks like around me!

I am going to be transparent here and maybe some of you can hold my feet to the fire. Do I want an organized area to sew and create? Of course!!! Do I want to go downstairs in the chilly basement by myself and go through everything I have to purge and organize? Not when the family keeps having NCIS marathons upstairs in this cold April and there are crochet projects to work on!

So, to get my feet in the fire, I will post my mess. I am not sure when you will all get an update, these kinds of acts of desperation don't always work for me. But, since I really do have the end goal to be organized (and a list of projects that need to be completed), I do think I will make my way down there. Starting today. I put before myself the picture in my mind of me downstairs during the 90 degree months in the cool of my basement as kids run through the sprinkler outside the window. I better get busy...I can't imagine it being 90 again with the single digit temps this weekend, but I do trust that the One who holds the earth on its axis will bring summer in due time, even if He decides to skip spring this year.

All right...let me take you on the tour.

Above was the zoomed in view...this one would
be the step back and see the wide angle view.

Sadly, I can't tell you much of what is in those piles...just that many many projects done without me cleaning up after myself made me shove all kinds of things into boxes and bins. One by one I will go through them. Ugh.

Here is the yarn and paper craft area. The big
shelving unit was emptied and moved, much
of what is seen here just needs to be organized
and put back on the shelves.

I may have to purge some things before I put them back on these shelves. There are a lot of things I haven't used in a  long time. I get to decide if I will find a good use for them in the next year, or if they are just weighing me down. There will be an eight foot counter along that back wall (those who have been in my garage for garage sales may not recognize it without the saw horses that it usually sits on to display our merchandise!) I will definitely post when it goes in. I have been waiting to get it out of the garage and used since we moved in back in 2013!

So, here it is from the opposite direction. Again,
shelves that need to be organized. I could
move these without emptying them but they do
need to be emptied and again, purged and organized!

Woo Hoo! The bracket that my mom had on the
back of her tv from the old kitchen was still
attached to the back of it where it sat in her living room.
It fits on mine!

So, there it is! It is safe to say that if you can't get ahold of me, I may be stuck down there sorting through stuff. There is a lot that I can use, it just isn't (and honestly, wasn't in the other location) easily accessible. I am not really a organization guru and when I go all out to organize I usually find a way that I can't really maintain, or maybe it wasn't such a good idea in the first place.

I will think through as I go and Mom next door has already been a huge help! She IS the ultimate in organizing sewing areas. I love hers! I look forward to many projects getting done once it all gets put back together. It will happen, hopefully in a timely manner. To be honest, I am used to working over a mess so I will admit that two projects have already been done in my new space. So if worse comes to worse...stay tuned!

Long Winter Woes

How can it be the week after Easter? It isn't always this bad, but let me tell you, this is the longest winter we have had in a long time! So long that the first week of soccer games are cancelled because at 8 a.m. on Saturday the temps are supposed to be in single digits! So, another snuggle up cozy weekend when we should be out tilling through our soil and preparing the ground for planting soon. Well, at LEAST we should be getting out the swing and the patio furniture!


















Enough of my belly-aching. We actually did have a nice Easter. We were able to enjoy our traditional Easter activities. Church at 9:25 followed by brunch with the fam at our house. Then there was a little time for a nap, and then off to my parents for Easter dinner all together. We have only one still interested in egg hunting so big sister Stacey stepped up and asked if she could hide them for Matthew this year. She said he told her he wanted them to be hidden so they would be hard to find. She took him seriously!


I was in the house when she came in and said she hid them REALLY good. She then explained that you can't see any of them because she buried them! What? I told her that is probably not what he meant. It was hard, so this year Matthew played "hot or cold" and eventually found all ten! The fun part is that she got some good pictures of him. He is kind of a ham if you couldn't tell! At least last weekend they could go out in a hoody. This weekend we are back in winter coats. I hear that this should be the last of winter striking in the next couple of days.

Zach is telling me that on April 21st will be 60 degrees and after that it will not go lower than that. So, there it is the good news. As I pulled out my winter coat yesterday I was thankful that I at least I am able to keep warm during all of this. I am a BIG fan of hibernation in November but in April...not so much!

