Decorating the Living Room

I seem to be making some headway in this house the last 2 days. But wouldn't ya know it; I had to stop and resuscitate the mouse!! She's been giving me a fit lately and I usually just dust her off - her belly button, ya know, that scroll wheel. But she's been sucking some serious dust around here so it's been a miracle that I can revive the little darling. *Sigh*.........................

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This was 2 days ago. I was so tired I didn't know whether to climb the ladder to paint/hang pix or get on my knees and put stuff back that was to be "lower"! My feet are killing me from standing on that ladder, chicks.

Do you realize that I "shopped" right outta this house??? Yep, old things placed in different places seem new again. Besides, hubs said to keep it to a minimum. They're just no fun when it comes to remodeling and redecorating. Actually, this whole remodel was his idea. Ya woulda expected me to say nuuuuuuuu?!?! Get a grip, chicks, this was decorating and spending money here. It's our lot in liiiiIIIIiiiiiffffffffee. (When I type the words that way you'll know I'm RAISING my voice and lowering it. Hah...No matter.......on with the show.)

Anyway, today shows a marked improvement.....in the living room. The family room??? Pfffffffffttttt. It's trashed! Now, I'm not so proud that I wouldn't show you but there's nothing to show in there at the moment. I've pretty much stripped the pix off the walls and brought them into living room.

Notice the french wire baskets. I don't know where to put them! I'll have hubs help me decide tonight. He's actually pretty good at noticing things and recommending things when I'm stymied. You all have been a big help with your email suggestions also. Thank you!

Clock was moved last night but moving a grandfather clock is a delicate matter. We had to almost disassemble it to move it - take out the weights and pendulum. But it's there. I've added 2 pix above it and some pretty little boxes on the overhead. Being from California I'm squeamish about putting things "UP" when they could "FALL" on your head! These are light however and not a problem.

The print on the left of the photo is 1 of 3 of my favorites. It's a Susan Rios print. The one in the middle below the painting of the girl (more on that in a moment) is my absolutely favorite of all times. When we lived in California I had a huge family room and had slipcovers made for a sofa I had. It was a wide pink and white stripe. That thing cost me a fortune! That was over 20 years ago and cost me $800.00. I could actually have bought a new sofa for less at that time. I loved it though.

One day when I was at the Valley Fair Mall in San Jose I went into the Martin Lawrence Gallery there and found this print. I immediately bought it because I absolutely adored it and it looked a great deal like my home with that sofa and the lace curtains. My heart was stolen, little sweets. But when we moved up here and then to this new house 3 years ago we didn't have room for it. I sold it for $100.00 and included 2 outdoor wrought iron chairs. Pathetic.

Anyway, the limited edition on the far right with a white frame is another of Susan's prints. So I grouped them all together.

Now, about that painting. I purchased it recently at Goodwill for a couple of dollars because it touched my heart and it has pink roses on her hat. BUT the thing is Susan Rios did a self-portrait once and that is a lot like her portrait. I have a book of her painting and prints in it and that portrait is in there. Except for the hat it could almost be her. It is truly amazing. So I hung it with her paintings. I've also included her self-portrait for you to see the similarities - the pose, the hair, the white blouse, the direction in which she's looking. You'll have to enlarge the pix of living room to see that portrait better.

My new sink!!!!!! I love it. I like stainless steel and it's not as deep as the old porcelain one. I did put one pix over the sink that I can look at. Still much more to do there but I had to get some of them off the floor and hung! I'll get Love Bunny to put a shelf in there - I have no "shortage" of shelves or I'll hang that little french country shelf for miscellany.

This is a mosaic my daughter and granddaughter made me. She never got a photo of it 3 years ago and is updating her portfolio of mosaics. So I had to photograph it for her. If you want to see some of her pieces for sale go visit Nan. This is a hobby for her. She's like me and CANNOT do nothing!

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Now I want to share with you a special gift that Katie recently sent me! She just started a selling blog. But I have to tell you also that she recently has taken up silk ribbon embroidery. (We've created a monster!! Aaaack!) AND she's recently had her first grandchild, Syllah May, which was a terrific thrill for her. We followed the journey with her from the announcement of her daughter's pregnancy to the delivery of Miss Syllah. She's a beauty also, but has the most extensive wardrobe of any new chick I've ever seen!! Anyway, Katie made this quilted tote for me and it's lovely. You have got to go to her blog and see her exquisite silk ribbon embroidery! That new baby had the most exquisite first wardrobe I've ever seen. Goooooo! Ooooh and why the tote???? I guess she just "loves" me for some crazy reason! :-)~*~

*UPDATE at 10:15 pm TONIGHT!*
I composed this post tonight at 6 pm or so after working all day (but I wanted you to view the "latest" of the kitchen) and adding to the draft of this post and scheduling it to come on line at midnight, but hubs put up a couple of shelves for me tonight so it's 10:15 pm and I've been up for 20 hours now and still going strong............ Hah! If you believe that you're nuts because you can tell by the run on sentence!!!!! I'm about to keel over. BUT I'll just post this and go because hubs is tired.*Fini* Bon nuit!

