Okay, I'm Tired of Waiting...

...for the plumbing fixtures! Now we've been informed that they are due to ship on February 18th. That's about the third date we've been given. I'm tired of waiting. So, I'm going to go ahead with the "big" reveal--everything except the guest bathroom. Here goes:

Mindy's Bedroom and Bathroom (for lack of a better name--I guess we could call it "guest room #1):

With Mindy's room, I broke my own rule. I always say that when you re-do a room, you need to do everything so you get the "wow" factor--and don't get tried of what you have too soon after. 

Everything here is as it was prior to the remodel---just new paint, light fixture (it's a retractable fan), new carpet, a few new decorations and new artwork. Window treatments, bedding and furniture remain the same.

I had those two colorful throw pillows in the closet in my office from about 15 years ago when the room was black and fuchsia. I was going to get rid of them, but decided to use them here for a pop of color. You have to really blow up this picture to see them. Side note: that black and white afghan was the last one mom made before she died. She wasn't even making it for me, that was just a coincidence that it worked for me. I finished it and knew I'd use it here.

Changing the paint color and the fact that it goes smoothly in to the new bathroom makes all the difference. This room really seems new and fresh.

The view you are seeing here once was the linen closet. We took that out and opened up the entire space. Christy's guy, Wilder, did the most fabulous job with all of those angled walls. Basically, when you entered the bathroom, the linen closet was on the left with a door next to that to the bathroom. The double vanity was on the same wall as the new one is now.

The linen closet was relocated to where the shower used to be. It was Christy's idea to use the same bi-fold door from the original linen closet. She always tries to save us $25 or $30 whenever she can!

All of the pictures were taken with my iPhone. All the ones here are from our trip to France. The small photo above the sink is from Monet's garden. 

That little floral on the left is left from before the remodel. It's actually an old, antique mailbox that I bought at the flea market years ago. I made the floral arrangement in it. I still like it!

You can see better where the linen closet was. It's made a huge difference by opening up the entire space. It looks so much larger now. Actually, it is a pretty good size bathroom.

I would probably never have used black tile, but Christy suggested it. I agreed with her that it's nice to tone down all of the white. Y'all know how I feel about white!! It's kind of hard to tell, but there is a bath tub here. 

Next is the hallway.

As you can see, it's a long hallway. We had everything painted including the 2 story entry. It's amazing how paint just brightens and cleans everything up. We also replaced the ceiling fixtures. There are three of them.

I removed quite a few of the pictures. I kept all of the girls wedding pictures and our 25th wedding anniversary picture. It just dawned on me as I'm looking at this. I need to get our 50th wedding anniversary picture framed too. I think I'll put that on my list!

Now on to my office. I didn't change anything here except the carpet. I didn't even take anything off the walls (I am thinking about getting rid of a few things--just haven't done it yet). I did get the closets cleaned out and got rid of all kinds of stuff. I cleaned every nook and cranny including all the files in my desk. I moved some of the decorative items around to freshen it up and got rid of quite a few--like my Aunt Jemima cookie jar. That's just too politically incorrect these days. But, I still love pancakes!

This is one of my favorite needlepoint pictures. It's called "Kaleidescope" and is a counted piece. Connie and I both did one.

The window treatments are the same as what's in Mindy's room. Christy had them done for me--identically about 10-12 years ago. She didn't balk when I said I wanted to keep them, so I guess that means she still likes them too! She's not one bit afraid to give me her opinion! I'm fine with that. I need her to make sure that I don't make some terrible mistake! Plus I like that she oversees and handles everything! 

I don't really use my office much at all anymore. Basically, the printer is here and I file stuff. That's about it. The computer still works, but is so old, it can't support the printer. The only reason I'm keeping it is because, hello, it's a computer hutch! About the only thing I use it for is to transfer photos to my laptop. They are all in the cloud anyway. They are just easier to access on the computer.

When we started this remodeling, we thought about changing this room back to a bedroom. Since we already have two guest rooms and a queen size futon in Butch's office, we just left it as it is. This furniture is just that cheap pressed wood, but it weighs a ton. I was concerned that the carpet layers would not be able to move it. Christy said it was their problem. I guess they deal with really heavy stuff all the time, because, apparently, it wasn't a problem! They moved it all out on the balcony.

Yeah, as I'm looking at this picture, those giant safety pins are going. 

