YOP: Week 41

    Let's see, what have I done this week?  I finally moved all the totes of china out of the hallway and living room.  I made sure a couple of the totes were secure enough and then re-packed two.  The one tote had fallen when a couple of the cats knocked into it.  Several dinner plates broke along with a bread plate and a couple saucers.  I was quite disappointed by the dinner plates breaking as those are arguably the most important part of the set.  But it was quite a large set to begin with so I still have service for six.  The other tote I repacked is the partial set I retrieved from my grandmother's estate.  I don't know much about the set other than no one else in the family wanted it and my aunt had already claimed some of the larger pieces from it.  I did some rudimentary research on it yesterday from the back stamp.  It's a Howard Laughlin print called Virginia Rose and the vast majority of it was manufactured in 1948.  So my guess is this was her wedding china.  So I've managed to inherit both of my grandmother's wedding sets.  

I didn't even think to take an inventory until just now.  There are a good amount of dinner plates, bread or dessert plates, tea cups and saucers and then a really good amount of small bowls.  The other "set" I retrieved is a set of glass luncheon plates and matching glasses.  I have the apple pattern and the wheat pattern.  I've wanted a set of these for ages.  

I yanked this picture from Etsy because I never think to take pictures of these things.  These are a nice heavy weight glass and can be put through the dishwasher.  I should find myself some more.  I know they're pretty easy to find on eBay and Etsy.  Pretty much everyone had a set of them in the 50s.  

    Once my husband got all the totes of china out to our storage shelf in the garage we were able to move the newly refinished bench into the "entryway".  I got a storage bench from grandma's estate that needed either painting or staining as it had quite a lot of water damage.  My husband tackled the sanding and staining part earlier in the week.  He has discovered he hates staining and wont be attempting that part again.  So, I'll be learning how to stain to do the rest of the furniture restoration we have planned.  (That's fine with me, I've been wanted to learn how to do this anyway.)

It's a bit uneven in the front there, but I think it turned out quite nicely for his first ever foray into refinishing.  The new fancy snow-blower is in this picture too.  It looks better now that its been sitting a few days too.  We've already filled it with winter accessories and tossed a pile of stuff on it.

    We'll be having work done to our heating system this week.  The temps cooled off last week and when my husband went to check on our boiler it was giving him error codes.  It has been giving us various issues since we bought the house three years ago, so we knew we'd probably have to replace it soon.  Well that time has come, so that will be our adventure this week.

    I've been slowly making progress on my MKAL, I've gotten behind a little because school is my priority but I should be catching up later today.  The beads come into play very soon, so I'm excited.  Alrighty back to all the work I need to get done.  I have another big unit project for the communications class that I need to work on in addition to the weekly reading and work.  Ugh, the end of December can't get here fast enough.  Alrighty back to it.

I don't think my link to the ball winder I got worked last week so here is a picture:

 and a link: Amazon