Removing a Layer of Dust

I am deep into housecleaning mode right now, so exciting blog content is hard to find. I took apart the laundry room yesterday, moved everything, vacuumed, mopped, sorted, and put stuff back. Then I did a couple of bathrooms. Today, I start the kitchen. (That should be fun.) I am in a constant battle against dust—dust from the road, ash from the fires, dirt that Lila brings in—that settles on every horizontal surface. It doesn’t matter how often I wipe things down with a damp cloth, in a couple of weeks, it’s all back. My vacuum cleaners are a Dyson and a shop vac with a HEPA filter. This is just a huge rock that I’ve been pushing up the same hill for 24 years.

I think we have one or two more days of nice weather, and then fall arrives for good. The weather for the wedding will be cool (50s), but no precipitation is in the forecast.

Our UPS guy delivered five boxes yesterday and asked me if I had ordered all that stuff. Two boxes were parts for my car, two were wedding presents for DD#1, and one was the cushion for my garden bench. And I know there is more on the way. The FedEx guy has also been making regular stops here.

This came in the mail:

This is the Laura Heine Teeny Tiny collection that I ordered for the class in November. I have the full-size pattern for the sewing machine, but the instructor (the store owner) recommends doing one of these smaller versions in the class. I think I am going to do the pincushion. I ordered this from Regal Fabric and Gifts in Spokane, where we’re taking the class, and the owner included a nice handwritten note on the invoice.

I am glad Tera and I are taking the class, though, because this isn’t so much a “pattern” as it is several stream-of-consciousness blocks of text—in a fancy, unreadable font—telling the quilter what to do. Oh, that makes my head hurt.

I ordered a book from Amazon the other day, and am expecting it in the next UPS delivery:

I looked at this book at a Joanns in Spokane last month and didn’t buy it. I assumed our Joanns would have it and I could buy it here. Nope. This is one of those times when not being an impulse buyer came back to bite me in the ass. I want this book enough to have ordered it from Amazon, which also guarantees that it will show up in our Joanns next week.

I am trying to decide if I should cram tomato sauce production into the last two weeks of October or wait until after I get back from Spokane in November. I think I may try to do it right after the wedding and get it done and out of the way. I am taking the next two Sundays off from pianist duties at church because I need the breathing room.