Thursday morning my hubby went to get some gravel to fill in a few spots that were washing out in our driveway. He’s done it many, many times and never had any troubles. But Thursday, as the Bobcat was hovering the scoop filled with gravel over the bed of his truck, something snapped and the steel scoop fell off and landed in AND on my hubby’s truck. It dented the sides of his truck, and busted the back glass window in a MILLION or more pieces… TO THE INSIDE OF HIS TRUCK. You have to understand, he works out of his truck and has LOTS AND LOTS of containers, bags, boxes, and crates holding all of his many tools and supplies. The glass shattered into his truck and went ALL over those containers in the back seat and even up into the cab of his truck. It was a disaster!
The guy felt horrible and told him to go down the road to the SafeLite Auto Glass shop and have them give him an estimate. The gravel place is going to pay for it, but they haven’t located a window for his truck… it’s a ’92!
He had to work 2 full days getting everything taken out of his truck… every container, every bag, box, tub, and empty all the tools and supplies out of them all because the glass was everywhere. He had to vacuum his truck out like he’s never had to ever before. Then he had to take the rubber gasket from around the window and use a screwdriver to get all the bits and pieces of glass out of it… He had to then try and bend out the dents in his truck that the scoop made, so the new window will fit in properly with no gaps.
SO… where do I come in? He calls me the “Template” or “Pattern” maker… and he asked me if I could help him get a piece of plastic cut to go around the opening of his “newly air conditioned” truck. He has been parking it in the garage just in case it rains, but he still has to use it, so he needed it to be somewhat safe to leave unattended while on a job somewhere.
He had some thick plastic rolled on a tube that was pretty see through up in the rafters of his garage and over the years it has kind of rippled, and sort of reminds me of old glass you’d see in an antique hutch or in some house windows.
When he saw me with the scissors in my hand cutting the plastic, he took my picture. He got me out of bed to do this and I hadn’t even combed my hair, but it was windy, so it didn’t matter too much… We used some black Gorilla tape to hold the plastic on and it’s VERY tight… so mission accomplished!
Okay, enough on that…
Since he was tied up outside working on his truck, I took advantage of some long periods of time by myself and started working in my sewing room. I had TOO much stuff in there and felt like I was being smothered! First I weeded out some trims and old buttons and lace that I knew I was never going to use. Then I tackled a few other areas, but what I really wanted was a place to put ALL my leather and tools so they were ALL together. I should have taken a picture of the before, but I had my leather tools and threads and glue, etc, in the top of these 3 big stackable tubs and the leather pieces in these 2 bottom tubs; the colored leathers in the middle drawer and the browns and blacks and tan leathers in the bottom drawer… I had to rummage through all my scraps to find the pieces and color I wanted. This is the stackable tubs my leather supplies used to be in.
We had a cabinet in one corner of our bedroom, that my hubby had made when we were first married, and I had my hopes that it would make a great “leather cabinet.” I emptied it out and found new homes for what was in it, and one time when he came in for a drink of water, I asked him “in my sweetest voice” possible, if he could move something for me. He got his appliance dolly and moved it, but wasn’t sure it would work. I told him “It would!”
I know it looks like it’s super crowed, but it’s not… I put it in the very back corner of my sewing room and it’s narrow, so it’s a great fit. I can still open the doors to see inside and the drawers to the big chest with the 21 drawers is easily opened.
I have all my tools and thread and glues and patterns all on the top section and as you can see, I got creative and cut the tops off some boxes to organize my leathers. I LOVE IT! It’s SO easy to see what I have and grab just what I need. It was a great trade from the stackable tubs to this!
I had 3 of those zippered bags stacked up in the corner where the cabinet is now. One with my wool felts, one with tulle, and one with fabrics. Now that they are off the floor, my room seems SO much bigger and neater! :o)
The 3 stackable tubs have some fabric scraps in the top drawer. I had these scraps in 2 different places and now those spaces are freed up.
In the second drawer there is lots of tulle for making doll slips. I also have some tulle in a drawer that had scraps in it.
The bottom drawer has all my flowers for hats and baskets and bouquets, etc. in it. My flowers used to be in this bottom drawer…
Here is the bottom drawer emptied of the flowers.
Here are the flowers in the tub…
My wool felts used to be in a clear zippered bag, but it was a pain to find anything in it too… so I got everything out, sorted it, by how big the pieces were and stacked them up…
Here is my wool felt in the bottom drawer all nice and neat… another winner for my sewing room!
