Bridge Down!

Well, all this rain and snow has caused a little havoc on our stream.

It swelled so much that it picked up an old bridge somewhere up stream of us, carried it downstream, and rammed the legs out from under our bridge!

See the two pieces there? If you click on the picture it should get big enough that you can see the remnant of the bridge that took ours out. Sad, isn't it?
But understandable considering where the water level normally is:

That's from last winter (no bridge!) But see that leaning tree on the far side just before the bend? See how that's about 3 feet outside the water's edge?

See it now?! That's from yesterday, and it's actually gone up overnight! What wacky winter weather we're having here- so much rain!
Well, at least we don't have to shovel rain!

Rant: What's with Pro-Stupidity?

I was reading through the March issue of Lucky magazine last week and came upon an ad that just pissed me off:

Aside from the fact that the ad itself doesn't quite make sense...
Be Stupid? Really Diesel, that's the tagline you're going with now? (It's on the lower right corner of the page there.) Are you trying to say that in this economy it might be stupid to spend as much money as you charge for your products, but that's ok because we should really be striving to be stupid? I think I'll pass.

But what's really disturbing about this to me is that for a while the US seemed to be leaning toward a "be stupid" tagline for itself. All politics aside, nobody seemed to care much that President Bush (W) made up words like "nucular", regularly mispronounced the names of countries, (I-ran instead of Ee-rahn,) and generally had trouble putting a sentence together. That made people feel like he was approachable, they wanted to have a beer with him.

Meanwhile, when Barack Obama hit the scene and began giving some of the best speeches I've ever heard, people criticized him for speaking TOO well. Because he sounded intelligent he was called elitist, and accused of not being able to understand the problems of "real" Americans. The word "intellectual" was used in negative connotation.

But I thought in the last year or so we'd moved beyond that. As verbal flubs exited the headlines, I assumed they also left the realm of desirable attributes.
And now this?!

Come on.

Easy, Elegant Mantle Decor

The simplest mantle display I know is also a no-fail go-to.


Most people already have either a large mirror or piece of art over their mantle.

Add a couple of classic candle sticks with white or cream tapers. I used crystal holders, but silver, gold or wood work just as well!

Arrange a bunch of tulips in low container, round or square works best. (Other flowers work also, but none are quite as graceful as tulips!) Here I used a turquoise teapot.

I also left a couple of mercury glass votive holders up to balance the lamp I have near the other end, but you really don't need anything else up there!

Light your candles, sit back and enjoy!

Eulogy for Skittles

Dear Skittles,

So Curious


So Communicative


So Sweet


And So Tolerant


Who will follow me when I'm doing nutty things in the backyard?
Or hang out with me in the garden?

And who will snuggle with me on the couch, oh so awkwardly?


Who will teach Toby how to be a proper cat?


You, the Strong One with the Soulful Eyes


You will be missed.

I miss you already.

Goodbye, My Kitty.

Rest In Peace 2/10/2010.

Shattered Nails No More!

A couple of winters ago my nails started performing this new and obnoxious trick where almost the moment they grew beyond the quick, they split and chipped right back down. Not fun.

About a month ago SlimPaley complained about the same affliction on her blog, (which is pretty great, by the way) to which one of her readers responded by recommending a Biotin supplement. She swore by it, and I thought, why not?
The next time I was in Target I swung by the pharmacy aisle to see what the price was and whether it was worth the gamble. Well, let me tell you, 100 pills, one a day, at $1.94? That's a price I'm willing to bet on! So I bought this one:

And I have to say that it's been a little miracle worker! In just about a month and a half, my nails went from 12-year-old-boy-like, to this:

You know, it's really hard to take a picture of your own nails without looking all wrinkly...

These babies have even been filed down shorter! Without even the extra help of clear polish (let alone the number of hard-as-nails type products I'd been trying for a couple of years), the Biotin supplement worked wonders. I'm hoping that once they've had time to completely grow out that the little ridges in the last two nails will go away. But even if they don't, I'm pretty darn happy!

So, seriously, if you have this problem (Mom!), go out and get yourself some Biotin supplements!

Living Room Paint Options

As a result of our new couches, which are a lovely cream and taupe jacquard, the pink walls in my living room had to go.

I wanted to go for a cream color that would be kind of tone-on-tone with the couches (I thought that might make their petite stature a little less odd looking!) Or a light gray that would make all the gold tones I have in the room really pop.

Somehow, however, this was remarkably difficult to do. The wall over the couch gets lots of direct sunlight during the day, and is flanked by two lamps with fluorescent bulbs at night, which does really strange things to colors! Things kept looking very blue during the day, or strangely green at night.

Here they are in daylight:


1) Bronzed Beige- Benjamin Moore
2) Gilded Linen- Valspar
3) Frosted Shadow- Valspar
4) Ballet White- Benjamin Moore
5) Montpelier Madison White- Valspar
6) Timid White- Benjamin Moore
7) Montpelier Madison White with 50% White added- Valspar
8) Luna- Valspar
9) Churchill Hotel Vanilla- Valspar
10) Saffron Ivory- Valspar
I also tested Pirate Coast and Pearl Ash, both Valspar, but those got painted over!

And the same colors at night:

Check out number 1- it went from Coffee Ice Cream to Pea Soup! And 2, Gilded Linen, in any other light looked almost gold, but here it looks steel grey. 7 and 8 also really had no blue in them, but looked very blue in daylight. Go figure. I really liked #4, but it was a little dark, and tended toward maroon at night.
But number 6, that's looking promising! Silvery during the day and gold-ish at night, it might just work!
So now I'm off to prime the heck out of that wall... stand by to see what happens next!

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!