Cheval Mirror

Dear Perfect Cheval Mirror-

I dreamed of you, but did not think I would ever find one exactly like you, at least not in my price range! But mark my words: on payday, you shall be mine!

And finally I will be able to see my whole outfit in the morning, right down to the shoes!

I found my perfect mirror for the new bedroom at Lowes!

p.s. Prepare yourself for golden retriever nose prints.

It Only Took Two Years...

The back bedroom has finally had it's makeover. Ta-da! I can't believe I started clearing out this room back in November 2009. Then we dropped the ball. Then the room accumulated more junk. And we were pretty much back at square one.

Well, all that changed this summer. Sadly, our favourite mattress store has closed it's doors for ever. But we did get a terrific bargain on a king size foam mattress. That was motivation enough for me to get moving again.

I cleared the room out in a matter of days, and my lovely friends Marc, Josh and Kolby spent an entire Saturday helping me paint.

I didn't have the heart to tell them that I hated the first color I picked out- too little boy's room blue. Sunday morning found me at Sherwin-Williams, picking out another color. I settled on Drizzle, in case anyone is interested. It was my first instinct, but I chickened out and went lighter. Lesson learned.

So, Lewis and I spent the next two weeks repainting and trying to make all the edges nice and crisp. No small job, as anyone who has ever applied the zillionth coat of paint to plaster in an old house knows. Oliver kept us company. And his bone kept him out of the blue paint.

Finally, we were done. We were able to set up the frame and the mattress, move the dressers back in and then I got down to the fun stuff. Decorating.

Here is my continually evolving design board. As you know if you've been following along, I have the dressers. I also have lamps very much like these two. I purchased the cotton coverlet from WalMart and ordered the ceiling fan through amazon.

I've been trolling etsy to find a seashell wreath like the one above. So far they've been too expensive. I may end up crafting my own. The two doggie prints are from etsy as well.

I'll probably have to wait until next summer to order the sheet sets from L.L. Bean, since they've sold out for the season.

Obviously we need a headboard and we have not yet installed the new fan. That will probably change the lighting in the room. Curtains have yet to be finalized. Lots of little items yet to be settled.

Whew. Well, that's all for today. Maybe some more details in the future.

Just Because We've Been Quiet Doesn't Mean We Haven't Been Busy!

Can anyone guess what is happening here? This is just a sneak peak. More to follow soon!

Big 'Ole Pile of Dirt

Hello all! Blogger is back, we're back, all is good.

We did have a few minor projects this winter, I'm sure I'll get around to telling you about them eventually. Nothing too exciting.

But for now, we are working in the yard. Last week we had a yard of garden soil delivered.

Oli is longing to dig into all that dirt!

This helped us bulk up the garden beds along the house, and gave us more to work with to create a slope away from the house. Which in turn should helps keep the basement a little more dry. We hope.

Lewis sent me that picture during the day, and I went home expecting to be moving dirt around all evening, but guess what? He had it all done! Amazing.

This coming Saturday we are meeting with a landscaper. I'm so excited. He said he can work with us, come up with a grand plan that we can do in stages. That's just what I need. I've been tinkering with this yard for 7 summers now, and quite frankly, I just don't know what I'm doing.

Two years ago mom and I started to move large rocks and cement rubble to the narrow side between the house and the factory's fence, but I said stop. We don't know if we are doing the right thing or making it worse. We have such a steep slope, and I want a professional to tell me what needs to be done to correct that and make yard maintenance easier. I'll let you know what happens.

Oliver's Recovery

Oliver, modeling his donut pillow. A wonderful alternative to the cone. This one is the Kong Cloud collar. He's tolerating it pretty well. We practiced for several days before the surgery. Short times, loads of praise and high-value treats made it all worthwhile. By the night before his surgery, he even fell asleep on his side wearing it.
The vet was pleased with his surgery yesterday. They were able to remove all the lumps and are sending them for testing, but he seemed positive that everything would be alright. He did say Oliver has a high likely hood of getting more of these fatty lumps in the future. Yeah. We kind of figured that.

