The LIST

Before summer got started I decided to make a list (yeah, shocker, say all of my kids with an eye roll) of all the projects I wanted to tackle. Some were small, like washing the windows or cleaning the refrigerator, and others were large, like remaking the stone pathway in front of our house. That one remains un-checked-off at this time.

One of the bigger things was finishing a quilt. It doesn't seem like that would be that big of a deal, but for me it sure was! I used to do a lot of quilting in the distant past. The last quilting I did was make a top created from every scrap of red fabric I had in my possession. I just loved the idea of having a very red quilt. It does have some white borders in it as well, to break it up a little bit, but it's just very red. I enjoyed making that top so much (if I memory serves...maybe I hated it. I don't know actually.) The thing is, right as I basted all the layers together and started the quilting process, I did this crazy thing where I gave birth to my first baby. Yep, Chase came along and ruined everything. Just kidding. But he did ruin my quilting momentum. I just folded that thing up and tossed it in the blanket pile to "think about later." The blanket pile migrated around the house for years, finally landing in a neat corner behind our armchair. We use the blankets all the time - except for the red quilt, because "think about later" eventually came to mean "20 years later." 

When I first fished it out of the pile, I was worried that I had forgotten how to quilt. It was so weird though - the minute I picked up the needle and thread, my muscle memory kicked in and I was stitching and tying knots and tugging thread through fabric like I hadn't missed a day. Not that there's a lot to the process, but it was so crazy to almost just watch my fingers automatically make the moves that I hadn't made in so long. It definitely took some weeks to finish, but not as long as I thought. And it just made me so happy! Here's the finished product, pictured here with a Romney on top:

 

So fun to finish that. Now I can start on another thing on my list....starting a new quilt! The red one isn't big enough for our bed, and I want to make a real queen-sized quilt for us. Hopefully it will not also take 20 years. And I confess, I will have the new one quilted on a machine by a professional. I'm not sure I'm up for hand-quilting another one ever again.  

Another bigger-than-I-meant-it-to-be project this summer - the kitchen wall. We have one blank white wall in our kitchen, and over the years it has developed quite the collection of pin-holes, screws, dents, stains, drips, etc. etc. etc. Basically, it was gross. And I was sad looking at it. I felt like I had the skills to clean it up, use joint compound to smooth out the dents and pin pricks, and paint it. No sweat! (I have a feeling that you know exactly where this is going.) Troy very kindly agreed to my idea. My main goal was to not trouble him with my projects. He does so much for us, and I just wanted to make this little improvement without bugging him. But...you know how it goes. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie....He's Going to Want a Glass of Milk to Go With It. (You know the book, yes?) We have that house - If you want to paint a wall, you're going to have to replace the outlet. And if you want to replace the outlet, you're going to have to fix the wires. And if you want to fix the wires.....yeah. Like that. 

There was one outlet that was basically hanging off the wall, and Troy really wanted to replace it. Which led to chopping into the drywall around it to try to fix the ancient wiring. There was one horrible evening where we thought we might have to replace an entire wall because someone had put drywall OVER lath and plaster. But Troy figured out a way to handle it without the project creeping out of control. It still took longer than I meant it to, though I tried to do as much of the work as I could. And in the middle of the project, I had to go to St. George to pick up Emma! You know what my wonderful husband did? He took over the drywall patching around the outlet and made it look so amazingly perfect. Way better than I ever could have done it.

Then came...the painting. Choosing a color is so hard! I always think I know what I want, and I go to home depot to get the paint and I put a little on the wall and it looks dreadful. It is so weird. And crappy. Independence Day was on a Tuesday, and I got home on Sunday. I meant to have it all done on Monday because we had friends coming over for a holiday BBQ. And....as I was priming the walls at like 10pm on Monday the power went out.

Cue tantrum.

I finished priming that night by battery light, and Troy and I spent all of the fourth getting the right paint, painting the walls, hanging these dishes we bought in Russia in 2001, and trying to get the kitchen off of the back porch before 6pm when friends were coming over. We did it. But just barely. 

Best part? Not a soul noticed. I could NOT believe it. People who have known us for 10 years came in and didn't notice at all! At first I was kind of offended, but over the weeks as more people have come over and also didn't notice, I realized that people just don't always see that kind of thing and that's ok. But every single time I look at the wall, I feel SO HAPPY. We also feel extremely happy every time we plug something in to the new outlet and it is secured so beautifully into the wall. Can we run the microwave and dishwasher at the same time? Still no. But that's ok. It's a thing of beauty and I'm so so so so happy.