It's Here

After months of deliberating and a week of not so patiently waiting. It's here!! I went out and bought my self (well it's my Christmas, Anniversary, Birthday, and Valentines day present all rolled up in one) a Nikon D3000. 

Be prepared to be blown away by my mad photography skills. Cause every one knows that owning a nice camera automatically makes you an amazing photographer.

 Poor Gus, he is probably going to get sick of having his picture taken real soon. 

Almond Berry Cake

Last month Mr. B's parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. Sunday some of there friends threw a surprise party for them. I was asked to bring the cake. 

I made a white cake with almond berry filling and almond frosting. I topped it with fresh berries and almond slivers. 

I never know how many people are going to be at these things and how much cake they eat. So I made cupcakes. Of course they were matchie-matchie. 

Scrappy Baby Quilt

I started this quilt top early last fall. I was using up some of my scraps, trying out this method. I made enough blocks for a baby quilt. I sewed them together and added a boarder. Then it sat for months.

I was recently invited to a shower for Mr. B’s cousin. They are expecting their first baby, a little girl. I pulled some pink, yellow, and purple fabric to make a quilt for her. Then I remembered the scrappy rainbow one. I couldn’t decided if I should make a “girly” quilt or give her the one that was already pieced. I opted for the scrappy one, it had bits and pieces left over from the wedding quilt I made for her parents.

I was brave, and crunched for time, and the amount of seems was intimidating for my un-thimble fingers (really never figured out how to use one of those) I opted to quilt this with my machine instead of my go to hand quilting. I started in the middle and worked my way out in a swirl/rectangle pattern. I finished off the binding, washed and dried it. Now it’s off to the post office to be sent to its new home.

On another note when we came home from church and brunch on Sunday, where I had the worst bloody mary ev-ah (all vodka with a splash of watery tomato juice, no spice no salt YUCK!) and discovered that I heart eggs benedict, we found this on our porch. Talula-Bell is starting to nest!

They're Back

Or maybe they never left, the fleas that is.

I prefer they're back.

Last weekend Gus really started to chew at his back, on his hinnie right above his tale. By the Thursday night it was all scabby and nasty. We decided we needed to take him to the vet.  I thought perhaps it was allergies.  We have been using a flea preventative, Front-line, since the November out break and had seen no traces of fleas on Gus or in our house so the idea that it could of them never crossed my mind. 

At the vet office, the assistant used a special flea comb and couldn’t find any of the nasty little buggers.  We discussed the possibility of allergies, Gus had started eating a lot of the corn that we feed the geese, his food is grain free there were some tummy issues in the past. Then the vet came in and she used the comb. She found one. The horror, I wanted the ground to swallow me up, I felt like I failed as a mom. How could I let me baby get them again and not realize it! Besides how could he have them?  After the all out war we had declared on them in November and the preventative, he should be fine. Not and itchy-scabby mess, it was supposed to be allergies he was going to go home with some steroids and creams and a cone of shame and that would be the end of that.

Now it’s flea baths and sprays and powders, mountains of laundry and a lot vacuuming.  Come to find out what we were going through wasn’t that uncommon. The vet said they were seeing resistance to the preventative, Front-line. We weren’t the only ones. That made me feel somewhat better. I still wanted to cry knowing the battle that waited for us when we got home.

 He is now on Vectra-3D. Gus’s doctor said this is a better product and they don’t even administer FL at their clinic any more. They also gave him an antibiotic for all his scabies and a shot to suppress his immune system to help with the itchy scratchies. Apparently some dogs are sensitive to fleas while others can have hundreds without being all scabby. Gus happens to be one of the special ones. A single flea bite can drive him nuts, he is allergic to their saliva. Gross I know.  

He is doing much better. He has stopped itching and the scabies are starting to heal. We applied the Vectra right when we got home and haven’t seen any fleas. The house has been sprayed and thoroughly vacuumed.

As far as if they were living with us all this time, I think not. Gus is allergic, we would have known. He also spent a weekend in February at his Gammie’s, there are no fleas at her house and her dog doesn’t have them either. I think he picked them up again. It was nice out last week and we were letting him spend long periods of time outside on adventures, he probably one of his friends or a wild animal shared them with him

Moral of the story: Fleas suck, Front-Line isn’t all its cracked up to be, and Gus has sensitive skin.