They removed a hardened piece of earwax from his eardrum and we are hopeful that it was the cause of all his ear problems over the past few months.

And finally, his teeth got a cleaning and are now pearly white. Oli says more butcher bones will help keep his teeth clean. And truly, a $1 bone from the butcher does a better job than any of the expensive teeth cleaning chewies on the market.

The vet techs said he was a very good patient. He was very cooperative and sweet.

Here he is today, fast asleep, recovering from yesterday. He has six shaved spots, one from the IV and the other five have stitches where they removed the lumps.

He was happy to be home with us last night. Even happier to finally get some water and small meals. He's been so good that we haven't even had to use the special collar!

Ever Wonder What Oliver Looks Like Under All That Hair?

Here is my hairy golden retriever. He normally look like this, or even more hairy. But, he is having surgery next week to have a few lumps removed (nothing to worry about!) And those lumps are difficult to find under all that hair. We definitely don't want to put him through surgery only to miss one, so we took him to the groomer to get an extreme summer haircut. Now he looks like this.

Can you believe that's the same doggie? You can really see the yellow lab in him. He looks so skinny! In fact, he lost 2 pounds!

Snow Season

Hi, all. We're still here, we've just gone into winter hibernation. Not much to report right now, but hopefully things will pick up in the spring. For now we are just trying to keep warm. We've been working with Oliver off leash, which is easier in the snow because he tires himself out by leaping and bounding everywhere!See? He doesn't make footprints as much as body prints.

White Beauty Tomatoes

Well, these made quite the impression. I can't remember what they tasted like at all. (So much for documenting and reporting- sorry!)Lewis says they were very meaty and delicious. They were easy to slice and had a wonderful aroma to them. They did seem to take forever to ripen. I do remember that they were very heavy, solid.

Burgess Stuffer Tomatoes

This tomato was a real surprise. I hadn't really though to pick a tomato solely for the purpose of stuffing, but it suddenly seemed like a great idea when I was plant shopping.

And it turned out to be a pretty good decision. Although we wound up with more of these guys than we could eat or give away. Our one Burgess Stuffer plant produced so many of tomatoes. This pink punch bowl probably holds about 20 tomatoes, and it seemed like it was full all summer! I've never handled a tomato quite like this. They are very light and nearly hollow. It feels like you are handling a bell pepper. And when you cut them open, they are much like a bell pepper, too. There is a small, intensely sweet mass at the center. But they aren't called stuffers for nothing. There is no meat or juicy stuff to scoop out. We ate so many of these with tuna salad in them that I'm not sure I ever want tuna salad again!

We also tried a recipe I found in an old-fashioned cookbook. Sounded better than it tasted, although I think we could work on it some more. The recipe said to place one egg in each tomato, top with spices of our choice and bake. We chose cheese. What? Cheese isn't a spice? Do you know anything that goes better with tomato or egg? Hmm?

Well, they seemed to take forever to bake. Maybe the layer of shredded cheddar kept them from cooking faster. Maybe we don't know what a baked egg is supposed to look like. Who knows? They weren't bad- sprinkled with a bit of salt and pepper. I might try it again sometime. See if I can work perfect this recipe. It sounds like it should work. Maybe I will fill the tomatoes with scrambled eggs next time...

Black Scroll Flowers Embroidered Pillowcases

This is the Swirl Flowers from Bucilla. As I discussed way back in... oh my gosh, June? I decided to stitch this one in all black. I am so pleased with the results.

This may be one kit where I should have used regular, divisible 6-strand embroidery floss, rather than my preferred cotton perle #8, which is thicker. The stitching is rather close and I'm afraid some of the details have gotten lost. Eh. Live and learn.

I still really love the all-black flowers on the crisp white pillowcases. Very modern.