Patio Progress

It is Saturday morning, and it is a bright, sunny day.  I do believe I have died and gone to contractor heaven.  If you have read my blog for long, you know I have been through H E double LL with contractors.

IF they showed up,
and IF they were sober,
and IF they worked over 2 hours a day,
I felt lucky. 

These guys show up EVERY DAY at 8 AM -- even on Saturday!  They work constantly as a team, and they don't even take breaks that I can tell other than to eat lunch.  They bring an ash can for all their cigarette butts.  They clean up even the sawdust before they leave every day.  Not only that, this patio cover is way, way, WAY better than I ever imagined it.  I thought it would be like a shelf sticking out at the top of the windows, and all the old roof would still be there.  Not at all.  It looks like it was built on the house originally.  I am SO pleased with it! 

Here's some pics for those who may have the least interest in this project:

This is what the back of my house looked like when the project started.

This is one side of it as it looks right now -- this minute -- today.

This is another view showing how they shaped it above the top step of my patio.

And here is another view. 

I LOVE the way they are making the front of it look like a gazebo. 

It looks really dark on the patio, but it isn't at all.  Just the way the shade is where I am standing.

See.

Here I am on the patio.

Lots of light.

We will be putting up ceiling fans and lights. 

You can see that this end of the patio is UNCOVERED. 

That is because we want to put a fire pit there with some chairs around it.  We didn't want to burn the roof down after we went to all this expense to get it built!

We aren't the hot tub type of people, so no hot tub.  I would not be able to DRAG Jerry into it, and he would probably drown me in it for making him maintain it!

Hence, the fire pit.  Marshmallows and S'mores.  Yum!

Better get.  I have done absolutely NOTHING today except shower, dress, eat breakfast and take these pictures. 




My husband, on the other hand, has been out since 8 AM on his tractor.  He enjoys that so much, and I think he is a major hunk on his tractor -- and his dozer -- and just standing in a room!  He has been doing push-ups for several months, and his arms and shoulders look awesome.  BELIEVE ME, if I could get him to pose, I would take a picture!

I have to go.  I'm working on a slinky red blouse.  Peggy Sager's pattern.  I've made it several times before.

Hugs, Joy

Caffeine Shortage and a Rainy Day

Good evening friends! 

How was your day today?

Mine was fairly monotonous and boring.  I woke up with a sore inside my lower lip, and I told myself that I must be drinking too much coffee.  Coffee is very acidic.  Nuts always give me a blister in my mouth, but I haven't had any nuts for ages. 

When I have a supervisory position such as watching what the workers are doing while building my patio roof, I tend to always have a cup of coffee in my hand.

Anyway, I told myself I was NOT allowed to have any coffee this morning, and I asked Jerry not to make it for me.  He always makes me my own special pot because he drinks only decaf, and he brings me a cup of hot coffee to my bedside every morning.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!  How SWEET is that!?

No coffee for me all morning.

By noon, I was so sleepy and lathargic, I could barely make myself move.  I couldn't figure out what was wrong with me.  And then I remembered!  No caffeine.  So I decided I would allow myself to make ONE cup of coffee in my new Keurig coffeemaker up here in my sewing room.  I grabbed a little K-cup and put it in.  I drank every last drop, and it was delish! 

Time went by, and I stayed as sleepy as I was before.  Good grief, Charlie Brown!  I decided I better eat some caffeine -- aka chocolate -- or drink some more or something.  Decided to go brew another cup of coffee.  When I opened the Keurig to put in another K-cup, I noticed that the K-cup I had brewed earlier was DECAFFEINATED.  Duh!  No wonder it didn't help at all. 

I put in Black Tea this time, and I made a large glass of strong iced tea with it.  I suddenly came to life and decided to cut out a new blouse, do two bank statements, vacuum the movie room, make some phone calls, unload the dishwasher, make dinner and do the dishes.  Now, I'm up here talking to you. 

YES!!! 

