Vultures & Quilts

Check out these pavement drawings, especially the 3-D illusion ones. There are a few towards the end that show the drawings from the "wrong" angle. They really helped my brain comprehend what I was seeing. Just incredible.

These are crappy pictures but isn't the second one better, with the extra black edging around the "flower"? I had also tried it with a stamped background but it was too busy. I have paper picked out to make a turquoise one and a blue one tonight.

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Steve and I walked Reggi along the canal Saturday morning and I took several pictures. But this stupid camera software did some unexplained wacky thing and they disappeared. That will teach me to be so quick to delete them from my camera as soon as I download them. Hmmph.

I was going to show you two things. One is our new $958,000 pedestrian bridge, so people don't have to cross the two sets of railroad tracks to get to the canal path. It also helps people in Gretchen's neighborhood get to the canal path much more directly. I actually had a couple of nice shots - one of Steve & Reggi on the bridge looking down at me and another of the sunlight making this cool pattern through the sides of the bridge. Oh well.

We also saw those crazy turkey vultures again. (Photo credit: Marlene Bruce.) They love to sit in the tall dead trees along the canal. The first time we saw them a few years ago we were so creeped out. They are big and silent and spooky! I guess I was afraid they were going to start circling us and eat our beagle or something. Now I was kind of excited to see them again. I counted maybe a dozen in one tree at first glance. I then turned to the other side of the railroad road tracks and there were about 30 that I could see. Once you know what to look for you can see them everywhere, which is one of the things that's so creepy. They're in the trees, on top of telephone poles and who knows where else. I estimated there were about 50 altogether.

We wondered what would happen when a train went by. One time Steve and I stood on the bridge directly over where a train passes under - and man, what a rush when that train passed under us. It produced such a huge blast of hot air coming up at us! Anyway, on our walk back we heard a train way off in the distance. Sure enough, all the vultures, even the ones not near the tracks, silently took off and flew away. They were starting to come back after the train left but we could tell it was going to take a while so we kept walking.

It was a gorgeous morning for a walk. In fact the whole weekend has been just perfect - not too hot. We had Mom, Dad and Gretchen over for dinner Saturday night and I was really hoping it would be cool enough to eat on the deck and it was. That side of the house is away from the afternoon sun so it's usually not as bad anyway. It's usually good for breakfast and dinner - both cooler ends of a hot day.

We had Sweet & Sour Meatloaf and Macaroni & Cheese. Gretchen brought tomatoes and cucumbers in a lovely vinaigrette with lots of basil. Those were the best tomatoes I've tasted in a long time. (Oh! she brought a bunch of gorgeous sunflowers too!) Mom made a fruit salad that was outstanding. Simon has already eaten the leftovers and asked me to buy/make more. Both dishes were so fantastically colorful, I almost busted out the camera for a few pictures. Wish I had now.

A fine time was had by all.

~ ~ ~

When I was asking Gretchen if she had that gen-u-ine Amish quilt I talked about earlier, she said she only had this one, that I made for her son Nick, when he was a baby, almost 19 years ago. I forgot all about it! I was at her house last week checking on her cat and remembered we hung it in her family room a couple of years ago so I took a peak. It's perfect! I asked her to bring it over Saturday when she and Mom and Dad came over for dinner, so I could see if the size and colors would work, for when I make one for our wall. She said it didn't really go in her family room so I was welcome to use it. This is exactly the size and colors I would have used were I to make another one. Now I don't have to. Bless you , Sissy - you're the best!

I finally put matching pillow cases on the pillows, that go with the room better too. I made those out of cool fabric I found at JoAnn's a few years ago. They are black with rows and rows of a white picket fence with quilts hung over them. How cute is that?? I'll probably skip a headboard altogether, at least for now. Still need to dye the white bedskirt black to "anchor" the room a bit more.

Oh - let me ask you about pillow shams. As I've mentioned, I've never owned pillow shams. They always seemed kind of fussy and extraneous to me but now I like them. I looked at them briefly at Linens 'n Things the other day. I must have read the package wrong because they were $30-$40 each - and I swear there was only one per package. Are they nuts? Am I nuts? I could make them - but for now, I'm plenty happy with the quilty pillow cases you see here.

I also hung those two pictures on both sides of the shelves on Saturday. The one on the left is an etching Simon did in school a few years ago that I framed. It was hanging in my studio but it was never quite right in there because you could see some of the stamped leaves on the walls through the float frame. This looks much better. The one on the right is a birthday card that Steve's mom gave him a couple of years ago that made me cry, it was so perfect for him. So I framed it. I like that these are both in float frames, both have black in them and each one is meaningful to each of us.

