(((((Lavender Lass))))) I am so sorry your sweet kitty has died.

He looks like such a sweetheart. In this photo he seems so alert and attentive. It looks as though he's twitching his tail; I can almost hear the purrrrring.

These furred babies leave such empty echoes in our hearts. He looks so healthy and well cared for, and loved, in this photo. He is looking right through the camera into your eyes; he loves you, too.

"Loves" is the correct tense. The little bodies wear out and the souls have to leave, but the love stays on forever.

I am so sorry.

so sorry about the loss of your kitty! He sure was a handsome little guy.

It is just so heartbreaking when one of our furry loved ones go. I've cried for days at times (and longer). It's always like my heart is being ripped out - again. (ok, it is!) and I always swear I won't get that attached again... did that in 2012 after my boy got his wings and I found my current fur baby on CL. For about the 1st yr I stayed a bit distant (I was also taking care of my 16 yr old fur girl then (her wings were fluttering around just waiting). that was also the time I fell and hurt my left arm and shoulder - and was trying to move into my new place).

it wasn't til after my old girl was gone that I moved in here (she couldn't make it up the steps here) that I finally brought the pup in with me. Well, 4 yrs later and she's my baby and spoiled rotten... and she knows it... I'm such a sucker for the little furry ones.

Glad to hear the fires are settling down. I didn't realize there were fires that far north - that is scary!

Oh, Lavender, I'm so sorry about your kitty. Good luck with the fires.

Lavender, I'm so sorry to hear of your beautiful kitty's passing. He looks like he had a lot of personality. I'm sure he brought you many, many years of happiness. The fires sound so scary and so close. I hope you remain safely tucked away from harm.

LL I am so sorry you lost your kitty. It just hurts so much. I hope your heart will heal and just remember the good times with him.

YIKES so scary on the fires. Very good of you to share the excess with them. I am sure this will be appreciated when they finally have a home to place them in again.

I will let Moccasinlanding know about early tea today. She said she hoped to come into tea tomorrow so today is good.

I am drinking Lemon ginger iced. Been out moving the ugly wood pile in my new carport patio. LOL Not sure what to call it. Right now I have moved and filled 7 big boxes of wood into the shop where it will always remain dry and ready for use. It is wood scrap blocks just for the trash burner if I need it in an emergency. THEN I hope to use the two containers the wood was piled into as planters again. For the patio of course. There is a real reason to clear the wood out of them. This will be for next year and I have no intention to plant them this year it is way too late for that. It is too hot to do more of this for today. Maybe finish tonight. Not to mention my back is giving out.

I paid bills today and need to figure a new cell phone service. I want one of those by the minute phones but I do not want to pay 10 a month for a phone I would rarely use. Hoping to find another pre paid one. When I really needed it to call the mortuary for my husband there was no more service left on it. GADS!!! they took away over 100 dollars. I might call and whine at them a little bit for that. I had to call hospice back and ask them to call for me and have them call me at a time I did not need this issue to come up. So this will be my first adventure into the cell phone world. I still refuse to use is as a daily thing. I do not want to be that assess able. Not that I have a lot of people calling me.

So off to work in the house some more. Time to close it up. Was nice not to have the cooler on for 2 days. Not sure this day will make the third. Warming up fast.

LL! I am so sorry that you lost your kitty...pets become a part of our family...but glad it was able to be so,close to you when your DH was so ill.....many hugs!

Add my condolences too LL. Never easy losing a beloved pet. Take comfort in knowing that your cat had a great life with you as his family.

My tea will be later this afternoon. This morning I had my usual decaf coffee. I drink decaf coffee but regular tea.

Today will be another nice day. Although some day this past week have been very hot, I really have not minded. Rain seems to come at night, which is great.

What are all of you doing for tea today?

Better late than never, as they say! Always like coming home to have tea with the forum.

Feel for you, Lass, about the tribulations in your life, with losing your companion a stress we face by loving another being. You've had your plate loaded for some time now. Like Robert Frost said, "I took the road less travelled and that made all the difference." It would be totally alarming if I had to face fires due to drought and wind. Rains and hurricanes are my brand of disaster.

Got the note that tea was early this week, but it was Tuesday morning before I saw it. Just before i signed in to GW.

