Before and After...

The past two days have kept me really very busy. While my girls were out of town I took the time to do a few things...my youngest had told me she would love a purple room. She picked out a color and that was that...or so she thought! I started peeling off the Nasty Ballerina Border only to find that it had another More Nasty and Vermicious Safari Border beneath it, one which was painted over. I tried removing it, to no avail, so I took the next best route which was sand, skim coat with joint compound, sand again and paint. It took a damn long time, but I finally finished the walls and I have still a bit of trim to do, but here are the results.

As you can see the walls were in awful shape. The wall board did not even butt up evenly. I taped and rebuilt the corners on both sides. A long time ago, I rebuilt an old farmhouse living room wall, one with old wooden lath and plaster with horsehair in it. It did not help that it was across the field from a pig farm and it was August. This was MUCH more pleasant.

I sewed this quilt for Meredith when she was 2. At that time she had a light yellow room. Every night we have a familiar conversation. It goes like this:

Me: " Who made this quiltie for you??"

Meredith: "YOU did Mama!"

Me: "And WHY did I do that?"

Meredith: "Because you love me!!"

Me: "More than???..."

Meredith: "Whipped Cream!!"

It is a familiar golden thread that remains from her infancy to this day. And, for the record, I love, love, love this quilt.

The name of the paint we chose is Ace Hardware brand named Shah's Court (A48-4) , and it is a loverly violet/lilac purple.

I also cleaned out a major portion of my basement, resulting in five contractor bags full of mildewy, yucky crap which was carted away by the town today. More to do down there, but at least it was a major dent in a huge project.

Much wood was collected, too!

Because Lux still has her stitches in place on her hind legs, I am unable to let her run free in the woods. It has been a long ten days, many walks on leash in exchange and every squirrel in a five mile radius is on high alert. Tonight we startled some muskrats at the pond at the end of our street. It took every ounce of strength and every atom of redirection I could muster to keep her from launching into the murky water. As it is her paws got wet, and thus her bandages, this afternoon when she found a small stream to pounce in. I had to cut off her bandages and re-bandage. Sigh. Tomorrow, out come the stitches and we may then romp in the woods on Friday, which is a Supremely KEEN Thing!

Your Daily Dose of Cool Things:

Junk Mail Art by Sandy Schimmel


Teardrop Trailers by Go Little Guy.com

Your Daily Dose of Wonderful Design:

Design by Fuchs-Funke (Say What?!)

Your Daily Dose of Inspiring Words:

"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about."

— Charles Kingsley

Your Daily Dose of Wicked-Good Food:

While my kids were gone I promised myself I would not buy more food. I would eat what I had in my fridge or my cabinets. I ran out of milk. No problem. I ran out of bread. No problem. I wanted to challenge myself to come up with cool food with whatever I could pull from my already bought resources. I found a can of octopus in olive oil. This salad was born.

Octopus Salad (2 servings)

1 can octopus in olive oil
shredded lettuce/ handful
sliced red cabbage/ a few spikes for color
sesame seeds
2 tablespoons Dulse seaweed flakes (available at Whole Foods or health stores, this is very high in trace minerals and is extremely healthy for you!!)
1 lemon, juiced
1 teaspoon thyme
cracked pepper

Drain the octopus reserving the oil for the dressing. Arrange your lettuces and top with the octopus. For the dressing, take the oil from the can and add the juice of 1 lemon, the thyme and some pepper to taste. Drizzle the dressing over the salad, then sprinkle the Dulse Seaweed flakes, sesame seeds and additional pepper or salt to taste.

Pretty. Tasty. Very economical. Tons of Protein.