My Dad, the White Male Conservative

I just wanted to introduce everyone to one of my favorite bloggers, My Dad.  http://roland-bechtel.blogspot.com/


He's just entering the blogland and he has a lot to say.  And he loves  feedback, positive or negative.  Now I will warn any of you liberals out there that his opinions will probably not agree with yours.  I must say, though, that it is still worth your reading as he is an excellent writer and may have some thoughts and ideas that you maybe haven't considered.  I'm trying to remain un-biased as I say this, but this is a good blog.  My Dad is a very intelligent man with 72 years experience on this earth, with an excellent education, and retired from a very rewarding career.  In other words, he's no dummy. 
 
If his blog is just not up your alley, please share with any bloggers you know that you feel would be interested. 

http://roland-bechtel.blogspot.com/  White Male Conservative.

Grandma's Things in My Cottage

I hope I'm not too late for Showing off My Cottage Monday

hosted by Cielo at House in the Roses. http://houseinroses.blogspot.com/ I just came across her site and it's beautiful and it just so happened I had some things to show in my cottage today. 
I have a small problem getting rid of things that have belonged to my grandmothers or my mother.  One grandmother has passed, my other grandmother is very ill and in the nursing home, and my mother is alive and well and lives three miles away from me.  She also has a darling cottage that she should show off.  Anyway, I inherited (or took because I liked it and they gave it to me) several things from my grandmothers and my mother.  These are items that either have a sentimental meaning to me or I think they are so pretty I can't bear the thought of it going to Goodwill or Salvation Army, or worse yet, the garbage dump. 

This rocking chair may have actually been a great-grandmother's at one time.  It's been refurbished and re-upholstered and I keep making room for it somewhere.  It's been in several different rooms in my house.  It's now in my living room.  Then on the little stand beside the chair is a vase and  covered dish that I always loved in Grandma Lenora's house.  They are in excellent condition.

This Lennox coin crystal set was Grandma Lenora's.  Isn't it beautiful?  She specifically told me months before she went into the nursing home that I was to have this.  I have it in my dining room.  I will never get rid of this.  I use and display every piece.

Not only is this a beautiful painting, it's of Grandma Lenora, my dad on the left, and my deceased uncle on the right.  I always loved this picture, but I just recently learned of the story behind it, which makes it even more special.  When Grandpa was in Japan during WW11, away from his beautiful family, he had this photo in his wallet and asked a Japanese artist to paint this from the photo. 

Now this little couple, Pinky and Blue Boy, Grandma Lenora made in a ceramics class years ago.  I just remember them being in her bedroom forever and I couldn't stand to get rid of them when we were cleaning out her house. 

Their colors match my tea room, so that's where they now stand.

More ceramics I couldn't get rid of.  They stand beside my plants in my dining room.

This was a cross stitch done by my Grandma Peg.  My mother and I had to keep this, so it hangs above this curio cabinet at the bottom of my basement stairs.

The curio and everything in it was Grandma Lenora's. 

My basement is a finished room that I now call my Grandma room.  I think everything in this room came from my grandmother's and my mother. 

This couch and chair must be over 50 or 60 years old.  It's beautiful maple wood that we had refurbished, and just recently my mother had the cushions re-upholstered.  These ugly red plaid ones were not only ugly but in very bad condition.

Isn't that better?  The Tiffany style floor lamp was also grandma's.

There's a lot more, but I think I'll save for another day for another cottage tour. 

Go For the Green

If you ask me my favorite color, I don't think green would be my answer.  But it must be.  I can hardly do any type of re-decorating in my house without using green of any shade.  It just always seems to be what I gravitate toward.  Now My Bob's office is blue, and the guest bathroom/My Bob's office bathroom is blue, but I'm hardly every in those rooms.  I think every other room has green in it.  It may be pink and green, or gold and green, or possibly a teal green, but I can't seem to get away from it.  It feels comfortable and homey to me.

