Patsy from the Mendota Post Office called this morning and said “they are here!” The bees are here!! I went down to get them but my sister beat me to it. Here are the bees waiting in her den.
We “installed” them this afternoon, but two of the queens were dead. Didn’t survive the trip. Thank goodness, Poor Valley Bee Farm in Hiltons had some queens. Tonight, it looked like this at my little apiary…
Bees are setting up housekeeping and learning their way around. Mike was washing the car when they started familiarizing themselves with our property. Unfortunately, they were thirsty and he and a bee had a “run in” and he got stung in the foot.
It was a very busy day. Tonight is a two Advil night as my feet are really hurting. I’ve been standing on concrete working on my garage cleaning/reorganizion project. Here’s me working on removing the bottom vent of the freezer that’s in the garage. Looks like I had a wipe out. Thank you to my husband for taking such a flattering picture of me.
I’m making progress…here’s where I was yesterday…
And here’s where I am today. Lots still left to do but progress is being made!
Have a great weekend. I’m going to go see about those Advil now.
When someone comes to my house, they usually don’t come through the front door or the side door. They come through the garage and then onto the back porch. Here’s the welcome I give them as they trek through the garage….sweet, isn’t it?
Our longer-term plans to address the garage mess include painting the garage, but that’s not going to happen this week or this month. Still, something had to happen — the garage was a wreck! So, I started working on it — the hardest part was getting started. Since it was 90 degrees today, I didn’t stay out there all day, but I spent about three hours. It will take a day or two because I’m cleaning, sorting, deciding what stays and what goes. I started in the right hand corner and put everything on the table…can you believe all this junk?
I went over to Sam’s Club and got some boxes. I’ll spray paint them with chalkboard paint and use them to categorize and label things. These were great boxes!!
After a few hours of working, I stopped as Gracie decided that “enough was enough” and it was time for her to get attention.
I’ll get back on it tomorrow. It’s fun cleaning up this mess.
Happy Sunday evening! This is about a wreath but before that…check out my daughter-in-law, Mary, and me taking a break from the Virginia Creeper Trail Saturday. This was so fun!!
Now..about that wreath! Candace Powers Bennett is a distant cousin on my father’s side, and she is the great granddaughter of my mother’s best friend. That is all a lead-in to say that I recently copied her idea for a summertime wreath. She is a busy mom of two boys, great wife, and a very crafty lady. She is also a daughter of the King. 🙂 I love her. She posted a wreath on Facebook that she whipped out last week. Shortly thereafter, a very similar wreath appeared on my backdoor.
Such a sweet, simple summertime welcome at the back door! Thank you Candace for letting me steal your idea. BUT WAIT…I think Candace’s had something else. Didn’t she have a “B” dangling somewhere? I, of course, needed a “B” too! Nevermind that I now notice I wired mine on upside down.
I had this grapevine wreath. It’s got some miles on it. It changes its look every little bit. Kind of like Madonna. Here it was in it’s “Snowman Phase.”
I really liked it in its “Christmas Phase”, but the birds kept flying over and pooping on my window in this phase.
And…lest we forget, here it was during its “Fall Phase” or, if you look closely, its “Women’s Lib Phase” when it went braless.
Other things this weekend…buying that 30 feet of wired burlap ribbon at Hobby Lobby for $4.99 (1/2 price) made me literally dance with excitement. I’m thinking Christmas wreaths!
A couple of people wanted to stay in our apartment/guest house recently, and Mike was hunting for a post describing it. I know there was one, but we could not find it. So, for the person who was wanting to stay at the apartment, here is a post that will take care of that!
We call this the guesthouse but it’s really a garage apartment located very close to our house. Here’s the exterior.
As you enter, you have to go up the stairs. For safety reasons, we’ve kept the carpet on these stairs. There’s a security system that was recently updated in the apartment and garage. I always feel safe there as well as in the house.
Once you are up the stairs, you’re in the eating area. Mike made the table. The chairs are Goodwill recycles that a neighbor found and I painted.
It’s a fully equipped kitchen. I made the curtains. Mike put in the hardwood.
It’s got dishes, pots and pans, blender, coffee maker, etc. I opened the cabinet which is not overly organized.
You can walk out onto the deck from the French doors. You’ll have a view of Clinch Mountain or my back yard.
Here’s the back yard. Wanna hoe my garden? Help yourself.
When we have guests stay over, I always make sure that the sheets are washed and dried on the clothesline. There is no smell as sweet as sheets dried in the country wind and sun!
Back in the house, I try and keep fresh greenery or flowers for guests. I can usually find something in the yard like the rhododendrum and iris in this picture. Usually I use a Mason jar, but this one is in a milk jar I got at Lehman’s.
The kitchen is open to the living room which has a sofabed — it can sleep up to four if you include the sofabed.
And there’s a comfy chair to watch tv in. We have Direct TV running over here.
