March 2011 Goals

Yesterday, when I typed up my list for this month, I had to laugh when I realized that most of my goals could be summed up into "Finish what I never finished in February" Oh well. :-) Last night we went and bought the stuff I need to finish the Frenchy dresser, and, hopefully, we will have a slow week this week so we'll be able to work on some long overdue projects like my website. OK, without further rambling, here's the list:

Finish reading Oliver Twist.

Start reading another classic. (Maybe La Alahambra?)

Finish my projects from last month: the Frenchy table and my website.

Finish current sewing projects; a tree skirt and a table runner.

Continue scrapbooking (and decluttering the scrapbooking stuff)

Finish the loveseat we started a while ago.

Update the castle tour page with new pictures.

Finish editing old pictures.

Continue purging and decluttering.

That's it! There is a good possibility that we'll be traveling again, and I have a little nephew that I need to meet (and harass with my camera) who will be here on the 18th. (19th?) So I am leaving myself plenty of flex time this month. :-)

 

February Recap - did I make it?

Whew! It's the 28th! It's the last day of February! It's the last day of my personal challenge to blog for a month straight!

(Blog calendar showing my 28 posts for the month)

I have to say, blogging for a month straight was harder than I thought it would be. I've never regularly blogged on the weekends before, and I think that was the hardest part. Also, I nearly forgot several times (like yesterday!) Big thanks go out to Lover, who encouraged me to keep going and not give up! But, I learned to relax my OCD tendencies a bit and just enjoy blogging again, and it was fun. I'm excited for all the things I have planned in March, although I am definitely NOT planning on blogging every day! :-)

Here's how I did on February's goals:

Read Oliver Twist. Started this one, and very much enjoying it. Did not finish it, however. Tsk tsk. :-)

Finish Frenchy table. .... yeah, this did not happen. I was out of town for a week! I need a new sanding tool to finish up the hard parts! I'm sure I can think of more excuses! :-)

Sew something. Bonus points for more than one project. YAY! I sewed a cover for my machine, hemmed some microfiber cloths, made a faux roman shade and worked on a table runner. :-) Success!

Work on scrapbooking. YAY! Although I didn't reach my goal of 2 hours a week, I did complete several layouts, as well as accomplished some sorting (and tossing) and assembled a little momento book.

Finish website. .... it's in the works. Coding and junk like that. Oh, and procrastination. :-)

Blog for 28 days straight. YAY!

I'll be back tomorrow with my goals for March. I'm hoping for a little more success next month! :-)

The Love Board

One of our favorite ways to write little notes to each other is on our "love board." When we first got married, and I still worked for the allergist office, I would bring home all sorts of drug swag - pens, stress balls, mouse pads... and dry erase boards. :-) I had one from Zyrtec that  I glued some magnets on and slapped onto our refrigerator to write down the grocery list.

However, it quickly went from a utilitarian list board to the perfect place to leave each other sweet little notes. One of us would leave a note, and then a few days later, the other would erase key parts of the note, modifying it slightly to create a whole new note. It was tons of fun. My brother also had a good time changing our notes into annoying little sayings - what can I say, he was easily amused. :-)

It's been one of our favorite items in the house, and we've given dry erase boards as wedding gifts, along with a  little note of explanation for the newly married couple. As much as I loved the sentiment though, the lime green board and the blatant drug advert on it was really bugging me. And then I found this little sticky chalkboard label at the Dollar Store. Oh Dollar Store, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways... :-)

Now we just use a chalk marker instead of a dry erase marker, and it is so much easier on the eyes. :-) And, we hide the marker in the drawer next to the fridge, so it's harder for my brother to find. :-) The decal is a bit flimsy, so it's not going to last forever, but there are plenty of vinyl chalkboard options on etsy when we get to that point.

So, as we wrap up this month of blogging about love (in which I ended up blogging very little about love), I thought this would be the perfect little idea to share. We have a lot of fun with it, and I am sure you will too!

What are your simple and easy ways to show the love?

And the purging continues!

