Two Days in a Row??

Yes, that's right.  I've managed to post to this blog two whole days in a row, thank you very much.

The weather man says to expect severe storms for the next few days.  That is certainly something to look forward to.   ):

I'm thankful that I live in a big house.  I'm thankful the roof doesn't leak.  I'm thankful I have a warm bed.  I'm thankful I have a family.

My Days That Never End or Why I Still Drink Coffee

It's 9:43pm.  All I really want to do is crawl into the bed and sleep until spring.  But I am determined to keep up this blog.

I was derailed yesterday with my before and after furniture arrangement project.  We have a hearth room connected to the kitchen.  Many of my friends call this room "the keeping room"  Whatever you call it, it's definitely the room we live in.  But it was so uncomfortable sitting in there.  The furniture seemed off balance.  I liked how the room looked but at the same time I knew I needed to fix the problem.

I don't have a great photo from the "before".

 After

 So much better.  You may also notice the rug I bought at Home Depot.  I went in to get a can of green apple spray paint and came out with a rug.  And the spray paint.  Try not to notice the pink bunny ears.  

This morning I made a list.  A long, long list.  Everything I needed to do today.  

 And here's how the list looks now.

Here's my day:

Heading out the door to work, Dancer Girl asks me if I know where her gym uniform is.  Well, it's in the washer of course.  SOAKING WET.  We put it in the dryer and luckily had about 10 minutes to spare.  The shorts were dry.  The t-shirt, not so much.  But she said she could hang it up and it would have more time to dry before P.E.

Worked all day.

Left work.  Went to Walgreens.  Went by Eye Doctor.  Picked up The Engineer's contact lens.  Went by FedEx Office.   Shipped contacts overnight.  Zipped by the house and picked up I.T. Girl.  She drove.  (EEEEEKK!)  Tomorrow morning she has to meet her class somewhere other than school and I just wanted to make sure she knew how to get there.  I'm funny that way.  Don't want her to get lost.  We made it.  Found the event location.  Then drove back and picked up Dancer Girl from musical practice.

Zipped back by the house.  Girls ordered pizza.  Luckily we have a pizza restaurant right around the corner.  I left again.  This time headed to my Weight Watchers meeting.  By the way, I've lost 13.9 pounds in 5 weeks.  Woop Woop

Thoroughly enjoyed the meeting.   I made a new friend who was also sitting on the back row.  She told me she has given up all cola.  WOWEE!!!  Impressive.

After the meeting, I had to run get gas, stop by the grocery store for COFFEE (I have not given it up and probably never will), pull up and get the mail, go by the ATM and get a few dollars for I.T. girl's adventure tomorrow.

Yes, I was hungry when I got home.  And tired.  Hungry and tired.

And that is why I will not be giving up coffee any time soon.

I've already started a new list for tomorrow.  It has 3 to do items.  

Good night.  I'm going to bed!!

Groundhog Day

I was looking through my last few posts and realized it's groundhog's day.  It's groundhog's day.  The same excuse for neglecting the blog over and over.  I'm sure you're rolling your eyes.  I think I will set aside another time of day to post.  Because the evenings are just so busy around here and I fall asleep before I can make it to the computer.

Tonight we will watch The Oscars.  Staying home this time to watch in our own new house.

Speaking of our new house, just a few little changes have made such a big impact.  First of all, the hearth room.  It was an uncomfortable room for sitting.   And so I rearranged the furniture.  I knew I could just put everything right back if the arrangement in my mind didn't work out.

Before:

Obviously,  this photo is from Christmas.  But it does show the room arrangement.  The sofa is against the wall, 2 red chairs, 1 blue chair that has been replaced now that the Tree is gone.  It was very uncomfortable.

After:

Photo to Come.  Oscar party is starting.  *I thought I already had the photo loaded.
I will upload it later tonight.

By the way, I've actually seen one of the nominated films!!  The Descendents.  So I hope it wins!!

Things have just been busy lately

I don't even know where to begin.

The month began with I.T. girl missing 4 days of school with illness.  I ended up taking her to the doctor who could only treat the symptoms.  But those symptoms needs to STOP.  If you know what I mean.  She felt much better by the evening.

It's the kind of illness that you dread.  You just know it's going to travel through the family.  Surprisingly and thankfully it did NOT.  It began and started with I.T. girl.