Remodel Day #7 and Random Thoughts

The remodel is finished - well, 99.9% finished; the decorating of the house isn't! I still have to paint it and I'd prefer to do it myself since I love to paint. Although I can't paint (walls) like I used to because it's so tiring on my shoulders and neck, this is a pretty small job that will not cause any distress on these creaky joints. The carpet needs to be stretched back in and he's supposed to do it monday or tuesday. (Now, we alllllll know about carpet installers and how notoriously slow they are so I'm not counting on it, but I'll call and wheedle and whine to the best of my ability, which hubs says beats anyone else's he's ever seen! I'm so thrilled to be perfect in SOMETHING!!) So here are the pix of the famous wall remodel now.

This view just kind of "frames" the dining area. Since it's just the 2 of us we didn't want a formal dining room anymore. It was the least used room in the house and would be now since we're empty nesters and kids are in California.

This truly does "frame" the living room when you're actually in the dining area looking into the living room.

New sink he'll install on tuesday. I love stainless steel sinks. They're way easier to take care of. Not many people have sinks in their living room, do they?!?! ;-)

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And here, my sweet bloggers, is the trailer I'm going to frou-frou up. Squeeeeeal!!! This is gonna take some time though. This trailer was the ONLY way I'd go camping at all again! So for those of you who have emailed me regarding this, I'm hearin' ya, chicks!!! *Sigh*............... But I truly am excited to have the extra STORAGE SPACE it will provide! I already have a lot on my plate with redoing things around the house.

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I saw this pillow on a post when I was looking for pillows to buy and the lady had it in her garage for a yard sale and it didn't sell. I thought I loved it because of all the roses fabric on it and emailed her and asked about it. Suddenly it was mine and it arrived last week. I really LOVE it! Her picture was taken in the garage with piles of stuff on it so I thought I'd show it to you in a better setting so you could see just how beautiful it truly is. It's beautiful!!!!

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Now for a rare treat for y'all.......uuuhhhhh, well, maybe not so much. It's me! I finally took a pix with my hair all done for church. I did this with my iSight camera that sits on my monitor. I cannot get a good shot so close with my regular Canon camera! I never think to ask hubs when he's around and besides, he takes lousy photos anyway! Not too bad for nearing 70 years old, but why can't I look like Sophia Loren?????

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I was drying my hair and putting on make up this morning and got to thinking. I know, I know......this can be dangerous for anyone within the same block of me, but I was really thinking hard. A few thoughts come to mind while blowing and fluffing this mop!

1.
I swished my foam applicator puff across the makeup and one side of my face got a little more than the other. I tried smoothing it out but I wondered if anyone looking at me can notice I'm "lopsided" today?? Hmmmmm.

2.
This is for all you young chicks out there. (Rachel, are you listening, honey?!?! Joyce isn't even there yet ,but she still won't tell ya these things. Trust me, Rachel!! I wouldn't lie to you, sweetpea.)Some things your mom may have neglected to tell ya: menopause and chin hairs! Yessssssss, my sweet young bloggers, we go through this about the age of 50 - give or take a few years. But it's pure torture to sit in a room while you're "glistening" (women "glisten", we don't "sweat" like jocks do!) and everyone else is wearing their coats or jackets. I'm telling hubs I'm hot and he's saying it's not hot in here. He's lucky to still be on this earth with that one! Then like I've said before with the 15x magnifying glass that sent me into anaphylactic shock from looking at my face closeup, it's worse when you can see the black hairs growing outta your chin and lip. Just remember where you heard this - and it wasn't from your mother!!!!!!! They're too afraid to tell ya!

3.
Last year I had foot surgery on both feet at different times - 2 months apart. I'll never ever do it again and would not recommend it to my worst enemy........well, if she was wrinkle free and flaunted it, I just might! Anyhow, I met another woman who had done the exact same thing - bone fragments, which is just another fancy name for the dreaded "bunions" (and let this be a lesson to those HIGH heel wearers - they RUIN your feet!!), and she said it took 5 years but her feet felt fine after that. So I've gotta wait 4 more years to have pain-free feet?!?!?!?! Oh, be still my heart! DUH!

