Zoe Cottage

Feathering my Nest

2012-02-22T07:02:00.001-06:00

I had purchased a purple flower shaped clock at a thrift store in Ft. Walton Beach a while back for my studio. I had it at Miller Manor and it went okay in that room, but after I painted the wall orange last week, I decided I needed something different. I also had a bag of feathers in my stash that I really liked, so I decided to put them on the clock. I just used some Fusion glue and layered the feathers on the surface. Of course, there were feathers everywhere when I was done, but that's just what happens when you work with those!

I asked Elizabeth if she liked it and her reply was, "It's cute, but it doesn't really go in here. It would look a lot better in my room, don't you think?" Very slick... :) It would go better in her room, so I may have to fish out another clock to embellish. Not a problem, I think I have a few and I wouldn't really mind doing another.

Here it is on the wall. This little corner still needs some work, but I did make this scrabble rack yesterday as well. I painted it green then added a glitter glaze over the surface and added Swavorski crystals on the tiles. I am thinking about adding some flowers to the ends, but we'll see.

The day before I covered another rack with a scrap of fabric and spelled out Super TaDa. It is a joke around here that when I am exceptionally productive or I pull off a really good deed, I call myself Super TaDa. :)

I uncovered another project I had sort of forgotten while cleaning up the studio yesterday, so I worked a bit more on it.

Nothing is glued down yet. I don't know how much more embellishing it needs. I don't want it to be too much, but I will play with it some more. I plan to use 3D adhesive on the letters to make them stick out a bit. It took quite a while to gather the letters then paint and glitter them. They were all different colors to start with, but you can't tell that now!

Kite and License Plate Art and Tomato Basil Soup

2012-02-20T19:33:00.000-06:00

Holidays seem like odd days to me. Some places are open, others are not. It doesn't seem like a "real" day if the mail doesn't run, and today as President's Day was no different in that vein. We got off to a fairly good start, but by noon Ornery and I were both disinterested in doing work. He managed to get all the trim around the doors and ceiling in our bathroom painted today, but that is all he accomplished--really only about an hour's worth of work. I did even less!

I did make this cute kite which is hanging on the wall just as you enter the studio. The tail is fairly long--about three feet--and has all different ribbons tied onto it.

The bottom right hand panel says "Free Spirit" on it. This took me several hours to make, but I am pleased with the outcome.

I also finished this little piece. Well, it isn't really so little, it's about 18 inches across and a foot tall. I had fun digging through all my doo-dads to embellish this. :)

It is raining tonight, and I fixed tomato basil soup from a recipe I discovered while rifling through my recipes last week. It was simple to make, and oh-so-tasty!

1 large (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
1 large (28 oz) can tomato sauce
1 cup 1/2 and 1/2
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. marjoram
1 tsp. blackstrap molasses (to add LOTS of minerals)
1 tsp. baking soda (to neutralize the acid in the tomatoes)

Mix it all together in large saucepan and heat through, but do not boil. We served it with Town House Italian Flavored flat bread crackers. Yum, yum!

Weekend in Review: Happy Birthday to ME!

2012-02-19T17:37:00.002-06:00

Saturday while Elizabeth and Ornery were at the Commemorative Air Force work day, I went to Hobby Lobby for frames and the local bead store (called the Beadles). That place is as dangerous as a scrapbook or fabric store for someone like me who LOVES color! I put a frame on the piece I finished yesterday, then I spent some time creating.

We all met for lunch at the Olive Garden, then we went home to eat some cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. Lemon raspberry--quite yummy! Ornery helped me with another project by cutting out a piece of wood to mount my old license plate on. I had originally planned to just embellish the plate and hang it alone, but it is quite warped, making attaching anything to it dicey at best. By the time he had it finished, I was all done crafting for the day because I had spent several hours working on this...

I covered the frame in four different pieces of batik from a sweet sixteen bundle (sixteen pieces of "fat" 1/16th yard each) I had bought at the quilt store (Sew Flakes) when Mimi was here in November. I worked on the frame and the beading part (on the two sides of the frame) on Saturday. Sunday after we had a delickity breakfast and wonderful "church service" at home, I worked on the rest of it.

One of the things I bought at HobLob yesterday was a package of canvas boards. I really liked working with it better than the stretched canvas as things were easier to stick down.

This is an 11X14 canvas board. The frame was unfinished wood but it had knot holes in it that would have been really distracting. I decided to make the frame a part of the art.

It is hard to tell in the photo, but I used my twinks on every available surface I could. The flowers have little seed beads glued in the centers. I think there were other things I could have added, but after working for two days on it, I was out of ideas. I still have the license plate piece to do, but maybe tomorrow.

While I was working in the studio, Ornery filled a hole in the bathroom floor that he uncovered while prepping for the new tile. Tomorrow we may paint in there, or he may just work on the floor some more. He still needs to fill all the holes from the tack strips and sand around the baseboards where we will need to paint since the baseboards will be lowered since the tile is lower than the carpet was. Once the patches dry and the painting is done (at least we finally decided on a color!) he will prime the floor and be ready to lay the tile.

Over all, I have had a wonderful birthday filled with lots of laughter and fun. I pretty much spent it doing exactly what I wanted and with people I love! Thank you all for your greetings! :)

A Day of Art

2012-02-17T18:43:00.002-06:00

Oh, what a fun day I had today! First I puttered in the kitchen, cleaning out the coffee maker and distiller, and starting some meat in the crock pot for chimichangas. Then I got my frame out and painted it. Ornery helped me put it on the canvas at lunch time. TA DA!!

While I was waiting for the frame to dry, I took my SCRAPPR license plate outside and spray painted it green for another project. After lunch I decided to start on another mixed media piece for the studio. I got a few ideas from Pinterest, but other than the feeling of boldness and the heart with wings, there are no similarities.

First I used ModPodge to adhere some wrinkled phone book pages. I painted that orange with a sample of some wall paint I had picked up a while back. There is very little of the orange left showing through, and the only sign of the phone book pages is the uneven surface of the canvas. I printed out the words and used some of my twinkling H2O's on them, then tore them apart. I actually used the twinks on several aspects of this piece, including the heart, flower, monopoly card, puzzle and even parts of the canvas itself.

I had most of it done when I decided that it needed a dress on it, so I strung some beads and adhered them to the neckline and added a swavorski crystal. There are so many little details...

This picture was taken with the lamp on so you can see some of the shimmer--it is all over the place!

Here is Elizabeth listening to YouTube videos. :) She hasn't made an appearance here lately, so I thought I would take a picture of her.

These are her new earrings from the Nervous System. CUTE earrings and other pieces. If you have never seen them, you should take a minute and check out their stuff--very different! The packaging was fun and creative, too. She really likes the earrings and says they are very light weight. The service was excellent and shipping quick.

I listened to my new iPod all day and created some new playlists for Elizabeth as she was the recipient of my old one. It took a while to sync it right, but she has plenty of music to listen to until she gets her own stuff all loaded on her computer. She has had a shuffle for several years, but this will give her much more variety and space.

Ornery and Elizabeth will be going out in the morning to the Commemorative Air Force work day, and while they are gone I have plenty to keep me busy. It was such a fun day today, though. I really should do that more often!

A Rainy Day

2012-02-15T16:59:00.000-06:00

I ordered my birthday present this morning-- a new 160 GB iPod! It has already shipped and is supposed to be here tomorrow. I used all the collective birthday monies from my aunt, Ornery's mom and Ornery. I have been looking forward to upgrading for quite a while and had decided that was all I really wanted this year. I should be able to load all my play lists on there now.

Ornery took me out to breakfast and on the way it started raining. I had planned to go grocery shopping today, but decided to stay home instead--I was afraid I might melt in the rain! :) We weren't really out of things so much as I need to do some cooking. I will go in the morning and spend the day in the kitchen.

The rest of the day was pretty lazy. I had gotten a puzzle out that I bought at a flea market place for 50 cents and started working it last night. It was only 500 pieces (well, actually only 496 come to find out) but they were about 1/2 the usual size and there was a lot of snow in the picture. The reason I bought it was to use it in some craft projects, but it needed to be worked before I could use it for that. I was wanting little groups put together and some pieces missing. It took me a long time last night just to get the edge done, and from 7:00 to 1:00 today to finish the rest of it. That was over twice the time a puzzle with that many pieces usually takes me.

Elizabeth ordered for me a beautiful custom made pitcher from a potter she found on etsy. It won't arrive for several weeks, but I am very excited. I have never seen the glaze colors they use before and fell in love with them. I am thinking of ordering something else from them myself. Rumor has it a lunch at the Olive Garden and a cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory are in the plans for the weekend. Yum, yum!!

Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T07:29:00.002-06:00

Yesterday we had a bit of winter weather, although it wasn't really much to speak of. Elizabeth was a little nervous about driving the forty miles to work on it so she stayed home and we had a nice little time together. As a result of rearranging the studio, the armoire needed a new home, so I made the adjustments necessary for it to reside in our room until Elizabeth moves out. As with most rearrangements there is a domino effect, and the little night stand that stood empty in our room moved into the closet and now houses the last of my clothes that were not already in there.

We baked some cookies and cleaned up the kitchen, watched a movie and I finished off my Zoe Cottage canvas. Photos will wait for a sunny day, but I will post it soon. Ornery finished off the yardstick airplanes needed for the etsy shop order in the evening.

Today I have a long list of errands to run. If I get paid for the airplanes I will mail them, but my main objective is to buy a frame for my canvas. I will wait for a while to go out, though. It is very foggy this morning (which Elizabeth assures me was as scary to drive in as the snow would have been yesterday). It seems more like Monday than Tuesday.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Weekend in Review: Studio Decor

2012-02-12T12:55:00.000-06:00

It has been almost 9 months since we moved into Zoe Cottage, and I think I have had about that many arrangements in my studio! This weekend I made the next step in making it really what I want. There will be at least one more rendition before it is complete, but not for a while since it will require pulling out the carpet, laying flooring and building in some work and storage spaces. However, this arrangement is actually pretty close to what I have in mind for the built in components so it will give me an idea of whether or not I will like it.

This is the newly painted wall that used to be purple and the fun little bunting I made last week. Each flag has some embellishment on it. I like it a lot. The room started out the day Saturday with everything in old spots, and ended the day with a new orange wall and a few pieces of furniture rearranged.

My table with the lamp Ornery affixed to the wall and my new 60 drawer chest filled with little doo-dads on the right. The project on the table is in progress and will be used as the photo on my new etsy banner. Once it is done and framed, I plan to hang it to the left of the lamp on the wall.

The chairs will be recovered and painted, the lamp needs a shade, but it is generally the set up I plan to have for now. The chairs are Elizabeth's so once she moves out I will need to make a different plan, but they work well for now. I had planned on a different chair but we couldn't get it through the door. Bummer!

This is a closer picture of the canvas I am working on. The little birds on the table will all be flying around the banner, and I am going to cut a fence out and add lots of flowers around it. Nothing is actually affixed to the canvas yet. I figure it will take me the rest of the week to get it done, but I am loving the way it is turning out so far. The paint on the background is the twinkling H2O water colors. The little hearts are made of polymer clay and sent from England--an etsy find that arrived Saturday in the mail.

I still have a bit of shuffling and organizing in there to do, but for the most part it is ready for creating!

Ornery and Elizabeth went on Saturday morning to the Commemorative Air Force work day at the Riverside/Jones Airport, then Elizabeth went to Philbrook with a friend and even grocery shopping for me! I spent the time they were away emptying and painting the studio. Ornery did the trim work for me in the afternoon.

Sunday morning we listened to a sermon and discussed it, Elizabeth started a new shawl and I wound several skeins of yarn into balls for her. Then she did her taxes and took her car to get the tires aired up and her reminder gauges reset while I fixed a pot of goulash.

Friday night I got an order from my etsy shop for the last yardstick airplane with a request for two more. We already had the yardsticks purchased, but hadn't cut or assembled any planes yet. That is the next project for Ornery. After he cuts them out, I will glue them together. Hopefully I will have two more finished and all three mailed by Wednesday.

My muse was quite active this weekend and I have compiled a lengthy list of projects I hope to work on in the coming days and weeks. I also need to start editing the next eBook--why I put this off so much I don't know, but it is a wonderful positive-procrastination motivator! Ornery and Elizabeth will continue working on the bathroom floor as well, and I may even get in there and paint the walls once he gets the baseboards removed.

Wednesday is Valentine's Day and I still need to make a card for my beloved. He has already purchased his, so the pressure is on for me to reciprocate! I plan to bake some cookies, but otherwise I don't think we will do much to celebrate, but he may surprise me.

OCD? Moi??

2012-02-09T19:05:00.000-06:00

The debate (if one can call it that) around Zoe Cottage this week has been whether or not I am officially OCD or if I just have a few tendencies toward excessive behavior patterns. I am not interested enough in the answer to do any real research on the topic, but Elizabeth has sure given me grief over my propensities.

I keep defending myself, she just rolls her eyes. Oh well. I happen to like organizing things and being able to find them next time I look for them. Some people catalog their belongings in their mind, I need labels. So sue me.

Playing around

2012-02-08T21:13:00.000-06:00

Today I bought some paint for the master bathroom and one wall of my studio. The bathroom is going to be essentially the same yellow as what is currently on the walls--maybe a hint brighter but not significantly. I wouldn't even bother to paint it except for the areas around the baseboards will need it once they are lowered to accommodate the new flooring and the gouges and dings and I couldn't get an exact color match.

The paint I got for the studio is orange and it will cover the purple, which despite being a wonderful color for a guest room and sleeping turns out to be rather depressing and dark for a studio. Once I made the decision to use green, orange and a few pink accents in that room, I was able to pick the wall color. Since the other walls are already green (albeit not quite as bright as I would have liked) I am going to leave them for now.

Rather than jump right in and paint it, however, I decided to do a little finessing so once the wall is painted, I will be able to move in and set it all up with fun new stuff for the walls. The few things I have on the walls in there now are coming out with the exception of the bulletin board and the pink and white striped dahlia poster.

I spent all morning making a bunting (flag banner) for the new orange wall, and spent the afternoon working on a canvas with some of my new LuminArte twinkling watercolor paints. I know they are not designed for use on canvas, but I thought I would experiment with them and was very happy with the result--at least so far. My little work in progress will need a bit more time and effort before it is ready to hang up, but so far I am happy with it.

It was fun to work in the studio today--not on anything that I had to do, but just for myself. I am thinking the room needs a mobile, so I am going to have to think about just how I want to execute that project. I love the one we purchased last year for the living room at Miller Manor, and we have it hanging from a high ceiling here as well, but the studio ceiling is much lower and will require a smaller design. I am looking forward to exploring that creative avenue soon.

Elizabeth is off tomorrow to take care of a couple things and Friday I am going to the funeral for the mother of a friend (Dona) in Haskell. Mickie is riding with me, so we will have a chance to catch up. With those events on the calendar, I don't know how much time I will have to work on my art before the weekend, but I am glad for the start I made today.

Filter issues and a missing muse

2012-02-07T07:08:00.000-06:00

Internet service was very sporadic Sunday so we called Cox to have them come out and take a look. The technician I spoke with on the phone said the modem was reconnecting way too frequently--more than she had ever seen before. The man who came to fix the problem yesterday replaced the filter (which he said was the main issue) and switched out a water damaged cable for a new one (to prevent future problems). Things seem to be sailing right along now.

After he left I zipped over to the post office to mail the clipboards I made for the Canadian customer, and got back in time to let the carpet cleaner in. The dining room, living room and master bedroom are now all squeaky clean. While he was cleaning the carpets I called Culligan to see if they would come replace our filters and they will be here today, even though we aren't really due for a change until May. Since I have been running the water through the distiller, I have noticed there is a fair bit of solid residue in the bottom of the machine indicating that the filter is leaving more stuff in there than should be.

After lunch I went out to find a 60 drawer nuts/bolts chest for my brads, buttons and other little items. I tried three stores before I found one at Ace Hardware and figure that I paid a good 50% more than the same item would have been at Lowe's had they carried it. I spent the next few hours moving things into it. Red brads next to red buttons next to red metal embellishments, etc -- it makes me so happy. :)

This morning I put all the furniture back that I had moved for the carpet cleaner. Next up is a major cleaning in the studio. One of these days I will get it as comfortable as the space I had at Miller Manor. Hopefully that will occur pretty soon as I have been terribly uninspired to work in there! I haven't even started on the class I signed up for and the second lesson was just released this morning. Where is my muse??

Ornery and Elizabeth were talking about starting on the bathroom floor this evening. It will be so nice to be rid of the carpet next to the shower and toilet.

Weekend in Review: Lost without you

2012-02-05T14:06:00.000-06:00

There were so many things I could have done this weekend, but without my best friend, I had a hard time motivating myself to do anything at all. I wrapped all the shawls for Elizabeth, watched a few movies, read a couple books, puttered around in the kitchen and cut and tied fringe for Elizabeth's latest shawl. This morning I spent a little time deciding on my new logo and reworking my business card and invoice template. I made a pot of chili for Elizabeth's lunches, but didn't even have to clean up the kitchen.

I haven't heard from Ornery yet today, but his plans yesterday were to leave Austin late in the morning and arrive home sometime after dark. I am ready to have him home for sure!

I finally have the correct clipboards and plan to get that special order finished tonight and ready to ship tomorrow. I also need to get some cards made for birthdays and Valentine's Day for family.

I have a carpet cleaner coming tomorrow morning to work some magic on the main traffic areas of the carpet in the master bedroom, living room and dining room. We have lived fairly hard on the carpets in this house in the 8 months we have lived here!

Sometime this week we plan to begin taking up the carpet and preparing the floor for wood-look vinyl flooring in the master bathroom. The pressure is on now to select a paint color for that room. I am not usually so indecisive! The only thing I am sure of is that I want a white ceiling. I don't really mind the yellow that is in there, but it needs to be repainted as there are some gouges in the wall in places, and the trim needs to be caulked, especially around the ceiling where there are some pretty large gaps. I just need to decide if I want to find another yellow or go with something else altogether different. There are so many options!

Sprouts!

2012-02-03T04:09:00.000-06:00

Ornery wandered into my studio at lunch yesterday and noticed that several of the pots had little sprouts in them!

Basil

Mexican Sunflowers

Pretty exciting! I haven't checked the pots outdoors yet, but I doubt they have fared as well. The sunny window these pots are in front of afford lots of heat and since they were covered with plastic, they had a bit of a greenhouse effect going for them as well. We are supposed to get rain tomorrow--I hope so since I haven't watered anything we planted since Sunday. :(

I spent some time in the studio yesterday afternoon making some tags for Elizabeth's shawls. I posted pictures on the design blog.

Nothing Sure but Death, Taxes & Laundry

2012-02-02T11:10:00.002-06:00

"I suppose it would be unprofessional to do a happy dance about now..." (I said as I was walking out of the tax accountant's office) ...

This was the first time we have ever had our taxes finished and filed before Valentine's Day, but thanks to online access to many documents (which I printed then actually received in the mail prior to our scheduled visit) we were able to get it done today! Where I was afraid we were going to have to pay, we are ending up getting a fairly sizable (for us) refund. I guess all the interest we paid to buy a new home was the ticket for this year.

Ornery leaves in the morning for Austin to visit his mom's side of the family at his Uncle Steve's memorial service. He is driving/riding with Janese and Mom and they plan to return on Sunday. I will miss him.

I finally opened the clipboards I ordered this weekend and discovered I had ordered the wrong thing. I called them up to see about an exchange but they don't do that. I am stuck with them, but they did refund my money. I'll have to see what I can do with them since they won't work for my other project. So, the custom order to Canada is delayed a bit more, but to qualify for free shipping I ended up increasing my order so I am going to have a lot of clipboards to work with this year!

Elizabeth went for a job interview with a placement agency yesterday, but she wasn't very interested in either position they had open--not that she has had an offer, but they weren't really what she had applied for. Her class for this semester begins in a month, and she is planning to schedule her graduation in the coming weeks. I know she is very excited about finishing this, and has plans for taking some drafting classes in the fall so she can get into a little higher paying field.

Just because I am ahead of the game with my taxes doesn't mean I have everything else all together--laundry has piled up and the house is in need of some attention. I guess it is job security...

Taken for Granted

2012-01-30T09:56:00.000-06:00

I am in the middle of an etsy transaction with someone from Canada. It is my first international transaction and it has made me realize how much I take for granted all the the wonderful freedoms and benefits we have as Americans--the ease of buying and selling being the primary thing I am appreciative for today!

I have decided that I really like living here. ;)

My shop has been pretty busy already this year. While I was waiting for payment for the custom order from Montreal, an order came through for one of the last two airplanes. It reminded me I needed to order more yardsticks--those little guys have sold really well! I also ordered more mini clipboards as there seems to be a revived interest in them.

