New quartz counter tops! The sink is just set in, but the plumber will come tomorrow to install that and the dishwasher. We will get a new faucet too. The caulk is wet, and everything has to just be left alone tonight. The installer said it is dirty and that it will take a couple of washings with just soap and water to get off the packing grit.
We re-topped the island. Guess if it has to set, I can't dance on it tonight.
And then the little pieces by the stove. We are getting there.
Not much is together or ready to go at our house. With the kitchen in progress, we have dishes and pots and pans and cleaning supplies and pictures and pottery and you name it everywhere. It is mostly all dusty and disorganized. A Mess. However, I did finish this quilt and it is ready to go. I am planning on using it on the kitchen table, but I can't try it out because the kitchen table is buried in mail and old papers, hardware for the cabinets, the old bulletin board, and and and. At least this quilt is ready to go though, and I hope it looks like what I think it will when I can dress the table with it.
This little quilt was finished last week. I bought the fabric and pattern at the Country Living Fair and started it in the hotel in Columbus. I sewed all of the trianges together by hand and then did the rest by machine. It just fits on the rocker for now. It's another little piece of quiet in our topsy turvy house.
Here's the laundry room yesterday morning. Allen has the window wall painted as well as the rest of the room. Only one yellow wall to go. He moved the washer and dryer and crawled around behind everything before we went to Shannon's to watch the game (ROLL TIDE), and then he finished it this morning and moved everything back so I can at least do some laundry and get to the utility sink. No more yellow! We're excited about the new (still empty) cabinets that will work better with the washing machine lid. No more pinched fingers.
Here's the stove with the missing microwave and missing countertops. Who knows when the microwave will be re-installed, but the new cabinets look good to us. The stove top has become the main kitchen prep area without any other space to set things.
And here is the kitchen sink and dishwasher. The glass cleaner is sitting on the edge of the island without its top. We decided to put a matching counter on it as well, so it is prepped and ready for installation. Allen repainted everything in the kitchen (except for a little bit of trim work that I did last weekend), and he installed the new switch plate covers and the new blinds. Wednesday, I have a holiday for Veterans' Day, so that is when the counter comes, and then the new dishwasher and sink will happen Thursday. I'm pretty ready to put things back together.
You never know what you're going to find at the flea market. Shannon, Allen, and I went up to the "Big One," the October flea market at the fairgrounds in Nashville. We actually drove up Friday night so that we could be at the flea market early Saturday morning. We didn't buy any little people chairs, but we did find some treasure. Shannon came home with a retro radio, among other things, but I think I got the best finds.
The first find was this accordian style wooden sewing box. It needs some repair, but Allen will be able to help me out with that, and for $10, what a deal! I'll have another stash for sewing stuff. While that was a bargain, the second item we bought is truly a treasure.
We found this Singer 221-1 Singer Centennial Featherweight. Quilters say the Featherweight is The machine to use for piecing. From the serial number on it, it seems this was made in 1951. It has a case, the original (musty smelling) instruction book, and the original attachments. It's not in mint condition, but it is very nice. Allen knows a good bit about sewing machines from his time working with Bernina back in the early 1970's, and he knows machines, so we were pretty confident about getting it to work. On my first try, though, it jammed. Uh-oh. We turned to the book we bought, Featherweight 221, The Perfect Portable And Its Stitches Across History, and Allen took apart the bobbin mechanism to find a many year old thread glob. Try number two -- success! She hummed along and stitched perfectly. We think we got it for an excellent price based on after-the-fact research. I love, love my Bernina, but what fun this will be!
After lunch at the Franklin Chophouse, we headed to my favorite fabric shop in short driving distance from home, and Allen patiently waited for Shannon and me. I picked up backing fabric for a new kitchen table batik I'm working on plus a few fat quarters for Tap's birthday quilt and some blues for a little project I am going to do for Shannon's work. I always think it is a good thing that I don't live closer!
Sunday was "Empty the Kitchen Day" for Allen and me. Take one last look at the painted white cabinets. I just don't think I'm going to miss them.
We pack lots into our kitchen. It now fills the dining room and the living room. All flat surfaces are covered. I know that I am not the best of housekeepers, but the amount of kitchen grime and dust is pretty embarrassing. When the new dishwasher is eventually hooked up, we will give it a good workout before we fill the new cabinets.
The first cabinets to go in were in the laundry room. Now we have more clearance between the machines and the cabinets, so maybe I won't have any more squished fingers opening the washing machine! Plus, these have shelves up to the ceiling which will provide a whole new shelf space. 
