Sunday, August 31, 2008

How has your weekend been so far?

I am spoiled. I know this. Yesterday my day started with making my own coffee. Huh, you say?



It is hubby's job to make the coffee - I admit we have had this coffee maker for some time and I had never made a pot of coffee in it until yesterday. I had to get out the book to even figure out how to make it work. Hubby took this job on all by himself - I used to do it (we had another coffee maker then) but then he started and it became his routine. (his coffee is better than mine too) The last thing he does before he goes to bed is get the coffee maker ready for the morning. I'm really spoiled because not only does he do that, but he makes my first cup in the morning.
Hubby went to work Friday morning at 7:00am - he finally came home at 7:00pm last night. It was a long 36 hours - he crashed for 6 hours (after spending another 4 hours or so on the phone) and went back this morning. He will be home tonight and hopefully things will go well and he will get his day off tomorrow. Kind of all depends on the weather, etc. If he is here, we will have to move things around in the yard, just in case we get the weather they are warning us we are going to get. If he isn't here - I'll have to get Timothy to help me. He loves it when I have things for him to do.
I stitched quite a bit yesterday but I can't show you since it is an exchange piece - so I am going to show you some more of the moving around I've had to do to get this room together. Are you bored yet?
So - the bookcase that was on the left side of this room went to Timothy's room since he had this bookcase

and it matched the other one from this room. He wasn't here so I unloaded his stuff, we moved the bookcases and I reloaded his stuff. (this is an old picture - he has more stuff now!)

The two matching bookcases then went to the living room. (when they were in different rooms, I thought they matched the tv cabinet better, but at this point it didn't matter!) I just threw everything back on them and have no idea what I'm actually going to end up with there, but at least it isn't all piled on the floor. Some of it is from the bookcase that was there, some of it was in here. (There was a smaller bookcase on the left - it went upstairs.) The reason there is a gap between the tv cabinet and the bookcases is because the doors on the tv cabinet are crappy! There has to be that much clearance for them to open. Terrible design and I'll know better next time! There was a sampler hanging on the wall to the right of the tv - it was too wide to fit the space between, so it had to be moved too.

It landed here. Of course there were other things hanging here and they had to be moved. (none of these pictures were on this wall) I told you this was a complicated process! I have no updated pictures to show of this room since, as I mentioned above, hubby hasn't exactly been here to help with the things I need his help for. Maybe tomorrow!

I'm not showing morning glories today but I wish you could smell this. I think it is a dwarf gardenia. It smells just like a gardenia. (which I love the smell of in the garden - hate it in anything scented) From the looks of that sun you wouldn't think we are looking at possible flooding in just a few days.
How is this for a totally rambling post? Guess I should go check on the cake in the oven. Hope I still have readers after this ramble - now you know how my mind works.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday! I'm ready for the long weekend, are you?

My Texas Sage is happy with the recent rain we have had - if you look in the bottom left corner you can see my little gnome has been over-powered by the sage and lantana.

this little guy was having breakfast.

and look at my morning glories! The past two days I've had lots of blooms - of course the leaves still look like heck but, oh well. . .

This one wasn't quite open when I was out taking pictures this morning. That's okay - I'm not sure I was totally awake either!


In all the moving around the past couple of weeks, I decided this picture needed an update. The pictures loaded in the opposite order from what I intended and I'm too lazy to re-do it so the after picture is first. It looks like it isn't quite even in but it is an optical illusion - I measured!


This is what it looked like before. This was the first piece I ever stitched with overdyed floss. It is dated 1997.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

upstairs

Since I've shown you this tiny room that used to be baby boy's bedroom, I thought I would take you on a tour of the room he moved to from here. Our attic spans the width of the house so we took about 2/3 of it and made a bedroom for baby boy. It is a long, narrow space and again, we had to make the most of what we had. In the first picture the door is on the right and you are looking south at the only window in the room.

On the left side of the window is a closet and on the right is another closet (that houses a hot water tank).

This little cubby for the desk is right across from the bed, in between the hot water closet and the bedroom door.

If you turn to look at the other end you can see the attic door. (if you open it you will be met with a wall of JUNK - really needs to be cleaned out) If you look to the right of the door, those are the cube-its that I moved into this room to use for the base of my sewing table. A bookcase from the living room went up to that corner.

