Well, I am still alive . . . mostly. The last two months have been pretty crazy. First was my wonderful trip to St. Thomas with my mom. I hope to do a post about that, with pictures, later this week. Unfortunately, I haven't really felt well since coming home from that trip. Travel always tires me out and the travel day coming home was horrendous. Completely exhausting. I felt like a zombie for the next week. Then, let's see . . . Mr. M. C. went out of town for a week; the day after he got home, I went to Missouri to see Kevin for the weekend. He was there for 2 weeks of training. I got home late Monday night and Wednesday afternoon my mom flew in for my graduation. So we had house cleaning and party prep to do. It was fun to see my mom again so soon, though.
The graduation and party were lovely. Lots of people came to share my special day and I got lots of nice gifts, too. Mr. M. C. smoked 4 briskets, my mom made her delicious potato salad, Laura made her famous chopped salad, and we had way too much yummy food. It was all topped off with an almond cake with buttercream frosting. Yum yum yum! We played a mad game of Apples to Apples that night and my mom took us all to the cleaners.
Then Mr. M. C. went out of town again, I think. It's all kind of a blur now. I tried to recover from the party and started making rounds of doctor visits to try and find out why I'm having so much trouble breathing. As usual, all the doctor visits have just made me sicker. Sigh. I've also been seeing the podiatrist because I've had a lot of foot pain, so now I have a cast on my right foot and I start physical therapy for it on Tuesday.
So there's the long, sordid tale of why I feel crappy and have no energy. And it's fall here, so beautiful every day, and I can't even get enthused about decorating. That is just sad. I'm hoping to do some this week.
In other news, we have started our box-a-day packing routine that we did when moving from Tucson to here. Our house is on the market and we have no idea when it will sell. It could take a year or more, but we have to be prepared. We are packing up things we can live without for several months and will just keep going until we are down to the necessities. We are also concentrating on decluttering as much as possible, getting rid of things we don't use or don't love. If we're lucky, the house won't sell for long enough that we will be ready to buy a house when it's time to move. But we'll see what happens.
And I've been sending out resumes, but no interviews yet. If I don't find something soon, I will probably start doing temp work just to bring in some money and get back into the working lifestyle. That will also bring job opportunities my way.
Last, but not least, I am test driving cars. So far I've driven a Hyundai Elantra, a Mazda3, a Scion xB, and a Toyota Yaris and Corolla. The Scion xB was my favorite, the Mazda3 and Corolla were about even seconds. I still have 4 cars I want to try, then we will sit down with the short list and make some decisions. I'm not even sure how we will do it, but I don't see how I can get to a job without a second car. Trying to do it with just the truck will be crazy. Plus, driving the truck really hurts my foot and ankle, so I need to quit doing it.
So there's my news for now. No fun pictures in this post, unfortunately, although I did get a couple of goodies at Wizard of Odds when my mom was here. I also got some fun Halloween things at Cracker Barrel and TJ Maxx a few weeks ago. Maybe I'll get a chance to post those later this week, too, as I'm digging out all my decorations.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Where the heck is Ramona? - 7/14/10
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
Finally!
I’ve been working on these chairs for a month. Sheesh! I thought they’d never be done. There were some paint issues, then there were some more paint issues, then there were some clear coat issues, and some more clear coat issues. They still have clear coat issues, but I’m calling them done, because I want chairs for my dining area. So, here’s the before pictures:
I got all four of these chairs from one seller on Craigslist. They were $10 each. The top two are allegedly from Crate and Barrel. I liked the basic shapes and three of the four were good and sturdy. One of the Crate and Barrel chairs was rickety, so I learned how to take it apart and reglue the joints. Now it’s solid, too. I’m excited at being able to do that. I’ve gotten rid of a lot of rickety chairs that I liked over the years, because I didn’t know how to fix them. Now I won’t have to do that anymore. I also won’t have to pass up used chairs that I like because they aren’t sturdy. Coolness!
Here are my new dining chairs:
(You can see that Treat approves of them.) I’ve been thinking a lot about color schemes. I like changing my decor out for the seasons, and I like lots of different colors, so I thought for the big pieces I’d go for classic neutral finishes and colors. That should allow me to change things out as much as I want.
The fabric on these is a luscious linen. Right after I recovered the seats, I found another fabric at Joann ETC that I liked even better, maybe. I had to buy that, too, so I might make chair skirts out of it. Or use it for a bench cushion. I’m not sure yet. I will be redoing the bench to match the chairs.
