SQUISH

My dumpster diver hubby brought these home for me yesterday and you can see why they are needed! Anytime it is warm the mud oozes out at the property. I told you about the cement truck getting stuck after he sank in the mud. Well we had rock put in from the gate to the shop. One thing we hate to buy is rock considering how many rocks are out there already. Anyway, that rock drive is slowly sinking into the mud! It is a sloppy mess this week. Progress is happening though. The electrical inspection passed and we now have a power pole and power in the shop to run the compressor and other tools. Lights will soon follow.

WHAT'S IN A WORD?

A friend of mine at work told me about something her and her daughters are doing instead of resolutions. They each chose a word that they wanted to focus on for the year. One word that they could develop goals around to enhance their lives. I thought it was an awesome idea so I spent a little time thinking about my word. I chose "create". People always tell me how creative I am. For the last two years my creativity has been packed away with the boxes from my craft room. Since we decided to sell the house everything wasn't readily available for me to get to. I am two years behind on my scrap booking again. No sewing, stitching, painting or gluing. I miss the craft nights I had with my friend Tonie and others. Even my antiquing has taken a blow. I'm about to change all that. This year I am going to create some wonderful things and I will share them with all of you. What's your word?

GARELD'S SHOP

Sitting pretty in the snow.

Work in progress.

The shop is coming along. It will also have a cupola on top. I am going to have my nephew, Mark (McLain) make me a weathervane. Every saturday Gareld gets to help. Look at him in his new Carharts!

Framing up the backside.

The view out the window looking toward Aunt Della's. There will be a room on the back of the shop for all Gareld's hunting trophies and hobbies.

Putting in a back door. There's Grandpa Tony working away day after day.

Covering up the newly poured concrete to protect it from the cold. Jeff has been a big help.

CHRISTMAS PAST

Christmas morning is long gone now and I really missed being able to share photos on my blog with all my family and friends near and far. I am getting caught up so here you go.......

There's this big built in book shelf that has 5 big shelves. It was a perfect spot to pull together a holiday scene with silver, cloches, Christmas trees, balls, books, stained glass and more.

I know Christmas is over but I wanted to share a few pictures of my holiday decorations. I used things left over form my antique show and I found some neat "new " items at the local thrift stores.

There's Gary in his favorite spot. I have since put curtains on those big windows.

I love having a "great room". The kitchen and family room are one big space and that island there behind the couch is huge. It was perfect for baking Christmas cookies. I picked out all the black appliances because the counters were already black. They look good in there.

The counter space in this kitchen is huge. There was lots of room to decorate. In fact it was hard to fill up the one room we live in. Living here gives me an idea of how I would like my new kitchen and living space to flow together. Morgan requests that we have lots of counter space. All the kids want a room big enough for everyone to gather in at the same time and at the same table for holidays and special events. I need to get pouring over all the house plans and start narrowing down the choices.

I didn't want to get lots of stuff out of storage so I used christmas cards on my tree this year. It was simple and still pretty. I put it up on a sunday after church without watching my traditional decorating the tree DVD's so I kind of felt like something was missing to my experience.

I Miss Internet!

I have pictures to share with you but I don't have access to the Internet except here at the public library. We are settled into the house in Union. It is a big house with loots of room. We are only using a couple of the rooms. No sense unpacking a lot of things to fill up space just to be on the move again in a month or so. Progress is being made on the shop despite the weather. We made it through the blizzard and have had a nice warm up. Too warm, in fact, because it gets really sloppy in the mud out there. We had help lined up and a cement truck came. Part of it got poured and then he got stuck. The next day we had help lined up again but he wouldn't come out so the floor is on hold. Siding is up on one side. The roof is done. Framing inside is started. Windows are in. It is looking good. I am looking forward to Christmas Eve Day! I don't have to work. Morgan will get here from Twin Falls and we will make cookies. I didn't get into my seven totes of Christmas decorations or my three totes of village. I miss all my cute stuff. I did a pared down version of decorating this year. I used a few things left over from my sale and a few things I picked up at thrift stores. My tree is decorated with only Christmas cards from many years past. I had them with my craft stuff so it was easy to get to. I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Here we go again....

We are so thankful we finally sold our house this past October. We had various back-up plans for where we would live while we get a house built. The sale went through so late in the year we aren't able to get the house until next summer. We knew all along we would be building a shop first. The plan was to get the shop built and live in it until we had a house. Little did we know building a shop is no easy task if you are not a builder. Do we hire it out or ask for help from friends and family who do have the experience? We got some bids from several contractors and decided to go with the friends and family route. My Dad has the experience and the equipment and he was willing to take charge. He got here in October from his job in New Mexico. Since then a lot has been done but a little at a time with whatever help we can scrounge up. It is no where near ready for living in. Our temporary home here was only until winter hit. This week winter hit hard. We have been cold and drifted in out here in the country so it is time to move out. We are moving to Union to live in mom and dad's abandoned house for a little while.

Work will continue on the shop as the weather allows.

Brrrr!

Beautiful but cold.
Look at all this snow that fell the other night. I wasn't quite ready for it yet. I do love a snowy December and a white christmas though. We need to get moved out of here before we are trapped for the winter so moving day comes again. This also slows down the construction.
Some dedicated souls did get the roof finished yesterday and today in the freezing temps.