This Moment

I’ve been stewing on what to post. I feel like my dear readers expect a certain amount of bitching and moaning from me. I mean why read this if you can’t look at your own life and say, “Well, at least that’s not my life!” and maybe feel better about your lot.

OK, yep, that was your snark.

As for me, I’m at peace in this moment.

Do I expect it will last?

Nope

So I’m enjoying it while it’s here.

Yesterday I emptied the last box, washed the last glass, painted the last of the construction dings, and declared my kitchen complete.

Well, except for the ways it isn’t.

My garage is back to being a garage and not a storage unit. The last of the trash got taken away this morning. I do have a donation box that is being filled, but that’s a constant around here.

I’ve even been cooking. A lot. Like a 15-pound turkey’s worth. Tomorrow I’m using the last bit to make pot pies. I picked up a tube of biscuits to make some pot pie cupcakes. Don’t make that face, they are the bomb! And you can eat them in the car! Yes, a tube of biscuits, I’m a Northern gal, I don’t normally do biscuits.

I’m including the address because I know secretly you’re curious:

https://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/chicken-pot-pie-cupcakes/88c3fb89-0b08-466d-bb26-27c50aac24fd

I had lunch with Dominique today. I think I told you we’re doing a Mexican restaurant tour of town. Every month we pick a different place to try and I keep notes on how we liked it. Today’s was her favorite so far.

Yesterday while I was weeding, I saw this:

It’s my first nasturtium! The greens are looking pretty rough, but maybe it will best the elements and cover the whole bed!

Yeah, right. It’s probably only blooming because the hibiscus in front of it is finally providing some shade.

My newly moved petunias are getting some legs under them, so that’s hopeful. Potted tomatoes are still holding their own, and some catnip got harvested and dehydrated this week. It’s not much, comparatively speaking, but it’s what we’ve got. The only thing really thriving here is my rosemary.

Tomorrow is June. I think I need to get a handle on my trip north. I’ve been looking for places to stop on the route and I’m coming up blank. We may just drive the 2 days, stop for a friend visit, drive again and stay with the Kraken for a few days, move to another visit spot, and then blow town. I want to stop at Oakes Daylilies on the way home and maybe get a few unusual ones for the yard. Maybe stop again in Alabama before going home. So far, that’s all I have planned. I need to get logistics nailed down before too long.

And I need to find a pet sitter. Ugh.

In knitting news, I’m still plugging away at my purple shawl. It’s SO boring though. I have halted the tumbling blocks blanket in favor of this blanket:

So far it’s going well. It’s a cool knit, not too hard, but interesting. I’m using a wool/silk blend that was supposed to be a sweater.

Finally, here’s your dose of cute for today:

Friday Update

This morning while I should have been sleeping, I was surfing around facebook. I saw a gal who is the same age as me. She is, of course, stunning and young looking and oh so happy.

Yes, she was always the popular, beautiful girl. No, we were never really friends.

Am I jealous? Sure, what Plain Jane isn’t? I’m sure she is plastered, treated, botoxed, colored, and plumped to within an inch of her life. OK, now I’m not jealous. Who has time for that? I sure don’t.

It’s good to be reminded of the lie of social media.

The other day I met with the woman about the pelicans. She said, “Don’t judge, I look terrible, I’m renovating my house.” I replied, “I look like 10 miles of rough road on my best day, I don’t judge!” I never heard someone laugh at that. But laugh she did. And standing in the middle of the Hobby Lobby parking lot in her slippers, she was more beautiful than the prom queen.

Here is my new pelican:

He is an exact replica of my blue pelican. The Hubs thinks I should paint them both to reflect what they look like in real life:

He even went into an exhaustive tutorial of how to get the feathers right.

Yeah, I’m not doing that.

There is another one, but I don’t have a pic of him yet. They both have stickers on their beaks that I have to remove. I’m sure that will be fun.

After I met the pelican lady, I met Dominique for lunch. Much to the waiter’s dismay, we took up a booth for about 4 hours! It was lovely to sit and talk about all sorts of stuff with her.

