Love Story in 22 Pictures

This post is just another example of people who inspire me.

http://loldamn.com/a-love-story-in-22-pictures.html

This is the sweetest love story. We should all be so loyal and devoted to the one we pledge to spend our life with. Love is not something to throw away. It takes work and sometimes it's hard. But it's worth it.

To hang or not to hang?

I've been thinking about mounting our tv to the wall for a while now. I keep putting it off because I wasn't sure how to hide all of the wires. ?:/ Aaaanyway, I found this awesome sight with clear instructions and pictures.
http://www.houseofhepworths.com/2012/01/10/mounting-your-tv-to-the-wall-and-hiding-all-the-cords/ 
I think I am going to do it. Wish me luck. ;D I'll let ya know when I'm done.

Whitewash. Done.

Our fireplace has been begging to be whitewashed for 5 years. And she's finally done.

Before=UGLY red, tired, old brick!

Whitewashing brick is fairly easy. To clean, all I did was give it a dusting. Gathered my materials. Mixed water and paint 1/2 and 1/2. I used antique white. Then I painted and wiped with a dry rag. Do it in small sections. and Voila. ;)

Aaaand, since my painting jobs usually include at least one of these. Oops! :/ part of the 2 hours that it took to do this was cleaning my mess up.

After=me happy. :D

YOUR DAILY SMILE

http://hooplaha.com/?gclid=CLnU58fwgbUCFXCmPAodfVEAyQ

I found this most awesome website called HOOPLAHA Life with a smile. 
A site full of good news, for a change.
Todays "Daily Hoopla" is the video Life After Cancer. I
Watch. It'll put a smile on your face!

http://www.youtube.com/embed/JcQFeWNSdyU

Over Easy Please :D

I am in the process of uploading all of my pictures to shutterfly.com when I ran across these pics of these yummy eggs that our chickens laid a couple of years ago.

Boy, I sure miss them. Will post pics of our new chickens when we get them this Spring. Cause we WILL get some more of these most awesome of Gods creatures.
So...which came first? The chicken or the egg?
The chicken of course. ~:>

IT'S A TOTAL MIRACLE

I GOT MY PICTURES BACK. Woohoo! Praise the Lord. Answered prayer. My son in laws friend (a huge thank you to Nathan) was able to retrieve all of my pictures. I believe I have around 24000!! files. Oh man, no wonder I was so stressed. To be honest, I knew all this when I posted my last post this morning. But being the kind of person that I am, you know the kind who when I do something not on my "to do" list, I have to write it so I can cross it out. ;/ I just had to post why I am so happy that I have them all. To look at often and count my blessings. No sitting neglected in my pictures folder for those precious beauties.
 Before I picked up my refreshed old hard drive, I picked up a new one. Isn't she a beaut? I chose a Seagate Backup Plus. I like the fact that it has a "dashboard" on my desktop and I can manage it easily.

The fact that data recovery only cost one of these
Ben Franklins (this one is totally fake by the way)
was a huge plus. :D Worth every penny!!!



FYI- If you find yourself in this same pickle of thinking you lost data- 1.Under no circumstances should you ever "format" your drive. You will lose everything. When I was trying to solve this problem myself, my computer kept asking me if I wanted to do this. I learned the hard way a long time ago. Never. Do. It. 2. Before you send it to a Data Recovery Company that you find online (which I was very hesitant to do!!!) try finding a local computer "geek" like I did. You never know.. miracles do happen. :D 3. Upload all pics to a place like shutterfly.com as just one more safeguard so you don't have to worry about malfunctions on physical devices. :D!

 

I HAVE BAD NEWS. :( AND FINISHED BATHROOM :)

I am so bummed!!! My portable hard drive decided to keep all of my pictures and never let me see them again. My thousands of pictures that dummy me never backed up with another back up. Gee, who woulda thought you needed to have 2. :/! Most of them were my sweet grandbabies. Boohoo.
My son in laws friend has offered to check it out and see if it might be fixable. Please be please be please be. If not, I found a geek who can possibly, maybe do it for $350.00 and up. Wha... wha... what??? Stupidity is expensive sometimes. Still praying for a miracle cause after googling it looks like that's just what I'll need.
Well, enough of the bad news. Carpe Diem, remember? :) Seize the day!
I have an awesome camera that my awesome son and daughter in law gave to me right before I went to Tanzania a couple of years ago. So here are pics of our blue bath that we LOVE. (this time I'll have 2 backups. Or MORE :D)

My bathrooms are REALLY big. Not bragging. Jus sayin. ;) The armoire is from good ole Wallyworld about a million years ago. She's been natural, sage, red and now her forever color. White. She holds all of my extra bedding. It took a few years before I knew she belonged here. She came from the back porch holding all my pool goodies. The basket and wooden animals are souvenirs from Tanzania. They have the most amazing woodcarvers there!

