Our first CCI meeting

This beautiful dog is Lyda.  She patiently sat next to me during a meeting of volunteers on Sunday.

I brought Jim with me as both of us really are not that familiar with CCI – Canine Companions for Independence, the organization we’ll be getting a puppy from to raise for 14-18 months.

One after another, puppy raiser and CCI dog in training came through the meeting room doors.  I stopped counting at 7…they just kept coming.  Jim thought there were no less then 10 dogs in the room, a room the size of an elementary school classroom.

I could hardly believe how calm and how well behaved these animals were.  Lyda is just 7 months old and all of the dogs in the room were under 14 months!  I only heard two whimpers, a few tail thumps, and just one little bark.  For 2 hours these dogs mostly just slept.  Jim and I were in complete awe and when we were introduced as new puppy raisers we got a round of applause from everyone.

I asked Jim if he felt nervous with all the dogs around him.  He said not at all…that he was getting really really excited.  Seeing all those calm dogs and the amount of support we are going to get was very encouraging.  Now I’M GETTING EXCITED!

Someday…really…I’ll sew some clothes!  My wardrobe is getting threadbare!!!  Soon.  Real soon.

A Stranger Parent…and a little extra

I’ve been busy.  Really busy.  So I’m sad to say I haven’t been in my new sewing room to really get started on everything.  The best I’ve been able to do is get my quilt fabrics into a few bins.  What could possibly be taking me away from the bliss that is sooooo sooooo close?

I’m a stranger parent.

And a little overwhelmed at the trial by fire on this new exchange program we signed up with.

And…oh yeah…that dude in my car!  I have to update you on that.

Through the insanity though I did find an opportunity to visit a quilt shop after dropping off my exchange student at a required event this past weekend.  What a sigh of relief!  For not being a super serious quilter I sure have been finding a lot of joy visiting quilt shops.  This was Pieceful Heart Fabrics in Lisle.  Cute, cute, cute with A LOT of fabric.  It is sorta in an out of the way corner of a strip mall and I completely stumbled on it just by chance.

What is it about being able to sniff out fabric?  For some reason I must have a sixth sense or something.

So about that dude in my car.  Yes.  Can you believe that?  That was a grab from our video surveillance camera.  It shows him right before he opens my door.  He sat in my car for about a minute just rummaging through my glove box and console.  Fortunately I must have disappointed him because he couldn’t find anything to take!!  Lucky me.  I guess the one day I hit the ‘Open’ button instead of the ‘Lock’ button on my key fob turns out to attract someone to my car looking for something to steal.  I wish there was a way to re-color the lock buttons on the inside of the car.  If the door is unlocked you’ll see orange.  How easy is that to see if you’re a burglar!

But how bold!  This is just outside my office window and we can’t for the life of us figure out how we just never saw him.  Nobody believed me when I came in and said I think my car was broken into.  Sure enough.  We rolled back the video and there he was.

Tomorrow will be three weeks with our new exchange student.   She is from Paraguay and has been a complete handful.  We joke that Jim finally got to meet her after she’d been with us for three days.  It’s just been a weird transition.  We signed up to be the last family to host her but unfortunately for us she confided in me that she didn’t know much about what she was getting into when she signed up.  Great.

So what does that mean?  Testing…testing…testing!!! Like she has her own rulebook.  So it’s been tough.  I had to put the kabash on attending a late night birthday party of a 23 year old sister of a friend from school.  Seriously?  What 23 year wants to hang with a 17 year old!!!!

I’ve figured out that she knows a few key phrases like ‘birthday party’, ‘bowling’, ‘rent a movie’….you know…those harmless activities…but the real story is ‘driving around town’, ‘dancing till 1am’, ‘hanging out with friends doing whatever like chasing down effeminate ice skaters (johnny wier) or a singer in a band at a concert’…whooooo we’ve got a hot one on our hands.  Wish us luck!

Dude is in my car!

