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| Feeling better |
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| Dressed for the chill |
Cheryl has been feeling better lately, and as a result... we have been increasing the mileage. Today we ran 6 miles. The Des Moines Marathon was yesterday, and someone we know was supposed to run it. If we got her name right, she must have had a pretty good day. We can't wait to see her when she returns to HyVee to ask her about it.
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| Time to stretch... |
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| And show off those legs. |
In the mean time, Cheryl has her mind set on next years races and is training accordingly. The weather has been nice...for running. Cold mornings and cool days. I hear that the temps are going to rise a bit later this week.
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| Cold enough for long sleeves. |
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| And gloves! |
Other than that, Stockings have been picking up. Yesterday we sewed up thirteen. And have a couple more on the docket for tomorrow. The stockings took slightly longer to sew up than we had anticipated.
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| Stockings! |
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| Drives Cheryl crazy. |
I guess it has been a while since we did that many stockings at one time. Even Cheryl got a little "giddy" after we had finished. This is a moment I wanted to mention: I believe they build sewing machines to discriminate against men! Oh sure, we can fix them. But using them is challenging with meaty paws.
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| Made by men FOR men.... |
Luckily, someone invented a means to get that thread through the needle using a small gizmo. It helps me quite a bit because one: I can't see the tiny needle hole. And two: Even if I could see it, I have to contort my hand in such a way to push the thread through. My wrists ache if I have to do that three times in a row.
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| It's a Machine! Hooray! |
Still, I like sewing on the buttons... And using the Embroidery Machine. I guess the mechanical gene still drives us somehow.
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| Pelican |
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| Luna Moths. |
And then there is the Origami. I fill in the time that Cheryl spends answering questions, scoring papers, ordering materials, and creating stockings... with making and folding paper. The challenge is finding things to fold that interest me. Sometimes the complexity does not matter.
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| My tomato Experiment. |
And lastly, with all this rain I have been harvesting the seeds off of the creeping Cardinal vine. And I have been excited to see the tomato seeds sprout in my experimental nursery. ( The rain destroyed my little greenhouse, but I did manage to get some sprouts to grow before then.)
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| Our Tomato color palette for next year. |
I can hardly wait for next years planting. (I say that....Now. I'm sure things will change later.) My goal is to get the heirloom tomatoes to grow in the various flavors and colors. I'm not sure if I will bring any to the farmers market, but we shall see how many I can actually get to grow. I'm not really known for my green thumb. Still, It will be a fun process.
in a late night last night finishing the orders, but are now all caught up. We happened to find the right sewing machine yesterday and returned the more advanced "Esteme" back to Target. Lucky for us, JoAnn Fabrics had the Singer Tradition in stock and we bought that. Buttons have never been as fun! Cheryl had to break it in for me, because new machines always have their quirks when you first get them running. As do just bout everything. Well, I didn't take any pics of the names or the pile of stockings and packages, but the willingness to blog after a late night should be enough for me. The driveway is finished now and just needs to cure up. That Walk in the dark and cold is really going to strain the relationship we have with our neighbor. 
But we will solder through. Hope everyone is having a happy Friday. OH! And I managed to hit a home run in the department of the buttons! I was able to score at least 40 bags at wholesale prices! I'm very excited! The snowflake buttons are always in short supply. I may even be able to get even more! We shall see next week Monday when We will have a little more money available.
they started pouring yesterday, and got only about half way done. this morning they were back at it with the remaining half. My guess is that they will be done with the difficult part by tonight. Then there is that 10 day curing process that I can't wait to be over.
I had no idea the inconvenience of walking from the road to the apartment would be. It is a LONG walk. and if you have stuff to carry ( and we always do!) It is even more so.
Anyway, to help Cheryl along, we finally purchased a new machine. ( and had to carry it the 400 yards next to the driveway!) Only to realize that it was not what we had hoped it would be. I wanted an automatic threader, but this machine can not do buttons. ( not easily anyway) So I turned it over to Cheryl. Cheryl has a dial set for a certain stitch she likes, but this machine is "MORE advanced" Which means she has to set 3 dials and lengths and widths to match her previous dial. AND the machine did not like going through 4 layers of felt. So She wanted her old machine back. Go figure that the new, expensive, advanced, all the bells and whistles machine was not the one for us. We are trading it back for the simpler version, and I will simply have to struggle with threading the needle manually.
Not really a big deal since I can sew the buttons on much faster than with that machine. SO....30 more sales today so Cheryl and I will be working another all-nighter in the shop. YEAH! I love sewing on those buttons.
I can't explain it....it's just fun and challenging. Hope everyone is having a great day. I wonder how the garbage man is going to pick up our garbage now that our driveway is under construction. We shall see.
a wonderful visit to the bookstore this evening, I carved and stained up the boxes. Almost done! All that is left is to cut the l
ids off, glue in the inserts and paint the tops. Finish and add hinges and it's off to the Etsy show room! I'm quite happy with how they turned out. There are still a lot of designs out there that need to be put on a box. If you follow this blog, you will probably notice several 
designs that have been put on the toilet seats. Why waste time trying to find new ones when these are tried and true. Cheryl also got a new sewing machine tonight. She says it works SO 
smooth and well, that she had to figure out how a "good" machine works. No pulling, pushing, yanking, or broken thread. It must be tough. The bad news is that she needed it right away to work on some purses tonight. So she could not get the Hello Kitty one she yearns for.
two seats tonight and finished gluing up the boxes for carving tomorrow. Friday is bookstore day, so I will probably
carve later in the evening. I still have not mapped out all of my designs I want to put on the boxes. Tonight I had to fix Cheryl's sewing machine..again. I 
think it is time for her to get a new one. She has her eye on this "Hello Kitty" one that Target offers. 
The thread keeps getting caught on a small jagged piece of broken metal. I had to totally take it apart and file it down to keep the thread from getting caught. I'm hoping Joann fabrics will have a replacement part available. Otherwise she will have to deal with the "jerry rigged" version that I offer. At least it works..mostly. Anyway, I have had to fix this machine 4 separate times. I'm not sure this version of sewing machine was made with "full time sewing" in mind. I'd like to think that Cheryl's constant use has caused this. I think it is time for an upgrade. 
