We have light!

The lighting on the back patio is done!

We picked the fan first. There is not a great selection (within our budget anyway) of fans for non-enclosed areas and I hate fans with floppy blades. I hope these stand up to the weather. The box says it is rated for 'wet' areas or 'non-enclosed areas'. Time will tell.

Then we found this wall light to replace the 'buy 'em by the boat-load from China' builders light that was by the back door.

You can see the one recessed light on the other side of the fan - there is another on the opposite end. We have plenty of light! There are also two motion lights on the corners of the roof. The electrician tried to talk me into 4 recessed lights - glad I didn't go for it. We might have had airplanes trying to land in the back yard!
Still not completely finished but the weather was great last night - breezy and cool - so we sat outside for a bit. This morning it is humid and muggy. Yuck.
Have a great weekend!

Marking off the list

Don't you love marking things off the 'to do' list?

After we painted the living room I never got around to hanging stuff back on the walls

I left the big porch picture in the same spot (I love this picture - it is like looking out a window)
Anyway - I hung it back up but wasn't sure what I wanted to hang beside it. This is what I finally ended up with. Now I have a pile of stuff that was hanging there I still need to figure out where to hang.


Since we moved the sofa when we painted I didn't have anything hanging above it. (the tv was here - the sofa has never been against a wall w/o a window before) I ended up with these white plates. Will do until something else comes along!

The thumb is better - at least it isn't throbbing anymore. Time will tell what will happen with the nail.

Sewing

One thing about hanging around the house waiting for people to show up is that I get a few things done. (we won't discuss the fact that I have plenty of cleaning I could be doing)
Anyway - I sewed up a receiving blanket for a baby gift


The blue side is cotton and the white side is flannel. I love these things.

The other thing I sewed on was a pillowcase. I've made pillowcases before but I never liked the raw seams on the inside. I picked up a 'kit' with instructions for making one without the raw edges. I read it several times and was drawing a complete blank. It talked about rolling the fabric and making a 'hot dog' and the only picture was of a hot dog. I was totally confused, so I took to looking for a picture on the internet. Once I found a real picture it made perfect sense!

and I finally got my pillowcase put together! No raw edges to ravel on the inside.

Obviously I took pictures before the blanket or pillowcase were washed and ironed!

I smashed the you-know-what out of my thumb this morning. Cut and bled right through the nail. It is really hard to type with a sore thumb!

Thanks for all the comments/emails on my scissor board. I'll show it again when I find more scissors and/or when I get the wall painted.

A few things

While I've had to hang around the house I've managed to cross a few things off my 'to do' list.
I made these bulletin boards for my computer cabinet a few years ago. They get a lot of use but the fabric was kind of busy so I decided to recover them.


There are 4 - one on each side of the inside of the cabinet and one on the inside of each door. The first time I covered them in a yellow & blue floral.



This time, I used a drop cloth and pink ribbon. Better?


I also made a board for hanging my scissors. (no - this isn't all of them - not even half) I found this frame at Hobby Lobby marked down to 3.00 a while back and knew I could figure out something to do with it. I painted it (it was black) and covered some foam board with more of the painters crop cloth. It looks pretty blah hanging on the fugly beige wall but eventually I will paint in here. I'm thinking about using a soft (really soft) pink. Will see - there are still walls to paint downstairs before I move to the upstairs. I also re-covered my bulletin board that is hanging on the wall (also with the drop cloth) but I failed to take a pic. Like the scissor board, it also has a white frame and the wall color doesn't do a thing for it at the moment. I'll get a pic later.
Back to business.
Hope you are having a great week!

Patio progress

Here is a little more progress on the patio



It is getting there!

Changes

I can't remember if I told you that we were going to have a patio built on the back of our house. I might not have mentioned it because it had to be approved by the HOA first. Anyway - last week we finally got our approval. Monday evening (like 7:00pm!) we got a call saying they were going to come pour concrete Tuesday morning. Tuesday was the only day we couldn't be here so hubby told them it would have to wait. (we left here at 6:30am and didn't get home until 10:00pm on Tuesday - most of that was spent on the road so we were both beat!) When hubby talked to the contractor he said he would call on Wednesday to let us know when they would be out - probably Thursday or Friday. That meant I could have Wednesday to do some errands. So, when I left the back of the house looked like this.


