The house if Full

This past week has been a whirlwind I think it was so bad that I rubbed off on mother nature - here is the view that was outside my window yesterday:




The tree completely covered the street the big boys had to come take care of it. Darn you can tell my husband was gone for 7 days no one mowed the lawn :-)



Monday I woke up at 4 AM got in the car and drove, and drove and drove some more - picked up my daughter in Vallejo, CA and turned around and drove and drove and drove some more until we got home at 2 AM. Here is the room that used to have 4 desks in it! My daughter is home from college for the summer:



For those of you who read the post a while back about my son just getting up one morning and getting married to some girl we had never met - well here he is. It didn't workout and he's back home. Here is the room that used to be Stephanie's room (it's smaller than the other one):



And here is all his stuff in the middle of my "formal living area" that is my sewing area - I thought I was done with kids so my priorities shifted, and I refuse to shift them back if we don't fit in the family room because it is smaller - then they'll just have to sit on the floor!



And my husband is back:



I think I just figured out why I got into the organizing kick I was on - for the first time in my life it was just me (and my husband but he lets me do whatever I want) and if I organized it there was no one to unorganize it. As you can see from the pictures above those living with me are not into organizing. So I have a dilemma I want the house organized but I recall a lot of arguments, I don't think I want to pay that price. I'm going to have to find a way. How does one turn an unorganized person into an organized one????

I was ok when I only had to follow behind one person - but now there are 3!

Garage Organization

So the week after we moved in I had a 6 day work trip to seattle. When I got back my husband had 80% off the boxes unpacked and put in there perspective place - ie.. the kitchen, the living room, the bedroom, the bathrooms. He did a good job at it since he just basically placed everything in a similar place to where it was before.

The other 20% was my craft stuff and my daughters stuff. My daughters stuff he placed in her room. When she comes home for the summer from college she will be met with a room full of boxes!

We haven't had a garage in the last two places that we've lived, and the last two before that the garage was all mine because there wasn't an extra bedroom in the house for my crafts. So before we moved there was a 'who's garage is it' discussion. We came up with we each get a side and the middle is for my large cutting table.

About 3 weeks after we move in he asks if he could go to Lowe's and spend about $100 on wood so he can build some tables for the garage, I said 'sure only if you organize it'.

As you all know I've been a little busy March and April. I've walked into the garage several times looking for stuff, but I didn't realize until today, when I said to myself 'I'm going to organize my fabric on the shelves I bought", for $10 I might add. That I realized what he had done.

Here is his side of the garage:



The middle has my large cutting table - It's a life saver when I have to cut pattern pieces for a wedding dress with a long train.



And then my side:



I found all the camping stuff (how is this mine?) A large trunk full of the kids school papers, small clothes, and other childhood things I saved. I guess this is mine, I'm the MOM and I saved them. Logical thinking I guess. It might be time to look through it again since they are now 25, 21 and 18!!



I found a couple of unpacked boxes, I guess he got tired and just stopped opening them. In one of them I found paintball guns. With my rotary cutting board at the bottom! (Can you really see me paint balling? well maybe if I was challenged, since I'm way to competitive and scared of nothing!)




Then I found his sandals that he as been looking for since we moved in, he hates wearing shoes, we actually had to go buy him a new pair about a week ago because he just couldn't take it anymore and summer is coming.



I also found luggage, luggage really we own luggage we've never had a vacation that didn't involve packing up all the camping stuff (that's why we have a lot of it) in the back of the truck and pitching a tent on the beach of San Felipe or the outskirts of Lake Hemet. I must have been dreaming when I bought this.



And this is how it now sits, It always gets worse before it gets better. Plus there is no Chocolate in the house and I'll need some serious motivation to finish this!

This N That

I have decided I'm going to blog even if I don't have a Title, a Subject or a well thought out plan. They say you create a habit by doing it at least 30 days, Well here I go! Those that know me know full well this isn't going to be 30 days in a row, To those that were hoping sorry, I'll need a lot more training than that :-)

April has been crazy for me, crazier than my normal crazy busy. There were just to many Doctors Appointments, Randy's Appointments, Mom's Appointments (even though my Sister does most of her') and all of a sudden I have Dr.'s Appointments - I haven't had Dr.'s appointments outside of the once a year stuff in over 10 years, then one day I wake up and as soon as my feet hit the floor I'm in pain, I go to the Dr. and he says "It is normal at your age to have an onset of Planterfasiates (my spell checker doesn't know how to spell this) and It's being aggravated by your weight" All I could think as I walked out of there Still in pain and no answer just a referral was - 'He just called me OLD and FAT' I can't believe it!! So that was the beginning of the month of April and it has just gone down hill from there.

