A busy weekend

Running errands, cleaning, and a little fun stuff sums up the weekend. Fun stuff first. I finished stitching the Seize the needle piece

I fully finished this piece I had stitched not too long ago.

and I finished the birthday card and got it mailed

Saturday, I had an appointment for an oil change that took way too long.  I had brought some stitching so at least my time wasn't wasted just sitting.  What they did find was I needed a couple filters changed too. They thought that a mouse had been nesting in my engine compartment because there was all this fuzzy stuff in the filters.

So, after the car stuff was done, I ran a couple errands and headed home to get started on cleaning the garage to see if I could find evidence of mice. The garage was a hot mess after just dumping stuff in there thru winter. First thing I wanted to move were the boxes of carpet squares I bought late last year. I opened the packages and left stacked them in the garage to off-gas. After cleaning out a couple spots in the utility room I moved 20 boxes then took a break before the other 16 were moved. I did not see any evidence of mice, but there was fuzzy everywhere from the carpet. I think that just the engine sucking air drew the fuzzy up into the filters.  Getting the carpet out of the garage made it easier to start getting things back where they belonged. 

I also did a fair amount of vacuuming to try out my new cordless Dyson. It did a great job finding dust bunnies and only a couple pieces of thread got caught in the sweeper head. It was designed for pet hair to not catch in the sweeper head. It has a nice big catch bin so I could see all the stuff it was sucking up. The bin is real easy to empty too! I found the balance to be a bit awkward at first since most of the weight is in your hand, but after using it a while it started to feel more comfortable. I don't have to change anything when I go from hard floor to area rugs either.  The machine adjusts automatically. 

The last thing I did on Saturday was mow and trim the front yard. It was dark by the time I got done. As I was cleaning on Saturday, I decided I needed new rugs to go under my chair in the sewing room so on Sunday I got those. The old one was made of carpet samples from one of the school jobs I was on years ago. I had taped the squares together and it served me well, but it was disguising so out it went. Here are the new, flat, machine washable rugs.

I also couldn't help but bring this little fellow home with me. He only cost $2.57. At the fancy garden center, it would have been at least $6.00. Menards had a whole bunch of succulents and it was all I could do to just bring one home.

I made a lot of progress in garage; I got 1 1/2 hours in on Saturday and two to three hours in on Sunday. I stopped once the trash bin and recycling bin were full. One of my neighbors is out of town for the week so I may check to see how full his bins are and add to them. On Sunday I did cut out strips for a baby quilt I need to have done for June. Yes, I know I still need to finish the Harley quilt. While I was cleaning and putting stuff away, I went ahead and pressed this whale fabric I had washed then cut it up for project bags.

So my plans for the week are to continue straightening up and using my new vacuum as I get an area cleaned up. I think I need to name my vacuum. I want to continue to work in the garage to straighten out another section and try to get back to the Harley quilt. I don't have any appointments this week and the weather is going to be decent. Rain is forecasted for Tuesday, but I can still work in the garage.