At Last

I can hear the music,,,,,,,,,, At last,,,,, my love has come along, my lonely days are over..... But it's not about my love. It's about my living room. Yes. I have my living room back, and I am beyond thrilled. Now I have not rearranged the furniture yet, but, I am still very happy that there are no kitchen appliances anywhere. No shelving unit (etagere for the ladies) holding pantry items, and most of all NO REFRIGERATOR. Now if you have never had a 'fridge in the living room, it can be handy. I'm not gonna lie, but seriously, it cramps my style.
                              The Kitchen Floor is done.

Well, almost, can you believe it, we were short three tiles. And there were no stores near us that have any. So we are waiting for the new shipment to arrive so we can buy one box. That will give us some replacement pieces in case of, well, you know, stuff happens.
Isn't it pretty, though? I love the slate gray color, and with the black appliances it is really pretty.

             And they are where they are supposed to be.

The table is in the dining room. (ooh see the new air conditioner)

Refrigerator and food are out of the living room as only makes sense.

The microwave and coffee are resting comfortably in the kitchen.

We still have a lot of work to do, the ceiling needs to be repaired and painted. The collars, which I have, have to go on the canned lights. We need to paint the walls. I am putting a country red in the kitchen, the wall at the end of the kitchen has been textured, just a little. I think it will look good painted red. Of course we need cabinets, and I need to get my antique jelly cupboard brought over from our daughter's basement. I expect to 'pickle' it. Just a touch of white so it will match those elusive cabinets. I have chosen white bead board. I know it will look great with the black and red.

The dining area is going to be painted in (Sherwin Williams) Koi Pond. I think it will blend well with the red and be very relaxing.

                                                                                     

Well, that's all for now. I hope this was worth the wait. ..................

And in my heart there's a song

                                           

Sorry

I am sorry, but due to technical difficulties, I am not able to update my last post. We are looking into the problem and will post again just as soon as possible.

Tune in Later when...............

Later today I plan to post an exciting item. I hope if you read this you will come back later and see what I have to show you.

Another one bites the dust.

Welllllllllll, now today was a big day, big day at the old homestead. Probably enough here for two posts. But we shall see.

Our old pal AC finally gave it up. I mean we pulled the plug, set the sail, gave her the old send off. It wasn't easy to do, but you know. Sometimes you just have to face the music. I think that's all the cliches for now.
Last night was hot. I could not go to sleep, it was 79 in here when I went to bed and at 3:30, that's AM it was not much cooler. I had to get up at 6:30 AM, but that's another part of the story.
So after much thinking, praying, and just bashing our heads we decided that the only thing to do was pull the plug on the old antique.
This afternoon we did some further research on line, and decided that shopping around would only give us a headache and not save us any real money, so we went to Sears. We priced a couple of window A/C units, then we went to Lowe's and checked the prices on the same two units. We looked at a 10,000 BTU for the bedroom and a 12,000 BTU for the dining room. They were the same price at both stores, but with the military/ veteran discount they give us at Lowe's we saved about $60. Not bad.
We bought them, and brought them home and put them in. is this what they mean by wedded bliss?  They have lowered the temp in the house by 5 degrees so far. It doesn't sound like much, but going from 81 to 77 feels like a LOT. As I sit here I feel a bit of a chill, but I'm not complaining, well not yet.

So it's Thursday, time for Family Fun Night at our church.

We cook hot dogs, brats, and hamburgers.

Then we sit around and eat and chat, and watch the kids play games.

Kids playing Frisbee, volley ball, and other stuff.


Well, it was hot, but it was fun. I think this was the hottest night we've had and I think it was our largest turn out. Funny.

Have fun

A Bird in the Hand

Well, alright, this is not a picture of the hummingbirds on my hand. I googled it. Yes, I did. I have been trying for several weeks to catch a picture of the hummers on my feeder. They won't even let me see them, I mean, I do see them but just for a second then the flutter away.
I was walking past the window the other day, and there was something on one of the feeders. I looked quickly, and well it wasn't a hummer. Here is the picture. ....

I just couldn't believe that a woodpecker would land on a hummingbird feeder, but I guess as hot as it's been he was thirsty.
I tried again today, but every time one got near enough to take a sip. It flittered away before I could get the camera up and focused. In fact I tried so many times that I ran down the batteries in the camera.
Well tomorrow is another day, and I am going to keep on trying until I can say. This is a picture of a hummingbird on the feeder on my porch.

That's Life

I really have not been having such a great week.  We have been given the sad news that the A/C is terminal. So now we start the bidding process to see who can give us the biggest bang for the buck. Just what I wanted to spend money on. NOT.