This sign says, "Always Kiss Me Goodnight". It's 3-D, made of metal. I bought it a couple of years ago, anticipating putting it in here. I love the sentiment because it's one of my "rules" - I've asked Steve to kiss me goodnight even if I'm already asleep.

The last thing I want to do in our room is try caulking a nice thin bead of white caulk where the wall meets the ceiling. The guy that painted Mom & Dad's living room did that and I thought it was such a cool idea. I really hate taping the walls and ceiling when painting - too much time, too much tape, so I wing it and it looks like it. I've had the caulking gun and caulk for weeks but am too chicken to try it. I'll practice on paper a lot first. I just need to do it. Just do it!

~ ~ ~

I had the best weekend I've had in a while. I got to do some "design remix" stuff - moving plants and candles, etc. around from room to room to mix it up a little. I finally put all the painting clutter away. I said to Steve at least twice this weekend, "I just love our house!"

I hope your weekend was nice too.

Food, Flowers and Follow-up

The final vote ended up being: Left = 6, Right = 4. In case you were curious. I ended up using the one on the right but will definitely use that marble background for something else - probably another card like this actually since I like the color combination. Thanks for voting!

Today I'm going to work on a bunch of these and some other framed pieces to take to the store this week. I can now see this needs, for a couple of reasons, another black layer under the bottom dark pink one. I have a ton of ideas and a ton of frames. Should be fun!

Tortellini Bake

1 pkg (10 oz) refrigerated cheese tortellini

1 TB olive oil

1 small zucchini, diced

1 yellow squash, diced

1 onion, diced

1 sweet red pepper, diced

1 tsp dried basil

½ tsp pepper

½ tsp salt

1 cup (4 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup light cream

Cook tortellini according to package directions.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a skillet; cook zucchini, squash, onion, red pepper and spices until vegetables are crisp-tender.

Drain tortellini and rinse in hot water; combine with vegetable mixture, mozzarella and cream in a 1-1/2 quart baking dish.

Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until heated through.

6-8 servings.

This was so fantastic I took it for lunch the next day and I'm still having cravings for more.

Frenzy Finale

More

Busy, Busy

I hope I'm not turning into a procrastinator. I admit I haven't been as productive card-wise as I would have liked lately. True, I've been working on other things (recent room painting projects) but still, I could have stepped it up a notch or three. In my defense, this week I had begun making batches of cards - some for inventory, some for MJ's home show in October and some for Pam's new shop in Victor. The shop she intended to open August 1st. Which is Monday.

Pam called me yesterday, asking when I could bring my cards in. She opens this Saturday, July 30! Ruh-roh.

So now I'm a lean, mean, card-making machine. Here's some of what I made last night.

Artisan Alley

37 East Main Street

Victor, NY

Which One?

I vote for the one on the right.

Weekend in Review

Mom and Dad are gonna kill me but this is partly my story to tell, so I will. The end of the story is Dad is fine, it was indigestion. The rest of the story goes that Simon came running through the house to find me Saturday afternoon, using his I'm-not-kidding-around voice. "Mom! Mom! Gramma called. She called an ambulance for Grampa and wants you to come over!" I quickly put my shoes on and ran downstairs to tell Steve where I was going. He said, "I'm coming too." I told him he didn't have to but he said, "I'm coming," leaving no room for discussion. He really didn't need to come but that was very nice - good to know he's there for me. And Mom and Dad too. I know, I know, something else I probably don't give him enough credit for.

We arrived within 15-20 minutes and I'll be honest, the closer we got, the worse I was imagining the outcome. I was even thinking about the two sales tax returns I need to file at work tomorrow, thinking of who I could get to do those for me. I was trying to figure out when to tell Gretchen, who was returning from FL that night around midnight. I really didn't know what time her plane left FL but figured I'd try her cell phone anyway. Simon called Steve while I was driving, wanting to know if he should come over. I said no, I'd call when I knew something - but that made me cry, that Simon was being so nice and stand-up.

As we drove down the street just before their street, I had the sudden calming thought that maybe the paramedics were still there and Dad didn't even go to the hospital. Turns out that was right. They were just packing up to leave. They said it was the kind of indigestion that is always confused with a heart attack and they did the right thing in calling them. We walked into the house, saw Dad standing around the living room with the paramedics. Being the stoic rock that I am, I immediately burst into tears of relief. Mom seemed to think I was over-reacting but where does she think I got this emotional DNA from?? The medical people were so nice to Mom and Dad. After they left, I hugged Dad and really bawled. Not long, just enough to get it out of my system, I guess. I really want to be good in an emergency situation - and still cling to the hope that I would be, while it was ongoing. But once it's "over", I'm probably gonna lose my shit. Oh well, we all have our strengths and weaknesses, don't we?

