Life is good.

Public Service Announcement: YEARLY TESTING

2012-01-25T17:42:00.000-08:00

GET IT DONE, ladies: An annual pap test.

Someone near and dear to me in my life just got diagnosed with cancer. More on why you should get tested frequently, after the fun graphic...

I promised her I'd do a post, and, wholeheartedly, here it is. She's post-60 years-old. The average guidelines say "every two years," and the older-than-60 guidelines say every three years (this is under the new Obama health plan too).

In the words of the woman I know: "If I had waited three years, I'd be a dead woman."

Ovarian, uterine, and other female reproductive tract cancers are not to be messed with. The Pap smear in my friend? Revealed ONLY ONE PROBLEMATIC CELL. ONE. But, that one cell prompted more tests. A good doctor prompted thoroughness.

And a life-saving diagnosis was made EARLY, the most important word one can have accompany the word "cancer."

Yes, it's not fun. AT ALL. But it could save your life.

YEARLY, people, YEARLY. ANNUAL. Your health isn't something to be messed with.

Please share with those around you. You could be passing on very important information.

Thank you all kindly for reading.

Right at a year ago...

2012-01-24T10:32:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe that this was a year ago yesterday. Crazy! He's just a litttttle bit bigger, but he still has that same, goofy boy personality.

Can't imagine not having ya here, my big, galomping elephant. Maddie thinks the same thing.

Snowshoeing with the Puppy Dogs

2012-01-22T20:06:00.000-08:00

We went up into the local mountains (about an hour away) today to go snowshoeing.

To say that driving in snow makes me nervous is an understatement... But Bob was a great driver, and we returned unscathed! Yes, even though the roads looked like this:

EEEK!

My nerves were not calmed when we put the snowchains on either. Both snapped off within a half hour. SIGH. Wasn't a fan of the type we had anyway, but that is not the way I like to have to get new chains. Also, running on a highway, in the snow, to go and get the fallen off chain and hoping no traffic comes while I'm out of the car (since there's not much of a shoulder)? NOT FUN. No traffic came both times, and I ran like the freakin' wind.

The puppydogs LOVED the snow. Bailey faceplanted frequently, but he also chose to bound into snowdrifts frequently, so this wasn't surprising. He had large, tennis-ball-sized chunks of snow attached to his tummyfur.

Maddie's pantaloons (the fur on her short little legs is quite impressive) were so covered in snow that she looked like she had huge, furry boots on. She moreso bodyplanted into snowdrifts because of the short legs, but then she bunnyhopped around and was just fine. Everyone was impressed with her spunk.

And then Bailey knocked the camera out of my hand and into a snowbank. SIGH. So, there are only a few photos and one, shaky video. Next time, next time.

The dogs slept the whole way home. Bob and I stopped for a bite on the drive back, and while we were inside, Maddie upgraded to the front seat. Sigh. Cold wet doggie behind on the two front seats. Luckily, we had stuff to throw on the front seats for the rest of the ride home.

Darkness.

2012-01-20T09:38:00.000-08:00

I bought tulips yesterday to cheer up my kitchen.

Why? Here's why...

Here's what the tulips look like in the middle of the day with a flash on the camera:

And here's what happens, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY, without a flash:

It's been a tad rainy and gloomy recently. Don't get me wrong: I live in the Pac NW and have accepted the weather. I usually like the weather too. But sometimes, a kitchen needs tulips (especially since they get to go in the awesome vase/pitcher from Omom and Odad).

In other, semi-related news, our house is not in a flood zone and our city is mostly in the clear, and so we are not at risk for the flooding that is happening nearby. It's not supposed to stop raining (at least, so says the 10-day forecast). We know people impacted and friends of friends impacted, so we're hoping everything turns out ok. More news here: Oregon flooding.

Our bedroom transformation

2012-01-16T19:42:00.000-08:00

Late last May, less than a month after we moved in, we painted our bedroom. It was a change that made sense at the time, since at that time, we had a white bedframe and gray nightstands (then purple). The gray worked.

Since that time though, we upgraded to a beautiful, wood bedframe. We tried to convince ourselves that the gray worked (since we got the new bedframe barely a month after the walls went gray). And then, earlier this month, we found new, wood nighstands.

The nightstands pushed us over the edge to consider repainting the bedroom. We had some art in the room that just wasn't working well, and we could never find the right pens to make our quote wall work. And, while I loved our ampersand, Bob convinced me that we could always paint a new one again somewhere else.

And then, we found the perfect paint color: "New Penny" by Behr (Behr's colors always run darker and more vibrant than their online paint chips, so take that link with a grain of salt).

So, without further ado, here is the transformation. Results? We are in LOVE.

Before:

AFTER!!!

We're also thinking of putting two white shelves (the floating kind where you can't see brackets) to the left of the window to balance out the window. Thoughts? I tried to draw two white shelves in the below photo:

Before:

After:

Before:

After: Bye-bye ampersand, helloooo gorgeous art wall!

Before: Corner facing the backyard.

After:

Before:

After:

Close-up of nightstand before:

Nightstands after:

We are very pleased. We still have many to-dos though.

1) Figure out new curtains. The old ones darkened the room too much, so we're deciding between wood pull-up blinds and roman blinds.

2) Touch up paint. That always happens.

3) French closet door! Yes, really. It's down in the garage, cut to size, and half painted.

4) Drawer fix-up. I'd also like to look into putting better guides on the drawers.

5) Shelves or no shelves? We'll see

6) Bedside mats/rugs or not? I'd like to have something warm on the floor on either side, but we seem to always have animal issues (little snots!) with rugs.

But for now? We'll bask in the glow of our new (it feels like it!) room.

A tad more snow.

2012-01-16T09:21:00.000-08:00

Still not the 5"-8" predicted, but it's a bit more than yesterday.

Certain cats prefer their blanket-covered boxed though.

Driveway and street are a little snowier.

Awfully pretty though.

Snow's a bit sparse in the backyard, but it'll do (better than yesterday's dusting).

Chicken coop roof holding 1/2"-1" of snow. Bonus points for the builder. And yes, it's now gray and red. More on that later.

Indoor cat giving thanks that he's an indoor cat (he also considers himself to be far too pretty to be an outdoor cat).

Turning pink in the distance...

Zoomed in as far as my camera will go: View of the coastal foothills covered in snow.

Sunshine on the snow.

The Escort in its native climate (it was initially from Ohio):

Bed swipe by the oh-so-pretty one.

And that is our morning. Snow outside, warm inside.

Mud. Mud mud MUD.

2012-01-15T20:41:00.000-08:00

Remember that little bit of snow we got this morning? Well, the temps stayed in the mid-30s, but that was warm enough to melt the snow and turn the frozen earth into MUCK.

And, not only did we have our two dogs, but we were also watching Moto this weekend for a coworker. It was a bit icy out and dreary, so we didn't want to go anywhere (and transport wet dogs), so we let the dogs into the backyard to get out some energy and let them get filthified.

It turns out they are VERY VERY good at getting filthy.

Youtube video of our FILTHY kitchen and very, very, very, happy, dirty dogs (video upload on blogspot wasn't working):
Click here for the video.

You have no idea how long that kitchen floor took me to clean.

Here's Bath #1 for Bailey:

He actually got two baths because after his first one, he went back into the kitchen. The floors were so filthy (and he wasn't still 100% clean!) that he got dirty again. He had to go back for bath #2 after I cleaned the kitchen (till then he was made to sit on a small towel), and that bath he got SCRUBBED. He now smells like coconut and is prancing around like a pretty princess.

Moto didn't need scrubbing. Hurray for short fur.

And, Maddie got a bath too. Ever think Corgis don't get dirty easily? Check out all the mud that little undercoat holds:

You have to admire how stoic she is. Fine, do your worst. Just try.

I've cleaned the bathroom floor, but I dread that tub. And to think... it was just cleaned two days ago. Sigh.

Possible house color

2012-01-15T13:10:00.000-08:00

I found this photo today. Both Bob and I love the color. We've been swaying between blue and green. Blue has the potential to look badly easily (or really great, but there's the bad potential), and there's already a lot of slateish color in our yard with the rock front tiers. This is gorgeous, though you have to envision it with a cedar front door.

This is a good photo of our house to compare (though take away those trees in the backyard-- they're not there anymore-- and all our front yard plants are a bit bigger).

Thoughts? I really like it.

Better than nothing, I suppose...

2012-01-15T08:56:00.001-08:00

A mere dusting of snow. A little more is supposed to come, but it's definitely not the 2ish inches I was hoping to wake up to this morning.

Oh well.

Garden beds finished!

2012-01-14T16:47:00.000-08:00

Today, we tackled making the garden beds. Before getting to that though, there are a few other things of note:

SO MUCH DOG POOP. Here's the problem: A month ago, there were several spots of dog poo on the third tier of our yard. We were going to pick them up, but then it POURED. Then the grass grew. Then we couldn't find the dog poo anymore. But trust me: Today, our boots found the dog poo.
We rented an air compressor and a nail gun. A note to others: Compressors will short circuit when attempted to be operated on a 100' long extension cord. Luckily, after many regroup sessions, we figured that we could run it on a 12' extension cord and then using a long air hose which brought the nail gun all the way to the edge of the third tier (so the completed boxes only had to be moved one tier, not three). A chop saw will operate on a 100' long extension cord, so we were initially baffled when we kept flipping the fuse with the compressor.
Air compressors have several air outlets on their sides. Flip them and you'll fail to get the right PSI. Noted (again, after several regrouping sessions).
Nail guns are all kinds of awesome.

How did we figure out how many beds to build? Well, we had already built several prototypes back in September so we knew what size we liked best (3'x4'). I measured out the space and then mapped it out on Word using arrows to indicate 5' increments. Then the beds got inserted.

Green= beds that are already made. Black= compost bucket. Blue= water bin. That meant we had 13 more garden beds to make.

13 more garden beds. Each bed takes 6 2'x4's to make. That's 78 2'x4's, and that's the story behind my last post. They took 6 trips to/from Home Depot, but I'm happy to report my car's shocks are still intact.

Then each of the 78 pieces had to be cut. Each piece was 8' long, which got cut into a 3', 4' and 1' piece, and then the 1' got cut down to 10.5" long. Each length got put into piles...

The 4' pieces...

The 3' pieces...

And the 10.5" pieces... (We'll have 26 leftover pieces of the 10.5" pieces, but we'll find uses for them).

Oh, and those piles? Weren't complete. Here's the rest of the 2'x4's to be cut. SIGH.

And, here's the space we're working with. This is the 10' wide section. That's the old chicken coop in the back that needs to be dismantled and the wood reused.

And here are our prototype boxes and the 12' wide area of the tier. Examples of the 3'x4' boxes are the two in the very back and the one in the very front. The tall 2'x2' box will be used as a water bin stand. We haven't figured out what to do with the 2'x5' box (behind the 2'x2'), but we'll find a space for it.

And here's the view from the top tier. The photo does not give the view justice. It's purrrdy. It also gets a lot of sun in the summer.

THE COMPRESSOR AND NAIL GUN (photo taken prior to extension cord woes...).

The extension cord and air valve problems set the whole thing back about two hours, including having to move lumber down a tier (we actually moved some down to the bottom tier and then realized we could nail on the third tier, so we moved it back up. SIGH.).

Oh, and I haven't yet mentioned the weather. It was hovering around FREEZING THE ENTIRE TIME. It warmed up to 35 by the time we finished, which was warm enough so the incoming weather fell as rain and not snow. It's also a bit mucky out there, so much so that I could NOT make it up the slope between tier 2 and tier 3. Thank goodness the northern portion is grassed so I could get up that area.

But, all that said, here are the results. Photo 1 of 2:

And photo 2 of 2:

Pretty, aren't they?

I also had to take a photo from the end of the tier to capture them all.

SWOON.

Next steps? Finding a clear weather window of 3-4 days (minimum) so I can stain and seal. Staining/sealing is a LOT easier to do when the beds are standing on their sides, which is why I don't want to do it when the beds are already filled. Worst comes to worst, I might use our tarp, fence, and posts from our raspberry beds to make a makeshift staining/sealing tent (I don't want to do it in the rain, but if the forecast calls for minimal rain, this could help). Of course, that'd take a LONG time (shuffling in/out beds from in my makeshift tent), but we might not have the sunshine to easily stain.

Then comes us needing to fill the beds. That will involve several dirt delivery trips.

And then there's the fence we want to build along the top of tier 3. The fence will have two gates (I think) and arbors over each gate, which will likely house our climbing green beans.

Whew. But at least the beds are built! And the rain started POURING as we drove to return the compressor and nail gun. For once, the weather was on our side.... but that's only because I'm a wickedly fast nail gunner. Almost 700 nails in less than 2 hours? Darn skippity.

And now the snow can come. 5"-8" expected in this storm!

Hauling Lumber

2012-01-13T10:02:00.000-08:00

I bought 78 2'x4's yesterday, each 8' long. It's for our garden beds. It will require a total of 6 trips to/from Home Depot, but the store's not too far away, and it's better than paying their $79 (!) delivery charge. I don't like to put too much weight in my car trunk, so I only take 13 or so at a time.

I have three more trips to make. 40 more pieces to go.

But I've decided to wait a bit longer this morning... until it's at least above freezing. Currently 28 degrees. Hauling lumber is NOT that much fun, and I deeply suspect it being COLD will not make it any more fun.

Chin meet skull.

2012-01-11T08:36:00.001-08:00

Last night, I was fixing the bed covers. Bailey was being very patient and putting his head on the edge of the bed, but waiting for me to finish fixing the covers so he could jump up. I leaned down to pet him and say "good dog".... but he took that as human praise meaning he could jump up on the bed.

Wham crack! My chin met the top of his thick-boned noggin as he sprung upwards with great speed. I reeled backwards, clutching my chin (and probably looking ridiculous). He must have been terrified, because he ran into the hallway and observed me from there with great worry.

The result? A swollen chin that looks fine today (just a tad pink and sore). But ouch! Darn dog.