There’s a bedroom with a large closet. Mike recently put hardwood in the bedroom. I use 400/500 count sheets in here. The quilt is made by Mrs. Toby Sproles of Mendota. I love it.
Laundry room and half bath…
Very cute bathroom with lots of angles. That’s a trash dump chair in the picture.
Here’s the other part of that bathroom…
We are not sure how we’re going to proceed with the guesthouse. We’re either going to rent it as a weekend/weekly cottage for a little business for me or we’re going to find a special person or couple who would like to rent it. What do you think? Which way should we go?
I received the new Pottery Barn catalogue a little over a week ago. I love looking at their catalog. Once in a while something on the pages either inspires me to try and replicate the look or reminds me of something that is already in my house.
Pottery Barn has been selling Mason jars (with handles on them) for drink glasses for the past few years. At my house, we either drink from a real Mason jar or ones just like the ones from Pottery Barn. I got them at the Dollar Store about ten years ago and paid $1.00 for two jars. Home canning is a part of our Southwest Virginia rural life, and I like for my table to reflect that. I’m happy that Pottery Barn is on board with this idea!
Here’s Pottery Barn’s very pretty glass..
And here is my very pretty glass…I stuck a pansy in it just to fancy it up. It’s got that “Poor Valley” water in it, and “once you drink the water from Poor Valley, water will never taste good anywhere else.”
Right now when I open a home decor magazine for country homes, I see white. Hmmm…obviously not from Southwest Virginia where we name our children “Clay”. Pottery Barn still has rooms with a lot of color, and I’m so glad! It validates my love of color in the home. I’m loving their red bar stool, and I’m gonna be spray painting mine red next week!
And lookeee here…oh yeah…Pottery Barn’s entertainment center rocks!
And here’s the one in my den made from reclaimed barn wood…created from the American Chestnut, and it’s signed and dated by someone I know pretty well! Thanks Michael! Sorry Pottery Barn…I like mine better. I hope you understand.
Really like the organic look of the wooden bowls…
But I love my bowl handcrafted by gnarled hands from Appalachia and purchased at the Virginia Highlands Festival in Abingdon. It’s signed on the bottom.
Here’s something I don’t have, but I want it! Maybe if it gets marked down a little bit…
Hi there! Mike is recuperating so nicely from his knee replacement surgery. The very worst thing–thus far–has been a four-day case of hiccups which, thank goodness, have passed. After knee replacement surgery, especially if it’s your right knee–you’re prohibited from driving for about three weeks. Because of this, I’m at home during this time driving him to/fro PT and just making sure he’s okay.
Since I’m more or less stranded here on RiverCliff hill, I’m doing deeper cleaning on the house. Today, I cleaned the copper pots on my potrack. Here’s the lineup…a parade of dirty copper pots!
In the past, I’ve used copper cleaner on these pots, and I started to do so tonight, but I’m getting a yucky blue building…
I remembered that vinegar and salt cleaned copper. I went to the internet and confirmed this and mixed a 1/2 and 1/2 concoction of white vinegar and table salt. Some of the internet recipes which you can find by Googling suggested a mix which can be put in a spray bottle and sprayed on the copper. However, I had no spray bottle, so here’s my mix which I just dabbed on with a sponge.
It worked! Here’s a “before” picture of a copper lid. I got this at Dixie Pottery when I was in my 20’s! If you are too young to remember the fun of going to Dixie Pottery, you missed something.
And here’s the after…
Here’s the potrack with all of the copper cleaned…and using what I have on hand aligns with my reminder to myself to “Simpify.”
And here’s a bit of ivy to liven things up. This is a live plant, so I’ll have to rotate it with one that is about the same size to keep it looking good.
This motiviated me to mop the floor and that is what I’m going to do right now!
I worked so hard on our Home Office Redo/Reorganization…
And then I stopped talking about it because I can’t get it finished until the couch that I never show in the pictures is slipcovered. I chose a pretty pre-washed denim which will wash well. Here it is…
Dannette Mayfield came about three weeks ago and made the pattern for the slipcover. She and I intended to get this slipcover started well before that time; however, every week she planned to drive over from North Carolina, it snowed! At any rate, it should be back soon. I’m allowing myself to get excited about this room again.
Except…someone is not cooperating. Even though that someone bought a “Neat Desk” scanner, he is still keeping stuff. And he has that stupid white plastic trash can which I hate.
Can you believe this messy desk? I hope this is just a transition day.
It was snowy in Southwest Virginia today. We won’t get the “big un” this year. This is most likely our last opportunity. It’s just as well since our power would be off and I do not enjoy paying the $200 or so for propane we use to generate our own power during the three-or-four day outages. Spring is close, and I’m ready for it. Maybe next year, however, we’ll get that big snow that we’ve all been dreading or anticipating since the 1990’s.
I walked down to the shop this morning with the dogs. Mike was already down there. Just looking at this picture makes me want to draw a deep breath of that cold, fresh air. Gracie stopped and rested for a minute. All she wants to do is get down to the shop and get in that white truck and go somewhere.
