Plants and Paint

Hi there,
I couldn't open my right hand all the way when I woke up yesterday morning.  I have tendonitis in my middle finger!  That hand has been stiff a bit lately with all the scrubbing, painting, gardening and yup, that's the hand I hit with the hammer several weeks ago.  Monday night I left the shop on time, got home and worked planting some more plants and then came morning and the inability to make my middle finger go straight.  So I got up and ran it under hot water and rubbed it and then it began complying with me to open and close.  No worry.  Just gotta give it a rest.  Not painful during the day or anything.  I did work Sat. afternoon and Sunday in the garden so I've just overexerted it is all.  Here's my progress:

The ivy geranium are filling in and blooming now!

Here are the Lilies that I planted exactly a year ago and they are blooming like crazy this year.

                                   Cute!

            Cuter after being painted! 
These are the thumb screws to the blue bathroom fixture.  They hold the glass pieces on.  Amazing what a little paint can do!  
                  That's all folks! 

5 Down More to Go (Grow)

Howdeeee,
Just a quick update and a few photos of what I did last holiday wknd.  I got the bathroom cabinet finished and planted 2 clumps of Bird of Paradise shrubs (that have been in pots for 10 years) for a total of only 5 plants in the new garden so far.  I worked again to get all the roots out which took time and then had to deal with moving some of the potted plants onto the porch to avoid the extreme summer sun.  The rest of the plants are much smaller and will get planted faster and I hope to get most of them in tomorrow. 

Here is a before pic of the bathroom cabinet.

Can you believe the previous owners put the same tile on the walls, around the sinks and then onto the floor?  Way too busy looking and I think this particular tile would look good on an in-ground pool, don'tcha think?

I tell ya, I'm working with what I've got to make this place sell-able.  Some "after" pics coming soon.  I haven't crocheted in weeks now.  I'm not that motivated.  Seems I just want to focus on getting this house ready because I can't stand living like this much longer.  Plus my hands are tired from all the scrubbing and pulling roots and all that.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you're all finding some time to relax and enjoy your summer!

Mom's 80th Birthday!

Photo by Levi Brown

It was my Momma's birthday today.  She is 80 years young.  We are planning a party for her sometime this month.  It should be fun!  I didn't get to be with her today but I'll see her soon.  This isn't her cake but it sure looks like it could be with all those candles. 

I decided to take the 3 day weekend and get as much done as I can in the garden and at the hottest part of the day I plan to go inside and do the refinishing of the blue bathroom cabinet.  I can't believe that I purchased the refinishing stuff a year ago!  There isn't much left so I did buy the correct amount, thank goodness.

This stuff works great.  I highly recommend it if you have some wooden items and don't want to strip 'em and sand 'em and all that.  This stuff goes right over existing finishes and I'm happy with the way the cabinets look.

Hope you are gonna have a relaxing weekend!  Take care...

Last Weekend's Fun

Whoa, what a busy week since I posted last.  I have all these ideas to post stuff and then I just can't seem to make the time to do it.  Waa, waa.  Went to see Tamara dance at her recital last Sat. nite and she did great.  She was most concerned at all her costume changes (6) that she wouldn't have time and be late to the stage but it went on without a hitch.  I stayed the next day and we (my sis, Tamara, Jordan and Josiah, nephews 7 and 5 yrs.) hung out, ate, played board games, threw a big ball back and forth outside, walked to CVS and got Thrifty's ice cream cones, stopped by to get my mom's guest list for her party and picked up some really good Mexican food and then I left late for home Sun. nite.  Was I tired on Monday?  Yes.  But it was a good tired.

Here's my talented niece, she's 12 yrs:

Yes, she held still enough to take the pic!

And another shot, yeah!