I should also add this numbskull (literally, last night. Ha!) dog made SAD noises outside my home office door earrrrly this morning and even pawed a bit at it. That's all loving and fine, but I was on a call back east to NY for work. Thanks pup.

Bathroom vanity

2012-01-10T21:35:00.001-08:00

Here's our bathroom. It's not huge. But, the door opens outward (helps the room not feel small), and we've never had any problem with it. Really. It's a bathroom. Do you want it to be huge and spend a lot of time in there?

(Note: these are photos from before we moved in. We've since done stuff)

But, in painting the room, as I did this weekend, we both confirmed to each other something: We do NOT like our sink. It's graceful, sure, but it's completely useless. You can't leave ANYTHING on top of it without it inevitably slipping into the sink. But, as you can tell from the photos, the tub is right there... so how much do you want to have a vanity in the way of your shower?

But then we saw this redone bathroom over at Young House Love:

And yes, that vanity would fit in our bathroom. It'd stick out about as much as the tip of the oval stick out right now, and the sink would end up being almost EXACTLY the same height.

What's even more dangerous is that the table is still available at Crate and Barrel. Now, $250 is more than I normally spend on what is, essentially, a large nightstand, but we can look past that since it really does need to be a good piece in order to be a bathroom vanity. Oh, and the sink is still available too at Overstock (LOVE that sink). And yes, the genius folks over at Young House Love really did build their vanity. Because really, what is a bathroom vanity other than a glorified cabinet with a sink on top? No, I'm not making the project sound EASY, but it's not exactly rocket science either.

We have the shower door issue to deal with. I might cut a piece of cardboard and lay it on top the sink for a while (obviously removing it when not in the shower-- otherwise, how'd we wash our hands?) to see how it impacts being able to get in and out of the shower.

We also have the issue of: our current sink is absolutely fine right now, albeit very boring and useless for all things other than washing your hands (and even then the soap will likely fall into the sink... just saying). But it works. It's pretty. It's just boring.

Anyway. I think, for now, this idea is going into the "to do someday but maybe get the pieces while they're still available sometime this year" category. And first, we'll have to do the weird cardboard cutout sink thing.

The Golden Retriever's New Shoes.

2012-01-08T18:11:00.001-08:00

We live very close to a large, cement-covered reservoir, which is perfect for ball fetch games. The problem is that since the surface is cement, and since it is winter and thus wet often, our pup's feet (especially Bailey's) were getting cracked and even bleeding (one nail got worn down)! No! We remembered we had scored these booties at an REI Scratch & Dent sale a while back. They were a bit roomy on Maddie, but on Bailey they were snug, making it difficult for him to get them off easily.

I mean, look at that face...

But, after only a few seconds, he quickly realized these booties weren't half bad. Too bad I didn't get to play the song "Here Comes the Hotstepper" in the background.

We didn't get a chance to test them out-- it was dark when we put them on--- but we'll have to report back how he handles the ball running at the reservoir.

New nightstands

2012-01-08T15:47:00.000-08:00

For a while now, we've been trying to figure out nightstands. We weren't willing to wait for the RIGHT pair to come up on Craigslist, so we found a cheapo pair on Craigslist and made them work (and redo them so they work better).

We knew the stands weren't long-term. But, they allowed us to wait for a better pair, and we figured we could post the old stands on Craigslist to recoup $30-$50.

On Friday, we found the nightstands that will last us a good while: Two, beautiful, antique, dovetailed pieces. They were $24.99 each, but we got the pair for $40 (so within our recoup price range for the old nightstands!). I also like that they're flexible; we could someday use them as side tables in the house--- they don't necessarily have "nightstand only" written on them.

Without further ado, here are photos!

And yes, that's a basket with a drill under the bed. You know, in case I get up in the middle of the night and need to immediately tackle a project. Don't judge.

Bathroom painting thoughts.

2012-01-07T13:31:00.000-08:00

I HATE PAINTING BATHROOMS. Give me a regular wall with no porcelain objects or grout or caulk to paint around ANY DAY.

That is all.

Lost items

2012-01-06T13:52:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to note that it is amazing how often when I'm missing something it can be found under the golden retriever.
It's like he knows what I will soon need......sneaky, weird, goofy, telepathic dog.

Further windowseat evidence.

2012-01-04T10:55:00.001-08:00

Furthering my windowseat evidence....
That doesn't really look too comfy now, does it? I suspect he'd be a lot more comfortable with a padded, sturdy seat.

Seriously-- look at that leg!

Window seat evidence for convincing.

2012-01-04T09:20:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it feels like... somebody's watching me!!!

I'm of the opinion that our dining room would look AMAZING with a built-in window seat.

Bob does not share in this opinion.

So, to help convince him, I pushed our two benches together against the wall, just to give us an idea of depth and height of possible future built-ins. Not only are the benches more comfortable, but we've also had an additional person who has fallen in love with the benches:

(please ignore the post-Christmas mess).

He LOVES to look out the window with his front arms on the bench and his head either upright or resting on the windowsill. If something catches his eye (which, let's face it, something is always making this dog happy), the tail will slowly wag back and forth. Yesterday, he saw the neighbor's garage open and kids come out. Incredible happiness.

So, if this photo could talk, Bailey would be saying "oh please! I love my windowseat. I'd love it even more if was more stable and not a bench and had a cushion! Joy of Joys!"

I should also add that Bailey usually watches Bob head off to work from his new windowseat. A windowseat is the way for a sad pooch to show love.

Winter Wreath

2012-01-02T14:28:00.000-08:00

With the holidays over, I was left with two packets of chunky potpourri. I loved it, but, after being out over the various festivities, the smell was pretty much gone.

So, what to do? Well, my holiday wreath was beginning to fade. Ok, it wasn't actually fading, but it was getting droopy and the ribbon was unraveling.

To solve all these "problems," I made a new wreath out of our potpourri:

I'm very happy with the results. I think it looks wintery, but not holidayish. It's often difficult to draw the line between the two.

And, assuming the squirrels don't take an interest in it (and how would they manage to climb on it??!), it should last us through till spring!

In related news, I think I'm going to paint that side bench on our front stoop the same color as the door. Hmmm....

Thank you, 2011, hello 2012.

2011-12-31T20:43:00.000-08:00

2011 treated us well. We came a long way this year. Many changes, many good things.

Looking back, 2009 was good and bad. We got married, but we had a lot of job changes and hassle. I, quite honestly, was happy to see the year end. I hoped at the end of 2009 that the next year would bring us "happiness, stability, and calm."

I think 2010 was busy, busy busy. I think we both still felt unstable, not in our marriage, but in where we were headed with our lives.

I don't think 2009's wish really came true until this year. We're putting the final steps toward the "stability" wish, but I think that we've come a long way in finding happiness and calm.

So here's to the hope that 2012 holds. I think my wishes remain the same as 2009, but this time, for their continued presence: happiness, stability, and calm.

Happy New Year!

New hen

2011-12-30T14:51:00.000-08:00

Meet the newest, unexpected, member of our small chicken flock:

Yesterday afternoon, I received a call from the Backyard Farmer, a small, local, farm store in our town. "We finally caught the lost hen in that woman's backyard," Bill told me. He was referring to a woman who had called him to help her capture a hen that had been lost and wandered into her yard. It was starving. It took a few days, but they managed to coax the bird into a cat carrier and shut the door! Success! Bill knew I was on the hunt to get a Buff Orpington. Even though my flock was planned for the year, I couldn't turn down a free hen! And an approximately 5-month-old hen at that!

She's settled in fairly well. Baby's still at the bottom of the pecking order, with Fluffbutt and the newbie tied for second, with KFC as the queen of the roost. I'm happy though. The pecking order has been friendly, and the newbie has been eating.

We've clipped one wing because we don't need her escaping again. I'll keep the entire flock in their coop/run for about two weeks, just for the newbie to get acquainted and tied to the group. I also want to fatten her up a bit. Then we'll try all of them in the yard, once the newbie realizes that the coop is where she needs to go at night.

I think she's awfully pretty with those gold feathers. If Bailey befriends her, we'll not be able to tell where the fur ends and the feathers begin!

Mountain Rose Herbs

2011-12-29T20:36:00.001-08:00

If you know me, you know I'm a sucker for local products, delicious things, cooking, and creativity. Mountain Rose Herbs is pretty much a combination of all three, and look, they have a giveaway.

Just thought I'd pass the link along!

http://mountainroseblog.com/recipes-2011-giveaway-2/#comment-13724

And yes, I've purchased from them before. We shall not discuss the frequency or amounts! :)

What we've done this year

2011-12-28T08:46:00.001-08:00

What a busy year it's been! Here are just a few of many many projects we've been up to:

Refinished the upstairs (it's a work in progress, but the flooring and walls are done!)
Refinished the dining room closet and our bedroom closet
Built/refinished the hall closet into a wine closet.
Built a chicken coop/shed (it needs to be painted a better color.... I'm thinking a cutsey gray with white/cream trim and a red door.)
Tore out and rebuilt the front stairs.
Painted the bedroom.
Painted the other bedroom.

Let's not forget about the smaller painting on wall projects, furniture building, the frame wall creation, the garden beds being built, and many more!

And, remember, since planning is only part of the process, remember that a lot has been planned/drawn-out/discussed for 2012: the pottery studio, the woodstove, the garden, trees in the yard, patio covers, etc.

Only links to a handful of projects, but my goodness, were we busy. I look back at where we were a year ago... and wow. Crammed in a tiny tiny rental cottage.

It's been quite the year.

Studio a go!

2011-12-27T19:43:00.000-08:00

The pottery studio is a go! After getting a SKY HIGH quote, I huddled in a corner, then regrouped. I had really wanted to go with those electricians, since they had a great online deal secret coupon thingie, but it was still sky high. Plus, they ticked me off by adding extra things to the bid that I specifically did not ask for-- lame.

So, I regrouped and went out for more. And, we got a quote in that was more than half the original quote. WELL in our range of reasonable!

Drumroll: THUS, THE POTTERY STUDIO PROJECT IS A GO!

Unlike the upstairs, I'll try to document this better. We received a few Home Depot gift cards recently, so we're going to try to only use a portion of those for this project. Obviously, we can't pay the electrician with those (darn!), but having the electrician be the main cost will be ok by me.

I've already emptied out the garage of the three storage pieces for upstairs... and installed them! Well, if by "install" you mean put upstairs. Two still need doors and one needs to be painted, but it's better to have them up there and use them than having them clutter the garage. Photos to come!

PS: A special thank you to Young House Love for their recent post on bid-obtaining. I was skeptical the amount would come down much, but it did! Thanks YHL for giving me hope!

For the O-Fam!

2011-12-25T13:35:00.000-08:00

We took photos of your presents!

The radio for Bob from Laura!

The fox rock from Laura to Jess (the foxy dog is checking out the foxy rock)!

SOCKS!! (and note the hat too)

Scarf by talented Laura!

Present-opening interrupted for radio testing and kitchen hook-up.

Necklace and scarf from Laura!

The Bob is extremely happy with the ramekins and colander. You can't fake a smile like that!

ROPE!!!!!

ROPE!!!!!!!

Sock fitting session. Results: They fit! I tried to get him to put on shorts and pull the socks up to his knees and dance, but no go. :(

Frankie approves of the scarf too (though he waited to show affection until after Bob seemed occupied reading Laura's book). Catus interruptus.

Knead knead knead...

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T12:11:00.000-08:00

May your day be merry.

As for us, we have each other and our families (though separated by geographic distance).

Our cats are currently high on fresh catnip.

The dogs have bones and just joyously chased a squirrel out of the yard.

Good tidings and blessings for all, indeed.

The coop plans for 2012

2011-12-23T21:33:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's Christmas Eve Eve, and I'm not posting Christmas things. It's two days away and there are other things also going on....

Like chicken planning!

A couple of our hens are reaching the 1.5 year mark, meaning that now's our opportunity to sell and replace. It's difficult to sell a hen once they stop laying, but many will take a hen at 1.5 years old.

I thought about doing this at the end of fall when the hens stop laying, but between Fluffbottom being a cute new mom to her chick and KFC continuing to lay(!!!) through late fall and winter (one egg a day!), I'm still at a flock of three.

But, next month, if all goes well, I'll get two baby olive-eggers (they lay eggs that have dark green shells!-- combo between Aracauna and a Cuckoo Maran) and another copper maran. Then, a month later, my favorite, local, small-farm store will have salmon faverolle and (possibly) lavender orpingtons.

SO, come May, our coop could look like this:

Cuckoo Maran (that's what Fluffbottom's baby is. She'll be laying this spring)
Two Olive Eggers (and their eggs will look green like this!!)
Salmon Faverolle (just like Fluffbottom, whom I'll miss...)
Copper Maran (that's what KFC is, and will lay super-dark brown-shelled eggs)
Lavender Orpington (beautiful birds, but hard to hatch, so they may not get to the farm store)

That's six birds total, but maybe five, depending on the Orpington. The coop was built for 6-7, so this will work out well! I won't have to shuffle any birds out anytime soon due to age, AND I'll get enough eggs for neighbors too (they have been asking. A lot.).

So that's the plan. We'll see how things change.

Pottery studio.

2011-12-22T09:17:00.000-08:00

With the upstairs nearly finished, we're beginning to put in some storage.

Now, when it comes to storage, we really try NOT to be pack rats. There's a hierarchy: Stuff we use once a year (eg: holiday decorations) gets put in a place where we don't have to see it (like the attic). Winter outdoor clothing gets put in a less convenient spot then, say, jars of canned food. And anything that goes for more than a year without being touched is analyzed for donation or tossing.

All that said, we've realized that the small storage space upstairs should be enough room for us. And that means our garage won't have a ton of stuff in it.

We had planned on building a pottery studio for Bob up on our top level of our backyard. Our neighbors have a kiln and wheel but no space, and we have space but no kiln and wheel. It works out.

But, building an entire building is a bit much. That's at least 5 years away. Then I thought: "why not the garage?"