I noticed I had another positive note in my feedback-- It warms the cockles of my heart.

Weekend in Review: Spring in January?

2012-01-29T21:07:00.000-06:00

What an odd winter we have been having! This past week we had some 70 degree days with more forecast for the coming week, and Friday was warm enough for me to be outside doing some yard work. I cut back the two crape myrtle bushes in front and washed all the windows on the outside. When Ornery and Elizabeth got home, we went back out and took care of some more trim work in the front and back on trees and another crape myrtle. Elizabeth and I also cleaned out the back flower bed.

These projects were all on lists I made while having breakfast by myself at Panera Friday morning. I made five separate lists in an hour and then went home and set about crossing some things off. Laundry was top on the list, then finishing off some little dresses and making them into cards, and getting my hair trimmed. This time I went cheap at Super Cuts and am more pleased than I have been with the last several trips to the trendy (spendy!) stylists!

Saturday, all three of us worked out in the garage. Ornery worked on the big loom, Elizabeth went through the remainder of her boxes and we managed to get them emptied and out of the lawn equipment area. I went through (with his supervision) all of Ornery's camping gear and listed the things he wanted to get rid of on Craigslist. I sold a backpack, sleeping pad and trekking poles and gave away a stuff sack full of other little odds and ends. I still had the mummy style sleeping bag for sale, and the tent which was scheduled for pick-up on Sunday. He plans to use the funds for a router table--either homemade or bought, he hasn't decided which just yet.

We took the things (mostly kitchen items) that Elizabeth didn't put in the cedar chest or her room and stored them in the newly emptied huge camping totes. I need to do the same thing with her "garage sale" items as I did with Ornery's camping stuff and see if I can't alleviate the need for a torturous day long sale and still bring in a little cash for her. She doesn't really have much stuff to get rid off, and a lot of it is clothing which I plan to wash and take to a resale shop. Really, I'd do just about anything to avoid having a garage sale!!

We all took naps in the afternoon, then Elizabeth finished weaving the shawl she had on the loom. By the end of the day, it just lacked about 1/2 the fringe and taking it off the loom. Ornery watched a new DVD that came in the mail on building furniture and I watched a movie and read a book.

Sunday morning we got up and listened to a sermon and discussed it for a while, then Ornery went back to bed and Elizabeth and I finished the purple shawl and she started on another one, which I am sure is going to be my favorite of all. She is doing a random pattern of two different green yarns. Later we went to Lowe's for garden dirt and rat traps after Ornery saw a rat scurry past the door inside the garage while he was out there working. He took photos of my latest creations, I listed them on my etsy shop, then the buyer for the last of the camping equipment arrived.

He was actually only planning to buy the tent, but when he asked about what other stuff we had, we sold him the sleeping bag as well. He was a very nice man, and even sent me a message later thanking me for selling the stuff to him! As long as we don't consider how much money was invested in the things we sold, we are happy to trade out things that were no longer being used for some cash to enhance Ornery's tool arsenal, especially when people are so happy to share their stories about how they will use them.

I planted some clearance priced pansies in the front bed, then Elizabeth planted the daffodils and iris I had bought last fall--belated, but at least done! Then we filled a bunch of pots with soil and planted some seeds in them. I had quite a pile of seed packets collected over the past couple of years, and I figured we may as well try them. Mostly we planted flowers, but some herbs and even some scallions. I brought a table into the studio to put some of the pots on. This room is the sunniest spot in the whole house, and I keep the curtains open all the time so it will get sun all day plus I won't forget to water them since I am in here every day.

Ornery felt crummy all day with general malaise and a headache that wouldn't go away despite numerous doses of "faith enhancers" (aspirin) and a hot bath. He was in and out of bed several times throughout the day and consequently didn't finish the large loom as he had planned. He is down to the nail pounding part, but I think 600 nails is an overwhelming job! His uncle passed away Sunday morning after a long illness so he is planning to go to Austin for the memorial service which is tentatively scheduled for next weekend. He will travel with his sister and mom.

One of Elizabeth's friends came over both days, Saturday to use Ornery's tools on a wood project he is starting on, and Sunday just to have the company. He has offered to help us with the flooring project and I think is mostly just in need of some friends. He says he keeps coming because he laughs his head off when he is with us. :) We are certainly a different family from his experience, and I think we will expand his horizons in many ways.

Now on to a new week. January is almost over and in just a couple of days we start into my birthday month! :) Those lists I made are slowly but surely getting lots of black marks on them and I hope to add a few more this week. I also start my "twinks" class this week and plan to get some of the cool weather crop seeds planted and start on the eBook editing. Maybe Ornery will also catch a rat so I won't dream about them like I did last night! Hopefully the internet will settle down and decide to give us continuous service. We have certainly had some outages lately!

Changing Shop Names

2012-01-26T08:24:00.000-06:00

I have been thinking about it since we moved last May, but after a recent conversation with my sister in WA, I have decided to take the dive into a new name for my etsy business. There are two options available there, either change the name of the shop you currently have or open a different one. I thought about it a long time, but decided to start fresh. If I didn't have one negative feedback (that can't be removed) I would have just changed the name and gone on from there, but since so few customers give feedback, one negative really stands out in my percentage of happy customers. I may have felt differently about the change had I made hundreds of sales there instead of just 40 or so.

I plan to send a letter to all my former customers inviting them to my grand opening, which probably won't be until March or so. I'd like to make this shop really fun and special. I am working on some design ideas for a logo and product marking, and have been studying marketing strategies. I am going to leave the things listed on Miller Manor Designs until the listings expire, but once I get Zoe Cottage stocked, I plan to do a big launch of my new stuff at the new shop.

I made nine little paper dresses yesterday for some new cards. The cards are quite time consuming even though the dress folding part isn't difficult. Perhaps if I didn't have such big fingers and could tie the tiny bows easier, I might shave some time off. I also sew the little hangers on the card, so that takes time in addition to coming up with design ideas, which I try to always change up from one project to the next. If I can find some other suitable papers to use for them, I may make some dresses to sell by themselves (as opposed to putting them on cards.) If I do more than just a few, I will need to find a source for tiny embellishments and very thin ribbons.

I have also been toying with the idea of a shadow box with a larger dress and a name in it. In that case, the decorating options are much more varied since I don't have to be so conscious of paper thickness or size for the ribbon, buttons, and other embellishments. Custom shadow boxes will be one of the new offerings, as well as more wood projects from Ornery's shop.

Once I have mastered the twinkling H20's (class starts next week!!) I hope to come up with some fun designs of my own for cards (as opposed to using purchased papers) and have the originals printed as sets. Many artists do this, and it opens up many possibilities for sales outlets in addition to etsy. I can't do it using copyrighted papers, though.

Speaking of etsy shops, Elizabeth has sold her first six shawls plus one on the loom. Her shop will be empty in a few weeks and she will have to start all over again! A woman at her work is purchasing them for a women's event at her church in February. I don't know if she is buying them for gifts or auction items, but either way even though Elizabeth had to drop her price a little bit, it is a great start for her little shop! It will give her enough income to buy yarn for many more shawls in preparation for the craft show we plan to do this fall.

My customer paid the balance for the shadow box last night, so I am off to mail it today, then to Office Depot to buy shipping tape and run a few other errands. It seems like there is always something to do!

All Day project

2012-01-23T17:55:00.001-06:00

It took me almost all day to put it all together, but I finished the shadow box. I also went to the library and grocery store (where the photos were processed), scheduled a meeting with the tax accountant for the first week in February, and checked on a problem with the bank. In all, a productive day!

Weekend in Review: more work

2012-01-22T17:39:00.001-06:00

Saturday morning, Ornery and I went on a date. We had breakfast at Panera where we planned out the design for my studio when we eventually get around to completing it. It took us an hour or more and we talked about all sorts of ideas and plans. If it ever comes about, it will be an awesome room! Then we went to Whole Foods, Hobby Lobby and Sam's Club for a few things at each store.

Elizabeth went to the Riverside/Jones airport to help with refurbishing an old Piper Cub airplane. A former co-worker from CompUSA invited her to join him and several others. She said she really enjoyed it and invited Ornery to join her next time, sure that he would find pleasure there as well.

After lunch, she had another former co-worker (from Flight Safety) over to show him how to oil paint. He saw some of her art on Facebook and requested some lessons. While he was painting in the dining room, she and I were working on her latest shawl in the living room. I learned how to attach the fringe and did all but 20 pieces of the 270 that ended up on it. We finished it on Sunday after it being on the loom for over a week. That is the longest it has taken her to complete one so far, but she had been sick and has had a hard time bouncing back into the routine.

Sunday we got up early and did church at home, then Ornery worked on putting a shopping cart on a website, Elizabeth went to a movie and I worked a puzzle. After the movie, Elizabeth and Ornery went out to take pictures of her new shawls to add them to her etsy shop and put some pictures up on her Facebook page. Here are a few of my favorites...

I plan to begin editing a new eBook tomorrow. It has 12 messages so it should keep me busy for a while.

I am in negotiations with someone about a custom shadow box as well, so that will also keep me in the studio. Good thing we got the heat fixed in there this week!

No wonder it was cold...

2012-01-18T12:08:00.002-06:00

About a week ago I noticed that my studio was always cold except when the sun had been shining in for a few hours, and that the air coming from the vent in there was as cold as the outdoor air. Sometimes I had to quit working because my hands were too cold to do anything!

Thankfully we have a homeowner's warranty, so I called them this morning and they sent someone out to take a look.

"The good news is that I have found the problem and can fix it. The bad news is that the vent has separated in that part of the house and you are losing about 40% of your heat through the attic . There is no telling how long it has been that way. It appears the problem has occurred before and someone tried to fix it with duct tape, but it didn't hold."

I am pretty sure there had been a leak before, but it has only been in the last week or so that we have really had a problem with it. I imagine one of the recent really windy days or super cold nights caused the tape to give-way and come undone altogether.

Less than an hour and $60.00 later, the room is toasty warm again. So, now I am off to create some birthday cards--I have five birthdays on the calendar in the next two weeks and if I am going to send cards, I want them to be special...

High Brix Gardening Experiment

2012-01-17T10:21:00.001-06:00

I probably should have kept a journal with photos from the beginning of the experiment for before and after proof, but I am sure the improvements will continue to amaze me so I will count this as the beginning.

Background: A few months ago-- I don't remember exactly when, maybe September or October--I bought an African Violet from Home Depot's clearance cart. It was small and a bit puny looking, but it had the remains of some deep purple flowers on it so I decided to give it a try in my north facing bathroom window. I have grown violets before with good success as long as they were in a north window and I remembered to water them. The bathroom doesn't have an exhaust fan, so there is a fair bit of humidity in the air there, so I figured I had a fair chance of keeping it alive.

The first few weeks I just watered my little violet with filtered water but it didn't really fare too well. Several of the leaves began to dry up and show signs of distress and all the blooms fell off. Before I chalked it up to another indoor plant failure, I decided to try a little experiment.

We had just begun learning about High Brix gardening and the importance of re-mineralization of the soil as well as the incredible energizing benefits of distilled water. One of the nutritional supplements we take is called Min-col, and is actually (if I understand correctly) ground up soft rock phosphate. Someone had posted on a Facebook page I follow that they had opened up a Min-col capsule and added it to a flowering plant at work which burst into amazing bloom.

Since rain water is actually distilled water in its natural form, I thought I would try watering with distilled water. Within a week or two, all the dying off ceased and tiny new leaves began to show. Since that seemed to perk it up, I decided to add some Min-col. I put the contents of one capsule into a quart of distilled water and used it about every four or five days by pouring it into the saucer beneath the pot, never on the soil itself. Growth continued at a slightly faster rate.

With a little success under my belt, when I found two more (larger) violets on the Lowe's clearance cart, I picked them up as well. One was a rather pale yellow leaved affair with no flowers and the other had white flowers all over with just a hint of fuchsia/orchid color on the tips. I treated the three of them to the same care. About two weeks ago I added about 1/2 tsp. of Peter's plant food to the water as well since they had not shown any sign of blooming, despite the rich green foliar growth. I don't have any African Violet food yet.

Last week the one plant that had blooms on it when I bought it (and had pretty much lost all its initial flowers) began to really produce the flowers again, and the other two showed very tiny little buds coming on! Today when I watered I noticed that one of the flowers on the other large violet is about to open. Here is a photo of the three of them. They are all healthy plants, no?

and closer--although a bit too harsh of light from the window...

I am very excited the small one is putting on flowers, since I was pretty sure it was going to die just a few months ago. Since I have begun this water and feeding I have not lost a single leaf, which is very rare in my experience.

I can't wait to try the remineralization on a larger scale in my garden this spring.

Weekend in Review: Recovery

2012-01-15T17:49:00.000-06:00

After lounging around most of the morning and eating a few crackers and a ginger ale, Elizabeth felt good enough to get out of the house Friday. She needed more yarn for shawls, so we went to JoAnn where we found Homespun on sale for $4.99 instead of the usual $6.49, so she stocked up.

Then we went to a resale shop over near Miller Manor and scored really big on some dressy clothes for her. She got two brand new pair of shoes--one full length black dress boots, the other tan colored mules--two pair of pants and three skirts. We had a store credit for items I had taken there this spring and only lacked $10.00 for having a full punch card that netted another $25.00. By the time the sale items were marked down and the two credits were given, she only had to pay $40.00 for all of it. Sweet!

We stopped by the scrapbook store in Broken Arrow on the way home where I found a few ribbons I thought I needed, a new color of glitter glue and a small card of brads. The store itself is much improved but the new owner will take some getting used to. By the time we got home Ornery was already there, having left early for the day since he is preparing for a trip this weekend. We dined on pizza and spent the evening in idle pursuits--Ornery and Elizabeth on the computer and me rolling skeins of yarn into balls.

Saturday seemed to hold some promise, but after eating 1/2 of a bear claw at Panera, Elizabeth began feeling poorly again. We stopped by Lowe's on the way home to buy lumber for a larger loom (the new one Ornery built is good for average sizes, but above a 12-14 would be a little short) and then by Target to get some new puzzles. I am a fiend for them right now!

After a nap, Elizabeth started on the next shawl, (black, white and gray) while Ornery experimented with his new pocket-hole jig and started on her new loom. I worked puzzles--two whole and part of a third before bed at 10:00. We also emptied Elizabeth's closet, looked at each item and made piles--get rid of, iron, wash, keep, etc. then she did laundry (apparently so we can have MORE ironing to do!)

Sunday Elizabeth woke with new vigor and enthusiasm, feeling all better again, and even dressed in one of her new skirts. (I cannot recall the last occasion which warranted her wearing anything other than jeans or slacks, so I am a bit dumbfounded!) Ornery did his last minute preparations for the trip and drove Big Red to the airport to await his return. Since his flight home Tuesday arrives at the peak of rush hour, I am glad to not have to go pick him up. The company pays for parking so we cut gas use in 1/2 and save me from being frazzled!

After he left we cranked up the stereo and Elizabeth ironed her clothes while I showered. We were on a mission to find some khaki colored dress pants and white or cream blouse(s). We went to the mall and found two shirts at JC Penney, and a pair of pants at Express. All items were on sale. We had lunch at Chipotle and spent the rest of the afternoon at home working a puzzle and reading.

It will be pretty quiet around here tomorrow. Elizabeth leaves for work at 5:20 AM, and Ornery usually comes home at 11:30 for lunch to sort of break up the day. I don't have any plans right now, but I am sure I will figure out a way to pass the time!

First Snow

2012-01-13T07:56:00.002-06:00

At about 5:00 Wednesday evening the wind shifted and brought a chilly northern front down on us at Zoe Cottage. We got a dusting of snow which didn't stick on the roads or patio but the temperature stayed below freezing all day so it took a long time to dissipate. Would it be too much to ask for this to be the only freeing precipitation we get this year? I don't mind the rain, I don't even mind the cold much but I really don't like the two mixed!

Elizabeth woke up feeling poorly in the morning, so she stayed home from work. She has had a lot on her mind which has kept her from sleeping well, and we Miller girls need our sleep! Apparently that wasn't the only issue though as this morning she was still feeling poorly after a good night's sleep so ended up staying home again. She feels good enough to work on her shawl for a little bit, then I find her crashed somewhere--the recliner, the couch, the floor--so it is a good thing she didn't go to work.

I didn't accomplish much yesterday; made four Valentine's Day cards (which I didn't really like) and attempted to download some music to iTunes. Something caused the cpu to run at 100%, so a CD that would normally take a few minutes to load was taking an hour per song. Ornery helped me out by defragmenting the hard-drive and halting the apple process that was causing all the sluggishness and I ran spybot to clean out any of those little issues, so things are running much better now.

In other news, my sister Mimi had surgery Monday for a torn retina. Surgery was successful, but she will be face-down until Sunday while it does the initial healing. She will have many limitations for the first two months, and then the surgeon said he cannot guarantee either her vision or how long until it tears again. She won't be able to drive since her vision is so impaired--life is going to take a few twists and turns for her. I wish I lived closer so I could be there to help her out for a while, but neither of us is inclined to move anytime soon!

Happy Friday 13th. Hope it is filled with cool little joyous moments for you!

Reconciled

2012-01-11T07:28:00.000-06:00

I have reconciled myself to the fact that I am not going to have a regular crafting partner. Mickie's life has been crazy busy and Elizabeth's crafting is mostly done on the loom in the living room. Since my studio becomes so unwieldy the way I had it arranged, I decided to make it fully my room. I haven't really been happy with it ever since I changed it from the first set up when we moved in, and each move has gotten it further out of whack.

Yesterday morning I was scrolling around on Pinterest and found a blog that declared this organization week. I had already decided to clean it up yesterday, but after reading some of the inspiring posts, I decided to take their advice and think about how I used the room and make it as functional as possible.

They said not to worry about appearance, and to focus on accessibility of tools and supplies. I can't do that exclusively because I really do need a pretty place to work. Sometime in the next year I hope we are able to empty it all out and put down tile on the floor, paint it a little brighter and build in a few shelves, but meanwhile, I have shuffled things to a more manageable configuration and I think I will like it well enough once I get used to where everything is.

I started out thinking about how often I use certain items and built my plan from there. The things I use most frequently are closest at hand. I brought in a tall plastic drawer unit that Elizabeth had emptied and was getting rid of, and emptied several baskets and other drawers into it. Rubber and clear stamps, ink pads, pens and markers, adhesives, alcohol inks and paints all moved in there. I can just pull out the drawer I need and have everything at my fingertips.

The little five drawer unit I had been using for desk supplies took on a new life as well and now houses beading supplies, polymer clay, misc. tools and a whole drawer for x-acto! There is still one empty drawer I hope to use for the twinkling H2O's when they arrive for my class. I don't know how much space I will actually need for that.

The paper holders moved from the closet back out where I can more easily access them, and the other little four drawer cart is still FULL of scraps. I didn't make it very far with my sorting/purging of those drawers when I worked on it last, but there is a little more empty room in some of the drawers. Some of the baskets and little clear boxes found new purpose, and all but the clear boxes got labels. *click-click* The very bottom shelf on the bookcase against the wall is filled with bags, boxes and envelopes for cards.

I am not real excited about the location of the file cabinet and printer, but it needs to be away from the sunlight that comes in through the window, so it was the most logical spot. I do like the fact that I have the lamp on the wall to help light the right side of the table. The little drawer units are easy to move around as needed, and I am sure they will shuffle each time I craft!

In other news, Elizabeth had a job interview yesterday afternoon and thought it went very well. We did another quick run to the resale shop to find a pair of pants for the interview--she bought one of the only two pair of dress pants in her size they had on the rack! We are all anxious to hear that she got the job. What a blessing it would be to cut 40 minutes off her commute each way!

oh, bother

2012-01-10T06:31:00.000-06:00

My trip to the courthouse yesterday made me all the more sure I never want to fly again.

The entrances are all manned with uniformed police officers (like the TSA) and there is a metal detector and little belt with scanner to check bags and pocket contents. It has been quite a while since I went through one and had forgotten a few things about the experience.

My outer attire included MBT tennis shoes, black pants with pockets, camisole under a long sleeved tee shirt, one of Elizabeth's shawls, a necklace and my glasses. I was carrying a Fossil purse which I dutifully placed on the conveyor belt for them to scan, then I walked through the little doorway and all sorts of alarms rang.

First I thought my necklace was the culprit, but the officer asked me to raise my arms. "Oh, I have change in my pocket..." emptied that into a little box, started to walk back through the little screening doorway and she said, "No, don't go back through. Raise your arms." Then I realized I had my phone in the other pocket. Finally put that in the box and raised my arms. No more beeps.

As I got ready to pick up my purse the officer at the conveyor belt asked me if I had a hand-cuff key in my purse! He showed me the picture on the x-ray. I laughed because I thought he must be joking, then realized it was the decorative key on the outside of my purse that had fallen back inside.

