new items in shop

Well I know its been awhile since I posted and things are moving along on the house......slowly.
We have a few new items in the shop so thought I would tell you about them.......

Dale is still slowly making Turkish spindles and Josh is still making supported spindles in between work and school when he can.

I think I talked about this new item several month ago, Dale made on e and then he didn't make another one. One of the girls in the spinning group asked about one over the weekend and he is now making them finally.

We call it a yarn caddy, I use mine for knitting and also for plying a ball when I spindle spin. It comes with 2 cones, a fatter version and a sleeker version, they screw onto the base so are easily switched out. The base site on a ball bearing swivel so it turns or spins with ease, and the base is big enough that you never worry about it tipping over.

Go to threadsthrutime etsy shop and check them out when you have the time......if they are all gone give us a little time and we will get more made.

That's it for now.....I will try to get back to writing here in the blog and keep you updated on the comings and goings around the shop.

Almost finished ....finally!!!

Well its been a long journey in my opinion or maybe it just seems that way...... We almost have the house finished, we got the hallway tiled and grouted.....we just have to put up the trim around the doors and baseboards and then I can hang my pictures and be done with it. Here is Charlie helping to show off the tile work.

In the bathroom we have the shower/bath tiled and grouted, we need to finish some paint trim work and put up the baseboards and shower door. Here are a couple of peeks at our tile work.....

and another so you can see the paint color we choose it is the same color we used in the bedroom for the trim. In the bedroom it looks like a turquoisy blue in the bathroom it looks like a seafoam green.....kind of interesting.

So this will be my last blog post on the house....since I feel like we will be done with by next weekend. I can now move on to more interesting stuff like .........what's going on out in the woodshop so stay tuned for that next month...

Charlie and Rocky are ready for a walk so we will leave you.....Thank You for all your patience with us during this messy faze of our world. :)




 

graditude for ya'

We finally took time out to shear the goats this weekend, most of them were grateful. It is Oklahoma so one day its in the 80's and the next day its wet rainy and cold. We have been having some weird weather so we have put off the shearing this year for lots of reasons.
One of them is time.......half the year is almost over where has the time gone.??? I guess we have been too busy with the house and trying to make spindles it just seems to have slipped away from us.

Anyway here is April before and half way through her shearing......

She is more then happy to get rid of that hot itchy stuff..........she has a really beautiful curly fleece. She is 3 years old and her fiber is really super soft. Love, love, love her fiber.....

Here is Chocolate waiting her turn.........

I forgot to get a before shot of June, she is the matriarch of the group at 9 years old.....

Ok, now its Chocolates turn.......here she is before.

and here she is after...........

did she just stick her tongue out at us........that's gratitude for you!

 

 

I have a BED!!!!!

Finally after 1-1/2 years of dealing with the floor, termites, cancer, and other pitfalls we have a real bed to sleep in......anyone need a cot!!!

Rocky even approves of it.................now we just need to move in a few pieces and its complete.

On to the hallway and front bathroom.........

tiny steps............

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass; its about learning to dance in the rain......keep on dancing.
 

progress at last....

We are making progress at last..........I have curtains!!!  I still need to paint the trim boards so we can get them put up but I decided since Josh was here to help me today, we would iron and hang curtains.

Once the trim boards are painted we can then move in the furniture aka the bed. LOL!

taadaaa! curtains...........

onward and upward........:)
 

I have a closet!!!

Finally, after more then a year I have clothes once again hanging in a closet instead of folded up in a cardboard box. My poor clothes are crumpled and wrinkled and I foresee many hours of washing and ironing before they are wrinkle free......but I hung them anyway! I have clothes hanging in a closet people!!!!

Here is a peek......this is just part of it the other side looks the same only in reverse.

I have drawers for stuff and a shoe rack down below and extra storage space that will be filled once we start emptying the POD, that is still sitting out front.

We are working on hanging curtains in the bedroom and painting the trim boards ( I finally settled on a color)   :)

 I might have a finished bedroom by the end of the month.......and then down the hallway we go.

let's dance some more

Sorry I haven't updated this in a while just seems like its the same thing over and over again with the house. We have been working on trying to make items for the shop during the week nights and spending time working on the house on the weekends. The problem is our old bodies will only take so much.........I confess we have stopped  a few times just to rest and take time for us.