Here's the only thing I got done in time for Yarn Bombing Day.  A little red flag that has traveled on my car's antenna since Saturday and has already gone 310 miles (498.89664 kilometers) and didn't come off!  A little windblown but here he is:

House repair update: I think my chiseling days are over.  I whacked my hand really hard with the hammer (by not paying attention, I'm sure it was my own distracting thoughts) that fateful Sunday morning (June 5th) and it got all bruised but it didn't stop me from doing my projects.  It began looking worse than it felt as it was only sore when I touched it and I know I didn't break any bones only blood vessels.  It swelled up and looked like I had a button under my skin (weird) but days later the bruising spread out and looked bad.  I was gonna take a pic of it and show you but, well, it was ugly and I figured you know what bruises look like and I didn't like looking at it and so you probably wouldn't either!  BUT just in case you were wondering it is greenish today!!!  After hitting my hand it made me mad, so I began hitting the end of the concrete piece with just the hammer to make it go faster and I broke the damn concrete thing about 5 inches instead of the 2" I planned on.  It worked out though and I'll show you my solution I came up with next week.  I got some of that concrete patch/sealant/calking type stuff in a tube to fix it the rest of the way, tomorrow.  That's it for now!

3-day Memorial Weekend

Oh my, I'm so glad it's Friday.  Yeah, I'm taking the 3 day wknd to get more stuff done so we can get this house ready to sell.  I haven't got enough sleep all week long and today, well, I'm crabby.  Stayed up real late moving all my clothes and stuff from the closet to the other room and put away all the dresser top stuff into temporary boxes and moved it all out with the help of my son.  That was Tuesday and the painters started in the closet and then yesterday, prepped and painted the walls and took down those damn vertical blinds that I've wanted to remove since we first moved there.  I slept in the other room since my bed and furniture was in the middle of the room and covered with paper and plastic.  Hopefully they are all done and I can get things put away over the 3 days.  I got some cheap mini blinds from the store last night and will put those up tomorrow, too.  What would I rather be doing?  Relaxing and having an umbrella drink and maybe read a good novel and sleep.

Here's a couple pics of the house the other morning.

Here's the Mandevilla Vine Flower that I transplanted from the broken pot last weekend.  I tied her up to her new trellis.  Looks like she's gonna live!  I'll transplant the ivy geranium all around to fill in the rest of that garden space.

The mystery plant from my earlier post is:

Gladiolus!  They are blooming so early this year.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Laundry Room Pix and Spring Flowers

Hello!  Here are the after pictures of the laundry room.  Scroll down the page a little bit to see the before photos in an earlier post.  Amazing what paint can do.  The sink still looks crappy but the walls are so much better! ******************************

Here's some pretties for you.  This is the first spring rose.  It opened really fast when our weather got so warm. 

The Amaryllis are gonna bloom and maybe by Easter.

That's all for now, Have a great weekend!

3/31 It was 90 Degrees, What's Up?

OK, Mr. Heat you can pack your bags and head south for another 2 months please!  The record heat for the day was 101 so at least it didn't get that hot!

The house is all done!  April Fools!  OH, don't I wish it were so.  Since we decided to have the painters do ALL the rooms, our house has been a bustling place full of dreaded dust and flies coming and going as they please in and out of open doors and windows.  Seems like an Extreme Makeover Home Edition!  But...my oh my, it is looking so fresh and bright with all the newly painted rooms! 

My job today in between customers is to find replacement window coverings to replace the massive vertical blinds in the family room / home office area.  Of course that means letting my fingers do the walking not in the yellow pages but using the internet.  There are two 8 foot sliding doors and one 5 foot sliding door on the south wall and a large window on the east wall.  The vertical blinds were there when we moved in and they don't work very well and are really dirty besides being ugly.  Anybody have any suggestions?  Originally, we weren't going to paint this room and just leave the blinds and clean 'em really good but since it's getting painted, the paint is going to look so nice and will really make the blinds look especially bad.  My idea was white sheers to keep it clean looking. 

What's been happening as we paint or fix up this or that thingy what's right next to it just looks really bad and so it seems a never ending cycle of what to fix and when to draw the line on fixing things.  Like when the living room was painted I told the DH, now the guest bathroom (which is right next to it) looks really bad.  It is such a small room that I felt they could paint it in a jiffy.  He agreed that it would look better and then we noticed that the landing where the stairs come up from the basement would look so much better so then they painted that and then on and on they've been painting.