Why not, indeed.

So, we had an electrician come out yesterday. If the quote is right (we'll find out today, if I can get some info to him), we'll get the garage wired for the large outlet that a kiln would require. There are other precautions too we'd need to take for ventilation, but, luckily, our garage is a pretty safe place already.

Stay tuned.

Darn it.

2011-12-18T14:49:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, I posted about how happy I was to get a garbage disposal. Hooray! Fixed!

Today, the bathroom light switch doesn't work.

Time to break out the scotch.

** UPDATE! Nevermind! Guess the circuit breaker under "bathroom" doesn't control bathroom lights. Wonderful husband man went outside, poked around, and.... LIGHTS!

Gift Card Chicken

2011-12-17T17:55:00.000-08:00

My in-laws sent me, amongst other presents, a Home Depot gift card that came with its own little apron. The only members of our menagerie this would fit were the chickens... and KFC was the closest hen when I opened the coop door tonight.
Note that Fluffbutt is a bit jealous. She wants one too. Please feel free to email me and I'll give you our address so you can send a gift card for her to wear too. :)

30.

2011-12-17T10:28:00.001-08:00

Yup. 30. Today. My parents keep trying to get me riled up about the supposed "milestone," but to be honest, I'm not bothered. It is what it is, and it sure beats the alternative!

Bob is getting me a garbage disposal. Yes, REALLY. I really want a new one, but it's been an expensive year and we've done without. But, thanks to a gift card from my boss covering part of the cost, I am so happy to be getting one. Crazy? No. I already have what I really want. A garbage disposal is just part of the cake icing.

So yes. 30. May the next 30 be action-packed... in a good way!

2356 Miles.

2011-12-16T20:50:00.000-08:00

2356 miles.

1 day, 15 hours driving.

Dammit, Ohio family, ya live too far away! Bob and I are a bit wistful tonight.

Projects for the new year.

2011-12-13T17:58:00.001-08:00

I have a glut of projects to do, and they're beginning to pile up in the garage. Since we're surrounded with holiday parties and cheer right now, I thought I'd make a list of New Years projects.

Replace the closet door in the bedroom and office. They're boring hollow doors right now, and I have perfectly-sized french door replacements, already cut to size. They're half-painted, so that still needs to be done, as well as hinge placements chiseled out.
Built cabinet space around the laundry machines. I already have the cabinet ($35!) but it needs to be painted. This will also involve putting a tabletop above the machines, as well as an end wall.
Build a wall around the stairwell. It's not safe with what is currently up there.
Build the storage unit on the other side of the stairwell, opposite the laundry machines. I've already drawn plans and bought two cube things I'm converting to cabinets.
Install crown molding upstairs (after everything else is finished so it has a very finished look).
Hang art in the office
Make cabinet fronts and drawer fronts in bedrooms look nicer.
Install better organization in cabinet and drawers in bedroom.
Paint file cabinet, install new hardware on desk and cabinet, and fix up filing system.
Have someone else (gasp!) put in patio covers. We already know who we're going with; we just need to figure out when and narrow down what.
Paint bathroom-- very porous plaster in there right now and that's not good.
Fix up shelving unit next to fridge. It's this rickety unit we inherited from the prior owners. It works... but not well.
See if there are wood floors under the linoleum. If so, get estimates on what it would cost to remove linoleum and refinish floors with a high gloss.
Install deck and ?? on bottom tier outside. We haven't really finished deciding what we're going to put in, so we're going to put the patio covers in first and then sketch.
Clean garage and remove all storage racks. Install new, permanent, cabinets along the wall in the garage.
Decide whether or not to finish off the garage from the crawl space.
Fix up garden area
Finish painting chicken coop (yes, really) and finish building top 1' of coop.
Fix up rock stairs so less rickety.
Plant two trees on middle slope in back yard.
Install stairs going from tier 2 to tier 3.
Plant better plants on tiers in front yard.
Perhaps build small deck on second tier in front yard with two Adirondack chairs.
Create path from stairs to chicken coop
Plant wisteria on pergola (in between the two patio covers)
Fix driveway
Fix slant bottom maple tree.
Remove apple tree? It's awfully funky...

That's all I can think of right now, but I'm sure we'll come up with more!

Holiday Parrrtay!

2011-12-13T09:52:00.000-08:00

We had a holiday party. Of course, I didn't take too many photos. Too busy seeing all the wonderful people (35+) who came! I didn't count the guests, but we did use up all the 45 glass goblets we had, plus several additional cups.

And, here's the spread!

There were:

Prosciutto-wrapped dates that were stuffed with chevre and a small piece of gorgonzola.
Bacon-wrapped sausages
Caprese bites--- toothpicks of tomato, basil, and fresh mozzarella, drizzled in olive oil and basalmic vinegar, and sprinkled in salt and pepper
Two chevre logs, one surrounded by raspberries, one surrounded by blackberries, each with sunflower seeds on top and drizzled in honey
A veggie tray, but in tree form (see photos below) with dip
Tomatoes with dip
Croquembusch- but I didn't get the chance to make the carmel (and our propane tank ran out for the stovetop), so we didn't stack them. Instead, we just dipped them a little bit in honey. But, the puffs and interior custard totally turned out, so there's no reason why we couldn't have stacked it!
Pfeffernnusse cookies
Chocolate bonbon pops
Two chocolate tree cakes (I made them with tree molds I had)
Chocolate-dipped marshmallows with sprinkles on straws (for stirring into hot drink or for kids to just eat!)

And for the drinks:

Hot chocolate
Hot cider
Eggnog
Wine
Sparking cider
A champagne/cherry/delicious cocktail (called a "Poinsettia Mimosa")
Another cocktail that tasted like chocolate covered cherries (called a "Cuppa Good Cheer")

And here's that veggie tray tree I mentioned!

So, that was our party. Needless to say, we did NOTHING on Sunday! Tired!

Destiny Moondrool

2011-12-07T18:35:00.000-08:00

We were having a discussion tonight on names we like. No, we're not pregnant, but you know, this sort of conversation comes up.

Me: "I like ___"

Bob: "That's nice, but a bit hippy. I like ____"

Me: "I've always liked that name too! But seriously, that's a bit hippy also."

Bob: "No, Destiny Moondrool is a hippy name. My suggestion is normal."

I'm SO someday putting "Destiny Moondrool" on our list of possible kidnames as a joke. But, please, someone monitor Bob when we someday have a kid. A joke will not be funny if it extends to an actual birth certificate.

*** Editing note requested by Bob: I misheard him. Apparently, he said "Destiny Moonchild." My apologies, dear husband!

Christmas Hat Cupcakes

2011-12-07T11:25:00.001-08:00

I've been wanting to try these ever since I saw them on pinterest.

I made them for Bob's work. I ran out of red food dye though... so they were pink santa hats.
I think they are still pretty cute though!

Outside decorations

2011-12-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

We're having a holiday party this next Saturday, so it was more than high time to get our outdoor decorations up. We're getting there... we're still working on lights. It's been a bit chilly outside--- right now it's 26 and there's freezing fog. Not really light-hanging conditions!

On our front door, there's a camellia branch wreath with gold ribbon.

Our arborvitae along the stairs to the first tier all have dark red ribbon (harder to put on the plant than it looks).

We did have a poinsettia on the stairwell, but it was just too cold outside.

Front stairwell.

Our little tree next to the front door needs some decorating, but that's a quick thing.

From the street.

I made a lot of garlands for the bottom tier and decorated them with gold balls.

Yes, we live on a hill.

So, that's the outdoors for now! Now it just needs to warm up a tad so we can finish the outside fixings!

Desk Acquisition and Transformation

2011-11-29T10:23:00.000-08:00

Our newly blue room needed a desk. After a search of what was available, I was pretty much resigned to building a simple desk using either a finished tabletop from Home Depot or finding a tabletop from the reuse store. I'd use our filing cabinet as one "leg" and attach the other side to the wall. Not very flashy, but it'd do and do well.

But then, the very day I finished painting the blue room? I found the perfect desk. We wanted long and narrow. We wanted it to be 5-6' long and 18"-24" wide. This desk was 5' long and 18" wide. Whoa. We also didn't want it to have too many drawers, since we knew those drawers would soon get cluttered if we did.

So, without further ado, here is the desk, as it looked when I lugged it home in my car. Oh, and I should add that it was ONLY $25!!!!! Swoon.

The desk used to be a vanity, many years ago. We love the legs and the lines. It's a very beautiful piece. The beige paint though... not so beautiful. But before I go into how I tackled the paint, I'll first show off the desk a bit.

Two small drawers on either side:

And, my favorite part: The center portion of the desk lifts up to reveal a center compartment and a mirror.

However, the beige paint had to go. It was too thick to easily take it off and refinish the desk, so I decided to sand and paint the desk a glossy white. But first, I had to remove the drawers and lid of the desk and sand down the painted portions.

The center lid got painted separately:

And here's the main desk portion partway through!

Finally, the desk got moved up into the office. I think I'll eventually add handles to the two drawers, but they each have a curved side, making it very easy to open them even without handles.
I'll need to add liner to the drawers. I was a bit unhappy that I got paint on part of the inside, but this is not the end of the world, and I will probably be the only one to ever be irked by it.

And I do swoon over the center console portion. I think I will be reinstalling the mirror too. It doesn't hurt anyone, and it's just so nifty!

(I apologize for the tilted shade; It was hitting the wall and I didn't realize!) I do love that our Buddha lamp has a perfect home on top the desk. It is very calming and beautiful to have it there.

Ahh, and our next project: Refinishing this file cabinet to match the desk. We'll likely use the same hardware on the file cabinet as we eventually choose for the desk. The fish (used to house spare change) and succulents normally live in the living room, but they've been shipped off to the office while Christmas decorations take over the rest of the house.

So that's our desk! We're still astounded at the price and how perfectly it fit our room. I guess sometimes you do get what you need!

Birthday boy and muddy bed

2011-11-28T19:00:00.000-08:00

One year ago today, this little furbaby was born. Now 75 pounds heavier than he was in this photo, he's still our lovable, lovable, gallumping elephant of a lug bug. Such a happy happy boy.

"I am in your bed, getting it all a-mucky!" Yes, that's the corgi, making herself comfortable on our bed. Those little legs have some spring.

I'm blue for you, blue blue blue blue blue!

2011-11-20T18:48:00.000-08:00

We went blue in the office this weekend. And, we're ecstatic for the results!

It was a plain, light beige before. That's all well and fine, but you couldn't really see the trim/molding details. Plus, unlike other rooms in the house, there were no coved ceilings, so we could go bold without having to take it to the ceiling.

So we did. And yowza! We like the results. And so, without further ado, here are the before/after pics. They are only the paint before/after. Decorating details are soon to come in a future post.

Boring corner before:

And boring corner after! Taking the photos at night produced a reasonable blue. The real blue is a bit darker. I know the quality is poor, but indoors, during rainy, dark, outdoor weather in the Pacific Northwest= very little natural lighting. But, I think you'll still get the picture that it's a big change.

Doorway and partial closet before (ok, with a small area painted... I literally dropped the paintbrush and ran for my camera when I realized I lacked "before" photos!):

After:

Closet and windows before:

And after:

Other semi-boring corner before (complete with the husband's goofy sign):

And after!

We're pretty darn happy. And now we get to fix it up. Wait until you see what we found!

Such a big change from yesterday when the room contained:
* All the stuff to go into the room
* Over six bags' worth of stuff to be donated (we'd been gathering up for a while)
* All our Christmas presents we've already purchased (yes, really. I'm on top things this year)
* A box of dried lavender
* Four boxes of various appliances that we needed to decide to keep or chuck
* Three other large boxes that needed to be collaped into recycling
* Ten cans of paint from various projects
* Three huge boxes of house project stuffs
* A stack of frames (for the office)
* Two lamps
* Three piles of laundry (all nicely folded... but still, not put away)
* A toolbox
* Two backpacking packs and one large gunnysack full of camping gear
* A yoga mat
* A sleeping bag
* Three empty canning jar boxes (collapsed into recycling) and three full boxes of canning jars.

Yes, it was a total and complete mess.

And now? SO MUCH BETTER. Slowly but surely, everything in our house is getting a home.

Room update.

2011-11-19T21:56:00.000-08:00

Well, the first coat is on, and a second coat is on in some spots. We ended up going with "Midnight Sky" by Behr, but don't look up the color because the online color swatches do not do it justice. It's a rich, dark, navy blue.

The icing on the cake came this evening when Bob put one of our chairs in the room. BAM. Dang it looks swell.

It's all very exciting. The office has been neglected for quite a while.

Office paint job.

2011-11-19T10:28:00.000-08:00

We're seriously considering doing this to the office today:
(via Pinterest).

Yes, a navy blue.

And hey, if we hate it? We can repaint. But, we've mulled over this one for a while and we're going to give it a go. I think. I have to clean the joint first.

Kitchen Wall Quote

2011-11-17T11:10:00.000-08:00

I love this quote by Luciano Pavarotti: "One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating."

I think it very nicely sums up a lot of things... festive holidays, friend and family gatherings, the delight over a delicious, well-cooked meal, and how, no matter the chaos of the day or distractions of modern-day life, we still have to settle down and eat. It also reminds me that I'm pretty thankful for the lifestyle we have and that we do have food to eat.

So, when it came to our kitchen, I wanted to put this quote on the wall. I looked into vinyl wall stickers, but not only are they pricey, but I couldn't find one large enough. I decided to do it myself instead. Here are the results!

Here's how I did it.
1) I picked a font I liked and put the quote in that font. Bob approved.
2) I made the entire quote, in the font I liked, into a PDF.
3) I pasted that PDF into Excel, which will let me blow up an image to multiple pages.
4) Using print preview and the size ratio adjuster, I blew up the image to my liking, and printed it out. Bob gave the thumbs up.
5) I pieced the image together and hung it on the wall where we (yes, we, not just me) decided to put the image. This also allowed us to test where exactly to hang it without having to commit to sticking it on the wall there:

6) I then traced out the words. Here's the result halfway through.