We removed the popcorn from the ceiling and closet.....and found more termite damage in the closet. We got the damage repaired and got the termite guys to finally come out and spray the house. The popcorn on the ceiling is gone and the ceiling is nice and smooth. We painted the closet and bedroom and yesterday the carpet guys came and I have new CARPET!!!! That means we can finally begin putting the bedroom back together after over a year of working on it and sleeping on cots.

Pearl enjoyed the new carpet so much she rolled and rolled on it.........

The color of the carpet is supposed to be Dessert Mint but it looks more like Dusty Turquoise to me......it always looks different in those small samples. OH! Well It is growing on me........looks really good next to the bathroom tile.

We have to put up the trim boards and door trim and that room will be finished....well except for moving the bedroom furniture back in...... We are working on getting the closet shelving and clothes rods mounted right now. Then we can actually hang our clothes back up and place things in the drawers instead of in the cardboard boxes we have been using for over a year.

After all of this is done we have tile to put in the hallway and the trim boards to put back up, then the hallway will be done. We will then move on to the front bathroom.....the shower needs re-tiled, walls to paint, new fixtures, and cabinets. Then we are done ..........we are going to take about a year break before we tackle the living room and kitchen. The kitchen being the BIG remodel........ We also need to finish painting the outside of the house.......and its Spring finally. Spring means we have to clean out flowers beds and get the yard back in shape for planting.....

So there you are we are still working on spindles and the house........doing our dance in Oklahoma.

I have a shower!!!!!!

Finally after what seems like years, the shower in the Master bedroom it is finished! Dale, sealed the grout, put in the faucet, drain and the door..........Yahoo! He then sealed the seems with silicone sealer and we get to use it for the first time tonight! This is the before photo if you remember from a past blog post.

 

 Here is a picture of it finished.....sorry you can't see the door it is clear glass and actually I took the pictures with the door closed......

 

and this...........

see it matches the floor tile.......

Now we can move on to the closet in the Master bedroom, then paint, and carpet..........sounds like a piece of cake compared to the bathroom........hopefully it will move along smoother and quicker.

YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

more of the same

We just have 26 more tiles to lay in the bathroom and we will be finished with the tiling. Then is has to cure and we will grout it.....then it has to cure and we can seal it. We then have to put the shower faucets in and the drain cover and we will have that bathroom almost finished. We still have the trim around the door and a door for the hot water tank.........
Dale has 3 more vacation days so he took off Wednesday so he could finish the tiling and work on a few other things. The day started off as any other day, the puppies woke us up at 6:30 needing to go outside. Then they have to eat and play for 2 hours then down for a 2 hour nap and repeat the process. So the puppies had just gone down for a nap, Dale went outside to take care of the critters outside and I came into the office here to check on emails.......
No one was aware of what was going on in the kitchen until Dale came back in the house and began screaming and cussing (unusual for Dale). I ran to see what was going on, I thought he had cut himself or something. There is the kitchen was 2 inches of water  and it was running down the hallway in a deluge. The pipe under the kitchen sink, had for some still unknown reason  just came loose.
Water was everywhere, packed boxes got wet, water got into Joshua's bedroom and got a edge of the new carpet wet, more packed boxes got wet, the puppies woke up crying, Mollie was running around barking at everyone..........it was a mess!!!
Needless to say the 26 tiles didn't get laid.......we cleaned up the mess......and went to bed earlier then usual last night.........
 

update on bathroom

I thought I would try to send you a update on the progress being made on the bathroom. We finally got the tile laid on the floor, it looks a bit dusty in the photo as we had just finished installing the cabinets. We decided to put tile under the sink, it still needs to be grouted. The plumbing to the sink and faucet is not attached. We installed the mirror and lighting finally. The trim on the wall between the two paints needs put on...mostly little bits and pieces need finished....trim around the door needs painted and attached. The BIG job left to do is the shower tile .....it will match the floor and the sink tile. Here are a few pictures........

the SHOWER

the sink
 

mirror and lights.......had to turn them off to take photo

tile floor

linen cabinet


 

another view of the sink
 

Still dancing.......