A couple of weeks ago another blogger, who I am really into, asked what her readers are reading. I was kind of surprised at the question, isn't it enough that I read your blog? I have actually picked up a number of blogs that I am following, and that keeps me pretty tied up. I would like those who peek in to leave me a note once in a while, it would be nice to know with whom I am having coffee.
Like I wonder who is the one from the United States? isn't that everyone of us. I don't have any international followers, so far.

Any way,,,,,,,, I have been reading the Thoenes. I was looking for something to read last year after I got the cataracts off my eyes and I could actually see again. For the longest time I just quit reading, it had become such a chore. It wasn't any fun any more, but then when things became clear again, I found I was hungry for some stories. I love  a good story with interesting characters and a lot of action. I don't mind violence or gore, but it has to be interesting. I mean gratuitous violence just doesn't hold your attention for ever.

My friend Jan said she was reading the Thoenes (pronounced taynee). They are a married couple Brock, the historian husband. And Bodie the writer, story teller wife.
Jan was reading the Zion Covenant, but at the time it didn't sound appealing to me, so I went for the Galway Chronicles. It's about the struggle of the Irish people, set in the mid 1800's. Now if you have a notion of the gentility of the British, this will set you a bit back. It's a set of four books that tell an historically accurate very moving and interesting story of the struggle of the Irish to be free of British domination. Not terribly political, but enough so that you get the idea of what the trouble is all about.

Now, having really loved the Galway series, I moved on to the Zion Covenant. This is a series of nine books. The series starts in Vienna and moves on throughout Europe in 1939. The subject is the rise of the Nazi movement and Hitler's unrelenting pursuit and annihilation of the Jewish population from the face of the earth. He was not satisfied to remove them from the Reich. He wanted them gone forever. Well we know how that worked out.
The characters are very gripping and the stories so intense that I decided after number five I was in need of a break from these books.
But I kept wondering what were they doing? So I started a couple of months ago with # 6 now I am onto #8. The only thing I don't care for is the addition of new characters along the way. I don't want to become interested in the lives of these new people, but before you know it, well, I'm hooked.
I have really enjoyed the series. There are enough twists and turns to keep the pages moving along. I do have a hard time putting the book down long enough to go to bed at night. But I have found that as I sleep, there are Elisa and John and the twins, right along with Lucy and Lori. I can't turn it off.

I hope you'll let me know what you're reading. I'll be done with these two in a week or so. Then I'll be on to something new.

TT Thursday

OK, so you know how excited I am about the floor going down, ,,, those commas have a sound. duh duh duhmmm. Yeah. well the feeling of the light at the end of the tunnel, turns out it is a train. The A/C went out in the morning and by the time I called a man from our church that works on A/C it was 84 degrees in my house. Now that doesn't sound bad if you're in a lawn chair with a cold drink and a nice breeze in the shade. But in a living room, it's not cool. To say the least.
As I write this it is getting cooler, I am going to shower and get in bed, but I'm not sure I'll sleep very quickly, until it cools off a bit more.
Kevin says we need to look for a new heat and a/c unit. This one is about as old as the house, and that's about 50 years. So,  ,,, the good news is the guys will be back in the morning to put down more floor. Maybe they'll finish up??? I hope.

Totally Terrific Thursday

Well, as hard as it is to believe, it is happening. Even now as I type there are two wonderful friends out in my kitchen laying tile. I have actually been praying and waiting for this day for months, and today it is here. It should be only a few days until we can move all the kitchen / dining room stuff back into place. Now we won't have any cabinets for a while, but that's OK. I can live with that. Getting the kitchen table and stuff out of the living room, well, that will be a relief.

No job is too big when you have great tools.

This is the kitchen in my living room.

I will post some more pictures later, as we, and I mean they, make some progress. Wahooooooo, I love progress.

One more day!!

One more day and it will be totally terrific Thursday. I am not going to say what it is about, partly because I can't believe it myself. But also, I want to create a little tension. So any ideas, thoughts, guesses? I'll let you know with lots of pictures, as soon as Thursday gets here.

A New Bird House

Last Thursday I went to get my hair cut. The salon is located in a little plaza down the street, and there is an Antique mall called 'Timeless Treasures'. I love to go in there and poke around with my friend Ann.

Well we haven't been in the shop this whole year because earlier, I think around January, they had a flood. It was kind of an explosion of water that shot up through the floor and just gushed all over the place. It was pretty devastating. ... some people lost a lot of their stuff and the shop has been closed all this time. But the re opened on July 1st. I am so happy. So since I had a little time to kill before my appointment, I went in to see how it looked.

