A DIY Realization

So I ordered everything needed for the living/dining room DIY makeover, and I discovered something: DIY projects can get pretty costly. Even using coupons on top of coupons on top of discounts, I honestly think we could have bought post-manufactured versions of our projects for less than it cost for the materials to make them. I'm currently waiting for the fabric to be delivered (custom fabric also means delivery charges!) but everything is lined up, at least. I am seeking solace in the fact that it would be nearly impossible to find accompaniments to so perfectly match my couch and love seat, given its obscure shade.

That is all.
Yes, I know: random.

(Long) Weekend (Project)

As I mentioned in my last blog, I have decided to redo my living and dining rooms for the summer.
Well, I decided it, but it's my mom who will be responsible for all the labor involved (love you, Momma!).

Right now the rooms are in deep colors: red, tan, sage; it looks very nice, but I'm looking for cheerful, and it's far from cheerful. One thing I worried about was the color of my furniture...it's an awkward grey/green shade that I thought would be a daunting task to match. We took a pillow from the sofa to Jo-Ann's and I was pleasantly surprised at the number of fabrics that matched it.  There were probably thirty in all! I narrowed those down to these two:

Now, I'll be honest: The 2nd is definitely the runner-up. I absolutely love the first. However, the first is twice as much as the second, and the second is indoor/outdoor (though without that rough feel) and UV protectant. Since I'm (and by "I am," I mean "My mom is") going to be making curtains out of it, that's pretty important. The 2nd one is really starting to grow on me and I don't think I'll regret that decision.

And, once again, my fiscal patience paid off; rather than buying the fabric when we picked it out, I opted to wait, knowing the price would drop. Right now it's on sale for 50% off and I will save an additional 25% by using Kiera's dependant ID. Normally Jo-Ann's won't let you combine discounts, but memorial weekend is one of those rare exceptions.

All of this warms my little home-owner heart.

Almost time to call it quits...

I hope the long weekend of rest and relaxation finds you all well.

If you need me, I'll be on the lake! :)

Enjoy.

May Already?

This year has absolutely flown by! Kiera finished her last (and only) exam on Friday; I am officially the mother of a high school sophomore. Yikes!
She already has a ton plans, so she is very excited that her summer vacation is here. Currently planning two trips with her Grandparents, three weeks of theater camp, a birthday *weekend* and, if we are lucky, maybe even a weekend vacation for the two of us. It's good she has something to look forward to because she was NOT a happy camper this week. She thought she would be getting her braces off in the next few days and now it looks like she has a minimum of six more weeks in them (which pushes her past her birthday). In a motherly I-told-you-so type move, I reminded her that she had not been wearing her rubber bands as instructed and that I had told her she would find herself in this exact position if she didn't follow the treatment plan. My Mom was far more sympathetic than I and took her shopping and to dinner to cheer her up. Grandparents are lucky in that they aren't required to enforce anything, so they can spoil away!
Kiera's performance of 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was great! While she has a great voice, Kiera has always struggled with acting-she's definitely made some huge strides and I can't wait to see how much more she'll improve. She's getting pretty involved in the school's drama/thespian programs. It's time
consuming but suits her well. Her poor voice barely made it through the last two performances (which I was at), thanks to far too much rehearsal time (just my opinion, but if you rehearse the kids so much that they lose their voices, it's a bit counter-productive.) One girl couldn't talk for two days! She even had to take a Note around to her teachers for them to not call on her in class per the director's orders! The performances were great, though!
Around my front...lots of spring cleaning (is it still spring?). Great Mother's Day (Kiera got me a sun hat and beach towel and a really sweet card!) Also, Daddy2.0 got me some new solar lights for the house, which I'm very eager to put out, and Mom got me some lawn tools (pathetic cheer) and snapped some photographs to match the guest room and framed them for us. Tommy bought/installed a programmable thermostat for the house. He knows how serious I am about saving money! Granted, my utility bill was a mere $36 last month (pays self on back) but it's about to get really hot around here, so it will come in handy! Loved all my gifts! :)
Speaking of the lawn, I have a mole. Or a gopher. It's getting very Caddyshack around here. I absolutely hate killing any animal (this includes even spiders, houseflies, etc), but it's just about time. I cut my front lawn yesterday and was covered, head to toe, in dirt by the time I was finished. Everyone has ideas of how to get rid of him/her/them but from what I've read on the Internet, you can't really run them off, only kill them. And even then, another may take its place pretty shortly thereafter. What to do?
Mom and I are working on springtime colors for the house (I never knew people switched colors by season for their home-this is all rich-folk stuff). We've picked out a lovely fabric pattern, and she is going to create the new pillows, curtains, etc. herself. I'll post pics once the project is complete, but I'm very, very excited about it!
This post is much longer than anticipated so I'd better wrap up. Back to cleaning and rewarding myself the rest of the weekend with MIM BBQ fest tonight and a day on the lake tomorrow. :)

