The Rearranger

I am not sleeping well with the bed under the window at all(we switched the dresser and bed spots a week or so ago). Our neighbor has a shop in his backyard with spotlights on it and they shine right into our bedroom! It is worse right at the curtains so its like I have a big green glowstick above my head as I sleep. Soooo, since the girls are not here and Mark and Ryan are working, I'm going to put on my rearranger cape and get after it! Of course I have to pick up a ton of stuff first.

The girls will have to clean out both piggie cages when they get here. All of a sudden, in the last 3-4 days, we've had a fly explosion! I'm thinking some animal must've died in the pool area or across the street or something. They tend to hang around the cages and the litterboxes so we've kept them poop-scooped every day since we noticed the problem.

I've got laundry going and have swept the kitchen and utility room. I hate sweeping almost as much as I hate ironing. Bleh. Now I need to figure out dinner and I'll have gotten a lot accomplished before noon!! YEAH ME!!! I'll grocery shop later today, we're out of most of my favorite things so I have to go. Mark's check was bigger than we expected, over a car payment bigger than usual, so I can really stock us up for the winter(including new curtains for the living room and maybe our bedroom!!!).

The Weekend....

When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers, hour by hour,
October's bright blue weather.
- Helen Hunt Jackson, October's Bright Blue Weather


Friday morning I took the girls grocery shopping with me while Mark and Ryan stayed home. It was a beautiful mid-morning and promised to be a lovely afternoon as well. I had the bright idea that we should spend time outdoors so I called Mark from the store to see if he'd be interested. We decided to wait til Saturday and head north to the Yamboree, a local festival celebrating that wonderful cash crop of the 1930's, the Sweet Potato, which is really not a yam. The Yamboree is one of the oldest folk festivals in Texas just behind the Tyler Rose Festival and the Jacksonville Tomato Festival.

We watched the Queen's Parade, ate some fair food, rode a huge ferris wheel, gawked at the crowds, visited the exhibit halls, the ag barns and all the other things most people do at festivals. Ryan found several of his friends in the ag barns with their livestock so he was busy socializing while the girls, Mark and I petted pigs, goats, calves, and bunnies. I think Sarah would have brought a baby cow home if she could have, or a goat! Then we hit the vendor area but didn't end up finding anything we couldn't live without. One of the exibits we especially enjoyed was the junior art and photography division. There are some very talented young artists in east Texas! Amy and Sarah are wanting to enter the drawing category and maybe photography too for next year.

As you may have noticed, there are no pictures. I decided to take a break from the camera this trip. Its a big, clunky thing and I did not feel like wagging it around all day. You'll have to imagine the dappled sunlight on the courthouse lawn, the chilly breeze, the greasy food smells, laughter, screams from the scary rides, and the sound of fiddles playing. You are off the hook as far as imagining the lovely livestock smells.

On our way to the car, we stopped at the monthly flea market across from the exhibit areas. Patricia, my homeschooling friend had a booth there promoting her business, Herbal Grace. She sells mineral make-up, organic teas, soaps, and much more. I left with a new eye shadow color(nutmeg) and some fantabulous organic seasoned salt. Her soaps are to die for too, LOVE them, and we use several of her other formulas.

We also nabbed a huge bucket of sweet potatoes for $4. Wooo hooo! Could have got a bushel for $13 but I didn't think we'd eat that many. How wrong I was...

Several days ago I came across a blog post featuring sweet potato fries and Hungry Girl had mentioned butternut fries not too long ago as well. I googled to get a good idea of what to do and went for it!

I preheated the oven to 425, sliced up our two largest "yams" into french fry sized pieces, layered them on two baking sheets(it is best if they don't touch and have space between each fry). I sprayed them with butter flavor cooking spray and sprinkled them with the new seasoned salt mixed with cayenne, onion, and garlic powders, and paprika. They went into the oven on the middle and lowest racks for 15 minutes. I stirred well and switched their places on the racks, baking for another 15 minutes. We scarfed them down with ketchup and there were no more. They are woooooonderful!!!! With a texture like a steak fry, creamy and soft on the inside, but not starchy(gritty) like regular fat fries, along side frizzled spiral ham and a spinach salad, these made a wonderful meal.

Today I'm working on our bedroom. We decided to try the bed under our window but I don't know if it'll work with the kitties wanting to be in the sill at night. I've swept and thrown away a whole bagful of garbage. Mark turned off the Cowboys game, too painful to watch. He's washing his car now and Sarah's got Dirty Jobs on.

