The Final Chapter of "The New Room"

This is a great shot of the ceiling color. It is a shade darker then it appears in this shot. The fan's blades are fake wicker.
If you noticed, I have two wicker chairs, Joan's and the one with the plaid pillows and the desk chair is
black fake wicker.
In this picture you can see the two mirrors Rick hung on the landing closet doors. I wanted these to make the room appear a bit larger. The painting to the right was done by Fran's (upstairs) son-in-law. Bill called it "early Jackson Pollack". The print to the right of that I bought, and had framed, @ Hobby Lobby.
This print is titled "The Kiss" and those of you who are proficient in art will know the artist. Joan had
a jigsaw of this painting.
So, to those of you I love, far and wide across this big country of ours, and those close at home, I present my new look. Isn't it different?  Adieu!

The New Room - Chapter 6??

This is a wicker chair that was Joan's. It's the one I used to display the scarves in a previous blog.
The colorful throw was purchased @ Pier One. What's that snuggled in the throw?
Way, way back when Joan and I were teenagers, Seventeen magazine had a section on decorating ~
your bedroom, your bathroom, etc. One article stated, "Use bright bold dashes of tangerine". Joan and I loved that line ~ and would say it a lot. We would go to someone's house to see their newly decorated
den and, when we left, Joan and I would look at each other and say, "The den was nice but it does need a bright bold dash of tangerine". And then we'd laugh!
In many of Joan's houses, if you looked carefully, you'd sometimes see a bright bold dash of tangerine. When I saw this throw, guess what made me buy it!

I made a goof. I have put the same picture in here twice! So I'll say something different for each one.
This black bookcase was directly in front of me when I sat in the flowered chair at the consignment
store. Not only did I say I wanted the chair, I said to Bill, "I want this bookcase!" As you can
see, it holds more than books. Lots of "Chotskis*" live here. The white elephant is a gift from Sientje
Vanderhoeven, a fellow TOPS friend. Sientje is from the Netherlands.
*Chotskis is misspelled but is spelled phonetically. It is a Jewish word for knick knacks, dust collectors, etc.

The hour glass is filled with green sand. Bought it on a whim when I was with John and Jim @ Kohl's.
Can you make out the glass piece that spells "Mom"? It has a picture of Gerty, my mom. She is also in the tiny frame at the upper left. And something else is taking up space here. Hmmmmm.

I have one more picture. It is of the ceiling fan and MUST be a part of this presentation! Back soon!

The New Room ~ Part Five

 This chair came from Ikea and the pseudo 

                                                                                           suede plaid pillows followed right behind. You can see my office behind the chair.........and one of the bigger rugs. Notice anything else, Debbie?

This is another shot of the glass table from..............surprise! Ikea. On the shelf below is a glass bowl with artificial lemons, peach, pear and apples. I got these @ Pier One. See my fancy scissors? They are from Gingher. Be alert, Debbie!!

The little black end table is from Target. I like the color but it was poorly made ~ is held together with
Crazy Glue. Big basket in front of my chair holds the Dr. Who scarf plus other accessories all
knitters have to own. There is something else lurking here!

I am going to stop now. The computer has been very cooperative with me loading these pictures but
I think she is going to say, "That's enough!" if I try to load the last pictures.
Tomorrow is Joan's Memorial Service (for donated bodies). It will take up a lot of the day. I will try
to get the last (I promise, the LAST!) pictures of the room in here tomorrow evening.......or Monday.....................or Tuesday.

The New Room ~ Part 4??

Susi, here is a much better picture of the hoya plant. See how big the leaves are and the long shoots 

she's putting out!  I'm having a bit of trouble getting the words where I want them. Oh, there they are!

 This is my dining table. Lamp is from Ikea. Table is from Ikea. Chairs are from the consignment
store ~ got 4 for $20 bucks apiece! Good caning on the seats ~ good chairs. Now, Debbie, can you find Wanda?? On the table is my wonderful catalog file for my yarn and a word puzzle book.

Will now try to load a few more pictures for "The New Room ~ Part 5??

Part Three of The New Living Room

This is the wall above the TV. The house, hearts and sampler are all counted cross stitch that I did when I owned judi's creative needle.

