Here’s how things work in Mendota.  On Tuesday of last week, Molly called.  She said “did you know it was Helene’s birthday on Saturday?”  Helene is our mutual friend and neighbor but she has just lived in Mendota about one year (actually one year this coming Saturday), so we don’t have all the details that we have on our neighbors–yet.   In a rural community,  we know a lot about each other. 

I did not know it was Helene’s birthday on Saturday.  I asked Molly how she knew.   “Well….Sarah (her daughter) borrowed a book from Miss Helene and it had a birthday inscription with Saturday’s date.”    Oh.

Most teens would not care or notice an adult’s birthday inscribed in a book, but our thoughtful Sarah did, and a small party was born.   I called neighbors and friends, and everyone showed up with flowers and a side dish.  I made a pasta dish which was not fully cooked.  No one said anything, but no one ate it.  I was proud!

I stayed until everyone was gone to help her clean up.  However, I realized the party was still going on because no party is complete until the cat is through washing her legs while on the serving table.

Beautiful flowers, cold soup, and a refreshing tongue bath on the table.  It works!

A special little person came to the party.  My niece Ari.  She’s actually my niece’s daughter so that makes her a grand niece but that makes her sound big and she’s so tiny, so let’s just say she’s my niece.

And I’m not sure how all this works around to another chalkpaint project, but do you remember the picture that was being taped up and readied to spray with chalkpaint in this post?   I didn’t show you what it became.

Here it is…

I’m trying to memorize Bible verses.  I’ve almost got this one.  It’s harder when you get older, so do not laugh.

And I think that gold lamp is just garish.  Do you think I should spray paint it red?

That stool it is setting on was thrown away at the Mendota dump many years ago.  The top of the stool was almost off.  Paul Baker was there at the time,and he gave it to me to try and give it a few more years before it ended up in the landfill.   Mike tried to restore the top but eventually he replaced it with this little cherry top the same color as my cabinets.  I like it.

And here’s what is at the baseboard beside the stool…

At rat hole!    Every kitchen should have one.

It is a rainy day (thank goodness) — a good day to get this dining room in my rear view mirror.

I’ve made some burlap window treatments for this room.   What do you think?

I want to be honest. While I like the filtered light and the overall look, I’m not loving it in my dining room.   They close the room up.  I feel like I’m in a little terracotta cave.  I’m not a hobbit!

I’m not knocking burlap drapes…they are all over the blogisphere.  However, most room updates are using more neutrals whereas I’ve stayed with the jewel tones.   If my dining room had been pale blue or a soft white, the burlap drapes would not have made it feel so closed. 

Here’s what I did have up in this room.  I put one up for comparison.  

Swags are not the “in” thing right now, but I like the amount of light they let in.  I’m starting to think I want them back up.   I also like the black (gotta have a little black in every room).   I think I’m going to fold the burlap panels up and maybe use them at Christmas when I’m feeling more snuggly.

Update about three hours later: I did exactly that. I put the burlap panels in a bag and stuck it in the closet. I’ll find another use for them.

Here’s the dining room, finished except for hanging the picture…

You’ve heard the expression “there’s an elephant in the room?”   There’s a rooster in this room.   I know I’ve got a rooster on top of the hutch and that it might need to roost somewhere else, but this is not a serious dining room, so the rooster can stay for a while longer.

Here’s what this room looked like before….back when it was bleeding dragon’s blood…

 What a mess this room was in when I took the picture.  Shock!!  That never happens!   Note the dog bed in the doorway.  🙂

And here’s another “after” picture from a different view…

 I like it!   Mike will hang the picture later tonight.   Those are gourds from the garden on the table.  I’ll be gourding my whole house during the next few weeks.

My next project will be the kitchen.   I’ve already painted a bit and I’m taping the baseboards tonight.  

Good news!   I have lost 9.5 pounds, and  we have the dining room painted!  Unrelated events except both make me happy.   As for the dining room,  pictures are not up and drapes not hung.  While you’ll see the terracotta color in some of these pictures, I really wanted to show you the table that I have in this room.    It’s very different than a traditional dining room table.  Mike made it for me.  It took him about a year.   Every week I’d ask him about the table.