Later we'll have more ham in some form, maybe a quiche or something. I'm not sure yet. Meanwhile, back to the room for me!

Easy Friday...

In order to avoid some major room cleaning this afternoon, I sat and filled out this meme, oh around 1:40pm(my innernets didn't work to let me post it then). Promptly afterward I took a 2-hour nap on the loveseat. The room will have to wait til tomorrow.

Eye Color: Dark green with rusty brown centers.
Hair Color: Dark brown with copper highlights and newly added grey shimmers.
--Dyed or Natural: Natural.
--Curly or Straight: Mostly straight with asymmetrical waves.
Right- or Left-handed: Left
Tan or Pale: splotchy tan in some places, lily white in others, does that make me spotted?
Jeans or Khakis: comfy capris
Country, Rap, or Rock: 70s-80s classic rock and classic country(occasionally) but mainly new age.
Heritage: English, German, Norman
Shoes you're wearing today: NONE
Your weakness(es): Cute animals.
Your perfect pizza: Homemade
Favorite color: Mostly greens but I love color in general.
Favorite place: Home
Goal you'd like to achieve: Too many to list, lose weight, get in shape, have a clean, organized house, declutter to the point of being THROUGH with it already..
Your most overused phrase(s): Feed the (pigs, cats, dogs) please!
Your thoughts first waking up: What the heck was that dream all about?
Your best physical feature(s): My smile.
Your bedtime: Usually around 10ish, later for the Olympics though, last night after midnight!
Your most missed memory: Actually, I think they've all been found.
Pepsi or Coke: Dr. Pepper, hello?
McDonald's or Burger King: McDonalds if I have to.
Single or group dates: Dates?
Adidas or Nike: Mizuno
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Uncle Yee's Green Tea, iced.
Chocolate or vanilla: Yep
Cappuccino or coffee: Coffee

DO YOU:
Smoke: Nope
Cuss: Yes
Have a boyfriend/girlfriend: Yep, he's my hubby.
Take a shower: 3-4 times a year.
Have a crush(es): No.
Think you've been in love: Yes
Want to get married: Done
Believe in yourself: Yes
Believe in God: Yes
Believe in your government: Oh Yes, its definitely real.
Get motion sickness: No
Think you're attractive: Don't consider it.
Think you're a health freak: Not really but I am concerned.
Get along with your parents: Yes
Like thunderstorms: If they rain out a softball game, yes. And other times too of course.

IN THE PAST MONTH, HAVE YOU:
Drunk alcohol: No
Gone on a date: No
Gone to the mall: No
Been on stage: No
Eaten an entire box of Oreos: No
Eaten sushi: No
Been dumped: No
Gone skating: No
Gone skinny dipping: No
Stolen anything: No
(oh look, a perfect score!)

IN THE NUMBERS:
Number of people I could trust with my life: Four
Number of CD's: Buckets and buckets
Number of piercings: Two in each ear
Number of tattoos: None
Number of times my name has appeared in the newspaper: At least 10.
Number of scars on my body: lots

Want More????

Ok, here's a bit more...

We aren't going vegan or joining a commune. I'm not pregnant, we aren't adopting. Things still aren't all the way finished so I can't show yall yet. Sorry!! For now you can enjoy the finished painting of the bedroom the filling up of the pool...





The hardest thing about this color is that I have no idea what to put with it. My plan was for this to be more neutral like a stone or dove grey. It turned out waaaay bluer than I wanted but I do like it. None of my bedding goes at all which means I'll be doing a new quilt(but what colors?). Actually, if I get off my duff and *finish* my Buckeye Beauty repro quilt I'll have one that mostly goes.



I just hate doing the same thing over and over and over(quilt blocks, that is). The Unicorn Storm quilt is still in the planning stages. It will be a Turning Twenty quilt of blues and purples with a pretty unicorn fabric accented with silver as the focal point. I'm sure it will be the perfect match for the paint but probably too wintry for year-round use.

Anyway, we still have to declutter the shelves and decide if we're going to trade them for something else, paint them or what. One idea I have is to take an old round table top, cut it in half and mount it to the wall above the shelves. Then staple fabric skirt to it in pleats with another table cloth on top to hide the staples. This way we could have our junked up shelves(which we need) but we'd have a more polished look. We could also coordinate the headboard with the skirt fabric. I do know that the lamp shades have GOT to go. The maroon ones were on deep clearance at Tarjay a few years ago and were pretty ugly when I got them(but they were on Saaaaale!).

