Even though this was very pretty at night, it didn't come close to the beautiful show of icicle lights that we usually do. And so, just about six days before the actual holiday, I got out the ladder, the lights and my courage and "got her done"! Because we run the lights not only the entire length of the house but the fence on one side as well, this is a bit of a daunting job for one. It involves LOTS of ladder up and down as well as squeezing behind trellises, hedges, etc. But, the scariest part is getting to the peak of the roof which involves being on the top rung of the ladder with nothing to hang on to until you are up there. It is not my favorite task, but when it was done, I felt a major rush of "TOWANDA" coursing through my body!! I took these pictures with my phone just because it was at hand so you can't really see the full affect. Also, all across the porch line and up and down the peak area are those "drippy" long icicles as well. I think they are beautiful and I must admit to many minutes spent mesmerized by the slight of them "melting" before my eyes.
In any case, they have remained up and lit because we finally had a bit of true winter weather and my fingers don't work real well when they're numb. I finally had a day to get out there and tackle the job and, can you believe that by the time I was done, I was perspiring. Yep, we were back up to 74 degrees yesterday! Gotta love Florida weather. Although, I actually loved the burst of winter and can't complain much about 74 either!!
This had looked to be a bit of an empty calendar week until things started popping up and I have been on the run. I had a friend visiting all day Tuesday and the yesterday was award ceremony day at Eighth Street Elementary and I was thrilled to see both of my grand children receive awards. Presley got a reading award and Hudson got the honor roll and a "Soaring Eagle".
Since their mom is at the Design Market in Atlanta, I got to pick them both up from school. We did our usual Peach Wave Frozen Yogurt stop before heading home for an afternoon of fun!
I kept busy with three new "projects" as well. The first was one of those "exactly why am I doing this and NOBODY else in the whole world will even know I did it" kind of things.
When I took down the Christmas decor from the niche, I noticed that the shelves really could use another coat of paint and, since I always have a gallon of my favorite trim paint on hand, I decided to add this to my list of to-dos and then get it done quickly so I could check it off. Painting these few shelves is not a hard task although I am not a fan of painting the bottoms of shelves and my eyes are getting so bad that seeing where I have already painted or not is getting to be a bit of a challenge. But, I got it done pretty quickly. Why, oh why, didn't I stop right here? I'm not sure what I was thinking, but, before I could stop myself, I had painted on the front of the cupboard doors...just to "see". And boy, when I stepped back, I SAW! Do you see it too?
When I had these cupboards added, I was very into "country". I mean chicken and rooster kind of country. I wanted these cupboards to look like something a man would have just put up in his little house on the prairie. Lol. The poor carpenter kept saying "are you sure this is what you want?". But I was. I loved it and I still love the amount of storage this area gives me for my many, many sets of seasonal and holiday dinnerware! But, rough sawn wood - what was I thinking?
In any case, it was pretty obvious that the white paint had darkened over the years so I gave myself a good talking to and got started. This project took two me a full day which I divided up because my arm was killing me. The paint has to be seriously "scrubbed" into the rough surface, I wasn't sure I would ever finish but I did. And, except for the faint, lingering smell of paint, no one but me knows it was done - and now you too. But, it sure felt good checking one thing off the list!
I have always been a huge coffee drinker and have had some fancy coffee pots in my day. But, for whatever reason, I can't seem to tolerate as much these days. I was finding that two cups was about my limit. Making two cups in a pot seemed a bit ridiculous so, when my old pot no longer heated up and I knew I needed a new one, I seriously considered a Keurig. My kids have them and I've never been a fan because I have the need to make a full pot when company is here - or get a loan at the bank to buy enough K-cups to fill everyone up! And, I really didn't want two different coffee makers on the counter. I really was waffling about what to do as I was roaming around Kohls one day with an extra 30% off coupon. I just happened over to the small appliances, looked up and....what to my eyes should appear?
There it was! A coffee maker that not only made one cup at a time with a K-cup but a pot of coffee OR one cup with a reusable filter that you filled with your own coffee! Genius!!! I truly don't know if this was the first such machine out there. I do know it is the first one I ever saw but I have seen other less expensive ones popping up since. But, this machine was on sale, I got an additional 30% off as well as got to use $10 worth of additional coupons and got back $30 in Kohl's cash. As my hubby liked to say "they were practically paying me to buy it"! Lol
My other project is one of long standing. I have been wanting to put some kind of window coverings on my living room windows - especially the large one. I really didn't want drapes but this is such a large window that no matter what I did it was going to be costly so I decided I at least wanted to see about woven wooden blinds. Since we put the decorative trim around the window, I thought blinds inside the casing would be good because you could still see the pretty detail. Since I have two decorators in my family, I didn't think this would be that daunting a task...they do this every day. The problem is, they do this every day for "paying" customers...lol. In any case, we are finally moving forward and samples are arriving every day. I know this will have to be a custom install because of the size and will take some time even after we actually get it correctly measured and ordered so, in the mean time, I wanted "something" up there that I could close to keep in/out the heat or chill that wouldn't cost a fortune. Again, this is a big window so extra wide panels are expensive. Luckily, daughter #3 was cleaning out some bins at her house and found some Pottery Barn extra wide, linen drapes that were perfect-except that they are 12" too long!
I decided to hang them on the rings I already had-didn't want to spend a fortune on 38 new, expensive rings IF this isn't going to be a permanent solution. I also borrowed her steamer so I'm hoping I can get out some of those wrinkles now that they're hanging. I will wait to see what kind of estimates come in on the blinds before making a decision or spending any more on these although, I will say, I think if they were the correct length and I had the correct amount of hooks, I might be OK with this. At least for now, I'm enjoying closing out the world at night!
My brother and sister-in-law are coming down for the weekend. We are going to be celebrating my sister-in-law's birthday so I'm off to start doing some cooking. I love it when I have things on the calendar. I'll be back soon with more Valentine decor so stay tuned.
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