July 2011 – nicole.groudasfamily.com

Cupola Window Panels

What a LONG weekend! Somehow we managed to get everything done from the weekend checklist – that’s almost unheard of since my lists are so long 🙂

Saturday we started the day with a dump run – so the unseemly pile of wood at the front of our house was reduced more than 1/2 at least 🙂 When we got back we started on the Cupola Window Panels again. Our goal was to get everything under the windows (from the caps down) done – and we managed it! We even put on the final window cap piece (which we had to make).

Today we got started on the panels above the window caps, the first piece has an angle cut (since it runs along the window cap) so we started with that one. At lunch we went to home depot to get a few things (ran out of glue for one) and when we came home Ryan’s back was bothering him.

At this point I didn’t think I’d be able to finish the panels by myself (even though there was very little left) so when I saw my neighbor selling some kitchen shelves at his tag sale I bought them (deal!) and moved everything out of my cabinets that we plan to tear down. The kitchen re-org is always a fun one!

When that was done it was still early so i decided to try finishing the panels on my own – and I did it! They are completely done – and most of the holes (below the window caps) have been filled.

Not that they are really completed (obviously) but the hard part is done! What’s left?

Finishing filling nail holes
Sand down the panels
Caulk the panels (especially inside the panels)
Prime/Paint the panels
Install the decorative molding inside the panels and caulk/paint it

So plenty left to do but all in all a great weekend. Now the dog is whining for his long walk so off I go!

Herb quilt

Yesterday I worked from home because I had a cold, in the evening ryan had ZBA so I pulled out my herb quilt which just needed borders and got that finished up.

Borders are my least favorite part of quilting so it’s nice to have it done enough to plan out the quilting part now. Since this piece has stitching I’m not going to do much more than in the ditch quilting, although the border has lots of room for some free-style. This gives me the perfect excuse to buy the walking foot for my machine though 🙂

Feeling much better today so I’m taking advantage of the extra hours at home (no commute today either) to catch up one work.

Working Hard

It’s hard working at the office all day 🙂

Busy weekend

We got a lot done this weekend! Saturday was a short day because we had a dinner obligation up in Concord but we did manage to go car shopping and I got a new car! I got a 2011 Acura RDX which is a crossover SUV. It’s nice and small so it’s easy to drive and it handles just like the Audi. It’s got some great features (still have my heated seats and sunroof!) but now I also have USB input (for ipods), bluetooth connectivity for my phone, backup camera and more storage space.

I do plan to get a remote starter installed before winter, but for now we’re going without that feature (I think it will be cheaper to get it installed elsewhere than through the dealer).

Today we worked on window panels, the dogs got the run of the porch again and unlike Fitz who mostly hides upstairs when we’re working on the house, Buddy likes to follow us around, not at all bothered by the saws running. Just wags his tail every time we talk to him 🙂

The window panels are really coming along. We started with the window caps on the cupola. We still have the very top piece of those that we need to make, but we got the first 2 cap pieces made and installed all the way around! Then the sill we installed almost all the way around (one small piece left). Finally we worked on the lower boxes and finished those all the way around. Since it’s hard to explain, here are the pics.

DSCN1323 — The second and third windows now have full panels except for the very top box.

DSCN1322 — 2 pieces of the cap go all the way around the cupola now.

DSCN1321 — Bottom boxes are done all the way around and the sill is almost done.

DSCN1319 — The first window is completely done!

And here are the boys, it’s been a long day (hah!) and they are cuddled up in the A/C. Buddy doesn’t even try to cuddle with me on days like this when we’re home all day. If we’re gone all day he likes to come up on the couch and cuddle. He’s been very good being left alone though, I’ve got my camera on them and they mostly sleep with interruptions to bark at strange noises (buddy) 🙂 I’m so happy they get along so well, I love having 2 dogs!

Agility take 2

Week 2 of agility class went a little better! Fitz jumped through the tire and ran through the tunnel no problem at all. Minus one small marking incident, he did great and was taking treats too! He was still very distracted by other dogs whenever he wasn’t doing a trick but concentrated on his task at hand when we had something to do.

New this week was the plank, just something to get them used to walking on a plank and he did great, getting up on it, sitting, laying down, turning around, walking! (It took a second try to get the turn around right but he kept it up!). Also new was jumping up on these platforms which was no problem once he figured out what he was supposed to do. Again, sitting and laying down on it and jumping up/down to/from them.

