Waking Up After A Long Winter's Sleep

 Oooooh I am married to a Happy Motorhoming Man!!! 

Today, Steve decided to move the motorhome out of it's long dark winter's berth, and awaken the sleeping giant to get moved over to another spot in our driveway.

We have been storing our oldest daughter's motorhome in our yard behind our rig. They wanted to get their motorhome out to bring it up to their cabin.  Steve has been wanting to get our rig fired up as well. He wanted to move it over and take a look at the calipers and master brake cylinder for a possible future repair coming up. 

Just look at that smiling face!

He was very happy that our 25+ year old diesel fired right up, roaring to life at the touch of the key. Purring like the Cat that it is.  He let it idle in the parking spot for a while to warm it up to an operating temperature before moving it.

The littlest granddaughter was here for a visit, and decided she needed to take over the co-pilot's seat. Even if it was just moving from one spot to another in our driveway. Why she decided she needed sunglasses, I don't know? It was an icky rainy foggy miserable day. Not much for sunshine. But I suppose she is a little ray of Sunshine herself!

While I stood outside to watch the overhang of the garage eave, Steve drove out of the winter parking area and moved it over into the regular driveway. Now it's a little closer to the garage door to do some repair work if needed, as well as soon we will be de-winterizing and loading it back up with our camping essentials

This little stinker was pretty proud to be in the co-pilot seat, and was giggling all of the while.  I think she and Grandpa were on the same wavelength? 

At the same time as moving our rig, her parents came to move their Forester Class C from where it was parked behind ours along side of the garage. The granddaughter then was able to transfer over to that co-pilot seat and ride back home with her daddy behind the wheel. They only live a mile away so wasn't too far to go. But in her little mind it was an "Exciting Journey".

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With the reduction in covid case numbers, and the increase in vaccinations, hopefully this year we will get in a lot more camping. Although maintaining social distancing really is pretty easy to accomplish for the type of camping we like to do. We like being out in beautiful natural areas like the smaller County, State and National Forest parks, and not in crowded touristy type camping resorts. We don't even do touristy activities when we go, we are usually pretty remote and secluded, enjoying nature and the woods. So camping really hasn't been too restrictive for us, other than the fact that many of the campgrounds were not open most of last year due to covid precautions. Hopefully, this year more campsites will be available and we can get out more often.

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Last week we had picked up an extra screen door to mount on the side of the She Shed leading from the garage through the pergola. The screen door is cute but I wanted to dress it up with the same little bric-a-brac wooden brackets that I had put on our other two entryway doors. I was able to order them from the same place on eBay, the cheapest place that I found anywhere. So this week I decided to paint them up to get them ready to be mounted onto the door. I love working on piddly little painting projects like this, it's fun to do and I think it just is so nice to trim things up and make them neat and clean and fresh and white. A coat of paint can do wonders.

The other thing that I was painting with our newest Facebook Marketplace find. I had been thinking that little cafe shutters in the bathroom would look really cute instead of the lace curtains I had in there. I looked online at places like Home Depot and Lowe's, and the faux wood (plastic) cafe shutters were at least $99 a set! I wanted two sets, for the top and bottom for privacy. Then I looked at the real wood shutters, and those were $150 a set. My goodness, $300 for one window? Well that just wasn't going to happen.

Mr Steveio zeroed in on this Marketplace bargain of two sets of vintage real wooden shutters almost the exact size that we needed for the mere price of $25 total!

They were a little more of a creamy color than the soft off white pearl color that we have on our window trim. Steve had to take off about a quarter inch with the table saw on each side to get them to fit. Out came my paintbrush and my bucket, and I took on giving them a double coat on both sides.

While I work on my little painting projects, Steve comes out in the garage to keep me company. We have the radio playing softly and we sit and talk while I dab away with my paint brush. If you have read my blog for any length of time, you know he doesn't like painting. Not. At. All. But it's nice that he comes out to keep me company while I do.

After the shutters were dry, we needed to put all of the hinges back on again. Our grandson Jameson was over for his special one-on-one evening to spend time with us. He helped Grandpa put on all the little hinges, even using the old fashioned flat-headed screws which are much harder to deal with than Phillips heads. It took a lot more patience and trying a few screwdrivers to find one that would fit the slots just right. These shutters came from an old house that's being restored up in Marinette. The type of screws used kinda told their age. New ones are always Phillips! 

Jameson spent the evening here doing some projects, updating his cell phone and games on our unlimited Wi-Fi, and he decided we should bake brownies. Even being 12 years old, he's not too old to lick the beater and to use the spatula to get the remains out of the bottom of the mixing bowl. 

Soon the shutters were ready to be mounted into place. I was really excited to see them going up. We don't have any neighbors in the backyard, except maybe a few visiting deer and turkeys and other assorted stray wildlife, but it's nice to have the option to close them down for privacy, or open them up or swing them wide and fold them back for sunshine and fresh air.

There we go. I like that so much more than the lace curtains I had before. This bathroom is my little Oasis Retreat and I like the idea of the little cafe shutters being the finishing touch.

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On the fiber front, I haven't had a chance to work on my quilt all week. Instead I've been very very busy working on these little bunny families. The older granddaughter Chelsea had already sewn a complete family set 2 weeks before. I had two more sets to go for the younger granddaughters. It takes awhile to get them cut out. There are the fronts and the backs and the ears and the little babies, not to mention the pieces of clothing that goes along with each one.

They need to be all matched up perfectly and sewn around all of the edges. Then I zigzag around the outer margins to make them extra secure.

It takes even longer to turn them all right side out and carefully stuff them in each of their limbs, adding their ears, and finally filling up their faces and bellies. I'm not much of a toy maker, but I know the delight and joy that this will bring to the younger granddaughters once they are completed.

Here is a finished set of Mama bunny, Daddy bunny, and three of the Baby bunnies. Notice the mom has a cute little skirt on with pockets all the way around. Why would a mama bunny need pockets?

Of course, she needs pockets

 to carry her baby bunnies in!  

Well, not to be a sexist grandparent, our son-in-law Waylen showed that the Daddy bunny is perfectly able to wear the skirt and carry the babies around his waist in the pockets, just as easily.

We dropped off a set of the bunnies with granddaughter Whitney. She was delighted and plans to bring them over for playdates with the other grandchildren.

Claire now has her little bunny family, and is excited to play with her cousin Whitney soon as well.  

And I am still making some little miniature baby bunny quilts from the scraps for all of the little bunny babies, as time allows. 

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It was such a damp dreary foggy day today, I decided to lighten it up a bit by firing up the pressure cooker this afternoon. I made a big hunk of pot roast, and Steve peeled the potatoes. The house smells so good tonight. After we eat a portion of the pot roast, I save the leftovers and chop up the meat to make stew with the remaining potatoes and carrots.  Some of the meat I save and shred and freeze for future tacos or casserole dishes. That way we get two more meals worth of food from the same hunk of meat.

Tonight we are going to curl up 

with some HGTV

and take it easy.