4.
Shea butter. Yes, that cream I get at WM - coconut shea butter, which is such a treat for your feet, is no longer available. I loved the coconut because that's one of my favorite scents and flavors and the smell reminds me of Mexico. But they've changed it - to coconut/LIME shea butter. I think there's a tad more lime in it than coconut and it's just not the same, sweet bloggers! Leave my shea butter for my feet ALONE!!!!!

5.
Some of us have the tall or the short gene in our gene pool. Mine has both. I get the relative middle - average! So why couldn't I get the taller gene and be svelte? I think we all get the gene we're less likely to want: short/tall, thin/fat, blonde/brunette, small/large feet, blue/green/brown eyes. I didn't get ONE I wanted! Not one!! Oh, I've learned to adjust but why do my kids have to outgrow me before they're even teenagers. I'm 5' 4 3/4", sparkling green eyes(!) and weigh.........well, we won't go into that one! Hah....... At least I can say at my age I have NOT lost one inch to osteoporosis so take that, Gidget (aka Sally Fields)! Same height I was as a teenager! So I got that going for me.

6.
Who in the world can resist the smile of a child? :-) I saw it in action today in church.

7.
When we moved into this house 3 years ago we looked so sad. I think the church members who helped us unload the truck must have thought "here's the hillbillies" because 99.9% of everything we owned was in boxes. Oh, they saw the sofa (sans the pillows), the chairs (also sans the pillows), the lovely oak table all scratched up from "you know whoooOOOOooo" not listening to MEeeeEEEee when loading it and setting it right next to something with a SCREW(!) and all the legs taken off for the move, the lovely bed furniture all taken apart for the move. I tell you it was definitely pathetic! But when you view it now it all looks nice. Maybe not YOUR style but nice. That's when it hit me - my life was in U-Haul boxes and it wasn't until we opened them and put stuff out that it became our "HOME."

I'll leave ya with those "random thought"!! I'm a deep thinker, ya know..........

Remodel Day #6 & "Pink Saturday"!

Okay okay, it's still early here in the west, chicks!! Just got up and have part done from last night, but needed more photos for ya.

Not much different from yesterday except more mud on the walls and he's to come back today for 3rd mudding and texturing. Then monday we'll paint it and it'll be done except for the "decorating"! *Smile*

Close up of a basket I keep things in.

My first attempt at painting on something "round"! Eeegads, what a time that was. I'll get better though.........I think!

A tribute to my group on ebay. Oh my, how I love those special chickadees! Simply the best ever............

A rose painting a woman was going to throw away and I said send it to me and I'll display it!!! Can you imagine? It's just gorgeous.

Very closeup of one of my birdhouses in my collection.

A sign I bought on ebay because it touched my heart........ ;-)

More "fluff" laying around this house. Always "PINK" fluff though!

The beginning of one of my paper roses. I must get back to them, but blogging keeps getting in the way......and remodeling........and cleaning...........and cooking........and laundry..........and my affair with Tom Selleck and Clint Eastwood! Hah, as if?????

And this is the lovely paper wrapped around the last pictures. You'll see it when you get down to the bottom. I put the little decoupaged hangers on there because they have PINK roses on them and contrast with that wild and crazy paper!!!!!! Wooooohoooo.

My very first painting that I ever considered selling on ebay. I guess no one else thought I should have considered selling it because it didn't. Humbled me, but I don't care. I love it and proudly hang it in my house. So when I'm rich and famous from painting roses and running around in my Mercedes with a chauffeur and thumbing my nose at all of them and wearing those bustiers and hot pants and showing off this hot bod, I can laugh and go nananananana, right??!?!!! And if you believe that, you really ARE in lala land, sweet chicks. I don't want riches; I HAVE them! I have my kids and Love Bunny!!! Yesssssssss, who could ask for anything more than that?!??!

A very sweet and talented lady, Miss Doodle, gave me this lovely roses painting. (It is but a snippet of the whole canvas.) And for that she is in my thoughts almost daily because it hangs on the wall across from me here in my office/computer room.

Another painting that touched my heart from Lorena. It's on the same wall and I see it every single day!