I feel like me again.  I, evidently, am fueled by caffeine every day. 

Next time someone asks where I get all my energy, I guess I can finally tell them!

No progress on the patio roof today because the workers were only here five minutes before we got a downpour of rain.  We really need the rain, but I wish it would have come sooner or later so my project would get done.  I'm sure they will be back in the morning if the rain doesn't return.  They are the most wonderful team of workers I have ever had do construction for me.  Jerry and I both told them we may keep them busy from now on.

Maybe I'll have a finished roof on my patio to show you tomorrow, and maybe I'll have a new blouse to show you too.  And I'm glad this blister is almost gone because I'm not giving up my morning coffee tomorrow!  I'll try to sip it sideways though.

Hugs, Joy

Bad Employee - Patio Update -- Baby Bibs

If you have ever owned your own business, you know how important it is to be able to trust your employees.  We have some that we trust totally -- some we mostly trust -- some we aren't real sure about -- but we have this one guy that I have NEVER trusted.  I had a feeling about him from his first day, but Jerry never listens to me.  Jerry trusts everybody.  It is very hard for him to believe that another human being could be dishonest when they work for an honest organization.  And Jerry is the type that if he doesn't see it with his OWN EYES, he just doesn't accept it.  Jerry is brutally honest himself and so am I, and that makes it hard to understand other people not being that way.  

I can't give any more detail about this right now, but let me say that I am VERY upset about it and so is Jerry.  It appears more than one other employee was aware of this, and they did not tell us.  Of course, that casts suspicion on them too. 

The good news is the patio is coming right along.  If it wasn't raining right now, it would be coming along better.  All the workers drove off about an hour ago.  Here is a picture of what it looked like yesterday.  I was standing in the shade, and the patio was shaded, so pic isn't very bright.  Picture it all wet and drippy from the rain, and you will know what it looks like now.  We really need the rain, so I'm not complaining.

I don't think I showed you these cute baby bibs I made.  They are reversible.  Only one has a name because I only KNOW one name.  The girl that works for us has not contacted us since she left almost 3 weeks ago.  We have no idea how she or the baby are or what the baby's name is.  We sure hope all are okay.  She is due back next Monday, so we should know then.

Anyway, here are the two bibs:

The back of both bibs looks like this:



That is it for today. 

Hugs, Joy

Patio Renovation Project Begins and Meet Amelia

Today is the day!  9 men and 1 woman are here to start my patio roof.  The woman's name is Janiece and she is very nice.  I would like to sneak her up to my sewing room so she can play with me. 

I am very happy with this crew -- so far -- and I am excited about this project.  You know how much trouble I have had in the past with construction crews.  These guys are different.  They may never get to quit doing things for us because we keep thinking of more projects for them.

I went out this morning to make the following announcement:

"I don't care if you smoke, spit or chew.  Just don't leave the evidence on my lawn or my patio."

They just laughed.  They said they had already prepared for that.  It appears my reputation has spread near and far!  (-;

Above is just a board to check the pitch of the roof.  I want the lowest part of the roof to be as high as that window.  It is a little over 10 feet.  They are very carefully talking about it -- measuring it -- and being sure the calculations are correct.  Praise the Lord!  Just my kind of people! 

I became a Great Aunt again this past weekend.  Our new baby lives in Arkansas, so I didn't get to be there. 

Her name is Amelia Mae.  Cute!  That is my sister Judy's son, Ryan.  The baby was an "oops", but he is doing the right thing.  He's a good kid.

I just finished blankets and a bib for Gracie -- my employee on maternity leave -- and now I need to make something for this little doll.

I hear saws and drills and hammers.  I better go see what is happening.  I may be missing a picture!

Have a great week my friends.

Hugs, Joy

A New "New Girl" and 2 Baby Blankets

Hello friends. 

How are all of you today? 

Hey Deanna and Margaret!!! 

I miss you so much. 

