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

Continuation of previous post.

That dainty little green gem beside the mushroom is the most luxurious and beautiful ground cover.  You can practically hear it grow and the mature leaves are 2" across until........insert eerie music here.......about the middle of July it lays flat in the centre and looks ugly and goes to seed  making a tri-zillion seeds that sprout at the least provocation everywhere in your yard that the wind has seen fit to take them.   You will never get rid of it...never.....Roundup was made for this plant.....it is Round Leaf Mallow!  Beware!

I harvested the Horseradish and the beets, not leaving that for the demolition crew!  I made the most wicked hot Horseradish/beet relish!  Wonderful stuff.  I made a gallon of it....and now am giving it away to people who are not afraid of it...surprisingly many are! I also brought in all the carrots, froze a bunch and gave away some, and kept the wonky ones to eat fresh.......aren't carrots fun to grow??  I bet nice Victorian ladies were not allowed to harvest them! lol

I did not get all the Horseradish roots out, and have delightful fantasies of giant Horseradish leaves bursting up through the floor of the 40 million dollar building the CU is going to build on this spot!  hehehe

I have pretty much stopped new work for Manitoba Art Expo at The Downs in November and am concentrating on a commission I have to have done for Christmas.

We are addressing the packing issue even though we have not been notified of a settlement of our lease, and since our lawyer put a caveat on the title it cannot be transferred until we are satisfied to our 'mutual agreement' as it says in our lease.  We cannot even look for a new location which will accommodate our business, our home and our two cats until we know what the settlement will be.  I hate this waiting, we were supposed to hear on September 16, but nothing yet.

Do you remember this picture?  This is what I had just two short years ago:

 

Stacked to the ceiling and fifteen feet deep to the patio doors!  Now I get to do it all over again.  I am going to be packing it all myself and hope to do a better job; like with like, good labels and not a jar of buttons in each and every box like the last guy did. (He did it as a joke, I laughed until I started finding a bag of beads in every other box.  It took me forever to sort out my new studio.)  I have only three different styles of boxes...two kinds of nail boxes from a pallet making company, and big chick transport boxes from a local poultry company. 

All boxes will be closed for stacking and be well labelled.  One type of  nail box, with the flaps up, will fit into the other nail box with the flaps open as well.  Just like those fruit cases.  Makes a box and a half tall if I need it but is closed for stacking. I have packed eight this way already.  I have loooots of boxes!  I also kept eight rose boxes from the flower shop in which I moved my ties.......so was I really expecting to have to move again?  DH saved them in the attic.....good man.

I am contemplating hiring myself out as a professional packer!

Please remember us nomads in your prayers.

Love to all....

          Dianne

Life boggleing news!

We are having to move.....!!  Sept 1 we were informed that our building had been sold to the Steinbach Credit Union for demolition and we were to be out by Dec 31!

We had just put five  yards of soil into the yard in preparation for more raised perennial beds.  Shovelled some of it myself!

The Morning Glory has bloomed in all it s luxuriousness,

and finally, at this late stage in my life I have Shaggy Mane mushrooms blooming in my own yard!  They are
delicious.....darn! 

This one is a tad over ripe.


going to a new post as Blogger will not let me continue here!  :(

Working like a beaver...fibre collage.

I am having way too much fun with Paverpol and ties. 

Crescent moon with navy moleskin painted with Paverpol wrapped around a stretched canvas.  Ties and upholstery fabric is unpainted......then beady, beady, beady!! 

 Carnelian, Lapis Lazuli and shell leaves along with various sizes of seed beads.

A Walk In The Forrest.  Polyester dress fabric (originally a sage green) painted with Paverpol which changes the colour to what it would look like wet; gallery wrapped around stretched canvas.

It really is straight, honest....I don't have a tripod.....

 



Raw silk, birch bark, lichen, sari silk waste and some rat tail.  The delicate botanical elements have been protected with Paverpol.  This was the very reason I investigated the product in the first place.   Works wonderfully, but it is all experimentation and a steep learning curve.   My Crap Quota expands!

I am frantically working toward Manitoba Art Expo in November.  I want to have a lot of new work there this year.

Check it out:   www.manitobaartexpo.ca

Back to the salt mines......

Dianne

This was just picked in our garden two days ago.  This picture was taken this afternoon
This is Manitoba, Canada.  This is October.  This is amazing!
Enjoy!



Dianne who is very happy today and going to gaze at this some more.

Stacking Up

Just had to join Seth Apter on his Altered Page blog.  Thank you Wen for the link.  thealteredpage.blogspot.com
Here is my purposeful, hard working stack:

I ended up with a whole lot of flat unwrinkled leather, and a bag full of little schnibbles that I just can't bear to throw away.

Back in my studio

I am uninjured....for the moment, touch wood....and back in my studio.

I really like the wrapped canvas technique, and have done a quick study in blues with some mystery fibre for the background that mottled very nicely under the Paverpol, and a lovely flowered tie and two swatches of upholstery fabric.  These work up quite quickly and I need more pieces for a sale in November.

I was planning a lot more bling, but the shell leaves seemed to make enough of a statement.

I am progressing slowly but surely on the dragon side of my bag. the cave come out very well, and I am now amassing the hoard for the dragon to sleep on.  I have some nice bits of skeleton to include in the pile.  After all, even nice dragons do eat people sometimes.

DH is getting a little bit owly about my oozing on to the dining room table.  I can't say as I blame him, it is not as if I don't have enough room in my studio.....I really must do a clean up day.

Back to my beady - beady - beading.......