These are the upper cabinets above the sink area. The top set will have glass front doors. Tomorrow, they will finish this part of the work and re-install the microwave and stove. Then Wednesday the counter people come to make a template. After that, we will still not have water or counter tops for seven to ten days, but when the counters are ready, the plumber will install the sink and the new Bosch dishwasher. Pretty darn exciting, if I don't say so myself!
Fall Break was absolutely wonderful. We started out early Saturday morning last week so that we could be in Daphne in time for the Alabama kickoff at 11. We just made it in time, and we got to play with Bridger and Taplin and munch on pizza while we watched Alabama win. Roll Tide! Bridger was shy for a few minutes and then warmed up to Grandma and Grandpa quickly, showing us all of his school work from St. Lukes. He showed us his career week creations -- fireman, doctor, mailman...it sound like St. Lukes suits him.
We took a stroll through the fun shops in Fairhope, a romp at the playground, and then a stop in at Old Bay Steamer for dinner. We all liked our seafood, but Taplin seemed to really love the potatoes. Who knows what inspired him to put them on his head! What a silly fellow! Taplin's antics keep us all laughing. Aren't the curls something? Meghan dumped both boys in the bath after we got home, and she trimmed those sideburns.
Monday, Allen and I took off alone for Savannah. We drove as far as Tallahassee on I 10 and then took the turn northeast and drove through Georgia's small towns to Savannah. It was fun being off the Interstate, even though we had lots of slow downs along the way. By time we rolled into Savannah and found our hotel, it was time for dinner at a great, colorful little neighborhood place called The Toucan. Tuesday morning, we strolled along the riverfront. Allen got a kick out of the practicing black hawk helicopters. 
We loved the old buildings, most of which have been converted to shops, restaurants, and bars. The streets are brick and cobblestone, and the stairs to the street up from the riverfront are frequently steep narrow alley-like passageways.
One of my favorite buildings was the Cotton Exchange. We stopped in some shops, but mostly we just enjoyed walking and watching. SCAD studnets didn't seem to mind when we stopped to snap a picture of them working on some art assignment. We were such tourists!
We decided to drive to Tybee Island to see the lighthouse. It is one of the oldest lighthouse stations in the country, welcoming ships to Savannah River for 270 years. Of course, the lighthouse was closed to tourists the day we were there, but we didn't mind. Later, when we were at Fort Pulaski, we could look back and see the Tybee Lighthouse light.
Even though the whole day was overcast and damp, it was plenty bright on the beach. We walked a good distance and watched the water birds play. It was quite a bit cooler on the beach than on Savannah's streets. I don't think I'd enjoy the visit as much in August because it was hot enough in October.
After stuffing ourselves silly, we stopped at Fort Pulaski and wandered the grounds for the rest of the afternoon. Poor feet. This was one of the sets of stairs leading to the maze of rooms below ground.
I felt like I was at a castle with the moat and drawbridge entrance. Apparently turtles, alligators, and other marine life inhabit the moat. The Confederates had to surrender to the Union Army after the two day battle. Brick forts were no longer built after that.
Wednesday, we were pretty tired after all of that sight seeing, so we were happy to stroll through several of the the amazing park-like squares downtown and take a drive across the bridge downtown into South Carolina. Thursday was a long drive home, through Macon to Atlanta and the over the mountains in northeast Alabama back to Huntsville. We both loved our time in Savannah, and I imagine we'd be happy to take a return trip some day, but it's always good to be home.
Road Trip! Thursday morning, Allen dropped me off at Shannon's office over in Hampton Cove, and we piled in the company Sequoia to head to the Country Living Fair in Columbus, Ohio. We'd been waiting all year for this after having such a good time last September. We had a fun, happy ride north with lots of laughs. Lunch was a silly meal at Cracker Barrel, and then we headed on to the outlet malls just this side of Columbus. Shannon and I got shoes, but we drooled over plenty at the Pottery Barn Outlet. If only we lived closer. Then it was on to Columbus. With "Samantha" the Garmin's help, we navigated our way to the hotel without getting lost like last year. 
Friday morning, all five of us were anxious to get to the fair. The weather could not have been more perfect, and the sunny skies just highlighted the fall festival decorations everywhere.
