Rain, rain, go away...

Ok, I woke to a lot of pain, and the sound of rain dripping on my steps, not a good way to start the day, especially as, the clock said it was only 4:30 am. Since I can almost never go back to sleep, I lie there waiting till a little daylight begins to show, then get up and stagger to the coffee maker, get the coffee to dripping and crawl back in bed till it is done. Who can face a day of pain, rain, and leaks without at least a pot of coffee down the hatch before noon...
I got a couple of 'new' (to me) books last week, haven't gotten to really look at them, so may crawl back in bed and really give them a going over. One is The Machine Embroiderer's Workbook by Val Holmes book, my first one of hers! As I said, I've only browsed through it so far, but it is set up as a series of lessons, and I am going to try to work my way through them, instead of jumping around all over the place like I usually do. We will see...
The other is The Embroiderer's Countryside by Helen M. Stevens. It is a book on hand embroidery, but very regimented, with *rules*, and I am not a *rules* type person. She does beautiful work, but seems very stilted to me, so will probably enjoy this one for awhile, get what I can from it, then sell it. With the damage to my neck and spine I cannot do much hand work as it is, so I will stick to what I can do on the sewing machine.
It is still raining, and of course, in and out of my house. One of these days I will manage to get the money together to get a roof on here, but it worries me how much damage is happening in the meantime. After the roof is on, I am going to have a lot of ceiling work to do, as I have damage in the living room, entry, stairway, and in here (sewing/computer room).
Think I'll lie down now, see if I can possibly sleep for a little while, only had about three hours sleep last night. :-( Then I need to get up and get some things ready to post on ebay...

WOW! It has been over a year since I've posted here... It has been a bad year, everything falling apart in the house, and me being ill, plus my spine is getting lots worse, and not much can be done about it.
My mother took ill in October, spent part of November in hospital, then most of December and January, before passing away on February 1 of this year. I'm lucky to be sane, let alone functioning at all, but things are slowly getting better, and the pain of losing my mother is easing up a little, but still a long ways to go.
I've been doing a lot of work on my website, and do feel good about that. Just wish I had enough energy to keep at it, but must quit and lie down for an hour or so, several times a day, so as to not completely collapse like I did in May.
On a brighter note, I added "buy it now" buttons to my manual pages, and it has been helping me get more orders, so am grateful for that, every penny helps. I've just added auction software to my website (thanks Stephen!) and now have to learn how to set it up and get it functioning.
Also going to add a shopping cart and set up a store. I am sick and tired of ebay and all their fees. So, will work on learning these two software programs and take control of it all! I'm not going to let myself be cowed by all the new things to learn, will try to take my time and get it right.
Well, off to tackle the dragon!

Stuck in neutral...

The pain is finally leaving, so have been getting a few things done. Still not up to par yet, and seriously wonder if I will ever be. I cannot stand on my feet for more than fifteen minutes at a time, and just going to the grocey store wears me out for days afterward.
I"ve been working on my website, and have even managed to get some things listed on ebay, but I am still light years behind. I'm still having a lot of pain if I sit at the computer very long, so have to do one thing at a time, and that way I just can't seem to keep myself going in the right direction.
It is snowing! It started about 10 pm, and isn't sticking to the ground yet, but the cars are covered. They are saying 2-4 inches in the lower elevations, and up to 6-8 inches in the higher elevations, and I guess you would say we are right in the middle of that prediction! It is too late to be up, but I am waiting on Johnny to come home, I'm starting to get worried, he never stays this late, and usually if he is going to be later than he thought, he will call and tell me. So, here I sit worrying, and writing, and worrying, and ....
I went down and played on 'Cocoa' this evening. I was practicing my freemotion embroidery, but couldn't get anything to go right. I was having all kind of tension problems, and messed with the bobbin case before I realized it was the wrong one, so now will have to get it adjusted for regular stitching. I should just keep her for a freemotion machine, but I hate changing heads in and out of the cabinet, and it is too hard for me to do anyway, so always have to ask Johnny to do it, and he isn't always here when it needs done, so just go my merry old way, messing things up!
I'm using my serger thread for my practice pieces, I can't afford to waste good thread, but I really want to dig into some of it, I just love thread, as much as I love fabric, maybe more! Thread is so versatile, and you can make it become anything.
I think I'll stay in bed all day tomorrow, I am so tired. I say that every night, but never do, although I really need a whole day in bed, but having to spend so much time lying down last week when my hips and thighs were hurting so bad was enough to drive me nuts...
I'm going to bed, he'll get here when he gets here. Ok, I give up, and he shows up!