I also have an idea for my curtain rod but that will have to wait until I price some materials. Anyway....



Isn't this liner GORGEOUS???!! I think I did good picking it out! I wish the color of the border would have shown better in the pictures, it is really a nice brown, not washed out greenish-grey(do I need a new monitor?) as you see here.



We aren't sure why there are large pieces of cardboard in the pool. My guess is that they are parts of the liner box that blew in last night.



I think all they have left to do is cut the holes where the jets and intake go and fill it the rest of the way up! We are thinking we'll get about a month of swimming in. This summer has been much dryer than last, we only swam about 7-8 times last year because of all the rain.

Ryan is kinda peeved because he has church camp and thinks he might miss getting to swim in it this weekend. I'm betting it will be too cold for that and might not even be all the way filled(least that's what I'm tellin' him). The girls can hardly stand waiting til tomorrow to get their goggles and noodles.



I'm really glad to have finished painting already. Now I can enjoy the pool without feeling too guilty about stuff needing to be done inside, although something *always* needs done!

Last but not least! A scat update. I sent pictures to five bonafide experts and got replies very promptly. One person(not the one who left the comment) said it was coyote. The other four said it was most likely and/or definitely Ursus Americanus(American Black Bear) scat. Some of these experts have been in the field for decades and know their stuff very well so I will go with "very probably" bear scat. I'm of the conspiracy ilk and think the dissenter probably doesn't want to alarm the public. Sooo, that's the scat report for today. I WISH that could get me a job!!!

Sneaky Peeky...

Obviously I'm not finished with the painting but I couldn't wait to show just a bit of it. For some reason it is looking more grey here than blue. In reality the shadows are really blue. The more I see it the more I like it but I still wish it had been the stone or dove color I was envisioning.


(the bed will go on the wall behind the lamps)


(same wall, different end, and Mark's closet door)
In other news:

Amy is now sick with whatever it was that the rest of us had several days ago. She didn't sleep well and has a fever and headache today.

The girls' friend spent the night. We took her home around 1 and had a late lunch there of broiled turkey and cheese open-face sandwiches, dip, veggies, crackers, chips, fruit salad, and popsicles. Then, my friend and I took a looooong walk around the lake, at least a mile and a half. In. the. oppressive. east. Texas. heat. O. My.

After I recovered, we gathered our stuff and popped over to the lake to get Ryan. He didn't want to attend the luncheon so I let him spend his time fishing. He ended up catching 4 fish, a bass, 2 catfish and a yellow striped bass(or somesuch). I noticed large scat on the trail to where he was. No clues as to what left it there but it was full of seeds and about 2.5 inches in diameter and 9 inches long. Maybe it was bigfoot. Will be researching further.


(not my picture but almost identical to what we saw, yes Ryan saw it too)

***UPDATED*** I knew in my heart of hearts what it was. Freaking BEAR SCAT!!!!! There was one big pile at the head of a trail and another big pile about 20 feet down the trail overlooking the run-off from the spillway.

Mark is coming home around 5:30 today(knock on wood). He didn't have to make too many deliveries today but will tomorrow.

Last night we had some kind of critter either on top of the house or in the attic. It sounded like a buffalo and I first heard it when I was OUTside taking P-girl for a potty break. I was about fifteen feet from the house when I heard what sounded like a person land on the roof. I turned around but nothing was there. About 10 minutes later I was in the dining room with Ryan and we both heard a similar noise, right on the window wall(above the wall, where the ceiling meets it). We couldn't tell if it was in the attic or outside. Several minutes after that, Mark heard the same crash/thud by the fireplace. I'm thinking possum or raccoon or very, VERY large rat.

We are sleeping in the living room and I heard something running on the house til about 1:30 or so. The dogs barked at it for a while too.


(our temporary sleeping quarters)

Just some stuff....

(Aaron at the start of the AT)

I heard from my brother today! He is finishing up hiking the Appalachian Trail. Last year he started in March and went til mid-August, coming off the trail a few times for personal reasons(and an injury or two). Since he got behind, it was going to be too cold to continue and the trail would be closed anyway. He really had a strong desire to finish and a few weeks ago an opportunity presented so he went for it! I'm not sure how much he has to go, somewhere between 500 and 600 miles, about 2 months worth or so. Right now he's in Vermont staying with the Twelve Tribes. He says they are very interesting.