As I finish up my musing, I am engaging in mental debate. When I finish here should I venture out in the cold and wind to pick up toilet paper? OR, should I pull out a couple extra tissue boxes I have in the hall closet and strategically place them on the back of the toilets in the house? These are the questions this silly weather has me pondering today!

A Little More Life Left

I have mentioned this week that I am working hard making a big move in the basement. It is such a disaster that I have not taken pictures of progress because it doesn't seem like too much when I think of all I have left to do.  But thanks to my mom's help yesterday I was able to get the rugs and all of the shelves and tables moved over to their new place.

Now, it is determining lighting and placement of machines, cutting table, and counter top that will serve as a place to organize and work on future projects (like card making and photo books, quilts and other fun handmade gifts). I do have to say that I am a little excited. BUT, I am a lot excited about a little project that has come out of the first big move day.

You can see the particle board on the
front where the fake strip had fallen off.

I have had this little shelving piece since my mom and her siblings were cleaning out my grandpas house. I remember where it sat in their house in the hall way to the bathroom. Every so often a new or different knick knack would be sitting on one of the shelves. It has been in my basement in the last two houses I have lived in and held more practical things like pen cups or paper and other things I used in my crafting. When I did the last rearrange of the furniture in my sewing area I found that my scrapbooks fit like a glove on the shelves and so it has been down there holding on to our family memories. Seems fitting...except for one thing. They never get seen or looked at in my sewing area.

Fast forward to this afternoon. As we were emptying the contents of the shelves so we could move it, I was pretty sure I didn't want the family albums to be moved into a deeper corner of the basement more out of the way than they were before. So, I brought it upstairs, moved around some little pieces of furniture and found a place for it to sit.

It is no priceless antique but instead mostly particle board and 70's spindles but I thought that maybe I could spruce it up a bit. We are in no place of late to purchase brand new furniture and well, it is a memory that could actually be functional. The little strips of fake "wood" had fallen off of a few of the levels but because of the little door on the bottom every time one strip would fall off, I would stash it inside the cabinet part. So, I had every little strip to glue back on once I found a place for it.

Before

After

Excited when I realized it would work!

Then there was the hardware. It also dated the piece and so after remembering some things I have in our "junk" drawer I measured and figured that the pull I had left over from our whirlwind "flip the house" month we had getting our old house ready to sell would work perfectly! It was a little tricky getting the holes drilled on a door that was already mounted but I found some longer screws and think it turned out pretty great considering I haven't bought a single thing for it. All of the strips of fake wood were re-glued on and I turned the little top do hickey another half turn and hid the crack on the wall side.
After I got it all glued I was able to sort through the books and put them in order by year. Zach is having a ball going through these books that he never knew were downstairs! They had a blast looking at the books and trying to figure out where their story started as part of our family. Lots of talk about grandmas and grandpas and great this and great that. If nothing else, the time I have spent on this project has already been worth it!

Ta-da!

 As Zach opened up book after book he was so excited to see how he smiled when he was a baby, showing me his favorite pictures with his siblings and even excited about the heritage albums. Opening one of the albums he said "these are like a key to the past!"

Those who know me know that that is music to this moms ears! It was also a big of a kick in the pants to get the books I have in progress finished and on a shelf too! I really think that me spending the time to purge and organize the things I do downstairs will be the "key to our future!" Meanwhile, it looks like this memory piece has a little more life left in it after all. I giggle as I have typed "piece" throughout this blog talking about this particle board unit as if it was some priceless addition to our living room! We all have our own definition of "priceless".

Now I just have to decide what to stash in the little cabinet at the bottom! I love a good place to stash stuff!

A Few Projects

We are gearing up for some big changes at our house. There is pandemonium in our basement as we map out rooms and where things will be happening. One of things that I will be responsible for in all of this will be to move all of my sewing/crafting to the back of the basement. I started by cleaning out the unused toys and mess that had accumulated back there one day last week when we were home on break. Now I don't want to just MOVE it all into the space, I need to plan and figure where things will be best placed, lighting needs, etc.

