Maybe you’ve noticed I’ve been MIA? We have decided it’s time to sell my mom’s house, so my hubby and I have been working like little bees trying to get things sorted and repaired and cleaned… My mom lived there 40 years before moving to the senior apartments she’s in now. All I can say is… wow… you can certainly accumulate a lot of stuff in 40 years. She took a lot of her furniture with her so there weren’t too many large things to move… We had some teen age boys help us this morning with getting the last of the big things and the heavy boxes out into the garage.
We’re hoping to have a yard sale soon and then get pictures taken and get it listed. It’s in a great school district so we’re hoping it sells before school starts! :o) (I read your last comment from yesterday Joy, and I feel your pain…and you did it for a year? Yikes!)
I always read your comments whether I have time to comment or not… Thanks so much for all your sweet compliments on my girls dresses! I always love to hear which dress you like the best. :o)
I’m doing a slide show of the Patriotic doll dresses I’ve made for my girls… If you missed my other posts, you can see them HERE and HERE.
Well, I hope you can stand one more post featuring red, white and blue fabrics! I’ll even tell you my top patriotic dress.
Please enjoy the last of my girls and I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July yourself… Stay safe… AND COOL!
Oh, you want to know my “number one” “all time favorite” “hands down” winner?
It’s Lian’s dress…here are a few more pictures of it… (I made it back in June of 2015!)
I will include the link to the post when I showed how I made it… Lian was quite photogenic when we had this modeling session and quite frankly, she “rocked” it! It was a fun dress to see in person with the 3D buttons across the front and then how she looked in it! I hope it was one of your top picks too!
You can see that post HERE.
See you when I can,
Blessings, Jeanne
Well, I’ve lived in our house since we were married 44 years ago (and Ron has been here since 1968!) so, yes, I can imagine how much stuff can accumulate in that amount of time!!
Once again, Kirsten’s dress really caught my eye, but I also like the tiered skirt on #3 (Bitty Bethany? I don’t know all the Kish girls). I do remember when you made/posted about that dress for Lian; it was fun to go back and read again how you managed to get all the little stars to line up so well!! Thanks for posting the link to it!
Charlotte, glad to hear that it also took you awhile to go through your parents old home too. Was a monumental task for us.
Joy, I found that there were some days I just couldn’t do it, other days, I was fine. I would sometimes just stay overnight down there (an hour away) so I could get more hours to work. As a “treat”, I would bring along something I wanted to cut out for myself, and use their huge dining room table for that purpose–it was almost 4′ wide, I think, and usually had at least one leaf in it! I would work on sorting, etc. during the day, and cut out a pair of slacks or a new dress or something at night!
Anyway, if possible, try not to set too tight a time limit for yourself; you are definitely going to need some “days off” here and there! It is a very emotional process, cleaning out mom and dad’s home, sometimes!! Take care of yourself!
And a Happy 4th of July to you, Jeanne, and everyone else!
Oooh, more pretty red ,white and blue dresses to look at! There is Kirsten again, looking very Swedish, and very sweet! Love the outfits you do for her!
Molly always rocks red, white and blue, I think it is her wartime (40’s) patriotism that does it.
Oh, Lian’s dress is too cute! I can’t imagine getting all those buttons sewn on so perfectly, but if anyone can, you can, Jeanne!
I understand going through your momma’s house after 40 or so years of her living there. We had two of those houses, to go through before selling, both our parents houses, and it sure was a trip down memory lane! I even found my “crown” from my wedding, wayin the back of my mother’s closet! I had been looking for it for years…..what a surprise that was!
No big plans for today, we would love to do something, but it is too hot. Maybe this weekend things will cool down for a teensy bit. We will be having bratwurst, corn on the cob, salad, and strawberry pie with whipped cream! Looking forward to that and watching “A Capitol Fourth” on PBS! Simple!!