This is the window seat, one of the features I like about this room. You can see the house next door
(once judi's cr. needle) and their driveway. On the window seat is the last "put-together" piece from Ikea. I wanted this bench on the seat so as to have more room for plants and pictures. At the far left end there is a huge lazy susan that I painted yellow so it would be unobtrusive. Susi, look at how big my hoya has grown!(A better pic is coming soon.) And notice that it is in the blue pot you gave me to put it in, b----! :-) Family joke.

This is the chair I bought at the consignment store. Bill and I walked in the front door, I saw it and said, "Sold"! The pseudo suede footstool came from Wal-Mart. Cheap so it can be replaced when I find something better. You can see a bit of the rug in this shot. We bought 4 rugs ~all the same pattern ~ two
5'x7' and two 3'x6'. The smaller ones are on the landing and in the hall with the three doors. The bigger ones set in the living and dining area. Bill and I were tickled to find them and have them all fit where we wanted them to go.
To the right of the chair is a glass~topped table from...... where
else? Ikea!








This is a painting done on glass. I don't know the exact procedure but it appears she drew black outlines on the glass that "traced" what is in the painting. I bought this at the Dragonfly Tearoom because the colors were just perfect for my new look. To the right is a print and to the left four watercolors of the farmlands around Cummington, MA, where Susi lives. The white box-like reflection in the glass on the lady pic is a window frame on the house next door!! It took me the longest time to try and figure out what that was!

 This is a picture of the window seat and, especially, the blinds. They can be raised from the bottom up
or from the top down. He's rather hard to see but in the upper corner is a ceramic parrot that belonged to
Joan. She is everywhere in this room and I love her being here.

I made the mistake of loading too many pictures and again the computer said, "I'll show you"! and froze up again. I shut her down and showed her who's boss. Waited an hour and booted her back up and, voila! Here we are. There are a few more to come but I'm going to do dishes, go visit Marlene, and will do the last set of pics when I return. As Fran says, when she signs off, "Anon".

The New Living Room ~ Part Two

 The chest is an old one ~ bought it from Carol (the bride in earlier blog). Above the chest are the pictures that Jim did of Joan's two Florida houses along with 2 art pieces from Florida. I have poppies in my yard and wanted to have poppies year round ~ thus the lovely silk ones. The pictures to the left hang above the television.

 Jim and John, this picture is for you. This is Joan's umbrella plant. John, you transplanted it into the
pseudo clay pot. She is thriving! Here you can see a bit of the blinds that cover the three windows on
the window seat. They cost a small fortune but I wanted the best for this room.

This room ~ the colors I chose ~ the furnishings I got ~ were strongly influenced by Joan and Bill.
Many times, Joan would use two or three colors in one room. Bill loves the old ~ does not like Ikea, especially when the furniture needs to be assembled. He bit his lip, looked very unhappy, but did put some pieces together for me. When he said, "Enough!!" I got Rick to do it. Bill helped me pick out the black bookcase, the oak dining chairs and the flowered overstuffed chair. We got these from a consignment shop. And they all fit in beautifully!

And here is my sweet sis, Joan in her flamingo frame with a funky flamingo "chotski" beside her. The lamp shines down on my keyboard ~ perfect for this spot.

 This is the second shelf that is part of the "office". I am a sucker for funky sayings and couldn't pass up the "olde" saying.Daughter Rebekah is in the silver frame and dear friend, Bill to the left.

And.........this is the office. Wicker office chair is an Ikea find. Printer and files sit on an old stand that Bill gave me. I want to have it stripped and paint it black. The desk has very little style but serves the purpose. Here you can see the painted floor. Bill tore up the carpet which turned into a long and tedious job because all the staples holding the padding down had to be removed. Rick painted the floor with deck paint so it wears very well. When I clean I use a damp mop on the floor.

Part 3 will be here soon. I have to do my treading now. See you later! Ciao!

The New Living Room

I must tell you what I did yesterday to get the pictures of the new living room into this blog. I loaded 26!! pictures and my computer said, "What the hell are you doing to me"? and shut down. I could not do a thing. Couldn't close the blog, couldn't shut the computer off............nothing. So I closed the lid and watched a movie and knit.

