My life is to make everything around me beautiful.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Redecorating is Tiring!!

To those of you who have sent me emails asking me how I go like the energizer bunny - I don't, sweet chicks! I'm losing steam rapidly. I have been getting up around 4:30 or 5 am every day for weeks just because I can't sleep knowing what I want/need to do. But my "mental energy" is abounding and astounding! Today's post will be short - got lots to do. Now, what I'd like is some suggestions. I'm putting my 3 Susan Rios prints on this wall - the partly new wall. I think the 2 french wire baskets are too big for this and the 3 tiered white plate stand I want to showcase some faux pastries on is too big for any plates I have. Sooooooo, my little bunnies, what do I put on a 13 1/3" round plate holder - 3 tiers so I'll have to do "3" of whatever? I don't think I've seen 13" plates anywhere. Then what do you think of the little chair with books and that victorian house with foliage and roses in it on top of that?? By george, I think I've got a vignette just in that quick photo below!!! Hah.... And I can assure you the rest of the house is suffering......but NOT for long. I'm on a roll today!!!!!!!!!!!


Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Bunny Town Tour, Awards & Miscellany!

I'm almost done painting, just waiting for the carpet man to re-stretch the carpet and he's doing that as I type this. So I've washed and washed and washed things the past 2 days. This morning as I washed the "Bunny Town" on the kitchen plant shelf I thought how cute they were and decided to take you on a tour, sweet chicks and bunnies! They're back up there now but cleaner :-) and with a tad more prominence! Each one below shows the front, and the back is just below it so you're getting both views of it. I love collecting little whimsical houses and have many collections around my home. Some I got in Ireland because it seems the Irish love that sort of thing also.

Ooooh, chicks, you've really got to enlarge each one to get all the details.

This is the ice cream parlor. Doesn't it look like an ice cream cone? Loooove the pink roof and the little turret with a bird holding an ice cream cone, pink awning and the pink and red striped awning and mommy and daddy bunny carrying a basket.
This says "Cottage" but it looks more like the barn to me, but hey, I'm no farm chick so what do I know? I think it's precious calling it the "cottage" though. ;-) "Chick Cottage"??? I can go for that....... Notice the giant mushrooms, the flowers growing out of the thatched roof, the cross hatched windows on the back and the wood fence. Mommy and daddy bunny doing chores and coloring easter eggs. Sunflowers on the roof and a chicken on the roof. Hmmmm, where are the roses?!?!?!


The fruit shop comes next; although, I've always called them "fruit stands" when we'd drive the 99 Freeway from northern California to southern California and we'd always stop at the fruit stands for fresh-from-the-orchard squeezed orange juice. I loved it! But now we hit I-5 and miss all those stands. :-( We can see tomatoes, corn, carrots of course, baskets and wooden crates.

Nexxxxxxxt, the train station. Hubs would say he's never seen a train station with what looks like a polka dot tomato on it, or maybe that's a strawberry and it's a California train station. :-) Look at the ticket sign and the RR crossing sign. Even a little clock tower! Mr. Train Engineer waving to us all and a mommy and bunnyette waiting. But most of all the back has a cracked egg shell and someone's tried to "fix" it with tiny bricks! Tooooo cute.

When we were down there recently, hubs bought a limited edition print of the Riverside station. When we got home he asked if I noticed anything off about it. I perused the print and answered no. He chuckled (He only gets this way when I can't find what he's talking about!) and showed me the picture was wrong in its description. It has a canal/body of water that said it was on the north/south side (can't remember which now) and it was wrong. DUH!!! Like I even could figure that one out or even cared. Hah!!


Squeeeeeeal, my favorite! The flower shop!!! It's a ROSE! Look at all those little shrubs in pots and the little flower pots sitting on a shelf, stone steps, teeensy gravel path in the shop. How cute! Yes, they have a nice assortment of roses in this shop!

We now come to the "Inn" of bunny town. Notice the little waterfall in front and the stone steps leading to the door of the inn. There are 2 separate buildings to the inn and one with a kind of french mansard roof and the other a steep tile roof. How quaint. I'm not sure but could this inn be in the "french" part of town???? Ooooo la la!

The Bakery....ummmm, maybe this one is my favorite, sits on main street. Another PINK roof! But this looks like the busiest place in town. No one is empty handed here, chicks. Little stone fireplace inside. Can't you just picture yourself in here eating a cinnamon bun and sipping orange juice?! I can.........

