A satisfying Saturday

It was one of those bone chilling days that you just want to do nothing.  I knew I had a few errands to do so I got up and hit the stores and then delivered Aunties groceries to her and had a quick visit.  Then the rest of the day was mine.  All mine! 

I ate my first meal in my new dining room - blueberry french toast

It was a real treat to eat like a civilized human instead of on my lap in front of the television. And it was nice to cook something again since I have reclaimed my kitchen from the renovation  clutter.  I also unpacked some of my christmas loot and put it away.  Santa brought me a cozy "therapeutic health" sheet set so I put those in the bed and it will be so nice and warm tonight.  

The afternoon was perfect.  Mama Mia was on TV, I made tea, opened a box of chocolates and cuddled under a blanket.  Perfect

Even Millie found a comfy way to spend the afternoon.  What a dog!!  

Snow and freezing rain is coming tomorrow so I'll need to think of some comfort foods to cook.  I'd rather think of cooking instead of shovelling :). My vacation is almost at an end. I didn't get all the things done I should have and I got distracted by a last minute decision to tear apart a room but I was tired - physically and emotionally.  This time has made me feel recharged.  I needed to just be.....

A friend of mine posted this on facebook today and I'm stealing it.  I think it sums up how I'm feeling about 2015 

Play to your strengths...

A lesson I learned during my room makeover.  Someone with no patience should not do fussy work.  I am not a painter.  Luckily there isn't a lot of light in this room.  Lol.  If you visit, don't look too close at the baseboards :(.  Five days of chaos. My house torn apart and piled up worse than when I moved.  But today I finished!  I put the new dining room back together and also the little kitchen nook was transformed.  

Here is the room before 

And here is my new dining room.  Minus the old wheat patterned wallpaper 

I really like it.  I need to find something to hang on the wall but that will come eventually.

And this area was were the old table was in the back of the kitchen.  Sorry, the only picture I had was when I was drying my duvet.  Lol

And now it's a cozy little reading/coffee/hooking area

Next project is to get rid of the border and those peach valances.  But I'm taking a break from projects for the next few days.  

It's a nice way to start a new year.  2014 was a wild ride for sure.  A huge loss and big changes for me.  But 2015 is looking good and I'm ready to see what's in store for me next. 

Thanks for coming along for the ride :)

More than I bargained for

If I could meet the inventor of wallpaper glue, I would wrap my hands around his throat and squeeze.......HARD.  When I started this project I thought it would take less than a day to get the wallpaper off and prep the wall and then another part of a day to paint.  Yeah, what a moron! 

It's almost the end of day 2 and there is still some wallpaper on the wall.  It was even hard to get the top part off, let alone the glued part.  You know how it feels when you grab a corner, pull, and a huge big strip comes off all at once.  Well, that did not happen ONE TIME.   Not one time!  It's coming off in little crappy pieces. 

I did take a break this afternoon because I wanted to try the test pot of paint I got to test the color.  I did one corner so I can put the China cabinet in place tomorrow.  I love the color.  This is just one coat

It's perfect!  Tomorrow I hope to have the rest of the paper removed.   I learned that wallpaper is not only a (b-word) to get off, it also hides a multitude of sins.  I found a couple of holes but I expertly filled them with filler.  I felt so handy! 

In other house news, I had a nice surprise this morning.  My Mom's cousin, the plumber arrived with a brand new submersible sump pump and installed it.  And while he was here he noticed my washer hose which I had "fixed" with wire and duct tape.  After he stopped laughing, he fixed that too.  

Ok, enough rest time, I think I have another hour of peeling left in me 

The fog is lifting

I think I'm coming out of my fog.  The weeks leading up to Christmas were terrible.  As you may recall, that's about the time Mom entered Palliative Care last year.  It really affected me in a way I was not expecting.  To be honest, I was in a pretty bad state for awhile.  And of course I didn't really tell anyone how bad it was.  (Ironically a trait I picked up from my mother)

However, I woke up a couple of days ago and just felt better.   The pressure of the holidays and all that forced cheer was gone.  After spending a couple of days with auntie, I came back to my house and started looking around.  Even though I've been here for months, it still just feels like a house, not my home.  So I put on my thinking cap and then I tore this place apart.  I've moved furniture from room to room and changed things all about.  

It's still in chaos, but now I have a plan!  I ordered a new dining room set and my double living room will "soon" be a living room/dining room combo.  It was supposed to be delivered today but apparently I wasn't in the order today but they did promise it for Wednesday.  But since I had already emptied out that room I felt extra ambitious today. I picked a paint color, bought a sample can to test and started this......

The only thing worse than stripping wallpaper is this mint green paint underneath it.   Yuck!  But let me tell you, this was some quality wallpaper because it is not coming off without a fight.  Holy cow it is on there good.  It was oddly therapeutic however.   It felt good to start making a home of my own 

Doesn't seem like much progress but it was not easy.  I thought I'd show you the mess before what eventually will be a nice dining area.  I know, it's hard to imagine from this picture :). 

