A Chilly Week

It has been chilly this week. The wind whips through our house. I stay huddled up near a heater, under a blanket. So do the animals...or most of them... that is! Seven is curled up in the fabric that is to become the dining room curtains. I left it out after I remeasured it to make sure I bought enough. I laid it over the rocking chair next to the fake fire. She made a little nest!

And poor little Bitsey is annoyed that I woke her up when the flash went off. She has dragged her favorite tiger pillow to a ray of sunshine!

Eli is cozy in his kennel. That is his hiding spot and it is right between the refrigerator and the heating vent, so it stays toasty!

But, where is Lulu?

Napping on Santa's head! They say heat rises and he is well over 6 feet tall!! After the camera woke her up she had to nibble on his decorations!

No- we are not still decorated for Christmas. Santa is staying with us until DH has a chance to repair his base. We decided not to send to the warehouse and then go back and get him to repair and then return him again- too many trips for the old man! So he is standing by the front door....soon I will hang hearts from him...then some shamrocks....hope he gets to go before I get out Easter eggs!

Craft Time at the Swamp

I've dug through the mess in the sewing room to come up with a Valentine project. I needed some new things to hang on my Valentine tree that do not break! I started with some ready made paper mache hearts from Hobby Lobby. They were brown but I painted it white so the brown would not show through. I got them last year after Valentine's Day -90% off. I hope I can find more this year as cheap! Use whatever paper you can find-napkins, tissue, scrapbook paper, sheet music.....and whatever trims ...lace, ribbon, buttons, flowers....

This was a napkin! I cut out the heart shape for the front and tore up the boarders for the backand edges.

I used Mod Podge to glue on the front. Bend the extra around the side.

Over lap torn pieces around the side and back. I tear the pieces because they don't look "planned and orderly" when they dry!

After it is all covered allow to dry. Then I put one or two more coats of Mod Podge on it to seal it. Finally get out the glue gun and add any trims to finish it up! Other than drying time this goes pretty quickly!

Napkin, heart shaped paper doily, ribbon and wedding favor flowers.

Tissue paper (which should look familiar to Girlville!) , ribbon, ribbon flower

Page from an old hymnal, lace with red string threaded through holes, covered button

Napkin and ribbon. In the background you can see that I put plaid ribbon around the edge of the other red heart. I put the dotted ribbon around this one.

Dining Room Weekend

This is what he's been doing.............insulation..........R-19! It's already warmer in there!

This is what I've been doing.......heat gun...scraping.......hate it!!!

Guessing Game

A bloggy friend of mine is expecting a baby...........from China. The wait has been very long. I have lurked around her blog for years because she has pugs. Then I introduced myself after I began to blog. She is close...so close to the day when she will see her baby for the first time. In honor of her upcoming referral I made her something. It has been ready for a while since I kept hoping things would speed up. I can't stand it any longer and I am going to mail it to her before the actual baby sighting. It could be a "pre-referral" gift or if we are lucky this next month her dream will come true and it will get to her at referral time. But I am going to give it to her slowly- one detail a week for 4 weeks -then she will see it! Here is detail #1............

Anybody have an idea what this is?

Love

My Husband loves the idea of the 50's stay at home wife who wears pearls and high heels in the kitchen! I don't really fit that image, but he loves me anyway! Today he came home to a hot lunch and I had on my pearls and the cute apron Girlville made. I won it in her recent giveaway to celebrate 2 years as a blogger!

She also sent this cute Valentine's Day sign! Thanks, Girlville!

I have a few Valentine decorations out, not many because of the construction dust. Here is my Valentine tree without the birds! I tried one but Lulu spotted it immediately!
And here is an old little bridesmaid doll. She came from a consignment sale in a ziploc bag with about 10 of her friends, the bride and other bridesmaids with different color dresses!

I've got some more Valentine decorations for another day along with my current little crafty project!

Cat Nap

Too Cool for Words !

Norman is having a "Cool Photo" contest! I cannot even begin to compete with the picture he has of his Woman. The hair, hot pink suit and silver shoes were way too cool! Most of my younger, cooler pictures are packed away in honor of the dining room redo. But I did find one picture of me back in the day of big hair. I can tell that my hair was not at it's biggest because the bangs are not as huge as I have seen them in other pictures!

Please note the cool vest that I hand knitted (that should count for some coolness points!) - It weighed a ton because I had knitted it out of.............

MY EX-HUSBAND'S CUT UP PLAID SHIRTS!

