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.