Mom, Dad, Steve and I sat around and chatted for a while. "So, that was fun. Now what do you guys want to do?" I asked. It was all fine, Dad felt fine, the pain had passed and after a while Steve and I went home, stopping to pick up pizza and wings for dinner.

I called Gretchen this morning to fill her in and naturally, she could be all gloaty about it, like how she's better in an emergency than I am. That's probably really what is bugging me about my reaction. I want to be the strong one. Oh well, I'm okay - no point in obsessing over that now.

~ ~ ~

I've been feeling very frustrated with my printer lately. It won't print magenta even though the printer knows the magenta cartridge is full. (I had problems with the previous magenta cartridge, which is what prompted me to install a new one a few days ago.) I've run the print nozzle cleaning process and test page many times - even consulted the manual, not my usual MO. I emailed the Brother support desk today so hopefully they'll have an answer for me. I know the first thing they are going to say is I should use genuine Brother cartridges. I buy generic and they've always been fine.

~ ~ ~

I covet many things from Stacks and Stacks. Look under Crafts and Games - all sorts of little drawerish things!

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Shannon finally had her beautiful Georgia Louisa last Thursday, a whopping two and a half weeks late! She's just beautiful and lucky to have such wonderful parents.

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Steve and Lizz went to see The Fantastic Four Saturday afternoon so I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory because it was playing at the same time. Save your money - or see it as a rental. I just wasn't blown away. Deep Roy was good as all the Oompah Loompahs and it was cool to know 40 of those squirrels were actually trained. Willie Wonka just wasn't interesting. Confession: I almost fell asleep during part of it, but that may have been because the seats reclined too much, something I wouldn't think possible.

~ ~ ~

Other than the little hiccup where I thought Dad was dead, the weekend was pretty enjoyable. I didn't accomplish half of what I intended to but what else is new? Steve and I took Reggi to Canandaigua Saturday morning and walked all around the pier and Kershaw Park. Reggi was so excited to go, she literally leaped in the air, when asked if she wanted to go for a walk. But she was worn out by the time we were done, as evidenced by the lack of spring in her step on the way back.

The weather all weekend was significantly cooler than it has been, which was a great relief.

We hot tubbed first thing this morning, then ate breakfast and read the paper on the deck. Just a gorgeous day today. It's just been in the mid-70s today I think.

Time to grill some pork chops for dinner and work on cards until bedtime.

Dad's Farm

Here are some more pictures from the vacation Gretchen and I took with the boys earlier this month. This property used to be Dad's tree farm in Penn Yan. It's 55 acres, which includes a 3 acre pond. Seventeen acres were tillable and 35 acres were hardwood forested. He bought it in 1982 and sold it in 1995.

He hired some local Mennonite men to build the house and barn. Dad spent many a weekend down there, planned on retiring to this place. Mom worried about him being alone down here so he finally had a phone line put in when electricity made it down the dirt road it sits on. (Dad, correct me about any of this in the comments!) I think Dad and a down-the-street neighbor paid to run the electricity up to their end of the road. He finally even had indoor plumbing installed but that was right before

he sold it. Up until then, one had to use the outhouse, or the privy as Dad liked to call it. That's it behind the house, small building, barely visible here. You can imagine how thrilled Mom and Gretchen and I were with that! Guess that was Dad's intention, kept visitors few and far between.

This is the other side of the house, opposite the driveway. Two of my strongest memories of visiting Dad here were the mega numbers of cluster flies. I'd never heard of them before that and man, were they gross. There were so many of them, Dad used to suck them up with the shop vac. And there were bats. Inside the house. I'm not sure if I ever actually saw one but Simon did and Dad confirmed it. Bats are a good thing. Outside, eating bugs where they belong! Dad had a bat house on the back of the house, with a big pile of bat droppings beneath it. Oh goody, more evidence of bats.

This really was a neat place, don't get me wrong. I'm not sure my description is doing it justice. Maybe I better shut up and we'll just enjoy the pictures.

This is the barn, that was built a few years after the house. Gretchen and I were both very surprised that the whole place looked just like it did when Dad left it, to our recollection anyway. I thought it would be all modernized and improved or something. We were half hoping the owners would be home and invite us in, but no dice.

This is the pond, as seen from the yard. We used to park the car by the pond, on the other side and walk up to it but it seemed so overgrown on that side, I don't think that's possible anymore. I remember the boys trying to skip stones in the pond, just like Grampa did.

This is my artsy shot of the fence. That's Gretchen taking pictures over on the right side there. It makes me kind of sad that Dad sold it. I never thought about the future or anything but when I do, who am I kidding? For me to live there would require some major renovation. De-batting the place would be first, followed by the installation of central air conditioning and a high speed Internet connection, not necessarily in that order. I love rustic but more that it's a nice place to visit, not sure I want to live there. I love the location and the solitude though.