And here’s the before and after of my dining area:
Yuck, those folding chairs. So uncomfortable! We’ve been sitting on them for about 5 years. I’m so glad they’re going.
So much better. I heart my new chairs.
Oh, yeah. I'm hoping to put this one on BNotP's Metamorphosis Monday, so don't forget to check out the other cool metamorphoses. Is that the plural of metamorphosis?
I got all four of these chairs from one seller on Craigslist. They were $10 each. The top two are allegedly from Crate and Barrel. I liked the basic shapes and three of the four were good and sturdy. One of the Crate and Barrel chairs was rickety, so I learned how to take it apart and reglue the joints. Now it’s solid, too. I’m excited at being able to do that. I’ve gotten rid of a lot of rickety chairs that I liked over the years, because I didn’t know how to fix them. Now I won’t have to do that anymore. I also won’t have to pass up used chairs that I like because they aren’t sturdy. Coolness!
Here are my new dining chairs:
(You can see that Treat approves of them.) I’ve been thinking a lot about color schemes. I like changing my decor out for the seasons, and I like lots of different colors, so I thought for the big pieces I’d go for classic neutral finishes and colors. That should allow me to change things out as much as I want.
The fabric on these is a luscious linen. Right after I recovered the seats, I found another fabric at Joann ETC that I liked even better, maybe. I had to buy that, too, so I might make chair skirts out of it. Or use it for a bench cushion. I’m not sure yet. I will be redoing the bench to match the chairs.
And here’s the before and after of my dining area:
Yuck, those folding chairs. So uncomfortable! We’ve been sitting on them for about 5 years. I’m so glad they’re going.
So much better. I heart my new chairs.
Oh, yeah. I'm hoping to put this one on BNotP's Metamorphosis Monday, so don't forget to check out the other cool metamorphoses. Is that the plural of metamorphosis?
Monday, June 28, 2010
Stuff and Things
When Mike and Laura came to see Kevin last month, Laura and I had a very successful shopping trip at our favorite new place, Wizard of Odds. We found too much good stuff there and couldn’t get all of it, but what we got was pretty cool. I don’t have pictures of everything yet, but here is one thing I bought with my birthday money:
It’s a gorgeous corner unit made out of an old door. You can see the old hardware in this close-up:
I had to use my flash to take the picture, since it’s in a dark corner, so you can’t see the pretty blue color. Staging things is not one of my natural talents, so I will be asking Laura to help me figure out what to put on this the next time she visits.
In the close-up, you can see the really cool lab flask she got me for my birthday.
I also bought this sign at Hobby Lobby that weekend:
Laura and I have also taken to working on projects whenever we get together, rather than just buying more. The weekend of their visit, we made chalkboards. Here’s the before of mine:
I loved the old barn wood frame, but the brass corner pieces were pretty awful, as was the too glossy picture which had a clock in it. We forgot to take before pictures, so this is not the picture that was in my frame, but it’s close.
Here’s my after:
I used an old scrabble letter holder to hold chalk. I like it a lot. Making chalkboards is pretty easy and I think I’ll be making lots more of them, since I have plenty of paint left.
Edited to Add: I'm trying a linky party for the first time, so hopefully this will show up on Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch. Be sure to click over there and see lots of great befores and afters. Now let's hope this works . . . .
It’s a gorgeous corner unit made out of an old door. You can see the old hardware in this close-up:
I had to use my flash to take the picture, since it’s in a dark corner, so you can’t see the pretty blue color. Staging things is not one of my natural talents, so I will be asking Laura to help me figure out what to put on this the next time she visits.
In the close-up, you can see the really cool lab flask she got me for my birthday.
I also bought this sign at Hobby Lobby that weekend:
Laura and I have also taken to working on projects whenever we get together, rather than just buying more. The weekend of their visit, we made chalkboards. Here’s the before of mine:
I loved the old barn wood frame, but the brass corner pieces were pretty awful, as was the too glossy picture which had a clock in it. We forgot to take before pictures, so this is not the picture that was in my frame, but it’s close.
Here’s my after:
I used an old scrabble letter holder to hold chalk. I like it a lot. Making chalkboards is pretty easy and I think I’ll be making lots more of them, since I have plenty of paint left.
Edited to Add: I'm trying a linky party for the first time, so hopefully this will show up on Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch. Be sure to click over there and see lots of great befores and afters. Now let's hope this works . . . .
Thursday, June 24, 2010
I'm Done!
I'm done I'm done I'm done I'm done I'm done I'm done I'm done I'm done I'm done I'm done I'm done I'm done I'm done I'm done I'm done I'm . . .
You get the point.
You get the point.
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