Stray Cat aka ?

Let me introduce Stray Cat. He is the latest addition to our family that I am now feeding! I swore I wasn’t going to feed him, as I didn’t want to get attached to another furry feline. We lost our last furry feline family member in 2009, and I said I didn’t want anymore. It was just too hard. But here I am, buying cat food again!

He’s very skittish, so that’s why this picture is so grainy. I had to blindly take it through the screen door while I hid behind the kitchen wall with my arm outstretched! We’ve been feeding him for about a week now and he’s doing better. If you walk outside when he’s out there, he will run and hide under the elephant ears but just to the edge. Then he stops and turns around to look at you. Before that, he would high-tail it out of the yard!

We’ve had several strays and shelter rescues in the past that have become family members; and our daughter and my mom adopted their current, furry feline family members from rescue shelters. We are totally pro-adoption, whether adopting from a shelter or from the streets!! In fact, our daughter is participating in the “iWalk for Animals 2014” next month which benefits the SPCA. If you would like to donate on behalf of her walk, just click on the link and it will go straight to their website. OR if you’re motivated, you can sign up to walk in your area!! 🙂

So for now, I’ll keep feeding Stray Cat and slowly working on getting him use to us. Maybe in a month or so, I’ll have him sitting on my lap! And I guess I should give him a better name than Stray Cat. Any suggestions?

 Y’all have a great day! Later gators!

My First DIY Interview!

I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by April of DIY Nuru. When she first asked if I would be interested in being interviewed and doing a podcast about the ceiling in my Gypsy Room, I was pretty excited! I texted Mr. and my daughter immediately! Then…I got nervous. What if I ramble on and on (which I tend to do at times)? What if I sound like a goober (which I’m sure I did)? But she assured me that it would be simple, and it was! April is super sweet and has a way of making you feel comfortable as soon as you answer the phone. So comfortable that I rambled on and on! 🙂

Be sure and check out the post “Ceiling Paint, Opinions on Color and Sheen” she wrote regarding the Gypsy Room ceiling. The podcast should be out this week. I’ll be sure and let y’all know when it’s up. (if I don’t sound too much like a goober!)

And if you didn’t see the pictures I posted last week on Facebook , here’s what we’ve added to the Gypsy Room.  Mr. hung a chandelier, medallion, and blinds, and I cut out the quote “Not all who wander are lost” on my Cricut machine. What a difference it made! I’m loving how the room is coming along and am hoping to have it completed within a couple of weeks.

Y’all have a great day! Later gators!

I’m Having a Love Affair…

…with my new countertops! Every time I walk into the kitchen, I get giddy. I knew I would love them, but I LOVE THEM! They have made such a huge difference in the looks of the kitchen.

I was super nervous on Friday that the installation wasn’t going to happen. And let me tell you why…. we started this countertop mission back on August 29th with a “big box store”. On September 13th, we were told by the ‘big box store” that our countertops would be installed in 7-10 working days, which meant we should have had new countertops no later than September 26th. But that didn’t happen. There was a lot of “big box store”/installer blaming that went back and forth and I was stuck on the phone in the middle of all of it!  I did a little research online regarding the installer and found some pretty bad reviews, which is why I was so nervous. BUT on Friday, the installer delivered and installed my wonderful countertops! AND on the date THEY said they would. I will be writing my own review this week, singing their praises! Not so much praise for the “big box store”!

And with that behind us, we now have to decide on backsplash! I thought I knew what I wanted, but we made the mistake of going to Home Depot (another “big box store”) this weekend and I found two more styles/colors that I really like! I knew from day one that I wanted gray countertops, but I just can not make up my mind on the backsplash. Here’s what we have so far: (and I say so far, due to the fact that I’m still looking at colors/styles online. But don’t tell Mr.) 🙂

Tiles – frosted glass and rough, white stone (I found a frosted glass tile to finish the edges for this choice)

Tiles – mixture of white and gray (ignore the plastic wrap)

Tiles – mixture of white, gray, and charcoal

So many choices!!

And just so you don’t forget where we started in this kitchen, here’s a flashback of what the kitchen looked like not quite two years ago.

And where we are today. Such a difference!

And another item bites the dust off the kitchen to-do list!

• paint the cabinets (keep to save $$$$)
• remove wallpaper and paint
• replace formica countertops
• replace backsplash
• replace hood vent
• replace the flooring
• replace hardware
• change out the breakfast area fan/light

Y’all have a great day! Later gators!

The Dust is Finally Settling…

The bad thing is the dust is settling ALL OVER the house! And I mean all over the house. It has found its way clear into the master bedroom, bathroom, and up the staircase. We have been working for the last month on the kitchen walls where the backsplash will go. The tile came off in spots really easy with very little damage to the drywall.

 In other places, it wasn’t pretty!

      

I spent hours, and I’m talking hours, chiseling and scraping the plaster off the drywall, only to realize I did it for absolutely no reason! Except maybe to let y’all know…DON’T DO IT! Just replace the drywall right off the bat so you have a new and wonderfully flat surface to tile on!  The only scraping you really need to do is around the edges, where your mud and tape will be.

And if y’all are wondering, why yes, that is cardboard where my quartz countertops should be! We ripped out the old countertop weekend before last expecting the new one to be here last week. Mr. “installed” the cardboard on Saturday, when we found out that the countertop installation wouldn’t be happening until this Friday. With a few bricks, plastic bags, and zip ties, Mr. was also able to hook the dishwasher back up, even though there isn’t a sink! This was so I would no longer have to do the dishes in those wonderful, shallow, shell-shaped sinks! 🙂

 Y’all have a great week! Later gators!

The Battle Rages on!

And my houseplants have been the battlefield for over a month now! And who am I battling, you ask? I am at war with “The Gnats”!

I tried the natural solutions to no avail. Placing sticky cards on top of the soil to catch the flying adults. Letting the soil dry out completely for two weeks, (begging my plants not to wither and die) as this was suppose to kill the eggs. And watering with water mixed with hydrogen peroxide, which is also suppose to kill the eggs. I honestly think this just fertilized the eggs, as we continued to have more and more of them mock us by flying in our face every night! Apparently, our infestation of gnats is beyond these methods.

And therefore, desperate times bring desperate measures! We have wrapped the pots of the houseplants with saran wrap!

A few nights ago, I suggested the idea to Mr. and he was ready to go to combat! But not before watering them with one more dose of hydrogen peroxide and a good spraying of bug spray! We also left the sticky cards on top of the soil to trap any that survive and make their way to the top of the soil! (it’s kind of gross the amount that are on the sticky cards at this point)

My mom commented to me that we were going to spend more money trying to kill the gnats than what it would cost to just replace the plants. This is true, due to the fact that we bought the three plants on sale and only have roughly $50 in them. But it’s the principal of the matter! And they are really big and pretty plants. I’m not letting a few 1,000 gnats win this war!

Someday, I will be the victor and my plants will be gnat free! Or I will kill my plants in the process!

Later gators!