My peace lily is making flowers. I was starting to think he needed a new home, but then this:

I did a little work on the guest room closet. Last night the Hubs took the defunct alarm box out and patched the hole:

I took the shelf out and scraped the junk off the walls, then mudded. This morning I sanded and mudded again:

Will take maybe 2 more passes, then some snot, and it’ll be paint ready.

I was scrolling through HGTVs 50 things you can do this weekend and got to #6 – remove popcorn ceilings. I actually thought about it. I read the article about how to do it. 5 easy steps. I actually considered it. What if I do the closet? It’s small, contained, if it doesn’t work no one will ever know.

I brought it to the Hubs. And we wondered how many people are falling for that 5 easy steps shit this weekend. Is someone looking at that saying, “Yeah, I’ll do my living room this weekend. What can possibly go wrong?”

That makes me laugh. I’m really good with a putty knife but I know how easy it is to destroy a ceiling removing popcorn. But I kinda want to do it because there is some funky gunk stuck in all my popcorn. But I won’t do it. I won’t even hire someone to do it. I shoulda done it before I did the floors. I’ll settle for vacuuming the loose popcorn off every so often. At this rate in about 15 years my ceilings will be smooth.

I would do this instead, though:

Guess what?

We’re getting fiber!

But wow are they making a big fat mess getting it here!!! They did not hit anything important, that hole on the other side of the driveway has an intact sprinkler pipe cutting through it.

Color me impressed. I was expecting the worst.

Can my front lawn look any worse?? This is pretty much where I want my mythical tree, but I have to wonder if it will die because there is something weird going on right there.

I finished my mandala blanket, it’s kinda small, but I just could not do any more:

It’s big enough for a car seat or stroller, so it’s not a total waste.

I started a new square blanket:

It doesn’t look square yet, but it will, eventually. I had to pickup and knit 100 stitches around the edges, and that didn’t go exactly as I thought I would, so I have tabled this trying to decide if I should re-pickup the stitches to be flatter.

On the other hand, I do like the bump as the stitches change direction. So I’ll sit on it for a little bit longer and work on this one in the mean while:

Rather than a big random stripe in the middle of the blanket, I decided to do 2-3 stripes at random intervals and maybe widths to make it look intentional. Only challenge here is not run out of either yarn at the wrong moment.

And since it’s Friday, I’ll treat you to some real joy:

Aren’t they all grown up?

Non Update

There’s not a whole lot going on around here right now. I guess you could say I’m resting on my laurels.

Or I’m getting ready for the next big thing.

Kinda wish I knew what it was gonna be!

In the absence of house drama, I’ve been reading. I just finished Chrysalis, the 3rd book about Jeremey Logan by Lincoln Child. I think I’ve talked about this character before. Anyway, it’s not anything highbrow, just a thriller. I used to read a lot of thrillers and horrors, but I really don’t too much anymore. Maybe I need to get back to that. I can remember reading some books through the night because I was too scared to go to sleep.

Mostly I read in the late afternoon. I lay down on the couch and open a book. Out of nowhere, Mayhem will jump up and stuff himself in next to me.

Time to read:

Actually, all my favorite authors are either dead or just lending their name to new authors. Or, handing off characters to other writers. On the whole, I don’t disagree with this practice, but the new authors more often than not fundamentally change the characters. I can’t get with that. Write your own if you’re gonna do that.

Next time I go to the library, I’m gonna get another thriller.

I’ve been working away at my knitting projects.

I have finished the back and both fronts of my sweater:

Up next is the sleeves. Yikes. I’m thinking I might do them at the same time for uniformity. I was thinking of a variation on magic loop, but it might just be better to drag out 2 needles and just do 10-20 rows on one, then the same amount on the other.

While I’ve been avoiding starting the sleeves, I’ve been working on this shawl:

I have 14 more rows before the next part. I did make a grave error a bunch of rows back (I somehow added an extra hole). When I noticed it, I gave myself 4 rows to make another mistake so I could rip it all out and start over. But oddly, all the counts worked out perfectly. I decided that since I had started this over twice already, I could live with an extra hole. Besides, I’m not loving this yarn, so I really just want to finish this and send it into the world!

