Lights. Action. Ahhhhhh

Well, I've got it put together. Glass shelves, lights, crystal and china. I like it!

And yet, once again the photography is awful.

If only you could see it in real life. It looks lovely.

And here is my garden looking all wild and crazy. The blackberries are done for the season. I should have taken a picture of the berries because they were HUGE! Seriously, I'd never seen berries quite that large. And they were yummy to boot! We ended up getting more than we thought we would. There were a few times when my honey was able to have 5-8 berries with his cereal! Honestly, as neglected as they have been for the past couple of years we thought for sure that we'd get maybe a couple. So next year..... I may be able to harvest enough to make a pie! That would be lovely!

And so....

I leave you with a picture of my front porch with the newly planted mums. This weekend I'll be getting stalks of corn from a friend of mine who has acres and acres of planted corn and soybeans. I'll get two bunches of stalks to put in my yard to help with the harvest theme I'm going for.

I hope that those of you who are wanting to have that fall feel, are getting it. And those who do not... well, good luck with that. ;-)

Mortification anyone?

Hello everyone! Boy, it's been interesting around here. Actually, just being busy and having some fun and now I am feeling like I need a bit of a break.

First thing first. The weather is becoming more and more like Fall! I LOVE IT! It was downright chilly this morning. I recently bought a featherbed and last night we slept on it for the first time and let me tell you.... I didn't want to get up and out of our bed this morning. We still have the windows open upstairs (I closed them down stairs this morning 'cuz it was just too cold!) I love sleeping all snug and cozy under the covers with the air around me all chilly and nippy. So feather mattress and feather comforter makes for a wonderful sleep!

I've also FINALLY gotten my glass shelves for my china hutch! Did I tell ya'll how the shelves got "lost" during the move from Locust to Main Street? Well, they just disappeared. Which then made unpacking my china and crystal difficult since I had no shelves. We looked everywhere! Seriously, my honey helped me and we just couldn't find them. I called the trucking company that helped move all the furniture and they didn't have it in their van. We asked the friends who helped us move if they found it in their cars and flatbeds. And... nothing. So I decided that I was going to replace the shelves (wooden ones) with glass ones. But, I kept holding back from actually doing anything about getting them cut. I kept thinking in the back of my mind that they'd turn up. So finally last week I bit the bullet and had the glass company, Rainbow Glass, come out to my house to measure the space and help me figure out how I could have glass shelves put into my old European china hutch. (yes corinnea, it's the one you helped me get at the dead mens store!) The glass shelves came in yesterday and I picked them up and installed them and they are lovely! My china and crystal look fabulous and I'm going to go and pick up some lights to install inside so everything sparkles and shines! Anyhow, to "finish" this story... I began un-packing the last 8 boxes of crystal and china and in the 7th box what do you think I found? YUP! THE SHELVES!!! I couldn't believe it! There they were all nicely stacked and waiting to be put into the hutch! Honestly, I do not recall EVER packing them in the box! I have waited 5 months to replace those shelves in the hopes that the wood ones would turn up somehow! I couldn't un-pack the those last 8 boxes without shelves, could I? There was no where I could put all those things without the use of my hutch!!!!!!!!! Oh my! I felt like a total idiot! And the worst of it was that I had to show it to my honey. Admit that I packed them! UGH! Mortification on the biggest scale! He must have asked me a million times if I was sure I hadn't packed them. So. There you go. I packed them. I ordered new glass shelves. And voila, old shelves appear.

I will show ya'll what the hutch looks like once I fit it with the lights. In all honesty, the hutch does look great with the glass shelves. But I truly did not "forget" that I packed the wooden ones. I really don't remember having done so. It was THAT crazy on the day of the move!

