Quiet day

The Supervisor decided he needed to sit on hubby's lap and oversee his 'couch realm' today. He is definitely shows a preference to hubby.

I am just the slave to Charlie. I feed him, potty him, walk him, and tend to all non couch needs.

Charlie waits most mornings until Rich gets up before he gets up. 

During morning Imbd TV, Charlie rests with his head on Rich's leg.

Don't get me wrong, the dog loves his long walks. Yesterday we got a nice one in and Charlie got to chase two squirrels and one rabbit. 

He spent the afternoon snoozing next to The Boss. Rich has even allowed Charlie to occasionally take naps with him on the bed!

The afternoon...while the guys snoozed, I washed the stairs and peeled off the old butterfly stickers. I was ready for something different. I was going to leave them plain, but I like something on the stairs so it isn't all one color and to give the steps definition while running up and down them.

Yeah,

I'm a dork.

It was fun adding some cheer to the stairs. 
I think this summer I may repaint every other stair white. The paint I use is porch paint and it really holds up well to foot traffic and washes up nicely. 

IF I had my way, the walls in the house would not stay pure white. I would add color here and there. 

I brought in the rocking chair I have on the porch. I'd purchased it two years ago for about $5 dollars. I painted this chair last year with a few different bright cheery colors.

I was going to hand paint a design on it, but then decided to go with some of the leftover stickers I had.

Done!
It sits on the porch to greet folks as they walk up to the house.

I sit in the rocker often during the summer. Lazy afternoons are spent there reading or just day dreaming. Charlie has a rug I put on the bench and he sits on that so he can observe the yard from a higher perch.

My last thing of the day was to order fencing supplies to re do some of the mules' gates and add a third electric line for Mr. Pony Baloney and Goatie Goat to graze some problem areas. They cleaned up a hillside for me last summer so I have an area for the two of them to work on this year too. I have to replace some insulators in the woods where deer have gone through the lines and busted them.

Today? I pick up my new glasses! It will be nice to be able to see the distance again. Poor glasses may have been a big part of my continuous headaches over the past year.

Stupid things

Hold the scythe...
There won't be any war on burdock for the moment.

The other night I decided the windows in the upstairs bedrooms should be closed. So I charged up the stairs without turning on the lights and had stuff in both my hands.
Do you see where this may be going?

I apparently did not remove the little fan that blows the A/C air down the stairs and I forgot about it until I tripped on it and the next thing I know is I feel a crush against my chest and even with both hands that flew out and dropped stuff...I landed on the fan. Against the ribs on the left side.

So at first I just stayed still to see if I could still breathe. I could but the contact points where I landed felt like I'd been kicked by a huge mule. Then I wondered if I'd awakened Rich. I didn't. He never heard the noises I'd made.
Next I slowly pushed myself in a seated position so I could see if I could sit up.
I could and I was able to still breathe.
Well, I could breathe fine, just not huge deep breathes.

I stayed sitting and wondered how I would have handled it if I'd really hurt myself.
Well.

I turned on the lights, noted that I didn't break the fan. I shut the windows and carefully went back downstairs. I found some pillows and a blanket and made myself a 'nest' on the couch with an icepack.

How embarrassing, how stupid. How dumb. All thoughts that ran through my head. One little thing. Of course in the middle of the night I was thinking how just one small little thing like that could cause a life changing event.

Oh. And I was pretty sure I'd bruised the ribs and all the muscles in that area. Bummer. I wasn't going to CrossFit until they healed up.
Funny how the mind works in the middle of the night.

I went to see a doctor at the clinic. I didn't go the first day, it was too painful to drive. At the urging of my husband and a few of my CrossFit friends texting...to ask 'What did the doctor say?'
I went.
I was able to see a nurse practitioner who was a CrossFit nut like myself. She isn't currently doing it but we know all the same people. She was empathetic and understood my disappointment at hurting myself.

Xrays. No broken bones.
The treatment is the same for fractures and bruising. Though I don't have any skin bruises which surprised me. But that may be because the fan was plastic?

Anyway, the intrinsic muscles all the way down my left rib-cage are strained and sprained. Ice/heat, Tylenol, and a muscle relaxer were what she suggested.

So I may have to put the war on Burdocks on my list for later or not at all.

So what did I learn? Well turn on the lights? Don't rush?
You can bet that I won't do that again.
Well.
Not for a while.

I may have to take the Killer Fan and dispose of it.

Just Doodling

I started with this.
And then I started to just doodle with a pencil.

And then I started to doodle with paints.

I should have thought this out because after I got the doodling in, I realized I needed to repaint the white surface as it looked dingy with the bright new colors.