Guess what? My bricks went on sale! Hurrah! As soon as I discovered this miracle, I went outside to measure off how many bricks I want to get to finish a few projects.

125

Give or take.

We went out and got 54 bricks at $.25 each. Over the next few days we’ll go back and get more. And I might get some extra because the Hubs has now floated the idea of making a gravel “moat” around the whole house.

I don’t know how many more bricks I’ll need for that. I suppose I can measure it off tomorrow while we’re out there. I have a little over a week til the sale ends… 50 blocks every time I go out?

I think I just discovered what the next big thing is.

Sunshine Day

It was just perfect outside today. Unlike yesterday. It rained. A lot.

But today it is glorious!

After church we headed outside to make the yard a little presentable.

The Hubs built me a wagon! You may not know this, but I love me a wagon! A wheelbarrow? Nope, I can tip an empty wheelbarrow just by looking at it. I like 4 wheels on the ground and that little workhorse carrying the load for me.

This is not actually mine, but I already downloaded all my pics for today. I loaded mine up with 3 bags of mulch at a time and went to town.

Three bags? That’s all? Let me let you in on a little secret. If you haul 5 bags, you gotta unload 5 bags. If you load 3, you unload 3, take a little break, haul 3 more. At my advanced age, I find this works better for me.

Plus I get distracted easily and I’d leave 2 bags unloaded in the yard!

While I was doing the dining room garden, the neighbor came over and quizzed me about rubber mulch. He picked up a handful, sniffed it, asked how much it cost, and then left.

I did 10 bags and then moved on to another project.

But so far, I’m liking what’s happening:

This one is half done:

I thought 10 bags would cover a lot less. I’m back on the “I have enough” train.

I figured out how to stand up my pipes:

I did 6 halves so far. Tomorrow I’ll turn them over and do the other half. I did some research and it turns out Windex takes machine oil off new pipes. I do not have to use anything more caustic than that. But it’s a messy job, so I’m gonna clean 6 a day and paint 4 coats over 2 days and see where that gets me. I’m continuing the screws, caps, and straps throughout.

Yesterday while I was inside trying to get the kittens to drink water instead of playing in it, the Hubs was out in the shed making sawdust. After about 2 hours he came in and said he was done because this happened:

This is the pad that the sand paper attaches to. Normally, this is one piece! Just as he finished the last shelf, the pad broke apart. I ordered another, but it won’t be here til Tuesday.

Anyway, he used like 5 grits of sand paper on each of the end grains. This is a before and after:

This is just after:

They feel like glass. I’m telling you, I woulda stopped at 150 grit. He went all the way to 320. These things are gonna be amazing!

It’ll take a couple of hours over a couple of days to get the 2 sides, tops and bottoms done, but they will feel like glass when he’s finished. Then I’ll slap a couple coats of sealer on them, and he’ll swoop in and do the last coat and finishing buff.

If I keep at it, I’ll be finished with the hardware before he finishes the topcoat.

While he finished mowing, I dug another garden.

We took this;

To this:

I say we because I was having a heck of a time with some roots, so the Hubs came over and did the actual heavy lifting for me. I will go out tomorrow and sift through this for any remaining grass and roots. This is going to be an herb garden. It gets a little shade in the afternoon, so the herbs should appreciate that.

Speaking of shade, yesterday I picked up another trio of blue hostas. The Hubs made me. He thinks this area:

Gets enough shade to support them. I hope it does. I’ll watch it this summer and see how they do. If it really does get enough shade I might break down and get a hydrangea. Obviously something is going on here, there is no grass!

After spreading water all over the kitchen 3 separate times yesterday, the kittens have decided this is for drinking:

The Hubs thinks the moving water will stop them from spilling their water bowl every freaking day. When I got up this morning and it was still running, I was cautiously optimistic. This thing is quiet, and they are drinking from it, a win so far.

