What a day

The last 24 hours has been crazy busy. First sewing - I got a few more strips sewn and cut. I have enough for 24 blocks and I need 32. That checkered fabric still needs sewn and that will give me the last 8. I just need to cut some light gray flannel to go with it.

I got one more good sized rock and a couple little ones.

Yesterday I received my Fitbit Nile badge for walking 4,132 miles.

Then I ended up with lots of steps yesterday. The subcontractors were carrying dust out of the work area into the public areas and I needed to take action. I ended up brooming the aisles on the floor where I am working to at least reduce the crap on the floor that they were walking thru. They are suppose to clean up after themselves. My boss made me send out a nastygram about the mess that will hit them in the pocket so maybe something will finally get cleaned up. All I did was push the debris into piles to get it out of the walking paths.

I had to go and mop up several areas to get up the dust and footprints. All of this took my 3 hours. It wasn't that warm yesterday, but the humidity was high and I was sweating to the point it was dripping off me. The place looks better and the subs are cleaning today! Yeah!!

I was inspired when I read Margaret's blog the other day. She was talking about doing some spring cleaning - yes, fall is approaching, but she called it spring cleaning and knew exactly what she meant. Margaret was going to use the 15 minute method. I had commented and she replied with a lovely email pointing out all the pitfalls and a guideline to make this method work. I decided to put the plan into action when I had told her that my garage needed some serious cleaning. I set my phone timer for 15 minutes and in that time I tossed in the recycling bin all the empty boxes etc. and in the garbage bin all the trash since today is trash day. Next I swept all the dirt that was where I parked, and hung up the yard tools by the time the timer went off. The garage doesn't look a whole lot different, but I was happy with what I had gotten done.

Next I set the timer again and pulled weeds for 15 minutes. I wasn't going to go any longer since I had been at work for 10 hours, I was dirty and just wanted a shower. I made some good progress in those 15 minutes. Here is the before and after.

With all of that I ended up with over 16,000 steps for the day!

A little sewing and a lot of weeding

As soon as I got home from work I headed out to the front yard to weed. Here is the before

The crabgrass still gave me quite a battle even though the dirt was much softer after two days of rain. My arms hurt after and hour and 10 minutes of pulling. I stuffed my five gallon bucket four times to the overflowing point with crabgrass and weeds. Here is what the bed looks like now

Here is what it looked like before I started on this bed two weekends ago

It is cool again today so I have to take advantage of this weather. I will probably work out there again tonight for about an hour. I feel like I am in a race to get some much needed outside work done before the heat rolls back in next week. It is so much better at work too. Such a difference from 90+ degrees to the low 70s! I feel more energized and in a better mood.

I did get a few strips of flannel sewn together too.

Moving along

This weekend went by too fast. Saturday I was still trying to recover from being in the heat all week so I didn't get much done. I spent most of my time working on the project I can't show you yet. I finally figured out the best way to tackle the design so I think the project will go faster and better from now on. Right now I am about 1/4 the way done with the flimsy.

I did cut the flannel strips that I had pieced.

I did some cooking and laundry, but was unable to do any yardwork. It rained all weekend! We needed the rain. The ground will be nice and soft for pulling weeds now. We must have gotten at least 2 to 3 inches over the weekend. Since it is cooler today - the high 70 - and cool tomorrow and overcast, I might work on the yard after work. The temperatures are going back up in the 80's over the weekend.

It is cooler here at work too thank goodness. That heat just takes the life out of me and it is hard to get anything done after work.

TGIF

It was a very warm and humid day at work yesterday, so I am tired and very glad it is Friday!

Over the last few days when I was out on site, I have been gathering up smaller rocks as I find them and fist sized ones that show up at the base of dirt piles. I had a pretty good pile so this morning I loaded the car.

I am going to try and do a bit of weeding this weekend. We did get .1 of rain so that might be enough to make it a little easier. Of course some sewing will happen to.

Have a great weekend!

