Sweet cottages and a Story about Hubs

Welcome to the world, Mason. We're so glad you're finally here with us. Born on 5/30/12. Gramma and Grandpa are Mike and Sherilynn, my sweetest friend. He's a cutie for sure and much loved by all of us. Weight 7 lbs. 9 oz. First child so far for them
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Now, for the rest of the story on the toilets.

Hubs took the old toilet out to the driveway and emptied the water from the tank in the gutter—this is clean water, remember—then he carried the new one in and installed it and it leaked. For 2 days he couldn't get it to stop leaking and was hesitant to tighten it any more for fear of breaking it. I finally called a plumber. Men are always so hesitant to call outside help. "I can do this, no problem." Sigh.

The plumber took the tank off and saw the problem. A common problem. The huge "nut" around the hole wasn't lined up as it should have been. It's marked with a magic marker slash across it but hadn't lined up. Hubs later told me he didn't turn it upside down to see that mark. But it worked perfectly after that even though I was afraid to sit on it for fear of doing something to make it leak again!

This isn't the end of the story.

A few days later, I was sitting here in my office and hubs came it sweating violently and said, "Get me to ER." After asking what was wrong while jumping up out of this chair, he said, "I don't know." I'm suspecting heart attack or stroke or something equally horrific. He just kept saying, "Get me to ER."

Helping him into the car and exiting my garage, I turned on my flashers and headed out of the neighborhood onto the main streets hoping for a cop to help us break the speed limit to get to the hospital, which is about a 7 minute drive. No cops! But people did see we were in stress mode and pulled over for us.

I entered the reception area of ER and said, "I need a gurney." Blank looks! I repeated more forcefully, "I need a gurney!!!!" (I'm a very assertive person, very.) That got them moving.

While driving there, hubs finally told me what the problem was. While standing at the bathroom vanity, he felt like he'd been kicked in the lower back. It almost took him to his knees. He lay down on the bed, got dizzy and started perspiring profusely. That's when he came in here. He was pale and drenching by the time he got in here to tell me.

Bottom line: They did urine tests, CT scan and blood work. No kidney stone, which they suspected at first. After 4 1/2 hours they let him go home. The doctor, who looked like he just graduated middle school and had hair curling at the nape of his neck and wore a braided necklace (sigh, so 1960s Berkeley) finally said he thought it might be shingles. Shingles?!?! Nope, he never got shingles and it's been several days now.

I think he pulled that lateral after lifting 2 toilets, one still with water in the tank!, and carrying them in and out of the house. HE says he's never felt anything so intense and such pain and it couldn't be that. I'm convinced that's what did it. Sometimes, wives/mothers know best. Right? Yeah.

An aside: Once I got to the hospital, I called my young friend, Stacy, told her to get two elders from our church over to ER to administer to him. I can always count on this woman! I simply said I needed help and that was all; she took it from there. While they had him in the CT scan room, Stacy and I went out to lunch at McDonalds, just in the next block and enjoyed ourselves immensely. We knew he'd be safe after that blessing. We have a lot of faith in the power of God. And I never miss the opportunity to eat out, never!

He's been fine since. ;-) And for that I'm most grateful to our Lord.
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A sweet container for holding your lovelies.

Just look at how individual flowers decorate a table. Just cut them from your gardens when available. Stunning!

Beautiful vintage armoire and chandelier in a room with beadboard ceiling.

Love those shutters. Can you just imagine closing them in the evening for privacy and then opening them up in the morning to beautiful sunshine? Oooh, yeah!

Abundance in blooms.

A wonderful old kitchen made to look new or is it a new kitchen made to look old? Hmmmmmm.

Sweet pillows and roses for a vignette in a bedroom. Beautiful.

Here we go with the ivy going to rot the shutters again. ;-)

Easily made hanging craft you could make for your child or a gift for a wedding or baby shower.

I think this is a "Cleaver" house. Doesn't it look similar?

A lovely vintage chippy table and an ice cream parlor chair.

How does this family see out the windows? It's also covering the chimneys so they obviously can't have a fire in the fireplace. Personally, I'd love to have light come into a home.

Cute little shed or kids playhouse.

Beautiful in whites. Notice the faux fireplace mantel? And hubs thought I was crazy for doing this in our family room. Hah!

Quaint cottage probably in England considering the stonework and the windows.

Cute little french blue shutters on a cottage.

Rustic, yet gorgeous kitchen.

While my actual coverings and colors are different, this room has the same symmetry as mine.

I love what this homeowner has done to this room. Very sweet and feminine.

Isn't this adorable?

A very small cottage in the woods.

White and luxurious.

Cute little gingerbread house with pink frills.

Could be a cottage in Monterey from the looks of it.

Sweet!

Pretty pastoral scene somewhere in merry ole England.

Some of the prettiest cupcakes I've ever seen.

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Now go have a cupcake or something so rich it'll hurt the glands in your mouth.

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Photos courtesy of pinterest and tumblr.

Lasagna and a New Lampshade

This is a story about lasagna. Yes, lasagna. Bear with me on this one, chicks.

