What procrastination I've been working on...

..okay, the greenhouse. I think I've perfected it by working on it the last two nights. Finally got the correct layout by just "shopping" in my garage and putting more effort into it. If only I could use that energy for dinner or the workroom...

...can you guess by the outfit where I'm going to get away from my dooties? We are going to Bermuda! Got my outfits already to go. I know that's pretty far to go and drastic to not have to work on my workroom but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. Hey, I've worked hard to get this look down to honor the place from which the term came. I wore them all the time growing up when they weren't at all in style so this could be a real cathartic trip. I may be able to work through my Bermuda fashion trauma. I hope I'll be blogging from there. If so, it will most certainly be with a British accent. I'm sure I'll sound just like Britney trying to sound just like Madonna-oh boy!

I also spent almost 3 hours watching the MJ memorial today. I wouldn't have used that time for anything else. It was wonderful and I cried almost the whole time. It was fully befitting of him and his legacy. He was my age so I truly grew up with him but so did my twenty-something year old sons and my almost teen son. I thought I'd be fine knowing his music would always be around but it looked like he was going to make us love him even more with his new art. The clip of him rehearsing the day before was astounding; he looked pretty darn healthy; I started mourning him all over again. And those kids, well, I don't have to tell you...I just hope that the world and those close to him don't make things any harder on them than it already is. I love you more MJ.

What WILL I do next...

...to keep from having to face that stinking workroom? Well, since you asked, today I went to give Julie a "corrective" haircut and some things caught my eye. One was a "Betty" lamp; an antique lamp that used candles but has been converted to electrical use; perfect for my little closet.

Speaking of the little closet, here are some updated photos since I reigned myself in a bit so that the other shops had more room to get in and out of and move furniture, bodies, etc.

The before photo of my front porch, blah, huh? Was I just in love with it a couple of weeks ago? I must be confusing myself with someone else.

During the same haircut I saw that there was a great price on a three piece wicker set (not that I didn't already have one of those, but blah, right?)-this is PJ's we're talking about here. My racing mind jumped at it. Then, taking the lamp right out to the closet, I pondered the old green rockers we'd had on the front porch that had not worn well out in the elements so I sold Jody on the idea of ridding them via me and letting me replace them with my own set of wicker chairs with the couch at the side of the building. I mean, it's a very nice set I now have for sale but I'd had it, what, two weeks. I KID...it had been a few years...very long for me.

Does it not look fetching? Well, apparently I went too far for some and I'm way in the dog house for switching the full size wicker couch for a love seat. I mean ranting and raving. But once that part is over it turns quite peaceful for me while I get frozen out. AND, if I get locked out, I have this nice porch with a comfortable chaise to sleep on. Win-Win! And just look how much cuter the off-white wicker looks in front of the shop and how much better it looks without the funky old green rockers now on my porch. Win-Win!

Not quite ready for prime time...

I never (never say never) try to do two projects at the same time but I hate this workroom re-hab so badly that I started a long-overdue project of painting the back door that goes out onto our deck. It's always been just off-white trim color and our deck's never had much pop except for the flowers I put out in spring. This year I didn't want to do too many flowers; I didn't want to have to constantly keep up with watering so I've used other means of decor color.

Sooooooooooo, since I had the original "coral" paint from the first try on the front door, I decided to perk up the back door with that color. Then I got really inspired and decided to trim it in the same green as the front porch shutters. I like it. I "finished" it last night. Taking the both sets of grids off means that the glass in between eventually falls out. The first set was before Paul came home and I caught the glass from the outside as it was falling through into the inside. Voila! for my first trick. I waited for Paul to do the second side while the dark clouds are rolling in. I thought myself quite the clever he-woman; taking both sets of grids off and painting both sets, the inside set being in great need of freshening. AND it means I can clean window sans grids so they get nice and clean. I basically broke apart into three pieces the first outside grid getting it off but did much better on the second set because I was more careful and had help. After painting all and drying the first set went back together easily. The second door, not so much. We looked like two drunken idiots trying this and that to get it together. The low point was when the glass fell onto me and knocked me to the floor with the power drill whirling away in my hand and the window laying on me. Many times during this process I kept thinking of all those shows I've been watching in the background on DIY (I'd do better on the DUI channel-just kidding) thinking, "I can do that.", but now I realize I'm not quite ready for my own show as we took turns catching the falling 2/3" window through the hole in the door. In the end we went with half assed and a prayer and called it finished. Looks good, no? Adds a nice pop to an otherwise blah background. And pop it could, if a nice breeze comes through and hits that loose glass side.

Got a new umbrella and chaise cushion plus throw pillows for the chairs and it's another outdoor room. We have been using our front porch for that a lot lately, now we have two extra living spaces. Sweat equity, baby.

