A Little Break for a Wedding

So we are trying to get ready for Rosie's wedding, as I've said, or hinted, or fleetingly thought I've said or hinted.

Please sign up for the RSS feed, bookmark the page, or put this page on auto-refresh (is there such a thing?) so that you can make it back here and see how a family of control freaks, frugal hackers, and creative mad geniuses who unfortunately suffer from some kind of collective attention disorder, throw a wedding.If we can, we'll pop in to keep you posted. If not, have a glass of iced tea -- we'll see you in July! XOXO! You're fabulous! We love you!

A frugal decorating hack, my speciality!

I have lots of walls. Big, blank, empty walls.

For a long time I've been hoarding some posters that are actually pages from a calendar. To go on this particular wall that is in the upstairs back hall.

Yes, I have two halls in my upstairs.
This one is up the back stairs. It has hardly any light, hence the funky pictures and the brightest marigold paint we could find to brighten things up and not clash with the miles of sort of barn red wall-to-wall carpet that we are just living with for a decade or two. You don't replace miles of carpet lightly, let me tell you. I don't hate it and it's in pretty good condition. It keeps us warm in the winter. I work around it.

So the calendar was the property of a friend of Rosie's. He gave the pages to her. She put them on her walls in her room, then gave them to Sukie. She put them on the walls in her apartment in Chicago while studying at U of C, then gave them to me.

They sat in a pile in the linen closet for about a year. Then, in the midst of kitchen flooring (you can tell from the picture that yes, there is no floor), I must have been seized by the desire to get something, anything, under control, because I put them in glass frames.

Oh, I know what it was! I had a coupon for 25% off my whole order at Michael's! So I decided to use it on these frames, which I really like because of their simplicity and ease. You have a poster that isn't the world's greatest art -- just put them in one of these already and get on with your life!
One reason for procrastination was that these particular items of course do not fit into any standard frame size.

Is this what's holding you back from framing things you like? Because it holds me back, let me tell you.

But here's what to do. Get a larger size and make a "mat" to go underneath the poster -- out of any random paper that goes. In this case, the actual ad for the frame works great and, of course, is the correct size.
There was only one little glitch: the bar code showed through the paper of the poster. But I was in a very hacky mood. I grabbed a marker and -- voila!

I had to trim the sides a tiny bit... and with the red paper underneath, it all worked.
A little spray glue and we're in business.
Yesterday the Chief and I did not get a divorce putting these up in a straight line, evenly spaced, on this vast, but by no means the most vast in this house, wall.
Back here, in the very most nether reaches of this hall, the carpet is a little baggy and saggy. But oh well, I'm not dealing with it now! You can't make me!

Instead, I direct your eyes to the cheery orange and the posters that were well worth the wait, since they really make me happy!
Thanks to Ann Kroeker for the link on Make-Do Mondays!

Ask Auntie Leila: Cranky two-year old.

In the comments for the Clarification post, Catharina, someone who certainly sounds to me like super-mom, asks a discipline question. You can read the whole thing there.

Ask us! We will tell you all we know! Cheesesteaks.

I'm starting a new feature. It's called Ask Auntie Leila (unless you want to ask Bridget, Deirdre, Sukie, Rosie, or Habou -- then it's called Ask {insert rank and name here}).

Clarification, no pictures.

By the way, I have nothing against threatening per se.

The threat has to be immediate, though. "Do that again and I'll rip your arms off and feed them to you" kind of thing, not "you won't be able to go to the drive-in with your cousins next week."

The one method of so-called discipline that doesn't work.

Yesterday's post was incoherent even by my parenthesis-wielding standards.

Do you think this time it will work?

{Before.}

We have a big yard. It's big for people who really don't have skills.

Lawn skills.
There is one small yet important part of our yard, next to the deck, in particular -- and no, I don't mean the part where the boom made tremendous ruts -- where grass has had a difficult time due to septic tank issues.

Such as, the septic tank has to be opened to be cleaned, and occasionally there is a septic tank emergency which requires persons who shall not be named to go out there and fling dirt and whatever poor remnants of lawn were left over from the last episode, all around, including on top of the parts of the lawn not otherwise disturbed by septic issues, until that moment.{That gap in the sod is where the rock goes to mark the septic tank cover, making it possible to get to it without lawn mayhem, in theory at least.}

{Note that all of these pictures are of me in variations of this attractive pose.}

And just having a septic tank there makes things... not want to grow above it.

(Unlike near the leach field, where things grow to bionic proportions. If you don't get all this, I must surmise you live in the city and have never really thought about how *things* work. I used to be like unto you. But now I know. Too, too much.)

And then part of the tree fell due to ice, and then was felled, due to the likelihood that more chunks of it would have hurled themselves onto our roof the next time, and it all had to be made into firewood right there on what was left of the lawn...

It's hard to explain this picture from the fall... if you care or even notice.

If I show you this one below (from two years ago when we began the painting-which-will-never-end), do you understand what we're looking at here? That structure in the front of the picture is actually the bunny hutch, formerly chicken tractor.

{Note that there was grass.} {What you don't see, because that was then and this is now, is that the tree, above, is now a stack of wood against the garage!}

But now that the tree is down -- the tree that I rescued from the septic system builders who were cutting down trees like they were so many pesky weeds -- the tree that I caused to have a rock wall built around -- --so that the leach field could be built without necessitating its, the tree's, removal -- the tree that was making it so that what few blades of grass could grow on this one patch of level ground (thus, a perfect site for a septic tank) would be in deep shade -- perhaps this lawn will grow.

