Out and about

Thanks you every one for your encouraging comments. I had to go to the doctor's today because my incision is still very red. They decided I needed an antibiotic so I thought I would stop at the library and say hello on my way to the drug store. The library gives me a chance to rest a bit before the next leg of my journey. The drug store is only a block from the library. Then I will head to the grocery which is only a block and half from the drug store then I have the trek home. It will be about a total of 3 1/4 miles. I will be tired tonight, but I need the exercise and I am trying to take advantage of the nice weather and the time off from work. If I don't get back to the library before Thanksgiving, I wish every one a wonderful holiday with family and friends!

I am feeling every day

I walked 1 1/2 miles to the library today so I could catch up on my e-mail. Thanks to everyone for their well wishes! I am feeling better every day and finally did a little sewing yesterday. I just want all of this to be over with so I can get back to my life.

Where have I been?

Thursday, November 4, I woke up at 2:30 in the morning with pain in my belly. It went on for four hours so I decided to drive myself to the 24 hour emergency care facility. They took a CT scan of my belly and I had a five pound mass! Holy cow! The doctor said "You need surgery" and went off to find me the best doctor in American who is Dr. Jenison. I left the emergency facility and went home to wait for Dr. J's office to call. I did some dishes and headed to Dr. J's. He was still in surgery, but he saw my CT scan and the patient manager told him that I walked into the office bent over in pain so he said just to have me admitted. I went back home, finished the dishes, packed a bag, and waited for the hospital to call me when a bed was ready. My brother, Jim, came and picked me up and dropped me off. Now the fun begins!

I got checked in and the surgery prep began. I didn't know what time I was going to have surgery yet, because I was on stand-by. The gave that stuff to drink to clean out my guts, but after a half gallon of that stuff I was feeling pretty bad and sick to my stomach. Between the drinking and the IV my belly was really filling up with fluids and the pressure was getting painful. They gave me some percocet (spelling?) which really upset my stomach and I ended up hugging the toilet. Since I couldn't drink the stuff it was a matter of cleaning me out from the other end.

I went down to pre-op about 4 p.m. and had to have a chest x-ray. The joseling around on the gurney was not fun. The more I laid there the worst I felt. After about three or four hours in pre-op I asked to go to the bathroom. The nurses walked me down and when I went to get up I passed out and did a Steven Tyler! My son was there and heard me hit a table that was in the restroom and then I hit the floor. The was IV fluid all over the floor, I was all wet, and the nurses were frantic. They helped me up to a wheelchair, cleaned me up, and got me back to my bed. Next they had to take me to get a CT scan of my head to make sure I didn't have a brain bleed that caused me to faint. More bouncing around and I was blowing chunks. No broken bones, no brain bleed, so they could go ahead with the operation. Since I had fallen on my stomach, I was really in misery. I couldn't even cry because it hurt so bad.

Finally surgery happened at 6 p.m. and lasted to 11 p.m. Besides the mass, I had 3 liters of blood in my belly. I have to say the staff at Akron General were absolutely wonderful! It was like being at a five star hotel except for the being sick part! I truly appreciated all the care and support I received from all the staff and doctors. When I was really suffering, they held my hand and I felt how much they really cared.

I am recouping for a few days at my brother's Mike house before I go home by myself. I am not allowed to drive for a month. I have an appointment in two weeks to get my staples out and will be off work for six weeks. Glory, I feel like I have been run over by a truck and they backed over me a couple of times for good measure. I am feeling better every day and will just spend the next six weeks taking care of me. I will check in if I get a chance.

10 days to go and a little sewing too!

I feel that I am on schedule or just a little ahead. I had a productive evening.
I got the first coat of paint on the window trim and the second coat on the closet doors. I will have to wait until tonight to see if I need a third coat. The people that lived in the house before me were smokers and sometimes the yellow comes thru as the case for the doors in this house. I had primed and painted them numerous times, but they still look a little yellow to me. Since the door to the fabric storage room was leaning against the wall I threw another coat of paint on one side. I will turn the door around and put another coat on the other side tonight. This was not in the schedule, but it did not take long and since I had the paint can out why not?

I also got the grille cover back on the heating duct and make some brown rice for breakfast tomorrow. I sat down at the sewing machine and put together those last 6 blocks for the third pink and brown quilt, trimmed them, and hung them on the design wall. Tonight I will put the top together.

I decided I needed to make an arty piece to celebrate National Metal Day 11-11-11. I made up a word doc and printed it on fabric. I plan on using some gray fabric paint to color it - it is just too white. I dug out my most metal fabrics that will go into the piece. I also bought some metal studs - pyramid shaped and some that are skulls to embellish this piece. Since I am so short on time, this will not be a big piece. I am aiming for around 30" x 38".

This piece will follow along with the look of this quilt I made earlier this year for a metalhead

How many of you out there is going to celebrate National Metal Day on 11-11-11? How do you plan on celebrating? VH1 Classic has a lot of great programming leading up to NMD and all day on the 11th. That ought to keep me moving while I continue my remodeling!

