While the Cat is Away...

Okay, so some of my closest friends (and others who cared to hear me complain) knew that Joe went out of town for two and a half (don't mock the half) weeks. A long time for a mother of two busy girls. Before he left he said, "I'm afraid to think about what project you are going to do..". You see, Joe remembers back to the time when he left me with our newborn - who had pneumonia at the time - for 3 weeks! I remodeled our bedroom that time. But now we're older, and I felt I needed to up my game. Poor Joe - literally poor Joe, b/c I'm making him broke....just kidding, but not really.

Since we moved into this house almost three year ago, I had a vision for our front room. It's supposed to be a dining room - too boring, and I disliked how you could see right through to my kitchen. So, I decided to make it a library. Sounds fancy right? I like fancy. So the quest began for furnishings. Little by little, I bought the small items -hid them from my husband like any good wife and started my master plan. I just needed my man to go on a trip to complete it!

The time came.

Here are the before pictures...kind of before....actually the beginning of the redo, but I wasn't fast enough to snap the true before pics; just use your imagination.

Notice how you can see right through to my kitchen. Not the best.

Hard at work. Too many numbers to crunch if you ask me!A quick weekend trip to my parents to break up the construction mess.

Starting to come together!!! ............................................

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Voila!! The room is done (minus the new piece of glass I need for the little table, draperies, and a reading lamp by the leather chair, but it's close)!The inspiration for this room was this gorgeous bookcase from Razmataz. I've waited a long time for you my pretty!

My reading chair - did you hear me kids? MY reading chair!

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And, let us not forget that walls have two sides. Here's the before back side:
And the after - I'm still choosing which family picture to put in this frame.

So, I think it's safe to say that Joe won't be leaving me for any long trips any time soon! Darn! That bathroom redo will have to wait! :-)

Going Private ... sorry!

This is not the post I promised below, - that one's coming next week - but I wanted to announce that I'm going private in about a week, so please send me your emails. Send them to: joenlarson@qwest.net. And if you blog stock me and I know you or kinda know you, send me your email too! I'm not afraid of all you stockers - heaven knows I'm one! Thanks!

Joe's cheating on me with his garden......

Yes, it's true - I've been replaced with a veggie garden! I'm not joking, but I'm not sad either. I mean who doesn't love fresh lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, herbs, broccoli whenever their heart desires - which is a lot? This is our first attempt at gardening and I must admit - my man delivered. First and foremost, the garden had to look nice, so Joe built me a retaining wall. I'm very proud of this task alone. Then he followed the "Gardening by the Square Foot" method - which rocks! And now we eat fresh veggies every day. These pictures were of our fall garden and now we've extended it even more. Now we have lettuce, radishes, blackberries, strawberries, snap peas, green beans, tomatoes galore, cucumber, zucchini, yellow squash, mystery plant (some seeds fell out and starting growing, we don't know what they are yet), bell peppers, and jalapenos. I hope I'm still happy about our garden when it's 115 degrees!! BTW - any of your kids who want a little summer job by watering our garden call me. We go up to the cabin and to CA a lot during the summer and we'll need a little helper to water the garden and feed the dog. The waterer must not be afraid of dogs! :-)

Anyway, good job Babe, I love the garden and YOU too!!

PS - And for those of you who don't think I update my blog - just wait till you see what I post next week! Here's a teaser...."While the cats away, the mice will play....."

Thanks Friend

Dear Friend - the one who just bought a bouquet of yellow tulips,

Thank you for your kind compliments today. They were much needed. Thank you for your sincerity and friendship. I'm so glad you're in my life and it's good to know you feel the same way.
Thanks again for the extra boost today.

Love,
Alisa