Sluggy Brain Dump

I haven't been in a great place in my head the last few day.
Just so many things coming at me all at once and I don't feel like I've made any progress in any area of my life.

But here's what's been going on around here lately.
I bought a bench at a cabinet/furniture store that was going out of business awhile back and finally got around to taking it out of the box.....

Putting the legs on it.....

And now I have a purple bench(with storage under the seat) to use in the living room and/or in the dining room when we need extra seating.

#2 Son had his French National Honor Society ceremony, the last one we ever have to go to....

Later this week is the Senior Night(which we aren't invited to)and next week is the Class Night(which we are invited to)and after that it's Graduation from high school.

I decided to accompany Hubs to DC this week.  I am having a physical issue so I don't know if I'll be up to going out sightseeing on Thursday but I'll find something to do.
The 6 hour guided tour is $70.  While this option is less expensive, I'm not sure about buying a bus pass for the Hop On/Hop Off tour buses since I don't know how much actual walking I can do that day.  And I have a fear of not making it back to the hotel before the bus stops running for the day and being stranded and having to hail a pricey cab.
Perhaps I'll just stick close to the hotel or stay in the room and take advantage of the in-room spa massage or in-room yoga feature.  12 hour a day yoga channel in the room along with a basket of equipment.  Oh yes, I can see me doing this. lolz
Ok, so there is a complimentary Wine Hour in the lobby every weekday evening so you know I'll leave the room at least once per day.  *snort*

Last week I sold 4 cuts of fabric from my Etsy store.
That's how it seems to go......long stretches with no sales and then a flurry of activity.
I've sold 54 pieces since I started last October 30th.
meh.

That was a chunk of the fabric back last September when I was going through it to list and photograph.  Now it's all stacked neatly(sort of)on an étagère up in the spare bedroom.
Well what's listed now is stacked, the Winter stuff I have written up as well as stuff I haven't gotten to yet is also stacked neatly in tubs next to the étagère....though there are ALOT of tubs not done yet.

I still don't "get" this "favorite-ing" thing....I had 18 people favorite my Etsy store of a particular piece of fabric in the last week.  For gosh sakes folks, "favorite" me by voting with your WALLETS! lolz
At this rate, I'll unload all this fabric by the time I hit 90 years old. lolz

I have sent some of the fabric to Salvation Army for donation, mostly the boring or stuff that is bulky and would be too expensive to mail if I did sell it.

I have considered taking some of these piece goods and making "stuff" out of it and then offering that up for sale, thinking I'd be able to sell it more readily.

But then again, I'd have to "invest" more time into this venture, all that sewing and listing, so really that's probably more of a loose/loose situation than I have on my hands now.
I suppose I have about 4 more years until I HAVE TO have this fabric gone so I have time, for now to figure out a plan.

And this doesn't include all the fabric I am KEEPING....lolz


I also broke down and bought a sofa for the living room the Saturday before last.  It was delivered last Tuesday.....

I went with a neutral color and size that would fit into any room/décor we have in our next house.  It's a Laz-y Boy and we have protection on various components of it. It should hold up for at least 10 years and we paid too much money for it(IMHO).  But then again, the old adage, "You get what you pay for" seems to hold up with furniture.  The stuff I saw at a lower price point looked cheesy and not well made.

Now I have to buy a chair or two.
Thinking about these ones......

Really like, kind of bright and it's leather.....

Like the colors but the stripes might be too much with that rug with circles....

This is a floral design with purple, not crazy about all that white however.....

While it's purple, a WILD color, it's the most sedate of the ones I like. lol

Or this midcentury modern chair from a used furniture store.....

I like the lines of the used chair but the color is a bit too avocado for me and I worry about what condition the fabric on it is in and I don't want to have to have it reupholstered for the price they are asking (!!!).  Plus I have to drive practically to Philly to pick it up.

If you haven't guessed by now, I have Eclectic tastes. lol

Anyway I need to make a decision on chairs, I have to buy two and no, I won't buy matching chairs and yes the ones pictured with ottomans come with them.

What do you like?....keeping in mind the sofa color(brown), the rug, the curtains(which are bright green, on the lime-ish side) and the wall color.

We took 2 loads to Salvation Army the last 2 weekends.
Some of what left our house.....

During the long weekend I worked on the living room curtains as well as a project for the kitchen but I didn't finish either....heck, I didn't even get very far on either. lolz

I'll be doing some work on the curtains again later today.

The Daughter is STILL waiting on the bank which owns the property they are buying to get their shit together.  The latest hold up is the title search or something.
She was suppose to close on this house a MONTH ago!!!
She help up her end and we got our shit done in a timely fashion but now the bank is dragging their ass and she can do NOTHING about it.  She can't drop out of the sale without losing our earnest money($5K!) and she can't move in or even have the work done to it that needs doing before they can move in.  And now she's going to have to pay rent for another month!
Banks suck.....

We didn't picnic this past weekend really, had no one over either.  We had take-out pizza and stromboli for Memorial Day.
I didn't feel like cooking after we completed a little outdoor project.......putting rocks around the HVAC system compressor outside......

We had to level the ground(sort of), attach and stake in the border pieces, lay newspaper for a weed barrier and dump marble rocks on it all.  Plus I weed whacked next to the front flower bed as it was a thatched up grassy overgrown mess.

I know it looks cockeyed but it's quite symmetrical in person and it looks a heck of a lot more presentable than having weeds all around the thing.  This will make it easier to mow around it without getting too close to the wires and make it easier for anyone who has to work on it.
And did I mention we  don't have to weed around it now?

