Filed under fun with statues
Filed under Towel Critter Art
It’s rainy and cool here today. I didn’t hear the rain overnight, but I was sleeping really soundly after moving stuff all day in the effort to get ready for the carpet and vinyl installers to come soon. We have JUST finished being threatened by frosts and freezes and NOW are being threatened with heavy rain, gusty winds, hail, flying hairballs, tornadoes and more. My poor veggie plants will need more than just sheets for protection and I don’t have anything. I’ll just have to HOPE that Mother Nature decides she has had her say and moves on. I will check on my plants later today – with all appendages crossed – if it warms up.
Meanwhile, the project to get everything off the floor and all the furniture empty is ongoing. I’m trying to do something significant each day. The day before yesterday I moved all of our files out of the office. That includes two 4-drawer file cabinets and one 2-drawer cabinet.
Yesterday I emptied and relocated the stuff that was on a free-standing 6-shelf piece of furniture that lives in our office.
Today the project is emptying my desk. It is a roll top, old-fashioned, well-loved-but-not-valuable desk I have had for YEARS. It is almost impossible to move. I am removing the drawers today and carrying them upstairs to the guest room. There are 15 drawers and two pull-out pieces of wood for writing. When those are all out and stored, the remaining desk is still in 4 pieces: the top; the two sides; and the board that connects the two sides.
I’m really looking forward to having new carpeting in our living room, foyer, and office, plus new vinyl on our porch, but it really brings home WHY we only do it every 13 years or so…
Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, Mother Nature
Filed under Driftwood Art
Tuesday my husband and I went hunting for new carpet for our first floor and new floor covering for our porch. We were lucky enough to be able to compromise on some carpet and I got free reign on the porch!
They are planning to install this the first week in May. For the past three days I have been trying to move things off the floor and out of moveable furniture. They will move the furniture and put it back, but only if each piece is EMPTY. Ugh.
I’m lucky that since we just had the work done on our porch, I am down to the essentials out there. It will be a quick matter to move the table, chairs, and small corner of ‘stuff’ out on the deck.
The carpeted area is not nearly so simple. For example, we have TWO 4-drawer file cabinets and ONE 2-drawer file cabinet in the office. I had to move all the files elsewhere so that they can move the file cabinets. We also have ONE 6-shelf piece of furniture, ONE 3-shelf, and TWO 2-shelf pieces of furniture. That’s for starters in the office….
Yesterday I moved all the files into TWO huge rectangular laundry baskets on the floor in the dining area. Today I emptied the 6-shelf piece and will soon start carrying drawers in my desk up the stair to keep in my art room.
This is all good exercise, but it really wears me out fast. I’m also appalled at all the DIRT under and behind the furniture that has sat in the same place for years…
It’s a good thing that I have a good amount of time to get this done
I have never been “Suzy Homemaker,” but I should really be shot for being such a lousy housekeeper. :0(
Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob
Filed under Amazing Animals
I’ve been covering my veggie plants and tomato planters with sheets for 4 nights now, and so far, things seem to have come through the freezes all right. The Zucchini has had the most reaction. I’ve had to cut off several leaves from the plants. They blackened with the frosts and freezes. There is enough left of the plants that still looks good I think they will make it.
According to the weather website we are now past the freezes. This is really unusual here. Usually, our last frosts are April 5th, and that is even pretty late since I have been trying to grow things. We are supposed to get rain tonight and all day tomorrow.
I have the sheets spread out on the fencing around the garden, trying to dry it out during the day today so I can bag them up and put them away.
I HOPING that things will get back to normal for gardening soon.
Although the veggies seem to be doing all right, my elephant ear bulbs did not make it over wintered in the garage. I have finally given up on them and ordered more bulbs. I am hoping those will arrive soon so that I can get them into the ground.
I gathered my first harvest of the year recently, and we enjoyed a main meal salad last night, featuring our own spinach and lettuce! It’s been quite awhile since we were able to do that. I loved it!
“Every boy should have two things: a dog, and a mother willing to let him have one.”
“There is only one smartest dog in the world, and every boy has it.”
“My Labrador retriever had a nervous breakdown. I kept throwing him a boomerang.” ~ Nick Arnette
“Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in your ear.” ~ Dave Barry
Filed under Amazing Animals
This wonderful .gif isn’t from OUR deck, but my husband saw our first hummingbird this morning while we were sitting at the dining area trying to wake up.
