One More Day Until Spring?

 Ahhhhhh---- we have one more day until Spring officially arrives. This weekend is going to be chock full of nice beautiful weather again. When considering that during the past week we had some awful snow and cold and wind!

This morning, as I sit here sipping my coffee, looking out of the She Shed windows, I am looking ahead to a day in the 50s with sunshine and blue skies.

Do you know how I always say how Steve finds these wonderful bargains on Marketplace and Craigslist? Well, yesterday it was my turn! 

I was kinda browsing along looking for some end tables or nightstands for in our guest room. Nothing in particular, but I was just looking for a set to put one on each side of the guest bed.

Well, I ran across a listing with two very nice end tables. But added with the listing was a leather mission style loveseat!!!

Oh boy, it was something I didn't even realize I knew that I wanted, but after spending a bunch of days with grandchildren, we realized that there are only two "adult butt sized seats" in the She Shed. Everybody ends up in the She Shed. But we were constantly shagging the kids out of our leather mission recliners and forcing them to go sit on the "kid butt sized" ottomans or the tall stools over by the sewing area fabric cutting bar.

When people stop by, (granted we haven't had any people stop by for a year due to covid-19) this loveseat was the answer. It would give us two more grown-up adult sitting spaces and we can still move the kids over to the ottomans if we have company.

I contacted the seller to get some better photos and see if it was a match to our recliners. Hint: if you want to sell something you need to have good photos or people can't tell exactly what you're selling. In a way, that added to our benefit because nobody else contacted her about the loveseat. 

(here was her photo in the ad)

In contrast, she said she had over 50 inquiries about her other two leather chairs! That was a better photo in a separate ad. Well, once she sent me the better photos, with closeups of the side wooden sections,  I knew that it was the match to the set we have, even from the same manufacturer.

After my dental appointment yesterday, Steve hooked up the trailer and off we went 30 miles to check out my potential Facebook Marketplace deal acquisition.

Sure enough, that's exactly what we wanted. All 3 pieces for only $250. The tables were even nicer and taller than the ones we currently have in our living room. We will put them in there, and rotate our existing tables into the bedroom as bed nightstands for the guest bed.

We were able to just squeeze the loveseat in through the door, working hard between the two of us. We set it into place. The woodwork matches perfectly!

There--- we now have four "grown up butt sitting spaces" in our She Shed! We still have plenty of room for my other things and I have all of my sewing and weaving and knitting and spinning toys around us. This makes a much cozier cluster for sitting and looking out of the back windows into the big backyard.  That is one of our favorite past times in the She Shed, besides working on my fibery stuff.  We also listen to music and play cribbage or yachtzee, and enjoy the space much more than being in our livingroom. 

(it looks tight in the pic, but there is about 4 feet behind the loveseat and the looms)

We are babysitting two sassy Grandpuppies for 5 days while the kids are on spring break. Of course I know that they like to jump all over the place and act more like cats or squirrels than actual dogs. I covered the new loveseat with a big quilt to help protect its surface while they are here visiting.  Binney and her buddies had to try it out. I put the smaller ottomans in front for the dogs to jump onto and hang out when I sat down in their places.

Little Biscuit, the white Bichon Frise dog, seems to think she's a cat and jumps up and sleeps on the back of the loveseat in the sunshine.  Totally spoiled rotten! 

Sassy little Ewok, the cairn terrier mix, seems to think he belongs anywhere he darn well pleases. Here he is hopped up in the recliner chair and I had to shag him off right after I took the picture.  They make themselves at home here, and it's much nicer for them than a boarding kennel. 

By clustering the furniture together in a group around one of the sets of windows, it creates a nice little space for visiting and still allows plenty of other room for my she shed toys.  Our view outside this morning... the grass is not greening up yet, but the sunshine is sure nice.

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Over the last two weeks, we have spent some special time with each of the local grandkids. We're trying to give them all some one-on-one time and also some grouped family time. We make up list of projects to do or things we'd like to get accomplished. When they come, they get to pick out things they want to do and we cross them off the list. 

This picture below happened to be that they decided it was time to make rice krispie bars! It is a favorite project because each one gets different steps to do and eventually by the time we reach the end, we have a nice big pan of Rice Krispie bars, and three spatulas that needs to be licked off. Of course, this grandma keeps more than enough left over stuff in the bowl after filling the pan. Then they can all scrape away till their hearts' content with their spatulas. Got to make sure there's enough for everyone.

The oldest grandson, Jameson, loves cooking. Here he helped make dinner, which consisted of a roasted turkey breast, mashed potatoes, veggies, tater tots, and our favorite garlic knots.

The two smallest girl cousins Whitney and Claire, spent an evening making apple pies. They love making the apples go round and round on this apple peeler corer slicer unit. It doesn't take long and soon we had enough apples to bake three pies! One for each of them to bring home, and one to leave here with Grandma and Grandpa.  Look at the delight on Whitney's face, while Claire is busy eating as many of the string peelings as she can cram in at once. LOL

Spending some one-on-one time with each child, as well as in groups, gives us a chance to really get involved with them with projects. We get a chance to know each one, and enjoy our time together, and hopefully build some memories for them to carry on down the line.

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On the fiber front, I started a new quilt. These are some special pieces of fabric that I got in the mail, through a Christmas Gift Subscription from the kids. Every month I get a new batch of six different pieces of fabric that all coordinate. They are shipped out by a little tiny rural quilting shop up in the Northwoods of Minnesota. What a great way to help out little shops during the pandemic! Now by the third month, I had enough to actually put together into a quilt. So I started piecing together all of the little squares and triangles to get started on a new quilt. 

It is based on a pattern by Eleanor Burns called Jewel Box Quilt. 

 It says you can make it in one day, but I will take my time. LOL

On another evening, Steve needed to buzz up to Marinette to Menards to get our last window order for replacing in the kitchen breakfast area. Of course, right nearby is a Jo-Ann store. Chelsea and I decided with being that late in the evening, we could reasonably go up there and not have too many other shoppers to deal with.

We were right, we were the only people in the store except the two clerks working. We roamed around till our hearts content and picked out a few things that we absolutely had to have. Chelsea picked out enough fabric to start her very own full-sized quilt for her bed.

She chose sea turtle fabric because that is her favorite animal. We found some really cute little prints and enough coordinating fabric to work into a quilt for her.

We set to work cutting up the fabric and in one evening she sewed together a lot of the cut pieces into large four patch blocks. Although she got her own sewing machine for Christmas, she spent the evening sewing on mine while spending the night. She sewed right up until 9:30 p.m.

The next day she was ready to start laying out her blocks. She meticulously arranged and rearranged them to make sure that no two matching pieces would be touching each other. She sure is a little Mini-Me, wanting to create and make something with her own sense of style and learn along the way. Soon the younger girls will want to be doing it too.

Well, enough of this blog stuff this morning, the sun is shining and I think I need to get some things done. Steve already cooked us a delicious breakfast and all three dogs got little nibbles of leftovers as treats. Now the two sassy Grandpuppies are dozing in the sunshine on the big ottoman.

Binney has taken up her place of honor as the princess on the new loveseat. She's keeping a close eye on Steve while he is on his computer.

I wonder if he is looking for more of his own

 Facebook Marketplace Bargains

 and Craigslist deals?

You never know.