Buckets o' fun...

One project done - probably 50 others to finish up. One at a time...one at a time.

I picked up some Army Green Rustoleum spray paint at Big Lots a week or so ago when I was out with my friend Sabrina. I knew exactly what I would be using it on when it landed in my big orange plastic cart. Buckets!

A long long long time ago I bought 2 sets of these hanging buckets from one of those cheap catalogs - maybe ABC Distributing. One set was solid pastel colors - blue, yellow and green. The other was the same pastel colors, but had been hand painted with dragonflies and butterflies. They have a big curved handle on them so they can be hung on porch railing or the top of a fence rail. I just happen to have some lovely (rusting) wrought iron around my screened porch and that is where they ended up.

Here's the before...

Yep, I forgot to take photos before I went to town with the spray paint. I can't help it...I get so excited when I have a spray can in my hand!

This is the solid blue one...not really blue any more. There is actually another one below it, but I didn't  feel like climbing into the ginger that is growing like crazy to get it when I took the pictures. Mr. Paisley fished it out for me. 

Here is what one looks like with it's new coat of army green paint.

As you can see...the Gloriosa lilies are still growing like weeds...pardon my rusty wrought iron...I gave up keeping it painted years ago. They've been wire brushed, treated with Ospho, sealed and painted with Rustolium and it is literally a matter of week before rust starts coming thru the paint. I embrace the rust and let it be...

I thought the green would coordinate nicely with my recently (May) recovered patio cushions, chairs, etc...

Now I need to decide what kind of plants to put in them for the fall...

Pumpkin Cookies

Soft Pumpkin Cookies

• 1 (15 ounces) can pumpkin
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon maple extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 eggs
•  pecan halves

   Preheat oven to 350°

Measure all ingredients except pecans into a large mixing bowl. Using a hand held mixer on low speed, beat ingredients until blended, scrap bowl occasionally. Beat 1 minute longer on medium speed. Using 2 tablespoons of batter for each cookie, spoon batter into mounds on ungreased baking sheets, keeping mounds about 2 inches apart. Press a pecan half into the center of each cookie dough mound. Bake cookies for 18 to 20 minutes, until golden brown. Loosen cookies with spatula and move to wire rack to cool. Store in tightly covered container for up to 4 days. Makes 6 - 7 dozen cookies. These can be frozen! Oh and they're really good if you top them with cream cheese icing and the stick the pecan half on AFTER they're baked. I love cream cheese icing... Enjoy!

Fall makes me want to purge...

as in get rid of stuff, not sticking my finger down my throat. Ugh! That's one kind of purging you'll never catch me doing! There are few things I dislike as much as revisiting my last meal. Blech!

I had to work today. I was out the door at 7:15 this morning and rolled in just before 3:00 this afternoon. My feet were KILLING ME. Been up and running all over since I got to work just before 8:00. The dogs were barkin'...and I was exhausted. So I crashed...about an hour later Mr. P rolled in from work and woke me up to tell me he was home. Really? Of course I couldn't go back to sleep. So with the dogs still barkin' I got up, lit my Yankee candle on the stove (Harvest of course) and turned the AC down so it felt a little more fall-like in the house. Far too hot and muggy to open the windows. I spent the afternoon doing laundry and pitching stuff left and right. WOO HOO. Granted NONE of it came from the dreaded guest room. It's on my list for tomorrow though. Not that i'll get it handled, but there will be progress made.

I've said it before, but i'll say it again - my house has pretty much zero storage space. Fact of life for the time being. I will admit it here in blogland...my guest room looks a whole lot like a scene from Hoarding: Buried Alive.  It's making me crazy. It's making me very anxious. It's causing me not to sleep at night. I can close the door, but I know it's still there. I will never claim that the Paisley Cottage is always company ready. Two adults with full time jobs live here. One of the two wasn't taught to pick up after themselves...most of the time, the other one is just too dang tired to do it every single day after work. One of the two is fixin' to get a very specific chore list...in order to keep the other one from going bonkers. Stay tuned for how that works out.

