My Neighbor's Surprise

Hi All!

Remember when I told you that I planned to "steal" my neighbor's porch decoration to repaint it? Well - here is the finished product.


As you may see - our friendly "inspector" is keeping an eye on everything to make sure it is on the "up and up."

I think the pink and blue flowers look nice. The old flowers were yellow daffodils and were beyond saving!

After totally finishing all the painting and assembling I put the item on the floor for inspection. As you can tell, the inspector called in an associate to check things out thoroughly. They both spent at least ten minutes going over every part of the project to make sure it is perfect.

Then the associate left and the inspector continued on his own. Such dedication to his job!

Now I will put the decoration back on the porch. I don't plan to tell my neighbor I did anything to the decoration at all. It will be interesting to see how long it will take her to figure it out!

Hubby absolutely loves the fact that I won't tell her. It got him chuckling last night and he wasn't in a good mood! Impressive!

Painting the bunny and the sign was fun - now I am looking to see if there is more stuff I can paint!

Trisha

Voice Update: Doing really well. I guess the relaxation really helps!

Thursday in Review!

Hi All!

Yesterday was a real treat! I feel so much more relaxed!

I know this will be a big shock to everyone but . . . I didn't get everything I had planned completed! I spent most of the day working on Hubby's Ohio State sigh - it is looking good! I only have some detail work left to do and it will be finished!

A nap was part of the plan and it was so nice - Skor curled up with me - the windows were open. Heaven!

My book was also finished - it was good but I will save the summary until I do another book review post.

There was no grocery shopping done but I did manage to make a decent meal. Sometimes I forget how much I enjoy cooking!

Let's see - what else did I do yesterday? I played with Callie - my neighbor's cat who I am watching for the week. She is always so much fun to play with that it mystifies me as to why my neighbor says that Callie is always mean to her! Maybe Callie just senses that if she tried to bite ME - I would have a reaction that she wouldn't enjoy!

My flowerbed got watered but didn't get cleaned up - I have to do that before my mom comes for Thanksgiving!

Anyway - it was a restful day! Today should be another good day. I am heading to Wal Mart to get some thread so I can shorten some shirts I got when in Ohio AGES ago. I Will also pick up some stuff to "spruce up" my neighbor's porch decoration! Then it is home to wait on the heating and air conditioning guy to come and do a check-up on our heating system. Doesn't that sound like fun?

No DAC today because of the Heating guy. I will have to head down there next week!

I wish I had something more profound to say but . . . hey - it was a nice day!

Trisha

Voice Update: The rest seems to have done some good for my voice - it is working rather well at the moment!

A Day Off!

Hi All!

I HAVE A DAY OFF! I HAVE A DAY OFF!

Today I don't have to work because Linda is working. YEAH! Now I can finally do those projects I had in mind for my Monday. I plan to finish painting Hubby's Ohio State sign. I also plan to spruce up my flowerbed - get the weeds out, plant a few more hostas, add some mulch. I plan to "steal" my neighbor's decoration from her front porch to repaint it while she is on vacation. I hope to get motivated to head to the grocery store since we have NO food in the house! I plan to read a bit more of my recent book. I plan to sneak a nap into the schedule.

I plan a lot, don't I?

In fact, while I was walking this morning I also thought that the paint I got to paint Hubby's sign could also be used to paint our address on the curb in front of our house. Another project!

Which should I start first???

So many decisions.

While I try to decide, I will tell you about my iPod.

Sunday evening I listened to my iPod before going to bed and it worked perfectly. Then, I went walking on Monday and put my earbuds in and . . . trouble! I was only getting sound in one earbud. After I messed with the cord for a bit, I found that I could get intermitant sound in both ears but not for very long. Sometimes I would get static in one ear and sound in the other. It was frustrating!

After the walk - and messing with the cord pretty much the entire way - I decided that it wasn't something that I could fix. My earbud were toast. *sigh*

Luckily, I can still use my iPod at work with my exterior speaker. However, I can't use my iPod while walking since I don't have earphones! I did order some neat new ones online on Tuesday. Now I am just waiting for them to show up in my mailbox.

I can't wait until they show up. I miss my iPod!

Trisha

Voice Update: Roller coasters . . . . roller coasters. Today my voice is a bit "rough" around the edges. I guess I will have to add extra massage into my plans for the day!

The Eyes Have It!

Hi All!

This is going to be a short post because . . . the eyes have it! That is right! My eyes are taking a beating from allergies this week. Itching. Watering. Burning. Causing headaches. Producing all kinds of "smutz" during the night. The whole ball of wax!

Luckily, all I have to do to temporarily quiet these less-than-desirable symptoms is to flush my eyes with a saline solution. Several times a day.

This process always makes me look like I have been crying. The solution dribbles down my cheeks (and sometimes - annoyingly - into my ears!). My eyes get all watery (of course). And the redness from the allergy reaction. Yep - looks like I have been crying.

