Halloween Has Hit My House

I finally brought all my decorations (Christmas and Halloween) to the new house and started decorating!  I love Halloween and autumn, but unfortunately the election is overshadowing it this year.  Rather than curling up on the couch with Monsterfest...I'll be knocking on doors and making phone calls this Saturday through Tuesday.  UGH!

At least I can bask in these little moments...my Halloween vignettes.  And in another month, I'll be decorating for CHRISTMAS!!  I really can't wait for that!  I'm already planning where to put the tree, how to set things up, spotting good trees to clip Christmas boughs from on my walks with Sadie across the snowmobile trail...

I've even started my shopping!  Actually, Dad is already done and Mum...well we're getting there with Mum

Pretty new doors

From a house front that had only one crappy storm door that was so off kilter that bugs and wind could come flying into the house...

to two pretty new storm doors with screens that unroll when you slide the top window down.

These doors are already nice.  Mine lets so much light into my living room! It's awesome!

Roasty Toasty

It’s difficult for me to carve out a little time every other October – my job involves campaign work every two years and almost every night is occupied for the entire month of October and into the very beginning of November.

Despite my lack quality time with my home, the pellet stove was finally installed!  It took me a day to figure out how to regulate it, so of course that night it was 65 degrees outside and 80 inside!!  I was sweating so bad, it felt like August…in Texas!  We got a mini heat wave two days later and I couldn’t use it at all, much to my dismay.  But on Sunday, I woke up to 36 degree Maine weather and frost on the roofs – I can’t tell you how quickly I loaded up the pellets and turned that baby on!  When I came back from walking the dog, it was so toasty in the house. 

After 33 years of stacking and hauling wood, loading a wood stove that took FOREVER to heat up, this pellet stove was WORTH the $1300! 

Within 5 minutes, I have heat!  And it’s a constant heat.  I like knowing that it can be turned off…completely…and it cools off within a half hour...as in cool to the touch.  None of this wet wood/dry wood, all of a sudden it catches and it’s 180 degrees in the house!   

I love it! Absolutely and completely...now I just need to trim that carpet and order up some more pellets!

The Best Thing I Never Bought...(or trash into treasures)

Like every Saturday morning, I headed to the transfer station early to get rid of the trash, the recycling and drop off some old clothes in the free shed (where you bring good stuff that you don't have a use for anymore, but someone else may).  As I was about to leave, I spotted the cat tower below sitting beside the building, covered in cat fur and cobwebs, and looking a little rough around the edges.  

Since these things retail for about $100 and I had been thinking about getting one for Nym and Ellie (but couldn't justify spending that much for something they were going to sleep on and scratch), I threw it in the back of the truck.  I thought, if I can't clean it out and if it's really rickety, I'll just bring it back to the transfer station.  

It took me the better part of an hour to vacuum and clean this thing properly.  Once I got it into the house, Ellie took to it first, laying claim.

Now they both take turns...though they have a tendency to fight over it first, before one gives up and waits for the other to get off of it!

The Smell of Sunshine

I installed my clothesline the other day and I love it!  The smell of sheets and towels fresh from the line...oh how I've missed it!

It's curtains for you Rocky, curtains I tell ya!

I finally made the curtains for my bathroom, a few weeks ago.  I was certain that the neighbors down the lane could see into my bathroom at night.  Still need to make ones for the kitchen, but I need to clean up the sewing room first!

 

It's curtains for you Rocky, curtains I tell ya!

I finally made the curtains for my bathroom, a few weeks ago.  I was certain that the neighbors down the lane could see into my bathroom at night.  Still need to make ones for the kitchen, but I need to clean up the sewing room first!

 

Busy August

Ambajejus Lake, Millinocket, Maine

I feel like the month of August has just flown by without a moment to catch my breath.  My aunt and uncle from Maryland came for a visit, I spent time at a friend's camp in Millinocket, work has been filled with drama...it's enough to make your head spin and now we're getting into campaign season.  Ugh!

dragonflies in the sun

Just another reason why I love living in the country:

It turned hot and humid yesterday, which made the dragonflies come out in droves.  

They were EVERYWHERE! 

Listen to the Music...

One of the great ideas that I had waaaaay back before we bought the house came from an issue of Country Living Magazine – this woman had framed all of her old Grateful Dead albums and hung them up either behind her bed or behind her couch…I don’t remember which now…but it looked so cool.  I didn’t even know that they made frames especially for albums.

The next day I was at A.C. Moore and there they were – frames for albums! And they were 40% off, but they didn’t have a price on them, so I grabbed two and thought, if they were inexpensive, I could come back and pick up more.  Turns out they were about $6.40 each.  I headed back the next day only to find that they were no longer 40% off, and I couldn’t justify buying three more at regular price.  When frames went back on sale, I went back and they were out of the album frames…which irritated the crap out of me.

A few weeks later, I was at the Christmas Tree Shop with a friend.  We were just about finished shopping and I said, “I really don’t need anything over near the frames, but let’s go look anyway,” and there they were…album frames…FOR $3.99!  I couldn’t believe it!  I picked up the three more that I needed to create my pyramid of albums and paid less than I paid for the original two. 

So tonight I finally chose my favorites and put them up on the wall (Cat Stevens, Silly Wizard, The Irish Rovers, the Grateful Dead, Harry Chapin and Pink Floyd):

Marden's is a Homeowner's Best Friend

Picked up my couch today!  You don't even notice the cushion with the slightly darker color or the mark on the bottom.  I did have to take the door off it's hinges in order to get it into the kitchen - other than that, it went in very easily!

Ellie keeps dragging herself along the bottom of it, across the floor (she's a weirdo).

Nymmy is just thrilled; he loves new things!

