One big WIP

I started to title this before and after, but the after is still a work in progress so there ya go. The before pictures are from polaroids that were taken when we bought the house so you will just have to look past the poor quality.


Anywho - this is what the front looked like in 1985


and this is what it looks like now - or what it looked like about 2 weeks ago when I took these pictures but the only thing that has changed since then is we planted some azaleas in front (on the other side of the porch) and I moved the you-can-barely-see-it flag out farther in the front yard. We have plans to put flower beds in front and on the side of the porch but who knows when that will happen. (oh - we did put a concrete bench in front of the porch last weekend - in one of those future flower beds)


This is what the back looked like in 1985


and this is what it looks like in 2008. It is pretty hard to get a picture of the back since there are always cars in the driveway! I took this one day when I made it home before everyone else. We have plans to do something down the side of the house but I'm not exactly sure what yet. It may just be shrubs, it might be flower beds. . . I would also like to put a sidewalk of some kind from the driveway to the front porch. Like I said, it is a work-in-progress! (and this is just the outside!)

We are off to visit baby boy and DIL for a bit. (We were going yesterday but I got sidelined by a migraine) Not sure how much we will get to see them over the summer since they will both be working in different places.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Hard working man

This pile of bricks used to be the foundation on the three porches that were on this house. Well, calling them porches is generous they were maybe 4' x 5'. Anyway - when we tore the porches off to build the new ones we saved these bricks. Over the last couple of weeks, hubby decided to pull the rock out of a pathway and put brick there. As you can see, the brick was not cleaned up before it was stacked out behind the garage so he had to clean the brick as he was using it. (I'll have to take a picture of the huge rock pile that used to be the patio and is stacked next to this pile of brick)


Here is my hard working man - hard at work.

and here is the finished product.
I've really got to come up with a clever way to disguise that ugly fence or give in and replace those green strips.

Hope you are having a great week!

Stitch, frog, repeat

That seems to have been the theme for the weekend. I had to frog three times (twice because of knots and once because I left out a row) over the course of two days - and considering I didn't spend a lot of time stitching that meant not much progress. I would have liked to get at least another thread length on the top border but I have put it away to work on a couple of other things that need to be done and I'll pick it back up when I finish those things. (exchange and gift so no details yet!)

Thanks for all the comments/emails. It makes be feel like I'm not talking to myself here! I like to respond when I can, but sometimes I can't find an email address - and sometimes not even a blog to respond on. If I haven't responded to you, please know that I do appreciate the comments! Keep 'em coming!

That 'cute pup' from a previous post is a busy little fellow. Last time we kept him (he belongs to baby boy and dil) he chewed on my dining room chair. Yesterday I caught him snacking on a potted plant.

From the looks of it I would say he has been snacking since he got here a week ago. I only took pics of these two leaves. Some of them only have a little stub left. Good thing he is cute. He is spending the summer here. Good thing he is cute. Yes, I know I already said that - it bears repeating!

bshoney - yes, I knew the folk lore behind the bottle tree. Hubby says we have caught a spirit when the dogs are barking at nothing. We must have a lot of them already! I have been saving that post for several years with the intention of making a bottle tree out of it. At least you are saving your bottles first. The bottles are harder to come by than the post! LOL

A dog's life

Well, since I have no stitching progress to show you I'm posting pics of the 'house guests' we have for the summer.

Snap it quick - I can't stand still for long!

Getting a little sun. What a life.

Well, for some reason it won't load the picture of Squeaky. I've tried 3 times.

This is Nicholas - the grand dog. He and Squeaky belong to my son and daughter-in-law. They have been house-sitting so the dogs have been here. Since they are both working in theatre jobs over the summer we will have the dogs until that is over. Ashley will be working the Shakespeare festival in Kilgore and Jason is performing in Dallas. Will be interesting to see how that goes.

I have done some stitching - unfortunately I've done as much unstitching as I've stitched so you see, there are no progress pictures.

Anne Marie - sorry I didn't answer your question last post - I couldn't find an email address for you. The Red Thread project is by Bent Creek and there are 12 charts all together. (thirteen if you count the border) I'm having fun stitching it but I wasn't planning in it taking me all month to finish April! I've got two other things I need to start - one for a b'day gift and another for an exchange. I'm giving it the weekend but then I've got to put it away and work on the other things.

Hope you have a great weekend!

How does your garden grow?

I finally have my bottle tree! The post has been around here for years. It has been moved several times and used for several different things. I've been wanting to make a bottle tree out of it for some time but ran into trouble finding the right bottles (I wanted some blue ones) Anywho - last weekend hubby 'planted' the post for me and I put the clear and green bottles I had found on it. Then, thanks to Linda I found some blue bottles and the purple ones (which I thought were more pink, but 'tis okay). The blue and purple bottles added just the right touch!

I received some stitchy stash in the mail this week, but apparently I failed to download that picture from the camera so it will have to wait for a later post.

Have a great Wednesday!

A tiny bit of stitching

The reason I haven't been showing any stitching pictures is because I haven't had enough stitching to show! I started on the April Red Thread square back at the first of the month and this is all I have so far.

Here the month is nearly half over and I haven't even finished the square, much less worked on the border. It seeems the weekend days go much faster than the ones that fall between the weekends!

