Ya gotta know when to hold em...know when to throw them..

After chatting with a new full timing lady I met recently the dilemma of do you keep some of your stuff or make a clean break of everything?  There's many points of view on this issue.


In her case she has rented a small (5x5) storage locker and has kept some of the furniture that was handmade by her father.  She wants to have these things when they get off the road and into a stationary home again.  I don't own anything that has any emotional pull for me. Luckily my cousin loves antiques and family history and has willingly taken everything old I have that was passed down.  It's nice knowing someone will be using and enjoying these pieces.


However, I do have a couple of pieces of Amish made furniture that I really like and wonder if I should hang on to for dressers and storage for the apartment we will someday have.  Yes, I enjoy them, but do I really want to pay to store them for I don't know how long? More than likely I will sell these and see what happens later down the road.


Some friends have suggested we rent the house for a year or two until we get this out of our system.  I think they believe we have gone insane as we embrace a somewhat alternative lifestyle.  They may be right, but as they listed off the things they need to do to their house and all the paid labor they've hired to do the things they no longer can (or want to) do...I just smiled and really felt good about our decision.


My notice came up for my website hosting and I replied to let it go.  I've not been good about keeping up my website anyway and I do believe I feel another blog coming on for that purpose.  Between the blogs and Facebook there are so many great FREE ways to promote yourself, I just can't see maintaining a website any more.  


I will also let go of my business account at my small home bank at the end of the year and the credit card service that goes with it after this years shows are done.  I will find a more national bank and some other mobile way of dealing with credit card purchases at shows.  There are so many changes coming up this year!


Long Live the Queen of Change

Heading back

Most everything was packed already anyway, the sky was gray and Left Brain got cheated out of golfing once again by the drizzle so we looked at each other and said "Let's just go!"  This was followed by a flurry of frenzied activity as we wrestled stuff quickly into the car and canned ham for the trip back.  She Devil slept through most of our personal storm and was scooped up and put in the back seat when I needed her bench for the placement of the last three plastic tubs.  Whew.  We're in and we're off.

First stop was at the office where we had to check out and check mail one last time.  It seems we were to read our meter (?) and tell them what it said.  So, I waited while somebody ran out to get the reading.  Then it seemed an interminable length of time for her to figure out how much was used, compute the cost for February....nothing moves fast in Texas.  The cost was higher than in January with fewer days but we were so ready to leave I agreed to just pay it so we could be gone!

Second stop was to return the cable equipment.  This I expected a huge process and it went very efficiently.  That was a pleasant surprise and we were finally on the road.  Stopped to gas up the car and later at a Burger King to gas up us and smooth sailing from here on.

Then we came to the road block on the highway where everyone had to exit and go through a border patrol customs check even though we were no where near a border.  We watched as the dogs were sniffing cars and trucks, cameras were filming into the car at every possible angle and saw some agents crawling underneath a pickup truck.  Yikes.  But when they got to the two old farts hauling a camper from Wisconsin they just asked if we were both US citizens and waved us on.  I guess we don't fit any kind of exciting profile anymore.

We drove northward and took in the beauty of the early budding trees and lots of wild flowers bursting forth in the ditches and road sides.  But what we really enjoyed was the majesty of the large hawks and eagles that seemed to be everywhere - sitting on top of the telephone poles, soaring, diving....

An eagle dove down into the median right in front of us and picked up some lunch.  The expression on the rabbits face showed that he was as shocked as we were...well, he may have been more concerned as I believe he was that night's dinner guest.  Yes, we were close enough to see the expression!

The eagle seemed to hover in front of our rapidly approaching windshield and was calculating it's lift, the heavy load, the speed of the vehicle.  He computed this very fast and made the decision that he needed to get higher quick to avoid becoming a hood ornament on our van...so he dropped the bunny.

We braced for impact but given our speed and skill of the eagles toss, he cleared our windshield and van.  It may have splatted on the canned ham, not sure, didn't hear anything...but then again the adrenaline was pumping too fast in my head to hear much of anything.  The eagle cleared and I could envision him swooping back later after the cars behind us probably prepared the rabbit into pancakes for supper.

As the magic hour of 5:00 approached we pulled off to find a place for the night.  Having winterized the canned ham, we need motels at this point and finding those that will accept She Devil can be difficult.  But after being turned away by one "no pets" policy we landed and even had a small Mexican fast food place within walking distance.

A little tuna for her and a few tacos for us and we were good for the night!

Long Live the Queen of Flying Rabbits

Learning my limits

It was one of those restless days - too confined in a small space, too gray, too windy, too rainy, too....blah.  I had to get out and away for a while.  Left Brain was off playing golf and I had the car for my personal use, so I left.


First I revisited some of the RV dealers we had been to to re-look at some of the motorhomes now that it seems we have zeroed in on this as our choice of rig.  I've gotten good at being able to identify almost immediately whether or not which ones I could live in and which I can't, but now I wanted to see them with a different eye.  Where would my fabric stash and art supplies go?

Bag I made for the megillah at synagogue

Being forced to pare down on my clothes and things in general isn't that big a deal for me, I've been leaning that way the last couple of years already with the need to reduce clutter.  But my fabric!  Now we're on sacred ground here...this needs to be dealt with carefully.
You need a significant stash to do the crazy quilt kinds of things I really enjoy, like this project I did for the synagogue some years back.