Some of what is in there is from the living room...which is still "under construction". Mr. Paisley is still not done painting. He swears he'll get the inside of the front door, the rest of the window frames, the ceiling in the hallway and the FOUR doors in the hallway painted tomorrow. 

I have half a dozen projects going on at the same time. One is a quick one and I will use it as tomorrow's post. Some of those are in the guest room...maybe I can get them done after work this week and get them movin' on out of there.

Today I filled the orange recycle bin to the halfway mark (from empty). We just got a notice from the county that in addition to newspaper, brown paper bags, cardboard and paperboard, we can now add catalogs, junk mail, magazines and office paper (not shredded). Excellent! Needless to say, I found plenty to put in there. Out out out AND recycled. Go Green when possible!

I'm pretty sure i'm not a hoarder. I like to be organized. I have no problem getting rid of things. You will not find empty water / soda bottles, empty pizza boxes, rotting food, dead animals (except maybe a poor lizard that got in and couldn't find it's way out and is now laying behind the dresser all crispy) or any other straight up trash in my guest room. I often wonder why they just can't throw away the garbage. Sometimes I see those rooms on TV and think "dude, once you throw out the garbage, there isn't that much crap in there".  Aside from the mass quantity of paper, I also tossed some clothing, added some more clothing to the donate bag and wrapped up 2 Housewarmer size Yankee candles for birthday gifts for people at work.  This was after Mr. Paisley turned Midori loose and then left the room...he (Midori) promptly made his way into the closet in the master bedroom. When Mr. Paisley dug him out, he left everything he took out of the closet on the bed and or floor...for me to deal with. Really? I'm your wife, not your maid...so since it was out, I dumped the laundry baskets and went thru the stuff. Toss toss toss...maybe i'll post a before shot of the guest room. Maybe not. Maybe I will when it's done.

Yard sale anyone?

giddy giddy giddy!

I am a geek when it comes to crafty stuff. Today has been somewhat of a roller coaster of emotions. Sad really, now that I think about it. Sad that I get stupid over stuff like this LOL.

Last night I was checking the free section of Craig's List. What did I see? OH MY!

F R E E

I immediately emailed the poster of this ad. 

What part of Apopka? I'd love to have these, but wouldn't be able to pick them up until after work tomorrow (Wednesday). I work in Maitland, off at 6:15...

Went to bed not long before the response came back. Checked my email this morning, nothing. Evidently the ol' iMac didn't pull my new email when I opened my mailbox this morning. I'm really NOT a fan of this thing...people love them. I'm not one of them. So around lunch time I checked my mail from work...and there's the reply from last night. CRAP! 

I won't be home after 6:15 but will be in the Winter Park area near
Fairbanks/17-92. If you'd like to meet around 6:15-6:30, I'll bring them with me.

So I reply while saying a little prayer "please please please still have these and I hate that *%&^@ iMac!"

Crud - I checked my email this morning and I guess my computer mail program didn't pull my email down as i'm just now getting this (already at work). I'm assuming you're already out and about for the day. If not, I'd be happy to meet somewhere in that area. My office is in that area and I usually avoid I-4 going home and take Wymore down to Fairbanks and cut thru the backroads of Winter Park so totally on my way :-)

If you happen to have taken them with you - let me know and i'll be more than thrilled to meet you. My cell # is XXX (call or text) and my work email is XXX.

A few minutes later I get another message...

A lady is suppose to come today by 2 pm and pick them up. If she doesn't show, getting them to Winter Park still may work today.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Curses you stupid stupid iMac!

A little while later "spindle lady" texts me "call about spindles" - dialing...quickly. She tells me this woman is supposed to pick them up and hasn't shown up and that there's another one as well who also hasn't turned up. If they're still here when she leaves at 4, she'll bring them and meet up with me.  Awesome...more prayers that these ladies don't swoop in just as she's getting in the car to leave...nervously I watch the clock and try to distract myself with work...which I have PLENTY of at the office. 4:00...sweating bullet.  She calls again "it's me the spindle lady" they haven't shown up so i'll meet you on the North side of the church...6:15 or a little after. GREAT! I will be there! 6:15 rolls around and I am OUT THE DOOR. 