This is when it really became clear.  I've been wanting to take down the off-white scarves that have been at my kitchen windows for over five years.  As long as we've lived here.  I wanted a change.

Click to enlarge.

 I thought I would get some beige or tan valances instead.  That's what I went to Lowe's to buy.  And that's what I looked at.  But then I saw some green plaid.  I tried to ignore them.  I asked Bob's opinion and he didn't have one.  I picked up the tan ones.  I put them back.  I went back to the green ones and tried to walk away again.  I couldn't do it.  So I picked one up.  Then I buckled under.  They would be perfect.  The place mats are green, gold and dark red plaid.  These would match.  The living room curtains, right next to the kitchen, are also green, gold and dark red plaid.  That goes.  The kitchen wallpaper has green leaves in it.  Check.  I couldn't resist.  They were perfect.

So I picked up new rods and couldn't wait to get home as this was going to be a free Friday project.  As in "free" time, not "free" as in cost. Now go back to the 2nd kitchen picture above and notice the time on the clock.  11:45 am.  That's when I started.  Keep in mind, as with everything, I'm slow.  I clean as I go.  Had to take down the old scarves and put them in the wash.  They are now going on the downstairs windows.  Take down the old hardware, dust and clean above all the windows since I'm up on a ladder and can see the dirt, put up five sets of new hardware, iron five new valances (which, by the way, turned out to be very nice fabric and lined), hang the valances, arrange all the pleats and folds until I felt they were perfect.  I was down to the last one and had to take My Bob to pick up his car that was at the garage getting a check up.  Since I had no time to cook dinner we picked up Chinese to bring home.  I hung up the last curtain and then had to move the clock a little higher.

So now what do you think?

Notice the time on the clock.  7:15.  Bob said he would never pay me by the hour.  Yea, but I do a good job.  Do you want quick or do you want good?

I love them.  They fit the feel and theme of my home much better.  They make my kitchen feel so much cozier, without blocking any of the view or light (on rare days that we have sun).

A few days ago I also got my St. Patrick's decorations out.  I don't have many at all, but again, since they are green I like to have them out.

My foyer entrance table.

Dining room with light green tablecloth topped with a shiny shamrock covered cloth and my shamrock doll.

Shamrock stained glass hanging by the front porch.  It was buried in snow, but we're getting a little bit of melt off right now. 

And that's all I have.  Besides exchanging out any pink candles from Valentine's to green candles. 

Oh, I also finished a new Spring/Easter egg cup pincushion.  It's up on my Etsy site.

I love when I have stay at home days all to myself.  Then I have fun doing these things I love to do.

Competitions- Olympics, American Idol, & Jewelry

I did it!  I managed to watch both the Olympics and American Idol last night.  Even without TiVO or a DVR.  I did it the old fashioned way by switching back and forth from 9-10 pm.  I may have missed some bits and pieces of both, but I didn't miss anything major.
First, the Olympics.

This was probably the biggest night so far.  Gold medals won by Lindsey Vonn for downhill skiing, Shaun White for snowboarding, and Shani Davis for speed skating.  Then Julia Mancuso won a silver medal for downhill skiing, right behind Lindsey, and Chad Hedrick won a bronze for speed skating with Shani.  And my favorite, Apolo Ohno, he is so cute, qualified for the finals on short track.  I don't think those finals are until next week. This was so exciting.  I love to hear the personal stories behind the athletes.  How their parents worked several jobs to be able to afford to keep their child in their sport and how they drove their child hours and hours to practices.  The injuries, the training schedules, etc.  This is the real thing in reality TV.  Now tonight USA's Evan Lysacek goes against Russia's Plushenko in men's ice skating.

Then for an hour I had to switch back and forth to American Idol. 

 They were picking the top 24 and I couldn't miss it.

And keep in mind that I was also making a new pincushion while watching both shows, and two dogs laying beside me.  Talk about multi-tasking!