Anyhow... While I was waiting to actually do something about those shelves I've been busy with other things. Such as painting the rooms. Okay, only two so far but still! I've also been working on my Pineapple table cloth. It's not quite half-

way yet, but it's getting there. There are ton's of mistakes on it, but for the most part, you can't really see them too badly. I'm really happy with the way it's turning out so far. And, at this rate, I may actually get it done in the time that I said I would! And as I suspected, it's not as tedious to do it this way, adding the motif's on as you go is the best way to do it!

The other thing that I've been working on is some more felting. I went to the Salvation Army store and picked up a few wool coats for next to nothing. I then proceeded to wash them in hot water and then took them apart. Then I cut them into the shapes I wanted and then I used the wool roving to put designs onto the wool shapes. And I'm liking what I've done so far.

Unfortunately, the picture isn't quite what I wish it was. The colors are much brighter in reality. But it's overcast today, as well as chilly, as I mentioned earlier. ;-) I haven't quite decided how I'm going to put them all together yet. I'm thinking about it as I continue to work on the shapes. Maybe blanket stitch them? That would probably look too busy what with the designs already on them. Hand stitch a straight stitch along the somewhat octagonal shapes? Any suggestions? I will adhere all the octagonal shapes onto another larger piece of felt and it will be a wall hanging. So?

Okay, that is it for me for today. I've got chime choir practice this evening and I'm taking some cupcakes with me because one of the ladies has a birthday today! Can't have a birthday without cake. Right?

Sometimes...

Sometimes when I go out on my front porch I hear a hissing noise. I used to hear it at the old house too. That hissing noise is the sound of a hot air balloon going by. I love seeing them up there. I think I might like to go up in one of those one day. I know that there are hot air balloon services that will take you up because I've spoken with those people before when they set up during the County Fair week.

Anyhow, it's especially nice to be able to sit out on my porch with my cup of coffee and hear that sound and peek out and see this beautifully colored balloon floating by. It's one of the best ways of starting the day...

Labor Day weekend

Hi everyone! I hope ya'll had a safe and memorable Labor Day weekend.

We started out the weekend with a get together of our friends. And as usual, I was having such a good time that I totally forgot to take photos. My honey made bar-b-que brisket and I made cucumber & watermelon salad and everyone brought something so that, as usual, there was more than enough food to enjoy!

We also (the ladies) made a few Corn Husk Dolls. The UMW is having their mini-retreat at my home next month. Many of the ladies have been in this house at one time or another over the years and are all curious to see what we have done in this house since we moved in. Anyhow, the retreat is on Native American Culture and I am doing the craft. So my friends and I decided to "test run" the craft to see how long it would take to complete a doll and exactly how to go about making them. Turns out that you can make a doll in about 20 minutes IF you don't chit-chat. If you DO chit/chat then it takes 45 minutes!

Didn't they turn out cute? My friend Mary made the best ones! She even has their arms bent so they don't stick out like scarecrows like mine! ;-)

So, we made those and then talked and snacked and then one of my friends (Mary's) granddaughter was getting ready for Homecoming and wanted to show her grandma how she looked all dressed up. Naturally, I wanted to tag along (I am always looking for "blog" photos) and she only lived practically down the street, so off we went to take a look and and take photos. And oh my, what a lovely young lady she is! I should probably tell you all. I'm not much into other people's children. For the most part, they annoy me. There are very few kids that I like being around. And I have to say, this young lady is one of the ones that I DO enjoy being around! She is very kind and considerate of others, smart and athletic and such a pretty girl! She very generously let me take several photo's of her and she waited patiently for me to snap, snap, snap away!

So, after many minutes of grandpa and I taking photo's of the dear girl, grandma, grandpa and I wished her a fun and safe evening and we went back to the house to enjoy the food and conversations! At the end of the evening it was just my honey and myself and our good friend "Old Neighbor"! We sat out on the front porch listening to the Cicada's and watched the bat fly around eating bugs. And sat & talked 'till bed time.