Got up this morning and was able to cancel the whole blog, got back to my home page, sent a couple e-mails and have started again. 

What I'm going to do is put a few pics in at a time. It has worked with the first two, so I will keep my fingers crossed. Some of you have seen my living room and this may bore you. I'm doing this for sisters Susi and Debbie, Jim and John, Chris, Marilyn, and son, Steve.

Here is Rick, my painting friend! Rick is Marlene's son, a retired finishing carpenter and one mean painter! There was a LOT of cutting work in painting this room and Rick did a magnificent
job. He is the age of my oldest son........but if I was younger and a cougar and he wasn't married I'd snatch him up in a minute! In this picture you can see the color of the ceiling ~ deep maroon.

This is the tiny hall to the bedroom on the left, bathroom straight ahead and basement on the right. Rick painted this with the original color - a deep yellow gold. Rebekah came to visit and said, "It looks like a school bus!" So off to Lowe's to get 2 gallons of white paint and mixed them with the gold and green.
It really helped tone the color down. This room is way to small to have been able to handle the deeper yellow and green shades. But the ceiling stayed as it was and I love it!

I am now going to publish this blog and try to load some more pics. This is going to be one big
Hugger~mugger Blog!! Ta Ta!

A Couple Funnies

Sister Susi needed to send e-mails to certain groups of people and wanted some advice for titles for her folders. You know Susi is nutty-crunchy, (she says it's "earthy crunchy" but I think a lot of those people in the hill towns in Mass. are nutty!) and e-mails were of a political, organic, nutty-crunchy bent.
Here was Jim's answer to her quandry:
"You could probably separate your e-mail address book into groups, names of groups and e-mail things in chunks.
I recommend group headings: LOCAL, VOCAL, YOKEL and LOCO. Or, maybe WORK, QUIRK,
SMIRK and JERK.

                                                          THE CAT IN THE HAT
                                                                    On Aging

I cannot see
I cannot pee
I cannot chew
I cannot screw
Oh my gosh, what can I do?
My memory shrinks
My hearing stinks
No sense of smell
I look like hell
My mood is bad - can you tell?
My body's drooping
Have trouble pooping
The Golden Years have come at last
The Golden Years can kiss my ass!
                                                       

Bill and Me and A Dishcloth and A Poem

Bill's cottage on the Grand River (hope I got that right, Bill) in tucked in among trees and when the weather is rainy, the cottage can get very humid and takes a long time to "dry" out.


 Bill asked my once how he could get the musty smell out of his dishcloths. Everything I suggested didn't work. So, I suggested something in a poem.
                       
                                                     Ode About a Dishcloth
It's humid and it won't dry.
It smells and I don't know why.
Is it the food scraps that cling
Or wiping up that icky thing?
Why won't detergent make it sweet
Instead of smelling like dirty feet?
What a dilemma! A quandary for sure!
Why can't a dishcloth smell sweet and pure?
Ah me! Ah me! It smells like pee!
Do I care or give a twit
because my dishcloth smells like shit?
You are darn right I do!
I'm going out and buy some new...........
...........Dishcloths!

Dr. Who's Scarf in Feminine Colors

                                                               Picture 1

                                                                   Picture 2

                                         
                                                                Picture 3

"Dr. Who" is a BBC production - science fiction in genre - that features a character who can travel through time. A knitter picked up on a scarf Dr. Who wore, copied the colors and number of rows and put the pattern out there for all those interested in knitting forever to make the scarf! The pattern is very easy and I can easily do 12-14" of an evening. If you want more info about Dr. Who and the scarf, Wikipedia gives a concise summary of the show. Go to The Google, put in "Dr. Who's Scarf", then click on images. Check out the scarf on the man in the upper left corner. The scarf, which is fringed, goes from the floor, up around the neck in a huge loop, then back to the floor. Such fun and knitting keeps me off the street and out of the bars. And.............I can enjoy my wine while I knit!