Get in the truck and as i'm pulling out of the parking lot I get a red light on the dash. What the heck? It says BRAKE and under it there is a red exclamation point in a red circle in red parenthesis. Seriously...WTH does that mean? Other than "somethin' ain't right wit'cho brakes" Grand. So I call Mr. Paisley because (of course) there is no owner's manual in the truck to look up what the issue may be. The fact that it's a RED light and not a GREEN light tells me it's not good...but beyond that I have no idea. He asks me if i'm driving with the parking brake on. Really? No. In fact i've never used the parking brake in the truck because it's an automatic...in the mustang? Sure...every time it's parked. I said "well go look it up, i'll be home soon" to which he replied "hopefully..." Really? So maybe the brakes will go out and i'll rear end some schmuck in a Smart Car - yes, I know they have great crash test ratings...but really, did you test it against a turbo diesel powered land yacht (Ford F350 Super Duty Crew Cab with the 8' bed) doing 60? Seriously...I could put 2 Smart Cars in the bed of the truck...you think you're going to make it out of a crash with this thing? Mental note, keep good distance between truck and vehicle ahead...just in case. Not 2 minutes later, Spindle Lady calls again - she's running late. That's ok! I'll be there waiting! I don't really know if she was late or not, I was only there waiting for her for less than 10 minutes. No skin off my back...and I made it home without rear ending anyone and the brakes worked just fine. Mr. Paisley called right as I turned onto our street to ask how the truck was...the truck is fine. So am I thanks for asking since i'm the one strapped into the death trap on wheels. I just turned onto the street, be there in a sec. Goodbye... pull in, he's there in the driveway - as I get out he said "it's not even listed in the Haye's manual and the stuff online was pretty generic" So he pops the hood and pokes around. You know what it was? It was low on brake fluid. Filled it up...no more light. AND I got my spindles...

Stay tuned for spindle craftiness! I'm makin' plans, but if you have any spindle projects, share them in a comment! As you can see, I have plenty to work with and the more ideas the better!

I gave Spindle Lady my Paisley Pumpkin card and pointed out my blog addy on the back "check it out - you'll see these turn up there in their new life!" so Donna the Spindle Lady - if you're reading this...

THANK YOU (again)! I'm ridiculously giddy over these beautiful pieces of wood...can't wait to start a project! Oh and I told my husband...he just rolled his eyes. LOL

Trying to usher in Fall in Florida...

It's mid September and aside from my year round pumpkins, I have nothing decorated for fall. It's just been too darn hot! 

Last night actually started to feel like fall. I made a late night run to CVS and there was a great breeze and *gasp* it wasn't HOT! Dare I say it was ALMOST cool enough to open the windows and turn off the AC...almost. Not quite. 

Yesterday I mentioned picking up the Hobby Lobby acorns that I had seen on Tracy's blog. She dry brushed hers with mint green paint and the glazed them brown. They are fabulous! Of course, I am #1 not that talented and #2 sometimes a bit lazy when it comes to crafting. I admit it...that's always the first step right?

Of course I didn't have mint green paint. So I dug around in my office trash can and found a mixing bowl. Ok, it's the end of a 12 pack that had a My Coke Rewards code on it that I already entered. Whatever - it works.

Where I mixed up some Vanilla and Leaf Green to make something somewhat mint-ish.

They were in my stash...

So here is an awesome totally staged photo (right) of 2 with way too much paint, 1 that was pretty good (changed technique) and 2 untouched.