Good to see familiar faces here keeping the teapot busy. I've thought of you all, individually, so frequently during the past months. Hard to realize that my remodel (whole house as it turned out) began with demolition on Oct 27, 2014. Some dates keep turning up in my life, and Oct 27 is at the top of the list. It was on that day in 1935 that my parents married. It was on that day in 1995 that my son died.

To tell the truth, I began the remodel with high expectations to enjoy the process. I deal with change happily, and this remodel was a once in a lifetime opportunity to work with an architect and a trusted contractor. Bobby was the same contractor who rebuilt my Teahouse and then added the bump out to make my master bath and walk in closet. Everything planned happened, EXCEPT for the change to the front of the house. I did not get my metal roof, but I did get a metal eyebrow above the tall windows across the back of the house overlooking the narrow deck and my garden.

My experience with the remodel was okay entirely. BUT, my DH does not like change, nor discomfort, nor anything that is not under his control. So for a man like that, even a SMART man, a remodel is a nightmare. I don't think he has recovered from the experience, sad to say. If you are living with such a person, man or woman, I would recommend you live somewhere else for the duration. Take a long vacation maybe. :)

All the long years of planning for this work really paid off. I'll never know the total cost of the work. It was strung out like a dog's breakfast with lighting and flooring and paint purchased ahead of time. The Teahouse was a great place to store these things, with my beloved Bertazzoni gas range in it still in its box for almost two years. So if you plan to do such a project, I think we were wise to have the Teahouse as a safe storage space. One thing we have not done since then is to deal with the devastation to my New Orleans style courtyard garden. With cement trucks, back hoes, dumpster, portapotty, nails, lumber, debris in general, the ground was compacted and weeds proliferated. My lovely St. Augustine lush green carpet is gone, and I just haven't the energy to get the space refreshed with new sod. DH is not likely to be happy when I do.

But it is great to be back in the circle. Forgive me for my absence. Thank you all for holding down the fort.

PS.

Drinking Teavana's Dragon Fruit Devotion tea. I love the smell of it, and when I opened the tea drawer, the aroma was simply blissful. It would make a bureau drawer of lingerie so heavenly. My usual tea is Harney's Hot Cinnamon Spice. I can add lots of cream to it and it holds its flavor. I'm sort of a caffeine addict, so tend toward black teas in general, especially in the morning when I need that kick to get going. Midmorning is more relaxed time for me.

Moccassin, I'm stopping by to have some tea made with the water from that beautiful kettle!

I'm enjoying (?) a warmed over cup from the pot I made this morning and then I'm off to the clinic.

After that I running into town to get a couple more hummingbird feeders. I am swarmed with them this year.

I have three feeders set up in the front yard in a large triangle. One is hung from a hook on the deck; the second one is by the sewing room window, and the third one is near the obelisk in the front garden.

I have a fourth feeder on a hook by the kitchen sink window. I set it up only during the migrations. It's in full sun and I have to refill it nearly daily to keep it fresh.

I need a couple more feeders so I can take a filled, clean feeder out to swap with an older one without leaving an empty spot.

I had at least 20 of the little jewels fighing and fussing over the three front feeders. I put a fifth feeder across the street in the neighbor's tree to help spread the fighters around a little more.

Thank you all for the kind words! We really miss our little guy : (

It's been a long weekend...and yesterday I gave myself the day off and watched Jane Austen's Persuasion. (Good excuse to cry.)

If you haven't seen it, here's the trailer. Such a sad movie! Until the last 10 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5K7_fqHILI

Condolences, Lass. I can't do it any more. These will be my last.

Caroline, is there something I can make out of stuff I have on hand for a feeder? In years past I've had several hummers but this year I haven't seen any. I have 4 o'clocks and they like those. There isn't a nest in the morning glories either. I hope the new barn kitten isn't scaring them away. She's been hanging around the back door and garage a lot.

I'm going to have a cup of coffee. It's dismal and gray here. Not so hot though so I'm not complaining. I met a new genealogy buddy!! And wonder of all wonders, she lives in the house my ancestors' family owned/lived in in Seaton Ross, Yorkshire until 1853!! She's not related, just doing the house history. There's some Twilight Zone stuff going on about that house. I wish I was there!