When we first moved in back in 2013 I just set things up as I needed them for projects. I have moved things around a little here and there to make it somewhat more efficient. Now however, I would like to put some thought into what I do most and where cutting table/machine table, and the other crafting stuff table. There is also the problem now of how awful I am at picking up and putting back things after each project I work on. SO, that said, my cutting table is full of piles, the table the girls' machines are on is piled high with quilt magazine ideas and fabric too. Yes, time to REEL IT IN!

All this to say, that since Christmas I have been able to get a few things done in my "spare" time! I thought I would share since it might make me feel better about myself to think of what has gotten accomplished despite my mess and thoughts of transition.

So, here is my show and tell if you will! First, I have a friend whose daughter has a birthday at the end of January. So, my first completed project of the year is this mermaid tail. She likes pink and purple and wanted some teal in with it. It is hard for me to see the end when I am standing in the store picking out yarn and I do love how it turned out but I think I may have gone for a little more pink, or a brighter pink. I was told she loved it so I am happy with that! (oh, and it probably would showcase better if I had not taken the picture on the ugly mauve carpet!)


Next we have a project I started back in October when I spent the weekend at my aunt's house. It was fun to get away and hang out with some of my favorite people. I can't wait for the next time! I wasn't really prepared for working on anything when I was packing and preparing but I did have LOTS of denim circles. I had also been to Tuesday Morning that week and had snagged some fat quarter packs for four bucks each in batiks! When I saw the fabric I remembered the denim quilt I made for the benefit last year. My sister had told me she bid on my quilt but my aunt (same one I was quilting with and found at Jo's Country Junction) had won. What a great idea to make another denim quilt like the one I made for the benefit! I had PLENTY of denim. So that is what I started there while I was there.

The picture is the completed quilt before I wash it. I was able to make one for my sister in law for Christmas in between before my sister's February birthday. We usually exchange cards and gift cards for our birthdays which is fine, but I was excited to give this. She liked it too!

Unfortunately, my Marion Indians quilt didn't get an "after" picture. But, here it is before I quilted it to the back. I used a inner square and stitched inside each square and it turned out nice. I had a deadline of first week in February for that to be auctioned at the All American Concert which is our school's fundraiser each year to support the music directors and the music programs at the high school. I was happy to be able to help bring in $100 for the music program. This fleece blanket/quilt will be great for football season! It was a fun kinda make it up as I go pattern. I was happy with how it turned out.


And last on my show and tell today is this fun banner I made for the front door. I admit, it was half way through March before I got it on the door, but it was still "in like a Lion" where the weather was concerned so I still feel good about how it turned out! In fact, my kids blame me for the snowfall we got in the early part of the month because I still had my snowman "Snowday" up on the door. Not any longer.

I saw this pattern in quite a different form in a Quiltmaker magazine. It was a horizontal banner and that just wouldn't work for the door. Although it asked for 2" squares, I had all of the 1 1/2" squares left over from the Mario quilts I made for the boys. I putzed around with the colors until it all worked. A little bit of redesign and we have March in like a lion/out like a lamb for spring.

I would love to have a new banner on the door every month but I still have some missing. I have a couple of very fun ones in pattern stages right now but look forward to some new summer doors this year. We are all in a topsy tervy point in the basement and today I will be working on moving my sewing "room". I am telling you, there is a lot of stuff to move! I will have to give a report when some organization comes out of my current chaos!

State Basketball Fun

Both halves of the game on Thursday
against CPU showed very uneven calling
by the refs. (see the foul board)

It is always fun when state basketball rolls around. The years we have been in Marion and that Stacey has played basketball have been exciting. The Marion girls are good. Stacey played on the Fresh/Soph team and JV. She has grown a lot by the experience and is excited for the next few years. She just told me this afternoon "I wish that basketball was a year round sport" (as we were out buying new soccer cleats!)

