The Help

big day over here on the back forty...my friend paul is coming to shoot photos of mabel, then the realtor is coming tomorrow to do the listing! whaaaaaaaaaaa! she is as clean as possible. however, still have a few small projects to do....seriously. nutso with the projects.



i thought i would blog about 'the help.' but that is kind of boring!

it's good. it's great! you'll laugh, cry and get mad (taken from another friend)...!

i kept seeing the people in the movie as other people i know.


i kept seeing myself in minny. i guess i'm a mini minny.


wouldn't minny be a good house name?




she is sassy, but the girl means well :))







go see it. it made me want to have time to read the book ALL THE MORE.

what i did for my birthday

i went to world market, and cashed in my $10 birthday coupon for a big bag o' sumatran.

i know.

the girl at the checkout asked me what day my birthday was (it was about 7pm) and when i told her, she said 'oh, sad.'

ha ha. yeah. sometimes the single life is a little sad.



however, don't feel bad for me. the celebrations are continuing into today, with a birthday lunch and a birthday movie tonite. so there!




have i mentioned that i like world market? i do. i wander around the food aisles and look at all the pretty packaging. sometimes, i even recycle the pretty packaging :)


yay! it's friday! have a great weekend, everybody!

49 and still loving wicker

whew. it's my birfday today. in honor of this special occasion, i think i'll blog about wicker.

anybody who knows the REAL me knows that i have a pretty big fascination with wicker. and let me tell ya, it's not for the faint-hearted. wicker rarely gets the accolades, people. oh sure, we all have our pier one moments, but MY moment has lasted 30 YEARS.

thank God for emily henderson, because she is bringin' back wicker. seriously. only in a good way. that is what i was thinking last saturday night when she did a 'retro polynesian kitsch' room on her show.


that chair made me seriously happy. as fortune happens, i ran into an almost EXACT duplicate at a thrift store last weekend. $68. i may need that chair.

i was thinking of putting it here:


and then, you know, obviously, i could recreate the whole vintage hawaiian thing in the sun porch, with a painted cement floor and bright color and a bunch of bark cloth....

yes. i knew you would agree.




ahem. the above pics are 'inspiration' photos, in case you don't know what vintage polynesian kitsch means. not that it's not fairly self-explanatory ;)






on a completely unrelated but quite related note, look what i got from lou for a birthday present last night! a pleasantly green version of a vintage rattan chair! rattan is quite similar to wicker! small world :)


happy day. live it like it's your birthday :)

2 down

i think it's not a coincidence that i have started reading job in the bible this week. because these home improvement projects feel like boils and lesions all over my body :)) ha. truly, i am ready to be DONE fixing this house. 3 rooms to go in 3 days...think i can do it?


to ease the stress, i bought some stuff yesterday. yeah. that's healthy.



lowe's did have a great little pedestal sink, which is sorely needed in Fern. and natch, they had a matching light fixture that i really liked. i hunted down a 10% 'moving' coupon on the interweb, and lo and behold, now i just need a plumber to install. life is good.



oh. and i decided on the wallpaper. no crazy here, just a very expensive yet wonderful design by the famous julia rothman. i heart her, and i will heart sitting in the clouds in my newly redone bathroom, too :)

onward people, it's tuesday already!!!

:)

1 down

i just want you all to know that i am never moving again, ever. never ever never never again.

thank you.

oooh. ahhh.

someday, but not today i will tell you about accidentally painting over the painted tile in my shower with acrylic paint, when lo and behold, there was an oil-based paint there before.

someday. but not today. especially since i am tired from scrubbing tiles until midnight last night. and especially since i need to start all over with an OIL-based primer today.




sigh.

look at all the littles! for real, almost!



check this out...both nasty wallpaper and circus lighting....

but for today, i leave you with a wallpaper sample. a possible 'new bathroom' wallpaper sample (not like i'm jonesing to wallpaper a bathroom, but it already has HIDEOUS wallpaper, and it might be easiest just to re-paper....)

pretty.



good day!







post script: found another one....think this might be good? it's called 'underwater world' and i think i could be happy applying makeup and looking at the crazy fishy scribbles :)

goodbye pink

i hate having things in total disarray, don't you? perhaps that is why i'm not really longing for this weekend....i have to spend it here.

at any rate, hopefully it will be purtier by monday morning. and hopefully, it's the LAST of the home improvement projects that mabel will need from me. hopefully.

thank goodness for hope ;)
happy friday, all....

radical update

so, last night my bible study group finished up the book 'radical.' thought i would give a little synopsis of my experience....

well. first off. when you are reading the book 'radical' about giving up the American dream in order to really, truly follow Christ, and in the middle of it all, you decide to buy a house that is cuter and more perfect for you as you transition into middle age, you have to admit you've put yourself into a conundrum. i don't think i have ever been more tormented, to be honest. NOT wanting to 'sell out' my faith, but really wanting to go with my gut and move NOW was a super big conflict for me. i had to wrestle with that for much of the book study.

the book is not super unexpected. it talks about the majority of the world who don't have starbucks and vacations to disneyworld as part of their daily existence. it makes you think 'what am i doing with what God has given me' in terms of our obvious wealth in this country.

and the answer for me was not that simple - what / when / where do things need to change? i admit the whole thing made me a little crabby....until yesterday. i woke up in the morning and read the last chapter, which in my estimation was better than all of the other chapters rolled together. here's what the author suggests i do:

1) pray for the entire world (this was/is the toughest one for me to imagine myself fully committing to)...not sure where i will start...

