September 11, 2001

I was gonna write a blog today about my feelings and memories of that horrible day so long ago...
but no words come to me....

A day in the life of a bee..... :)

IT'S A BEE!!!

Those three little words from your child that can spark terror and chaos in a car driving 50 mph down the road.

IT'S GONNA STING ME!!

Just ignore it. We'll stop in a minute.

I CAN'T! ITS GONNA STING ME!

Well then just smack it!

I CAN'T- IT'LL STING ME!

Well it won't if ya smack it. It'll be dead.

STOP THE CAR!!!

Stop yelling! Just kill it or ignore it.

NO!!!! STOP THE CAR!

I can't stop the car, we're in the middle of traffic!

IT'S GONNA STING ME!!!

It won't if ya stop swinging at it....roll your window down.

I CAN'T....IT'S GONNA STING ME!

Oh for pete's sake, roll your window down.....
Did it go out? 
Where'd it go? Where'd it go? 

Wh..there it is! Stop! Don't fling it at me!!! I'm driving! JUST KILL IT!

NO! IT'LL STING ME!

Stop it! Stop flinging it at me- I'm driving! Stop it!

Oh my gosh, I'm pulling over. Don't swat at it! Stop swatting at it! Stop it! Ok, Get out of the car!

NOW WHAT!?

I don't know. It's just flying around in there. Shoo it out.

YOU SHOO IT OUT!

Where'd it go?

OH LOOK, IT FLEW OUT! I THINK IT FLEW OUT...YEAH I'M SURE IT DID

Get in the car! Quick!
DID IT FLY OUT FOR SURE? WHAT WAS THAT!!???!
.

Life without them....

I grew up in a small town in Northeast Ohio. Right on lake Erie called North Madison, Ohio. After graduation I moved away.  A whole 2 or 3 miles from the edge of Madison to our football rival's town right next door in the small town of Geneva. Lol...that's as far as I went. All my life was spent within a 5 mile radius of Madison and Geneva. I grew up there, married there, divorced, remarried. My kids were all born there. They grew up there. My first grandchild was born there. My mom, my sister and my brother and his wife live there and all their kids and grandkids live there. We all stayed. Until 2007, when I moved over 700 miles away and started a new life.

Who is that woman in the mirror? Reflecting....

The other evening I was putzing around the house straightening up before bed. I like getting up to a clean house, so I go around the house in the evening and clean up the days mess, load the dishwasher if there is anything to load, etc. I was at my entrance table putting things away (it seems to be the place where things get dumped) when I glanced up.

I have a mirror there. Its about 6 foot high by 4 foot wide (hung vertically instead of the usual horizontal view). Its huge and extremely heavy. It belonged to my mom. I can remember it from my childhood back at least 30 some odd years ago. It was much bigger then and I had it resized years ago. Something I regret now. ;) My mom gave it to me long ago and I had it framed and its beautiful.

The light was dim, with only my Scentsy warmer burning on the table under the mirror, so there was a glow in the mirror with soft lighting flowing from it and bouncing off the sides, reflecting back and forth off itself. My front door behind me was open and although it was night time, some light was also coming through the door behind me. It made the mirror look even more beautiful. It was like the illusion of looking into water with only moonlight shining down on you. The tree leaves blowing in the breeze outside reflected through the door and made the light move. -Kind of surreal.

The odd thing is the reflection I saw.....

A DECORATING "FIND"

OH MY GOSH! Did you ever see something in a magazine like Pottery Barn, or Pier 1 that you just loved and then looked at the price and........whoa!! Ridiculous! Well I found a website that teaches you how to DIY all those great things we see and want at the pricey stores. All for about penny of the cost. And it's actually a lot easier than you think. And some of the people sell there "knock offs" a lot cheaper. This site tells you how to do it or directs you to another blog that does. I love it! Check it out...
http://knockoffdecor.com/

Re- purposing. Just about anything can be made new again.

I re-purposed a bunch of items to show and of course I forgot to take some of the before pics. :(  Kinda ruins everything. But here are a few pics of some very easy cool things! See the lamp on top of the little buffet? Well that belonged to my mom and has been sitting in my garage, and the garage before that for about 20 years. It was brassy gold, and the lamp shades had broken. I brought it in one day and decided to fix it up. I searched online till I found white "milk glass" lamps shades that were very similar to the originals. They were actually fairly cheap too. I think they were like $35.00 each. When they came in I picked up some pewter spray paint and Voila! like new! Actually better, since they weren't brassy any more. :)
Here is the website where I found the globes in all different styles....  http://www.lampsplus.com/

And the speaking of the little buffet table. I found it in a second hand store for $60.00 buck I think and loved it. It was a bright neon blue and didn't work for me. So I painted it green and although I really liked the color I changed my mind on it. so............BEFORE. I love the green but I needed it to be neutral...so............

I WENT WHITE!!!

So how about those expensive small appliances that you see in magazines. They always have them to go with their decor and they cost a small fortune!!!! Again, PAINT your own!

I got these chairs from a neighbor who refinished chairs years ago. About 10 I think. I took the seats off (which is very easy to do) and recovered them with a textured material. Kind of like burlap feel, but softer on the bum. Sprayed them with scotchguard too. I have a huge family...so LOTS of scotchguard. And I painted the chairs with a spray paint. Just took them outside without the seats and sprayed them down. Very easy and it really gave them a new life. They go with my redone kitchen now! More of Cottage feel. Although I just took a test online at Better Homes and Gardens and it said my style was "Polished  Casual" hmmm... I like that. Find out yours.... http://www.bhg.com/decorating/decorating-style/quiz/

My "new" lamps!

So, I bought these lamps at Lowes. I loved them. Problem was...I didn't really "love" the decor in my formal (yeah, like anything in this house is formal..but that's what they call it I guess) living room. I have a family room that we really "live" in but this room is right at the entrance of the house and it is my favorite room to go to read in or just hang out for a little quiet time by myself. It had a lot of green so I thought these lamps would work but then when I switched out the green in the room, the lamps didn't work. So.....a little painters tape, some white gloss spray paint, and new shades and a totally different look! What do you think? The green pic on the left shows they had white shades which is a little hard to tell but .....the new shades (also from Lowe's) were on sale for $12.99! I love the new look.

and now the room fits! 

BANG FOR YOUR BUCK!!! A Kitchen Re-do!

The big job that I have been putting off is my kitchen update.  I don't plan on doing a kitchen "remodel" with new layout and all that. -My kitchen layout is fine for this house and it can't really be changed without some major structural re-configuring. And we aren't sure if this is our "forever" home or not. If not, our next one definitely will be. But until we figure that out, I just wanted to upgrade my kitchen. And get new appliances. Because I hated the way my cabinets looked!  But I love how they look now! This is how great they turned out!!! And ya don't have to spend thousands of dollars to give your space a simple facelift. New appliances were a bit pricey but painting the cabinets was truly the biggest change for the least amount of money. 
                          Take a look now!!! I just love it!

AND ANOTHER CLOSE UP OF THE COLOR...

from this.... 

to this....

AND HERE ARE SOME OF THE BEFORE AND DURING PICTURES.......