LOST AND FOUND

Just a quick post today. I took this picture of my cat Ace a couple of days ago as he was camped out beside me on the sofa. I do a lot of work on my laptop sitting here and he always comes up next to me to snuggle.

This morning which happens to be my birthday, I woke up to realize that he wasn't around the house. That's when I realized I had the patio door open last night for about 20 minutes (I was using some nasty smelling solvent to clean paint off a closet shelf !) and he must have slipped out into the night. He is an inside cat and has never ventured very far outside especially at night. What is worse is that we live right up next to a greenbelt where all kinds of critters live including coyotes.

After panicking and looking around for about a half hour, I did find him hunkered down underneath our back porch. Poor thing was probably sitting there all night scared to death. I managed to "snake crawl" the distance of about 10 feet to grab him.

So far, he's seems none the worse for wear! I'm so thankful and glad to have my cuddly companion back next to me. I would have had a hard time living with the fact that I lost my cat on my birthday. Thank goodness for happy endings and pets that we can love just like family!

TOO MANY PROJECTS

Oh my, it's been a whole month since my last post! It is true that moving is a huge distraction. I know I have too many things going on in my brain when my husband states "You have too many projects!"

Since the two months that we've been in our new (to us) home, I have unpacked, painted 4 rooms (one of which is rag painted), had a kitchen backsplash installed, picked out new appliances and 3 light fixtures and made 2 pairs of pinch pleated drapes for my dining room! I've also marked off with masking tape an opening in a wall between our family room and formal living room that is going to be knocked out by a carpenter in less than 2 weeks.

Needless to say, I've been busy. My blog has been ignored and sadly my Etsy shop. Oh sure, I've added a few new jewelry designs and sold a few things but I haven't had nearly the amount of time to dedicate to it. But alas, I will not blog with guilt! This too shall pass, along with the dust from cut sheetrock that is coming.

Just to show you I haven't been sitting around eating bonbons here's some before/after pictures:

White appliances, no backsplash.

I chose black appliances and had a backsplash installed.

The dining room was a very nice light gray/blue (just not my colors), the tiny chandelier had to go and the windows needed some window coverings.

After much browsing through hundreds of light fixtures available on the web , I finally decided on this chandelier, made some lined pinch pleat curtains and rag painted the walls a brick red (took me about 12 hours to just rag over the rose color!).

I usually don't like to post pictures of me but here I am in the middle of painting the top layer of red over the rose basecoat. Messy stuff!

Stay tuned for more pictures of the renovations. I'm excited to open up the main floor with a pass through opening between the formal living room and the family room. I'll make sure to take some before and after pictures to share.

In the meantime, this house is really beginning to feel like home!