The last of the bricks ...

have been dug out and moved. Last night it was only 40 bricks. I used this trusty tool to pop them out of the ground.

I raked up all the leaves and dead grass, and pulled out all the sticks so that I can weed whack the tall stuff tonight. I had a wheelbarrow full and you can see another pile in the background.

It is looking better. A bit of infill with dirt and I can call it done. I have no plans for the brick. I am hoping to find someone who wants them.

Maybe I will be able to get to some sewing with job out of the way.

More bricks moved

It was cooler out last evening so I worked on moving more bricks from my sad excuse of a fire pit. I didn't get as many moved because I had to pry them out of the ground which slowed me down. I get 100 moved in about 45 minutes which is the smaller stack in this picture.

I still have more bricks to dig out, but I am at least 2/3 the way around the circle.

I will then have to pull out all the debris, weed wack the grass, and fill in the gap with some of that dirt I have sitting in my driveway. I will be glad to have this job done. It is suppose to rain tomorrow so I guess I will try and get it done tonight.

Accomplished some

I spent Saturday cutting fabric for more boxy pouches and cleaning up my fabric storage room which was a mess! Here is the before

and what it looks like now. I didn't get is completely done, but it looks a whole lot better.

Here are the boxy pouches that are ready to be interfaced. I don't know how many I have laying here, but I need to get them sewn together by the 25th.

Sunday I spent some time visiting so when I got home I needed to do some kind of physical activity. I wanted to remove my sad attempt at a fire pit so I worked on that. It is slightly downhill and carrying two bricks at a time I tore the thing apart. Here is what it looked like to start out with

and here is what it looks like now

This is the pile of bricks I stacked two at a time which represents 66 trips up and down the hill for a 44 minute workout.

I had three layers of bricks and the bottom layer looks like they are slightly buried. I will have to get out a hand tool and pop those out of the ground.

Weekend plans

I am so glad it is Friday. It has been a busy week and I ready to have time to myself. I did load the car up last evening with stuff from my last job to take to work. I was storing it in my garage and I am tired of it. I kept the stuff until I knew if I would need any of it for my next job and there is some stuff I just will not need - coffee cups, presentation folders, hanging file folders, in and out baskets, to name a few things. I loaded it up in the car last night and will find time between the rain drops to unload it at the home office - that is where I am still at today.

This weekend's plans include finishing up the last four boxy pouches from the first big round of making them for selling. I checked to see how many I have to actually sell since I have given quite a few away and I have 19. I will be needing more so that is on my list to cut out more fabric and interfacing.

I want to get started on quilting the JB piece, work in the flower beds, and if it dries out, paint the foundation on the garage side of the house. We had a lot of rain yesterday and it is just to damp to paint. Once I get the foundation on this side painted, I want to fix up where I planted cora bells along the foundation. I need to add dirt on this side of the house to get the water to drain away from the garage. I think I have enough bricks to make a edging for the bed. Once I get this side I have the foundation at the back and the other side of the house that will need painted. My goal is not to doddle around and get it done this year!

I am still looking for spring. We went from freezing cold to hot and muggy. Spring is missing and if you find it please send some to me!

Have a great weekend!

Pouches and chicken

It was too hot to walk outside so I did the rest of my steps back and forth between the laundry room, thru the studio and a foyer, then into a bedroom - turned around and walked back. After that I sat down and finished up these two boxy pouches

This morning I was up at 4:14 and had some time to get the chickens I had bought last week, washed (yes, I wash my chicken), threw two in the crock pot

and vacuum packed the other two and tossed those in the freezer. I was glad to get that done and that chicken will be tasty for dinner tonight.