Good grief, what a ditz! Elizabeth's belt set off the alarm but remarkably Ornery walked though without a hitch. I hope that is the last time I ever have to do all that again, but I was really glad there was no one else waiting on me!

Endings and beginnings

2012-01-09T18:34:00.001-06:00

This was quite a day. Elizabeth went to TCC first thing and found out that other than the computer proficiency class she is currently enrolled in she only lacks one Humanities course to complete her associates degree in Liberal Arts. She was very excited about that bit of news, and found that she will actually be able to graduate in May but they will hold her diploma until the completion of the last course which she hopes to take online over the summer.

The internet was down all morning, which made it difficult to do the business I needed to do online, so I called Cox to have them come find out what the problem was. They scheduled a visit between 4:00 and 7:00 PM. Then Elizabeth and I ran to the PO to mail the etsy order then over to a resale shop to see if we could find some clothes for her to interview in. She has applied for some jobs closer to home, and didn't have anything in her closet that was fit for that. She found several tops, but we didn't have much time because Ornery was coming home to drive us downtown to the courthouse.

The divorce process is by turns simple and complicated, and it would be so nice if one didn't have to actually appear in front of the judge (downtown at the courthouse which has negative associations for almost everyone!) to finalize things, but that is all part of the procedure. We arrived there at 11:30 and left at 3:00 after doing a lot of sitting around and waiting and only a little bit of actual "work." We did a LOT of people watching, however. That is always fun and interesting. I was especially glad for Ornery to drive us there, as well as to have his company while we waited. He is a lot of fun to have around.

We made it home before the Cox repairman called. I told him the internet was working, but this wasn't the first time it had been down. He said he had just tested our line and our signal was very poor so he would go ahead and come over. The previous owner had a line split with four cables off the main line, so he fixed our problem (which was aggravated by the cold weather) by removing the split and just using the main line. Since we have a wireless router for all the computers, we really only needed one cable outlet anyway. I haven't noticed that we have faster service, but hopefully we will at least have it continuously.

While we were waiting for his arrival, Elizabeth got a call about one of the applications she had submitted last week for a job here in town! It was a temp agency that represents a large company and they were going to send her resume over for a possible interview. We are really hoping she gets this as the job site is only 2.5 miles from our house and the starting wage is just a dollar/hour less than or the same as she currently makes!

We looked for a good interview outfit from within her current clothing selections including the new things we had found this morning, and decided we would make another run to the resale shop tomorrow after work. Hopefully we have time to find something before an actual interview takes place!

Even though the day was exciting, it was exhausting and stressful. Change seems to always bring with it a certain sort of tension, and ending a marriage, finishing a degree plan, finding a new job--that is a lot of change at one time! There is still a lot more to come, but today was a really big day with endings and beginnings at practically every turn. We should all sleep well tonight!

Weekend in review: Good

2012-01-08T16:12:00.000-06:00

Saturday we spent pretty much all day on etsy business. After Ornery took the pictures and I listed my merchandise I got a special order for a set of note cards, so I spent a couple hours making those, packaging up the things I listed, and in general trashing my studio. Elizabeth almost finished a fourth shawl--just lacked the fringe at bed-time. She also purchased, assembled and moved into a new little CD/DVD rack and unpacked the last of her boxes, spot cleaned the carpet and helped clean house.

Ornery got a few things crossed off his list, including the hanging of curtains in Elizabeth's room and installing a flag on our mailbox! One of the new tools he bought with Christmas money made the jobs very easy and now we don't have to wonder whether or not the mail will go out!

Sunday morning the three of us spent a long time talking about what we might like to accomplish this year. We discussed exercise, spiritual growth, job/business goals and relationships. It was an amazing couple of hours and it made me once more grateful for the awesome family I have. One of the things we had slacked on was weekly sermons, so we committed to do those again and spend time discussing them afterwards. We did that after our little planning session and breakfast.

I cut Ornery's hair--and trimmed the curl from my bangs that had sent me to a new hairstylist in the first place, then we fixed lunch together. After that, I tied knots in the fringe of the shawl Elizabeth finished while we were showering, and she started another one. Ornery did some scrolling then ran to the grocery store for the few items we needed for the coming week. Elizabeth and I took a break from the shawls and spent about an hour and a half in the kitchen cooking. Vegetable soup, chimichangas, quiches, fajitas and stroganoff are ready for consumption over then next several days and all the foods that had reached the urgent stage in the fridge are now dealt with.

This week is another busy one. On Monday Elizabeth is taking the day off and we head to the courthouse to complete the process making her single again, then to Tulsa Community College for her to find out what she needs to finish her associates degree, and the post office to mail out the etsy order. The rest of the week will be spent working on our goals, completing projects (shawls, boxes and journals) and getting Ornery ready for a quick trip to Florida. Since he will only be working one day, we decided it made much more sense for him to fly rather than spend 30 hours driving to work for 8. He will still end up traveling for two days, but at least they will be shorter days.

So ends the first week of 2012. And it was good.

Elizabeth's Shop is UP!

2012-01-07T11:49:00.003-06:00

Ornery's list of projects this weekend is fairly light, but the top priority was photos of etsy shop items. I added 13 new things to Miller Manor Designs, and helped Elizabeth to set up a shop (called M is for Mischief) and put her first three shawls up for sale. I have also added an etsy mini gadget to my side-bar that will take you to her shop.

You are kidding, right?

2012-01-06T07:50:00.000-06:00

Several years ago--at least fifteen I would guess--Ornery and I drafted a letter to a certain large mortgage company requesting my name be added to the account so I could handle all the business relating to it. We had run up against the Privacy Wall too many times. They wouldn't actually add my name as a borrower, so I had limited access. All went along fine as I rarely had to deal with them for anything other than a question about escrow, a change in insurance or something similar.

We closed that account in May when we sold Miller Manor and some months later our escrow check arrived at Zoe Cottage having taken a rather circuitous route via Hurlburt Field, FL. Apparently when the address was changed someone got their wires crossed and input the wrong address. The thought never even occurred to me to do anything about the address change at the time. I had forgotten about tax documents...

My email address is the one associated with the account, so yesterday I was notified that our tax documents were ready for viewing/printing online. It took a while to figure out my login, but eventually I got there only to discover the wrong address on the document.

Silly me, I called to make the change.

After jumping through all the hoops to actually speak to an account representative, we hit the privacy wall again, and I was informed that the permission was old and did not allow me to make any changes to the account. Without having power of attorney, I would need to have Mr. Miller call. I asked then if I could send an email and he told me they weren't allowed to discuss anything about online accounts with other than the account holder, and that I was not supposed to have access to his online information. WHAT?!??

To add insult to injury, after telling me he couldn't do what I was asking, as we were ending the call he said, "Is there anything else I can help you with today?" By that time we had run around the bush several times, I had spent several minutes on hold while he checked to see whether he could grant my request, my blood pressure was elevated and the first (admittedly rather snarky) reply I thought of came out of my mouth... "Obviously you can't help me with anything I need!"

Had I spent some time looking around on the site in the first place, I would have discovered that I could easily change the address there--which I did once I cooled down a little bit. I got a little email stating that it had been taken care of. So much for the privacy wall!

You GO, girl!

2012-01-05T15:35:00.000-06:00

I am not sure what is required to motivate me to get up and busy some mornings and leaves me completely disinterested on others, but the energy was flowing this morning! Ornery left at 6:00 and by 8:30 I had accomplished more than I have gotten done the whole rest of the week/month/year combined! (I know, it is five days no matter which term I use...)

There were some niggling little details that had missed all the "to do" lists, and for some reason they became important today. I went through the box of CD jewel cases and discovered a handful that still contained the CD's so I put them in the player (which holds 200) but I was not able to program it like I have in the past (the remote control batteries were moldy). Even though the rest of the functions worked the input refused to cooperate. I fiddled with that project much longer than I ought to have before I finally gave up and just stuck the discs in the player and put the folders in the right slots in the little organizer booklets. Then I found a new home for the box of empty cases and straightened the puzzles (which have gotten a lot of use in the last month) and games.

It was fun listening to "new" music, since I hadn't heard several of those CD's in a long time... in fact there were two Newsboys albums I don't recall ever hearing! The stereo was blaring all day helping me keep my momentum going.

The leaves had congregated en masse beneath the rockers on the back porch and had been calling to me to gather them into the mulch pile, so I swept that all up and put some of the eye-sores that were sitting on the patio out of direct sight. Since the leaves had been piled up there a few had been tracked in, so I vacuumed the main area of the house.

Next I took all my "desk" items from a little plastic chest of drawers and made new homes for them in or on the little desk I have been using for my computer. I haven't decided what to use that chest for just yet, but I imagine it will soon be put into some sort of business. Then I hung the bulletin board we took out of Elizabeth's room (aka the guest room) above the desk. I am not a big fan of bulletin boards as they tend to look sloppy most of the time, but I needed something there, and it needed a home. It was a mutually agreeable solution.

One thing about a small desk, there is no room for clutter! I didn't think I would like this very well, but so far I am rather happy with the arrangement. All the essentials are here, and when I weeded out the non-essentials everything fit just fine!

Other little clutter piles dispersed to new homes throughout the day as well, including piles on both tables in the dining room and a rather large mess in the garage...

Before:

and after...

I took the two chairs inside, one to the library and one to the living room, and hung the two white wood chairs on the ladder rack in the garage. Most of the boxes are piled behind the garden bench, except the few that contain garage sale items. Once Ornery puts the last Christmas tree in the attic and Elizabeth unpacks one more box into her closet, I will be able to park in the garage again! :)

While I was working out there, I had the laundry going-- including the sheets from our bed which is now remade. I unearthed a few things in Elizabeth's stuff that needed washing, so they went through the cycles as well. It is now all folded and stored in the cedar chest awaiting spots in her next abode.

The weather has been absolutely beautiful today so it was hard to want to stay indoors this afternoon. By the time I had finished all that work, all I wanted to do was sit anyway, so that is just what I did!

Good way to start the new year...

2012-01-03T14:29:00.000-06:00

After spending almost the entire day Monday grocery shopping (Whole Foods, Sam's Club, Target, Reasors) and taking care of a few other things (Big Red's oil change, exchange curtain rod at Lowe's, more yarn at Michael's) I crashed early! Elizabeth and Ornery read until later, but I think my eyes saw the last of the day at around 7:00 PM.

I slept hard all night, and woke refreshed at 4:30 when Ornery got up for his coffee. He left for work at 5:30, so I had a long day to take care of things at home. I thought I would be busy in the kitchen all day today, but instead I got everything done for our taxes. I had done most of the Miller Manor Designs calculations when I was in Florida, but I finished up everything I could today, including cleaning out all the old files and doing an inventory on my shop. I collected receipts from all the various files for charitable contributions, royalty information and so forth, and then I finished matching up all the insurance EOB's with the appropriate receipts from the doctors.

Last year I was still scurrying around trying to figure mileage right at the last minute before our appointment with the tax man, but now the only thing I have to do is collect the 1099's and W2 when they come in. This is surely some sort of a record for me!

I still have a lot of cooking to do, but I think Wednesday is a good day to start on that.

Weekend in Review: New Year

2012-01-01T18:46:00.000-06:00

Friday afternoon Elizabeth and I went to the JCPenney Home Store to exchange some drapes I had purchased earlier in the month for the guest room. I had a little mishap in the parking lot and backed into another car. Fortunately no damage was done to either vehicle or occupant, so it was all good except for the elevated pulse rate!

Ornery's mom called in the early evening and asked what we were planning for his birthday, and we invited her over for pizza. He had a full day with balloons delivered to work, a big lunch of home-made chimichangas, guacamole and carrot cake, and pizza for dinner. Elizabeth also baked some cookies for him, and I think he felt plenty celebrated.

Saturday morning we drove over to Henryetta to pick up the last of Elizabeth's stuff. It didn't take long, but we were all worn out and took a nap after lunch. I was glad to have leftovers in the refrigerator! The rest of the day was spent in idle pursuits, finished off by some pleasure reading until bedtime. We did not stay up to welcome in the New Year.

Sunday was the designated day to paint the guest room. We emptied it all out, painted the walls and had everything moved back by dinner time. After dinner, we brought in some books and other items that Elizabeth had stored in the garage. We spent some time getting her settled into her room so it doesn't feel like she is just camping out.

This picture was taken while she was still unpacking, but you can see the color of the walls--very different from any other room in the house, but we like it. We need to get a new curtain rod to hang the white curtains we got Friday, and then the room will be pretty well finished.

While Ornery and I were painting her room, Elizabeth was working on her third shawl. I haven't gotten pictures of the others, but here is one of the current model...

In addition to all the painting and weaving, we did laundry and fixed meals, (including black-eyed peas and cornbread) moved furniture around to accommodate more of her things in various parts of the house and I made several cards for my etsy shop.

I was supposed to be having a give-away tomorrow at another blog, but I haven't ever gotten any information about it, so I guess it isn't going to happen. I would really like to wait a few weeks so I can get some new items in the shop.

Tomorrow is the last day of the "vacation." We have grocery shopping and other chores to finish up, including the shawl and photographing the things I have made for the shop. We are also planning to rearrange things in the garage to make room for the van--if possible. (I am not holding my breath on that one!)

Happy Birthday, Ornery!

2011-12-30T07:32:00.000-06:00

Having a birthday so close to Christmas means Ornery's birthday often gets overlooked or lost in the shuffle. Elizabeth was determined it would not happen this year, and had mentioned earlier in the year we ought to pick a different date to celebrate his special day so he would feel honored. With moving and all that has gone with it, that never happened, but she was still stubbornly clinging to the notion that he needed to celebrate big.

Since he isn't one for being the center of attention, we opted for a smaller celebration, and a big gift. He got it early and has already broken it in well!

He has been like a kid in a candy store ever since he got it, and is looking for projects to use it on. Between that and the new cordless set of power tools he got from me for Christmas, he has really rounded out his tools this year. It is hard to believe that he got his first saw (the scroll saw) less than a year ago, and now he has a whole wood shop set up! At least he has been using these tools, and since projects I come up with challenge him to learn more about them, he has not minded taking them on.

These days if we want to chat with him, we need to head to the man cave because that is likely where he will be. Happy Birthday, Ornery!

Working Wednesday

2011-12-28T14:16:00.000-06:00

I started and finished a custom order of ten teal clipboards today. I worked from 7:00 to 4:00. All I lack is taking them to the Post Office. It sure feels good to have those done! When the buyer ordered she said, "I need ten for now..." so I think I may stock up on a few of those clearance bolts of teal ribbon from Michael's before they are all gone!

Meanwhile, Elizabeth has been weaving away on her second shawl on the new loom with the Corrs on the stereo. She has had an extremely productive week off already! We are planning a trip back to her old place to gather the rest of the things she wants to keep this weekend. She is brushing up her resume to see if she can find a job a little closer to town to alleviate some of the forty minute commute each way. If she can't find something else, she will continue with the drive, but it would sure be nice to find something closer.

We seem to have all adapted very well to having her live here. It is open ended as to when she will move out, especially since she hopes to find a job in town and that would help her decide where to live. We have had lots of light-hearted moments as well as thought provoking discussions and just quiet moments together. Ornery is enjoying having her around and is looking forward to some jaunts to the park with golf-discs and maybe even a day hike or two in the spring.

Life often takes interesting twists and turns, and we never really know how our days will turn out. It is always reassuring to know that God's grace is sufficient for us to handle any circumstance that seems bigger than we are. We have all been relying on that grace a lot lately!

Weekend in Review: Christmas

2011-12-26T05:45:00.000-06:00

Lest my previous post make you think we didn't really celebrate Christmas this year, I wanted to disabuse you of that notion. Friday night the three of us sat on the couch and watched Christmas Vacation. I know, it is corny and slightly off color, but it always gets a good laugh and helps keep everything about the holiday in perspective.

Since Elizabeth had the day off on Friday, we did a little running around and got some more beading supplies for her and a start on some polymer clay for me. Then we came home and played in the studio--Elizabeth with her beads while I made some cards. We also cleaned house--everything except my room and bathroom got a cursory (or better) cleaning. I put away everything Christmas related except for the trees, which will come down today.

Saturday morning I was the first one up, and before anyone else got up, I had made a journal for Elizabeth. She is doing a lot of introspection right now, and I always think it is good to write out your thoughts, dreams, goals and so on. Ornery spent all day working on Elizabeth's loom, which he completed that evening. She was very excited with the finished project and in fact got some yarn out first thing Sunday morning and had a whole shawl woven by bed-time! Part of the day we spent in the studio making "hat pins" for my cards from beads and wire. They really turned out cute!

I had a delightful surprise on Saturday when the UPS man brought me a brand new pair of Clarks shoes to replace the pair that fell apart! I was really surprised they sent them as I figured the old ones were just worn out and not defective, but they must have felt otherwise. I LOVE the new pair, actually both new pair, as I used the 30% off coupon to get a black pair when we were in Florida at the Clarks outlet store. These new brown mules are very comfortable and actually fit and feel better than the ones I tried on in the store and purchased!

Sunday morning I got up early and baked banana bread, started the crock pot with some stroganoff for lunch and finished off the laundry. Ornery was pretty sore from all his bending and sitting on the concrete floor working on the loom, so I gave him a neck and shoulder massage, then ran him a hot bath in the gigantic tub. I was surprised that there was enough hot water for the rest of us to shower, but there was.

After I got out of the shower, I put my hair on curlers. It was really wet when I started, but I figured the curl would hold better if I did it that way. By the time it was dry, Mom was at the door, and I raced to remove them and ended up with a HUGE fluffy 'do! Of course none of us thought to take any pictures of the day except early in the morning when Elizabeth was sitting in the middle of her loom on the floor in her pj's with her hair pulled back and messy at which time I was forbidden to locate any camera or apparatus which could record her glorious attire for future observation.

Mom, Elizabeth and I worked a couple of jigsaw puzzles, and we ate a nice dinner of stroganoff, crescent rolls, green peas and hominy. Then I whipped up a "Southern Pie" which is like a pecan pie only instead of nuts it uses Grape Nuts cereal. We ate it with a little frozen yogurt for a nice finish to the meal. Ornery spent part of the day in the Man Cave working on Elizabeth's box. He finished the fret work on the lid and got the sides ready to start on. Mom didn't stay very late as she needed to get home to pack for a trip, but in all it was a pleasant day.

Today we all have our respective plans--Elizabeth will be putting fringe on her shawl and taking it off the loom, Ornery plans to work on the box some more, and I will take down the last of the Christmas stuff and work on getting a few more things ready for photographing to put in my etsy shop. I will be doing a giveaway on Oops, I craft my pants blog on January 2nd as I celebrate Miller Manor Designs fourth birthday. Before then, I hope to get my shop spiffed up a bit with some new product. Ideas are running rampant, but the execution has been a little challenging. This week I really need to buckle down and get to work!

The special order for 10 clipboards is awaiting the arrival of the boards (which should be here in a day or two) and then I will be busy on that for a couple of days. I am not really looking forward to tying all those little ribbons on--I recall that was a tedious chore--but I am grateful for the order and hope I have a lot more of those big sales in 2012!

Christmas Eve Eve

2011-12-23T07:47:00.000-06:00

Elizabeth is off for the rest of the year starting today, and Ornery's last day before the long weekend is today, although he will work from Tuesday through Friday next week. We have already done all the Christmas giving we plan to do, and other than having Mom over for Christmas Day so she won't spend it alone, we don't have any plans. We have discarded the traditions we didn't really like (turkey dinner, big family gathering, etc.) but we haven't really put any new ones in place.

This is the first year ever I won't be stuffing stockings or opening any gifts on Christmas Day. I don't know if it is good or bad, but certainly different. I like the stress-free feeling of already being done, but somehow it feels a little funky to have nothing planned to celebrate on the actual day. It has been a month-long celebration, so I don't feel cheated in any way, but I don't think I want to do this every year. In all it has been an out-of-the-ordinary year.

Ornery and I had a nice long visit last night as we started going through a Darren Hardy book on goal setting. We discussed our dreams (which we will have to search for to resurrect) and passions (which don't seem to be riding very high in either of us at the moment). We talked about what changes we wanted to see in our lives and began thinking about how we will go about making them.

When I started the year, I had high hopes for great personal growth, starting a business venture, and weight management. In the end, it seems like all we got done was sell one house with all the preparation involved in that, and move into another and make it "ours." Rather than lose weight, we have both added more and rather than grow personally, it seems we have digressed and lost a lot of the ground we had gained before. It seems at almost every turn my expectations have been unmet, and that has left me feeling rather flat.

