The Sounds of Serenity

As the flashlights of children hunting for crabs on the beach cut the darkness, I hear the crashing of the ocean's waves against the sand. Their rhythmic sounds lull me into peace, and I draw a deep breath that smells of salt. The ocean is my salve for the stress of recent months, and I bathe in its healing properties. It is here that I will spend the next few days, refueling my soul and resting my brain. I can't wait to sleep with the window open and to forget about anything but the sound of waves. Constant, soothing waves.

Leavin' on A Jet Plane

In about thirty hours. The Hula-gen's and Teen Angel's BFF are headed to Destin, Florida for a long awaited and well needed vacation. I plan to wade the emerald waters.

Squeeze the sand between my toes.

And generally spend the next eight days lounging in the sun.

I have four library books packed in my bag, just waiting for me to crack their covers, and aside from making sure that Teen Angel and BFF aren't getting into any mischief, I won't have to take care of anyone. Not one single person. Sigh. I can't wait. I'll post a little here and there, but mostly I just plan on being lazy and soaking up my last chance at summer weather for the next few months. Oh, and brace yourself. I'm sure I won't be able to control my picture taking impulses around all of those gorgeous sunsets.

I'm leavin' on a jet plane Saturday morning. Don't know when I'll be back again. Oh, I love the beach so........

You Know how I get on A roll and Can't Stop

I can't help myself.

Oh, I should probably warn you I've just found a really cool site where they have a weekly photography assignment. Let me apologize now for forcing you to live through my photography education.

Falling for Autumn

I’ve made it clear on these pages that I’m a summer baby who hates fall. Well, I don’t really hate fall, I just find it depressing. While the rest of the world is rejoicing over cooler temperatures and beautiful foliage, I’m mourning bare feet and sun kissed skin. This year, I’ve pledged to make a real effort at enjoying the beauty of autumn. I’m not making any promises, but I’m going to give it my best shot.

As my first step, I headed out to take some fall pictures for a photography assignment over at The Pioneer Woman. It involved bokeh, which basically is opening the aperature as wide as possible to create bubbles of fuzzy light behind your subject. I tromped out to the wildlife refuge near my house, figuring that was my best shot at fall colors. And an interesting thing happened. I learned that fall isn't so bad, especially on a beautiful October day with plenty of sunshine.

The lens of a camera forces you to focus on details, to hone in on the minute and appreciate intricacies you might not normally notice. The foliage in this part of the country hasn’t changed much yet, so we don’t have that knock your socks off color that New England does. Yet. But there is just enough color and subtle change to make things interesting. If you look. Really look. And I did. And I’ve decided that there can be beauty in death or at least the process of dying.

Word of The Day-Anxiety

Main Entry: anx·i·ety
Pronunciation: \aŋ-ˈzī-ə-tē\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural anx·i·eties
Etymology: Latin anxietas, from anxius
Date: circa 1525

1 a : painful or apprehensive uneasiness of mind usually over an impending or anticipated ill b : fearful concern or interest c : a cause of anxiety2 : an abnormal and overwhelming sense of apprehension and fear often marked by physiological signs (as sweating, tension, and increased pulse), by doubt concerning the reality and nature of the threat, and by self-doubt about one's capacity to cope with it

Example: Deciding to paint the front door and shutters of your house a deep, dark red, then having to wait all day at work while it's being painted before you can see if it looks snappy and modern or horribly wrong like the neighbor's front door.

The Inner Sanctum

Since my last three posts have been about food, I thought I should move onto a different topic, lest you think I’ve developed a tapeworm. Today we’re going to delve into remodeling or as I like to call it, Hula Plucks Herself Bald. We are currently on Week 10, yes 10, of this project. I know this by counting the winkles on my forehead.

We’re far enough along that real progress is being made. In fact, we hope to have all of the big stuff done and the house emptied of workers by the time we leave for vacation next Friday. And I am dropping to my knees in prayer as I say that. If all goes well, we could have the appliances delivered on the 19th, but let’s not talk about it ‘cause that tends to jinx things. (I know, Mia-two weeks, right?) Everything takes “two weeks”.