Let’s just say I’m not liking this person very much today.

It’s a good thing I’ve learned to leave a wet snotty kleenex on my passenger side seat.  Not really…but wish I’d had.  I’ll be back with more dream sewing soon!

It’s Quilt Festival Time!

This festival has crept up on me like nobody’s business. I can’t believe it is already here! It doesn’t seam like that long ago I was reporting from last year’s festival.

I know I’ve been a little bit out of it but I just found out that this is the last year this festival will be in Chicago!  That is such a blow but completely understandable.  Apparently there was plenty of feedback from participants that this location was too expensive, not enough choices for dining and not enough free parking.

With all that to consider I would have to disagree, but then I’m from here so I know where everything is and if it’s a problem then there are about a cajillion other convention locations in the area that could be used instead of the Rosemont location.  For it being too expensive…well there are plenty of lower cost places.  This is probably more from the vendors then the participants.  For me, it was $5 to park and $10 to get into the show.  I don’t consider that too expensive.

For the dining choices, within a 1 mile radius there are all sorts of places to eat, Italian, Fast Food, Mexican, Chicago Greek Family Restaurant…I used to work just up the road and know of several really reasonable and great places, but this is most likely mute because this is probably directed at the food prices and choices at the convention hall…which I would agree is limited and is expensive.  Sigh.  And lastly the parking.  They all probably don’t realize that they can park in the transit lot for $5 instead of the convention lot which is $12-$15.   Or they can always take the L train in and walk.  Oh well…I guess Cincinnati will have to be a mini vacation for me in the future.  I would love to go just to see if it is a better show?  Can you tell I’m a little bitter!!!!!?

Now that I’ve got that off my chest it was once again a really beautiful show and the hall was filled to near capacity with vendors of all aspects in the world of quilting, sewing, crafting, furniture, painting your nails (yes…seriously…nail care) and back and massage therapy (yes…in case you didn’t realize how bad your back can get from quilting.

My only purchase at the show was the Curve Master presser foot.  I know that the vendors always make things look really easy (site my experience with the Easy Quilter — not so!) and this gadget was no exception.  I stood enthralled at the ability of the demonstrator to handle a drunkard’s path block as well as the curves of a double wedding ring…all the while proclaiming the incredible feat of completing a DWR in 6 hours (my BS radar went up…but I was still impressed).  She sold me so when I get around to actually giving this little number a full workout…I’ll report in on the pros and cons.

Till next year…or whenever I can go to a quilt festival again…happy quilting and hope you enjoy the photos.

Just an Update

Wow!  Another week has gone by…where did that one go?

Here is a sneak peak inside the sewing space.  I’m still working on loading in all my ‘stuff’  —- and boy! do I have a lot of ‘stuff’!

Over the last week we have gone to Menards a few times to get boards to make shelves for the two cabinets, shelf holder hardware and I picked up a really large bulletin board to use as a design board.  Works great!  A lot better than the foam core I was using before.

We cleaned out the entire guest room next door, boxed up everything and put it into this room so it’s been a big job going through everything.  I’m a little overwhelmed at the moment.  It is just amazing at what can accumulate over the years.

I stopped at Target and picked up some really pretty sea-grass baskets that should hold my sewing supplies.  Before, I had them in a dresser drawer so I’m going to need to get used to them in another location.  I’m sure I’ll adjust as I go along and figure out what works.  One thing I need to resolve is what to do about putting doors or curtains on these cabinets.  I really don’t like the clutter look — even though I’m a serious clutterer,  I do like the option of being able to hide the evidence…you know?

I’ve looked at a lot of pictures of sewing rooms during this project and I would say that is the big thing that is hard to disguise.  A neat sewing room is nearly non-existent!

I have so many ideas rolling around in my head right now it is going to take a month or two to work through it all.