County wide garage/rummage sales start Thursday. I have a sale buddy who goes on those kinds of things with me. We'll leave here about 8:00. I'm on the look out for a couple of kitchen chairs to paint white and some silverware. Always watching for globes but they have to be cheap and preferably of a size I don't have. I really do have enough so it would have to be something special for me to bring another one home. I like old stuff but it's getting harder and harder to find anything as old as me. It's all been hauled to the dump already.

Okay, feeling better now and listening to jazz! That's an improvement : )

If you haven't heard about this group, I hope you like them. They make you feel good about having that cookie! LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLnZ1NQm2uk

Lass, meant to remark about your stories. IMHO, it is the grain of sand that prompts the oyster to make its pearls. And into your life several grains of sand arrived, possibly leading to your pearls, the stories. I applaud you on taking action. You go girl!

Somewhere I have a photo of the bird feeder that DH built. Not for hummers, but for just about everything else.

The 2 or 3 inch PVC goes over a patio umbrella stand. The baffle is a 5 gal bucket cut off and drilled in the bottom (upside down). Two shelf brackets hold the two seed feeders. The flat piece is some leftover metal roofing since some of the squirrels get a running start up the pole and LEAP to the feeders. I always turn the doxie girls loose to chase them away if they do that. One smart squirrel can teach them all how to do this trick, and I don't need smart squirrels here. I have the feeder located outside my "infinity" kitchen window so that I linger to view the activity numerous times every day. I have better photos in the computer, but I must scroll to find them. My indexing of photos on Apple is not as good as my indexing options were on the OLD Windows systems.

We still have clutches of baby cardinals with their dark baby beaks still not turned to gold coming to these feeders. I guess this year the parents had multiple clutches of babies, even the wrens had some late babies, but did not use the pig flower pot for the latest babies. I know they like the jasmine vines which cover the chainlink fence.

Thank you, ML : )

I'm feeling better today, just kind of fighting a cold, due to lack of sleep when my little guy was so sick.

Today, I have three non-fiction books for free on Amazon. I needed more "published work" for the grant I'm trying to win, so I added some school papers and my master's thesis. Two are about Churchill and one on the electric railroad in Spokane. They're very short and full of endnotes, so easy to read and great if anyone needs a quick intro and access to more research.

Here's the book on electric railroad...and the men behind it went on to develop resorts and destination areas, so people would ride their trains. While they used the railway lines for real estate development, they were also instrumental in setting aside the huge amounts of parkland we still have in Spokane. It was such an interesting time (early 1900s) that I'm going to use this era and location for my next romance...after I finish the one in Scotland.

https://www.amazon.com/Graves-Spokane-Inland-Railroad-Company-ebook/dp/B01L50BNSQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472659221&sr=8-1&keywords=jay+p+graves#nav-subnav

Oh, and I had to change all the books to my 'actual name' for the grant, as well....so you'll finally know the true identity of Lavender Lass (LOL)

Well, Lavender, I will look forward to that big reveal!! :) I will get on my Kindle and get your books. I hope you get back to feeling good very soon.

Moccasin, I don't believe we've met. I'm happy to make your acquaintance and loved reading your posts and seeing your pictures. I stand in awe of those that either build a house from scratch or do a major remodel. I am not a "big picture" kind of person, so it would be overwhelming for me to do something like that. I love your teapot too and that stove is amazing! I hope you will share pictures of your house and Tea House sometime.

My hummers are quite busy these days. I only have 3 or 4 of them. My feeder hangs just outside the back door and I can sit on my couch and watch them. Very entertaining.

So far this morning things have not gone as planned. Today is supposed to be a "get things done IN the house" day, but this morning, when it was a bit cooler, after walking the dogs, I went out to bring the trash can back in. The sun garden next to the house has had some kind of grass take over and it has been driving me crazy. It's either been way too hot or it's been raining so the gardens have really suffered from the weeds.

I put the trash can away and then thought I would pull a little of that grass up. Well, you know how that goes.........one thing leads to another. In the end I not only pulled up a good portion of the grass, I cut back my knockout rose, I trimmed my almost 60 year old spirea (I got it in kindergarten) and tore out a lot of violets that keep invading the garden. There is so much more to do, but it was a start. It's always satisfying, but frustrating in how much more there is to do. This time of year is hard because everything struggles in the heat and end of season. As it cools down though, it will be easier to get out there and weedwhack what needs to be done.

