It's my birthday...yeah!

I'm one of those weirdo March people that get excited about their own birthday. Today is my 45th. I've spent quite a bit of time on the computer today poking around visiting blogs, there is so much creativity out there! I've also happily been doing laundry! I will post pictures later of the new W&D. Phil and I will be heading to my mom's for birthday dinner soon, then I have fabric to press and cut for various projects.

My birthday present is on its way, it is an antique New Home hand crank sewing machine. I can't wait for it to arrive!

My last week has been focused on work, I love my job! I really do!

Also, the plans for a gathering in memory of Esther have fallen into place. Somehow, I managed to secure our clubhouse for a weekend in May that works best for everyone. I will be co-hosting with my friends Tina and Karen. We have a call for 12-1/2" heart blocks for the quilt we are making Andrew and also will be making a memory book. We are all sad, but working together on these projects helps to ease the loss.

Life...and saying goodbye to Esther

Today included moments I wish I could erase from my life. I received word of the passing of my friend, Esther. Esther was one of my antique sewing machine collector friends who was just a riot to spend time with. A tribute to her memory can be found here. This is a picture of her making tatted doilies for those of us in attendance at our treadleon gathering academy last summer (Michigan TOGA). The doilies are for the spool pins of our sewing machines. She was wearing her favorite shirt.

Esther's husbands message to me said she was struck by a virus and passed when it attacked her heart. He was unable to access her work e-mail address until just recently, so he was unable to notify us at the time of her passing on the 26th of February. Phil and I are going to have this picture printed for him and visit soon. It is probably no surprise that she was on my mind recently, we had talked a few days before she passed. I was asking her opinion of washers and dryers and trying to decide which of the hand tatted doilies she gave to me, to place on my little hand crank sewing machine.

It wasn't until about lunch time that I finally received word from my friend's Tina and Karen through my husband. I was in meetings all morning and it was terribly difficult to not fall to pieces when I received word of the loss of this wonderful friend. While I worked on, Karen and Tina started making plans on ways our group could pay our own tribute to our dear friend, and to try to soothe the loss of all. More on this later.

It was mentioned that my tag line and mission, reminded someone of Esther. It is fitting of what I know of my short years with Esther in my life that "What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others".

whoops...

I didn't get a post in for the month of February so blew that new year's resolution. Last weekend I had a great time when I went out dancing last weekend with my high school class mates. I also cleaned the National Arlington sewing machine head. This weekend I'm spending home doing some chores. I hope to put away the contents of three boxes of antiques. These are the kitchenalia items that I used to have hanging on my kitchen walls and on top of my many cupboards in the old house. In this home, not sure what I will do as surely, not enough room for everything.

When I took pictures of the Arlington, I was surprised when I saw this gorgeous picture of Phoebe looking out the window.

My washer is on the fritz. I knew it hadn't been cleaning clothes as well as I think it should so I'd spent a lot of time lately babying it along by turning the knob to run through the wash cycle twice and the rinse cycle twice, and restarting the final spin. The dryer won't dry in the first run, so we end up running it through again and then it seems to 'cook' your clothes. These are the washer and dryer Phil bought brand new nearly 20 years ago. We are adamant about cleaning the filters, and even wash the dryer filter because we use fabric softener. We can't see wasting anymore energy on the old machines, the parts to repair them are outrageous, and yet, can't see going without and using public laundry. So, we did our homework and shopped around and put a washer and dryer on layaway. This is big! Huge!! I've never had a brand new washer and dryer. I also searched around for local sales of newer models folks were selling, but what I found were the trouble models that did poorly in the Consumer's Reports ratings. We are getting a front-load washer, the basic GE model. They don't have a fancy name, but these are the ones that are recommended by Consumer's Reports and are supposed to meet all of our needs. I want something that cleans and cleans well. We don't have to go for the greatest and best features and buttons, but we want to get the best for our money and we want capacity. We did consider the high efficiency top loaders, but when we found out you still have to pack your clothes around the center nubby agitator or it will get off balanced, and therefore, you can't put as much in it as they claim. We decided to spend the same amount of money on a front-loader.

We also decided to paint the walls of this tiny laundry room. So, I don't know yet if I will like it as I usually paint in some kind of green, but I choose a bright sunny yellow with a bit of orange in it. I figure a laundry room has to be bright and sunny. The floor has a couple tears in it, so decided to get some of those stick on vinyl tiles for something different and minimal in cost. Here's what I came up with. I figure if the yellow is too much, I can always repaint it a lighter color It is called Sunset Glow...and glow it does! Certainly lends it itself to more enjoyment of doing the dratted chore of laundry. Another thing we did was remove the door to the laundry room. Wow, it opened up that room completely! We never close it because that is where the cat boxes reside.