Blue Ridge Mountains – Pencils, Paint & Paper

Whew! It has been a week!

So here are a few pictures of the lovely cabin we vacationed in last week. It was marvelous! One of these days I will figure out how to get these pictures where I want them. Sorry for the awkwardness.

Where we spent most of our time. If there had been hammocks, we would have slept here.

800 square feet of adorable, but there was a learning curve with that loft ladder in the middle of the night.

Eighteen acres of wooded heaven with our cabin perched on the hill right above the river. Coffee on the back porch watching the sunrise and a regular visit from a heron and an owl.

We are seriously considering making this an annual trip before hunting season starts up and we don’t rest until January.

We returned home last Thursday evening and Friday morning D. rushed to the building to make some final adjustments for the building inspector. We passed the inspection and opened on time as planned!!!

And now we wait… Bow season opened this month but it has been hot and the serious hunting doesn’t start until the guns come out and the weather gets cold. There has been lots of interest in us starting the business and one of the local meat processors has decided to no longer take in deer. Hopefully this will mean we are busy, busy, busy soon.

So, while I have been waiting for customers and stuck for 8 hours a day in a building with nothing going on, I finally got productive. Schedules really are a good thing

I painted some walls and our counter. Then I loaded up the car with computer, sketch books, sewing machine and fabric. The computer hasn’t gotten much use but the sewing machine has. I have a good start on some Christmas ornaments, made 8 napkins, two oven mitts and hopefully by the end of the weekend three covers for our sofa cushions. We have a nice leather sofa that has been covered with a sheet to avoid canine toenail destruction.

Moving in. Lovely isn't it? — Moving in. Lovely isn’t it?

It is not a pretty place. I hope to at least make it rustic-cozy but D. says I CANNOT prettify it. Evidently prettified scares off hunters.

It is functional. I have room for at least one, possibly two big work tables. The counter is tall enough and large enough to spread out fabric and comfortably cut it. I have shelves for storage and a refrigerator, microwave, wood stove and the oh, so necessary coffee pot. This just might work!

New oven mitts. You should see the old ones. Yuck.

I did not realize how depressed I was about the lack of space in the guest room. Commendering my son’s bedroom spoiled me for the short time I had it. Evidently I need some SPACE to create.

Gotta go catch up on house work (yuck). Have an awesome week.

September 30, 2016 by Christel Categories: life, productivity, sewing, simplify, travelTags: Blue Ridge Mountains, cabin in the woods, new space, productivity, travel Leave a comment

As you are reading this, we should be on our way home from a relaxing few days hiding out in a cabin by a river in the Blue Ridge mountains. When we get back life goes into overdrive. “And why?”, you ask. Because we are opening a new business!

A little background. D. is planning to retire next summer. He has spent his career stuck indoors. Torture for a guy who would happily spend 90% of his time outside. Even though he will have his retirement money, it’s not quite enough to cover our current requirements, plus I don’t need him hanging around in my space all day either. So for a couple of years he has been planning his retirement job. It is still indoors, but it is only for a few months.

Ok, don’t go EWWWW when I tell you.

It’s a wildlife meat processing and taxidermy business. I said don’t go EWWWW! He is a hunter, we don’t have a wildlife processor nearby and where we live is a huge hunting area. As in, people come from out of state to hunt here! Yes, I think I will be wearing blaze orange this fall as well as my dogs. There are days it sounds like a war zone around here in the Fall. Anyway, it is only four months out of the year and the rest of the time he can work here on the farm, train horses again and we can travel, etc.

We decided to go ahead and start the business this year because we were able to get the location we wanted for the price we wanted. It’s not pretty, but it is in a prime hunter hangout location. Picture a big, red, metal building. Guess who will be keeping it open and taking orders. Yep, yours truly. NO, I’m not going to cut up deer. I can’t cut up a chicken from the grocery store without getting sick!

What does this mean for me? Well, I’m hoping it will be a good career move. No, not the meat processing, the building. My current workspace is our second guest room which is tiny. I work on several projects at once and need room to spread out. Right now if we have guests, I have to shove everything to one corner then sort it all out again when they leave. It’s just not working for me.

The big, red building has plenty of space for me to work as well as D. The actual meat processing takes place in a separate cold room so the main part can be mine to spread out in. Perfect? Not quite, but I think over the long run it can work if we can both make enough money to pay the rent year round which is the plan.

I am also desperately needing some structure to my time and having to work around the business hours will give me that. I can do my work at the same time I am holding down the fort at his business. Right now, I’m still a little lost from not having a second job and get distracted by crazy stuff like laundry and yard work here at the house.

Hopefully next week I can give you a tour of the new workspace. Have a lovely week!

Photo credit

September 22, 2016September 15, 2016 by Christel Categories: creativity, Earth, productivity, risk taking, travelTags: Blue Ridge Mountains, new business, travel, work space 1 Comment

Tag: Blue Ridge Mountains

Getting my groove back

Happening this week…