The biggest mess of all was the laundry room that was in such poor shape.  It has lath and plaster walls and in some places the plaster was coming off and it was all sandy and ugly (see around sink area).  It is located in the basement but it's an enclosed room.  There is even an old fashioned laundry chute that starts at the top floor in one of the closets and then on the main floor in the guest bathroom.  I've used it for mainly for towels; way more handy than walking them down the stairs!  The owners before us had a furnace or water heater catch on fire years ago and the walls were all dark at the top from the smoke.  It was a smelly and scary place to do laundry but after 10 years you just get used to it.  You ask, why didn't we fix if before now?  Well, the biggest reason was lack of funds!  AND A WHOLE LONG STORY THAT I WILL WRITE ABOUT SOMEDAY!  Here are some pics of the laundry room after some sanding and you can see some 1950's turquoise paint here and there. 

See the laundry chute?

Notice the newly painted door on the left

See some 1950's turquoise paint?

Original sink from 1948

See the smoke damage at the ceiling?

Plain cement floor with a floor drain in case of flooding

Now that you are ready to barf at the ugliness of it all, I promise to show you some after pics next week!

Stay tuned!




I spoke with the head painter about planting in the front garden and if it was possible for them to be careful while painting the front come Mid-April and work around the plantings and he said it should be fine.  So if weather permits, I'll be preparing the flower beds on Sunday as well as continuing on the kitchen cabinets.  What are you up to?

Painting and Panic

Geez what a week!  Hello. Thanks for stopping by.  I have visions of posting everyday in a perfect life I don't have and seem to hardly be able to bang out even 2 posts a week.  Lord knows I'm never lacking words and always have something to say.  The latest is our contractor friend just wasn't able to get to us and do all we needed to have done in our time frame so we hired real painters and they started this past Thursday and when I got home all the main floors; living, dining and entrance way rooms had brown paper and plastic in some places taped to the entire floor.  That's how they protect the hardwood floors and it looked like a different house.  All the window coverings down and numbered, furniture that we didn't move outta there was in the center of the rooms all covered in plastic.  AND MY FAVORITE; SANDING DUST EVERYWHERE!  But it IS getting done faster so living within the perpetual mess will be of shorter duration, yippee!  Here's some pics of the outside I took last week.

I went to see the movie "I Am" that I posted about here.  I really liked it.  It was positive and shows how finally scientists that look at the material world and spiritual people are coming together to figure out what life, other living entities and humans share which turns out to be a very deeply rooted connection.  Go see it if you get the chance.  I'm sure it will come out on dvd and you could rent it soon.

So I went to get a breakfast sandwich and some coffee on my way into work this morning (the house is just too much of a mess to get bkfst or make coffee) and I was shocked to find the credit card I use most often was not in it's place in my wallet.  I tried not to freak out at the checkstand but I was trying to remember what could have happened to it.  Hmm...did big Al take it to get me gas last night, don't jump to conclusions...think girl when did you have it last?  Got in the car and continued my way to work then pulled over to call home.  No answer.  He must be talking with the painting guys.  Start to PANIC as I'm rummaging around in the purse and looking at all pockets in my wallet, not there, s**t!  Think, think.  Used it last at the other grocery store on Thursday morning.  OMG for 2 whole days someone could be enjoying my cc on VISA and my dime.  Damn.  Stopped at that store went in and asked if they have a lost and found and explained I'm missing my cc and used it last at their store.  Sure enough they had it.  RELIEF!  I've never lost a cc ever, thank God!  The clerk told me to make sure nobody used it before it was turned in and to check with the cc company.  So we did that, A-OK.  I went thru my memory of last Thurs. morning and remember now, laying it down on that little counter after swiping it then reached for the darn club card and I NEVER lay it down.  I always put back in it's place.  Must be the discombobulation of the house mess that's making me a mess!  Boy, was I lucky.

