Sunday Again

I wonder how old I am going to be before I get over this "Oh Crap I have to go back to school tomorrow" feeling I still get on Sunday nights. I have been out of school far longer than in but Sunday nights still bring that feeling, Maybe when I am retired there will be no more Sunday night moping and no Monday morning blues and every day is a weekend I will get over it. At the moment it has me in its grips.

Its been house cleaning, lawn mowing and general standard housekeeping around here this weekend. Much as it is every weekend. I have next Friday off and then I am hoping to get started on redoing my bedroom. The carpet needs to be removed and I have wall paper to put up. There are end tables to paint and walls to paint as well. A new quilt to be made for the bed, and pictures to be rehung. It should keep me out of trouble for a bit. I am hoping to get it done before I go on holiday but I have not quite figured out how to pay for the flooring for it but all the rest is in hand.

Still cannot wrap my head around the fact that The Hostess is moving away. She will be gone by mid August, off in hot pursuit of a new life and the happiness that she deserves. She did not find it here. I am sad to see her go but so happy for her that things are changing for her. I hope she finds what she is looking for, that this move is all she would like it to be. I shall miss her, but she is not going so horribly far away. She popped in on Saturday and we has a lovely visit, sitting on my veranda looking a the lake of weeds in my front yard.

I can't wrap my head around much these days. I am feeling a bit muddled lately, not quite on point. Mostly I just want to lay down and sleep but when I do, its never for long stretches at a time. God its fun to be a girl some times. Hot flashes and night sweats are a joy, I can tell you. such a treat to wake up feeling like a prized boiled ham only to be shivering with cold moments later because your body has cooled and you are covered in sweat. Makes me do a happy dance I can tell you.

Too much information?? I am sorry but I am tired and cranky and when I get this way I tend to complain long and loud. I will stop now, no one wants to hear me having a bit of a whine and a moan bout the state of my functions.

Best Friend and her husband will be here tomorrow to spend the evening. They are tootling around the country having a bit of a holiday and they are going to stay here on their way home. Just a flying trip, over night then off home in the morning. I am nearly ready for them. Just the upstairs bathroom to clean and then its as good as it gets. It will be nice to see them both.

I hope you have had a lovely weekend.

Toodles,
Linda

Bathroom Project Finished

When I had the toilet changed in my upstairs bathroom, the new toilet did not have the same base as the old one and therefore the floor in the bathroom looked like this:

Very attractive don't you think??

I am not sure why  the toilet is sitting up on this 26 in square platform but it does. I think it may have had something to do with adding the plumbing into an old house but I am not sure. Its proved to be a bit of a pain for my poor brother when he laid the flooring. I did not want to ask him or anyone else to redo the floor and besides I like this flooring. It was a house warming gift and I was not ready to part with it. So I came up with a plan, one that I could do myself. Today I finished it.

I got some 5x5 white square tiles and I tiled the platform. I salvaged a bit of trim from my neighbour and today I finally finished it. Its not perfect, nothing is in this house. The platform is not perfectly square nor is it totally level, but I did the best I could. It looks clean and fresh, I still have the flooring that pleases me and its done at last.

I was concerned about cutting the curves on the tiles but it worked reasonably well. I used tile nippers and as I said before its not perfect but it did the job. Grout covers a multitude of sins.

Oh yes the curtains are up at Teddy Bear's house. The curtain rod needs to be cut down but they look good.

The blue in them match the blue in the chairs. She has started to hang the pictures back up and put things in the china cabinet. Its looking pretty.

Toodles
Linda

Sweating Like a Rented Mule

Sounds impressive doesn't it?? To be honest given my family genetics.... prone to sweating at the drop of a hat (thanks Dad), the fact that I am menopausal, overweight, and have some medical issues, blinking can pretty much cause me to break out in a full on drench. Today I have spent the majority of my time practically standing on my head and sweating up a storm, but its all been worth it. Just for those of you that don't sweat like a ditch digger, when you wear glasses, bending over and sweating means that 95 % of the time you are cursing because you cannot see, sweat pools on glass, just sharin'.  No matter, I have managed to get a fair few things done today and that makes me happy!!

I am making further progress on the bathroom project, the grouting is done but I am not sharing pictures until it is all finished. I was so happy to have enough grout left to finish as I did not want to make a Home Depot run today. I have to say that so far I am very pleased with the progress. Then I did this,

This is the downstairs bathroom, no door trims, it has been this way since April when I laid the flooring in the bathroom. I had the door trims, just never seemed to get around to cutting and installing them. So today, all these months later, I did the install:

There are two doors in this bathroom and they now both have shiny new finish trim on them. Took me all of 15 seconds to actually screw them down. When I do something like this I wonder why I took so long. I know why, because I cannot get on my knees and its awkward to do it bent over or laying flat on the floor.

