August!

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It’s been a busy month since I got home from my micro-vacation. Way too much going on and barely time to breathe, let alone write on the blog. Right now I am working on preparations for BATTLEMOOR!

I’ve been repairing clothes and starting some new Viking pants for Dan. These are brown linen and should be much cooler than his flannels. I’m hoping to make some Beledi Dance clothes for me. I’ve got fabric for two pairs of sarouelles. (baggy pants) I’m using Folkwear Pattern #119.   I’m also making a couple of tunics for one of the Battlemoor crew.

I’ve had lots of meetings, work in the garden, and trips to Pueblo. My mom has had cataract surgery, my nephew moved out, and it’s rained!!!! We also discovered part of the reason that our garden hasn’t done as well this year. Deer. They eat down all the new shoots. sigh…

The school district is trying to get a Mill Levy Overide to provide more money for the schools as well. Tonight there is a drum clinic at Washington school. Dan is doing the sound work. I’m just going to go deaf. 🙂

Back to sewing!

Flaming June!

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Well, at least my hair feels like it is on fire. The first weeks have been crazy!

At the house, we have been fine tuning bits and pieces. Where do we hang this pic? Why doesn’t this door close well? What is that in the rose bush? (two trees) Make a trellis for said rose bush. Find a couch… replace the couch… organize this, that and a few other bits. Plus, we’ve actually been working here! You have no idea of how great a feeling it is to have someplace to work without interruptions! We’ve been trying to spend at least one night a week here as well.

At my mom’s we planted the big garden. Same size as last year, but a few new additions. We are trying eggplant, two new squash and potatoes. 🙂 Plus, the layout is a bit different.

Then there is our um… social life. I am taking two SCA classes. Beledi dance (belly dancing) and bobbin lace. Both classes are in Pueblo, so we have to make sure that everyone gets fed before we leave and that we have all of our gear. It’s a bit daunting at times, but oh it is fun!

And… there is the regular stuff. Housework, cleaning the yard at 203, and meetings! School board, DAAC, the Wellness committee, Celtic Music Fest, etc. It’s enough to make me want to run away. Or, at least lock all the doors at least once a week.

Yet Another Milestone! (or 6)

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We’ve been busy on a number of levels. March 9th, we ran sound for a celtic group called Runa. Good music, and the start of getting ready for the Celtic Music Fest in September. We took a break on Saturday and went up to Pueblo West to have fun with our SCA friends. It was a well needed break.
The house is coming along. We got a lot of touch up painting done. The bathroom, hall, kitchen, and breakfast nook are all finished. I was going to do some dark blue trim on the quarter round in the kitchen and breakfast nook, but there was just no way to do it neatly. I painted the china cupboard to match the pantry and will be using the remainder of the blue paint on the floor trim.
we’ve made some great leaps forward, and are now being held up by one or two little things. Hinges for example. Many of the hinges were paint choked. I’ve hit them with citrusstrip, but… now we have to soak them in a solvent to get rid of the paint that worked its way into the hinges. Argh!

Then there are the cupboard doors. They needed wiped down with solvent, and then sanded. The solvent makes me wheeze and dizzy, so Dan wiped them down and then sanded them.
We cleared the studio and sanded off all of the paint drips as well. The amount of paint that ends up on the floor even with drop clothes is amazing. Gahhh!

While Dan worked on taxes, I washed some of the windows, and painted cupboard doors. Then I decided that I could put the china cupboard back together. It took a bit and involved a ladder, but I got it done!

Then I had the fun of unpacking boxes! I have all of the Noritaki china in the cupboard as well as some of the other bits and pieces. Some of the cupboards in the kitchen got filled as well. Herbs, tins, and other bits and bobs. I’ll get the doors on those cupboards in the next day or so.

My biggest challenge is deciding where to put things. In many ways, I have less storage than I did at the other house. This is making me look very carefully at everything I put in the kitchen. While I was cleaning, I had visitors. Two friends of ours came over. They have a propane stove, some dome lights and a sink if we want it. 🙂

Today I finished painting all of the cupboard doors. Wheee! I painted the trim on the floor of the breakfast nook, sanded up paint spots, swept, mopped and oiled the studio and breakfast nook, organized some of the paint and painting tools, and then I unpacked boxes.

Some of the boxes were kitchen stuff. It’s funny, but I don’t have the same amount of storage I did over at the other house. I will be doing some sorting to weed out things we don’t need. Granted, I’ve been doing a lot of this. The ARC thrift store,the library,  and a local foods group have been getting lots of donations.

One really big box had kitchen stuff, office supplies and DVDs. I found 5 more duplicates, and then tried to sort them into a kind of order. Too tired to think! I stacked them on a rack so that they weren’t in a box. Oh my we have DVDs! I haven’t counted, but I think we have close to 130 now.