After a month of decluttering and rampant purging, I find myself still strangely drawn to getting rid of things. :-) So, throughout this month, I've continued to go through craft boxes, deep dresser drawers and forgotten corners of the office. And I've continued to purge, heavily.

I got rid of 120+ things in January, and in February I managed to sort through our music collection. I LOVE music, but I had many cd's that I never listened to anymore, or music that was a gift from someone that I didn't particularly like (the music, not the someone), or random stuff that I am not sure how it ended up in our drawer. So I purged. I even convinced Lover to do some purging of his own collection. The end result was that we got rid of about 30 CDs, and our collection now fits much more nicely into our drawers.

I'm still continuing to purge through my scrapbooking boxes, random folders and boxes of cards. It is a good feeling to watch the rows and rows of random junk on shelves shrink down smaller and smaller. :-)

Have you continued purging after 111 things in 1/11?

Another Storm and my stormy thoughts

Well, we are in the midst of winter storm warning 9,358 for this winter. We're supposed to get 12 inches in the next 8 hours, and most of it is supposed to fall before noon.  I'm sitting on my living room couch typing this, and it is kind of a strange feeling. The snow is coming down so heavily and blowing so fiercely, that at times it is almost completely white outside, and it is eerily silent. A very strange feeling. Lover chatted me from work to ask me not to go run my errands today, to which I was happy to comply. Me no likey the snow. :-) We were supposed to have all of our nieces and nephews over for a fun evening tonight, and I am hoping that will still happen. We'll see. I don't want anyone risking their necks in this weather!

We've lost a lot of sleep this week as we have stayed up late into the night talking about anything and everything. Lover and I are both feeling especially burdened by the amount of people in our lives that need extra love and care and attention. It's hard to invest in people and love them, and do whatever you can for them, and then watch them make bad choices. It's hard to watch people settle for "good enough" in their marriages, or life, or relationship with God. It's hard to be pushed away by the very people that need you most.

I often think, if it is this hard to be invested in people's lives who are "grown-ups", what will it be like to be parents? If the day ever comes for us to have our own children, how do you find a balance between loving them and wanting to protect them, and still allowing them to make their own mistakes? Sounds like a hard job to me.

And through all of this, I keep coming back to this one thought. This must be a tiny glimpse of how God feels. He loves us all so much, and invests so much in us. It must hurt him so much when we push him away, or refuse to listen to him, or do something he knows will hurt us. It gives me a greater appreciation for his longsuffering towards us, for his patience with us no matter what.

Isn't God good? He really is. And it's amazing how much we can do when we simply rely on him to give us the strength to get through each day.

OK, well I am off to get the house ready for all the little people coming over later. And all the bigger people coming over this weekend. It's another busy weekend here at Wendhurst Castle, but I can't complain, because all that means is that we are so blessed! :-)

Stuff White People Like: Renovations

Have you ever visited the site Stuff White People Like? It's quite hysterical, and uncomfortably on target. :-) We bought my brother a daily calendar last year for his birthday from this site, and one day he came over and gave us this poignantly correct entry that applied perfectly to us:

Renovations:

All white people are born with a singular mission in like in order to pass from regular whitehood into ultra-whitehood. Much like how Muslims have to visit Mecca, all white people must eventually renovate a house before they can be complete.

Of course, most people do not reach this goal until the are thirty-five or older. But the need to do it is as instinctual as walking. But it is important to note that white people have little or no interest in renovating a suburban home built after 1960(except in Southern California). All white people dream about buying an older property ("with character") in a city, and then renovating it so the insides look all modern, with a stainless steel fridge.

Please note that all white people went through a renovation when they were a kid. This is a good subject to bond over, perhaps a story about how you were embarrassed at a sleepover when a friend went to the bathroom and there was a contractor on the toilet. Embellish as necessary.

:-) And just for the record, we do not plan on installing a stainless steel fridge. :-)

Spring is just around the corner...