Throw Pillows

In-between applying coats of polyurethane to our floor this weekend, I was able to whip up the reaming three pillow covers for the couch. I went simple on these three. Eventually somewhere down the line I am going to make some patch work quilted ones. But for now, just to get some more color in the room I went with a simple print.

We have an orange-ish one. This is my favorite print. (I bought extra fabric just to stash away)

I also made a navy one.

 

And this red one. Now the red one was originally going to be a pom-pom pillow like this one. I had this idea pinned for months now. I made it. I liked it, but there was something.. My mother saw it and didn’t. She said it was to wintery. Perhaps it was. I had this red print tucked away I made a replacement for the poms. I think I bought it as a end of bolt special. You can’t pass up a decent print at 50% off when you have an additional 20% coupon! I’m like the pillow, I’m just not sure it goes with the other three. I will have to think on this awhile. Like I said eventually I would like to make some patch work ones. I can always teak apart the cover and reuse the fabric in a quilt. 

As for the pom-poms, I tucked it away for the time being. I might rework it for a smaller pillow...I think that's what it was. To big of a pillow, needs a smaller form to be more cozy.

Guillermo update: Still limping but doing much better. He is keeping up with the flock and sassing the dog.

Floor Refinish

Before we even moved into the house we tore up all the carpeting in the down stairs. The old shag carpet that was well worn. Well past it's prime. So past it's prime there were definite worn areas from the previous owners paths around their furniture. Like the carpeting upstairs it had a distinct odor of cats and old people. When we tore it up the floor underneath was the four inch pine boards. We decided then and there that we were going to try and have them refinished rather than cover them up. We knew that they would be beautiful when finished, or at least that's what we kept telling ourselves. The boards were unfinished and dirty and scratched and there were gouges and imperfections, not to mention the two foot border of paint around the edge of each room. Did you know that back in the day people would paint the edges of the floor and put a large area rug in the middle of the room. I think I told you that before. We have lived with unfinished floors for over two years now. 

We kept going back and forth. Do we try it ourselves or do we shell out the money for someone to do it for us. Back and forth for two years. Then we thought let's try it in one room and see how it goes. We would try it in what is going to be the office and crafty room, perfect area for our expirament, if it didn't go well it wasn't a common space like the dining room or living room. We kept he-hawing around as to when we would give it a go. I made an executive decision. I took last Friday off put on my big  girl pants and rented the sanders. I recruited Mr. B's brother for a pair of extra hands. No turning back. 

We sanded for most of the day on Friday. I do mean we this time. I helped, pushing the big drum sander back and forth across the floor to smooth them out and remove some of the blemishes. It was like mowing the lawn, back and forth back and forth, slow and steady in nice straight lines. Another day of applying the polyurethane  Well two days. We put two coats on let them dry, and they weren't smooth. The next day I buzzed over the floor with 220, really fine, sand paper on the orbital sander and we put a third coat on. Perfection this time. 

Come, let me show you how it looks now.

Side note: Mr. B and I used this room as our bedroom for two years while we waited to work on the master suite. It never had a door. We never put one on. For the life of me I don't know why. We bought one this weekend and Mr. B had it installed in an hour. It took me a few more to get it painted. What were we thinking. All those fights were I just wanted to run to the room and slam the door in anger. Those days where people came to the house and could see into our room. Really, could we have been that stupid!

Let's not dwell on that. We are not here to figure out the logic in our thinking, but to admire our handy work. 

Look at that beautiful floor. 

We couldn't be happier with the way it turned out. There are still some imperfections and stains in the wood. You can see where they are nailed down, in one place some one went a tad over board with the nails; must have been a squeekie floor board. The weathered look adds to the farmhouse feel we were going for.

It was alot of work but well worth it. And we saved a chunk of change doing it. We are so happy with our refinishing abilities I have already taken another Friday off at the end of the month for us to do the other two rooms.  

