Racing The Calendar

I have not bought one single present. Zilch. Not-a-one. Today is the fifth of December. I am experiencing small periods of panic. People who shall remain nameless, haven't even given me a list. They say things like "Oh Mom, just surprise me. "  The other one was, " I am not giving you a list because you just get me everything on it and there are no surprises."  The one I about fainted about was, " Mom just get me clothes."

Clothes??? Since when do boys in this family want clothes? I don't work well without a list. My mind goes blank, I can't make a decision. Some people  who like things I make are safe and are not on this list. Babies, well you know how much fun shopping for babies is and how much fun it is buying little boys things they can shoot, make noise with and blow up. ( Don't worry, I will wait until they are older to get them things to blow up.)

I think this whole jury duty thing is driving me crazy. It is like being on call. I have to check the computer twice a day to see if my number is up. I can't really make plans until this is over. At least I am not having to sit down there. I can at least putter around the house and do school. The ones that live here that go to college have had finals this week. Yesterday when one of my sons got home after his math final he sat down at the piano and played Free Bird and sang so loud, I don't even know if Lynyrd Skynyrd ever envisioned it that way. The piano was rockin and rollin. He was very happy.

On December 7th we will have lived in this house 11 years. I remember when the move in date was December 7th I hoped that it wouldn't be like the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I was pretty scared about moving back. I didn't know how it would work living here again. I am glad to say, it has been better than I dreamed.
One of the things that happened was we were going to have to have the house plans  re-engineered. This house in the original house plans had a full basement. I wish we had one so bad now but you just don't build basements in California. The ground around here is a little like jello. It moves all of the time.

When we were going to build this house and we were getting plans and permits and all of the things you have to do to build a house here.
The phone rang at the other house and on the other end was a very nice man. He wanted to do the re-engineering on the house. I took down all of the information. Then I asked him his name. He hesitated just for a second, took a deep breath, and said, " Lenard Skinner." I was silent for a second. I said, " Really?"
He said, " Yes, that is my name." I said, " Do you get this a lot?" He said, " Oh you have no idea. But I had it first before the band. " So I got off the phone. But I still laugh and think about him.

So this is a wandering around in my mind post. I think I need to change the name of the blog.  Maybe I could change it to Mostly Random Thoughts by Kim.

I hope you have a great Wednesday,
~Kim`

Chats on the Farmhouse Porch

It is that time again to visit with Patrice on her porch. It has been a bit to cold to visit on my porch this week.
Now on to this week's question:


1.    Do you have your tree up yet? If not, when will you put it up? If you don't have a tree, please tell me about another tradition you like.

Yes we do, we put it up last night because it was the only night everyone would be home together this week. As everyone gets older around here we have to just take the time when we have it.

2.    What was the best job you ever had? The worst?

The best job has been being a Mom. I have been so thankful for this gift. I don't think I have had a bad job. I needed what it taught me at that time.

3.    Do you drive around and look at Christmas lights? If not applicable, tell me something you like to look at when you go for a drive.

I love looking at Christmas lights but I don't drive around for just that purpose.

4.    Does your tea kettle have a whistle?

Yes it does, and lately it has blown it's top quite a bit.

5.    Do you like boots?
I love boots.

Thank you for stopping by today. Thanks for Patrice for having such a nice Chat this week.

Just Decorating

I have been trying to decorate today. Well, I am supposed to be cleaning house but I have the attention span of a gnat. I seem to bounce from one thing to another. I have a very cute snowman that I put up somewhere and today I have tried to remember where I put it. In my searching I ran across some things I thought I would share with you.

Before Peter Jackson turned the books by J.R.R. Tolkien into movies they were books that were read over and over in our house. In fact my husband still reads The Hobbit once a year. In fact, one of the conditions of him marrying me was I read the whole Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I did too, sitting out by the swimming pool when I lived at home. When our daughter was born we would ask her, " What do you have in it's pockets, little Bilbo Baggins." Just silly things that get in our family history.

When our daughter was about eight she started reading them all on her own and she is even a bigger fan that her Dad and when she was in art class, she sculpted Smaug.  So because in 11 days the Hobbit movie comes out, I thought I would take a picture of her sculpture.

I always loved how she could get the eyes to look at you and look real. She did the texture of the skin and the horns so well too. Not to mention the pile of gold he is sitting on.

I can't remember what she made the wings out of but they look really real like you would think dragon wings would look like, I mean if we still had dragons.

I also found this old candle stick holder.

When I was a little girl on my great-grandmothers nightstand in her room this candle holder sat. She said she kept it there in case the electricity went out. I would think about walking from room to room carrying it to light my way. I have used it the few times we have lost power.

I ran across this too. One of the hard things about going through houses is you find things that you know you should keep but at the time you don't know why. I kept this when we were going through my grandmothers things. I was shocked when I opened the box.

It looked almost brand new. I could tell that there was film in it and I didn't want to take the risk of ruining the film so I took down to our local camera shop and let them develop what was in the camera. You know what what in it? Pictures from my first birthday. I had never seen pictures of myself when I was a baby  and never of my first birthday. My Mom was so young, Barely 20 and I was wearing a frilly dress with petticoats. You could see how happy she was and she was laughing at the camera. I have those pictures around here but I didn't want to go down one more rabbit trail.

I never have found the snowman. Next year when I am not teaching school, I am going to organize this whole house. I have stuff stuck every where.

So just a rabbit trail on my way to decorate my house. Here is one thing I got decorated. Remember the cubby hole thing that my husband made? I put Christmas things in it.

We haven't had rain but we have had mist like a cloud is sitting on top of us. So everything is dark even with the lights on. Sorry for the bad quality of my pictures.

So that is what I have done today. I think all that I have left to do is put the Christmas tree up and I don't know when we will get to that. Reading over this post, it is a rabbit trail too. :)

Have a great week,
~Kim~

Christmas Tree Project

I was reading about the weather in California. Yes, reading. We are having no weather. Clouds but no rain to speak of or even watch. It was so warm this morning I thought I was going to have to dig out my shorts.
Today is a 90 percent chance of rain. I must live in the 10 percent that is just going to watch the rain on T.V. Oh well. It was a nice day to work on a project.

Last Christmas I saw this on a blog called Into Vintage. I have thought about it for a whole year. So in November I started collecting Christmas Ornaments. One thing about living in a new house you don't have things like old screens laying around. I do have a handy-dandy scrap wood pile and being married to a man who sees treasure every where helps too. I told him what I wanted and let him think about it for a week or so and he came up with the perfect frame. Then we went to a hardware store before Thanksgiving and bought screen. When my husband was a young he worked in his Dad's auto upholstery shop so he knows so many nifty tricks. He got the screen on the frame and stretched tight. Yesterday I spent the day painting the wood black and then antique white. This morning I beat it up and sanded it so it looked old and then stained it with walnut stain.

We at first tried to use wire to attach the ornament to the screen but it didn't work to well so then we decided that crochet thread worked the best. I don't know how you would do this project by yourself, it took both of us to do it. It was very pleasant work though.

I thought it turned out just perfect. I bought all of the ornaments at the dollar store. The wood was out of the scrap pile I think the most expensive part was the screen. It was 3 dollars. The paint I used was from another project that cost 59 cents a bottle. I used two bottles. Of course, I thought that it might be fun to cut little holes in the screen and add tiny lights. Since this is the first version I will leave it alone.

One thing even though we have been married 32 years I still find things about my husband I didn't know. I was telling him about the crafts I made when I was a kid and I told him about making Christmas trees out of old Readers Digest magazines and he said he did too, every year. I thought that was just the nicest little surprise.

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you are having a lovely day,
~Kim~