I can’t wait for next week! It went fast this week but it was HOT so that was a good thing 🙂 For now we’re just working on our homework, still with the clicker.

Celtic Banner

Finally a picture of what Sarah and I worked on Saturday. We are both stitching Celtic Banner, using a green color scheme but she’s using pinks for contrast and I’m using just purples, not being a pink fan myself.

Celtic Banner Recap

We started stitching Celtic Banner in August of 2006 on a long weekend in Maine. I continued to work on it about once a week through 2006, finishing up the alphabet in December.

In August 2007 we went back to Maine for a long craft weekend where we continued working on Celtic Banner, I finished up the next 2 motifs after the alphabet there…

In 2008 I did not go up to maine due to the wedding (and I didn’t really stitch due to wedding preparations) so Celtic Banner sat on the side lines waiting for my life to slow down a bit again.

In 2009 it was back to Maine for our long weekend of stitching! And stitch we did! Lots of progress was made.

And that brings us to the present unfortunately. I did actually stitch more than what is shown above, that big knot was almost finished when I picked up the Banner on Saturday.

So after our Saturday stitch I finished up that big knot in the center and Sunday and Monday night I worked on the border and then started just a bit of the compass below it.

2011-07-18_22-52-05_30 — Current progress!

Once that compass I’m working on is done I’ll be done with page 3 and started on page 4 (4 page pattern!). The end really is in sight. I’d like to keep working on this piece for a while, at least till I get ambivalent to it, right now it’s the only thing I ‘want’ to stitch so i’m sticking to it!

Tired pups

You’d think they did more than a 2 mile walk 🙂

Sunday – painting

Yesterday while Ryan did some work I got out in the sweltering weather with the pups. They had free reign on the front porch (Fitz stayed inside mostly but Buddy loved watching people walk by). While they did their thing, I painted! I got the second coat of green on after I caulked the frieze board. Once the green was dry I got the first coat of yellow on the trim (finished it up just as it was getting dark). It takes a while to cut in the yellow around the siding but we love the effect so it’s worth it.

Just to get an idea what the panels will look like with the green, what's white will be yellow.

Today Fitz is at daycare and Buddy came to work with me again. Tomorrow they’ll both be home all day (probably a short day since Buddy can’t hold ‘it’ for 10 hours likes Fitz can). I’m hoping Fitz will be tired out from daycare (hah) and Buddy will be more comfortable alone now that he has been for short periods (plus I’ll put up the camera so I can watch them).

Demolition

I took the day off today, my friend Sarah came up and we spent the day chatting and stitching. While I was doing that however Ryan was hard at work around the house. He continued to remove the ceiling of the porch and started putting in some supports for a hammock 🙂

DSCN1318 — Front of the porch, the ceiling is all gone.

DSCN1317 — Just a little bit of ceiling left and some new supports.

I’m looking forward to painting tomorrow but for now – back to stitching!

Agility class

Fitz and I started Agility class last night. He’s been really into treats and food lately so I was optimistic that he would do well. Until we got there. All the other dogs around distracted him and he wanted nothing whatsoever to do with treats. He wanted to play with the dogs (it doesn’t help that the last time I dropped him there it was for a daycare (day of playing).

He did pretty well though, mostly without taking treats. We started with recall (he has to run up to the directed side that my hand is at. It helps it showing them which tricks to do (they follow the hand). He didn’t do it exactly but he ran to me when I called him.

Next up was the tire, I’ve got him jumping through the hoop at home so he knows the concept but at home he likes to chase the treat I throw. He was not interested in the food and he was definitely the dunce at this one. Finally someone gave me some cheese which he was a bit more interested in and he jumped through. After a few slow ones he got into it and started doing very well.

We moved on to the tunnel. Slow to start (but not the worst in class), he finally came through the tunnel to me. After that he was a pro, running through the tunnel, not caring a bit about a treat at the end. What really happened was some new dogs showed up and were playing in the corner, he wanted to get to them so badly he’d do anything I asked 🙂

So class was not horrible at all and I’ve got to start him on understanding the clicker now. Next week I’ll bring cheese and hopefully it will go smoothly from the start.

This morning I took the boys for a nice long walk to tire them out. Fitz is home by himself today and Buddy came to work with me since he’s not ready to be left alone for such a long time yet.

Plenty of grass to walk on but these city boys prefer the blacktop walkways through the park.

They walk really well together, I use the extending leashes so that I am not getting tangled too much (if they’re too close they go back and forth). When they’re in front they walk pretty confidently forward. Until they see squirrels 🙂