Welcoming Briley Paige Bell

Yesterday was a glorious day as Briley Paige Bell finally made her way into this crazy, beautiful world.

I got to meet her just hours after her arrival, unlike her big sister, Lyla, who was born in Chattanooga (I didn't get to meet Lyla for months!). I was fortunate enough to be in the room when Briley and Lyla met. Lyla, who will be two in June, doesn't quite know what to think of little sis just yet, but she will be warmed up to her in no time. In fact, she was already getting more comfortable in the short time they spent together yesterday.

Both Lisa and baby are healthy and happy and were released to go home (already) and settle in.

And in other news...I *finally* finished the diaper cake I began months ago for Lisa's baby shower. Yes, it's that wacky in my world. Turned out really cute and I absolutely adore the three girls I've thrown showers for this year, but It honestly wouldn't bother me if I never created another diaper cake in my life. Well...at least for a year or so.

Enjoy your eve. On to Domestic
Goddess duties for yours truly.

Oh! Well, hello new blog layout.

I don't have time for this, blogger. I rarely have time to compose, let alone spend the extra 57 seconds figuring out where to post. [sighs]

Moving on, I saw this article on Yahoo this morning and [wow!]. It's about an autistic boy who is demeaned by his special-needs teachers. And I've just gotta say: I love his dad. What a genuinely amazing father in a world where there are so few to be found. For that matter, what a genuinely amazing human in a world where there are so few to be found.

Do me a favor and sign his petition at Change.org (a site I highly recommend).

I need to find a positive news site.
Seems like I'm reposting more and more outrageously negative articles.
Need to find my happy place again.

[Additional sigh] ... back to work.

Ramblings of the Sickling

Yup, I'm sick again. This is my sixth round of antibiotics this year. I've counted. And it's only April. Of course, they haven't all been for infections, some have been preventive, but six nonetheless.

So this is what my day's looked like:

Yup, that's pretty much my day.

So now I'm bored. And I haven't blogged in quite a while. So...here goes:

First off, let's start with my current read.

I've begun reading quite a bit with my Kindle. In fact, I've read so much that I've decided to simply read whatever the rage is. This isn't to say that I'll enjoy it. I'm a self-admitted literary snob (four years of reading legitimate literature will do that to you), but I've been known to indulge in a guilty pleasure every now and then.

When my issue of Entertainment Weekly  came in, I was surprised to find that it was a literary edition-one of two editions, actually, the first highlighting The Hunger Games (I finished it; it was not excellent writing, to be certain but it wasn't as bad as the Twilight Series--after all, what could be?) and the second highlighting Fifty Shades of Grey. I didn't read the article. (As an aside, I have read, altogether, one issue of Entertainment Weekly and this wasn't it.) But the inside of the cover said Fifty Shades of Grey is the book "everyone" is buzzing about. Okay, I thought, I'll bite.

A friend shared it with me electronically (she had not read it, either), and I started on it this week.

Whoa. This book should have come with a warning! It's all BMSM! "Mommy porn," they call it. Again, having skipped any recommendation, synopsis, etc. I had no clue what I was getting into. Porn it is. Hard core porn. Literary porn. The kind of porn that would make the editors at Hustler blush.

