I'm baaaack!

Way back in 2012, I lost access to this blog. I thought I'd been hacked. I knew my Twitter account had been, but my password no longer worked and it seemed that I would not be able to ever get here again. Wrong. I have no idea what is going on, or what did go on, but today, guess what? I have access again! In addition, don't ever rely on Google support to help you in any way, shape, or form. I got no response whatsoever from them the entire time I was attempting to gain access. Amazingly enough, this morning, I entered my old password, and viola! I was in!

Sort of bad timing because I'm now packing to leave the home we've lived in since 2003. John decided back in 2008 that he was going to cheat. And it wasn't just one or two times. Eight women over the four years. I found the emails, and confirmed it with each woman, most of whom were married at the time. Two of their husbands had found out, and divorced them. At the same time, my hormones went completely haywire, although my idiot doctor at the time had no clue. I experienced weight gain, horrible night sweats, PMS symptoms, and muscle aches. When the aches finally got to the point where all I wanted to do was take painkillers, I went to a different doc. I was devastated when I found out, which was last September. So you can see why I wasn't too concerned about this blog, or anything else for that matter. i had trouble keeping my wits about me for a long while. Now, I'm within a couple of weeks of moving out and going to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Why Pittsburgh? Because its near where I was raised, I have relatives there, and I wanted something entirely new. I had to, for my own sanity, to have a change that was as new as possible. I've stopped sewing for others now. Instead of sewing, I'm making jewelry and working on doll houses. My plan is to sell the doll houses I make at auction, but we'll see how realistic that is. Other than that, I'm moving there without a job. I have a home, but that's about it. The home is economical and comfortable. I'm taking 2 or 3 cats (out of our eight). The two calicos, Kira and Zuri will accompany me. Possibly Princess too. I really, really want to take my tabby Bandy with me, but having room is questionable.

My cats are my children. Leaving ANY of them in Vermont is very tough on me, something I'm sure John doesn't understand. That's been one of the hardest things. It was tough enough admitting to myself that he had been dishonest probably from the very first day I met him. His niece, whom I've had to block on Facebook because she was lecturing me on "it takes two to tango" (which is a riot in this case - if only she knew), defended him not knowing all the facts of the matter.

Kira:

  

The House

Well, I've talked about the "dream house" so why not talk about this one. This house, including a huge finished basement is about 3000 square feet. Whatever in the world possessed me to agree to buying this house is beyond me. It is a bear to keep clean. I have a system where I do one room a day, seven days a week. It doesn't keep the place spotless, but it keeps it relatively picked up and clean. Over the last few years, we've made a "to-do" list for the house...most of it involving new flooring and new bathrooms. We, so far, have gotten the hallway from the mud room to the kitchen done with tile. The kitchen floor is done. The island (my design I'll have you know) is finished and its countertop is quartz. But in the last year or more, we've not gotten very far on anything else.

That changed over this weekend. I decided I would repaint the rooms upstairs (this job was already on the to do list and I'd kept putting it off). And we both agreed that we will switch the guest room with the office, giving us a lot more space for the home office we share, and the guest room while it will be smaller, will be plenty large enough for guests.

The first picture is the view into the downstairs bathroom from the hall. The second picture is the Great Room at Christmas. This is a huge room and with the fireplace in the center, almost impossible to set the furniture correctly. The third picture is the back deck, covered in Clematis and surrounded by Dahlias in summer. The fourth picture is the view out our front window in the Great room on Christmas two years ago...no snow fell until that night, making it not feel like Christmas at all. And the last picture is the front porch with the big rock that is our "step". It is a volcanic rock that we've been told is about six feet deep into the soil. So I planted phlox around it. :-)

By now, you know that there will be long absences and even longer breaks between posts. It isn't deliberate. It is because I try not to spend the day sitting at the computer. I also don't always have things to say. :-)

I haven't been sewing much over the last couple of weeks. The plan to do a wooden valance for our bathroom was put on hold when I decided I might want to change the color of the walls first. This particular bath is on our ground floor, and is a full bath (instead of the half bath one would usually find off the kitchen). I have no idea why they made this a full bath, complete with tub, but I know that I would rather have it be a half bath and turn the area where the tub is into a laundry room (our current laundry is a large room upstairs next to the master bath.

But while I was getting the wood for the valances and searching for just the right fabric to cover the valance, I realized that I'd painted it in an almost-white color and stenciled it about 8 years ago, and it might be time for a change. Below you will see a couple pictures of the bathroom. I'd picked a very nice pale mauve out for the Great Room in our house, and I may just put it in the bathroom too, as it is a pleasing color, and if I wanted to stencil, finding a deep mauve and contrasting colors shouldn't be too bad.

The first picture is of the sink area with my favorite painting of all time - the white kitty. The second pic shows the stenciling over the window. In the first picture, the area on the right is the tub with a navy blue shower curtain. This would be the area I would tear out and re-do as a laundry room. John agrees, so we've got it on our "project" list. :-)

And as promised....

As long as you promise to look at the rest of the blog, lol, you can see more pictures.