School House!!! Now, no self-respecting bunny would go without an education, right??!!! Well, these bunnies are very studious and smart bunnies. Mrs. Bunny Teacher has her books AND her class well in hand. Ain't no bunny getting slack from this chick........uhhhh, I mean BUNNY!


Well, that ends our tour of Bunny Town. Your tour guide has some decorating, painting, washing laundry and cleaning to do.
~*~

Okay, okay, I do need to post some awards I've received lately and answer some questions put to me so here goes, my sweet chicks:


UPDATE: The blogger who awarded this to me has let me know and I'm very, very embarrassed. I'd been looking for the email in the trash bin and it was in my Mail box waiting for me to acknowledge the award!! How ridiculous of me to not remember that because that's exactly how I do those things! So the sweet chick that gave me this award is JenR so go visit her at Sanctuaryart TODAY!!! I remember that she had to change her name because of some difficulties with someone hijacking her name or some nefarious plot like that, but let her tell you about it on her blog. Now gooooooo!

This was awarded to me a few days ago and for the life of me I can't find the email that tells me. I'm very, very embarrassed and if the person/blogger emails me I'll be more than happy to include a link back to them. I'm so sorry. Life has been more than a little hectic around here lately.
~*~

Rachael over at The Rose Room gave me this award. I'd never heard of it and while I've been called Wild - and Crazy, I've never been given the classier version of it - "Wylde Woman Award"!

The rules of this award are:
1. You can give it to one or one hundred or any number in between - it's up to you. Make sure you link to their site in your post.
2. Link back to this blogsite tammyvitale so Tammy can go visit all these wonderful women and remember the Purpose of the Award: To send love and acknowledgment to women who brighten your day, teach you new things and live their lives fully with generosity and joy.

I have selected Miss Rhea to give this award to. She is one of the most talented women I know, just a tad wild and crazy gal, and she loves the Lord.
~*~


This award absolutely truly stunned me!! I was perusing my Google reader and came across this post from this sweet blogger, lulusfluffyruffles, and just about fell out of this chair!! I am serious!!! I could not believe it. Thank you, thank you, sweetpea, for the delightful post on that blog about loving me. I'm truly humbled. Sniff...sniff....sniff.... Yessssss, I am in tears thinking someone would even think I'm worthy of it. AND she plays my absolute favorite song: Pachelbel's Canon in D. It's gorgeous and I love Pachelbel.
~*~

I received this award from Garden Antqs Vintage and try to answer all awards. I think I should put this award on a side bar and simply add the names of sweet chicks who give me this award! Anyway, I know this is hard but I'm truly awarding this to anyone who reads my blog. Now, I think that if you read it and RETURN then you definitely NEED this award (and a mental evaluation!) for sticking with it to come back and read my ramblings! Truly, how sick do ya hafta be to read me TWICE?!?! I'm a boring old....ummm YOUNG chick who loves life and just tells ya the truth, my sweetpeas! Sometimes it ain't purdy either. Soooo if you're reading this consider yourself tagged for this award!
~*~

Now, we'll hear from my iTunes!!

Cottage Rose and Picketsplace both tagged me for 5 of my favorite songs and since I got 2 tags I'll select 10 songs. So I looked in my iTunes for 10 of the most played songs and will list them here. They are all from the 60s, 70s and 80s mostly.

Can't live if living is without you - Air Supply
Making love outta nothing at all - Air Supply
City of New Orleans - Arlo Guthrie
The air that I breathe - Air Supply
All out of love - Air Supply
Year of the cat - Al Stewart
It never rain in California - Albert Hammond
I never promised you a rose garden - Lynn Anderson
Slow hand - Pointer Sisters
The end of the world - Aphrodite's Child
~*~

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Special Blog!! God Bless the People of Louisiana!

I have to say how that makes me want to cry all over again, sweet chicks! I salute all of those Louisianans who made this possible!!! We all love ya!!!!! Sheeeesh, I'm bawling like a baby......... Let's let the world know what we are made of in this country!
~*~

Here SHE is, the USS New York, made from the World Trade Center !



USS New York


It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center .
It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, LA to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept 9, 2003, 'those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence,' recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. 'It was a spiritual moment for everybody there.'

Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the 'hair on my neck stood up.' 'It had a big meaning to it for all of us,' he said. 'They knocked us down. They can't keep us down. We're going to be back.'

The ship's motto? 'Never Forget'








Cleaning and Redecorating

I'm finally able to clean the dust from the plant shelves. This involved taking down all of the items up there and trust me, it's HIGH up there - 4th rung from the bottom TALL up there! You can see all the faux foliage on the counter top below drying after a good wash. I'll skip showing you the dirty water, chicks. ;-) I guess I don't run as tight a ship as I thought I did.

