Sunday, December 14, 2014

Craft stuff finds a new home

Talk about an emotional roller coaster.  Since my last post several exciting, but not necessary good things have happened.  First, the craft area is looking MUCH nicer.  My yarn and patterns are easier to access and the bedroom looks neat, tidy, and more comfortable. 
During my cleaning I decided that I didn't have the time or space to learn to sew, so there was no need for me to own TWO sewing machines.  One I gave one to a nice lady in my knitting group.  I told her that I'd take $25 or she could sew the ends into 25 WIP's.  She chose the non-monetary exchange and I'm loving it.  Wow, talk about killing two birds with one stone!  She has been dutifully working on the WIPs ever since, and each week I have several finished items that I can use as Christmas gifts. 
The other sewing macheine was given to a friend of mine from work.  She is a very generous and sweet lady who does all kinds of sewing and quilting projects.  She's also the kind of lady at work where everyone sees her as some sort of motherly figure.  You do what she says, because breaking her heart would hurt way to much.  Over this last summer she fell in the freezer at work (I work at a very large grocery store) and hurt her shoulder, arm, and hand.  So she's been limited on what she can do at work.  Despite her injuries, almost every day, she can be found sitting in the break room during lunch, hand sewing or cutting out bits of fabric for her Christmas gifts this year.  She is determined to get them done regardless of how much it hurts to use her injured hand, arm, and shoulder.  One day we started talking about sewing and she told me that when the electricity goes out during a storm, she uses her incredibly old, non electric sewing machine.  But that her current electric was having issues so she's been using the old non electric one more often.  So I offered her my other sewing machine for free.  It will save me space and I know that she will love and care for that machine.  Also, I know that it will be put to good use, where at my house, it was under the craft table collecting dust. 
Second amazing thing that happened over the past few months is that my husband found an awesome house for us!  Three bedroom, two bath, unfinished basement, wood floors, garage. . .  All the things we were looking for.  Most exciting thing for me is being able to put my craft stuff in it's very on room.  I'm also pretty excited about having a basement for storage.  We currently have a shed for storage, and nasty little things like bugs, bees, and muddobbers like to live in the shed.  So we don't use it for anything other then gardening supplies.  It's a rental house, so the bad news is that it's available for move in on Jan 2.  That will give us less then a month to pay the deposit, first months rent, and the pet deposit to ensure that the house was ours, AND less then a month to pack up our current home.  So, my amazing family helped out with the needed funds and I started bringing home large boxes from work and diligently packing up all the non-necessities.  Books, nick-knacks, pictures and artwork were taken down. . .  Lego displays were taken apart and packed. . .  Then the rental agent emailed us, telling us that they were denying us. 
Since then I have had friends and coworkers come to me with horror stories about this rental agent.  We are so thankful that we didn't get the house based off of the stories that I've heard.  My opinion of them didn't improve when I realized that they had actually declined us the same day we submitted our paperwork, but didn't bother telling us until all three checks I wrote them had cleared the bank.  Then they waited over a week before reimbursing us.  Really?  If we had been looking at multiple locations, holding on to that money would have kept us from securing another place.  And if they knew they were going to deny us, why bother even cashing the checks in the first place?  Why didn't they just return them to me?  
So I've been spending what little free time I have unpacking the boxes that had taken over the house and trying to finish Christmas knitting.  Besides not having to deal with a bad rental agency, the other bit of silver lining is that when I was in "we're moving" mode, I threw out so much stuff.  Our new goal is to look for a place that will be ready for us this summer.  Lets hope the "we're moving", lets throw stuff away feelings don't go away anytime soon.