Time to take a break and reward myself with a little treat.

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday and my apologies for not blog hopping much lately.  

The Eve's Eve

Well, it's almost here. I blinked and it was Christmas Eve Eve.  I didn't get to take vacation the week before - I worked right up to last night, so that didn't help me.  I was scrambling the past few days.  I made one last trip to the store an hour ago and whatever isn't done isn't going to happen.   Tomorrow is just 3 quick deliveries and then I will go to aunties for a few days. 

This afternoon I was trying to tidy up the house and wondering what I would have for supper and I opened a junk drawer and found this

I found this Chinese food gift certificate.  Note the expiration date.......December 23rd.  If I had found this tomorrow I would have been soooooo annoyed.  So supper was taken care of

In case I don't get to post tomorrow I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.  

I've miscalculated

Yup, I'm in trouble.  I have been operating under the assumption that I have this weekend AND next weekend to get ready.   And about 10:30am this morning I looked closely at the calendar and immediately broke out into a cold sweat.....

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?  IT'S DECEMBER 16th?  OH.MY.GAWD...........

Perhaps I need an Advent Calendar to keep me on track

Or better yet, one like this (to help me forget the date)

I walked around a store tonight like one of those zombie shoppers you see and immediately feel sorry for.   I'm one of them now. 

The next few days will NOT be pretty 

Regrouping

I got caught up in the "overwhelmingness" of the holidays lately.  It was a hard week.  But I spent a quiet weekend at home to regroup and get my bearings.  I feel better today.  

Now, I can't decide which "little white lie" to tell you about this picture.....

Is it my new table cloth??  Hmmmm, NO.   Is it my grown up blanket fort??  (Maybe....LOL)

Actually it's the only place I can dry my duvet.  Miss Millie (aka bad dog) had another "accident" yesterday morning.  Grrrrr.    After I washed this giant thing I discovered it won't fit in the dryer.  So my dining table is now a fort.   When I look at that photo I realize I REALLY need to get curtains for those windows!!  Maybe I'll make that my New Years Resolution ;)

So, a quick trip to the pet store and we now have a good supply of puppy pee pads.

And naturally, since I was all prepared, Millie didn't need the pads this morning.  Geez, what a dog!

In other news, my new Christmas Cactus is a recent amputee.  I found this on the floor beside it this morning 

See.....I told you my plants would rather self-harm than let me slowly torture them to death! 

I plan to spend the rest of the afternoon with Santa.  I'm working on the latest Pattern of the Month from Deanne Fitzpatrick.   This one is so cute.  

Another learning curve

Home ownership certainly has a learning curve.  I'm learning stuff all the time.  Last nights lesson - sump pumps. 

We got 2 days of heavy rains from yet another Nor'easter.  I came home last night and immediately heard a scary noise.  It sounded like the furnace was dying!  I panicked and raced to the basement.  I discovered the sump pump was making the noise.  But it was kicking in every 20 or 30 seconds.   

Now I have a basic understanding of what a sump pump is supposed to do but I've never seen one in action.  I didn't think it should be going on and off every minute.  I was scared it was dying and would burn out. But I stood there and watched it for a few minutes.  As soon as it would come on and drain the basin, it would immediately fill up again.   But it seemed to be doing what it was supposed to.   There was no water on the floor.   I did Google "why is my sump pump coming on so often".  There were lots of postings on the topic so I didn't feel so stupid.   I even considered calling someone but again, didn't want to sound stupid.  (I like to think I'm Wonder Woman you know!). It ran most of the evening and through the night.   I can't even imagine what would have happened if I didn't have one.  I'd have had a swimming pool in my basement by the time the torrential rains stopped this morning.  

The other night I dug out a rug I started about 2 years ago.  The only part unhooked was her hair.   I don't know why I didn't finish it before.  I hooked her hair in and decided she deserved a nice finish.  I always like the look of a whipped edge.  After I started whipping I remembered I loved the look but hated the actual doing of the whipping.  But I powered through and now she is hanging in my living room. 

"Angel Hanging Stars" is a Christine Little pattern (Encompassing Designs).  19x34

I love her

How my day started...

It's never good when your morning starts out bad, right from the very beginning.  Someone is in trouble.....

Oh Christmas Tree

I was starting to get nagged so today was the day I put up Aunties Christmas tree.  Well, I guess it's mine too as I will be spending a few days at christmas with her.  And as an extra treat, all the lights worked!  

And since this year my decorations are fairly low key, here's the Christmas tree I put up in my house this year.....

Lol.  Funny, but true.   I bet mine gets put away faster than hers this year!   So now it's starting to feel more like Christmas.  Trees are up and I'm watching my favorite classic Christmas movie "It's a Wonderful Life"

I've watched it at least once a year for as long as I can remember and I still tear up at the closing scene when the bell rings and Clarence gets his wings.