I am sorry I have been away........

however I was busy sewing up a storm for the open house on Saturday.  I was up and all organized well before the 10 am posted opening time.

It was a hot and humid day with just a few drops of rain, but overall it was a good day weather wise.

It was a great day for other reasons as well.  I got to meet two long time readers of my blog.  You know who you are and it was a pleasure to be able to spend a little time with you.  I got to sell a number of my items and sold a lot more than I thought I would, so thank you too everyone who bought from me.

My best selling items were the produce bags, and the soup bowl cozies.

I did take a couple of photos of everything set up:

I took a video also but you do have to go to Facebook and too Appleby Lane to see it.

I am writing this Saturday night and am pooped.  However not too tired to order more fabric online!!  I also ran a couple of errands and called into a fabric store on Saturday afternoon and picked up 1/2 metre of this fabric, as I have an idea of something to make with it!!

I will be updating the Facebook store on Sunday to get everything up to date.

Again thank you everyone for all your support.

Open Houses..........

(image credit)

An "Open House," is when a real estate agent opens up a house for a set period of time, usually on the weekend for the general public to walk through without an appointment or without being accompanied by a real estate agent.

Unless you are selling your own home, the homeowner does not show any potential buyers around the house.  In fact our lawyer told us back in the day to have no contact what so ever with any potential buyers as it could come back and bite you in the butt!  I took his advise to heart and it has always worked out well.

So this past weekend we had an open house on both Saturday and Sunday from 2 pm until 4 pm.  It was our choice as to whether we would like to do that and we said yes.  So of course the house was spic and span again and we left and let to real estate get on with it.

It was a nice day on Saturday, perfect open house weather, although our real estate agent said Saturday's have been generally quiet.  We ended up having four couples over, and one very nosy "neighbour" who told us (as we came back for 4 pm and were talking with the agent) she just wanted to see what we had done to the house, so she could get idea's on how to pretty her house up😲

On Sunday it poured down and one of the couples came back for a 40 minute look and another woman came.  So all in all not too bad, as the real estate market sucks here at the moment.

On Sunday we decided to visit three open houses at houses that looked great in the ads.  We all know what you see online and what you see in real life will not be the same, so despite these houses looking great online, in real life we were disappointed.

Number 1, had an odd layout and the third bedroom had no closet as it was too small, it was a baby's room and I guess could have worked as a sewing room for me.  Needed a new kitchen, again odd layout and the master bedroom was half carpet and half hardwood flooring?  It probably needed around $50,000 to make it how I would like it.

Number 2, well the best bit about the place was the back yard; BUT at some point in the future houses would be built behind you, so your privacy would be lost.  The rest of the house needed work and although mainly cosmetic, I wasn't keen on the neighbourhood and on the whole place in general.

Number 3, was a century home just like the farmhouse.  Even had the same musty smell like our farmhouse, until we had a dehumidifier running full time to get rid of the smell.  Had issues and as I told the agent it was over priced by $100,000..........never ever ask for my opinion, as yes you will get an honest opinion, ask anyone who knows me😊

So all in all our house looking quest was a bust!!  Here's hoping we get some people wanting to take another look at our house this week!!  I hate all this waiting around.....

Open House, more light fixtures and someone was 3 months old on Sunday!

Despite mine and dh's reservations, the open house on Sunday was a success as Sarah said there were seven different families over.  All were positive, but none were able to make a firm offer, as all/some had properties to sell.  Sarah was pleased though so that was good. In a city property that would be normal, but in a country property that is unusual to have so many people at an open house.

We had to go out for the two hours, so I dragged dh to a couple of stores including Rafters Living Lighting Store to look at light fixtures.  As although the builder does put in light fixtures, I never like them!!  All the light photos below are to go over the dining room table.

This one was lovely in "real life," the photo doesn't do it justice.  This one was $740.......did I mention I have expensive tastes...LOL This light fixture was from this company.

 We loved this one and it was cheaper at $640.  

 Here is a close up of the light and here is the web site for the firm.

 Liked this one as well, but forgot to get the company information.

 Then here is Miss Nora at three months old.  The headband was soon off as it turns out she neither likes headbands nor shoes on her feet!!

Don't you just want to pinch those cheeks of hers!!  Just a head's up her 4 month photo will have a St. Patrick's Day theme I am told!!

Finally, if you enjoy looking at figures/statistics/graphs, here is a link for the numbers for people looking at our house photos online: 

http://tourstats.obeo.com/stats_main.cfm?ID=852110&year=2014

The saga of the Smart Phone continues........

I came in from blowing out the driveway {SIGH} and bringing in the firewood {{SIGH}} and heard what I thought was my cell phone ringing.  However thought that was very puzzling as it wasn't my usual ring tone?  Looked at my phone and it was a snooze alarm and it wouldn't bloody well stop???  So my first question to myself was who set an alarm and how do I switch it off?  After a few minutes, I figured where the alarm was; in where the clock thingy is.  Turns out on further investigation that the alarm has been set to go off at 8:30 am Monday through Friday and 9 am on the weekends.  Again, who set this bloody alarm???

I figure out how to delete the "programmed" alarm thingys, but for the life of my couldn't figure out how to stop the alarm ringing?  By now I am getting a tad irritated as the ringing is getting on my nerves.  So in the end I switched off the phone then turned it back on again.  I have interrogated number one suspect our dear darling son and he swears up and down he didn't set it last time he was here.  So it is a mystery how an alarm was set in my phone??? 

Once again this is another reason why I shouldn't own a phone that is smarter than me!

Today is the agents open house.  I have to run a number of errands so will not be about for it.  I just hope we have a lot of agents turning up to have a look and want to bring clients!!

Edited to add: We have two viewings later on today, quite surprised by that..........hope something comes of it.