I'm still here........

.....just been gone so hadn't posted. I didn't take many pictures this past 9 days but here are a few showing what I've been up to.

The major reason for the longer than usual trip to the beach cottage was to paint - argh. I've painted so many houses over the last 38 years - I'm tired of it - I don't want to paint anymore, but it must be done. Since we bought this house 5 years ago we've been slowly updating/fixing it up. We need to get the nasty smelly carpet out of there and lay some composite flooring but first we need to paint all the windows, doors, trim, baseboard, doorjambs, etc.  I love stained wood trim but this was an ugly dark color so we decided to paint it white. What a job!  First a deglosser to clean it off and prep it for paint, then a primer, then at least 2 coats of paint, in some areas 3 and even a few spots needed 4. Here's Sam taking down the blinds in prep for painting.

Here's Sam putting the blinds back up after we painted - we painted every single window/trim and door jamb/trim in the house. The doors are started, baseboard to come on another trip over but that's a quick painting job in comparison to all the windows in the house....much of the baseboard we pulled out to paint.  Unfortunately we can't do anything about the black windows and grids that are in-between the panes - we just have to live with those.  I love how much bigger the rooms look now. I should have taken a pic of the hallway - it must be only 14 feet long, very narrow and it has 6 doors in it - yes 6 doors!  It looks so much better without all that dark wood.

Here's the dining room put back together....ignore those leaves all over the floor that were blown in the back door.

I don't remember if I posted a pic of the quilted placemats actually in use or not so here they are.

I may have shown one of these tables before, just had to share again as these are my favorite types of tables and I have several of them and will buy more if I see them at a good price. I remember my grandmother having one by her back door when I was growing up. Sam says I brake for any kind of small table but especially these. I don't know what era they originally came from - the 30's or maybe 40's???  Anyone know?

I finished knitting a pair of sox - my second in this colorway as one pair are a gift.

I started another pair of sox just because there always has to be a pair of sox on the needles.

Started another secret project with dropped stitches.

I snuck in a few hours to weave and finish off the towel warp over at the beach cottage......that day I was really tired of painting.........

Here's the pile of towels just pulled off the loom, different colored wefts, some plaids, some solids....now these need to be washed and hemmed.

Fire over near Bandon Dunes Golf Resort this past week while we were at the beach cottage (pic pulled from the local paper website). I had been painting windows on the back side of the house, finished up and walked to the front door and saw smoke enveloping us. Silly me not having fire on the mind over there - they can just as easily have fires as we can here in the valley. Fire started on the beach by someone with an illegal fire, it caught the beach grass and gorse on fire which is highly flammable. Luckily the fire was put out quickly before spreading.  The town and miles around it burned to the ground in 1936, from 30 miles inland right to the beach.

Final shot of wind surfers.  Sorry it's so hard to see, we were far away and I only had my phone with me to take the shot. There are windsurfers with the sails on their boards and there are the ones being pulled along by kites. This spot is famous for windsurfing - it's just north of Gold Beach, around an hour south of our place.

So now I deal with, as I call it, re-entry - have much to do as I have cataract surgery this week and since I'm not getting the standard lens but getting a premium one that will give me a better range of vision and correct my astigmatism I have some restrictions on close up work/reading for a week. Last night after getting home I pulled and boxed up orders so they're ready to mail tomorrow. Today I will be tackling the huge Ashland Bay roving order that came in over 2 weeks ago that I ignored......I'm out of way too many colors in the shop so I must deal with it now.

A little painting happening this week.......

 I'm sure this dresser and mirror I painted this week wouldn't suit all tastes but it's for a beach cottage with a seaglass theme - it's cheery and fun. This started out as a used dresser we bought 3 years ago that had already been painted white.....glossy white with cigarette burns on the top.....but it's a good piece of furniture and we got it for practically nothing.  It was always on the list of pieces to paint but I just got around to it this week. It makes me smile now whenever I walk in the bedroom. As I was painting it brought back memories of painting another dresser and mirror for my room at my parents beach house in Cape May Point, NJ. That was in the 60's and I was very influenced by Peter Maxx and pop art - I painted it bright orange & yellow - now I wonder what was I thinking but then I always did have to be a bit different and creative with everything I did. I'm sure someone is looking at the dresser above and wondering what in the world I did painting it those colors - hah!

 I don't know what these little tables are called but they're my favorite kind of table. My grandmother had one right inside her back door and I always loved it. In the past 3 years I've picked up 3 of these - two are painted white, this one the pale seaglass green. I almost had another one but Sam drew the line since I already had one in my hands at the register.....but never fear, when I see another in the future I will bring it home. I do have a dollar limit though - this one was only $10, one of the others also $10, the other $20 so I've now put my limit at $20 for one of these. If anyone knows the name of this type of book table please let me know.

There is a little weaving happening this week but very little. I got the floor inkle loom warped up with a really long warp and have started weaving it. I can't say what it's for - that will be seen come holiday time. I've done a little knitting (very little) and a little drop spindling (very little). I have tons of roving waiting to  be dyed but there's always another day......

Now off to put the first coat of paint on two more pieces I primed a few hours ago........pictures to follow once finished.

New finds for the beach

We found some new furniture finds for the beach place on Monday, all great bargains. Above is the cute little bench Sam spotted for our entry way. I found the 2 quilts, one for $20, the other for $17 - I was very excited over those! And then there's a white dresser & mirror, little wall shelf and coffee table. All we need to find now is a bookcase or such to fit under a dining room window to hold a teacup collection and a couple of lamps for our bedroom. The beach place foundation work is on-going, new piers put in and the house is now level, just all the follow-up work to be done now.

Paybacks can be very very good...........

Ah, Theresa of the Camp Runamuck blog, thought she was paying me back by finding me this dining set to buy at a  shop going out of business in Ashland....but she forgets I was looking for a set for the beach, she wasn't looking for that cute little Camp Runamuck bench I found her and enabled her to buy! Check out the bench on her blog here! I'm so lucky that she felt the need to enable me to spend money because this was just what we were looking for - that neat beachy, cottage look....and I made an offer on it much lower than the going out of business sale price and got it....that really made me happy.

On the weaving front - nothing happening! I'm having withdrawals but I really need to concentrate on getting all this dyeing done. Tomorrow will be another dye day....if I get more sleep than I've had the past two nights. Yesterday was the first guild meeting of the year, the other guild's first meeting is this coming Tuesday.