14 November 2008

Quilt giveaway contest

No, I'm not giving away any quilts! But I would, if I knew how to quilt! :-)

I saw this contest mentioned over at on the needles and decided to check it out. I love giveaways and I love quilts so I thought I should at least look.

Turns out this wonderful woman named Dana at Old Red Barn Co. is giving away three fabulously beautiful quilts! Wow!


Of course, after I looked at the photos and read the post I thought, nah.. I won't enter...


Psych! Had you going there for a minute, didn't I. No? Well, yeah... guess not. :-)

Hee hee...

Blessings,
~*~

07 November 2008

Projects

I have a list of projects that I want to do around my home. I decided that I will list them here so that I have some sort of accountability. As they get done, I'll post notes and photos. Sound good? Great! Here we go (in no particular order)...

Project: Yard: Status: begun (I actually have some landscape guys coming next week to start! Yippee!)
My yard is out of control. I have ivy and periwinkle ground covers covering almost everything including my shed. I also have all kinds of trees growing up that I just don't want to have there. In the summer they block off most of the yard and I can't see the back and watch for the dog. I have this grand plan in mind for what I'd like to do to my yard, and the start of that is to get it cleaned up.

Project: Paint Status: on hold for spring
The exterior of my house is cedar shake shingles. I have someone lined up to paint the exterior trim, the front porch floor and the front door. On the front window I have a dark green awning. It matches the porch floor. I'm thinking of painting the porch floor a sage green this time but am not sure about the awning cover and if I need to replace it or just was it. I don't want to remove it because it really helps keep out the heat from my bedroom. I'm also going to paint my front door a "different color". Right now it is white, like the trim of the house. I'll take some pictures and you guys can help me decide. :-)

Project: House shingles
I need to replace the cedar shake shingles on my home. Several are in good shape, but a lot are broken, exposing the clapboard underneath or they are so weathered down that there is barely anything there. One person suggested replacing them with concrete. They look just like wood, but would last a lot longer. I'm going to have to think about this.

Project: Fence Status: soon I hope...
My front fence pieces on each side of the house are woefully desperate to be replaced. One side is falling down, literally leaning about 90 degrees. The other side, the gate is almost impossible to open. The rest of the yard has chain link fencing. On one side, there are a lot of shrubs and trees that have grown up beside the fence and created nice privacy for the yard. The back has a privacy fence about a foot inside of the chain link fence that I think was put up just for privacy sake. It only goes to just behind the shed and doesn't go all the way across the yard. The last side is the problem side. It is the side with the "nasty neighbor". The one that had me looking for condos because I just could stand the thought of putting up with her anymore. Anyway, I have very little purposely growing along that fence, but anything that is there, she comes and pulls off the fence or her dad cuts it all down (over a foot inside MY side of the fence). That side is getting a privacy fence for certain!

Project: french door Status: found the door
I have a room that I use only for storage. It is currently storing my grandmothers reproduction Victorian living room set. There is a couch, two chairs, coffee table, and two end tables. The tables are cherry with marble tops. I have always loved this furniture and always pictured having a big house with a parlor with french doors that I could look into the room and see the furniture and be able to keep it pristine. With my tiny house, it is hard to deal with. Plus I have to keep the door to the room closed because of the kids. With the door closed, I lose a lot of light. So, I decided to buy an old french door and replace the door that is there. Yay!

Project: paint (interior)
ugh...

Project: restore windows
again... ugh... ($800 per window...oh my)

Project: shed
I'd like to turn the shed into something fun... like a little country room or a studio. Lots of ideas for this.

Project: Enclose part of deck
My dad did this at his house. He had a nice big deck and decided to enclose it (really it is a screened porch) but he put a vaulted roof instead of just a flat roof and added some skylights. I could live on that porch. My deck is plenty big enough to do this and I really think I'm going to do it. I might even go so far as to put glass and screen so I could protect it from the elements. I have a table that I want to get from our mountain house (big picnic style table {think Walton's} that is made of wormy chestnut), but I have nowhere to put it. I could put it out there it would be great and it would give me more space. :-)

Project: remodel bathroom
another ugh...

Project: ceiling stripping
My ceilings are in bad, bad shape. Someone put up that popcorn stuff in some of the rooms and it is falling off and the ceilings are splitting. In the office the ceiling is separating. It is bad.

Well, that is all I can think of now. I'll try to keep updated here and if you have any suggestions, please let me know. :-)

Blessings,
~*~

31 October 2008

Happy Halloween!

Have a happy and blessed Halloween/Samhain!



(I haven't carved my pumpkin yet. This one is from two years ago.)


Blessings,
~*~

29 October 2008

knit knit knit

I've been working on the never-ending afghan, again. I finally (after a year!) finished the first of four strips.


Each strip is made up of four different panels. Each panel is a different color and design.


Above is panel number one...


Next, panel two...

Then panel number three...

And finally, panel number four.

Originally, the dark blue of panel four was going to be a light kind of sagey green colorway, but when I started knitting it I decided I did not like all the colors together. I like these colors now.

Last night I started on the second panel. I have three panels and then to sew them all together and add the border. I hope to have it completed in about a year.

In other news, last night was our first freeze warning of the year, so I went out to the garden and harvested some herbs and picked the last of the habanero's and tomatoes and peppers. It is so lovely to feel the chill in the air and to watch as the leaves change. The crunch under my feet as I walk through the fallen leaves. The smell of wood burning in a stove and seeing the curlicue of smoke wafting from someones chimney. Autumn... it even has a nice sound to it.

What is your favorite thing about autumn?

Blessings,
~*~

25 October 2008

photos

I've been taking a lot of photos lately. I have been looking for a class to take that will teach me more about taking digital photos. So far I have not found one, but I will persevere. Here are a few that I have taken lately.


a pretty pansy...

a country farm...

a blossom from a mum...

Blessings,
~*~

21 October 2008

Autumn is here...

It has finally turned cooler here. Yesterday I woke up to 36 degree temps outside and not much warmer inside as I did not realize it was to be so cold and had left all my windows open. It was very difficult to get out of bed. :-)

I've been wearing sweaters and sweatshirts the past few days which is wonderful to me. I love the cold! I haven't done much in the garden the past few weeks. I need to take advantage of the cool weather and get out there and get the old stuff pulled up and get it weeded and mulched for the winter. I keep wanting to plant winter vegetables, but never actually do it. Maybe next year...

I'll leave you with a picture of another picture like my banner. I took several trying to get different views. Don't you just love autumn colors? I adore them and white pumpkins!


Blessings,
~*~

14 October 2008

Heat Wave

Isn't this October? Isn't it the middle of October? Yep, just looked at the calendar and it is, indeed, the middle of October. Then why is it so freakin HOT!?! It is 83 degrees. That is way too hot for October! Ugh! It feels like summer outside. Supposedly, we will drop from 84 on Thursday to 67 on Friday and then will be back to our regularly scheduled weather pattern. Whew... I sure hope so. I'm melting here! :-)

I'm still working on setting up this blog the way I want it. I need it to be my happy side. I tend to get morose and depressing if I stay in the dark for too long, but the other blog just screams dark to me and it needs to be. :-)

I'll be back later with some photos.

Blessings
~*~