Total House Window Refurbish

So in my infinite wisdom I thought it would be a good idea to start a major remodeling project during the Christmas holidays. What the heck was I thinking?

I've got one to two guys here at 9am every morning Monday through Friday till 5pm. They are pulling my vintage 1942 wood windows out of their frames, removing the glass, sanding down the frames and repainting, putting the glass back in, re-glazing and then replacing in the wall. There are 13 windows and they have not been worked on since they were put in the walls, or at least since I bought the place in 1984.

As they pull the windows out to work on them, they put plywood up so half my house looks like a cave.

We've been working hard putting down pavers in the backyard to make a patio. Now the view of the back of the house will be nicer with no peeling paint. And I don't have to worry about the window actually falling out due to neglect.

Kitchen upkeep

   My September goals are to drink more water and to write three pages a day.

   So far I'm not doing too well with the water, and I've only written 3 pages total. It's ok, every morning is a new start.

   I've bought some paint for the pantry in the laundry room. A muted violet blue called Creamy Blueberry, a Lavender called Sugared Plum and a nice Mauve called Mineral Mauve.
I'm not going to tell anyone I'm doing it, just let it be a surprise.

   Woke up this morning with head and neck pain at 6 am (?). The incapacitating pain stopped by 10, (thank you pain meds) but let me just say that you should never go to Walmart after taking pain medication. I bought hot pink tie-dye leggings. WTF! and donuts. I think I may have a problem.

   While at Walmart I saw a man walking around, no lie, wearing sunglasses, nappy nappy hair, slippers, pajama pants and a hospital gown. One arm was bandaged up and in a sling so the gown was only half on, the rest trailing behind him on the floor.

   I also got some green cotton yarn to make the vine for the purse I'm currently working on. They didn't have any red so I'll have to go to Michaels. and isn't that too bad.

   Ok, it's the next day and I painted the pantry with the blue and then did the trim with the Mauve. I didn't like it at all. So I went over it with some OOPS paint I had. It's a dark purpley grey. Looks much better. The first way jut looked to country. This looks a little more modern and a bit nautical. I have to put one more coat on the trim and I want to take the doors off to do  1/4 inch of trim by the hinges. I also have to get some little thingies that keep the doors closed.

   A friend came over to install a new vent hood. Wow I had no idea it was so hard to do. Took him about 3 hours and lots of cursing, sparks shooting out and even blood pouring. But it's done and works so much better.

  
  

brain dump

   So as it appears that no one reads this anyway I think I will start using this as a journal or maybe even a brain dump.

  Today is August 16, 2016. We are deep into the rainy season, with rain every afternoon, sometimes all night and sometimes all day. My backyard is mud with weeds and grass on top. The good news is it's very green. So it looks good as long as you don't try to walk on it.

   The orchids we put on the oak look good, they did have a brief period of adjustment but seem to have settled in well.

   I've moved the rubber tree from the driveway to the backyard and it's doing much better there. I added some potting soil and I've given it Reiki several times. Over the weekend I charged some Quartz and added them to the pot. It is sprouting new growth on all the branches. I think it was just to hot for it out front.

   The new porch is fabulous. We love it and are using it even through the intense heat. Feels like temps of 112 every day. I've been able to move the spider from the backyard to the porch. Also several plants from the dining room. I'm on the lookout for a 3 seater deep seating outdoor sofa for the porch. That will be the last piece to complete the porch.

   My eating has been completely out of control. Sugar every day. I haven't been gaining on the scale but I am noticing body changes. I'm not sure how to stop. Or why I'm doing it. I am still exercising a couple times per week. I just need to get back to my good habits. I feel better when I'm able to move a little bit. I think all the rain is keeping me from exercising, rain makes me hurt. But it doesn't make me eat, lol.

   My dog Lucky is doing so much better. After falling off the couch and breaking a vertebrae in his back he was unable to jump up or down and was medicated so he slept in his crate a lot. That was about 8 weeks ago.  He can now jump down off of laps or the couch but he down not even attempt to jump up. He doesn't try to stand up on his hind legs at all. We are going to attempt to make a ramp for him to get up and down from the couch.

   Patrick wants to get a small TV with the antenna instead of cable for the porch for football season. So I guess that will actually be the last piece for the porch.  We'll see.

   I'm crocheting an afghan for Patrick's sister for Christmas. She is having a really hard time, and I want her to feel like we are hugging her when she uses it. When that is done I need to do a grocery bag holder for Penn and one for Lane. Fortunately those go quick. Here's the one I use.