Here we are (yep, we've moved to the kitchen because Mr. P needed the computer because he just cut the end off his new clutch cable because he wasn't paying attention to what he was doing and thought it was the old one...gotta love a waste of money!) Pardon the schmootz on the side, hadn't cleaned up from another project this morning (more on that later). I whipped out a sanding block and cleaned up the two that were overly painted. Somewhat better. The small one that looks more green already had a coat of "glaze" (this is where lazy comes in). I have glaze...it's out in the shed. It's a long walk from the back door to the shed. So I watered down some dark brown paint.

In this photo the middle large one is also glazed...

Not feeling it.

Now we're all glazed and they look ummm like crap.

Favorite brown Crystal ink pad to the rescue! Yep...the two that look better were inked.

Voila!  I don't know why two of them look like they have metallic copper caps...must be the finish with the flash. They're just brown like the others. A little more contrast between the cap and the acorn than the original finish. Works for me! Now if only I had my mantle here...it's still a bit warm, but the wind is blowing (maybe because of Igor? I dunno...I think it's still more than 300mi off the coast, but i'm sure it's causing changes in our weather). Since I was feeling festive, I even whipped up a new fall bow for a picnic basket (rescued from the trash) that I situated some silk mums in on the front porch. Nothing to get excited about...it'll be going to the cabin next month.

Where shopping is a pleasure...

Ready for more savings? I went to Publix to load up on some deals.  Mr. Paisley even came along. He hates grocery shopping. I didn't ask him to go...I just told him I was going and he followed. Lucky me! I get a cart pusher!

As I probably mentioned in one of my coupon posts, you can rarely make a meal from my weekly grocery purchases. That's how I save money. I buy when it's on sale and fill in where necessary. This trip even had some extras that I hadn't planned on getting, but couldn't resist.

2 bags of Doritos - BOGO

2 pkgs of asparagus - $2.49lb

1 pkg of yellow squash - $1.29lb

1 pkg of zucchini - $1.29lb

4 boxes of Eggo blueberry waffles - BOGO (plus 2  $.75/2 coupons)

1 golden acorn squash - $.79lb (not planned, screaming FALL COOKING at me as it hurtled itself into my cart)

1 acorn squash - $.99lb (not planned, it was holding hands with the golden when it jumped)

1 bag red creamer potatoes - $1.49lb

1 pkg of 4 boneless pork chops (not planned, but a great quick dinner during the week)

5 bags of Steamfresh frozen veggies (they were 50% off...and yes there's a difference, at Publix if it's BOGO you get the 2nd one free...they don't ring up at 1/2 off individually - somewhat annoying)

4 boxes of Zatarain's Red Beans n Rice - BOGO (this with some Butterball turkey kielbasa and cornbread - dinner in 30min)

2 boxes Quaker granola bars - BOGO (plus $.75/2 coupon)

4 16oz bottles of Ken's Steakhouse salad dressing - BOGO (plus 2 $1.00/2 coupons)

2 bottles of Northland Cranberry juice - BOGO

2 bottles of Bull's Eye BBQ Sauce - BOGO (plus $.75 coupon)

I also had a $5 off $30 Publix coupon.

Promo savings = $38.83

Store coupons = $5.00

Vendor coupons = $6.50

Total saved = $50.33

Total spent = $43.07

Now Mr. Paisley will finish both bags of chips and the 2 boxes of granola bars before the end of the week. He starts snacking the minute he walks in the door around 4 and he's usually still eating close to 7 when I roll in from work. Then he wonders why i'm ticked off, hungry and he hasn't started dinner Ummm dude, I last ate somewhere around 1:30. It's been 5 hours plus and i'm starving. Of course you aren't hungry, you just ate (box of crackers, 4 granola bars, half a bag of chips, whatever) over the last 3 hours.  Remember that I passed weeknight dinner duty on to you because I wanted to stop eating dinner at 8 or 9 at night...

Am I alone in this? Anyone else have a spouse that just doesn't "get it"?

