Vintage. Good condition. Gently used. Not for sale.

Today's post was going to be a long description of how things went terribly wrong with the carpet install; how all the carpet has to be pulled up and re-laid because of mistakes in how the pad was laid underneath. Or, how inconvenient it is to still be living out of boxes in the garage because there's no need in pulling furniture in yet. I could even talk about how cold it was in the garage, trying to find a pair of underwear this morning. I could complain that they didn't leave until 9:30 Tuesday night and that we spent all day yesterday waiting for representatives from the company and the installer to show up and confirm that yes, there is a 2 inch wide "void" in the padding that runs the entire width of the living room and that the carpet was never stretched in a closet and there are overlapping chunks of pad in front of the back door to fill in the space and you can see every seam he made. I could even list the excuses we've been given...but that would take all my space for the day.

But, I'd rather focus on some really good stuff that happened this week. Like the title of this post. That's what Rob wrote in a card to me. It made me laugh out loud over breakfast and brought a tear to my eye when I thought about it again this morning. That man loves me and he knows what I think is good. And, that was good. And, a perfect way to tell me that I'm all his.

I wonder how long you'll remember what you did on Valentine's Day 2012? Somehow, I don't think my family will ever forget the year we ate pizza on V Day, huddled in the sewing room, using washcloths for napkins because the carpet installers were nowhere near finished when we got hungry.

The carpet looks great and we are so happy with our choice. It feels good, it looks good. We'd be perfectly happy if we could have moved back into the house yesterday like we had planned. I took this picture as a funny, but it doesn't look funny here. It looks like the carpet and the walls go perfectly together. Just like we thought when we picked it out. But, the afternoon they were installing, Rob came into the sewing room, where I was waiting with the dog, and said I should come out and look at how purple the carpet made the walls look. And, he was right. I looked around, turned and went back to the sewing room and said "we're going to have to paint the living room." He was skeptical. 45 minutes later, he came in the sewing room and said "we're going to have to paint the living room". Our color was a grayish brown. But, against the grayish green carpet, and with any light, it is as purple as it can be. Only in the dark does it still all look gray/brown like we planned. But, we will be picking something that goes with the trim and accent colors because we just repainted all the trim and doors and accent wall.



I spent all afternoon on Tuesday and much of yesterday in the sewing room. Just after they started the carpet, Sydney got home and I was not up to having to chase some young hispanic guy out of my house for gawking at my 14 year old hispanic looking daughter. So, she was locked up with me and made to wear a birka...okay, not a birka, but made to wear long shorts and a shirt that was not a tank top.

We chatted and laughed and she complained about how dramatically inconvenient it was to be locked up with me for hours on end in a hot room. But, I think we still managed to enjoy our Valentine's day afternoon and evening.

Another favorite thing was spending the day with Rob yesterday. After two weeks of working our butts off, we finally rested yesterday, not out of choice, but because there was nothing else to do. That was a good thing. We needed it and we would not have given it to ourselves, but I'm glad we did have the free time and I enjoyed how we spent it.

I made this second Jubilee quilt block. Hours and hours of sewing pleasure. 34 more to go. Daunting!! Good thing I'll only have one jubilee birthday. (Patricia, that blue background that makes the circle is one of your hand dyes. Thank you!! They're going to be perfect in this quilt. I know I planned a bunch of things for them, but this special quilt is where they're going to go.)



And, this week, I've also remade the curtains in the dining room, the living room and the bedroom. I never noticed how badly they were made 10 years ago until I pulled them off the walls for the carpet. They're great fabrics and colors, just needed some "straightening and straight seaming"...things I can do better now. I washed them all and hung them on the line to dry and then took them apart and put them back again. I still have to hem them all because the carpet is a deeper pile now and I have a bit to go on the bedroom curtains, but I'm going to like them all much better. And, it gave me something that I thought was important to do, during what was a stressful time.

My favorite part of the whole experience? Our patience with one another. We have not argued. We have not squabbled and we have not shot hurtful barbs at one another, and no matter how perfect your family is, you have to know how easy it is to do those things during a stressful time. And, we have not. We've worked together and we've arrived at answers and we've respected one another's right to just not think about it right now. And, all those are good things that could have made an unpleasant experience into a downright horrible one. We are not the victims of what happened, but instead, we are active participants in getting it done correctly. Our part is to patiently wait for the corrective wheels turn. We are not blaming the carpet installer that was working in the dark or the helper that spent most of the 6 hours on the phone or the scheduler that scheduled our guy with three big jobs in one day or the manufacturer in case there is actually a flaw in the pad, like the installer said. We're just working with all of them to get it right. And, we're patiently waiting to get our house back.

So, because we are cleaning things out, I have come across a bunch of books to get rid of. These are good books for beginners. My thoughts are that as quilters, we should read as much as we can and absorb as much as we can from as many people as we can. Often, I cite something on this blog, but can't remember where I read it. It could be in any of the myriad books I've read on the subject. But, having read some of those books more than once and absorbed everything I think I can from them, it's time to pass them on. So, today, I'm offering these three books and will try to offer a few more each day until they've found new homes where other quilters can enjoy them.

It's a giveaway for my followers, so please keep it on the down low and don't send hundreds of one timers over. That's a great way to get new followers, but I want to share with my current followers and I know that some of them are beginners or haven't had the chance to read as many books as I have (thank goodness for Half Price Books). Anyway, if you're interested, leave a comment. If more than one person is interested, I'll random number generate for a winner. You have to comment by, let's say, 10am tomorrow. If you can help with postage, you'll have my return address when you get the books and that will make it easier to give away more books (and then maybe some stash????)

Everybody, have a great Thursday. I will show more pics as things develop. In the meantime, send us good wishes as we work through the complaints department.

When I was a kid, a member of our church had a sign in their hardware store that said something along these lines...The head of our complaints department is Helen Waite. If you have a complaint, go to Helen Waite.

Lane