I almost came up this weekend to visit Jerry's Mom at Countrywood, but there is so much going on here, I am cancelling.  Would LOVE for you to come visit, but it looks like it will be a month or two before I can properly entertain anyone other than the construction crew and the new employee.

And, of course, Phylly.  No Phylly-time gets me down, but maybe one day soon.  We are going to Skype on Mother's Day.

Oh, yeah.

You don't know yet.

The new employee -- the one from the last post -- she isn't there anymore.  She called in the second day and said the job was just too hard for her.  All she did the day she was there was look up authorization codes from Medicaid. 

Good heavens!  How hard is that?  I could do that half asleep while drinking coffee and eating a donut!  She said she didn't like computer work.  Well, WHY ON EARTH did she take the job?????????????????????

That isn't actually a bad thing though because as it turns out, there was a darling girl who just walked in about five minutes after I had hired DJ.  I didn't even meet her because I had just hired DJ, but I did get her application.  She EXCELLED at my very favorite first impression of an applicant:  BEAUTIFUL handwriting.  It gets me excited, let me tell you, and not only that -- she spelled everything correctly, and she followed the instructions.  I almost cried because I had hired DJ realizing she really wasn't a perfect choice.

When DJ called and quit, I had Candi call the "darling girl" right away.  Turns out she was VERY interested in our job, and she came back ASAP for an interview with me.  I almost hired her at first sight.  She is a combination of Candi -- my personal assistant and office Supervisor -- and Darcy, my former Store Manager who worked for us 10 years. 

The "darling girl" is named Candice, so we now have Candi and Candice.  Their last names both start with B and are also very much alike.  Must be some kind of sign.  Candice has 4 years of college courses and a year of blood-taking school (can't think of the proper name for that right now).  She worked at a Blood Insitute in Ardmore -- a 45-mile drive for her.  She hated it.  She also had to work evenings and weekends.  She was willing to make less money to work in Kingston where she lives.  She will save a lot on gasoline and time.  She will start working for us Monday morning.

One of my employees is out on maternity leave.  Her name is Gracie.  We have not heard from Gracie, and we don't even know her baby girl's name.  We have called and texted, but haven't heard back.  A paycheck sits on her desk.  Her husband was to come by to get it but didn't.  Last we heard, he had to take her back to the hospital because she was sick and had a fever.  We are SO WORRIED!

Anyway, I decided to make a couple little baby blankets for her.  Unfortunately, my longarm machine decided to give me a major problem today, so the pink blanket isn't as good as it could have been.  The longarm has a button that you push to make the needle go up or down.  One push = up.  Another push = down.  Just once, and then it is supposed to STOP.  You can't begin and end your stitching without this function.

Today, every time I pushed that button, the needle flew up and down a hundred times, and I could not get it to stop.  I do know how to fix this problem, and if it didn't involve removing about 50 screws and lifting off big metal covers to expose the world's itty bittiest screw that I can barely SEE, never mind get the world's tiniest screw driver into, I would have done it.  Decided to wait for Jerry.

Here it is.  No big deal, but you can't have too many baby blankets.  It is just a cute flannel print with white cotton on the back.

And here is the back of the pink flannel baby blanket.  Just loops and hearts.

And here is a little blanket I made her yesterday.  I would use this one for a bath mat since it has duckies all over it.  It is just flannel on top and cotton on the bottom with no batting in between.  I sewed a piece of Petersham ribbon all around the top to finish this one.  My quilting is just the simple wavy lines.

Jerry is on his way home. 

I have two ribeye steaks thawed out, and 12 extra large shrimp.  Good dinner tonight!  And did I mention a bottle of wine to go with? 

Hugs, Joy

New Employee, New SFD Knit Top and New Video

YAY!!!  I am excited to announce that

I have hired a lady for our store.  Her name is Doris June, but she goes by DJ.  She is tall and thin.  She has worked 15 years at a very nice gift shop in a town close to here.  The store is closing because the owner wants to retire.  One of my employees, Nancy, called me this weekend and told me about DJ.  She has shopped at that gift shop for years, and she knows DJ well because DJ waited on her whenever she went into that store.  That was a good enough reference for me before I even met DJ. 

