And so it begins . . .

The kitchen remodel has begun! What have I gotten myself into? Did I make all the right decisions? Will it gain me the extra room that I wanted? Will it lighten this dark, nondescript, really boring kitchen and make it what I envisioned? Probably not, but I dream big and with a little luck, it will be beautiful. It has now gone from this (hate the green, hate the yellow) . . .

to this . . .





The funny thing is, that with the kitchen completely gutted, it looks so small. Shouldn't it look bigger?







Took Jamison to the neighbors' (and good friends) Sunday to ride the pony. Suppose he can talk Grandpa into getting one of his own?



My plan for the 3 weeks that it will take to finish the kitchen is to stay upstairs and do some "me" stuff since I can't cook or clean downstairs( oh, boo hoo). Like rearranging my "stuff" upstairs so I can have room to sew, create the new book creatologie kit from Carol Wingert I just received, make some banners, work outside in the flowers and BLOG. Yes, my plan is to blog at least every other day - big words I know, but I MEAN IT! I hate it when my favorite blogs don't blog every day.





(PS - Thanks Julie from The Little Red Shop for the tip on paragraphs. It worked a little but still not how I think it should. I need more practice. I sure wish there was a class I could take on this blogging thing!)

So, I am off to do fantastic things to blog about!

Ciao!

Who'd thunk it - I'm a Winner!

I received my 'Cottage Charm' giveaway prize today in the mail. It is too cute and I am so thrilled to have won! Julie, from a lovely blog, The Little Red Shop, sent it to me, with fancy wrapping and everything! Thank you Julie!!

The prize -- a darling froggie rattle and heart-shaped bath fizzie. Wrapped with froggie stickers and oh-so-cute little labels. The frog is so appropriate now because I am sitting here listening to all of the frogs in our pond croak VERY LOUDLY! (Yes, we finally got rain, alot of rain. Now I need some sunshine.)

I gotta tell ya - even the shipping box was labeled cute! I'm gonna have to send her a little sumpin, sumpin to thank her. The 'Cottage Charm' giveaways were so much fun and I found so many new blogs to visit. (I won't say how much time I spend on the computer looking at fabulous blogs but let's just say sometimes we run out of clean underware because the wash isn't done!) I hope to play along with all of the 'big girls' next year!



Went to a garden walk this weekend and was so inspired to clean up my flower beds (you hear that dandelions?) I see no need to work outside if the sun isn't shining and it isn't warm. The sun hasn't been shining for a week and it hasn't been warm (the furnace still runs at night in JUNE) so the weeds have been having a heyday. I'll post more pics the next time.



I so admire the clever things that are placed stratigically in gardens. It makes the gardens so interesting. I have an old bike but where do I get the baskets?

I have lots of old chairs. I think this will be a project when the kitchen is torn out. I'll have to have something to do outside with a bunch of men inside.

Speaking of the kitchen remodel - my contractor put me off until the end of June! So mad I could spit! I have really noticed lately that no one seems to honor their word and not just concerning the kitchen. Don't business people need the work or want the work or care about the work they do? If we handled out customers like we have been treated lately, we would be out of business!

(Can anybody tell me how to get a line space between these paragraphs? A 'return' works sometimes with the pictures but not when it is just text.)

Till the next post -- Connie

At least there are pictures of flowers . . .

I feel like I need to post something! I knew exactly what I wanted to say this morning - even wrote it out in my head. But tonight, I can't think of it. Note to self -- blog in the morning when the brain is working!

The garage sale went okay. Got rid of alot of stuff but I priced everything really low, maybe too low. But the goal was to clean out the excess, not make a ton of money. The things I thought would sell, didn't and the stuff I considered just throwing, sold. Go figure. Then there are those that really hesitate to spend a quarter on something they like. Or those that want to haggle over a dollar item. Garage sales - you gotta love 'em!

Wednesday was our anniversary so we went road trippin' overnight. Just got in the car and drove (that's what HE likes to do, I myself like a plan). Saw alot of country and stopped at a few interesting stores along the way. Still looking for that inspiration piece for my new kitchen but I still can't commit.

I was so excited to learn that I won a giveaway prize during the Cottage Charm giveaways. Will show you the darling prize I won and who is was from when I receive it. I've always said that if there were 50 prizes and 51 people to win, I would be the one that didn't! My luck is changing!

Still practicing on uploading pictures and this time it went fairly smoothly. Everybody likes to look at pretty flower pictures, right? These are actually mine, but I had to take pictures before they are gone. So dry here - haven't had any rain for over a month. Corn and beans still look good but not for much longer. Life of a farmer . . .

Ciao!

Forgot to mention . . .