The top of the table is cherry with a natural finish.   However, the “apron” of the table is made from wood from a barn.  I’d first wanted wormy chestnut for this table as that was traditionally used for Burley tobacco barns.  I’m the daughter of a tobacco farmer, and I felt this would be appropriate.  However, there was a barn being torn down on Swinging Bridge Road, and our neighbors were nice enough to give us some of the barn siding.  It’s actually oak.   Can you imagine the changes this oak siding has seen in this valley?  The building dated back to Mendota in the pre-Civil war era. The table was still wedged in the foyer when I took t his picture.

We moved it into the dining room.  It’s pretty bare in there right now.   This is another view of the table.  It has big farmhouse legs.

The chairs that I have with the table have a history.  We went through an unfinished furniture phase because it was cheaper to finish something ourselves than to buy finished furniture–that  was over 25 years ago.  When Mike made the table, he intended to buy six new chairs to go with it.  We’d thought ladder back chairs in black would be nice.  However, we decided to paint the oak chairs we already had to see if they might work–we were using Pottery Barn as our inspiration at the time.  He applied one coat of black and then sanded readying for a second coat.  I saw one of the chairs after he sanded it and knew right away that I wanted it just like that — distressed.

The chairs may not be for everyone but I like them.   The room looks very nice when the table is “made up” with candles, placemats, etc.

I’m thinking of putting burlap window treatments in this room.   I bought the burlap in the early spring at Hobby Lobby.   The trouble is that it smelled so bad.   I tried airing it out in the guest bedroom for about three months but it only resulted in stinking up the bedroom.  I took the burlap out a few days ago and sprayed a large amount of Fabreze on each section and hung them out in the sun all day long.  Still stunk.

I wish I had hung it straight. 

I took the burlap down at night and stored it in the garage since I didn’t want it to get wet and stink even more.  On day 2, I hung it back on the clothesline and it was as strong as ever.  In fact, I hesitated to hang my sheets out beside the burlap because I thought the stink might stray over to the sheets.   I could be 10 feet from the clothesline, and I’d smell the nasty burlap smell.    I was depressed, as I’d been thinking how smart I was to spend $48 on burlap and get new window treatments.

Finally, at the end of day 3, the smell went away.   So…with a little luck…I’ll be making burlap curtains tomorrow.

This morning I looked out and saw Mrs. Turkey and her teenage turkeys.  They have been gobbling and making a lot of noise.

These turkeys (and quite a few of their friends) have been hanging around in the meadow behind the house–especially in the morning and evening.  I thought they were eating a lot of bugs.  However, some children came by from Hiltons today to pick blackberries.   Just a few days ago we’d checked and there were plenty of berries.  This is all that they found today-less than a full gallon.

Apparently Mrs. Turkey has been serving our berries to her children!

We decided to work all day on the 4th of July.  We got a fair amount accomplished.   The dining room, while not finished, is much closer.  Needs another coat but here it is.  This lighting makes the room look bright red, and it’s not.  It’s terracotta.

It has become the paint job that will never end.

In addition to the dining room, I painted all the trim in the guesthouse bedroom and Mike made the toe moulding that will go around the baseboard.  That doesn’t sound like much but it took us all day.   By late evening we were pretty tired, but I decided to pick some greenbeans in the garden.   I didn’t find too many greenbeans.  The 100 degree temperatures have slowed the production.  I’m going to replant in the raised beds.

It wasn’t a total loss.   Here’s some gourds that planted themselves.  While greenbeans might not be growing, apparently gourds love scalding hot temperatures and little rain.   I picked about 25 and there are probably over 100 more waiting.  I’m washing them and spraying with polyeurathane and using them in as decorations around the house.   If you are reading this and know of a better way to preserve them, please leave me a comment.

While I was in the garden, Betty Butterbutt, our neighbor’s dog, showed up.  It was her second visit of the day.  She is a very friendly dog. 

Sam the Sinister Cat hates Betty Butterbutt.   Sam hates everyone but especially Betty.    After I took the picture below,  Mike came out and intervened and Betty caught her second ride home for the day.  He’d already taken her home earlier.

We opened the truck door and she hopped right in.  She has some real push in those short little legs.

Here she is ready to roll!

So that was all that happened here yesterday.

Today, my sister, niece and a friend and I with to the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia.  I got home and found a pal had returned home.  Here she is…just peaking out from her bed…one eye closed.