Beating the Winter Blues...with Color!

Last week was pretty lovely. Most of the snow melted, the sun came out, the sky was blue, and things were looking up.

This morning was pretty dreary. The sun was gone, the warmth was gone, and in its place was cold and rain. This afternoon the snow started. Thankfully I made it home safely through the frozen ice pellets, freezing rain, and finally snow - despite the treacherous roadways that looked suspiciously unsalted!

Now, after about 4 hours of snow, here is what is staring at me out the window (besides the snow plow that barrells through every hour or so):

So peaceful, so quiet...yet so threatening! So colorless, too! So despite the work it takes to keep my plants alive, they are just a little source of happiness as I water them everyday (or as much as I remember!) ...

This is the longest surviving plant I currently have - a Christmas Cactus. After I presumed it dead last year and was going to throw it out, my mom nursed it back to health and it has been blooming several times this Christmas!

Silly as it may sound, I've actually wanted a legit cactus for a long time. One of Robbie's students gave him this as a present this year, so now I have at least one thing I really can't kill!

We didn't buy a poinsettia this year because we were out of town for the holidays (even though we did put up a tree!), but after Christmas my grandparents brought it over to keep while they headed south for the winter!

Another strong plant, this one was killed once after it bloomed in the summer, but is making a nice mid-winter comeback in my front window where it gets lots of sun!

And finally, the newest edition to the plants in my house, this primrose is very particular. One day I came in to find all the flowers drooping like they were dead, but with a little water and a couple hours, they were back up and back to normal (as long as I remember to water daily) !

Feeling the winter blues? Find yourself a little piece of life and color to perk up those blah winter days!

You know you're bored when... :-)

I really have no reason to be bored...I really have no time to be bored! It's not like I'm sitting here, doing nothing, but at the moment I do not have a focused task that has to be completed tonight, and I'm pretty drained from an intense day of teaching, but silly me still needs to feel productive, so in between laundry loads, what's a girl to do?

(Those of you who are wondering, why not just relax on the couch? need to realize that in my messed up head, being productive around the house is relaxing --- to a certain extent. I definitely take a break on Friday nights and crash on the couch with a movie if I can, but hey - it's only Tuesday!)

So the clue to me that I'm really bored (or just plain procrastinating on everything else!) is that I think it's a good time to pull out the cross-stitch.   ..."Cross-stitch!?" you say, "What's that?" You know, that thing most all women used to do 'a hundred years ago' in their spare time, that involves a creative type of sewing for fun.

This project was actually supposed to be in a plant (the pieces should be wired together and stuck on a plant stake - not sure why I or anyone else thought that would be a good idea!)

This activity is just perfect for the high-strung person like me who needs to feel productive while sitting still. Usually it comes out on long car rides or when I know I'm going somewhere there isn't internet (hmm...that doesn't happen anymore for us Blackberry people!). This also may be why I have actually finished very few projects ;-) .

One of Four napkin rings (this is the only one that got started!)

All the projects have been abandoned (for the most part) since before I was able to drive. However, one project in particular I have been working on off and on since then. It is also the largest project I undertook, consisting of the cartoon character Tigger jumping on Winnie the Pooh. You can see where I am right now below!

The way I see it, I'll be very lucky to have this project completed by the time we have kids to appreciate it! Haha - I guess that's a step better than my mom, who finally gave my sister her cross-stitched birth announcement when she graduated from high school! (The thing to understand here is that my sister really thought she was getting second fiddle because I had one and she didn't...)

So, now that I've shared my own little boredom idiosyncrasy(!), I want to know what yours is! What do you do when you're really bored? How do you know you've reached the ultimate in boredness? ;-)
Can't wait to find out!

A Nicer Light to the Outside World - Windows!

Some of you may have noticed from the initial pictures of our house, or perhaps if you have visited our house, that the windows (like everything else) were original to the house, and some of them in quite a state of disrepair (i.e. picture below).

This one was my (least) favorite. Both bedrooms were equipped with window air conditioners permanently, such that there was no window pane to put back in the window if you took them out. This one was not even sealed very well, so soon after moving into the house we decided to make the best of it by duct taping all around the window and A/C unit in hopes to reduce the amount of air escaping or coming in. Still, the rooms didn't cool or heat very well, and we knew we needed to replace them soon.

So we decided to take the plunge and replace a few really bad windows this fall, and wait on the rest until spring. Well, with the kitchen taking so long and us not entirely having our act together, we didn't get the windows ordered until November. It shouldn't have been a problem to get them installed before the end of the year, as we usually have fairly good weather through December, but not this year!

We were hoping to take advantage of the little we had left to claim on the energy rebates / tax credits, but when we left for Ireland on Christmas day, we had little hope that it would happen. BUT, thanks to a last minute heat wave and our SUPER window installer, we were able to get them in on Dec. 30 & 31! Whew - that was close!  :)

This window lives in our family room on the first floor, which is still "under construction"

 So now we have 5 nice new beautiful windows, and it really is funny how much a difference it makes (to me) looking outside! They are a lot cleaner than the old ones obviously, but I also like the crisp white instead of the dull aluminum gray.

This window resides in the "purple room" or my office :)

Now we can't wait to get the rest of the windows done, especially since we have only one new window on the front of the house (looks a little silly, but oh well - it will hopefully be fixed in a few months).

Starting to Decorate - Finally!