That made for some interesting times at work yesterday. I had told my bosses about the situation so they were okay with it but some of the clients . . . I got some very strange looks and some well-meant questions.

Just for the record, I am going to state again that I never suffered from any allergies of any sort while I lived in Ohio for 28 years. I move to Texas and . . . wham! I have allergies. However, I must admit that these eye allergies did take about ten years to develop. Lucky me!

Well - I am off to work again today. Hopefully I will have tomorrow off. Keep your fingers crossed for me since I will probably be working all four days next week due to Linda's CAT scan and chemo.

Fun. Fun!

Trisha

P.S. Remind me to tell you about why I can't use my iPod while walking in the morning!

Voice Update: Still acting like a roller coaster! Ups and downs all day long. Most of the time it is an "up" but I still have times when I have skips and misses and hesitations. At least my throat seems looser. We will see how it is after my linguistics terms test in class tonight!

The Violin Case

Hi All!

Remember the violin case from the wedding this weekend? I constructed the case to be the card holder. How? I am glad you asked - I will show you!

This is the final product at the wedding. The brown thing is the wedding "logo" which is a fedora and a string of pearls. I copied the logo off of the wedding invitation, blew it up and decoupaged it on. I am sorry I don't have a better picture of the logo to show you - it is neat.

Okay - to make the case you need to get some black poster board. In my case, you need to go to the store twice to get the stuff because the first time you buy it and then leave it by the bagging area in the store!

Cut out two violin shaped pieces and several strips of poster board. These pieces can be any size you would like. My pieces were about 18 inches long - the violin pieces. The strips were the entire length of the poster board.

Use a hot glue gun to glue a strip along the edge of one of the violin shaped pieces. Be careful you don't burn your fingers too much!



Make sure to follow the shape of the violin shaped piece. You might need to hold the strip in place for a couple seconds until the glue cools. Once you get going it isn't too hard!

When you finish gluing the strip onto the first violin shaped piece you get to do the same thing to the other violin shaped piece! The two pieces should fit together like a gift box. To ensure this I glued one strip on the inside of the shape and one on the outside to make a little size difference. You might also want to make one violin shape a bit bigger than the other so you can glue the strips on the same way. That could be easier!

After getting the pieces glued together, you need to cover up the edges where the hot glue is because it doesn't look too darn good. I used actual decoupage paper in silver. Of course, I didn't have the real decoupage glue so I used good old Elmer's!

Then - make a card with a picture of a Tommy gun on the front. Put the card in the violin case. I did turn the card around so the barrel of the gun was in the "handle" of the violin case. That is the more authentic way to do it I am told.

Finally, have the whole thing inspected. My inspector really got into his work. And the violin case!

sdfg

And that, my friends, is how you make a violin case. Oh - I forgot - you do need to make a handle to attach to the outside of the case to carry it with. I did this free-hand with some extra poster board and then hot glued it on. I am pleased with how it turned out!

sdfg

Trisha

sfg

Voice Update: Good and bad. It is varying widely this week! My unvoiced consonants are really giving me fits but sometimes they behave. Not too much fun. More work for me!

A "1920's" Wedding

Hi All!

This weekend was fun for me. On Saturday, Halloween, Hubby and I attended a wedding. Since it was on Halloween, it was a themed wedding. The theme . . . . the 1920's. The guests were encouraged to dress in theme and the wedding party was dressed in theme.

The wedding and reception took place at The Bingham House - a historic house which, I believe, is now a bed and breakfast and site for various events.

The actual ceremony took place in the front yard.

This is the bride and her mother walking down the aisle. I adore the bride's dress!

The back with the ribbon is lovely!

Apparently, the groom thinks the bride looks good too!

The ceremony is over - it was lovely with the minister reading paragraphs the bride and groom wrote about each other during their counseling sessions. There was also a sand ceremony where the bride and groom and their families poured different colored sand into a container representing different wishes for the couple's married life.

As you can see - the guests got into the spirit!

This is the groom's cake. Very thematic!

To get to the reception, you had to enter the "speakeasy" through this door. If you didn't know the password, you didn't get in!

The tables had the cutest centerpieces - enhanced with my violin case. I made the case to hold the card for the couple. What did the card look like? A Tommy gun - of course! I will post some pictures of the construction later!

I know the bride from class and my other friend, Beth, also attended. We had to have a picture! The reception hall was very dim so the picture is too.

Here is Beth and her boyfriend, Zach. Don't they look perfect? They rented their costumes. Some people plan ahead. Me? I looked in my closet for something to wear!

sdf

It was a fun evening and the theme really was neat. The whole reception ended with a "raid" on the evening. The police officers took the couple away in handcuffs!

sdf

Too fun!

sdf

Trisha

sdf

Voice Update: I have a bunch of skipping going on. You probably wouldn't notice if you didn't know me but . . . unfortunately, I know me! I guess I need more exercises. Hopefully, this week won't be as stressful as last week and will let me get my voice worked out!