Except I just put my husband on a airplane today so he can go visit his Brother who's daughter just had a baby boy! I'm happy for him. But you all know I'm grinning from cheek to cheek! I have seven days no hubby (Except (my life is full of Excepts) I'll be driving to Vallejo, CA on Monday/Tuesday to pick up my daughter from college at the end of the semester. So that will be 2 days of not normal sleep.

So for my first day alone I finished cleaning my office because this picture was diving me crazy - I thought I was all clean and organized and then I publish the blog post with this picture in it and realize that is a bunch of junk! It's getting better still not where I want it but It'll get there!

Before:



After:


Also my brother came home and he, My mother and I drove to Mexicali, Baja CA Mexico to see if my mom's house had survived the earthquake and visit my mother's family there. He pulled out a bag of Almonds and the first thing I see is the bar code:



This is so cool, so I kept it. I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but I'm sure something will come to me!


I got to babysit today: Keegan and Lexi!!!

Scrapbooking table

The fastest way to organize a desk is to use it. So I organized my scrapbooking stuff! I made a friend a Birthday card. The area above the desk has some wonderful energy!



Well as with most of the stuff I do - it is a little late. However this year I have decided to finish my idea's no matter how long it takes me! My friend hosts me while I attend the Puyallup Sew Expo every year and her Birthday is the First week in March - Actually her Birthday has always landed during the Show dates, but this year it didn't.

I took a picture of her cat while I was staying with her and thought to myself I can print out the picture of her cat and make her a Birthday card.

Well I did it! I haven't made a Card, Invitation or Scrapbook page layout in over 4 years, and guess what if you put away your scrapbooking stuff you shouldn't expect it to not dry out if you don't get to it with in a reasonable amount of time.



All my stuff is out and accessible, I realize I need new stuff, but I think that's the plus side to organizing. So now when I get an idea, it shouldn't take me 7 weeks to implement it!

Garment Designer Pant Tutorial

A couple months back we created a facebook fan page for Cochenille. You can join us here. .

I posted a question asking what people would like for specials - I have a hard time coming up with them each month, feel free to comment on the subject if you like!!!

I didn't get a 'specials' suggestion - but it was suggested if we could do a Tips/Techniques once a month instead of or in addition to. My next question then became 'What would you like to start with?' and the suggestion came 'Copying Ready-to-wear'.

The thought for the post quickly formulated in my mind, mainly because I answer the Cochenille phone's and know a lot of the common questions - which by the way I have started to write down to include in these monthly Tips/Techniques posts.

I will start with the answer to the most common question 'Do you have Tutorials?' Yes, yes we do. You find the Tutorials in the Tutorials plus folder that is in the Garment Designer program folder on your Hard drive.

For Windows people - you click on My computer then Open the Hard drive (C: drive for most computers) then open the Program files folder then open the Garment Designer folder and there you will find the Tutorials plus folder.

For Mac people - you open the Hard drive then open the Applications Folder then open the Garment Designer folder and there you will find the Tutorials Plus folder.

Garment Designer versions 2.1.3 and below have the Tutorials plus folder:



Garment Designer version 2.5 has no folder, just the Tutorials PDF:



Tutorial number 2 (Pant Tutorial) Method One is a Tutorial that Susan wrote taking you step by step in how to copy a pair of pants you already have. Once you work your way through this tutorial you will be able to copy anything you already own using Garment Designer to create your pattern pieces.



Also most of you also own the Garment Designer lesson book 1, in that one Susan copies a Top, also step by step with fully illustrated instructions.





So the facebook fan group challenge for the month will be to take a garment that we own and replicate it using Garment Designer and what you have learned from the Tutorial.

I'm working my way through a pair of sweat pants that I'm turning into long shorts for summer - I'll write up a blog post, and tell you all what I learned working through the Tutorial and show you my results.

Feel free to join us on Facebook - or the Yahoo Group to tell us how you are doing and show us pictures of your project, and ask any questions that you might have.

New to me Serger

I bought my serger when I was pregnant with my daughter and I was doing a lot of sewing. It has made projects go fast. It has saved a lot of my knit pants from the rag bin. It has given me lots and lots of years of good service.



My daughter is in her 2nd semester in college and my poor little serger is ready to retire, well maybe I am going to take it in and see if they can fix it. I don't want to get my hopes up since I paid less than $200 for this little serger, sometimes it's just not worth it to fix things. The poor thing starts to smell like burning rubber after a few quick bursts of the power peddle. Towards the end the poor thing would bounce all over the place, so my husband build it a wood retaining wall!



So now I have this little serger to replace it - It has come to me all the way from Canada. Susan Lazear my boss has graciously brought it all the way here just for me.


This is her serger from when she started sewing. I'm greatful to have it. It serges beautifully! Now I can finish a few projects that have just been sitting. A couple of which are sample skirts for Cochenille's Easy 7 Skirt book!