Yea so back to the shopping...so using some of the above stash I picked up, some meals this week will include:

• grilled chicken (marinated in Italian dressing) with veggies
• BBQ pork chops with baked beans and veggies
• Red beans n rice w/ turkey kielbasa and cornbread
• roasted asparagus, rosemary potatoes and chicken on the grill (in a balsamic marinade)
• grilled turkey sausage and baked acorn squash

Yep, I haven't done that well on South Beach this past week. Time to step it up. Limiting the carbs. They're still on the menu because Mr. P isn't fond of "2 food dinners" as he likes to call them (ie meat and veggies LOL). 

Did I mention our grocery budget is $150 a week? Cha ching! Into savings...

Organizing....craft supplies!

I love organizing. You would probably never know that if you set foot in the Paisley Cottage at this particular moment in time.  

I scrapbook...or at least I used to. Lately, I haven't really done anything other than make cards using my scrapbooking supplies. I have a million of them - at least. One of my favorite supplies is RIBBON. It's very hard for me to go into a craft store and leave without ribbon. Crazy I know...I love it so! Remember the Paisley Cottage is small. It also lacks storage for anything. While I love those beautiful ribbon racks -

similar to this...

I don't have the luxury of that much wall space. Plus, the more I look at it, the more I think it would be a pain to remove the empty ribbon spools.

So every once in awhile I spend $.99 on a new floss organizer. No not dental floss...thread floss...for cross stitching and embroidery. I do cross stitch...or I did. I handed my last project off to my mom several years ago. Anywho - I organize my ribbon in floss boxes and store them neatly labeled

and standing on end on my wine crate bookcase.

As you can see - they're by color...some boxes share since I don't keep a stock of those two similar shades...

I also have black/white and purple boxes  - they are in need of a little straightening up so I didn't take photos. As you can see, the mini spools just drop right in, narrow ribbon I will wrap on the floss cards, unless there's a ton of it, then I just roll it and drop it in. Wide ribbon just gets folded - even better if it's wired!  As you can see it, I also have chipboard letters, buttons and baubles stored the same way.  They aren't labeled though as all the colors are in one box and I can see thru the side so I know what's in it. No label - why waste? I know some of the ribbon boxes look like they have a random color thrown in - like the tan/brown/cream box above. I know that pink and blue ribbon is screaming LOOK AT ME! What doesn't show is the tan. There is indeed a tan stripe alongside the pink and blue. And I had a lot of that ribbon - it's actually jute. You'll spot it in the pink box as well - smack dab in the middle on the left. The bright lime green ribbon in the pink box...it's on it's side and it is green, but it has hot pink polka dots on it and I have a lot of it...it's also in the green box.

I love being able to see what I have at a glance and when i'm altering letters and knotting on charms I can grab the boxes that fit the color scheme and have a TON of ribbon to choose from. Isn't it pretty? Now I want to make something...

Shop till you drop!

That's what I did today...well this morning anyway.

My friend Sabrina sent her hubby off to the beach with their 3 boys and she and I went runnin' around crossing things off my to do list!

She makes jewelry - so we HAD to go to Hobby Lobby - which just opened here a week ago this past Friday. Lord have mercy, half of Orlando was in that store. Luckily, they had ALL the registers up and running and things were moving along. Oh how I love that store...can't wait for the new-ness to wear off so you can actually browse. I'm guessing that won't be until after the holidays. I bought some over sized acorns for part of my fall mantle decor at the cabin. 

I saw them here on Tracy's Trinkets and Treasures blog. 

Of course she doctored them up and made them GORGEOUS...which I may TRY to do.

I actually bought both sizes as well. They're $2 and $3 each...a little pricey in my opinion, but I do love them so.

While we were at this shopping plaza, we popped into Big Lots where I scored a 5 space matted black photo collage frame for $20. This will be turned into a Christmas gift. Which you will not see here until after Christmas, because there are too many prying eyes in blog land *wink wink*

While I was at Big Lots, I also picked up some Zote soap so I can whip up some more laundry detergent $.90 a bar.  And I scored some Rustoleum spray paint for $2 a can. I got Army Green (your basic olive green) and one of the ones for plastic that is Beige. Actually, I would call it tan, but they chose to name it beige. The Beige will come in handy when we fix the offset umbrella that broke last week   I may go back and pick up the assorted hammered and texture finishes that they have. You never know when they'll come in handy and you can't really beat $2. Better yet if I get that 20% off coupon from my Buzz Rewards card. I think my purchase today should have hit that target. Yippy!