Today was a waste!

Today was a waste! I didn't accomplish much of anything. I've basically been in a fibrofog all day, and couldn't concentrate on anything long enough to do it.
It was supposed to get up to 40 degrees today, and quit snowing, but instead the temps dropped again, and we got at least another inch of snow, and maybe more. It is beautiful, and since I don't have to go out in it, I'm not complaining. LOL
Johnny went sled riding again, so I am having a nice quiet evening. I just wish I was sewing, but seem to be at a standstill right now, and cannot get going on a project. I have so many WIP's to finish, and that is where I need to start.
I just haven't settled in here like I wanted, I've had to keep moving things from one room to another because of the work being done on the house, and now with two rooms being shut off, I am really crowded, and that isn't conducive to sewing. At least, not for me.
I'm going to get up in the morning and move the Domestic to the other side of the room, and see if that will get me started, I am so funny, I have to be in just the right spot to sew! LOL
I often wonder if there's other people like that, would be interesting to discuss it with them, if there is. Sometimes I think God broke the mold when he made me, I always seem to be so different...
Guess I better go take pics of those sewing machine drawers I listed on the flea mkt., and get it over with.
I'm going to quit procrastinating...
I am!
...someday.

Fixed the problems with my website last night

Spent yesterday evening ironing out problems with my website and uploading everything again. I felt really good about doing it, as I had been putting it off for too long. Now that the techs fixed the problems with my FrontPage extensions, it will be much easier to maintain.
I wanted to do some sewing today, but had a stack of boxes left over from my move (has it really been 22 months!) and decided to get started sorting them out. I finished some of them, and Johnny put them in the attic for me, now have to go through the rest of them tomorrow.
I had a scary moment today when I found a whole box of UFO's! Decided I couldn't cope with them right now, and they ended up in the attic (for a future generation, maybe?).
I will be so glad when the weather warms up, and I can move back into my sewing/computer room. The living room has turned into a zoo, and I have done most of my sewing in the kitchen, where machines have been migrating at an alarming rate!
I've not decided whether to paint or paper the sewing room before moving back into it. Started out wanting paper, but am now leaning toward paint, and thinking about going with white walls for as much lightness and brightness as I can get. I find dark colors to be really depressing, so have to stay away from them.

Tales of a Treadler - in the Beginning

Well, It feels funny to start a blog. I've always thought of blogs as being for the 'wild' crowd, but I guess not! Now that I'm here, I don't know what to say, so I guess I will just see how this turns out.
I should be busy listing items on ebay, but am having 'fibro fog' today, and really want to be sewing, but guess that will wait for another day. I have a 'new' sewing machine, it is called a Home Maker (imagine me having a machine with that name on it! LOL)and has 9 decorative stitches, a blind stitch, and has a built in buttonholer that does a nice buttonhole. Not sure how old it is, I'm guessing 1970's, anyway it is brown and beige, will have to take pics and show them. Of course, I took the motor off, and stuck it in a treadle cabinet, but love having that built in light, and have it, and my Davis VF facing each other in the middle of my kitchen! Shoved the table off to the corner, and it is piled down with thread and fabric. The only time I ever use it is when a friend stops by and we sit in the kitchen and drink coffee, and I usually eat at my computer.
When I got it, almost nothing worked on it, but I've got it going pretty well now. Still having a bit of a tension problem, but I think that is exacerbated by the fact that I've been using all kinds of thread in it, as I've been playing around doing freemotion embroidery on it. It does a pretty good job of it, and I may keep it just for that purpose, although I do like the fact that I can use the blind stitch to buttonhole stitch my appliques down. I will have to compare the stitch with the one on my Dressmaker and see which I like best, the only problem with that is the Dressmaker uses cams to make the decorative stitches, and it doesn't treadle as nicely as the Home Maker does!
We will see, nothing is cast in stone, so can change my mind anytime I feel like it!