Scarves, Scarves and More Scarves

 I have found a charming tearoom down the street that is taking my scarves to sell. I decided to take pictures and put them here. (A fly just buzzed around my computer! Yuck!)
The multi-colored one above is a Mobeuis Cowl - mobeuis meaning a continuing circle with one twist
in it. (Notice the blue dishpan in the kitchen? Must remember to look before I snap)! This yarn changes color within the skein.

This scarf, pic above and below, is made with a yarn that has balls (pompoms) every 1 1/2". You can see the yarn in the tail hanging down. Funky, eh?

 This is another cowl - no twist in this one. The yarn changes from medium pink to light pink to white.
(In the background you can see my red and black plaid library bag and blue plaid throw rug).

 My knitting friends call this scarf the Slut Scarf. :-) The material looks like red tinsel. It is fun to knit -
can do one in an evening. Only thing is - yarn is expensive and with the tearoom commission,  I don't even make enough to cover my cost. (Green coffee can is in the background).

These scarves are all knit the same way - all with the same kind of yarn - colors are different. All these scarves are laying on a wicker chair that I brought home from Joan's mobile home.
I am now going to look for pictures of a scarf I am making and put them up here. This scarf is very unusual and will need some explaining. Back soon.

A potpourri of Pictures

 I have some pictures that don't fit into any one category. I've put them all together and will say something about them as we go along. This is my son, Steve, and his lovely family. From left to right -
Janet, Steve's wife - a school teacher - wonderful mother and wife - Rio, 5, a real sweetie, Steve, my dear youngest child, Maddie, who has turned into a pretty young lady! and Nathan, who  has grown into a fine looking young man. The Pittaways live in Las Vegas, New Mexico - yes, New Mexico. It was there before the Nevada city. I went there for Janet and Steve's wedding and then again 5 years ago when Rio was born. It is a great town - there is an old neighborhood - very Spanish, Mexican, and a
new neighborhood with far less charm. It has a Wal-Mart. Need I say more?  :-)

The next two pictures were taken at Carol and Jerry's wedding. I have known Carol since 1985, when she came to judi's creative needle. She remembered Joan and me but we didn't remember her because she was younger than us and who remembers the younger kids when you are in high school?
Carol lost her husband, Bill and Jerry lost his wife, Pat, who was Carol's sister. Jerry and Carol started
seeing each other and Voila! they were married this past Saturday.

Aren't they a handsome couple!

 Many years ago I started stitching this huge sampler. It was a facsimile of a sampler done in the 1700's.
I soon lost interest in stitching on it - also thought it would cost an arm and leg to have it framed. My friend, Karla, suggested we pass the sampler around and let my stitching friends do bits of it and that way get it done. Then it disappeared! In March Karla was cleaning up her piles and piles of cross stitch and guess what she found? The sampler! We took it to Yarn Envy and asked Heather if she'd like it. She
said "yes" and it is now in her hands. I asked her to finish it in the next 10 years so I would be alive to see it.

 Remember the tree covered with snow? Here she is in full bloom, my lovely lilac tree. It is right outside my back porch and when the windows or door is open, you can smell the wonderful aroma of lilac.

I would like to introduce you to my dear friend, Marlene. I wrote of Marlene and her husband, Jim

in an earlier post. Once a month I go to Subway, get a healthy chicken sub, then to Marlene's with sub for lunch and a movie from Netflix. We sit in Marlene's "Mom's Cave" and enjoy the film and food.

One of these days I am gong to take photos of Marlene's prize-winning quilts and put them on this blog.

Joan Ackland - my sister, my friend 1931-2011

This is a picture of Joan, taken in 2010, just before she became ill. It sits in this flamingo frame that was hers. She loved flamingos - high class "flamgos", as we sisters called them - none of that plastic kind you
stick in the ground outside your house.

Joan donated her body to University of Toledo Medical Center. Every year the college has a memorial service for the families of those people who donated their bodies. I wrote a short piece about my dear sis and sent it along with this picture to be displayed at the service. This is what I said about Joan.