We traveled to Des Moines to watch them play. My dad loves going to the games and so he drove his van. We jumped in and drove the two hours to cheer the girls on. Not knowing how the week would turn out, but hoping pretty confidently that the girls could win the championship, we were there to watch as they beat Fairfield on Monday.

Because of the bracket, the second game on Thursday was CPU. We play CPU twice during our regular season and it is a real rivalry when we do. The worst thing that could happen would be for CPU to beat us at state. Some were worried. We knew they could do it, we beat them both games there and home but both games were close. The game started with terrible reffing and I think that even CPU fans would agree. It was pretty close for awhile until they took the lead to 10 before all was said and done. We like to think that the girls beat CPU AND the refs during that game! It was a very mental game the whole time.

The girls played hard and beat CPU for the
third time this season.

Grandpa and Stacey heading to the game

I was so torn for the championship game! We were up against Grinnell who were known to be good. Zach had his last middle school show choir competition on Friday night right as the girls started the game. I stayed in town and sat just as Zach's group went up to sing with the tip off on my phone in one of my ears and the other ear and eyes watching his performance. If Stacey was playing I certainly would have gone, but I knew there were plenty of people cheering them to victory so I stayed behind for Zach.

Matt got to come on Thursday. "This is so
cool!" he says.

Stacey and Dawn rode to the game with Grandpa and Grandma and cheered in person. It was such a good game and a great way to end the season! Each one of our girls did what they do best and were on, every one of them. It made for a great game of basketball for those of us who have watched all through the season as they made their way to the championship game. That is what a team does, each contributing their strengths.

It is a sad end always when Stacey thinks about it being so long til they play again in the fall. But the training through the summer months preparing for next year makes it go fast and we will find us at the beginning of a new season once again. (At least it goes plenty fast enough for me who would like time to slow down just a bit).

Tonight officially ends the season with the basketball banquet. I am proud of Stacey during her first year of high school ball. If there is one person who loves basketball it is our Stacey!

Spring Break

We got back on Wednesday from Wisconsin Dells. We spent four days and three nights there with my brother and his family. We attempted this a couple years ago and had a great time so we thought we would do it again. This time we tried a different water park The Great Wolf Lodge. It was nice. The rooms weren't the greatest but we got a Groupon deal so we took it. I think when we go back next time, we will split a condo that has a full kitchen and lots of sleeping space.

As much as I would have liked to have a bunch of pictures at the water park, I ended up leaving my phone up in the room for the most part so I didn't lose it or have it stolen when I wasn't as the table with our stuff. The kids would definitely recommend the park. There were two big slides that you go down in inner tubes, A couple that the kids would call "like at the swimming pool" where you just go up and slide down. There was a very fun body slide where you go down on a mat head first on your belly. I got to do some relaxing pool side with my current read "Team of Rivals".

Mille Bourne madness!

The favorite of all was the tornado. Jonah was still just at the line and so he was the only one who didn't get to go down. I will tell you at first, I was a little scared as I waited in line and heard the screams as people would go down. It is a four person tube and it drops what feels pretty straight down right at the start. My first time down I ended up being the one going backwards so that was a little unnerving. But, it was VERY fun. You get shot out into the huge drum going back and forth until you get to the bottom. If it wasn't for the heavy tube to carry up the stairs I would have gone on it more. With Syler and Ryan it was nice since they were able to carry it.

We did make it out to dinner once at MACS

We all got good arm workouts carrying the tubes! The wave pool was a favorite too along with the hot tub. There really was a very wide range of choices and there were very few times that it was crowded. We ate our meals in the room with a mini fridge and (mini) microwave. Walking tacos, sloppy joes, veggies and fruit along with the typical chips and cracker kind of snacks. It was a nice get away!

We couldn't go to the Dells without a trip to the arcade and I did get some pictures there!

Ryan, Syler and Zach find their way out
of the escape room

Matt wins a Pikachu first try on the
claw machine!

Life size Space Invaders

The girls give it a try

Look out for this gang!

It was good to get out of town for a few days. It wasn't too busy this spring break and there were rarely long lines. It was even pretty relaxing. (Most of the time!)