Plans and Goals for 2007 - revisited

Before we start the next stage of our big adventure (moving into our own house - yeah!) I thought I go and check on how I have been doing with my goals for this year.

Personal Goals for 2007:

• Learn to drive.
• Nope, did not happen
  

• Find a church and attend regularly.
• Done. Became official members and really enjoy our new church family.
  

• Let go of what hurt me in the past and live the new life I came here for.
• Made really good progress on that one.
  

• Grow spiritually, continue on my journey to become a Christian.
• Getting there, meeting people who are much further along the way was a big help.
  

• Write a letter to my parents at the end of every month, complete with photos (whether they are interested in what we do or not).
• Did that and I am still doing it.
  

• Keep a journal (on paper).
• Did that until I hurt my right thumb and I am still having problems with hand writing.
  

• Find a balance between computer time and "real" time. ;)
• Not perfect yet, but getting better.
  

• Refresh my Spanish skills.
• No, that fell by the wayside.
  

• Read the Bible in one year.
• Not quite.
  

• Read at least one book per month.
• Did not do that. Too much else going on.
  

• Lose more weight.
• Not as much as I was hoping for, but it is still coming off. We put more weight (pardon the pun) on eating healthy than actively losing weight.
  

• Exercise regularly.
• Did good on that one before Summer got too hot, will pick it up again soon.
  

Crafty Goals for 2007:

• Finish my Women of the Bible Quilt (top at least), which means also staying with the study. I got behind a little but I am catching up now.
• Got behind on that one, will move it to next year.
  

• Work on my other sampler quilts: Civil War Diary Quilt, Sylvia's Bridal Sampler, Dear Jane
• I gave up on Sylvia's Bridal Sampler (due do something the author of the books said on her mailing list), made some progress on the Dear Jane quilt, none on the CWDQ
  

• Finish one UFO (unfinished object - as opposed to WIP - work in progress, stuff I actually work on, whereas UFOs are usually laying around in all states of incompletion) per month.
• Finished only two before other things came along.
  

• Make all my cards.
• I did that.
  

• Give hand-made gifts only (as much as possible)
• Did that one too.
  

• Finish all BOMs I started in 2006 (I am currently debating if I allow myself to start the new Debbie Mumm BOM).
• Did not start the new Debbie Mumm BOM but did not finish the other ones either.

Not all bad I'd say, considering that I did a lot more knitting and crocheting than sewing and I am quite pleased with the progress I made in my personal goals.

Yard Sale

Our church held a big yard sale on Saturday and it was a wonderful and perfectly timed chance for us to get rid of some stuff before we move. They day started out humid, dark and foggy but later it became sunny and breezy. We did really well at the sale. Our main goal was getting rid of things, not making money, that was just a nice added extra. :) I decided to offer the rest of the Nascar stuff, that was not stolen in the break-in for sale and donate the money to the Victory Junction Gang Camp. I sold almost everything and made $67,-. :)
We sold almost all of the other stuff as well and even gave away two boxes of stuff for free. The only things that did not sell was my coffee mugs. I only sold one with a picture of two cats on it (the people who bought it, have cats that look just like the ones on mug) and a set of 4 mugs from the 70s with big red numbers on them.
It was fun to watch the different types of buyers, the yard sale pros who come early and bring a bag of change, the people who hope to find a gold watch for a dollar and those who come late and hope for price reductions. I quite enjoyed haggling and making deals with some people.
The fee for the table and the money from the bake sale and breakfast and lunch goes to our youth group to help with expenses for a trip to a conference in Florida.
All in all it was a very enjoyable day, even though I ended up with a sunburn on my nose, top of my head and arms. :) (I also knitted two dishcloths during the sale).
And I was a really good girl, I only spent $2,-! I bought a cute quilt block pin and a thermos jug for serving coffee to our helpers for the move on Saturday.

Knitting

To keep my sanity while packing my household once again into big boxes and getting ready for moving day (Sept. 22 - yikes!) I started knitting dishcloths and got quite hooked on them. Here is the harvest of the past few weeks (they are now available in my Etsy-Shop).

Our House

Sounds good - our house. :) I never had a house before, I grew up in an apartment and have always lived in apartments. And now I have a house. :)
We spent the long labor day weekend working in the house. My main goal was to get the bathroom all clean and nice and I think I succeeded. It was grimy to say the least, and I ended up pouring bleach into the tub to get it clean. I also bought a nice shower curtain and a new toilet seat. Changing the toilet seat is one of the first things I do when I move somewhere - except when it is new, like it was in our apartment in Vienna. The tiles in the bathroom are white and dark blue so I decided to go with these colors in everything else as well. Unfortunately the mirror on the cute old medicine cabinet is almost blind and will have to be replaced. Here are some before and after pictures of the bathroom:

The house is ca. 80 years old, it appeared on the official tax records for the first time in 1938 but the owners told us that it was built in the 20s, they were told by a very old man in the neighborhood that it was the first house built on this street (when they first bought it - more than 30 years ago). They really loved the little house and fixed it up quite well before they sold it. It is built very sturdy, not even the floors are creaking (quite opposite to where we live now) and I love the little details. Here are some photos:

Light Switch plate:

Ceiling lights the owners kindly left behind:

Ceiling fan in the bathroom:

The kitchen cabinets:

This is an old quilt that was nailed to a beam over the basement door, it is very dirty and torn, but it looks really good on the fence:


We also met our neighbor from across the way and I am glad that she told me the story behind this little fellow before I put in a veggie garden: ;)

He/she is one of several wild bunnies that live in the area and make themselves at home in various yards.

We also ordered a cooking range and a fridge, they were in stock and will be delivered next Saturday. I am still amazed at how quick and easy some things work around here.
Things are definitely moving along.
We are planning to work in the evenings in the next two weeks and start taking some of our boxes over so that on moving day we don't have quite that much stuff to move. It will be hard enough to get the furniture moved.
Next Saturday our church is holding a yard sale and boy, are we ready for that. :)

Bye, bye bottled water

Meet our new drinking water system, which we have been using for about a month now:

The dispenser fits nicely on the refrigerator shelf and the two refillable bottles go on the road with us. This is going to save us around $600,- per year and saves the environment from about 2500 plastic bottles per year. I am not sure yet if there is a way to recycle the filters, but 4 filters a year compared to 2500 bottles does not seem quite that bad.