I promised myself a while ago that I would do a compete overhaul in the basement, throwing out the unneeded/unwanted and organizing the rest of the ‘stuff’.  Well, stowing away the Christmas stuff has got me on a roll.  Yesterday, I emptied one of several storage totes containing Christmas linens- napkins, table runner, tablecloths, etc.  Whittled that down to two totes-one full of stuff I use every year, the other full of stuff that I bought intending to get them embroidered for gifts.  That’s a project for a later date.

Then I tackled a box labeled “Christmas fabric”.  Found several pieces of fabric with Christmas vests printed on them.  I cut our all the vest last night and got three of them quilted (I’m adding a thin layer of batting to make them warmer) and stitched together.  Then I started cutting the other Christmas fabrics into pillow sized pieces.  Couldn’t get started on the sewing because I didn’t have enough cording, and I do love pillows with cording!  After a trip this afternoon to the fabric store, I’ll start on the pillows tonight.  I plan to make them removable so I can change out the covers for pillows on the front porch rockers.  May also have some to sell at the Christmas bazaar next year.

We’ve had my brother and nephews over all day trying to find a water leak.  They had to dig up a bunch of the front yard-that red clay is sticky with all this rain.  Finally found the leak at the faucet in the garden.  At least they didn’t have to replace the whole water line as we had feared.  Steve is such a good old soul.  Never complains about working in the cold or heat.  I got lucky when I was born into the family with a brother like him.

We bought a new dining room set before Christmas, and the rug looked terrible with the red seated chairs.  So the new rug came today and the old rug looks great in my bedroom.  Couldn’t have worked out better.  Hopefully that’s all the stuff we’ll have to deal with for a while, until I start my next remodel project.  Oh, yes, there’s always something that change be changed, rearranged, torn down or built on.  I have three specific projects in mind, but I’ll only spring one at a time on Mr. Hight.  I have to give him time to recover from one before I begin on another!

So, I got this wild hair to start on an upholstery project (actually two projects, but one must wait for a new supply of staples for my staple gun)  I’ve stripped the cover from a chair I found at Goodwill.  It was covered with some really ugly plastic green vine fabric.  Then I realized that I was out of staples, so I moved onto my footstool.  Scott bought this for me at a shop in Kennesaw, and it had a really ratty cover.  I had hoped to do some needlepoint like the old cover, but have had no luck in finding a pattern.  So Hobby Lobby happened to have some nice fabric that will do well.

I stripped the old fabric off today, and will start the recovering tonight.  So here are the before pictures, and the ‘in between the old and new’ pictures.

BEFORE

Phase 1:  Remove all upholstery fabric, in this case two layers.  These are the In between the old and the new cover.

Phase 2:  Disassemble the wood, glue, clamp, and wait.  Hopefully the stool will be much sturdier now!

Hopefully, the new and improved stool will be ready in a few days.

I’ll keep you posted.

Sunday night my mother’s family kicked off their holiday traditions with a dinner out.  There were about forty of us.  The number dwindles every year, so it’s so important to not miss this!  Mama still has three of her sisters and one brother, and thankfully they were all able to come.

Tonight is the Native Plant Society’s Christmas meeting, with a short meeting, then tons of great food.  This is one of the most wonderful groups I’ve ever been involved with-no pretentious bones in any of their bodies, thoughtful, committed to our work of rescuing native plants, and just good all-round people.  I look forward to every meeting, rescue, board meeting, presentation we do.

Brandi will be home on Thursday, with our family stuff getting into full swing over the weekend at Gram’s house.  Scott’s family is such a joy to be with.

Still haven’t done all the decorating I usually do, but this year, I’m thankful for the small graces God has bestowed on me-a healthy mama, my sister, my children of whom I am so proud, Scott-who puts up with me.  My list goes on and on-no need to have a Santa list.  I’ve got everything I need to make me happy.

Hope everyone else out there can say the same.

Could it be possible that winter has arrived this second week of November?  Surely not.  It seems we just had summer-like weather just last week.  I know I was out planting and pouring cement just a few days ago.  Luckily, I got the veggie garden ready for the cold weather, with frost blankets on all the fall crops.  My new grow light rack in the basement is loaded down with houseplants from the back porch and pots from around the yard.  This will be my first year to try to carry over the outside pots.  We’ll see how that goes.  It sure would save me some cash next spring when I get antsy to plant pots for the summer.

I’ve taken cutting from some of the annuals such as geraniums, to be rooted and potted up for spring.  Never done that before either, but it’s worth a try!

I’m looking out the window at the crimson red leaves of the dogwoods, the brilliant yellows of the hickories, oaks, poplars, and the other fall colors that have been so incredible this year.  But the fountain tells me that all this will soon pass and I’ll be looking out at a landscape barren of foliage, and waiting for spring.  But then there are always the seed catalogs to brighten up my winter blahs.