Someone asked how the house was coming along, rather then answer that questions several times I will just update the blog with the information.
We are still dancing basically..........two steps forward 5 steps back.......

Lets see where to begin, we continue to work on the house on the weekdays and the spindles for etsy on the weekends........that's about to change more on that later in this blog.

We decided to replace our foggy glassed windows for more efficient SEE THRU windows. When we ordered the windows over a month ago we were told the old ones would come out and the new ones would just slide in there place...........wrong!!!! So we painted the trim around the windows and caulked them, then took the time to remove the plants that we under the windows so they wouldn't get broken and tromped all over. The day came for the windows to go in..windows were removed and we were informed that they would have to remove the trim around the windows..... WHAT< we just painted and caulked those!!!???? Two steps forward.........so now we have to repaint the trim around the windows.........five steps back.

 Dale has been trying to finishe putting up sheetrock in the bathroom....he is almost finished mudding and taping the seams in the sheetrock......Two steps forward.......MOM needs help on her house again..........five steps back!!! She has a gas line leak and they turned off her gas while she was at work WITHOUT telling her.

Mom taken care of back to mudding and taping the bathroom we were actully beginning to feel like we might get something accomplished this weekend....Two steps forward!  What the he double hockey sticks  were we thinking!!! .....the house laughed silently while we were sleeping last night, and at 3:00 am last night the hot water tank decided to bust open. It's not that old we just put it in 5-6 years ago!!!!!! FIVE steps back............

This house is beginning to remind me of that old movie.......The Money Pit!!!

"Well, I told Dale, all we need to do is buy a new dishwasher and a new garbage disposal and we will have replaced ALL of the appliances, windows, and heater/AC in the house THIS YEAR"!

This all beginning to take a toll on us.....working on the house and trying to keep spindles in the etsy shop to sell and make the rest of the special orders. We have decided to close the barn for the whole month of September. There will be NO spindles for sale in the etsy shop for the month of September so we can try to get this house in a more managable place. We will go back to making and selling spindles again in October. I will keep the etsy shop open in case someone needs fiber or books and I will be getting a few charkha's in there..... hopefully this next weekend.

Thanks for understanding..........

It just keeps getting better!!!!

To tell you the truth I am so tired at this moment, I am at a lose for words.....I'll let the pictures talk for me........

Saturday, I had a dye class with 6 wonderfully fun fabulous ladies. We kettle dyed we microwave dyed, we steamed, we had a wonderful time. I was exhauseted by the end of the day....and it din't help that my stomach decided to revolt at the end of the day either. I will blame it on stress of knowing what was going on at home...!!!!

Dale was home working on the bathroom shower, he got the termite board replaced and worked on boxing in the shower again. We even have a light in the shower now! Cool I can see to shave. LOL! Then he worked in his shop for awhile working on a inkle loom special order......then Sunday came.

We decided to go ahead and pull down the one piece of sheetrock above the bathroom window, it has termite damage and would need to be replaced. We found a really rottten board with extensive termite damage... We found a LOT of termite damage and decided we needed to remove some more of the sheet rock. YIKES! We finally found the little buggers...not just damage but termites as well and more rotten boards.!!! We sprayed them with termite spray and killed the ones we could see. That dark brown spot you see is/was a 2 by 4 that ran all the way up the wall and supports the ceiling.

More sheetrock was removed and more damaged wood was found........we will be replacing several 2 by 4 boards before we can begin to get things put back in order.

This is that dark brown board after he pulled it off the wall........click on the pictures to enlarge them.

It is tottaly rotten and full of termites........