While our health has not declined, we have not really improved either, and even our latest foray into the nebulous world of RBTI is not turning out as great as we had hoped it would. We have decided to take the good from the experience and move on rather than attempt to force our lives into a mold that would be uncomfortable at best and impossible at worst to maintain. It seemed like a great idea to have a "norm" to aim for, but the routes that are suggested for reaching those perfect numbers are beyond what either of us are really willing to travel.

This little funk I am in is likely related to just really being tired and needing a nice long respite from big projects--at least I hope that is what it is! I am glad Ornery and I are both on the same page of wanting something more from life, and it will be interesting (and I hope exciting) to see what comes of these evenings of introspection and forward planning.

Meanwhile, I think it is going to be fun to spend time with Elizabeth this week. Ornery is almost finished with her new loom and is going to make a tripod stand for it. We are going to Hobby Lobby today to get some different gauge wire for her beading, and I am going to look at some polymer clay. If the customer who queried about ten custom clipboards follows through with some $$, I will have a pretty big job coming up, and if not, I have a lot of ribbon coming in that I will have to find a use for! I'd like to get some new stuff in my etsy shop, which will require spending some time in my studio. I won't mind that at all!

Finally unpacked!

2011-12-21T06:59:00.000-06:00

It took me a few days to get everything put away from the trip--there were even a few things left from the ornament exchange! I think I am finally caught back up, and even managed to take care of a few things that arrived while we were gone--like this new curtain in the utility room...

The purple rug obviously doesn't really go with the rest of the room, but it is comfy on my feet so until I find something I like for that spot, it will remain in its clashing goodness. :) The curtain doesn't really hide the shelves, but it does distract the eye so you don't notice the vacuum cleaner and stuff that isn't attractive. I am hoping to put a back splash of blue and green tile around the sink someday, but it is not very high on the priority list right now. We use the sink a lot and the faucets seem to splatter quite a bit which isn't very good for the sheet rock surrounding it.

We bought a curtain rod to go with the curtains I found for the new guest room, but we also bought some paint, and it seemed like a better idea to wait to hang them until we got the walls painted. The wood blinds don't cut a lot of light or insulate very well against the temperature fluctuations outside the window and if we have a winter like last year, we will certainly want all the insulation we can get!

Yesterday I got my hair cut at a new salon. It was quite an experience to say the least, but my hair feels and looks great. I had a deep conditioning treatment to help overcome the effects of the last couple of perms, and it really was worth every penny. The salon seemed like a scene from an MTV video with clothes and hairstyles that left me wondering what I would look like when I was done, but the stylist was really good (only 18!) and I felt very pampered. I know if I go back again I will need to schedule a whole afternoon for my experience as just the haircut, shampoo, (which came with a ten minute head, neck and shoulder massage) conditioning and style took over two and a half hours.

Mom came over last night and took the three of us out to the Olive Garden for a Christmas dinner. Then she came over and visited for a while. It was a pretty long day, but it really feels good to have that hair under control again!

Neighborly Christmas

2011-12-20T07:50:00.000-06:00

We have done a variety of things for our neighbors over the years at Christmastime, but time really got away from us this year and we almost didn't get anything done! We only gave to four families, the two next door and the two across the street.

The box has some home-made caramels inside, and each family got an ornament for their tree and a greeting card as well. When we delivered them, we were met mostly with suspicion as we haven't really been all that sociable since we moved in. Hopefully now that we have our house mostly like we want it, we will be out in the 'hood a bit more.

I made a few Christmas cards to send to those who sent them to us, but we aren't even doing a letter this year.

Pictures from our trip

2011-12-19T07:15:00.003-06:00

Ornery took these photos from the condominium we were staying in last week.

If I didn't know better, I would say this looked like snow! It was certainly white sand and it hurt to look out on it without sunglasses.

There was obviously not a lot of activity on the beach, although one day we saw a half-dozen surfers in wet suits frolicking in the waves. Some of them were pretty good considering there was not a lot of wave action.

The patio. The whole back wall of the condo is windows, so from the entry hall to the living room one can see the beach.

So peaceful.

Weekend in Review: Home again

2011-12-15T12:32:00.001-06:00

Ornery and I left Zoe Cottage on Saturday morning a week ago for a trip to Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. We arrived there on Sunday and spent a few hours that afternoon with Ryan, Ale and the grands, but that was our only time to visit.

While he was working on simulators at the base, I did some pre-tax-time work on my etsy books and read. We spent the mornings together, sometimes just in the condo, other times we went shopping. At thrift shops I found a "new" Gateway computer keyboard to strip for crafting, and an old Monopoly game. We also shopped at the outlet mall in San Destin where we got some amazing deals on shirts for Ornery and a purse and shoes for me. We also went to the Scrapbook Clearance Center where I found some pretty cool deals on a few craft supplies. I didn't spend a lot, but I got a few things I had been hoping to find.

Rather than spend $100. for a night in a hotel on the way home, we drove straight through on Friday, which was a day earlier than we thought we would be coming home. We left there at about 7:00 AM and arrived home at 9:00 PM. Home never looked so good!

Saturday we went to Lowe's and bought a few things for some projects, and then Elizabeth and I spent a few hours in the studio--she worked on some jewelry and I covered a journal and made some cards.

Today she and Ornery are building a new tri-loom for her shawl weaving; this one will be a bit smaller than the first, and since Ornery has "real" tools now it will be made much better as well. The two of them have spent a lot of time with their heads together to figure out the best design and assembly method.

Meanwhile, I have been redesigning our logo, printing out greeting card backs and creating a new business card. Once I get it all ready, I will take my computer over to Office Depot and see how they want the image downloaded for printing. I tried to do it online, but I couldn't figure out how to save the image to its specifications.

I also have laundry, grocery shopping and a bit of house work to catch up on. It is nice to be back home with things to do. I am looking forward to the coming week with lots of ideas and time to experiment with some of my new goodies.

So Many Choices...

2011-12-12T06:57:00.002-06:00

I want to take some online classes this winter and spring. There are a lot of choices and I am having a hard time deciding which way to go. Shall I venture into textiles with this series of 20 workshops? Or shall I stick with paper crafting and add an art journal emphasis and go to this? I am pretty sure I really want to take this class, which is considerably more expensive than the others but it really speaks to me. If I enrolled and "attended" all the classes, the fees would be the least of the expense because each one will have supplies, and as with any new medium, the start up can be fairly costly. I also want to start working with polymer clay and have no supplies for that craft, either.

So many options!

Weekend in Review: Nada

2011-12-11T20:11:00.002-06:00

Saturday morning Ornery and I went to breakfast at Panera and on the way saw the lunar eclipse. I thought it looked like a big fat guy sat on the moon and squashed the top of it. :) It was the first time I had seen one of those. I have seen partial solar eclipses, and noted the eerie shade that covered everything until the moon passed by, but I had never seen the earth's shadow over the moon. The moon was full or nearly so, and in the early morning light it was easy to see the "indention" on the top of it.

As for the rest of the weekend, I sat. And Sunday afternoon I got to hold my new granddaughter for a couple hours while she slept. That was my weekend in a nutshell.

Laundry is Fun?

2011-12-08T05:45:00.001-06:00

Okay, it's not really FUN, but it has increased in appeal about twenty times now that it is only a couple of steps from the closet to the washer and dryer. I can sort it on the floor of the closet and as soon as I pull it out of the dryer, it can go right on the closet bars, alleviating the step of hanging it in the laundry room then hauling it all half-way through the house to put it away with multiple trips per wash-day. I don't know how many minutes of my life I have added to do more pleasurable things, but I am sure it is a significant amount!

Now, if I could just make those shirts iron themselves...

Focused on cards

2011-12-06T14:54:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I made 50 Christmas cards. I am pretty sure that is some sort of a record for me. They are nothing to write home about, but they are cute for flat cards (as opposed to three dimensional which is my preference) and all have little trees cut out of map scraps stuck on in varying quantities and positions. No two cards are exactly the same, but they are similar in that they have one of two sentiments, "Joy to the world" and "Peace on earth" and all feature the aforementioned trees. Otherwise, the background papers are all different, and none of them are Christmas papers.

I lightened the burden in my scrap drawers a little by using pieces for the backgrounds, but I really do need to finish going through those to bring them down to a reasonable collection. I should make myself use only scraps until I can fit them into a small box. If I did that, I am sure I would have some very interesting cards to show for my efforts. I got through one of the four drawers a few weeks ago, tossing pieces I didn't care for and punching shapes out of the pieces that were too small to be otherwise useful before throwing the rest away. I ended up with a number of tags and little flowers that I used for the ornament/cookie exchange and a much more manageable amount in the drawer. Unfortunately, it was one of the least populated, and I dread going through the big ones. It might be time for a different system.

I just want to mention here how much I am loving my new studio. It isn't as big as the other room, (by six inches one direction) but it feels a lot roomier for some reason. The closet is like a dream, and I have noticed about a hundred-fold increase in the frequency I access things in it. Actually, the access for everything seems easier in this space. It is good I like it because I am sure spending a lot of time there.

When Elizabeth came home from work we ventured out into rush hour traffic to pick up some envelopes for the cards, some fabric for Mimi, and some books on beading at Hobby Lobby. There were several other errands I needed to do, but as I said, it was rush hour...

Today I will mail Mimi's package and finish my errands--grocery shopping is the main one. It has really gotten cold so I tend to avoid going out if I can, but one does need to eat, and even if I decided to go on an extended fast, Ornery and Elizabeth might revolt if I don't stock up!

A Little Different

2011-12-06T06:38:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I worked on the special order for a friend. She wanted dominoes with a school theme for her grandsons who just started pre-K and kindergarten this fall. The set of embellishments I had seen before was no longer available, but they had some crayons I thought I might be able to use. While I was there shopping I also picked up a few other embellishments and tried some new ideas for backgrounds.

I have never done any with pale backgrounds before, nor have I ever glued two together like I did with the owl and tree. I thought they were okay, but definitely not in my usual style.

I also got some little cars. I ended up taking them all apart to cut off the loop on the back, then gluing the parts back together. No matter how hard I try to get the loop cut even with the backing, there seems to always be just enough of a bump to keep them from laying flat on the domino. The glue I use works pretty well, but it is better if I don't have to rely on the tiny area that sticks out to hold the embellishment on. If there is a large surface glued down, the embellishment is permanently affixed, but the small area leaves a bit of wobble that can sometimes work loose. The penguins did not work well, but I thought they were cute.

Here are the promised photos of the finished rooms...

The picture is hanging too high on the wall, but there was already a nail with a hanger there and it is in a stud, so taking it out would leave a rather significant ding in the wall. Someday I will change it, but at least for now the wall isn't bare. We are really loving that lamp...

Here is what I did with the quilt my sister sent to me. I love the bright colors and the little spark it adds to the brown furniture.

My end of the closet. I cannot express how delightful this area feels now. There is still a bit of room for storage, should I happen to end up with more junk than I currently own...

Ornery's end of the closet. He already has the requisite amount of junk to fill his side. We will keep the off season shirts on the lower rack, then move them to the tall side when the seasons change.

This is the view you see when you come in from the garage. Turn left into the kitchen, turn right into the utility room. The picture isn't really what I want to keep there, but it needed something to break up all that red and was what I had on hand.

The new shelves are all lined with tiles and I have moved in a few things. I am not in much of a hurry to fill it up! I plan to find a curtain to hang in front of the shelves to help keep the lint mess down, as well as cover up the contents. It isn't very pretty, but certainly handy!

Weekend in Review: New Phase

2011-12-04T20:10:00.001-06:00

The entire year 2011 has been run at a hectic pace--at least much faster than I prefer to live my life! I am declaring the year 2012 as the Year of Peace. No new big projects, a leisurely pace and a simple life. I know that I cannot predict all the things that may come, but I am going to make a sincere effort to do everything with no worries, no deadlines and no stress. We'll see how it goes!

It feels like the year is finally over since the cookie and ornament exchange have now been cleared from my calendar. The whole event from the beginning planning stages all the way till the end was a headache without a cure. I had fun making things, but I have enough other reasons to craft without going through that again. If I start making noises about hosting (or participating) again, Ornery has been given permission to put duct tape over my mouth so I can't agree to anything! The event has run its course for me, and I am ready to try something different next year.

The weekend has been spent in quiet pursuits. We have gone to bed early, slept in and done quiet tasks. Ornery has been working on the website for Grace and Righteousness Ministries, Elizabeth brought in the last of her clothes and things from her car, did some laundry and spent time on her computer, and I lined the new shelves in the utility room and moved a bunch of stuff from the pantry to their new homes. Then I organized my hanging clothes which had just been put in helter-skelter after the renovation and did the laundry, filed all the papers and receipts that had piled up and planned out the coming week. Nothing was done with vigor, but I feel good about heading into the new week.

I got a special order for two dominoes at the exchange, so I will need to go buy some parts in the morning, then I have some cooking and a little crafting to do. Otherwise, I am going to lay low and regroup. Ornery and Elizabeth go back to work in the morning after having little "vacations"-- if you can call all the work Ornery did and Elizabeth's move vacations! He was off eleven days, she was off three and a half. She is taking all the cookies she got from the exchange to work to share with her co-workers in the morning.

Three more weeks until Christmas and four left before the new year. I am ready for both.

The Party's Over

2011-12-02T21:17:00.001-06:00

and I am going to sleep for a week. When I surface, I will photograph all the finished projects.

Belated Finale

2011-12-01T10:09:00.001-06:00

I didn't get a post written last night with the progress from the day because it was our last night together and we spent it visiting, dining, (Olive Garden), and playing cribbage. Chuck and I played several games, but he ended the tie with a skunk, so he won six to four for the week. That last game was brutal!

For the most part the projects are complete. Ornery still has a few little things to re-install like hooks and door stops, and we need to paint the new door, but my attention is turned toward the next major events: Elizabeth moving in and the ornament exchange, both of which occur tomorrow.

I will take photos once I get everything cleaned up. We did get moved into the closet last night, and it is so much more usable for our needs. I love the floor, and the lower shelves for all my junk. The top shelf on my side is almost empty, and there is still an entire empty shelf on Ornery's side as well. We had room for a chair in there, (for putting on our shoes) the hamper and the scales. I am going to put my purse hanger in there instead of just inside the garage door.

Speaking of the garage door, the little alcove between the kitchen and the utility room got a fresh coat of paint when the utility room got one. It is just pretty cool looking! We used the same green from the hall, living room, etc., on the walls and ceiling except for the wall that greets you when you open the door from the garage, which is now that brilliant orange vermilion color! I need to find something to hang there to decorate, but it is sure an exciting way to enter the house!

Charlie, Chuck and Mimi left at about 6:00 this morning. I will miss the help and companionship, but not the projects! Ornery plans to start after the first of the year replacing the carpet in the bathrooms with the same flooring we got for the closet. We left the threshold off the doorway into the bathroom so we wouldn't have to just take it out again. Eventually we plan to put that floor in the studio and hall bath, and will need to paint in the guest room and both bathrooms, but not this year.

The laundry is humming, and I am getting ready to fire up the vacuum cleaner, dust cloth and mop. I still have to fix the food for the exchange and get things ready for Elizabeth to bake her cookies tonight so we can move her tomorrow. We are only making one trip in three vehicles in the morning, but it will take a little while to get things settled in and tidy before the ladies arrive. It will be a very busy couple of days!

So lovely!

2011-11-29T19:30:00.001-06:00

The day ended with a finished floor in the closet today!

The guys said this was a do-it-yourselfer's dream come true. Jobs that remain to complete this project: trim installed and paint touched up, thresholds installed. bars replaced and move in.

The only thing that happened in the laundry room today was that I primed the shelves. We will lay peel and stick tiles on the shelf surface, so the only painting that will need to be done is along the front edge, but we thought the tiles might stick better if the wood was primed.

I also painted the baseboards, and put another coat of paint on the end table, but didn't photograph that. While I was painting, Chuck built a couple new shelves in the studio closet for me, making an already wonderful closet even better!

Mimi and I spent some time fixing the antique cupboard to display my etsy wares...

and we filled the goody bags for the ornament/cookie exchange and I made some tags for them.

I also sold and sent off a card from my etsy shop. Those little emails congratulating me on a sale are always a welcome sight when they arrive in my inbox!

Tomorrow the guys will finish the closet, and we will hopefully get the utility room painted, as well. We are so close to being done with everything!

More Progress

2011-11-28T19:10:00.001-06:00

Here we are at the end of day four of the renovation project. Besides the closet, we have worked on a few other little things--mostly Mimi and I have done other things, the men have been quite focused on the tasks at hand.

Here is the inside of Ornery's end of the closet. Check out that bright white paint! Mimi finished painting it all today.

These are the new shelves in the utility room; Ornery is caulking along the back. The bottom shelf is tall enough to house my tall appliances like the mixer, blender and food processor. They are currently on the top shelf of the pantry and very difficult to get down. I plan to put up a curtain across it at some point--just not this week!

I got the second coat put on the top of the little end table. I think in the morning I will sand it and put a final coat on, then move it into the living room. I found a really cute lamp at Target that will look great on it. We picked a square linen shade.

This is an arrangement in the little birdcage I bought at a yard sale--same one whereI bought my end table--Mimi did a great job of putting it all together for me.

Then she reworked this one. I like this much better than the way I had it-- filled with tulle and nothing exciting about it.

This arrived in the mail for me today from my sister in WA...

So bright and cheery!

The remainder of the jobs:
Chuck is prepping the floor for the vinyl, scraping off the over-spray of mud the building contractors hid under the carpet. The utility room and the new shelves in there still need to be painted, and all the trim needs to be painted and hung and the floor needs to be put down in the closet. Then we need to move everything back in and CLEAN. There is sheet rock dust everywhere!

Switching it up...

2011-11-27T19:14:00.001-06:00

First thing this morning I hopped in the shower and got dressed--two things that never got done yesterday. Then Ornery and I made a run to Lowe's and the grocery store. The Lowe's run was sort of a waste, since they didn't have what I was looking for and I forgot one of the items I went in for!

Chuck was already at work in there when we got home, and after a quick breakfast Ornery joined him. They finished building and installing the shelves, then Ornery caulked around all the new shelves.

Ornery used to tease me that one day he would come home from work and find his bed in the bathtub. Rearranging is a regular occurrence around here, but we don't usually switch whole rooms! Today Mimi finished the second coat on the letters, then she helped me to move the guest room to the studio and the studio to the guest room! Chuck is a little worried about getting lost on his way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. :)

This is the new studio view from the doorway. Charlie was keeping me company. I still have a few things to put away, but it is remarkably put together considering the upheaval it took to get to this point.

I moved into the closet first as it was already almost empty. I doubled my closet storage space and was able to put the little cubicle unit inside as well, so I can hide all my junkie looking supplies. The ribbon rack is on the wall next to the closet door in the corner.

Rather than keep a separate table for my computer, I am just using the other side of my craft table for now. I put the file cabinet and the printer next to the armoire, which houses a rather large assortment of paper, some misc. craft supplies and all the items I have already made and listed on my etsy shop.

Once the old studio was empty, we put the bed in there. The little table is still there, but after our company leaves we will move it out into the garage to make more room. For now it is handy to have in there.

In the process of moving, I had to pile a bunch of Ornery's clothes in the living room. We have a rather colossal mess in most of the rooms because of the closet project. Chuck and Mimi are painting in there this evening. Mimi is priming the shelves and Chuck is doing the walls. The closet is big, but not big enough for four people, so we are not invited to that party! I'll post photos tomorrow night of that area. Other than the new shelves, there was not a lot of visible progress in there.

So ended the day #3 of the renovation.

Good Progress

2011-11-26T21:18:00.001-06:00

First project of the day was to hang the little shelves beneath the arrangement we put up yesterday.

It isn't the greatest picture I have ever taken, but at least you can see the finished product.

Chuck and Ornery made a few trips to Lowe's today, but still managed to get quite a bit done. I now have an outlet inside the closet so I will be able to iron inside the closet!

and I have a nice little bank of shelves for all my shoes and plastic storage boxes filled with sweaters, off season clothes, etc. This side used to be Ornery's side but we are switching with the renovation. That alarm box is really in the way, and we had lost the use of that whole section of hanging space, so utilizing it as shelves will make a big difference.

Mimi finished the first run through all the lettering on the hall wall,

She plans on going back over everything once more, and removing the lines that remain. I am totally impressed that she got it done in two days!

I got the first of a set of two canvas mixed media projects finished--at least for now. Who knows if I will go back and add more. The second part of the set is on the craft room table waiting for some glue and a tad more inspiration. Mimi made some adorable little dragonflies and a bird's nest for me, and I recycled a rather large pile of plastic packaging by cutting, adding alcohol inks and heating up to warp and curl them so they look like leaves.

I hope to get the second one finished tomorrow and hang both of them behind the recliners in the living room. Once that is done, we are going to tackle the end table. I am clearly out of my element when it comes to painting. I think I can handle small projects, but not the bigger ones.