And at the moment, Sadie is snoring...which shows her deep appreciation for it's comfiness!

Maine Quilts 2010

Took the day off and went with Mum to Maine Quilts 2010.  Tons of people, tons of vendors and so many quilts!!  More pictures here.

   

    

We also went to Marden's and found my couch!  It was one of the few sleeper sofas there, but it was a Simmons queen sleeper that was marked down from like $650 to $499, then they took another $50 off because one cushion was a slightly different color than the others and there was a mark on the very bottom.  The only bad thing is that it's a very light beige.  Grey cats, a black dog and a light colored couch don't exactly work well together!  Oh well, that's why man created slipcovers.  I'm just happy to have a real couch, that's not a 20 year old, raggedy hand-me-down or the grungy futon (also a hand-me-down)!

Maine Quilts 2010

Two more days till one of my favorite summer events – the Pine Tree Quilters Guild’s Maine Quilts 2010!  This is my 5th year attending and I always come home with a million new ideas and inspirations. 

This year, I’m looking for woven quilts (my newest fascination).  I stumbled upon the book “Simply Stunning Woven Quilts” by Anna Faustino and was awestruck by how innovative those quilts looked.  I found a tutorial online (which looks really easy); I just haven’t taken a moment to try it.  Well, that and the fact that I still don’t have a sewing room that isn’t full of boxes yet (hopefully this weekend will put an end to that, because I REALLY need kitchen and bathroom curtains…especially bathroom curtains – I’m convinced that the neighbors down the road can see into my bathroom!). 

Here are just a few of my favorite pictures from the past four “Maine Quilts” shows:

 

For more pictures from the last 4 years, click below:

2006

2007

2008

2009

She's crafty...

I attempted to tackle the sewing room/craft studio/whatever you want to call it. I think I managed to unpack about 3 boxes and just rearrange the rest.

  

 

I did put up the pegboard and the inspiration line above the quilt wall, and I moved the table and boxes of fabric into the corner.  I just need to paint the cubbies (maybe tonight if it doesn't rain?) for more storage, as I really can't unpack my other stuff until I have a place to put it.  The bookcase is almost packed out entirely already!

I get the impression that this room will be an ongoing project.

Nothing like a new vacuum!

I broke down and bought myself a new vacuum.  At the old house, we had three vacuums. I had a dead Bissell, my brother had a dead Eureka and we used the 20 year old Frankenstein Kenmore canister vac.  I call it a Frankenstein because it had a wheel that fell off every time you used it, a cord that didn't retract and a power head that came from some vacuum at the dump.  BUT IT WORKED!! That's all that mattered.  

Well, since my brother still lives at the old house, I thought I would be kind and leave him Frankenstein :^) and I went out and bought the cutest little vacuum cleaner on earth!  It's the Hoover Nanolite from Wally World.

I know, it's not about cuteness, it's about how well it works.  I only spent $50, because I didn't need some HUGE $200 to $400 monster vac that has 8,000 attachments and needs an entire closet for storage...I only have a small house.

What sold me on this vacuum was that it had a shut off for the brush, something my Bissell (that I spent $250 on several years ago) did not.  My downstairs is wood laminate and my upstairs is carpet, so this feature is fantastic!  It's bag-less and empties from the bottom, which is kinda cool.  I filled the dirt canister chock-a-block full on the first use...oops.

All in all, I'm very happy with my little purchase. Sadly, the animals are shedding so badly that I could vacuum every day and still not keep up with the cat and dog-hair tumbleweeds!  I don't know if this renewed, extreme shedding is because we're supposed to have more heat, or we're six weeks out from cooler weather...because we are six weeks out from the start of fall!

The Hazards of Home Ownership

On Monday night, the temperature had dropped from stifling to mildly humid and there was a bit of a breeze, so I got the brilliant idea that I would start mowing the lawn.  I hadn't even made it a quarter of the way done and I managed to  jab a tree branch into the back of my hand near a vein! Don't ask how, this is decidedly something that only I can do!

I cleaned it up, after it welled blood for a while and bandaged it, only it hurt so bad that I could barely move my hand. It throbbed most of the night and started to swell the next day.  I couldn't flex it or make a fist at all, so what do I do? I go to work and complain about it all day, rather than call the doctor and see what's wrong with it.

I did finally go to the doctor yesterday - she sent me for an x-ray, which showed that there was nothing broken or fractured.  She figures that I bruised the hell out of it and possibly scraped a nerve or a tendon, which is why it hurt so badly.  Ice and 800 mg of Ibuprofen three times a day was the prescription and the swelling has already started to go down.  It's just still sore.

This injury seriously put a dent in my plans to unpack the quilt room, needless to say, it still looks vaguely similar to the day I moved in...

Only without the truck, with the table set up, the small filing cabinet moved under the window and the bookcase screwed to the wall and filled with books.  Other than that, it's still full of boxes that need to be gone through and the contents put in their rightful places...once I figure out where those rightful places are.

Taking a break and heading to the Lake

Headed to the Lake for lobster dinner last night in celebration of my mother and sister's birthday (which is on Monday).  I was able to get eight lobsters for boat prices thanks to our summer intern and her Portland harbor connection. Super cheap prices!

My niece was having FAR too much fun playing with the lobsters

They cooked up beautifully, but we forgot to take the bands off...oops!

Grilled corn on the cob, potato salad, coleslaw and bread rounded out the meal with cake and ice cream for dessert. Very messy, but sooooo good!  

Today's forecast is calling for 90 degrees +, which means I'll be spending my day in the water.  Such a nice break from my overly humid little house!

little things...

Small things that make it feel homey

Flowers on the deck and whimsical planters with spiky orange Celosia hair

Reminders in chalk written behind the door and cats who sleep comfortably in the most awkward positions