Mark worked through the holiday weekend, all day Friday and Saturday and most of the day yesterday. His last call was last night at 10:15, he had to go see a patient about 45 miles from us and didn't get home til midnight.

The girls and I took care of our neighbor's dog and cats while Mark was working. They have a very super cool frog pond in their backyard with a waterfall and everything. Sarah loves to sneak up on it and find the frogs so we went "over and above" our call to duty and visited several times a day.

We did end up painting and got probably 90% of it done last night. I did the ceiling and baseboard edges today and will put a second coat on the whole thing tomorrow. It is still not the grey I wanted. I was after "stone" and this is "storm" but it is ok and growing on me as I get the trimming done. I made a decision about our china hutch too. Right now the chest of drawers is beside the bathroom door. We'll move it between the closet doors(to the right of the bed in this pic) and the hutch will go where the chest was.


(ignore the mess, it is gone now, as well as the boxes and bookshelf)

Once we get the room put back together I can start on my Summer Two-Color Challenge. I have my fabrics picked but can't reveal the pattern I'm doing until September 1st. There are also some PIFs and UFOs on my todo list so I hope to be back to crafting soon.


(red is one of the two colors for my challenge quilt)

hahahahaha...

This is hilarious!



We are going to paint this afternoon when Mark comes home from work(yes work).

Shorn!

The wooly Ryan has finally been shorn! Here are two befores(both from April) and two afters from this afternoon. He isn't happy but I think he secretly likes that it isn't so hot and it won't take six hours to dry(his words). Amy and Sarah got trims(no pix) but I had to do some extra work on Amy's. For some reason they insist on leaving her with these tails hanging down on the sides. I've asked repeatedly for them to not do this but I guess they are programmed to do a certain hairstyle because it is "in". GRRRR. Anyway, I trimmed about an inch off the sides of hers, maybe, and now she's in a snit saying it is too short. TDB.

Anyway, here is Ryan:









In Other News....

We did finally raise the pool guy. He claims the liner is on back order. I don't know if we should believe him or not. It would seem that when he found that out from the maker, he would have called to let us know. Hmmmm. He told Mark that he would call the liner people and see when it will be ready to ship. Mark is going to call him again on Monday to follow up. This is getting stupid, he cashed the check on May 1st. At best he is extremely busy and so successful that he forgets to call people but I think he is just a bad businessman with very poor communication skills, very frustrating to deal with.

We also found out that we'll have to load up all the scraps from our fence replacement(posts, lattice and assorted boards) and haul them to the landfill ourselves(to the tune of $100 or so). Our city has stopped doing bulk trash if it includes any sort of boards or fencing. What is up with that you ask? Well, it seems all the lovely home builders had started putting their scrap lumber in piles and calling the city to come pick it up. Isn't that just lovely of them? They aren't residents of the homes they are building but expect the city to come get residential trash from homes that don't even have occupants yet. Its *so nice* that a bunch of jackasses ruin something nice for the majority of us who do things by the rules. And, we'll have at least one or two more loads from this weekend's fence project.

I can't remember if I posted this yet or not but if it rains and we can't do the fence, we're going to PAINT!! How many times have I said this? At least halfadozen. This time Mark is the one who mentioned getting it done. YEAAAH!!! The best thing is that I finally decided(haha-again) what I might do for our bed. I saw a picture in a magazine of a head and foot board similar to ours but they were painted a flat black. It looked soooo nice, very modern but very colonial at the same time. I haven't shown it to Mark yet but I think he'll love it since he likes our headboard.

I promise to have pictures of whatever we end up doing. We'll buy the fencing no matter what and put it in the garage if we can't work outside. I'm hoping we might get to do both.

A REAL Breakfast!....

We had one this morning! I made ham, scrambled eggs, and biscuits using Homesick Texan's recipe and they are wooooonderful!!! A bit of work but oh so worth it, I ate FIVE of them(they were small, I used a 2-inch cutter)! I used half whole wheat and half regular flour and made my buttermilk with our raw milk and vinegar but I don't think these changes skewed the outcome one bit! Amy proclaimed them to be delish!

We had a little storm last night, hail and 80mph winds to the northeast and southwest of us but just rain, loud thunder, and lightning here. It scuttled Mark's softball practice for this morning for sure when it started up again at 4am. It is after 9 and still raining hard. We haven't had these kind of rains in years! Our yard is a lake. Guess this is a sign that we have "inside" work to do. Like cleaning our bedroom. I also want to work on my hexagon quilt and gather fabrics for a few quilts I have planned. Sometime this week I have to get a new cutting ruler because Amy stepped on mine and broke it.