We didn’t have a feeder out there yet, so we jumped up, ran up the ladder in the garage, grabbed one of the feeders. I made some hummingbird food quickly and my husband took it out to hang on the deck.
Nothing could have lifted my spirits more. (Well, learning that we won the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes would have certainly raised them, too.) :0)
Filed under Favorite Things, Seasons
Filed under sculpture
Today is sunshine-y and pretty, but it’s still only 37 degrees outside now. This is the third night I’ve had to cover my veggie plants, hoping they won’t freeze in the uncharacteristically cold weather we’ve been having. I think after tonight, this cold wave will be finished and we can get back to normal. So far, so good. Fingers – and all other appendages – including my eyes – are crossed.
I finally gave up on my elephant ear bulbs that I tried to winter over in peat moss in my garage. They aren’t showing anything good. I have ordered some bulbs and will plant them as soon as they arrive. I’m sad to lose the ones I received from my friend, Laufrain.
My husband and I went searching for new carpet and flooring yesterday. We compromised on some new carpet and I got my choice of flooring for the porch. The man is coming today to measure and give us a final cost. My husband told the lady we got the carpet and flooring from them in 2012, but it turns out that we got our kitchen tiles in 2012. We got the carpeting and porch floor in 2008, so it’s a good time to get new.
I sold a hand painted tote bag on Amazon Handmade overnight, so I’m heading out in just a minute to get our mail and then drive to the post office to mail the tote. It really makes my day when someone likes what I’ve created enough to buy it for themselves or as a gift for someone else. :0)
I wish you a happy Wednesday.
This is me in a nutshell and my basic attitude toward the world.
I particularly felt this way this morning, when my scales greeted me with a big raspberry because SOMEHOW I gaine 1-1/2 lbs yesterday. I wasn’t aware that I ate lead, but apparently that is the case.
I have decided to ignore it, since I ate a normal lunch and will eat a normal dinner. I’m HOPING that I’m just retaining water and find it gone tomorrow….
Filed under Stained Glass Art
Images found in various places on Pinterest
Filed under Towel Critter Art
Our iris season always starts with deep purple iris. They are almost finished now. They are followed by pale yellow iris, and those are blooming madly all over the place now, along with some mauve colored ones here. :0)
We also have a few very pale coral iris and some ‘mauve’ iris, but those are few and far in-between.
A few years ago I devoted one of our brick planters to planting new colors of iris. Each year I did up some of those and replant them elsewhere in the yard.
I love all colors of iris, but I wish the deep purple and the yellow would bloom at the same time. Apparently, though, they have a system which decides which bloom when, and mostly, only one color blooms at a time around here.
These are two yellow iris from the planter I talked about. They have a really nice, deep yellow color. We also brought in one of the mauve ones.
If I get bogged down, I just go outside and walk around the yard a bit. Seeing things blooming lifts my spirits.
Filed under Favorite Things, Gardening, Mother Nature
Filed under Amazing Animals, paintings I love
I got some things accomplished over the weekend that make me feel like I’m starting the coming week well.
I caught up on the filing and bookkeeping that had been piling up for quite awhile. I gathered the things I brought home from the booth my friend and I were renting in a local shop. I’m not ready to go through them right now, but at least I’m not in danger of falling over them on my way to and from the computer.
Our credit card was frauded and we had to cancel the one we had and start over with a new one. We had to contact a bunch of places to get things updated. I’ll finish the list today with some phone calls.
I discovered the local weather people were warning of a frost and freezes the coming three days. I got my plants covered last night. They came through just fine. I’ll cover them again tonight and tomorrow night. I enjoyed gathering my first harvest of spinach and lettuce yesterday! :0)
I will start hanging things up on the porch today. We have decided to start researching putting a new floor cover out there, since the project to replace the ceiling, seal off where the squirrels were getting in, and hanging a new shutter are finished. As an added project, I paid the guys to repaint the rest of the woodwork out there, so things look fresh and clean. Ahhhh!
At the same time we replace the porch floor covering, we’re going to research replacing the carpeting in our living room, foyer and office. It’s beyond being able to look better with cleaning. Our records show we have had it since 2009.
Our list of things to repair or replace is getting a bit shorter, so it feels good.
I hope that your spirits are lifting, too.