Busy but no sewing

I needed to get the rest of my steps in when I got home from work so I decided I would walk to the library and go to the school to check on a couple items on the site. I changed clothes a gather up everything I needed and headed out. It was hot, 80 degrees, and everyone was outside. I didn't get but to the end of the driveway and neighbor stopped and wanted to chat a bit. She needed to leave for her kid's ballgame, so I started walking again for few more steps then another neighbor stopped me to say hello and of course a chat ensued. Ok, 10 minutes later I start to walk again and I was starting to sweat from the heat so I took out the paper towels I brought with me to wipe my face.
I walked another block or so and you guessed it, another neighbor stopped me to chat. I went as I was talking to him I looked in the pocket that I took the paper towels out of and my glasses were gone. Crap! After I finished with the current chat, I retraced my steps to try and find my glasses. Digging around I found the glasses in another pocket and by this time I was almost back home. The second neighbor I talked to said that was a fast trip to the library and I told her I never made it yadda yadda yadda. So I ended up going back home, getting in the car and driving to the library, parked my car at the job site and did my walking in the school parking lot as I checked on the items I needed to look at.

Back home I needed to get fertilizer/weed killer on the yard as it was suppose to rain and the new neighbor across the cul-de-sac stopped to talk. Oh my, it now going on 6:30! I finished my fertilizing and the neighbor next door was out so we chatted a bit. I still had my list to work on and despite all the chatting I did manage to get a few items done.

So now I have decided I will have to drive down the street a bit and park the car so I can walk without being stopped! LOL!!!

Where to begin

It has been a busy five days. Last Thursday I took a road trip to visit a friend that had surgery about 4 1/2 weeks ago. She wanted to get out of the house so we headed to Amish country in Holmes County. First we went to Miller's in Charm, then Helping Hands, walked thru the tourist trap place Sol's, a fabric place in the Germantown store, and hit Zinks. On the way back we stopped for lunch at a grocery store that has homemade ice cream and sandwiches. Next was the bulk food store in Sugarcreek and a fabric store also in Sugarcreek. Next we headed to a quilt shop in Dover which I didn't know existed. Here is the fabric in the Germantown store. I had to ask the lady if the price was really $4.25 at yard and the answer was yes. There were a few nice prints and a lot of very dated looking fabrics

There were these and it was all I could do not to buy any. I didn't have any projects in mind so that is pretty much why I didn't buy any, but they sure were beautiful and yes they were $4.25 a yard!

I ended up for the day buying a couple pieces of flannel at Miller's and Zinks so I can finish up a couple flannel quilts, and the pink and white piece came from Germantown. The light gray flannel I got at Zinks. It was a really nice piece, 60" wide and only $3.99 a yard!

My friend gave me this piece of vintage fabric. She had bought a crappy tied quilt for the backing. The front was poorly made and not worth keeping, but the backing was fabulous! I will now have to get out my vintage fabrics and make a quilt so I can put this on the back.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I spent doing stuff around the house and a bit of sewing. I got the JB quilt pin basted

Made a few more boxy pouches. I have someone who will be at the same place I will be for the band and she said she would sell them for me. She wanted to pay be back in some way for making the Harley quilt so I told her if she wanted to do that I would be very happy. I will need to make a lot more of them for the 24th.

I worked on putting my TV stand together that I bought a few months ago. I am about half done.

I did a lot of yard work. I started raking on the left side yard. Lots of sticks and leaves.

I need to fix the grade as it is low next to the garage and paint the foundation.

This will involve buying paint - Done, scraping and power washing the foundation - Done. I just need to let the foundation dry before I paint it. I also power washed the siding as far up as I could reach. Quite a difference!

I also went to a place and bought 5 yards of topsoil. Since I lived so close to the place they delivered it in two hours. I know this is hard to see as I took this picture out my car window, but the bricks are holding down the plastic I had to put on top. Friday a storm blew in and a neighbor came over with a tarp to help me cover the pile before it started to pour. The wind was howling and we had a heck of a time trying to hold down the plastic and tarp long enough to get more bricks to reinforce. Thank goodness she came to help me.

I edged the front yard and managed to get the mower started. I cut down the last two ornamental grass plants, cleaned up the garage, laundry room, kitchen, and a bit of the studio. To say the least I was tired! Last night I raked a bit in the front and dismantled the protection for an evergreen that has been a disappointment. I plan on digging up the plant and just sticking it somewhere next to the wooded area rather than tossing it.

I have a question - here are the lavender plants I have. I just planted them last year. Am I suppose to cut them back?