We still don't have baby piggies yet. The longer she goes means she is more likely to have 1 or 2 babies instead of a handful. This is a good thing. It has been 20 days since I felt the first movements, typically they deliver 14-21 days after that. I haven't checked her dilation yet this morning but last night she was almost 1/2 an inch so things are progressing, just verrrry slllowwwwly. Sigh.

This is a big birthday week at our house. Tomorrow Rainbow and Moonshine turn 1 year old! They are Basil and Luna's babies but we lost Luna to a birth complication a week after they were born. Ruby and Rosie, our Oklahoma kitties, will turn 4 on April 1st, then Mark on the 5th and Magic Panda on the 6th. Busy week!


(Sarah with Rainbow and Moonshine)


(Panda-in front-, Moonshine and Rainbow)

I hope everyone has a great Sunday!

Wednesday Goings On...

My children have become addicted to Junior Mints. Which is why I had to hide them here, on top of the china cabinet. At least I still have my dark chocolate, they all think it tastes like poison.




I've got the sneezey crud this morning so I'm going to soak in the tub and try not to do a whole lot. My plan was to get my room decluttered enough to start painting on Friday. We have park day tomorrow and that takes up most of the day so I need to do it now. At the very least I'm going to locate all my paint supplies. When I had the paint retinted they told me to pour both gallons together and mix it well since I'd used some out of one of them to do the wall swatches. I've got to hunt down a bucket that's not only big enough but clean enough!

If I end up with some free time, I want to play around with my felting stuff. Over the past several months I've seen a dozen or more cute stuffed owls that are either felt or fabric. I did a small wall hanging last fall that featured an owl and I'd love to do more so I might work on a pattern as well.

Missy Sundae hasn't had her baby(ies) yet. Last year, almost to the week, we had two pregnant sows. Our beloved Luna delivered three babies on March 31st, one was stillborn, and Shimmer(brought home from the pet shop pregnant) had a single baby on April 6th. Luna died on the 7th from a uterine infection caused from the stillbirth. We are praying for a good outcome this time around. Sundae is very young, maybe only three months old, but guinea pigs can breed from four weeks or so. Last night she was dilated about 1/3 of an inch so it won't be long, possibly today, almost surely by Saturday. I haven't checked her today so she might be more dilated by now. For those of you who are thinking that sounds a bit strange, when checking a pig for dilation we aren't talking cervical. It has to do with the space between their pelvic bones. If they are not dilated, the bones feel like the point of a very dull pencil under a layer of fleece, as the bones spread, there will be two pencil points that get farther and farther apart(up to an inch). This can be felt by feeling under their rear ends, totally external!

Picture Heavy!...

First, some cute stuff! (and a reminder, click any picture to get a larger version)


(Gypsy and Jasper sure know how to nap!)

And the pretty stuff:

(paint color we are going with is the faint squares you see. As you can tell, it is much more neutral than the larger area of paint-which looks bluish on my monitor instead of the lilac that it looks like IRL)

I plan to start painting next week. I'm almost finished with the decluttering in there. What helped was for me to make a detailed list of what needed dealt with, down to the towels, CDs, hangers, and so forth. It gave me more of a sense of how to go about doing things than a list that said, clean bathroom, clean bedroom, clean floor, clean closet. Worked MUCH better. We hauled 7 bags to Goodwill last weekend, hoping for the same thing this time around.

Now to the dirty stuff. Ugh. My photos are bad because my camera appears to be on its last legs. Sometimes the pictures are ok, sometimes they are really weird. These would be in the weird catagory. Anyway, these are the wrinkles in our pool's liner. We have a leak, somewhere, a big one probably. Ryan walked and crawled all over the shallow end and didn't find anything. He also went down the slope and felt more large wrinkles and bubbles under the liner.


(for reference, the leaves in this photo are about 7-8 inches long)


(this is the weirdest of the pictures but shows the wrinkles all the way across the shallow end)

(you can see the biggest air pocket, or bubble, to the right of the trash can)

Mark is on his way home and we're going to cook hamburgers on the grill, then go walk the doggies again.

2nd verse, same as the 1st...

No, that's Henry the 8th, not my blog! We had a close one with the White Jeep. Thank God! The mechanics tried all day to find something wrong with it but couldn't. It started beautifully for them every time, and for Mark when he picked it up tonight. He will drive it for several days to make sure it doesn't happen again. Maybe it was bad gas. It would be nice to be that lucky with it!

