Finally ready to list!

It's been forever since I posted anything, but we've finally got the house decluttered, repainted, recarpeted, gussied up and ready to present herself to the market.  Yes, it took a long time--we started the first of December, but I had a 2,148 sq. ft house in which every room was painted from crown molding to baseboards in vibrant colors.  And have I mentioned the green carpet?  Oy.

We now enter the Seller's Phase of Tidy Living which will go on until we close.  That's that part where you run around wiping every water spot on every faucet and straighten towels to within an inch of their lives.  The dog and cat don't understand why I keep putting away their toys (so far they think it's a fine game) and the husband is learning to be patient when I keep hiding his little drifts of paperwork/keys/needfuls clutter in inconvenient places.  But that's what it takes--we've sold a few houses and this is how it works best.

The neutral walls and carpet would work so much better if I had brighter stuff out, but all my bright stuff went to storage in the Decluttering Campaign, so for the now, it'll just be Move In Ready Neutral.  I hope buyers have plenty of imagination if they like color.  But as neutral as it is, the house shows pretty well this way--wide open and almost ridiculously spacious--without all my millions of little tables, baskets, boxes, etc. to clutter it up.  So.

Here's our house, in her MLS glory:

Our house (admittedly this was taken in greener times.)

From the front door.

A view OF the front door.

Dining room and my collection of adopted chairs.

We have really loved this floor plan.

Kitchen from the dining room.

Kitchen from the family room.

Family room off the kitchen.

The office (aka Command Central).

Bedroom A. (Hubs made the bed for our SCA camping.)

Bedroom B.

Bedroom C. (was my doll studio, now HUGELY reduced.)

Master Bedroom.

Master bath & garden tub. 

Peaking out from under the carport in the back.

Grandpa Live Oak and a yard where we've spent some good times.

 We'll miss this place--four years is our record for living in one house.  

But we've got a new chapter coming up, and we are ready to begin it!  

Hope your week is busy being fabulous.

Still here, still alive...

Not lots of time to blog lately, given all the up-in-the-air goings on at Chez Conwell.  But I wanted to pop in, post a couple of pictures, and then get back to my not-so-regularly scheduled program.

We had a blast at the family's house in Arizona.  It was just as good as I knew it would be--relaxing, rejuvenating, and sooooo good to catch up with Gabe and Mary Jo.  I have the very best in laws in the world.  I got to help Gabe prune the Palo Verde and Palo Blanco (blanca?), as has become our annual tradition, I think.  Phil and his parents and brother played poker while the sis-in-law and I yabbered (and I sewed unders for Izzies).  We were having such a good time, we stayed an extra day!

When they're not playing golf, they can watch it out the patio doors!

Mary Jo is kicking butt.

Sis-in-law gets, um, quite a few more phone calls than I do.  Maybe I should wonder about that.  Nah.

We arrived home in time for Phil to get to a couple more days' of realty school, and at some point later that week we headed up to see Edyth and Jo Anne for a doll party.  I got to meet Hannah, Edyth's original Izannah Walker doll, and to see her beautiful collection again.

It's a doll party! 

Then home again, home again, but not for long.  We hope.  By that I mean we love home, but it's time to move back into town, so we're changing homes.  So we have to fix it up HGTV style, packing up LOTS OF STUFF, because as creative people, we have tons of clutter.  We'll move stuff to storage to show the rooms at their roomiest.  Then we fix, patch, paint, and stage.  The doll room will get packed up--a fact which has caused me an unexpected degree of anxiety--leaving out the sewing machine and some (only some) fabric, because I have a doll show in February.  And naked tables are just sad.

Four years in the same house is a record for us.  Red walls...great color, but not exactly neutral.

This is Eve, who will be my first Izannah Walker type doll for 2013.
She already has a home...but not so far away I can't visit.

Hope everybody is having a lovely holiday season, spending more time with loved ones and less money on "stuff"...hope you are able to slow down, breathe and reflect.

And if you don't hear from me in a few weeks, send a search party to our mini storage, just in case I accidentally got packed in a moving box.  Thank you.

Two Izannah Walker dolls, almost finished.

I can't go anywhere that I don't take some handwork to sew on while I'm there.  Even take it to doctor's appts and such, because I might as well get something done while I wait, right?

Well, our lovely holiday w/ Gabe and Mary Jo is always a good time to work on Izzy dresses.  I love visiting their place because it's so peaceful.  No big agenda to accomplish, no pressure to do anything except just be.  I love that.  Mary Jo and I have been known to sit for hours in companionable silence, each engrossed in a book.  The handwork is for when we visit, with sleeping dogs at our feet (or in our laps) catching up on family and friends' news.  It's been too long, and I so look forward to our trip.

To that end, however, I needed to get these Izzies to the stage where I can make their clothes!  We'll be a little shorter on hauling space, so it's not like I can bring the Giant Box of Stuffing.  Small, portable projects are the order of the day.

These girls (I think of them as Big Sister and Little Sister) are 20" and 19.5" tall--or will be.  I wanted to create a larger Izzy than the little 16" babies I've made up til now.  I realized how well I'd achieved my goal when I picked up Joseph and felt how tiny he was!  These girls have some serious heft to them, but as I've learned from personal experience, you can never really tell from pictures how large or small a doll is.  You have to hold them.  Which is okay, since that's what they're meant for, right?

I have to stuff and paint their hands/arms, then sew those and the legs on the bodies.  A wash of Burnt Sienna will age them a little, and the painting will be done.  The Izzy Suits can wait til I get there, so between those, their unders and their dresses, I'll have more than enough handwork to occupy my digits while I enjoy the visit.

Look out Conwells!  Here we come!

Happy Thanksgiving in advance, and may you all find plenty to be thankful for!