2) read the entire Word in a year (have tried this for the last 5 years or so, i'm not 100%, but i've read my daily Bible quite a bit, and i feel i am at least attempting this faithfully).

3) figure out where/how you can SACRIFICE your resources for the good of the kingdom....the author talked about 'capping' your lifestyle. good stuff to think of .... and sacrificial giving vs. just giving what is not really a sacrifice. hmmmm. will require some prayer and thought.

4) spend 2% of your time experiencing your faith out of your normal context. so, one week a year. maybe it's going on a mission trip. maybe serving regularly at your community soup house. finding ways for God to transform your culture trap into HIS culture trap. love this one....! i want more than anything to change in this way.

5) getting with a real, authentic community in Christ and doing something there. yep, i believe in this also. thankfully, mercy church is setting me on my path here....even though there is much more to do/be as part of a real church body. i've never really had that experience before, and am so grateful to have it.

whew. so, that's my take. i came away very pumped up! and realizing that a 'radical' faith is also a 'doable' faith....at least it seems so. pretty sure God tells us that also :)

hello, fall.

i woke up this morning with no idea who i was, or where, or when. i think the brain overload is starting to affect me in strange ways.

i am pretty sure i dreamt about david bromstad. go figure, i would rather have been dreaming about john gidding. or emily h. :)) ha.

at any rate, it's one of those beautiful fall days that is especially appreciated when it's not. fall. i just want to sit in the sunporch and read. or nap. or something.

things are going pretty well. i closed on fern on monday, and now have about 9 days to get mabel ready to show. my realtor brought a lady over yesterday, i would not let her in yet (!) because the place is a wreck. but she looked around the yard, and seemed pretty interested. the big problem is how/what to price the old girl. i need to go with my gut, but it's hard. i will lose quite alot of $$, no matter what, i guess. mostly because the old adage of 'location, location, location' is true. however, mabel is so good. i hope someone who needs her will find her. and as for the location, it has been good for me these past 8 years, too. God has been here, and will stay, i am pretty sure.


sigh. lots of emotion. best to just keep plugging along with home improvements and dreams of david bromstad, or else it will be just too hard.


happy wednesday!

suckity-suck-suck-sucky

that is the adjective i would use to describe tarring a roof.

ps. those are the clothing items that were discarded right after i took my bath in gasoline.

now, i just need somebody to come over and clean out the bathtub :)





however, i did manage to check off a GIANT checkmark on the list. and if things roll my way, i'll never ever ever have to do that again.

beautiful friday

taking shape

whew. what a wonderful season. everyone is pretty much GUSHING about the beautiful weather and temps. i admit, that perfect weather makes me super happy. and it's nice to be happy.

i set my 'real life' aside yesterday for a whirlwind little road trip with lou. she is a great travel companion, and we had a nice day. what i love most, is that she is a great sounding board for all my craziness. she supports me, and mostly just lets me be crazy because i am.

she is also my favorite designer. that helps when it comes to all the decisions i have to make about fern. i am on my way to a new room in the house (can you guess which?) because we found some things yesterday to jump off from. i didn't buy anything yet except for the curtains, but i have been staring at them non-stop... :)

i have loved those drapes since they started popping up over the internet a couple of years ago. i'm sure everybody already has them now, but i don't care. i have been thinking about apple green for awhile, and soon, it will be MINE ;)


happy 'whatever day it is'!

mabel's being reborn :)

"before" wood pieces - or what was left of it!

"after" some creative carpentry fixes!

whew. another day of pretty big projects around the back forty. the sunporch lives! wow. i knew it was bad, but it was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more rotten than i even imagined. feels good to know that the new owners are not going to have a roof fall on their head :)

best part. while i was freaking out over other unbeknownst potential problems, and telling friends over the phone, the little old carpenter man in the back was overhearing my conversation.

which led to a long conversation with HIM over the lunch hour about God. about His power, His position in our lives, His goodness, and His revolution in both our lives over the years. i loved that. i swear. God has brought so MANY of His people to help mabel and i over the years. i hope that He does the same for fern when she needs it .... (ps - did i tell you that a former pastor used to live in fern? hopefully that means she is broken in good :))

hello, my little zebra mallow!

oh. and the nice little carpenter man managed to restore an entire sunporch without damaging any of the greens. he said he noticed how much care that they had been given, so he did not want to disturb them :)


happy tuesday friends!

new doorways

breezeway door and frame - BEFORE

the mouse door

door frame after handyman ryan came over -
note the hole in floor from, um, cat pee!

after risking life and limb to prime entire thing
whilst perched precariously!

okay, that is just crazy good.
i cannot believe i waited 3 years to do this!

ah. the project list is shrinking ever so slowly. it's a real full-time job to get an 81 year old house ready to sell. however, mabel shines up nicely. tomorrow, a nice semi-retired gentleman is coming over to fix the rotted wood on the sunporch. my main 'big job' is to tar the roof next weekend! that is one adventure i would love to bypass!

many thanks to miss rani for lending her whole family for an afternoon to help with trimming some windows and doors!

i am actually enjoying fixing the old girl up. it makes me love her all the more....and happy to know i am leaving her better than when i came.