I did NOT take Tom across the street. They know darn well where he is and they can come get him if they want him.

Now for more pictures:


(Muffin today because she feels left out)


(Jasper with the mouse, because I know Karen wants to see him!)


(The girls' new walls, because I am FINISHED!!!)

The post in which I catch up... sort of....

Weather-wise:


(full moon)
This is the night before the eclipse, also the last time we had a clear sky. It was supposed to be 60 yesterday and it got to 38. Yeah, well maybe it got near 60 in the early morning hours, I did see it at 52 when I woke up but 38 by 2:30?? Come on! The low last night was supposed to be 38 but it was 33 when I checked at 8:30 this morning, it was also supposed to be sunny yesterday and today. Hahaha. I get weather-induced headaches occasionally, due to barometric pressure changes, and I'm going on day five with a bad one. I'm more than ready for this weather weirdness to blow out of here. Mark and Ryan have a fishing trip planned for Sunday morning, hopefully things will be as they should be by then.

Piggie-wise:


(the girls, clockwise from the left, Rainbow, Shimmer and Magic Panda)
We are still deciding what to do with Bevo. He is so aggressive with Basil and starting to be mean to Moonshine as well, plus he now nips at us! We will probably build a coroplast cage to put on the top of their existing cage. Right now they are sharing a cage divided down the middle with grid squares but it is not healthy for them to be in such a small space long term. The fleece bedding and alfalfa litter boxes get changed twice a week(per cage) so I was really hoping not to have another one added to that mix.

The other stuff:


(LNJ photo)
Lets see... The week we saw Bill Clinton was a busy one. We were gone EVERY day, for hours at a time! This is not like us and we don't enjoy being away from the house like that. It is all such a blur that I can't even remember exactly what it was that we did, I think its the week Ryan had his orthodontist visit maybe.... I do recall going to the health club every other day to work out and going to get the milk, taking the kitties for shots and worming, going to Park Day, grocery shopping, Ryan having church and then two friends spending the night on Saturday, health club for 2 hours on Sunday...

Oh yeah and I made the BIG(and painful) decision to give away the rest of my homeschool books. I had about 2,500 books to sell. Several weeks ago I put an ad in the paper and 9 people showed up. I made about $60, maybe. Very disappointing. So, rather than hang on to the 3/4 of them that were leftover, I offered them up for FREE. I had two people inquire. TWO. The first woman drove about an hour to get them on Friday and said that if nobody else got the others she'd come back the next day. So she did. Two carloads(trunk, back seat and passenger seat) of books left our garage. I wish her well with them! It really is nice to have the space freed up in the garage too.

This week has been just as crazy. We had an early park day on Tuesday, then that afternoon we took the female dogs for their shots. Already, a neighboring county has found 4 rabid skunks this season. Dragging the dogs to the clinic is an ordeal of epic proportions, trust me. Buttercup is stronger than a pony and Daisy is freaked-out scared and aggressive at the same time and Puppy-girl is just her contrary old self. It is definitely an adventure. A woman arrived after they closed, complaining that she was late because traffic was being re-routed. We later learned that the city's police department had the other end of the road blocked off because someone found a bomb-yes a real bomb-in his hedge just yards from the clinic. Oh joy.


(chrome shelf, very lightly "decorated")
Tuesday night I made Mark take me to Target to look for containers to put my fabric in, like what Sarah has at The Misadventures of Mama and Jack(or click for her Feb 19th entry). I didn't find any to my liking(big enough or cheap enough-they weren't $6 at my Target, they were $19 or something) but did find a really nice chrome shelf. It is HUGE!! 72 inches tall by 48 inches wide by 18 inches deep huge. This is to hold all the fabric that has been stashed in two very large rubbermaid bins and many, many smaller containers. I'm going to make a flat panel curtain to hide the contents, something that will cover the top and hang down in the front and on either side, with tie-backs for when I need to see whats in there.

I worked out Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we did Books-a-Million Thursday, Wednesday Sarah had a play date with one of the other homeschool families in our group, and I've been up to my eyeballs in fabric and....


(valspar signature color, Sterling)
When I dropped Sarah off at her friend's house I ran up to Lowe's and got paint for our bedrooms. Yes I did! Ours is the gray, "Sterling" and the girls' room is called "Woodlawn Blue Angel", a pretty sky blue. It is hard to choose a gray that doesn't end up too blue or too brown or too something other than gray. When I first did the test areas it had a slightly purple cast to it but has since cured to be more gray. At first I didn't like it but now I LOVE it and can't wait til the walls are totally covered.

