Shelf

Wow, it has been an insane couple of weeks.

I've had a few spare moments to post an update, but I haven't because. . . well, I'm lazy.

Here's what we accomplished last weekend:

First, since the weather was gorgeous and not so stinkin' hot, we headed outside and attacked the insane bush that was trying to take over our front yard. Like, literally.

[I hear Sheldon's voice saying to me, "Literally? Literally?" Yes. Literally.]

Imagine the branches extending to cover the grassless areas on all sides and that's how huge this thing got. Also, you can see my bro & sis-in-law's house through the trees over there. Hiiiiii!

There are still a bunch of roots we need to dig out but this is a HUGE improvement over the way it looked previously. I'm pretty sure it will come back just as big as ever next year.

Then we took our exhausted selves inside and I started cleaning the mantle that I got several weeks back.

You can see the left crevasse is "cleaned" out and the right one is still dirty. This is even with using my cleaning toothbrush to get in the corners.

Someone (a man, I'm sure) had used wood putty to fill in some of the nail holes and cracks. But they got the putty everywhere and never sanded it off. So I had to use quite a bit more elbow grease than I thought to get it off.
Once it was cleaned as well as it ever could be, I let it set and dry off for a few minutes.

Then my hubs got to measuring. And making pencil marks on the wall. And drilling. And drilling and drilling and drilling.

Ta da!

It's up! The color stands out a little more in person. Our walls are Mourning Dove by Olympic.

Here's how I decided to decorate it. For now.

 After all that, we were quite tired and pretty much collapsed for the rest of the day.

I had spray painted our new light for the breakfast area earlier in the day, allowing it to dry while we were puttering outside. We just need to purchase a new rewiring kit and it'll be ready to hang.

This coming weekend I have set aside to paint the chair I got in PA. Hopefully.

We're also counting down the days until vacation. After the past couple of weeks I've had at work, I sincerely need one.

. . . . . . . . . . .

In other news, our little guy is getting so big! He's over 4 months old now and weighs almost 5 pounds! This is significant because occasionally he still forgets himself and attempts to claw his way up my leg when he wants attention.

I'll leave you with this bit of cuteness: this is his post-dinner snuggle habit.

Projects

I have sooo many projects in the mix that I'm not sure where to start.

Ok, I've started a few, but I've been lazy. The beginning of the week really wipes me out and I feel like I have no time to do the things I want to do. Having a 9 week old kitten that just wants to play and looks up at me with those adorable little blue-green eyes and mews so sweetly at me also makes me want to sit and do nothing but play with him. Teensy, dagger-like claws and everything.
Hopefully this Saturday I will be energized and motivated and be able to get stuff done.

aka: Little Man, Big Guy or Cutie Bootie

*I cleaned the chair and light fixture that I found in PA. It was gross. I think it'd been kept in a barn or mudroom. I need to sand the chair a little bit, then paint. I also need to pick up a new chain, wiring kit, and paint for the light. Glossy red. It'll be smashing.

before cleaning

Little Miss Inspector

close up of the grime

*I have three small pallets (about 3'x2') that my f-i-l got from work. They're currently another perch for the cat to sit on. They need to be sanded, painted (or stained, I'm not sure yet), nailed/screwed together and then I need to get some casters to add to the bottom. Then I'll have an awesome table for the porch. . . and I'll just need chairs.

*Speaking of cat perches, it seems we might be in the market for a second one. I have a table that J brought home from work. I'm not sure if I want to use it in the living room or transform it into a cat tree for our second baby, Yoshi.  

*I picked up a silver-colored candlestick, a medium sized silver-plated (I think) oval wire bowl, and a small pot at Value Village for under $5. They'll be glued together, painted white, and used for storage on our bathroom counter. We don't have much horizontal counter space, but we can go vertical. So far I've only managed to clean all of these. I need a hot glue gun...

*I also picked up a brass candlestick and small plate that will be glued together and used beside my sink to hold a few odds & ends.

(Can you tell I'm putting Pinterest ideas to work??)

*In the same shopping trip to Value Village, I found chocolate-colored tabbed window panels that are 80" long. After a quick ironing, they look great in our master bedroom and I can finally take down the bright pink sheet we've been using to cover the french doors with for 11 months (wow, it's been almost a year!!!).

*I also scored what I thought was a single rose printed curtain panel by Waverly. I thought it would be pretty fabric for a pillow or two. I need more pops of red in my living room. Turns out it was a valance and just what I needed above my kitchen sink! Happy surprise.

I know I won't like it forever, but it's pretty for now

That was a good Value Village haul. All for about $23.

*I'm still working on ideas for a headboard for our room. I found a picture on Pinterest the other day of one that was made with pallet wood of random sizes, topped with essentially a 2x4 turned flat to be like a small shelf. I really like that idea. And the pallet wood would be free (wood would--ha!). With the chocolate brown window panels that perfectly match some art that I'd made from OTHER curtain panels that I'd bought from Value Village, I think I want to pull out the rest of the colors in that floral pattern to make a bedroom that's not too matchy-matchy, not too modern, not too vintage, but a nice mix. I need to add in some golden yellow somewhere.