Joan and I were 13 months apart in age. We sometimes called ourselves "almost twins".
Joan never married but I shared my children with her and she loved them as I do. She filled her retirement years (30+ years with Ohio Bell - in Toledo - Columbus - Cleveland), playing solitaire on the computer (her favorite was free cell), watching the latest movies and reading English mysteries by her favorite authors, Ruth Rendell, Elizabeth George and P.D. James. (Notice they are all female?)
One of Joan's favorite things was making a house the personal expression of herself. When she finished decorating one she was ready to move onto another. Through the years Joan owned 8 houses.
I miss Joan very much, my beloved sister, my dear friend.
What I have put into parentheses are words I added just now.

These drawings of Joan's houses were done by our dear friend, Jim Polk. He is very well known in the Cleveland area and across the U.S. for his house portraits. Interested? let me know and I'll hook you up
 with him.
This is Joan's first Florida house - located in Cape Coral.
In the back yard was a huge avocado tree! A man came to the house one day and asked if he could pick them. He would give her x number of $s for each bushel. She sold them to him but asked him for 2 green ones that she sent home with me. Yummy, yummy!!

 
This is Joan's second house, located in Fort Myers, Florida. Notice the flora in both of these houses. Joan joined the Florida Native Plant Society and had her yards landscaped with native Florida plants.
She bought a huge generator that sat on a cement slab outside the house. She also had a double storage shed in the back yard. She had a reverse mortgage on this house and because she had to move away, ran into an unbelievable amount of trouble. (I am still dealing with the mortgage company). Sadly, the mortgage company did not look at Joan's lovely, updated house and soon the generator was stolen and then the shed. I'm sure the inside has been ravaged, too.

This is a house in Old German Village in Columbus, OH. When Joan was transferred (and probably promoted) with Ohio Bell she lived in this house, at that time broken up into 2 apartments. She eventually bought the house. It was her first purchase and she had a lot of trouble getting a loan. Loaning to a woman was unheard of and she really fought to get a mortgage. She won! In the yard was an apricot tree that produced wonderful, juicy apricots.

This house is located in Ohio City, an area much like Toledo's Old West End. Joan was transferred (and, again, probably promoted, to Cleveland) and lived with a cousin in Ohio City. One day, strolling through the neighborhood, she saw this abandoned house. She found the owner and worked with him a long time before he finally agreed to sell the house. She got it for a song!
She began to refurbish the house but..........one night three young men broke in and held her at gun point and robbed her. She quickly sold the place and moved on to................

......this house on the west side of Cleveland. I was now divorced and spent a number of weeks and week-ends here. 

After our mother died in 1982, and Joan realized she was not going to live forever, we bought a house on Main Street here in Sylvania. (The house is no longer there - was torn down for a condo site). This is the house where we lived when judi's creative needle was established. When we sold this house Joan gave the portrait to the new owners, thus no picture.

Joan moved onto a lake property that Jim never saw - and so no portrait. From the lake in Michigan, she went to Florida.

Joan became very ill in Florida and had to be on oxygen 24/7. Jim and I went to Florida to help Joan with a moving sale. She bought a trailer (manager would cringe when we said the word "trailer". He called them "manufactured homes" but they were double-wide trailers!) she immediately started to make this place her own by painting, decorating, etc. Sadly, she developed pneumonia, went to the hospital, was put on a vent, learned she would never get off the vent, went to hospice and died.

 

I wanted to share this with you viewers. Joan was such a dear sister and friend and she needs to be a part of my blog. 

TOPS Officers Election on March 26, 2012

 I belong to a weight management group - TOPS - Take Off Pounds Sensibly. I've been a member since 2007, doing my best to take it off and keep it off. Not an easy job!
In March, after offering a bribe to most of the members, I was elected leader of the group. I will now serve for a year and, if I'm stupid enough, may run for a second term.
I enjoy these ladies - 24 in all - and will do my best to help them on their weight-loss journey.

In the picture above are Penny Reder and Janice Mills, Assistant Weight Recorders, Aretta Adams, Weight Recorder, Pam Karn, Treasurer, Debbie Smith, Secretary, Sientje Vanderhoeven, Co-leader and yours truly. In this picture I have already removed my ermine cape and diamond tiara.

Here she is, Judi Pittaway, Leader of Sylvania , OH, Chapter 640.