Other decisions include:

Headboard. It will be a simple wooden shape, possibly rounded slightly but maybe just rectangular, that will be attached to the bedframe. I'll cover it with foam and batting and a basic white fabric and make a few different slip covers for it with ties on the ends. This might be a few weeks down the road.

Curtains. Some kind of tab tops, maybe tied to shaker pegs mounted above the window or a nice decorative pole. Currently we have some vanilla ice cream-colored brocade formal pleated curtains but they aren't my style at all. The only reason they are up is because they are heavily lined and keep the light out. Our neighbors have floodlights on their shop that shine in our window all night long so we have to have something very heavy to keep the room dark enough for me. We might do blinds but I'd rather not. I am a true princess and can't have even the slightest beam of light hitting a wall, the clock and other electronics have to be covered as well.

Quilt. I have picked a pattern and fabrics for a new quilt as well. It will be a Turning Twenty Again for our bedroom, out of deep blues and purples with some teals. The main fabric is a stormy background(in deep blues) with a large whitish-gray unicorn on it, accented with silver threads. Just beautiful, a lot whimsical, but dramatic and strong at the same time.(pics later) I've also decided to make my Anvil Quilt big enough for our bed. Its done in vintage fabrics and 30s repros with a buttery yellow background(pic in my sideline-in UFOs I think). At first I was just going to do it for a child's cuddle quilt but it will look great with the wall color so there!

After Lowe's, I went by the gym and did my workout, then got Sarah and we headed to Hobby Lobby for a picture frame for my print of Sarafina Shimmerfoot. Back in January I entered the naming contest at Art and Ghosts and WON!! The prize was a book, Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing, but the REAL prize was Sarafina! She is beautiful and I'm so happy to have her!! A nice bonus that she matches our (new)room so well.

I also bought myself a needle punch felting contraption. A bristly rectangle base and a 5-needle punching device, plus a bag of roving in pretty Easter colors. I had this less than 24 hours before Sarah got hold of it and broke 4 of the 5(veryfragileverysharpverydangerous) barbed needles. So far we've only found 2 tips. I'll have to replace that part before I can continue. To console myself, I might have to buy a book that I saw at BAM, Needlefelting by Hand or Machine, by Linda Turner Griepentrog and Pauline Wilde Richards. Meanwhile, I did manage to snap a picture of the whole shebang with my practice piece. This could easily become my next favorite thing, it is VERY addictive!


(Rosie as prop master)

Friday night I made a new recipe! Made it up, that is...

Spicy Chicken Corn Chowder (serves 10, about 5 points per serving)(no pics, batteries dead)

3 large bone/skinless chicken breasts, in small cubes
1 onion, chopped
3 medium potatoes, in small cubes(smaller than the chicken)
6 cups water, or to cover potatoes
3 cups frozen corn
1 can green chilis
1/2 cup green chili salsa or tomatillo salsa(mine was rather spicy-you'll want it that way)
garlic powder, oregano, and cumin(about 1-2 teaspoons each)
2-3 cups milk(this will depend on how juicy you want your chowder)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup grated cheese plus extra for serving(jack or cheddar, whatever you like)
tortilla chips, crushed

Dice potatoes and bring to boil in the water.

Dice the chicken and brown with the onion. I did this in a non-stick skillet and used no oil. After it is well browned, add the corn, chilis, salsa and spices, mixing well. Turn down to low and stir now and then. When the potatoes are tender, scoop out much of the water, leaving about 2 cups or so. Add chicken mixture and heat for 30 minutes or so on low heat, covered(I did this because I had to take Ryan to church and wasn't ready for the next part). Add the milk, sour cream and cheese, heat through for about 10 minutes, and serve over crushed chips and more cheese.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming! I hope to be blogging more regularly next week. I've got more to tell, more to share and all that good stuff.

Have a great weekend!!!

up for air

(South Toe River, Carolina Hemlocks Recreational Area)

I've got lots of stuff(good stuff) going on so I probably won't get to post til the weekend, then it will likely be a blog explosion like never before!! I feel like I'm in the rapids, things are going on, decisions have been made, tasks are being completed(mostly), it is crazy! But, I am nearing the calm, deep pool. What does this all mean? Nothing wild and crazy just that things are hectic here. But I did win some stuff and have received it all, need pics to go with. Hopefully I'll be through the fast waters soon.