A lot of women send me things for helping them with their computers and technical stuff because I am a techie. This is what one sweet lady sent me - 2 lovely rose paintings. I know, I know, you're asking how can this "beautiful HOT se*y nana chick" be so techie??? I don't know, just lucky I guess!! But I help anyone with anything I can about computers and blogging and photography. Now, don't beat the door down asking me things. I'm busy with the remodeling, ya know!!!

Can you believe this?!?!? I received these in the mail yesterday from Joanne after winning the delightful D R E A M letters from her. BUT can you even guess what they are??? At first I wondered why she would send me some elegant gloves with fancy polka dots on them. And then I picked them up and they're rubber gloves!! Yes, gardening gloves, but ya know what, my sweet chickadee?? I just may wear them out to Applebee's tonight with my "not-so-elegant" attire. Hey, I live in Ideeeeeho, ya know!!! Formal is a crease in your jeans and spit shined boots!!!

And finally, does this say it all?!?!?! The letters/word I won from Joanne.

Remodel Day #4

Day 4 began in a whirl for me. I had a massage scheduled for 2 pm, we were scheduled to feed 2 missionaries, hubs was teaching a real estate class until 5 and was at least 1/2 hour away and missionaries were to eat from 5 - 6 and be on their way. I had steaks to cook out and I have no clue how to use the BBQ! I mean I can move it around the patio but turning on the gas tank and the actual igniting of the fire is beyond this chick's scope! Besides, like they always tell you: If you learn how to "do it" (whatever it is), then you "own it." Welllll, this gal ain't "owning" cooking out! I barely want to "own" cooking in! As my friend, Bertie, says the only reason I have a kitchen is it came with the house! I adore fast food resturants, ordering in and nice restaurants too. I've cooked for 47 years and hubs deserves to take this "hot grandma chick" out on his arm - "arm candy"!! Hah.......trust me, that ain't so and Sophia Loren has nothing to worry about! But I digress.

The missionaries ended up grilling the angus steaks I had and Love Bunny missed a fiiiiiiine meal, let me tell ya. Steak, potatoes, salad from our garden, corn on the cob and watermelon. Ooooh, let me correct that; he missed a fiiiiiiiiine HOT meal! Missionaries were gone before he even got home!

All this going on while Contractor Bob is measuring, cutting and hammering away. (Oh, an aside here.....some of you sweet little chickadees think hubs is doing the remodel; Love Bunny is NOT doing the construction; we hired a contractor we know personally. I wouldn't trust hubs to be diligent in getting it done in a timely manner, which in actuality means he won't listen to my nagging to "get this job done!" Remember, we're married - annnnd want to STAY married. Need I say more?!?!?!)

You've seen this house before so I won't add descriptions, just use your imagination as to what is happening to the living room/kitchen/dining area wall to enclose it and "define" the rooms a bit better. It's also providing wall space on which I'll hang more "fluff", move our grandfather clock into the LR and can then get a non-working fireplace/mantle in our family room. That'll be "eye candy" also. Squeeeeeeeallll!!!!

Earlier in the morning I decided to wash off the patio from the grease drippings and bird droppings. I moved all the chairs, pots, the grill and the infamous bicycle of hubs that he insists sits out there till he finds time to clear enough room in his shed to hang it in there. Well, 2012 is just too far away for me so I put it in the yard and when the sprinklers came on last night it got wet. I thought he was going to keel over. Now, don't those guys doing the Tour de France cycle in rain?!?! Yep, so what's the fuss all about?!?! It's wet; deal with it, guy! *Sigh*.........................

Then after hosing down and scrubbing the patio, I turned the hose on the window and surrounding areas of the house washing the spiders and earwigs outta their little hidey places. Whoooooooa, chicks, it was fearsome, let me tell ya!! Then I "attacked" the window, which in reality is a breeze because....................... of these 2 little items below. That's a window squeegee and a lambs wool window cleaner. Washing a window with these 2 little things is not only the fastest, easiest way to do it, it is actually fun. You dip the wool washer in plain water from the bucket, swish it over the whole window QUICKLY and then take the squeegee and wipe the water off. I've never had to do a window 2 times and they're clean with absolutely no film on them. It does it all efficiently and quickly. I absolutely love these 2 little items!! They're supposed to have been made in Italy but the handle says made in Oakland, Ca. and it's called Ettore, as you can see on one of the closeups, with a very specific little "aviator wings" logo. They're the absolutely, unequivocally best thing I think you'd ever find for cleaning windows - nothing but water and they're squeaky clean. A bit pricier than most but I've had these for maybe 8 years and it shows no signs of use or abuse. You can get them at commercial cleaning supply companies. Well worth it in the time it saves you.