These are some pieces of felt that are acrylic felt, which I don’t use any more. So I divided them up into two piles and gave a box to 2 of Bithar’s daughters, each box with 2 glue sticks and told the girls to have fun cutting out shapes and gluing them down for a picture or sewing them together, or doing something else with them. I think scissors and glue and fabric are wonderful for kids to play with. It was their birthday’s and a “cheap” and easy gift to give. I hope they have fun with them.
I still have lots more places I am swapping things around in, but that’s a good start.
I will see you tomorrow!
Blessings, Jeanne
Oh, my goodness, how fortunate that George wasn’t hurt when that happened!! I hope they are able to find a replacement window for his truck. In the meantime….great save, with the clear vinyl and gorilla tape!!
Your leathers and felts look so nice now, all organized and everything. I do have a question, though: what is “Dianna Effner leather”??? I noticed your other leathers are sorted by color, so I wondered….
Great idea, to give Bithar’s daughters your acrylic felts plus crafting supplies for their birthdays! I’m a big proponent for giving kids things they can do with their hands. The grandsons usually got Legos, of course, but I often got Lily some kind of crafting kit or similar for her birthdays. One year I got her some hand-sewing supplies and included several pieces of fabric from my stash. She loved it!! She is sure my grandchild, because she loves to do things with her hands like that.
I meant to add, congrats on a very successful auction of Frieda’s lovely outfit! I had planned to check back yesterday, and forgot.
Oh my goodness, talk about surprises to wake up to! What a complete mess that must have been! And I think you were mentioning last Friday something about a hayride to prepare for, and then you get this to happen! You just never know what the day will bring! I’m so glad George married you, since you can do most anything he can’t, and vice versa!
I too, am curious about what the “Diana Effner leather” is! My eyes went to that immediately when I saw that picture. what a great save that cabinet is for your sewing room! I’m sure that was not what George thought it was going to wind up being used for when he first made it! 🙂
Wow, what a great sale you made yesterday for some fortunate person! I’m hoping it was one of us Sofa Sisters who got lucky!
Looks like you had fun organizing the leather boxes!
I am so glad the metal scoop did not hit George when it fell! Thank You, God! That sounds very dangerous and caused a nightmare of a huge mess. Great job on the window substitute.
What a truck mess. Glad the company that caused it is making it good though. And, I’m sure George, found some lost items cleaning out his truck as well. 🙂
And congrats on the clean up/reorganizing in the sewing room. I’m sure your bedroom is more spacious after moving the storage cabinet as well. A twofer as they say. 🙂
Now, on to preparing for the weekend party festivities.
Weather report says fog this morning. Ha ha. It is absolutely the clearest I’ve seen in some time. Have never seen so many stars. 🙂 Must have our neck of the woods confused with somewhere else.
I forgot to add this:
Well, for my last delivery, this happened. We headed to our other house to work on the leaf situation there. Other person climbed the ladder and blew off the accumulation of leaves since last week, up on the roof. There were a lot. I worked below making piles of leaves as I didn’t want to get under the blowing leaf litter from above. I filled a can and then other person came down. Leaves everywhere. But, I started in and made piles and cleaned off shrubs etc. Other person filled the yard can and hauled it to the driveway to fill the big can. Didn’t take long to fill the big can. Really had to stuff it. Then, I blew off the front walk which was covered from the roof blowing. Couldn’t do any leaf pick up out in front as there was nowhere to put more leaves. That will have to wait until next week. Anyway, the back looks good, but there are still more silver maple leaves on the tree. Won’t be much longer though as they drop very fast unlike our sycamore at home or the liquid amber in front.
So, we packed up and headed home.