But in the mean time, our exchange student came last Tuesday and it was pretty funny.  She was working on a project at school and needed to figure out a costume.  She had made a mask and had to do a presentation.  She placed the mask in the room without hesitation.  She said she thought that is where it should be with all the ‘creative’ stuff!  Hee…hee!

Today she is off to a Cubs game with DH after school and we are slowly getting to know her…what a sweetie!  This exchange is a short one for us.  She is here until July…we are actually the 3rd family as part of the program so she has already developed a full calender of events, friends and activities.

Week two is going much better now that we are getting into the swing of things with our new charge….more to come…

Part 3 of My Quest to Find a New Furry Four Legged Friend

Okay people.  Just go grab that box of tissues and click on a couple of these videos.  I have to update you on my quest to find a new four-legged furry best friend.

Two weeks ago we completed the application to be involved with Canine Companions for Independence.  Within a week they responded to schedule a phone interview.

I was a little nervous that we’d get declined for one reason or other but they were so great.  The questions were really open ended and very ‘fealy’ type so they made me elaborate.  Things like “How will you feel when you have to return the dog back to CCI?”.  I just gave honest answers…like “well, it will be like someone sticking a knife in me and pulling out my heart…”.  She was cool.  And totally got it.

I am soooo looking forward to this.  So now as of yesterday, we’ve been officially approved to be ‘Puppy Raisers’ for Canine Companions for Independence and will be getting a puppy sometime in July/August!  Isn’t this wonderful?

So thanks everyone for being so patient with me about my pet postings…you know, this is Sewingforlife!  But what is life if you have a piece of it missing?  My hope this will be a great way to segue into dog ownership again…and ultimately help someone in the process.

Do you have your tissues ready?  Just click on these and go from there…

I’ll be back, I promise, with an update on our Exchange Student and my totally awesome new sewing room!  I’m actually working out my shelving…it is looking great!

Building a ‘Dream’ Sewing Space Part 10 – “I can see the light!”

Was Easter this weekend?

Oh yeah.  Easter.

I did get to Sunday service so I know it was real but all this work in this room has made this weekend go by so so fast!  I can see the light at the end of this project, finally.  And it’s a good thing because our exchange student comes tomorrow!

Just like us to push the timing envelope though.

Jim sets the nails on the crown molding

The crown molding went up over the weekend and I spent most of Friday and Saturday painting the trim.

My arm really got a workout!

Primer and two coats of paint.

We did have difficulty because the walls are so whacked out.  The books and instructions make this look so easy.  There wasn’t a chapter on ‘What to do if your walls aren’t perfect” so we did our best and I used my sculpting skills in the corners to fill in some gaps.

It looks really nice and we are DONE with trim! Whoo Hoo!!!

Chloe approves her new perch

I wanted to respond to a comment on the last post in case you were wondering.  This room is MY space so don’t worry, I don’t need to share it with our guest for the next three months.

We just have everything that is supposed to go in this room in the guest bedroom next door!  That is why it was so critical to get this room to a point of being able to move stuff in…We Can’t get to the Guest Bedroom!  Ha ha ha!

It’s hilarious.

First cabinet goes up!

And somehow we’ve managed to get to the shower, our dressers, and get dressed!   So the last step before moving everything back in was getting those cabinets into the room.  HOLY COW!  These things were ENORMOUS!

First off.  They weigh about 2-300 pounds when totally put together and they are HUGE!.  Did I mention they are huge?  4 feet across by 90-92″ tall and about 28″ deep.  HUGE!

I have three but only two will fit.  Hey!  That reminds me…anyone need a cabinet?

We actually had to take a paddle off of the ceiling fan in order to flip it upright.  We put a towel on the floor in order to slide it into position.

We just have one more to put together and then it will be load in time!  I can’t wait to start sewing again!  I promised about 5 people that I would finally post the Katherine Hepburn Pants finish (I think that is my readership max…but yes…I promised April so it’s coming).

I’ll update again in a few more days!  The reveal should be next…