This is the basement door which shows how the upper door looked like before. Pre-painting ambition plans included doing this door too (it's Art's entry), but I'll wait for recovery. This project made the re-hab seem like a cake walk. After Bahamas at the earliest.

Growing up? So soon?

I made a long-thought-out-but-jump-in-with-both-feet decision last weekend. I'm going back to school! Yes, school...the very thing that Mrs. Hardaway ruined for me in kindergarten. It's taken me this long to think of going back again. 51 and thinking about what I want to be when I grow up. Well, maybe not so much what I want to be but, what I want to have accomplished in this short life. The true motivation is that both my grandmothers went to college and my mother got a college degree, my dad got two degrees, but my sister and I are the first generation in three who haven't graduated from college. I think that's a darn shame. There are so many wonderful stories of kids and others who are the first in their families to have gone to college and gotten a degree. I think it's a crime that my sister and I were given every opportunity to graduate at the "normal" age and didn't take it seriously. I really didn't know what I wanted to be (other than wife and mother, not that there's anything wrong with that, just after 30 years...), still don't, but that doesn't mean I can't get a Liberal Arts degree. I'm taking a full load-15 hours-3 art classes, Sociology, and Philosophy. With all these hours and the two and a half years of attendance in my late teens-about 3 1/2 completed hours (hopefully kidding, transcripts have not arrived yet)-I should be wheeling my way across the stage any moment. Well I feel good about it and love having a meaningful, productive reason to get up and out each day other than laundry and vacuuming. Not that raising a teen at home is not worthwhile, I just have some extra time in between his school hours to do something to improve myself so here I go............................woooooooooohoooooooooo. Already scheduling my days of skipping out to see an Aggie game and meet my mom in New Mexico for her birthday. Oh, I forgot to mention the most important part...I'm planning to transfer to A&M so I can graduate from there like my daddy. Sorry Mom, UT was good enough for you but I'm all TAMU...it's from being breast-fed in Kyle field-your bad-my good. Wish me luck, although I don't think drinking, disco dancing, frats, and many boyfriends are going to be the issue this round that they were before so I think slightly more maturity, skill, and desire will outweigh the more frivolous way I went about it before. You never know, though, my slip is always showing.

Been fishin'

Or I should say, Ben fishing. Maya just sent me this photo of Bennie fishing with his daddy, Eder, the first time. Wow does he look big?! Just turned 3, it just gets better and better from here. I'll leave out the teen years but they are so fun in their 20's too. I couldn't keep this preciousness from y'all.

At any risk...

...I'll keep from happening here what once happened on Mellie's blog for a long period of time. It's been a long joke with us that every time I checked her blog for literally months this was the photo I saw and just turned away disappointed. I don't want that to happen here! No worries that the diarrhea of the mouth is going to dry up but time sometimes gets away so I gotta give y'all something to keep coming back for and so you won't get anxious and impatient like I did with Mel.

It seems like I've been spending a lot more time on the house than usual. It should come as no surprise since I moved my shop from 15'x12' to 2'x5' and am trying to integrate some of the merchandise into an already (not for me but for some) over-stuffed house. Certainly fully decorated.

I got this print from Paul at PJ's the other day. Can't explain why, I can see objectively that it's a pretty print but, it spoke to me. I painted the frame the same color as the living room, right next to here, and stripe in the dresser. Had to give the striped mirror a break but that's is the breaks when the place is full. I caused me to re-do the top of the dresser...

...by moving some of my silver (polished first-ah-rewarding work) in just like Nene has at her house. I'm just a poser!

Also like Nene, I moved my letter balls from a bird cage into a wire basket and added George just for the fun of it.

Just a peek at the little part of my workroom that's gotten "done". After a month the furniture is finally in place and painted. The rest is not calling out to me...it's all organizational and I need a large time frame to tackle it. I don't like to start unless I can complete the project to my goal and I've not gotten that time yet. Every time I open that room's door it's like checking Mellie's blog and seeing James Gandolfini-it's still all there-poop!!!!!

All the while, we were showing Justin a great time all last week. The morning he was to leave he woke up with one of his episodes of herpes on his eye. He gets it around this time of each year and must see someone immediately. It can cause blindness from even before the outbreak is noticeable so we always jump. Changed his flight to afternoon and here he is being a good sport at the eye doctor-it wasn't as fun as it looked but we got meds and no damage had been done-whew. We miss him terribly, of course, I want all of my children with me all the time.

And unfortunately my friend, Carolyn, is still not feeling well so I'm taking care of her garden at The Conservatory. First task, decorating, of course! It's been nice to have such a calm, nice project to have on hand. But she's going to have to get better asap because she's felt bad way too long and because we are leaving for Bermuda next week. Think I'll have some photos of that? You bet. Don't be thinking Sports Illustrated though...