Wondering how I traced it? I used a trick I learned from my (genius) friend Natalie over at Almost Never Clever. Going one word at a time, I cut the word out of the overall quote (being sure to know where to put the word back so the quote stayed aligned).
I took the cut word and I shaded the entire back of the cutout with a pencil. I then taped the word back on the wall (in the correct spot) and outlined the letters. The shaded back meant that when I outlined, it left faint traces of the word on the wall. So, when I removed the cutout again, I was left with this:
That permitted me to go back over it with a black sharpie, which gave me a lot more wiggle room when I finally painted in the letters in black. I love Natalie's trick-- it's cheap carbon paper (and really, where can you find carbon paper nowadays?)! All my letters and words transferred over without any problem.

With the letters (finally) all transferred over to the wall, I was left with this:
So, 7) it was time to paint. I didn't need much paint, but I needed black paint. So, I went to Home Depot and got a sample-size of paint (on clearance!) of eggshell Martha Stewart, but tinted to Behr paint's "Mickey Ears" color. That was the blackest black I could find. Total cost? $1. And really: that was my only cost for this entire project (besides my labor hours!).

The sharpie black outline really was a blessing. I could be more quickly precise with a sharpie than a paintbrush, so, while I could have done without the sharpie, the sharpie made the process go a lot faster.

So finally, voila. The quote is on our wall! We did have to keep the golden retriever out of the kitchen if there was any wet paint-- we didn't need that tail swatting wet paint around.

Yes, it's on there permanently and vinyl wouldn't be permanent. But, we like the quote enough that we expect it to stay up there for years, and, for that amount of time, vinyl would likely create a shadow (from fading) on the wall anyway. Plus, this was exactly to our liking and we won't ever have any peeling (hey, it's the kitchen-- the wall could have gotten wet and we could have had peeling vinyl!)

So, long story short, we love our new wall and our new quote. It was easy and very custom-tailored to us... because we did it ourselves!

Window, window on the wall.

2011-11-15T08:57:00.000-08:00

A while back, I mentioned we bought a vintage, 6-pane window. It was inexpensive; on sale at the nearby recycle store. We wanted to use the panes as a dry-erase board (you can do that on glass). I initially painted the old-looking pane blue...

But that didn't really float my boat. I think part of the problem was we left the panes clear. So, I painted the entire back white (including the panes!), and painted the front (covering the glass on front) a orangy red color called "Paprika."

And, it is now finally hung in our kitchen:

It took me a while to figure out how to hang it. I was just going to wire it, but that's a pain and relatively unstable. We needed stability if we were going to use this sucker. So, I ended up getting eyehooks and bathrobe hooks. That works perfectly! And, if we ever need to take it off for a bit, we can easily unhook the entire thing (not that I plan to).

And yes, I do love how you can still see the old crackles from the old paint. This is an example of how my laziness--- in not stripping the unit of old paint--- is a good thing.

The kitchen is slowing coming together. It was already a pretty "together" kitchen, but now we're beginning to add some touches. This is one of them, and we both like it!

Yes, I married you.

2011-11-14T20:07:00.001-08:00

Bob's computer: *Chirpy weird noises and giggling*

Me: What are you watching?

Bob: An emu versus a kangaroo!!!!

What's your beef?

2011-11-14T15:53:00.000-08:00

Well, we know what ... or should I say WHERE our beef is!

It went from in my trunk...

To a then-almost-empty freezer...
And voila! From left to right: Steaks and ribs/ chicken, pork loin and pesto/ roasts, soup bones, and dog bones/ ground beef.
This is the result of us buying a half-share of beef from a local farmer. He only had a herd of thee (this was no feed lot), and each one spent its life eating in a nice pasture, on organic grass.

YUM. And, what's extra neat? The flat rate per pound was cheaper than I could ever even find ground beef at the store. And, I know that all this meat came from ONE ANIMAL. No weird cross contamination. It's especially nice with the ground beef. The meat in one of the one-lb packages? Came from one animal, rather than possibly hundreds.

Nice indeed. We support our local farmers!

Cat Cupboard Completion.

2011-11-14T07:55:00.000-08:00

This new cupboard now lives upstairs. Sorry for the poor photos, but we have lacked good natural lighting for a while now with winter settling in up here in the Pac NW.

It's cute, painted white, and has small plant etchings/carvings on the front (not too many, just the right amount).

But, there is a reason why the cats love this new cupboard... (case in point, Paddington posing...)

It still needs two new knobs... and a patch job for where a key used to be used, but let's ignore that for a second and focus instead on the utility of the cupboard.

It houses the new cat box. Applause. We wanted something small and compact, so we opted for this $9.99 cupboard from Goodwill. I fixed it up with new paint, and cut a hole in the back for the big bin. With our slanted ceilings upstairs, I knew we could have the bin sticking out in the back and still have it be relatively hidden. We've trained the cats to go in a cupboard thing a long time ago, but it was pretty big and not great at keeping the mess down.

The new box? It's a big rubbermaid container. 1) Easy to clean, 2) DEEP (to keep pawing cats from kicking out litter), 3) Easily replaceable if it gets gross, and 4) IT HAS A LID-- on top of which we can store the scooper, if we want. Success on all accounts. I have a mat that will go in between the box doorway and the cat doorway, to hopefully catch the occasional litter piece.

I cut a small outdoor hole for the cats to get into the cupboard. You can also see where I built a little stand for the back of the box where it sticks out. But, given the slant of the ceiling? It's not very noticeable (unless you squeeze into the back area where I was to take this photo).

So yes. It's the new cupboard upstairs.

It's a bit of an experiment (smell and mess-wise), but a very inexpensive one. Here's hoping!

Another closet redo-- this one is personal!

2011-11-07T19:10:00.000-08:00

I know. I've been on a closet redoing kick recently. First came the dining room closet redo and then our new wine closet. Well, with all those recent closet redos, I had to ask myself why I hadn't tackled the closet used the most by me: MY bedroom closet. Bob has his own, I have mine... and mine was not hacking it. It wasn't really my fault... it was the closet set-up. I also decided that this closet? It would be an almost FREE REDO. I was headset on doing this as cheaply (but having a nice end-product) as possible.

I focused on the standing closet portion. This part is a true closet: Door. Rod. Shelf. Now, next to this closet there are two built-in drawers and two, large, built-in cabinets. Those I'll tackle later. I really only use the two drawers, so I have to think awhile about the cabinets.

So, here are the embarrassing "before" photos (and I removed some of my hanging clothes before taking these photos):

And, oy, the shoe situation. What a mess.

The top shelf was so high that it was above the doorframe, making it really hard to access and to get stuff up there. As a result, it was a mess.

And now, I'm much happier to share the "AFTER" photos!

Left side...
Right side...

Breathe a sigh of organized relief.

The room was painted with leftover paint from the other closets and upstairs. Shelves were put in. Organization occurred. And a light (ooh, a light!) was placed on the shelf. Swoon.

I did a number of projects which I'll expand upon sometime soon. One of them is my new necklace organizer (again, all using items I already had):

Another project (also using items I already had) was the hanging earring holder:

Had to drop in a photo of my new hat (purchased almost for free with a discount and another $$ off coupon this afternoon, woot! LOVE it.):

And also had to point out what I used to display it: One of my blue candleholders (maybe it won't get animal fur on it this way)!

There are three shelves on the left-hand side, constructed with leftover scraps from building new slats for our bed and building new front stairs. I then covered them in leftover flooring from upstairs.

The mirror, I already had (and, actually, it was free because I traded some items for it at a vintage store):

I reused hooks that we had from our last home to hang my bags and purses high up on the right-hand side. They're out of the way, but, yet, easily reachable.

The hooks also hold my "fun-to-wear-but-difficult-to-store" sunhat.

I reused the top shelf and covered it in flooring too. I just moved it down about 4'. Nice. I have plans on putting trim or tile on the outside edge of the shelves... but I haven't yet. We'll see.

All my stud earrings, pendants, metal chain necklaces, pins, and watches are all in my inlaid boxes (I have a small collection of Syrian inlaid boxes):

We have a hallway shoe rack for most of our everyday shoes, but my less-used pumps and boots cause a headache for organization. So, I bought clear plastic shoeboxes.

And, finally, I reoriented the closet door so it opens on the side that makes sense:

So, this is my new haven. I love it. It makes me so happy! I've also found that the nicer and more organized a space is, the nicer I keep it. So far, that's true with this closet!

Total closet cost (hat not counted): $2 for a brand-new reed scent diffuser. The closet now smells like vanilla sugar cookies. A very well spent $2.

Acorn and Buckeye Owl Wreath

2011-11-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

I saw acorn owls on Pinterest and was dying to make them. I even added a few buckeye owls! This wreath was for my neighbors who have two young kids, so I really wanted to make it something the kiddos would get a kick out of too.
Success! They love it. And, so far, no squirrel theft of the acorns.

Switching to Photo Books.

2011-11-04T08:52:00.000-07:00

While I haven't received the final product just yet, I think I'm switching my scrapbooking for photobooks. I can whip out a year-long photobook (130+ pages) in less than two days, whereas the scrapbook would take months.

Don't get me wrong, I love scrapbooking... but I think the love is a love of craftiness. And, if I do photobooks, I can spend more time doing other crafty projects.

At least, that's what I'm thinking for now.

Right now, I'm on October 2010 and on page 105. Two more months after October is complete and I'll have a complete, photobook, 2010 album.

More to come...

Our discussion on Kim K.

2011-11-01T22:09:00.000-07:00

Me: (after mentioning the netting of $15M from the wedding) So yea, Kim Kardashian, divorced. 72 days.

Bob: *Rolls eyes.*

Me: I mean, marriage isn't always easy. You're two different people and won't always get along. But, sometimes, you just have to admit to the other one that he does, indeed, have better hair.

Bob: There is total truth to this. Total.

The transformation of the hall closet (yes, another closet redo, but this one is cooler)

2011-10-31T08:40:00.000-07:00

So. We have this hall closet:
It was a very awkward shape--- about 3' deep, 18" wide, and over 6' tall. It had 6 shelves, and all were slanted so that the front edge was slightly higher than the back.

Weird.

Saturday morning, I was finishing my organizational binge, and there wasn't much left in this closet. What to do with the space?, I wondered. It was time for my neighbors' pumpkin get-together, so I headed on over.

There, I met former owners of our home, two owners removed. They informed me, amongst other things, that owners before them were proprietors of one of the nice wineries nearby, and that they had used the closet for wine storage.

Ah ha! This explains the dual vents, the crazy insulation, and the tilted shelves!!!!!!

Our wine, though in a tall, nice rack, was a) incomplete since 20+ bottles were too big, and b) was getting too much sun. Bob and I had been discussing moving it for some time. So, I decided to use the closet!

CLOSET REDO!!

The first thing was to add more shelving (since we only wanted our bottles to be two rows stacked, at most, per shelf). This meant also moving around the existing shelving and buying/cutting more shelves.

Then the room got painted. I should note that right before this, I sprayed the floor vent a brown color, and the ceiling vent a gray color, that way they would blend in a bit better.

I also muddled together enough flooring from our last closet project to put in wood floors, and enough molding to install baseboard molding! There was barely enough padding to go under the floors too!

Proof of the gray-spray-painted vent on the ceiling (much better than a dingy white).

A close-up of the floor and the brown-spray-painted floor vent. The vent was not lined up well with the door, so I figured out that I could cut the hole in the flooring square-on with the door and make it look like the vent wasn't so uneven. I think it worked, without blocking the vent.

Then it was time to install the shelving (painted white, though I might eventually redo this).

And, after a long, arduous process with my labelmaker (those are Winery/Year/Type labels on ALL THOSE WINES), I sorted the wines and put them in the rack!

There is a large shelf on top that is open for whatever we want (probably old towels since we often need those handy) and the floor shelf is open for a box of bathroom items.

Pretty darn nifty, right? It was a lot of work, but it was totally worth it. Climate-controlled, well-organized, and properly-stored wine!

Stained glass window-- finally hung!

2011-10-30T17:54:00.000-07:00

I finally hung the stained glass window in the dining room. Remember, this was the window that was bought for only $20 at a secondhand store... and I was shocked that it fit our window PERFECTLY when I got home.
And now that it's hung, I am still shocked. I've painted the frame a glossy white, and it goes perfectly with the window frame. It looks like it was made for/original to/commissioned for our house.

It's rather shocking. I mean, it's perfect. It fits within a 1/4" of the window edges (not the frame edges--- the glass edges!). Perfect fit.
I love the addition.

Major Closet Redo

2011-10-28T08:41:00.000-07:00

This is our beautiful dining room closet now:

And this was it before:

Ok, that photo was from mid-July. In late July, I did a closet reno on this SAME closet. I took the dowel rod and moved it deeper into the closet under the stairs (so we could use the rest of the closet rather than just have a dowel in there. I also painted the whole room in a tan, including under the stairs.

I remember being very proud that we could now also store our vacuum machines in there. AND I bought a small, 6-drawer unit for various items.

Well, count forward to October. The closet was a mess. The drawers were great, but they got overloaded with stuff on top and then you couldn't make your way to the coats. The vacuum in the closet was a bad idea since it was way too bulky. Plus, with the new robot vacuum, we don't use the old vacuum much and it now lives upstairs.

And UGH, don't get me started on the old linoleum. DISGUSTING.

WHAT I DID:

I painted the walls using paint we already had.
I took out the molding in the closet and put in new molding that I had found on the street, leftover from someone's home project.
I had a $20 credit at the recycle store, and there, for $20, I found a box of REALLY nice hardwood flooring (like a $200 box!). Since the space was small, all I needed was one box, so this worked really well.
I moved the 6-drawer unit to under the coats, and it works perfectly there!
I took down the old hooks and put new ones up in a spot more convenient and not in the way.
I labeled (with the new labelmaker) the 6-drawer unit: 5 drawers dedicated to winter-wear, one drawer dedicated to dog stuff (leashes, brushes, etc).

