One Monthly Goal :: July 2019

Summer is officially upon us and we are officially moved into the de Jong Lake House. There is chaos everywhere because it is impossible to unpack when the kitchen, mudroom, pantry, and laundry room are all being renovated! We are making do with a crockpot, secondhand microwave, and far too much eating out, but we are a few weeks away from being able to enjoy our upgrades. 

Speaking of upgrades, I no longer have a craft room, I have a sewing studio! The previous owners used the 29' x 28' space as a play room, but I claimed it as my play room, which I am naming Vesper View Studio. 

This is how it looked on closing day.

The big change we made was to replace the carpet with cork.

Then we changed the yellow stripes to Vesper Violet. 

Finally, we changed the yellow can lights to bright daylight tiles.

Then, I moved all my stuff in. My room suddenly doesn't seem so big!

I've been focused on the renovations upstairs, as well as dealing with brain injury crashes, so I haven't been able to spend a lot of time getting things sorted downstairs. I'm not ambitious enough to make an organized sewing studio my One Monthly Goal!

Instead, my goal is to catch up on my TBI Temperature Quilt. This is the quilt I'm making this year to document my 15th year of living with a brain injury.

I haven't sewn any blocks for nearly a month! I do have a pretty good idea of when my crashes are because of my Fit Bit, and I can also use my summaries to tell when I napped. We are headed to the Netherlands to see my in-laws at the end of the month, so I have a bit of a fire under my backside to catch up before then!

I'm hoping, too, that by working on a little project, it will give me the push I need to find my rulers and figure out a good arrangement for everything. Maybe my August OMG will be to have my sewing studio ready for (virtual) tours and (real life) visitors!

To see more pictures of my progress, check out #VesperViewStudio on Instagram. If you want to see our upstairs renovations, look for #deJongLakeHouse. To see what I'm currently working on, follow me at deJongDreamHouse.

Linked to:

Elm Street Quilts

Previous OMGs

One Monthly Goal :: June 2019 Update

My OMG for June wass to pack up the craft room in the de Jong Dream House If you haven't seen it in it's glory, you can take a tour here.

Depending on how you look at it, my June One Monthly Goal was either really easy or really hard. It was easy in the sense that all I had to do was sit back and watch the movers pack up the craft room in my beloved de Jong Dream House. But realistically, it was really hard because change is hard. Whether or not you choose it or are chosen for it, change is a disruption to normal. Living with a brain injury, for me, means that routine and organization are necessary for me to function reasonably well. Moving is chaos, and I don't function well in chaos.

I mentioned in my original post that once we knew we were moving, my goal was to finish a specific few more quilts before moving day. I could not have cut it any closer!

In May, I was able to finish three quilts.

Big Lake Blooms was sent to my hometown in Minnesota for a fundraiser.

Theo's Milestone Quilt made it home to its new owner in time to commemorate his first month of life. 

Omigolly Miss Jennifer went to our school secretary.

June is when things got hairy! I had one quilt left to finish, the school year was ending, and the movers were set to arrive a week earlier than we originally planned.

The night before the movers came, I had the top of Coded Thank You pinned and ready to quilt, and the binding prepared. 

I should have saved myself some time and made a single print binding, but I was deep into my code theme and lots of little pieces to say "thank you" in Morse Code. 

I woke up ridiculously early on moving day to start quilting. 

By the time the moving truck arrived at 10, the quilting was mostly done. Much to Niels' chagrin, I would pack for 20 minutes, then quilt for 5 minutes. I really wanted to finish the quilt before moving because I knew it would take a few days (weeks? months?) before I would be settled enough to quilt in the new house.

We actually moved in two days. On the first day, we cleared out the second floor (bedroom and craft room) and lower level (so many books, and memory totes, and media!). The crew came back a week later to get everything that was left on the main level. So on this day, I was packing up the bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs, as well as my craft room during my intervals. 

Fortunately, I keep most of my supplies in totes so I saved the crew time in having to wrap things up. 

By the time the truck was filled and ready to make the first trip up to the Lake House, I had finished quilting. 

By this point, the tough-looking movers were cheering me on. But they had a job to do. I was able to get my binding attached while they took the bowling alley top of my craft table. 

While the guys wrestled with that beast, I used the unbored door that used to be the top of my craft table to clip and iron the binding.

When we returned for the second load, I ran upstairs to finish the binding while the crew removed items from my room.

It really came down to the wire.

The room was nearly empty by the time I finished.

My cheering section, aka the movers, volunteered to help take a "finished" picture.

And just like that, the craft room at the de Jong Dream House has become a bedroom in someone else's house.

We've been completely moved into the de Jong Lake House for ten days and it's still chaos. As expected, I have not done any sewing. I have been running on adrenaline for so long that my brain just gave up. So I've been doing a lot of sleeping and only a little bit of unpacking. Our new kitchen cabinets are installed, but we don't yet have appliances or counter tops. Our new family foyer has been painted and has flooring installed, but no cabinetry. So that means we have mudroom, laundry, pantry, and kitchen items in our bedroom, and our "kitchen" is a couple of portable tables with disposable dishes, a crock pot, and toaster. It's overwhelming but the end is in sight. 

Also overwhelming is the current state of the new craft room, Vesper View Studio.

Maybe making sense of that mess will be my July OMG.

To see more pictures of my progress, check out #VesperViewStudio on Instagram. To see what I'm currently working on, follow me at deJongDreamHouse.

Previous OMGs

Linked to:

Elm Street Quilts

Tuesday:

Colour & Inspiration Party @ The Clever Chameleon

To Do Tuesday @ Stitch All the Things

Wednesday:

Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts

Midweek Makers @ Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss @ The Inquiring Quilter

WIP Wednesday @ Esther's Blog

Friday:

Beauties Pageant @ From Bolt to Beauty

Finished Friday @ Quilty Girl

Finished or Not Friday @ Busy Hands Quilts

Off the Wall Friday @ Nina Marie

Whoop Whoop Friday @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Saturday:

Scrap Happy Saturday @ So Scrappy

UFO Busting @ The Madd Quilter

Sunday:

BOMs Away @ What a Hoot

Oh Scrap @ Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Monday:

Design Wall Monday @ Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Main Crush Monday @ Cooking Up Quilts

Monday Making @ Love Laugh Quilt

Moving It Forward @ Em's Scrap Bag

What I Made Monday @ Pretty Piney

One Monthly Goal :: June 2019

Well friends, the end is near! We are just a few days from moving out of our beloved de Jong Dream House and into the de Jong Lake House. D has graduated from his beloved elementary school and Mom is already moved into the new house.

I am spending my last days in the Dream House packing and crying. I have loved it here. My OMG for June is to pack up my craft room. If you haven't seen it in it's glory, you can take a tour here.

This is what it's looks like this morning.

When we sold the house, I made a list of quilts I wanted to finish in this special room. When I'm done, the tally will be 126 quilts made here in just shy of six years. 

As much as I have enjoyed this space, I think I will LOVE my new space, Vesper View Studio. 

Since taking possession, we have replaced the carpet with cork, and painted the sunny yellow stripes on the wall Sherwin Williams Vesper Violet. We are replacing the can lights with 5000K daylight panels this week--I hope--and then I'm ready to move in! That may be next month's goal!

Back to packing!

To see more pictures of my progress, check out #VesperViewStudio on Instagram. To see what I'm currently working on, follow me at deJongDreamHouse.

Linked to:

Elm Street Quilts

Previous OMGs