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.

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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.

Deals & Steals

What a week.
Or, I should say, what a crazy past few weeks since my last post!

There's been a lot going on. . . and a lot of nothing going on, if that makes any sense.

I did want to share about my mantle that I found at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore this weekend. It was only $35.

I will say that we forgot they only take cash or checks and we had to run to the closest ATM. So. Worth. It.

Here it is on Jeremy's workbench. Notice my well-used drop-cloth. It's a plastic tablecloth I found at Target one time on clearance for $1.

I'm planning on mounting it to the wall above our bed and using it for pictures and various knick-knacks. Yes, it will be secure enough so that it will not fall on our heads in the middle of the night and kill us.

Thank you to my boss for pointing that out.

In other project-ville news. . . .

I have nothing.

I've been lazy (pretty much), and haven't done any of the projects I have sitting downstairs.

That could be because of the snake.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Yes, there is a snake in my house. I saw it while doing laundry the other weekend. There was only minimal freak-out followed by the thought, "Just grab him by his itty bitty neck and throw him outside! You can't let him bite the cats!"

(He really was tiny. Not worm-tiny, but tiny enough that I was pretty sure he couldn't wrap himself around my neck and strangle me. Okay, okay, he was like, MAYBE a foot long.)

But when I got back around the corner to grab him . . . he was gone.

GONE I TELL YOU!!! LOST FOREVER IN THE DARK RECESSES OF MY BASEMENT!

Needless to say, the hunt was on.

Also needless to say . . . we still haven't found him.

J is convince he's gone back outside through whatever hole or crack in came in through. Of course we're going to inspect the exterior of our house and seal any holes so he can't decide to make another visit.

So the fear of Snakey-Snake has kept me out of the basement unless absolutely necessary.

BUT with my new mantle comes the need for a trip to Lowe's for some seriously long screws & bolts, so we may as well pick up the spray paint that I also need and get two projects done and out of the way.

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On the D-front....I get tired of talking about it. Reading about it. Living with it.

I can't control the last, so I'll control the first two.

My trial week with the Dexcom went pretty well. It's an extremely useful tool and the day after I took it off, I felt a little lost. I also felt I had some spare time on my hands since I wasn't taking the extra steps to input all kinds of data into two separate devices.

J still wants to figure out how to play Tetris on it.

So the appeals process has been started with my insurance company. Hopefully the data I was able to gather during my week of use will enable them to make a decision in my favor. If it's going to happen, I need it to happen before the end of the year since I've already met my deductible.

It kind of struck me, the first day of use. Ok, I'm test-using this machine so that I can prove I have low blood sugars that I can't feel coming. . . yet with this machine, I can see them coming and take the appropriate steps to prevent them, thereby not having them. Which is good. . . . but doesn't prove I need the machine. It tells that I need the machine, but there's no concrete, solid evidence that shows it, you know? Maybe I wasn't going to drop that low before I started coming back up. Maybe I was going to drop lower than I'd ever been. Who knows?

J likes to explain my unexplainable disease with two words: chaos theory.

It's a fitting description.

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!

Homemade Toothpaste Update & More

I wanted to post an update about how my homemade toothpaste is going.
I used most of the first batch I made, got tired of trying to squeeze the uncooperative "paste" out of a plastic baggie, and so found a good reason to toss the little remaining when I googled and found this method.

1 cup baking soda
five good shakes of rock salt (sorry, not very precise)
20 drops of essential oil (I used spearmint and accidentally got about 20.5 drops, but whatever)

I mixed all this in a ziploc baggie really well and just set it on my counter. When I go to brush my teeth, I just wet the toothbrush, stick it in the powder, and brushbrushbrush. It feels a little funny in your mouth at first until you get it all worked in, but my teeth feel clean all day. I rinse with a little Tom's fluoride-free and alcohol-free mouthwash. Super clean and minty fresh.

That same night, I decided to attempt a homemade, natural deodorant since the natural ones I was using just haven't been cutting it. I found a couple recipes by Crunchy Betty and decided to use this one, mostly because I didn't have any beeswax to try this one. (Mental note: buy beeswax!)

It all came together pretty nicely. I washed out my old deodorant container to use for the homemade stuff. I had extra liquid, so it got poured in a baggie.
Bad idea. After I let it set up in the fridge overnight (it's 77 in our house, so the coconut oil wouldn't have solidified if I had left it out) I discovered my error. The old deo container I have won't actually push the stuff up as you twist the bottom. Rats. So I broke off a chunk and now I stand at the fridge in the morning rubbing on my deodorant.

