Family Room

Oh look! It's Verona, skulking past the scene of the crime. No one's talking but she's the only animal that pays any attention to this asparagus fern, so I'm quite sure it was she who knocked the stool over so the plant landed 100% upside down. The good news is that thing is so completely potbound that this is the only dirt that fell out. It's actually 2 ferns that I bought for 25 cents each at the end of summer 2004. I have repotted it a couple of times but it becomes potpound about 5 minutes later. I can't remember for sure but isn't this one of those plants that likes to be potpound?

I understand this plant has some low toxicity to it but I haven't seen Verona eat any of it; she just plays with the fronds and hides under the stool, thinking no one can see her. If she keeps up her recent behavior, I may just make her a little fern snack however. Verona, or Sleepus Interruptus, as I'm now calling her, has insisted on waking me up the last three mornings, ranging from 3:55 to 4:15. She touches my face with her paw, she licks my fingers, hands and arms like I'm a giant lump of catnip and she moves my hand to her head with her paw. It's cute as hell, just not at 3:55 am! After I finally extracate myself from her, I lie there for 5-10 minutes, covered with cat spit, trying to get back to sleep, to no avail.

(That line is a cat toy on a string, hung from the doorway. And that's Venus, the totally sweet, innocent cat in the family.)

This is a picture of our new-to-us family room. This room connects to our dining room, now known as The Pet Room (pictures in a future entry) so I'd like to paint them two complimentary colors, to be determined. When we moved in, all the walls in the house were painted this very pale blue - almost a blueish white I guess - with this blue carpeting throughout. When we moved the furniture we saw how much we've worn down the carpeting - amazing. We're going to take down those curtains and install white mini blinds. Cringe if you must, but we like white mini blinds throughout the house. Because we have no close neighbors, we leave them open, pulled up, most of the time. These curtains are closed now because it's Christmas Tree season which means Reggi spends waaaay too much time barking at the people parking in front of our house and the people wandering out behind our back yard. Oh well, one month each year, living in a cave isn't too much to bear, to get to enjoy living surrounded by a tree farm the other 11 months of the year.

That recliner in the foreground is older than Simon. In the other room, it sort of became Reggi's chair. Now Steve sits in it and has realized how old and worn out it is. We're looking to replace it but waiting for the right thing at the right price.

El cheapo coffee table, Yankee Candles and ugly (free) pillows. Simon hates that this couch is supported, under the cushions, by a piece of plywood. I say, it doesn't show and is functional. I don't have money for new furniture, I have a paper habit to support. Where are the boy's priorities??

Plants and candles in front of the big windows. This was a bedside table in it's first incarnation - matched our headboard, back in the day. Simon's dad has the headboard and the other table. I'd like to ask him if he's using the table because I'd love to have it. We'll see. (Guess I could have shown you the whole thing, eh?)

This is what's known as a "In Front of the TV Holiday Card Making Station". I make about 100 and expect I'll be able to mail them before Christmas this year - what a concept! Not bad for getting a late start when I learned that the really cool ones I was going to buy were backordered forever and a day. If you'd like me to send you a card and you know you're not on my list, please email me, using the link in my profile.

Nosy Nate is Verona's other name. I finally got to bring one of my two quilt racks out of storage to use in the family room. Mom made the afghan, my Granny made the purple quilt and there's another one under there made by me. This placement works out pretty well because we used to have our stereo there with that stained glass window cling above it. I still like the window cling but it looked dumb without something below it because it doesn't fill the window. This quilt rack fills that bill and blocks the view which is just the side of the hot tub.