Cold windows, putting up winter shades & toppers

I can't wait until we get new windows, these are original from '65 and very cold in winter, I have resealed and caulked around them but you can almost feel the cold when you walk past any of the windows so during the winter cold months I put up roman shades and throw some little toppers over them, makes it warmer inside for sure

 dining room

my new pretty topper for the bathroom and you can see the lovely cardinal painting, that was given to me by my bestest friends mother ~ Mom 2, isn't it gorgeous, she is a very talented artist and I could have walls full of her gorgeous paintings, she really does an awesome job!

Sealing basement walls with Drylok paint

Good golly, we had so many outdoor projects we worked on that I finally get time to do inside projects because its cold and winter out now  HA HA

remember the old dungeon of a basement when we moved in here?

I posted pics on another blog post about the basement back in May 2009

but to recap, here are a few of the before pics

since we have the water issue corrected from the outside with the new drainage I think its now safe to take care of the basement

 I bought a few gallons of that basement sealer, drylok, we washed down the walls, scrubbed with a wire brush to remove any yuck and after it was dry we started painting it on

 didn't realize how discolored that back wall was until started painting

have some cement floor/porch paint that I think is really going to brighten it up down here

 next to move the freezers off the other wall

 you can really see where we have 2 coats of paint

yup, steps will need a good sanding and painting too

hardest part is getting down into the cracks and joints

(happy birthday to me)

wow, what a difference, still need another coat up the walls and on the floor but it's much MUCH better than when we started, later we want to put up drywall on the ceiling, hubby has some cabinets already that we will eventually get on that wall to the left of the freezers

Crackle Painting a shelf unit

You all might remember when I painted my kitchen cabinets, I had wanted to use the crackle glaze on it to have the old green showing through the cracks and the off white on top, to make them look old and cool?

Remember it didn't work because I did not have a wide enough roller and it had to be applied in one swipe, no overlapping or it turned all kooky looking . . 

so I decided to do a shelf instead

here i am just starting to paint the olive green first coat on the wall or shelf unit

then when it dries completely you brush or roll on the crackle glaze, let sit for a bit

then apply your top coat of paint

 added the little birdie my son bought me eons ago, I think he was like 5 maybe

 oh don't worry, I will fill that shelf right up

pretty awesome! I love the crackled look, not bad for a shelf

and since it's almost Christmas, I decided to bring in my herb planted hubby built and decorate around the house a bit, think I will add a string of clear lights in with the flowers!

 throw some pretty lace and glass ornaments in mason jars and you have some instant decorations

I even dolled up my pretty candle warmer sitting on counter with my recipe book I made

SMILE it looks like my peppers and berries are smiling at me, this lovely old wooden floor grate was given to me by the farmer, remember those treasures he always shares with me :)

I've opened a shop on Etsy

Hello to everyone today!

Just a note to let you know that I have opened a digital scrapbook shop on Etsy, you can check it out HERE -  Etsy is like Ebay in a sense but I found I like Etsy much better!! It caters more to the home made items and more for the crafty kind.

I know I don't talk much about my business on here as this is the" fun" blog, a way for me to almost keep track of things as they happen, a journal if you will, but today I decided to share with you what I do in my spare time when I am not gardening or remodeling the house/grounds here.

Some of the digital kits I have made, I love the vintage era and do a lot of scrapping of my genealogy research so this first kit really works for that type of thing

then a little brighter kit

all kinds of fun kits you can use to make digital scrapbooks, invitations, posters, t-shirts, greeting cards

you name it, you can create it, so stop over to my Etsy shop one day and check it out, I also have a blog for the business HERE where I give away freebies from the kits I design

Yard work after the drainage ditch & sewer lines redone

You all know how much of a mess we had during the drainage ditch around the house work was being done, huge mounds/mountains of dirt, well that all got put back together, now to wait over the winter for it to settle then in the spring we can fill in and level off and get some grass seeded

oh yes, quite the messy yard right?

what's even worse, is the guineas we have think roosting on the front deck railing is a good idea, I do not!

they leave me little presents I don't wish to receive!!

 yup fall is here,everything is messy now

the water lilies are starting to die off as are the other plants in the pond

you know how you get one project done then immediately there is something else that needs done? well this time around it was the sewer lines, we had to dig from the basement all the way through the pasture field to get the old clay tile out and redo it with new good stuff, I worked and didn't get photos of the process, but you can see the finished area

at least another thing checked off our list!

so . . . the neighbor was going to haul his old farm truck to the scrap yard, wondered if we needed a pickemup truck - heh heh heh so we got it from him, now you know why this is called the "redneck" place, all my co workers got to calling this truck "Laurrie's redneck truck"

 don't you just love the duct tape?

 hey for scrap price, I don't think hardly anyone could get a truck for $500 these days!

well it may not be pretty but it runs!!!! and this old hillbilly is happy to have a truck to haul tons of plants around (and rocks, and dirt and well you get the picture it hauls anything!

Bacon & hams done at the smokehouse

If you seen my post awhile back when we processed the hogs you will know we already did all the major cuts of meat for the freezer as well as seasoned our ground pork to make breakfast pork sausage, we usually send the hams and bacon out to Reuben to smoke for us

Welp, we got the stuff back, so the family is back to get their stuff sliced up for their freezers

 peppered bacon

 sliced and ready for packaging

 more getting cut to size to run through our little meat slicer

 packing into food saver bags for the freezer

 ham being carved to their liking for the freezer

 mama is always happy :)

Kat took meat processing in school, we told her she better get all the meat off clear down to the bone LOL