Here are some blooms from the front yard.  The white Watsonia are the first to bloom then will come the pink and then the lavender ones.  The Nasturtium and Kalanchoe are blooming nicely.

Since the painters are there working today, my plan was to stay at the shop and complete the insurance project that seems to be taking forever and I even brought my crochet projects that hopefully will be done soon so I can start my next project.  Hope you have a terrific wknd and are enjoying some flowers that are finally poking their heads out for you.  Spring is here!

Pluggin' Away!

Hi!
I got to cleaning more last weekend than I planned and didn't do much on the cabinet refinishing.  I did spray the knobs with the clear coat and let 'em dry all week so I'll put 'em on the finished cabinets later today after work.

We've been working away doing paint prep work but the contractors haven't been here for a couple weeks.  So my son went from working in the house to outside paint prep and he fell from the ladder onto the cement but he's ok, thank GOD.  The contractors have some other jobs so hopefully they will be back next week.  I really need to get the plants in the ground soon!

I used my 50% off coupon on guess what?  YARN.  What else is there??  Adding it to my stash.  May use it on my next project.  Only read a little bit as I have been exhausted this week and have enjoyed just thinking about being able to crawl into bed and just SLEEP.

The DH has got me working on a new project (in between customers) of writing down all the furniture that we have room by room and research what it would cost to buy new today and if we sold it, what the fair market value of it would be.  DANG, it's reminding me of how expensive new furniture is, so take care of the stuff you own.  To replace it would be crazy $.  The purpose of this project is to see if we are over or under insured.  I think this will help us to figure out what to keep and what to get rid of before and after we move.  This is not a very FUN project :(                                          

I found this picture while searching images and I loved her artwork; you can find more of her at: Maria Molinari.

This picture shows how I feel right now.  Hand in hand we can make this a better, safer world.  Have a fantastic weekend despite everything.

Refinishing, Wool and Flowers

Howdy!
What I've been up to since it's been 10 days from my last post:
I had the shop open only 4 days last week as there was President's Day on Monday and then last Saturday was the yearly Camellia Festival and parade where they close the street off and nobody including the postal carrier can get to me so I have learned to just close up for the day as there isn't any business anyhow.

I worked quite a bit on the kitchen and figure 2 more wknds and the refinish part should be done, yippee!  The final reveal still won't be for awhile as there will be more sanding and painting nearby the kitchen and I don't want to decorate just to have to wash sanding dust from all of it, if ya know what I mean???

I washed allot of old wool suits and pants that the moths had got to (I plan to use them to make rugs and or felt type projects in the future) and then bagged them in plastic with a few mothballs just in case the soap and water didn't kill 'em all.  I will box them all up this week.  I'm talking here, quite a few woolen items: coats, jackets and pants that we inherited from different people and when they were hanging in my room to dry it smelled allot like wet DOG!  Sorta sad to cut them up as there sure is an amazing amount of handiwork that goes into all that sewing.

I came across some clothing items that I'm selling on ebay soon that all needed to be photographed.  That took a chunk out of yesterday afternoon.  I'm downloading the pics right now, 182 pics in all.  Out of all the pix, I'll only use a few of the best ones for each of the auction pages.

We've had a few days of rain so I didn't have to spend any time watering the potted or garden plants.  The contractors weren't able to come most of last week and that is putting me behind on planting in the bare spaces since the trees are gone now.  The last rain was a cold one and put snow on our local mountains down real low and it was so pretty on my drive in this morning and I wanted to take photos for you but the camera was of course, in the backseat in the tote bag.

I've hardly crocheted at all the last couple weeks.  I did find a Ravelry member with some green yarn I needed so when I get that I can start on my next project.

The worst cabinets, in front of the sink.

Without flash

With flash.  I can't wait to show you the transformation!

My violets are blooming so pretty right now.  Here's a few pics for ya.

Have a fabulous week!