When life hands you lemons .... Make lemonade ?

Awe heck be creative, dance in the rain. Say hi to everyone you run into on a walk, wish them a good day. Get outdoors explore. Keep smiling keep moving.

That's what we are doing.

Almost 6 months ago hubby walked in the door from his doctors appointment , his mistake was to keep a secret. He had gone in before for cancer tests, and now they came back. Positive. 

So we went through the tears fears anger the omg . And once through those stages. With out talking it over we moved as one unit. And set out to smile, keep moving, do everything we could think of project wise. And not sit around and wait for the next shoe to fall. 

Meanwhile after telling the family what was going on. I dove into using face book to keep everyone posted.

We went through the treatment. 

And then got back to life. 

And we have had a blast. Yard work , finishing the house purging. Redoing furniture . Painting areas in the house and we are still not done. 

We have laughed our way through days. Over done ourselves smiled and walked slowly through the next day.

We have gotten tons closer then we ever were. And packed so much into so few months.

Well he survive this? Dam straight! Never a question there cause they caught it in time.

We start every morning with a walk. End every day with a hug kiss I love you, and go to our separate bed rooms. Nether of us mind this though I dream someday we can share again. But if it never happens that's ok. 

 We find the humor everyday in life. Smiles.. You name it. 

We did the ok if I die thing early on. Got the plans in place etc. then laughed. Walked away and been working on the rest of our life plans ever since then

He's gained weight. Color is returning. 

And he can run circles around me left and right. There seems at 65 yrs young this man is an energizer bunny on steroids . Lol even I have a tough time keeping up with him lol. 

 

Totally done finally

Not only do I love the color , but now this corner is a place I could easily spend tons of time being creative.

We also totally finished the house cleaning and purging, our living space is alot more homey to us clean clear. Organized . Totally love it. 

Cleaning clearing purging

We have been busy now going on 4 years, clearing our small house out of stuff we have had laying around for years none of us saw or used in years

We began with the attic

When the church across the street burned to the ground a few years before we had water all over what was in the attic. I had already gone up several times and grabbed those things I knew I really wanted. 

But one week end I handed the guys yard trash bags and said I don't care what it is it all goes in her. Period. Only things not to toss are photos and possible valuables you will know if you find any. 

1/2 a days work and the attic was empty but for two pieces of furniture.

Next summer I worked on what was in the front room and entry way and kitchen

I had given up a massive walk in closet on the first floor so hubby could use it for his gun safe and fishing gear. 

Left me with tons of books and a lot of other things all over the house I now needed to go through.

Christmas made a huge decision for me in exactly what went out the door with the still amazing gift of my first kindle reader.

Every book I never used but had to have went to the library book store as a donation.this left me with one very tiny shelf of books to actually keep. As those come up on kindle they are replaced 

All magazine subscriptions came to a hauler in  the snail mail and are now on my kindle app.

I then began the long task of going through what was left.

Checked out all my yarns 

If it wasn't natural it went out the door.

Bought a set of interchangeable knitting needles didn't spare the expense got the top of the line

Purged through a ton of kitting needle I don't like or never used

Bought snap tubs for all my supplies and labeled everything 

Reason after the church burned they demoed the foundation. Discovered there was a empty foundation under everything no one knew about loaded with field mice. And this being an older home with no basement they went through here. We fought them for two months before the battle was over.

Something I never want to go through again

As a result I stepped up the purging of things in this house

Snap tubs are the only way to store things safely here for sure. Though I haven't seen a mouse in years now.

Dog food stored in ice cream buckets cat food same 

All quilting cloth stored and labeled in snap tubs

All yarn same.

Anything in the basement went to the dump 12 truck loads , took no chances on any of it. No one used most of what we dumped in years

Photos in snap tubs 

Awe heck I figure at our age if anything happens the kids won't have it tough trying to deal with stuff lol

All that to say, presently working on my craft corner

I wanted a shelf put into my tiny book cupboard.and I do mean tiny.

While thinking that over I decided it was time to paint.

I counted 4 colors in that craft corner and thought that's such a drag. It's making it look awful.

So we took everything out of the craft / sewing corner.

I was tired of white paint too. Decided on a raspberry red. We still had a gallon of it here left over from another paint job

And I love this.

Been going through things as I put them back purging the area one more time of things I have no use for. And labeling every plastic tub or shoe box or drawer as I go. Using some nice flower scrap book paper I had here. That sorta match the paint.

Removed all the tacky white labels that were on things some half torn off. And scrubbed the magic marker labels off the rest, this am mounted to one days work and 38 labels. But it's done

Now to label the snap tubs and that part is over

I am always looking in Pinterest for ideas that I can use or possible make over to use in a way they will fit my needs

Saw an idea for an embroidery hoop. I have several here I been  holding onto. Instead of making pockets for scissors or rulers I need a place to put the foot peddle thing and cords for my sewing machine, this one large hoop I have will do the trick plus I have tons of fabric to choose from

We located a ceiling light we like for my area.and tomorrow when we go for the rest of the paint I hope we can pick this up .

Once done with this I am hoping it will be the last purging I will need for my crafts 

Blondes need not apply ! I got that wrapped up tight !

My wild summer ideas

I love summers , who doesn't, so we are driving down the road and i remember when i got my first digital camera. Taking massive photos all snap shots . When i think out loud to hubby. We should take this drive again when its green and full of flowers, and when we do i will record it with my video cam then in the winter when we want to get out we can watch it on TV. I think he thinks i flipped . But I am sure going to do this. Lol

Is it spring yet ?