Set Backs and Changes...

We did a lot of running on Saturday, trying to find headboard materials for our make-over. The junk shop did have old windows but not the shape we needed. We also hit a Goodwill and a Salvation Army store. Mark found some great work pants and I managed to replace(and then some) the brown dishes I found on our Goodwill safari in Asheville last summer. In just a few short months we'd broken 3 of the 5 saucers I bought there. Now I have 4 replacements and 6 of a different style AND two cute mugs, all for $1.60! And yes, as a matter of fact, we did have brownies sprinkled with powdered sugar for breakfast.


(We like to use saucers for snacks, they are just the right size for peanut butter crackers, veggies with dip, or a piece of cake)


(I got the mugs for the girls since they have recently developed a love of coffee-we use Community New Orlean Style in decaf and I put cocoa powder in it too for extra antioxidants- we looooove it this way with our raw milk and a bit of sugar)

Anyway... back to the bedroom stuff. We looked at many headboards, doors, window frames, shelves, and other things that could be used as a headboard but just didn't see what we wanted this trip. Here is a picture of the bed wall, taken from the bathroom door. Ignore the mess, we are in the midst of decluttering as well as revamping plus we had to move much of my fabrics(those big blue totes and assorted baskets) and a living room bookshelf into our bedroom for Christmas activities. The girls and I were also sorting out clothes and other stuff to take to Goodwill later this week.


(Possibly a swag/canopy treatment in dark chocolate brown over the bed if we don't find window frames- The ones we saw were 4 panes each, almost a square, I'm wanting something with maybe 6 panes, 2x3 set with the narrow end on the horizontal. Paintings by my dad throughout the room{except for the kitty with confetti})


(From the bed wall looking back to the bathroom)


(My dresser under the window- there are at least 8 feet from the bathroom door to the end of the bed so we might put some rattan chairs there, or a blanket chest if we can find one we like for the right price)

We've also decided against the Ancestral paint color. It is absolutely beautiful but too purple to be the neutral we need. Now we're looking at a deep mushroomy brown but in the morning light it has a bit of olive drab to it so most likely it isn't "the one". I'm trying to avoid one that is too tan(we saw this in a friend's home and it was ghastly, not soothing at all), too chocolate milky, or two khaki or olive. Not an easy task. I may end up back at Lowe's for more chip cards.

Bedroom Makeover

A few posts ago I mentioned that we're working on the "adultification" of our bedroom. Yesterday we decided on a paint treatment and a possible headboard substitute. I'll have pictures of course, throughout the transformation, but for now I'll describe what we're going to do.

The wall color now is an off-white, kind of a yellowy white. Bland. Dirty. Who knows when the walls were last painted. For several years I've been trying out color chips in taupes, soft greens, beiges, coffees, and wheats. Nothing has been "the one" until now. What we have decided on is a color called Ancestral(from Lowe's). It is a grown-up version of lavender. Very soft with a bit of gray in it. Mark likes it so that helps, and it goes well with our new quilt(and the old ones).

The treatment is something I'm not yet set on. I want to randomly place large elongated diamond shapes in varying sizes and sponge them in a coffee a lait glaze so the Ancestral color still shows through. In my mind's eye this is a beautiful thing but in real life it might be hideous. I'll definitely be doing a test board.

Years ago, when we moved from Longview to Nacogdoches, the house we moved into had ghastly walls in the master bedroom. One wall, the focal wall, was navy blue wall paper with tiny floral dots. The other 3 walls were a dark peach(think inside of a pumpkin). It was all tied together with a southerwestern style border. Just awful!! So, I painted the walls a rich cream color, replaced the wall paper with one that looked like leather, in a reddish pink, and sponged small stars all over the paper in antique gold. I thought it turned out really nice.

As for the bed, we can't afford to buy a new one so we could either use the old head and footboards, not use one(just have the bed on a hollywood frame), or make a wall treatment that acts as a headboard. We have opted for the latter and are on our way to the antique/junk store to search for inspiration.

I saw a beautiful bedroom in a magazine where they'd used two old window frames hung on the wall behind the bed. The glass panes had been replaced by fabric covered wood, each pane in a different pattern but all in the same colorway. It was nicely done. This is what I have in mind but it will depend on what we find our our treasure hunt, maybe we'll come home with an old door or a metal bedstand, who knows. But I will keep you posted.