Sunday afternoon, my honey power washed the deck. That is an AWESOM tool! We had no idea just how icky that deck was until he took the power washer to it! And then "old neighbor" came over with a pot of chili and a pan of cornbread at dinner time and we all chowed down! She was busy working at her brothers farm helping him and his family get the corn maze worked out and setting all the other fun activities up for the upcoming opening of their corn maze and pumpkin patch! They operate a place in Blair called Skinny Bones. My honey and I are going to check it out next month!

And then today, he spent the day staining and sealing the deck. It looks really good! Poor guy, he worked hard all weekend! Getting the brisket cooked (he got up early to get it started) and then power washing and staining. I just did the normal Monday routine, change the sign at the church and housework. ugh!

And now he's standing at the kitchen window looking out at the bird feeder and having himself some almonds.

I'm just hoping he'll hurry up and get in the shower and then I can get dinner started. Hmmm I am thinking of making sweet & sour pork. Yeh, that sounds good.

So, that's what's been going on around here. All in all, a fun weekend with friends and good food and some work thrown in for good measure.

I hope ya'll had a good weekend. Got some relaxing done and are ready to head out into the working world again come Tuesday morning.

Take care and I'm pretty sure you'll be seeing more random bits of this and that going on in my life, here on this site. ;-)

Word of the day...Random

Hello everyone! I'm back, once again with more random thoughts and comments. I was sitting here earlier thinking about what my blog is all about. All the blogs I keep watch over are very specific and I'm feeling rather lost at the moment. I've been all over the place and I'm not even sure how to organize my subjects since there is truly no rhyme or reason to these posts. My life is rather boring and of no interest to others. I've not done much in the way of showcasing my wonderful state. So... what to do, what to do.

I've decided that I"m going to re-vamp this blog. Well, okay, I've decided to think about re-vamping this blog over the next few months. There. So...

For today, more random thoughts and ideas and photo's.

First thing... the new dinning room color. It is a mustard-y yellow. But it may be too dark for this room. It has a window on the west side of the house but we have trees that shade this room really well so it's often dark in here. It will probably look better in the winter when the trees leaves aren't blocking the sun. We'll see since this is the first winter we'll be in this house.

I must apologize for the poor photo's. So this photo actually looks closer to the color of the paint than the first one.

And this photo above is the the view from the newly painted living room into the dinning room. What do you think of the color combo from one room to the other? One is rather a cool color and the other is warmer. And the kitchen is a brown/beige color. Just thought I'd mention that although I don't intend on keeping it that color. Still trying to work out the kitchen color in my head.

And then there is the quick little fix I did on my lamp shade. The shade is near to being 14 years old. It was looking sad and tired and I thought instead of retiring it and buying a new one, perhaps I could re-vamp this one. So.....

And, once again poor photo's. But perhaps you can get the gist of what I did. I put the trim on the top and bottom. The trim on top has the same colors as the trim on the bottom but without the little balls. And the colors are as close as a person can get to the color of the walls in the living room and dinning room as you can get! It was erie how closely the colors matched! There is also a reddish/brown as well which matches the color of the rug in the living room! So, that was my bit of decorative crafting for that day!

Next, a couple of photo's from the house painting that our church was involved in. It took two Saturdays to complete! It was amazing the turn out we got for this mission and it was fabulously fun and so tremendously rewarding! That is my honey on top of the porch roof! And sweetie-pie Steve is priming the trim down below (he's the one that helped me with the contrast) and then there is the other Steve on the other ladder. He's a good guy too!

And this is the "after" photo. Doesn't the trim look great?! No modesty here. They were all going to leave it the same color as the rest of the house, I thought it needed the contrasting trim color on it. So I offered to do it, thinking that it wouldn't take that long. I thought incorrectly. Luckily, there was another member of the group who helped me out loads, with the completion of the trim work! Thanks Steve! He also had "vision" for how it should be! ;-)

And that is what I've been doing here lately. Now I need to get some house cleaning done before people show up tomorrow for our Labor Day bash! Ya'll have a safe and wonderful weekend and I'll see you back here soon!