Here is the clock that we're putting in the corner of the pix just below this one.


Uhhhhhhhh, do you just happen to see all the stuff on the living room floor??? I've had to "side step" all day!!!!!!

This wall will have the sofa table in the photo just below this one.


I've cut in with the paint in some spots. The whiteness of the wall is actually the "texture" that was sprayed on saturday. On the right side of the arch that patch of color is where I painted around the light switch.

Okay, story time: Last night Love Bunny was doing something with that switch and I said to be careful because of the electricity. He said you can't get shocked because the light is off. Soooooo this morning I took the little plate off and painted the area around it. I noticed the little "switch box" inside was a tad crooked. (My first mistake!) I unscrewed the l i t t l e teeeeensy screws, inserted s c r e w driver and Zzzzzzzapppppp! My fingers were actually still buzzing 5 minutes later. I r e p l a c e d the plate back on and called Love Bunny and said "YOU LIED." He said "Well, it doesn't work if it's a 3 way switch!" Now, I want you go GUESSSSSSSS what kind of switch that one wassssss?!?!?! Nuuuuuuuuu, not a regular one, but a 3 WAY ONE!!!!!!! It has 2 places in that room to turn it on and turn it off. (I guess that was my 2nd mistake - asking him if that switch was a 3 way, which I didn't even consider asking because I wouldn't have known to A S K!) Yes, he's still alive! (Those are not typos, just my way of e m p h a s i z i n g the s i t u a t i o n !!! *Smirk* or * S M I R K * !!

Oh, remember the sink??? Well, hubs cleaned out under it and left it on the opposite side of the k i t c h e n so when the contractor comes back tuesday night it'll be r e a d y for him. * S M I R K * ;-)

Since I didn't have any room any where to put "drying" faux foliage it landed here till further n o t i c e !!!

In all this mess I found this little cow bell we picked up at an antique shop in Pennsylvania once while visiting H I S relatives there. It's going to be "PINK" soon!!
This little victorian house flower pot was given to me about 35 years ago by my sister's brother-in-law at the time. It was a Christmas present and he had put red carnations and Christmas tree cuttings in it. It was absolutely stunning when he gave it to me. I've kept it of course, but it sat on top of the grandfather clock and you really could not see it at all. That's going to change. I love it and will think of something lovely to put in it.

I can actually write my initials in the dust it's sooooo bad. Tomorrow that will change, sweet bloggers. :-)

Another view of what I've been dodging around all day. Ooooops, I hear Love Bunny c o m i n g n o w!! ;-)

Okay, all you lovely decorating chicks, question: Should the burgundy sofa table be near the arch or further down the wall to the right? I need help in deciding!

Monday, August 4, 2008

Remodel Day #7 and Random Thoughts

The remodel is finished - well, 99.9% finished; the decorating of the house isn't! I still have to paint it and I'd prefer to do it myself since I love to paint. Although I can't paint (walls) like I used to because it's so tiring on my shoulders and neck, this is a pretty small job that will not cause any distress on these creaky joints. The carpet needs to be stretched back in and he's supposed to do it monday or tuesday. (Now, we alllllll know about carpet installers and how notoriously slow they are so I'm not counting on it, but I'll call and wheedle and whine to the best of my ability, which hubs says beats anyone else's he's ever seen! I'm so thrilled to be perfect in SOMETHING!!) So here are the pix of the famous wall remodel now.

This view just kind of "frames" the dining area. Since it's just the 2 of us we didn't want a formal dining room anymore. It was the least used room in the house and would be now since we're empty nesters and kids are in California.




This truly does "frame" the living room when you're actually in the dining area looking into the living room.


