What I've Been Up To Lately

I've been gone from the blogging world for a few days. Been spending my time working on our "guest" bathroom! Making lots of great changes. Well, at least great to me. David said it looks "grown-up". I'm posting a couple of before and after photos - just a sneak peak.
Let me know what you think...

Before - dark cabinets.



After - painted cabinets with a glaze over.

I really like how they turned out. It gives a much "cleaner" look and feel to the bathroom. Removing the old striped wallpaper and painting a lovely sandy beige helped too! I will post more photos of the whole thing when I finally get done. I still have the floor to do and then the decorating.

Now for the lighting:

Old Light

New Light


Love the new light! It was perfect for the "feel" I want the bathroom to have when I am done. Going for a calm - relaxing look. With the suggestion of the beach. Can't wait to get the floor down, the mirror trimmed out, new floor moldings down, shelf hung, and decorating done! And can't wait to be finished - I am pooped...

Heroes

No blog tonight! Heroes is finally back on...

Ambrosia artemisiifolia

Ahhh Ambrosia. Definition: The delicious food or drink of the Gods in classic mythology. A fragrant liquid, often used as perfume.

NOT!

See this. This is "Ambrosia artemisiifolia". Commonly known as RAGWEED. How warped is that.

This goofy weed that is giving my body so much trouble right now is named Ambrosia. I wonder if the scientist who named it ever came through Oklahoma in the late summer - early fall and spent any time outdoors. I do believe he would have rethought the naming of this plant that accounts for more allergic reactions than all other plants put together.

According to the University of Tulsa ragweed season peaks every September 10. So maybe thing will begin to clear up and out soon. In the meantime, anyone have a kleenex?

Some of my favs

I've been just a bit under the weather lately. So I haven't played much on my computer. My head is fuzzy and I am having trouble completing my thoughts tonight. So if you see a misspelled word - forgive me. Allergies/Sinus stuff making me goofy!

Anyway, thought I would post a few of my favorite websites. Now most of these are something just to waste a bit of time on. Hey, by the way - isn't this a cute picture - the Internet does contain lots of nuts doesn't it. Me I am a little round filbert...

So here goes:

http://www.ajoyfulheart.com/
This site has a bit of everything. But lots of great digital stuff. Web designs, digital scrapping stuff, linkware sets, etc. Explore a bit - there are surely some treasures to be found.

http://www.fullmoongraphics.com/
Another site just full of lovely designs for digital use!

http://www.allmyfaves.com/
This is pretty cool. Click on it and you will see why. Short and sweet.

http://www.komando.com/
The "digital" goddess. She's great - she has lots of free downloads and tons of info on her site. She puts out a fantastic e-newsletter.

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/
I LOVE SCIENCE! I know, I know. Yes, basically I am a geek in disguise.

http://www.pointlesssites.com/
Just what it says. Pages of pointless sites.

http://www.onceuponafont.com/html/resources.html
Lots of great fonts - most of them free.

http://aholyexperience.com/2008/08/every-day-learning-links-for-life-long.html
Lovely Links for Life Long Learners. And some very relaxing music. And boy if you are a blog reader - this woman can flat write circles around most. She is very inspirational and I visit this site often. Check her blog out by simply clicking on the title on this page.

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/
Beautiful natural photos of out amazing world!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/
Now once you start reading this woman's blog - you won't want to stop. She is the wife of an Oklahoma rancher. She has a bit of everything - photos, recipes, stories, advice, fun, etc. I guarantee you will find something you like.

Well that's it for now. Hope you get a chance to check some of these out when you have a few minutes to play!

Never forget

Nothing to say today other than this: Never forget.

A night visitor

We had a visitor late last night... Here's his photo.
In case you can't tell quite what it is because of the darkness - it's an ARMADILLO! Technically he is a nine-banded armadillo. They are interesting little creatures, BUT

This one has visited us before. Yes, probably the same one. You see they have quite a large "territory", they can wander for several miles. And
surprise, surprise. They are fast little buggers! As I found out last night...