Southwest Sausage Cheese Bake & Blueberry Coffee Cake

It's my turn to bring in breakfast today - and here's what I made!

Southwest Sausage Cheese Bake

6 flour tortillas (10") cut into 1/2" strips4

cans (4 oz each) chopped green chilies, drained

1 lb bulk pork sausage, cooked and drained

2 cups (8 oz) shredded Monterey Jack cheese

10 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 tsp of each- salt, garlic salt, onion salt, pepper and ground cumin

Paprika

2 medium tomatoes, sliced

Sour cream and salsa

In a greased 13" x 9" baking dish, layer half of the tortilla strips, chilies, sausage, and cheese. Repeat layers. In a bowl, beat eggs, milk and seasoning; pour over cheese. Sprinkle with paprika. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking.

Bake uncovered at 350 for 50 minutes. Arrange tomato slices over the top. Bake 10 to 15 minutes longer or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting. Serve with sour cream and salsa.

Yield: 12 servings.

(Note to self: Next time, use mixer to mix icing, rather than whisk - to better dissolve powdered sugar!)

Blueberry Coffee Cake

INGREDIENTS:
* 2 cups flour

* 1 cup sugar

* 2 tsp. baking powder

* 1 tsp. salt

* 1 1/2 tsp. grated lemon peel

* 1/2 cup butter, softened

* 1 cup milk

* 2 eggs slightly beaten

* 1 tsp. vanilla

* 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Icing

* 1 cup powdered sugar

* 1/4 tsp. almond extract

* 3-5 tsp. milk

PREPARATION:
Heat oven to 375. Grease a 13x9 inch pan.

In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and lemon peel. Using pastry blender or fork, cut in butter.

Add milk, eggs and vanilla. Stir well.

Pour 3/4 batter into greased pan. Top with blueberries. Spoon remaining batter over blueberries.

Bake for 35 minutes.

Cool 30 minutes. In small bowl , blend icing ingredients. Drizzle over warm cake.

Potatoes

This is why I love sweet potato vines! (Thanks, Dad, for turning me on to them.) The picture on the left is from May 20 and the one on the right is from July 20. Nice. Last year I brought that pot inside for the winter. The spike survived nicely but some little black kitten wouldn't stop digging in the dirt and disturbing the sweet potato vines so I had to throw them out. She just turned 1 year old last week and has lost some of those kitten tendencies. And I covered the top of the soil with stones to further deter her. So I'll give it another shot at the end of summer and bring it inside again.

~ ~ ~

May I just say that I make some of the finest fried chicken in all the land? And I have Mom to thank for that. Salt, pepper and flour - and fry it up. I don't make it very often but every time I do we wonder why I don't do it more often and/or make more of it. That was dinner tonight, along with mashed potatoes. I forgot, as I nearly always do, to make gravy. That's mostly because I don't like gravy all that much. (I know, I know. My family will just about drum me out of the clan for that remark.) Steve and Simon love gravy and I'm just talking about brown gravy made with that powder mix and water. It's so fast to make that even though I forget until the very end, I usually do make it. Not tonight. Just butter, milk, onion salt, black pepper and my beloved chives. It was delicious, even Steve said so and he's Mr. Gravy. Now these don't compare to my dad's mashed potatoes, which he used to make by the 55 gallon drum when he knew Simon was coming for dinner. So not only were they plentiful but he beat them with the mixer for about 36 hours, I swear. Me? Beat them with the electric mixer, skins and all, until most of the lumps are reasonably small. Simon used to complain, "These are good, Mom, but not like Grampa's. No offense."

None taken.

More Ducks

Sunshyn - the upper right hand door in the previous entry is with the blue trim that matches the rest of the house. I was sure I was going to like that one best - but white shall be the window trim color of choice. I probably won't get to it until this weekend. And as for a red door - a few years ago I would have picked red too. Now I'm on a yellow kick. Gonna paint the kitchen yellow - with all the red apple accents, it will be a little retro looking.















More ducks! I might even like this one better than the first one (below). I'm also experimenting with card photography vs scanning. I attached the small black squares and the ducks with foam tape so I wanted to capture the 3Dness of it but if you look carefully you can see I tilted the card just a tad too much because I can see a corner of foam tape showing under the 3rd duck. Note to self: make foam tape piece slightly smaller.


I started thinking about photographing my cards when a member of Greeting Card Professionals group I belong to, talked about building her own light tent. Something else I'll be looking into.

True Colors

Look what that crazy Ann did for me! She often takes pity on me, being PhotoShop challenged and all. I love the white! I know Gretchen and Mom will still vote for burgundy, but need possibly a darker shade than in the photo.