Better than nothing

I had a hair appointment right after work. By the time I got home, watered the plants, and took a shower it was going on 8 p.m. so no time to sew. I was up early since I was having a hard time sleeping last night so I got a few strip sets sewn together. It's a start!

When I went to the grocery store the past Saturday I was surprised to see Halloween candy displayed. Well you know if you buy it this early it won't last until Halloween! LOL!!!

I will guess Christmas candy will be out on November 1.

Pairing up flannel and the perfect pencil

I was beat when I got home from work. It was 92 yesterday so that meant it was at least 92+ inside where I work. After taking a shower to wash off all the dirt - I had to clean my desk 4 times yesterday because of the dirt settling on my desk so I can imagine how much dirt was in my hair! - and fix some food for breakfast and lunch today, all I had energy for was to pair up the flannels. I like using a solid with a plaid and I cut the strips in half - it just makes it easier to press the strips.

On another project I am working on, I needed a pencil that would make a nice mark without pulling on the fabric. Remember when I was at the high school and I would pick up pencils every morning on my walk?

Well, I started pulling out the different brands and found the perfect pencil - a Papermate Mirado Classic HB 2. It holds a good point and makes a good mark.

I sorted thru one can and I found a few more. I guess I will be set for awhile! LOL!!

Today it is forecasted to be 93, then 82 on Thursday and 79 on Friday with the lows 66 and 62. I just have to get thru today. I brought a small cooler and filled it with ice so I could keep my cool towel in there at the ready.

Cutting and sewing flannel

I had a busy three days. Saturday I did the grocery shopping, stopped at Lowes, then trimmed and mowed the grass. I decided to sew the rest of the blocks together out of the flannel.

and made as many blocks as I could out of the scrap pile. Here is the before scraps

and after I also cut the sports flannel up for a baby quilt

Here is what my scrap pile looks like now

I was able to make 16 blocks out of the scraps so I now have 88 blocks

I need 32 more blocks so I cut up flannel strips for those. This will be good easy sewing when I come home from work and I am too exhausted from the heat to think.

In the pile of scraps there were enough strips of this flannel for the binding so I set those aside.

So while I was on a roll of cutting flannel, I decided to attack a pile of pink and lavender flannels. Some of this was leftover from a quilt I made my sister, and a few pieces I bought so I would have enough to make another good sized quilt. Here is the pile with the piece on the left the backing.

And after cutting most of it up - I kept two pieces for cutting up later if there was a size I needed to finish this top - here is what the pink flannel looks like now. Ready to sew!

I did bring home two more large rocks and some smaller rocks I gathered up from around the site.

Yesterday I worked on pulling weeds for almost 3 hours. Oh my flower beds were such a mess! It is like the crabgrass was on steroids! Here is the bed along the sidewalk to the front door. Yikes!

After an hour of work it looked much better. I accidently pulled up some Shasta daisies so I planted those next to the house and planted a lavender plant by the big rocks I am now using as an accent. I want to move some plants around still, but at least it looks a lot better than it did!

While I was pulling the weeds something was moving thru the leaves. I looked and looked and here it was a toad. I ended up seeing another one, but he was only about 3/4" long and was too quick for a photo.

Next I started on the center bed. What a mess!

As I was pulling and digging I saw another toad! Maybe I should have just left the mess since it was now a toad habitat! LOL!!! I decided to keep pulling and got two wheelbarrows of junk pulled. It was getting too hot to work anymore so I had to quit. I made a dent but there is a lot more that needs done.

While cleaning up around the coneflowers I ended up pulling some pieces of coneflower with roots out. I went and stuck them back in so that maybe they will grow and I will have three more plants. I will have to remember to water them!

I saw the twins Monday morning. My goodness they have gotten big! Their white spots are almost gone.

Laundry, doing dishes, cooking, and baking cookies for the guys at work were also on the list yesterday.

This morning's sunrise.

It is suppose to get up to 92 today which means it is going to be really hot inside where I work. I brought a small cooler and filled it with ice from that nifty new machine. I put my cool towel inside since the fridge didn't keep it cool enough last week.