...seriously. Spring is coming. :-) I have hope. Here's my evidence thus far:

It's light out when I wake up

It's still light out when Lover comes home

The birdies are singing in the morning

There were buds on the trees in NYC last week

It's coming friends, trust me. See the little widget on my sidebar? It shows us all exactly how many more days till spring. :-) Anyways, I figured we could all use some cheering up, so I thought I'd post this portrait session from last fall, when the sun was shining and we could see the grass. So here ya go:

Are you local? Give me a call and we'll get a photo session scheduled for ya...just as soon as the weather is nice again!

On Our Bookshelf: Created to Be His Help Meet

Another one of the books that I've found really helpful in marriage is this book Created to Be His Help Meet. It's written by Debi Pearl who, with her husband, founded No Greater Joy ministries. This is definitely one of those books that you need to take with a grain of salt. I don't agree with everything that Mrs. Pearl says in this book, but there is a lot of wisdom in it.



My biggest takeaway from this book is that being a wife, a loving, dedicated wife, is a good thing. There is an attitude today that by getting married, a woman is selling herself short. That she is somehow giving up any potential she may have of being someone by choosing to get married. I'm not going to get into my entire opinion on this subject, but let me just say that since getting married I have started my own business, quit my boring day job and have more friends than I know what to do with. Anyways, this book explores the many ways that being a wife is blessing.

One of the other really helpful things I found in this book was Mrs. Pearl's breakdown on the three types of men. There are leaders, visionaries, and steady committed men. Some husbands fall into one category only. Some, like mine, are a blend of all three. She delves into the characteristics of each type of man, and gives good advice on how to be the best wife you can be to your husband, however he is.

Mrs Pearl also really advocates that a wife, and a wife that stays home, become the mistress of her castle. She talks about learning to do simple things like repair something the is broken, keeping up with the yard, taking out the garbage, etc. These are little things that are, culturally, a man's domain, but when the wife does them, the final product means that they have more time together. This has been really helpful for me in our relationship.

One note of caution. As I said, this book needs to be read with an open and critical mind. Mrs. Pearl gives a few extreme examples that, taken out of context, could be used to say that she advocates staying in an abusive relationship, or allowing your husband to treat you like garbage. I don't believe that she was saying that, but I think it could definitely be taken that way, if you read the book without wisdom.

So there's another book that I've really enjoyed and learned a lot from. If you've read it, I'd love to hear what you thought of the book.

Buy this book on Amazon. :-)

P.S. I recently changed my commenting system to Disqus, so that you are automatically sent an email when I reply to your comment. You need to register the first time you comment now (even if you've commented before - sorry!) and the form comes up in a pop-up window, so you may need to disable a popup blocker. I'm hoping this works out so that we can be more connected, so any inconvenience will be worth it! :-)

A Walk Down the Street

Two weeks ago, when I was picking up a whole slew of glass for the upcoming crafty day, I spotted this little painting at our local Salvation Army. It's an original oil painting, so it matches this criteria. :-) And it was so pretty. The colors match our downstairs color scheme perfectly. And even the frame was pretty neat. The price was right at $9.99, so I popped it in my cart hoping it would meet Lover's approval. And although he wasn't in love with it, (which is good, because he should only be in love with me) :-) he told me he had no objections, so it has taken up permanent residence here at the castle.

In the above photo it's sitting on the new piano top, but today I hung it up on the dining room wall. I am not sure it will stay there, but I like it so far. Pics to come, cross my heart. Hope you all are safe and warm today. :-)

Growing Paperwhites

Back in December I was perusing the aisles of Christmas Tree Shops, and spending entirely too much money, as I am always wont to do there. :-) But I came across a little box labeled "Paperwhites" and I practically threw them in my cart. See, last spring I had made myself a little note to remind me to find a batch of paperwhites to grow once the snow and cold cut me off from my garden.



So I popped them into a little metal planter that I had sprayed a nice crisp white, and set them in a "sunny" place. Which in our town, in winter, means a brighter location than most. We don't see a lot of sun here. :-)  And they immediately started growing. And by immediately, I mean the very next day I saw green. They grew as much as an inch a day, and it was so fun to watch something grow, while everything outside froze up and was covered in snow.