Have a great Monday.

I knew there had to be one

So far all the iris blooms I've had have been orange. Lovely, but I knew there were some purple ones in there somewhere. Earlier this week I spotted this guy just ready to pop out.

And here is what it looked like yesterday.

Isn't it pretty? If you look really, really close you can see another little purple baby just about ready to open.

Thank you so much for the comments and emails about my front porch. It took a really long time to get it and I am very proud of it. I know I have a couple of pictures of this house when we bought it (1985) I'm going to try to find them and post them soon. It really doesn't even look like the same house.

I'm still trying to catch up on blog reading. I've been behind since the first weekend we went out of town. I finally got my post feeds down to less than 100. Okay, it is at 99 but we aren't splitting hairs here. I haven't commented on many because I am trying to get through all of them today so I can be fresh for tomorrow!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. I'm hoping our weather stays like it is now - so far it has been a perfect day. Sun is out, windows are open. Perfect.

Before and after

I have no idea how many doilies my great-grandmother made in her lifetime - hundreds I'm sure but this is the only one I have. I had it framed when we moved into this house (1985) I think the first time it had a brown mat board behind it. At some point in the 90s I had the background changed to this mauve color.

I've been thinking for some time now that it just wasn't doing anything for me so I finally changed the background to green (I figure green will work in most rooms if I decide to move it to another room later, which is highly likely) The brown frame wasn't doing anything for me either, but I like that it is round so I figured what-the-heck

and I painted it. I like it much better now (it isn't showing up well on the yellow wall - which is more yellow than it looks in this pic) Terrible pic - this room has 5 windows and you either get reflection from those or if you try to use the overhead light you get the reflection of that on the glass. I've been thinking this room needs an overhaul but there is a major big piece of furniture that I can not move by myself so I'll have to get hubby on board if I want to paint those walls.

Thanks for all the nice comments on the front porch. It makes me smile every time I see it!

Weekend warriors

We finally got the front porch finished. It only took 22.5 years. 20 to get the porch and another 2.5 to finish out around the bottom.


Now I need to figure out what I want to do about flower beds there.
We also did a lot of yard work this weekend - all that first of spring stuff like the first mow, picking up all the limbs that fell over the winter, weeding flower beds.

This bed took me most of the day - it was pretty bad. I don't think it had been touched since the middle of last summer. Still need to get some plants to put in there but that won't be until next weekend then we will add some mulch (most likely pine straw since we have plenty so it is free and azaleas like it)

I had a lot of company while working on this bed. He had lots of friends with him and they were still there last night when I went to take pictures.
I think I escaped the weekend with only half a dozen skeeter bites.
Have a great Monday!

Clean

This would be the only thing in my house right now that is clean. Don't you just love a clean keyboard? Makes it feel like new.

Yesterday was spent working in the yard - first time of the year always takes a long time. (2 people x 10 hours is not enough) It was too late for any pictures last night - I'll try to get some today. The weather was perfect for yard work yesterday and looks like it will be again today. Mr. Wonderful is out there again today while I try to find flat surfaces inside. Two weekends away have made for a lot of clutter and instead of working on that Friday afternoon - I cleaned my keyboard!

Invasion

We (as in our town) are being invaded by 4-wheelers. There are thousands of them all over town. I didn't take my camera with me when I went to town earlier and I don't want to swipe anyones photos w/o asking so I'm hoping this link will work. Mudders
I personally do not see the attraction to seeing how muddy you can get. They are getting their money's worth this weekend with all the rain we have had. Good for businesses in town I suppose.

Since I can't do a post without a picture, here is the ornament I got in an exchange last week. Isn't it cute? I'm not putting these away as I get them (this is the second one) but I'm leaving them out in my little office where I can enjoy them. I'll put them away after they have had they have had their time on the tree.

Have a great weekend!

Will I ever catch up?

Why does it take so long to catch up on things when you are gone for the weekend? Since I was gone two weekends in a row, I'm really behind! Totally worth it but I hate being behind!

Here is a picture of our hostess for the weekend, Pam from 3 Stitches. She spent a lot of time walking around with a bag full of names to draw for door prizes. Last person to win draws the next name. Always a lot of fun.

And here are my stitching buddies. (L-R) Sarah, Sandra and Sherry. Sarah, Sandra and I have been stitching once a week for several years now. Last night we tried to figure out exactly how long it has been and I 'think' we are in our 4th year. Times flies when you are having fun. We have not missed very many weeks - we might have to swap nights around, but we try really hard to not miss a week. We take turns cooking/bringing dinner and after we eat we stitch until 9:00 or 10:00. Sometimes we sit and chat at the dinner table longer than others but that is okay too. Sherry lives too far away to make it to stitch night - she would either have to drive home in the dark or spend the night and it just hasn't worked out that way yet. We are determined to get her here soon though.
This is the same group I went with to the quilt festival in November - we already have reservations for this year and we left our deposits for next years retreat before we came home on Sunday. We also have a weekend stitching get-away planned for June. Good friends and stitching, does it get any better that that?
I've not had time to stitch much since the weekend and I failed to put my class project in my bag last night so I'm still not finished with the stitching on the needlebook, but when I get there I will post a picture.
So much to do, so little time.