Changes

"The only thing constant in life is change".  I don't know who that's a quote from, but it's true.  And it's also true that the older you get, the harder it is to want to or accept change.  That's true for me in some ways, such as my routines, habits, and schedules.  When it comes to decorating, remodeling, or re-arranging furniture, I'm all for it. I just did a major clean of my bedroom and decided to move this antique rocking chair from my living room to this corner of my bedroom.

This rocking chair was sitting in front of my doors going out onto my back deck.  Those doors don't get used in the winter.  Now in anticipation of Spring and Summer that door is used all day long, so the chair needed to be moved.  I believe this chair was my great grandmother's and has been re-glued and re-finished and re-upholstered by a couple different members of the family.  It's finally ended up with me and I love it!
And notice where the necklace hangar is on the wall next to the rocker?  I want to get some sort of small shelving unit for the wall to house my growing collection of little boxes.

Sometimes they are called Limoges boxes, although they are not true Limoges from France.  My mother has given me most of these.  These are now sitting on my dresser but are starting to take up too much room.  Aren't they cute?

And here's another update on the powder room remodel. I love this change!  Hubby finally got the chandelier up yesterday.  I stood by as the go-fer and the sounding board for his frustration, but he did it and I love it.

Everything is coming together so nicely in my little bathroom!  We're now just waiting for the sink countertop to come in and then we can finish.  I'm hoping next weekend it will be done.

This past Saturday my DIL gave my son (her husband) a surprise party for his 30th. For some reason, this seems like a major change in my life!  I don't know why it affects me, but it's a milestone for him and me.  I just can't believe I'm the mother of a 30 year old!  Anyway, he was surprised.  His wife did a great job.  His boys wanted him to have a super hero cake and they helped him blow out his candles.

I finally finished knitting the black hoody sweater that he requested from me two years ago!  I have to be honest, it was not my most favorite knitting project.  Black is very hard to work with because it's so hard to see.  It turned out just OK as far as I'm concerned, but he seemed to like it.

(It looks crooked in this picture because he has the top and bottom buttons unbuttoned)

Yesterday, the weather was so nice here, about 78 degrees! Believe me, this is a huge change around here.  Monday is normally my house cleaning day, but I just had to get outside a little bit to add a few flowers.  It's still too early here for real flowers, but I put out fake ones in the upstairs window boxes and on the bench in front of my bedroom window.

I still have a lot of work to do outside.  You can see all the old fall leaves left over on the mulch.  Everything just still looks very brown and dirty.  No leaves are out on the trees yet, but I did notice the buds starting to come out on my rhododendron bushes.

These will be a beautiful purple landscape in the front of the house in another few weeks.
By the way, this warm weather lasted one day.  Yesterday was freezing and rainy and today it's 43 degrees!  Back to inside work.

The most recent change I made yesterday.  I had grown my hair out a little bit but it was really starting to bug me.  The bangs were long and constantly falling in my face and I'm "blessed" to have thick, coarse hair and it tends to get very heavy and flat on top.

This is the "before".  It looks OK in this picture but it didn't look like this most of the time.  I even had the color lightened up a little yesterday.

Here's the "after".  It feels so good!  I woke up this morning and it still looks exactly like this.  Awww! No more smoothing and moisturizing products and flat irons to straighten.  I just didn't want to take the time for that every day.  Oh, I'm also wearing another new necklace I made.

Change can be a good thing!


I'm linking for the first time today to A Beach Cottage - Good Life Wednesday
Also to Cindy's Show and Tell Friday
And Alison's Friday's Unfolded

A Lot Can Happen in the Middle of the Night

Last night was a rough night!  I have a head cold that really isn't that bad during the day, but as soon as I get ready to go to bed at night I start to get all clogged up and then I start to cough.  Drainage!  Yuk!  I seemed to get to sleep last night fine, but at 1:00 a.m. I started a coughing fit that just wouldn't quit.  To the point of gagging and my stomach muscles were so sore!   I got out of bed so that I could breath and to try to not keep Hubby awake all night.  I went upstairs to my sewing room and turned on the TV.  Surprisingly there's quite a bit on all during those wee hours.  Not like the old days when all that be on would be the station's big  test circle.   The coughing finally calmed down, but then I seemed to be wide awake.  I watched HGTV and then Tru TV and finished knitting a beaded necklace and started a new one.  These have been my new creative obsession lately.

This is the one I finished last night.  I started putting charms on them.  Here's one of the first ones I made without a charm.

I like using yarn with a metallic thread running through it.  It just gives it more of a jewelry look.

This is another style I've also been working on, along with a cuff bracelet.

I have a few of these on my Etsy site here.

