Saturday Shopping: Flea-o-logy

I have to share what we did on Saturday--we drove 85 miles to Payson, Utah, for the Flea-o-logy Flea Market!  I had three kids that wanted to come (three stayed home with daddy), so we made a day of it.  We went from a flea market to IKEA to Pottery Barn to Restoration Hardware—we really covered the whole spectrum!

ANYway, I didn’t remember to take along my camera, so imagine my surprise when the Flea-o-logy blog included this picture:

The three chicklets looking at the metal toilet plunger (what IS that thing?) are mine, and so is lovely pink…back. 

Then I also noticed we made an appearance on the Pollyanna Reinvents blog (she’s one of the creators of Flea-o-logy):

I hate to admit it, but I didn’t buy…much. I am *terrible* at making snap decisions, so I tend to make no decisions at all! The things I thought I couldn’t live without—were always in other people’s arms!

I adore just “looking” though, whether or not I buy anything.

How about you?  Are you a flea market fan?

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Pottery a Play and a Purchase

Our daughter in-law Jamie has been taking pottery classes since January and is now going to start her own business and sell her products - I'd love to show you the Santa she made but they are going to be signed and numbered and then no more will be made.

Her instructor loves her work so much and has led her to this point - she has a high end Artisan's Show lined up for her and wants her to have the Santa's there - she’ll be asking a good price for them so you know the kind of clientele that comes to this show (I won't be there to purchase, but will be for support for sure).

She brought Two bowls over this weekend - she said I could have my pick and when I saw the dark Aqua Blue one I knew it was mine and after looking at the Tan one I started liking it too - so she gave them both to me - Jamie is like that...just so darned sweet.

Isn't the color and glaze pretty? This one measures 10 x 3-1/2

 

And see why I loved the Tan one too...I love how she scraped the sides of this one.
This one measures 9 x 3

Quite awhile ago when she first started she brought over 4 small bowls - Two for sauces/salsa or whatever and then Two scalloped edge for kitty dishes.

On our way to Janesville to visit my aunt we stopped at an antique/thrift shop and knew from looking that we weren’t going to find much of anything but stuffed under a small table was a stool…I really don’t know why I pulled it out but the legs caught my eye.  Glad I did because it’s wonderful…it’s old and it’s worn but quite sweet – I love the needlepoint top.  And the good part was…it was only $12.00

Friday night we went to our Granddaughter Emily’s school play.  She was one of 3 Cheshire cats...not sure why there were 3 parts to the cat but she was the middle part.
The entire cast did a wonderful job and it was a lively and fun play.  Em’s last one though as she will be graduating 8th grade in June...hopefully she can continue in high school.

Emily is in the middle in all the pictures
I love this one…

They made signing autographs fun, easy and productive!


Joe had a baseball game at the same time as her play so Brett and Heather were out behind the school for his game while grandpa and I were inside for the opening night…had to get a picture of Joe in his uniform when he got home.

Hope you are all having a great week…started out rainy here but turning out nice – the rest of the week is to be wonderful. 
Blessing to you all
Karen

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Office Project: 3D rendering & more!

I know this is going to sound utterly ridiculous—but I have worked on SO many little (and not-so-little) home projects over the past couple of weeks that the prospect of “blogging” about them is overwhelming!  I think that’s why I like furniture—each one is a discrete project with a beginning, middle, and end.  It makes it much easier to write about!

So I’m going to try and break things up a little, rather than remain silent any longer!  Believe it or not, the office project is actually on-going!  When last we visited this project, I was in the room-planning stage (see here).

I shared my “design” here, as follows:

…and Sheri from Sean’s Woodworking (a local furniture builder in Salt Lake City) turned my little sketch into a 3D drawing:

Isn’t that amazing? 

As you can see, we made one minor change, which is trading the drawer bank with the cupboard where the printer will go.  It seemed to make more sense to keep the CPU and the printer next to each other.  I also gave up on the seeded glass (it’s expensive!), but other than that, its pretty true to my “vision.”

While the desk is being built, my job was to set up the front room with Internet access—would you believe it’s the ONLY room in the house without a phone jack??—and to move an outlet from where it would have been covered by the desk.

That was a big deal!

You-Tube and a wonderful friend (Zack’s dad) were invaluable in figuring out those projects!  A You-Tube video helped me learn how to remove--and replace--our vinyl siding so we could daisy-chain a new phone jack off of the adjacent room’s jack.  It was a (fairly) simple matter of running the wires underneath the siding rather than through the walls.

Rather than splicing electrical wires, we were able to remove the old outlet box and just “stretch” the wires to a new box.  They were just long enough to give me the six inches I needed!

I was left with some pretty funky holes from that job, so I turned to You-Tube again to learn how to patch dry-wall.  As you can see by all the screws, I attached short pieces of wood to the existing dry-wall, and then used them to anchor the patches.

Don’t laugh.  It works!

Next step was to tape…

…and mud everything.  I think I used two coats of joint compound.

Then I had to figure out how to give some matching “orange-peel” texture to the patch.  I used an old terry-cloth washrag and “pounced” more joint compound onto the wall.  I can’t say it was perfectly successful—but good enough for me!

But the best part is that the new wall treatment hides my patching job very well. 

Want a peek?

More to come!

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Cinco de Mayo and Kentucky Derby Day Today - So Much to Celebrate

Cinco de Mayo and Kentucky Derby Day together in one day is an occasion to celebrate! The employment news may be discouraging (again) and the economy might be showing signs of sagging, but it's the weekend at last! Whether you're making a batch of Pico de Gallo, some peel and eat shrimp, a masterful margarita, cilantro salsa or a mint julep for the occasion, do something special.

I have some

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Want to get away?

It's that time again and this is a goodie!

And.........one of the attendees will receive free airfare, will it be you?!

Coming shortly, information on a France tour late September, hoping to meet you!
xo
Debra

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Small Space Gardening

I wanted to touch base with everyone.  The weather is getting warmer here, and I can see this is going to be a big year for pruning and weeding the garden (peonies, roses, holly, comfrey, lilacs, hedges).  I'm getting behind in my landscape maintenance chores, which is a bear, especially when it means the climbing roses are staking a claim to just about everything they can reach (which is a lot

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Trying something new...

Normally I publish my posts through Windows Live Write and have NO PROBLEMS at all...not a single one...but...so many of my friends are having problems posting through Blogger so I thought I'd give it a try this morning.
So hang in there with me if this post is a jumbled up mess - frustration is not my friend...I give up too easily in some areas if it's a problem.


If some of you remember my last living aunt is very ill...well, she's ill, but not in a nursing home or hospital - she's living at home and my brother and sister in-law are her caregivers and basically pulled up stakes and moved in with her until her time her is done.
The hospice nurse said possibly a month - but being around Aunt Eve you would think longer.


Doug and I try and go there a couple times a week and relieve them so they can get some alone time as she can't be left alone so they are at the house either one at a time or together.


Yesterday we went for a visit and we all had a pizza supper and a good time chatting.
Normally Aunt Eve talks about old times.


Last night when we were on our way home my sil called us and said Aunt Eve said after we left that 'Ruth took the paper plates outside" - we had a laugh at that but it's really not so funny because Ruth was my mother and she has been gone for 44 years now  - the two of them were very close - the nurse said things like this are a sign of the end...relating to family members that have gone before them, actually thinking it is them there.
But we had a good time as always.

So far composing this beast of a post my line brakes did not cooperate with me I see....


That's all I'm going to post today as this is just a test.
For sure I'm using Windows Live Writer after this test as I had a difficult time getting photos to land in the correct spot.


Karen

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