I also think Ann is right in her comment that the house is like me. Gray, solid, stable - with a flare of a daring color. I most often wear black or khaki pants and colorful shirts too!

So I vote for white. What says you?

Project Status Report

I'm deep cleaning my desk and going through the last of the paperwork I collected at the National Stationery Show in May. These are some websites with stuff I liked. Enjoy!

We Do Windows

Uncookedland

Parcel Studio

Dot's Daughter Designs

ACN Enterprise

Farm Cards

Paper Chatter

Cancer Care Cards

Window Sane

Global Solutions

Old business:
The lie in the previous entry - I don't water ski. Not enough money in the world to get me to even think about trying - because as Krissie pointed out - I'm not fond of deep water. Poor Steve, his whole family loves the water. I like looking at pretty water though!

Amy - I actually have been thinking of making my own headboard so I've started paying closer attention to what I see on HGTV these days. (I would love those instructions you said you have - for a padded headboard, just in case. Thanks!) The only thing that springs to mind is I know they use old doors sometimes, painted or stained and hung horizontally. I don't want to spend much money because I think we'll get a king sized bed sometime. Not in the near future or anything. It was Steve's idea and after sleeping shoulder to shoulder between Reggi and Steve last night, yeah, we could use some more room! Reggi really does sleep on her dog bed on the floor but she often goes to sleep on the bed with me until Steve comes in to bed later, which I don't mind. And she sometimes comes up on the bed in the morning. It's just that I could actually sleep in this morning (until 7:00 - woohoo!) so I wanted to sprawl as long as I could.

This is my first weekend trying out my new system of doing "house/Stefani" stuff on Saturday and Pine Tree Designs stuff on Sunday. I liked it! I finished the bathroom yesterday, meaning I finally installed that piece of wainscoting & trim behind the toilet - looks fantastic, if I do say so myself.

I also finished painting the trim in the bedroom. I have a couple of touch-ups to do on the ceiling and then I can put the paint and tools away.

I finished painting the front doors! I started this between the bathroom and bedroom projects because I wanted a quickie instant gratification project. I've been thinking about this since last summer. On the way to the store to buy the bedroom paint, I decided to just do it. I always called the front porch area, "the cave" because it was so dark. I love this yellow! It took 1 coat of tinted primer and 3 coats of yellow to cover that gray. (You can see in the before picture where I started applying the primer - almost forgetting to take before pictures!

I also painted the people garage door and the door leading from the garage to the house the same yellow. I haven't decided what color to paint the window trim of this door. I'm thinking blue - to match the house trim. Gretchen says Burgundy. Anyone else want to offer a suggestion?

My morning glories are finally taking off. There are buds on them and the weakling 3rd seedling on the right, finally grew tall enough to start climbing the trellis. I have no idea why that one is so stunted or what caused it to start growing again.

Long time readers will remember that I'm crazy about hydrangeas. Look - buds! This very full bush is right outside my studio window. It's finally looking good again, though still a bit lopsided, after some overpruning on my part 2 years ago. It's very lush, it's just that the branches on the left don't reach the ground like the ones on the right do. Can't wait for blooms!

Three Meme

Von tagged me so here we go:

Three things you like about yourself:
1. My creativity.
2. My confidence.
3. My emotions.

Three physical things you don’t like about yourself:
1. My weight.
2. My teeth.
3. My weight.

Three things that scare you:
1. Losing Simon, Steve or any member of my family.
2. Deep water.
3. Not having enough money to retire comfortably.

Three of your everyday essentials:
1. Dark chocolate. (I don't eat chocolate every day but I could - and I try!)
2. Color.
3. Online access!

Three things you are wearing now:
1. Red.
2. A thin silver friendship ring my grandfather gave my grandmother before they were married.
3. The same thin leather headband I always wear unless I have my hair pulled back in a ponytail.

Three of your favorite bands or musical artists:
1. Bruce Springsteen
2. Linda Ronstadt
3. Alanis Morrisette

Three things you want in a relationship:
1. Attention. Just enough, not a lot is required but it is my #1 hot button. I think it's a result of doing the independent self-sufficient woman thing so well, a partner can forget to throw enough attention your way every so often.
2. Humor.
3. Truth.

Two truths and a lie:
1. I love to water ski.
2. I wear some sort of fragrance every day.
3. It turns out I am a dog person!

Three physical things that turn you on:
1. Nice smile.
2. Tight butt.
3. Good hair.

Three of your favorite hobbies:
1. Crafting.
2. Cooking & baking.
3. Reading.

Three things you really want to do right now:
1. Retire with no money worries.
2. Put the finishing touches on our bathroom, bedroom and exterior doors.
3. Make cards!

Three careers you’d consider:
1. Self-supporting artist.
2. Creative artist.
3. Prolific artist.