The Fireplace

On January 1st the fireplace looked like this:

I love the original tile. That we will keep and it limits my color choices. It is chipped and dirty -but I love it.

We have debated the painted mantle. This room is really dark and I want it lightened up. I was afraid a stained mantle would add to the darkness. On the other hand I love how the parlor mantle came out and I like the idea of them both being stained. With the pocket doors open you can see both of them. So the decision is to strip the mantle and see how it looks- then probably stain it.

I also love these few unexpected tiles of a different color......

When we removed the mantle to take it outside for stripping we found the tiles were very loose.....

So down they came.....

So here is my fireplace now..... We were able to find some tiles made by the same company on ebay. They might not match exactly but that is OK because we already have some unexpected tiles! We can use the non-matching ones on the floor of the box. Even though we have a cover - we want to make it so we can add an electric insert in the future!

The Remains....

....of the dining room...

Oh, Lordy!!!!!!!!! They say it has to get worse before it gets better!

Pug Rescue Scrapbook Page

Punchy has asked for some Senior Pug themed scrapbook pages for a contest. The winner gets a donation to a Pug Rescue group. So I borrowed some pictures of 2 famous Senior Pugs- Alfred and Holly. I haven't scrapbooked in about 6 months so I really enjoyed it!

Maybe now I'll get motivated to work on my scrapbook from our last Disney vacation - January, 2008. I got the first day done then it got lost under other projects!

"Baby"sitting

We babysat our newest Grand-dog tonight, Pappy! He is a 4 year old Pappilion that our daughter and her husband just adopted. They will be taking him with them back to Alaska tomorrow. He will be going carry on!

Everyone gathered around to check him out...except Lulu. She took off as soon as he came in the door and sulked all night. I think she is afraid that the cat/dog balance of the house has been upset!

The Demolition Continues

The demolition continues! Under the sheet rock (which was not put up properly) was the crumbling plaster. So now he has 3 walls down and he has started on the ceiling and the 4th wall. The ceiling still has the plaster under the sheet rock as well. The dust and mess is awful. DH found two things of interest. First he found a level that he lost 8 years ago sealed up in one wall. He was repairing the siding on the outside when we first moved in! Second he found a hidden space behind the piano wall - under the stairs. No treasure there- but an opportunity for more storage space.

Ceiling.......

Hidden cubbie...........
On the other side of the stairs is the closet where I used to keep the vacuum cleaner. This is the closet where you open the door and stuff falls on you! So to keep my mind off the demolition I decided to clean out this closet! My goal is to get the vacuum back in here....

Here you see boxes of who- knows- what that have been in here since we moved in!

And this is the stuff I pulled out (or fell out when I opened the door!)

After several hours of sorting, and cleaning, and purging I can now get my vacuum in the closet!

I got out 4 big bags of trash, 3 boxes of stuff to donate to the thrift store, 5 more boxes to go in storage (Grandmother's China) and a few tools and cans of paint to go in the basement!

We also realized that the floor in the closet is in good shape so we will be able to take it out and use it to replace the damaged spots in the dining room! We might open up the back of the closet to the cubbie space in the dining room wall. It would not be easy to get to but it would be easier to store Christmas decorations there than to carry it up to the attic! Less than one week into the dining room project and we are already extending it!

New Year = New Projects

Happy New Year! I had to take a little blogging break to clean up my house. The new project officially started yesterday and had to get Christmas packed up. I did pretty good, but we still had to put the big tree away yesterday. It was dismantled just not in the basement! Then we had to move the furniture out. Some got squeezed in other rooms - most of it went to a storage unit. Today began the demolition phase. DH knows how I hate this part so he suggested I go shopping for a while! When I left the dining room looked like this:

When I came home it looked like this:

I'm not very good at keeping New Year's resolutions so I make them pretty general. Maybe I will be more accountable if I post them!

1. Read more.

2. Declutter and organize and purge.

3.Maintain weight (within 3 pounds up or down).

4. Intercept pug mail advertisements before DH sees them. (See flag in top picture!)

For #2 -I purchased and installed a neat little gadget today in my closet. It is made to hook on doors but it was not long enough to hook on the shelf I had in mind so I borrowed the drill and went to town.

My closet needs some work. Tons of clothes that don't fit or are very old need to be purged -ignore them. DH built me this closet out of the corner of the master bedroom that was in the worst shape. At one time there was a wood burning stove in a rock landing. The stove had been removed before we bought the house leaving a hole in the roof. The day we moved in the rock wall was a waterfall! Now I call it my throne!