So, I went and got wood filler for the cracks and filled that in. Then painted the large area white and took a small brush to do the areas in between the doodles.

I also got the bright idea of making some trim around it, as if to frame the design in the middle.

Okay, my work flow is a bit bass-ackwards, but it is turning out nicely.

There. That is the almost finished stair landing. I won't be doing any more doodle marks, but will leave it as is. It feels just right to me...not centered, not symmetrical, and certainly it stands on its own. It doesn't match any other color in the house which is fine with me.

I need to put a couple of layers of clear coat on it to "hopefully" help it survive foot traffic when I have company. I may put a soft rug over it during that time too.

I like it.

The ol' Grumpy Guy didn't complain at all. He watched Netflix and was more worried about what I was making for supper. He didn't have an opinion on the landing at all. At least he didn't voice one.

....The upstairs awaits.

Rich did ask what I called that stuff on the landing.

I couldn't explain it...

But then I found this...

It just comes out of my subconcious.
If you asked me to draw you a doodle, I couldn't do it.
~~ Lois Frankel

That sums it up in a nutshell.

Inside work is the Pits, but...

....
sometimes you just have to do it. ~~~~~~
Cold wet rainy weather has prompted me to work on some indoor stuff.

The other night I had trouble sleeping so I went upstairs and laid down for a while.
When I came downstairs in the near dark I realize that even with my glasses on, the stairs all blended into a blob. I'd asked two years ago to alternate green and white on the stairs for better vision, but was voted down.

I came up with a solution.
The stickers come off without ruining the paint.

While butterflies are not my style, I had a bunch of them leftover from using them on a porch chair. I also tossed a few on the front of the stairs.
Hubby looked at them from across the room and told me I had all sorts of dirt on the stairs. His face was priceless when I told him they were butterfly stickers.
When I explained that they were a safety thing, he just shrugged.

[I would have loved Dragon Stickers, or something fun...just saying, the kid in me lives.]

I had walls to wash and cobwebs to conquer before my pals arrived for their next weekend.

I started by moving everything on the south side of the room away. Washing walls, using a broom and a vacuum to get all the gunk that collected there over the past summer.

While I was doing that, I decided to look for something in the basement. Uh-Oh. Three hours later I came up with an armful of winter gear to wash and two boxes of 'stuff' that hasn't been worn or looked at in two years.
I also brought up the paint to finish the work I started right after the Little House Remodel.

I begged to paint the walls around the big doors to the washer and dryer a neat green. I was met with that face of disgust.
I should have done it anyway. The green would look awesome with the pine doors.

I did these two walls in a jiffy.
The green can be seen below, that is the entry way to the house...

I want to do just one wall a different color in the bathroom just one little wall.
HE says no. I say yes. He says no.

I may paint it white now and add what I want at another time.

I asked to put up my favorite photos. HE said no. I said ... why not?
"I like the walls nice and blank, no clutter."

The good fight will continue. I was told that I could use 'the wall' opposite the washer and dryer to display my artwork and photography.

Grumpy ol' Cuss.

Meanwhile, upstairs I started back in on the west room.
A bit of hammered bronze spray paint and a bling sticker on some of the outlets.
Why not? It is my special creative room when no one else is here.

Re-arrange furniture to clear up one wall for Still Life Photography.

The rest of the room is still in a bit of dissarry but I'll get to that later. On the desk ... which I can NOW use, are wall stickers to create a silhouette of a tree.
I have a space to put it. Ol' Grumpy has no idea what I am doing.
The in wall Air Conditioner will be wrapped up and insulated for the winter in about a week or so.
It is ugly and I don't like it there, but it keeps the whole house cool on hot summer days and it IS no longer in the window.
So I will live with it for now.

I bought some wall/multi use contact paper and made a 'wooden' table. The contact paper is supposed to be easy to use. I will need practice to do what I'd like to do...

I think this would look neat on the wall behind this flip out bed...

Or it would look neat on the landing which is now old ugly plywood painted white.
The contact paper wouldn't stand up there I don't think.

So I got out a pencil and started free drawing some designs.
It will occupy my time coloring it all in with lots of colors of paints this winter.

If the Ol' Grumpy guy doesn't like it, he can install the nice piece of linoleum that we have saved for this spot.
I could install it, or I could have someone help me.

But why not do some doodling first?
I can always cover it up with something.

I'm thinking of putting some more photos up. Rich keeps telling me I can't as we need to finish the trim.

I'm ready to go get some lessons on the thingy out in the shed that cuts up the wood and make my own trim and put it where I want it.