Knock...Knock...

So...I get home from church yesterday...I settle in my chair to finish the project I am working on...and knock...knock...so I get up to go answer the door...and no one is there...

I get back in my chair...knock...knock..knock...knock...maybe it is the back door?  I go check...no one is there.....hmmmm...strange...

I get back in my chair...knock..knock..knock...knock...knock....I ignore it...

Anyways...this goes on for TWO hours!  Finally, I am going to catch those little brats! They are seriously ticking me off! I just know it's the kids down the street...they do this to one of my other neighbors...The next time I hear knocking...I get out my video camera...and slowly..slowly...ease open the front door...I can see no one is at the front thru the window...so they must be at the back...I stick my video camera out the front door and around the corner....

GOTCHA!

 I have been Ding Dong Ditched before....

 BUT...I have never been Ding Dong DUCKED before!

These are the little brats!  They were knocking on the basement window.... Oh the joy....

Drop cloth curtains

After exactly 11 months in this house, I finally have curtains for the living room! That drop cloth I bought got softer and softer after every washing...when I ironed it and starched them...they looked like real linen!

O.k...so I got cheap on the rods! I have future plans of using a dowel with the Onyx door knobs I have been saving...they will look a lot better! but for seven bucks at the dollar store and my need for instant gratification...these will work!

I wish the pictures could do them justice...several people have asked me where I found them...hee hee! well...at the hardware store!  $27.00 whole dollars for a set of drapes...all I did was tear them...like the chair canvas for the slip cover...and sew the raw edge back up and I only had to do it on one side of each panel...whew...we all know what my sewing skills are like! Then I folded over the amount I wanted for the valance, clipped on rings and TA DA...they are hanging!



I really want to find some material for the edges or some kind of fringe or cording to sew around the edges...I need color...red color, of course! but just a little...

After I hung them up I got really excited...I got this for 20 bucks:

It is really, really, really....UGLY but it is an Ethan Allen sofa and has a brand new hide a bed in it with plastic still on the mattress and it is incredibly comfortable and sturdy...plus...it is small! and it suits this room to a T! I am thinking with a slip cover it will be amazing...

Then...I have been saving this table...why? I do not know...I almost gave it away a few times...it is an old drop leaf  and I took the leaves off...it was in the kitchen when I got the house...it was painted a lemon yellow...well, I think it was lemon yellow...with all the grime? don't really know...I washed it but it did no good...so I got out my heat gun and shabbied it up! and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I was going to cut the legs down a bit because it is a rather tall coffee table...but the more I looked at it, the more I liked it tall!

THEN....my neighbor...my sweet, awesome school teacher down the street asked if I wanted this...

UH...YEP!

THEN...hee hee...my other neighbor...my sweet little neighbor who I have since adopted as my sister...brought me these...there are two....mini wing chairs!

THEN...
My Honey made me this mirror...out of the molding upstairs...

My Honey also gave up his gun cabinet...he made it in high school...and it mildewed in storage...so I primed the part that was mildewed...and he gave it to me...with a couple shelves and a good paint job...it will be amazing!

So this is what I have for a living room right now...

 The beauteous rug is gone...it is in my laundry room...lol!

This little gem is my inspiration room....and someday...after everything is painted and unified with slip covers...pillow accents...some art...I will hopefully have a REAL living room....OH! don't forget red floors and a rug...I still need those...

Sorrow...

Hello All...my Pastor's wife was killed in a car accident Saturday...she was on the way to Duluth, Minnesota to pick out her daughters wedding dress...I will be cooking and preparing with my church for her funeral on Thursday....she was an incredibly kind and loving woman...a spirit like no other...she was also Italian through and through...and Pastor says that God will prepare a home for her...with a large kitchen where she will supply heaven with the best Ravioli ever known on Earth...not only will we have a loving God but a very plump one!  Please rejoice with me that her spirit is now in the Kingdom of Heaven with the Lord...

Pastor Thomas and Paula Rouse

I finally finished the living room floor...

 Remember this?

 And this?

You all have gotten me so excited about the living room that I went back in there, moved everything out, washed the walls, took out all the windows...washed them inside and out and got back on the floor....

I scrubbed again...and waxed again...and they came out pretty good except for the runway by the door...it's really dark in color...

They are shiny...and clean looking...and THEN I saw a lady's floor while visiting....she had painted her floors a deep, dark red...OH Man! am I thinking about it now...they were gorgeous! they looked so rich and she said they were easy to maintain...these floors? are not easy to maintain...and we all know how much Lisa likes red....HEE HEE!



ANY comments are welcome! What do you think about deep, rich RED floors? with cottage white slipcovers for the furniture?

Sooo....I got this chair...

So...I got this chair....My Honey decided...while sitting in his Uncle's garage...that this chair "looked" like me...and he brought it home....it was his Uncle's Mother's chair and at one time, I bet it was really beautiful...

As it was...it was dirty and covered in a velvet damask that had a bunch of guys sitting on it divining the next motor they would rebuild or outbuilding they would design....

   

This is the color it used to be...

About 4 months ago, I was surfing the net and came across a tutorial on how  much fabric a painter's drop cloth would net you..for very little money....and people were recovering furniture and making curtains out of them...WELL! Being the cheap skate that I am...I went and bought one...and it laid on the couch with the rest of the storage items in the living room....for months...I washed it...and then washed it again...and it came out the softest, sturdiest material I have ever had! It was actually pretty too!  Sooo...I got out my staple gun and covered that icky blue chair....BORING.....so I made a feather pillow to go on top of it....still boring...

While at the St. Vinnie's thrift shop, I came across this white canvas shower curtain for a dollar...hmmmm....