I might do a couple of hats for them too. I need to do a hat for Jordin, and those things that peek out of the top of boots for Estrella. Sam's friend wants a dice bag too. Time for a run to Michaels for some red and black yarn. I want both colors in one skein. that way I don't have to join and weave ends in.

   I've been trying again to schedule out meals for the week, but I'm just not able to keep to the schedule. When I have a bad day pain wise I just can't cook. So I'm trying to make extra on the days I do cook and freeze it so that we just have to thaw and heat up.


Todays Food List:

• Avocado
• coffee with Splenda, salt, agave, HWC
• 1 piece of bacon
• 3 chocolate chip cookies

Plan for dinner is chicken, baked potatoes and salad.

   Pills for the week are parceled out and I need refills for 2 meds, but I have to wait till the end of the week to call that in.

   I haven't accomplished too much today. I stayed in bed till 11:30. I weeded the Day Lilies and Society Garlic for about 30 minutes or maybe it just felt like 30 minutes. I baked some cookies to take to Jordin tonight. And that's about it. And I have to be okay with that because sometimes you just have to rest. Sunday took a lot out of me. Dinner party for 6.

   Tomorrow I'm taking Brenda out. I think we'll go to International Mall. I need to go to Sephora for Anastasia Brow pencil in Carmel. I'm completely out. I've been using the Ash Blonde but it's a bit too light.

project list

1. wash wall on porch
2. paint front door
3. pressure wash house
4. paint shutters
5. oil porch ceiling
6. paint hallway
7. pavers for patio in backyard
8. plant the Lily and the purple thing in front yard
9. plant the Ginger and Ti plant in back yard
10. get P to put away comforter in suitcase and back on top shelf in closet

  

Wedding News

This is my daughter and her family. They are getting married in March of next year. So lot's of plans and excitement going on here. 

Of course I've got her set up with a wedding planner, more sticky notes than she knows what to do with and tons of Bridal magazines. 

She is planning a small formal intimate ceremony and reception. Elegant and romantic. Her colors are Eggplant and Gold. We're going to make it brilliant with crystal and mirrors so there is lots of sparkling light. 

We're thinking of something like this for the ceremony:

we will not have the flowers, it will be crystals, pearls, grapevine and ribbon. 

The plan is to make the arch somewhat like this:

She doesn't like the buckets, not sure yet what we will use instead, maybe planters. But she does like the Hydrangeas. 

Nothing will happen until she books the venue, which she is dragging her feet on. A lot of places are already booked up so fingers crossed that she will find something. 

I am very excited, it has been a year of weddings, I got married in April, P's business partner got married on June, and P's best friend will be getting married this winter. Love is in the air! 

Bougainvillaea Update

I keep seeing that picture of the Bougainvillaea further down the page and I wanted to show you how much it's grown. I pruned her pretty severely last Spring and she has just gone crazy. She needs to be pruned again, but I don't want to cut off her flowers.

I added another matching Bougainvillaea in a pot on the other side of the steps. It's huge but no blooms. There were blooms when I bought it, so I know they are the same color, but she dropped them when we transplanted her.

I can't wait till they are both blooming at the same time. I'm hoping I can get them trained up and over the doorway. Wouldn't that be magical to walk through?

Front yard

We've  made a nice spot to sit in the front yard. It's not shady in this picture, but in  the morning it's a nice shady spot to take a break from weeding.

My plan is to paint the bench slats each a different color like a rainbow and write an affirmative phrase on each. Always so much to do and not enough time to fit it all in.

I'd like to paint that chair too, but it's plastic and I don't like the colors available in the spray on plastic paint. I want to paint it Purple or Fuchsia  but the H.D, only has primary colors.

We added some vines to the trellis there on the right. A Purple Passion Flower and a Pink Allamanda. The Roses are still there but not growing very quickly so the vines are filling in the bare spaces.

The Ice Plant has filled in the front garden very well, I'll try to get a picture soon.

Early morning visitor

Happy List

I can't believe it's August already. The summer has just flown by.
It has taken me literally months to get myself back to normal after my house guest earlier this year. I'm finally feeling like myself, so here is my

 GRATITUDE LIST


Patrick (currently in the kitchen scrubbing up the dishes)
Lilly -- seizure free x 3.5 weeks
Giant Bougainvillaea we potted last weekend for the front of the house. It's pink and matches the one by the front door. In the pot it's about 6 feet tall. wheeee
Bird feeder outside the dining room windows. There's a limited variety but endlessly entertaining. The Blue Jays and Cardinals are constantly feuding and the Woodpeckers sweep in during the lulls. There's a juvenile Woodpecker that gets frightened off by the Blue Jays and hooks into the window screen and just hangs there screaming and peeping.
My presentation at work went really well. Thanks to my boss for giving me the opportunity.
Going to the Beach for the weekend.

