Latest Project

Hello Folks ~ I want to thank all of you once again for your kind comments, your encouragement and your prayers. It all is priceless and boosts my spirit.

I’m happy to report our weather now is a bit ‘fallish’. Since Sunday the temps have cooled down and the humidity has lessened, making for delightfully perfect weather. We are supposed to have night time temps in the 60’s the end of this week I think. That will really be nice.

Sunday morning I got a 2” x 12” x 67” shelf that DH and I had picked up somewhere, out of the cat barn, where it was stored. It’s been waiting to be used for the right project. It was a light color and I wanted it darker to match the bookcases that I was going to pick up yesterday. So, I got out some small cans of min-wax stain from DH’s workshop, opened them up to check out colors, and decided on Provincial first, stained the shelf, nice and a deeper color but it was still too light, so then I put on a coat of Jacobean and it came out just right. I love it.

                                            Before                            After

     

The bookcases that my dear BIL & SIL gave me were stored where my BIL works. Since neither of their vehicles were large enough to haul them, I suggested I could drive my van up to pick them up. Todd, was going to be at a work related meeting yesterday, south of me, so he asked would it work for me to pick up the bookcases in the morning and then he’d meet here back home after his meeting/lunch to unload them. 

That would work for me, so I ‘geared’ up mentally for the drive, an hour each way, and had a lovely short visit and brunch treat with dear SIL. I drove up to their condo first, to pick her up as she’d tell me how to get to workplace. Two nice young men loaded the bookcases into my van, then we headed back to condo to switch to her vehicle and go to a neat little place called ‘The Nook’. I had a ‘Wimpy Burger’ with sweet potato fries and an Arnold Palmer to drink. She had one fried egg with French fries covered with sausage gravy and sweet tea to drink. That looked good. Afterwards it was back to the condo and just about time to head back home. We said our goodbyes and hugged and off I went.

Driving distances takes me out of my ‘comfort zone’. But I did it and I had some nice ‘loot’ in the back of my van that was going to look so nice in my small living room. I was excited. Todd got here awhile later and we unloaded the bookcases and talked about the mantle shelf which will go over the TV. Strips of stained wood will get nailed to the bookcases, and a painted one will go on the back wall, for the shelf to rest on & be nailed to. That will happen when he comes back another time.

Below is what I’ve been picturing in my head since dear friends of mine bought me a new TV, and I said I’d take the bookcases and media stand that BIL and SIL were getting rid of, (due to moving and change of decor). Now it is reality. The mantle shelf will be great over the TV, and I look forward to decorating it with change of seasons, or whenever I feel like changing things up. That painting won’t stay there, it’s just to fill the space at the moment.

The cooler weather has me itching to work outside, with more clearing out of ‘junk’ and working in the garden spaces that are overgrown.

I am thankful for the gift of each new day, for the ability to be able to do things on a limited income and because of other people’s generosity. I will be shopping my little home for decorative bits and pieces for the shelves and have plenty of books to fill them as well. I will be weeding out more books as I look at them again, planning to keep only what I truly want as visual/mental inspiration/ideas, in gardening, cooking and health. This is exciting. I know DH would like this new look and is happy for me.

I just got an idea for using a piece that we found curbside. Actually, we found 5 of them and sold 4 of them at the antique shop I managed for 17 years. This is 11” high by 70 1/2” wide. I’ll see when Todd is here next and we can put it up on top of bookshelves. It may or may not look good. It is in storage right now. I’m even more excited now thinking of seeing this piece where I can enjoy it. A reminder of the good times we had ‘junking’ as we called it, in other words, ‘curbside shopping’. These are made out of some kind of composition. It is a bit heavy, so I can’t put it on top of the bookshelves by myself. Patience.

Ok, that’s it for now.

Enjoy life, moment to moment.

FlowerLady

Edited 4:46 p.m.

I got home from visiting an elderly widow friend and decided to bring in the architectural piece so that I can look at in the space. Oh my goodness, the piece is much heavier than I thought, but I got it in here with the help of a dolly and some 69 year old muscle strength. My neck and back are feeling it a bit, so I need to take it easy and relax.

I’m also playing with bits and pieces from the cottage. Not going to load it up until we are finished with the mantel shelf.