One more look. Let's do a side by side comparison. 

Painted Trim and Curtains

Over the weekend Mr. B had to work, so I dug out my painting close and went to work on the trim. We finished scraping paint and sanding the weekend before and over the week we finished prepping for paint. We puttied the holes and calked along the seams. I started priming Friday night and was able to finish up with the touch-ups on Sunday afternoon.

I was going to wait for Mr. B to get home to help me hang the curtains. You see the week before I had tried to hang the curtains in the dining room, but there was an incident with the plaster. I was drilling a pilot hole before I put the screw in. It didn't want to go, so I applied more force. Well all of a sudden it went and I put the drill into the wall creating a large-ish hole in the plaster next to the window. We filled that hole and I touched up the paint this weekend. You can't even tell it happened. Sorry I "forgot" to take pictures of it. Taking pictures would leave evidence and the world would know. I suppose telling you does the same thing.

Like I said I was going to wait for him to get home to help me, but like most things I got impatient and decided to try it again. Success this time. I got a system down. Now drilling pilot holes, just start it by pounding in a nail. If it didn't hit a stud I put in one of the plastic dry wall support thingies. (I'm sure they have a proper name, but it escaping me right now.) I got every one right on the first time. The curtains are hung and the curtain rods are level. 

I suppose you want to see what they look like. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to take pictures of windows/window treatments and get the lighting right. There is probably a tutorial somewhere out there about it. I'll look for it when I invest in a nicer camera. Not much I can do with our old pocket size point and shoot model.

I can't believe it took me over two years to get this done. We spend so much time in this room, now that they are done I realize the globy green paint was bringing me down. The white trim makes the details on the woodwork stand out and compliments the tan walls in a way green could never do. 

We both agreed that it makes our living room cozier and more inviting. The sun blared through the windows most of the morning and afternoon. The new curtains still let in the light but defuse it. It's not as intense any more. 

Just in case you were wondering the curtains are from Target and the curtain rods are, get this, from none other than Wal-Mart. Would you believe that out of the big box department stores the Mart has the largest selection of curtain rods, and the most reasonable prices.

Guillermo update:

He is still limping no major improvement. Which isn't great but it's better than it getting worse. It is still painful, but seems less so. He's limping with more speed and seems surer on his feet. He is also back at sassing the dog, a good sign. 

Guillermo, Mr. Squirrel, and a Turkey

Friday I noticed that Guillermo, one of our large male geese, hurt his foot. From what I could tell, as close as he would let me get to him, he cut the bottom of his foot on something. Not sure what he cut it on. I'm thinking maybe his foot got cold and he cut it on a piece of ice, but that's not important. 

He has been gimping around all weekend. Yesterday he seemed to be doing better. He was getting around rather well, still limping but managing. His BFF Bruce has been keeping a close eye on him. I tried to get close to take a good look. It was starting to stress G out and Bruce came to his rescue hissing at me and trying to chase me away. They are cute together, rather inseparable. I noticed Christmas has been trying to take advantage of G's injured state and move up in the pecking order, bird will be birds.

Today when I got home from work I he is still limping but now the foot is very swollen and darker than the other. I have a sinking feeling it is getting infected or he broke it. Hopefully it is neither. He is still managing to tag along with the other birds and is eating, drinking, and preening himself, from those things I believe he still has quality of life. We shall watch him closely the next few days to see how he is doing, I will keep you updated. 

This weekend I noticed that we have a visitor coming to the steel  some munchies from the bird's food dish. Sneaky little bugger, he was eating while the Bruce was taking his morning bath and he didn't even notice the thief.

I also made a turkey. I got one two years ago for my Christmas bonus, I decided it was about time to cook that bad boy. Several phone calls to my mother I was ready to put him in the oven. I don't know why, I've made chickens before but for some reason a whole turkey seems intimidating. Maybe it's the size. 

Well it turned out. I took a picture before it went into the oven but not one when it came out in all it's glory. I must have been distracted by the other projects I was working on. It has been shredded and tucked in the crock-pot with some gravy for Mr. B to take to work. They will enjoy hot turkey sandwiches for lunch tonight.