Fall-si-fying and other DooZe

As the sun is rising on this wonderful day, I can't help but be excited over our plans for the next few days! I haven't posted in so long, that I am not sure what to say first, but alas, I will try!
I've been quite busy doing so many dumb things...in and out of the house, running here and there, and visiting dear friends.

But here is one thing I have been doing...Decorating for Fall....I've been Fall-si-fying! LOL!

Yep...those are Real Punkins, grown by my Real Man! Aren't they cute?

I finally took the punkins off the armoire and put them on the mantle...added a Fall bouquet to the crock and neglected the dust...Dust is my scratch-filler!

Remember these?


Well, I wanted to make them look like these, or my version of PunkinSticks....


I don't remember WHERE I saw these at....someone Blogged them....I LOVED THEM....so I was a viper, and stole on the idea and although this is as far as I have gotten, I hope to finish them sometime before Christmas! Whaddya think?




Then I have been throwing some other things together, and found a cute wagon at Second Tyme...see? I have that problem of bringing home MORE stuff than I take there! But who could resist this??? Charlotte....a sweet woman at Second Tyme that decided I can buy it, instead of her. Thanks to Charlotte for THIS treasure below!



So...I also have picked up a fever of re-doing my Dining Room hutch with White Plates...what a difference...still not sure I like it, but I think it may grow on me....


I did this plate with a saying I like....


And this is the opposite side....see that vase with all the raised decoration? That is what has gotten me on this kick....LOVE THE VASE!!!



So, that is all I have for now....I have a ton to do! Can't play anymore!




Till Another Time!

Second Tyme Around...Ironic & Iconic!

This better work this time, as yesterday's post (the one I intended, not the one that is there now) had completely threw me into a tizzy and I had to leave the room. The House. The planet...well, leaving the house was all I could do as my car is in no shape to fly....yet!

You may notice that I have not posted in quite some time, so yesterday's post was forever long, and I think that is why it just up and left the screen when I hit the 'publish post' button, but it didn't post, and I went Postal... I'm entitled to do that ya know, before you get the wrong picture of me being a lunatic. I used to be a USPS employee. Therefore, I am entitled to go Postal.

Anyhoo...I have been so ever busy these days...I have been working on the Clutterbusting & Redecorating. I've been taking things to Second Tyme Around, a local consignment shop, sometimes making money from the items I have either made, grown tired of, no longer fits my new frame of mind. In my recent 'homebound' situation of sitting in this house for three months with no way of traveling about, I got really antsy about my decorating schemes... I also started reading other people's Blogs about their decorating, yard sale finds, and new ideas and that fired up the burners for making some changes around here, so lately, everything has been scrutinized and thrown in boxes to be dropped off at Goodwill, Dumpster, Second Tyme...or just given away!
There's only ONE problem with this...I bring stuff BACK into the house I am trying to get stuff out of...and even though it is for the new ideas I am trying to implement, they are being stuffed somewhere till I get to them. And then Disaster struck!!! I read a blog, that linked to a blog and I found out that I am the worst decorator that exists, according to HGTV and their recent show on The Top 25 Decorating Mistakes! Who would have guessed that moi, the person that has received at least 1,000 compliments on my style, arrangements, choice of colors and such that I have Failed Miserably and I am due to be found out, and carted off in the HGTV Paddy Wagon for my blundering mistakes...Who Knew?!?!?! Well, I'm about to shock you, cuz I am NOT all alone in this, and if they ever bring the Paddy Wagon, I will be in good company! Since this started with my all-time favorite blog, The Nesting Place, I will blame The Nester for linking to Rhoda at Southern Hospitality, where she wrote about those Top 25 and I was about in tears, ya know, with all my New Ideas! Anyhoo...I hope Rhoda doesn't mind, but I am using HER list to post with, containing all my blunders revealed ...maybe you'll have some too and we can all go, together, in the HGTV Paddy Wagon. Imagine that! Won't we all have fun, discussing how we all thought we had it together, and yet one show has turned us all on our ears! Funny thing...go look at the HGTV website and look in the sidebars...AFTER you read this post, and see how many of the rules THEY have broken themselves...oh my!
Here we go! The one's in Black....I have not done....