I think hubby actually took this picture on Sunday.
Anywho - I came home a couple of hours later to a backyard full of workers! We had no idea they were going to show up on Wednesday - of course that kind of put the rest of my day out of whack.
This is what we had when they left on Wednesday.



They came back yesterday to trim out and put the shingles on but being as I am a short person and you can't really see much from the ground I didn't take any more pictures last night.
As I type this, they are pouring concrete! I have no idea if they work on Saturdays or if it will be Monday before they come back to work on the cover again. They still have to set posts and do electrical. We will have a couple of can lights and a ceiling fan. We are also replacing the back door. That is kinda what started the whole patio thing - there is some rotting on the door and frame from water bouncing off that 'patio' so we knew we had to replace the door but it was senseless if it wasn't going to be covered since it would just do the same thing again. Same door except this time it will have blinds between the glass. We debated on half or full glass but since there is carpet in that room I don't want a doggie door there and Autumn loves to look out the window so we ordered the full glass. (who knew they only keep the half glass in stock - two weeks to get the full glass!)

So there ya go - just a little more chaos to add to the week.

ps - the dog is going nuts - not only are there strange people in the back yard, she can't go outside to check them out!

My New Man

Okay - didn't mean to tease you with the news of my winning a man. :) We were out of town all day Tuesday and yesterday was chaotic - I think my life has been in constant chaos for the last year and a half and it is wearing on me, but I'll get into yesterday in another post.
Here are the promised pictures of my new man

Isn't he cute? Saluting as he holds my scissors. I put him to work immediately!


How about a close-up?

I just happened to be using black scissors when I won him but I grabbed a pair of floral ones just so there was a little more contrast between the scissors and my man. I haven't named him yet.
If you would like to get your very own man to put to work for you give Pam @ 3 Stitches a call @281-320-0133 or email her at 3stitches@3stitches.com.
I will get to pictures of the other goodies I came home with later - chaos, I'm telling ya.

The blue room

I thought I would show you a couple more pictures of my blue bedroom. I know I've shown a few here and here. But I don't think I ever showed any when it was completely done. Maybe completely done is not really the right term - why don't we say 'done for now'. :)

This is the wall where my conservatory sits by the master chest. Too bad they wouldn't let me keep it on the front porch, but it looks pretty spiffy here in the bedroom. (I should have plugged in the lights - I left the white lights in after Christmas)


and this is the bay window after I finally got curtains up! Who knew bay windows were such a pain to dress? I still have one more bay window (in the breakfast room) but it won't be getting the 'one rod' treatment - I will figure out some way to do each window separate! It is really hard to get a good picture of a window. I tried with the blinds open and closed - this was the better of the bunch. (the conservatory is just out of the picture on the right)

I got a new quilt for the bed too. I wasn't really sure what I wanted - I was trying to keep it from being completely feminine and I saw a few things I thought might work, but even at sale prices they were a little too much for my budget. Then, one day I was walking through Target and saw this blue quilt. I had my paint sample in my purse and it was a perfect match! (it is a closer match than it appears in the pic) It looks more like I bought the quilt first then matched the paint (which I hear is the preferred way to do things, I'm always backwards) than the way I did which was to paint the room, then look for bed coverings!

We had a lot of rain yesterday and still have clouds today. I'm not sure if it is supposed to rain any more or not. Got a lot going on this week - in fact it looks like the next 5-6 weeks are going to be pretty busy. Hope I can keep up!

Skunked

No - I didn't get sprayed by a skunk, just couldn't resist the title. Anyway - as you can see, the computer survived a trip to the shop. New power supply and we are back up and running. (even if it does run louder now - I don't care, at least it works!)
So, back to the skunks. I went on a stitching weekend - I was trying to make a post before I left on Friday which is when the computer crashed on me. Anyway, 3 Stitches (3stitches.com but I think it is still down for maintenance) in Spring has a get-a-way every spring - I think this was #13) and the girlfriends and I have been to the last 4. Sherry didn't make it this year but is planning to come next year. Where was I? Oh, skunks - anyway, the theme this year was black and white. You would be amazed how many cute things you do with skunks! Our projects all had skunks on them. We got a total of 4 projects to stitch - that includes all the materials to stitch and to finish them with. We also got a few things to go inside of the projects. (no, I haven't even finished stitching the first one yet) I would show you some of the stuff but as you can see from the photo, I haven't unpacked it yet! It has been one of those weeks - allergies are kicking my butt and I'm not getting a lot accomplished.
Sandra, Sarah and I spent our 'free time' on Saturday at a quilt shop - quilt store and cross stitch shopping both in the same weekend - dangerous territory!
Oh - guess what I won as a door prize? A MAN! Yep, I won a man. I'll take a picture of him soon so I'll have that to show you. (yes, I got to bring him home with me!)
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Another pictureless post

