YIPPEE!

It's almost Thanksgiving and I'm making my lists.

This year I'm making a gluten-free AND a regular Thanksgiving so the challenges will be varied.

My camera battery charger finally came and guess what?  It was the wrong size.  I am happy to report that I found my original charger after scouring the house like a mad woman last night so there will be plenty of pictures to share from now on.  Phew!

I was outside this morning and took a few pictures of the last leaves hanging on.

Have a lovely Thanksgiving.  May it be filled with love and great companionship.

Love,

Linder

The Guest Room

I'm going to be gone for the weekend so will leave you with some fun before during and after pictures of our guest room.

We're camping out in here (no hardship) until the crack room (master bedroom) is done.  At this rate that may be a year or more. 

Happy thoughts, happy thoughts!

That's floral wall paper and orange carpeting.

This is a quirky little window that is short but opens like a door onto the roof.  Hmmmm, a deck someday perhaps?

 

A little dark but you get the idea.

 

Those are the "before" pics

Wallpaper down and the carpets up.  Pretty floors underneath that have been sanded.

Bookcases and shutters removed.  Dan is doing a bang up job of making all the trim match.  No small chore there since there are several different kinds throughout the house.

Finished floors!

Because of the slope of the ceiling, Dan ran trim around the room to create some depth.  FYI, the ceiling portion is white and the trim is a lovely warm beige. 

Starting to feel so light and bright!

Pretty rug on the floor.  hard to see but there are some lovely golds and blues in there.

TA DA!

I bought those sheers at an estate sale for $4.00 a panel!  They were a steal!

A little plain yet but we're planning a headboard right now and hanging the pictures. BTW, the night stands were another estate sale find...$15.00 ea.  Lamps - T.J. Maxx $15.99 ea.  My God but I love a bargain!

It's coming along!

another view.

That goofy window all dressed up!

I adore this dresser set.  Got this at, you guessed it, an estate sale for $400.00!

Me and my lovely Dad.

That's the guest room!  I hope you enjoyed the tour.  Have a wonderful joy filled weekend!

Me?  I'll be finishing up the sheers for the living room, hemming drapes and getting ready for Thanksgiving.

Pioneer Woman update

Any true Goddess of the blog would have a pictorial of this evenings event.

But, life has conspired against me with a dead camera battery so you must close your eyes (but not really) and imagine what I am about to describe to you in your most vivid minds eye.

So girlfriend Linda and I (both having had a less than sterling day) headed to Skokie with great anticipation of the evening ahead. 

After circling the parking lot like vultures looking for a space, we decided on the back 40 where no one in a big city ventures because it means you have to WALK to your destination.

The book store was controlled chaos.   We were handed numbers 236 and 237...236 & 237!? Sweet Mother of God how many people are here tonight?  By my calculations it came in at over 300 men (that's right) women and children.  Wow, and I mean WOW how cool is that?

Ree Drummond entered wearing some snappy looking boots and a new hair color.  I spied her handsome Marlboro man and 2 mini m&m's in tow.   2 cuter boys I've never seen.  Also very well behaved until Dad caught them cruising up and down the escalators! 

How do I know all of this?  I had a birds eye view from the balcony of the store, quietly waiting my turn to meet Ree, have my book signed and give her my blog address.  

Alas, I am sad to report that after a little over 1/2 an hour my resolve (and my bladder) started to slip.   When shifting from one foot to the other began to fail me, I noticed that my tummy started to sing a merry tune as well.  Hey, why not, the more the merrier I always say.

I think you see where this is going.  I bailed.  I know, I suck but it would have been hours before i got to the front of the line.  But here's my PollyAnna twist to the evening...

Linda and I got the gift of listening to Ree speak.  We were able to appreciate all the wonderful people who admire her and also came out to celebrate her new cookbook as well as herself.  That's pretty special!

Me, being me, I gave my number to a gal at the end of the line and made a bee line to the floor below where I spotted Marlboro Man and some seriously pretty t-shirts that they gave away to everyone who stopped by tonight.  That is some serious hospitality my friends!

I told Marlboro Man that I was bailing on account of my grumbling tummy (like I was seriously going to tell him I had to pee?)  Have you seen this man?  He is just flat out yummy.

OK, I digress...sorry.  ANYWAY, I got my Pioneer Woman cookbook and I gave my card with my blog address on it to Marlboro Man and asked if he would pass it along to Ree.  Can't hurt, right?  Who knows, Ree Drummond could be reading this right now and laughing her tiny behind off!  In my world that's how it looks anyway.

So I found a bathroom and then a restaurant and God love everyone who stuck it out because an hour and some change later the line was still there and so was Ree smiling beautifully and treating everyone as if they were the very first in line.  I consider that classy.

Maybe next book signing I'll get a chance to say hello.  Just for today I am happy for my evening and the laughter my girlfriend and I shared and the book that I bought and Lord but I was grateful for the bathroom that I found too. 

Thanks to Ree Drummond for showing up!  A great time was had by all.

Love,
Linder

P.S. pics of the t-shirt as soon as the new charger arrives.  I promise.