New sink he'll install on tuesday. I love stainless steel sinks. They're way easier to take care of. Not many people have sinks in their living room, do they?!?! ;-)
~*~

And here, my sweet bloggers, is the trailer I'm going to frou-frou up. Squeeeeeal!!! This is gonna take some time though. This trailer was the ONLY way I'd go camping at all again! So for those of you who have emailed me regarding this, I'm hearin' ya, chicks!!! *Sigh*............... But I truly am excited to have the extra STORAGE SPACE it will provide! I already have a lot on my plate with redoing things around the house.
~*~

I saw this pillow on a post when I was looking for pillows to buy and the lady had it in her garage for a yard sale and it didn't sell. I thought I loved it because of all the roses fabric on it and emailed her and asked about it. Suddenly it was mine and it arrived last week. I really LOVE it! Her picture was taken in the garage with piles of stuff on it so I thought I'd show it to you in a better setting so you could see just how beautiful it truly is. It's beautiful!!!!
~*~

Now for a rare treat for y'all.......uuuhhhhh, well, maybe not so much. It's me! I finally took a pix with my hair all done for church. I did this with my iSight camera that sits on my monitor. I cannot get a good shot so close with my regular Canon camera! I never think to ask hubs when he's around and besides, he takes lousy photos anyway! Not too bad for nearing 70 years old, but why can't I look like Sophia Loren?????
~*~

I was drying my hair and putting on make up this morning and got to thinking. I know, I know......this can be dangerous for anyone within the same block of me, but I was really thinking hard. A few thoughts come to mind while blowing and fluffing this mop!

1.
I swished my foam applicator puff across the makeup and one side of my face got a little more than the other. I tried smoothing it out but I wondered if anyone looking at me can notice I'm "lopsided" today?? Hmmmmm.


2.
This is for all you young chicks out there. (Rachel, are you listening, honey?!?! Joyce isn't even there yet ,but she still won't tell ya these things. Trust me, Rachel!! I wouldn't lie to you, sweetpea.)Some things your mom may have neglected to tell ya: menopause and chin hairs! Yessssssss, my sweet young bloggers, we go through this about the age of 50 - give or take a few years. But it's pure torture to sit in a room while you're "glistening" (women "glisten", we don't "sweat" like jocks do!) and everyone else is wearing their coats or jackets. I'm telling hubs I'm hot and he's saying it's not hot in here. He's lucky to still be on this earth with that one!
Then like I've said before with the 15x magnifying glass that sent me into anaphylactic shock from looking at my face closeup, it's worse when you can see the black hairs growing outta your chin and lip. Just remember where you heard this - and it wasn't from your mother!!!!!!! They're too afraid to tell ya!

3.
Last year I had foot surgery on both feet at different times - 2 months apart. I'll never ever do it again and would not recommend it to my worst enemy........well, if she was wrinkle free and flaunted it, I just might! Anyhow, I met another woman who had done the exact same thing - bone fragments, which is just another fancy name for the dreaded "bunions" (and let this be a lesson to those HIGH heel wearers - they RUIN your feet!!), and she said it took 5 years but her feet felt fine after that. So I've gotta wait 4 more years to have pain-free feet?!?!?!?! Oh, be still my heart! DUH!


4.
Shea butter. Yes, that cream I get at WM - coconut shea butter, which is such a treat for your feet, is no longer available. I loved the coconut because that's one of my favorite scents and flavors and the smell reminds me of Mexico. But they've changed it - to coconut/LIME shea butter. I think there's a tad more lime in it than coconut and it's just not the same, sweet bloggers! Leave my shea butter for my feet ALONE!!!!!


5.
Some of us have the tall or the short gene in our gene pool. Mine has both. I get the relative middle - average! So why couldn't I get the taller gene and be svelte? I think we all get the gene we're less likely to want: short/tall, thin/fat, blonde/brunette, small/large feet, blue/green/brown eyes. I didn't get ONE I wanted! Not one!! Oh, I've learned to adjust but why do my kids have to outgrow me before they're even teenagers. I'm 5' 4 3/4", sparkling green eyes(!) and weigh.........well, we won't go into that one! Hah....... At least I can say at my age I have NOT lost one inch to osteoporosis so take that, Gidget (aka Sally Fields)! Same height I was as a teenager! So I got that going for me.


6.
Who in the world can resist the smile of a child? :-) I saw it in action today in church.

7.
When we moved into this house 3 years ago we looked so sad. I think the church members who helped us unload the truck must have thought "here's the hillbillies" because 99.9% of everything we owned was in boxes. Oh, they saw the sofa (sans the pillows), the chairs (also sans the pillows), the lovely oak table all scratched up from "you know whoooOOOOooo" not listening to MEeeeEEEee when loading it and setting it right next to something with a SCREW(!) and all the legs taken off for the move, the lovely bed furniture all taken apart for the move. I tell you it was definitely pathetic! But when you view it now it all looks nice. Maybe not YOUR style but nice. That's when it hit me - my life was in U-Haul boxes and it wasn't until we opened them and put stuff out that it became our "HOME."

I'll leave ya with those "random thought"!! I'm a deep thinker, ya know..........