I hauled out the garbage and the recycle, I scrubbed the nasty old litter box, cleaned up the floor in the laundry room and replaced the litter all clean and fresh.  Again, most of which had me head down and bum up but Minou will be ever so please with me!!

Thank you Mama!!

I stripped my bed down to the mattress and washed all the bedding, and am hanging it outside to dry. I can tell you when I slide into bed tonight I will delight in the smell of sun/wind dried linens. Finally I folded and put away all the towels that have been on the kitchen table since last weekend when I washed them. 

Right now more laundry is chugging away in the machine, the dish washer has been emptied and refilled, floors swept and scrub pails emptied. I still have curtains to hem, a newel post to paint and an air conditioner to fix. The air conditioner I will tackle once I am done with this and feel like bending again. I just hope I can fix it and not finish it. 

Last night the No Cook Friday group put the doors back on Teddy Bear's kitchen cabinets. I have to say they turned out just as lovely as I thought they would. 

Doesn't it look nice? I have not got the curtains done but the rod is no up yet so I will pass on those pictures later. We all pitched in after we were done with supper: Coffee at Teddy Bear's house instead of the local coffee shop. 

Kit Kat and the Banker worked on putting on the doors while Teddy Bear, The Sailor and I did hinges and handles.

Teddy Bear's grandson oh so badly wanted to help. Little Man is just at the age where he would love to help but is just not old enough to. The Sailor provided him with a kindred spirit as she patiently let him help as much as she could. We were quite the excitement for him, lots going on in Granny's kitchen.

Yep that little dark circle between the Banker and the Sailor is Little Man's head. He was helping to hold the door. Too bad that children did not retain the eagerness to help as they grow older.

Yes I did do more that just take pictures, I helped with the install as well.

These are the chairs I covered for her, she has four chairs and now they are all pretty and easy clean. We used outdoor fabric. I love the blue and yellow with hits of green. So fresh and pretty. 

We had to call in some manly muscle to install the microwave shelf and rehang the cupboard over the fridge. Thankfully future son-in-law was around. 

The Sailor is tall and she could help hold the cabinet in place while the man drilled it into place. In no time at all we were done and I think Teddy Bear likes the result!!

Well I need to go tackle an air conditioner.........wish me luck!!

Toodles, 

Linda

Update: the airconditioner got the better of me, I was too scared to go too far with it and I could not get it apart enough to see the problem. I chickened out so it remains unfixed.

Mid Week Musings

I got a present last night, Hummingbird, her partner and her daughter Miss S, stopped by and brought me this:

They said they saw it and thought of me, I cannot imagine why???? (teehee). Its me in so many ways, its crafty, it mentions quilts, its recycled, its a container...... yep its all Linda. This lovely little jar now lives in my sewing/craft room and keeps the extra hettles for my looms in a nice tidy bunch. They could not stop for long, just drop off my gift and go but we had a nice little chat before they scattered to the winds in search of costume parts for Miss. S.

I was so impressed with them last night. Miss S needs a super hero themed costume for a function and they were struggling to find something age appropriate. After all. if you give it some thought, female super heroes are not modestly dressed in this day and age. Hummingbird is not interested in painting her naked daughter blue and sending her out into the world. I was impressed that they are keeping Miss S age appropriate. While she wears the beauty of the woman she will be some day, she still is a girl, young and not yet ready for the maturity that is inching closer every day. I am so glad they are making sure she looks like what she is while she still is young. That they are not allowing her to reach ahead before its her time.  Too often childhood is left behind, lost, in favour of the trendy and the inappropriate. I was impressed.

Tonight I was over at Teddy Bears. We measured out the length of the drapes that I am going to hem for her kitchen. She will get the rod hung and then in the near future we will get the doors back on the cupboards and she will have a finished kitchen. I cannot wait to see it and I cannot wait to share some "after" pictures . We slipped out for coffee and a chat, then I came home. It was a nice way to spend the evening. Teddy Bear is very easy to visit with. Her grandson thought he should join us but the promise of marshmallow roasting in the back yard changed his mind.

Seeing her kitchen in progress always sends me home with an eye to wanting to do something in my house. I am starting a list for this weekend of little jobs that need to be finished. I am the queen of putting things off.

We had good news this week,The Hostess has a new job!! It does mean she will be moving away, starting a new life, new job, new house and I am very happy for her. I am sad too, I do not like my friends to go away. In my ideal world everyone I care about would be near me. I do not live in my ideal world, I live in the real world with everyone else and I am very aware that everyone has their own path to follow.  I will seriously miss having tea in her cozy kitchen of a weekend and having our interesting chats. The Hostess is the master of asking the hard questions that really make you think. She can challenge you at times. She will be missed by more than just me, but this is going to be such a good move for her. It fills so many of her wishes. I cannot be anything other than happy for her. She is not going to be that far away that she cannot be visited and I look forward to seeing her new house and seeing what she will do with it. She worked miracles in the house she is in now. The fact that she is leaving a job she is not happy in is truly a bonus for her. Life is too short to be doing something each day that does not make you happy.

