SUCCESS!!!! :-D

Wait until you see what I've been up to!!! :-D

First, today was finally warm enough to polyurethane my floor boards, and I did them ALL......

That is only half of them!  I had to let them dry and stack them to have room to do the rest!!
I use the satin finish, because I don't want a glossy shine.  Look how it makes the color POP......

See how dull the part without the finish is? 
And once it's dry, the shine will dull, but the color will stay dark!  NICE!!

Oh, what good feeling it is to have this first coat on!!  Tomorrow, I will lightly sand them all (with a high-grit sandpaper), and re-coat them.  Then once they are dry, they will be ready to put down!!!
I DO still need two more plywood sheets (and another can of stain!), but Brian said we can get that tomorrow!  That way I'll be able to get them stained and finished by next weekend -- YAY!!! :-D

I'm not sure when he will be ready to nail them down.....that might take him a couple of weeks to work up to!  But I told him that was fine with me -- as long as I get all the prepping done, I don't mind waiting a little longer!  I've been crowing on and on about doing these boards almost since I started my blog last year, it's going to feel great to simply have them finished and ready!! LOL

Which reminds me......can anyone guess what yesterday was???  It was the first anniversary of my blog!  WOW, right?!!!  I think that's so very neat, and the fact that I've kept it up and that I still love blogging makes it all the better!  Happy Bloggiversary, little blog!! :-D

Let's see, what else.....???
OH YES!  I figured out how to dry oranges successfully (thus, the title of my post!)!!  I am SO happy about this, because the mold that grew in my first one really upset me! :-P
What I did was bake them in a very low oven all day -- that's IT!  So simple!!
I was drying another pineapple the other day, and I added the oranges to see if that would work, and it did!!  I scraped out the pineapple, and sliced the oranges (and studded two with cloves).....

This is after several hours at 195 degrees. (Please don't notice my dirty oven!  My camera flash illuminated the dirtiness, it doesn't even look this dirty when I have the oven light on! :-P)
And here they are after about 10 hours.....

Aren't they PERFECT!?!  I love the color and feel of them!  There is still some moisture inside, I can tell, because they feel slightly squishy when I squeeze them, so I am going to watch them to make sure they don't start rotting.  Putting them in the oven hardened all the exposed areas inside the cuts, so they might be fine.  Definitely, this is the way to dry oranges!  I'm going to get some lemons to dry next!!

And here is something else I did today -- I have two old Early American Life magazines that I bought just for their covers!......

I just LOVE those portraits!  I bought these off of ebay last year, and today I brought them to Office Max to have them copied, and they came out GREAT.....

I'm thrilled with them!!  And they were only 99cents each!  The paper is 11x17 (I think), and the girl there said that the next size up (16x20) would be $18!  So these are big enough!! LOL
When I get the chance, I'm going to glue them to canvas frames so they look real!
Soooo exciting!!! :-D

And one last thing I want to show you is something Brian bought me that I've wanted since Christmas (but we never have extra money at Christmas, so we always wait until our tax return comes in) -- I guess you could say it's my Christmas present! Haha!!
Prepare to be very jealous......

It is my very own reciprocating saw, sized perfectly for me!!! :-D
I LOVE IT!!!!  It has a rechargeable battery in the handle, and is very light - I can even hold it with one hand! - and it came with two blades (which you can see are too short -- I'll have to get more!  YAY!! LOL) and a carrying case!  This will make sawing so much easier for me, I'll be able to do some things that I would normally need Brian to cut.  I can't wait to use it!  It's one of my favorite all-time presents!!
Thank you, Honey!!! :-D

Those are my very fun, very exciting activities for the past two days!  I intend to make tomorrow very productive as well, because the weather is going to turn yucky again on Easter Sunday, with a cold rain and continued below-normal temperatures for next week.....I am starting to think Spring will never get here!

I know that I've promised to post about how I planned my wood floor, and to make a project list, but I think I've crammed enough into this post tonight! LOL  Next time I want to post about making my onion skin dye, another very cool project with great results!

Have a wonderful Saturday!! ^-^

A Heavy Heart.......