Oh, and while we were doing the breakfast dishes, I knocked over a glass pump bottle full of soap. Onto bare concrete. I probably don’t have to tell you about the mess that made. Every time that floor gets wet from now until the end of time, it will suds up. I’m bummed because it was my last big glass pump bottle, and I cut my finger. But no use crying over spilled soap on a sunny day!

The Hubs is out in the shed making paper pots for starting seeds. I think he’s doing dill, lavender, thyme, cilantro, and I dunno what else. We still have not planted the 2nd vege garden, but it’s early days yet.

Weeding Dryers

I’m listening to a dryer full of zippers right now. You’ll have to pardon the distraction.

Just add it to the pile of things that are irritating me lately.

Yesterday I looked away from the kitchen. I decided this needed some attention:

Gulp!

Guess I have not been keeping up with my weeding! But my little azalea is doing its thing, so I guess it doesn’t mind the weeds.

After about an hour, it looked better:

Kitten approved!

On the other side, I have some daffodils coming up:

I can’t recall what color they are, but I’m sure it’s not the usual yellow. This garden also got a little love:

I hope my daylilies go crazy this year. I still have to buy mulch. I’m actually dragging my feet because the thought of moving a ton of mulch seems un-doable.

This morning I planted my lemon tree:

I gave it some compost and garden soil to help it along. We’ll fertilize it, and hope for the best. I didn’t have any mulch to use, so I borrowed some pine straw from the dead fig:

Fingers crossed I don’t kill this one.

I wonder if a little fertilizer will help the fig stick:

Then I moved onto the second part of the new vege garden:

Pretty, right?

Not sure what is going in here. I do have a few potatoes rotting in the pantry. Or maybe I can score some more beet seeds at the library.

Still planning 2 more squares like this. And something at the end of the shed. And a place in front for a tree I can’t decide on. And an herb garden.

I think I need a yard boy.

While I was doing the easy part, the Hubs was sanding the boards for the shelves:

We were thinking we might have Brandon here cutting, but he must have gotten a better offer. Scratch that. He just texted that he forgot about us. He’s gonna come tomorrow afternoon.

I bought some pipe pieces to see what this was gonna look like when it was all installed:

10 inch pipes were too short, 12″ too long.

Uh oh.

I ordered 11″ pipes yesterday. I hope it works.

After we finished the work, we went to get more supplies for the shelves. We need screws, paint, and some other items. It’s good to get away from all the projects for a few hours.

But then you get home and have to listen to zippers in the dryer.

My micro shelf came in the other day. The Hubs put it up:

It looks odd right now, and it’s wider than I actually wanted.

I’ll probably put a cookbook or maybe the spices I use all the time on the shelf with it. Once I get used to it I’ll wonder why I ever wasted space on the counter. Of course now the stupid microwave is making a death rattle. I fondly remember when you got more than a year out of an appliance. I’ll limp it along until it literally explodes.

I think Mayhem is sad about the pillars being gone. He used to jump up and hug them, and pop out from behind them. Now he does this:

Sad cat and termites aside, I’m still sorry/not sorry we’re doing this.

The Eve of Destruction

Tomorrow the demo starts.

I texted with Brandon last night and asked if he could do the shelves. He said “absolutely.” To be fair, he really doesn’t know me yet, he doesn’t really know what he’s in for yet.

In the past, I have had two spectacular contractors. If I could import one of them to do this house, I would in a heartbeat! One of them is Carlos. He is a jack of all trades, and master of the really important ones. Like tiling. And design. He would listen to my ideas and say, “You don’t want to do that.” We would argue and about half the time his idea was better so I let him do it and was never sorry.

The other is Martin. He used to get this look on his face when I told him what I wanted. If he didn’t agree, he would drawl, “I can do anything you want.” That was my cue to ask his opinion. Which sometimes turned out to be what I really wanted.

I hope I can make Brandon into a Carlos/Martin. I really can’t get a bead on him, I can’t tell if he’s interested in being a sounding board or if he wants me to just tell him what I want and go away.

I’ll know soon.

For a last look, here is the bridge to nowhere:

Hold it in your mind, because today is its last day on earth:

This picture makes me hate that light so much! I hope it gets broken tomorrow!