Finally at about 5:30 am I started to get tired and felt like I could finally lay my head down without coughing to death.  I slept until 9:00.  Surprisingly, I felt pretty good today.  If I could get by with that every night I could get so much accomplished from 1:00 to 5:30 every morning!

My first thought when I woke this morning was about my oldest son, Austin.  He turns 30 years old today!  I just can't believe I have a child that old.  I still feel like I'm 30!  Well, sometimes.  When I'm feeling better!
Here's my oldest baby walking me down the aisle at my younger son's (his brother's)  wedding about 2-1/2 years ago.

Isn't he handsome?  I'm so proud of him!  Now he's a wonderful husband and father of three.  Oh how time flies!

Now here's the strange part of my story.  It struck me as kind of strange, coincidental, funny anyway.  At exactly 12:55 a.m. 30 years ago, Austin was born.  I remember at about 5:30 a.m., 30 years ago I was finally able to sleep for a couple of hours.  Once that thought struck me, I got all goose bumpy!  Just a coincidence?  For some reason, I just don't think so.

Linked to Alison's Friday's Unfolded

So - What Do You Do All Day?

I get asked this question quite a bit.   I decided about seven years ago, at the age of 46, to sell my insurance business and stay home to work with my husband at his home office and his financial planning business.  I now work from home part time for him and do his marketing, advertising, and computer work.  So I tease, and when people ask what I do, I tell them I'm just Bob's trophy wife!  Yea, right!!

It has always been a dream of mine to be able to stay home.  I had a stay at home mother and she always encouraged me to work, have a career, and be able to support myself.  So I did.  But deep down I envied those mothers and women that were able to stay home.  I loved my career for many years, but I always wanted to be like June Cleaver.  I love homemaking, decorating, cooking, and just making a house a home.  I guess I've been very fortunate in being able to have both lifestyles.  I'm now a SAHW (Stay At Home Wife) and a SAHG (Stay At Home Grandma), and I love my life.   I'm busier than ever.  That's the part people don't understand.  Just because you don't work outside the home doesn't mean that you're not productive and contributing.  I know Hubby wouldn't be as good at what he does if I didn't do all that I do.  I could go on and on about this point, but I won't right now.

This is what I do.

My little office space in my kitchen, where I work my job for my Hubby two to three days a week.  And see the hand weights sitting there?  I'll do arm curls while I'm sitting and waiting for a download or something to print.  I'm the queen of multi-tasking!

Then there's the laundry

And the ironing.  Yes, I iron.  I still wash and iron all Hubby's work shirts, and I even iron my sheets. 

I clean all the floors



and dust.

Clean the toilets.  I have four of them.

Once a week I clip and print coupons and go through the store's specials and make up my grocery list. I cook dinner usually five or six nights a week.  We try to eat fairly light and healthy, so we don't like to go out to eat too much.   Every Wednesday I keep open for all my errands.  I really hate to have to leave the house any other weekday or I just can't get everything done.

Then there are my babies that go to the door every few hours and need to go out!  Little Fergie doesn't always wait for me to let him out, if you know what I mean!  He's such a little stinker!

This past couple of weeks we've also been remodeling our powder room.  I showed you the progress up to last week here.

Here's an update:

I got the towel ring and toilet paper holder up.  They are oil rubbed bronze and will go well with the decor. and sink and faucet that aren't in yet.

I just hung the new valance this morning.  It goes perfect with the paint and art work.

I found this crackled copper vase and filled it with thiss smell good stuff that I can't think of the name of right now (senior moment).  I love the smell and the colors were perfect.

I haven't even mentioned my hobbies that I keep busy with in the evenings and in my spare time.  I'm going to have to designate a separate post to show you what I've been up to with my knitting and quilting.  I've been pretty busy lately in this area.  I have a lot of new creations to show.  There's also my blogging and Etsy hobby. 

Then, of course, there's a lot of time spent with my family including my parents, my son and his family that live nearby and my precious grandchildren. 

So there.  I'm busy with almost every minute of my day filled but it's filled doing everything I love!  There aren't enough hours in a day for me and I can luckily say that I am never bored! 

Aren't trophy wives supposed to just be pampered all day and sit around eating bon bons?  Not this trophy wife!

Linking this post to Cielo's Show Off Your Cottage Monday

Powder Room Remodel

I've been waiting for this for six years!  Not a new diamond ring!  Not a nice fancy new outfit!  Not a new car!  But a remodeled little powder room.  Isn't it funny how priorities change over the years.  I love to be creative and this extends to the remodeling and decorating of my home.  I not only like it to be nice and new and clean, but I like it to be a little different.  I like someone to walk into the room and say, "Wow, that's so different.  How did you do that?  Where did you get that idea?"