Then I picked up this 6 space matted collage frame for 50% off at Michael's.

Followed by this super cool 5 space matted collage frame with small square photo slots for $4.99 at Goodwill. It's small, which makes it cool. It's also brand new. The price tags have been peeled off it, but the glass has never been cleaned, so one would assume it's never been used. The frame is kind of a black brown with a grainy texture. I might paint it straight black.

While I was at Goodwill I snagged a Nicholas Sparks book that I haven't read yet...The Wedding. For $.99. I'm saving it for the trip to TN next month. I will probably finish it on the 11 hour drive up to the cabin. Luckily, I have a vintage picnic basket full of trashy romance novels at the cabin - in case I need something to read once I get there. Not likely...by then i'll have my fancy schmancy new Android phone and well...you know how that goes. New toy!

We popped into Stein Mart and I left empty handed  I handed over my 25% extra off red dot clearance coupon to Sabrina since she had snagged a super cute handbag. She ended up paying around $12 for it. Go Sabrina!

We also ran into Avenue - holy cute shoes batman! I didn't buy any, but was sooo tempted. I did however pick up a smocked top black tunic length tank top for $9.96 and this cute sheer tunic - only it's black with a little lurex thread in it for some sparkle. I paid $14 for it. 

Love it! I also spied a couple of dresses and at least one sweater that I MUST have for fall...of course i'll be waiting for either an email coupon or a sale. They weren't expensive, but I know as soon as I buy it i'll get a coupon, so I might as well wait a couple of days and just pay less for them LOL.

Here's one of the sweaters...

and these shoes! LOVE!

Onward...we dropped by Smoky Bones for lunch - mmm mmm mmm pulled pork, baked potato and broccoli. 15% off of course...I always have a coupon.

Back to shopping - then I hit CVS since it's the last day for the ad. 

4 12 packs of Diet Coke (4/$14 + $4 in extra bucks)

4 2 liter bottles of Diet Coke ($.99 each)

2 boxes of HerbaShine 10 minute hair color 2/$11, plus I had 2 $3 off coupons (that makes them $2.50 each)

2 bags of Pieces candy (I got York and Almond Joy) for the candy jar at work. 2/$5, plus 2 $.50 off coupons so $2 each.

2 bottles of Purex laundry detergent $3.99 each plus $2 back in extra bucks on each one.

1 bottle of Nivea for men body wash $4.99, plus $4.99 back in extra bucks, plus I had a $1 off coupon (woo hoo, I made $1 on that one)

Eyeliner pencil (not on sale - $5.49 and I probably had a coupon for it at home, oh well)

In addition to my manuf. coupons I also had a $3 off card from CVS that came in the mail as well as a $3 off hair color coupon from the kiosk (brings my 2 boxes of dye down to $1 each - beats $135 at the salon) Oh and I had a BOGO coupon from CVS on the Pieces candy. So I actually got those for $1.50...or $.75 each. Much better than the regular price of $3.99.

I ended up with $12.99 in extra bucks. So after I unloaded my haul into the car, I went back in and picked up 3 more bottles of Purex (limit 5 per household) and a magazine for $1.79 and with my extra bucks I paid less than $3 out of pocket.