Well, that is it for now. I want to knit for a bit before I head for bed.

Toodles,
Linda

Weekend Blogger

No matter how much I intend to I don't seem to blog much during the week. Weekends seem to afford the time and the inclination to slap together a blog post or two. When I started this blog I intended to write each day. With photos and witty commentary, I was going to be brilliant. No happening so I am not going to put pressure on myself to go it more frequently, I have decided that when I feel the need to write I will, if not I will not force it or feel guilty about not blogging more often. There may be pictures there may not be.

So that bit of drivel out of the way, on we get. My weekend started out very nicely. On Friday Mommybug came to town and she took me out for a belated birthday lunch. J joined us and we had a lovely time. Mommybug looks lovely, all healthy and expectant. I am so happy for them that things are going really well this time. Fingers and toes crossed that things carry on this way and the latest addition of  the bug family arrives safe, sound and healthy. It was hard to go back to work after such a lovely break, I could have happily spent the rest of the day shopping and goofing off but I was a good girl, I went back to work.

Friday night was spend with the No Cook Friday group as always, with all the attendant giggles and silliness. We do have a good time. Saturday found me doing the normal things, groceries, cleaning, vacuuming, dishes, and then I tidied up my knitting basket. It had become a horrible tangled mess. Oh yes and I made a fresh go of laundry soap.

 I had hoped to to finish the project in the upstairs bathroom but it was far too hot to be up there. So I fiddled away the afternoon, unknotting yarn and watching tv. In the evening I went to see The Lone Ranger with the Banker, her Sweet Baboo and Kit Kat. It was hysterical. So funny, Johnny Depp was excellent as Tonto.

Today after weeks of silence, Sir Barksalot was up and at it at 8:00 am. I think the battery must be dead in his bark collar. Sigh, all good things come to an end. So much for a lovely sleep-in this morning in the cool breeze. I read for a bit, tried to get back to sleep but eventually I gave up and got up. Thankfully the upstairs had cooled down over night so I did some work in the bathroom. I chucked the laundry down the stairs as I do every Sunday ( remember what I said about witty commentary) and then scrubbed said stairs as I made my way down them. They badly needed a wash. Do I have you riveted to your seat with the non stop action in this house.

So far I have managed breakfast and now I am blogging. I have some sewing to do for J today, I will do laundry and while I had thought of going to Walmart, I can tell already that is not going to happen. I love to laze about on Sundays and I can always go to Walmart tomorrow after work. I have cat food and litter to last that long. I tend to be like a lazy cat on Sundays, I do not wish to venture far afield.

So there you have it, all the normal things have been going on, I am looking foreward to a lazy quiet day. All is normal here at the homestead. I hope your day is going equally as well.

Toodles,

Linda

We Be Paintin'

I really wish I had some before pictures so you could truly appreciate the transformation but I forgot my camera yesterday and the doors were already off the cupboards by the time I got there. Regardless I can give you a smidgen of an idea of what we accomplished. I do have a picture of the colour before we started and what we have changed it to:

Before on the left and after on the right. We left that little bit because there is some repairs that need to be done to the wall before it can be painted but it gives you an idea of what it looked like before. A pretty colour but its time was over.

Here is the Banker painting above the china cabinet. The entire cabinet was the dark wood that you can see inside by all the dishes. We painted it all a nice fresh white. What a change!! That is just the primer on the cabinet and already it makes a world of difference.

Here we have actual paint on it and you can see how nice a fresh it looks. The doors and shelves still have to be done but that will all be done in time.

The last final push at the end of the day. Kit Kat on the floor, the Banker on the counter and Teddy Bear floating someplace in the middle, while I was on the other side of the room painting drawer fronts. The Social Butterfly was not able to be here for the second round but we managed any way. Many hand make light work.

I love the yellow, its a gentle, creamy colour and makes the place look so nice and bright. We got two coats of paint onto the cabinetry and the base boards. The walls got a third coat of paint because they really needed that last coat. So only the doors, the shelf the microwave sits on and the cabinet over the fridge still need to be painted. They are in the Banker's garage and will be done over time. I cannot wait to see the finished product. To be sure there will be pictures of it all once its complete.

So that took the afternoon. Now I am home and I should be doing laundry but I do not feel like it. I am not hungry, I am not energetic, I am simply, happily tired. Now I want to get painting in my own house.