What a weirdo.

But hey! It's working pretty well! I'm only on day 2. I haven't been working outside in the disgusting heat or anything--with the other natural "deodorants" I would be sweating and stinking just from sitting in my office all day.
So far, so good.

I found a couple treasures at a local Goodwill-type store today. I'm excited to get them cleaned up and painted so I can blog about them.

I sat and figured out my sewing machine last night. The bobbin case was giving me fits. I got some thread on it just fine, but I could. not. get it back in the machine. Finally I text my mom and asked when she could come over and help me. Don't you know---THEN it decided to cooperate!

The evil bobbin case...

I'll finish with some cuteness to start off your weekend.

Now I'm wondering...what color do I want to paint this room??

Sewing Machine

I hit up the other antique store in town yesterday during lunch. When I say "antique" store, I mean antique/junk/Avon. Somehow they all work together to create a great place to spend a lunch hour!

The best deals come when you aren't looking for them. Or....have no money to spend, even on a great deal. In this case, I had the money.

$25 for this baby!

(Please excuse the blurriness. For whatever reason, my work computer does not like to save pics as jpeg and I'm not bored enough to want to sit and figure it out.)

It came with its user manual, a storage box containing extra feet, and some other doohickey thing that I haven't figured out the use for. Maybe some kind of guide to help you measure and sew a straight line?

I may even paint the table and legs. The front opens up like a door and has a little storage box on the inside.

I'm not sure what year it is. There's a serial number on it that I might try to google tonight. Then I'll sit down and read how it all works....

Happy Back to Work Day

Or not so happy, as the case may be.
I managed to sleep in yesterday until ten thirty, despite having to get up and change out the pod. It started beeping at 4 a.m. and I finally got up to change it somewhere close to 6 a.m. I really thought I'd have more time than that, but when I dragged myself out of bed again to acknowledge the beeps, it told me I had 9 units left. I decided to just do a quick change out so I could sleep.

That was probably the fastest new pod change I've done ever and I'm quite impressed with myself that I managed to do it successfully in my uncaffeinated state. I also moved my site from my left arm to my stomach, so once I crawled back in bed, I was happily able to roll onto my left side, my favorite position.

I had also finally made the decision to go ahead and get the Dexcom. I haven't heard back from the rep in a week and a half, so I emailed him again last night. It shouldn't take that long to get my paperwork together, right? It was already mostly together to begin with. Send me my machine already!! I'm also excited about the $200 rebate that is in effect until the end of June. I think that will bring my cost to around $100.

Last week was fairly slow at work and I'm not expecting this week to be much different--I could be wrong. It's been known to happen! It's fairly tense around here today though, and it's irritating to not be able to guess why.

On the schedule for this week: 1. get my car tag renewed (long story, grr...) 2. GET OUR PASSPORTS SENT OFF!!

We have 131 days until we leave on our big family cruise and I'm pretty excited. My main task for June (after getting the passports mailed off) is to figure out our flights and travel schedule. Airfare is ridiculous anymore. I'm constantly worried that the prices will keep going up and that I should have purchased our tickets when costs were low....but will they go even lower closer to our date?? I'm glad we're not driving the entire way, but I'll feel a lot better once our tickets are bought and flights are confirmed.

The homemade toothpaste I created works pretty well. I just have to keep the baggie sitting in a certain position so it won't leak from the cut off corner or the seal at the top. It was fairly soupy when I finished, but it's been getting a little more paste-like as the days pass. I rinse with a Tom's mouthwash I found on sale at Big Lots several months ago. My teeth feel squeaky clean and I will never buy toothpaste again. Now to convince J.
I am still washing my face with oil and I believe my skin is looking better and better. Yesterday, when reading this post by Jillee about homemade deodorant, I thought about mixing up some of my own. But once in the shower, I looked at my little spray bottle of oil and thought, why not? So...a little spritz under each arm in the shower. I was really, REALLY surprised. No odor at all after 8 hours. Amazing. Even the natural deodorants couldn't do that. I was a little peeved at them. I don't mind sweating, but I don't want to stink! But this oil mixture is the perfect solution. I'll definitely keep using it.