I had planned to get a couple of new, more updated lamps. But these are really old. It was sort of bothering Butch---all of the things that had value that we were literally taking to Goodwill. In the end, it was his idea to just keep them. I'm fine with them. Since I got them from my "adopted" grandmother back around 1990, they will continue to be a reminder of her.

When I cleaned out my desk, I decided to take the file that had cards from Butch and the girls through the years and turn them into table decor. I just tied them all up with a blue ribbon. 

Now for the guest room. Let's start with a couple "before" pictures:

We donated all of the furniture and bedding. 

We didn't need a dresser and chest of drawers. 

Plus, I was just ready for a change. The room just looked so tired to me.

Now for the "after" pictures. It barely looks like the same room!

I bought the chairs from my friend, Nancy. 

I didn't want to put anything in front of the window this time. I just wanted the room to feel more open without a lot of furniture. I kept the matchstick blinds and curtain rod. The window treatment is custom with the natural linen fabric that I used downstairs in the family room. But, I had these made to match what the other window treatment was. I like the top part--maybe it's called a "flange"? I'm not sure. The lady that made them added buttons to it which I love. Christy handled all of that for me. There will be a Roman shade in the bathroom made out of the same fabric. That's the other great thing about Christy. She has all the records. So if I want something I had her do 10 years ago, she knows exactly the color or fabric. 

All of this bedding and the pillows on the bed came from Walmart. Sandy introduced me to a blog called "My Big Texas House." I've already told you about that girl and how I've become a Walmart shopper now because of her. Uh oh, I don't think Christy knows about my new Walmart obsession! Actually, I've said it before, I hate Walmart. I just really like this line. Plus, remember my cute Christmas pillows? You can't beat the prices, that's for sure. I'm not that worried about how well all of this might hold up as this room will only get used a few times a year.

The pictures over the bed used to be in our master (or should I say, "primary") bathroom years ago. I liked them, so saved them. I'm so glad I did. I have to give Butch credit for using them. He was the one to suggest it. I love how they work here. 

The little vintage chair came out of my scrapbook room. When I was starting to plan this room, this chair was probably one of the first things I knew I wanted to use with my French farmhouse feel. Stephanie thinks it's kind of goofy, but I like to have something on both sides of a bed so there's a place to put your phone, glasses, drink etc. It's just practical. 

One last thing, the pillows on the chairs were also something I'd saved from about 15 years ago when our bedroom was red. They are needlepoint, but not done by me. If you go back to the first picture, you can see the cream and tobacco colored one. I needlepointed that one--actually, that was my very first pillow. It's about 25 years old. The whole room is kind of a hodgepodge with a little of this and a little of that. I think it all works together just fine! I'm really happy with how it came out.

So, the last thing is the bathroom. You can see just a little sneak in one of the pictures. I have everything waiting to be placed and decorated. That will be after the plumbing goes in. Whenever that happens! Christy is on top of it. We couldn't have done any of this without her! Or, rather, I should say, I don't want to do it without her. It's so nice to just have someone handle everything. I love that girl!

Scrapbook Saturday

First of all, I'd like to give a "shout out" to my little sister! Happy Birthday Jeanne! This is your official welcome to the senior citizen's club!!

I'm 7 here. Jeanne's 2. Get a load of that printed furniture! I think this was at our grandparent's.

Glamour shots and a mullet!

Sadly, I don't have that many pictures of us. We'll need to rectify that. I have to remember to get a picture every time we're together.

On to Scrapbook Saturday. 

Just thought I'd share a few end pages that I've made lately. This is a simple "go to" that comes together easily with scraps.

I save all of those paper strips that need to be cut off your pattern paper. I keep them in a binder clip on my table. Then, I just. made a little grid design at random---no need to waste a lot of time mixing and matching. Using other pattern paper scraps, I cut out the letters. Pretty simple. I put these three pages together in about 15 minutes--while I was talking to the birthday girl on the phone! I had pre-cut the letters while watching tv one night.

I'll be leaving on Wednesday for our winter scrapbook retreat. I'll be sure to get another picture of Jeanne and I. I should have quite a few pages to share after that. In the mean time, I'm still cleaning out!!! I got the room cleaned up, but now I've started on the drawers.

Okay, that's it for today.