When we got back, I wanted to blow off the driveway at our place and front porch etc. Other person wouldn’t do the roof. Too tired. But, I told him I would do the blowing in the driveway etc., but he needed to help fill the can when I was done. So, I started in with the brick patio, porch, steps, etc. Got a good start on getting the lawn edge then did the driveway. Already tired from the earlier work, I went inside to find other person sitting there on the couch with his phone. Grrr Told him the driveway was done and to please get started on the leaves now at the curb. I returned to the beast of the lawn and worked on moving the pretty deep leaves towards the curb with the blower. Other person started in on the driveway leaves. Yay. Then, he decided to pick up some leaves that I had headed towards the curb. Right where I was blowing. Again grrr. I directed him up hill to the huge pile in the street. Finally, finished the lawn and had most at the curb. Other person was filling cans. I went to the backyard and brought out two more cans as I could see that the yard can would not hold the huge amount of leaves now at the curb/street. Came back and picked up a multitude of twigs that came down with the last wind. Then, started raking the leaves into piles for other person to pick up. Raked up all that he missed and made more piles. Took a look back and the lawn looked pretty good. Although, the crab grass is appearing again even though we have sprayed I think 6 times now. Ugh. Anyway, it seemed really hot, but really was muggy as we were supposed to have rain later that today. Finally finished and we now have three crammed cans full of leaves that won’t fit in the regular big can. And to think we will have to do this again soon as there will be lots more leaves to follow. 🙂
Anyway, enough about leaves. Because we were so busy and had a very late lunch, I had forgotten about that “delivery.” I happened to glance out the bedroom window and saw the FedEx truck parked in front. Yikes. Turned around and headed towards the front door. Then, I heard a loud “knock”, my heart sunk, and through the kitchen window saw the driver heading down the steps. Well, other person, back on the couch, said who is that? I pretended to peek out the shutters and said, some guy with long dark hair. The truck was still in front, and I didn’t want other person to look out and see it. We don’t open the door unless it is someone we know, so I said, oh, I think it is one of those kids that come around wanting money and don’t have a permit or something. Some scam. And I said it looks like he’s headed towards Michael’s next door. He got up, and I hoped that he was heading to the office, but, instead, he looked out the bathroom window and said, there’s a FedEx truck out in front of Karen’s house, who lives across the street. Was the person who knocked a FedEx driver? I said, no, I don’t think so. Then, he turned and went into the office to write the check for PGE that I had reminded him about earlier. I made my move. Opened the door very carefully, grabbed the box, and brought it inside. Took it right to the family room. Couldn’t believe that he didn’t get up and look outside and see the driver on our walk or the truck. Glad our neighbor had a delivery as well. So, my Halloween girl is now out of the box and trying to scare everyone who walks past. 🙂
Anyway, it was a successful clean up day and box maneuver/delivery as well.
Joy
Saved once again, Joy! Loved your story. I feel your pain with leaves. We have leaves from some trees in fall and then, in the spring, the live oak leaves. Twice a year!
LOL You are the sneaky one, Joy. Another tally mark on the not caught side. Congratulations on Wanda..
Joy…Success again! Are you keeping your stories together someplace so you can write a book?🤔😉
Very nice window cover Jeanne! Isn’t the gravel company going to cover the cost to fix the truck? Is it more than just the window?
Your organization skills are amazing. I think you can make shoes and purses even faster now! Congrats on the last auction!
First of all I loved the cute felt hat and I liked the dark fabric best. Now to today, I love organizing and reorganizing but realized long ago that my sewing room will always need tending to before I sew but if I did that every time I would never get any sewing done. You manage to get a lot of sewing accomplished before you tend to your reorganization, so you definitely have your priorities right. My sewing room is a tight fit so always looks like I need to get shed of a bunch of stuff but can’t decide what that would be, since the solution would be I need to do more sewing.
Recently I made back-to-school attire (cute skirts and tee-shirt tops) for two of my LDs and two of my Maru Mini Pals. The Maru girls had little to wear other than the clothes they came in. I finally took the time yesterday to put up all the clothes I changed them out of and put away the clothes for my vintage and modern Ginny’s, Shirley Temple and my two mini Paolas from when I changed them into their Halloween dresses. That along with putting up some of the trims lying about on my worktable was not enough to really clear the top of the table. Ugh! More tidying needed but since I need to get some more sewing done before starting holiday frocks, I picked out patterns and fabric to make my two Siblies and my two Minouche girls some badly needed fall clothes. I guess the tidying up will have to wait for another day.
I really should be outside doing some tidying up there. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous and cool but that stuff requires a lot of energy. So when I found out Skyy has off the week of Thanksgiving and Sean will be coming out the first three days, I decided to hold off on the outdoor projects I want to tackle until I have an able-bodied young man to help me. He is very willing to help and loves making money and Nanna pay well.
David and Sean showed up for lunch and I neglected to say how thankful I am that nothing serious happened to George. I was almost afraid to keep reading. Great job on the “window”. Hopefully they can find a new window for his truck.
Great “sneak” Joy on the doll thing. I keep wondering where you get all that energy to do all the clean-up you do around two houses. If you have any extra (energy that is not clean-up) feel free to send it my way.
Good thing George wasn’t in the truck when that happened. The scoop must have been weakened and finally snapped. That was good temporary fix for the window.
With you myriad of sewing supplies it will be nice to have them so well organized. I love various things organized like that so I can find what I want of anything without wasting time.
I too, am curious as to what Diana Effner leather is?