Empty Nest or Bed and Breakfast?

A major milestone is rapidly approaching. We will soon have an empty nest. Our 34th anniversary is next week, and our oldest kid is almost 32, so in reality, we haven't had very long as a couple without extra people around. Last year at this time, we had 10 people living in our house! Besides our five kids, we've had various people come and go over the years. We've opened our home to friends and family alike, as people had need.

It's a big change, and I am thoroughly looking forward to it! I'm excited to see what the future has in store, and I am excited at the thought of DH and I having more time to spend together, just the two of us. We may end up with other people living with us later on, who knows what will happen down the road, but for now, we'll be empty nesters...

...or will we? It seems people come to visit in spurts, and we are having a wave of company these days. We've had four cousins come visit in the last couple of months, right now DS the Younger and DDIL are here visiting. This weekend DD#2, DSIL, and Mr LJ arrive so they can see everyone, and on Sunday we'll be celebrating Easter a week early because four of our five kids will all be here at the same time with their families!

Today my oldest sister came down to visit and we had a fun day together. We'll have quite a bit of company in town for DD#1's baby shower in April. April is shaping up to be a crazy month, we will have extra people sleeping here every week in April.

Sometimes it feels like I'm running a bed and breakfast, but do you realize what a blessing it is to have people want to come spend time here? I am glad that our home is inviting, and people like being here. I love seeing everyone. Does all the company make it hard to quilt? Sure, but no matter how much I enjoy quilting, people are more important to me every time. I can quilt later, but I only get so much time with people I love.

Now, with all the craziness going on, have I gotten any sewing in? Actually I have, and I've also started setting up my sewing suite. I haven't had a sewing room for two years now, and now I'll be taking over two rooms in the finished basement as my sewing suite. So far I'm only working in one of those rooms.

I've got my cutting table set up in the center of the room, the cutting table is a counter height kitchen table. I've got three quilt tops on top of it, but you can only see one in this pic. That top one needs borders, but the two beneath it aren't getting borders, so they are done, just need pressing.

You can see my ironing station behind the cutting table. It is made from 3 Ikea Trofast Units. We made a big ironing board to go on top of those, so I can press 45" fabric easily, and still have space for my iron. The purple plastic drawers have my fat quarter-1 yard pieces of fabric. The tall set of shelves are obviously a work in progress. my Go dies on on the bottom shelves, and right now I have various projects on the top shelves. I'm not thinking this is where my current projects will be stored once I'm done, but for right now, this will do.

I took a photo from this angle, so you can see my Scrap User System fits perfectly under my cutting table. I buy the large three drawer Sterilite drawer sets, take them apart and reconfigure them to four drawer sets. They fit perfectly under the table, no wasted space at all.

DH put my pegboard up on the wall you can't see, but I haven't gotten any of my rulers up yet. You can see part of my treadmill, which we just moved to this room. I want the treadmill right in my sight reminding me to use it.

I'll post more photos as I work on the rooms, but this is a start.

Three small quilts to top stage this week, and a start on a new sewing space, all while I have company? That's a win in my book!