Tomorrow I hope to put cupboard doors up. We have 8 frozen hinges to work on, and hope that they work. We have three lights to put up as well. On Friday, we have a friend helping us to move the big awkward furniture. Wardrobes, and the rolling cabinet will help figure out a lot of storage.

Paint, paint, paint, paint, PAINT!

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Life has been busy. Work for Dan, a school board conference and Saturday workshop for me, and lots of little interruptions. However, we’ve made progress on the house. We still have a lot to do, but in other ways we are so close to unpacking the rest of the boxes!

Since I last updated this blog, we have painted. Painted a lot. We had to go get more paint. Some for the touch ups in the hall corners and then more for the living room. I went ahead and did a crazy thing. I painted the dining room. With a really soft roller. It took about two hours, but… it looks beautiful. Very bright. 🙂

I’ve been stripping the cupboard doors and drawers in the kitchen and breakfast nook. I sanded a few, and realized that it was crazy. Since then, I have decided that Citrusstrip is my best friend! Ecological, smells nice, and it does not make me wheeze. I’ve done 11 drawers and I’ve done 9 of 16 doors. Tomorrow I will be doing the second coat of paint on the breakfast nook and kitchen. Oh, and stripping more doors.

Today I was on the ladder a lot. I cleared, cleaned and hung the light in the studio. I put up a curtain rod and attached the plate for the fire alarm. Pretty good for someone who has intermittent vertigo!

Here are some of the latest pics.

Our House…

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Is a very very very improved house! With a trash pile in the yard. Life use to be so hard, now everything is easy ’cause we’ve cleaned!

Sorry for the filk, but the song has been running though my head today. We’ve gotten a lot done. All the holes in the walls are spackled. We found a rot spot and will have to fix that in the ceiling of the library, but that’s it. Sunday we sanded the floors with the help of a friend. Monday we took a trip to  Pueblo as Dan caught a virus and felt horrid. We got all kinds of bits and pieces for the house. Then while he went to bed, I swept, mopped, and started oiling floors.

Tuesday was more of the same. Sweeping, mopping and oiling. Today I had a lot of stuff to do outside of the house, but I finished oiling the living room and dining room floor. All that is left is the library floor. That won’t get done until Dan fixes the ceiling. I also began to tape rooms for painting. Wheeee! Yes, I’m crazy, but I actually like painting. My big fear is just how much paint it is going to take to cover the green and yellow paint.

Dan started working in the basement today. Ugh! While he was taking out a partition wall, one of the 2×4’s that was under tension snapped and broke his hand and killed the saw. It’s just a small bone in his pinky finger, but it hurts. He hauled out 6 mattresses and took them to the dump. He let me into the basement for the first time, and oh… oh my… oh my gods what a mess! We will salvage what we can, but :::shudder:::

This evening, we went to an SCA shire meeting tonight too. We discussed what we are going to do for various events. Best of all… two of our friends offered to help us paint!

Here are some pictures of our progress.

Viking Vinter Vonderland

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We had a great time. It was held at Pueblo Mt. Park. The drive up was nice after the hectic morning of preparing the last of the food and packing up the truck. We left 40 minutes late, but we weren’t the only ones a bit late.

We took our little campstove, and while Dan heated up bread rolls in the oven, I began to roll/flatten out the rye flatbreads. We cooked about 50-60 of them. While it was a little cold, it wasn’t too bad.

The donation luncheon and challenge table was filled with luscious food. I contributed cabbage and venison soup, rye flat bread, a salad, plum cake with plum sauce, a Viking version of deviled eggs, tea, milk and sugar.

There was lots of good conversation and fun. I participated in a persona challenge. I was asked questions about Unna Farulfsdottir, and it was very interesting. I didn’t win, but it gave me a lot to think about. I also participated in the largess contest. I entered my 5 Valkyries. I got a penannular brooch in return for participating.

Finally, we headed home around 5pm. We were happy and worn out. A great day.

The Flag, the Funeral and the Conference

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Last week was hectic. Really hectic.

Monday: Packed for a week’s trip. Finished running errands and getting ready by 1am.

Tuesday: Up at 6am. Out the door by 7:30am. Funeral at 11:45am at Ft. Logan in Denver. After the funeral, the Thomas family, Dan and I went out for breakfast/lunch at the Littleton Cafe, which use to be an IHOP. In fact, it was the IHOP that John and I use to go to for breakfast before speech meetings. It was great. Granted, the cafe was probably glad when the 22-23 of us finally left.  After that, we headed over to Judy’s house and visited for a while. When Dan and I got ready to leave, Erin asked me to wait. He had something for me. It was the flag that he’d been presented with as eldest son. He said that as I had been the military wife for 17 years, that I should have it.

John Thomas' flag

Later that night, we went to the wake held by the SCA. It was lovely. Lots of good food, friends and drink.

Wednesday: After sleeping in, and a brief trip to IKEA, we headed to Colorado Springs for the CASB conference. We checked into the hotel and collapsed.