Here's my crazy story. I had taken the dog out right before going to bed and spotted him in the yard. Took the dog in and got Daniel to come out with me. I thought maybe we could scare him away. So we decided to throw something at him. Hmm...what to throw? So Alyssa's soccer ball was handy and Dan threw it at him. Well, he missed. But I guess it got close enough to startle him. Next thing I knew the armadillo jumped STRAIGHT UP into the air! Man, he must have jumped straight up about 2 feet. Then it took off running - RIGHT AT ME AND DAN standing on the deck! Yikes! I started screeching and jumping around thinking that it was going to come right up there with us! Well, it stopped ran another direction, stopped ran towards us, stopped and then ran right under the deck... I
was laughing so hard - I've never seen anything quite like it.

My hubby, Dave had told me that this happened to him and Joe last year when the dillo was making his rounds and causing problems. The thing jumped straight up in the air and hissed at him. Kind of hard to believe until you have seen it! Honey, I believe you...

So hopefully I didn't wake the neighbors. And in the meantime, we have a live trap set in the yard trying to catch him (once again...). Last time we ended up catching a skunk. But that's another story for another day.

So in my research about how to rid ourselves of this little guy who is diligently tearing our yard to shreds, I came upon these unusual facts about armadillos and thought I would share them with you.

1. They can jump as high as four feet straight up!
2. They can cross a creek by two methods: puffing up and floating, or sinking and using their claws to grip the bottom and walk across.
3. They can hold their breath for six minutes.
4. The females can delay their fertilized eggs from implanting for up to two years, until their environment is more favorable for pregnancy. (Now...how handy would that be!)
5. They are originally from South America and have continued to migrate North over the years.
They were first reported in the U.S. in Texas in 1849.
6. They have been used in medical science in the study of leprosy.
7. Armadillo means "little armoured one" although the largest species of armadillo can grow to be 140 lbs. (Glad he wasn't in the back yard!)

So there you have it. Some non-useful information about a weird and wacky creature who roams in the dark....next time maybe he will come to visit you!

Family

Here's a little video I did on Animoto. We had a family get together last Saturday night so I tried to get lots of photos of everyone. Hope you enjoy it!

Decisions Decisions

Well, the striped wallpaper has been stripped and the walls are down to sheetrock. The paint colors have been chosen and the paint has been bought. A new light fixture is waiting to be hung. BUT....

Ahhh there's the rub. I am having a hard time making a "I am 100% positive that I want to do this" decision on what
in the world to do with this bathroom countertop. Let me explain. The cabinet is custom built for the bathroom - lovely when it was constructed - worn looking now. It will be receiving a nice finish. A caramel color paint with a chocolate brown glaze. The countertop. THE countertop. The COUNTERTOP. THE COUNTERTOP! Yikes. Since this is a custom sized cabinet - you cannot find a stock bathroom countertop that will fit. To special order one would cost me around $500 - not in my budget right now.

Here are my choices.

Choice #1 - Leave this countertop alone. It's not that I dislike it completely. It is in pretty good shape - I could polish it up nicely with some heavy duty clear coat car wax. (I've done this before with GREAT results!). And then just replace the faucet. I am just not loving the "shell shaped" sink anymore. Which is kind of funny because I am using what I call "beachy" colors. Soft beige, warm tones, and cool blue accents with some "oceany" decorative accesories. Not all kitchy - just enough to give it that weekend at the shore feel.

Choice #2 - Pull this countertop up and replace it with a tiled countertop. I am liking this idea. I've looked at using large tiles (so there would be less grout space) and then I have also looked at using smaller tiles. This would also include a nice tile backsplash and a new sink.

Here is what I present for your opinion. Is tile a choice from the past? Does anyone have tile countertops and HATE them? Oh and believe me if $$ was no object I would have granite installed. But I have several house updates to do and need to spread my decorating dollars around the best I can.

Hmm...shell shaped sink - Too 80's???? Though when I looked through the custom order books at Lowes - guess what I saw? A shell shaped sink that you can order right now today!

Now regardless of the decision I will be installing a new faucet. And I have also decided that I will be replacing the old floor (which I wasn't going to do when I started).

So there you have it. My current perplexing problem. (I did purchase a sample tile to lay out to see how it would look and I still can't make up my mind.) Really, I would appreciate any thoughts from any of you that happen upon this crazy post. Really....

In the meantime, I am going to go hang the new mirror in the entryway. (If you happen to remember I asked opinions about that in an earlier post.) I await your thoughts!