We love this new rubberized border stuff.....it's made from recycle old tires and quite indestructible, even with weed whackers and mowers beating it up.  It doesn't fade or disintegrate like that hard plastic black landscaping edging either.
The only problem is it's quite pricey at $10 per 4 feet length.
We wanted to use something that will last since this is a home improvement item we don't want to have to do again in 4 years time when we go to sell our house.

We are putting in another of these beds along the other side of the house, which will run along most of that side.  That one will have a tree and shrubs in it and I can plant some flowers in it.  I'm also putting a bench in it and will use pea gravel(but in the same color)so it's not painful to walk on. lolz
We got the edging yesterday and will tackle that project as soon as we have a couple of good not-too-hot days.

In financial news......not much really.
Paying bills, balancing the checkbook and spending more money than I want to. lol
While I don't have the hard figures on the outgo yet, I've kept an eye on the balance sheet and we haven't spent more than we made this month so it's all good.

After pizza and project yesterday afternoon, I cracked open this......

Release the KRAKEN!!!

And what can I say?.....the rest of my day/evening went down smoothly.... ;-)

Sluggy
 

I Finally Did It!

I got my Etsy store opened today.
Go.
Me.

If you are in need of fabric, go take a look HERE.
I can do combined shipping to save some on mailing costs so just email me for a shipping quote.

Now to get the eBay stuff up and running.

Sluggy
 

Rambles about Gardening, Shopping, Company & Fabric

Last weekend we spent some time at Lowe's......yeah, I am just getting around to talking about that......

We picked up some stones to remake the fire pit in the backyard......we have all those tree limbs now to burn so why not have some fun and sit around a fire at night, right?

I also picked up 2 Hostas to replace the ones Hubs dug up and threw out, thinking they were weeds....grrrrrr.

Because we had a gift card we only spent $8 on everything above.  NC Chic loves gift card shopping too. ;-)

Then I bought that HUGE 12 pack of Coleus plants you see.
If you are Sluggy, you don't go to the garden center in the Spring and pay $2 a pop for a tiny little plant.
You wait until halfway through the growing season, when the garden centers put everything on clearance before all the plants die, and you buy them fully grown at a price of $5 for a 12 pack.
At least that's the Sluggy way.....

Then you put them in your flower beds just in time for company to come visit.......

so they can marvel at what a GREEN THUMB you have! ;-)

Looking around the garden last week we saw.......

 2 Heads of Broccoli coming along......

Our first and biggest cuke......all 4 inches of it........

And this is the second eggplant we had to pick.......

And when I turn it around you can see why we had to pick it......

Some critter got ahold of it and ate a big hunk out of it near the stem.
Figures......
Hubs decides we need to put a fence around the eggplant plants to keep the plethora of rabbits living around our yard away from them and the next 2 days the largest and second largest eggplants are attacked.
They weren't messed with before fence.......sigh

But with a goodly amount of rain last week and then sunny skies the broccolis were approaching picking size.  One of them looked like it was going to head to "flowering" so Hubs picked it on Sunday.....

Last time we attempted broccoli in the garden, we ended up with "special" broccoli....you know, misformed  and tiny heads that bolted to flowers before we could pick some of them.
This year's did much better and will be part of a chicken and broccoli in garlic sauce for Monday's dinner.
Yumo!

I hope Tanner likes broccoli because the other head will be ready for eatin' soon too.

Sunday was spent cleaning.
Yes, one of my most favorite things to do in the world!!! ha

But it was time to do it and of course, we couldn't have Tanner arriving and thinking Sluggy is an awful host and housekeeper(well, one out of two ain't bad....).
We will continue on with the making the house presentable for company on Monday.  I may have to break out the bio-hazard suit when I get to the main bathroom since #2 Son is the sole user of said bathroom.
This won't be pretty and I'll spare y'all the Before pictures of it....lolz

In other news, sort of, I have filled 4 shelves with piece goods from my fabric stash.
It has been photographed, catalogued, measured and folded neatly, all in prep for selling it all on Etsy.
Here's the spare room as I was in process and about halfway to filling the white shelves in the back of the room.....

And here is the room at the moment.....

Shelves filled with 4 more tubs of fabric to sell in front of it, still to be gone through.
And there is more fabric in tubs in the garage.....Eeek!

The bed has been striped and aired out and awaits fresh linens.  A little dusting, run the vacuum over the carpet again and run the air filter/cleaner thingy for a couple of days and this room will be ready for company.....or as ready as it's gonna git.....

I also went through my walk-in closet in the bedroom today.  It's August and I still hadn't unpacked my Summer clothes.
Where does the time go? 8-)

I found a brand new swimsuit in there I had forgotten I had bought on clearance at the end of last Summer's season.  It's a good thing I didn't buy it again last month, because I almost did....the same exact suit.
I wonder about me sometimes.......

I spent 2 solid hours going through clothes and trying things on since my weight has changed and has "moved" so some things fit differently.  When I finished I had a small pile to send to Salvation Army(including a dress I bought at Fashion Bug years ago that is HIDEOUS!  What was I thinking? lol), plus a small pile for the rag bag.

Speaking of clothes, since my summer wardrobe was getting rather thin, I bought 3 dresses and a nightshirt online at Woman Within.  I found 2 coupon codes I could use together to get a great deal.
The regular retail on the 4 items was $204 and change.
With sale prices it all came to $124 and change(with $12 shipping), then my coupon codes took another $44 off, so I ended up paying $80 and change for all.
Not bad.

Between the swimsuit I forgot about and these dresses added to my wardrobe, I am all set for clothes for the road trip.
Packing commences later this week.

What exciting things have been going on at your house lately?

Sluggy