We had to stop about noon so we could make a mad dash to my Mom's, she lives about 2 hours away. If you have been keeping up with this blog then you will know for the last 2 years it has been back and forth with us. She gets sick has to go to the doctors, her doctors are in Tulsa, then she has to have surgery to remove her thyroid and stays at our house to recoperate. I also had to have surgery at about the same time for a hernia.........Then this year I was diagnosed with endometrial cancer and had to have surgery.....soon after the floor guys came to work on the house and Mom had to have test run on her coratid artery...thank fully no surgery was involved just extensive testing.
So now her house has decided to shake itself apart.......I don't think the earthquakes are helping she is 50 miles away from where most of them are happening. So her house is on a wooden floor and supported by cement blocks and they are coming loose. We had to go meet with a contractor to talk to him about getting work done on her foundation. If it isn't one thing its a half a dozen more ...... what happened to the simple life!
.......and my doctor wants to know if I have any stress in my life!!!!
Stay tuned I'm sure its going to get better...........it has to doesn't it!!!

Whew! What a day!

Well we hauled out about 400 pounds of cement and tile out of the shower this morning. We found some termite damage in one outside wall. The damage isn't as bad as we thought, but it is termite damage so bad enough. Dale is worn out his both shoulders of course are killing him right now. So we scooted off to look at tile and cement boards and all kind of goodies. They have done away with the stuff I had picked out from several months ago, so natually I have to pick something else. Will ponder the possibilities and pick some later.....for now its sit back in the easy chair and drink something nice and cool.........tea for me......gatorade and water for Dale.

I am just trying to keep up updated on why we are so slow getting things in the etsy shop. Here are a few pictures they can say it better then me.......lovely isn't it! Here is the shower.....

or what is left of it.........

some of the termite tunnels we found.......

That's part of the bedroom.....see Dale's rollaway he gets to sleep on at night. We still have bare cement floors in the bedroom and down the hallway.

We are working as fast as we can...........Dale has a day job then comes hom to work on spindles, inkles, and other items. Then on the weekend we work on the house........no wonder he looks tired. Please be patient with us we are doing the best we can..........Thank You!

more updates on house renovations

Well we got the cement poured and the floor level in the Master bedroom. We are now getting ready  to rip out the shelves and stuff in the closet then pour cement in there to level the floor. We also have to rip out part of the wall to repair termite damage. Then we move to the bathroom, we need to rip out the vanity and the shower stall, the pan under neath the tile has a leak, so it has to all be replaced. I figure we will be working on this the rest of the summer. Dale is getting old and worn out, he has to stop for a few days to rest his shoulder.

We have also been cleaning up the yard, we have a bumper crop of poisin ivy this year and some kind of vine that looks like a grape vine but it isn't. The goats will eat the poison ivy so we don't have to burn it but they won't touch that ivy vine. I thought at first it was possum grapes but it isn't it does have little purple grapes on it in the fall but it grows fast and will smother and kill whatever it grows onto. I HATE THE STUFF! The neighbors across from us love it, they call it their privacy fence. The electric company has came out and sprayed it but it just slows it down. It's not Kudzo, I have seen it when we visited Georgia, not the same vine but I guess the same principal anyway. So anyway we have been pulling weeds off the fences......well Dale and Josh have I am allergic to the poison ivy. I had a really bad case of it when I was about 16, now all I have to do is look  it and I''ll get it........really I gave Dale a hug to thank him for pulling the darn things and I got poison ivy on my arms.......Dale and Josh did'nt get it and they were the ones pulling it!!!

Anyway, Dale has been working in the barn from time to time, mostly he has been cleaning. Picking up wood scraps which he has a lot of, tossing it to the burn pile, and rearranging his work space. He has cut out some spindles but nothing is finished......so when I re-open on Monday there may not be any spindles. He plans on working in the closet this weekend........

He did make me something......I bought some old sewing machine drawers with the idea of making a small table out of them. He wasn't sure about the idea .....so they have been sitting around for some time now. He finally made it and surprised me with it last week. These are over 100 years old, the warranty for the Minnesota Model A, sewing machine was in the drawers....no sewing machine just the drawers. The warranty says September 3, 1903.......I plan on framing it and hanging it above the drawers. The top is the actual top of the sewing machine cabinet. One of the handles is missing but I finally found a replacement for it.....it came today so we have'nt had time to put it on the drawer. The legs are store bought to save time and Dale stained them to match the wood.......here is a photo of my new/old table.