I'm currently working on my CVS list for tomorrow when the new ad starts. I get the ad early in the Wednesday newspaper mailer thing that tends to come on Thursdays now.  Not a whole lot on my list, but stocking up on detergent still. They have a deal on some stuff with coupons that will print at the kiosk. One is $2 off 2 bottles of Xtra laundry detergent. So you can get 2 for $2 after the coupon.  They also have some Post cereals BOGO. Hopefully there will be a coupon in the paper tomorrow. Still a good deal even if there isn't. They've also got Quaker instant oatmeal $2/5 plus $2 in extra bucks so they're 2/$3 and I have 2 $1 off coupons so 2 boxes for $1. Sign me up! May pick up some ALL detergent as well. $4.99 with $1 in extra bucks plus I have coupons for $1 (limit 3). Pretty good deal...aside from that, a can of EDGE shave gel for Mr. Paisley - $2.79 plus a $1.80 extra buck makes it $.99 and I have a $.75 coupon so $.24 is pretty good LOL.  ACT mouthwash is BOGO 50% off. I have coupons, might wait for a better deal.

New Ceiling Fan in the Living Room

Picked up a new ceiling fan at Home Depot this morning. I had found one I liked online for $119 in the "new lower price" section. Got to the store, saw this one that I actually liked better and WOOT! Only $80 - sweet! Mr. Paisley wasted no time taking my beloved reverse painted glass palm tree fan down to put this one  up. It's a ceiling hugger and it makes the ceiling look higher - totally used to the other fan that had an upper and lower light fixture, plus it wasn't a ceiling hugger so it hung quite a bit lower. Let's just say that I can't change the light bulbs in this fan without a step stool. I'm not 100% sure mine is tall enough.  At any rate, here it is - it's a 52" Hampton Bay Carriage House II.

The metal is an oil rubbed bronze finish and I put the blades together with the dark walnut side showing (rosewood on the other). No more blue! At least in the ceiling fan...still working on the sofa situation. Oh and I think I like the curtains...notice they're still there. 

Off to do some baking! Hope you are enjoying your Sunday afternoon ~

More curtain options...

Ok, well 1 option. I have these in my office, guest room and kitchen. They're actually too long for the kitchen due to where we had to mount the rods...I could put the white sheers in the kitchen...or take down the rods.

Yep, same junk still there. I'm short...need the step stool to get to the rod! So in this photo they're just inside the brackets.

 In this one I pulled the rod out and have the panel on the left mostly outside the bracket - of course this makes the window look larger. The drapes won't need to be closed, so they don't need to be operational. The current blinds will be replaced - probably with 2" white / off white wood blinds because I open them first thing in the morning on days that i'm home. Let there be natural light!

Living room progress...sort of - suggestions welcome!

I have been a bad bad bad blogger. I've gone from daily posts to once or twice a week! I need to get back in the groove. It's not that i'm lacking in things to write about...i'm just lacking in motivation. 

Part of it is work related. I'm beat when I get home. I mentioned the "work crap" last week and now that it's been formally announced I can fill in the details here. Once upon a time there were a whole bunch of people in my department! 10 actually. Several months ago we had to transition one of our staff members to another department because our regional management team said we had the largest team in the region and it was unnecessary. Not that they ever actually came to see if we all had plenty of work to do...you know how that goes. So our department of 10 sort of got divided into a department of 6 and a department of 4 prior to this transition. So I'm in the group of 4 and the 3 of us remaining split up #4's work. We were busy before...now we're really busy. The last week #3 tells us that they accepted a position with the regional folks. Mini-department of 4 is now department of 2...and we've been told that we will not be filling the position. So now the 2 of us are doing work that kept 4 of us busy. Everyone says "look for another job" - sure, that's easy enough to do, but i've been here for 8 years and because of that I have 5 weeks of paid vacation and 80 hours of additional PTO a year. That's part of the reason Mr. P and I decided to buy a vacation home. Have you checked out corporate benefits these days? If you're lucky you get a week of vacation your first year. If you're really lucky you might get 2 weeks.  How long do you have to work there to get to 3, 4 or 5 weeks off? If they even go that high? Mr. P's company - 5 years is when he'll get his 3rd week. He gets about 5 weeks off a year right now between his 2 weeks of vacation and comp time for working overtime, but overtime isn't always a sure thing so maybe he won't have that much time off this year - who knows. So it's not at all advantageous for me to look for a new job - outside of another position in the company. So there's my excuse - i'm on the computer at work all day and when I get home I check my personal email and take a peek at Facebook and then I crash.  Now that i'll be adding more work to my day, i'm going to schedule all my breaks that I never take. You can bet I will take them now...and my full 1 hour for lunch. I can only do so much...