Three places you want to go on vacation:
1. Boston.
2. Hawaii.
3. Colorado

Three things you want to do before you die:
1. See Simon grow up to be happy and healthy.
2. Give up my day job and make a living creating artful things.
3. Get my weight down to a reasonable level.

The cool thing is, these are all do-able!

Just Ducky

A new baby card!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Some work, some play, some friends & family, some food. All good stuff. Here's a recap.

Sunday through Wednesday noon - see entry re our Third Annual Excellent Vacation with the boys.

Thursday afternoon Steve and I went to see Cinderella Man.

Friday we went to The Lumberyard Grill in Canandaigua for lunch with Steve's best friend from high school who was in town from California with his wife for their 30th high school reunion. (Steve didn't go to any of the reunion activities, "not his thing".)

Saturday was jam packed - grocery shopped early, made macaroni salad and a chocolate cake. Went to Nantz's daughter's graduation party, about 30 minutes away. Got home in time to run the vacuum before Steve's Boulder, CO sister, his mother and brother & sister-in-law, came over for dinner. I simmered 3 containers of Lloyd's BBQ Shredded Chicken in the crockpot and they all brought stuff too. I cleaned up the kitchen around 9:00 while Steve packed for his trip.

Rather spur of the moment, Steve decided to go with Lizz to Indiana to apply at a college and secure an apartment so they left Sunday morning. It was then that I got it in my head to paint our bedroom that day. It had been my #1 goal for my week off and I wasn't feeling very happy about not having had time to do it yet. This would be great - no interruptions for such frivolities such as cooking dinner and it would be fun to surprise Steve. I like to paint and he doesn't so it would be nice for him to experience a "new room" without having to live through the inconvenience of things moved around. (Note to self: probably ought to turn off the lights before undressing in a room with no blinds or shades. Per the neighbors' request.)

I told Gretchen I was going to do it in one day, "just like they do on HGTV". She tried to tell me some malarkey about those shows have teams of people doing the projects not just the two people you see on screen. She's such a kidder, isn't she?

Okay, so it took me two whole days, like until 10:00 pm each night. I have yet to paint the woodwork around the doors, but then I'll be done. I don't know what got into me - it was like I had an amphetamine IV drip. I was a mad woman. I was so bone tired by the end of each day but I couldn't unwind enough to get to sleep. Knowing I had to go to work on Tuesday, Simon kept checking up on me Monday night. "Mom - go to bed! You should be asleep by now. Look - Reggi is waiting for you to go to bed. You can't sleep until noon like I can!"

But I put the room back together Monday night, even hung pictures! I want a black dust ruffle so I'm going to try dying the white one we've been using. I've got nothing to lose except for the $1.49 x 2 for the boxes of RIT dye. I started looking for a real Amish quilt I bought years ago that would be perfect for the big wall. I have no recollection of seeing it for a while - Gretchen, do you have it, by chance? I bought it in PA on one of my vacations there with Lee 20 years ago. I paid $250 for it because I was determined to own an authentic Amish quilt. Because it was so expensive, it's not likely I gave it away during one of my purge-fests. I was very into quilting at the time and knew $250 was a lot of money for such a small quilt. Now I think it's ridiculous and would never spend that much on a small quilt, I don't care if God himself quilted it. I'm going to look for it again this weekend, more carefully. Plan B is I'll make one. I know that sounds ridiculous with the card business suffering from my recent painting binges and the needlework piece I'm working on but it would be fun! Maybe that would be a January project. Yeah, that's it!

While Steve was in Indiana, I emailed him a picture of the room. Lizz emailed me that Steve was wondering what the big deal was, other than a coat of paint. Then they saw the picture and realized how different it looked. They both loved it when they saw it. Steve gushed appropriately several times last night, which is always nice.

Here are the before shots of the bedroom:

Boring white walls with a southwest wallpaper border along two walls.

Color! Now that's what I'm talking about! I also moved the bed to a shorter wall. I bought that new comforter at Linens 'n' Things for 50% off! It was not in the $250 Liz Claiborne section, I can tell you that. It's sort of "suede", which means even more dog & cat hair than usual will stick to it, I'm sure. (We move Reggi's dog bed to the floor at night and she sleeps on it like a good girl. During the day we put it on the bed so she can be comfy and look out the windows easily. Spoil 'em much? Who us?)

We've never had a headboard so I'm hoping this "anchors" the bed a bit better. I may also end up buying two more pillows and buying or making pillow shams to make it look better. Confession: I've never owned pillow shams before!

I installed those black floating shelves all by myself. They are level and even and attached to studs. I'm quite proud. Those are new lamps I bought at Ikea a year or two ago. We had less than adequate reading light previously so I think this will work out nicely.

