Roses.

I don't like them. They have thorns. They seem messy. They seem too delicate and yet, at the same time, cutthroat. They seem like a flower for people who have something to hide.

When we bought this house I told Chris we were going to rip them all out. It could happen immediately, as far as I was concerned. Well, in the normal way of things around here, they were not ripped out. And they started blooming. And they became beautiful.

I still have ambivelent feelings about these roses and they may still be ripped out but for this year, at least, they have earned a reprieve.

Summertime!

Wooo Hoooo! Summer is here. Finally.

Guess what I get to start off the new season with? A cold and body aches. WTH? I am so sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Anyway, this too shall pass, right?

So here are the plans for summer:

Paint the living room
clean out the garage
set up my craft room

Those are the big ones. I have a million other little things to do but I want to really hit those hard. I'd love to have the garage done by the end of June.

Here's a quote I like.

Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.
-- Voltaire, 1694 - 1778

Totally random, eh?

I'm off to go out to dinner with girlfriends.

Kid's say the darndest things....

My youngest is 8 so you would think he would know better by now. Apparently not.

We were at a hockey game the other day and it was between periods. The teams were coming back out to their cage/area and the coaches were coming out first. Well, one of the coaches/friends/assistants was a little person.

I guess I never realized that my youngest had never seen a little person in real life. In the loudest voice he can muster he shouts out, "Hey Midget!"

OMG. I almost died. Fortunately the man didn't hear him but I am sure everyone around us did. I was trying to shush him and he was looking at me with complete innocence asking what was wrong??!

Rate My Space!!!

Disclaimer: We bought this house in January from a couple who lived here for 35 years. They took wonderful, loving care of this house and they did so many more things right than they did wrong. That said, our taste is so completely different from theirs it's as if we were born on different planets. So, thank you previous owners for your attention to detail and without further ado, on with the horror and sarcasm!

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As you will see in a moment, we have a hot tub room. Lucky us, right? I'm not so sure. I remember when we first walked into the room. C. said, "Cool, a hot tub!". I said, "OMG, what in the world?" I never even saw the hot tub for the surprise that was the decor and dh never even saw the decor.

Here's your first peek....

....WHAT. IS. THAT. thingonthewall??? That's right. You got it. A little bit of tole painting. Even has the previous owners initials. Obviously a talented painter-no question about it-but WHAT?

Here's another.....and another.....

Ummmm....I'm confused about these curtains. Are they funeral home or whorehouse? Cream with purple. But wait, it gets better.

The fake flowers on the wall. Now I love plants. I really do. But I love live plants. And for some reason I have this crazy idea that real, live plants might grow well in a hot tub room, it being humid and all but this....this is hard for me to live with. Not to mention, spiders just LOVE these.

(Oh, I forgot to add, the little butterfly at the top that is hot glued to the wall, my 8 year-old asked if it was real which makes for such a nice touch, dontcha think?)

More painting and fake flowers glued to the wall. And what's with the school-style clock by the door? Hot tub time is like margarita time, isn't it? Or vacation time or who cares time.

And finally, the door. Because the room isn't really complete without a few more sheer curtains.


Now, in complete fairness, I think my darling children bent hell out of the rod themselves by yanking on the sheers but they WILL be coming down soon so I'm not too concerned.




End slideshow-aren't you glad that part's over?
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So here's what I need from you...How do I fix this? What can I do with paint, a different type of shade/curtain/blind?, and different decor to make this a room I want to be in?


There is a ceiling mounted electrical outlet that I could plug some sort of light into if we want to. I don't know the technicalities of having lights in a room filled with water but there has to be a safe way, right? I was thinking some subtle lighting might be nicer than the two lovely 1980's candleliers we have in there now.

Any and all ideas welcome. Wait, that's not entirely true. If my friend who suggested mirrors on the ceiling (and you KNOW who you are) finds this site she will find that comments from her have been disabled. LOL.


Please help. I need it. I probably won't get to the work until this summer when I am home from school but eventually I will post with the updates if you want to click on Follow this Blog up at the top. Thanks for the help!

Living the dream...AKA sick as hell...

O.M.G. Am I going to survive? I have no idea. It's not looking too good at this point. I think the last time I felt this sick was back when I had pneumonia. Or maybe once when I had the flu and was home alone with Brandon and wished I would die.

So I have been fighting this damn cold for a week now. It's trapped between my upper chest and my nose and I am coughing up such gunk I can't even begin to describe. I know it's not pneumonia yet although the shortness of breath is starting to concern me a little.

Do I go see the doctor for another $100 doctor bill or do I just hang tough and hope it passes? I'm sure I will just wait and see what happens.

I'm actually having a little pity party for myself this weekend as the boys all went out on their first camping trip of the year and I had to stay home and miss it. Normally I love to be home alone and it's nice enough even under these circumstances but I hate to miss a chance to go camping and the first trip?! Aaaarrgghhh! Even the Chinese food I plan to get myself for dinner is not making up for the sadness I feel at missing out on this trip.

Nothing new on the crafting front. Well, not entirely true. I have a little book project going but I can't say too much about it at this point.

I guess it's back to bed for me. Lord of the Rings is on so under the covers I go to enjoy a little Aragon and friends.

Buying a home

The time has come for us to finally buy a home. It has been an absolute whirlwind. I believe it was December 7 when we went to an open house to check out a house we have been eyeing for a year. They originally wanted what we felt was too much for the house but a few weeks ago they dropped the price to a more manageable amount.

We went with the intent of just taking a look at the house. We really weren't in a buying mode, or mood. Ha. After one look at the house we thought, we HAVE to try to get this house.

Here's a picture of the house...

The house is by no means a beauty on the outside but it is so exciting on the inside.

4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a full finished basement and enough storage for 3 families! There are things to fix up, like the decor in this kitchen...

...but the house is clean as a whistle, tight as a drum and absolutely ready to move into. I will even have my own dedicated craft room.

So here we are, on the road to home ownership. In a way this helter skelter pace is best for us as if we had time to sit and ponder it we would inevitably decide it's too much or too something and not go through with it. In a sense we were jolted out of our apathy and I think that's a good thing.

Now you know what our Christmas gift is to each other. Merry Christmas to all!

Life, in general

Life has been so busy and messy lately. I am feeling a sense of melancholy and I am not sure what will fix it. I think I need a break from the day-to-day.

I also need to get my craft on. I am not doing much of anything creative and it is causing me to wilt inside.

I am heading out of town for the weekend, alone. I am hoping it will be a good chance to recharge my batteries.