Let’s hope this will work :-)

Hello Folks ~ I am in my lap top. It will be awhile before my BIL can get here to install more ram, that I  have still in the pkg. from when I ordered the two parts of so many RAM each. I don’t remember what I ordered, 2 GB’s each I think, but I’m not sure.

So, here I am in lap top and I just installed Open Live Writer which I love. It is modeled after Window’s Live Writer which was fantastic, but for some reason, they did away with it. OLW is great also though and I have been happy with it for a few years now. DH told me about it and installed it in my computer way back when.

Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers for SIL, Sue. She’s in therapy, using a walker, hopefully in 2-3 weeks she will have graduated to a cane. We would appreciate continued prayers as she exercises and recuperates.

Ok, I did order the Oster Convection/Toaster oven TSSTTVSK01. I got it from Best Buy. They had a 20% off on small appliances promo code, so I got it for around $63, instead of $80. It arrived via UPS last evening around 5. UPS usually delivers around 8 p.m. so I was happy this came early.

It is nice!!! I’ve not used it yet. I’ve got to wash the rack, drip pan and crumb tray as suggested in the manual. I’ve also got to heat up the oven on a high temp for 15 minutes to burn off any residues that might be in there from processing. I hope to do that tomorrow.

Now I had to make a space for this oven as it is quite a bit bigger than my old one, which was a little red Oster convection/toaster oven. I can do so much more with this oven and am excited to have it. But, let’s get back to the ‘make room’ story.

I had a 4’ high x 36” wide bookcase filled with books, cooking, gardening, health, etc. I decided it had to go so started weeding out books. I am proud of myself for getting rid of so many. I only kept what I really wanted. Back when I was collecting, we were setting up and selling at a local flea market and would see books CHEAP, so we bought on all kind of subjects. That is how our library grew to the size it is.

Monday morning I headed out to look for a piece to set the new oven on. I had a loop of shops/stores to check out, Salvation Army being the first one as it is close to home. I saw a piece there, but thought to myself, let me see what anyone else might have. I went to Big Lots, GoodWill, Target and Walmart, zilcho, nada. So I went back to Sal. Army and the piece was still there. The size was good although could have been bigger or so I was thinking. It is 27 1/2 inches wide x 16 inches deep x 32 inches high. The price $29.99. I had looked online before heading out on this shopping expidition and nothing was this inexpensive. This piece is like new. It’s not real wood, but it works for me in this little cottage of mine.

Well, after I got home I looked at my space again, and decided to move the butcher block counter with a green serpentine marble top on it, to where the bookcase had been. I knew that would be the right size for the oven especially when the door was open. Marble top is 25 inches deep x 39 3/4 inches wide.

The oven would not go on the new little cabinet I had bought after all. But, I love how this has all worked out on a limited budget and mostly using what I already had.

Here is kitchen before. A wreck as I was moving things around, etc. We bought that solid square butcher block table many, many years ago when we had our antique shop at a yard sale near us for $100. I love it! It was hand made by the young Finnish man we bought it from.

The little floor freezer is under the a.c. DH made a formica top for it so that I could use it for a counter, as tops of those things are dentable. ( I miss my dear husband so much, for so many different reasons. I want to encourage you to love and appreciate your husbands and let them know how much all that they do you are very thankful for. Let petty stuff go, love, encourage, forgive, laugh and live peaceably as much as possible.)

Putting the new little cabinet this way gave me more access to the oven and the kitchen feels so much bigger.

This morning I ‘thought’ about going to Home Depot to see what I could get for some kind of top to go on top of the little cabinet, to protect it from hot items taken from the oven. Well, I decided to check out our slowly depleting marble stash again, and lo and behold I found one I was using on a plant stand, and it is the same green serpentine marble as what is under the oven. The size would work, not a perfect fit, but good enough. I cleaned it top and bottom, then used double stick tape to stick on pieces of felt on the bottom. In the pic below the dark areas were still drying from when I had cleaned it. This side is unpolished.

Here is the top all cleaned & on top of the cabinet.

Here is a view from the scullery. Excuse the living room in the background which is a total wreck as remodeling is being done, but on hold, you know how it is, stuff gets stacked here and there until you are done. All in good time. Framing needs to be done around the a.c. also.

Below is a small cuboard that I have in the caravan, just being used for storage.  It is 33 inches wide, by 18 inches high x 12 inches deep. I’m hoping to put it, have dear Todd put it, over the oven. In the picture below, it is upside down, so that I had a flat surface to lay things on.  Anyway, after it’s cleaned up it will look better and give me more storage.

This room still needs tweaking. I’m on a roll now though. It’s a new year, new & old projects are being worked on. I am thankful to God for leading me to a promo code, for getting rid of books, for the strength to rearrange (these pieces are heavy), for curbside finds to be used, and for marble in our stash. I’m also thankful for this beautiful and wonderfully scented rose, Mr. Lincoln.  It is 5 inches across. Picture taken with my smart phone instead of my Canon PowerPoint, as were all of these pictures, so to me they are not the best quality, (but I can send these pictures to myself via emal and then save them to this computer. It’s how I figured out to be able to have photos to post.) I sure do miss my desk top. Doing without will make me appreciate it all the more when it is up and running again. For now, I’m thankful for this laptop that I’ve not really used in about three years. We bought it so that I’d have a good computer where I worked. I had 99 windows updates to do the other day, and that took a few hours. Anyway, I hope it keeps working.

Ok, that’s it for now. I do believe I am caught up. I have been out working in the gardens too and that has been good therapy for me and I see forward progress there too. I do hope you are all doing well. Keeping warm, safe, and healthy.

Now I’ll hit the publish button and see what happens.

FlowerLady