Staying Home This Week - and Jamming with Granddaughter

In my last blog, we left the campground on Friday afternoon and headed on home. The weekend was all reserved at the campground, so we needed to vacate our site anyhow. The weather looked hot and humid and icky for the next four or five or six days so it was a good idea just to stay home!!

Someone that Steve used to work with at the University was selling this absolutely beautiful leather couch!! It is in wonderful shape, and they just had the leather professionally reconditioned. New, this couch is $4,000.00!!!

They were selling it to make room after rearranging some of the other things in their living room --- for only $250. 

I have always wanted a couch like that, and decided that it would go perfectly in our She-Shed instead of the smaller loveseat and perhaps removing one of our mission recliners.

These recliners have been comfortable, but I think the coach was going to add a lot more versatility. I felt that we needed it for evenings while watching TV with two dogs who insist on being on top of me. Not only that, but also for more seating for visiting company and grandkids ... and perhaps for afternoon naps!!!  It's not too squishy, and firm enough for sitting in and getting out of. 

We were debating on how to haul it back from Green Bay up to Oconto. We could drive all the way up to Wausaukee to the kids cabin to get the trailer and bring it back, and then go to Green Bay, bring the couch back. And then go back to the cabin to return the trailer, and then come back home. That is about 250 miles total. 

Instead, I came up with another idea. Heck, who cares if we look like the Beverly Hillbillies? We have a boat trailer that we use to transport our 17 ft canoe. It would work perfectly to haul a couch. 

And we did just that!

All of the cushions were stowed safely inside of our Kia.  The woven blanket just added to the "flavor" of the task!   We saved approximately 160 miles extra running around by just going directly there and back with our boat trailer. 

We carried out the love seat, and carried in the couch. Boy oh boy, that thing was not light!! Us old folks in our '60s can still hustle and get things done. But it took a bit of ooomph from both of us. 

Now we had to rearrange the entire She Shed to accommodate the longer couch. We had to think and think and look and look and measure and measure until we decided on the best layout. My quilting frame and long arm quilting machine are the biggest obstacle, but it's necessary to be placed where it can be used easily. 

The dogs got a little discombobulated during the move around. But they decided as long as their beds were safe underneath my biggest barn loom, they were happy.

We tried rearranging it a couple different ways and try still keeping both of the recliners. Nope, that wasn't going to work. It was just too crowded. So instead, we kept one recliner and the couch. 

We like the view out the big windows to the yard, so postioning it facing outwards was a "must".  We tried 2 chairs facing inwards and moved the couch back towards the quilting frame.  But Steve didn't like that.  It could work, but I would have to move the couch forward every time to work on a quilt! 

This layout seems to work the best, and it's just perfect for an afternoon nap.  

Both of my looms are off to one side now, and can easily be pulled forward to work on when needed. My sewing desk is back where I liked it from before, near the door. Now I can use the tall platform behind it as an ironing table surface.  Still have a little more organizing to do with some of the boxes and baskets, but it's getting there. 

Steve's recliner was more "worn" so we opted to get rid of his. Granddaughter Chelsea was here visiting, and assisted to carry out his recliner chair. She really is a helpful young lady. 

To reward her for her work, we wanted to do a project together. We headed on over to Berryland in Abrams. It's that time of year, the strawberries are at their absolute best!

We have had so much rain lately, the berries were just bursting with flavor and juiciness. The mosquitoes were crazy and we did not feel like picking the berries ourselves. Instead, we bought two flats of pre-picked berries. Berryland allows kids to come and pick berries and put their names on the flat. When a customer comes and purchases the flat, part of the proceeds goes back to the kid who did the picking.

Ours happened to be picked by two girls named Amelia and Abigail. Looks like they were really busy. Amelia had picked three flats and Abigail had picked two. I'm glad that we were able to help them along in their summer job by purchasing the berries that they worked so hard to pick.

(And we didn't get eaten up by mosquitoes)

First step was to wash all of the berries. I love hanging out in the kitchen with Chelsea. She enjoys cooking and baking and creating things. She has taken extra classes in culinary arts through school during the summer months. We sure have fun together. My little Mini Me. 

It was very hot and humid, not quite the kind of weather that you want to process strawberries in. But we have a propane burner unit that came from a turkey deep fryer. Works perfect to set the canning kettle on and keep all the hot steamy air outside during processing of the jars. Steve set it up for us while we were inside working on the berries.

We sure had a lot of fun. And of course, a few berries were consumed during the process. Making memories, and hoping to pass on the skills that I learned at my mother's elbow when we canned and processed our garden vegetables and made apple jelly.

Chelsea is an old hand at canning jam with me and is very careful about measuring and super cautious about cleanliness when processing with the jars and lids.

My new GoPro app called "QUIK" takes photos and video clips and puts them together into a short YouTube segment. It does a lot of the editing and adds the music for me. I am learning as I go and thought I would put together a little YouTube clip of us doing our jam:

We did up a total of 13 pints and 19 half pints

 

Now that the she-shed was all rearranged, I was able to finally get out my newest quilt and finish up the binding around the edges. This is the position that I like my sewing desk. I had it like this before, but we moved it around to a different place with the last loom aquisition.  I think I got it all to fit and still keep it in this position now.  

This newest quilt is so pretty, it's made of red white and blue fabrics. Just perfect for a summertime picnic. Actually, that's what I named it!

Summertime Picnic available in my Etsy shop:

ETSY SHOP: summertime-picnic-quilt-free-shipping

Again, I put together a little slideshow with that GoPro app. I really think it turned out cute! I figure it's one more avenue for selling my quilts, to show them actually being made from start to finish with a cute little YouTube:

I enjoy doing it so much, I put together this one with the photos and video I had on file. This beautiful pineapple quilt I have named Pieces of Wisconsin Northwoods. I sewed a lot of blocks for this quilt while camping up north. 

While I was at it, having so much fun with this app, I also put one together for the third quilt that is in my Etsy store called Coffee Break:

We are pretty glad that we are not camping this week. It's been horribly hot, and lots and lots of rain. 

Actually today, it's been raining and pouring almost all day long. Absolutely perfect for simmering up a pot of homemade chicken vegetable soup. We treated ourself with a rotisserie chicken from Jack's Fresh Market for dinner the night before. Then the leftovers of their huge rotisserie chickens are perfect to pick apart and make into soup.

It's been so dark and gloomy and cloudy and rainy today. We actually had to turn on the lights in the She Shed as the rain was pouring down. I insisted to Steve that we needed to light the gas fireplace in the She Shed.  

It really took out the dampness and warmed it up nicely. What a perfect place to curl up and take a nap on my new couch!!!

It was actually so cold and damp in the rest of the house, Steve turned over the thermostat from air conditioning to heat! It took the chill out and I think this evening we may even bake something in the oven for dinner! 

Time to get this blog posted, take care and maybe next week we will have some camping posts again.