Stay safe and well.
As you can see, the plants in my veggie garden are happy at the moment!
I celebrated our first harvest of 2021 this afternoon.
I will get out tomorrow and do some weeding – particularly in one of the tomato planters, plus do some fertilizing. I will also mix and spray more weed killer, starting under the planters in the garden.
Here is today’s harvest of leaf lettuce. I actually have three kinds this year – head lettuce, a kind of frilly leaf lettuce I haven’t harvested yet, and Butter Crunch lettuce. I had enough to fill 3 one-gallon storage bags.
Here is the harvest of spinach today. Again, I had enough to fill 3 one-gallon storage bags. This is the best lucky I’ve had with spinach ever.
We will have a nice, fresh salad tonight to go with our leftover hamburger patties and macaroni and cheese.
I’m smiling on my way back out to the garden. :0)
Filed under Stained Glass Art
Last night I gave into our desire for comfort food, since our weather has been gray, cool, and rainy lately and made hamburger patties and macaroni and cheese. It hit just the right note with my husband, and he declared the meal ‘delicious’ several times.
Mostly we are trying to watch what we eat in an effort to lose our lard, get as healthy as we can, and be able to continue doing most of what we would like to do. We have found two places locally who are offering REAL FOOD and STU’S CLEAN COOKIN’ – individual frozen dinners with few ingredients – all of which you can pronounce and understand – with measured portions that are GOOD for us. We feel as it we have found a treasure trove.
Particularly when the weather is good, I like to spend a lot of time outside – working in our veggie garden, gathering harvests of lettuce, spinach, radishes, yellow squash, zucchini, broccoli, onions, and tomatoes each time I can for us to enjoy right from the garden. Much of the time I am helping with the lawn or weeding my flower beds, so it’s nice to have veggies from the garden and a good-for-us delicious dinner that only has to be nuked to be ready to eat.
As soon as I finish here, I’m planning to go out and take pics to share with you, hopefully harvest my first gathering of veggies, plus get things ready to cover the plants for some possible freezes this week.
I hope that you are well and happy this morning, and that your Sunday is a nice one.
My mom loved ‘baby anythings.’ She would melt into a puddle, her heart on the floor as she oohed and ahhed over pictures or the sweet animals in the flesh.
She had three dogs – two chihuahuas and a toy poodle, who ALL stayed small and ALL sat in her chair with her whenever she sat down. She would cuddle, and talk in a baby voice FOR the doggies, giving each a definite personality.
My dad, who wanted to please my mom, sometimes brought home baby animals to try to please her. I will never forget a baby monkey that my dad brought home from a pet shop. They named him “Philbert,” and he basically hated everyone. One day he escaped from his cage and ran into the kitchen. My mother was soaking a head of lettuce in the sink. Philbert grabbed the head of lettuce and proceeded to run all over the house with it dripping – up and down draperies, over the carpet, onto the furniture, even up a wall or two as my mom ran around screeching. My dad tried to catch it, carrying a towel. He finally caught it. I remember seeing the monkey’s TEETH biting through the towel as he stuffed the monkey back into the cage and locked the door. (I was given custody of the head of lettuce to take back to the kitchen while my brother got more towels for the cleanup. (Philbert was taken back to the pet shop the next day to be adopted by someone else.)
We had baby rabbits as pets, too, because my mom fell in love with the ones at the store being sold at Easter. We brought home two gaily colored rabbits who became members of our family. We named them “Peter Rabbit” and “Welch Rabbit.” They grew out of their pastel-dyed fur and became quite sweet pets for us.
My mom saw a special on elephants on National Geographic. She oohed and ahhed, but by that point, had learned to look at my dad sternly and say firmly, “But, Jim. I DON’T want one!”
It’s a good thing that my husband doesn’t react to MY melting into a puddle over baby animals. We wouldn’t be able to get into our home because of all the cats and dogs, in particular, I would want to adopt… BUT – probably NOT an elephant… AREN’T THEY CUTE!?
Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography
Since Mother Nature is giving us a cool-for-the-season, WET day, I will get the makings of chili in the slow cooker when we get home from Lunch Bunch. When whatever we decide to do is done for the day, a nice warm comfort-food-type dinner will be ready.
Stay warm and dry and have a wonderful day!
Filed under Cherishing the Quiet Day
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