And voila:

The dowel is still in its late-July spot, but now, the drawers are underneath it. I should add that there's enough room next to the unit for the large umbrella and the yoga mat.

The hooks are along the left-hand wall as you walk in. We used those hooks at our old apartment and so I repurposed them and used them in the closet. They're very nice hooks, so I'm glad they worked. I've promised to only keep my current purse on the hooks and not use the hooks for purse storage.

The wood floors are WONDERFUL and were so easy to install (50x easier than the linoleum I just finished installing upstairs. Yes, I'm questioning myself, but then I remember the cost and I stop questioning). The molding job, while not perfect, is DARN good enough, and I love the blue/white/wood contrast. We're doing this same color scheme in the laundry room, so I'm really glad it worked here.

So, that's our new closet. Yes, I installed wood floors and revamped a closet. But, it makes us RIDICULOUSLY happy, so it was well, well, well worth the effort.

Labelmaker acquisition!

2011-10-25T08:07:00.000-07:00

Guess who got a labelmaker! -->this blogger<-- !!!

This is very exciting for spice and drawer and kitchen organization purposes.

And, last night, it was sufficiently tested.
SAUSAGE!!!

Not her real name, but totally appropriate while cannonballing a wriggling, gleeful corgi onto the bed. I cried because I was laughing so hard.

Freshly-painted front door.

2011-10-24T08:32:00.000-07:00

We needed to paint our front door. After slapping a sample color on it a few weeks ago (French Dark Chocolate by Glidden), I really needed to get around to actually painting it. And: Voila!

Here's the obligatory "before" picture: A faded grayish blue with no gloss. Also note: The hardware on the door didn't match the hardware before, so there was a bare spot AND a small hole. This was courtesy of the prior owners, and it was driving us NUTS. You can see the sample new color in a section on the top of the door.

Yes, much better. It also has some gloss to it too (sprayed on afterward), so that's nice.

I also treated the stoop. Now it's durable, a good color for not showing too much grime, and looks purdy.

We had though about stripping the front door down to the wood and then treating it with a cedar stain. We're suckers for craftsman doors. But, we found out from a neighbor that the owners two owners ago had tried that, and the door began to deteriorate. Had to scrap that idea. When I took off the kick plate and the grate bottom, I realized that the door is not the greatest-- lots of water weakening. The door is still solid, but in a few years, we'll (aww shucks!) have to replace it with a prettier door!

Right now.

2011-10-23T21:14:00.000-07:00

This is going on right now in our bedroom. Yes, really.
She's not really wet anymore, so we let her out of her jail in the kitchen. The dirt is caked on and the result of an afternoon of playing in her pool and then in the dirt.

Our new UPSTAIRS!!

2011-10-22T08:59:00.000-07:00

The flooring and walls upstairs are FINISHED! Ok, I still need to do floor molding and do some touch-up work. There's also the issue of building a better sub-wall around the stairwell. But that can be done. For right now, let's focus on the floors and walls and look at the improvement!

Here's the before. Ignoring the corgi carnage, there was bad, yellow-painted, 70's paneling. The flooring was stained, old, industrial carpeting. To make matters worse, the padding under the carpeting was hit-and-miss. The worst part was the sub-floor: Particle boards of varying thickness (so an uneven floor) that was nailed directly on top of the old floorboards. It was a LOUD floor. If you walked upstairs, we heard you downstairs. Especially when laundry was being done. Oy.

Here's the after! New flooring and we sprung for rubber, noise-reducing pads under the new floors. It's quiet. The walls have been patched of holes. The trim has been removed. We kept the paneling (for now; we may get rid of it in a few years), so I patched all the lines on the panels so the panels looked flat. Then I added texture to the walls using Behr's paint texture. Finally, the walls were painted in a light cream color. Two small walls on the other side of the room (in the laundry area) are painted blue. Any trim in the room is white.

The laundry area was a similar situation noise-wise. But, instead of just particle board, we had: Linoleum, glued to plywood, nailed to particle board, nailed to the subfloor. NO PADDING. It was loud, even with the quiet, modern machines.

And now? Oh-so quiet.

More photos to come as we finish up the upstairs, but I thought I would at least post, finally, the major improvements!

A new alarm clock.

2011-10-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

The last couple of mornings, Bob woke up to dogs. By the time Bob's alarm clock goes off, I'm already up and about. Bailey's taken over my spot in the bed.

And then there's the corgi.

I plop Mads on the bed, and she bunny hops over to Bob and flings herself on top of him like a beached whale. If he peeks down at her, she rolls off of him so she's next to him, upside down, all paws in the air. And, if he says anything, she licks him on the cheek.

No joke. It's a pretty nice way to wake up.

Frame wall complete (for now)!

2011-10-18T06:59:00.000-07:00

The frame wall is finished (for now). There is some space to add more photos, and some photos will be swapped out when we get other photos. But, I'm not touching it for at least a week or two! Here's the final product:
If my counting is correct, that's 41 frames. Doesn't look like that many initially, does it? I'm not entirely happy with the cluster of four in the upper right-hand corner, and I left space for a few more photographs on the bottom right. But oh, it feels SO GOOD to be done. It's a mixture of family, pets, and art, with a few others thrown in. Only two frames have nothing in them, but they're really small and will soon get filled in.

More on how the wall came together in another post, but for this one, I just wanted to post the progression of the wall:

From an empty space to having the new sideboard:

Then the sideboard decided to get festive (it's still festive, but we've spread the festiveness a bit more around the house):

The wall, partially through (though I moved some of these photos around and reframed one piece of art):

To the (mostly) finished piece:

We love it!

Morning wreath project

2011-10-16T11:34:00.000-07:00

Just a quick wreath project this morning. Very fall-ish and a nice pop of color. It was the husband's idea to add the flowers for "an extra pop of interest." I think craft projects are rubbing off on him. Victory!

Never mind on the hanging thing...

2011-10-15T18:27:00.000-07:00

So... Four hours ago, I posted that I was going to hold off on hanging the photos.
Clearly, I lack self-control.

I also realize that I will need to vary things up with this next hanging (I see several pairs of horizontal 2s, so I'll do some varying in this next round).

Frame wall progress

2011-10-15T14:51:00.000-07:00

Eleven frames are done for the frame wall! I've been SO tempted to put a) color photos in and b) put them in without matting, but they do look so much better with both those things that I'm trying not to capitulate.

First up: A print we've had forever, but never found a frame for it. Now we have a frame AND it's double-matted!

Remember that stamp frame? Here it is with the same matting and frame painted, holding our wooden wedding invitation.

I went out and scanned old photos that were in color, and I came back with 12 5x7s and 4 8x10s. We also had 4 photos that were already in black and white. Artwork+ letters + photographs: I think we'll have a full wall.

Here is the final frame of Shirley and me riding in 1990:
And Bob's dad washing his dog:

Another artwork piece, this time by Noelle Dass:

Bob's and his sister when they were children:

Wedding photo:

Bailey pup photo (I LOVE this photo):

Bob's parents:

Bob's grandparents:

And another art print!

Whew!

And yes, that's only 7 photos... and we have 20 (at least) total. Much more work to do.

I really want to start hanging, but I think I'm better off to wait until after everything is done so I can arrange things on the floor first and then hang. And, I still need to fix up a few prints with better hanging equipment. We plan on hanging each photo with a nail and then use one of the picture frame velcro strip thingies to keep each picture even and aligned.

New wall art.

2011-10-14T13:11:00.000-07:00

Found this for $6 on Ebay. Couldn't resist.
This is definitely going on the frame wall!!!

The perfect lampshade

2011-10-12T18:02:00.001-07:00

Remember the Buddha lamp I bought last week? I got it for $3 less (not much, but...) because I didn't want the lampshade. It was a dark big thing that did not really go with the beautiful lamp stand.
Ever since, I've been on the hunt. I went by a number of stores and even went by Target, but all the shades were not only expensive (around $30), but they all did not connect the shade to the lamp at the right point (I needed on that had the shade connector at the top of the shade, not the bottom).

And then today, my searching paid off... for only $3.99:

Perfect and beautiful!

Stained glass update

2011-10-09T20:14:00.000-07:00

On Friday, I posted about snagging this stained glass on Thursday. I had plans on hanging it, most likely, in the dining room window (the window in the photo below).

This dining room window is also the one in the center/rightish side of this picture:
It's a large window and looks out at our front yard. PERFECT for a stained glass window.

I looked at the stained glass and thought "it'll likely fit there... and for $20, I'll find another place for it if the dining window doesn't fly."

Well, I measured. I gawked. I fake hung it up (by holding it, agape, in the window).

IT FITS PERFECTLY. As in, it looks like it is original to the house, especially with the glossy white enamel paint I'm putting on the frame. No awkward fit. No questions asked.

Shocking how sometimes things work out so fittingly.

Free frame (or free stamps?) !

2011-10-09T11:53:00.000-07:00

The colors changed today at Goodwill (so certain colors are 50% off), meaning I ran over there to check out their frames for our frame wall project that we'll slowly start doing. We want to have a wall of frames, and the hope is, we'll get our frames super cheap, spray paint them to mostly all match (and update old frames), and we'll have mats made to fit our pictures to the frames. MUCH cheaper than having custom frames made.

The color today was not blue, but I liked this frame anyway. Glass cover (not plastic), good wood bones. $5.99 isn't a bad price.
But then I realized: Inside the frame are stamps! And they're not sealed to the paper (so, they could still be used). I counted it up and realized there was $6.60 in stamps alone inside the frame.

So, you could say I got a free frame or I got free stamps!

Driveway bed before and after!

2011-10-08T18:44:00.000-07:00

This was the south side of our driveway. A narrow strip about 6' x 12'.
And it was gross.
Overgrown by our neighbors' juniper bushes, it was also home to weird iris-wannabe plants (I say "wannabe" since we only got a few irises this year), an oak sapling, a very old lavender, and some ferns. Oh, and in the corner of the irises is the water main. Yes, really. The dirt overflowed onto the sidewalk, and the irises grew on top of them.

This had to change. It's the front of our house, for crying out loud. Sure, we could be evil and say "oh, that's our neighbor's yard..." but our rock wall does extend around the corner, sort of a visual "our yard goes to here ___| " kind of thing.

AND, we had our new ornamental Japanese maple tree to play around with, as well as our super-ultra-awesome, steel, rectangular bins (aka planters) we scored earlier this week (post here).

So I set to work.
After many hours, the sidewalk had been cleared with the beginnings of a rock wall. DECADES of juniper undergrowth had been cleared (and yes, we got permission from our neighbors before cutting their juniper... they were overjoyed, by the way). And I do mean decades. So. much.undergrowth.

Finally, more hours later, the final result:
The rock wall needs a tad more, and we'll be planting plants and putting some pavers along the edge of the driveway as edging. We'll also fill in some more of the area with a few more plants, though the purpleish plant at the base of the bin will spread.

The bin is a nice burgundy color, though I just did some touch-ups in the photo, so it's a bit glossy and reflective with the evening sun (I wanted to do a post though, so with glare it is).

The maple has many grasses at its base, and all the grasses we chose will stay green (or purple or blueish!) year-around. So even when the maple loses its leaves, the grasses will be there.

It was a ton of work, but definitely an improvement over what it was! Now to go nurse my juniper-reacting arms (juniper is such a prickly plant, and supposedly the oils are poisonous? Regardless, an easy evening is in store for me).

Scores of yesterday (aka: the thrift gods smiled upon me)

2011-10-07T08:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the day of the Pottery Barn chairs score. But it was also oh-so-much more. Several times I stared dumbly at items in disbelief, since I had made mental notes to keep my mind open to such things (but really not thinking I'd find them).

The day went like this:

Work in the morning.
Lunch with husband.
Race out to get Pottery Barn chairs (and also a lamp)
Hop over to Goodwill to look for lampshades (and call neighbor to tell her about a garden statue at Pottery Barn chair place), but end up finding another lamp, an awesome sweater (name brand too!), a level (I needed one, badly), and a stained glass window.
Swing by recycle store place and find nice bench for outside (husband wanted one).
Go home, but neighbor wants to go see statue, so we head out.
Neighbor gets statue, statue goes in my car (which we were driving). Decide to swing by recycle store place since she'd never been before.
At recycle store (why didn't I see these earlier?!), I find two, BEAUTIFUL, steel containers and two horseshoes.
Home. Head out later on to check out another goodwill for lampshades (since the Oregon vs Cal football game was making me anxious-- I went to both schools). Found a pot, then went to Home Depot, where I knew there was a sale on a plant. Also found a table at Goodwill, but more on that later.

WHEW!

And here are the photos.

The BEAUTIFUL stained glass window was just the type I've been keeping my eye open for. But seriously, these things are pricey. I always see this type (narrow rectangular) for $120+, and I wasn't willing to spend that. Plus, the design had to be right. Not too vibrant, not too cutesy. This one was right up my alley, and was $20. I'll repaint or sand/stain the wood surround. I really want to hang it in our dining room window.

This Buddha lamp will be PERFECT for our office remodel. We're going for calm and streamlined. For some reason (especially since I think Buddha would abhor this action), items with Buddhas on them are always more expensive. I found this lamp (the Buddha is about 1' tall, the lamp is taller with the lamp top) for $15, which is a great price for such a piece of work. Are we Buddhists? Not in the conventional sense, but we greatly admire and try to practice many of the peaceful and accepting tenants of Buddhism.

This beauty I found while looking at Goodwill for lampshades. not only do I love the cute, retro shape, but it was $6... but it was the right color pricetag, so HALF OFF!! $3 for this doll? Yes, please! I suspect this will end up going upstairs, either in the work area or the reading area.

Bob's been wanting a bench for the front stoop.... but to find the right bench has been hard. It had to be narrow and not too deep. This one was perfect. It was $10, and for that much, I will not be needing to build one (a cheap trade-off for $10). And really, it wasn't really $10 since I had filled up my punch card at the recycle place and had a free $50 gift coupon to use towards this. I'm going to spray-paint it gray to match the mailbox... but then it will probably need some bedazzling. I'm totally into (but also intimidated by) stencils right now... so we'll see.