Hi Linda, we too have two houses to go through. Both of our parents homes. The contents of my husbands parents home had to be divided, so that is what has taken so long. They had lived in the home since 1947, over 70 years at the same location. And on top of the usual accumulation of items, they were collectors. So, we had to divide all of the collections like ink wells, crocks, or vintage memorabilia as well as heavy furniture with husband’s sister in law who is physically challenged with arthritis. We could only work about a half day at a time before becoming physically and mentally exhausted. There was just so much. And we’re not even talking about the garage, patio, and storage room. But, that is all behind us now at the one house. There is going to be a big sale around here too and hopefully soon. Then we can start on my parents home. Crazy.
Joy,
My husband was an only child, so we had no help——-it all fell to us to take care of. I have 3 sisters, so that was somewhat better, but one lives in Arizona, so that didn’t help very much. We weren’t always able to meet at the same time. Either way it’s quite a daunting task to do. Good luck with your parent’s house!
I have one brother, Linda and Joy, and he didn’t do Anything towards helping until the last few days, when we were trying to hurry up so the estate sale people could get in. Then he was saying, “I can’t believe all this stuff!! I can’t believe all this stuff!!” and I told him, “what you are looking at is a Drop. In. The. Bucket. compared to what I’ve already gone thru over the past 8 months!!”
He had no idea…..
Well, the fog is in so the day is pretty gloomy for the 4th of July. But, that means it is cool also which helps with those fighting fires a couple of counties over from us. The smoke was pretty heavy yesterday, but nothing like the big fires of last October.
We will be hanging around here today. No big plans. If the fog lifts, we might be able to see the fireworks show from the deck. There is a fireworks ban here, fortunately, but some crazy person is always setting them off anyway. All of the hills are dry and ripe for just one spark to get them going.
So enjoyed seeing the wonderful collection of 4th dresses, all of which should be included in the holiday section of Jeanne’s forthcoming book!
Have a wonderful 4th and eat lots of pie. 🙂
Happy 4th of July, Jeanne and all other friends. The dresses have been so much fun to see. I kind of guessed that Lian’s was your favorite. The LD’s seem to be your favorite dolls, so it would naturally follow that a dress for them would be the top pick. nce again, I’m going to go with Kirsten’s as my favorite. She looks so cute in that with her kerchief on her head.
HI everyone,
The fireworks have started around here and Reuben is going crazy. I hope you are enjoying them wherever you are.
We had a scorcher of a day here with the heat index around 105. The heat index at 10:00 tonight is still 93 degrees.
We worked at my mom’s house all day and got it looking pretty decent inside. The realtor we spoke with said he may have someone who wants to see it tomorrow.
We haven’t told momma that we have been working on her house and I’m not exactly sure how to approach the subject. She still talks about moving back home sometimes. Yikes!
We have the garage FILLED with lots of things to sell…I hope she doesn’t want to take everything to her apartment. :o/
We are going to bed early tonight…
GUARANTEED!
I’d love to stay and chat, but my body is saying no…
Night and a very Happy Fourth to you all.
Blessings, Jeanne
Our big fireworks show was on the 30th. My next door neighbor has a fireworks business and does shows all over the state for different occasions. He was a volunteer fireman for years, and is an EMT/nurse. He hires volunteer fireman to help with the shows and fireworks stands. Twice a year he does a free show for the community. It was fantastic! And this year I had friends over to eat watermelon and watch it from my back yard.
PS the outfits are all lovely, but the Kirsten ones are my favorites.
We had one house to deal with and five of us working on it. My parents had kept it up and after all of us moved out, they had space to store things neatly. There was only one small room of miscellaneous things. And the attic. And the garage. Compared to all the work described here, our work was pretty reasonable.
One of the best things we found was an upholstered chair my dad and grandfather had made for me from a small nail keg. It was a terrible, dirty mess from years and years of attic storage, but my nephew and I took it to an upholsterer he had worked for, and for way too much, he reupholstered it. That means that Stella can now sit in a chair made by her great-great grandfather.
Jeanne, it’s wonderful that you have so much done and a prospective buyer. It’s amazing to me that George is up for all of this in this heat, and pretty remarkable that you were managing as well. Someone should give you two a world’s worker prize.
Stay cool, everyone. and have a nice, productive day.