Blustery Monday

I looked outside on Saturday night and saw this most eerie looking moon surrounded by very strange looking clouds. This is just a shot with my cell phone, snapping a couple times until I got one that actually came into focus. It looks perfect for a Halloween picture doesn't it?

Today it is very windy and blustery outside. Winds are up to 40 to 45 mile-an-hour gusts. Not a good day to be out driving in a motorhome. It is cloudy and dull, and scattered rains throughout the day. We had been thinking about going camping this week. Now with the weather reports, we are not so sure. We are almost out of time to go camping and soon it will be time to winterize the rig.

Our kids brought over their motor home last night, fully winterized, to park in our yard for the winter. They have a narrower driveway that makes it a little more difficult to get around when there's snow. So it's easier to just park their motorhome here in our yard when it's not being used for the winter.  They do keep it in their yard for spring, summer and fall. They hung around for supper and we enjoyed a nice evening visiting and catching up.

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Since we are at home, yesterday I took care of a few odds and ends and started to work on some of my fiber projects again. I finished weaving up this rug on the Sanna Kangas Finlander Barn Loom and unrolled it to cut it off. I will get it hemmed and listed soon in my Etsy store.  It reminds me of a cold winter day with the creams and greys and black bits, and some turquoise sky peeking through.

While the Packer game was playing (Go Pack Go, yayyyy they won), I was working on my quilt blocks. This is the quilt that I started this summer and I have been working on just a little bit at a time.  I love my little sewing desk at the She Shed. I have everything at my fingertips and it's such a nice cozy spot to sew from. If I look out over the ironing counter, there are the big windows that show the view out to the back yard. It's a very pleasant place to be.

I am almost done, I think I have two more blocks to go... this is called a pineapple pattern. Once it's done, I will surround the edges with what's called a piano key border and then get it onto the big frame to quilt it.  This one will go for sale in my etsy store too,  Perhaps in time for the Christmas Shoppers! 

https://kareninthewoods.etsy.com/

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Steve started working on the top crown molding trims for both the closet door and the new window in the master bedroom. This took a lot of trial and error, in and out, double checking and triple checking before he cut into the crown molding trim.

It's kind of a one-man job. There's not a lot I can do except hold one end while he nails the other end once he gets the pieces cut correctly. Because he was trying to adapt over an existing piece of trim on the closet, it wasn't quite the right height to match the doorway and the master bathroom next to it. It took a little extra figuring and extra trips back and forth to the saw in the garage. To make them work out level, he needed to add an extra spacer behind the crown molding. That way he had some "meat" to nail into. 

Finally he was ready to nail up the trim and I was there helping on the other end. Holding things level and making sure it's lined up correctly. Then when I am done holding, I can quick grab the phone to take a pic. 

Suddenly the gun jammed up and wouldn't work. How frustrating. He opened it up and found one of these very thin fine finishing nails was crunched up so crazily. Amazing it has that much power to bend it from inside of the machine.

He got it un-jammed and we were able to continue with the trim. It's not an exact match to the original trim next to it but it is close enough for what we can do ourselves.

Other than having custom millwork created and having a special knife made to exactly replicate the original trim, we did the best we could. I think it's good enough for us!  The top piece is called "crown" and the thin bottom piece is called "egg and dart".  I think because of the oval sections are eggs and the little arrows are darts? 

He had to do some complex cuts on the compound miter saw to get the top angles just right, plus trim off some of the top edge to make it match what we originally have.  The top lip was thicker, and it took some skill to get these thin pieces of wood cut evenly on the table saw. 

Once he was done getting it into place we puttied up the little nail holes. Then I was able to give it a final coat of paint. I had already applied two coats of good paint while it was horizontal out in the garage on the saw horses.  There... the closet trim is done! 

He felt like he did the piece of crown on the closet doors as a trial run. Now today he will work on the window piece of crown for the new window that we installed earlier this month. 

I had encountered the problem that our trim color, called "String of Pearls", does not match the standard ivory or the white colored face plates available in the stores. If you paint them, they just chip and flake and scratch off.  

But I did happen to find these beautiful ceramic plates that have a little bit of a beadboard look to them. They match our trim color perfectly. I saw them last year and put two of them on each side of the island in the kitchen. They are $6 each and I really can't afford to do the entire house. 

But I did splurge and buy a few. If I buy three or four each time I'm in that store, eventually I will have enough to redo the entire house! At this time they only had four of the switch plate covers and one of the outlet covers in stock. Sadly, one of the switch plate covers was already broken in the package at the store so I could only buy three of them. But they are the exact right color and I like the look of them. Kind of Old Farmhouse-y... just our style.

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Things are pretty chilly today. We kicked in both of the fireplaces instead of running the big furnace in the house. It's enough to take the chill out and make things cozy. Here is the one down in the She Shed that helps to distribute the heat down there.

I'm pretty proud of Steve. When we installed this unit in the She Shed it had a remote control with room sensor so it could thermostatically kick on and off. It senses whatever temperature the remote control was preset for. Also, wherever in the room you set the remote control, it would monitor the temp and signal back to the fireplace when it was going to kick on or off. We never had it set up correctly and never really messed around with the remote control. We have been just using the fireplace manually.

Well, Steve said since we have the technology we might as well use it. He took out the book and he read it from cover to cover and figured out all of the settings. He got it all configured correctly and now the remote control operates properly. What a guy! I was pretty proud of him for figuring it out. It was something I never got around to doing, and I am glad that he was able to get it operating correctly as intended.  

Now he doesn't have to get down on his hands and knees and ignite it and control it from the little panel near the floor.

The gas fireplace in the living room isn't as fancy, and doesn't have a remote control. Although we might see if we can add one to it.  Steve manually lit that one in the living room for me today as I'm zooming around here and there and everywhere. It is keeping the main part of the house very comfy.

On second thought, rather than zooming around so much, maybe I should take some time to sit down on the couch or in my recliner, take out a stack of my quilting magazines, a mug of coffee, and take it easy this morning.

I think I will do just that!