We went where we have never gone before, to the buying of sod and the laying of sod.


See how Bridget cleverly designed an ornamental landscaping use for the giant trunk parts that were certainly not going very far? Perhaps they are next year's firewood. For now they are her concession stand, which I love.
I sincerely hope that now the sod will take root and grow, because if not, I am out of ideas.

I have a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other and they won't shut up.

Lots of times if you slap (or spray) a coat of paint on something, it's done. It was tacky or hopeless before, and now it's a statement, a pop of drama in an otherwise sleepy room, a useful object where there was a need. Ten minutes and you're there.

However, it's a little tricky if what you are starting with is good quality.

I had my eye on this shelf at the Chief's mother's house, and she graciously gave it to me as things were being divvied up.It's not an antique, it's a reproduction, but a good handmade one, and I like the lines -- although, I'll be honest, I just don't like the color -- that Colonial pine... it's just not me; sorry to all you Colonial pine lovers out there.It's a little the worse for wear......not that I'm a huge stickler for perfection.

I thought it would go perfectly in the dining room if it were painted black -- right there... where these pictures are now -- - to hold all those little tea things so that I could actually put food on that sideboard -- but now I'm having qualms and second thoughts.

{By the way, I found those aqua dishes at Goodwill for 87 cents a piece! Aren't they the cutest? And Grandma also gave me the silver long ago; for that matter, she gave me the desk thingy they are all sitting on too. I use it as an extra sideboard and it works fine.}


You want to know how to identify solid things or actual antiques before you get out that can of spray paint.
Patina, hand-cut nails, a label...these are your clues. Train your eye so that you aren't taken in at the antiques store by what's actually a massed-produced object from the factories of China, or, worse, that you don't destroy a real treasure by scraping off the original milk paint and giving it a "distressed" finish!

Haven't you watched Antiques Road Show? Those crazy people who get the sad news from Leigh or Lesley that if they had only not painstakingly removed the "dirt" from that little table, it would be worth a small fortune, but as it is, well, enjoy it in the parlor...
So, this isn't a priceless antique, but when I got it home and looked at it closely (and wiped off all the dust), I saw that it is worth something and really should not be spray painted.

It should be stripped and re-stained.

Then it should be rubbed with beeswax.

And I don't want to do all that.

But I want a shelf in the dining room. Although those tea things probably wouldn't fit on there anyway.

Sigh.

What would you do?

Thanks to Ann Kroeker for the link! Go see what people are making do with this Monday over there!

Like I said, activity gridlock.

One fresh morning a few weeks ago I took this picture, so happy to have the screen door up and the sun shining.

I thought I'd take another one without the tail end of the Suburban in it, but....

Naah.

Going with this one.



You know, that feeling when you are under so much pressure to do a certain thing that you can hardly breathe, much less pick some task to just go ahead and do?

Well, it's coming. A big wedding. In a month.
I'm committed to being peaceful and calm if it lands me in a straitjacket.

So instead of trying to sit here composing the great American blog post for you when I should really be cleaning, making decorations, or shopping, I will just pop in here every once in a while to check in with nothing too earth shattering to say.
Is there a big yard of dirt out back? Yes.

Do we have to make about a hundred tissue paper ball star flower decoration thingies? Yes.

Does Deirdre have a dress? Not really.

But it's all good, don't worry.

I'll try to take some pictures to show you our progress.

Today I've deep-cleaned the living rooom! Yay!!


I have to go make some pizza dough now, but I wanted you to know I haven't forgotten you!

XOXO!

Well, our lovely ladies chose two winners! Before your eyes!

Yes! We chose the winners for our giveaway of the attractive CorningWare dish and the Langstroth bee book!

We were so excited by all the comments you left! Some of you even commented just to say hi! That was so kind of you... and others were so very complimentary, not taking the chance to say how dumb we are, even though we said you could!
So, without further eloquence, here is a video of the grand drawing (or you can skip straight to the pictures of the winning comments if you would like to save almost six minutes of your life, and I certainly wouldn't blame you. We are just learning here, folks; we aren't trying to waste your time on purpose :).

This video was produced with the intention of amusing you and showing you how scrupulously honest this contest was, although in the process the camera person didn't have the camera pointed in the right direction at all times. Oops.

Yes, we specialize in unnecessary complications :)

{Mom, don't give away two things! Don't have so many rules! Don't confuse them and us! Pish-tosh! But...}

But it was fun. Okay, right, the video:






Congratulations MomE! I hope you love your little faded refrigerator dish! Send me your address!


Congratulations WunderMom -- Becky J! Send me an email with your address, and your book will be on its way! If you didn't want the book (it was a little unclear, but I think you did!), we'll do another drawing to give the book to someone else -- and you will still get a little something nice. Your name WAS in the other drawing, just so you know!

Again, with the complications... sheesh, why can't we just do things the normal way?


Now, as the Genie says in Aladdin, there are some caveats and quid pro quos:

1. We didn't intend for the winners both to have to have the name "Mom" in their title, it just happened that way.

2. If anyone would like to order the bee book anyway, here is the link:


Langstroth's Hive and the Honey-Bee: The Classic Beekeeper's Manual

Thanks again for participating! We'll do another one -- maybe after the wedding :)