Reading Gave me Tendinitis

It's true! Sad... but still true.
So here's the story:
Back in April of 2009 I woke up one Friday morning with a shooting pain in my right wrist and my thumb seemingly trying to pop out of its joint. Completely out of the blue this happened. Looking back at it now I remember I did have some funny pain in my wrist while I was sleeping (I shove my hand under my head and I would wake up to pain in that wrist, then readjust and be fine,) for a week or two leading up to it, but really nothing that led me to think I might be on my way to incapacitation.
And that's what it was, really. I couldn't do anything with that hand- brush my teeth, dress myself, NOTHING without extreme pain. It was bizarre. I told my mother about it later that morning and she nodded and said, "Oh, sorry about that. You've got tendinitis." Apparently she has it, too.
So I looked back at what I'd been up to that week to try to determine the cause. The previous couple of days I had been helping my mom pack and load her truck for a move, but I'd moved 5 times in the previous 7 years and never had a problem...
I had spent that month painting and cleaning and rearranging the house in anticipation of our first annual Derby party, but really I'd been doing that since we'd moved in almost a year before!
Not coming up with an obvious answer I gave up, slapped a wrist brace on, called my Doc to make an appt., and reported for more packing duty at Mom's. (one handed, mind you, I'm a very dutiful daughter!)
That night as I exhaustedly collapsed into bed and reached for my book, I got another shooting pain. I paused, and looked at my book.


I thought about the way I bent my arm to sort of hang the book off my thumb while I read on my side... could my book be giving me tendinitis? It was a hefty tome: 928 pages weighing in at 2.8 lbs. That's a bit of weight to hook onto your thumb for two hours a day. But really- a reading injury? It seemed unlikely (not to mention pathetic!)
I mentioned the theory to my Dr. when I went in a few days later. She thought it unlikely as well and preferred to think I had done something to it while moving furniture. Or painting. Or tennis. But a book? Probably not...
So time passed, therapy made the pain go away, (I took the precaution of finishing that book sitting up in bed,) putty helped build the muscle up and I was back to tennis within a few months. Good!

Then... about three weeks ago it started acting up again. I could think of no reason why! I wasn't painting, I hadn't rearranged furniture in days, nothing unusual at all had happened! But that night as I reached for my book, which I was very close to finishing, I paused...

Hmm... 784 pages, 2.2 lbs... could it be? Was my doctor wrong? Am I that pathetic?
Well yes, I turns out I am. I finished reading that book two days later, and within 48 hours of that my tendinitis pain was gone.
Seriously!
I had a reading injury! I was so angry! Not so much because I was pathetic, but because I DIDN'T even like Sacred Games that much! If the first injury had occurred while reading the Wheel of Time tome, I might wear my injury with some pride. That's a book worth getting injured for! But a book you wouldn't recommend to a friend? Oh man...

Craiglist Couches!

I found these cute little couches on Craigslist last week.

Hubby went to check them out and give a yea or nay. They certainly looked nice in the photos, and had a nice backstory from an adorable Sicilian man.

A hand carved custom made couch and loveseat, recently upholstered in a neutral, if a little fancy, fabric. Both of them for $400, total.

Hubby tested it out, approved, and gave the man the money to hold them. The next night my little brother and his big truck came to help move them.


I love them with the carpet. And I think I like them in general... I adore the loveseat, it's so cute! The couch looks overly short under the large piece of art. (And off center, at that!) Clearly it's going to take a bit of fluffing to figure out how they fit best!

But the pink walls... well, they're going to need to be painted a different color (again), aren't they?
Hee hee...

Tulips

3 square inches of spring.


here in my living room.


can you tell that I am waiting? eagerly?

for it to spread...



outside those windows...


but instead

Sigh.

Stairway Gallery

I've seen so many images of really nicely done up stairway galleries in magazines and blogs (Maryam over at My Marrakesh has a great eclectic one!) that I decided to try one for myself!


I have a very small collection up to begin with- one photo of each of my nieces and nephews.


A couple of travel souvenirs- the elephant head is from India and the plate is from Crete.


Photos of both Hubby and myself as kids.


Some mirrors and mother of pearl things for sparkle and shimmer. (The brass and mother of pearl sconce was a Brimfield find, the switch plate is from Anthropologie!)

This cute picture of Hubby's parents ended up on the front door because the pink frame is a little see-through and really needed to be on a white background!


It's a small start, but I'm liking it so far! I'm planning on framing that gold marriage blessing that's on the shelf there and adding that, along with a photo of my Nana and some other souvenirs. Beyond that I'll just see how it grows!

A New Year, A New Carpet, And a Great Big DUH!

Happy New Year everyone!!

So sort of for Christmas (I'm pretending it is a present to me, but really it was just coincidental timing), I got a new rug for the living room!

The carpet we had in there before was an uber-hand-me-down of good quality, but rather worn and SOOO the wrong color! I didn't actually take a picture of it because I thought, "Of course I'll have one somewhere."
Well, these are the best:


I guess the only shots I've taken since the fall were for Christmas!


One thing I hated was that it was so dark that it looked dirty within two hours of vacuuming, as in this shot. (The two extra white dogs running around probably had something to do with that!)

And now:

Yay!
It's a wool and polypropylene blend. I was wary of buying anything that wasn't 100% wool, but a quick search online showed that the polypropylene blended in there made it much more resistant to staining. And with two cats running around, and the amount of curry we consume here, stain resistant is good!