Well, time to see about getting some work done in the house. I hope everyone has a good and productive day today.

Murraysmom- You and my mom are the same way. She walks outside to feed the barn kitties and we don't see her for half an hour. I go see if she wants some coffee or tea...and she's over weeding the kitchen garden or rose bed. If it's cool in the morning, we don't see her for a while : )

My mom is a great gardener! I like designing gardens and watering, but not so good about the weeding....

It's finally cooling down here. It's been in the high 80s and 90s off and on the past few weeks. September is supposed to be cooler! We may finally get some of the fruits and shrubs moved out to the kitchen garden!

Hi, Lass. Are you from the Scots clans? I should have known you were, you are so tenacious and never give up.

Well, so am I! Did not realize just how much Scots blood I had until the DNA results came back. Plus Viking, no less!

I just read a book titled BORN FIGHTING (on Kindle) about the Scots and Irish who mainly settled the hills of America and form the backbone of our culture, as separate from the Anglican English aristocracy which settled the low country and held big plantations and lots of slaves. I recommend the title to you. Even though you are out in Spokane, your ancestors wandered west with the opening of the country from sea to sea.

My modern relatives also roamed west, but here I still am in Alabama. My family came south before WWII for the jobs in Mobile, and stayed. But "home" to me is still the hills and woods and farms of Winston County, "Free State of Winston", a bit north of Birmingham, at the end of the Appalachian range. On my last visit to the cemetery where all my family are buried, I had an overwhelming experience of coming home as I stood there. Always wanted to have my ashes scattered at sea, to roam the entire world always traveling, but now, I can see where I belong is among these souls, part of them always.

My great-great-great grandmother came from the Firth of Forth, which is why I set the story there. Her married name was Christie and she and her husband came to America and settled in Wisconsin.

My grandmother was very proud of her Scottish background and always told me...you never give up, you never quit. Just keep going and things will eventually get better : )

Everything will be all right in the end and if it isn't all right, it isn't the end. I don't know who said it but it's true.

Also, found out my Scot ancestor was a prisoner of war from the Battle of Dunbar in 1650. http://scottishprisonersofwar.com/  Mine was Ingram Moody and John Clark for sure. I'm keeping a couple more names in the back of my mind in case something else comes up that might link them.

Hey, I think it is wonderful to discover what I consider a pattern revealing itself here on the Smaller Homes forum. Seems we have a like for Smaller Homes, since one of the hallmarks of the Scots is a democratic lifestyle avoiding pretensions to grandeur. The Calvinistic background was tough to the core, and NO SURRENDER was part of that.

Did I mention that I've been reading books about the periods and areas where my ancestors lived as I discovered who they were, and where they lived or came from? One book that I found extremely interesting is BORN FIGHTING, which is by Jim Webb, from Virginia? I highly recommend it to your reading.

In it, I discovered that General Robert E. Lee's family tree traces back to Robert The Bruce in Scotland. I'm looking into that further, to learn more about it. Not that I'm directly descended from RELee, but his sister Eleanor (Nellie) Lee Glazener is a direct ancestor.

As Mr. Webb writes, the Scotti tribe was Irish, Scotland named for them. When the Romans built Hadrian's Wall across the island of Scotland/England/Wales, the Celts were behind that wall and they developed without too much interference. Tribal or clan, but "Celtic kinship" meant that any man who came into the territory could become part of the tribe if they showed loyalty and earned respect of the others. So it was democratic. Also, every man was automatically part of the defense of the clan. The family members in general were part of the defense as well, and in some battles the warriors were placed on the field and the women and children were placed behind them. So, NO SURRENDER, they defended their families to the death. The leadership was not top down. It was bottom up. They chose whom to follow, and the Scots society developed as clan not as feudal. They were not SERFS as in England, where the land belonged with the lords and the people were not free to choose. Oh yes, I think that is important to know, because the Scots influenced the formation of OUR democratic values. This part of the book is extremely important to understand, and I've not explained it properly.