I love the cottage, shabby look...and I thought I would make that icky blue chair a slip cover...well, from previous posts, we all know Lisa does not sew well...at all...and the only pair of shears she owns are kitchen shears that are dull...duller than a butter knife...why? because she uses them to cut anything and everything....including picture wire...but they had enough in them to cut a small slit on this canvas...and canvas rips in a straight line!

I made the top cover ...by draping material over the back...snipping a slit...and tearing it....and then pinning it...of course...I had to have piping...so I used cording from Ben Franklin and that painters drop cloth material to cover the cording...

tears to fit...

making piping...

   

I made the skirt first...I laid a piece of material over the seat and tore a square...and then sewed piping to it...for the skirt I measured 10" long of material plus 1 1/2 " hem allowance, 1 1/2 times the length  than the front of the seat, the sides and the back...hemmed it...and folded it over where I wanted pleats and sewed the pleats in(straight line..I can do that much) then sewed it to the square for the top of the seat...WA LA chair skirt...

I have to wash it regularly...Louis seems to have commandeered it as his favorite piece of furniture...I did not iron it for this shot....

The arm holes have piping around them as does the top and bottom of the slip for the back of the chair...I still have to sew buttons or snaps to close it around the sides...right now, straight pins are still holding it closed...but I am thinking it beats the heck outta the blue? and it sure is soft and squishy when yous sit on it...I still want to paint the arms or refinish them...What do you think?

THEN...my wonderous, wonder of a neighbor...came over with this!

The vegetable garden revisited....

The vegetable garden exceeded my expectations for growth...everything I planted in that lasagna dirt was tall and lush and thick!  I even planted artichokes! They grew to immense proportions and pumped out little chokes starting in August, everyone was amazed....not as amazed as I, though! Everyone thought that our climate was too cold and too short...NOPE! I figure that with the right start in the winter...maybe a small greenhouse and some blessing from above...I can grow anything I want!

Squash!

Cinnamon Basil and Alpine Strawberries...um...and Cumin!

Tomatoes...these monsters grew 6ft tall and I had 5 gallon buckets full!

Cinnamon Basil/Lemon Basil

Bounty of first picked squash

The size of the tomatoes!

I truly wanted to finish my fence this year but Mother Nature decided that that was not going to happen...first, every where I wanted a post for the gate...there was enormous rocks...well...boulders! AND then...it rained...and rained...and guess what? rained some more! filled up all my boulder holes with water...they are three feet deep....

And the water did not recede for weeks, also...digging enormous rocks out of the dirt made me realize something...I am OLD..er......sooo...fence finishing next year!

 I even grew jalapenos...yuck! but I gave one to the neighbor...who loves hot stuff...and after his face turned purple...he spit it out...must have been hot? No Subway peppers for me! THESE babies WERE HOOOOT!

Next year I am going to can salsa with them...and pickle some for the brave people that don't mind their nose hairs incinerated...

I grew Okra too...it was gorgeous! I am putting it in my flower beds next year! It has the most beautiful yellow and red lily looking flowers I have ever seen!

Watermelons

All in all I am thrilled with my Vegetable dirt and the fact that everything grew in abundance! I have way better ideas for next year and one thing I am adamant about? I AM NOT MOWING GRASS! I am planting every square inch of this property and I want to try some grains...The garden was beautiful and I had a lot of visitors...people I would meet at the lake even knew who I was! They all thought I was crazy at first until it started to take shape and then they would drive by to see it progress....at least I am not known as the old lady with 50 cats! LOL! Just the lady with the "almost done" garden...

With my part time job I am going to purchase a food dehydrator to dry herbs and apples...oh...the apples around here! they are everywhere...applesauce, apple cider...apple crisp...mmmm...I am so hungry! Lunchtime here I come! See you all soon!

You people are the best!

I feel like I have been in the Arctic Circle for a month with no communications! To see all your comments and the welcome backs are such a heady combination! I have so much to tell you...so many things to show you...I didn't really want to start back with the garden but I am going to anyways because that is where I left off! I am still loading pictures back on here and will do a full post where we left off and then zoom on to more fun things!

 

We actually had a land hurricane here last week with 89 mph winds...it took out my arbor and shook the daylights out of my little hut...scary! but it is all intact otherwise...I just wish it would have blown that ugly green toaster looking siding off the house! But no...I had to peel every last piece of it off myself

 and that is what I have been doing for the last week

 

 

...oh...and stacking wood...10 cords of wood! I cleaned out the basement and stacked 4 in there so I didn't have to dig it out of the snow bank come November...I have to say...my body parts do not work like they used to...well, they work...they just hurt a lot more!

Barb...Barb wrote me an email while I was gone...I want to say to her...You are wonderful...and so loving and I sure needed that...THANK YOU!  I have thought about all of you every day and have missed you...I truly feel that last July...I gained, not only inspiration and encouragement...but a circle of friends with like minds and big hearts...I cannot really express in words how I feel about all of you...but it swells up my chest and chokes me with tears when I try...

 

I will be working part time this winter...I got a temporary winter job...UGH! BUT I want a new bed so bad I can taste it...AND I want those french doors for my living room...AND...LOL!  a few more things...

 

I won't be able to post daily but a couple times a week when that starts in December so I hope you will bare  with me over the winter! COME Spring and Summer tho...I am all yours!

Til Tomorrow...

Lisa

HELLO!

Hello All...I thank you for your patience in waiting for me to come back! I have missed you all! I will be resuming my blog today! There has been a number of problems for me but I have cleaned them out! and hauled them off! Again, thank you for your patience and your loyalty!