As you guys know, I've been dealing with trying to help some poor, neglected, sometimes-abused dogs from my neighbors.  The little rottie-mix with the broken leg has a happy ending -- she had to have it amputated because it was broken in two places too high up, and she already had the surgery and is recovering this week, then she will be on her way to her NEW home up in Pennsylvania!  As a matter of fact, she had that home the very day that her injury was diagnosed and her amputation was decided on.....some tenderhearted person saw her and her story, and wanted her right away!!!  I have tears in my eyes just knowing that!  What an amazing person, aren't they? :-)

Since then, there were 4 puppies over there and their mom (who is my Minnie's mom, if anyone remembers HER story from last Fall), who I really wanted to get out of there this week.  So I have had my boys over there looking and looking for them all.  By two days ago, I heard that no one knew where the mom or the puppies were, that she hadn't been seen in about 4 days (which was unusual), and I was starting to worry.  My rescue group contact was waiting to take all of them, and every night that they had to stay out in the cold (we've been in the 20's at night here!), sleeping who-knows-where, and not eating, was making more likely that they would die out there and I couldn't save them!!

So yesterday, after lunch, I started poking around over there myself, and sure enough, I found one puppy......

YAY!!! :-D
Then when my boys went over there a few hours later, there was another one there.....

Oh JOY!!! :-D  (she is snuggled next to ME in this picture - that's my black dress poking out of the blanket that is covering both of us!)

Both these girls are adorable too, they didn't want to get off our laps the whole night last night, and actually slept all night long with us!  Do you realize these pictures are of the first night either of them have been inside a house, and on anyone's lap in their lives??  You could tell they loved the warmth, too, because they slept all stretched out and on their backs -- they couldn't sleep like that in 20 degree temps! 

So I arranged to go today about two hours away to the rescue that was helping me with these dogs.....I could always go back again this weekend if the mom and the other two puppies popped up.  I was a little worried this morning, thinking that maybe someone had called Animal Control about HER, and had them pick her up.  So I called them and they told me to check the listings on their website to see if she was there, and I did, and felt relieved that she wasn't on there!  I didn't want Animal Control to get her just when I was finding her a place to go to be safe and cared for!!
Just before I left, I sent my boys over to the neighbor's to see if they were there, just in case, and they came back with another puppy!!!  TERRIFIC! :-D  They still hadn't seen the mom and the last puppy, though, but I figured she had to be around because these puppies were coming back -- she had to be with them.  Happily, I left!  I had the three puppies that we were saving, and by the way, my neighbors didn't know I was grabbing them.  I mean, they knew I planned on finding homes for them, and they were worried about me after their other dog had that broken leg that WE fixed -- they would have simply shot her.  But I was/AM finished asking.....I'm taking any animals away from there that I can.  If they get another horse, I'm calling Animal Control.  If I see goats over there, same thing.  Same thing for any animals!! 

So I hopped in the car with the puppies and my daughter, and we left.  I went down our long road, out to the main road, turned the corner to get to town, and there she was -- the momma dog.....in a heap on the side of the road.....dead.  As I came around the corner, I saw the orange flash of her collar, and the honey color of her coat (just like my Minnie's), and my heart sank.  It sank like a rock, and I started crying.  I pulled over and got out.....it was her for sure.....and I called my son to go across the street and tell those people where she was.  Those people who don't feed a dog enough so it has to go roaming around to find food; who don't notice for DAYS (or CARE) when their dogs aren't in their yards; who don't allow dogs in their houses, EVER, because they are "unclean", but still insist on owning dogs. 

I cried for awhile, not sobbing, exactly, but I had to hold that back because I could have been crying really hard.  Poor Emily felt really bad for me! :-)  I never even petted this dog, I could never get close enough to her to even call her to me.  But still, the shock of seeing her collar on a dead dog, and realizing it WAS HER, was just so upsetting.  All my plans for her were unnecessary now, useless.  I just never expected it.  We aren't very close to the road, and I was so sure she was around.  And she is Minnie's mom, and the mom of the sweet little puppies I slept with all night. 
But really, let's be honest......the heaviest weight on my heart is that I failed her -- she would be alive if I had tried harder to get her, if I had done it quicker, last weekend even -- I should have tried to get her last weekend.  But I waited.  I wanted to get the puppies first.  And that's why she is dead.  It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it now.
I have such regret now and that's what hurts me so much.....why didn't I even try......