Once that is done, we are going to switch the studio and guest room. Meanwhile, the guys have another bank of shelves to build, texture to finish, trim to cut and hang, paint to apply to inside the closet and the laundry room, and the flooring to put down. We just have five working days left... can we get it all done?

Buzzzz...

2011-11-25T20:24:00.001-06:00

Welcome to the bee-hive! We have been busy, busy, busy today! Ornery and I got up early, around 5:00 and enjoyed our coffee before emptying out our closet. Some of the contents ended up on the Ceragem bed, others in the guest room closet,

and a lot of stuff was piled in the bathtub outside the closet door.

After breakfast, we all (including the dog) piled into the car and truck and headed to Lowe's for our first project run. Once we were done shopping there, Mimi and I went to Hobby Lobby and the guys and dog came home to start on the closet. They tore out all the shelves in the section that would be opened up, then cut the hole, built the frame and hung the door. The last thing they did was put up the sheet rock and mud and tape. That was an amazing first day. Here are some pictures of the end of the day.

This is looking from our bathroom through the closet into the laundry room! SO exciting! We were originally planning to put the same type of doors that were in the other part of the closet but they were a special order item, and the earliest we could get them was next Wednesday. We opted instead for a bi-fold door.

This is looking from one end of the closet. I know it doesn't look like much, but I am thrilled with their progress so far!

While they were working on that, Mimi and I were gainfully employed. First we hung pictures in the living room. We moved the poppy from behind the recliners to above the mantle, which is where I had wanted to put it, but thought it was too large to fit.

Then we hung the three Beaubien watercolors I got in Manitou Springs, CO a few years ago above the bank of windows, removing them from the corner where they were mostly hidden. We hung a marker drawing Elizabeth did in high school of some iris, but shortly after we hung it, the hanger fell off and the picture fell to the floor. It is awaiting a new hanger, then it will go in the same place we took the three watercolors from. Since it is larger, it won't be lost in the corner like the three little guys were.

They were not easy to hang, but a few extra holes are no big deal to me!

The large pansy print was in a cheap plastic frame, so I bought a new wood and glass poster frame at Hobby Lobby this morning and we used that as the focal point on the wall behind the couch. The little shelves on the top of the couch will go two inches below the pictures when we can get a guy with a drill available. I also re-stuffed and sewed closed the little denim quilted pillow Mimi made for me when I was in high school.

Next, we hung the words on the wall for Mimi to trace and begin painting. This is the progress at the end of day one.

We are all pretty tired tonight. I think we put in a good day's work!

Counting down the minutes

2011-11-23T15:24:00.001-06:00

Charlie will be here soon, and she is bringing my sister and brother-in-law with her. Other than a short weekend visit from Liberty this summer, we haven't had a dog in residence since we moved into Zoe Cottage. I am almost as excited about that as having my peeps here! :)

I sold another yardstick airplane on etsy around noon today, just before I was headed out to ship some other things, so I quickly boxed it up, paid for postage online (twice because my computer hung while waiting to print--I think the USPS is trying every way they can to get more money in their coffers!) and took it to the PO less than an hour after the buyer paid. THAT'S service!!

From the UPS Store, I sent a quilt off to my sister in WA and sadly said good-bye to the shoes going back to Clarks for replacement or return. Either way they are no good to me now. I am grateful they are willing to look at them to determine if they were defective. If so, I get a new pair from the list of six selections I submitted! That is also great service!

While I was out, I collected on the last of a credit we had on account at Backwoods to finish off some Christmas shopping, went by Akin's Health Foods to get some sundries, and stopped by the Great Harvest Bread store for bread, only to find them temporarily closed. :(

I heard from my e-friend that I won her birthday gift, and I can't wait to get it in the mail. I will send her something in return from my stash, because I think she would really like that, and I would too!

I cooked a turkey today--bare; not even any salt on it!--and need to get it off the bones. I was supposed to do some baking as well, but instead did some laundry including the guest bed sheets and all the new clothes I purchased yesterday afternoon, and took care of some other business.

I'll try to take some photos of our progress this week; I keep forgetting to get the camera out! I sent a photo of my neighbor's house from my phone last night to Ryan. The guy really does remind me of Clark Griswold in Christmas Vacation! Every day there are more lights out. I think he may finally be done; he needs to be since there is hardly any lawn, fence or house left!

Weekend in Review: Looks like Christmas

2011-11-20T04:04:00.001-06:00

Elizabeth arrived early Saturday morning and we spent the day putting up Christmas trees. We started in the library where we put a small tree on top of a file cabinet in front of the window. We don't put outdoor lights up, but so I figured a lighted tree in the window would at least let people know we celebrate Christmas! We used white lights and the snowmen decorations on that tree, and on the tall slimline tree in the living room we used colored lights and all the other ornaments.

After we finished the library and moved into the living room to work, we put a movie on to watch while we (Elizabeth) worked. She is magical with tree fluffing and stringing lights. We watched both Princess Diaries movies and Sydney White before the evening was over. Between the dust from the trees and boxes of ornaments and all the videos, my eyes felt like they had been rolling around on sand paper by bedtime.

I am going to have to think a while about where I want to put the remainder of my meager collection of decorations. I got rid of a lot of things several years ago, and even more when we got ready to move. I haven't really wanted to buy anything else, but I am not terribly excited about my current collection, either. Part of my problem is that I don't have a place to put the things I take down to replace with the Christmas stuff. I also happen to like the feel of the room with the things I have up, so I am not too keen on messing with a good thing.

I haven't bought Christmas decor except ornaments in quite a while. I used to buy a new ornament for each person every year. The last couple of years I have made those instead of purchasing them, and have added several new ones to our collection from the ornament exchanges as well. But I used to have garlands and all sorts of dust catcher type things that perched on shelves, mantles and counters. I don't even have a decent wreath anymore! Ornery and I discussed it and both came to the conclusion that just putting up our Christmas trees might be sufficient this year.

Sunday we had a leisurely start with a late breakfast and more visiting with Elizabeth, who left around 10:00 to go home to get a few things done to get ready for the week ahead. The only things we accomplished after she left were to make a grocery list, purchase the things on it and put them all away. The laundry is started, but finishing that is all I have planned for the rest of the day.

It has gotten cold and cloudy today; never even warmed up past 40 all day I don't think. I have spent a lot of the day under a blanket, which is where I intend to finish out the afternoon with a good book.

Tomorrow I will resume the hectic pace of pre-holiday life with cooking and cleaning, putting away the boxes from the decorations, finishing off the porch decoration I started, and hopefully drawing the design and painting the top of my end table. It is the last big project remaining to be finished. There are plenty of things I have yet to begin, but I like to clear off my plate before piling it full again! I am giving myself three days to finish everything, but the house needs to be in good shape by tomorrow afternoon since we are hosting a pre-Thanksgiving family pizza night. If not for that, I might have lived in my pj's until Wednesday! :)

What a WEEK!

2011-11-18T21:09:00.001-06:00

Oh my goodness that was a week!! I sold three or four dominoes (two today), made 12 cookbooks, 13 greeting cards, finished the two pine baskets I was working on and edited the transcripts from five sermons. I finished the review and sent the completed work in at 8:30 PM!

Zoe Cottage looks like a small hurricane whipped through it, the laundry basket is full and the cupboards and refrigerator are bare. I tried to work in a little bit of housework here and there, but the vacuum cleaner is still sitting out in the hall, along with a dust cloth and some window cleaner. By the time I get the rest of it finished, the first part will need it again! If Ornery had not been helping me here and there in the kitchen, we might be buried in dirty dishes, as well!

This weekend I will be cleaning as we put up our indoor Christmas decorations. I will post photos once we get finished. Our neighbor (of the Frankenstein Halloween decor) has about 1/2 his outdoor Christmas decorations up and I am pretty sure he is related to Clark Griswold. :) "Is your house on fire, Clark?" It will be nice to be in a neighborhood where the people decorate with more than white twinkle lights on the bushes.

The ornament and cookie exchange is two weeks from tonight. It feels odd to not have some project relating to it hanging over my head! Mickie is to bring me the goody bags and once those are filled and the ballots for voting are designed and printed, I will have nothing more to do until I fix the food for that evening.

It hasn't really soaked in yet that the two big projects I have been laboring over so intensely for the past few weeks are finally finished. It is good that they are, though. I still have a few things to do around the house before company arrives. We shall see how much progress is made over the weekend...

Almost finished!

2011-11-17T13:17:00.001-06:00

So far every day this week I have finished another section of the eBook I am editing--tomorrow will be the last one! The series has been really good, and as usual, I feel like I have gotten a lot of good nuggets by editing it that I miss by only listening. Yesterday I started really early (4:00 AM) and decided it was really nice to be finished by 9:00!

The early start gave me plenty of time to finish the cookbooks and make a set of 8 Christmas cards for one of the exchange prizes. All that is left to do for the event is to assemble goody bags and finish off the two pine baskets--hopefully this afternoon!

Next up on the agenda is a thorough house cleaning to get ready to decorate for Christmas this weekend! I started on that a little bit yesterday afternoon in the studio where I dusted and vacuumed, but that leaves a whole lot of house left to do! Everything has fallen by the wayside while I took care of the exchange tasks and editing. We have had to eat out a lot this week because there is no food in the house despite our Sam's run on Tuesday night. There are only so many hours and so much energy to expend in any given day, and sometimes it just doesn't all get done!

Elizabeth is coming to help us decorate this weekend. Ornery has almost given up trying to keep her gift a secret because she has come so often that he is afraid he won't be able to get it finished before Christmas if he doesn't work on it while she is here! :)

It is only one week until Thanksgiving. I simply can't believe how very fast this year has flown by.

Riff-raff filter

2011-11-16T08:10:00.001-06:00

Ornery told me at breakfast this morning that for a mere $47,000 we could spend one night at one of the palaces in London during the Olympics. I told him they had a pretty strong riff-raff filter up. :) It certainly filtered US out!

Hard Week

2011-11-15T19:53:00.001-06:00

This week has already had a lot of sad and frustrating moments, and it is only Tuesday! It seems like there have been many little foxes spoiling my grapes. :(

Despite the difficulties, I am still accomplishing much. Each day, yesterday and today, I completed another section of the eBook, which only leaves three -- one for Wednesday, Thursday and the last on Friday. Right on schedule, although I hadn't planned on working on it every day this week! I am paying for my slacker ways from last week!

I also made the covers for the cookie cookbooks today. SO cute! I have only received five of the nine recipes, but I will print everything I have tomorrow morning and assemble them. Other than finishing off a couple more prizes, that will the the last of my chores for the exchange. Phew!

We went to Sam's Club tonight and bought a few groceries. We also picked up a huge poinsettia for Ornery's mom for Christmas. She is the only person I know who can keep the things alive and blooming year after year. This one is gorgeous, and I know she will love it. Ornery's family is coming here on Monday evening for an early Thanksgiving meal. We are ordering pizza and salad. :) We plan to give Mom her Christmas gifts then--at least the ones we have. I still need to make a calendar but I am at a loss since the only pictures we have taken this year were of my crafts and the house!

I am ready for a turn-around in circumstances. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Weekend in Review: Three Saw Saturday

2011-11-12T18:29:00.001-06:00

Saturday we had breakfast at Panera and made a list of things we needed to do this weekend. It seemed pretty insurmountable, but we just put on the blinders and plowed through.

Errands were first.

mail etsy order
grocery shopping
Lowe's for lumber
library

Once we got home:

finish off two wooden stocking ornaments
make bead garland and finish book tree on stand (took about an hour to string those tiny beads!)
glitter clothespins for goody bags
cut lumber for winter porch decor
cut covers for cookie cookbooks
paint final coat on end table (can't believe I am STILL working on that thing!)
re-assemble end table
paint porch decor lumber
sand both and stain one pine basket
glue one basket
cut circle for base of hurricane lamp
make candle ring on foil covered circle

Here is the book tree on its stand and the hurricane inside the candle ring I made. I used a piece of foil covered masonite on the bottom. I added a piece of felt on the table side of the circle to protect the surface of a table since the foil can scratch things up. Then, using my hot glue gun, I added all the greenery stuff. I started with two picks that had silver stuff on them and one branch of pine. I used up all the parts except one little bit of greenery from the silver picks. At the heart of the ring is a small silver votive holder glued to the middle of the circle. The hurricane just sits on top.

The cost was minimal for both projects. The glassware was from the craft day I did with Mickie a few weeks ago. It was all from the dollar store except the hurricane which she had leftover from a wedding or something. The tree was a paperback on hand, the topper was $1.00, the beads were $3.00 but I have over 1/2 the package left. The picks were on sale for 1/2 price, so I have about $5.00 in the candle ring, including the felt, foil, and wood. They are both prizes for the ornament/cookie exchange.

We mostly worked together on all of the projects. Ornery did some of the stuff and I did some, but for the most part we both had our hands in all the projects. By 7:00 PM I had glitter on my glitter and we were both beat--of course we did start the day awfully early!

Sunday I woke up before Ornery (which is rare these days!) and started on a little project I saw on Pinterest. By the time he got up I was most of the way through it...

Isn't he cute?? I had two of these done by 6:30! They started out as cheap $1. paint brushes. I added paint, ribbon, trim and embellishments.

After breakfast, we spent some time out in the Man Cave working on various projects--mostly the two little baskets for the exchange prizes. These are pine, and were the trial run for the oak he made the baskets out of for gifts. I have decided there is a reason pine is cheap and not so desirable. I sanded and sanded and ... well, I finally got one smooth enough to put the finish on.

Ornery was working on gluing the other one while I worked. I was really disappointed in the staining--I think it was because of the cheap wood, but part of it was that despite all my sanding, there were still little barbs sticking up all over. That was the one Ornery was gluing while I put the finish on the unstained larger one. Once the glue dries, I will sand it all again and see what it looks like. I may end up adding ribbon to the outside and making a liner for the inside to cover it up!

After lunch I made a couple of thank you cards and Ornery took pictures of the crafts I made this week to post on the etsy shop. While we were eating lunch someone bought a domino--they have been hot items this week! So I got that all wrapped up and ready to send out in the morning.

We decided to wait on the hall bathroom project until a later time. I am a little overwhelmed with all the crafting I still need to do. I am making 12 cookie cookbooks, and they are going to be fairly labor intensive. Of course, it could be for naught if no one else sends me their recipes! Around 2:00, Mickie came by to lend me some stamps for the project. We had a nice visit, as usual! :) I wasn't able to use her stamps, so I am back to the drawing board for my design. Oh, well.

This week I have five messages to edit, cookbooks to finish and a couple other projects to complete. I made huge strides this weekend and feel so much more comfortable with my position going into this week...or I will be once I finish the laundry and get some meal plans made!

Daily rambling

2011-11-11T14:45:00.001-06:00

I got the big special order finished this morning, photographed the pieces, wrapped them all up, bought my postage on line, then realized it was Veteran's Day and I couldn't mail it until tomorrow! I saved almost a whole dollar by buying the postage online and printing out the shipping label there. I'll be doing that again when I am able. I don't have a shipping scale, just a food model, but it does weigh to fractions of ounces, so it works as long as the package is small enough.

I also worked on the two ornaments I started last weekend. It has been hard to get back into that 'mode' again after being away from it for a few projects. I am trying to get a few things ready for Ornery to photograph to put up on the etsy shop this weekend. By the time he gets home in the evening, it is already too dark to take the pictures, so we will have to make a weekly chore of it for a while on Saturday.

Elizabeth took a spill from one the horses Jeff bought last month. I haven't seen her since it happened, but she says while she is sore all over, she didn't break anything but she will have a bit of color on her face from where she landed in the pasture after the horse started bucking and her saddle slipped. It was a semi-controlled fall, but apparently not as controlled as she would have liked. :/

In less than two weeks my sister will be here! I can hardly wait! I don't think I am going to be as far along on my long list of things to do before she arrives, but I have at least gotten my ornament exchange stuff mostly finished. There are a few prizes that still need some work.

I am glad it is Friday! Love weekends with Ornery!

So sad.

2011-11-10T07:32:00.001-06:00

I know the title makes it sound like there was a major calamity in my life. Well, it isn't earth shattering, but my favorite pair of mules disintegrated yesterday. The rubber sole (which makes them the most comfortable shoes on the planet) crumbled away at the stitching. The tops are still serviceable, and the soles are still in good shape, they just no longer want to be together--like a messy divorce! :(

In other news, the inquiry yesterday (that I spent the entire day chasing parts down for) is apparently going to materialize into a sale. I never heard from her yesterday, but she messaged me today to say she had pneumonia and had not been back on the computer. I will start on them this afternoon.

I did accomplish a lot on my craft store shopping extravaganza! Besides buying parts for her ornaments, I bought supplies to

transform a faux mercury glass dollar store cake stand and an old paper back book into a lovely centerpiece
create a cute candle ring to adorn the base of a faux mercury glass hurricane lamp
make adorable hard cover cookie cookbooks for the exchange participants

Ornery always expects to be drawn in on this annual venture, and I didn't want to disappoint him, so he will get to use two saws for me this weekend. :)

Hopefully the weekend will be filled with some fun stuff. I am editing in the mornings today and tomorrow, but Saturday I hope to get the light and shower head in the guest bathroom replaced, which means I will need to do a little painting in there. I'm thinking purple and light turquoise sounds nice. It is currently a rather ugly taupe color and very dark. I am only going to paint the area around the light fixture for now, and wait until we get the door closed off to do the rest.

Crazy!

2011-11-09T07:24:00.000-06:00

The etsy orders just keep coming! I woke this morning to a custom order for 14 dominoes! Still waiting to hear back as to whether my proposal is acceptable, but if so, I will be busy for a couple of days! I also sold two journals yesterday, added personalization, and mailed them off.

I am thrilled with all the sales, and they are from all over the country. At this rate, I will top my sales from last year, which was my best year ever. I think my product is improving, and that may have something to do with it, but a lot of the things I have sold were from last year, so that can't be it entirely. Anyway, I am happy about it!

Weird

2011-11-08T09:17:00.000-06:00

Last night we felt the third earthquake in as many days. This one was 4.7 at about 9:00 PM. Ornery says he read that we could expect several weeks of tremors. That wasn't very good news! Meanwhile, we are under a flash flood watch due to all the rain, and I read that there was a tornado sighted in the southwestern part of the state. Personally, I am loving the rain, and I wish I had some garden planted for it to water, but I could sure do without all the earth shaking bit!

Birthday Prizes

2011-11-07T05:39:00.000-06:00

One of the delights in my life is meeting friends online that I never would come in contact with elsewhere. Today is the birthday of one of those friends--Tammy Gilley who lives in Portland, OR. She has a delightful fun style and is sharing a bundle of her goodies for one lucky comment giver on her blog. Now, I would REALLY love to win this package, because simply everything in it would match the decor in Zoe Cottage, but it wouldn't bother me if one of my readers won. So, think of your favorite birthday story and head over to Tammy's studio to give her some birthday love. You can tell her Tracy sent you, if you like! :)

Weekend in Review: Production Mode

2011-11-06T16:44:00.000-06:00

Friday I actually accomplished all I had set out to do that day. The last thing (after the editing project and uploading cards to my etsy shop) was to get a first coat of paint on the table. Done. Then I made the domino I sold at the scrapbook store on Thursday.

Saturday we got a really slow start, but still managed to get a lot done. I had a conversation from an etsy customer wanting some unfinished elf stockings cut. She wanted six regular and three tall (10 inch) stockings. We had some errands to run, so while we were out, we picked up some more plywood to make them. I made a new pattern for the taller socks, and Ornery got all of her order cut and a bunch more for me, as well!

While we were out, we dropped off the domino I had made and took in a little craft sale where I bought some much needed Tupperware canisters. Elizabeth was here all morning, so she ran around with us, and we had a nice little visit.

I spent a good amount of time in the afternoon working in my studio. I made a sample Scrabble letter domino to show on my etsy shop for special orders, finished a set of all occasion cards I had started a couple of months ago, and packaged up the special order of wooden stockings. I had messed up one of the little folders for the clips I made last week, so I made a new one of those to replace it. I have decided to make more of those to sell.

I ordered some Nature's Sunshine products for Ornery's mom, and while I was on the computer I designed and printed labels for Elizabeth's cookies for the exchange. I am not baking cookies this year, but I hadn't decided that before I ordered the little boxes, so I offered to do the packaging for her if she wanted to enter the exchange. She picked the cookie and plans to make them, so I don't suppose anyone will complain.

We had to go buy lemons, so while we were out, we went back to Office Depot and bought more giant clips. Then I finished the tags for Elizabeth's cookies and covered a couple of the new stockings before going to bed at 10:00. At 2:00 I woke up to the earth shaking. At 5.6 it was the largest quake in our history, and certainly the biggest I have ever felt. It went on for about 30 seconds, but it was about 30 minutes before my heart was beating normally and I was able to go back to sleep.

