OMG!!!

Can you believe it's FRIDAY again, already? It seems like I just posted my TGIF from the 19th.

Where does the time go?

As September comes to an end, I can feel the Holidays creeping in. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years. Hold on, it'll be the month-of-love before we know it.

I think we've (we took a family vote!) decided this year to merge the holiday decor. As many of you know, Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my favorite movies. I love, love, love the animation, the music, and the Disneyland Haunted Mansion celebration of Nightmare.



So, just to be different AND less stressed with my time (o.k., maybe just a little lazy?) this year, I plan on leaving up the Halloween decorations. Then in November, they will be joined by fall harvest decor. Then in December, the spiders will don red, Santa hats in a field of fall leaves covered in snowflakes! Weird? Maybe, but every year it's rush, rush, rush to do the presto-chango quick-change decorating.

Rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay......so be it!!!

Happy Holidays - ALL of them! Together at last!




** Note: Both of the photos on this post were "grabbed" off the internet, and I do not claim artistic rights to either of them. I'm sure they are copywritten to Tim Burton, Walt Disney Pictures, or other licensed artists...

Apple Core...Baltimore....

Well, not actually Baltimore. Far from it. Opposites, to be exact.

Southern Oregon.

But Apples no the less.

Two.



I picked these apples this morning. Tiny little things. Snack Size.

Cold. Crunchy. Sweet.

Yum!

I missed it!!!!

Darn! I actually missed the first day of my favorite season - FALL!!! It was yesterday!

I woke up in a Fall, not foul, mood and had to close the dining room windows cause it was a bit chilly in the house. I even thought about starting the first fire, but we are still on Yellow fire alert around these parts. Good thing too, cause our whole valley has been full of smoke off-and-on most of the summer. It's been a really weird Summer. Just a few hot days, but mostly mild and overcast with smoke.

Anyways, yesterday morning, after vacuuming the floors, I decided it was time for the summer words to go. The scrabble tiles in my word-tin on my little table top by the fireplace now remind us of Fall. And, I did it yesterday, but I didn't know until today when I looked it up on Google, that yesterday was the official day!!!



Oh well....Happy 2nd Day of FALL!!!!!

It's getting closer....

So, maybe it doesn't look like much now, but I can visualize it ALL Done!The original inspiration. I priced this one. Whew! Way too pricey for my blood. So I treasure hunted my own. At $25 each, these side lites are just the ticket. A little sweat equity and....

This is our new front door and entry from the inside. For those whom I've been boring with the installing, sanding, priming, priming again, painting, painting and painting yet another coat of 3 colors of paint - buttercream side lites on the outside, red door on the outside and soft white on the inside - I'm sorry, but this is really, really exciting to me.

You see, when we bought this old place, it had four front doors and no one ever knew what door to go to. So we removed and rebuilt this section to be our FRONT door entry. The plan is to finish building my dream porch - a raised, covered porch with wide stairs. A far cry better than the two doors that had old, form-follows-function plywood ramps.

Now, even though we still have three doors on this side of the house, this is our new, official FRONT door. The other two are BACK doors. One into the new, middle back hallway and the other into the back hallway that will lead into the pantry/kitchen - great entry for unloading the groceries from the back driveway.

The circular driveway is no longer, as well. No more sitting in the family room (the "blue room" - which is no longer blue either, but will forever be referred to as the "blue room") and feeling like cowboys and indians with the cars driving in a circle around the house. We plan to put in some grass and a little bit of landscaping where the road used to be.

Anyways, back to the entry way. This weekend the doors and side lites are finally painted, inside and out! Yesterday, I thought they were finished, but then as I was peeling off the painters tape, it pulled off the paint from the lower section of the door! Nice huge bubbles of peeling paint!!! ADVICE: DO NOT USE latex paint that has vinyl in the ingredients! ONLY use 100% Acrylic Latex. It doesn't peel. It covers beautifully. It is very, very strong paint. So strong, it sticks to your fingernails and you have to scrub and scrub to remove it. AND it can be sanded should something bad happen. The darned vinyl-type latex paint, when sanded, just balls up into little rubbery boogers! Great. Nothing better than a Do-over!

So, tomorrow, I'll start on the ceiling by putting up the pine tongue and groove strips. It should begin to look really cottage-y in there. Next, I'll prime and paint them white. Then, I'll start work on the walls. I'm planning on adhering 2" strips at 14" intervals, capping them horizontally at 5', and then painting the whole lot a little darker cream.

Next, will be the floor installation. Hickory flooring boards - the click and lock type. After installing the nail-down oak hardwood in A.J.'s room and the middle back hallway, this should be a breeze!

Check back for the finished results. Hopefully, things will move along quicker than the doors and side lights did.

Happy Sunday night!!!!