But, the good news is that I made it up there just fine with the three puppies I had (who knows where that fourth puppy is now -- somewhere in those woods?), and when I got to the girl's house, she had a bunch of happy dogs in fences that had access to her house, and they were all excited to see the puppies -- it was SO cute!!  They weren't all her dogs, she is just one link in the rescue network!  They were waiting there for other rides to their forever homes, or for vet appointments, or for transfers to other rescue events.  She said the little black puppy already had her forever home lined up -- just another hour north!!  The other two will go to the rescue's weekend event with the public, and she said they should get picked out right away, because they are the rescue's only puppies this week!  And these are all rescue-approved homes -- the BEST!! :-D

I am SO very happy to know that these sweet girls and boy are going to be warm and played with and loved, from now on.....I just wish I had saved their mom when I had the chance.

Anyways, now I'll be able to get back to my fun work around here, painting and urethaning -- HEY!!  Tomorrow, the weather should be warm enough for me to get a first coat of polyurethane on my floor boards (which are ALL stained)!!!  I'm jumping right on that!  I've been waiting for the weather to break for two weeks!  YAY!! :-D 
And I've got some penny rug plans that I'm excited to get to!

I'll be keeping an eye on my neighbors as well, watching to see if they bring any new dogs (or anything!) over there now, and contacting Animal Control as soon as they do!  NEVER AGAIN will I go through what I have for the past two years.

But my heart will be heavy for awhile, I know that, and there is nothing that can ease that but time.  I know I've done alot, more that many people would do for abandoned or needy animals, and I know I have saved MANY dogs (and cats in my pre-blog years), and I am grateful for all I've been able to do for the poor animals that needed my help.  I just wish I had saved her, too.

Oh....HAPPY SURPRISE!!!!! :-D

I got THE BEST surprise from Brian today!!!!!  It's my new CLOSET DOOR!!!!!  Yippee!!!!! :-D

I am SO happy and it looks SO good!!! :-D  It was such a surprise because I only grabbed the wood yesterday as an afterthought, because I wasn't going to be able to urethane my floor boards in this nasty cold rain we've been having, and I just kind of remembered, "hey -- I'll want to get the closet door done when the floor is done, so why don't I paint the wood"!  Brian has been avoiding even discussing a new closet door there.....I heard something about "it won't look good", "I have too many other things to do right now", "why don't you finish a few of your other projects before starting a new one" (that's one I hear ALOT! LOL), etc, etc, etc!!  So I didn't have ANY hope that he would put it together.  I just asked him if he would cut the boards for me so I could paint them and then they would be waiting for whenever he felt like putting them together....and he DID!! :-D

Here is my BEFORE picture of the closet door......

You might remember it from previous posts -- I just could never get myself to finish painting it once I knew I wanted a different door!  I didn't want to do the work, and I especially didn't want to waste the paint!! LOL  So I've been looking at it like this for MONTHS! :-P  But it was mostly ok, because this is the room that needs the wood floor, so there is LOTS to look at and go "UGH!" in here!  I knew that I would have to have this door replaced when the floor was done!! :-D

Here is my wood, getting painted.....

I just LOVE this dark red!! (Plantation Red by Old Village Paints, color-matched at Lowes!)  I only put on one coat, saving the second coat for when it's put together and hung.

When Brian said he would work on it today, I almost jumped up and down, I was so happy!! (that would have scared him, I think! Haha!!)  I couldn't believe I was getting one of my little projects done! :-D

We had to attach a "batten" to each end, to hold the boards in place, and to use for the hinges.....

Then, the top had to be cut so it was perfectly even.....

The door is turned over to do this.  I'm not sure why...... LOL
Then, the hinges are put on and it's hung in it's place......

I LOVE IT ALREADY!!!!! :-D
Just needs a little more paint.....and.....

VOILA!!!!  Now, it still needs a full second coat of paint (as does the inner door frame), but doesn't it look great?!!!  And so much better than the original, "normal" door!
If you look closely at the bottom, right of this picture, you can see that I've got a pretty tall stack of stained boards there now.  That's the other thing I got done this weekend -- all the boards I had cut are stained! :-D  Now I only need TWO more pieces of plywood cut up, and stained, and then everything urethaned!!  I'm actually hoping I can get to that this week (when I'm not ferrying those poor dogs to rescues to be saved) -- URETHANING the boards!!  It's been very bad luck weather-wise since I've started, but I'm hoping this week will be alright!  We shall see....!!