Sunday morning, I got up and checked my phone for emails, and discovered I had sold three mini-clipboards! Between the domino, Elizabeth's purchase of airplane ornaments for her friends at work, and the two etsy sales, Miller Manor Designs had a pretty profitable weekend!

After a pancake breakfast, Ornery and I headed out to the garage. He worked on modifications to his table saw to enable a more efficient dust collection system while I put a second coat on the table and sanded the pine basket rings. At 10:00 I went inside to bake some cookies and fix lunch. The time change had me hungry earlier! We sat down at 11:30 to eat, so it wasn't any different than usual.

Ornery set up a photo shoot for my new etsy items (I now have 112 items in my shop!) and took pictures for me, then I posted a bunch more items, including my new little stash clips. I decided to hurry and get some online so they might have a chance of selling, and I will make some more to replace them for the cookie and ornament exchange. We are finishing out the day with Ornery on the scroll saw working on a Christmas gift and me puttering in the studio and getting things ready for a new week.

I have to really hit the editing hard this week, and I am going to be diligent with following my list so I can complete all my projects before Thanksgiving. I have had a lot of verve over the past week, and the sales seemed to fuel the energy level even more. It's a good thing because there are less than three weeks until Thanksgiving!

Computer Day

2011-11-04T16:07:00.001-05:00

Today has been a computer day. I started at 7:00 working on Chapter 2 of the 9 chapter eBook I am editing, finished that just before lunch. Then I uploaded a bunch of old cards to my etsy shop, scrolled through Pinterest a couple times, and now I am blogging! I think it is time to shut down the cpu and find a different project to do--maybe one that involves a paint brush...

Thursday Craft Day: Cards and Dominoes

2011-11-03T18:21:00.000-05:00

Today I finished off the last of Mom's birthday cards for 2012, then loaded up my little plastic box full of beads and wire, and took myself to the scrapbook store to finish off the dominoes I made last week.

I had them all out on the table where I was working, and one woman placed an order for one of the Scrabble tiles for her mother and paid me on the spot. Ornery is drilling more dominoes as I type this! I happened to have about 100 plain dominoes on the shelf, so I didn't even have to go buy any! I bought these from the Goodwill store a few months ago.

I plan to list these on my etsy shop this weekend--that is the first chance I will have to set the table up for photos. Tomorrow, I will edit in the morning, and paint my end table in the afternoon. I have finally made a decision on how I want to paint it, and it is not the direction I had planned when I bought it. Oh, well.

It has felt very autumnal the last few days. I actually got my coat out this morning, and felt quite comfortable all day in a sweater. The wind has littered the lawn quite nicely with leaves, but the grass and many trees are still just as green as in the summer. The neighbor across the street has a beautiful oak that is bright red and he dutifully rakes up the leaves every Saturday afternoon. What an exercise in futility until they are all down!

My thoughts on Tuesday

2011-11-01T21:28:00.000-05:00

Tuesday. It always seems like the odd-day-out to me, not really the first day of the week with its celebratory beginning, but sort of stuck off all by itself. People don't love or hate Tuesday like they do Monday and Friday. It doesn't get the glorious name of "hump-day" like Wednesday, or feel like the week is coming to a close like Thursday. I feel sort of sad for it, actually. The only thing I don't really like about it is the mail; Tuesday is junk mail day when all we get are sale fliers, but never any "real" mail. Even the weeks where a holiday falls on Monday and Tuesday is the first work day, people are so busy catching up from what they missed they fail to laud Tuesday as a wonderful day to catch up. So sad.

Today I finished editing the first of nine sections for the eBook, made several cards, and packaged up another etsy sale. It is always such a delightful surprise to find those emails in my in-box saying I have made a sale! I put beans on to cook for our dinner, and they scented the house up all afternoon--not quite as nice as bread or cookies baking, but comforting, nonetheless.

On a less happy note, I was tugging on the drawer pull to get some cards out of the armoire in my studio and it broke in half! Obviously it was cheap metal, but I will have to get another one soon because I use that drawer all the time and it is quite impossible to open it with just the one handle.

I worked until fairly late in the day (for me) and got a great start on a Christmas gift for Ornery's mom.

Halloween

2011-10-31T20:31:00.000-05:00

Today I spent all morning in the kitchen, where I made pumpkin cornbread, hobo dinners, roasted chicken with peppers and onions, and tacos, started two quarts of vanilla, and put some beans on to soak for tomorrow. The list of things I wanted to make was much longer, but that was all I got done.

Such a lovely kitchen to work in. :)

After lunch, I took a nice little nap, then puttered around outside, sweeping the porches and watering my hydrangea. I also brought the asparagus fern in for the winter--hopefully I can keep it alive.

After dinner, Ornery and I sat outside on the front porch and gave out candy to what seemed like hundreds of kids from our neighborhood. We ran out of candy just after 8:00 PM. We will know for next year to buy more and plan on staying out later.

Our neighbor goes all out for all the holidays. He had a smoke/bubble machine that filled the bubbles with smoke so when they landed and popped, a little poof of smoke came out. Ornery was all kinds of impressed. We have been watching Frankenstein and the pumpkin totem pole for several weeks now. Can't wait to see what he does for Christmas!

There were some really cute costumes, and we enjoyed sitting out and watching all the parents walk around with their kids. Most of the kids seemed really nice, and very well behaved. Without fail, if the kids didn't say thank you, the parents reminded them, and often thanked us as well. We are liking this neighborhood quite well. :)

Weekend in Review: The Good Life

2011-10-30T19:11:00.002-05:00

Ornery took the camera out of the closet Friday night and was playing around with it, and lo and behold, it worked! Apparently the battery was dead--not sure why we never checked that. After much searching Saturday morning, we finally located the battery charger and we are in business again. Thank you, Lord. I haven't used it yet, these photos are from the little one I had been using.

Saturday began with a divine cup of coffee. I usually enjoy it, but that cup was just perfect; fresh coffee, I guess. Elizabeth texted me very early to say she wasn't coming. Ornery baked some banana bread which we had to wait for before we could get out and start our day. So, I enjoyed a wonderful warm shower to pass the time. Sometimes I notice how really good my life is, and today was one of those times. Every moment was precious and I spoke my gratitude many times throughout the day.

We had breakfast at Panera, then went to Lowe's to get a propane refill, Hibdon to get the tires on Big Red aired up, then to Reasors for food and straw. We unloaded all that and put most of it away, then went to Grogg's Green Barn to pick up some soil and soft rock phosphate for our container garden. On the way home we grabbed Chipotle to-go and ate it at home. Then Ornery took a long nap from which it took a long time to wake up.

Next we tackled the projects in the back yard. He drilled holes in the 1/2 drums, then we put straw, what little compost we had made since May, and the soil we bought into the containers. We only bought five bags, but we knew it wouldn't fill them up and that we would have to add more before planting. At least this will be enough to break down the straw and finish decomposing the compost.

While he was working on drilling the holes, I finished cleaning up the holly we had cut down two weeks ago. That corner looks SO much different than when we first moved in!

Then I dug a hole (quite a production in that hard clay soil!) for my new hydrangea and planted it. I added gypsum, vermiculite and some of the soft rock phosphate to the soil. I didn't know if the plant was going to revive--it had gotten really dried out and was very wilted, but Sunday morning, Ornery called me over to look at it and apparently it is very happy in its new home!

Then while Ornery removed the SUPER LONG hose from the hose cart and installed the new shorter one, I started trimming the pine tree. I pruned as many of the small branches as my loppers would allow and bagged all the trimmings. Together we finished it off, him with the electric chain saw and me gathering up all the pieces to bag while the new hose watered the very wilted, newly planted hydrangea.

This tree was a menace to walk under. I am surprised it lasted as long as it did before trimming occurred, since Ornery had to mow around it all summer!

We also hung the old drill press on one of the posts of the pergola. It looks really cute, and I think it will be nice with a flower pot sitting on the plate next summer and some petunias or something like that trailing down. It is completely rusted, so there are no moving parts anymore.

We cleaned up all our messes and went inside just as the sun finished setting and the little sliver of a moon rose in the sky. We were tired in a good way. It felt so good to get so many things crossed off our list!

Sunday morning we worked in the garage for a little while, Ornery cleaned up some of his tools and I finished off the last of the bowl/baskets he made.

Next, Ornery changed the filters on the a/c and hung the newly found paper towel holder in the utility room.

We listened to the sermon, then he went back out to the garage to begin a new project--a Christmas gift. While he worked on that, I sat down with my weekly planner and gave myself a very ambitious schedule of activities for the next several weeks. It begins tomorrow with a long list of cooking projects. I have included all the craft projects I want to complete, all the gifts I need to make and all the things for the ornament exchange that still need to be finished. I also scheduled time for the editing project, which I hope to have delivered by the weekend prior to Thanksgiving.

I think between Christmas and New Year's I will just sleep. :)

Finishing Clips

2011-10-28T16:06:00.000-05:00

I did a bit of laundry and housework today--the dust on the bedroom furniture was spectacular! Then I settled in the studio to finish off the clips I started yesterday. I have decided to call them memory clips. The little folder can hold punch cards, coupons, receipts, business cards, anything that is easy to forget. Likewise, it may contain money you want to forget you have until a special occasion! They would also make a cute little gift card holder... the possibilities seem endless!

Anyway, here is a picture of the finished product. I may have to remake one folder since the lamination didn't work because the paper was too thick. Too bad, it was a really cute one!

I am glad it is the weekend! Elizabeth is coming over tomorrow. She plans to bake some cookies, and I don't know what else. (They still don't have a stove/oven, so when she gets the urge to bake, she comes here and we reap the bounty!) Otherwise, we just have a few odd jobs to do around the cottage.

I still find myself checking to see if this is really our house from time to time. Today when I went out the front door to check the mail, I reached for the wrong side of the door. I have done that every time I've opened it since it is backwards from the door at Miller Manor. I guess some habits take a while to break!

Thursday Craft Day

2011-10-27T18:59:00.000-05:00

Mickie came over today and we got to play all day in the studio! I started out adding beads and wire to some of the domino pendants I made last night. Then I made little magnets, and last I worked on another project with some over-sized paperclips and ribbon. Everything I worked on was for the ornament exchange except the dominoes.

These are the little ribbon magnets I made. They are supposed to be stylized "prize" ribbons, but we decided that the flowers would look really cute. Mickie had already cut out a bunch of the flowers, so all I really had to do was pick the layers, glue and assemble. (Look closely and you will see pieces from my mega bolt of baker's twine!) I had some little magnet pieces left over from making the mini-clipboards last year that I put on the back, and I was glad to finally have a use for them.

These are the little coupon holders I made. I still have a bunch more to complete, but at least this gives an idea of what they look like. The large paperclips are from Office Depot. I added ribbons to the end and cut scraps of paper for the folders. I will laminate them when I get them all made to help them last longer. My idea is that these would be great to tote in your purse to keep coupons in or punch cards--whatever you tend to "forget" at the check out. The frilly ribbons will be noticeable and hopefully catch your attention when you reach in for your wallet. I suppose the clips could be used for other things, the shop with the original design I saw was selling them as book marks, but it seems like they might be too thick for that.

Here are a couple close up pictures of them. They are way fun to make, and I think will be a creative gift, as well.

The weather has been very fall-like today--cloudy, cool and rainy. I was glad to be indoors!

Windy

2011-10-25T16:10:00.001-05:00

It seems the wind is determined to hasten the arrival of "fall" and has blown all day to dislodge the leaves. Most have not turned color yet, so it seems a bit premature, but the lawn is littered with little branches and leaves despite their untimely demise.

Otherwise, it is apparently an "Indian Summer" day at 84 degrees and mostly sunny skies. I had planned on working in the garage today painting my little table, but it seems like there are always so many other things that take me away from that project. Today I did a bit of cooking, and tidying up. I fixed vegetable stuffed Cornish Hens for lunch, and have soup in the crock pot for dinner. The recipe for the birds is on the recipe blog, but the soup is not really a recipe--just threw some stuff in the pot! I'll write it out if it turns out to be a "do again" recipe.

Weekend in Review: redirection

2011-10-23T18:38:00.000-05:00

We slept late on Saturday and ran behind all day long, but it was a really nice day and despite the fact that we got hardly anything on our list complete, I felt like it was good. We started with breakfast at Panera--always a fun thing, then stopped at a couple of garage sales on our way home. I found some clay pots for a quarter each, and a little plant stand for my patio and spent a whole $2.75!

Next Ornery loaded up the lumber we bought last weekend to return it while I started the laundry. I used my new soap nuts that arrived in the mail on Friday. It was timely since I am almost out of regular laundry soap. Hopefully these soap nuts will last until my enzyme cleaner is ready to use in January. We returned the wood to the lumber yard and priced cinder blocks for the raised beds while we were there, but neither of us can get real excited about laying those.

After returning the wood, we went to Lowe's to buy some lag screws to hang an antique drill press we brought from the farm. We were supposed to get other things too, but we got waylaid in the garden department (ostensibly there to price the cement stones for a garden bed) where I found two African violets for my bathroom window on the clearance rack, and a 2 gallon pot of Nikko Blue Hydrangeas for only $6.42. I had been eyeing them at the grocery store, but just a little quart sized pot was $19.98, and I just couldn't justify spending that on a plant. Now, if it was a tree, maybe...

On our way home I prayed that the Lord would show us a way to build the garden beds for little to no money. I kept feeling funny about buying a bunch of new lumber or cement blocks. We talked about building some forms and making the beds with cement, but didn't get very far into it. One of the things we had wanted to do this weekend was to work on the rain catchment system with the two barrels we bought a few weeks ago. I looked online for how-to information and discovered that it would not be a good idea to use the rain from our asphalt roof on our vegetable garden. Bummer. So, now we had two barrels with no use... unless we used them as the garden!

There is a ton of information on container gardening and the more I looked into it the more excited I got! So, we plan to buy more barrels and saw them in half, then put them in the area we had designated for our garden and plant in them! It is the best way we have come up with to keep that obnoxious Bermuda grass out of the garden. They will be high, so weeding or tending should be easy. We will put handles on them to make them mobile enough to move around as they need to be, and we will be able to control the pH of each bed individually based on the plant needs in each one. We won't have to pay so much for dirt, and in fact will probably just buy bags to fill them up. The barrels cost $15.00 each, and for the area we had planned we will need about 10 more. I think I will even be able to grow my asparagus in them!

Before dinner, Ornery installed the cabinet door handles I bought when we first moved in. The washing machine lid opens up flush with the bottom of the cabinet door and every time I do a load of laundry, I have to close the washing machine to get the soap out. Minor inconvenience easily remedied. He would have also hung up the paper towel holder in there if I could remember where I put it... We finished off the evening doing idle pursuits--reading and talking and listening to the thunder, rain and hail!

Sunday we returned the last of the items we had purchased for the garden boxes. We went to Atwoods and Lowe's. We ended up exchanging the lag screws we bought yesterday for a different size, then bought a sheet of Masonite (hard-board) for the backs of the living room book cases. Ornery got to use his table saw to cut them to size, then I painted them Orange Vermilion to match the ceiling.

I know this is a terrible photo, but it is the best I could get, and it does show the new inserts. Next, I fine-sanded the baskets I had sealed last week, then put the final coat of finish on them. While I worked on that, Ornery finished sanding and gluing the last set of three baskets. I put the first coat on two of them, but the third wasn't ready yet.

The next project was the aborted rain-barrels turned garden containers. Ornery used his circular saw to cut them in half while I fixed dinner. Here they are in the garden area on the south side of the house.

You can sort of see the outline of the area we planned to use for the raised beds. We will just make two rows of these containers in the same space to start out. These are upside down and need holes drilled for drainage, but I am pretty sure they will work really well.

One other thing we did this weekend was take down the shades from the pergola. They are rotten, and falling apart, and we had meant to take them down from the beginning of the summer but never had done it. Here is a picture after we took them down. You can see in the corner of the yard the remains of the holly we took out last weekend--we never did get back out there to finish it this weekend since it was so wet and muddy from the rain--as well as the poor oak tree I hacked at mercilessly. Elizabeth said it looked like a little kid had gotten hold of a pair of scissors and given himself a hair cut. Hrmph.

The flags all over the yard were for the garden beds. I guess we didn't need them after all. The hydrangea I just bought will go in the flower bed on the right side of the photo. I am anxious for the crepe myrtle to finish blooming so I can trim it way back. That dead wood has bothered me all summer!

One last thing for the day was the news of another sale on my etsy shop! Another of Ornery's little airplanes will be winging its way to a new home--this time in Milwaukee, WI!

This week I plan to get my end table painted and reassembled, plant the hydrangea, and start editing the eBook I should have already finished. It is just over four weeks until Thanksgiving, and I am already making plans to fill the days my sister and brother-in-law are here with all sorts of projects! Meanwhile, I have a lot to do to get ready for the ornament exchange and their arrival. The days sure seem to be flying by!

i love to organize

2011-10-21T10:46:00.000-05:00

I spent Thursday at Mickie's house helping her organize her new craft room. We sorted piles of stamps, scads of paper and bunches of embellishments. The difference in availability of materials was quite impressive. We didn't get to make anything, but now that she has her room in a more efficient state, I have no doubt she will be playing soon. We didn't make it into the closet where there is a ton more stuff, but she was happy with the amount we did get done.

It sure wore me out! I slept almost straight through the night--only got up once between 8:30 and 4:30!--for the first time in ages. It was nice to wake up rested this morning, even though my back was still aching from Wednesday. I made a quick trip to see Dr. G and he adjusted all sorts of things, but he said most of my problems stemmed from around my neck, jaw and shoulders, and that the low back and leg pain were because my body was compensating. I put ice on it when I got home and feel much better.

It is less than five weeks until Thanksgiving, and six weeks from today is the ornament and cookie exchange. I wish I could settle down and get busy on some of these projects, but I seem to be plagued with indecision about where to start. Today I am occupied with changing banks. THAT is a bit of work!

I am looking forward to the weekend. I am needing some Ornery time. :)

Little Houses

2011-10-19T16:01:00.003-05:00

Today I made three more little houses. The photos are taken with my phone, so the color is a little off, but you can get an idea of what they look like.

The roof on this is just a narrow piece of card stock I edge punched and scored to fold. Then I added a little metal corner by Tim Holtz to the peak. I love how the bird ribbon turned out so the birds were facing away from each other, and the flower ended up right in the middle.

This was my attempt at a log cabin. The "logs" are cinnamon sticks. I had a small scrap of very thin wood to use for the door (I attached it to a piece of chip board) and I used some feather trim off an old lamp shade to make the tree and add the "pine needles" across the front. The roof is "tiles" made from mini dominoes.

I played around with this for a long time before I finally got it done. My favorite part is the door.

brrr

2011-10-19T07:34:00.001-05:00

It is so rare that I am ever cold these days, but this morning there was a decided chill in the air. It never got above 70 yesterday and it is a chilly 43 degrees right now with a projected high of only 58 with up to 30 mph north winds and a freeze warning for tonight. I turned on the heater.

It was a little chilly in the garage yesterday, but I managed to get a lot done out there. I put the final coat of paint on my little shelves, put the first coat of butcher block oil on the first set of oak baskets that Ornery made, and got a coat of Gripper (primer) put on the end table after partially dismantling it. I was hoping to start painting the design on it today, but I think I will wait until it warms up a bit out there, or I may set up a table in the dining room to paint on.

The Gripper made me feel sort of sick, so if I use it again, I will certainly set up my operation out in the open air. I did have the fan on and the garage doors partially open, but it wasn't enough to dispel the fumes. It could be since this RBTI is cleansing the liver that I was more sensitive, but it took me a couple hours to get my equilibrium and a little energy back. We ended up watching a movie instead of doing anything productive in the evening.

I spent quite a bit of time adding new things to my etsy shop. Well, they weren't really new things, but new to the shop. It took a little while to reformat all the photos. They are jpg pictures, but the camera called them jpe instead. Etsy doesn't recognize that format, so I had to change the letter on each of the descriptions. I rearranged the shop so like things are together, and put up a shop notice for BOGO on the dominoes. The impetus for the activity was another request for a domino, although I don't know if the person will actually buy it since the sale hasn't materialized yet. I think I will add some cards today.

Only six weeks until the ornament and cookie exchange. Time is sure going by quickly. I have decided to go ahead and use my wooden sock ornaments for the exchange so I don't have to make all those others. There is still a lot of other stuff to do, but at least my ornaments are made. I am trying to get as many of my other interior decor projects done as possible before then, but there are sure a lot of them!

