settling in

I love my new townhouse. It is just the right size for me. Yes, I still have way too much stuff and I still need to purge but I like it. I love the neighborhood. I haven't really gotten out much yet but just watching all the activity is great. Ray even seems to like it, as I find him looking out the windows at the dog walkers.

New home

I bought a condo. It's a tiny townhouse in an extremely nice community in Arlington called Fairlington Villages. I love it so far. It is relatively quiet, meaning I do hear my neighbors a bit but I can drown them out. There is a real community feel to the area. I see people of all ages walking their children and dogs. My condo is near a pool so I can have outdoors in the summer.

I do have projects in the condo. Although it has wonderful hardwood floors, the walls are all beige. So I'm planning on painting. Picking paint colors is not fun. I wanted to get a couple of rooms done before the move but I couldn't decide on the colors so now I will have to paint around furniture. Ick. Also both the kitchen and the one bath need some up dating. The kitchen cabinets and countertops are old and need replacing but the appliances are new. And the bath was last renovated in the 70s or 80s. Everything works well though so there is no hurry on renovations.

Moving is not fun. I'm sick of being stiff and sore from lifting and moving boxes. And living among boxes. Admittedly if I really examine it, I have been living among boxes for almost four years now since I moved from my house in Knoxville. I have cleared space in all of the rooms now. I have also sorted most of the boxes into the correct rooms. I now have to move more boxes into my attic which unfortunately is not as functional as I would have liked it due to the heat pump blocking access to most of the attic. I also really need to get ruthless about purging some of my belongings. I have way too much stuff and more in the storage unit.

Enjoying NoVA

Wow, so much has happened. I got a new job back in May, started in June and love it. I work for  a great organization with great people and I could not be happier. I'm not wild about my apartment situation as my apartment is a bit far out, not within walking distance to the Metro, like I had thought, plus my upstairs neighbors are elephants. Luckily I don't have too much more time left on my lease so I need to give notice and find a new place. I'm looking at buying a condo. Yes, putting my toe into the water again. I saw a really nice townhouse in a great area that my realtor was supposed to get back to me on the comps. It isn't huge but it has a good size living room and master bedroom plus it has a small walk-in closet which is unheard of for condos of this size. I will need to get rid of more furniture but that is okay.

I have been trying on-line dating. HATE IT. Most of the men that express an interest in me, I have no interest in as they either have no education, wrong religion or something else and most of the men I have expressed an interest in have no reciprocal interest. I have also run into the scammers, which is a whole other world. So far, four of them that I know of have targeted me. I had one coffee date that went well but I don't know if I have any real interest in the gentleman although he would like to see me again and I got stood up for another meeting. Two other guys have expressed some interest but I don't see those going anywhere. So I'm giving up on it. I think I may try matchmaking.

As for quilting or stitching, it hasn't been happening. Although the lightening situation is better here than when I was in Paducah, between my noisy upstairs neighbors and the extra boxes I never unpacked due to no place to put the stuff (mostly my art), it isn't a comfortable place or conducive to creativity. I have been trying my hand at needlepoint but again, my living situation sucks for creativity so I mostly read or watch TV.

New beginning (again)

Okay, having just read two blogs, I realized that I need to keep up with my blog. Lots of changes since I last posted. Moved from AZ to MI, then got a new job and moved from MI to Paducah, KY. Now most people would barf at the thought of moving to Paducah, KY but if you are a quilter, you just fainted from excitement at the thought of being in Quilt City, USA.  Yes, Paducah, KY is the home of the National Quilt Museum and every April hosts one of the largest quilt festivals in the country: the American Quilter's Society's Quilt Show.  Yipeee.

I live in a duplex which is crammed full of my stuff as it is only a two bedroom and since moving from DC in 1988, I have lived in a three bedroom.  I spend most of my time in the "den/office/sewing room" as it has the cable TV.  The living room has the larger TV but due to circumstances beyond my control, the cable company couldn't hook up the cable. I can watch DVDs and download videos but I've gotten used to the den.

I have really been working on finishing my quilting UFOs.  I only have a couple of pieced UFO tops left to finish but have quite a few appliqué projects.  Once I finish the pieced UFOs, I hope to start designing my own quilts.  Yes, I still have the appliqué to work on but those take so long.  I also have a few tote bags to work on but those are fun and I don't count them as real quilts.

Now cross stitch is a different story.  I have never counted how many UFOs I have or even how many patterns although one time I did attempt to keep a spread sheet.  The lighting in the duplex is terrible so I don't tend to stitch (or appliqué for that matter or sew at night) so I haven't stitched much at all since I moved to KY. Until recently, I didn't even buy much as I am trying to watch my money.  But recently I decided I needed to start getting the supplies for some projects which lead to getting some new projects. Now I will have to decide what to work on and try to finish something this year.

I also decided to buy a new car.  My car had almost 100,000 miles so it was time.  I ended up with a BMW X3 which is a little smaller than my other car but much more pick up.  It is grey with a black interior.  Very nice.

Small progress...

Slowly making progress on Quaker Virtues but not much anywhere else.  Busy trying to find a job-ick!

Need to work on Sabrina as I'm pretty far along with her and of course, Alphabets.  I also started Courtney Collection's Pelican using Crescent Colours, Bejeweled on 40 ct sand and a freebie from Plum Street Samplers, coffin buzz on 40 ct Lakeside v. fawk  using Dinky Dyes dark brown.

No progress

Well, that isn't quite true.  I haven't worked much on my stitching as trying to find a job HAS occupied most of my time and it is getting me quite down in the dumps.  But I made quite a bit of progress on Quaker Virtues before giving up. 

I need to work on Alphabets, Sabrina, Pelican and all of the other UFOs I brought with me.

I did bring out my drawing pad as I need to get serious about designing my southwestern wallhanging. It kills me that I had it all designed out and everything even to the point of graphed but then lost the paper in the move.  Rats.  I can only remember certain elements of the design but not the entire design so I'm basically starting from the beginning.  Luckily I have the material to inspire me.  I'll figure something out as the materials are all hand-dyed and very pretty.

I went to a knitting and stitch group on Tuesday at the library.  Bloomfield Township has a wonderful library.  And this group was

Busy, busy, busy

Yes, that is my excuse.  Nothing yet in terms of a real job but still some glimmers of interest.  I've been hard at work with a career counselor who has me figuring out what industries I want to target (all? wrong answer) then once I have that narrowed down, figure out what areas of the country I want to target (much easier right? not really) then write cover letters specific to those industries to send to the hiring managers of companies in those areas.  After all this work AND moving from Arizona to Michigan, I finally began sending out letter this week.  It was not a smooth process.  First, I found a few problems in my resume after having 100 copies printed; then I found a problem with two of the cover letters after having 100 copies of those printed.  After correcting that, I got 35 letters done OR so I thought until I realized that I had forgotten to sign the cover letter.  So I had to carefully open the envelopes and sign the cover letters. The next batch went much better.  Plan is to work full time on this until mid June then find part-time work of some type.   

For fun I've been hard at work on my cross-stitch.  Still working on Quaker Virtues.  Have mostly completed the first page and have started on the next page.  Have the word "integrity" finished which is in the secondary color so it really stands out right now.  But I'm getting a bit burnt out on it so am considering switching to another project soon.  Don't know if I will work on Sabrina or Pelican.  I got the materials for Pelican here at a shop called the Rocking Horse in Farmington Hills.  Very nice.

Plan to take some photos of this area and flowers if we ever have some nice weather.