The little buds came up about two weeks in, and then took another two weeks to bloom. The plants grew up to over a foot tall, so I eventually had to tie them together so they wouldn't fall over. I think a deeper planter may have helped remedy this problem, but I was using what I had. Watering was a breeze, the peat moss that came with the kit would turn a light brown when it was dry, so I knew I needed to add water. And so I waited impatiently for the flowers to finally bloom. And just after Christmas they did.



And they STANK! They stank to high heaven. They smelled so bad that when you walked into the room you looked around for the pile of garbage that must have been putrefying for months. It was awful. I persevered for as long as I could, but I ended up cutting them down, throwing them away and vowing to never grow paperwhites again. :-)



Of course, after some research, I found that there are all different breeds of paperwhites, so I am sure that there are some that do not smell like vomit. But next year I think I am just going to find me some hyacinths and daffodils, and force those inside. Much more pleasant I would say. :-)

What about you? Have you ever grown paperwhites, or forced spring bulbs? I'd love to hear if you grew a non-smelly variety. :-)

Day 19 of 28

It's a random kind of day. Therefore, I will show you this picture that I took not too long ago.

Yes, that is a stuffed monkey in a tree. :-) No, I have no idea why it was there. But it definitely brightened my day!

He was really high up in the tree, I have no idea how or why someone would go to all that trouble to put him up there. Maybe it was just to make random people passing by on the street to laugh? :-)

I hope you have a perfectly wonderful random day! :-)

A Better Wrapped Gift

One of my goals for the year is to be more original with my gift wrapping and presentation. I've learned over the years that if I present the gift that I got someone in a wrapping that is every bit as beautiful as the gift, it makes said gift ten times better. So I am really trying to ramp up my presentation. :-) Obviously, there are exceptions, like my two year old nephew who really only wants to rip open some paper and find the toy inside. But for my six year old niece, I tried to up the ante.

I used some cute polka dot wrapping paper from the dollar store, some black and pink ribbon, and a heart shaped paper doily as the gift tag. I think it came out cute and sweet. Where do you get your wrapping supplies from? I want to build up my stash, but not go broke in the process. :-)

It's Snowy Here!

I don't know about where you are, but we have gotten a bit of snow this winter. I figure it's pretty par for the course, as we had a very gentle winter last year, with not much snow and an early spring. This year is definitely making up for it though! :-) Our neighbors that get their driveways plowed had drifts last week that were literally taller than I am.

Our driveway is about 150 feet long, with the garage all the way at the back of the lot. Needless to say, we do not shovel all the way back to the garage in the winter. We just clear space for our cars plus one, and that's that. Although I suppose I would have awesome arms if I decided to shovel the whole thing every time. But then I wouldn't have time for blogging. :-)

But do you want to hear something awesome? We met our neighbor down the street a bit a few weeks ago, and in the course of the conversation, she explained that she had a snowblower that she didn't use, and she wanted to know if we were interested in it. Um... yes? YES! So it is taking us a while to get it up and running, because it was sitting in our lovely neighbor's garage unused for two years, but boy are we excited! Lover tells me that I may even be able to use it, because it is self propelled. Anyways, isn't our neighbor awesome? The kindness of people just blows me away sometimes.



P.S. I wanted to make sure that I posted these pictures of snow for posterity's sake, just in case global warming isn't just hype. ;-)

I Need a Dog...

I've recently stumbled upon something really interesting. I am constantly saving pictures of rooms that speak to me in my inspiration files, and I noticed that there is a certain combination that always looks great to me. Here's the equation:

Killer Room + Adorable Dog = Totally Awesome Room

Here's proof:

Aren't they awesome? I think the cute little dogs really add that "people live here" feel. :-) So what did I do? I dragged Lover down to the local animal shelter with me, and we scouted out the dogs there. And I fell in love with this beautiful Irish setter. Look;

But there was also this incredible white German shepherd there, with the biggest, softest eyes. And I thought he would look great in the guest room, so I brought him home too;

And then I just couldn't resist this mop of hair: he was so adorable, and I loved how you couldn't see his eyes for all the hair, and how he looked so disheveled and adorable at the same time. :-)

Doesn't he look cute on our front steps? ;-)

Third Anniversary

Today is the third anniversary of our owning Wendhurst Castle. I was just telling a friend the other day that as much as I absolutely love our house, and I am beyond thankful for it, I am not sure that we still would have purchased this house knowing how much work it would be. Who would have known that it would take months to remove the cork off of the living room walls, or that a basement renovation would be stretching into the 23rd month on this project? But it has been so worth it. I love how we've slowly been transforming this house into home, and making every inch of it ours.