So that is my very exciting, very happy project news to share! :-D  Something to cross off my list -- YAY!!! 

I think in my next post I'll make a list of VIPs -- Very Important Projects -- which would be things I really want to get finished first.  Then, maybe being accountable will help me fight my procrastination....???  It's worth a try!  And of course, I LOVE making lists!!! :-D

So for the rest of the night I'm going to be gazing over at my new door.....*sigh!*  It looks SO good over there now.....and if the wood floor was done it would look PERFECT!!! ^-^

ANOTHER Abused Dog Rescue.....

Well, I expected to be posting about several very fun things that I've been working on -- my flooring wood, my onion skins, a new closet door -- but we had another Dog Emergency this weekend.....when will it end????  Actually, it's ending NOW because I've completely had it.  I'm getting the police and Animal Control involved to make sure they aren't allowed to own ANY more animals, EVER.

Here is the latest victim.....

She is an almost 2 yr old rottweiler mix, and you can see by the way she is favoring it that her right front leg is BROKEN.....it's broken at the elbow, and the vet said he believes it was broken by someone lifting her by her leg and throwing her, because the bone is also twisted.  This is another dog from the same animal abusers across my road.  This is the last straw for me (and Brian).  I will be getting the rest of the dogs they have out of there, and then I will be calling the police and Animal Control.  These "people" (I use that term lightly - "monsters"??) must have their freedom to own any animals TAKEN AWAY.  That's my goal.

So, that's what I'll be focused on this week, for as long as it takes.

I'm going to make this post quick -- I'm still trying to get a little painting done in between all this chaos (and before making dinner!)!!  I will definitely post an update on the dogs in a few days when I've gotten them situated, and when I've spoken to Animal Control.

Hug your pets today!!! ^-^

Delays, Delays......

I COULD be done by now with the staining, except that I ran out of it! LOL  My obsession to "not buy too much" of something has thwarted me!  Of course, being me, I only bought one can of stain - the quart size - ONE.  I could have gone to the store Sunday afternoon or yesterday to get more, but I hate to waste gas (another obsession), so I waited.  This afternoon I have a doctor's appointment, so I'll pick some up while I'm out there.....ONE can again! :-D

So the one quart got about half of my sanded boards stained -- which is about 1/3 of the total flooring wood.  I love how they look.....

They are stained with Early American.  When I did the first boards years ago (for the living room), I picked this shade because I loved the name!! :-D  I actually wish I had used a different shade now, something less "orange".....like my paint/water mixture that I wiped on my kitchen spice cabinet!  But I had to use this again because the living room and family room run into eachother - they aren't separate rooms.  It's ok, I don't regret it TOO much.....I love how the living room floor looks, I just don't love-love it! Haha!! (See why I drive Brian crazy???)

Here is my new STACK.....

I WAS going to paint the urethane on them yesterday, while I waited to get the stain, but it rained all day and was chilly outside (it would have taken all day to dry!), and I wasn't doing it IN the house!
So more waiting.....

That's OK, I have the rest of the week to get ALL these boards done (and I should be able to!) and then I'll get my last two plywood sheets purchased and cut, then stained and sealed, and I'll be ready to go!!!  I bet I'll be done in two weeks!  YAY!!! :-D

I wanted to make a list in this post, too, of my other projects that are waiting, but I have to get lunch started before I leave for my appointment, so I don't have time!  Next post!!  And tomorrow I'll be staining again!

GOTTA GO!!!! ^-^

I Got Started!!!

This is going to be GREAT!!!!!  I got started on my wood!! :-D  (Thanks in part to a lightening bolt that Barbara struck me with!  Thank you, Barb!! LOL)

I am not going to post very long, because it's late and I'm tired, and I'll add more details tomorrow, but I just HAD to post the GOOD NEWS.....I've kicked aside my non-motivation, and got down to working on my wood floor! :-D

Remember the pile in my last post, the untouched pile.....well, I got half of those pieces sanded down today! :-D  It was a perfect day for this kind of work too, sunny but cooler (50s!)......

I did the sanding on my front porch, and you can easily see how the top piece has already been sanded and the bottom piece is next!  I did 10 eight-foot pieces, and by the end (and now, too!) my arms were pretty worn out and sore!!  Oh, but it was SOOOO worth it.......!

