A color filled day

Shauna & the kids came over Sunday to dye eggs.  I haven't done anything like that since I was a KID, people.  I never realized how crazy  sweet my mother was for letting us decorate eggs.  What a process!

Shauna was figuring out what she needed to bring or buy before coming over.  And ya'll know how I pride myself on having a well stocked kitchen:

Shauna:  "Do you have vinegar?"

Me:  "No."

Shauna:  "Do you have eggs?"

Me:  "No.  Well, honestly yes, but they're really old..."

Shauna:  "Do you have cups?"

Me:  "Like plastic cups?"

Shauna:  "Yea."

Me:  "YES!  I TOTALLY HAVE CUPS.  DON'T BUY CUPS!"

I am the hostess with the mostess...

We had a serious egg dying operation set up.

We even got fancy & put glitter (shockingly I dug around & found glitter...) in some of the cups.  

Public service announcement:  glitter doesn't work out too well...

Since it's such a tedious & boring process, the kids abandoned us pretty quickly to go watch cartoons...so Shauna & I were left to entertain ourselves....

We dyed 4 dozen eggs... & since we were bored & still had more dye, we boiled the 2 dozen bad eggs I had in my fridge.  YES, you read that right...I had 2 dozen eggs from DECEMBER in my fridge.  

No shame is my middle name...  

We got really creative with that batch...dipping into 2 different colors, dipping half in a different color, dipping & then putting rubber bands (yea, I had rubber bands too...) around them & dipping in a different color...

(The eggs you see with the 'x's' are the bad ones!)

Later that evening, Shauna & I had signed up for a class at Uptown Art.  I had so much fun with the girls the first time & I knew Shauna would like it.  We were painting a spring tree... never mind it was 30 degrees & raining outside...

Since I have been to Uptown art only ONE time am an art expert now, I thought I'd take some pics of the process so you can see how it all comes together.

The background got painted all one color & then we added blue, green & yellow marks.

 Next was filling in the tree.  I HATED my branches when I was sitting 6" from the canvas, but when you step back & look at it, it looks much better.

 

We had to do a LOT of mixing of paints this time.  My little area was a hot mess.

The finished masterpiece...
I covered up too many branches...

 I always love seeing how the paintings are so different!  They all look so good...but so different!

(Please pay no attention that we are both wearing Vegas shirts....that's what happens when someone goes to Vegas & gets their friend & themselves a shirt...)

Pinterest is the devil disguised as easy & fun

I've been working slowly on updating the look of the inside of our home.  When we moved in, I was only 23 years old... I had no idea what style was, what my style was, what went together, etc & my decorating went like this:  I like it, I buy it, I throw it on the wall or place it somewhere & voila, I'm done.  

Yea, that doesn't really 'work'.   And since I'm on this "as you get older" world tour, I'm finding that my taste is changing & things I thought looked good when I was 25 look stupid now.

So, like any self respecting technologically inclined gal - I've gotten hooked on Pinterest.  Oh, the things you can find that you are SURE you can do with no.problem.whatsoever.  NONE.  

(Who am I kidding?!)

Alicia gave me the idea put fabric onto wooden frames for my large dining room wall.  (And while she stood in my dining room I made B-rad commit to building frames for me.  I needed a witness, people....) Sounded easy enough & super cute!  I hopped onto Pinterest to find ideas...   

THIS is what I wanted:

The pinner went on about how easy it was, how it was super quick & how woodland creatures came from the depths of the forrest to help her put it all together.

And that's all the convincing I needed...

B-rad drew me an blueprint with the exact dimensions of the frames so I would know how much fabric to buy.  (And when I say 'I', I really mean my friends Rose & Debbie...I'm getting to that part in a minute...)  He changed the layout a bit...he didn't like the asymmetry of it.  I didn't really care either way about the layout (I'm not real particular on things like that...) besides, there was no way in hell I was gonna complain about a silly detail like that when he was doing me a HUGE favor by drawing it up & eventually building all the frames...