I hate to do posts without pictures but I have none to post. My computer (where all my pictures are stored) is in the shop. I tried to turn it on Friday morning and nothing. I used to have live-in techies that took care of computer problems for me but they are spread between three hours and twenty four hours away so . . . I called. The 'best guess' was that I need a new power supply. Since I was going away for a girls weekend I left hubby to fix it for me. Instead of attempting to fix it, he took it and dropped it off at a repair shop. Poor computer is probably so confused - it has never been in a repair shop before. Haven't heard anything yet but I'll be back with a post as soon as I get back to normal.
I'm trying to get around to read blogs with Lola (my netbook) but I'm a little behind since I was gone all weekend.
Hope you all have a great week!

Laundry room makeover, part two

I thought I would show more pictures of the laundry room even though it isn't quite finished yet. We still have to get doors put up but who knows how long that could take. If you want to see part one/before pictures either scroll down a couple of posts or click here.

So here goes - hubby says I have a whole lotta pink going on in here!


This is the new view from the kitchen


I had my ironing board hanging on the back of the door but since we are going to put French doors up that wasn't going to work so I just put some hooks on the wall (I have a new ironing board cover - just too lazy to put it on!) The 'laundry' sign I already had (half off at Hobby Lobby) The 'drip dry' sign I made from a scrap of the shelving boards.


This is what I put up on the shelves. The canvas totes on the top shelf have seasonal decor in them - I didn't want to put anything I needed on a regular basis up there since I have to get on a step ladder to reach that shelf - okay, I have to have the step ladder to reach the middle shelf too! I spray painted my laundry basket along with the other pink basket (and the picnic table, hubby informed me - couldn't help it, it was windy that day!) The yellow basket has canning jars in it - no, I don't can, but you never know when you might need a jar for something!


The pink and green fabric tote thing has gift bags in it - I use them over and over until they just shouldn't be used anymore! The plates are from the plate collage I had in my bedroom before - I still have plenty!


and here is that empty cubby. We put a cabinet with doors at the top - sometimes there is just stuff that needs to not be seen! I thought about trying to hide the laundry baskets but it is a working laundry room so there they sit. The lamp is one I had in the kitchen - I'm still trying to decide if I need to paint it - and what color if I did. The curtain under the shelf hides the laundry sorter. It is actually the top half of the curtain I used in the master bathroom - I only needed a short one but the one I liked only came in the long length so I cut off the bottom part (that had the edging I wanted) and sewed a rod pocket in it for the bathroom and used hem tape on the bottom part of the portion I cut off (which already had the rod pocket!) - a two-fer!

Much nicer space to walk in to now!

Flip Flop Season

It's here -


and I'm ready!

Happy Easter

Just wanted to make sure to wish everyone a Happy Easter!

Another busy week around here but I thought I would show you the rest of my Easter decor. Like I said a couple of weeks ago when I showed the newly glittered decor, I don't have a lot for Easter. I did more when the kids were little but now . . .


I bought these eggs at Pier 1 several years ago - I have them on a cake stand on the buffet in the dining room. (still planning to paint that buffet white - it's on the list!)


I have these two bunnies on another cake plate on the other end of the buffet. I probably made these about the same time I made the others. I did ceramics off and on but haven't done any in a long time. These two bunnies rotate around the house (not just at Easter) and in and out of storage. Depends on my mood. :)


I picked up this egg tree at Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks back. I saw it when they first started putting out Easter stuff but I wasn't willing to pay full price for it so I crossed my fingers that they would still have one when they started putting the Easter stuff on sale. Doesn't it make you hungry just looking at it?

That is pretty much it for Easter decor around here this year.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!