Forced Myself

This lack of ambition taking its toll as I'm not doing much of anything!

Even though I wanted to do this project while the weather was still nice I really had to force myself to get started on it. The good thing is once I got going I got into it and it was actually fun!

My project was to turn this old chair that was sitting under my desk,

into a stool. 

I'm not exactly sure but I think it was part of a long ago dining room set of my paternal grandmothers. My dad had it in his house and when we moved him out I took it home with me. 

I used it in our bedroom for a while to sit on while putting on shoes and when I replace it with a bench I almost threw it out. I'm glad I didn't because I saw this on a DIY site that I follow 

and thought it would be a perfect project for that old chair!  

First step was to remove the old seat covers. 

Underneath it was the original seat cover, I think. It's looks vaguely familiar to me. I must remember it from when I was a child!

I removed the gross old padding and all that remained is the wooden bottom.

Then I cut the back of the chair off, cleaned and sanded it,  and spray painted it black. Isn't spray paint a wonderful thing? I know it's not for everything but for this project it worked so good and was so quick! 

I bought a couple of these from WalM@rt to make masks with but I thought it would work good for this stool, too. It's just a thin cotton so it won't hold up to a lot of wear and tear but for now it thought it was good enough. 

I replaced the foam padding and Rich helped me tack on the material. 

Here it the finished product. Not perfect by any means but it's better than that old chair. 

Plus it fits good underneath the desk. 

Now I need to put painting the desk black on my project list! 

It feels good to get something done after weeks of having no ambition for much of anything!

Coming up on the next post: I am gainfully employed again! At least for a few months anyway! 

End of Summer Days

 So far, this has been a pretty good summer. I think partially because I am retired and partially because the weather has been beautiful, hot but I never complain about the heat! It's also been nice not to feel like I've worked another gorgeous summer away!

My neighbor next door, who works at a nursery, has been giving me plants all summer long. First a beautiful hanging plant early in the summer and then in the past few weeks she's given me a beautiful zinnia and the other day she gave me this hibiscus that's about 3 feet tall.

Here it is next to the zinnia which is blooming like crazy! 

The hibiscus gets huge blooms that last for a day or two then wilt away!

Here is a comparison to a dinner plate! 

I love it! I don't think I'm going to plant it in the ground this year. I'll probably bring it inside for the winter and figure out what to do in the Spring. I may give it to Shauna to plant at her house. 

The people a few door down from us raise macaws and will occasionally walk them down the street. Its kind of blurry but you can see the lady is holding one in her left hand! They are beautiful birds and apparently they have about 7 of them at any given time!  

Yesterday I washed a pair of shorts that had two gold bracelets in the pocket that I forgot were in there. One of them is completely gone and the other one I found most of it but it's broken and I'm sick about it! Have you ever gotten so mad at yourself you could just spit? That's me right now!

 I have always been notorious for not checking pockets when I do laundry! I have washed more money and papers and kleenex over the years! Anyway, think this note will help? 

That's about it for now. As always I leave you with a picture of my boys! 

Maxwell sleeps in a big boy bed now and so far it's going good. Levi is going to be 2 on September 27th! 

Until the next time...stay safe and well! 

Losing my Ambition

These days I seem to be struggling to do more than the usual cleaning and mundane chores. I think this pandemic is finally getting to me! Anyway, we'll get though somehow!

I have many projects in mind to do but they all are inside things that probably should wait until the weather is to cold to be outside. 

The library is open now so I have spent a lot of time reading on the deck and watching the birds at the feeders. 

We've been having a flock (gang, group not sure what they are called) of Canada geese visit us every day lately to eat the bird seed that is underneath our feeder. 

We even had one of the local stray cats keeping an eye on them, too! 

These two eyeballed each other for quite a while! 

I need to find a way to discourage them from coming here though. They leave their little "presents" all over the lawn and I have to clean it up before the boys come over because they play on the grass! 

Rich and I had a gift card to a fancy Italian restaurant so we decided to go to dinner on Sunday. The food was ok but I like my Italian cooking better! 

Rich had soup and it came in this little pot! I though it was adorable and wanted to take it home! 

We were sitting right by the window and the light was perfect for picture taking. I normally don't like pictures of me but this one is about as good as it's going to get so... I need to wear lipstick though! I've gotten out of the habit since we have to wear masks every where and who would see it anyway? 

Anyway, that's it for now. Shauna is picking me up in an hour and we are taking the boys to the park. They love to play in the sandbox!

Until the next time, stay safe and well, my friends! 

This & That

Even with the hot weather we've been having I have been truly enjoying this summer so far! We spend every night sitting on our deck enjoying the evening and watching the hummingbirds come to our feeder. The mosquitos, however have been brutal and I have more mosquito bites this year than I've ever had! 

All the flowers we planted are doing fantastic, also. Rich regularly waters them morning and evening and I miracle grow them every 2 weeks.  

I'm especially impressed with these petunias  I planted in the Spring. 

That look like this now! 

 

My next door neighbor gave me this zinnia plant a few days ago. It's so beautiful and has lots of buds on it yet. Too bad it's an annual plant not a perennial or I would plant it in the ground! She works at a nursery so she gets the surplus plants. It's  nice of her to share some with me! 

Chris and is friend were in town for a few days. He left early this morning and I already miss him! 

