Pepto Pink No More

Hello friends, it's been a crazy month.  Lots of emotional highs and lows.  First off, I painted the studio/office.  I couldn't find any paperwork when I needed it.  I wanted to start a new project, but I couldn't find the stuff or space I needed.  Enough is enough, time to buckle down and get it done.  The room started Pepto Pink.  Look down a few pics for the 'before'!!

Pretty sure this is the very first time, in my entire life, that I have painted a room white...  I used really cheap paint.  2 coats and it kind of glows pink in certain light.  I don't hate it for $30.  Don't the tiny windows read "bomb shelter"?  However, if a bomb does go off.  DO NOT grab hold of any shelving.  I used 'no drill' furniture mounts and I don't have a lot of confidence.

I thought there would be value in keeping the slate clean.  Colored walls have a tendency to cast hues onto whatever you're working on.  I bought a small tv that needs to come out of the box still.  Gotta stream my movies when I'm sewing!

 Things still need some zhuzhing and better lighting but it's a start.  

Literally, the week after this was finished, my daughter Melissa let me know she probably needs to move in with me.  She lost her roommate & job in the same week.  I'm not proud, but I did BREIFLY consider letting my kid be homeless so I wouldn't have to give up my studio.  BREIFLY!  We should know by the end of November what she plans on doing.  Thoughts and prayers are welcome at this time...

Now, for the reason I needed a studio.  My friends Barbara Dyar and Laura Fagen designed the cutest blocks!!  Their family is avid/rabid collectors (you be the judge LOL) of all things awesome.  One of the collections is of wooden butter molds.  So, they took the designs as inspiration & made quilt blocks.  The Hearts n' Hands Quilt Guild is using their designs as the Block of the Month this year.  The Applique Society is doing something similar but on a larger scale!  I'm so excited about the project!  Some people are doing them in applique, some are doing embroidery, and some are doing a little of both.  I chose embroidery and will make them the center of a larger pieced block that has not been determined.

I'm using the Wildflowers pearl cotton by Caron.  A convenient excuse to re-stock my supply.

This floral print is my colorway inspiration.  Not sure what block I'm using to set them, but I do think I need to find teal fabric to do it in.

Any who, Barbara & Laura are part of an extremely talented family!  Here is an example of their sister Janice's paper cutting.  You know how limited my wall space is, and I found room for her work!

My grandson Miles turned 1 and had a Formula 1 birthday party!  I was able to make the cake and cupcakes for the party.  My first time baking in the new house.  Absolute shit show, if I'm honest.  You can see how stressed I was by the line work on the pennant garland...  First off, I put it off longer than I should have.  I usually bake weeks in advance & freeze the cakes.  My mood has not been great & I didn't want it to reflect in my baking.  Bad voodoo.  Then when I finally did it, the chocolate cupcakes overflowed the pan.  The burning batter filled the house with smoke & I had to clean the oven before I could continue.  I didn't want EVERYTHING to taste burned.

Most of my baking supplies were still in a box in the garage.  It took forever to track everything down.  I forgot that I got rid of some of the stuff I needed during the move and had to re-invest.  My food coloring kind of exploded during the move.  I had wrapped them in a bag, just in case, which ended up being a good idea in the end.  It was an unholy mess that I forgot to take a picture of.  I only ended up trashing 5 bottles out of 30ish.  However, the colors remaining all have black, unreadable labels... Carmen had asked for red cupcakes for the party, but I didn't have flavorless red colorant and they tasted like chemical waste!  Little Man wanted nothing to do with his smash cake.  Typical Mantz man, doesn't care for sweets.  But, dang, if he isn't the cutest!  So chill about everything!  I should take notes.

Since my in-laws were in town for the party, we went to visit Rich's ashes.  It was the first time that I had been there since the funeral.  As it turns out, I live 2 miles from his final resting place in Jefferson Barracks.  I've been telling myself that my 'crazy' was starting to stabilize.  After that visit, I think I might have misled myself.  The grief of seeing his name etched in stone was breath taking.  I had the craziest need to crawl in there with him and, I HATE small spaces.  I flashed from wanting to crawl in there to wanting to run away screaming and crying to pretending none of this is actually happening.  I'm realizing the crazy anger from earlier was much easier to deal with than the absolute sadness of our loss.

My MIL, Ann & I thought it was really ironic that a cemetery full of alleged, gun toting, hunter/veterans is a safe haven for the local deer.  This is the view from his vault.

So here I am, trying to pull up my big girl panties and move forward.  We've got a big mess at the IL DMV, transferring cars into the appropriate kid's name.  I'm taking some time off next week to deal with my own MO DMV stuff.  I still have the kitchen and dining rooms to paint.  Organize the garage.  Do something with the ocean of dead leaves in my back yard.  Oh, I almost forgot to mention the mouse I've been living with.  It eats the peanut butter off the traps that I set out.  Then I bought a bunch of bait to scatter around the house & I haven't seen any evidence of my freeloader for a few days.  Fingers crossed that I've committed murder... but no more shopping.  No. More. Shopping.