Day Off

   Usually my day off every week is spent cleaning and busying myself with various errands or things that need to be done for the following week.  Today was not like that.

   DH and I have recently purchased a treadmill.  Wonderful!  Except that it is his busy season which leaves me stranded at home, by myself, for extended periods of time.  Bad idea.  This month I have managed to attack and kill wallpaper in two rooms upstairs which we never use and give them spackling measles from all the holes the previous owners decided to put into the walls.  Now they are waiting to be painted, but I haven't gotten there yet because without the wallpaper and various holes the rooms look quite good!  Anyways, treadmill.  DH manages to bring home the treadmill from Sears (because, of course, we aren't having the silly little thing delivered) and then we park the trail blazer (and the treadmill) in the garage for a while because we still need time to bring it in.  When we get time I decide we need an army to bring it in since it weighs like 300 pounds and we need to bring it in at an angle through the door because it's enormous.  DH goes to recruit the neighbors and comes back alone. 

  Great.  So me and DH attempt to shove it through the door in our garage loading-dock style as the house door and the car are at the same level.  No good, the thing is too big to simply shove through.  DH pulls the truck forward and we pull out the treadmill so that it looks like a ramp for the car. Then we stand there and ponder what to do next as it is half in and half out of the car.  We decide to flip the treadmill end-over-end and then push it into the house like a hot-dog, slide it across the kitchen and down the basement stairs where we decided to leave it for another evening.

   Now, I'll let you know that I am actually pretty handy and relatively strong for a girl.  I grew up on a lot of land with a dad who thought I should be completely self sufficient and therefore taught me lots of random stuff.  So, I figured on my day off I should put this together and perhaps go for a run.  I venture downstairs to see this.  Right where we left it.

How hard can this be?  Well, it took me 40 minutes and a stabbed palm just to get the box open.  Thinking to myself that I could have been quilting, I abandon ship and leave this for my husband:

He'll figure it out sometime.  As it was still 8am and I had only destroyed one level of our house I figured I' go back to the second story and see what sort of mischief I could get myself into.  OH! I know, DH needs all of the shelves out of the linen closet because the carpet installers had to take the door off and didn't put it back on properly!  I will be a good wife and remove the towels, place them randomly through the hallway and into the bedrooms, and suggest when he gets home that he go stand in the dark closet so we can put the door back on correctly.  Yep.  Sounds good, so that's what I proceeded to do.  DH has yet to find out.

At this point stores are actually open so I can go get that yard of fabric I need from the store.  When I walk in to the cozy little shop I tell myself to go straight where I need to and pick up the one bolt I was destined for.  But wait, what's that fabric to the upper left?  Oh no.  It's so cute.  It's better than the one I was going to use.  But there isn't enough of it and I'm sure it's an old line.  What to do...  I better carry around the thin bolt of fabric and carry both the one I need and the one I want with me to the clearance section where I tell myself there is nothing I need.  I leave the clearance section empty handed.  But, while I was there I decided I needed to go to the blues and greens.  Where of course I find more that I need and they come home with me too.

I am making a U of M string quilt for DH and an MSU string quilt for my dad for Christmas next year.  Trouble is that since I'm a new quilter I need to buy lot of different fabrics!  It's addicting and I need to stop but yet I don't have nearly enough...

So then I came home and started working on project # 2; a Christmas tree quilt.  I made four or five blocks an decided to count what I had.  I discovered I have more than I thought!

I technically have enough to make a couch-quilt and I just can't decide how I want to put the little cuties together.  They all still need a border, but those will go on after I settle on how I want them together- either out of the fabric I intended or from the one I thought was too cute to leave behind.  If anyone knows where I can find O'Snowy Night- green tree pattern you should probably let me know.