Yikes!!

All that is left is the...

Poor Lonely Sewing Machine  Mind you we can see the beautiful floor now.

 

All clearly labelled not to move (six guys having fun...hard to get them to focus).

 

Easy to feed them though...21 donuts some Double Doubles, Hot Chocolate and Coffee, three and a half Extra Large Pizzas and lots of Pepsi.

All that is left is the dining room table, two chairs, a stool and my sewing chair (I have a project to finish), the office and....

 and one bewildered Sundae.  Buddy is still hiding in the bedroom.

I will sweep up all the dust gorillas tomorrow, I am too tired now.

It is delightful to listen to the cats play with their little balls in the completely empty living room and in the almost empty studio.

You know, cats are like children playing with the empty toy boxes.....lots of expensive kitty toys have been unearthed but she is now playing with an empty coffee creamer......rattle, rattle, clackety, clackety......sure echoes in here now.

See I told you so......

There really is a sewing machine back there.....and yes that really is a rain barrel

 

inside the door thawing out!  It is now ready to dump but we need a big strong person to move it. We will get the same guy that brought it in.

I had that table empty again, but it is starting to collect stuff again, I didn't fold it down quick enough.  

Large troupe of people coming tomorrow to move boxes and some furniture, wish us luck, they are all volunteers.

Dianne

I'm in the bag....almost!

It has been a struggle to save my working materials from the over zealous movers, but I am on the home stretch here, the two sides of the bag are done, now I just have to construct it. 

I am planning a zipper closure and an elaborate interior with a zipper section and a few pockets, all trimmed in either gold or silver thread......if I can get my thread and my machine to agree with each other.  I will be using ties for a shoulder strap, just knotting them so there is some adjustment room.

I will be fusing some heavy duty Pellon to the back of these panels to give them stability.  A dragon's hoard weighs a lot.  It is a good thing that my patron wants a museum piece art bag, she is little and will quickly tire carrying this bag, especially if she puts anything in it!!! lol

The dragon is a real sweetie.....she is snuggled down in her hoard and dreaming of laying an egg.  I just stuffed and needle sculpted her this evening.  All she needs is two little red Swarovsky crystals in her nostrils and some tooth whitener.   Any ideas???  Acrylic paint maybe??

There are clear silver-lined seed beads on the ceiling of the cave on the right side, although they do not show in the picture.  I did this to highlight the light comeing in from the cave opening.  I am hoping they will catch the light when the bag is moved.

 

To balance off the skeleton there are three tiny silver crosses in the mix.  Dragons will collect anything shiny, and defend their hoard very fiercely.  Young dragons have difficulty telling rhinestones from real diamonds, but they get better at it as they mature.

It has been a nice break from packing to work on this bag.  It sort of growing on me.....but then so do warts.

Hugs to all,

Dianne

Moving update for those of you who are helping...

...in spirit that is!!

The up side of all this is I get to fondle my stash as I pack, albeit very quickly.

Remember the bookshelves filled with boxes?  Those boxes went and new ones are piled up, and the cases are labeled for placement.  All this stuff is going on the 26th when DH's largest Bible Study group are bringing their pick up trucks (living in a rural community is nice, almost everyone has a truck!) and helping with a major move.

Remember that closet that was emptied, well it is getting full to overflowing again, but it sure is nice to have a place to put the packed boxes.  Anyone want an antique Singer hem marker? The rubber bulb is still soft, and there is even chalk in it.  If nothing else it will be a conversation piece...along with my antique ironing board. lol

 

There were two large bookcases here in this wall, they went last week and we are using the space for packed boxes.  We have rounded up all the plants except this one and are caring for them on an antique ironing board in the living room.  They will be moved on the final day.

 

The living room is packed and and all the furniture is stacked to go.  Our living room suite is a piece of cake to move, it is sectional and made of rattan.....light as a feather.  The cushions are heavier than any one piece of the furniture.