I should start by explaining why we decided to do so much work on the house. After all, it’s fairly new and is a fine home. However, there were some basic things that HAD to be done such as painting and replacing all of the dirty worn out carpeting. There were also some important roofing, window and exterior door repairs. We knew we could live in the home only if it looked somewhat different than it did when Sissy lived there. We wanted it to be lighter and brighter, so that called for some cosmetic changes. We also wanted it to have certain amenities since we hope to live the rest of our lives in that house. In other words, we wanted it to include the items we’ve always dreamed about and to be accessible in our old age. That amounted to quite a bit of work that we believe will make us comfortable there and significantly increases the value of the home. If we survive the remodeling.

Things are starting to look noticeably different around the house, but there is too much to cover in one post, so I thought we’d focus only on one room today, the master bathroom. It’s one of the rooms I’m most excited about. But before we get knee deep into that, can I just get one teeny tiny thing off my chest? GREAT GERTIE HAVE YOU PRICED AREA RUGS LATELY AND WHO CAN AFFORD THOSE THINGS?!!!!! Okay, back to the bathroom. This is where we started.

And here’s what we wanted to achieve.
The orange wall color had to go. It made the windowless bathroom really dark and was an unsettling color. Whenever I looked at this room, all I saw was brass, brass, and brass. In fact, the whole house is covered in brass, and I have made it my personal mission to wipe out all traces of that gold. We wanted better lighting and needed a new toilet which you can’t see because it sits behind that short wall on the left. The beige countertops were stained and didn’t really match the bright white tile and tub or the earthy floor tile.
I love the floor tile, and it’s staying.
It desperately needed to be cleaned and resealed, though.

There was shiny white tile around the tub that made it sit like some kind of white elephant in the corner, especially when the shower curtain was pulled and hid the white shower. Hubby and I wanted to replace the shower-tub unit with a walk-in tiled shower that we could more easily step into when we’re old and creaky. It would also make the shower roomier for Hubby, who is 6’4”.

The work in that room started with the removal of the popcorn ceiling, which created quite the mess.
That living room mirror you see in the shower has floated from room to room this summer as we try to protect it from various work hazards. I can’t explain the coat rack.

While this was going on I spent a fair amount of time trying to pick a blue for the walls that would be soothing and coordinate with the blue in the floor tile.
Despite the many attempts you see there, I failed miserably, so please ignore the hideous blue you’re about to see in the next photos. It is not staying. In fact, it’s being covered with a few coats of Cottage Cream as I write this.

In the weeks that followed, we got new countertops and faucets.
And the big work on the shower and tub began. The tub moved around alot.
One day I stopped in and it was sitting in the bedroom.

As of this week, it all started to come together. The tub is much better, I think. (Ignore the blue! Ignore the blue!)
And the shower will be beautiful when the clear glass doors are installed. Those are ordered and will be here in, you guessed it, two weeks.

Most importantly, Hubby got his new toilet. He very proudly picked out the Grand Champion model with the oval seat. It can allegedly flush a bucket of golf balls. He’s very excited about the flushing capability. Men. He’s also very exciting about the light/exhaust fan that will sit over the toilet. When the electrician asked why in the world we would spend $150 on the Cadillac of exhaust fans, I had to explain how it would greatly improve the, ahem, lighting for reading purposes in that corner. Like I said, we tried to add the items we’ve always dreamed about, and that was high on Hubby’s list. Let’s just leave it at that.

The next time I show you pictures of this room, it should be finished. And that should be in less than…..two weeks.

Sweet!

While waddling around the BBQ Festival last weekend, we stumbled into my favorite ice cream shop. It will close soon for the winter season, leaving us to wait until spring for their reopening and a tasty scoop of their peach ice cream. There’s something charming about a business that does things the old fashioned way, like shut down for winter. In fact, the whole darn place is pretty charming. I can sit there all day soaking up the atmosphere and savoring a sugar cone filled with any one of their flavors.

I love the long counter.

And the tin ceiling with pendant lights.
There are the old milk bottles on the top shelf.
Have I mentioned that my great grandpa used to deliver milk to people’s homes?

I like the old fashioned décor.
And I really like the nice people who work there.
This guy is married to a woman who used to run around with Hubby in his teenaged years. He knows some dirt on Hubby and likes to share it. He’s fun that way.

Best of all, I like the ice cream. All homemade and delicious.
My flavor pick on this day? Cherries and cream.
When it comes to ice cream I can usually take it or leave it, but this place has me wrapped around their udder.