Some combination of keeping this house, as well as restoring this house, has become my fulltime job. It's a good thing I quit my "day job" three years ago, because we never would have accomplished half of the things we have so far.  We've learned so much, about home renovation, about ourselves, about each other. We make a great team, together we've tackled plumbing, demolition, electrical, drywall, painting, decorating.... the list goes on and on. We're having a blast. :)

When we looked into purchasing a home, we made two resolutions:



1) That we would use our home to be a blessing to others. We weren't buying 1600 square feet to have more space to fill up with stuff, we were buying it so that we had the room to have people over for dinner, to host parties, to have guests... the list goes on and on. God has given us so many opportunities to use the castle for him, whether it be by hosting missionaries, or family, or friends (old and new!), or having someone (or many someones) over for dinner. It's been our view from the beginning that if God saw fit to bless us with this house, then we'll use it for him as much as we can!



2) That our owning a home and restoring it would never be the primary focus of our lives. This is why it has taken us 23 months and counting to remodel our basement, three summers to clear out a concrete planter, and why, three years later, my office ceiling is still falling down. :-) People are so much more important than houses or things, and so that's where our focus is.

So yes, we've put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into our home. A lot of time. A lot of money. But we've put many, many more hours into the lives of people around us. And if that means that our basement bathroom still has no walls, even though it has a functioning toilet, then that's how it will be. ;-)

Love Tread Softly

Today I am loving the sound of my keys clicking away as I type. Last week was incredibly busy and stressful, and this week I have not one single thing on the schedule. I cannot even begin to describe how good that feels. I am getting caught up on sleep and sanity this week, that is priority numero uno. :-) Anyways, I wanted to show you this little watercolor that I bought a few weeks ago. I was browsing etsy.com for ... well now I forget what for, when I came across this adorable little painting. It reminds me of this Willow Tree statue that we had at our wedding.



It's titled "Love Tread Softly". It's tiny, only about 2.5 inches by 4 inches. I framed it and hung on the gallery wall on the stairwell that I've slowly been creating. It's so cute, it makes me smile every time I walk by it. It's by an artist named Jackie Zhu who lives in Australia. I love how all her art is so whimsical.

Anyways, I hope you have a lovely day, and Happy Valentine's Day!

Music

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.  ~Berthold Auerbach

What is she up to now?

You're probably wondering - what in the name of all that is holy is she up to now? Well, I'm not opening a glasswares store. :-)  I'm having some girlfriends over today and we are getting our craft on. We're making a bunch of different glass crafts and Lover is cooking us a fantabulous lunch. What? Fantabulous is a word! :-) I'll be back next week with some pictures of what we accomplished. I'm so looking forward to this, I know we'll have a great time! :-)

On Our Bookshelf: Love and Respect

One of the things I figured I would write about this month are the books that we have read over the last few years that have really helped our relationship. I've read some really good ones, lots of mediocre ones, and a few really awful ones. :-) Today I am here to tell you about Love & Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs. The tagline for the book is "The Love She Most Desires, The Respect He Desperately Needs." The premise of this book is that love alone is not enough. Our culture idealizes love above all else, and in the process completely loses sight of the fact that respect is every bit as vital to a healthy relationship as love is.  Dr. Eggerichs delves into what he calls the "Crazy Cycle", where a woman who feels no love gives no respect, and the husband, feeling no respect, gives no love. He talks about the way that  man's brain is hardwired differently than a woman's, how a man needs to hear that he is respected for who he is, what he does, and the choices that he makes in life. Women, on the other hand, are made to love, need love, and shower it abundantly on those around them.