• Fake flowers and plants
  
• Too many pillows, on the bed or sofa
  
• Knick-knack overload
  
• Fear of color
  
• Ignoring windows
  
• Pushed back furniture
  
• Tacky couch covers
  
• Frames too high
  
• Improper lighting
  
• Floating rugs
  
• Too many colors/patterns
  
• Furniture that doesn't fit
  
• Following fads
  
• Everything matches.
  
• Lack of traffic flow
  
• Uncomfortable diningroom chairs
  
• Too formal
• Keeping something you hate
  
• Lopsided furnishings
  
• Outdated accessories
• Themes
• Undressed cables
• Ignoring the foyer (What Foyer!!!)
  
• Too many family photos
• Toilet rugs

Now just IMAGINE my horror, after reading this and thinking about my brand new Toilet Rugs, and THEMES???? Oh heck, I am the Queen of Themes! When I don't want to conform to an already established theme, I concoct my own! The HGTV Police are coming for me, I feel it! I also like the way HGTV just Assumes everyone has a Foyer...which on their "snobbier" shows is pronounced "foy-yay"...
As for fads and other things on the list...I agree I may follow some, create some and a lot of times I am very slow to adopt them. Like Spa Blue & Brown....I'm just getting to that one. That was the entire baseline plan of my Newest Theme: Vintage Seaside Cottage Bathroom
That sounded Wonderful till someone (The Nester) ruined it for me by posting that information on how we are all going to be idiots for the rest of our lives if we don't conform to the new rules...but I wonder if she'll let me in her new POOPIE club? Especially when she sees the project below that I did! I had IVY in the photos, so I am sure she will just execute me! LOL! Love ya, Nester! :) It Doesn't Have To Be Perfect To Be Beautiful, right?
I took these pictures, made from calendars, of Williamsburg Virginia sites that I love....oh...and the WHOLE THEME of my house is about HOME, so guess what??? Yep, I have tons of knicky-knacks, pictures, magnets, and what-nots that are ALL ABOUT HOUSES....so hate me! But here's what I did. You tell me, was this in bad taste? I did remove the ivy though...I stripped off all the leaves to glue on my FAKE PUMPKINS!!!



By the way....are FAKE CANDLES illegal, Nester??? Hope not, cuz I have a set of them on the table with my FAKE PUNKINS that have FAKE IVY LEAVES!!! LMBO! See???


Here is ANOTHER Theme....It's called LAUNDRY ROOM...hmmmm....I thought that worked! I could be carted off any minute now!!!! Woo Hoo!!! Party Time...someone bring some Tea, ok?


Oh...and before I close this post, hopefully it WILL POST this time, I want to remind everyone, or those that may stumble onto this blog, that the "kids" you see below, are my son, Jason and his fiancee Meghann....They are getting married in October...on a ship....it's called VICTORY...is that ICONIC or IRONIC?!?!?! Either or....I am getting soooooo excited to have a Daughter In Law!!! I hope she'll like HER Mother In Law better than I like Mine....that's another post....someday!


Till Another Time!

Time Flies & Bugg Visits!!!

So time flies when you're having fun! N O T! But time does fly by so fast as one gets o-l-d-e-r!
I've been sooooo busy these weeks, trying to pull together a house and make it feel like a home again, and also catching up with some much-needed work on some projects that have been on the back burner forever!

