Week 7

I had so hoped I'd have some AFTER photos of the study/sewing room project that has consumed the last few days but, while a good portion of it is done, it is not FINISHED. Maybe next Sunday.

About 3 p.m. today my back loudly protested all the hauling of heavy objects (large plastic bins of fabric weigh a LOT) as well as the weird positions I've been in during the cleaning binge that expanded beyond the study to include the guest room. So even though I've gotten a little done this afternoon/evening, it hasn't been nearly what I'd planned on.

[I almost included a photo of my bag of frozen corn that has been my friend today; it works GREAT as an ice pack on ouchy backs. But Ivan came up with a much better photo :-) ]

I decided to send back some letters with Tina to mail and a few gifts she'll deliver. I couldn't send as many as I would have liked but I especially wanted to say "thank you" to some special people who have blessed us greatly in different ways. This is one of the things I sent; it's a wooden salad fork and spoon set. The greenish sections are palo santa which is a very aromatic wood. I thought the parrots added a fun element to a functional item. (And are so appropriate considering how prolific they are in Argentina!)

Monday my friend Gaby stopped by with her mom and her daughter. Mavi is one of the little girls I made a quilt for last Spring. Isn't she a cutie?! She's normally a very happy baby but that afternoon she was teething and rather fussy so Tina and I took turns entertaining her. Not altogether successful, but at this point she was still smiling.

While Ivan and Tina were out picking up last minute things on Tuesday they stopped by to see the new puppies at Marcela's. Her dog had six but two died within the first few days. This little fellow quite liked being held and snuggled right up to Tina.

Tina's flight left at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday which meant she had to be at the airport by 2:30 so we left the house at 1:30. None of us were feeling very photogenic at that hour of the morning but I did snap this photo of Tina's "man" shoes that she bought in Cordoba. They were very comfortable for traveling and easy to slip off and on.

Despite concerns about the weather (multiple delayed and canceled flights in Chicago on the day before she left) her trip was smooth and on schedule and she arrived safely home later that night.

While waiting to hear from her I kept busy cleaning out the kitchen cupboards. Which led to being motivated to start on the study/sewing room on Thursday. That, in turn, led to me being basically absent from Blogland the past few days except for quick daily posts. I've already shared this photo of the dining room, where chaos ensued after moving almost the entire contents of the study in there so I could sort and organize while Ivan built the shelving unit for over the desk. But since it's the only thing I photographed that day, I'm repeating it here. (Only 3/5 of the fabric was sorted at the time of this photo and NONE of the office stuff.)

Same deal on Friday, with these GORGEOUS shelving units Ivan built. Frankly, I was doing good to take ANY photos the past few days :-)

Ivan, having done his part in the project, went to help a friend today. His aviation buddy built this plane but had a slight mishap upon landing it one time so he's re-engineered part of it and Ivan's helped with the re-construction on several occasions. [Julio is the one who had the accident with the plane propeller on a different plane a few months ago.]

That's all for this week. Make sure to stop by Sara's and check out the other Project 365 participants.