It's all clean and shiny, with a new floor and new ceiling and all the walls have been repainted. It was so fresh. I have been looking for an old Sears or JC Penny catalogue. But I didn't find one this day. I did find a very cute bird house, and a beautiful piece of lace. Now the woman told me it was a very old bridal veil, but it is perfectly round, and being that I love old linens and lace, I bought it. It was not much money, and It will adorn a table in my living room, when my living room is once again a living room. But here it is for now

The new bird house is the one on the left end. It has a little door with a spoon for a handle. I just thought it was so cute.

I spread out the lace so you could see it has some very pretty edging.
So, if you have seen bridal veils that look like this, let me know. I would be very interested.

It's Camp time

Well yesterday after the morning worship service, my precious hubby and the youth pastor took 4 Jr High boys off to Iowa for a week of camp. I was supposed to go too, but in the last couple of weeks our girls all bailed, so no need for a woman counselor.  ....except............
One of the moms, who is very sensitive about the leaving of her children, told me a precious little story last night.
As they were getting little H ready for camp, he queried, " Is miss Donna still going?" When she told him I was not going, he got a little hesitant. I guess they had to coax him really hard to go on the van, but he went. They stopped at a motel for the night, camp doesn't start until 10:30 today, and since it's a 5 1/2 hour drive, we thought it best to leave a day early rather than 5am today.
So pray that every one enjoys the week, learns some valuable spiritual lessons, does something they have never done before, and that they make some important decisions. I am praying my darling hubby has a good time, fun and relaxes, but I know that last part is a pipe dream.

Pastor A doesn't wear his tie wrapped around like that all the time. It was very windy, and actually the rain had just started to fall again when I took this picture. We had an incredible rain storm as church was ending, and then it rained again, just as they were leaving. 'Have fun boys'

How Do You Like It?

So how do you like it?  When you choose "New Post", your signature will appear at the top of the box as if you are beginning with a signature.  Just click by the "D" and "enter" until you have some space to type in.  As you add lines of typing, it will just scroll down.  Of course, if you want to add pictures, provide enough space first between the signature and your last line of typing so that you don't have to mess with moving the signature.  You can just delete this post; I just wanted to surprise you.

Uhhhh...I changed things a little.  If you want it to be a different color, etc., let me know.  I also just guessed at the font and slant for your signature.  That can easily be changed, also.  If you want me to remove all changes, I can do that too.  I still have your old header before my changes.  Deb

Quilt Day

Well we did have a quilt day last Friday, July 2. I finished the back of my little table topper quilt and I must say, I am quite proud of the result. There is still quite a lot of work left to do. Next I place the batting in the middle, then I baste around the places I will quilt. I haven't basted since high school, and I hated it then.

This is the top of the quilt. I have some cute little snowflake buttons that I will add when it's all done.

This is the back.

After I learn how to 'quilt' I will do that, and then we have to put on the binding. It may be done by Christmas,,, some year. I have actually started another Christmas one, but this one is sort of a cheater. I will explain that term at a later date.

This has been a very enjoyable project, so far. I started out piecing by hand. That is sewing each little square by hand. I quickly discovered that hand piecing would take longer than I have time left on this earth. I would like to accomplish several quilts and well, I just don't see hand piecing in my future.
I switched over to my handy sewing machine. Whew, what a difference. I did the front in about two days, and the back in only a few hours. It would have been a chore the 'old fashioned' way.

Hope you enjoy looking at my little project.

                                                                      

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning

It has cooled off here, quite nicely. It was in the mid 60s when we got up this morning. We opened the doors, turned off the a/c and brewed some coffee. Then we headed out to the deck for a nice relaxing breakfast on the back porch. It was so lovely. I had to take some pictures.

This is the pretty gazing ball that I have had for a while, I love it. It reminds me of my gramma, she always had one in her garden.

The little boy and girl are reading. They are from my daughter. I really love these little figures.

Next is one of my pretty rose bushes. I love roses, and even though this is only a shrub rose. I think I have come to like this species best.

These are the Day Lilies that grow along the back fence. I love Day Lilies.

And this is one of my Peony bushes. I have several and they bloom so beautifully. Of course you can see that they are finished blooming, but their foliage is still very pretty. I have to divide them this year, they have gotten so huge.

This is the view of the backyard from our back porch. My hummingbird feeder in the foreground. There was a hummer on the feeder, until I banged the door and scared it away. Oh well, maybe I'll get his picture next time.

It's such a pretty day, I am going to do some much needed yard work. I'll feed the roses, lay out the soaker hose, and plant a couple of Humming bird bushes.

This evening we'll go to the church for our weekly "Family Fun night" We cook hot dogs, and some play games. We are old enough now that we can just sit in a lawn chair and talk with the other old people.