We found a house!

In the past, we’ve always looked for a house for a day or two and found exactly what we wanted.  Not this time.  We had been looking for a couple months now, put in a few offers that didn’t work out for one reason or another, and finally found a house that caught both of our imaginations.  It is bigger than we were actually looking for, but I think it will be for the best since my DH is a pack rat and won’t get rid of anything.  It is on 6 acres and has a beautiful fish pond and an old log cabin barn on the property.  It also has an outbuilding that will work for us for a while.  The house is a split level and the kitchen hasn’t been updated since it was built, but that’s half the fun!  I think for now I’ll just paint the cabinets and get new hardware, but we definitely need new counter tops. 

I’ll be putting most of my business on the lower level, which right now has a bedroom, full bath, a bar, and a large room with a pool table.  The pool table will be moved to our new “rec room” in the finished attic and I’ll use the bedroom for my office and the “bonus room” for my fabrics that I need access to.  My fold and roll machine will go in the outbuilding and so will my excess fabrics.  I think it is a very workable solution until we outgrow the area again, but then we have a great place for another outbuilding for the future.

We’ve been trying to get our current house ready to put on the market, which meant getting rid of a lot of the clutter.  We rented a storage unit and have been moving things into it, painting the garage door and trim, and burning the barn little by little.  It’s about half gone.  We keep advertising the free wood and tin, but everyone comes once, takes a few boards and realizes how much work it is to take the thing apart.  The old oak is like rocks and the nails don’t want to move.  So . . . as much as we hate to burn it, we are. 

We pulled out a few of the bushes around the house that died during the draught last summer and I’ve replaced some of them.  I need to get some mulch around them.  I also need to put something in front of the basement window in the front that will provide shade in the summer and sun in the winter.  I’m thinking of dwarf crepe myrtles.  What do you think?  I love the flowers in the summer!

I’ve also been trying to get the new fabrics we received before the Chicago and Paducah shows online and I’m getting there very slowly.  99% of the traditional batiks are on there, most of the Bali fabrics are not.  Maybe I’ll get some time to work on it and finish it this week. 

My new website is also almost ready to go online, so if you think you are at the wrong site the next time you visit, it will probably be the new one.  It will take a week or so for me to transfer all of the new stuff to the new site (maybe that’s why I’m not really motivated to get them on my current site!) and make sure all is working right.  If you find a problem, let us know.  My email is patti@batiksbydesign.com. 

I’m working on finding more of the tablecloth that I used for Moon Glow (to the right) since a lot of quilters have mentioned their interest in haveing the same one.  Ani is having a hard time finding the same thing, but says she has found others that are very pretty.  As highly as I regard Ani, sometimes she doesn’t realize what I need due to the language barrier.  I hope what she has found will work, but I asked her to try looking again, because I know you want THAT particular tablecloth because it works so well in Moon Glow.

To those of you that have served in the military in the past or present, please accept my thank you for what you have done for our country and our freedoms.  Having lived in several other countries, I don’t take my freedom for granted.  Many people live without it every day.

Keep my business and our move in your prayers.

Patti Oakley

Batiks by Design

www.batiksbydesign.com

 

Where Did April Go?

Last time I remember, it was the beginning of April and we were in Chicago.  Now it is May.  What happened?  When they told me when I was younger that time flies the older you get, I didn’t believe them.  I do now!!

The International Quilt Festival in Chicago was a great show and we thank all of you that stopped by to see our fabrics or to just chat for a while.  I can’t think of another business with so many friendly people in it.  We returned home without incident and had less than a week to get ready for Paducah.  Guess what, we didn’t even unpack the trailer!  Any orders we had meant going out there and sorting through the fabrics, but it was a lot easier than unloading and loading it up again. 

Paducah was awesome.  This year we were at the KY Oaks Mall again and we thank all of you that came all the way out there to see us.  We hope to get into the actual show next year.  The hours at the mall were too long – 10 am until 9 pm!  Ugh!!  Fortunately, I was able to borrow my stepson’s motor home and park it right out in the Mall parking lot.  All I had to do was walk out of the Mall and into bed!  There were nights when that was all I wanted was a bed to sleep in.  We met so many new people who had lots of positive comments about our fabrics and samples.  Thank you for being there.  It makes it all worth while.

During all of this, we’ve been looking for another house.  See, we planned on tearing down the barn in our backyard (it was old and starting to fall down on its own) and building a building for my store.  Well, I got to thinking, what if we could buy a house WITH a building with it for about what we could sell our house for.  The first one we found would have been perfect, but the owner hasn’t finished the inside (studs only) and wanted an enormous amount for the shell of a house and outbuilding.  No thanks.  We’re still waiting to hear on another house that has 3 outbuildings on 2.5 acres (we like acres!).  It is in the being foreclosed on by the bank and we are now dealing with the bank and they seem to work SO SLOW.  I really like the house, which has a wonderful sun room!  Can’t store the fabrics in there, but it will be wonderful to relax in.  Keep your fingers crossed and pray that if this is meant to be it will happen. 

Moving you said?  Yes, that means getting rid of the clutter and also getting ready to show the house.  Not fun.  We’ve rented a storage building and have started to move stuff there, but I need my stuff for my business thank you, and that has to be where I can get to it, even if it means moving it back downstairs, then out of the house later on.  We also had new carpet put in the area where my shop is and everything was in a state of chaos when I arrived home.  I still haven’t found everything!  I finally borrowed a stapler from upstairs!  The carpet is nice though.  A great improvement over what was here.  Why is it that you beg for new carpet and the DH finally agrees when we decide to sell the house?  Hmmmmmm.

We have new Bali fabrics AND traditional batiks that we will be putting online in the next few days.  I’ve ordered lots more of the tablecloth I used in Moon Glow and hope to have those in about 6 weeks.  At both shows, everyone wanted THAT tablecloth!  It did turn out beautiful, if I may say so myself.

Happy Spring!

Patti

Batiks by Design

www.batiksbydesign.com

866-447-9211