First thing I saw when I walked in the door — Vicky and Mark’s table — it’s done! Check that off the list.
My table, while “tacky” to the touch is also done. This table is meant for my den. Once it’s in place, I’ll take a picture and show you. For now…
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Here’s a little different angle…remember…this was all on someone’s barn.
In the back and side of the unit, you can see the rougher barn siding…
This reclaimed wood might have looked like this at some point. This is the barn that the Barn Rock Road project required be torn down. It hurts me to look at it in rubble.
Anyway…when you’re using reclaimed wood, there is quite a bit of work to do. A lot of inspecting for old nails and then there’s the actual “planing” that has to occur. Here’s Mike at the planer.
In its roughest state, it might look like this…
After I met Mike in the shop, we headed to the Rally Mart Gas Station for lunch. Want to see something sinful but delicious? We split this.
Let me introduce you to three ladies who work at the Rally Mart and provide some of THE BEST food you can imagine.
Here’s Rosie…She is always so nice. She has to call the house from time to time to remind Mike to pay for his gas! He forgets!
Here’s Barbara…on Barbara’s baked bean day…the gas station is full. She has a secret recipe.
And here’s Brenda and Barbara. Can you believe Brenda is a grandmother? (And a very good one!)
When a flower would make things just so much better?
But you live 17 miles from a grocery store…and besides your husband already brought you flowers this week. Perhaps your quota has been met…is there ever a quota for things like this? I don’t know!
And then…you realize that those flowers that are on the table..can just be rearranged a bit, so that if just one of those flowers left its friends on the table…
And suppose that it decided to sit in the living room beside you…
And just maybe you’ll share your prized RC Cola with that flower friend..
I always have gift wrap on hand, but the large rolls of gift wrap have been stashed in the attic. It’s a mess up there. Scary stuff. Cleaning the attic is one of our long-term projects following a spring garage sale I’m going to have in Mike’s shop. That garage sale is yet another long-term project. It never ends.
I asked Mike to make me a box out of some leftover plywood he had on hand. My plan was to move the giftwrap out into the open as part of our home office reorganization/redo project. If your new to the blog, I’ve written about it here.
Here’s what he made which I spray painted. I’d meant it to be taller, like an umbrella stand, but he only had short pieces of plywood on hand.
It’s a little plain. I didn’t mention it to him as I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
I decided to put the word “WRAP” on the box. Liven it up. I decided this while we were making a trip to Lowe’s last week in Kingsport. We don’t need much of a reason to go to Lowe’s (my True Love) but I was especially excited because the Kingsport Lowe’s is near Michael’s Craft Store , and I had these letters spelling around in my head…”W.R.A.P” Here they are…I found them for $1 each. I had a 40% off coupon for one of them, and I saved a whopping 40 cents.
I spraypainted the wooden letters red as well as made patterns out of scrapbook paper. This was the tricky part. I used both scissors and an Exacto knife to get a neat cut on the paper. Mike asked me if I was related to Michael Jordan when he saw me working–apparently I had my tongue stuck out. Whatever.
Then I used Mod Podge so that the paper would adhere to the letter.
Next I pressed the paper onto the letter and put a top coat of Mod Podge.
I could not wait to hot glue these to the black box. Ideas of thousands of Pinterest pins were floating in my head. I flew up the stairs and then.. I could not find my glue gun! No where! I looked and looked! When I was organizing last week, I saw my current glue gun as well as a brand new one I’d lost before. Now, they are both missing! I’m wondering…is the U.S. government really after our guns?…and they’ve started with my glue guns? Is there a conspiracy? Or did I possibly throw them away when I was doing a mass throwaway last week? Hmmm…
So I taped the letters. I’m glad they are only taped because instead of spelling “WRAP”…I’ve spelled “WARP”. This project is going to wait until I find my glue gun and can adjust the letters. Also, there’s no natural light in the office right now for a decent picture even if I had my glue gun. Here’s the awful, humilating picture. The naked truth.
I think I can fix it tomorrow and maybe I can find the glue gun if I look again.
Here’s something that turned out better. After Mike accidentally destroyed my pretty Target lampshade, I went back to Target, and yes! There was one more!! I bought it and then, even though I hate buying things I already have, I bought the lamps that were with it. I love the clean way the look. This room is going to look good once I get the funny red sofa (that I’m not picturing if you notice) slipcovered in a nice, crisp denim. Easy to care for.
Mike and my brother-in-law, Gerald, made this little table. I love it. Would you pay $225 for it? I thought not. Drat!
Are you sure? Here’s another picture of it?
Finally, this is in my kitchen now. I posted it on my Facebook page so it’s really old news. Everyone has times in their life that they don’t fit in. It still happens to me, and I still have that awkward moment when I wish I’m someone else. But it’s okay because Dr. Seuss said so!
