Do bad things always come in 3’s?

Hi everyone – hope you had a wonderful Memorial holiday.
I’ll get to the bad things in 3’s in a minute….
Ours was spent finishing up painting the screen room. 
The painting though is my job – husband does not like it nor does he do a good job (could be his way of getting out of it maybe…lol)

Yesterday our wonderful gal who recovers things for us brought back our cushions for the screen room sofa – she’s so good.
They look even better than the original cushions.
Took a long time to find the right fabric but when I did I had to run all over Wisconsin to get enough of it. 
Janesville had only 5 yards left and we needed 8 yards….so on we went looking.
Finally found it in Kenosha at that Hobby Lobby store.
But then on Tuesday we went back to the Janesville store to purchase that 5 yards for the chair.
Anyway, Debbie brought the cushions in and I knew immediately I loved them.

Here’s the original:

And the new:

Closeup of fabric – it’s showing the brown dark in the sample but it’s not really that dark - I’m going to be working with a light Teal and ignore the Green and Brown:
 

There are 2 chair also, one will be in this fabric and the other will be done in a strip to pull out the other colors.  I found it on the internet from Amazon/Fabric.com so hoping it looks as good when it arrives:

So that’s the fun stuff – now on to the bad stuff.
Things seem to come in 3’s they say – well I do believe that saying.
Our kitchen plumbing backed up on Easter Sunday
Our chimney has been leaking unbeknown to us until the last big thunderstorm we had and heard it dripping down the wall in the kitchen….so Able Dave came and checked it out…chimney was crumbled!  So…..Wednesday he came and built a new chimney – it’s beautiful (as a chimney can be that is….our old one was a crummy ole off white.)  We asked him if he could find something in a Colonial style color and he did – that’s why I say it’s ‘beautiful’.

And then on to number 3….our furnace stopped working a week ago Monday!
It was a very chilly morning so I turned it on just for a one time thing to take the chill  off and no heat…no running of the furnace – just the blower kept going.  I tried everything to shut it off and nothing would work so I had to go flip the switch on the furnace.
The air wouldn’t work for me either.
Oh…and Doug was away on a golf trip.  Last May when he went on the golf trip our air conditioner died, remember that?
So anyway – one more repair man later and we need a new furnace – the heat exchanger is dead!!!
So now come Fall we will need a new furnace.
Anymore problems????  I’m sure I can find one…

But the hard thing is all of these ‘repairs’ are coming at the same time as all the ‘re-dos’ we have been doing – not fun on the check book.

And…last night the man who built our fireplace mantle and cupboards and our desk came over to look at the wall  above the fireplace – at some point there was a leak behind that wall from the roof (which has been taken care of with a new roof) – but the wood is all buckled and looks horrible so we always have  a large picture up there to hide it.
Anyway – he’s going to put a maple wall and then build some kind of detail molding/panels on the wall to give it some character.
We are also deciding if we want to paint that wall the same color as the fireplace – which I think would really look very nice.
Here’s how it is now – I am not happy with anything I have on it or on the cupboards…nothing works together and it’s just stuff I have had – I so want some really nice Colonial pieces up there and crocks on the top of the cupboards…not the junk that is there now.  And I would like one of the LARGE old Colonial pictures of a man – know where I can find one?
 

Don’t forget to shop on my other site for some goodies:  http://kmprimitives.blogspot.com/
I sold out of my Strawberries over the weekend and had to make more so if you are wanting them I have them.

Thanks for visiting me and have a wonderful weekend
Karen

Kitchen re-do is finished!

If anyone had trouble commenting on my last post with a ‘no-reply’ it has been fixed.
For some reason Google+ changed settings.  Some comments were coming through – some not.  Please try again this week.

Have you ever waited and waited for something that you just wanted so much and when you got it it was a big disappointment?
Well  that’s how we feel right now with our counter – not the sink though…that’s perfect.
And what I mean by being disappointed is that the counter guy didn’t actually tell us about scratching!!!  Yep, it scratches easily and from almost NOTHING!

It has been in since last Wednesday and I think I’ve had tears everyday since then – it’s not horrible but it’s not nice either.
We picked out 4 different counter colors before we found one that was available – the others were discontinued so it seemed I chose this one out of desperation I think.
Hindsight says I should have gone ‘light’ – but I really like the darker colors.
Anyway…getting back to the scratching thing – not sure why we weren’t told about it until AFTER the install, if we had you can be sure we would have chosen ‘light’….BUT, when all is said and done, it looks nice and cleans up nice…BUT AT THIS POINT ‘IT IS WHAT IT IS’ and it is growing on me/us….every morning it looks better and better.

But oh how I love the sink.
So I’ll just show a few pictures here of the before and after…..if you don’t care for lots of pictures then this is not for you.

(Click on pictures to view larger)

A couple BEFORE  pictures
Original counter is deep red with some black

And the AFTER
The tall man in blue is the owner and designer
Now mind you – we are happy with the work and the install, he did fantastic work – it’s just that it scratches far too easily.
New color is Cocoa – It’s a solid surface product – now some may not even notice that we got a new counter and that’s okay, I didn’t want something that was bright and bold and jumped out at you – I like ‘mellow’ colors.

 

 
 
And the extra special splurge…my farm sink
We were fortunate that he found us a sink with a 6” apron so
we didn’t have to have any work done to the cabinet doors

I’m not jumping into dealing with what is on the counters right now as there are other projects that need attending to so different things will come in time…but for now the things that were on the counter went back on.