Ahhh, the word blush. Over and over. And over.
And the phrase "inner goddess." Over and over. And over.

And the "heroine" biting that damned bottom lip. Over and over. And over.

This book isn't just dark writing, twisted writing, it's terrible writing.

I can understand that the subject matter may be the type that creates a stir, but erotic literature isn't new to the scene, and this certainly isn't good writing. I can honestly say I have never read erotic literature before, therefore I don't have a gauge of comparison, so perhaps this is simply more graphic? And that's creating the "buzz"? I'm not sure. What I do know is this: I feel cheated. I can tell you that at the moment I read the phrase "anal fisting" I had to stop and ask myself if this is the direction I intended to go in my literary pursuits. And it isn't, of course.

There must be a slew of sexually unsatisfied Moms out there. Thinking, somehow, that reading porn must be more acceptable than watching it. I'm not condemning either. But it could at least be good dark/twisted writing, particularly to have such a following.
("He's about as good for me as cotton candy is nutritious" Oi!)
Once I got about half way through the book, I decided to look up some reviews online and I was surprised to see how many people absolutely love the series. Love it! Surely, there is no way! Maybe I am not gauging it as I should: Wouldn't comparing E L James to Faulkner be the same as comparing Shindler's List to Shindler's Fist? (I admit, I did google that. There is an epic list of porn parodies, evidently--very funny stuff.) And their goals are entirely different. Which is fine. But if this-Mommy porn-is going to be the new rage, it's going to need a new category created for it, and it's going to need to be tagged as such. Not simply as "fiction."

Speaking of unreliable ratings (I must remember that I am not the average person, and reviews are created for the average person), I almost forewent the movie pictured above (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close) because it received less-than-stellar ratings on IMB and Rotten Tomatoes. I thought a nap might do me more good. But in watching the first few minutes (and in knowing Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks (both of whom I regard highly) star in it), I decided to go ahead and watch it through.  I am so glad I did! I hadn't heard much about the movie (heck, I don't hear much about any movie--or book, evidently), but it was incredibly moving. I was touched, deeply. I do think it was sad and deep and dark--another post 9/11 drama--and I'm sure my disposition required something more light-hearted, but I enjoyed it and I highly recommend it. Here's the trailer if you don't want to find yourself in the fifty-shades-position (pardon the pun) I mentioned earlier.

Lemme see what else?

• Daddy 2.0 bought me a riding mower and I have now mowed my first lawn. In my first home.[does happy dance] Cutting the yard was quite meditative. We'll see if I feel the same when the temps hit 100+ degrees.
• Mom planted flowers...still don't have a garden or flower bed, per say, but I got them free from others' gardens and we needed to get 'em in the ground, so it's a start.
• Tommy got a new boat (not brand new, but new to us) and it's ah-mazing. We've been on it half a dozen times already and I am a sun-tanned goddess (thank you, Cherokee complexion)  Kiera's already planned her 15th birthday down in/on Moon Lake with a day on the water.
• And speaking of kiddo, her braces could be off in as little as a month. Stoked doesn't even begin to cover it. I've begun creating a goodie for her, although I'm not gonna post about it til I give it to her on the off chance that she will read my blog (finally) at the most inopportune time.

I'm bored again.

Now to find something else to do (cleaning this filthy house would be a great start).

And Mom's bringing a pot of her beloved potato soup over. It's nice to be taken care of, even as an adult.

Happy day, y'all. :)

 

 

To the Victor Go the Spoils

I heard about this on the radio this morning and then it was a top news article in Yahoo when I logged in.

I wonder what you all think about it. Seems to be split among Yahoo readers/commenters (or is that commentators?) I, for one, can understand the desire to question the team's loyalty, given that the TX Tech program did ultimately give provide them with the training (etc.) that earned the National Championship. On the other hand, Texas Tech clearly didn't appreciate the team as much as they should have. I'm sure they were more focused on the important (albeit inferior) arenas of football, basketball, etc. (I hated this at my own college).

 So, as I said, to the victor go the spoils.
Or something like that.

Like all things in life, success = opportunities & options.
Good luck to the team and their coach.