Original creation & picture by Lovely Crafty Home

*I also seriously want to paint my craft room. I think I've decided on a color...maybe. Or not. But I know once I head to the store to actually BUY the paint, I'll be able to decide. The guest room needs paint too, but until it's done being used as a kitten isolation chamber, I can't even plan.

*I've been keeping an eye on this GREAT mirror at my favorite antique store. Yesterday I noticed that it was finally marked down to $30. I pondered for quite a while. It's probably 4 feet long and a good 4 feet high, with a really thick wood frame. The mirror is held in with screws on the back and I think I could take it out. But it wouldn't have been quite wide enough for a headboard (it would have worked, but it would have bugged me since it would have been 6" short on each side) and I couldn't think of what else I'd want to use it for. I couldn't justify it, so it stayed in it's little corner and I went back to work.

*J has a cute little wooden nightstand that I noticed needs paint. It'll be going in the guest room, so I need to wait until I decide what to paint in there before I can get it painted. But I really really want to start on it.

And all this stuff is just the "make up" of our little home. None of it even touches the major stuff that needs done (new deck off the master, master bathroom overhaul, guest bathroom mostly-overhauled, new flooring throughout the house, kitchen cabinets refinished, kitchen counters replaced, front yard landscaped--and that's just off the top of my head). Home ownership. . . yay.

But I wouldn't trade our little house for anything!

First step is prioritizing my projects by time and money needed to complete. A glue gun is cheap. I'll start there.

New Developments

It's been a busy week since my last post. We enjoyed a somewhat relaxing 4th of July and ate dinner at my parent's house. The next day a few of us left on a girl's trip to PA. We stayed with my aunt and cousin and had a great time. We could only stay two days, then had to head back.

Farmland in Amish Country

My cousins' pup Charlie who's never known a stranger. Sweetie pie!

Taken from the car, I ended up with powerline poles in every shot.

Gettysburg as we passed through

Pre-dawn over the Susquehanna as we were leaving on Sunday

While we were there, I wanted to stop into the Habitat ReStore. We have one here in our town, but I haven't been able to find anything good there. And not good as in "perfect condition, needs no work," but good as in, "surely I can do something with this." So I was ecstatic when we walked in and I realized it was the size of a warehouse. I probably could have spent the rest of the day in there poking around, but there was no a/c and even though they had a good many fans blowing, it was still pretty stuffy. BUT I found this great light that I'm going to paint red and hang in my kitchen. I think it needs rewiring, but "my electrician the brother" (as my husband said one night) can handle that if I decide I can't. Then my mom found a great little wooden chair that just had to come home with me. It's kind of sad looking because it needs SERIOUS cleaning, but once I do that and give it a nice paint job with some distressing, it's going to look great in our bedroom.
Here's a fairly dark pic of both that I took this morning as I ran out the door. They're being stored in the garage until I can get around to cleaning them.

At $8 each, they were a steal

And FINALLY for the most recent and cutest item of business....meet our new furbaby Yoshi.

We rubbed that purple towel on his momma before we left, so he was pretty calm during the car ride.

His big sister isn't quite sure what to make of him yet, but her curiosity will win out and I have a feeling they'll get along just fine.

While his siblings were busy trying to claw their way up my jeans (and succeeding!), he snuggled right up in my hand and started to lick me, then fell asleep.

So far he likes to be around us and likes to hear us talk to him. I think his eyes are still changing - they're a pretty blue/green mix right now. His momma had green eyes, so we'll see how his end up. Today is his first day all by himself, and I'm going to pop home over my lunch break and check on him.

I think it might be hard to give both cats equal attention for a while. Yoshi is just so cute and playful and Sophie will allow you to play with her on HER terms, which is typical. Someone  needs to stop trying to win her love with tuna fish and lunch meat though. . . ahemahemhusbandahemahem. She's gaining a few pounds.

On the diabetes front, the trip to PA was my first trip with my OmniPod system. I was anticipating some issues, but really didn't have any.

The only minor issue I had was that, when I went to the pharmacy three days before we left to stock up on Apidra, I was told my insurance wouldn't allow me to have any more until Sunday--the day we were returning from the trip (also the day the pharmacy is closed...but whatever). I called my doctor's office and left a message, but wasn't able to get in touch with them until we were already on the road. I had borrowed a Humulog pen from my brother and took some Lantus that I had. I really only ended up being one day short. It was kind of nice being able to take a pod break, if only for a day. I took the same amount of Lantus that I had been taking before I started on OmniPod and was anticipating some lows, but had none. I didn't want to take Lantus too long before my pod expired, so I took it about 8:30 a.m. I allowed myself to run a little high while traveling and wasn't sure exactly how long all of the Lantus would take to work it's way out of my system. By the time I got to the pharmacy yesterday morning and got a new pod on I had decided to reduce my basel rates by 30% for the next 8 hours. Total SWAG, but it seemed to work. My numbers have been pretty steady since and I suspect there's still some Lantus working in the background.

I'm not one for all kinds of funky calculations and tweaking of my rates....it seems like a good idea, but I just cannot put that much brain power into it. My diabetes has to fit my schedule sometimes, not the other way around. That's why I love how the OmniPod system does all the bolus calculations for me and keeps track of how much is already in my system, etc.

The worst part of traveling is coming home and having to unpack!