Then we began to prepare to visit The Engineer on his college campus.  He was having a birthday.  21.   He's an adult now.  We took him King Cake and money.  Fed him.  Shopped for new clothes.  And found an apartment for him to move into this summer  We have always told him his senior year he could move off campus and into an apartment.  I was so impressed with this complex.  Wow!  It was chilly and rainy but a fun, busy weekend.

The school where I teach has been preparing for a reaccreditation process.  The observers showed up Tuesday.  They stayed the entire school day.  I was surprised that they only observed my class for 60 minutes.  I've been through the ECERS evaluation and the observer stayed from school bell to school bell.    Even though I was sure of myself and my classroom environment, I was relieved when the observation day was complete.  Now to wait for the results.

Dancer Girl is in a middle school musical.  She will be Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, Jr.

I'm preparing to switch out my winter decor to spring.  Tomorrow the high is 85.  Friday the high is predicted to be 54.  How crazy is that?

:)

I'm baaack!

Some of you may have noticed I've been missing in action.  I'm not so sure why I've neglected my blog.  I've been so busy.  That's  no excuse as  I'm always busy.

A few things happened that I didn't want to discuss.  I need time to think about them inside my head.

I almost lost my voice.  The roller coaster weather is taking it's toll on my sinuses.  One day it will be in the 70s.  The next day it'll be in the 30's.  And then before you can pull out an extra pair of fluffy socks, it's back up into the 70s.  It's been a wild and wacky winter.

I sometimes have anxiety.  When those days hit, I don't eat chocolate.  I don't stay in bed and sleep.  I don't drink, smoke, dip or chew.  I organize.

First up:  the office area in my home.  Too much clutter.  It took me HOURS but I managed to purge, sort, repurpose, reuse and organize.

 I was able to organize things so that my printer could actually fit on the desk facing forward.  I discovered the shelves are adjustable.

 My caddy from Michaels.  Sorted and functional.  

On to the next project:  The master closet.  We have this huge walking closet.  The space had become unmanageable.  Shirts would hide from me.  Shoes would get lost.  I finally had just HAD it with the clutter.

             Next up:  the master bedroom closet:  what a mess.  I've been meaning to 

            take on the challenge of it for many days.  Today was the day.

 I purged, rearranged, ordered, put things back.  Ahhhhh  So beautiful now.

  White, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, purple, brown, black.    Like a work of art.

Now it's on to the garage.  

Ugh.  

I've already done a lot of work out there.  Wait until you see!

Patti

Back in the swing of things

Today is February 1st and it was 78 and muggy.  This has been a mild winter to say the least.  I have a few things I'd like to post and catch up a little  after my weekend migraine.  But first I have to ask you a question:  how old are these ladies?  

This catalog came in the mail.  These girls must be preteen.  

I heard on the news recently that Cindy Crawford's daughter has been signed to do some modeling.  She is 10.

 This is a piece of furniture in my bedroom.  See that candlestick?  I've had it for years.

 I paid full price at PierOne.   And because I paid full price I just could not bring myself to change it at all.  I kept thinking about the money.

This weekend I gave in.  I spray painted it.  Spray paint is my best friend.  Now the candlestick matches the lamp.  The lamp used to be a white base with a yellow and white gingham fabric shade.  Uh, yeah.  I bought it at JCP decades ago.  

A few months ago I painted the  base black.  And I changed the fabric on the shade.  On Saturday morning I added the little white fringy ball things.  I had just enough left over after doing the bottom to wrap once around the top with the same decoration.  I wish I had an original photo of this lamp.  

These photos have shadows.  Well, tomorrow is Groundhog Day!  Next time I'll delete the shadows.  Or reconfigure the lighting.

I had one more quick project to complete.  I bought these dinner napkins at World Market a few weeks ago.   They were 99 cents each.  I needed new pillow covers.

 This is all you need:  napkins, scissors, heat and bond tape, an iron and ironing board.

 Put right sides together.  Cut straight across one of the napkins.  This will allow you to have an opening to insert the pillow when you are finished gluing.  I chose to cut a little off the center.  But you could cut straight down the center.

Now you have one whole napkin for the front.  And the napkin that will be on the back of your pillow has been cut into 2 pieces.

Turn the cut sides to the edge.  That way the hem of the napkin will become the edge.

Follow the directions on the heat and bond tape.  Turn the fabric.  Insert pillow form.  New sew pillow covers!

I did notice the little man in the fabric design until I finished the pillow.   He doesn't look happy. Maybe he's upset that J Crew has little girls on the cover of their latest catalog.