Pioneer Woman book signing tonight!

Tonight I'm going to Barnes & Noble in Skokie, IL to see Ree Drummond!  She's "The Pioneer Woman" and has a cookbook she'll be signing. 

I'm bringing a few of my favorite girls along to see Ree.  It promises to be a fun night out.  If you're in the area, stop by, and if you're not, check out her website http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/ I promise you'll enjoy the read and the pictures!  Who knows, she may be coming to a book store near you!

Hugs,
Linder

Floors!

We're onto the demo portion of the house but I thought it would be fun to show you the before during and after pictures!

Instant gratification is so nice, isn't it?  I wish it had been this fast when the floors were being done but in truth Dan got all the prep work done in record time.

We decided before he moved into the house that certain things had to be accomplished.  Painting and the floors were the top priorities.

This first bit is what the floors looked like after spending 20 odd years under carpet.

From what we can tell, the floor was refinished a lighter color AROUND the carpet that was on the floor.  It's a look!

 

This is the dining room.

 

Pet stains from years gone by were free and from what we were told, very difficult to lift out of the floors.  YIPPEE!

 

When the carpets got lifted in the entryway, Dan found asbestos tile had been laid on top of the hardwood floors.  research shows that if you're going to remove this by yourself the tile needs to be wet and you need to wear a mask. 

 

This is what the stairs looked like.  They had been painted brown and later black around the edges of where we think a runner had been.

 

Pretty!

 

Dining Room right after it had been sanded.  Now we're talking!

 

Living Room

 

The entry way and one of the prettiest pictures of me EVER!  Look at the contrast on the stairs.  Talk about making miracles happen!

 

Top of the stairs walking into the guest bedroom.  That stuff on the floor is a filler for between the cracks. Note to self, I'm fairly certain that last sentence was not the best representation on my use of the english language.

 

The Living Room "After" beauty, eh?

 

Dining Room

 

Stairs....oooooh aaaaaaah!

We went darker on the stain because there were so many nail holes.  Went a long way with masking them.

 

Guest Room

That's all of them!  I hope you enjoyed the process.  I couldn't swear to it but am fairly certain that Dan cried after this was completed!  That was a lotta work.  I'll get the names of the flooring contractor's.  They were very good and the total cost for the Living Room, Dining Room, Entry way, stairs, landing at the top and the guest bedroom was $1800.00!

Smokin' hot, right!?

More soon.

Linder

Note to self...

You know, I have these moments of extreme clarity and here's my moment for today.

Most if not all people in my age range (I'm 49) have difficulty with their weight, love handles, body image and let's say "shift" in where their waist used to be versus where it seems to be now!

I have refused to go to the gym for 4 months and some change now because I was ashamed that I'd put on weight.  Guess what?  Everyone is having this issue!  Except they're getting their happy butts into the gym whilst I stay at home and sob in my shredded spoonfuls.

You know what?  Sometimes I just wear myself out.

Below is the picture that got me motivated.  That chubby little face cried out for help and who was I to deny her?

The beautiful younger woman is my daughter Elora and her boyfriend Nolan.  And then there's my handsome guy, Dan.

I am happy to report that that face is marginally thinner but mostly more hopeful than when that picture was taken.

Much Love,

Linder

Camera Karma?

Happy Sunday All!

What a great weekend.  The weather was perfect for Fall.  Crisp with a decided bite in the air a smidgen of rain but nothing that got in our way and a whole lotta working in the house.

Dan and I went to this fabulous fabric store about 3 blocks away (how sweet is that?) and picked out some beautiful material for sheers on our windows.

You may ask why on earth I would choose to make sheers when I could buy them and the answers are simple.  I love to sew!

I'm not really good yet but thanks to my friend Brenda and the few lessons that I did take from her last year, I easily managed making the majority of the sheers this weekend and they turned out beautifully!

Yes, it can be a pain to iron, pin, measure, iron again and then sew but in the long run the payoff is so fantastic that it's worth every minute spent trying to get it right.  There is that part of me that screams "This must be perfect!" and in truth I will worry a peice of fabric until it's threadbare if I'm not careful but oh the joy I experience over the finished product.

I have to admit to the part of my day today when I wanted to throw the bloody sewing machine through the window and scrap the whole project BUT I was smart enough to "put the fabric down and walk away" when this happened.

Seems Amanda (our house) does not have even floorboards, so while my seams were perfect and my hems so beautiful you could cry, I found out (belatedly) that this doesn't mean everything will brush the floor like a whisper.  On the contrary.  Ahh well, you do what you can and battle the machine and finish the hemming another day!  LOL!

I mentioned before how excited I was to finally get my usb cable for my camera in the mail so I could post more pictures but alas the battery went dead and guess what?  That's riht, my charger is now conspicuously absent.  Ugh.

There are lots of demo pics to catch you up on, so until I find the blasted charger (or order a new one) I will continue to post.

Hang in there with me folks.  It's worth the wait!

I've got a tale about a squirrel and some pumpkins just ripe for documentation.

I hope you weekend was a lovely one!

Adios for now,

Linder