In addition to the bridge, Brandon will also be taking the uppers out:

I really hope he’s good with angles, because those floating shelves he’s doing have to utilize the weird angle.

I still have some stuff to do to get ready. Like clear the counters and take down anything breakable. I kinda wonder if my weekend will be spent painting. I do need to talk to Brandon about timing.

Ok, enough on that.

I’m making spaghetti sauce today. I have not done that in a while, but the Kraken pretty much shamed me into it. You know that saying, the student surpasses the master? When she was younger, I started to teach her to cook. She wasn’t really all that into it, but I firmly believe in giving kids roots and wings. It was no secret, she was a terror and we didn’t want her lingering with us after her 18th birthday. She didn’t want that either. So she learned to do for herself.

A couple years ago she asked me to teach her to make beef stew. We were living 2 hours apart at the time, so I talked her through it bit by bit. Now she has her own version of my beef stew. Next was spaghetti sauce. Now she has her own version. And on and on. She has several go to dishes she makes on the regular. Which is super gratifying, as she was on a 10-year food jag of hot dogs (gag), lima beans (double gag), and noodles.

She also cleans her bathroom. Pro tip: toilet bowl cleaner takes hair dye off grout.

I’ll happily hand over the master title to her.

It’s a lot of work.

I finished my teal scarf. Finally. This one was a real booger and I ended up starting it 4 times. That is one start past my limit, but I was determined to get this made.

I was gonna give it to Big Sister, but she said she already has one.

That I made her.

Huh.

So, this is up for grabs now:

I still need to block it, but I’m gonna wait til the destruction is done so it doesn’t get dirty. And I have to figure out where to put it while it’s blocking because the kittens have decided it’s fine to knit with them on the planet, but other tasks are completely out of the question.

It’s no secret, this week I am regretting my need for kittens. For some reason, I guess because they are “teens,” they have been standing on my last nerve this week. They dump their food bowls out 50 times a day, they play in their water and spread it all over the kitchen, they have been chewing wires, scratching and biting furniture, the list goes on. I thought it was Mayhem leading the charge, but I just caught Havoc dragging her water dish into the middle of the kitchen.

OIY!

Then they do this:

And my annoyance melts.

Of course him lying here is just cover, she is probably tearing something up somewhere else…

Mish Mash

I hope you liked the guest post about the shed/shop the other day!

It’s the 11th Day of Christmas today. I’m sitting at my desk listening to TSO, eating Christmas candy, and mooning over properties not purchased.

Why do I do this to myself? I do not have an answer. However, when I am mooning, I am not paying attention to the abysmal information found on Daily Wire.

So mooning is not all bad.

Tomorrow I will undecorate the house. It’s a mixed emotion day for me. On the one hand I am about over cats in the tree. On the other, I will miss the lights. But once the decorations are neatly put away (or stuffed carelessly into boxes), I plan on turning my attention to something fun.

Unlike painting trim.

Which I did yesterday:

I know, it’s super anti-climactic. Sort of like trim painting. During the 2-coats, there was only one cat accident. Havoc somehow managed to get her left whiskers covered in paint. I have to say, she was not pleased with the removal of said paint. I didn’t think she had the sass in her. But who are we kidding? If you grow up in this house, you get a little “salty” as the Kraken refers to it.

Speaking of kittens, they left this for us the other day:

My kitties are artists!

I’ll bet you thought I had a litter pan pic for you, didn’t you?!

I finally finished my sugar cane scarf:

I wasn’t gonna block it because I was really not happy with the way it felt, it was a little stiff and crunchy (not squeaky, Auntie!). I was dreading making anything with the other ball I have of the same yarn. But then I did a freeform blocking on it just to see if I could get more length out of it. After soaking it, the yarn became more soft. By the time this was dry I couldn’t wait to cast on the next project! It’s so soft and lovely! Because it’s more like a cotton, I made it lacey and more of an accessory than something to keep you toasty.

If it weren’t 75, and I wasn’t in shorts, I might have worn it on my errands this morning!