This is Steve's nicely decluttered dresser. That's the wall our bed used to be against that is crying out for the Amish quilt. I so deeply despise naked walls that I'm not sure I can wait until I make one. It's just been a few days and I'm antsy!

I removed a quilt rack from this corner. (That's the mirrored closet door to the right of the plant. The plant had been in the living room (from a cutting from an office plant a couple of years ago). It sits on a chair my dad made for Simon as a wee one (along with a table and a second chair). That picture used to hang in the bathroom. The basket was in a box of stuff I was going to Freecycle - it's perfect here. I had my own little Design Remix going! There's stuff on those black shelves that used to live in other rooms. I love when I can do that because then I enjoy stuff all over again that I had been getting bored with in the same old spot.

I bought that dresser for $50 at a garage sale when I was 18 or so. I was going to refinish it but only got the drawers done when I decided it was toooo much work. I always felt bad about that but someone (Gretchen?) told me it looks good like this. I really hadn't believed that until I see this photo. There is a mirror that goes on top that I took off for the first time ever - and I love it like this now - no longer bored with it. That's a cross-stitch piece that I made for Simon when he arrived from Korea.

Simon

Once there were two women who never knew each other. One you do not remember, the other you call mother.

Two different lives shaped to make yours one. One became your guiding star, the other became your sun.

The first gave you life, and the second taught you to live in it. The first gave you the need for love, and the second was there to give it.

One gave you a nationality. The other gave you a name. One gave you the seed of talent. The other gave you aim.

One gave you emotion. The other calmed your fears. One saw your first sweet smile. The other dried your tears.

One gave you up, it was all that she could do. The other hoped for a child, and was led straight to you.

And now you ask me through your tears, the age-old question through the years. Heredity or environment - which are you the product of?

Neither my darling, neither - just two different kinds of love.

I've told this story before but when I picked this up at Golden Thread Needlearts, after it was framed, the women who work there had it behind the counter and had tears in their eyes when they gave it to me. I still remember that.

On the back of it I wrote:

Simon - Happy 1 year anniversary - we love you very much.
Mommy & Daddy, April 16, 1989

Flowers for Flora

I have a half-written entry about my vacation but Blogger keeps bombing so I'm going to attempt to post this card I made tonight. One of our IT people is moving due to her husband's transfer and Friday is her last day. We're having a party for her Friday night at a friend's house but she's shy so we're not making a big deal about it. That's why I'm blabbing about it on the Internet.

Sweet!

A Beautiful Place lived up to it's name!

This is where Gretchen and I could quite often be found, gliding and reading.

This is the view of Keuka Lake from the deck. It's also where we played bocce ball until we discovered it was much cooler in the shade in the backyard so we worked the game around there. (The cabin had central air conditioning, for which we were grateful.) The boys seemed okay not being right on the water like we have been the last two places we've stayed. Neither Gretchen nor I are "water people" - we're much happier in the woods. (Poor Steve, he joined the wrong family! He and his family are very much "water people".)

This is the view from the backyard. Look! A fenced in area for Reggi, complete with dog house. We didn't take her but for an additional fee, we could have. I'm sure she was happier at home. When we arrived home and Simon let her outside to greet us she did that run where it's like her feet can't move fast enough for her body. Once in the house, she ran laps around and around the house. Now that's a welcome I could get used to. Verona stuck to me like glue also. Nice.

We could have not asked for a cleaner, more beautiful cabin. The boys slept upstairs in the loft. Gretchen and I shared the downstairs bedroom but for some reason Gretchen chose to sleep in the pull out couch in the living room. Something about the Bush's Baked Beans I brought to go with our hot dogs and hamburgers meal. So I had a very comfy double bed all to myself. Sweet!

Why Paul, DJ and Gershum chose to all sit on this love seat when there was a perfectly good couch right next to it, is beyond me. Comfy?

Simon says he had a good time, as did the other 3 boys. We tried to instill in them that they had a stake in making this vacation what they wanted it to be, especially since they had access to my car. They did go exploring one day and played miniature golf one day.

Gretchen and I went to The Windmill, a farm and craft market which is just open on weekends but luckily for us, is also open on holidays, like July 4th. I bet the first time we went there was very close to their opening in 1987 and it was much smaller and had much more of a handcrafted feel. The food and produce all looked good but we weren't tempted to buy anything else. I noticed I looked at it a bit differently this time, more from a "vendor" point of view, now that I've been one. I looked at the application online, nothing is specified about rent, which is what I was mainly curious about. We did buy the above flower bouquet and left it on the table in the cabin when we left yesterday. That's the sugar canister I used for a vase, sans sugar.

The other required activity anytime we are in Yates County is to go to the bulk food store run by the Mennonites. This time, though, we went to a new (to us) one: Crystal Valley Bulk Foods.