There is my new stack of sanded wood.....it is waiting for the others and then the staining and urethane!  THAT won't make my arms tired!! :-D

In my next post, I'll write more about my process for doing the floors this way, so anyone who reads this can do it if they want to -- I highly recommend it! :-)

Before I go, I want to show you what other little things have been being considered around here, while I have had to wait for some free time and stuff -- Oh, they are fun too!!! :-D
First, I've been waiting a full year for these......

THAT is a punched tin panel in a rust finish!  Do you know what I have been dreaming of doing with that??......

YIPPEE!!!  Covering those ugly glass cabinet doors!! :-D  You can see that there will need to be some modifications on the doors -- the panels don't cover the glass exactly so we'll trim them out, the knobs will have to be moved, and the cabinets are going to be repainted (remember?) -- but WHAT a difference they will make in here, don't you think?  I can't wait to get them on!!!

Can you guess what these are?......

They are ONION SKINS!!! :-D  Anyone who has been looking at Cee's Penny Rug blog (I've GOT to get a link in my sidebar for it! :-{ ), knows that she makes the most wonderful "aging" dye for her penny rugs using onion skins, and now I'M going to try making some too!  It seems simple enough, and ooooh, the results!!  I'm going to get some more skins from the stores this weekend, that should be enough to work on it this week -- FUN, FUN, FUN!! :-D

And try and just guess what I'm up to with these.......

Hahaha!!  Well, I got an idea in my head, grabbed a little hand saw, and found the exact wild pine trees in my woods to cut these from!  Can you guess what the idea is....? :-D  I want to make hanging candle holders out of them!!!!  AWESOME, right?!!  I've seen them on Picture Trails and Pinterest, and in my magazines, so I knew I could have my own if I just looked around my woods a little.....and Voila!! LOL  I still have to work on them a little, clean them up and smooth them, but I've been hiding them from Brian! Haha!!  He'll think I'm crazy, and I'd rather him see them when they are nice and finished -- he won't be able to resist liking them when he sees how good they look! :-D

So I HAVE been toying with a few fun things in my limited spare time, and I'm pretty excited about all of them.  But getting my wood floor down is my PRIMARY priority!  It's GOT to be -- I've got furniture and other wonderful items just waiting for their special places in that room!  Plus it will be SO FABULOUS to have it finally finished.....I can't even think about it without smiling (I'm smiling right now! :-D)

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, like me!!!  There's going to be some great pictures to see on Sunday, I think!! ^-^

STILL HERE!!!!

Phew, I'm SO glad that last week is OVER!!  My last child got sick on Friday, with a fever and terrible stomach-ache (he slept most of the day), that lasted for about three days -- he didn't throw up either (like me), so he felt lucky about that.  I, myself, didn't start to feel normal until Sunday.....even though I was able to eat, I just continued to feel weak and tired the whole time! :-P

So what other deterrents to my PLANS do you think can appear???  How much longer can I go on NOT accomplishing one thing on my lists??  UGH!!  It's soooo frustrating!  But there are still going to be drains on my "free time" -- my neighbor is starting her heavy-duty treatments next week, and they have decided to do them weekly on her (not monthly, like they originally said).  So I have put myself ON CALL for her then, day or night.  We've been brainstorming about herbs and vitamins and other things to build up her body's defenses, so she is hopeful that she won't be too sick through her treatments, but you just never know until you're going through it.  I am praying with all my heart and soul that she is on the path to complete healing!!!

I am finding it very hard to switch back to joyful creativity after watching her go through all this.  I've done some little things at her house, too, like a little stenciling and fixing a couple of annoying things (a crooked cabinet door and a hole in her kitchen vinyl floor) -- I think it's so important when you have to spend a lot of time inside to make sure what you see makes you happy!  But that is a service that I am giving to her, so it inspires me.  I look at my house and my unfinished projects and can't seem to find the energy to start them!

So we'll see what happens....! :-P  I finally have been able to get HALF the wood for my floor that I've been dreaming about all winter -- yet, here it sits.......

