The Fall Goods

 I have been coated in black and pumpkin paint for a couple weeks, working like mad, summer almost over and I will be back to babysitting full time.  Trying not to panic.

Christmas Workshop is Open

I am still using up my Christmas tree stash from 2 years ago.  Wholesale houses have few available and prices are way up.  Sigh.  I do like the marshmallow labels I got from etsy.

 

Pink Paint At Last

 For years, I have been thinking about painting antiques pink.  I bought the milk paint but didn't have the time to experiment.  I waited so long that I couldn't find the paint I purchased and had to buy it again, but here it is at last.  I love the bread board so much, I don't even mind if I have to keep them.

So Many Spice Cabinets

 I thought I was overdoing it with buying so many spice cabinets, but they have been flying out of the shop.  Only the small one is left, the others lasted only about 5 minutes.

                                    

Only 3 more days until Anna is free from teaching and I will be free from baby duty.  It has been hard, I'm not going to lie.  9 hours a day, 5 days a week, and a child that you cannot take your eyes off her for  a second. She is taking her first steps, and I am 100 percent certain that she is going to go straight in to running, making sure she can get all those electrical outlets she is so fascinated with and ready to pull down all furniture that isn't nailed down.  I am exhausted.  Love her to pieces, but boy, do I need a vacation!  Looking forward to getting more projects done.  Above are the things I've been working on a night.

 

Baby Days

Eloise has entered the building!  As you can see, she is practically perfect in every way.  The little family has moved in with us and chaos reigns, but a mostly happy chaos.  Anna doesn't have to return to work until November, so we have a little time to breathe.  I think I'll be ready for more full time grandma work by then.

 

New Year, Here We Go

 I hate change.  I really really hate it.  Life is all "change change change change and change some more."  2024 was the great "you will do nothing but deal with ridding yourself of piles of crap" but the piles of crap just kept growing.  I decided my life started going downhill when the Clarinda house was sold and just never got back on an uphill trajectory.  We gave away so much of the furniture from that house and stored the rest in our downtown building, and then out of nowhere, someone wants to buy the building.  I give away more stuff,  I rent a storage locker and still there is too much left--a pile of furniture has been sitting in my sister's tractor shed for almost a year now, thank goodness she doesn't care.  Then there was the father-in-law motorcycle and car part nightmare to deal with because I had to sell it all to settle the estate.  In the end, we just bought the motorcycles that were complete to be able to close the estate, so I still have those to deal with.  There are still assorted radios and piles of speakers and 78 records piled up on my porch.  Oh, and there is a stack of unsold parts sitting in my music room, along with 2 cupboards that we put there "temporarily" two years ago.  Hoping 2025 will see the final clear out, but old change has to get in the way again.  Husband should really be retired, but not only is he still working, but he agreed to help the hospital start a new clinic in a town a bit closer to us than his current clinic.  New patients mean stress, and more stress.  A joyous change, but also a stressful one is that my daughter Anna is expecting a baby girl!  Yay!  Stressful part is she can't afford to not work, and I have volunteered to care for the baby while she is teaching.  I did raise my two girls and did it well, but they were a year old when i met them, and I don't have too much of a clue on what to do with a newborn.  I am also no help at all when Anna has questions about being pregnant and have to refer her to my sisters for advice.  There is a possibility that she and her husband and new baby may move back in with us, as their apartment is so tiny and lease up right when baby is arriving.  Finding a larger yet affordable home has been daunting.  In some ways it would be so much easier to have them here, baby wouldn't have to be driven back and forth, but it would be hard on them to lose their autonomy.  Starting a family is hard enough without having to move back in with your parents.

In the meantime, I must work madly to get all my projects done before baby becomes my job.