I love the colors (obviously, I did pick it!) But more than that I love how the striae, speckley pattern seems to keep all kinds of things from showing. As I said, with the old carpet it looked dirty within two hours of a good cleaning, and this one hasn't looked like it needed a vacuum since we put it down four days ago!

SUPER YAY!!

Ok, so now onto the DUH...
When I hauled the vacuum out to clean the old rug, I decided to leave it out for a few days to have on hand for emergency cleaning of the new one since new rugs tend to shed. And my vacuum, while really really good, is also really really big.

One of those super-effective two piece monters. But like I said, new rug didn't need cleaning for awhile, so it sat there in the middle of my living room because I didn't want to drag it down the hall and into the guest bed only to have to drag it all the way back again a couple of days later.

Now, as I thought that something else occured to me: the only carpet in the house right now is in the living room. I have a closet in my living room. Why the heck isn't the vacuum being stored in the living room closet?!
Because somehow my brain had decided that the front closet was for shoes and coats, and a vacuum should be tucked away out of sight.

Ridiculous, you say? I concur.

So, out came a pair of galoshes and an umbrella, and in went the vacuum!
DUH!

So now I'll be going through the rest of the house trying to figure out where else I've logic-ed my way into inconvenience!
So here's to an easier New Year!

A Gatherer's Christmas Table

For Christmas dinner with my step-dad, I decided to go with a more traditional and masculine theme than the candy-theme I had done for my mother last week.

I envisioned something with traditional reds and golds mixed with plaid, and natural elements to add fragrance and texture.

Unfortunately, with the car and dishwasher needing to be replaced at the same time we were buying all the Christmas presents, my budget was ZERO!

So, I got creative, grabbed the wood saw and clippers and hit the back yard!

I started setting the room up with some pine and yew branches in these pots that held tomato plants over the summer.


Then I added some greenery (faux) to the window and buffet. It contrasted well with the red curtains and runner I'd used last week.


To add the green to the french door side of the room I hung this wreath from the curtain rod.


And in the corner I swapped out the usual silver branches in the vase for some white pine branches. You may also recognize the tiered server in the corner as last week's centerpiece!


I am VERY pleased with the way the centerpiece turned out.


My foray into lumber-jack-hood resulted in this lovely broken down pile of logs:


Which I cleaned off a bit, piled up, screwed together and drilled some 1 1/2 inch holes into...
And VOILA! Lovely rustic centerpiece!


To find an appropriate runner, I once again ransacked the closets, and came up with these two plaid wool scarves. (One covers almost the whole length of the table, the other- which is very close in color- is just under the last place setting.)


I would have preferred a red linen cloth to keep with the natural look, but you know, workin' with what I've got!

I kept the place settings simple since we really only needed dinner plates for the shepherd's pie, spiced carrots, salad and biscuits. (I know, could have used salad plates and bread and butter plates, but with 8 people that would have gotten a little crowded!)


The plates are Holly Holiday (from my sister, not sure where they were purchased.) Napkins are from Target last year (after Christmas sale!), and the gold flatware was a wedding gift. On top I placed the festive green crackers to add a little more green to the red-heavy table. I left glasses off since I planned to hand out beverages with the appetizers in the kitchen.


Gold sparkle came in with my trusty mosaic candles from Christmas Tree Shop, the foil on the poinsettias (they're faux, for the cats' safety!), and that fun gold reindeer on the buffet from TJMaxx.

All in all I was incredibly pleased with how it all came out. This was definitely one of those rare instances when the results more than met that ever-elusive picture in my head!

And the best part of all?

Seeing everyone sitting at it looking so happy!

Happy Holiday and Fortuitous New Year to everyone over a Susan's Tablescape Thursday!

An Early Christmas Table

Mom came out this past weekend instead of on Christmas itself, so we kids decided to do an extra Christmas a week early in addition to Christmas Eve dinner with my step-dad.
So I decided to take the opportunity to design two different Christmas tables!

Mom is a little more playful, so I decided to do one for her with a candy theme.

The white tablecloth is actually two white sheets layered so they aren't see-through. The red runner is a dupatta from one of my Indian outfits.

I hung red curtains on the windows and porch doors to add a little seasonal color to the usual hangings.


For the centerpieces I piled a bunch of red glass ball ornaments in satin and gloss finishes onto my clear pressed glass tiered server.


I turned a couple of vases I already had into candle holders by filling them with peppermint candies and hanging candy canes around the outside.

I broke my usual all-white candle rule to pump up the red a bit!

The glass mosaic candles are from Christmas Tree Shop. (I couldn't possibly do a table without something from there!)

For the place settings I mixed and matched all kinds of things!


The beaded placemats are from Target about 5 years ago. The white plates are my everyday plates, on top of that are the red napkins from Pier One (from our wedding registry!) The bowls are Holly Holiday. Not sure where they're from because they were my sister's and she passed them on to me when she decided I was the new host! You'll be seeing more of that set at Christmas table part two! The gold-plated flatware is another wedding present (purchased from JC Penney), and the glasses are from Macy's.


To fill in some of the white-ness, and to put the table over the crazy holiday edge, I sprinkled peppermints and Hershey's kisses all over the table!

So there's table number one!


Check back next week to see the traditional meets rustic table I'll be doing for tomorrow's big dinner!

And as always, thanks to Susan over at Between Naps on the Porch for hosting Tablescape Thursday!