Dr. Eggerichs offers really helpful advice on the kind of language to use to express your feelings of respect to your husband, and on the different ways a husband can be more sensitive and loving towards his wife.  The second part of the book really delves into these topics, exploring them in great detail, and giving lots of pointers and ideas. He shows how you can get to the point where you have built a strong foundation for your marriage, so much so that if one of you can't be loving, or respectful, the other shows the proper attitude regardless.

I think what I like so much about this book is that it is so fair. It really explores a woman's desperate natural need to be loved, and how she feels literally starved for it when it is not there. But it gives just as much time and attention  to the man's side of the story, stating that his need for respect is just as natural and vital, and he will wither up and die without it. It's written in a very smooth, easy to read format, and has been a great tool for us. If you haven't read it, I encourage you to pick up a copy! :-)

Buy this book on Amazon :-)

Pretty Piano

Well, it is day 10 of this blogging for a month thing. And I'd say so far it is going very well. :-) I have a super busy weekend coming up though, so fitting in three blog posts over the next three days is going to be tricky to say the least. But, I am committed! I feel like this goal is like going it alone in euchre - it's all or nothing. Once I miss one day, I am done! :-) So I've been working hard to make the time to write up at least a quick blog, because I have a serious allergy to failure. :-)

So yesterday I finally got around to something that has been bugging me for a while. When we bought Wendhurst Castle the previous owners left us their piano. Which I was supremely excited about. And then I found out that it was super out of tune. And that it would be over a hundred dollars to bring it back into tune. And so we didn't worry about tuning it for the first two years. I was busy with other major house projects that didn't leave a lot of time for piano playing.

The strange thing about this piano is that the top had been removed and replaced with a large piece of wood, topped with a huge piece of glass. Oh, and the back of the piano? Covered in cork and mirrors. This piano was stylin! :-) Here's a pretty good picture of what it looked like not too long ago.

You can see that the top extends beyond the back of the piano, and is supported by corbels. While it looked a bit strange, it didn't bother me too much. That is, until I finally had a piano tuner come to the house. And here's where the story gets interesting. Look closely at this picture:

When the previous owners replaced the top of the piano, they fitted the large piece of wood and glass into moulding that they then screwed into the piano frame. Then, to make matters worse, they filled the screw holes with wood filler, and then stained and polyurethaned right over the top of them. Making it impossible to open the piano to tune it. Now tell me, who in their right mind does that? So, Lover got all muscle-y with the screw extractors, and that's why you can see all those holes in the picture above. The piano tuner came out, tuned up the piano, and proceeded to tell me he had never seen such a bizarre thing in his life.

So then we were left with the dilemma of what to do with this strange concoction on top of the piano. The tuner had also mentioned that the wood on the top seemed like it was actually the piece that went on the bottom of the piano, just above the pedals. Which would make sense, because there was only a piece of flimsy plywood there now.

Then a lightbulb went off. I remembered a pile of wood in the attic with a piece lying on top that looked strangely like a music stand. Was it possible that they had kept the previous piano top when they did their customizations? Sadly, they hadn't kept any of the other things they had removed in order to "customize" the house (like the crown moulding in the living room) so I didn't have a lot of faith. But yesterday I finally had the time to investigate up in the attic.  And here's what I found!



What's that, you ask? Why, it's the original top! And music stand! And they're still in pretty nice condition! I found them in a stack with some random shelves, table leaves and who knows what else, covered in bird poop and dirt. Why they were covered in bird poop I do not know. :-)  But some time with some water, vinegar and baking soda removed all aviary excrements, and some mineral oil shined these babies right back up. The top is in better condition than the music stand, and the finish and veneer are no longer perfect, but I am so thrilled. I was able to move the kickplate piece back into place, beneath the keys, and the top just slides right on. The best part is the piano is now a good 6 inches less deep and wide, so it now fits on the wall instead of needing to be at an angle. I can see both my curtains now! :-)



All in all I am pretty excited. The piano looks so pretty now, and takes up less of the room. And while I lost a little display space, I am excited that I now have more floor space to move around in. Hurray! So what did you work on yesterday?