DJ starts this morning, and I really need to be there, but can't.  We are starting another construction project here at our home, and the contractor -- Todd -- likes to arrive early.  He hasn't really started yet, but keeps coming over to measure stuff.  This morning, he is coming to measure the inside of our shower.  I am mad at our shower because for some insane reason, we made the ceiling 10 foot high in it.  You have to be a giraffe to reach it.  The light has been burned out in it for months because neither of us wants to drag a ladder inside the shower -- if one would even fit -- to change the bulb.  The shower is covered with white tiles surrounded by white grout that defies all cleaning products and likes to stay dirty.  I am having all the tiles ripped out -- the ceiling lowered -- and solid walls put in.   Fortunately, we have several other showers in the house to use during the process.

We are also having our back patio covered.  I wanted it done when we built this house in 1998, but my husband said it would keep the light from coming in the windows, and he would not allow it.  I am no longer afraid that my husband will leave me if I don't do everything his way, so I finally talked him into agreeing with me.

Like my sister, Judy, says, "What good is a patio you can't sit on in the rain?"

ANYHOW, between interviewing and new construction, I have been busier than usual, BUT I did make a new video on Sunday.  It is a short video but it took over 4 hours to upload to You Tube with our snail's pace internet here, and the first time I tried to upload it, it froze just before the end.  I had to start over.  That is why I am a bit behind on my blog.

Here is the video.  I am attempting to show you how to cut out and finish a simple knit top in a few hours.  I did finish the top and was wearing it by the time my husband got home for dinner.  He said it looked "professional" with my new cover stitch machine finishing.  How nice was that?!

And here is another video of my final version of this new knit top:

I took several pictures of the french dart before, during and after construction.  I may do a tutorial on a french dart soon because so many ladies have trouble with them.

Hugs, Joy



 

A Strange Red Vest, Vogue 8714

I finished it -- the red vest from Vogue 8714.  It has some strange lines here and there, and the armholes a bit too big for a blouse, and that is how I intend to wear it -- IF I wear it.

Here's some pictures.

I think it makes me look as wide as I am tall. 

No shape.

I topstitched it all over the place per instructions, but it caused some strange pulls in the armholes in the back.  I figure if I just walk in FRONT of everyone and circle around, then they won't get to see the back.

I made a video, because I think it is a much better representation of how the garment really looks when worn.  It is a 2-minute video, but takes an hour and a half to upload on this turtle-pace internet speed we have here in the deep woods of Southern Oklahoma.

But the trees sure are pretty!

You can wear this with the lapels both up

or with one lapel up

or with both lapels down.

I like them both down the best.

I am thinking that maybe I don't like the peplum, but not sure.

I hardly ever like anything I make right after I make it, so maybe this needs to go hide in the dark recesses of my closet for awhile.

Here is the vest/blouse with one flap down and one flap up:

OH!

I almost forgot to show you the funnest part.

Check out the inside:

And if you aren't totally sick of this blouse by now, here is the video I made just for me, but I'll share it with you.  I actually liked it a whole lot more after I saw the video.  Clothes are just different when you are "posing" in them for photos.  I remember when I was photographing my quilts that I had a hard time making them behave too.

Time to clean up the tornado this project dropped all over my sewing room, and then figure out what to do next. 

I think I need to make some knits so I can use my cover stitch machine! 

OH, OH, OH!!!!  I forgot to show you Phylly's finished top.  The flowery/stripey one.  She sent me some pics. 

Let's hope I still have them.  Hold on....................... 

Well, I must have accidentally deleted those pics.

I did find this one.

This is Louise Cutting's Hearts A'Flutter.  Isn't it pretty?  It actually is a little like this red vest.  You can wear the flap up or down.

And I have to go!

Almost time to start supper for the Master.

Hugs, Joy