Now, since I hate cooking and want to eat out every single chance I get except on Sundays when we do easy peasy meals at home, I've let Mrs. Stouffer's do it for me when it comes to lasagna. Well, actually her meat sauce lasagna because we tried the 5 cheese lasagna with sundried tomatoes and neither of us liked that one so we won’t buy that one again. Otherwise, she does it pretty dang good in my book. Even my son thinks so and to him Mom’s cooking is fantastic—right after his wife’s, of course. ;-) I’m not stupid when it comes to my daughter-in-law. She’ll never read this but I ain’t takin’ th’ chance. Understand?

Anyway, we recently ate some lasagna at a party that just about set me retching. Actually, I pretty much stuck to the French bread and dessert that night. It had pepper jack and cheddar cheese only in it. Love Bunny said it wasn’t too bad, but we’re talking about a man who loves scrapple and if you don’t know what it is, google it. It’s a meat they eat in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania and it’s gross and I mean gross!) Plus, my hubby will eat anything and I mean anything! He is not finicky in any way. I have never in my life eaten a lasagna with those 2 cheeses in it. Lasagna is an Italian dish and only Ricotta, Mozzarella and Parmesan should be the cheeses in it.

Okay, competition reared its ugly head here as I had not made lasagna in years and I mean years. I was determined to find my old lasagna recipe. I couldn’t. I had no idea where it was.

When we were down visiting our daughter the middle of May, she said lasagna was the dish for dinner on Sunday night. Hubs and I agreed and when I went into the kitchen to see how it was coming, she showed me my old recipe card! I almost fell on the floor. This was after I’d already fallen twice before in her house the previous 2 days. Anyway, it had tomato soup as the tomato part of the dish. I cannot ever remember making that dish with tomato soup, but it was in my handwriting and looked 50+ years old with all the food stains on the card so I acquiesced to reality. Love Bunny and I didn’t particularly care for it that night and we talked about it later and neither one of us could remember making it that way. Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself here.

Anyway, after the pepper jack/cheddar lasagna, I got out my recipe cards and the one my sister-in-law gave me with her version of lasagna she got when they lived in Italy. I loved that version. Hubs? He thought it was wonderful, but he wanted a little more sauce. So, I decided to alter her recipe with a bit more sauce for hubs. Personally, I thought it was the best lasagna ever, but next time I’ll add a bit more tomato paste to it. So that episode got me to making lasagna again. Nothing like a little competition to make me start cooking, right? ;-)
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I recently bought a cheap lampshade at Wal-Mart. I had an idea for it but it wasn’t turning out like I envisioned. Luckily, I knew that early on so I didn't waste too much time on it. This is the shade.

Another blogger did this with a lampshade but she took the entire fabric off and just used the wire frame. I tried it with just Mod Podge glue and covered it with lace as there wasn’t the glorious frame this woman had. My lamp had a beautiful shade on it but it was beige and I wanted white. You can see the shade that was on the lamp in the box with the arrow pointing to it.

Using clothespins to hold it on, I went around it with 3 pieces of lace. I think the lace was a tad to thick for this kind of project though.

Seams hide pretty well though or at least blend in well enough to not be noticeable.

I even made a mistake and added a small piece to the top just to the right of the middle of those clothespins. It doesn't show much, but afterwards I wasn't too thrilled with the way it looked. I had plans to do a bit more to it but I stopped right then to think about getting another lampshade to do what I had in mind. Just not sure if I like that lace on this one.

This is what I intend to do. I’ll put ribbons around the bottom—pinned on here— and add something to the top. I wanted to do a French type decal on the base of the lamp but it would have to be a small one considering the contours of the lamp base. We’ll see. I’ve only got ribbons half way around the bottom part so far.

My next door neighbors, a young couple—he’s a teacher and she’s a psychologist—and their 2 little girls brought me over a Mother’s Day gift. That was so sweet of them. A basket full of soaps, fizzes and bath salts, made in a small town near us. My guest bathroom smells so wonderful now with all those soaps fragrancing it. The girls are Ella and Hadley. Hadley had open heart surgery just after she was born but is a typical active 5 year old now. Ella, the 7 year old? Well, she will someday run this country! ;-) Hubs calls them "his girls" since Caroline and her mummy and my daughter don't live near enough to see frequently.

Okay, continuing on with the lampshade redo. I had to take a break from the redo overnight because I was becoming frustrated. But I got to thinking. I’m dedicated to thrift for a while and will not spend more money when that lampshade will do perfectly with a little bit of fixing on my part. The vision continues. I photographed it in the early morning in the back yard. It’s so dewy, quiet and green out there with shadows dancing across the grass and I just couldn’t let the extra photos not be shown. It took about 16 photos to get the ones I wanted. I love this one of the bird bath and aspen tree shadowing it and the lamp.

Here also. Did you notice our glorious blue desert sky this morning?

Close up of the bottom. I tied on a red check ribbon around its neck just for the fun of it and have decided it’ll stay.

I have a plethora of pink roses so I didn’t have to buy much at all for this lamp.

Ta Da!! And here it is in our living room. I’m now in love with it and didn’t have to buy anything but a cheap lampshade and a few ribbons.