Clean Pantry

2011-10-17T20:33:00.002-05:00

After buying out Whole Foods and Reasor's on Sunday, we had quite a mess trying to put everything away. I manned the cold bags while Ornery emptied the pantry items. He mentioned that my pantry was a mess and that it didn't seem very well organized, so I got him to help me organize it and make a better system. We shuffled stuff to other cupboards and moved a few things onto the floor to make room, then we set things up in a more logical fashion. We didn't get rid of anything, just rearranged it. Now the flours are all together, the sweeteners are all together, and there is a better system for everything else.

This morning I was up early (3:30) and got busy. I made chili a roast in the crock pot for chimis, I did a follow-up call with my RBTI consultant, scheduled the marking of our utilities for the garden beds and discussed the wood we bought over the weekend with the man at the lumber yard. Cedar is FOUR TIMES as expensive as the treated lumber, and the plain pine is cheaper. I don't know what to do, because I really don't want to have to build new boxes every few years, and I sure don't want to attract termites to the property! On the other hand, I could only afford to build one or two boxes of cedar... This evening the idea came to me to use cinder blocks--I'll look into that later this week. Ornery wasn't too keen on the idea, saying they take up too much space in the yard, but I noted that you could use the holes as little planters for things like strawberries or other small plants. They would be cute with flowers in them.

I also called the dirt company and got a quote for 4 yards of garden soil. The hauling is almost as expensive as the dirt! I had a nice visit on the phone with my sister, and finished off the laundry from the weekend. It seems like I wasted a good bit of time, as well.

This evening after dinner, Ornery and I grabbed our blankets and sat out on the porch for a while enjoying the beautiful stormy evening. It was windy and the air was brisk. We rocked in our chairs until we were sleepy. He went to bed, and I stayed up for a while--not our usual pattern! Tomorrow I plan to do something--anything--because today felt like a wasted day. I have so many projects waiting for my attention, I just need to pick one and do it.

Weekend in Review: The Garden Begins- sort of

2011-10-16T14:31:00.002-05:00

Life began in a garden...

Friday following the funeral, Ornery changed clothes and we hopped in Big Red to fetch a load of lumber. I had done a bit of research on growing asparagus that morning, so by the time we went for the wood I had added another raised bed to my plans. We bought twenty 2"x12"x8' "green treated" boards, and five 2x4x8' for the corners. We are using a plan similar to this for our design, only some of the beds will be two boards tall to make them easier to tend. I think I will use those for the root type vegetables at first--I intend to rotate crops from year to year.

I tried all day to call the dirt company, but both phones went to their fax, and even though I left a message, I didn't hear back. We aren't nearly ready for the dirt, but I like to be prepared! The plan is to get some free manure mixed with bedding next weekend--if we get the grass dug out and the beds set up before then. After that first layer is down, we'll get the garden soil to fill the beds. There is a local company that mixes compost into top soil for an excellent garden mix. It is expensive but cheaper than buying the bags--I think.

Saturday morning, Elizabeth arrived to give us a hand with the construction. (She does seem to be a glutton for punishment!) First I fed her pancakes. :) We talked for a while, then went outside to work in the yard. Ornery had hauled his miter saw back there, and started working on a bed. While we were taking a break, I read the "warnings" on the lumber tag and we decided we won't be using it after all. He cut two boards that we won't be able to take back, but it looks like we'll either need to get cedar or just replace the pine boards every few years. Cedar is considerably more expensive, but at least it won't make our food toxic!

Elizabeth and I trimmed the oak tree in the back and cut up all the branches to haul off. We also pulled out the dead laurel bushes from the back of the flower bed. Then Ornery got the chain saw out and leveled a huge holly in the corner of the back yard and we worked at cutting that up to haul off. Wicked stuff, those holly leaves! She left around 2:00, and we took a nap. Being outside in the beautiful weather was nice, but quite exhausting!

We had dinner then watched Pride and Prejudice and went to bed early.

Sunday we went to Panera for a quick breakfast, then to Whole Foods, home and back out to finish grocery shopping at Reasor's. (local chain) Other than that, not much happened around here!

Love and loss

2011-10-14T17:36:00.000-05:00

We attended the saddest funeral I have ever been to today, and in fact I am still teary eyed from it. The woman who died was the wife of the pastor who was at the church when Ornery became a Christian, in about the second grade. She was 80, and the couple had been married for 60 years and were together every one of those days. The thought of him being without his beloved broke my heart. I cried from the time I entered the sanctuary until the minute I walked back out into the lobby. It was almost two hours long, with a grand daughter, both her kids and her husband sharing memories of her life.

Her nickname was Honey--she was that sweet. While I only saw her a few times, every time I felt like I had an encounter with Jesus as she radiated his love and joy with her whole being. As a pastor's wife, she had a lot of contact with many people, but her son said he couldn't think of a single person in all his life that she was ever angry at or held a grudge against. Her granddaughter said that every letter or phone call ended with Honey saying, "Live for Jesus!" What a tremendous love for her savior she had and amazing legacy she left.

Her husband shared a bit of the autobiography he began writing about ten years ago. He said he would have been much further along, but every time he sat down to write, he would wish he was spending time with her, so he would shut down the computer and go in to watch Hallmark movies with her. His pain at her loss was palpable, and he even said he had no idea what he was going to do without her. I told him as I hugged him while he stood at her casket I hoped he finished that story, because love stories like theirs were legendary and needed to be shared.

While we all knew that she is in a much better place, and pain free after living for over 30 years with hepatitis C, it is so sad to think of the ones left behind for whom she was such a rock of faith and caring. He is in our prayers tonight and in the coming days as he tries to figure out what his life will look like without his honey.

Crafting Day: Little Houses

2011-10-13T15:43:00.000-05:00

Today Mickie came to spend the day. She worked on birds, butterflies and a cross in a frame, while I made little houses.

These were the three I completed today.

We also got our supplements in the mail today!! Tomorrow is our next test, but I may need to reschedule as we have a funeral to attend at the time my appointment is scheduled. I don't suppose it would hurt to wait until Monday...

It was a fun day, but now I am ready for a nap!

An amazing age

2011-10-12T17:10:00.002-05:00

As I was organizing all my newly found recipes in a binder, I got an email saying I had made another sale in my etsy shop! Can I just say that I love internet shoppers?!? I don't have to pay overhead, employees, or maintain a big inventory. I don't have to pay to advertise, although if I really had a lot of merchandise I probably would, but still people find my humble little shop out of the millions of others online and buy from me when we are often clear across the country. It is an amazing age we live in!

I downloaded Matt Stone's new eBook on RBTI today. Excellent explanations of all the ins and outs of the program are contained in an easy to read format. There is also a cookbook that comes with it, along with many hours of videos. One of the frustrations Ornery and I have had with the program is all the quirky religious and non-substantiated "facts" that are laced throughout the material we had read. This is a much better explanation and one that will likely get many more people on-board the RBTI wagon.

That's about the sum of my day. PJ's all the way.

Nature's Halloween Decor

2011-10-11T07:40:00.000-05:00

This morning I was all done sleeping at 3:30. I love the early morning hours before the world starts moving around, the lights distract me and the calls of the day hit with full force. I think my system would love more sleep, but since I can't usually sleep for the three or four hours I need after that 3-4 o'clock wake-up, I often either do a meditation exercise or get up and start the day.

This morning I played catch-up from being a slacker yesterday--started laundry, cleaned the kitchen, fixed our lemonade, put things away from shopping, swept the floor, etc. At about 4:00 I was HOT so I went out to the chilly back porch and sat (under a blanket!) in my rocker for about 10 minutes. I heard the owls hoot-hoot-hooting and saw one of them fly over the house.

As I was thinking about the owls, I remembered last night when I sat out there seeing some bats swooping around, the enormous full moon, and the big spider building a massive web between the pine and back fence. Halloween is so commercialized and has such a strange mix of macabre and silliness that these natural wonders, which are thrown in for effect I suppose, get lost.

I haven't bought any pumpkins, and I don't think I will this year, but hopefully I will have some from my own garden to carve and set out next fall. I always enjoy looking at the piles of pumpkins and gourds that are on display through the month of October, and of course, all the lovely mums. Once I get my flower beds readied, I hope to plant those several places.

The leaves haven't begun to turn just yet, but with the cool nights, it won't be long. The last little rain we got should help things along. We will harvest all the leaves that fall in our yard for the mulch pile so we can add them to our compost. While most people dread the raking of the leaves, I relish it!

I love each of the seasons for their own flavor they bring to life. God is lavish with the richness of His glory as He shares these beautiful natural bounties with us every year. The older I get the more I appreciate Him.

Updates and schedules

2011-10-10T15:57:00.002-05:00

This little blog is almost five months old already! I thought it might like a bit of an update, so I changed a few things up today. I should have been doing a dozen other things, but it is what it is.

I woke up at 3:30 this morning to the beautiful sound of a gentle rain. We have been in need for some time, so I was grateful--so much in fact I just lay there and listened for quite some time! Then we took our coffee out on the porch to enjoy the cool morning at about 5:00. It was delightful.

I spent the morning doing things like update my blog, call the insurance company to find out where our reimbursement checks were, then the doctor's office to ask them to resubmit claims. I also scheduled an oil change for the van, which is a few hundred miles overdue. We had a certificate for a free oil change service that expires the end of this month, so I made an appointment to take it in tomorrow.

At lunch the UPS man delivered my second order of baker's twine. This is a serious bolt of thread!! It is only one ply, whereas the other was two, but it still has the festive red and white coloring and I am sure I will find all sorts of uses for it. If you want some, let me know... I have plenty to share!!

After lunch, I scurried around and headed out to run errands--forgetting that today was Columbus Day so the post office was closed and I couldn't mail my packages. I drove all the way to the Post Office before discovering that fact, so I went to a little shop nearby on Main St. called Sew Flakes where I bought a little bundle of fat 16th's to make a crazy quilt stocking with. Cute shop, tons of cool fabrics (although some of it was quite spendy) and very nice people. It was a delightful little outing. Next was a stop for groceries, then home to cool off.

Tomorrow I have to go back to the PO, drop some stuff off at Goodwill (which I had meant to do after the PO today, but forgot in my shock of discovering the office closed) and get the oil changed: Ornery has an appointment to get a couple more fillings in his teeth. So much for editing every day this week!

Weekend in Review: Lazy

2011-10-09T15:41:00.001-05:00

Saturday morning I slept in until 7:00!! When I woke up I panicked a little bit because that is when we are supposed to start drinking our lemonade. Ornery whipped it up in no time, and by the time I had brushed my teeth and gotten back to the kitchen, he had it almost ready. Whew!! I don't know what time he got up, but he was already dressed by 7:00.

I fixed pancakes for breakfast, this time with spelt flour and added pumpkin, cinnamon and allspice. Yum! The pumpkin made them more filling so we didn't eat as much. For lunch I tried to add some vegetables to the hamburger meat. By the time I was done, the patties wouldn't stay together for anything! I added carrots, onions, red pepper and okra--thinking that if it was well disguised we might not notice it. I chopped everything really fine with the food chopper, but I guess I put too much in there. I decided I will use the remaining meat for pasta sauce.

I got an email early in the morning from an etsy customer wanting a special order of six patriotic dominoes. Yay! I only have one in stock, but parts to make the rest, and dominoes already drilled. She doesn't need them until December (I love people who plan ahead!) but I like to get things done as quick as I can.

After breakfast, we drove over to a place we have been eyeing for several months and never made it into called Grogg's Green Barn. It is an organic gardening center. We met the owner and he took us all around showing us many wonderful things for the organic gardener. They have classes there, and we just missed some held the day before that we would have really enjoyed. Oh, well. Hopefully they will offer them again. When we got home we spent some time discussing our garden and yardscape plans. I have some big plans! :)

After a little nap, Ornery mowed the yard and I perused Craigslist for some free stuff for the garden. I found some food-safe drums to use for a rain catchment system for $15.00 each, so we drove out to Bixby to pick up a couple of them. The guy works for an olive processing plant and gets them from work. They smelled quite olive-y! We have been watching the rain barrels at Whole Foods and Lowe's for quite a while, but just couldn't ever find the $119.00 each in the budget to buy them. I am really glad we waited, now! Eventually I would like to have about six of them--that should get us through a lot of the summer watering our garden without having to pay for the water, and rain water is so much better for the plants than the highly chlorinated stuff that comes out of the hose.

I also found a source for free horse manure--already piled up so all we have to do is shovel it in the pick-up, as opposed to mucking out stalls and the like. :) We will probably go out there in a couple weeks once we get the beds built.

Sunday morning was Ornery's first day without coffee. He was a little groggy all through the sermon so he went back to bed. The wind has been blowing for days, which aggravated his allergies a bit, so that didn't help him to be real alert, either. The day progressed much the same, with periodic naps and monosyllabic conversations. :)

We started our citrus enzyme cleaner this morning! To make it cut up orange and lemon peels to equal about 2.5 cups. Cut them small enough to fit into a two liter plastic bottle. Mix 7 T brown sugar with 1 liter of water and pour it in on top of the peels. Cover and shake to mix well. Write the date three months from today on the front, loosen the lid to allow gasses to escape while it ferments (so it doesn't explode) and put it aside for three months. When it is done, strain out the peels and put them in your garden, and your cleaner is ready to use.

I am excited to use it--for one thing it is almost free to make, and it is supposed to be one of the best all purpose cleaners around. I plan to use it (diluted) for my dishes so I can pour the dishwater onto my plants. It supposedly helps fertilize as well as prevent insects. After the huge infestation of fruit flies we have been having, I am doubly interested in that aspect!

I got the etsy order finished and ready to mail. Here are a couple pictures...

I managed to make each one different and stay with the Patriotic theme. I hope she likes them!

I wrapped each one in a little piece of tissue paper and added a little tie with my new baker's twine. I will be using it for a very long time, since I ordered twice! I couldn't find the first order anywhere, and it took a long time to arrive with no notifications of shipment or anything, so I ended up ordering just the red from a different place--much cheaper than the first for about 10 times as much product. I will have red baker's twine for many years!

I also used some twine on one of the stocking ornaments I finished this weekend...

This was a special order. I don't have any more curly hangers and couldn't find any at Hobby Lobby where I purchased them before, so I made beaded wire loops for the regular hangers to go in. The backs of these last few ornaments are painted white, then glazed with glitter glaze to give them shimmer.

I also made this ornament this weekend. The toe broke off, but it is busy enough that you don't really notice the lack of bells. Ornery says he will drill a new hole for me. I would like to be able to photograph the new ones for my etsy shop, but the only camera we have doesn't really work as well as the broken one. We'll see if we can make it work. If so, I should have several new listings up later this week. There are four other new ones that are really too cute!

Since we were both so lazy all day, we didn't accomplish anything else. Later we will have to go to the grocery store for tomorrow's lemons, but I don't think either of us is very interested in doing so!

My plan for this week is to start on the editing project that I have put off for a month. I have got to get some big things crossed off my list!

Fun Friday

2011-10-07T19:17:00.001-05:00

I slept great last night and had quite a bit of energy today. I swept the back porch and tidied things up out there. We had tossed a pile of throw rugs out there a couple-few weeks ago and when I shook them out uncovered a black widow and numerous other spiders. That was more excitement than I was looking for! I am finding that I am hot a lot of the time, though, so after working outside for a little while, I was drenched in sweat and decided to spend the rest of the day in the house doing quiet things. :)

I spent the rest of the day in my studio. I made four stocking ornaments and decorated four little chip board birds. I started on the first little house but got tired of sitting there. Of course there were the meals and bathroom breaks, but overall it was a great day. Looking forward to spending the day tomorrow with my beloved!

Bits and Bites

2011-10-06T20:18:00.001-05:00

It seems like all I have done this week is try out new recipes and wash dishes! Tuesday I made Lettuce Wraps (sort of like P.F. Chang's), guacamole and banana muffins, and Wednesday I fixed Beef Stroganoff in the crock pot. Today I fixed a new recipe for chicken enchiladas for lunch; for dinner, Parmesan Crumbed Asparagus. I have been posting some of the new recipes on the recipe blog--since it is already established. (I need to switch out the background on that one since it is the same as this!)
I spent 2.5 hours yesterday helping my friend. I don't think she really needed me for anything but moral support, but she got her office mostly cleaned up, including a rather full closet. There were several bags of papers that met the trash man this morning, and I brought home a little paycheck and a nice little booty from her cast-offs. Among the loot was a small stack of various short lengths of broadcloth, some suede cloth, and a handful of CD's she was going to throw away. I have some ideas already percolating for all of it!
This morning I wrapped Christmas presents. I know, it is ridiculously early to be thinking such things, but it was positive procrastination. Nothing sounded interesting, even though there are only SEVEN WEEKS until Thanksgiving, and eight weeks until the exchange.
My sister and brother-in-law are coming for Thanksgiving and spending a week with us! I am so excited! They will leave either the day before or the day of the cookie and ornament exchange, so from Thanksgiving day through December 3rd, Zoe Cottage will be fully occupied!
Our plan to kill the grass by covering it with black plastic was ineffective to say the least. The grass has grown despite the plastic and it looks like little black Quonset huts between the fence posts Ornery placed on it to keep it from blowing away where the grass has grown underneath! I guess we will have to scalp it, then just dig the determined Bermuda grass out. Ugh.
I am looking forward to the weekend. No plans! :)

Job Offer

2011-10-05T08:19:00.000-05:00

A friend called me yesterday and asked me if I would come help her and her husband get their lives organized. She prefaced the offer with "You are the most organized person I know." They said, "Name your price!" When I told them that a professional organizer gets $55.00 per hour, they choked. So, since they are friends, I offered to help them get started at whatever they could pay, and show them my system of how to determine whether or not to keep things.

I have had a few people tell me that I get in their head, and when they are confronted with an overwhelming task they ask themselves, "What would Tracy do?" I told my friend this and said, "Hopefully I will be able to instill that in you until you develop your own system so you can take care of most of it yourselves. Unless you learn some new habits, your money having me do it will be wasted."

I have my first session coming right up, so we'll see the magnitude of the "problem" as well as how complicated the solution is. They have company coming this weekend, and they want to get things underway, but don't have a lot of time to work on it. Years of accumulation don't go away in a few hours, but I know that sometimes all you need to have is someone there to encourage you to let go of things.

Weekend in Review: company and crafts

2011-10-02T16:32:00.000-05:00

Saturday morning Elizabeth arrived alone bright and early, and spent most of the day with us. She and Ornery went to the Harvest Moon Festival craft show, then to Woodcraft to buy scroll saw blades. I spent time at Hobby Lobby and the local scrapbook store's garage sale. I found great deals at both places and we all returned home at the same time.

After lunch, Elizabeth baked a trial run of her cookies for the exchange, while Ornery helped her and kept her company. I made this little bunting from scraps of paper for the alcove outside my studio...

It goes on the other side as well, so you walk under it to go into the bathroom or the studio. The other side is a little higher so the linen closet door will clear it. I was pleased with the outcome. :)

Sunday we made a quick run to Home Depot--which ranks right up there with WalMart for my least favorite places to shop--to get some primer Mickie recommended for my end-table project. While there, we also picked up some dark brown paint for the little frames I plan to hang in the living room.

I painted them while Ornery cut out things on all three saws. He smiled at me and said, "It's a very good day when I get to use all three saws." First he cut the little houses I drew for him on some scraps. Then he made a taper jig for his table saw and then he worked on his bowls, but just as I shot this photo he realized he had forgotten to lock the base down and had ruined one set of the rings. :(

Here are the frames after I finished painting them. They are almost dry and then I will put all the glass and backs back on them and find pictures to frame. I have been collecting bird photos on my Pinterest board, have a few old pictures of flowers Ornery took a few years ago, and I hope to make a few other little things to put up with the framed pictures as well.

After I finished those, I sanded and put the first coat of paint on these little shelves. I asked my sister if it would be a sacrilege to paint them since they were oak, but she scoffed and told me to do anything I liked to them. I should have known, since she is the one who has been trying to convince me to paint the backs of my book shelves for years!

I have decided to hang them up next to the bed in the guest room since the floating shelves wouldn't work due to the curvature of the wall. This will give guests a spot to set glasses, phone, etc. since there isn't any other furniture in the room.

Heading into the weekend

2011-09-30T08:02:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday! Finishing off the living room left a bit of a void in my life since we have been "all about painting" since March! I have been loving the feel of the living room, though. I like to sit in there and just soak up all the pretty.

This weekend Jeff and Elizabeth are coming for a visit. She is going to test her cookie recipe for the exchange, and is wanting to hit a few craft sales. I might go to one craft sale and possibly the scrapbook garage sale, but I am just not a big fan of crowds, so no matter what cool things are for sale I get antsy to get away from the masses and end up wanting to leave fairly soon. Ornery will probably be her escort as he tends to enjoy that sort of thing more than I do and he's just a good dad like that. :)

I am pretty sure Ornery will be making a little trip over to Woodcraft to buy some new scroll saw blades since he broke the last one while working on some oak last night. He burns through them fairly quickly on the harder woods. If I can get a bit of energy, I will tackle a few things on my craft project list, otherwise I'll just hang out with Liberty and give belly scratches and ear rubs. :

Craft Day!