DH and I decided it was time to attack the Kitchen, finally! There is a ton of stuff that still needs to be done...I will TRY hard to keep this updated....and little by little, it is coming around to the desired look!
Here are some BEFORE pics...and these are NOT the real ugly parts, but I am just too tired, and too lazy to go find the ORIGINAL pics to show you how the kitchen REALLY looked when we moved in on a Blue Moon, several years ago! Take a lookie.....ewwwww....
That ugly Mauve Blue & Grey laminate is just about to see the Landfill....it is horrible and in even more horrible shape!
But....now look at what we've done!!!
Now...all that is left to do is paint all the cabinets off white, antique them, and figure out what to do with those walls...I love the red, but if I have to work on them, then I might as well change them, right??? And the rest of the countertop and a new sink is on the list! I will not get into the gorey details of all that I would like to do in this kitchen, but on the list is getting my Electrician (DH) to hang my new track light!!! It would look SOOOooo much better on the ceiling than in the middle of my Living Room Floor! Ya THINK! LoL!

Now....recently.... The Bugg and Meg came up from NC for the July 4th weekend! Oh My How Nice to see them both! The last time they were up, it wasn't under the best of circumstances...I was still recovering from the "treatments" for the Anemia, and our dog, Pogie was "dying" from heart failure...it was a traumatic time and we had (meaning me) been crying for weeks...and that particular week Bugg & Meg came, I had been in tears pretty much the entire preceding days! I looked like H&## and I FELT like H&##, but Thrilled they were here!

We had such a good time...and we even went to a "par-tay" on Saturday where I got to see all of "my boyz" again! It had been years...and I had a "moment" where I realized I was just a couple of years older than all of them standing there, at that moment, when I first became "MoM" to all of those "kidz"...LOL! They are all 30-something now...and I was more than delighted to know we could "converse" about all kinds of things...not like in the past years of girls, games, boomboxes, girls, game, boomboxes, cars, cars, cars, girls, games, boomboxes, cars, cars, cars...ya get the picture??? LOL! Bobby...now works in Low Voltage Electrical in Virginia, and is wiring buildings for Fiber Optics and Puter stuffs...Brian sings in a band, TWF...which is mostly Political "screaming", from what I am understanding...LOL! Marc still looks the same, and is as handsome as ever...always puts me in mind of Mickey... but his smiles are Genuine! All the ladies of the boys are great, too!
One thing is certain...I haven't gotten too old, or too UN-cool to be in the presence of all these boys...I enjoyed the tons of hugs, smiles, and how-are-ya's! I enjoyed listening to all the Banter, which I no longer get to hear in MY home, as they have all grown up, moved onto their own lives, and I thank them for letting me "in" the door to watch all of them, listen to them, and to just observe another phase of life that I have come to know as sometimes painful, but ALWAYS pleasant!
I read tons of blogs of persons that have such young ones at home, and I remember those days, very very well, but I often want to respond to their blogs with pictures of MY KIDS, as they are NOW....and just tell them to TREASURE every moment! Soon, they will be out and about, engaged to be married, kids right and left, and you are left on the sidelines, living vicariously on the edge for Every Phone Call, Every Picture sent, Every word they speak, and yes....every moment you can share with them!

Here are some more pics....of how many times I saw them PLUGGED IN, and yet UNPLUGGED! It amazes me how many times these "kidz" can't seem to be part of something, without having something ELSE they claim is "important"...or just to compare who has what, and so on! LOL!
Enjoy the pics!

All in All, and in the end, it was great to see everyone...and Jason (the Bugg) even got to enjoy his favorite junk-food.....N A C H O S!!! Go get em Tiger! Geez!!!
Projects around here, well, there have been many...I worked on refreshing the wreath on our front door...we went from this...

and this...

Used These....
Ended up with THIS...

I also attacked my Dining Room table, after finding some ladder-backed chairs....been a pet peeve of mine to have painted/distressed my "hutch", and the dining set was sooooo UGLY!
So I went from This....
And I hauled this out the door and did THeSe things to it....
And I ended up with THIS!!! Woo Hoo!!! What a great project!!! Don't we love us some great SprayPaint?!?!?!?!

So...there ya go!!! This is what I have been up to for so long....and of course there are tons more I haven't gotten to...but I think this should fill the needs and desires of all of my readers out there...btw, do I HAVE any??? LOL!