Over the weekend, or maybe Monday, the Hubs made butter. He is probably going to post about it, but I’m stealing his thunder.

He used this, Auntie gave it to us back in RI (I think maybe she hates us). It resurfaced a couple weeks ago and the Hubs wanted to give it a go. I’ll let him tell you all about it. Suffice to say there was cream and butter all over the place during the process! But there is actual butter as a result.

And last, but certainly not least, I went outside between raindrops yesterday and look what is happening in my new garden:

That, my friends, is a red potato! Well, not yet. We had given up on this because of the freeze last week. I guess this little guy has got a will to live! If the weather holds, it might yet produce.

Two Whole Days

That is how long I was alone this week. The Hubs had meetings he had to appear in person to attend.

Weird, right? Does anyone go anywhere in person anymore?

So I had 2 days in the house alone. I was thinking I would dig deep into some project or other.

But it rained both days. And it was hot.

Blah

I did manage to pack up the Kraken’s stocking. There was a lot more than I expected! I was able to stuff the whole box and not use filler. Today I took it to the UPS store where the clerk recognized me and asked how the cookies traveled.

I think I’ve been mailing too much lately!

During a lull in the rain, I went out to look stuff over.

I noticed this hole:

It doesn’t look like something dug it. But it does look like my gutter basin has failed here and will need some adjusting.

Yay

I’m starting to think I need some sort of water runoff expertise to get these stupid gutters to stop digging random holes in my yard. I might cheat and buy a couple plastic splash basins and then cover them up. At least it would get the holes a little farther from the walls.

One of my new azaleas is blooming:

I find this odd, but it must think it’s fall. And damn, I really need to weed this garden!

This hibiscus is going crazy:

I’m thrilled by its progress, I have had such poor showings by most of the products I ordered. I didn’t really want this here, so I may dig it up and relocate it at some point. I do need to finish edging this part of the garden and get mulch for it. I am planning rubber mulch for the whole yard, but in order to be cost effective, I have to order 75 cubic feet. I am not sure that will be an exorbitant amount or not enough. I do know it weighs a ton, literally. I guess I have to do some measuring and see what I actually need. I am hopeful it will be effective at weed control.

Here is what the dining room garden looks like so far:

It and the front lawn really need some work!

It was beautiful and 60 degrees out today. Was I out there working on it?

Nope.

In other news…

Auntie sent me my favorite kind of package:

I get to pick patterns and then knit up something great!

I’m working on these right now:

The pink one requires little attention, so it’s great for mindless progress, but it’s so boring! The teal one is a 12-row repeat and requires me to sometimes actually pay attention. I might send it to Big Sister because she likes the color. But I’ll wait for her to weigh in on whether she wants it or not. The yarn is cotton and silk so it’s not great for a snowy winter walk to the library, but it’s perfect for looking fabulous while out running errands on a cold day!

When they are not tearing up Christmas, this is how the Wild Ones spend their afternoons:

Looks like Mayhem won the bed this afternoon! I can finally sometimes tell them apart. Havoc is fluffy and more round faced. Mayhem has sleeker fur and a more sculpted face.

They are just about 7 months old now and are no longer on the same schedule. Havoc sleeps way more than Mayhem. He still sleeps on the bed at night, but she does not always. They are both getting really good at the pop out game. Sometimes I’ll walk through the kitchen and one of them will jump up and grab onto my leg. It’s not really popping out, but it’s still funny. They try to pop out on each other and give each other fat tail. Well, she gets fat tail, he gets medium tail.

We’re coming up to the last weekend before Christmas. Are you ready?

Cyber Monday

I just watched a video where a person asked actual college kids, on a college campus, how they felt about “Black Friday.”

They all said they hated it because it was so racist.

I suppose they could have been aliens, or this was their first day out of the box, but

WOW!

If this is what passes for general knowledge of college kids these days, a lot of people are wasting their money!

I literally CAN NOT with the general situation.

Anyway

The kittens do this routinely:

Which makes me think they are not actually sweet, loving, harmless kittens. When they do this, it smacks of Hell Hounds guarding a gateway. In this house, it would not surprise me one bit if these guys actually HAVE been inhabited by something guarding some portal to Hell.

