Unmitigated

Roundly Rogered

I finally decided what to do with the third pair of white canvas shoes...

I imagine they will match everything I own.

Getting My Sh*t Together

For the last 8-10 weeks, my lower back pain issues have been roaring for attention, along with other things in my life, so I am on a short medical leave from work while I get my shit together.

In an effort to give some structure to my days while I am off, I am also trying to finish things.

I am a great starter of things. I only finish about 50% of the time. So, while I am off, I will be finishing the unfinished, and blogging about it, so you can see what a pathetic project person I am.

The first thing I finished was the painting in my bedroom. Handy Jeff had done the walls, ceiling and trim, all while the yucky carpet was still in place, to protect the pretty hardwood floor underneath. That meant that after (now) 20-year-old Boy took up the yucky carpet, there were bits that needed paint, very close to the new shoe moulding. Handy Jeff did the painting in August, 2011. Five months later, I finished the touch-up. That's actually pretty good, for me.

The second thing I finished was this, which I did yesterday:

22-year-old New Bride's kitchen, still has the original knotty pine cabinets, and built-in banquette seating. The vinyl on the seating was orange-and-white gingham, and 60-years-old. I found some vinyl on sale at the fabric store in a butter-soft mustard/gold color, and started re-covering them. Eighteen months ago. *Sigh* But now, the last two pieces are complete, and ready to be reinstalled, thanks to Handy Jeff and his nail gun. The staple gun was not strong enough to punch into the wood used in the construction of these pieces, which is why the project got put on hold for a very long time.

Hopefully, this blogging and finishing will not only give structure to my days, it will also keep them from turning into a haze of napping and Pop Tarts.

What's new with you?

All the Things Piling Up in My World

And there are many of them. I haven't posted for weeks, though I have still been happily following all of your blogs.

See that sentence up there? I typed that sentence two days ago, then started downloading and processing some pictures to share. At this point, I do not recall if I even finished processing the photos, but I am afraid to look, because I will get distracted again.

My daughter is getting married in 26 days. That should answer much of WHY I haven't posted in weeks, though laziness does enter into it to a startling degree. I'm just gonna do this like a Random Tuesday, okay?

Summer Things

We spent Labor Day weekend at one of my favorite places in the world: Wiser Times, on Lake Huron, just south of the fingernail on your index finger. 

That dark gray part at the top of the photo is rain over easter Lake Huron/Ontario. I love the silver sheen on the water in this picture. There was a stunning amount of technical things going on while we were there, of which Husband Styro was mostly the cause.

I have entitled this photo, "The Wyatts are Here."

Two computers, a hacked Nook (now an Android tablet), a terrabyte hard drive, a *Rocker* iPad mount with speakers, and all the attendant wires. It would take far too long to explain why we brought all of that with us. I just need to mention that we also brought a large plastic tub with hundreds of CDs with us, also.

Art Things

I have mentioned previously about some really inspired gifts I commissioned for Husband Styro this year for his birthday, Father's Day and our 26th anniversary. I have finally taken pictures so you can see just how amazing I am they are.

First, Michele painted this beauty, but I never shared the final framing:

We had it framed at Michael's, and though I hate to shop there, they did a really beautiful job framing it for us. They also suggested a really gorgeous frame, that I would never have looked twice at, but which really brings out the rich, deep browns in the painting, and echoes the winter branches, too. That was Husband Styro's birthday/Father's Day gift (the dates are two weeks apart).

Our anniversary is in early August, and something I saw on Tera's blog (scroll down to the California Dreamin' piece), and new I had found what I wanted! I commissioned this from her:

The first song we danced to at our wedding was the Talking Heads, "This Must be the Place (Naive Melody). I sent the lyrics to Tera, and together we picked out which we wanted to include, messed with the order a little, and she applied her graphic genius. Husband and I both love it, and it hangs in our newly-redone room.

Tomorrow? Wedding stuff.

A Sunday Post

When 21-year-old Girl moved across the street with Lovely Young Man in May of 2010 (when she was still 20-year-old-Girl), I decided that Buddy and I would move back into the room she had vacated. It's the largest of three smallish bedrooms, and our king-sized bed would finally be in a room where it would fit. It only took me 8 months to pick out a paint color, then another 5 to talk to Handy Jeff about doing the work.

              

Beh Premium Plus colors...Frosted Lemon on three walls, and Mineral Water on the fourth. I don't know about your monitor, but on mine, that frosted lemon has a peach-tone, which it does not have in...person? In paint? You know what I mean. In reality. (What if your color yellow is not my color yellow, man? Sorry. I don't mean to harsh anyone's mellow.) Out of the can, it's the same yellow as below on the quilt.

Which he did two weeks ago. Within a few days, 19-year-old Boy had gone in to remove the old carpet, which was hiding a lovely golden oak floor. On Thursday, Handy Jeff came back and put down the new moulding around the floorboards. 

Yesterday, Buddy and I made a trip to JC Penney, as I wanted to go a step beyond the usual Target bedding. We have ordered some curtains, which won't arrive until September 1st, and bought these...

          

...the Shelly quilt set and a set of Spring Stripe sheets. Minus the froofy pillows. We have a rather large number of regular pillows, don't need no stinkin' Euro-squares.

Go ahead, call me the queen of Matchy-Matchy-Town, see if I care.

Narrowly Avoiding Disaster

Starting today, I am running a week-long teacher's workshop with teachers from all over the country. I am not the teacher, I am the organizer. That means I am in charge of all the logistics, all the running around, all the business end of the deal.

So, an injury at this stage of the game would be a very bad thing.

Anybody catch the foreshadowing thing, there?

Yesterday, we drove to China. China, Michigan, that is, for a family member's graduation party. I was looking very cute. A sleeveless eyelet-lace top, denim capris and some really cute, comfy sandals from Naturalizer:

I can walk all day in these. Normally.

When we arrived, I saw a cousin I hadn't seen for awhile, and turned to go give him a hug. Unfortunately, the heel under my right foot landed half-on and half-off the pavement, turning my ankle and I went down HARD.

Luckily, this morning, the ankle is only a little bit sore; no major damage. The left shin took it fairly hard, though. This looks pretty innocent:

 

Just a bit of a scrape? Until you see it from this angle:

Please ignore the fact that this photo makes my leg look like a shank of meat. That part of one's shin, really oughtn't be convexly shaped. I'm glad it will just be unattractive, not debilitating. You can see the shades of purple starting to show. I'll be color-coordinating with it all week!