I enjoyed browsing and wandering around with Shannon. We did our share of buying, but neither of us went overboard. My big splurge was, surprise of all surprises, quilting supplies (several kits from Country Threads) and a couple of small pieces of pottery from a Cincinnati area potter. The biggest thing we all brought home was a healthy dose of inspiration. I am ready to get out the fall quilts I've made and the rest of my autumn decorations.
I think that one of my favorite parts of the trip was Saturday night. We went out for pizza and a quick trip to JoAnn's (why we don't have one here in Huntsville, I do not understand), and then we went back to the hotel and had a craft night. Leighann settled in with a pile of craft magazines, while Vicki showed us her stash of wool from the fiber fair she attended Saturday, and she demonstrated her spinning. Fascinating! Christa opened her paper making kit and fired up the new blender to make a few sheets of paper. Shannon made a good start on her punch-needle project -
and I started on one of the quilt kits I bought. This project has 128, no, make that 256 of these squares, and it will be my television watching project to hand piece them. I wished that I had cut enough pieces so that I could try sewing on the ride back, but oh well, I just watched out the window while it rained, and rained, and rained, and rained. What a ride back. I don't think we drove more than thirty or forty mph all the way home from about Nashville. Driving in driving rain for hours is not fun. We've heard that maybe the Country Living Fair will not be in the same place next year, but if it is within a reasonable driving distance, we'll surely want to go again.
The last few times we've been to the Farmer's Market, I've picked up flowers from one of the vendors. These were just so bright and happy for the end of August that I had to share them here. I didn't do much (or more accurately anything) with outdoor gardening or flower beds this summer. In years past, we had a whole deckful of plants and a big bed of impatiens. Now I seem to spend my time and "for fun" money on quilting stuff, but I still love flowers. Next summer?
Shannon and I took a Sunday drive on Labor Day weekend to the Scottsboro Trade Day. We had lunch at a funny little diner, and we had a good time wandering around and looking. I got a treasure-trove of miniature elephants, but my favorite is probably this funny guy who will live up in my sewing room with me. He will help me out with ironing. I've had him a week, and he holds about three times what my previous little elephant held, and his trunk is the perfect pouring spout. I guess he might have had a lid at some point in his life, but now he will be loved and used while I sew.
I just love my sewing table and room. When I'm in the middle of a project, I can just leave everything spread out and make whatever mess I need to make. What fun!
This week's project was to make the last four of the Block of the Month big stars. I have eight little ones for September and eight more little ones for October, but next month I get to put the twenty-four big ones together into a border. I was excited to use two pieces of fabric from our summer Denver trip that I just love.
And here it is - the batik quilt I worked on all summer, all finished. I started hand piecing the blocks in our hotel room back in June, and I added some fabrics from my shop hopping in Denver. I had fantastic help from someone at The Great American Quilt Factory picking out the border, backing, and binding. I guess this picture doesn't do justice to the bright colors and how well the borders bring it all together. I quilted it on my own the last two weeks. I had such fun with this, and I love having it hung on the railing now. Time for a new project. I'm thinking something in blue batiks, all triangles. This week? Only a few days until I head to Ohio with Shannon for the Country Living Fair. Woohoo! And the best news? We have heard that our breeder's pug is about to have a litter. I hope that means a puppy before too long. Of course, it will be good to have our kitchen work done before a puppy moves in. The cabinets and counters are ordered, but we figure it will be a minimum of a five or six weeks until everything is installed.
Allen had a hotel deal too good to pass up (at a brand new hotel five minutes from the Everettes), so we took a weekend trip to see Meghan, Justin, and the boys. Of course, we love staying at their house usually, but we invited ourselves, and who can pass up a deal at a new hotel? We left after work on Friday, and I was glad Allen was willing to drive. I could barely keep my eyes open, but after a good night's sleep, we were ready to see the grandsons. After a morning playing and seeing the updates around the house (love the kitchen), we went to the Blue Gill for a lunch. We sat outside where the boys could be boys, and we enjoyed our shrimp and such. Taplin's antics kept us laughing all weekend. You should see him dance.
Bridger is quite the little man! He has started school at St. Luke's in the Pre-K program. I am positive that he wows his teachers with his coloring. He is really ready for the challenge! After lunch, Meghan, Bridger, and I headed out to shop for shoes while the guys took Tap to nap. Bridger is ready to run in his new New Balance shoes and his spiffy Crocs. We were invited to go along to a family picnic for a picnic at the home of a member of Meghan and Justin's Sunday school church group. What a nice, fun group of folks and their kids. Bridger and Taplin had so much fun especially with the blow-up water slide.