Oh, and those are the two horseshoes I bought. I saw YoungHouseLove's simple horseshoe picture today (scroll down, it's one of the bottom photos) and I really love that idea.

Besides the Pottery Barn chairs, I think STEAL OF THE DAY!!!! goes to these beauties. I cannot tell you how happy they make me. PERFECT GARDEN CONTAINERS!!! We've really wanted large garden pots, but they are so expensive ($200+, EACH, for this size in ceramic). I found these in a back corner, stuck together. One of the volunteers and I pried them apart... but no pricetag. I held my breath, hoping they wouldn't be too high (I had no idea what steel went for...). I was expecting 2 for $50 or something like that, since they could totally be used for garden beds. The end price verdict? $8 each. SOLD!!! SOLD SOLD SOLD!!!! I danced. We'll spray paint them with a glossy rustoleum. I also think some tile on the top edge would really help spiff them up. I AM SO EXCITED over these beauties.

On the evening run to the other goodwill, I found this pot. I think it's a ceramic walmart pot, but I didn't care. It was large, but super cheap ($9). I'd been looking for one (and this one even had a built-in spill catcher!) so that we could buy a plant to put next to the nightstand on the one side. I knew Home Depot had an $8.88 sale for large indoor houseplants, and I wanted to take advantage of it. Bought the pot, and Home Depot was right across the street. The plant is a little off-center because the rootball was cockeyed. Small price to pay.

As I mentioned, I also found a round low table. I'd been looking for one like this for a while, thinking it'd be perfect for my plans for upstairs. I literally stood, mouth agape, staring at this table when I saw it. The top is veneered (which is the only not perfect thing), but acceptable, and the hardware connecting the legs to the top is antique cast iron. The table also turns on top! It is perfect. I'll show it off when the upstairs is coming together... right now it's in my trunk. :)

Hello beautiful chair.

2011-10-06T21:10:00.000-07:00

Hello beautiful.

You're no longer in stock, but my, you look a lot like your $300 friend. And you're both from the same place (Pottery Barn).

But wait, you were $25? And you're one of a set of twins???
SOLD. Sold sold sold.

I should add that similar PB chairs are also in the $350 range. Our chairs were $50, for the pair. That's a $650 savings. Really.

I saw the ad for these beauties this afternoon. Two look-like-new-with-good-upholstery chairs from Pottery Barn at a new secondhand store that I'd never been in? Adventure! After lunch with my husband, I raced on over.

The store was adorable, full of stuff I actually like... a good vintage vibe without the rip-you-off prices. I bought the chairs and a peaceful Buddha lamp that we'll put in the office or the soon-to-be-revealed (ok, it may take a month or so) upstairs reading room.

I had been looking for a nice chair, and, upon finding TWO, I immediately tried to figure out where to put the other chair (because who wants to separate a PAIR???). Bob and I decided that we'd swap out our cream leather chair for one of these pairs, moving the cream one upstairs. The rocking chair, set to go upstairs anyway, will be also swapped out, so the other one of the pair will live in the office, serving as a better home for collecting Bob's suits and for an office desk chair.

I'm still swooning. And someday, if/when the upholstery fails? They can easily be reupholstered. Double bonus, extra swoon.

PS: The day was full of blink dumbly in disbelief scores. Amazing, wonderful finds. More to come in the next post.

Happiness, Part 3.

2011-10-04T10:42:00.000-07:00

A happy corgi is a corgi who is surveying her lands with her back legs dragged out behind her.

Happiness, Part 2.

2011-10-04T10:01:00.001-07:00

A happy corgi is a corgi on her back, looking cute at the camera.

Happiness...

2011-10-04T09:45:00.000-07:00

A happy corgi is a corgi with a pillow. Clearly.

Autumn Festiveness.

2011-10-03T15:59:00.000-07:00

This weekend was rainy, so after I finished the stairs outside early Saturday morning, I set out and about getting festive on a budget.

Some of the results:
First up, the pot. The plant was $3.50 at Home Depot and it has the coolest purple peppers on it. Some have a reddish or orange tint to them. Plus, it's not too wintery, so I can keep it up year-around. The pot itself? $1.99 at Goodwill, AND it matches another piece I got (totally happenstance! So, for $5.50, here's the plant and pot, both festive, but both will be out after the holiday (assuming I don't kill the plant...).

Next up: The matching tray! $3. And I have pumpkins in it right now... but I will soon swap them out for some candy. So, that puts us up at $8.50.

I saw the seasons sign idea on Pinterest, and I had to give it a shot. I hit up Goodwill on the day when their new deal colors came out, so I was able to grab all but one at $1, but 50% off! The final one was a real nice frame, so I shelled out $2. So, that's a total of $4.50 for frames! I painted them all black to match, then cut some scrapbook paper to size, then painted in lettering on the paper. Stick the paper in, and voila! This brings us up to $13.

Finally, the big glass vase thing. I've wanted one of these for a while, but they're always SO expensive, even in secondhand stores. This one was $5.99, so I nabbed it, plus some chunky potpourri at half price (so $0.50). $6.50.

So, the total for the ensemble came in at just under $20. I can keep the pot and plant out year-around (it goes with all seasons), the frames will just have different seasons swapped out, and the glass vase will have different things added. The only thing that might not get reused EACH season is the purple platter, but that's pretty ok with me since everything else can be reused.

I also nabbed this pair, and I'm stinking excited over it. I've been looking for such a candelabra since I saw one at someone's home last year. I looked around, and I found one at Pottery Barn, but it was $149 (and is now sold out)... FOR ONE DEER. This delightful pair? $13... FOR THE PAIR!!! So excited. Now they just need names.

That was my super-happy day yesterday. And now our house is a bit more festive.

New Front Stairs.

2011-10-01T11:27:00.000-07:00

Here is the obligatory "before" photo of our stairs. Keep in mind this photo was taken in late April. We knew the stairs needed some help when we bought the house. We also found out later on from our neighbors that the old owners tried to cover up the bad paint as much as possible by painting in February right before the house went on the market. FAIL. We found the problem, dingbats. And spray-painting in February in Oregon in the rain is NEVER recommended. Continuing on...

So, by late September, the bubbles of paint had popped, paint had chipped, and the rotten portions of the boards in the corners of the planks were threatening to spread their rot to the railings.

Could we have waited? Yes... but the damage may have become worse, and we really didn't want to do that.

So, on Wednesday, when I was feeling particularly plucky and frustrated, I grabbed a crowbar (don't worry, Bob knew I was going to be doing this) and spent hours tearing up old planks. Those suckers were in well with 3.5" long nails with twists on them to stay in better. Oy.

And the resulting pile of debris.

Two days of hard work later, prepping, sanding, sanding again, staining, restaining, restaining, restaining, sealing, sealing, etc.....

We're very happy. AND, we're especially happy that they cost us $40. $40?!!? you say? How? Here's how:

I originally spent $31 on a can of stain and then $8 on an additional can of seal. The gal at Home Depot though, told me entirely the wrong information on the stain, insisting that it would stain, seal, etc, and that for "extra" protection, I could also get a gallon of seal. I was happy because I wanted that color of stain (a teak color-- rare to find outdoor stain in colors other than cedar, redwood, or clear).

Well. The stain only stained. CRUD. And it wasn't the color I wanted. Double crud. And the extra seal was not compatible with the stain because one was water-based and one was oil-based. Super crud (and double crud on me for not checking something so obvious).

I managed to make the stain kinda work, in that I added a light brushing of some walnut stain (also oil-based) to the wood, and quickly wiped it off, darkening the teak stain. Ok great.

Then, I went to Home Depot. I wasn't expecting them to do anything for me, but I wanted them to know that they had given out wrong information. Shocker alert: They refunded me $31 for the can of stain AND $8 for the can of seal!!!! The fact that I was exhausted and looked like death warmed over may have helped. At that point, I had cut the boards, sanded them twice, and put two layers of stain on.

Then, in the paint department as the knowledgeable paint guy and I hunted around for oil-based, exterior gloss, he took pity on my exhaustion and gave me a $14 can of exterior gloss for free. WOW!

This meant that besides $0.50 cents in sandpaper, and $1 in brushes, our only expense was lumber. $40.

And that is how we got new front stairs. More to come later as we paint up the railings and everything... but that will have to wait as we're expecting rain. Yay plastic covering on to-be-painted surfaces!

Two steps back.

2011-09-28T16:09:00.000-07:00

We're replacing the stairs in the front. The wood was beginning to rot on the sides of the steps, so we wanted to take 'em out before they caused more rot in other pieces of wood.

So, I huffed and puffed, and with my handy crowbar friend, I yoinked/pried/cursed/swore/hit and got all the stairs out, leaving behind a skeleton of a staircase for me to put new boards on.

And I was all excited. I'll buy boards, which I already priced out. Then I'll stain them and seal them and they'll look gorgeous.

And then I pried up the top stair and the lip.

So. The top of the stairs is a small landing pad. It's about 5.5'x5' wide. A little spot where the mail box is, where the door opens, etc. It has stone outdoor tile on it. There is plywood on the bottom, then about 1/2"-3/4" thick slab of cement, then the tile on top with grout.

The outermost 1" of plywood is NASTY. As in soggy with fungus underneath.

We're currently exploring options.

What we've been up to (lots of photos) !

2011-09-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

We've had a bunch of projects going on. Since I'm so far behind in posts, I decided to just do one post with a lot of photos. Some of these projects aren't 100% done, so you might see them in another photo-- the "finished!" post.

Bedroom Project
First up: We rearranged our bedroom. Rotated the bed and redid the nightstands. Results? WE LOVE IT.

Nightstand Redux
The nightstands went from gray with slate to purple with wood. While the old nightstands looked ok, we just weren't jiving with them. I also spray-painted the knob on the stand and the stand of the lamp. Results? We love them. The drawers have mod podged green paper inside, which is a neat touch, but I'll save that for another post.

Butterfly Bush Hack Job
We're going to be redoing the front yard a tad over the next few years. The previous owners left a bunch of grape plants out there. That's all well and fine, but the grapes sprawl all over the place and it's just not a great usage of space. For now though, we cut back the butterfly bush. Don't worry, it will come back. These suckers are hardy. But, at least this way, we can control its growth a bit more. It's a bit drastic, but I think it will look better in the long run. Now it will be more of a bush and less of an overgrown explosion.

Stair Paint Job
I painted the stairs going upstairs, attempting to make them look nicer and have the walkway be a little more appealing. I decided to use a light green color available from the awesome, low-cost, recycled-paint place. We had been considering this green for our house. Result? FAIL!!! The green is far too lime-y. Dang it. So I painted one stair purple to see if we'd like that. Yes, possibly. More updates to come.

Candlestick Craft Job
$0.99 candlesticks from Goodwill that were a garish gold? Spraypainted blue! They can easily be spraypainted again. Such an easy craft project.

New Sideboard!
We got a new sideboard! Finally, my Grandmother's china has a home. Super traditional? No, but it works like a dream, even if Rumpole likes to lay on it. Sigh.

New Mirror
I took a cheap $2 Home Depot mirror and attached it to a leftover door I had. Then I taped it up and spray painted it. There are some additional bits of interest that are the same color that need to be attached. More on this later, but so far? The project has been great!

Hall Closet Redo
We're working on reorganizing the hall closet. Exciting, right? Hey, we need an organized space for all that toilet paper (hooray Costco).

Ampersand and Quote Graffiti Wall
We painted a large ampersand on the wall and then attached "MR" and "MRS" to the wall in wood letters. Since we've now moved the bed, we've decided to get paint pens and carefully start adding our favorite quotes to the wall. Exciting!

New, Festive Entryway
Large glazed pot at recycle store: $8. Tree at another store (that I got discounted because it had a small bad spot in the back): $7.50. Pumpkins: $2. Pipecleaners: $1. Googly Eyes: $1. Total: $19.50 for a festive entryway! And I will keep the tree there year-around but decorate it for the various times of year.

Naked Living Room Floors
We've decided to go rugless in the dining room and living room. Yes, it requires more regular cleaning, but it's 50x easier. More on that later on too.

Canning Projects
First round of applesauce has been finished! Also canned up: Three large jars of apple cider and a few jars of blackberry jam.

Lilac Hack Job
We hacked away at our lilac trees. I love these trees, but they're going to go as of next spring when we fix up our bottom tier in the back yard.

Hen Home
The chickens have a new home! It's not finished (and won't be so long as this rain continues), but you get the general idea! The left two feet are a shed, so it's a dual-purpose structure. The hens have a lot of space, but they are slow to adjust to confinement.
And the babies? They're getting bigger!!!
The hens are also using the new egg box well (hurray!).
Again though, they're slow to adjust to confinment....

New (to us) Lawn Chairs
Found great cedar lawn chairs at the recycle store for a steal. Fixed them up and painted them. Voila!

New Garden
We're in the middle of building garden beds for the top tier. 3-5 more garden boxes to go. We'll need to decide on final arrangement patterns, then paint them (yes, paint!!!), then fill them, then plant any overwintering items. We're also building a 3' or so high fence to keep dogs out and nicely define the garden space.

Meat Bird Home
The old chicken coop was moved to the other corner of the top tier (it gets more shade). It's covered partially with a tarp to help keep the occupants dry. The occupants? Our meat birds. We have 8 of them (long story involving a likely raccoon took 3 of them), and they're fat and happy. They'll be around for about another month.
Fat and happy.

Trees!
We've begun to plan out trees, since we've decided to add two trees to our backyard. We may eventually add more, but we're starting with two. We've narrowed down the varieties and where to put them, but final decisions on types have not been made. We'll get them about a month, once fall has fully settled in. Since we're planting them on a slope, our main concern is making sure we create a situation where their roots will get a good soaking, since we'll need to really soak the roots for the first two years. We're debating arrangements.