This oh so lovely bench came from jossandmain.com It was such an amazing deal that when they offered it again I bought one for my downstairs bath. If we ever downsize :) they go with me!

 

The vanity was a steal  at $300.00 INCLUDING DELIVERY!! Got that sweet deal from homedecorators.com Came with the black granite top and backsplash plus undermount sink. The guys who delivered even spent almost an hour getting it upstairs for me. They were so gracious about it all. I had to call their boss when they were done and give a shout out. We all need to feel appreciated, right? She was green when I got her but paint does wonders as far as I'm concerned. The mirror came from there as well. Since this old house had no electric for a vanity light I had to find a mirror that came with.

My little "jewelry holders" came from jcpenney.com The blue one was the inspiration for the wall color. Which btw is Schoolboy Blue by Valspar bought at my not so close "neighborhood" lowes.com

 I built an open linen closet on the far side of the shower. Open, since you can't see it from the door and because I love looking at white towels.

I have 4, yes 4 awesome windows in this bath. How awesome is that?! I love everyone of my windows. It took 2 years but we finally installed the last of them a few months ago. 31 in all!

AAHHH  Finally a shower!!!!!!! The part my hubby helped with. Our first install and she's still working. woohoo

This beautiful little antiqued iron chandelier also came from homedecorators.com I get my things from their outlet dept. $35.00 Can't beat that with a stick.

My view to the east.

Found this at kirklands.com The blue and purple hues match the tile floor perfectly.

And there she is. My new blue bath. If you remember the before pic from an earlier post you can see that it's a smidge more cheerful. lol

Thanks for taking the tour.

 

Tree gone!

I guess I am not very good at this blogging thing cause I forgot I had one. :/ Maybe I better post once in a while anyway.
Today was "get rid of the biggest eyesore on our property" day.

Our wonderfully hardworking son came over with his equally hardworking chainsaw and cut her up and hauled her off. Wow, that tree stump looks a lot bigger when she's cut up and laying on the trailer. 

We can at least see what the grandkids are doing in the treehouse now without actually having to go to the treehouse. ;)

   We will be planting a new tree come Springtime. Only a little to the right so it doesn't block the "view". The one that went was over 100 years old. If she hadn't died we definitly would have been happy to keep her. But all of us have to go sometime, right?

On another happy note. :) I am finishing up my upstairs bathroom.

Think beaded board wainscoting and schoolboy blue paint. :D Pics in my next post. Promise! 

positively good news :)

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/In_Pictures/photos/samaritan_lodge_alaska_operation_heal_our_patriots1/
My computer is having trouble uploading my "finished home work" pictures but it has been cooperative enough for me to post another uplifting story to inspire. Carpe Diem and God  bless.

 

positive news :)

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/08/20/mother-hears-deceased-son-heartbeat-again-in-donor-recipient/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Delicious%2Fchristianheadlines%2Fpositiveheadlines+%28Christian+Headlines+-+Positive+Headlines%29

Here's a link to a positive new story for a change. :) If you read my bio you know that I am inspired by people who deal with their seemingly impossible hardships in positive ways. I am sure this one will put a smile on your face and a tear in your eye. I'll try to post one every once in a while. Just to keep it real. :)

My Favorite Angle (said by Belle Villa da Sogno)

The star on the dormer is a nod to the fact that, because of a surveyers oopsie way back in the early 1900's, this place was in the Lone Star state of Texas for 8 years. :)
So this is our little house on the prairie. er... cotton fields

Icky before picture. :(

Our New Name

So...after 4 1/2 years I have finally found a name for our place. You know, like they name their homes in France? Or Italy?
This one happens to be Italian. Belle Villa da Sogna-Beautiful home of dreams. :)
I am by nature a lazy person. ;) But necessity dictates that I work like a dog at times. To have the home of my dreams I must do the work myself. As my dear hubby is out making the moola so I can have the home of my dreams. Jus kiddin. ;) By the grace of God we own free and clear! That will be whole nother post. Soon. :D

Anyway, back to the point I am trying to make. You know, the one about being lazy? Well, it will explain why I will only post before and after pics of my work. Maybe an occassional comment with. Seeing as how most of the work was done a couple of years ago. During a year and a half of almost nonstop work, with 2 homes (50 minutes apart). Trying to fix one up and keeping the other one sellable looking, I put most of it out of my mind and choose to enjoy the finished product. I did however take many pics. 99.9% of which I am not in for the simple reason there was nobody here to take it. lol

So...pics to follow. Soon. Well, here's one to give a little clue as to the BEFORE. What's inside that cabinet is one of the scariest/disgusting things I've ever seen. You'll see.
The mirror to the left is hiding one of our 31 windows! And carpet should NEVER be in a bathroom. Especially one a man uses. ugg I can say that the after looks NOTHING like this. :D