And so, Lass, it will be worth reading to inform you of the civil conditions forming the world of your ancestors. I'm very proud to be Celtic myself.

Do you remember this? Everyone on the cover (and more inside) had Celtic background.

I remember seeing this years ago...and thinking all these people AND John Wayne. I just loved John Wayne, ever since I was about 5. : )

My goodness, never knew ROBERT REDFORD was a Scot Irish! Sigh....But I see familiar faces there. Also, General George Patton was.

The info I learned in the book I recommend, is that the Revolutionary War was a majority of Scot Irish. And, while the lowlanders were busy letting the British whup them, the mountain and backwoods people had had enough of it, and came down to tie a knot in the tail of the British lion. Of course the Brits were not convinced by that war, so came back a second time in the War of 1812, when in 1814 Andrew Jackson (another Scot Irish BTW) led his forces in New Orleans to soundly defeat the British army which had recently defeated Napoleon! In both American wars the particular style of fighting was guerrilla style, not traditional long lines marching into enemy fire..

And do you note that the report is written by JAMES WEBB? The guy who wrote BORN FIGHTING. Nice, Lass.

That sounds very interesting! I should read more books about the area we're from by the Firth of Forth. I'm mostly concentrating on the railroad ferry by Edinburgh for the romance I'm writing.

And my fairytales are based on Celtic myths and legends. I even have a kelpie : )

FYI- Robin and Jamie 2, 3, and 4 are all free today on Amazon.com. We only get 5 free days on Kindle, and this is the last for Books 2 and 3. Already used them all for Book 1.

I'm writing it in a serialized format, so every book is another piece of the story. Fun to write and I hope fun to read!

https://www.amazon.com/Robin-Jamie-You-Decide-Fairytale-ebook/dp/B01JOENQSU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472831400&sr=8-1&keywords=robin+and+jamie+3#nav-subnav

I have them Thanks LL. Have not had time to read them. Hoping to soon. By the time I hit the bed it is lights out for me lately. Excited to read through them. I need to schedule a day off for me. TOTALLY to read drink tea calm down try to relax. Still trying to get the bills sorted out and doing all today and hoping this weekend will bring some peace. I HATE waiting on return phone calls. Cripes!!!!

Shades- I'm stuck doing bills today, too. Let's get everything finished today and enjoy a LONG three day weekend : )

This is your book on amazon, LL? How exciting! I'm going to download now.

LL & ML, I have Scottish ancestry also. My McConnell clan went from Scotland to Ireland to North Carolina. But from what I've read from a great x 3 who was editor of a newspaper, they never admitted to having any Irish blood. Surely in all the years spent in Ireland, some of them married locals? lol

(good grief, my entire writing just disappeared! gotta start over now)

Hi MoBound! Indeed they did intermarry. The Scots were mostly of the Calvinist persuasion, identified as Presbyterians but not exactly the same as today's church with that name. The powers that be in northern Ireland, where the Scots settled on Ulster Plantation, were Anglican Brits or Anglican Irish Church--and they discriminated against both Catholic and Calvinist populations. And that is why, after some time of trying to live there, the Scots began to migrate to America...they saw the writing on the wall. They could not hold public office nor own land unless they belonged to the Anglican church. Not so much religious freedom propelled them to leave as it was their desire to be fully participating citizens. When I say they intermarried, I think of my own family, because there are Irish as well as Scots names from those times in Ulster.

Again I mention the book BORN FIGHTING as a good title to read to understand all the nuances of those days, also before and after. I think you will be impressed by the timeline revealed about these movements, and by the impact the group had on America. The Scots Irish came to America as a mass migration well before the Catholic Irish did.

When I married my DH 10 years ago, I knew his family had come in 1913-14 (his parents came from County Clare)and the immigrant experience was part of his growing up near Boston. But I wondered why there were no family stories about MY ancestors having come to America. Why I wondered? Well, my family had come in the 1690s and the early 1700s and the Scots Irish connection had faded from everyday memory. But as I discovered with my DNA testing, I was primarily still a product of Scots Irish blood (with some Viking thrown in!). Somehow, I realized, my heritage belonged with them.

And that's all I gotta say about that. :) Hope my remarks are not offensive to anyone, just thrown in as part of the discussion.