I tell you, going south last month was pure heaven, it was a 5 day trip that had us making a fast round of hugs, good times well spent, that i sat and quickly put to a scrap book journal . It's tee shirt weather were my son is, i came home to snow.
Back to my old grind of wondering around waiting for spring.

I hear tell from my niece in face book it's finally hit. She took her kids out the road to the beach. So i am going to get up grab the dog and go walking today .
During the last 7 years we lost both our cocker spaniels, from old age, and our cat too, before the black one passed we got this tiny dog a rat terrier, hubby gave her to me as a valentines gift, and i swear the black spent time telling her just how to take care of us both. Because it didn't take long before she became hubby's dog, but she's good to us both and i don't mind her choosing him as her most prized position lol silly dog. Am starts with her saying morning to us both. The cockers would glue themselves to hubby except for walks. Not Matty, she's all over us both except for nap times, and if course we have a new cat, this one wont have a thing to do with out doors. But she's a mouser for sure. So that's good. And Marty's best friend of course.lol
Matty was supposed to be my dog. Period. Good luck they always choose one in a family they gravitate to more. It was her choice. Hubby was pretty sick during that time and Matty was a comfort to him. He asked since evie had passed away if it was ok if Matty just stayed with him more often. Ok no problem. And poof she made her choice. Surgery , he's up he's new as can be off to the races and matty stays by his side constantly , which is ok . He was recently diagnosed with cancer, but the caught it in time, another surgery and things will be fine, she's glued to him and its been a blessing . Keeps him busy , etc etc.
Anyway, she don't pull me around while walking, which the family was concerned about in a bigger dog. And again she was a some what rescue dog, her original owner couldn't keep her. Rather then send her to the pound thank god they returned her to her breeders who put her back up for sale at a lower price we could afford. So in walks hubby with this tiny puppy under his coat. And says happy valentines day. That was three yrs. ago.
Matty and i walk slot together heck she goes everywhere with us baring the weather
Anyway, this am i go to face book. And my grand daughter in law posts a simple who taught my daughter this song? It's so cute. I post back its the song i set to my alarm goes off three times a day to remind me got 15 mins to get out the door and walk. Lol it's the thrift shop song.
That goes off even Matty says time to move ma lol .
I was amazed that Delilah remembered ggs theme song, that made my day.
But what will make it more well be time to walk that dog

From pc to?

What's changed in my life since i began this blog. a ton.
i am thinking like 3 yrs. ago getting my first kindle, i thought it was awesome and i still do.
the next Christmas i got the kindle fire.they entered my life just in time as i had lost a ton of my library several years back and had taken what was left and put them into snap tubs. to keep them safe.
with the entrance of the kindle my book buying changed totally. now as far as magazines and books go if its not at amazon on kindle or digital in anyway its no longer entering my house.
love my kindle books i can tuck my ever growing library into my purse and take it anywhere.
this last Christmas ii asked for the iPad mini ,and got not just that but a new desk top.

the addition of the iPad min really opened up allot more things .as far as how where and what i use too do any off my work reading or what ever i used to do on a pc. ii can do it all on my iPad anywhere in the house.
my library has a good variety of reading and into 200 books. knitting,quilting,cooking,magazine..
i also have at my fingertips a huge variety of awesome apps to use .with the addition of them my iPad can do anything my pc did, i say that because my new pc came with windows 8 which is useless without a touch screen , most of the apps they have are useless so far doing next to nothing you need them to do. p,us at the moment there are so few out there.the ones you want cost way to much for an app or are chopped up and sold at high costs bring you tab on those to the same price the old pc programs where that you bought on cds yrs back. or the programs that came with your pc just yrs ago like 3 are no longer available to you unless you buy the program for way to much. its clearly a want to be ipad in pc form. But with the entrance of the tablets be they iPads which are the best, or nooks or kindle fires, its dam clear the old desk tops will soon find their way to the heap of who wants that around. Or become the new mini home servers. Tower only . Stored out of site to be accessed through our ever growing in powerful tablets.
Personally i spend less time with the new pc doing anything but playing world of war craft then anything else. And believe me even those big on line games better start moving into the app world before the hit the pile of omg really who needs that ? Get the app. The app games need some serious work on controls though. And you can access your desk top and play but like i said the controls are still pretty bad for moving around in a game.
All in all my whole world changed with the entrance of kindle fir and the ipad mini. I have a ton more space in my craft room. No more stacks and stacks of magazines laying around. And the shelves of books has dwindled to only the books i really want to keep that are not out on kindle yet. And I love it . Totally a big time clutter breaker in this house. Even in the way i buy my movies. The DVDs collection has begun to dwindle as i buy my movies through iTunes. Lol

7 yrs later

Omg its been 7 years since i last blogged anything. And I dare say alot has happened. That i won't go into. Lets stay in the present . In this past week i have seen it all weather wise here in Juneau. Open the door one day and poof its raining so hard you can't see across the street. Open it again, its sun shining. Open it one more time its hailing. Sigh close the door! Get brave try again...... 4 inches of snow. Give up and go anyway. Doing what you might say? Why yard sailing of course. After breakfast out.  Now you would think that no one would hold a yard sale in this weather. Let alone venture out and actually yard sale lol. Nope there were tons of yard sales and tons of people out looking for them. That's it for sure diehard Alaskans out in any. Weather yard sailing .