Thursday-Sunday: The Colorado Association of School Boards 75th Annual Winter Conference. It was a good one. I didn’t get elected to the CASB board, but I will run again next year. Learned a lot. Saw a lot of people and made some new connections. I will have a bunch of stuff to tell my board.

Today. Catch up day. Job day. Deal with insurance day. My head is spinning and it isn’t even noon yet. Oh, and the week isn’t slowing down yet. Tomorrow is the school board meeting. Wednesday, we go shopping in Pueblo. Saturday is John’s memorial down here at the library. sigh….

Getting back to normal

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Or, whatever that is!

Monday we unpacked. We moved the TVLH into the garage and while I worked on sorting clothes, dishes and other bits, Dan worked on paperwork and Mark 2 of the TVLH. (yes, ideas were burning up his brain!) I did a lot of computer work as well. All those pics! Oh, and I wrote an article for the newspaper.

Tuesday I did laundry, put clean dishes away, had a Celtic Music Fest and a School Board meeting. At the meeting, it was announced that we don’t have to hold an election. As there were only four candidate petitions, and only four seats open, we are automatically rolled in. 🙂 It saves the district over $10,000. Oh, and I folded more clothes than I thought possible. I swear that they multiplied in the dryer. Wrote a letter to the editor about someone’s bad behavior too!

Today we went to Pueblo and got groceries. This afternoon, I’m taking delivery of the CMF office boxes and harvesting veggies out of the garden. More zucchini to shred!

I’ve also added a few pics. I forgot my bracelets and the forks that Dan made. This evening, I plan to organize all of the crafts stuff. I want to get started on sewing EARLY rather than late. No more finishing a project the night before a war!

Stats Explosion!

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Well, now I know how to make my stats on views go crazy. All I have to do is post a new tutorial in the SCA section. 🙂 1367 views just today. Last time I had this many was when I posted about the Viking Hat. That was 1490 views.

Meanwhile, I’ve had a quiet week. Two days of no meetings, no crazy adventures. For the most part, I’ve been sewing, picking lovely tomatoes, working on websites and had lunch at George’s. 🙂 Tomorrow we are off to Pueblo. Shopping of course. King Soopers, Gagliano’s Deli, Walmart and then Chinese for lunch. Ahhh…

Oh, and sewing during the drive. I have a tunic to finish!

Yet Another Crazy Week.

Posted on by jsudar

We thought it was going to be fairly easy. (yeah, you can start laughing now) Our friend Ethan was heading from California to Colorado to be our new STEM teacher. Well, at first he was suppose to arrive on Sunday at midnight. That didn’t happen. He left California on Sunday afternoon. Keep in mind that it is a 14+ hour drive and he was due to start work at 11:30am on Monday.

Well… at some point, he realized that he wasn’t going to cope. He and Dan talked and they decided to meet in Las Vegas, NM. Dan told me of this plan around midnight. (insert cussing) So, we went to bed and got up at 4am. We had time enough to dress, and head out the door. Awwwgh!

We got to Las Vegas at 7am. We had breakfast at Charlie’s Spic and Span Bakery. Bought tortillas, macaroons and sugar cookies. I drove Ethan’s car and Dan drove the truck while Ethan sort of slept.

We got to school with 30 minutes to spare. Dan went home and Ethan and I went to New Teacher orientation. When it was over, we headed home as Ethan was staying with us. He napped while I made a salad. Why? Well, because at 5:30, we had the Staff and Family BBQ. Ethan, Dan, Mom and I went. It was a lot of fun.

Tuesday we got up and Ethan and I went to the first Teacher Inservice day. I only had to be there for a few hours. Then I headed off to work on signatures for my petition, and a few other things. Yes, I’m running for school board again. We had a Town Hall meeting at Washington School as well. An attempt to get people to understand what the school district is up against and how everyone should work together. We had 25 people. Not bad, but it could have been better.

Wednesday, a repeat of the day before, only I cleaned up the clothing bank. Thursday I went up to Gardner and taught some of the staff how to run a WordPress site. 🙂 In a fit of craziness, I volunteered to do the district’s websites. At least start them up. Overall, it saved the district about $5000. They look pretty good too.

Friday… Mom and I went shopping while Dan figured out why his computer fried. He was trying to get the SQUARE program set up on the website for the Celtic Music Festival. He’s had a lot of frustrations. Oh, and everyone has been asking when will it be done. Aieee-ya! We went to Bargain Box and I found some neat stuff for Battlemoor!

Today… Celtic Music Fest Board meeting. We are about a month out from the festival, and everyone is a bit edgy. Frustrated. Panicked. So, tempers got a little warm. The dust is now settled, but… there is still work to do. If you like Celtic music, check it out. Better yet, Come to the festival. If you can’t come, donate towards a good cause!

Tomorrow is gardening for me and sewing work on the bespoke tunic. Dan will be battling with SQUARE, and we will both help Ethan move into his new home.