All that is needed is for me to sand, stain, urethane, sand, urethane again, and VOILA! - they're DONE.....but I just keep looking at them! *sigh!!*  Now, the weather didn't allow me to work on them at first, and then I got sick, but it's been VERY nice for the past 3 days and I still can't seem to want to get them done....!  And look at that hideous green rug.....!!  That is what will be ripped up to put the wood down -- YUCK!!  I've got to get myself going!!! LOL

I want to show you guys a new treasure of mine, a new little thing that I just discovered and love -- PINKEEPS!!!  I love them!  I have TWO now, one was a gift (from my adopted sister! ;-D), and another one I bought from a fellow blogger who makes them, and they are wonderful!!!

Here is my present from Tricia at HillCrestHomePrims..... http://triciamcn.blogspot.com/

Isn't it lovely?  I love the old fabric and the rusty nail and the felt star and button on top!!!  I won her giveaway on the APP forum, and it was SO exciting for me because I never win anything! :-D  It was last month, and she sent some chocolates and a few other little gifts, too -- SUCH fun!!  Thank you, Tricia!!  I've decided that she should be my adopted sister, because at least she likes blogging and primitives -- my other FOUR sisters think I'm crazy! :-P LOL

And this next pin keep I found while looking through different blogs, and I LOVED it!!  It was made by Heather at thecountryschoolmarm.blogspot.com .......

This is so wonderful, it smells cinnamon-y!!  And it's in a rusty pie tart pan!  It's also very soft and puffy, and I love the cheesecloth "crust" edging she stitched around it!!  Soooo charming! :-D
She has more of these AND others (!!!), so if you want one, go check out her blog - they are right on the sidebar!  Thank you, Heather!!

So I am now going to try and keep up blogging, even if I have nothing to report as completed, I still want to get on here and touch base, and even spend time on the computer again, looking at pins and looking at my favorite magazines......maybe something will spark my energy and get me moving again!!  In my next post, I'm going to post a LIST of what I want to accomplish..... dun-dun-dun-DUNNNNN!!!!!!  Hahaha!  Hey, if I have to use intimidation to get my motivation back, so be it!!! ^-^ 

STOMACH FLU!!!! :-P

Well, here's another obstacle to me settling back in to blogging regularly OR working on my many exciting projects (that are staring at me while I lay on the couch huddling under a blanket)......the dreaded STOMACH BUG has invaded us, and I'm the latest casualty. :-(   Of course I am, because I'm the one whose been taking care of the other sickies in the house (one of the duties of a MOM, and I love doing it!) -- cleaning up, rubbing backs, making tea, fixing beds, putting cool cloths on faces and necks, checking foreheads/temperatures, doing "sick" laundry.....and numerous other ways I've drenched myself in germs.

So I feel pretty bad (now I know how bad the kids have been feeling! :-(  ), and it's the THIRD day! :-P  At least I haven't thrown up (BLEGH!!)......but it seems like the ones who did throw up got better quicker than I am, so maybe they are on to something?? 

Anyway, I DO have a slight fever and headache, I can't stop feeling queasy, and I can't really keep my arms up to type right now, but I wanted to post a little note to tell why I can't seem to get anything accomplished that I WANT to.....*sigh!!*

This weekend is supposed to be beautiful, so I hope I'll be better by then....! ^-^

Past Posting..... :-)

*****This is the post I wrote last Monday, February 25th.....I'm not going to change it, because it was mostly finished before.....just imagine that you are reading it last Monday!!! LOL*****

I had a really nice weekend, which I'm so glad of, because it started out kind of scary.....my neighbor went to the ER on Thursday night, because she was feeling faint and dizzy!  I didn't find out until FRIDAY MORNING, because her kids (teenagers!) didn't call me!!!  She called me Friday morning from the ER, just as I was getting ready to go over to her house.....I was shocked and scared for a moment, but she told me that she was FINE (phew!!), she was just anemic, actually severely so!  So she got super-duper iron pills, and got to go home Friday.  They kept her overnight because of her health issues, just in case.  She went to the ER because she was worried that she was having a heart attack -- which would have been awful -- but now she knows that her heart is fine, perfect even, so that is some good news.  She has a great attitude about everything, she is so positive and upbeat -- even when she is nervous or hears bad news, she takes it in stride and makes a plan to deal with whatever it is.
So, as much as I've been doing with her and for her (which isn't much, at all!), SHE is actually a blessing to ME!! :-)

This week will be quieter for me, because her sister is here visiting from PA!  So I'm trying to cram as much as I can get done into this week!! :-D

Last Thursday, I finally cleaned out my craft/sewing/storage room!!  It has been getting piled up with my STUFF for almost a year!  Oh, it feels GREAT to have that done.....I can actually see what I'm looking at in there now!!!
I took picture of it last month to show everyone what I was dealing with, but I was waaaay too ashamed to post those.....until I got it cleaned up!!  Now you can see how much I've accomplished!!! :-D
Here is BEFORE.......