They are in my one room that is almost finished, I need to finish hanging pictures and stuff. I call it my sanctuary, it keeps me from going crazy when I get tired of looking at a torn up house full of boxes.The walls are called Peach Surprise but it is more of a pale apricot, the carpet is pumkin spice which is a darker apricot.....it is very relaxing to me. The trim on the doors I did in a paint called Sandstorm.....so a lot of pale colors.

Come sit and spin awhile with me ..................

I plan on filling the walls with shelves and stuff that I have made through the years.... I used to paint, that is Sparky a cockatiel we used to have. He/she died long ago......it began as a he but after it began laying eggs it became a she.....and the name was changed to Sparkles... LOL! sorry colors are a bit off had to close the blinds too much light....then not enough. :(

Some beaded bags I used to make and sell, hanging on the wall. I also made and sold teddy bears...Paw Print Bears......that was me. They all had, hand sewn either suede or embroideried paws on the hands and feet. I made them from one inch tall (I had better eyes then) up to 36 inches tall. The little guys on the table are from 5 to 7 inches tall and made of mohair. I also made some out of alpaca, so I was into fiber before I knew how to spin.....LOL! Anyway that is what we have been up to and why we may not have spindles ready by Monday when we re-open the shop.........

I just wanted a lattice panel

I wish I had taken a before picture of the front entry but as usual I forgot. I asked  Dale if he would put up a lattice panel between the two front pillars so I could move the little table and chair out on the patio and maybe hang a few plants. It was bare before just a old huge back chair and table and a firewood rack. I thought the lattice panel would be something simple and easy to do and then he could go back to working on the bedroom/bathroom from he....double fiddlesticks...he had other plans..........
He looked at me and said, "why don't you create a wall of flowers with hanging baskets". I'm thinking a simple lattice panel would be more economical but if you want me to create a wall of flowers with hanging baskets....well ok! He had to help me with the chains.......I don't like ladders and apparently they don't like me! :(
So I went to my local buy it here store and they were having a half price sale on their flowers !!!! Can you beleive the luck!! LOL! So here are a few photos of the front entry way as it looks now.....wish I had taken a before shot!

And here is another one..........see the red gingerbread on the eave of the roof.....Dale cut all of those out of cedar fence pickets last fall when we painted the front of the house........still have to do the back and side of the house.

 Here is the view walking up to the front door.....we are eventually going to paint the white door to match the red shingles on the ginger bread but that will wait for another day.......

 

Come on in pull up a chair and sit a spell......would you like a glass of ice tea! I even moved my diamond dove out there......I love to hear them coo......coo....

Hopefully we will get the bedroom done soon and I can post photos of it........

House renovation updates!

Sooo for any of you who have been keeping up with the house renovations you will remember that we have been at this for sometime now! We were to have the floor jacked up in February, but first we had to move all of our stuff out of the house. Then I found out I had cancer during the move....had surgery in January and all of the cancer was removed...GOOD NEWS! The floor was to be jacked up in February, 2 weeks after surgery to remove the cancer. They came, they cracked the floor and jacked up maybe a 1/3 of the floor leaving one hell of a mess for me to clean up....did I mention I was 2 weeks out of surgery!!!
So since the carpet had to be pulled up for them to jack up the floor, which they did not succeed in doing, we decided to paint the walls and replace all the trim and carpet. Here is Joshua's room after the paint and new carpet.

New paint, new trim boards, new desk, all he needs is the rest of his things out of the POD. What why are they in the POD because we still have to do the room from Hell, the room they could not jack up. We are going to have to pour a filler on the floor to raise it up and fill in the cracks....here is our bedroom.

Dale,is sleeping on a twin bed and I am sleeping in the living room on a rollaway....

Want to see more....here is the kitchen and hallway..... I have been living like this for going on 2 MONTHS! My house does not normally look like this!!! It is driving me crazy!!!

I have one room that is my getaway room which is where I go to hide from it all. I can sit and clear my mind and think about what it is going to look like finished.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse....I was pulling down the wallpaper above the shower in the bathroom and found this over the weekend.

TERMITES!!!!!