Maybe that is why every bit of progress is met with the house’s resentment.

It occurs to me I might have too much time on my hands

On Saturday we made our over the top Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey was excellent, the gravy didn’t thicken enough, and for a change I didn’t make enough food for a small country.

We enjoyed it all and will be eating leftovers all week. At least. I am making turkey pot pies and a turkey casserole tomorrow. I’ll freeze it all and we’ll do turkey sammies til the rest is gone.

We spent the time off doing a whole lotta nada. But yesterday was so beautiful:

This is the first blue sky I’ve seen for ages. So it seemed like the perfect day to start on the new garden (you know, since the old one has a shed on top of it).

We picked the site:

That white flag is where a sprinkler head is. Maybe we won’t have to water!

We kept it small to start with, added some compost and watered it to help the compost and sand meld. I’ll be adding to it over the winter and we’ve ordered potatoes as a first step. We’re very much feeling our way around this whole southern gardening thing. It’s a big difference from VA and RI for us.

The Hubs wants a couple of plots rather then one big one, so I’ll be taking a stab at doing that as I go. I’m also planning a mint garden at the end of the shed. I’ll put in peppermint, spearmint, and catnip. Hopefully it won’t attract all the stray cats in town! Maybe I’ll do a flower garden somewhere, too. And I still have to pick a tree for the front yard.

But first, I need to decorate for Christmas.

I wonder how much the Hell Kitties will tolerate…

Off Track Project

The foyer was not really on my radar as a project to be done. But it somehow bubbled up to the top and I finished it this morning.

I had some help:

I can’t really tell if he looks guilty or surprised.

Lest you think Havoc is an angel in all this, she managed to plop her back foot and tail onto the very wet paint can top. I didn’t stop to take her picture because she started to flip out and almost took off before I caught her. She got some paint on the outgoing rug, but that was as far as she got.

Crisis averted!

A quick wipe down and some mineral oil kept them busy while I finished up. They are mostly back to black now. Mostly.

It’s been an exciting and educational 3 days around here.

In case you’re wondering just how far this sad little house has come, here is where we started oh so long ago:

It’s not exactly a one-for-one, but you get the idea. We are oh-so-slowly making a difference in this house.

Here is the closer shots of the foyer:

I did paint the vent from here, and the one in the bedroom:

Kinda anti-climactic without a before, but they both had some gunk on them that is now gone.

I ordered a new light and rug, they will be here soon-ish. The Hubs will take care of replacing the outlets and switches and then I’ll re-hang the hooks and figure out the art situation.

Last night we had our first frost. I’m not sure how low it got, but it was 33 when I got up. I took a look around to make sure everything was OK… No burst watering cans. No leaking rain barrels – which are finally full now that we don’t have watering to do! Most of the plants don’t look any worse for the wear. But my fig. Well, that’s another story:

I guess it really didn’t appreciate the cold last night! Hopefully it isn’t going to die now. After some rather unhelpful research, I would know exactly what to do if I were in Chicago. I think I’ll just rake up some pine needles and use them to cover this little guy and hope for the best. I don’t think we are in winter yet, last week it was 80, but who knows. Some extra root protection can’t hurt. Plus there are garlic bulbs in here, so I’m sure they will appreciate the blanket.

I was planning to paint the front door tomorrow, but I’m not sure that is a great idea. The weather forecast is a lot of drear and some rain until next weekend. Maybe I’ll kick it down the road a couple days. The temp seems to rebound a bit, which is better for curing paint.

I’m thinking of biting the bullet and continuing the living room painting.

Oh, but wait… it’s Thanksgiving week. I can’t get distracted with painting. And then it’s time to put up Christmas. Hmmmm. Maybe after the front door, I’m putting away my brushes and rollers for a few more weeks.

I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Trading in turmoil for disarray.

Well, one thing is sure, come 5 January (the 12th day of Christmas), I’ll be ready for jump back into chaos to cure the pandemonium!