ML I am pretty sure my Grandmother on my Mothers side had Scots Irish in her. I will look that up one day when I can find the pile of paper work on it some one sent me. Not sure my Grandmothers information is there. I think it ws more on my Grandfathers limb of the family. I will look.

Joe came home to me in a box. Our investment guys camb to help me sort out the paper work on what I needed for them and since they live 20 minutes from where Joe was they offered to bring him with them and also brought a HUGE bouquet of flowers. So sad to hug the box that can not hug back and I had a bit of a boo hoo over this after they left. Good to have Joe home and now time to heal myself from all of this.

I have to make a quick run to Cambridge town just up the road 10 miles to drop off some more pantry foods to a friend and pick up a piece of conduit for the new guest room curtain rod. Since everything will be closed up tight for a few days around here I want all on hand so if I do get the painting done in there I can hang the curtains as my reward for hard work done. I am excited to get on with the room change over. Just been too busy to even think further on it until today.

YES LL I did get those bills paid and now as far as I know only social security is left to change over and the bank but all the bank needs is a death certificate which they make a copy of. the accounts stay as they are until I need new checks then I will remove Joe's name. :'( I am feeling better most of this paper work is behind me. I know the mortuary notifies Social Security. I just need to do my end of it and hopefully I can handle that this coming week.

So off and running the hardware store closes in 2 hours. Have a great weekend and be safe.

(((((Shades)))))

Big hugs, for sure.

And I am back. thanks ML and Caroline.

I had to stop at a yard sale at the house we sold several years ago. Turns out her husband also passed away only that was a few months ago. She said she plans to stay there as she could never rent a place for what they were paying us monthly to buy the place. I think we will both be dead before that loan is paid off but it is also a bit of monthly income for me and now this is very good.

I bought the piece of conduit for the curtain rod and two end caps to modify and hold the rod up since it is an inside fit. I also scored 4 swing arm plant hangers which I had planned on buying and from the store they were about 5 dollars each and she sold 4 of them to me for 50 cents. Now I need to get flower pots to hang on them. Very happy on this deal. AND I guess I am on a swing arm kick as I got two swing arm lamps from her for 6 dollars for both. I had no idea where I would put them. I knew I need lighting. Came home and sat in my chair and BAM there needs to be a lamp at the end of the newly positioned love seat and my work bench needs a better lamp than the pole lamp by my chair turned backwards for now. So will switch the swing arm lamp for the tall lamp I put in the bedroom on the table. This is great. Very happy for that purchase. And I did not buy crap I did not need. I am so glad I took that chance to get them. Now I do not need table space for either lamp. Where table space was not available.

Soooo Now I can hardly put it off any longer. Time to dive into that paint. I am sure one gallon will not be enough so I will go as far as I can around the room concentrating on the walls I will need to be placing things against and leaving the easy access walls for last. The entry way and over the door. This way I can quit when I run out and just wait for another trip to town for the second gallon. Since this room has been painted before it might not take as much paint as it did the first time I painted over the flat cheep builders paint. I did the whole dinning room and kitchen with one gallon of paint and two coats but I think this room has more wall space. OR I could grab the canning kettle and start throwing in all the left over from bathrooms and laundry room but I would never be able to match it if I ran out. Hummmmmm

Have a good one I am off to get this project going. Turning up the music.

Shades, you are so disciplined! And an inspiration to me.

i did not see your post until Monday morning, and now sit here with my cuppa cooling a bit. During the night, rain arrived. Slow and steady it drips from the roofline under a thin gray sky. No sunlight, but rather the feel of indirect lighting. After I fed the dogs, all three of us went outside and they ran to the bird feeder, surrounded by squirrels, to chase them away and then fulfill their morning necessities. Before i slept last night, I heard it begin raining, and I then slept like a baby.

Have a good day, all.

Been acting like it was going to rain here for three days and only a tease with clouds in the sky. Not a drop has fallen, I finally had to start the watering again. Darn.

ML your morning sounds delightful. Time for me to eat then get back to work.

Shades- I am so sorry for all that has happened with Joe and the bills...but you have come through it with flying colors, if you ask me.

Painting and redecorating are brilliant ideas! Keeping the parts that work but changing it just enough to give it a fresh feel. You'll have a wonderful space and the lighting sounds perfect. Where are the plants going?