2011-09-29T19:05:00.001-05:00

Today I spent the day at my friend Mickie's house. We made faux mercury glass votives, hurricane lamps, and cake stands. She also made a vase, but I used my vase to play with some alcohol inks. By the time we were done, it was hot outside, and we moved our operation to her studio to make some tile coasters, embellished chipboard birds, and a book tree.

My RBTI test kit arrived today, and I hope to get our tests run in the morning and then do a consultation with someone I have been talking to on Facebook. It seems a little daunting, but I am sure we'll get it all figured out and be on the mend soon!

For now, I am off to bed. I have been up since about 3:30 and it was a long and exciting day. :)

Recipe shopping

2011-09-28T16:33:00.000-05:00

Yesterday and today I have been in veg-mode. I asked Ornery's mom to come over yesterday and we worked a puzzle. I finished it this morning and then spent the rest of the day hunting for good recipes to include in my menu planning. I get in such a rut, and Ornery is even worse than I am about wanting the same things all the time. Complicating things even further is the fact that there are only two of us, and while I enjoy cooking, I prefer to make enough for more than one meal at a time so I don't have to do it every single day.

One of the recommendations I saw on the RBTI group page was to include 100 different foods every week. The theory is that your body needs many different minerals and elements to produce all the enzymes it needs, so by giving it some of a wide variety it has more options to pull from if some of them are not available due to lack of absorption or whatever. I am going to start a list of the foods we eat and see how close we can get to the 100 goal.

Today I printed recipes for

Crispy Southwest Chicken wraps
Parmesan Crumbed Asparagus
Outback's Bushman Bread
Chilled pasta with creamed avocado sauce
cheesy cauliflower pancakes
home made ranch dressing
PF Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Broccoli Bites
Acorn Squash with Cranberry-cornbread Stuffing
Simply Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas
Peach Upside Down Cake
Brown Sugar Cookies
Whole grain pancakes with Blueberry Maple syrup
Twice Baked Butternut squash

Unfortunately, I just found the recipes on Pinterest and printed them instead of pinning them, so I don't have the links. Many were from ask.com, Martha Stewart, and all recipes. Some came from other blogs, but if you are interested in one in particular, I am happy to email it.

Organizing

2011-09-26T15:36:00.000-05:00

I sat on the couch last night trying to figure out what I wanted to do this week--or rather how to arrange my week to fit as much in as possible--and realized I didn't have anything prioritized at all. It is all important but none of it was urgent, so this morning when I got up I decided to spend the day as a home maker! We had left quite a mess in the living room yesterday, so I cleaned things in there first. I washed the living room windows, rearranged stuff and came up with a fairly pleasing start to softening the feel of the room.

Next I went to the guest closet, an area that had become the catch-all for anything I didn't know what to do with. The luggage and a pile of bags, extra blankets, the air mattress, all the pictures I haven't hung, misc. decorating items that I need from time to time but are not currently in use, and more stuff that just didn't have a good home yet had landed there.

First I emptied it all out onto the bed and floor next to the door. I made a pile of things to give away, and another of things that needed a new home. Since the only things in the coat closet could be stored elsewhere to better benefit, I emptied it and moved all the luggage and bags in to it.

There were quite a few empty pants hangers in the guest closet, so I brought them all to the coat closet and used them to hang the bags on the coat bar. I put the suitcases on the floor, and the air bed on the top shelf. It filled up the unused closet and made lots of room available elsewhere!

Next I went to the linen closet where I tidied things and made room for a few things from the guest room, namely more sheets.

I am always surprised at how fast this closet gets messy, but it is nice and neat now! Unfortunately, I didn't make enough room for the extra blankets there.

I was just getting ready to vacuum out the bottom of the closets when I heard Ornery drive up. It was too early for lunch, so I was surprised. Apparently they are having some ventilation problems in the paint department at work and he came home for a while to wait while the air cleared. He took down the blinds on the two living room windows that needed paint, put some of the red glass from the living room up on top of the kitchen cabinets, and changed the A/C filters. I asked him if he wanted to bring in the camping gear from the garage to make more space in his man cave-- the whole purpose for clearing out the guest closet. He shuffled a few things to get the two large totes out and kindly set them in the closet for me. We had an early lunch and then he went back to work--carrying his respirator!

I took a couple of the quilts Ornery's grandma made for us and put them in the living room to add some softening touches, and moved the little clock table from the library to the end of the couch in front of the new lamp.

My sister made the little quilted pillow from some of my old jeans when I was in high school. I have had it a long time, but I haven't really had a decorating scheme to use it until now. I hope to make a couple other pillows to put on here, but for now, it is at least something.

I also found a poster of pansies in the closet that goes beautifully above the mantle. I put it in a cheap frame I had on hand for now, but will need to get a bigger frame at some point. Then I hung the set of three Beaubien water color paintings we bought in Manitou Springs a few years ago next to the wall units. The colors don't really "match" but I like them too well to relegate them to the stash of things awaiting the next decorating rendition.

My next task was to bag up all the stuff from the closet that I don't think I want to keep any more. It is always a quandary, but I am pretty sure I won't be needing these things, and I would rather someone else get some use from them. Then, despite the awful state of the kitchen that didn't get any attention yesterday, I painted the windows in the living room so that all the green is now complete. I eventually got the dishes under control and am headed for the shower right now.

No telling what the evening holds, but I have had lots of energy all day and even if I don't accomplish anything else, I will have counted the day as quite productive!

Weekend in Review: Too much FUN!!

2011-09-25T18:36:00.000-05:00

Saturday Mickie came and we were like two little girls making mud pies in the garden. We had most of my tools and a bunch of Ornery's tools out and in use before our project was finished, but OH!, we had fun!! Here are some pictures I took with my phone when they were almost done.

This was the one I made

Here are both of them side by side

This was Mickie's

We had to run to Lowe's for some orange paint (because I goofed up the stuff I had) and she helped me pick a color for the living room ceiling. On the way home we stopped by a garage sale and I scored a little table for between the rockers in the living room for $10.00, (sorry about the blurry photo!)

a lamp for next to the couch, and another birdcage. I am going to do a wild paint job on the table. Can't wait for that!!

I helped Mickie set up a blog, downloaded the "Pin It" button on her browser and showed off all the things I had done in her absence. She hadn't been here since before we painted the dining room, so she had a lot to catch up on! We also made several plans for our fall projects--what we want to do and when we would get together. Looks like there are some FUN days ahead!

Meanwhile, Jeff and Elizabeth wandered in and out, and Ornery (between stops to help us with parts of our project) made some jigs for his saws and cut out a set of bowls from the oak we bought a couple of weeks ago. He also got a little close to the blade on one cut--oops! No blood, but it carved a little nick in the skin. We both went to bed very tired that night!

Sunday we painted. I finished the last green wall and Ornery did the trim on it and painted 1/2 of the ceiling Orange Vermilion--a vibrant red/orange color. Painting required moving all the very heavy furniture on that wall, and then moving it back. Words simply cannot express my delight with how it looks!

The room is not finished, and I don't have things all put away yet, but I wanted to show our progress so far. The colors in the photos do not show clearly at all, but you can see the contrast between the ceiling and the walls. Also, you can see the new light fixture that Ornery installed to replace the ugly white canister that was there before.

It looks like the room will be torn up for a few more days since he really needs to mow the lawn tomorrow evening and I can't reach the ceiling like he can, but in the meantime I have a lot of things I can work on for the room.

I have selected a design I want to try to copy on my table but I need to sand and do a primer coat on it first
The lamp shade on the small lamp between the recliners is awaiting replacement with an embellished new shade I have yet to make.
I have two large canvases to paint a picture on to hang behind the couch (the picture will be divided between the two canvases to fill the space better)
I have a bunch of small frames to paint and fill with pictures of flowers and birds I have yet to print out.
I have decided to begin a bird house collection for on top of the armoire and side book cases, and I think I may make one or two myself--or at least paint them
I am going to buy and cut some mat board to fit inside the book cases behind the shelves to give a different background color to the items on the shelves
I want to put a flower arrangement in the new bird cage I just bought (for 75 cents!)
The shades need to be cleaned and the windows washed (badly!)
The pillows need to be recovered with some floral fun-ness--maybe even some embroidery?

The feel I am going for in the room is lively. The mantle will change around with seasons, as will the display/book cases on the sides of the armoire. Eventually we will buy an upholstered chair to put in front of one of the windows, and Ornery is planning to build a low plant shelf which I will do a tile mosaic on the top of for in front of one of the others. Even though there is so much to do, I am elated to say good bye to the last of the "Biltmore Buff" paint that was throughout the main living areas.

I also have all those ornaments to make, and Mickie is already working on a project that I was going to try, making trees and other things out of old books, so I think I'll make some of those. Then there is the editing, cooking, cleaning, laundry and all the other things that just won't go away! I think I am going to have to cut something out--sleep is over rated, I hear. :)

Change is in the air

2011-09-24T07:42:00.001-05:00

I didn't get the memo, but from the looks of everything online, it is time to change things up! Facebook got a new face lift (making it incredibly obnoxious to navigate, IMO), Pinterest has changes planned for this coming week, and even my bank changed the looks of things on their online connection. Maybe when I get a minute I'll spruce up this Zoe Cottage blog, but I have bigger fish to fry right now!

So, if there really was a memo and in my haste to move forward with IRL updates around the house I missed it, I will have to plead being busy as my excuse for not following the plan. The house is sure looking nice, though!

Rainy day

2011-09-23T06:57:00.000-05:00

Thursday:
I awoke this morning (at 4:00) to the invigorating sound of a thunderstorm. The pyrotechnics only lasted a little while and it gently rained off and on throughout the morning making it ever so tempting to crawl back under the covers for a little extra shut-eye. Instead I spent some time scrolling through a few Pinterest boards, and packing up an order from Miller Manor Designs etsy shop for two yardstick airplanes. This is the order I made a special listing for last week but since I didn't hear back from her, I thought she had changed her mind.

The little guys are a challenge to mail, but I rummaged around in my craft closet and found a used box to wrap them in. I stuffed JC Penney's bags all around them for cushion. Hopefully the box is sturdy enough to keep them intact. I was thrilled to discover that I had charged $7.00 for shipping and the postage including delivery confirmation was $6.90. Amazing!

I didn't waste the whole morning. I baked the last of the cookie dough I mixed up last week and painted some more in the living room. I also fixed stuffed red peppers for lunch and then crashed HARD for about an hour. Waking up was slow, but I eventually got busy and finished my part of the painting, at least all I could do without Ornery's help moving furniture. When he got home, we went to the post office to mail the etsy order and had a veggie pizza and salad bar out, then he did the cut work on the walls I had rolled.

Friday:
I'll probably crash this afternoon, but I woke up at about 2:30, did an hour of Heart Physics exercises, then decided to get up just before 4:00 when I noticed Ornery was already getting up and around. I put the living room back together and folded drop cloths, started laundry, fixed breakfast and enjoyed a visit over coffee/juice all before 6:00! I have a hair appointment later this morning, but I need to get some more housework done before then. He has his last visit to Dr. G this morning. His finger is still a little flaky but overall looks so much better.

I think that the RBTI supplements and remineralizing our food will help more than anything we have done up until this point. They called yesterday to say my testing kit will be mailed out today, and that I will get it in about 10 days. I am learning a lot on the Facebook group page about the program, and getting an amazing amount of support. I continue to see little changes in me, and I am not even on the program fully yet!

We are ready for a weekend! Saturday Mickie is coming over to play in the studio with me and Jeff and Elizabeth will be in town. I haven't decided what I want to work on, but I have many options! Sunday we will "go" to church and finish the living room in the morning and do a little shopping in the afternoon; at least that is the plan right now. We are taking things day by day; it is less stressful that way.

Bouncing Back

2011-09-21T22:04:00.001-05:00

It was odd that at exactly 3:00 PM yesterday afternoon my blood seemed to start pumping again after several days of feeling lethargic. Glad to have some energy back, I started working on a project I had been putting off--the information packets for the cookie and ornament exchange. I used leftover invitation folders from Ryan and Ale's wedding and the whole thing is done in monochromatic brown. They are pretty cool looking, if I do say so myself. Even Ornery agreed, although he said they were a little boring for my typical style. He took them to the mail box for me today when he came home for lunch, so that is one chore marked off my to do list.

When I got up this morning, I discovered my son-in-law had sent me money via PayPal for an altered book/art journal he is commissioning me to do. He had mentioned it a few weeks ago, but I didn't know how serious he was about the project: apparently fairly so considering the size of the deposit. I spent time ruminating throughout the morning and came up with some pretty wild ideas, then sat at my craft table with a pad and pencil and drew up a list of elements I might want to include.

I decided on a theme and have quite a few snippets of ideas for how I will carry it through the book. I will use some of his deposit and haunt a used book store in town that has a bajillion books and all sorts of other cool stuff I might want to incorporate in my design. I have never done one of these before, but if the juices keep pumping out the ideas like they did today, it ought to be awesome!

Ornery filled the holes in the living room walls to get them ready for me to start painting last night, so after lunch I shoved the couch and recliners away from the walls and slapped some Olive Marinade on them. He did the brush work on both of them after work today. The couch wall is fine, the other one needs another coat tomorrow. Once that's done, I'll have him help me move the monstrous armoire and book cases. Our goal is to have that room finished before the weekend. Ornery says having me do the roller work makes the job much more tolerable--and it doesn't hurt on this project that we decided to wait on the ceiling until we decide on a color; the green throughout the whole main area of the house is enough without adding it to the ceiling. Sure wish I could decide on a color, but how do I decide when there are so MANY to choose from?!

Mickie had to postpone our crafting date again--so we are aiming for Saturday since none of the weekdays have panned out for us. Ornery says he will be in the shop that day. :) Elizabeth and Jeff are coming into town just for the day, so that is added incentive to get it done!

Ahhh-tumn

2011-09-20T07:55:00.000-05:00

~~ It looks like we have finally left the dog days of summer behind and are set to enjoy some of the finest days of the year in Oklahoma--autumn! This morning it is a brisk 53 degrees, and the high is to get up in the low 80's. I can handle these temperatures! Sadly, I don't have any energy to do anything with them! The past few days I have really been dragging, only able to accomplish a few things throughout the whole day. Somehow I have gotten meals on the table, but if it wasn't for the dishwasher, the kitchen would be in a constant state of turmoil. I won't even mention the state of the rest of the house!

~~ Ornery patched all the holes in the living room walls last night--all he could reach, anyway. The patches need to be cleaned up a bit and then it will be ready for me to start painting in there. Maybe later today I can start that.

~~ I spoke with Mickie yesterday and she asked if we could craft on Thursday this week--yay!! I have sure missed our gab and art sessions!

~~ This morning I need to put together information packets for the cookie and ornament exchange participants. It looks like there won't be that many cookies... and I am opting out of that part since I can't eat chocolate or nuts and I don't want to have to sample them that late at night. It will be hard enough to eat dinner that late. I am sure I could "fudge" and eat the cookies, but I don't want to set my healing back. I think it will be much more fun if I am feeling good!

Weekend in Review: finishing and beginning

2011-09-18T15:34:00.001-05:00

Saturday morning, we went to Ornery's mom's house at about 8:30 to finish the chores she needed done. Ornery installed two bathroom light fixtures for her and re-hung her front room valance using the sconce he repaired last weekend. We brought home one of the lights he took down to replace the fixture in our guest bathroom. The current model is the design that was popular back in the seventies and looks like a Hollywood dressing room light bar. We will install it when we get around to painting in there.

In the afternoon, we worked on finishing the guest room and getting the living room ready to paint next week. First I made the guest bed with the new sheets, then Ornery took one of the floating shelves down from the living room to show me what it would look like next to the bed. The wall is so misshapen (bowed) that the shelf wouldn't work at all there. I was disappointed, but not too badly since I didn't really like the shelves in the first place. So he hung the bedside reading light and helped me switch out the direction of the frame hanger on an old poster frame so it would accommodate a new poster.

While he had his drill out, he took down the curtain rod and the mounting hardware for the shelves in the living room. We decided where to hang the mirror in the hall with the stud finder, then realized we needed to buy some heavy duty hooks and picture wire to make it work. It will be the first time since we have had that mirror that we didn't have to use molly-bolts to hang it. So we made a quick run to Lowe's--our first trip for the weekend!

We sat out on the rockers for a while in the evening, soaking up the beautiful fall weather and thinking about plans for the yard. I suppose once we get the inside finished, we will start working on the outside. Hopefully we enjoy a nice long autumn!

Sunday started really slow, and then tapered off! Ornery read, then helped me hang the mirror in the hall and baked some banana bread. I cleaned the kitchen, gave Ornery a hair cut and ironed the scarf for the guest room window. Yup, that's it! We did "go" to church in the afternoon, and if I have an energy boost later I plan to cook some more. It was really a day of rest for me.

Here are the pictures I took of the finished guest room:

Here is the window treatment. I really need someone with a good eye and more patience than I have to help fix that scarf, but it is up there now, and it serves the purpose I had intended it to--blocking the light on the sides of the window.

The green walls with purple pictures including an iris that Elizabeth did with markers when she was in high school and a tile that my sister Mimi painted for me of a tulip. Love that I was able to find a good home for them!

These metal ornaments were above the front door at Miller Manor, and I had them in the living room here for a while, but I really like the way they look on the purple wall. I turned on the lamp to show that it really works! :) Other than the closet, this room is ready for visitors!

This week I am going to start working on painting the living room. Ornery really appreciated only having to do the cut work in the guest room, and I liked getting it done quickly! I am also going to start on the next eBook and hopefully enjoy a craft day with Mickie. Hopefully this will be the last week of painting for a while!

Friday!

2011-09-16T07:30:00.000-05:00

For not having any plans yesterday, I sure managed to fill the day! Ornery left for work at 6:00 so I got an early start on the day--laundry and email/blogging--then I headed out to run some errands at 10:00. I spent a long time in Lowe's, where I found the exact cubicle organizer I was considering buying at Target for $8.00 less. I also got the lamp for the guest room, and paint and the light fixture for above the fireplace in the living room. I made several other stops finding great deals on everything I was looking for, and arrived back home at about 3:20. The crazy drivers were out in force, and there are still construction slow downs all over town. I was really glad to get home!

While I was out, I got an email from etsy about a customer wanting to purchase two yardstick airplanes. I finally got around to answering her after I got home. I can never remember my etsy password to sign in on my phone. :( As of this morning, however, she still hadn't placed the order, so maybe she got tired of waiting on me? Oh, well.

Ornery fished out the last of our three digital cameras--just happens to be the oldest one!--so I can take and post pictures again. It will cost at least $200 to fix the Minolta, and while I haven't looked into getting my little Pentax repaired, it does still take pictures, I just can't download them to my computer--which is almost the same as not being able to take them!

After dinner he put together the new organizer I bought, although I am rethinking my decision to not put the flimsy cardboard panels on the back--I am going to cover them with printed papers and add some pizzazz to the piece! :) I will use it to store things I don't need very often, including various things I collect to use in a project "someday."

Once I had moved into it (and gotten all the stuff off my table) I got out some new paper and made another stocking ornament. Ornery had been giving me a hard time about how wild all my paper choices were, so I decided to prove to him that I could make something without it screaming at him. I flipped this one from the direction all the previous ones were, and used three colors of brown alcohol inks on the back to stain it instead of painting it white. I also used tea stain ink on the lace and ruffle to give it more of an aged look. There are little clear snowflakes glued on various places as well.

I also got out the very first thing he ever cut with his scroll saw and stained, backed and embellished it to hang in my little alcove gallery. I love how it turned out, especially the beaded hanger I made for it! There is a fine sparkly mist over both pieces that gives just a hint of glimmer without having big glittery globs on them. I am learning subtle, although I still like wild...

Today I plan to do a bit of cooking, finish the laundry and maybe a little housework. If I get back to doing any crafting, I will work on ornaments. I am going to experiment with some alcohol ink on clear glass balls...

We have a few little chores around here to do this weekend--

install the lamp in the guest room
hang the floating shelf next to the guest bed
finish the pumpkin porch ornament
hang the mirror from the living room in the hall
take down the curtain rod in the living room
patch all the holes in the living room walls

Ornery also has to go to his mom's house to finish off a couple of projects for her. I am still looking for a couple of little accents for the guest room, but once I get the new sheets on the bed and dye the afghan I will be happy enough with it to take some pictures. Hopefully by the end of the weekend...