If you noticed, I did change the header of this blog and added a little "I Love Comments" button. Not sure I did them right but they are there and I love them. Got them from itkupilli at Cute 'n' Cool Blogstuff. Next, I will learn how to link that up so that you can find it too. (I just tried to do a link, I wonder if it works?) I also discovered that I have 3 followers! Yoo Hoo! That is so exciting!

Ciao again!

Hurry up and wait

I can't wait any longer to write. Been waiting to upload some pictures so this blog wouldn't be so boring but that isn't happening for awhile. Been waiting to get this blog pretty and clever like all of the ones I see everyday but haven't figured that out yet. Been waiting to finish some items to show you all that I really do love to make things but I keep jumping from one to another and not getting anything truly finished. So, no pictures yet. No pretty blog yet. But, I dream big and have some mighty big plans! Just you wait and see!

I have been having the best time getting acquainted with alot of new blogs through the annual Cottage Charm Giveaway ('update', tried to link this, no guarantees that it will work). Such talent out there! I am inspired every time I see a new blog and I want to be JUST LIKE ALL OF YOU! Next year, I would love to play and have a giveaway of my own.

I have even gotten a couple of comments from leaving comments. How thrilled I was to see those! Like I always thought, this blogging thing is gonna be FUN!

Getting ready for a garage sale - my first in about 25 years - so you know how much stuff I have. Have to price everything tomorrow and keep wondering - should I keep stuff really cheap to get rid of it or not. Any of you have any garage sale tips? This is going to have to be the first of a couple I have this summer. There are places I haven't begun to dig into yet - like Christmas stuff!

My kitchen contractor put me off for a couple of weeks so haven't started the remodel yet. I think I have most major things decided on but my luck hasn't been the best so I'm waiting for the next thing to go wrong. Have had the refrigerator that I chose be recalled, the granite that I chose become unavailable, the tile I chose become discontinued and so on and so forth. Crazy!

As for the family situation mentioned in the previous post. No, I haven't heard from either sister about forgiveness. I didn't expect to and that is not what I necessarily wanted. We will never be friends and will not get together as a whole family again but, what I want, is to be able to meet on the street and be civil and gracious. I want the backstabbing and bad mouthing to stop. I can't dictate to them but as for me, I am cleansed with the knowledge that I tried.

Another load of crap (I mean wonderful items) needs to be hauled to the garage sale site - it starts on Friday - so I'm off to part with my precious possessions.

Ciao!

A lighter heart

I did something today that makes me feel better than I have in a long time.

A little background story -- my husband has 2 sisters, living in the same area. While the one sister has always been somewhat reasonable, the oldest one has always had a chip on her shoulder, always needed everything her way and made sure we all knew what we did wrong in her eyes. You all probably have similar people in your family. All these years, we have tiptoed around her and kept quiet so as not to upset her. A couple of years ago, there were several incidents with both sisters that finally made us realize that we would be better off not spending any more time with them so all family holiday celebrations since have been spent separately. Honestly, what a relief! But, I have always felt bad for my husband's parents, and my children (even though they were never close to these aunts, uncles or cousins) and now, my grandson, who will never get to play with his second cousins. After all the birthday parties, graduation parties, wedding showers, baby showers, etc. that I assisted with for their families, my family has been totally shunned with our milestone events. How sad for us all. Anyway, back to what I did today. I decided that I can no longer hold these hurts in my heart. I can no longer sit in a church pew each week and listen about forgiveness when I still hold these grievences in my heart. So -- I wrote each sister a letter asking for their forgiveness and letting them know that I forgive each of them. I didn't go into detail - those offences are in the past. I just want forgiveness for any part I played in their obvious unhappiness. I don't expect to hear anything from them. I don't expect that our relationships will change. I don't expect to spend holidays with them. But I expect my heart to be lighter and that I can go about my days without the heaviness of hatred bogging me down. "You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well". As I always have, I wish both of them and their families nothing but good things!

Ciao bellas!

Oh, my aching back!

I know it is finally spring because I have overdone it like I do every year. The first few nice days, I work outside, getting all my flower beds cleaned for new plants and suffer with sore muscles and an aching back. It couldn't be because I don't work those muscles all winter long! Excersize in the winter is over-rated!

Today is earth day and also my son's birthday (how's that for celebrating). I called him today at exactly the time he was born - 3:12 pm. Funny how, no matter what age your kids are, you can remember the moment they were born. Thankfully, you don't remember the labor pains so much! If I knew then what I know now, I would have had more kids. Both of mine have grown into fine responsible adults and I enjoy them so much.

I have been reading blogs and gotten emails about Silver Bella in Omaha. It seems that it could be just for those who have stores of their own, or have jobs designing for major companies or are in a special elite group. Any of you plain ole people like me ever gone to it? Can us plain ole people even go to it? Would love to go to the whole thing but especially the vendors night and buy beautiful handmade items! Let me know what YOU know about Silver Bella.

Ciao Bellas!