One good thing about having guests is the guest room gets a good cleaning! This room usually has a bunch of junk on the bed and the box with the Christmas tree sitting on top of the cedar chest. I would like to leave it this way but unfortunately everything will make it's way back in there eventually! 

He enjoyed spending time with Maxwell and Levi. 

Here he is with Maxwell looking at a coloring book. I was busy enjoying having both my kids in the same house so I didn't take many pictures! 

Here's Levi being goofy with his mom! He's such a little ham!!

That's about it for now.

Until the next time..stay safe and stay well!

The Days Move Along

I figured when I retired the days would move fast but I didn't realize they would fly by like they are! Or it could be just that Summer always seems to go so fast!

Anyway, I go to Shauna's at least 1-2 times a week and she brings the boys over at least once every week. 

We bought a little pool so they can play outside and Nonnie can keep her feet cool while they play! 

My friend and I went to an estate sale last week at a house not too far from us. Someone was an avid collector of Hot Wheels cars and there were hundreds of them in this one room! I would have bought a bunch for the grandsons but they were asking way too much for them! I think they were probably rare and collector editions! 

It was a very nice house but the the best part was the backyard and pool area! It was huge and absolutely beautiful! I wish I had taken more pictures! 

We borrowed Shauna and Brad's power washer and washed our house finally. We meant to do it last year but never got around to it. I believe this is the first time it was ever power washed and it was pretty dirty! It took us 2 days. 

Can you see the difference in the gutter above Rich's head?

I like they way the sun was shining through the mist in this picture! 

Lastly, I tried a recipe for low carb noodles and it wasn't too bad. They are made with 2 eggs and 1 oz. cream cheese blended and baked . They were pretty good but not something I would like without some kind of sauce or gravy on them. Not a bad substitute for pasta, though.

That's about it for me for now. Tomorrow we may make our yearly journey to Bronner Christmas Store in Frankenmuth to get the personalized ornaments for the boys. 

Until the next time...stay well and stay safe. 

Overnight Getaway

We received an offer from the Four Winds Resort and Casino for a free room and decided to take advantage of that offer last week.

The Four Winds is located in New Buffalo and is a few miles off of Lake Michigan. It's right at the south west corner of the state, not too far from the Indiana border.

The hotel is nice and they had just reopened after being closed for 3 months. They were happy to see us and were taking all the precautions necessary. Taking your temperature every time you walk in from outside and having masks available if you weren't wearing one. 

This was on the TV in our room. 

The room was very clean.

After we checked in and put our stuff in our room we went into the casino to have dinner. After dinner we decided to take a relaxing swim at the pool, which was very nice. 

There wasn't a lot of people there and everyone was able to keep their distance. It was pretty hot outside but we were able to stay in that little shady spot you can see in the water. There were employees cleaning off the chairs and tables after people would leave them.

After a nice swim we got dressed and drove to the lake to watch a sunset.

This was the sun when we got there.

It was too bright so we sat in the shadow of this lighthouse for a while. 

When it started to get close to setting it got a little less intense and also started to go behind a cloud. 

Luckily it came out from the bottom of the cloud in time to hit the water horizon. 

It was pretty but I've seen prettier like the one I used for my header. 

After the sunset, we went back to the hotel and went to the casino. We're not huge gamblers but we do like to play video poker. I always bring a certain amount of money and when it's gone, it's gone and that's it. However, I had a lucky night!

These are the biggest of my wins. Yes, I do take pictures and videos too when I can! I left there the next day with 3 times what I went there with!

We had a good time! They have offered us a free night every week through August. It's a little too far to go every week but I'm sure we'll be going back sometime before the end of August. 

Until the next time! 

Independence Day and Other Stuff

We spend 4th of July with Shauna, Brad, the boys and their other grandparents. It was hot but fun! I enjoyed my annual burn to a crisp hot dog! 

Here they are watching the boy next door drive his remote control car. They looked so cute in their matching outfits! 

There were more than the usual private fireworks all over this time. Probably due to the pandemic lockdown and the fact that the annual fireworks and festivals in all the cities were cancelled this year. It was kind of nice to sit on our deck and watch the show all around.

I've been doing some sewing. Mostly I have been altering some of my clothes, turning a few pairs of jeans into shorts and capri length pants for the summer. I've also made a few masks for me and Rich

The patterned one came from left over material I had from a quilt I had made for Shauna when she was pregnant with Maxwell. The dark blue one is made from an old pillow case. The material is soft and comfortable. 

I don't know how much protection they offer (other than from dirty looks from people for not wearing a mask! ) but they are comfortable and washable. I would make more but I ran out of elastic and there is none to be found anywhere!

I meant to show you these in the last post. 

This is a New England Style Hot Dog Roll that we brought home from our visit with Chris.  They are basically like a piece of bread folded in half! You can't find them anywhere around here! I looked on Amazon and they want about $10 for a pack! 

 

I changed the picture on my header to a sunset from Grand Haven MI I took a few years ago. They were doing some construction on the pier and you can see the backhoe to the right of the picture.  Didn't take away from the beauty, though! I always try to catch at least one sunset on Lake Michigan every year. 

Tomorrow we are going to spend the night at Four Winds Resort and Casino in New Buffalo, MI which is right on Lake Michigan. I'm hoping to catch another spectacular sunset to replace this header picture with!

Until the next time!