Distractions and What They can do to your Coffee

A couple of weeks ago our furnace died. Actually, it's been dying for awhile judging by the smell, but it wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that a repairman actually took the time to confirm that. He removed the side panel to reveal a 6-8 inch gash in the wall of the heat exchanger- fire was practically spewing out into my basement! It was kind of terrifying. What was more terrifying was the visual confirmation of my olfactory suspicion that there was carbon monoxide leaking through me heat vents! (My contractor said it shouldn't be lethal levels, but maybe I should sleep with a window open!) So, of course, I immediately shut the thing off! I've since been living with space heaters, having contractors through, waiting for quotes and all sorts of fun things like that...

So on about day three of that process, totally stressed, not sleeping great (you try sleeping when it's 45 degrees in the bedroom!), I decided to make myself some coffee. So off I went to the kitchen, cleaned out yesterdays grounds, filled the pot with water and hit go.
About four minutes later, I smelled something burning... oops! I forgot to pour the water from the carafe into the the coffee maker! Dolt...
So, in the water went, and again, I hit go....
Can anyone guess what I found when I went back a few minutes later?
Yup...


Some nice warm... water. I'd forgotten- TWICE!- to put in either the filter, or the coffee! OY! Talk about being driven to distraction!
Anyone else ever had this problem?

Stairway Project

Little by little these things around the house get done... this little one was the risers on our stairway. I had painted the baseboard on the left, but hadn't bothered with the one on the right, and as you can see, the risers on the stairs were pretty banged up!



So I grabbed some leftover primer and paint from the kitchen makeover and got to work!


I had been trying to decide how to decorate the risers once I got the white paint on, and I like the stencils and things I've been seeing around, like you can see a tiny bit of here:


There's a much better picture of that around somewhere, but either I didn't save it, or it's in with the Christmas pictures or something... That's from Maryam's place, and if you haven't checked it out, you must!
I didn't think I had the patience for something quite that involved, but I also had a tile collection that I'd been looking for a spot to display. Tiles have been my souvenir of choice since about my third trip out of the country, so I've got quite a few, and I thought this might be a nice place for (at least some of) them!


I was a little worried about them getting kicked and broken (someone messed up the stairs in the first place!), so I put them off-center. Playing around a bit I liked how it looked alternating left and right sides.


And it totally accidentally worked out that if you're right handed (footed?) you end up walking on the open side of the step! Love when things happen like that... : )

My Fairy Dog-mother

Being ridiculous as I am (on occasion), I just had to dress the dog up for Halloween.


He was a fairy dog-mother. Hubby protested wildly. But you know, I win...
I bought the wings at Walmart for $5


I just altered the straps a bit to fit better.


The halo I made from a coat hanger and some Christmas tinsel. (Thank goodness they start putting out the Christmas decorations before Halloween is over! This is the second time I've made use of it- the first being when I dressed Hubby up as a Christmas Tree for an unexpected last minute party. I thought it was a brilliant idea, until I found girls coming up to him, fingering the plug on his Christmas lights asking if they could, "turn him on"!)


The straps would have looked better in a lighter color, but sometimes you've got to work with what's on hand, and I had red!


Tembo loved his outfit. I swear!


Have you ever seen such a happy dog?.... Well... he got got used to it, anyway!

While we were playing dress-up we tried a little something that might make an appearance for the Holiday season.


He's so cute, hee hee.... I just need to figure out how to attach it a little better!