30 Days of Lists

I finished my book for the 30 Days of Lists challenge. You can find it here . The idea is that we're all to busy to do a whole page everyday but still want to be creative. So the organizers thought everyone can manage a list. They are posting a prompt every morning in September, so everyday a journal prompt to create a list.

You can do as much or as little as you like. I imagine some days I will barely have time or energy to make the bare bones list and others will be painted, glued and glittered within an inch of their lives.

This is my first attempt at book making, and I had a lot of fun figuring out how to do it. I cut the paper out of old surveys that P was throwing out. The cover is Mat Board and fabric scraps I had laying around and a leftover quilt block.

I didn't quite get my tying right on the pages so I hope they hold together. If not there is always glue and tape. Just makes it that much more interesting. .

So the Bougainvillea finally bloomed after 2 years. She's still pretty small, and getting chewed up. I want to build a trellis around the door and train her over it so that you have walk through to get in the house.

We had a good crop of tomatoes this year, but now it's done. Still got Collards, Peppers and Basil. I've already started planning what to plant in September.

I bought a Florida Gardening book:







                                                                                                                                                                        Here's my I want list for September so far:
Garlic, Carrots, Radish, Celery, Kale. Not sure about the tomatoes, last 2 years the freeze got them before the fruit could turn red.
The front garden has filled in pretty good. I'll try to get out sometime this week and post some pictures for you.

exploding B&B cabins

I finally finished my Mom's birthday present. It's a lap sized quilt. I bought the log cabin pieces precut from eBay. I sewed them together and figured out the placement. Then my favorite thing; a trip to the fabric store to get fabric for the borders. These came from JoAnn's Fabric.
All machine pieced and quilted. It didn't take too long just a couple of weekends.

I've bought a couple of these precut log cabin kits from the same store on eBay. I've been really happy with all of them. Jordans of Oregon is the store. Cutting is my least favorite part of quilting, so this is one shortcut I love!

Here is another of her kits that I'm working on:
That one is for me, and it's been up on the design wall for about a year. I've got 12 more blocks to make, then I have to audition fabric for borders and backing. I've seen some really nice asymmetrical pieced backings lately. I think I'm going to try that with this one. I want it for my Queen sized bed. I keep stopping work on this and doing quilts for other people. oh well.

I'm thinking of lots of purple for the borders. It's my favorite color so that will dominate with just a little of the pale green. Maybe some Flying Geese, I just got a new Flying Geese Ruler and I want to try it out.

The squares lined up under the log cabins have been up there even longer. Guess I'll finish it someday. I kind of like knowing I've got things to work on if I get bored or broke.

I've got one more of her kits set aside in beautiful shades of teal and turquoise for my son. I can't wait to work on that one.

Then I want to do some Sunflower Place mats for my sister in law. I've been searching for the right fabric but haven't seen it yet. If I don't I've got some other ideas for her. She is going through and extremely tough time, just got diagnosed with MS along with Chiari and may need to have surgery. Maybe I'll make her a nice snuggle quilt instead of the place mats. She could use a hug I think.

Here's another look at the one I just finished, with Lilly giving it her seal of approval.

Fairy Village

I'm a little late, but I saw that back in May a lot of people in the blog-o-sphere were making these Fairy Villages, so last weekend I gathered up all my supplies and made this one.

I bought the little birdhouses at Dollar Tree and cut a doorway in each one and painted them in bright colors. I still want to make a flag for the top of the houses.

I made a path out of glass pebbles also from Dollar Tree, and the Dolphin Statue is from an old wind chime that self destructed.

I banner is made from some take out chop sticks, a cord from a broken necklace and I cut out the paper triangles and stamped them with the words happy day.

Some black river stones are balanced between the houses, a couple of ground covers and a "tree", and an enormous mushroom in my favorite color rounds everything out. I still want to add a table and a couple of chairs or maybe a hammock. I'm still waiting for the right idea to hit me.

For now it's living on the dining room table, but I want to get a small table to put it on in front of the window.