Just a bit of eye candy for you from here on out.
 Beautiful cabinet.

A tiny very efficient office.

What a beautiful shower curtain and shower!

Where can I find a pink polka dot spatula? Isn't this cute!

I saw those curtains in the mirror and just about lost it. I love this color combination—yellowish green.

Okay, just because I cooked lasagna doesn't mean I'm going to cook much more so this wonderful, beautiful kitchen would be lost on this old lady. ;-)

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A Few Thoughts on Women

A few weeks ago, we had a lesson in our Relief Society, which is the 3rd hour of our Sunday meetings. I call it The Women's Hour as it's for women.

This particular day the lesson was given by a young mother, probably in her very early thirties. She did a fantastic job, absolutely fantastic. She shook the whole time and would never think it was a good lesson. In other words, she beats herself up. About 20 minutes into the lesson, I leaned over to my friend, Patrice, and said, "I live a charmed life." She nodded agreement. I feel so blessed and grateful for what I do have in this life. I don't grieve at all for what I don't have.

It was about how women beat up on themselves, especially the mothers and, in particular, the mothers who stay home to rear their children. I knew it struck tender feelings because of the tears and tissues and there were probably some abused women in the room also. I grieved for those women because I can't ever remember feeling that way—unappreciated. But then I worked.

I went to work when my kids were 5 and 6 years old. Remember, my hubby was a Marine and we didn't make a lot of money; although, I must say we could have gotten by. We just wanted more things like a stereo, which is the first thing I bought with my first paycheck. (And I had every record Dionne Warwick and Gary Puckett and the Union Gap recorded and listened to them over and over and over!) I can't remember the cost, but I remember $55, which was either the cost of the stereo or my very first paycheck. But the figure $55 sticks in my mind. Probably my first paycheck because I only made $1.75 an hour working at the base PX. We were thrilled to get that, trust me. (But going from that $1.75 an hour to being the highest paid woman in a very large top Fortune 500 company was monumental to me. I worked hard to get there.) I can't say it was worth the sacrifice to my children though. I really can't.

Anyway, back to the story.

I went to college when my children were in school and didn't work for several years. I stayed home for a while with them. When hubby retired from the Marines, we did a whole lot better in life.

I belonged to 4 or 5 women's groups during the 1980s and loved the groups. I learned a lot about myself. However, I can never, ever remember putting down women who stayed home with their children. We were all professionals in the groups: a pediatrician, a nurse, an engineer, several of us businesswomen, etc. But not once did we denigrate women for staying home. I don't do it to this day. Why?

Well, I was reared (as I now realize) by parents and grandparents who always made me feel special. I just knew I was special! I also have a very loving hubby who never made decisions for me; they were mine alone to make. He stood behind me and encouraged whatever I did. Did I make mistakes? You betcha! But I learned much from those mistakes. I grew from those mistakes.

Rearing children is hard enough without women denigrating stay-at-home-moms. It's especially tough raising good kids today with the worldly influences and temptations that are thrown at them from all sides. They don't need to hear other women putting them down for the most important job they'll ever have. I know this because I didn't stay home with my kids when they needed me. Would I change all that now? I truly don't know. I can't answer "what if" questions. I just don't know.

I believe as women we need to help each other, not spew vitriol at SAHMs. They do a thankless job, believe me. The ones I know beat up on themselves far more than any woman could, but the ones I know also know they're doing it for the good of mankind. And that's what makes them so special in my book. We all need to pump up each other, be kind to someone who is struggling, whether it's the mom who stays home or the mom who is working. They all need positive feelings from us.
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A favorite living room I saw. Yes, you can decorate with pretty dresses if you'd like.

Stunning color on this house. I'm pretty sure it's in some tropical place.

What a joy this pleasant entry is to someone who comes knocking on your door.

We all love to view beautiful windows and old buildings that have a lot of character to them.

A tea party or lunch in the woods or an orchard.

Froufrou will always catch my eye!

A beautiful antique French chair with pink cushions on it. Yummmm!

Balloons, a banner and cupcakes displayed on a beautiful plate or platter will assure a pleasant event for anyone.

Another interesting entrance to an older home.

Beautiful patios such as this one draw lots of attention.

Beautiful setting...and it just this moment gave me a great idea. I have two urns on my front porch. I think I'll cover them with glass and use them as tables for out there instead of the faux geraniums in them now. Why haven't I thought of that earlier?!

A cute red plate rack.

A delightful bedroom for little boys or girls who like exploring places. How many munchkins get to climb up into their beds? ;-) This one looks like a little girls room.

And this one looks like a BIG girl's bedroom! Yep, my kind of glamour.

This is an example of how to picnic in style!

A flower shop. From the language on the sign it looks like a far eastern country, which just goes to show you that no matter where we live we all love to have beauty in our lives.

Just beautiful eye candy for you.

One of the most darling footstools I've ever seen.

An example of what you can do with scraps of fabric or netting. Make a beautiful lamp. You'll see some examples of lamps I've decorated on my sidebar if you look. I love to froufrou up lamps. I don't want my house to look like everyone else's house and it sure doesn't!

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Photos courtesy of pinterest and tumblr.