As I'd go through each kitchen I could visualize where my pressure cooker and favorite toys would be stored, where the dishes would go, where the printer could set, finding a location for the dreaded litter box, etc.  


But there just didn't seem to be enough space for my art supplies, not to mention my show set up.  And believe me, I've worked hard to get my show set up down to a minimum as it is and have invested good money in new supplies to make it happen.

Custom tote bag using the watercolor
painting of Rosemary Guttormsen

After leaving the dealers lots with brochures of rigs I liked so I could recall the floor plans, I settled in for a little lunch while I read brochures and dreamed...my favorite activities.


Then, I don't know why, I had an intense desire (dare I say obsession?) to find a book store.  The closest Barnes & Noble was over 35 miles away and I just didn't feel like driving that far.  So I happened upon a CVS (there's one every few blocks) and went in hoping they had a small book and magazine section.

This one is small and will go with me

Hooray!  They did! Not that I was going to find any Art Doll Quarterly or Sunshine Artists magazines, or even any Photoshop ones, but they did have some.  I perused these like someone stranded on a desert island studying a water cooler.  It felt so good...so normal.  And then I started to make my choices.


The first one I picked up was a gardening magazine and as I flipped through the pages I recalled that I will no longer have my own garden and reverently put it back.  Sigh.  

I just love making tote bags!

Then I picked up some kind of Martha Stewart looking thing and oohed and aaahed over the bold color combinations and cute furniture and remembered that soon I would be living in the world of built ins and a motorhome where everything comes as it is.  You can swap some stuff out, but because it needs to be secured structurally into the slide outs and be bolted down, this isn't as easy as in a house.  This too was put Add captionback.


Cooking magazines - nah, I have a stash of those I need to get rid of soon as it is, no sense buying another.  Then the enormity of what I'm leaving really hit me and I had a moment of "what the hell have I done?"

It was the simplicity of the quilt design on the Simply Quilts magazine that pulled me in.  I haven't bought a quilt magazine forever and have several books and magazines I need to part with soon as it is.  But this one was perfect!  Each article and pattern provided (except two) were things I could see myself making someday....somewhere....somehow.  Well, I had to have something from the magazine section.  I had to have something that promised creativity again when I returned home, so I bought it.

This is a panel I bought while in Alaska and did the quilting.  It may travel with as it is nonbreakable, soft, lightweight and well, handmade.  It is a reminder of how I should be living my new life - we could all learn from cats.

This reaffirmed in my mind what I can let go of and what I cannot.  Thankfully I am married to an understanding man who gets it.  So, I told him my story and that I cannot, I will not give up my sewing stuff and creativity - it's like breathing.


He reassured me (for the 109th time) that I could have as much space as I needed in the motorhome for all my stuff so I can keep sewing and creating on the road in my new life.  When I informed him he has no idea how much stuff I have, he just smiled and said 'oh yes he did'.  He's seen my little shop of horrors and knows what kind of space it takes. 


So, I told him I wanted the full crew cab pick up truck with a locking sliding topper on it as I will probably have to store tubs of fabrics and stuff in the bed of the truck in addition to under the motorhome.  And he's okay with it.


Am I a lucky woman or what?


Long Live the Queen and Left Brain

The Wind Won.

Whoosh, whoosh, whip whip whip.  I finally shut the door and windows...not because it was too cold but I couldn't bear to hear the wind attempting to rip the cabana off the canned ham anymore.  I fully understand now those stories of pioneers going insane on the prairies with the relentless blowing of the wind.


While I was scooting my bootie at line dance, Left Brain was doing the laundry.  He's such a mensch.  I caught up with him at the tail end of the chore and met a nice lady who has been full-timing for four years now.  It was so much fun chatting with her and learning how they had done things.


When we returned to the canned ham the wind was howling worse than ever and the cabana was starting some sort of St Vitus Dance of the Damned.  So, we started to disassemble the cabana and as the first few drops of rain fell we tossed it into the back of the van until we would be able to fold and place it back into it's little bag.  Whew.  No damage, no poles broken.


Then as the skies turned grayer and the sprinkles began to hit the top of the metal roof we checked the web for which movie we might be able to see today.  As luck would have it, Act of Valor had just opened and it's one Left Brain wanted to see, so we opted for a popcorn lunch and movie.


Intense doesn't begin to describe this movie, which was very well done, but I was left wondering if one can get PTSD from watching all the blood and fighting.  The theme of the movie also brought into play the viciousness of the drug cartels in Mexico.  I'm glad we'd already went into Mexico when we did because after the presentation from the Border Patrol and then this movie I wouldn't walk over there for love or money.


Then we returned to the canned ham, which looks positively naked without the cabana.  The afternoon was spent with me checking out anything I could find about living in the RV and he watched golf on TV.


Long Live the Queen of the Wind

The eagles are raising another family

We have two eggs in the nest now, so I have loaded the link for the live web cam to watch them as this new family comes into the world.


Live video for mobile from Ustream

Long Live the Queen of Eagles