Before and After: Driveway

This is what our driveway looked like when we first moved into our house. You can see in the bottom right-hand side of the picture the fabulous plastic liner that came along either side of the drive. It was already coming undone when we moved in, but it got worse with wear between accidentally driving over it, snow, and whatnot. Then the rain, snow, and constantly driving over the driveway caused tire trenches to form, with a big hump in the middle of the driveway. It was not too pretty.


Mr. Man put his brother, JP, to work while JP was visiting. Isn't he a good brother? First, we had the driveway flattened and compacted with a small bobcat machine a friend of ours did for us. We'd rather spend our money with the locals, and make sure our friends stay employed. Second, Mr. Man rented a machine that digs shallow trenches. I don't know the name of the machine, and I wasn't around when the trenches were dug. Mr. Man and JP seemed really happy with the gizmo, though. It was a lot easier than digging the trench by hand! Third, the guys lined the side of the driveway with brick that we scored for free from a friend. We had to go to their house, grab the brick, and unload it ourselves.. Fourth, JP and I filled wheelbarrows full of gravel from two gravel piles in the driveway behind the house, and poured the gravel into the newly leveled driveway in the front between the brick. JP and I had wheelbarrow races to see who could fill the barrow with gravel, maneuver the heavy wheelbarrow into the front, dump the gravel, and rake it out first. Who needs a gym membership? Not me! It took them a few days of hard work to get there, but it came out beautifully, don't you think?


Mr. Man and JP then added pavers at the end of the driveway for easier snow removal and aesthetics, too, of course. It was a lot of hard work. The boys did a great job!


I love the juxtaposition of the mulch, the brick, and the stone. We had cut back the ornamental grass for the winter, so this portion of the landscape will change again in the Spring. It's a long driveway to be placing bricks!


The work inspectors, oh, I mean, me and George. Don't we look all serious and professional? Especially George outside in her socks....kids! :-)

Festival in October

My brother-in-law, JP, has been visiting from Portugal. We went with George to a festival of some sort (we aren't really sure what the name of the festival was or what the purpose was....there were pirates, red coats, and mermaids....hmmmm) in a nearby town. FIY, JP took all of these fabulous pictures- he is very talented in that way.

George looking very curious, just like a cat, at the pretty, pink flowers that were just out of the viewer's site. George LOVES pink!

Here's JP, our photographer, with George just beyond him...JP was in the Portuguese Navy, so when we saw there was a harbor cruise of sorts at the festival, how could we not go? Perfect!

Me and George. She wasn't feeling that great that day.... she'd been sick, but cabin fever was creeping on her something serious! We had to get out. What a beautiful day and a beautiful way to get out.

Nothing short of spectacular!

How could we NOT take a picture of a boat named Cinderella with George hanging out with us?

By the time dinner rolled around, George, oh, I mean the cat, was getting a little fiesty.

George and I sharing a little chocolate mousse. Yum!
The day was really fun, good weather, good company,
good food- what else could a girl ask for?

New Door Color

I had originally painted our foyer area outside our master bedroom a softer shade of a green/ yellow. At first it looked nice....until we started decorating other parts of the house. It didn't work so well anymore.... here's the before:




Here it is in Benjamin Moore's Caribean Teal. I painted the bathroom door, to the right in the picture, the same color.




I love seeing both the door and the Keep Calm and Carry On print from the kitchen. I need to remember to breathe every once in a while, and that print does the trick since I pass it about a billion times a day!

Before and After: Cellar Stairs

I got a little ahead of myself to take great before pictures. I had already gotten started on creating the after when I remembered, "oh yeah! I need before shots!"

Before, in the stairwell we had an ugly, plastic bag collector for those bags from the supermarket when you forget your reusable bags. We also hung our broom, mop, fly swatter, and duster on the wall from a hideous strip of wood with some fabulous nails randomly nailed into the wood strip.

I decided to use that space to hang some of pots and pans that didn't really have a place to live. They are a bit ragged looking, those pots, but we REALLY use our pots and pans in this house! Here's the after:

Our Daughter George

One day I told our 4 year old daughter that she and I would be heading out the door in about five minutes. "OK, Mommy" she said. As I packed up to go, I called out to her to let her know it was time to leave.

No response.

I called her about 15 times before I became annoyed with the sound of my own voice saying the same thing over and over again. She was completely glued to the cartoon on TV. My hair could have been on fire, and she wouldn't have even glanced my way. I started calling out other names, "Hey, Sally, Jessica, Juanita, Carlos, Sam, Sarah, Bob, George..." Amazingly, as I said George, she turned my way, looked at me as if I'd just arrived, and said "Yeah...?"

Ever since then, she's been a George.