New Year = New Eyes!

 Seriously - I have new eyes! 

It started last summer when I noticed my eyes straining and getting while machine quilting and working. I called my eye doctor in August to get an appointment for an overdue annual checkup. Due to Covid-19 precautions, limited appointments and a backlog of patients to see, the earliest I could get in was October.   

Practicing my free motion quilting skills in September and early October really showed me how much my eyesight had changed. Yikes!

Imagine how shocked I was when sitting in the exam chair and the doctor said she could not get my sight corrected to 20/20 with a prescription change. I was certain that's all I needed.

Nope - I needed surgery to remove cataracts from both eyes! Well, okay then! I am a little on the young side for cataracts and they may well have been caused by the chemo I had. Either way - time to get these taken care of!

Fast forward to December. My right eye was done on Dec. 3rd and my left eye on Dec. 22nd. For the first time since I was 11, I can see without glasses!!  I opted to get both eyes corrected for distance so I need readers for computer work & reading. No big deal - there are a TON of really cute readers out there waiting for me to buy them. I am embracing the new shopping opportunity. 

While we won't know my exact new correction needed until later this month, I have been cleared to resume some of my normal activities - like riding!!  I had two weeks vacation in December and couldn't ride once, so I'm really grateful to be at this point in my recovery. 

Moral of the Story: See your eye care professional & get your annual eye checkups. 

2021 - the year of clear vision!

Brightly Blooming Florals

 Last July, I found the Moda Fabrics Brightly Blooming collection. By the time I gave into my want, the shop only had the linen blend on hand. I considered using it for the Studio sliding glass doors.

Not quite the look I was going for, as full door panels would have been too busy for that space. But I LOVED the fabric and knew it was just a matter of time before I found a use for it. It was a simple matter of walking to the very next room.

I didn't realize until I looked at this picture that the colors match my Caribbean Solstice quilt. Love the bright colors and the way it coordinates with the 'Coral Serenade' wall color. I used a plain muslin for the lining of the valance.

Later, I located some yardage in the cotton print with the white background and the navy background.

Not sure what I'm making with this yet but I have it in the stash when inspiration hits.

(Not Quilt) Finishing(s) Friday

I was going to do 'Furniture Friday' but since I've already done two posts on furniture this week already, I thought we needed a different topic.  And, YES, believe it or not, there are more furniture stories to share. So finishings it is!

Finishings, what are finishings? Items that are finished or refinished or items that finish a room, are all finishings. Last year, many of my projects fell into that category so I'm going to share them with you over the course of the next few weeks or months.

Mirror, mirror on the...deck railing?? 

Yep! The Michigan House Makeover - the project that spawned many, many sub-projects. These are the original medicine cabinet mirrored doors. Dark antiqued dark gold. Notice they match the base of the light fixture - ick - but that's another story for another post.

Cleaning wasn't enough - they cried out for a facelift. And that couldn't happen in situ. I wrestled them off the long piano hinges, covered the glass , staged them on the deck railing and hit them with a few coats of metallic champagne mist gold.

The difference was night and day. 

The newly painted doors reinstalled.

Love the lighter feel they bring to the bathrooms. And their new look necessitated I paint the cabinet knobs to match as well, but I can't find a picture of them. So I'll show you the inside of the medicine cabinets that got a refinish as well.

It took 2 coats of white paint to cover the beige plastic.  

Buh-bye beige! Are you getting the feeling that nothing is safe when I have a paint brush in hand? You're right! 

Bling - Equestrian Style!

 Last July, I blogged about acquiring a new-to-me, used horse harness. 

Being me, I couldn't leave it plain black. Nope, I needed BLING! And not your usual, plain round silver dots and spots kind of harness bling. 

I set out searching the Interweb for something that reflected my style and found these sculptured rose conchos. I liked them, mostly. The size, shape & details were great. The finish - not so much! What's a girl to do? Yep - strip off the dull, antiqued factory finish back down to the base metal.

Factory finish in the middle, stripped down to base metal on either sides

And then hand paint and topcoat them. Sixteen of them - matching. 

Then, it was off to the saddle shop to have holes punched into the harness.  Bless his heart - the harness maker was slightly horrified and once he punched the first hole in the breast collar, he told me there was no going back. 

All conchos in painted & in place!

Yes, I realized that this officially made the harness mine, as it could never be a trade-in for resale to his mostly Amish clientele.

Even better was that it not only fit Stormy, but he looked handsome in harness and is taking well to being ground driven. 

Stormy's first time wearing the blinged out harness!

Lots of miles to walk and trot behind him before we ever think about hitching to a cart.

It's All About Storage!