Anyway, my favorite picks from the very beginning are still in:  Casey James, the cute, long blond hair guy; Andrew Garcia, the father that wants this so bad to give his family a better life; Big Mike, whose wife had their first baby during Hollywood week; and Crystal Bowersox, the mother of a baby boy,  Janis Joplin/Carol King look alike.  I also like Lacey Brown, Siobhan Magnus, and Todrich. 

I feel so bad for those that made it up to this point and then told they weren't going any further.  Oh, I just wanted to cry with them.  I understand that Ellen is going to have a few of these talented people on her show that were cut already from American Idol.  I know not everyone is a fan of Ellen, but I think she's great.

This last competition is a little closer to home and one we can all enter.  It's a $5,000 jewelry sweepstakes by LuShae Jewelry that I'm helping to promote. 

You can enter here:  http://www.jewelryartdesigns.com/jewelry-jad.asp?p=Win-Jewelry&xref=newagegrandma.blogspot.com

 for the $5,000 in cash, and by entering you also receive a 15% discount on any jewelry order.  The jewelry is very pretty and not expensive at all.  You'll also see links on my sidebar.  Good luck!

I'll keep you updated on all of the above.

Valentine's Weekend is Over!

Thank goodness it's Monday.  These weekends  lately have not been relaxing at all.  This was a good weekend, with the kids here and Valentine's Day, but I'm glad it's over.  I love having them all here, but they do wear me out.
Friday night we had a pizza and wing dinner.  Not very nutritious, but who cares, it was a Friday night.  Then we had our ice cream sundaes with hot fudge, whipped cream and valentine sprinkles.  May as well have all the junk in one sitting.
Saturday, Melissa and I spent the whole day at their old house and we got the main house all clean.  Now this week the carpenter man is supposed to come to make a few minor repairs.  Austin showed up after dropping the boys off at a friend's house to play and he got everything moved out of the guest house and into the garage.  I was so tired by the end of the day I told them they were on their own for Sunday's cleaning of the guest house.
Sunday I stayed home with the boys and made a roast and mashed potatoes dinner.  Austin and Melissa came back home with a pretty little flower arrangement for me for Valentine's Day and to thank me for everything. 

Isn't it sweet?  I really appreciated that.

 We had a very nice dinner with them before they went home.
Those boys are so busy and loud, but we can't help but laugh at them.  They just come up with the funniest things.   Logan spent the day watching Cartoon Network with a movie marathon going all day.  He watches a lot of TV and his mom and dad really limit his television time during the week.  Bob asked him why he was such a TV kid and his reply was, "Because when I was in my Mommie's bellie I watched TV in there".  Now where in the world did that come from?  We laughed so hard.  It makes you wonder what all goes on in those cute little heads of their's.  Then Austin came home with a whoopie cushion for Landen because he's going through a phase right now where he's just obsessed with poop and farts.  It seems like that's all he talks about.  And I guess we all don't do much to discourage it because he's so funny about it.  Austin put the whoopie cushion on Landen's chair as we were sitting for dinner and he got the biggest kick out of it.  So then he thought he was "surprising" the rest of us with it as he put it on each of our chairs.  Of course we acted like he was tricking us all. 
The boys got their bath and pajamas on for the ride home and then they just had fun blowing up the whoopie cushion and sitting on it themselves as I finished cleaning the dining room and kitchen.

Today I took all the Valentine decorations down, which also got rid of all remnants of Christmas that was still hanging around.  The Valentine tree was completely taken down and put away.

I was ready to see it gone.

All the other Valentine decorations are put away.

All gone. 

                                

The only thing left hanging is my Valentine quilt.  I don't have a St Patrick's quilt and my Easter one will go up shortly.  I may just leave this up for another month.  I'll have to think about it.  It'll probably bug me, though, so I'll have to find something else to go up for a while.

Mom and Dad also got back safe and sound from Florida.  Now everything seems all back to normal again.

I'm looking forward to a quiet evening of Olympics and knitting.  Uhhhhh!