Wish you ladies were here to join me for the 1/2 of Victorian Sponge cake I have left after having my family for tea yesterday! I'm afraid I'm going to eat it all myself!

Anglophilia - I'm certain that Victorian Sponge Cake is 100% diabetic friendly so I'll be right over to rescue you from at least half of it! LOL

Did you bake it? If so, are you willing to share the recipe?

Shades...we've had rain, and more rain. Since yesterday at 10:30 a.m. until sometime in the early morning hours today we received 2 and 6/10s inches of rain. I love my little rain gauge!

I'm busy, busy, busy making the living room graph. I had to tape four pieces of graph paper together to fit it all on. Wes has helped me measure every element, and I'm trying my best to make it work on the 4-squares to a foot paper.

Some of the drawings may be a tiny bit off, but the numbers are all spot on.

Just don't laugh at it's crudeness when I get it finished. I know there are computer programs that would probably do this perfectly, but I don't have them, don't know which are the best, don't want to take time to download and learn them this week, so I'm sticking to very old elementary school tactics.

I went with the 4 square to the foot graph paper too and taping pages together to make it work. I am going To save each room I have created with the furniture pieces in an envelope so when I want to play again I can with out so much effort. I will slip them all into one of those plastic sleeves for my house binder so I will know where to find them. LOL

Great idea! I am going to look for some larger graph paper too for future (unending?) projects.

I faked the cake part! I had a boxed mix of yellow cake on my shelf - learned years ago that the way to get rid of the artificial taste of a boxed mix is to add a bit of almond and orange extracts, which I did. After baking, I let the two layers cool on racks for 10 min and then removed them from their pans. Then I took some Stonewall Kitchens seedless raspberry jam and spread it on the still warm layers - lets a bit seep into the cake. When they were completely cool, I took a pint if whipping cream and whipped it till stiff, added a bit of confectioners sugar for body and a bit of sweetness, and a little almond extract. I spread this on the bottom layer very thickly - at least an inch thick. I then put a 2nd coating of the raspberry preserves on the top layer and put it on the cake. It should be kept refrigerated. It was still delicious tonight!

WOW That sounds delicious Anglophila. I can not have the sugar in any of this but it makes my mouth water to think of it. I bet is is also lovely to look at.

Not sure about BIG graph paper, but I still have two pads of the 8.5x11 stuff that saw me through the early stages of my remodel planning. And somewhere, I have a bigger graph page pad too, but not sure if the squares on it are larger. I would like to see some graphs that are 1/2 inch squares, now THAT would be helpful.

In our old house that was killed in Hurricane Katrina, we had the 1950s era real blueprints all rolled up, and countless notes about how they built it. But these days, the blueprint industry is a lot different. Nothing "blue" about it.

Moving pieces of paper around is a big improvement over trial and error moving of pieces of furniture.

I like to draw a floor plan. Then I like to draw the ELEVATION of all four walls in each room. It helps me to see how well the room is balanced. No "heavy" corners, no light-weight spots, so i don't feel like my "marbles' will roll to one side of the room. I think achieving a balanced feel in a room gives me a sense of comfort. And, I know that making the most of a view, taking advantage of a natural view, or maybe screening a disturbing view out the windows, makes me feel happy and content.

While I lived at MoccasinLanding, I had a neighbor who parked a real Greyhound bus (yes indeed) right next to our shared property line. (I saw that bus the other day and it was totally covered by mildew in a parking lot!) so I put in a privacy fence along that line, and then I planted a living screen. I also put in some wind chimes and hanging baskets, to keep my eye close-focused, and not allow it to range across the fence. In my back bedroom, I had a view of the small bayou, and I kept that long look down the bayou open, not blocked, because it was so pretty.

In those days I was home only 63 days a year, 21 days x 3 times each year, because I was working in south Texas or south Louisiana. I took pictures of the views from each window and then while I was a safe distance away, I indulged all sorts of imaginative plans mentally, which kept me from making the worst mistakes when I came home. But when I was headed home, I knew my mission and hit the ground running when I arrived. Until you put your hand on a shovel or a paint brush or a saw, no harm done to let your imagination run wild! :)