Toodles,
Linda

Saturday Catch Up

Once again I seem to be an occasional blogger but last week I was "off". Nothing I can really put a finger on but just off, not me, not feeling myself, not at one with the force but a bit like something in the fridge that is going to sprout mold at any second. That sort of "off". As a result I did not go much of a much. No  blog worthy events around the old homestead last week.

This weekend has started as normal. No Cool Friday with the girls. giggles and gossip and deep intelligent conversation, peppered with grade school humour. I love it. Its better that therapy and can make the crappiest week a distant memory, in a heart beat. Friends, so important!! Today, well today I spent most of it with the same people again, Teddy Bear, the Banker, Kit Kat and Social Butterfly.

We had decided that once Teddy Bear was ready to commit to painting the wooden cupboards in her kitchen, we would all go over and help do the deed. This was a hard decision because, they are wood and its against the laws of the universe to paint wood and well they are wood!!! EEEK, Wood cannot, shoud not be painted, ever, ever, ever!! I do not subscribe to this theory, nor does the Banker. Teddy Bear gave it great thought and then decided the lure of pretty fresh white cabinets was too much. Laws were made to be broken and today was the day. We gathered at 9:00 am for coffee and a muffin, then we got stuck in. I have no pictures from the day as I left my camera at home. I have no memory these days. Painting bee ensued and we got the primer on the cupboards. We got the walls painted, two coats of a lovely pale yellow, in no time flat. The kitchen is no longer a rosy pinkish mauvey sort of colour. The cabinetry will be white when we are done. I recovered her chairs with a yellow and blue floral print and we have blue curtains to hem and hang in the fresh new space.

We are back there tomorrow to paint the cabinets. I will try to remember my camera and share some pics. We had a blast, the Banker and I love to paint and decorate, although she is far better than I . It did not feel at all like work, the day zipped by with the usual giggles and silly talk, laughter and chatter that is so much a part of our group. Before we knew it, we had done all we could and it was time to hit the road.

On the way home, I stopped at Home Depot and got the last of the tiles I need for the upstairs bathroom. I may actually get that little project finished one of these days. I will show before and afters of it as I had my camera handy for this project. Sadly I had not measured the trim I will need to make the job complete, so I could not buy that at the same time I got the tiles. Why make only one trip when you can make two??? I do not know what is up with me these days. I am getting more and more forgetful. Its so annoying.

It was stinking hot today but just a while ago the heavens poured down buckets of rain on us. Hopefully it will cool off tonight. Speaking of cooling off, I am so mad, frustrated and yet amused over my air conditioner upstairs. Its a portable, and last year it worked fine. In the fall, I unplugged it and moved it to its spot in the bedroom and there is sat, just as it has every other year. No one has touched it, there is nothing to touch on it, its all enclosed. So why then, when I went to use it this year does  it insists on draining water onto the floor and not into the collection bin where its supposed to?? WTF!!! I have looked and poked and shaken it all I can and I cannot get the water drain where it is supposed to. I have no funds to get it professionally fixed and while I would love to open it up and hopefully see what the problem is, I am hesitant to do so. My fear is I will make it worse. So the mad is that this has happened, the frustrated is I cannot afford to get it fixed and the amused is that this is so how my life goes. Sigh!! On the upside the rug is soaked and will be a great incentive to start the removal process of said rug. Mold will just be one more "thing" living in this ancient carpet that graces my bedroom floor.

My bedroom is the next on my decorating hit list. Paint, new flooring and a new quilt for the bed. I just need to get going on it. I would like to get it done before Ireland, so I am going to use the wet carpet as a starting gun so to speak. Next weekend I will get started, maybe,if I can get the air conditioner to work or if its not stinkin hot and I can work upstairs with just the windows open.

Toodles
Linda

Canada day and I Am Taking It Easy

I was up till all hours reading last night and as a result I did not wake until 10:30 this morning. I managed to drag myself downstairs by 11 and plopped myself in front of the computer. I am feeling seriously sluggish and icky (big technical term there) today. I could not figure out why until I realized that I had more bread and processed food yesterday than I have for ages. I am feeling the effects today. Funny how that happens.

I have managed to accomplish a few thins though. I managed to figure out how to download music to my MP3 player. GO ME!! I have almost finished the top for the Blarney night quilt for 2014 and I finished the laundry. I started to work on the bathroom floor upstairs, to fix the gap in the flooring that was left when I had the toilets changed. I was sailing along very nicely but  I can't finish it because I am three tiles short. Hmmph. Oh well, at least I have the majority of it finished and it makes a big difference in the look of the place. I will post pictures when I get it completed. I thought I had some trim that would work to finish it off but its too wide so I need to go buy some the right size.

It has been a beautiful day, not too hot, a slight breeze and the neighbourhood is quiet. Just the right sort of day to putter around the house and take a nap on the couch, which I think I will do right now. I am so lucky to live where I live. Happy Canada Day!!

Toodles
Linda