In time I would like a wood floor in the kitchen that matches the wood in the dining room – we put a few pieces down in front of the sink to see how it would look and it’s perfect…so in time I guess.

I was in the creating mood last week and made some Strawberries for the show I’m doing the Sat. after Thanksgiving.  I know they aren’t holiday but I need lots of ‘smalls’ – people like to buy lots of little things vs on large so I’m getting prepared.
I will also sell them on my site and on Etsy as well so watch my site for them to appear.
I have large and ‘normal’ sizes.

 

Last weekend (Mother’s Day) our local fresh market had a Cream Puff and Cupcake sale so Doug went and brought some home – they were gone in no time!!!
 

The lady up the street had a huge cluster of rhubarb and she was moving last Saturday and told me to take as much of it as I wanted to – she knew ours wasn’t growing well this year – could be the crazy weather we had, not sure why though.

We cut it and put it in 3 cup amounts and froze it.

That’s all I have for you this week!
Enjoy
Karen

Such a full week

Last week that is – we left last Saturday for the Woolenwillows ( http://woolenwillowretreats.weebly.com/ ) rug hooking/quilting retreat in Davis, WV at the Blackwater Falls lodge ( http://www.blackwaterfalls.com/accomodations.htm )Oh the scenery was fantastic – lots of gorges and a couple waterfalls and friendly deer that grazed in the courtyard behind the restaurant….who could ask for more?  Well, there was more – a wonderful gathering of like people, enjoying their craft.
There were more quilters than rug hookers but some of the quilters did some rug hooking as well.
I have many pictures and had to go through them to get the most out of just a few, but ‘just a few’ will most likely will turn into a lot once I get going here!

It was iffy whether I would go in the first place because both Doug and I got some kind of bacterial thing and we were both down for a week – in fact the day we decided to head out we were already 2 days behind schedule but we both felt good enough to make the drive.  Tired but still feeling a lot better.

Our first stop was in Powell, TN, we met up with Betty Crowe from http://bettyjcrowe-throughmybackdoor.blogspot.com/ and I must say she is just as bubbly in person as she is in her blog posts – what a great lady and friend.  We were to meet at her house for supper but because we got a very late start I surprised her when we got on our way with a call and we met for breakfast.
What a dear lady!

(click to view pictures larger)
 

Our first meeting
 
Saying goodbye!

Then it was on our way heading to Ashville,  NC to visit our very dear friends Bill and Linda Nottingham – they finally sold their home in St. Kitts and relocated in NC.
We spent 3-1/2 days with them before heading northeast again to the retreat.
Bill met us at a parking lot to lead the way to their house…it’s up the mountain.

If you all remember my last post with the mushrooms…well, we took a
box down to Billy – he was like a little kid setting the kit up.

Ms. Linda got gifts of WINE!!

Cocktail time and enjoying the view from their porch – one could get used to that view quite easy!

 

I won’t bore you with more pictures of scenery because one is the same as the next going through the mountains but I will show you what the roads were like leaving their place and heading to the retreat.  We were a solid hour on roads like this up through the mountains.
Lots and lots of winding switchback curves…up and down as well.

On to the retreat!!!

If it wasn’t for my husband I would not have gone to the retreat – you all don’t need to hear ‘again’ the why’s – but  it’s the same ole story about my back/hip so I’ll leave it at that.  So bless his heart he said I was going no matter what.
I think he actually enjoyed his time there as well although he didn’t participate in the retreat he did peek in every so often between nature trails, reading, napping and golf.

This is just a bit of what he saw

 

The retreat room was huge – not sure how many participated but I think Sally said there was room for 50 people but there may have been one or two more or less.
A few early birds – we were one of them.  The room had  the same amount of tables on the other side of the room plus 2 large round tables in the center.
Teresa Miller and Lisa George came in about an hour after us.

And then when it was full….looks like a mess but it is all an organized mess!
I took this when most everyone was out for lunch.

There was even one gentleman who participated only he designed and built ‘rotot’ things.
He brought his last years project – a dog that would do all sorts of things.

 

Teresa Miller and her work in progress

 

Lisa George – her first ever rug hooking….great job!

My sheep work in progress.  I pulled the wool 3 times before I could get the look I liked.  Ended up taking some of the lettering pulls out too.

I also started this piece – it’s huge so I probably won’t finish it for quite some time

We also played Bingo for ‘wool’
Who ever wanted to play had to bring a fat quarter of wool to use to purchase your bingo card.
I won it all on a 4 corner bingo!!

The three of us with our projects
Me, Teresa and Lisa

Teresa presented Lisa and I a cute little gift
A hooked pillow tuck or pin cushion and a magnet for our scissors (I love how it works) Keeps the scissors right near your work. It’s in 2 pieces – one goes on the underneath of your work, the other on top.

The little group of hookers – there were a few more as well

Back row: Genny Wadel, Linda Evon Keller, Diana Gilroy, Joanne Walker McIllmurray, Margo Harley.
Front row: Lisa George, Karen Martinsen, Teresa Miller.

Some of the girls projects
 

 

 

There were so many quilters and I just didn’t get around to taking more pictures but they sure were lovely.

This particular one is laid out on leather and the blocks are Harley T-Shirts

That’s all I have for you – hopefully my next post will be the kitchen redo.
Troy the countertop guy was here yesterday removing the sink and counter…so we are without much to work with in there, sort of like camping…lol

Blessings and see you later

Karen