Gretchen and I went to breakfast in Hammondsport on Tuesday.

We all had dinner at Miller's Essenhaus Tuesday night.

I worked on my needlepoint piece and Gretchen knitted her baby sweater.

This place had a TV with VCR and DVD player. There was a great selection of probably 30 movies provided but the boys had already seen anything they were interested in. Gretchen and I watched Billy Elliott Monday night. Tuesday night we tried to get the boys to pick something to watch but they couldn't. Gershum finally picked The Sound of Music. We thought he was kidding (it's hard to tell with him!) but he said he wasn't so we watched it. Except about half way through he said it was giving him a headache and went to hang out with the boys. So Gretchen and I watched it, singing along with most songs. And we fast forwarded through the boring parts. (The puppet show for me, the fancy ball part for Gretchen.)

My personal favorite, which must be done complete with hand motions:

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu

Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu

It was midnight before it was over and we were all feeling a bit silly, which spilled over into singing ridiculous songs while lying in bed. Have you ever heard a rap version of My Favorite Things? We laughed ourselves to sleep.

It was really nice only being about 70 miles from home. Check out time was 10:00 and we left at 9:58. We stopped at the outlet mall on the way home and still arrived home by noon. I bought new windchimes for the back yard and some new kitchen things: cookie scoop, silicone spatulas, brownie pans and a cookie sheet. Score!

The boys asked if we could go on vacation again this year and Gretchen and I both said yes without hesitation. They volunteered to research and plan it - which is just what we wanted them to do. We're both a bit skeptical as to if they will really do it or not, but Simon was online last night looking at places, so we'll see. I think they all have the feeling these vacations are numbered. We've already lost Nick to the Marines (though we talked to him on the cell phone a couple of times!), DJ graduated from high school this year and Simon and Gershum will be seniors next year. This is our third Excellent Vacation with the Boys and Gretchen and I didn't think it would last this long. They don't always seem like they are having fun but I guess they are because they talk about past trips a lot and always want to go again. Gretchen and I always have fun together, so we'll keep doing it as long as they want to. And like our trip to New York City this May, we'll continue without them!

B-bye now!

I actually did a double take when I walked into Bruegger's Saturday morning - these bagels are just as colorful as this picture indicates! And throughout, not just on top. I bought breakfast bagels (red, white and blue of course) for Steve and me for breakfast and two "spares" - red, white & blue plain bagels for Lizz and Simon. They refused to eat them, so more for us!

Just minutes from now we're off for our Third Annual Excellent Adventure. Gershum and DJ spent the night here so the three of them have the car packed and we're off to Gretchen's house to meet her and Paul. Then we'll swing by Wegmans and pick up some food. Then on to our rented cabin near Keuka Lake. It's just 4 days and 3 nights and we keep the food pretty simple. Pizza one night, burgers and hot dogs and Simon wants to go out for dinner one night. The other meals are kind of catch-as-catch-can, as they say. I get to ride with Gretchen - and two batches of her fresh-baked world famous buttermilk cookies and chocolate chip cookies too. Let's see, peace and quiet with my sister and cookies vs 4 teenage boys in the other car? Yeah, life is sweet.

Bye!

Needlework and a Plan

As I read all the comments left yesterday about summer memories of ice cream trucks, etc. I realized it's true in our office as well - the day long anticipation is actually better than the treat itself. It lasts longer!

My new toy arrived yesterday, just in time for vacation, as I'd hoped it would. I bought this sit-upon needlework stand from The Stitchery to use with this needlepoint piece I'm working on. I'd looked at them and also floor stands at Golden Thread Needlearts a while ago but they were way expensive. This one seems plenty sturdy enough and I enjoyed working with both hands without trying to balance the scroll bars I usually use. I left this set up like this overnight and the cats didn't seem to bother it, though I removed the needle, of course. My main concern was that I never sit normally, ever - always with one leg tucked under me, minimum or usually cross-legged, even in this office chair as I write this. But the stand seems to work pretty well for me anyway.

This is our living room, next on the list to receive new paint once the bedroom is done. I'm thinking a medium to deep blue with the connecting dining room in shade or two lighter.

~ ~ ~

I always feel better when I have a plan so I recently came up with a new one for my weekends. Saturday shall be devoted to house type things, painting, grocery shopping, errands, repairs. Sunday will be nothing but Pine Tree Designs time. Since I've been working on the bathroom, my time has been out of balance with PTD getting the short end of the deal. I spend both days of the weekend feeling guilty about not doing enough of either thing. So a balanced plan it is. This will be the first weekend for it, with vacation, darn it all, cutting into Sunday. ;-) I felt better about things earlier this week, just knowing I have a plan and I'll get to do both kinds of things I love each weekend.