Compost Bin
We bought a used (well, it wasn't used but it had been sitting in someone's yard) compost bin. Woo! Now we need to get a better compost bucket for in the kitchen.

Lots of Eggs
We need to use eggs more.

New Cleaning Method
This may seem weird, but we've been hunting for a way to somehow make our floor maintenance easier. We gave into fad and are trying swiffer (the old owners left behind the broom). So far? It's not as cheap as a broom, but it sure gets the dust. Then we also use OrangeGlo Daily Spray for our wood floors. Whew!

Too many tomatoes...
Sometime today, I have to finish processing the last 20 pounds of tomatoes we have. Lots of good sauce though!

House Paint
We're also debating what color to choose for our house. Metropaint is about 60% off of regular paint on cost, but their colors are limited. Hm. We'll paint in summer '12 or '13, but we'd like to make sure decisions we make now on other things are supported by our future home colors.

Old Window, New Dry Erase Board
We found this great old window. We're painting it up and then we'll use it as a 6-paneled dry-erase board for in the kitchen.

Beer Brewing
And finally, Bob made beer this weekend. I am not a beer-drinker, so I'll have to look to him and to third-parties to let me know how it turns out.

So there we go! We've been busy, and more updates will soon come!

He's special, that dog.

2011-09-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

Someone is playing a game. It goes like this: Pick up the stuffed football. Drop the football. Stare at it while wagging tail. Pounce with the vigor of a bucking bronco. Repeat.

He has questionable taste.

Everything this dog does could be ended with the phrase "and it was great!!!"

I ate kibble... and it was great!!!
I woke up... and it was great!!!
My dogmom got mad at me... and it was great!!!

For serious. This is the dog that will whunka whunka his tail even when he knows you're mad at him.

Though, he does have a thing for picking up and dropping things. The outside version of football drop? Pick up the tennis ball. Walk over to pile of tree trimmings. Toss ball gleefully into pile. Ball falls inside, amongst branches. Dig at pile until find ball. Pounce on ball with same gusto as above. Repeat.

I swear we play with him.

However. This is also the dog that has managed to knock over (probably due to the gusto mentioned above) three cans of paint I had outdoors for the coop. And because I was stupid and didn't think the golden's tail would knock them over, I hadn't pounded the lids shut.

He's special, that dog.

You awake yet?

2011-09-18T09:44:00.000-07:00

Bailey is patiently waiting for Bob to wake up.
Kudos to Bob for being able to sleep through Golden Retriever breath coming at him from 3" away.

(and yes, those are Paddington ears just behind Bailey. That cat is totally standing his ground to keep his spot on the bed. Precious real estate.)

Speaking of cats, these two are also waiting for Bob to wake up. Or maybe they want/need food. Regardless, it's a powwow of impatient animals in the bedroom this morning.
In case you were wondering, that's three cats and one Golden Retriever on the bed or bed frame waiting for Bob to wake up. Wondering where Maddie is? She's on the floor, sprawled out. Short legs are not conducive to jumping up on the bed.

The joy of rope.

2011-09-17T11:59:00.000-07:00

The corgi picked out a new rope toy today at the store (yes, really). Note to self: hide the toy. It's complicated to check out with one hand while the other hand is holding onto a rope being tugged on happily by an overjoyed Maddie. Also not easy to drive when being nudged by Mads trying to get me to play with the new toy. And walk up the driveway dragging a tugging dog.
That's some tugging and head-shaking action going on there.

Right now though, she's konked out with her beloved rope next to her. Love defined.

Jar of Chick.

2011-09-16T20:18:00.001-07:00

I have 11 meat chicks in a cage in the garage. They are ALMOST ready to head outside. They are about 4-5 inches long and almost fully feathered. They were going to go outside last week, but then the weather turned and I decided to give them a few more days.

They have a feeder, an upside-down mason jar which feeds into a bottom feeder.

Today, I went downstairs to check on them.

OH MY GOSH.

I found that the hungry little devils had knocked over the mason jar and, somehow, disconnected it from the plastic feeder portion.

AND ONE CHICK HAD CRAWLED INSIDE THE GLASS MASON JAR AND COULD NOT GET OUT.

You've GOT to be kidding me.

The chick would slip on the lip and fall back into the jar. When I tried to reach in to pull the chick out, the chick would tense up, becoming too large to fit through the mouth.

I could not make this stuff up.

So, I took a piece of rope and made a loop. I wriggled it up and over the chick's back and it plopped securely down around the chick's behind. Then, I pulled on it gently, causing the chick to tense up on the back, not the front, and pop out of the jar!!!

The little chicklet was no worse off for wear. Me? I was way worse off for wear. Don't do this to me, chicks!

Nail polish

2011-09-15T09:06:00.000-07:00

I've never worn nail polish.

Ok, scratch that. I've tried to wear nail polish. A couple times a year for some event or another, I'd fix my nails up. Because usually would only (at most) have clear polish on, to put color on would take a while. And then the polish would go on. Usually the polish would go on poorly. Streaky or globby or just not covering right. It'd take a while for me to finally get it right.

And then, inevitably, I'd bump a finger or two, meaning I'd have to redo those fingers. And in redoing those fingers, usually a few more fingers would get bumped.

So, when all was finally finished, it was a process that had taken a while. So, to have the polish not look great (see the streaky/globby comments, above) and to have the polish only last a day before significant chipping, you can understand why I never wear colored nail polish.

This summer, in working on the coop and in working outside, my nails got a little stained under my fingers. So, my nails always looked dirty. One of my coworkers had given me a gar of this cool light gray Avon nail polish, so I figured what the heck. And, it went on well and STAYED ON for almost a week. Mind blown.

So, I decided I had to try dark gray. I'd been really wanted to for a while. I figured I'd likely have to jump for something pricey in the OPI line. On a whim though, I grabbed a bottle of Revlon Top Speed.
Clouds part, angels sing. Not only does it cover extremely well in one coat, it dries in 60 seconds. That means, in less than 10 minutes, I can put two coats of gray and one coat of clear on all my nails AND have them dry. I usually wait about five minutes before doing something so if I wack my nails it will be dry enough to not dent the polish.

The best part is: If it does eventually chip (usually a tiny one on day 2-3), it is so quickly fixable that I don't care.

I'm guessing by the length of this post you can see how excited I am. And at $4.50 a bottle, I have a right to be! I've gotten a lot of compliments.

I never thought I'd be the girl who is excited to try out new colors on her nails.

To paint or not to paint?

2011-09-14T08:18:00.000-07:00

Here's our dining room table. As you can see, the room has a lot of light... but, it has a lot of dark furniture. The table and benches are painted this deep, deep stain (almost black), so there really isn't the stain versus paint debate going on. It's so lacquered up that it's essentially already painted.

So, then there's the wine rack, also dark. It was hurridly made (by yours truly), and the paint masks the bad molding job I did (truth) and also matches the rack. It's black.
And finally, though not as dark, there's the sideboard thingie we purchased recently for my grandmother's china (and other dining-type knickknacks). It's a light walnut color. Above it, on that wall, we're going to be putting a lot of framed photos.
So, the question becomes: Do we paint the dining room table a lighter and brighter color? It might amp up a darkish room that should be light. I'm not thinking anything too crazy.... I think. Just something to modernize the table a bit and give the room a pop. This wouldn't happen anytime in the next month or two, but perhaps this winter?

Hm.

Blackberry disaster.

2011-09-12T07:20:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I went with friends out to our blackberry spot. Quite frankly, it was not easy picking. Either you had to clamor into the brambles in the shade, or they were easier to pick but in the blazing sun. But, after 3 hours (ish?) of picking, I had 32 cups of blackberries.

Yes, 32 cups. That's around 16 pounds. Really.

I was too tired to start working on jam Saturday night, so I decided to do it Sunday night. Waiting 24 hours is usually NO problem. Besides, I wanted to get the half-jam jars (the small small jars) so we could give lots away to coworkers and such for the holidays.

I drained the juice out of the bottom and plopped a god-awful amount of sugar on the juice to get it mixed up before cleaning the berries of weed seeds, berry leaves, etc.

Then I smelled it: fermenting.

WHAT?

I looked closer. The berries were not fermenting because of age. There were small worms. My guess? Fruit fly larvae. I think the warmth of the day, combined with the warmth of sitting for 24 hours and having a great food-rich environment, combined with likely having a berry or two with eggs resulted in this. I've been picking blackberries for almost 30 years and never had this happen.

I had brief ridiculous thoughts of picking them out, but no, that wasn't going to happen. And if I didn't wish to eat the jam, I sure as heck wasn't going to give it away.

So, almost 20 lbs of blackberries, wasted. Arms scratched up for nothing. Deep thorn in my knuckle (which hurt for the last two days) for naught.

What to do? Blackberries are the best crop for jams and whatnot... because they're free. I can make applesauce rather cheaply too, but those can't be in half-jam or jam jars because that's a ridiculous portion size for applesauce. So you have to make more applesauce to give it away to the same amount of people. Which, I don't mind doing, but. Plus, I had a lot of blackberry jam requests from people who don't make jam.

I think I'll just make 4-5 batches of jam, but in smaller quantities. At least, that's what I'm thinking right now when I'm not quite so dejected.

Fur.

2011-09-07T21:42:00.001-07:00

If you're considering getting a double-coated dog, consider this:
The 30-lb corgi's pile of fur is the one on the right. And, be mindful that I do brush them often, so this is not a year's worth of fur.

As another note: I love my knock-off furminator. It gets out that sloughed-off undercoat like nobody's business.

We're pretty lucky in that both of our dogs LOVE to be brushed. I am not taking this fact for granted, even though it's a tad of a hassle when the golden boy loves it so much that he rolls over onto his back (therefore rolling onto where I need to brush the most). Oh, and when I'm sitting down and brushing him and he licks my foot. Ee! Mads is pretty low-key, though every five minutes or so, she feels the need to get up, hop onto my lap, and thunk her head against my chest and lick my chin.

Yes, they really love being brushed.

Both dogs also got all their nails trimmed tonight, so it was a full-on doggie spa night. Bailey got two biscuits for his nail-trimming heroism, a result which immediately made him forget all his anxiety and give me a paw again. Luckily, I forgot the dewclaws, so I trimmed both of them and gave him another biscuit. A dancing, happy, golden boy.

Both dogs are happy, and both dogs are shiny. A productive evening, and hopefully one that will give my broom a little bit of a break.

Mama Hen

2011-09-07T14:14:00.000-07:00

Had to post this picture to show to the Ohio family folks. Mama hen has taken on two baby chicks. They look NOTHING like her, so thank goodness chickens don't understand genetics (or reproduction, for that matter, I say to the hen who sat for days on unfertilized eggs).
Fluffbottom is now the proud mama to two cuckoo maran chickies, who will eventually look like this.

At dusk on Saturday, I brought the box with chicks up to the coop and placed it nearby the hen. She would hear the chirping and think her eggs were about ready to hatch. An hour later (when it was dark), I took the two chicks out and stuck them under mama bird, who immediately fluffed up and gently covered them in feathers.

We're on day four now and Fluffbottom still has her two chicks.

She's up in the old coop right now though, so we'll see how things go when I try to transplant her in a few days to the new coop. I suspect this will have to be done at night also, probably with me wearing a headlamp. She's quite protective of her chicks, so it's a good thing chickens become rather dumb at night!

Car boy

2011-09-07T07:49:00.001-07:00

We just got back from a long weekend of two mini-vacations. The dogs got to come with us on both trips. As you can see, golden boy has developed a new way of sleeping and also keeping himself occupied: Laying his head on the top of the backseat and either falling asleep or watching the road behind us.
This talented boy can do this from either side.

More photos to come.

Busy busy.

2011-08-31T07:53:00.001-07:00

Yeeks, it's been since Thursday that I've posted. Well, here's what's going on:

I'm building a combo shed/chicken coop outside. Photos to come. I'm very happy with my design. I should add I'm trying to do all of the coop for less than $100. The recycling store? REALLY a good source.
I just bought a miter saw. I had a smile plastered all up and down my face yesterday (I've wanted one for a long time). Bob does put up with some weird likes from me, but he also realizes that it will let us both do a better job at cutting things more precisely. And between $40 in gift card, a return store credit card, $15 cash I had, and a 10% off coupon, I filled my car with lumber for the coop AND bought the 10" saw for $50. Yes, really.
I have 11 baby chicks in our garage. They are meat birds. Yes, that does mean that around Halloween, they will be no longer. There have been some eyebrows raised on this by our friends... humorously, as they have actually had their mouths full WITH CHICKEN (I kid you not). More on my thoughts about this later.
I have a broody chicken, who is of the belief that if she sits on unfertilized eggs long enough, they will become chicks. No joke. She's been up there in the old coop since last Thursday, looking like she's stoned out of her mind. But, on Friday, the backyard farmer place I like is getting a shipment of chicks in--- cuckoo marans and speckles sussex, both breeds of which I'd like to have a hen or two. So.... we're going to get a couple and stick them under her on Friday. It's about a 50/50 shot whether she'll take them as her own. If she doesn't, we'll rescue them and stick them under the heat lamp with the meat birdies. Luckily, it's been coolish (70s), so my broody mama isn't overheating, but my goodness is she a warm hen!
We get to spend the night in a fire lookout in the near future. No joke. Oregon is a pretty cool place.
Our Indian food night was last Saturday. I made way too much food and it was fun. September we're doing Cajun food. YUM.
College football starts on Saturday.
We went to Fiesta at a vineyard we like a week and a half ago. So much fun, and we got to eat paella. We also came home with six bottles of wine... all paid for by credits I had from helping them bottle. Nice.
I found, for free, an old barber or dentist chair base that has working hydraulics. No kidding! I think it's the bees knees and I can totally see the potentially. Others around me think I'm a bit cuckoo (I'm looking at you there, husband).
Found/got a free craft table for upstairs.
I have a new dog sitting charge who gets to spend the day with us (dog camp!). It's fun for our pups, and a few extra bucks for me.
I did a mirror craft project earlier this week that I think is just about done, and I am SO happy with the results. The title of the post for that one should be "how to spiffy up a $2 mirror from Home Depot." Seriously.
I bought a $100 coupon to Picaboo online photo books for $5 (it was $35, but I had $30 in groupon coupons, apparently). So, we'll see how scrapbooking 2010 online goes.
Bought about $450 in meat for $120. Our freezer is stocked.
Canned up 30 jars of peaches.
Reserved 40 pounds of San Marzano tomatoes for sauce.
Made homemade crackers.
Searched for graham flour, but apparently, NO ONE carries it (???). Don't know why they don't.
Fixed my jigsaw. Broke a flat-nosed screwdriver trying to do so. Ended up having to take it to Home Depot and have them work on it (for free). Yes, I am serious.
Trying to find more sources for free/cheap apples so I can try my hand at cider-making.
Our wedding photo book arrived and I LOVE it.
Bob broke our mop, AGAIN (no wringing it out until it's completely softened with water!!!!). I sewed the old mop back on and anxiously waited and waited for the new heads (yes, we now have two backups) to arrive in the mail.
I learned how to cook bok choy.
Bob learned how to make and cook gnocchi (amazing gnocchi! fluffy pillows of goodness).
Bailey hurt his paw, Maddie hurt her ear. Both have recovered.
Paddington is still gray.
We had our cooling turned off until we had a slew of 90ish degree days and my husband about overheated. The good news? When I turned on the cooling system, I performed an action that was ordinary, but to Bob it was extraordinary. Angelic wife who turned on the cooling. He was happy.
We figured out what we're going to do with the top tier of our yard. Now we have to do it.....
For our Indian night, I fixed up a bunch of candlesticks using an idea I found online. That post should be titled "how to spiffy up $5 in candlesticks from Goodwill."
We finally bought a sideboard, and I stuck my grandmother's china in it... and lost it to tears about halfway through.
Our neighbors threw a pie party. Amazing.
LivingSocial had a deal for our favorite sushi place-- $20 buys you $40 of sushi. The expiration of the deal was fairly far-off (so we'd have a long while to use them), so we bought six. Yes, six. Bob loves sushi, and this way, we don't have to debate as to whether or not to get it. 30 minutes after we bought, the deal sold out. Hurray for timing!
And I'm behind in getting photos to my in-laws that they requested. Will do!

That is all. Busy busy.

Delinquent Critters.

2011-08-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

This is what I'm dealing with this morning (in addition to taking care of actual work items):
Yes, mucky paws on all three (we're watching someone's dog) pups, particularly the Golden Boy's (but only because Maddie is obsessed with her kiddie pool and therefore kinda cleans off and Mo has short fur that doesn't hold muck well). Why, you ask?
See that in the middle of the shot? It's a hole. Darn dogs were awfully quiet after about 20 minutes of running around. That should have sounded VERY loud alarm bells to me, but instead, I enjoyed the quiet. Now I have a hole.

Compile this with the great discovery of yesterday when I went outside and found three dogs (again, particularly the Golden Boy) tangled in string. I had used the string to map out the chicken coop footprint and STUPIDLY left it outside. I should have taken a photo of my yard, which looked like a giant, drunk spider had woven a very messed up web. Needless to say, the pups were ecstatic. I was not.

And finally, a photo of the victim/culprit from yesterday morning's feline drama. He's supposed to be a light cream color. Look at his side and you'll get just a brief idea of the gray I'm now dealing with. He LOATHES baths, and I have to resort to holding him by the nape of his neck while avoiding claws and trying to scrub him off.
Maybe this is a sign that I should just love and appreciate my now semi-gray cat? By the way, the back of his head is even worse. He's still somewhat grumpy from yesterday, so this is the best shot I could get.

So, right now? The dogs are locked in the kitchen, where I can see them through the gate and they are sleeping. The cats are locked upstairs, with all their food, water, and litter (this also means I can open the bottom of the windows, not just the tops, since no cats are around to push out screens. And, the chickens are quiet outside, gorging themselves on food. All delinquent critters accounted for! I'm having a cup of coffee and enjoying this chaos-free moment.

Freaking felines.

2011-08-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

Our older cat, Paddington, is a lovely light cream color. He does not like to play, as he's older and getting slower.

But, our young cat, Rumpole, loves to play and will often try to prod Paddington into playing. This typically results in an upset Paddington and much hissing.

Like this morning. When Rumpole decided to do this... IN A 6" DIAMETER CRAWL SPACE IN THE ATTIC. A 6" space I didn't even know existed until the cats decided to start yeowling and I had to find them.

I am so mad at them right now that I don't even want to look at them. So photos will have to come later. But let's just say that Rumpole has gone into hiding in the crawl space, and Paddington? He's FILTHY and looks like a gray cat.

Stupid, stupid cats.

Sometimes, there is no fairness with paradise.

2011-08-23T20:36:00.001-07:00

I'm sensing a theme here. I think Bob needs a vacation.

Bob: Life's not fair.

Me: Oh? Why?

Bob: Because I don't run a tropical resort.

I need to find some little paper umbrellas to start sticking in this man's water glass.

Progress update

2011-08-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

So, back in early June, I started a new health turnabout. I'm happy to say: I'm still on it!

It's been almost 80 days, and I'm down closing in on being down 30 lbs. I feel better, and I'm definitely more conscious of what I eat.

Yes, there still are nights of having food that isn't as healthy for me, but those will ALWAYS exist. The point of the diet and lifestyle change was not to deprive too much, but instead, still expose myself to the temptations that will always exist and then overcome those.

So, how have things changed?

I have more stamina. I can walk up long flights of stairs and not be winded.
I have more energy.
I have a slowly getting higher self-esteem. This can likely be seen on my growing number of pinterest pins that are clothing layouts. :)
More clothes not only fit, but they also fit better.

Now though, I have to start upping my game at the gym, and honestly? I'm terrified. There was a long period of being at the gym where I was SO frustrated because I couldn't do the things I wanted to do. Now, I think I will be better, but those old memories still haunt. Sorry if that sounds melodramatic. I think I just need to get over my hangups.

But yes! Overall: So far, so good.

Dog Camp.

2011-08-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

We have a visiting dog this week (someone's dog I'm watching). Mo's quite the character and fits right in. His owner kept saying "Mo, are you ready for camp?"

And I realized... yes, this is kind of like camp.

Take today for example:
Yes, that's three dogs watching the National Dog Show. The two sporting dogs are, clearly, very interested in the Sporting Group, while the corgi is very much unimpressed and waiting for the Herding.

Doggie Camp, indeed.

New cutting board

2011-08-22T13:40:00.000-07:00

Remember last Friday when I picked up a chunk of granite at the recycling store? I'm pretty certain it's the cut out of a larger slab for someone's sink. It's the sink chunk.

Regardless, here was the before picture:

And a close-up. Dirty, but potential.

I scrubbed and lathered and cleaned that sucker up, big time. Once dry, I slapped a few felt stickies on the bottom so it wouldn't scratch the wood countertop. I'll have to be good about checking them frequently to make sure they didn't get wet and are getting gross.

So.... voila:

I think the size is just about perfect! Love the results and having it so close to the stove to handle hot items.

Right now, it has 20 cans of canned peaches on top of it. I found that when I put my freshly canned jars on the wood, they left circles I had to scrub. Now, with this? I can just put them on top of the granite!

Overall? Total success.

Recycling store sale success!

2011-08-19T11:27:00.000-07:00

Our town has a FANTASTIC recycling store, BRING Recycling. They're pretty much the most fantastic place to scavenge. Everything is well-organized into categories, but from there, you're on your own.

Once or twice a year, they have a big ol' sale. Now, often, you'll walk in on a normal day and find out that "hey, all doors are 50% off." That's cool... if you want a door. But, the big ol' sale? Everything is 40-50% off. EVERYTHING. Today, everything was 40% off. I went today, because I figured that when things go to 50% off tomorrow, it will be a) chaotic, and b) picked through.

Before I get to sharing my finds, I have to share this photo of how you transport a door in a Camry. This sucker was NOT GOING ANYWHERE, and yes, that is a t-shirt serving as a flag on the end. Hey, I had a flag, that's what matters. And of course, I got the typical guy who walked by and said "hey, you need help tying that in?" While I'm sure he was just trying to be friendly, the fact that I'm a girl does not mean that I am incapable of securing objects to my vehicle. My father taught me well. SIGH.

On to photos of the haul...

First up, for FREE: A DOOR! It's missing the glass on the top portion, but since I want to use it for the new chicken coop, it's PERFECT, since I can just staple gun or tack in wire there (which I prefer anyway). Most excellent. And if I have to cut it down, I can always chop some of the bottom portion off.

Next, speaking of wire: we have wire! 1/4" heavy gauge, wire. This stuff is raccoon-proof, meaning that if I forget to lock the door to the coop portion of the new coop, my girls will still be safe. Nice. Regular cost: $13, sale price: $7.80.
And, as you can see, there is plenty of wire in there. The roll was a 4' wide!

Next up: A large basket. We have a top-heavy living room plant. I can either spray paint or deeply clean this up (it's almost 2' tall!), stick some rocks in the bottom, and then put in the current pot the plant is in and weigh that down. Perfect. No more toppling. Price: $4. Sale price: $2.40.

A cute piece of homemade pottery in a glaze my husband will like. Regular price: $2. Sale price: $1.20.

And finally, a piece of granite. It's about 1'x18", so it is not a small slab. I've been toying of the idea of fixing one up with felt pads underneath and having it next to the stove as a chopping block/heat pad. Now? We have one. I just need to clean her up well.

Cost: $5. Sale price: $1 (because the guy was nice and measured it a different way for me).
It has a very nice grain to it too... can't wait to get it all spruced up.

So, the grand total? $12.40.

That's my kind of morning.

I was VERY tempted to get some metal roofing for the coop, but I think that's planning a bit too far ahead of time and might have ended badly. It was cheap enough that I can easily come back and get it when I need it. I was also quite tempted by a $17 wood bench that rocked back and forth. It needed new paint and some new hardware... and we have a bench already, so I decided against it. VERY tempting though.

Kitchen Spectacular

2011-08-19T08:38:00.000-07:00

Just had to share pictures of our incredibly clean kitchen. It took me several hours to deep-clean, but yikes, the results! LOVE.

Why was it so messy? It really wasn't bad... but those white cabinets sure show grime easily. And, with countertops so deep, we'd frequently just wipe the first foot and a half in, meaning a lot of dust and stuff got caught around stuff deeper in.
I rearranged a few things too.

Most spectacularly? The MICROWAVE!! Off of the kitchen counter and into the (newly rearranged and cleaned in this same deep cleaning) closet next to the fridge. It's airy enough that I feel comfortable with it in there, and it's been a rocking success. Plus, no more micro on the counter, taking up space.

So, that's what I did a couple days ago. Very very happy.

New Scrapbooking Challenge (no backsie outties this time)

2011-08-18T22:26:00.000-07:00

Remember my scrapbooking challenge to myself? And then how I backed out of it?

Well, new challenge!

I bought a Groupon for Blurb a few months back (with a deadline to use it), and I used it for our wedding album. The result? Love it. (and I promise I will post photos soon)

So... yesterday on Groupon came a new photobook coupon: $25 for a $75 coupon to Picaboo.com, or $35 for a $100 coupon to Picaboo.com.

I didn't like some of the limitations from Blurb, so I immediately hopped on Picaboo and did a few sample scrapbook pages. I liked the freedom and ease for creating my own thing on Picaboo, so I decided to go for it.

Picaboo allows for up to 160 pages, so I budgeted out what that would be (worst case scenario, if I don't find a coupon to make it less!), and I decided to jump for the $100 coupon. At $35, it was a good deal...

BUT.

When I went to check out, I had $30 groupon bucks! Apparently, I had referred 3 friends to Groupon. So, my purchase for a $100 of Picaboo product cost me $5.

The only catch? I have to use it by the middle of November.

I plan to try to put my 2010 photos in the album. Challenge. Here's hoping!

Yes, another chicken post.

2011-08-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

Last night, I gathered up my hens and put them in their portable cage. The cage was then covered with a blanket so I wouldn't have cackling at the break of dawn.

But, as I was putting Layla (my Dark Brahma) in the cage, her eye was closed. She must have gotten something in there that irritated it, causing a film that sealed her eyelids. Poor dear!

So last night, I sat on the couch with her on my lap and a moist, warm compress on her eye. Yes, I have tame chickens.

So tame that she fell asleep with her head in my hand.
Ridiculous, I know.

But, just now, I went outside to check on her. She was across the yard and when she saw me, she SPRINTED (which, if you're a chicken, looks like a drunken sprint) to me as fast as her fluffy legs would carry her. Her eye? Normal. Happy girl.

Bucket of KFC.

2011-08-16T12:56:00.000-07:00

Our chickens are free-range. We haven't had a problem with raccoons, so their coop is open. They go into it at night and are able to hop out when they're ready to wake up. Someday hopefully soon, their new coop will be built, and they will be locked up every night. Until then, they have the freedom to come and go...

Or so I thought.

Remember my black copper maran, KFC? She's a) decided to sleep in the lilac tree by our back door, and b) decided to wake up and cluck extremely loudly when the first rays of sunlight hit her.

Normally, this is around 6:30 or 7. I can handle that; I put the dogs outside and she shuts up.

But this morning, it was 5:30. Too early for the dogs (who didn't even follow me out of the bedroom when I got up to shut up the hen), and I'm worried the neighbors are going to hear. I've been sick, so I'm pretty grumpy at the hen, while meanwhile, my husband sleeps like a log.

So.

This is what happens to a hen who squawks at 5:30am.
Yes, that's a bucket on top of the hen and the heavy food bucket on top to keep the bucket on her.

Don't report me to animal abusers. She fell immediately back asleep and was warm and content. And, most importantly: she shut up.

So, out on our back patio this morning, we had a bucket of KFC.
Photo proof that no hen was harmed in this morning's escapades.