In the meantime, Fairies Welcome!

coming along

We worked on the front yard all day on Sunday.
We got all the ground cover planted, Purslane and Sedium. The Purslane is all shades of pink, orange and yellow, very bright and cheerfull. The Sedium is medium green and then we also planted Stonecrop, acid green and my favorite.
We put some square pavers in with the ground cover so the we'd have somewhere to step to weed the garden.

The front garden is growing wonderfully. I've got Coleus with GIANT leaves, one with the acid green and one with deep purple. My two favorite colors. And I've been able to root some cuttings so they will multiply!



and Bougainvillea, I planted this last year and it didn't do well at all. It got really leggy and the grasshoppers ate all the leaves. It's actually been able to bloom this year, but still really leggy and not many leaves. I've got to read up on it to see if it blooms on old or new wood. I'd like to cut it back so it bushes up more. I might have to just suffer if it's old wood.


and Flax Lilly; they've really done well for me and I plan on doing them all the way down the side of the driveway along with Daylillies. That's a project for next year, I'm just full of plans.



















and there's 3 or 4 bushes that I can't remember what they are called, but the butterflies just love them. They are pretty much carefree, just water, I almost never fertilize. Of course I do add a couple of bags of compost in the spring.




This year I added 1 mystery plant that Patrick brought over, someone had dug it up to be replaced from his office landscaping. They said the freeze got it. Looked all right just a little burned, we planted it and wowee! A gorgeous Hydrangea.
I planted another to go with it.






On the left we planted an Angels Trumpet or Datura. This one is deep purple and creamy white. It got it's first bloom about a month ago and it hasn't stopped since. It usually produces about 3-4 blooms at a time. They last about 3 days and every day they look different.
Now I want to get the peachey-pink one for the other corner.




The roses are still going strong, putting out new growth and flowers. I've got a pink Floribunda, I have no idea of the name, it's been there for a long time and struggled for many years. This year it's been given some loving attention and is thriving.


That's on one side of the arch and on the other is Don Juan climbing rose. This was just planted this spring and it's doing so-so. Really legging and lost some leaves to mildew. I've had this variety before with the same problem, so we shall see if it's a keeper. May just pull it up next year and plant Clematis there. On the corner there is a miniature Floribbunda, Fairy Rose, pink and in constant bloom. Gorgeous plant!
The Lavender has calmed down and is looking a little weak, I may try adding some compost there, but I think between the rain every day and the heat they are taking a beating.
I have 3 Society Garlic here among the Roses and Lavender, they are doing a great job of keeping the bugs away! I plan on getting more of these, attractive and useful. I have a bare spot to the left of the big pink rose bush where some annuals are past their prime, they will do nicely there.
Except for this guy, I HATE these guys!!!



















I've got 2 Blueberrie Bushes on the property line on the far side of the yard. We planted them this past spring and they produced well. Escpecially since they are less than a foot high. I want to see how they do for a whole year and if they make it I want to do a whole hedge down the side of the yard. They grow pretty big and bushy, about 4-5 feet tall and wide and covered in berries in the spring. Blueberries freeze well too. Couldn't get a good picture of these, they just look like a tiny little shrub in a sea of mulch.
Next weekend we're digging up the rest of the path in front of the rose garden and over to the gate to the vegetable garden in the side yard. Can't wait for all this grass to go!

Hope

I spent most of the day attending my friend Beth's Wedding. She looked beautiful and they both looked beyond happy.

I know her from work so several coworkers attended. Really nice to see people out of the workplace and in their fancy clothes.

The venue was beautiful, The Rusty Pelican, the ceremony was outside right on the water and the dinner overlooked the bay with floor to ceiling wall to wall windows. The Mullet were jumping like crazy all afternoon.

It's been raining here all week, but she got lucky and had sunshine for the ceremony.

I wish them happiness, patience, compassion, adventure. Congratulations!

work and Play

So my son built me this table-shelf. It took a couple of weekends and we had to take it apart and redo it once, but I'm really happy with it.
I drew a picture of what I wanted and Patrick bought the supplies and we all helped but Sam did the bulk of the work.
There used to be a rusty 55 gallon drum topped with an old wooden pallet in this spot. This looks so much better and more useful too!


I still need to paint it. The wall is white and that won't change because it's vinyl siding. The porch posts and ceiling is turquoise and the door is deep purple. I love the look of the wood, but I think it needs some protection. I'm still trying to decide between painting it all funky and bright or doing a stain.

