March 13, 2007

• March Lamb

  Here it is, March already! We have been having wonderful weather, lots of sun. I think it was close to 90 F on Sunday! We have all sorts of blooms starting in the yard and it is nice, even if something is giving me allergy problems.

  As usual, we have been busy. Joe seems to be mostly over his flu, but still has a bit of a cough. I have been working with Megan on the last of the Girl Scout cookie sales, we finish up this Thursday. At home, they have been working at finishing up the landscaping and fixing a number of problems. Our most major problem has been the koi pond which became very green and algae filled. They have decided to drain it, try to clean the bottom and then refill it. I have my doubts that this will work long term, but we are trying it. We also tried to use the jacuzzi for the first time and discovered the plumbing that cycles the water back to the heater is badly leaking and will have to be repaired before we can use it. Apparently no one tested this, so we did not discover it till we tried to heat the water.

  I am getting ready to go to the annual big miniature show in Chicago at the end of this month. There is a bunch of prep work I have to complete for the class I am taking, so lots and lots of painting, sanding and more painting of all the bits that will be eventually used as trim. I also have to lay a wood floor that will involve millions of little bits of wood and glue and a lot of patience. I have left that to last, not sure if that was the wisest or not. We are making a country French room in a clock case, called the Keeping Room. Here is a picture of their sample:

  

  If all goes well, I will get to see my dad while out there. He seems to be doing very well, considering we almost lost him just a bit over a year ago. He has been training to be a hospital chaplin so he can comfort other people and seems to really enjoy the work.

  I will also be taking a class to learn more woodworking, we will be making a chest of drawers which should look like this:

  

  In other news, we finally hung our Amish quilt in the staircase well. We found this beautiful quilt in a little Danish town called Solvang, near Santa Barbara, CA. This quilt is entirely hand-sewn, not just the actual quilting but the assembly of the quilt squares as well, most of which are no more than an inch square in size! It was much harder to get the rack up, requiring two ladders and three people in the end! Anyhow, I think it looks great and now we can enjoy it every day!

  

  I have also been busy trying to learn to use the new laser cutter. I am trying to make tiny leaves for a friend in my mini group and it is more complicated and work than I expected. But I am learning a lot! I am supposed to have a mini meeting this Saturday but I am not sure if I will go or not, there seems to be so much going on right now.

  Oh and in bad news, the power went out in our garage and I didn’t notice it for several days and so we lost all the food in the deep freeze! Arghh! All the outlets in the garage work off GFI types, that trip with surges and such. But we hadn’t been using any of those outlets, so we are still not sure how the GFI tripped. I lost a bunch of the pre-made dinners I had done and the worse than that, we lost the top layer of our wedding cake that we had been hoping to enjoy on our first anniversary. Oh well!

  Anyhow, I best get back to my painting for my mini class at the convention. I hope everyone is well!

  • 12:36 pm
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