Way back in January, I met up with Rose & Debbie & we went on a day full of fabric shopping.  They both sew & knew exactly what I would need.  I'm not good at math so converting inches to feet & yards & all that makes me dizzy.  

We found all the fabrics we needed at the very last store we were going to visit.  (Isn't that how it always goes?)  We were in that store for HOURS, people.  If you look at the back of the pic, you can see just a smidgen of the hundreds of thousands of bolts of fabric we went through. 

Like I said, I'm not real particular about some things & this was one of them... I didn't want all the fabrics to 'match exactly'-  I just wanted them to look 'related'.

I came home & laid them out on the table so I would remember where we decided each would go.  (And if you pay close attention, you will see that we ended up changing the order a bit in the completed project.)  We picked the fabric for the biggest frame first & worked off of that.

I knew that I B-rad would have to move quickly to get the frames done before he started getting ready to plant.  Rose & Debbie were going to come over one weekend to help me because I am NOT qualified to do craftiness on my own.  Pssssh.

My grand plan of having B-rad get the frames done before March was derailed by our February.  He had to go to Connecticut for a week for work...& you may remember the hella bad snow storm that hit there?  Yea, he was there when it was coming.... He had to scramble to get a flight out the Friday the storm hit.  There were no flights into Louisville so he ended up flying into Indy & I had to drive there one night to get him.

The next week he got sick.  Like super sick.  He woke up one night around 3am with a fever of 102.8.  His skin was so hot I could barely touch it.  I spent the rest of the night getting his fever down & keeping him hydrated.  (See - you crazy people with kids mommies aren't the only ones that have to stay up all night with sickies sometimes.) I took him to the doctor the next day & he was diagnosed with the flu.  Awesome.  He was out of commission for about a week with that.  He didn't go to work or the barn.  (You know B-rad's sick when he doesn't go to the barn..) Then he had a ton of congestion & was coughing & hacking stuff up constantly.  I wanted to kill him because it annoyed me so much but it seemed silly to kill him when I had stayed up all night the week before trying to keep his brain from frying.  

He was still getting over the making me want to kill him congestion when we went to Vegas.  So, our month to make frames time table February was shot.

We had already scheduled a Saturday for the girls to come help me so B-rad was gonna have to finish those frames - period.  And he did.  He had been busy doing a ton of upgrades to the planter, but he stayed up late one Saturday night to finish the frames.  And even though his mantra to me of, "I do everything you ask me to do...I just may not do it in time frame you want it done in" annoys the HECK out of me... when the boy gets it done - he does a great job.

 Ok, so the pinner lied...this was NOT an easy, breezy project.  Far from it.  After Rose racked her brain figuring how much fabric we needed for each frame (she had me get a bit extra of everything, just in case...), we had to cut it down a bit to fit the frames.  Then Debbie & I stapled the fabric to the frames.  I had 13 total which took some time.

 

I won't even go into the process of hanging it on the wall.  Thankfully Debbie had a easy solution for that rather than using a level & measuring tape for every frame.  

My 6 ft dining room wall that started as this:

 Now looks like this:

 I LOVE all the bright colors.  You will notice we threw some grays & blacks in there too.  It needed a few muted colors because having so many bright fabrics together really messed with your eyes.  It looks great against the white wall, but I am planning to paint it a deep purple.  (Shocking, I know...but Alicia says I can...)  I'm waiting for some actual spring weather before I start painting.  My next projects for the kitchen are new curtains for the picture window & the sliding glass door, to re-finish the cabinet hardware & lastly to paint.  

If you're wondering about the cost involved, the fabric was around $100.  B-rad used wood made for spindles on a deck that were 1"x1".  He used a bundle & a half of those.  He also bought staples to connect the wood on the front & these little metal 'L' hook thingies to connect them in the back to keep them from moving.  That probably cost around $150.  The time involved was extensive...shopping for fabric, figuring out which fabrics should go where,  B-rad making the frames, cutting the fabric to size, stapling to the frames & finally hanging it.  

Although it wasn't a 'cheap' or 'super quick' project -  I really do love it.  The other cool thing about it is that as I get closer to death continue to age, when my taste changes again, I can simply change out the fabrics.  