So I have a confession to make - I'm a little bit obsessive when it comes to order (this is probably no surprise to those that know me well). We have been in the house for about six months now, and I just had Robbie hang up the first pictures on a wall last week. I guess it had something to do with the fact that I didn't want a bunch of holes in my walls if they weren't going to stay there for awhile, but this can also lead to (a LOT) of indecision about where to hang things.

Another aspect to the lack of permanent decorations is that we're still planning to completely move the living room furniture into the family room after it's done, so we're really not sure where everything's going to end up. I should probably just acknowledge the fact that pretty much anything can be fixed with putty and paint, but that would be too easy...  ;)

So I was finally going to jump into it for Christmas decorations and put some stuff on the walls, but I then decided that this year I'd just utilize the nails in the doors and hang stuff there until I really decided what to do with everything.

In light of all that, you'll now understand why I need your help on this very big, important decision  ;)  - Which way should I hang these pictures?!

Technically, they can be hung either way - there is no "right" or "wrong" way as far as the pattern goes. But I'm not quite sure which way looks better with the rest of the kitchen & bar area. For example, if they are hung horizontally (above), will they clash or come too close to the bar light fixtures (also red)?

But if they are hung vertically, does it seem unbalanced on the wall, being so much on the right and not anything on the left?

So you see my dilemma :) - now please help! Leave me a comment and let me know what you think is the best way, if it doesn't matter, or if you think I'm crazy! Thanks!

Ireland - Part 2!

I thought I'd give you a little more about our trip to Ireland over the holidays before taking up the home improvement adventures again! One day a few of us were able to go explore the city closest to us - Londonderry, or Derry, as some refer to it! (More on this later)

Londonderry is known as "The Walled City" because the original city wall still stands.

However, as you can see above, today the city extends quite beyond the walls themselves, such that the walls really only surround the city center.

 You can walk all the way around the city center on the walls themselves...

 ...and see a lot of the history of the city that was...

  ...and some of the history that still is...

The reason the city is either called "Londonderry" or "Derry" is due to the religious or political affections of the people - "Loyalists" are true to the crown (UK) and even paint their curbs to show their loyalty. They refer to the city as Londonderry, as it was originally named.

 From a religious perspective, the Protestants are also generally associated with the Loyalists.

 On the other side of the city are those who generally want Northern Ireland to leave the UK and join with the Republic of Ireland. Generally, they are of the Catholic faith, and do not want the city to be associated with London, hence the name "Derry".

Looking from the city walls on the southern side of the city, you can see several murals painted on the side of apartment buildings. These murals recount times of political unrest during the "Troubles".

 

Looking towards the city from a bridge crossing the river Foyle. The bridge is a double-decker, so there are two ways people/traffic could get into and out of the city.

And yes, they still care about their money, whether it's dollars or pounds! We found this and stopped in to see what you might find in a "Pound World"! (Think Dollar Tree)

Well, if there is one thing the Irish love to eat it is their sweets (of course along with their tea)! We brought back some European goodies, most of which involve chocolate, and a few that involve potatoes! (Meat-flavored potato crisps!) What an experience!

Break is Over - Back to Reality (Kind of!)

So Robbie and I did something different for Christmas this year - we spent the majority of the day on a plane - to Ireland! Most of Robbie's extended family is in Ireland, and I had not met many of them, so during the week between Christmas and New Years one of his cousins gave us a good excuse to come visit - an Irish wedding!

So we, Robbie's mom, sister, brother-in-law, and new niece all made the long trek over the "pond" (as Robbie calls it) to the "homeland". Seven days and 7,000 miles later, we were back in the US and catching up on the multiple time zone changes. But along the way we managed to get some pretty good photos of the journey!

 On top of Greinan Fort, which dates back to the time of Christ.

Windy, but we could see for miles in every direction!

 Overlooking the Northern coast of Ireland, where the cliffs drop right into the water!

Above, a view of the Dunluce castle ruins in the distance.

Below, hanging out right below the castle ruins.

 Fences are there to discourage the honest, right? Well, we can all guess who's idea it was to hop the fence and make our way to the coastline! (Below)

One of the most well-known places in Ireland is filed with thousands of these volcanic rock formations, which might look like stones placed into a road using a man-made pattern, but are actually naturally occurring...

 Some rise and fall like pyramids or hills of steps...

 ...while others are fairly level, but go up and down the coast for a good ways.

This is the Giant's Causeway, named such because there is a similar formation in Scotland, across the water (and I guess actually goes under the water as well), and the myth is that two giants were throwing rocks at each other from across the sea.

These were some of the natural beauties of the northern coast of Ireland...next time I'll show you a little bit of the city life!

Masculinity and the Christmas tree

It is no secret that Jen is a very ladylike woman. After all it is one reason I love her. But, when we spent our first Christmas together, I was ashamed to call the Christmas tree ours. Jen has like every barbie Christmas ornament known to Hallmark and lots of crystal like, or birch wood, or porcelain decorations for the thing we called our tree.

So my sister Sarah fixed that. So did my mother in law. To date Sarah has always served me in this capacity. So here are a following of masculine ornaments. (To date I have 6 on the tree, there is still a lot of room to be done though. One of my students got me an electric guitar one with the inscription: "Jesus Rocks." I like it.)

Jen got me this one. It is my favorite. She said when she got it, "Never say I discouraged your want of a motorcycle, cause here is yours. Now you cannot have more than one at a time."