March 17th.......

After looking at the next three months, I realized that I have only 3 free weekends. Out of 14 weekends. How did that happen? It's wild. Crazy. So with the one free weekend in March what am I doing? Inviting my friends to join me for a day of fun. :-) Laid back, easy, fun day.

And just what will be happening on this day? I'm bringing out my Luttrell Psalter facsimile for the scribes (anyone else who wants to look at it!) to oooh-and-ahhh over. (Please bring your own drool bibs!) Hoping to have a bit of a discussion of period manuscripts and available facsimiles. But that's not all folks - we're also having a Pampered Chef party by Demi. So, we all know what that means - LAVA CAKE!!! Plus other yummy goodies. Oh and some nice stuff to drink. :-D Gotta have some yummy drinks for the evening!If you're interested in coming and hanging out for the day, just drop me a line - LadyClodagh AT comcast DOT net and I'll send you info. Stuff like my address, etc. And knowing us, there will probably be some some people working on crafty stuff, so bring your latest project to work on/show off! *********************************************************************

So, having this get together means I definitely need to get the kitchen and sitting room re-done before March 17th! I work so much better with deadlines! :-)

Now if only I could get this messy office cleaned up! lol

We're Going Green

I can't believe that I am doing this. I really can't. I'm going to paint my kitchen and sitting room green. I figure if I can't live with it, then in a year or so I'll paint it. My kitchen colors are blue and yellow. Yellow and blue. Not green. Nor pink, orange or purple. *sigh* I'm willing to give it a try.

So this week, I've got to bust my butt and finish a scroll, deliver it to TRM and work on the kitchen. That means removing everything from the walls, filling holes, sanding, cleaning the walls. Even going to try my hand at priming certain areas of the walls. Then, lots of blue tape and painting the walls. Much to my husband's chagrin. He is THE PAINTER. No one else can come close to his level of excellence. But his back hurts too much to do the painting. And if the kitchen goes well, I'll do the sitting room next.

Speaking of the husband, he's at el doctoro to talk about his back. He wants to try physio before going back to the surgeon. Keep fingers crossed that the physio works!

I better go do the callig on this scroll. Then it's doing the gilding. Tomorrow I paint. :-)

a kitchen re-do

Last weekend while I was away on a girls getaway, my darling husband removed the breakfast bar, removed the electric baseboard heater in the "dining room", put down a floating floor in the "new family room" and added in baseboard. The first picture is the new kitchen/family room.

Second picture was taken nearly 3 years ago. That's the view of the breakfast bar, going to the dining room and you can see the table. That's from before we ever painted the kitchen and dining room the summer after we moved in.

The first picture was taken today. No breakfast bar, table is in the dining room (albeit a different table) and there is a futon in what we're now calling the family room (formerly the dining room). As you can see the kitchen is decorated with soft yellow with blue accents. Totally doesn't go with the new look. So I need a new color scheme. I'm thinking I'd like to do something like what you see on the walls at this website:

http://www.oldworldfinishes.com/pic5.jpg

Or maybe more like the colors in this one:

http://oldworldfinishes.com/wall/pic2.JPG

I really like this look too. But it might be a bit too dark for what I want.

http://oldworldfinishes.com/wall/pic14.JPG

Can you get the idea I'm going for?

http://oldworldfinishes.com/wall/pic16.JPG

A big thanks for all the samples from our friend Artorius' web site: http://oldworldfinishes.com/

Basically I want that kind of old-world looking plaster effect. I don't know how to describe it. Lots of warm yellows with maybe a bit of teracotta in it. Maybe a bit of an Italian look or French country. I don't know how to explain it. And of course we need to completely change out the window treatments. Also, we're going to hang up curtains in the family room archway made of unbleached cotton so that when we have company sleeping over, they have a bit of privacy.

The hard part is figuring out exactly what colors to use and how to do it. :-)

More Fleurida pics

So, that's me standing on the beach watching the water. :-) I so miss Florida. I'm sure I wouldn't miss it if it was 98 degrees and 100% humidity. But a beautiful 73 degree day, that I miss. :-)

I'm really looking forward to our next girls' weekend. Whenever that may be. :-)

Heather, Gina and Abby (thank goodness for editting tools - I can't believe I had Maggie instead of Abby in this sentence!) were having a lot of fun walking back to the car. :-) Wayyyyyy off in the distance you can see Barbara and Jenness. (Can see those two little specks over Abby's head?)


Well, I really do need to go get some cleaning done. Oh joy. :-P At least I had some fun today. I went to Joan's house and gave her the inkleloom she ordered and helped her string it and start playing with it. Well back to the grind for me. I really need to clean up the kitchen. Oooh tomorrow I'll write about what Chris did while I was gone and take some pictures!

Report Card for Life

YOUR REPORT CARD:
Category	Grade
Love	A
Friends and Family	A
Body	C
Mind	A+
Finance / Career	B
Your Life's Average Grade: A
'What" is your Life Grade?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Fleurida and Back Again...

WoW! What a week! Wednesday I drove down to Jenness' house and met her after work. That evening I was lucky enough to attend one of her belly dance classes. It was fabulous! I sooooo wish I lived close enough to join them. I want to thank everyone in the class for letting me watch the class! I can't wait for the recital to see their routine. :-)

Thursday, we were up at 3:30 a.m. to get ready to go to the Newark Airport. Heather, Barbara, Jenness and I all flew together. I slept on the plane, probably even drooled a little! :-) No problems with the luggage this year! Yay!

We did so much this year! I'm trying to think of what we did on Thursday...
- found the Italian deli, but it was super crowded and we left (never did make it back)
- found a diner for lunch
- Heather and I had a nap back at the house
- We decorated our hats for wearing at the airport to pick up Gina. Even made Gina her own hat. :-)
- Went shopping at Bells outlet clearance store. Found out it's closing. :-(
- Did some grocery shopping
- Ate dinner at Chick-fil-a
- Picked up Gina at the airport. And in the process met Billy Bohack, his friend Bob and his little brother Luigi.
- Back to the house to eat some cheese and chocolate. :-)
- watched The Sweetest Thing - unrated version (Thanks Pandora for introducing me to one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time!)
- Watching Humphrey "romance" Abby :-D

Friday included:
- a yummy breakfast bake created by Jenness and Barbara (I think)
- going to St. Pete's Beach and getting soaked by the rain.
- wanting to hit the internet cafe and dollar store, instead going to a German bakery - YUM!!!!!
- crocheting, knitting, hanging out
- eating lunch at the Athenian Garden. No Miko this year, but another waiter who was just as yummy, if not more yummy!
- more shopping
- including Zone d'Erotica!
- a very special pajama party with our friend Glo! Oh yeah, baby! And let me say, Gigi is a girls best friend!

Saturday highlights:
- hanging out at the house. Of course we were crocheting and knitting up a storm!
- going to the flea market
- eating at Athenian Garden again!

Sunday:
- having brunch with Jenny and her daughter Jacqueline :-)
- OH-MY-GOODNESS the sun is out and it's warm outside! We're going to the beach! Put down those cleaning tools and lets hop in the car ladies!!!!!
- heading back to the airport :-( to head home again. Can we say BRRRRRRRRRR?

I'm sure I'll write more as things come to me. Maybe even post some more pics. :-)