My little powder room is original to the house and still has the old builder's grade materials.  I've worked with it this way and tried to make it as "cute" as I could.  I sort of had ideas in my head as to what I wanted to do and knew it wasn't going to be real cheap or easy, as most remodels aren't.  So I waited.  Now the time has come.  I knew what I wanted and I set to work on finding the pictures that were in my head.  It's still a work in progress, but as promised in yesterday's post,  I'll show you the development so far.

To start with, here are the before pictures.

Notice the solid green walls.  This was also the ceiling color.  This counter top just grated on my eyes.   I hated it!  And the vanity is just plain and cheap grade.

I did what I could.

I had replaced the plain sheet of glass mirror that had been up and I am going to keep this new mirror.  I also like my little ceramic plaque that says "powder room".  But that ugly light bar above the mirror was also something that grated on me.

Hubby and I got to work last week taking down the hardware and fixtures and removing the old countertop.  I decided to keep the vanity because I had a plan in my head for that.  Of course, nothing is as easy and quick as you think it's going to be.

When the old light bar was taken down the hole left behind was huge.  This is the base of the new light fixture to show that there is no way it's going to cover up this mess.

In the meantime, I was able to hire my wonderful talented friend, Brenda, that does faux painting and murals.  She was able to squeeze me into her busy schedule and was coming last Friday.  So now we had to get the holes fixed by Thursday night.

Hubby worked into the evening but of course he had to turn the electric off in the bathroom and was working by lamp light.  I know he was frustrated but gave me an encouraging smile anyway!

It was coming along.  I knew it didn't have to be absolutely smooth and perfect because of the painting that was going to be done.

In the meantime, the week before last, we had ordered the countertop

and copper sink (This was the floor sample that had been dropped and is bent.  Ours will be new, of course)

Brenda came in Friday morning and she also had done my foyer shown here.  She knows me and the style I was going for.  I wasn't able to be home on Friday, so I described the pictures that were in my head as to how I wanted this tiny little bathroom to look.  I wanted  Tuscan style, with leaves and vines, but no flowers.  I wanted to keep the green walls but a lighter shade with a Tuscan wash, and I showed her pictures of the counter sample and sink.  We also already have the darling little chandelier that is going up, so she was able to see that.  Brenda is amazing.  I came home Friday night and it's just like she got into my head and could see the pictures that were in there!

This is now the wall and area above the mirror where the new light fixture is going to connect.

I had also pointed out to Brenda a little cupboard that sits in my hallway on the other end of this bath and told her I wanted the vanity to look something like that.

And this is what she did!

Similar but with no flowers.  Exactly what I wanted.

And notice the wooden feet she bought and put under the bottom lip.  Perfect!

Brenda is coming back tomorrow just for a few touch ups.  She had also run out of light while working and missed a few spots.  I hope tonight Bob has time to get the new light up.  We expect the new fixtures to come in next week.  I'll keep you updated!

Linking to Cielo's Show Off Your Cottage Monday.
Alison's Fridays Unfolded
Cindy's Show and Tell Friday

Keeping Life Good and Less Difficult

This is the page of my Mary Englebreit calendar for next week.  When I turned the page today, this struck me that it is so true and I feel like most of the time this is how I try to live my life.  As a woman, mother, wife and grandmother, this is probably true for most.

This was the case for this weekend for me.  My son and his wife had volunteered to take the pictures of the church members for their church directory.  They are both photographers for the Air Force.  Hubby and I offered to pick the three kids up and keep them with us for the weekend since their mom and dad were going to be busy the whole weekend.  As always, it's great to be with the grandchildren, but you all know how hard it is to get anything else done.  It's worth it!

Leanna is crawling now so a bottle at least keeps her in one place for a little while.

Landen plays a lot with little character figurines.   Yesterday he talked (conned) his Grandpa Bobby into buying him some new Batman characters.

Logan finally, reluctantly, left his Wii game long enough to eat a few pancakes.  He was also doing some building with Kinex.  He's very good at building things.

This is what kept us very busy all weekend.  The week had also been very busy with work.  I was putting together mailings and presentation folders for Hubby.  We also started the remodel project on our main floor powder room.  This has been on my project list for about six years now.  I knew what I wanted to do wasn't going to be cheap, so I had to wait a while.   My next post tomorrow will show the progress so far.  I'm very excited about it.

A few weeks ago I wrote a post here about whether to go back to work doing something other than what I already do which is actually quite a bit for my Hubby's Financial Planning business.  I have since answered my own question.  NO WAY!  At least for now.  What was I thinking!?  I certainly have enough going on without piling something else on. I don't need to make things difficult for myself, as I'm trying and loving making life less difficult for others.  I'm happy just the way things are!