Art

This was a piece that I had done for a Klimt challenge.

Cleaning....never enough time

    Well, since my mother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer in September of last year, my house has pretty much been on hold.  Something had to give in our lives and since we were never home except to sleep, it was our house. (Though The dogs settled right in and made it their own place.) After finally getting past the funk of post funeral I have finally begun cleaning.  At the moment there is as much dog hair on me as there is on the dogs. I will have to have the drain-o on standby when I go take my shower.
      Today is one of those cleaning sessions when you feel like you are making more mess than you are cleaning up, never mind the fact that VA is in the middle of a major heatwave! Coltrane, our mixed breed, is like a three year old, every time you move he moves with you.  I am not even going to blog how many trash bags I have filled.  I have even thought about enlisting my teaching buddy Vicki's help.  If any one can organize, she can.  I am even still finding the token Christmas decoration here and there. (Vicki would know what to do!)
      I guess I have procrastinated long enough, I was on a "rest from heat" break ordered by my husband. Back to the dungeon and scrubbing floors that are in need of a good sanding and refinishing.  We gave up on working on the kitchen I have been without since last September.  I finally just purchased metal shelves at Lowes to hold items that were in cabinets that were removed almost a year ago. (Pre Nana's Cancer) At least this way we have cleared several critical areas in our house and have a counter-top exposed.  I think the wires sticking out of the wall provides a nice electrical ambiance. (yes, the are capped off)

     Hopefully, I will be able to post progress pictures in the fall......keep your fingers crossed. "All I want for Christmas is my kitchen back, my kitchen back, my kitchen back.  Gee if I could only have my kitchen back, then I could bake you Christmas cookies! (Ok-we will just say that last part was the result of heat exhaustion!)

Goodwill and Etsy FInds

     Several months ago I was looking through a Southern Living magazine and noticed where a designer had used vintage paint by numbers of dogs to form a vignette on a wall.  My imagination began to kick in overdrive and started a search for old dog paint by numbers.  I decided to check Goodwill and did not find any paint by number paintings but did discover an antique oil painting that actually still had the tag from the antique shop on the back for 95 cents!  I also discovered an old Florence Kroger print of a Cocker Spaniel for 55 cents.  They both had beat up old wooden frames which I spray painted gold.  My paint by number find was located on Etsy and scored for 14.99 though vintage paint by numbers usually run much higher.  I didn't know all those years ago I was creating such sought after art, if I had only know!

What a mess.....

     Have you ever started cleaning and about two hours into it you think it may look worse than when you started?  Today is my first day at home by myself for any length of time in over six months, needless to say six months of grime lies in our sun-room/office where I have decided to begin my cleaning spree.  My goal had been take one room a day over the next week, but I think I may need to modify that plan!
     I am currently taking my fifteen minute break to have a Minute Maid Soft Frozen Limeade Cherry and write my blog.
     The upside to this cleaning binge is I have probably found about ten dollars in change but if you calculate that out I think the most I will make in this room is about a 1.25 an hour.  Then if you take into account that we will probably need to order out because I will be too tired to cook, I will be in the red.
      I also found a really cute pair of shoes I had forgotten about and two pairs of dress shoes that my husband needed for his mother's funeral last week, instead we had to go out an purchase another pair.  Boy, this office is costing me a lot of money.  I have got to get organized, but I don't think "squiggle personalities" tend to be very organized.

• Of the 4 symbols, the Squiggle is the most unique and the most creative.

• You are an ORIGINAL always considering possibilities.

• Your mantra is get it done … differently.

• Your watchword is why. Why do we have to do it that way? What are our alternatives? You continually ask, 'What if?'  ( My husband always complains about this one. WHY WHY WHY)

• You are creative, imaginative, free form, like to have fun, think out-of-the-box.

• Your hero may be someone like Albert Einstein, Erma Bombeck, Walt Disney. (Definitely Walt Disney or Santa Claus, working for either one would be my dream job.)

• You see yourself as always looking for new ideas, new ways, new products. Others may sometimes consider you as a little strange or far-out. (My sister says I am eccentric but she said it nicely)

• As a child you preferred to draw your own original pictures to color. You often colored trees purple, leaves yellow and the sky green.

     As a child I was convinced I was an alien baby that was being raised by normal human beings which I was pretty sure I wasn't!  Though I was always scared the aliens would come back to get me! Definitely a check for being imaginative! 

SOOOOOOOO.......I guess this squiggle better get back to work and try really hard to be a little less squiggly.

And so it begins.....

     For over the past nine months we have been helping  my mother-in-law who was diagnosed with uterine cancer.  She recently passed away after a very difficult battle with the disease.  As we all know in times of crisis something has to give in your life and my poor house was one of those things. So, I begin my journey.  I am not sure at what moment the dirt and chaos took over, but I think it was sometime after the Christmas Holidays since I have found remnants of holiday decorations scattered here and there.
     As I sit at my computer and gaze through the house, I suddenly become overwhelmed where to begin my first attack.  I am a little worried that I may lose the first battle today because the piles of clutter seem to be highly organized in their counter attack.
     I did discover one really neat cleaning trick that saved my hours of scrubbing in an old porcelain bathtub! Very rarely do those "miracle cleaning tricks" work, but this one definitely did.

• 12 ounces white vinegar
• 12 ounces liquid, blue dawn detergent

Directions:

1. 1
   Heat vinegar in microwave until hot and pour into squirt bottle.
2. 2
   Add the Dawn soap. Put the lid on and gently shake to incorporate.
3. 3
   You now have a powerful cleaning product that will melt soap scum and tub and shower buildup, clean sinks, appliances and just about anything. Just spray it on, scrub, rinse and be amazed. For tough soap scum build-up, spray the mixture on and allow it to sit as long as overnight. Then, scrub and rinse.

I allowed mine to sit one hour.

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/tub-and-shower-magic-434275#ixzz1yWfR2ZPf

Dream Kitchen

I think I would like mine to be a little more mixture of vintage pieces, where I feel this one leans a little towards looking modern, but this id definitely the direction I want to go with the pieces I have purchased.

My Dream Job

Well, it is summer and I guess it is time that I make my futile attempt at blogging.  Like every teacher, my summer's are usually filled with cramming in all the things that I would love to do year round.  I was asked by a financial adviser what I would like to do after I retire, now since his suit probably cost more than more wardrobe for a week, I was hesitant to say, "Well, I would really like to explore junkyards and create new furniture."........I decided to mumble that I really had not made any kind of decisions.  Of course the minute we got home I was off to claim an old Philco refrigerator to restore and use in my remodeled kitchen. The model below is similar to my newest treasure.  I am afraid I was not much help to my husband getting it up the basement steps, but I did say a stream of cuss words in hopes that it would help lighten his load.  Poor guy, it was his birthday.......