Wind, What Wind?

My two favorite sounds in the world are the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves on a tree and rain.  But sometimes you can have to much of a good thing. Yesterday the wind was out of control.

Growing up in the Antelope Valley the big joke was the dates of the Wind Festival. I remember for a time someone had t-shirts available that were printed:

 Antelope Valley Wind Festival
January 1st thru December 31st

Today was a good indication of where the saying came from. The winds raged during the day from 35 to 45 mph most of the day and reached 60 mph at times. It is the second time in the last few months that it has blown this hard.

The last time I was returning from a Quilt Shop owners meeting in Ahaheim when I returned to this.

Yes, I stopped the car, got out and took the picture. I did not take it while driving. Both hands definitely need to be on the wheel as the wind tries to make you change lanes. 

The trees tend to grow tilted to one side. This palm tree was losing the battle.

Blinding sandstorms on the 14 Freeway cause freeway closures. Blowing dust in the region can reduce visibility to near zero.

Big rigs are blown over and there are horrid pile ups .

But, the dirt eventually lands. Our pool was cleaned yesterday morning.

Today the wind has slowed to a more normal speed of 20 – 25 mph. Acceptable, it keeps the air clean and the reduces the temperature a few degrees from todays high of 84. Although many do not share my appreciation of its merits.

Stitch at you Soon,

Dawna

Prepping a New Location

So after 10 years in the same center Bolts in the Bathtub will be moving to a new location. 

It is exciting and stressful and exciting. We will be moving to 723 West Lancaster Blvd. The city has been doing a lot of work in the last few years to revive the downtown area and there is always something going on.



The previous occupant was a law office, so there were lots of offices. It was kind of a maze or maybe that's amazing.

Our proposed layout with some fixture pieces.



The bathtub will be somewhere near the front of the store. Ours is much cuter as it is a claw foot.



We left two of the offices intact.



A machine tech area for my brother-in-law Leith and my partner/sister Fay’s office. She usually works behind the scenes checking in product, ordering, and paying bills as well as all of the other accounting work.

This built desk in Fay’s future office was dismantled



and rebuilt for a larger machine repair area for Leith.



Fay will now have a window to see what is happening on the sales floor. She may get tired of seeing us and close her blinds. 

Notice my spectacular photography – I am a ghost like figure in the shot.



Walls marked for destruction.



Then the excitement of walls coming down. (I played with PicMonkey for the first time!)



The view across the entire space towards Fay’s office.



What is that between the two support posts? Water pipes.



Fortunately, George our contractor was able to get them cut down to below the concrete. 

Although I suppose we could have installed a water feature in the middle of the store. LOL.



Next up rebuilding the space.

Stitch at you Soon,

Dawna

Linking up with 
Masterpiece Monday @ Boogieboard Cottage

Back to Blogging

As we all know “Time Flies”.

Somehow this spring it completely got away from  me. It also seemed that the longer I was away from blogging the harder it was to restart. But last night seemed to be the perfect night to catch up.

I wrote the following last night:
Earlier today the electrical box at the entrance to our housing development was hit by a car. I came home for lunch while running errands. It  must have happened between the time I turned onto the main drive and opened the fridge to make a salad. At first I thought the light had burnt out. Then I realized that none of the clocks on the appliances were working.

It is now 8:50 and I am peacefully writing by candlelight. However, first thing on the list for home upkeep is to refill the battery drawer and find out why none of the flashlights in the house seem to work. I’m sure the Golf Guy will figure it out when he gets back to town tomorrow.

Luckily there is some battery power available on my laptop. There is a lovely cool breeze coming in the windows. If this had happened a few nights ago it would still be in the mid eighties at this hour.

What have I been doing for the last two months?

1. Driving to see & spend time with my brother who had a stroke. We are blessed that his recovery is progressing and he is working so hard in all of his therapy. Thank you to all who added him to your prayers.

2. Preparing for Bolts in the Bathtub’s new store location. Our move to Lancaster Blvd will be sometime in the next three weeks. Just in time for the Southern California Quilter’s Run. The demo/rebuild is slated to be finished a week from today, May 24th.

3. Making two quilts for the run, one of which will be featured in the book being produced by Mountain Peak Creations. Preorders of the book are available, but the quilts may not be shown until the first day of the run. I will have a post ready to go up with pictures first thing the 20th of June. Bolts was a little crazy, we made four variations on the quilt design for our area.

4. I finished my Madison’s Star quilt,


a set of baby quilts for twin girls for a work colleague of the GG,
































making quilts for Strip Club meetings,



two more baby quilts were made from a poorly designed pattern (it was supposed to be a large lap),



and I have almost completed all the blocks for the Toes in the Sand block of the month starting at Bolts this Saturday.

 

This is my favorite block. There are 43 pieces in each one.



5. My cousin’s were down visiting from Canada for two weeks. For them a holiday is being in the warm weather with a list of projects. One of the projects that they helped with was to rearrange the master bedroom. It’s been on my list for quite a while as the furniture had been in the same place since we moved in ten years ago! However, with marble tops on the large dresser and bedside tables, help was definitely needed. I have drapes and a new quilt to make before sharing the redo.

Tomorrow the 17th is my birthday, so today I treated myself & wandered around the Antique Asylum. I found these fabulous turkey plates for my gift from Mum. I have never seen anything like them before. They have a Spring look.




No power yet, so this will have to be posted tomorrow. 

Stitch at you Soon,
(No really, I promise.)

Dawna

PS - The power came back on at 4:28 am.