From the top of the stairs you can see all his posters from plays while he was in high school. I've added a few posters from college plays but they aren't as easy to come by as they were when he was in high school.
These pictures are all from about 3 years ago when baby boy moved into the dorm. Things have changed a lot up there since then. Baby boy took some things with him when he moved into an apartment and when Brian moved back home from Illinois he moved into this room. Hubby also has a desk up there now that he uses when he isn't using the kitchen table. I rarely go up there - it is a dangerous place to try to walk through (can you say pack-rat?) - plus, with the low ceiling and lone window it is kind of cave-like and I don't do caves.

Monday, August 25, 2008

One lonely, fading bloom

I haven't been out to pull weeds or look for new blooms in several days. Sometime in the afternoon yesterday, hubby told me there was a bloom on the monster morning glory - well of course I figured it was gone by then. They are usually completely spent by noon-ish so I was surprised when I went out late in the afternoon and it was still there. See it - way down there on the bottom. (ignore the yard that needs attention)


A bit wilted, but still there.

Look at all the blooms on the butterfly bush! Little blue butterflies. I just love 'em. I really hope they come back next year.
I'm way behind in blog reading. I spent most of the weekend working on my teenie tiny little room. I did try to check the 'where bloggers create' posts, but that was just about it. I really enjoyed seeing all the pictures so thanks to everyone who played along. If you haven't seen them yet, get thyself over to Brenda's blog and take a look see. Some really fun places to visit!
Hope you are having a great Monday.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Where Bloggers Create

Brenda over at TheBrendaBlog is hosting a 'Where Bloggers Create' party today.

My little blogging space is in the process of a make-over. I thought it would be complete by now, but it isn't so I'm going to start with before pictures and go up to where I am now.
First a little background. This house isn't large by any means. We thought it was when we bought it as we moved here from a 850 sq. ft. 2bedroom/1bath. When we moved here we had 1580 sq. ft. with 3 bedrooms and a bath and a half (the boys bathroom had a washer/dryer where we suspect there had once been a bathtub. After 23 years, we still have questions as to some of the odd things we have found here, but that is another story) Anyway - we haven't changed the footprint of the house but we have re-purposed a lot of the space. So, the little room where I blog started out life (as of when we moved here) as a closet. There was a wall that divided it not quite in half and part was a closet and the other part was connected to the bedroom beside it. We could see where this had been one room at one time but at some point a wall had been built to make the closet. As the boys got older it became apparent that we were going to have to separate the youngest two. They just could not share a bedroom anymore. (the real clue came when the middle child started camping out in the closet!) So, with the idea that the oldest would probably move out in a few years (he was in high school at the time), we thought we could make this space a bedroom for the youngest (he was about 10 at the time) and when the oldest moved out, he could have that room. (that didn't happen, but again, another story) So the second life of this room was baby boy's bedroom. I have pictures of what it looked like at that time, but I can't find them at the moment - when I do, I'll share them. That was way before the digital camera! By the time baby boy made it to high school he had definitely outgrown this room, oldest was still living here, so we took in part of the attic to make baby boy a room and I claimed this room for me. Up to that point, the computer had been in our bedroom and I hated it!
So - this former closet turned bedroom turned office is 6'3" wide by 10'3" long. Tiny. Nice size closet - tiny office!
There is what the room looked like 2 weeks ago.

This picture was taken from the hallway - as far back as I could get - through the door.

File cabinet and printer are just inside the door, to the left of my computer cabinet.

On the wall, right behind me as I type, is a shelf with pillowcase dolls and a quilt. The quilt top was found in a box of scraps when my grandmother passed away a few years ago. We think it must have been the last one she pieced and she never got around to quilting it. I had it quilted and I love having it in this room. The dolls - the one on the left my grandmother made from a pillowcase my great-grandmother had made. The one in the middle was a gift from my friend Sherry, and the one on the right came from my grandmother's house. I don't know if it is one she made - I think it is and if so, it would also be a pillowcase my great-grandmother made. If it isn't, it would be one she bought at a craft fair to see how to make them. (I really suspect it was one she made)

To the right of my computer cabinet is a plastic cart with cross stitch supplies and in the corner a bookcase with more supplies and family pictures.