.....and here is AFTER.......

And actually, looking at these pictures, you can't really see much of a difference, but if you were IN that room, you could tell!!  That table on the left and the floor on the right were covered with tons of little tiny things and single pieces of fabric, wood, paints, pins.....there were toys and comic books from my kids under there, and lots of my dried floral bunches that I had purchased over the past two years, as well as my grapevine wreaths just plopped on top!!  It was a disaster!!!
Now, as the bottom picture shows, it's more of an organized disaster!! LOL  Well, really, I have so much "stuff", of all kinds, that I'm always going to have shelves and boxes stacked and filled with it all!  But as long as I can get that stuff organized together, it's not a MESS!!! :-D

So in there, I still want to clean off my sewing table (far back, right) and get the rest of my different fabrics sorted (chair next to sewing table AND under the table on the left!), but now I can walk in there and FIND THINGS......*Sigh!!*  What a great feeling!

I want you to look at the walls and window of this room, too.....notice the color of the walls, the "straps" that are spaced around and in the corners, the unfinished window.....the COLOR of the walls.....!!!  THIS is what the whole house looked like when we first moved in 8 years ago.....can you believe it???  This is a manufactured home, which means the original owners CHOSE the walls to be this color -- someone actually wanted to look at walls like this!!!!  I mean, I understand that some people love white everywhere so they feel clean or bright or for some reason, but I didn't last a month in here before I was painting the walls -- ANYTHING!!!  It was just devoid of ANY color (except a light blue swirl pattern that somehow made it all look whiter), and my senses were screaming for everything to be warmer and cozy! :-D  I felt like I was in an institution! :-P

This room will probably be the last room I work on in the whole house.  I want our main living area done FIRST, then I will move on to our bedrooms (hopefully after this summer! :-D), and then the bathrooms!  I might even do more with the outside before I think about my craft room!! LOL  At least the walls are covered up with all my "STUFF"!!!  Haha!

The highlight of my weekend was that Brian brought me to my favorite little primitive shop on Saturday!!!!  I got a few little treasures, and I just LOVE them! :-D
I got the Special Home Tour edition of Country Sampler, a 2013 calendar with Primitive pictures in it (on clearance!!), and best of all, I got these two things......

That's a woven table runner in navy and brown, and a wonderful large scoop!!!  It's made of resin and wood, so it's not a "real" antique, but it's SO neat, I don't care! :-D  I can't wait to find a place for it!!!

Another thing I saw, that I loved was this dress.....

It's hard to tell from the picture, but it's a black check, and it has a yoke neck and collar!  It's the perfect "prairie" dress I've been looking for!!  Although, I'm not sure if it's just a decoration or if I could really wear it! LOL  I wish I had the pattern for it.....I've been looking online for something similar, but I might just end up having to make one up for myself!!  I would LOVE to buy this so I could wear it -- I WOULD!! :-D  But it was $28, and I can't resist making one for myself for a fraction of that price.....!  Isn't it wonderful??? :-)

So the weather around here has been pretty lousy -- it's been cloudy or rainy all week, and it's supposed to continue through this week....BLAH!! :-P  I'm ready for some sun!  I did end up getting the first board for my wood, but with the bad weather, I haven't had a chance to do a thing to it!!  All this time waiting for the wood, to now be stopped by the weather!  UGH!!
So as soon as I get started on that, I'll have something to show you..... *sigh!*

BUT, I'm not going to dwell on that!  I had such fun this weekend, and I'm hoping it will continue this week, even if the weather is gray, at least I can LOOK at my first wood floor pieces!!  AND my clean craft room -- I think it's time to get in there and dig around in my wool again!
OH!  And in my next post, I have a few special things I want to show everyone.....!!! ^-^