Back to the living room - which hasn't gotten much better since last Sunday...(see above...LOL)

2nd coat of paint and the trim is done (still need to paint the door, but someone didn't listen when I said "a quart of trim paint is not going to cut it...")

New rug! It'll look better on top of bamboo floors at some point...

These are the sheers I picked up - I liked the lattice design - they're too short though. My mom and I are going to go look at fabric this week. She might end up whipping up some panels for me. I've not had luck finding what I want at the stores. Plus I need a weird length. 89"  easier and probably cheaper to just make them.

This is my old mirror from my master bathroom - it's much smaller than the one that used to be inside the front door. I'm thinking about hanging this one instead. I might have to do take some paint to it though. The metal is kind of a dark antique brass color with a gold "sponge paint" over it. Bought it that way - I take no credit for it. It was fine in 1997...it might do well with an update.  NOTE: when taking photos for you blog, clean up the junk you can see reflected in the mirror....and while your at it, grab the vinegar and microfiber cloth and clean said mirror that's been tucked behind the entertainment center for 3 years collecting dust...yes...yes those are snow boots...in my Florida living room. They've been there since I came back from the snow at the Cabin...in February.

I purchased these 3 panels for $25. They will go up over the sofa on that big blank wall. Someone kindly pointed out that what I had there previously was far too small...I liked it. Whatever - it doesn't "go" anymore so I bought these. They don't photograph well. The first one is not at all pink. The last one is actually turquoise / aqua on the bottom. As i've said before, i'm a "fall girl" but I also have two really cute canvas pieces that have some aqua in them that i'd like to use in this room, so I looked at lots of stores before I found this set that had my fall colors plus the random easy breezy aqua. Do you think I need something else with them? How far apart should I hang them?

Behold my HUGE vintage ugly yellow chest of drawers (or "chester drawers" as folks like to call them on Craig's List) This piece was great back in the day - it was in my bedroom and it went well with my tropical Mediterranean bedding. The bedding is still here - but hidden inside the lovely copper duvet that's on our bed these days. I gave up the matching night stand, but I couldn't let go of this giant chest. So much storage in a house that has none built in. You can't really see it in this photo, but the drawers and edges are trimmed with bamboo...yeah baby! It's always been sitting there, it just had a 3 panel screen hiding it from view. Don't worry - it's getting painted. It'll be fab, just you wait and see.  Espresso brown is in it's future...maybe with a little gold wax to highlight the grooves in the bamboo.  I now have a place for my gorgeous orange glass lamp that I picked up for like $9 on mega clearance at Beall's eons (years) ago. As you can see, it needs a shade. I think I want an off white rectangular shade for it. 

Love it or hate it? Picture it dark brown! What's that in the woven chair?

Another goody I picked up. I love carved wood stuff. This one is kind of a fluer de lis pattern. I also happen to have a large metal fluer de lis here somewhere...anywho, i'm not sure where to hang this yet.

Anyone want to offer suggestions?  Note that the sofa is going to be reupholstered (probably drop cloth) and as much as I'd like for the bookcase to go away, I need it for storage. It will go away when the wall gets moved, but until then it stays. The light wood cabinet by the door is also going away. I'm thinking I might put a floating shelf there and move the wood trunk  (you can see part of it under the side window) under that.  I'm also not opposed to painting any of the other stuff - the bookcase is probably not "real wood" so I don't know how well it would take paint. The ceiling fan is going to get traded with one in another room since it has reverse painted glass shades with palm trees and blue skies on them...which I love, but they don't go ;-) My office will end up being the "odd" room as far as my colors go...