It feels like longer than a month...

Wow - it's been a little over a month since I posted.  I'm still alive & I've still been stalking you guys - just on a much less frequent basis.   I've been limiting my comments too... but I'm still around.  I've seen my name mentioned in a post, gotten 'checking on you' texts & messages & truly - it made me want to cry.... 

THANK YOU.

Here's what's happening with me:  I have decided in keeping with my mantra that 'everything changes', my life has just changed IMMENSELY over the last 3-5 years.  Not bad changes...just changes.... So, I am still getting my head wrapped around all that noise & finding my new place... I think about the blog a lot...but right now I'm so physically & emotionally exhausted that the thought of uploading pics & then weaving a story in my special way makes me want to nap.  BUT-I'm here right now & hope that counts for something.  Baby steps, people...baby steps...  

I've also kicked around the idea of make the blog private.  I've heard (indirectly) of some criticisms on posts I've done. While I have no problem with someone coming to me if they don't like or understand something I've said, I also deserve the chance to explain/justify/apologize for it as well.  I have the balls to say it, you need to have the balls to tell me if you have issue with it.  

And if I don't know you're reading - I can't help you.

I shared w/ ya'll a few months ago about my crazy pms issues & think it's only fair to share with you what I found out.  As I'm sitting on that 'oh so fun' exam table, draped only in PAPER (sigh...) I went over my concerns with my doctor.  She's a woman & I love her.  I know her on a personal level as well (no, we're not bff's or anything, but I know her other than "spread your legs, you're gonna hear a click & pressure - see ya next year") & as I talked & explained my symptoms to her she just nodded her head LIKE SHE UNDERSTOOD.  Shut the front door. I was so happy ya'll... She explained that my progesteren levels were starting to fluctuate & that was causing my mood swings.  She never mentioned menopause....but I'm sure this is the beginning of the end.  Sigh.   I did ask her about the suggestions ya'll sent me.  She explained that she would not recommend me getting an IUD as women who have never had children don't tolerate it well.  She first wants to try changing my pills to ones that have more progestren in them.  And if you think I didn't ask, "Ok, but they will still be the same effectiveness on birth control, RIGHT?" you'd be wrong.  I have no shame.  It will take a couple of months for them to be in my system before I may see results.  Keep your fingers crossed, ya'll.  She also told me that if I wasn't on the pill, my crazy symptoms would probably be much worse.  OH.THE.HUMANITY.

If you'll hang with me just a few more minutes, I'll tell you about our trip to Vegas.  We stayed at the Bellagio because I love those damn fountains.  This was the view from our room.

We went JUST to see Faith Hill & Tim McGraw in concert.  My hubby is so good to me!  (That's how I feel right now...in the next couple of months when I need him for something & he's 'too busy' I'll be singing a different tune..) 

I cannot tell you how many different pics I made B-rad take of me in front of this banner. 

They do 2 shows on Friday & Saturday nights.  We saw the 10:30pm Friday show VEGAS time...that is 1:30am our time.  Yes, I had to nap before!  I was SO excited!  We were on the third row. 

It wasn't like a 'normal' concert.  It was in a VERY small theater (1800 seats).  If you've ever been to the Louisville Palace, it was smaller than that.  It wasn't all produced with lights & bells & whistles.  It was just them singing... AND they sat on stage & just chatted together for about 15 minutes.  THAT was my favorite part!  They changed it up & came in towards the back of the theater while Faith was singing "Baby, lets go to Vegas"... & since little miss spoiled HAD to sit on the third row & she's short - she couldn't see them.  I was freaking out because I could hear HER...I caught glimpses of TIM...but I couldn't see HER!!  B-rad kept saying, "There she is!" & I would screech back in the most whiniest voice I have "I CAN'T SEE HER!  I CAN'T SEE HER!  Finally - those damn people moved out of the way & I got a glimpse & immediately started to cry.  Nope, not crazy at.all.

I loved every.single.second.  When it was over, I couldn't believe it had been a whole hour & a half.  

I will never, EVER forget it.