Most of last summer was spent working remotely at the Michigan House, while working ON the Michigan House. But I came home at the end of August for about a month, so my brother, M, could go up & do a few things out of my reach - literally.  As he had been diagnosed as an asymptomatic COVID-19 carrier earlier in the summer, our paths could not cross! So his part of the projects were carefully detailed in lists, while I was back at home creating wreaking havoc on my Studio/Home Office and Bedroom. 

The need for more useful (read: More Storage) furniture in both rooms was great and I was determined to keep the budget small. The downstairs bedroom is small, only fitting a full size bed.  The old RR armoire was not configured well and it had a rounded top, which was not good balancing the tv on top of it. It had to go.  Along with the small nightstand, the wire rack that went over the nightstand and the twin of the DVD cabinet that was in the Studio.

I used the twin of this DVD cabinet for books in the bedroom.

The little chest of drawer stayed, moved across the room to the wall where the nightstand was and got new knobs.  It's amazing how changing the hardware changes the whole look of the chest.

The old white knobs were replaced by the oil-rubbed bronze finish knobs

That opened up the far wall for a few new pieces. The problem was that the dimensions would fit two highboy dressers, not a matching dresser & chest of drawers. All my hunting and I couldn't find two highboys.  What's a girl to do? Luck had me finding this gorgeous Thomasville armoire. 

Still at the resale shop

Used, at a charity resale shop and marked down! W was instrumental is securing this piece, as I had to work. He had to shoo away 3 separate other customers who were eyeballing it before the shop lady could tag it as sold - to him! It had been at the shop for almost 4 weeks and hadn't sold, so the price was reduced to $25! We ended up wrestling this piece home ourselves, as the delivery fee would have been $95. Um, thanks but no, we did it ourselves. 

It not only fit in the bedroom, I still had room for another piece. I knew I'd never find its twin and I needed some deep drawer storage for clothes. In my thrift shop furniture hunting, I ran across oak horizontal filing cabinets. Two of them, not quite identical, at two different shops. W to the rescue again! He retrieved both of them, once I realized they would fit the space, stack on top of each other & give me the much needed storage! 

The ever so slightly smaller filing cabinet on top, with gripper pads to keep it in place!

The cost for both $57.50. SCORE! Deep drawers and a perfect spot for the tv on top. Not to mention, the wood finish color on the filing cabinets matched the armoire fairly closely. These three pieces tripled my storage space vs. the old RR armoire, in less than twice the space!!! 

Now that we had the furniture in place, it was time to purge clothes, books, and belongings, as well as figuring out what to house where. I'm still working on that! It's slow going, as I spent most of October back in Michigan, and I've moved some things around a few times. Eventually, everything will find its proper place - either here or with someone else.

Onward Into 2021!

 Onward we go into 2021, fingers crossed, resolve steeled, with a determined glint in our eye that this year will be better than last year, while remaining cautious, careful and considerate of others.

I'll be sharing some current projects and update you on some old projects. And then there's a future one or two percolating, as well. So many things did get accomplished last year - The Year of the Projects! - both at home & in Michigan. 

The current house project is my Studio/Home Office redo, which started back in August and is still going strong. It's being done in conjunction with a larger, ever ongoing purging of items that are needed elsewhere in the Universe. The redo has required the addition of some larger, more useful storage furniture. Of course, knowing me like you do, you know I don't run out & buy new. Half the fun of the room redo is hunting down just the right used piece and rehoming it. Thrift shops, estate sales, and moving sales are the best! It make take a bit longer but I'm just a wee bit persistent, to say the least.

Odie has been helping with the Studio Redo

I sent this DVD cabinet out the door to make room for this full size cherry bookcase that I scored right in town at the thrift shop that benefits women & children in peril. It's also where I send those items we no longer need or use. Support Local! 

The white rope bins contain my Studio DVD collection -
so much neater & cleaner than seeing the mishmash of cases.

I fully admit that I had to really wheedle the heck out of the manager to be able to purchase this bookcase. They were using it to house yarn for sale and didn't want to sell it. But it's made from cherry wood & I HAD to have it. I made him a cash offer he couldn't refuse. Interestingly, there was a gentleman in the shop at the same time who was also interested in buying the bookcase. He took no for the answer when he heard me asking about it. I didn't. Persistence paid off!  This bookcase was the beginning of my birthday present. 

W had asked me early in August what I wanted for my birthday this year, and I'm quite sure he didn't expect 'New Furniture' to be the answer. He does, however, know it's wasn't something we would just run out & buy in an afternoon of shopping. W gets the "Hunt", heck, he even joins in but he may not have grasped the scope of my that request at the time. 

See that braided rug in front of the bookcase? It figures prominently in this week's adventure. 

Stay tuned!

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

 FINALLY!!!  2020 is in the rear view mirror!

Can't wait to see what adventures we'll have this year!