Straight across from that bookcase is another one, also loaded.
Now for the fun part.
I have decided I wanted to learn how to sew. (stop laughing) One of the biggest things is the fact that it is a major PITA to get the machine out every time I want to sew something. It is stored in the back of a closet so not only do I have to dig it out, I have to put it away when I am through. (call me lazy) So I have either committed myself to learning or I need to be committed. Jury is still out on that one.
I talked the dh into putting in a sewing table. Yes, in my little 6'x10' room. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to make it work. To start, everything had to come out. That meant unloading all 3 bookcases, the computer cabinet and the file cabinet. How fun. The carpet had a bump in it that needed to be stretched out and it was really dirty so a cleaning was in order (I would have preferred to pull the carpet and paint the floor but as carpet had previously been glued down it would have required a lot of work)

So - here is the room empty, with dirty, bumpy carpet.

I didn't paint the walls so that stuff didn't have to come down. Our computers are all networked and they run through this room so to keep everyone online while this is happening we had to leave the router and modem connected.

Carpet stretched and cleaned. I did take the opportunity to paint the baseboards and trim.


The file cabinet and my computer went back in the same spot as before. This will likely be the only time you see this cabinet open - it is rarely neat enough for a photo.
Across the back wall (where the bookcases were) I have stacked 'cube-its' that were in the room upstairs and put a piece of plywood - this is where the sewing machine will go. (that board is now outside getting painted - there is only so much room to work with out in the garage and I needed the shelves painted first!) You can see a bit of the shorter bookcase in this picture (that was formerly under the window) - it is directly behind me now, under the quilt shelf.
Above the 'sewing table' I (meaning dh) hung adjustable shelving on both sides.

Not nearly as much shelf space as I had before. Later I will show you where the bookcases (that didn't come back in here) landed. Move one thing, you have to move 3 more. I had planned on this being a 3 day project. (I get grouchy when my house is all out of sorts for more than 3 days - especially when it cuts into my stitching time!) We are into week 3 of this project. That's all I have for now. Not really a lot more to see though. The 'sewing table' will be painted white like the shelves and will have a drop leaf on the left hand side (where the plastic cart used to be) I'm still working on what should go where as far as the shelves go.
So, there you have it. This is where I blog. Right now the only thing creative happening in here is trying to figure out where to put everything! If you wonder how a claustrophobic person like myself can work in here, the main thing is that I never, ever, close the door and I absolutely could not make this work with out the window!
Can't wait to see where everyone else blogs!



















Saturday, August 23, 2008

A cow wearing pearls

Yes - I did say a cow wearing pearls. I know there are people out there cringing at the sight of Clara here. Yes, I am aware it is 2008 and cows, bunnies and geese went out of style more than a few years ago, but I can't let go of Clara here just yet. My grandmother used to see things like this at craft fairs and then she would make them for everybody so I have Miss Clara along with several bunnies here and there. (I think there is even a goose floating around in the garage somewhere) I still miss my grandmother very much and I'm just not to the point that I can get rid of them yet, so Miss Clara lives in my office. (she is in the guest room for this picture since my office is a disaster zone, but more on that tomorrow).

Do you like Miss Clara's 'pearls'? They came from New Orleans when the hubby and I were there for our 25th anniversary. We spent two nights there before boarding the Conquest for a 7 day cruise.

I have been given some special awards and I would like to say thank-you to the bloggers who were so kind as to give them to me.
From Sharon at One Life to Live there is the Brillante Weblog award

and from both Sharon and Merrie at Where the Blackbirds Sing there is the I 'heart' your blog award.

I thank both of you ladies from the bottom of my heart. I've not had the best of weeks and it really makes me feel good to know that somewhere someone actually reads my little blog. I know I am supposed to pass these awards along but I just don't think my brain can handle choosing 7 blogs right now (list of blogs I read on a regular basis numbers over 200 - thank goodness for blog readers so I don't have to click each one to find new posts!) Most of them have already received these awards anyway. Please accept my gratitude and don't be upset if I don't pass them along.
Back to trying to restore some order to this room.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Autumn

The dog - not the season.
Is this pitiful or what?

When the granddogs are here, she acts like she would like nothing better than for them to go home and when they go home, she looks like this. Then again, it could just be a 'don't notice me here and make me get down' look. Nope - I think she misses them - until they come back that is!

Monday, August 18, 2008

The chair

So, while I was wondering what I would post about today, I was looking through my picture files and found this. Remember the chair from this post? Well - this is the chair that prompted that make-over.