I have a lattice to add to the back, it will give the table a little bit more stability and give the Mandevilla vine something to climb on. Mine is red and pink, gorgeous. I don't have a pic of mine but here's a stock photo




I planted it right in front of the porch so it can climb the post and then the lattice. It will screen the back porch from the neighbors yard and give a bit of privacy and shelter from the rain.


And here is our latest project; we're making a mulched path from the driveway/front door to the garden. We were wearing a path there anyway, so I decided to pull up all the grass and put in a path and ground cover.



The path will be on the left of the picture and goes between the Crepe Myrtle and the rose bed in front of the house. By the driveway it will be about 4 feet across and narrows by the tree to about 3 feet and then widens again in front of the house.

Between the path and the front garden which is the garden on the right of the picture will be ground cover. I have Ice Plant, Sedum and Stone Crop. I'm also going to do some oregano; it spreads like crazy and smells great when you brush against it.


We got all of the large area in front of the door by the driveway done before the skies opened up and dumped gallons of water on us. We had a great time relaxing on the porch and watching the rain.

The Crepe Myrtle has MORE baby birds! The first batch hatched and grew and flew away and about 3 weeks later I noticed some activity and we now have 3 new baby Mocking Birds. They just hatched Saturday. So fun to hear the peeps and see the bright yellow-orange wide open mouths sticking up out of the nest. She built it just above my eye level so really easy to watch.

Next weekend we'll continue to dig up the pathway and put in the edging and mulch and plant some of the ground cover.

In the meantime, we've been taking advantage of the late summer sunsets and going to the beach after work one night a week. I love living close enough to the beach to do that. It's about a 40 minute ride and so worth it. I would love to move even closer but Patrick's not going for it. I'm going to keep working on him.

IMAG0126

IMAG0126, originally uploaded by corvaequeen.

new shed!

What I did last weekend

Tomatoes I picked from the garden tonight. 3 Lemon Boys, a Beef something or other and a handfull of cherry's.

I harvested about half the Collards, blanched and froze them, and the upper half is still going strong. They are about waist high now. I'm wondering if they'll eventually turn into a small tree!

We've finally got the new shed up and secure. What a chore! Took 4 weekends, 5 if you count the one buying (2 different stores) and transporting it.

First we built it, and then it rained for 3 days and nights straight and we decided that it needed the strongly suggested foundation. So we moved it and laid 5 rows of 4 20x 20 inch concrete pavers. Then move it onto the pavers. And finally yesterday: move all the yard maintainence tools and implements of destruction and painting supplies into the shed.








Friday evening I had the grandchild, all night and Saturday morning. She was wonderful, no problems. I didn't take any pics, but here's one from Easter:


Saturday was Tropical Heatwave. We look forward to this, one of the highlights of the year.
Our local community sponsored radio station puts on this huge one night only music fest every year second week of May.
This year there was 8 stages scattered throughout Ybor City and 56 bands. There's no way to see them all cause all 8 stages are playing at the same time, but if you plan carefully you can see a little of lots of them.
We started the evening off at Kristen's house with a pre-Heatwave bar-b-que. Then off to Ybor and a night of dancing in the streets!
Here's some pic's of my favorite band of the night: Cracker




That's Patrick enjoying Jeffery Broussard and the Creole Cowboys.


Then on Sunday, we moved all the stuff into the shed off the front porch. Cleaned the porch and the tables and chairs for the porch.

So nice to have a porch to sit on and now when people visit, it won't look like an episode of Hoarders!

Kristen just called and it looks like we have a date for Saturday at the Taste of Pinellas. Bonnie Rait and Buddy Guy are playing for $15 entrance fee. Vinoy Park, can't beat that, good food, great music, right on the water. I love living in Florida.

Random Acts of Art Kindness

So we were playing Scrabble the other night and we always each draw a tile to see who goes first. We both drew a V. There are only 2 V's available. What are the chances that we'd both pull it?



I found this wonderful handmade postcard waiting in my mailbox this afternoon when I got home. It's paper, fabric and laminated fabric stitched together. It was made by Jan Hodgman as a RAAK. That stands for Random Act of Art Kindness. I LOVE IT, and it perked my day right up!

RAAK is from Millande's Art Group on Ning, if you haven't been there I highly encourage you to visit and join. Wonderful women sharing their knowledge, lives, insight and kindness. I'm inspired every time I visit, and I've learned quite a bit. It's caused me to work a bit outside of my comfort zone. and that's always a good thing.