Probably one of the most amazing animals we saw while at Kruger National Park were the Cape Buffalo. In 1957, there was not one Cape Buffalo in the Park. A few were brought in, and it was hoped that they could survive there. Well, survive they did. On our way into the park, before we'd ever made it to Jock Safari Lodge the first night, we literally came up over a rise, and before us were 300+ buffalo in a herd, blocking the road. We'd heard they were rather aggressive animals so we kept a healthy distance (about 100 yards), but it was fascinating to see that many of them. Young, old, babies, mothers. Then a day later, while out on a Game Drive at Jock, there they were again. Only this time we got to park in the middle of the herd (no kidding), so we had buffalo within touching distance for about a half hour. These animals are huge and dumber than bricks. lol If one gets upset about something, they ALL get upset, without knowing what they're getting upset about (wait a minute! I've met people like that online, most are called trolls).

You can see in the third picture that I wasn't kidding about being in the middle of the herd. And the first picture was what blocked the road our first day of our trip. Stunning to see hundreds of buffalo just taking their time crossing the road.

We only saw hippos in a couple of places, but as our guides kept reminding us, some of them could be underwater at the watering holes and dams we stopped at, and we wouldn't even be aware that they were there, until they pop their heads up to breathe. They are probably the most dangerous animals in Kruger. Possibly because people underestimate their speed. They look heavy and ungainly, but they're quite capable of running faster than a human. But the biggest reason they are the most dangerous is that if you happen to be between them and water, they will run you down or attack you, in order to take refuge where they are most comfortable.

And those really are crocodiles next to all the hippos. Apparently, there's some sort of agreement reached when everyone is near a watering hole and resting in the sun. The crocs weren't making any move to go after the hippos, the impala that were on the other side of the river, or the birds that were all over the place.

The funniest thing we saw going on with the Hippos happened at Lower Sabie in Kruger Park. The hippos were all over the place there, and the ones that were in the water were being used as surfs boards by the various fishing birds there. I called it Hippo Surfing, as the birds would only leave the hippos when they were fishing, and then would fly back onto the hippos backs to eat their catch.

Not quite Africa pictures yet....

I lied, I think you should see anal in action once again. I make no bones about being anal when it comes to designing things for my home.

A couple years ago, we chose an Italian porcelain tile for the kitchen. We decided to lay the tile in a stairstep pattern, but wanted something special there too. We decided on small 3 X 3 hand painted tiles to fit in the corners, and we also chose some solid color ones to alternate. Because these little tiles were hand painted, I had to cover each with three coats of a polyurethane meant for floors. And because they were hand painted each had to be coated with polyurethane by hand. What a production. But the floor was finally finished and we both loved it to death.

These are what the little tiles look like (there are five different patterns).

Now, being my normal anal self, I wanted to take those patterns and incorporate them into the rest of the kitchen. However, we hadn't decided on a back-splash, and had only put a new counter on the island, and not the actual kitchen counter yet. So, I didn't have the opportunity to "add" anything to the main countertop or the back-splash. But lest you think I couldn't come up with anything, there were still the fur-downs (the area between the tops of the cabinets and the ceiling). :-) So, I had John cut me little blocks of wood which I then painted to match the small tiles in the floor. I told you I was anal. I love having things tie together, but my version of "tie together" is obvious. I don't just do a color tie-in. I want the pattern there also. The first 3 pictures are of the painted wood blocks once I'd mounted them with Velcro (so I could remove and clean them). The last picture is of the island with the quartz, but it gives you a teensy glance at the floor in the background. I just now realized I don't have any pictures of the floor.

Some drawer dividers.

Usually, I get stuck doing stupid stuff for someone else. But this time, I wanted to see if I could avoid running to Walmart to buy plastic boxes (sans lids) to use in some drawers. I wanted something simple, but I didn't want them to just be cheap plastic. I wanted to cover them. Then I discovered cat food cases...not for the big cans for for the little ones, such as the ProPlan food I buy for my kitties.

I got this grand idea and decided to do a couple of "drafts" the same way I would if I were making something brand new for myself or someone else. I must say, it would have been easier (probably) to sew the covers, but instead I chose to use Elmer's Glue and some fabric I'd purchased sometime in the 1980's (well, maybe not THAT long ago, but a while ago) and see what I could come up with.

I started with just an ordinary cat food case (holds 24 3 ounce cans), 2 fabric pieces cut to follow the lines of the box (one for the inside and one for the outside), and a bottle of Elmer's (I could have used any glue as long as it would work on both cardboard and fabric. Elmer's was the only one I could find that I knew would bond both.

Viola! And they're already in use. Next time though, I'm going to work them up by sewing a cover, as the glue drove me crazy. But if you're going to try this, based on these pictures, make sure you do the inside first (center on bottom of box, glue bottom, flatten the fabric onto it, then carefully glue each side on both inside the box and the outside edge - the fabric will fold over). I'm not much on giving tutorials but at least that will get you started and the box will turn out halfways decent. And now, onto more Africa pictures! :-)

And the last of the bunch tonight.

The next time you see my words, it will be about the drawer dividers I made today. :-) But for right now, we have more animal pictures. :-)

A Kudu is of the antelope family and its horns are the symbol for the South African National Park System. These animals are amazing, and luckily we got a couple of good still pictures of them. The last picture is a Kudu cow.

The flowers in and around Kruger were starting to bloom (as it was the spring there). I caught a couple of great pictures of Bougainvillea that I wanted to share.

Another member of the Antelope family is the Duiker (pronounced DAKER, rhymes with Baker). This little guy is one of the smallest in the family, and very shy. That we got this picture was pretty amazing.

And I found out the hard way that it is almost impossible to take a picture of a whole Giraffe. :-) We had to be a great distance away to get the whole animal in the frame. Instead, I had to settle for some closer shots.