 

This is the last unpacked studio section.  I need it as I am rushing to finish a commission piece before everything is in boxes and gone to our new home where I will not be able to find anything for quite a while.

I had better get to this soon, as everyone keeps piling things into this area (I won't dare show you what is on the other side of this table.....there is even a 55 gallon drum rain barrel brought in off the patio to thaw so we can empty it for moving!) 

This table has actually been cleared twice now.  It's as if people are rounding up stuff and herding it into a pile for me to deal with, it makes for a strange assortment of stuff in boxes when you are trying to pack like with like.  There will be some surprises at the other end. 

If I can get it clear again I will fold it up and lean it up against a wall.....that'll fix 'em.......or will they just start burying my sewing machine??  Believe it or not my trusty Husky is set up on the far side of that mountain of stuff in the picture.  Honest!

I will post about the progress on the bag.

On the move again........

We are pacing in readiness for our move...supposed to be Dec. 31, but our landlord has not settled the 30 months left on our lease.  We don't want to go till that is done.  It is difficult to hire a mover saying "I'll gladly pay you Thursday for a move you do today."  Especially if you are not sure you will get enough to pay the bill!

My husband had his Bible Study buddies over on Friday (Remembrance Day...and remember what friends are for day!) and they moved a LOT of stuff.

Picture this cupboard (tilt your head a bit and squint) full to the top with the orange boxes pictured below.  My button stash and my upholstery fabric stash.
I filled this up to the top again today in readiness for the next moving day. All larger boxes with fabric and my yarn stash in them.  I emptied a cabinet that we are going to use in the dining room in the new place.  These two bookshelves will go to when we move the office, they are the back wall for it.

Two bookshelves just like these and the boxes of all the books that were packed solidly in them went to the new place, and three boxes of books went to my Art Quilting group.  I spent the day with them as my DH did not want me around annoying the young fellows who were moving.  (i.e. mud on floors, breakage, putting stuff in the wrong place at our new home......etc.)  I managed to forward three boxes of books to friends this way, had to bring very few home again.

On the way home we stopped at the new place, and I did have to spend an hour with a very nice fellow moving boxes to their proper place so that the heavy furniture can be placed exactly the first time.  I do not want to have to play Chinese Puzzle with boxes and heavy furniture when I get there.  I planned out on graph paper exactly where everything is to go.  We only want to schlepp the furniture around once.

 

 

Notice the ties are all gone...seven big boxes!  More empty boxes a table to be sorted and a willing to help cat.  We are finding a multitude of cat toys behind and under stuff.  The cat is happy.  (This morning while I was on the loo he brought me a little orange ball and we played fetch for a looong time.  He had me captured on the throne and at his mercy, and he brought the ball right back to my feet every time.....he has no off button!) 

I also swept up enough cat hair to make another cat!  I am going to have to find a way to keep stuff from creeping or being played under the rolling bins.  I might just leave the wheels off after the move.

And yes I do feel a bit topsy-turvy.......guess where they put stuff that was on the furniture that I did not want moved yet...yep, you're right...on the nearest flat surface.  And yes I had to go and get some stuff for the commission I am doing (has to be done before Christmas) and bring it back!  Lots of packing yet to do.

But I refuse to whinge about the small stuff, those guys worked very hard and I am sooo grateful.  They were using two vans and two pick-up trucks and they made two trips each fuelled only by two boxes of donuts!  Next time I will have Pizza for them, but I wasn't there.  Remember...I had been sent away for the day!

One of our friends hid a big box of ties (rose boxes from the flower shop, 1' x 1' x 4') on me.  He is always teasing me that I have too much stash, only that is not what he calls it.  I noticed right away and remarked about it.  I had found in the garage, but was not going to let on.  Today I told him that if he touched that tie box in the garage I would tear his arm off and stick the wet end in his ear!We had a good laugh.

I have finished packing for today, but I must admit that it is lovely to go through it all and fondle it a bit while repacking it.

Tired but satisfied sigh,

Dianne Leatherdale Johnson