Getting some work done, going out painting when the weather permits, hanging out with the grandkids; it's all good! All except that heavy weight in my gut whenever I remember that there are actually people on this planet who thought killing Logan Echolls was a good idea. Honestly, if that's not proof that evil is real, I don't know what is.
ANYWAY
Last week, in a fit of irresponsibility, I flew off to Denver for a few days. Jay had to work and he asked me if I wanted to go, so I went. It was a blast! I got to hang out with Margy and Jeff, we went up to their property in the mountains where they're building a new cabin on the site where the old A-frame was. Calling it a 'cabin' is silly, as it's an enormous, gorgeous mountain home. When it's finished, it will have four bedrooms including a bunk room and a master suite upstairs. One of the bedrooms will be outfitted as a home gym until such time as they actually need to sleep more than 10 at a time. The downstairs includes a mudroom, full bath, pantry off the kitchen and an open great room big enough for a full dining room, family/living room with a wood burning stove and a kitchen large enough for Margy to cook meals that will feed armies. Right now, it's in the painting stage. The walls are all up and you can see how it's going to be but there are no fixtures, the bathrooms haven't been tiled and the floor's not in yet. The windows are all in and the sliding doors to the deck. That's right, there's a great big deck off the living room and kitchen. It overlooks the meadow where the shrine to Mary is. It's just beautiful!
Margy designed the main bathroom downstairs as the 'Colorado river' bath. The floor will look like pebbles and the shower will have tile trout, designed by her son, Cary. She showed me the tile she chose for the fish, a green, rose and silver that will be gorgeous. She had three shades of blue tile to pick from for the water background. All the tile was beautiful but one looked like it was made for the colors of the fish, so that's the one she ordered. The beauty of building a house with three bathrooms is you get to choose completely different tile for each. I went to her tile warehouse with her and there are so many to choose from, it's daunting. We'll be redoing our main floor bath in the near future. It needs to be done and it's nice to know it'll be 100% prettier when it is. For the nearly 30 years we've lived here, that room has had the least done to it. Yes, we switched out the vanity, toilet and sink but we've been stuck with the same yellow tile that has adorned it's walls since the 1940s, I'm guessing.
On another day, we went and looked at a house that Margy and her bidness partner have a bid on. The house has a ton of potential but there's a scary family room tacked on to the basement and some outside concrete work that just may make the property not economically feasible. They'll know in a week whether they want the place or not. It was fun to see. The main part of the house was quite nice, just out of date but that dungeon/den...it makes you wonder about the decision making process of some people.
Which brings me back to Rob Thomas and Veronica Mars grrrrrrr.
ANYWAY
It's nice to go off and have fun for a few days but it's also nice to get back home and back in my groove. I can't afford to take off weeks on end. Despite what anyone may think, I do NOT get paid for being cute and charming. Especially since I am neither that cute nor all that charming...I need to work.
I'm in the thick of Halloween/Autumn design season, not to mention Christmas. In the world of needlepoint, it's always Christmas season. Today I got an order for a stocking which is to be the 'same size and shape as John's'. Too bad the customer didn't bother to leave me the dimensions of the stocking for John. There we go again, with people and their decision making skills. I pointed out to all involved that I would need to see and measure John's stocking before I did anything else and that particular problem was solved.
If only all problems were as easy to overcome.
Saturday, we had a family party to celebrate Jay's older brother Bob being inducted into the Coon Rapid's high school hall of fame! It was really fun to see part of the AZ contingent of the family. Earlier in the day, Ty brought Xena, Babalouie and Kitten over. We took them to Septemberfest at our local church, where the kids went on rides and we bought a pie and bid on a few things at the silent auction. Then we all went to the HOF party together. It was a lovely day!
We can all use more of those, can't we?