Friday Funnies

Five Things Thursday

1. Oh My Gosh! I never thought about this. I've often "surprised" the person behind me by paying for their order. I think the next time, I'm going to ask how much it is and then put that money in the tip jar. It might not mean much when it's divided by 10 people working, but if everyone did it, then it would really add up!!

On second thought, it would probably make the most impact to continue surprising the person behind me. It would surely brighten their day. And you just never know what people are going through!

2. Some pretty interesting observations during this time of Covid!

3. A bison in Yellowstone National Park at below zero temperatures.

I didn't know it got that cold there. Maybe it's the wind chill. The coldest it's ever gotten is -66 on Feb. 9, 1933. Yikes! That's cold!

4.

5. Don't know where this is, but a husband and wife had different faiths. They chose to be buried side-by-side, each in their own faith's cemeteries. Kind of clever!

Pay Attention to Today's Date!

I was saving this without ever checking it's veracity. Just goes to show how misinformation and fake news gets passed around. It ain't 2's day folks!

Still 2/22/22 is one of those awesome alignments!

Two and a Half Weeks...

That's how long it's taken me to clean my scrapbook room. And when I say 2 and half weeks, I really mean about 4-5 hours a day for 2 and a half weeks. I only work until lunch time. Remember, I'm a creature of routine. I eat lunch while watching a show, then I check my emails. After that, it's reading and nap time. Before you know it, it's time to start dinner. It's a pretty good routine. Ahhh, the life of retirement. Or maybe I should say, "quarantine!" I was pretty much forced to stay home. Turns out it was a good thing.

Anyway, it was the room I had been putting off after the remodel. It looked like this:

I thought I had more pictures, but I don't. You just have to imagine the whole room looked like this. Just stuff piled everywhere from the closets in the other rooms. When it was time to sort all of this, everything had to be cleaned! You know, construction dust and all. 

In this picture, I had already cleaned off the two shelves on the right. I got rid of so much stuff. It looked like the shelves on the left before I thinned it out.

Here's the final results. Every single thing had to be removed and cleaned. So much work! You can see how cleared out the 2 shelves on the left are now. 

This is the view from the door.

Believe it or not, I eliminated quite a few of the antique clocks from my collection.

I still really like the "escape" sign hanging from the window treatment. It reminds me of the time--I don't know, 10 or 15 years ago--Pam and I went to Heidi Swapp's "Creative Escape" in Scottsdale. We even took the hubs so they could play golf. We had such a good time. I wish Heidi still had these creative weekends. So, so much has changed with this hobby. At least we're still trying to keep it alive. Hence our two scrapbook retreats every year. In fact, we're leaving next Wednesday for Kentucky Lake. We're all looking forward to it. When it's cold and gray, it's nice to be inside scrapbooking! 

Those stacking white drawers used to be full of rubber stamps. Most of them are empty now. I might even be able to get rid of them.

I still need to go through all of my paper and those drawers. 

I hauled a carload to SmART where you can donate craft supplies. It's out by the Opryland Hotel which is about 30 minutes from my house. It's a non-profit that employs the handicapped. I like the idea of being able to donate to a place that appreciates what I have to get rid of rather than just giving it to Goodwill. I got rid of tons of stamps, paper pads, pens (OMGosh, the pens), buttons, fibers and so much more. I just figured that if I haven't used it in the 20 years I've been scrapbooking, then most likely I won't be using it for the next 20 years!

And now this. I spent 4 1/2 hours just on my work table. 

Every detail had to be cleaned. Every nook and cranny. It feels so good to have it finished.

I got the table cleared off. In the vintage muffin tin is my collection of rhinestone pins. I do like sparkly things. 

That picture frame is so cute. It's made out of typewriter or old computer keys. Jordan gave it to me one year for Christmas. 

And now for the confession. I did not clean each little thing and compartment in this printers tray. I didn't clean anything that would have required me to get up on a step stool. So, if I couldn't reach it, it didn't get cleaned. You can go back and look at the pictures. Anything beyond my reach is still dusty and cluttered--or at least more cluttered than what I cleaned out. 

You can get an idea of the dust from this picture. Butch is going to help me with the upper shelves. He doesn't have the balance problems that I do. So I'll have him hand things down to me for cleaning. Mostly likely it will be this weekend before we can get to it. I'm actually getting to play bridge twice this week. Yay!! I'm really looking forward to that!

My work is just about done, so I can look forward to play!!

What work have you done lately?