This chair has been in Mr. Wonderful's family for a long time His mother remembers it as a child and hubby remembers breaking it when he was a child. (you can't see the repair from this angle, but it is visible) Anyway - he wanted the chair and his mother gave it to him. I really need to get him to write out the history of who it belonged to before his mother had it - I keep forgetting. (I think it was her aunt, but like I said. . .) I really didn't think that I would be comfortable having in the living room so I moved the glider rocker out of our bedroom and put this chair where the glider had been. While this chair is pretty - it really isn't my style. I'm not really sure why - it is kind of 'delicate' looking and 'delicate' is not exactly a word I would think of to describe myself. (I do think it would be wonderful painted white but I've been forbidden from painting it). I have a lot of family things - all of which have much more sentimental value than monetary value - just like this chair. This is really the only thing Mr. Wonderful has asked me to find a place for, so I guess I can resist the urge to paint it - but it is tough!
I did do some stitching yesterday but I haven't taken a progress picture. I'm still trying to finish the July square on The Red Thread project. I don't think I will be caught up by the end of August.
Have a great day.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

The monster in the garden

Well - it hasn't produced any flowers yet

but this morning glory is starting to take over! We have to 'release' the blue butterfly bush from the grasp of the morning glory every couple of days and now it is creeping out into the yard! As you can see, we have no grass so at least something will be green in the yard. The little rain we had the other day made the flowers and the weeds happy (which means we need to mow - and by we, I mean the dh), but the grass is done for the year I think. The weather people have been telling us for days we are going to get more rain, but so far it just clouds up then the sun comes back out. The temps have been a little lower - meaning we are just in the 90s instead of over 100. It does make it easier on the a/c to cool the house when it drops a few degrees outside, so I'll take it!
Hope you are having a great weekend.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

In the window

Since I'm still working on my 'project' I roamed around in my picture files looking for some kind of picture to post - I just can't do a post w/o a picture! I don't think I've shown what I did with this window Linda made for me.

I've had it hanging on the wall in the bedroom but I kept thinking it needed something. I was thinking about adding some lace or something behind the glass - of course when I was thinking this, I didn't have any 'lace or something' so I dug out a few pictures of hubby and myself and put them up until I could get some 'lace or something'.


Decided I kinda like it so this is how it is for now.
Our rain was so nice. I hope we get more soon.
Have a great Thursday!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

its wet outside

Isn't it wonderful. . .









I hope it stays wet all day - and then some!
Have a great Tuesday.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Dog days

Well - the dog days of summer might not quite be over as far as the weather is concerned (although they are saying we might have some rain and a little cooler temps for a couple of days) the 'dog days of summer' here are over. Squeaky (black) and Nicholas (brown) went back to Nac with baby boy and his bride last night. They have been here since April. (the dogs, not baby boy and his bride)


The car was loaded to the gills - which isn't hard to do in a Mustang! They always bring lots of laundry and the back seat was FULL! I'm not really sure how they all crammed in there, but they called to say they had made it home so all is well. They had barely backed out of the driveway when hubby started asking if we couldn't get a new friend for Autumn. Mummm - don't think so. Not right now! It is pretty quiet here but that isn't a bad thing. Autumn can manage to bark plenty all by herself when the need arises.
My project is still in progress. I am always way under in the time I estimate for any project. I'm a 3 day project girl (except for stitching projects) I think any project should be complete and my house back in order in 3 days. It rarely happens. I know this, but I still start to get cranky after about 3 days - even when the project is my idea (as this one was). I haven't crossed a stitch since Thursday and my house is a mess. Besides the underestimation of the time frame required, there were also some unexpected outside circumstances that just can't be helped. Right now, I'll just say that my computer is back in place and working. That is a start! Maybe tomorrow I'll post about the beginning of my project - we will see. I can tell you that the progress pictures are going to be slow coming!
Hope you have a great week!

Friday, August 8, 2008

buttons

Isn't it fun to take simple things - like buttons


and make them into something cool?

I went through my jar of white buttons, glued them to a plain white frame and popped in a picture from our girlfriends weekend. (sorry about the terrible reflection!)

This is 'the other' morning glory vine - the one that hasn't bloomed. It keeps getting bigger - and attacking the plant beside it - but no blooms.

I'm trying to get started on a project - if I do, I will be without my computer for a few days so if you don't hear from me, I'm probably covered in paint!

Have a great weekend.