I'm Living In Box Hell.

Once we made the decision to move my mother immediately started packing and getting rid of stuff. She was so crazed about getting it done that it spilled over to me and I started packing too. Did I mention we haven't even found a place to live at that point? 

It is good to get rid of things we don't need ahead of time but now I'm living with boxes stacked everywhere. My mom told me the other day that she thinks she started packing way too soon. Yep I already knew that.

My mom found a thrift store that all the proceeds go to a battered women's shelter, so tons of stuff went there. Her church is getting ready to have their annual book sale so every book we don't absolutely love and movies we don't watch all went there. We had maybe 10 bags that went between the 2 of us. We are big readers.

Here's 2 walls in my living room covered in boxes so you can see what I'm dealing with.

 The majority of stuff packed so far is 1/2 my studio, all our movies and books, living room art, and winter bedding. I feel like I'm living with a hoarder cause you have to follow little routes to get around the living room. I spend most of my time in my studio which feels spacious since 1/2 of it is packed away. This is all my stuff, my mom has a bunch of boxes downstairs in her living room.

Oh and did I mention that we will probably not even be moving until September?! I'm beginning to feel like I will lose my mind before this move is over.

Here's What's Been Going On in Sassyland.

O.k. in my previous post I said that a lot of crazy things were going on here well here's the craziest. My mom, daughter and I live together and my brother moved in 2 years ago when he was getting a divorce. He's been looking for a rental house for him, his boys (who he hopes to be able to get custody of), his girlfriend and her 2 kids. They were having a terrible time finding anything so I came up with a brilliant idea...why not rent our house to them? We were planning on moving in 3 years and renting out the house anyway. It's the perfect size for a large family and we'd have tenants we could trust. Plus my brother is willing to do all the painting and ripping up of carpets and installing new extra base cabinets and pantry in the kitchen that has to be done to rent out anyway. Yay!

So off we went looking for a new smaller place of our own. We originally thought about renting a house also but the rents were too high and it would be cheaper to buy. The small houses we looked at needed so much work and didn't have room for a studio for me. Mom and I didn't want to deal with snow removal and yard work anymore either. So then we thought maybe a condo would be the way to go. My daughter is planning on joining the Military this Fall or next Spring so it will just be me and my mom but we do need a third bedroom for my daughter until she leaves and for when she visits, plus I hope my son and his girlfriend and their children will visit us. Did I tell you I'm going to be a Grandma for the first time?! Whoo Hoo!

We saw small condos with scary elevators, smelly larger condos with great views but needed the kitchen gutted and no where for my studio and a cute townhouse condo with super small bedrooms and stairs so steep even my daughter didn't like going down them. We had specific must haves which include first floor living ( my mom has 2 artificial knees and stairs are not her friend, plus she took a nasty fall this Spring and broke both her wrists so gripping is an issue too ), we have to bring the dog and cat ( they are family ), 3 bedrooms/ 2 baths ( one with a shower and the other with a large tub ), a large dining area that I could use for my studio, garage, in-unit laundry, an eat in kitchen and a patio. And then I saw one online I thought might be perfect for us. We went and saw it and put an offer in right away! The price was well under market value ( the housing market here is terrible and it takes forever to sell ). The selling couple want to start a family and the complex is adults only, which is perfect for us, nice and quiet. They are actually trying to buy a house in our current neighborhood.

We had our inspection and discovered that we need new windows in all the bedrooms and the dishwasher is about to die and there is an issue with some of the vents so we are waiting to see about that. It's a much larger condo that we thought about getting but we are downsizing from 2 kitchens, 2 living rooms and 2 dining rooms, plus we don't want to be all over each other since we are used to our own spaces. The bedrooms are the largest we saw and I will have a huge soaker tub in my bathroom. Our move in date will be in September sometime depending on the sellers buying situation.

Swap Doll Now Finished and Delivered.

Wow it's been a day short of a month that I last blogged. So many crazy things have been happening around here. I'll share all the news over the next few posts. First of all I finally finished my swap doll. My ADA Art Doll Artists Group had a doll swap last month. I was a little late getting my doll out but since I was hosting the group I figure it was o.k. and my partner had no problem waiting.

I don't have the best photos since it was raining like crazy when I wanted to take pics but I'll still share them with you. I receive a great doll from Sarah Timmerman which I'll show first.

This is Mia the Unhappy Party Guest.

She's an adorable zombie. I love zombies!

My doll went to Sherry Hall. Since she lives on a ranch and rides horses and steer, yes you heard that right she rides show steer!, I had to make a cowgirl. I wasn't able to show wips of this project since Sherry follows my blog but it you bear with me I'll do that now.

I was so happy I already had these fun fabrics in my stash!

 Hand sewing the mini pom pom trim (also from my stash) with green embroidery thread that matched the green in the fabric.

 Super proud of how this skirt came out.

The underskirt was made from a real baby dress. It already had the ruffles and lace so worked out perfectly.

I hand embroidered the belt with colors from the fabric and found also in my stash one of those bolero type metal things that was perfect for a big buckle.

The boots were the hardest part of this project. I made them from felt. The light brown that looks like leather is an embossed felt that I also already had. I embroidered the details on and I love how they turned out.

These are the three accessories I made to go with the doll. A steer plush doll, a hobby horse and a flat topped cowboy hat.

Skirt and underskirt detail. She also is wearing bloomers 

I made but never got a pic of.

Meet Lucille - Queen of the Western Prairie