Yesterday's sunrise was beautiful and the day was also beautiful. I don't know how warm it got, but it was really nice outside. Here is this morning's sunrise. I think we could be in for another lovely day!

11 days and counting

Last night I sat down after work to watch Holmes on Homes and Million Dollar Contractor that I had taped from the night before and next thing I know two hours had passed! Oops! I needed to get to work.

Here is one of the windows in the fabric storage room.

I took the trim pieces out, marked them, sanded them lightly to get the dust off, and primed them. Here they are drying on the sawhorses in the living room.

Here is what the window looks like with the pieces removed.

I have to do better tonight - 11 days until Peg comes.

Here is what the living room or should I say paint/workshop looks like right now - I didn't want you to think I don't have a messy room!

I press the piece of fabric I picked up when I was in Dover on Saturday. I found this for $5.00 a yard. I plan on using it for binding for one of the pink and brown quilts.

The sunrises have been very gray lately, but today we have a little color. The camera makes it look prettier than it really is, but I will take anything other than gray since it is THE FIRST OF NOVEMBER ALREADY! Where did this year go?

Busy, busy weekend

Friday nights opening at the art museum was "Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism". I didn't have time to see the paintings. I was told there are three Monet's in the exhibit. I will make time in the next few weeks to go and see the paintings. The lobby in the museum had a Fench street scene

Here is the food - French and American cheeses, grapes, crackers, etc.

Here are the roses I was to sell - that was my job. I only sold 8. People just did not want to carry them around.

The lady that ran the event gave the rest of them away when the event was winding down and sent me home with a half dozen.

Saturday after running around doing errands, I did some priming and painting trim.

Done

I soaked these Sunbonnet Sue blocks in Orvis and then gave them a gentle wash. I could not believe how dirty they were. They belong to the event coordiantor at the art museum and were made by her grandmother. I am making them into a quilt for her. There are two blocks that still have some brown spots on them. I will try washing them again.

Sunday I installed switchplate covers and receptacle covers. Now the room is starting to feel like I am getting somewhere.

Here is the closet in this room. The wood has never been painted so it was great that I didn't have to sand or strip varnish off before I could prime and paint.

The sun was shining and it was warm enough out to spray paint the bedrails for Peg's room. When she couldn't come in August I didn't bother to finish this job.
Before

After

I had this old mirror and decided to spray the frame yellow to go in the yellow and gray room
Before

After

I got the second coat of paint on the extention jamb and casing for the windows

Before I could tear into the floor I had to drag this 8.5' x 12' wool rug ...

up these stairs

I then pulled up the peel and stick tile so that I could prime the floor before installing more peel and stick. You may ask why? Well, I should have primed the floor before I installed the floor the first time because the tile did not adhere to the floor very well and the black petro based adhesive left from the original tile seeped thru the peel and stick and discolored it.

I pulled up a little more than half the tile and then primed the floor. I had a fan on it with the windows open to try and get it to dry so I could move the bed over and do the other half.

The other half before

after

I read on the the can of primer (Bulls-eye primer - it is my favorite - water based) that it is fully cured in 7 days. I am going to wait as long as possible before I install the new peel and stick to make sure I get good adhesion this time.

To say the least I was tired Sunday evening! I made a pot of vegetable soup for lunches and called it quits at 6 p.m. I feel I made a lot of progress on the house. I have 12 days to get the room done.

Had to make a list/schedule

What list/schedule was I making now? I received a note from my friend that was suppose to come up for a quilting weekend in August but had to cancel. She is now looking at coming up Nov. 11. That means I need to get the fabric storage/my bedroom finished so I can move all the shelving and fabric that I temporary located in the new yellow and gray bedroom back into the fabric storage room. I started the list, but I need to add a few more items as I think about what needs to be done.

I still need to add installing the window trim and casing, installing the baseboards, and making the window treatments. Jo Ann's is having their home dec fabric on sale plus the weekend of the 4th there is coupon for an extra 25% off. So I will pencil making the window treatments the week of the Nov.6th.
I gathered up the extension jambs for the windows and the primer. I would prime them tonight except I am working at the art museum at an exhibit opening. It looks like I have all the baseboard and casing already painted so that's a good thing!

I have been making muffins this week to take to work. I found a recipe for pumpkin muffins and I wanted to try them out. I made them before work so they would be warm. The first batch I made on Monday were ok, but they didn't have much flavor. I made them again Tuesday morning and tweaked the recipe and they were really good. This morning I made blueberry. I decided to use applesause instead of butter to save a few calories. The pumpkin muffins were made with applesause instead of oil so I figured it would work with the blueberry muffins. I baked them about a minute too long, but they still taste pretty good.

So you know what I will be doing this weekend - working on the room and when I am waiting for the paint to dry, I will be working on the pink and brown quilts and cleaning. There is nothing like having company to get a person moving!

What are you doing this weekend? Whatever it is, I hope you have a great one!