Sectional Sofa Storytime

All kinds of fun stuff has been happening here on the homefront in the past month or so. Going through the camera roll on my phone has helped me realized that I captured much of it, but haven't shared. Today, let me share the saga of the new couch!

When Pat and I moved into our first place, we had almost no furniture. For several weeks, we actually sat on lawn furniture before finally buying a cheap, unfinished wood futon to serve as our couch. We used the futon for a few years before we inherited a real couch.

My uncle had the couch for quite a few years before we got it. So, by the time we moved into the new house last year it was well-worn. The cushions were sagging, the frame had collapsed (and was held up by 2x4s), the fabric was ripping, and there were stains all over it. We knew it was past time for a new couch. In fact, we went shopping many, many times to look and see if anyone had something like what we wanted.

After the old house finally sold, getting a new couch was at the top of our list. In all of our previous shopping trips, we had only found one couch that met our wants and needs: large sectional (so Pat and I could both stretch out), not leather, dark gray, attached back cushions, etc. Direct Furniture in Foley was our destination. The couch we wanted wasn't displayed anymore, but it was easy enough to order. J Henry Furniture makes the sofa and is based in Mississippi. Unfortunately, because the couches are made to order, it would be 6-8 weeks before our new couch was delivered. We waited on pins and needles, counting down the weeks.

When it was ready, the delivery guys hauled out our well-loved couch before bringing in the three-part sectional sofa. Because our house is laid out oddly, we anticipated some issues but figured it wouldn't be too big a deal. We were mistaken.

The first two sections went in with just a few small issues that re-positioning handled. The final section though. . .

Yup, it landed in the kitchen. Pat and the delivery guys tried everything they could to get it through the kitchen door. But, it just wouldn't go.

Fortunately, there's another entrance to the living room through a storage area. After Pat moved a ton of stuff to get the couch into that area, they realized that the couch was still to large to make it through the doorway.

Off came the door and the door frame. Sigh. However, it worked. The last section was wedged through into the living room after only two hours. The delivery guys received a very generous tip!

For days afterwards the door looked like this.

Pat needed some supplies from the hardware store before he could replace the door and frame completely.

It wasn't pretty, but totally worth it in the end to finally have this beauty of a beast.

Oh, and in addition to picking out the color of the sectional, we were able to select the fabric (from an array of choices) for the six pillows that came with it. I really liked all the colors in this paisley print that we ended up choosing.

It took a few hours for the cats to get used to the couch, but Asia has yet to find a spot on it that she doesn't like.

So that's the tale of the couch that almost wasn't. We've had it over a month now and are still absolutely in love with it. I guess that's a good thing because it looks like it's stuck in here for a while. Have you ever had issues with getting large furniture moved? I'd love to know your stories.

Focusing on Life Week 27

Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a picture of the BACK of a cat's head when all she wants to do is look at you?

Of course, it's difficult to get a cat to do what you want them to in any other circumstance as well. If I had wanted her to look at me, I wouldn't have been able to make that happen. That's a cat for ya.
This week, Sally of The Studio Sublime challenged us with capturing a photo of "Texture" or how things feel.

The instant I read her prompt description all I could think of was the soft mats of fur right behind and almost below Asia's (that's the cat in the photo) ears.

They're baby fine and rabbit soft. It's one of my favorite places to scratch her. And, fortunately, she doesn't mind me doing that at all (most of the time.)

Check out more Textures over at Sally's blog, The Studio Sublime.

Oh! And don't forget to head over to the ZnetShows Blog for the Partner Picks Summer Challenge blog hop and information on the GIVEAWAY!!

Focusing on Life Week 6: Feel the Love

As you can probably tell from the above title, this week's prompt for Sally's Focusing on Life series was "Feel the Love." I thought about it all week and then was struck with an idea on Thursday. It's a bit of a narrative (not too, too long though.) You've got to get a feel for the back story. Stick with me.

Meet my baby kitty, Asia. (She's not really the baby of the family, but you can't tell her that.) She is my shadow.

Her second favorite place in the world is my lap.

Now meet Rosalena, our other kitty (she's actually my niece's cat but lives with Pat and me. . .details, whatev.)

Asia DOES NOT like Rosalena. In fact, she is very suspicious of her and sworn her to be her mortal enemy.

However, Asia's first favorite place in the world is a spot of sunshine.

She LOVES the sunshine so much that she would brave this situation to get a sliver.

Yup! Can you "Feel the Love"? (for the sunshine that is).

So, that's my submission for this week's Focusing on Life. Hop over to Sally's blog, The Studio Sublime, to check out how others interpreted the challenge.

I Heart Macro: Rush Job

Somehow I didn't take ANY macro shots this week, so I was running around like a fool this morning looking for subjects.

First is a some of the beads in the printer's drawer that I had everyone drooling over on Wednesday.

Secondly is the kitty that was closing watching my frantic picture snapping.

As frantic as it was. . .those were the only pictures that weren't blurry. figures.

Link up your macro shots this I Heart Macro Sunday at Studio Waterstone

Monday Morning Madness

This sweet angel was called all sorts of (not so ladylike) names this morning as she insisted that it was TIME FOR MAMA TO GET UP!!

BLARG!

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Since it's Monday, let's start with the usual routine of the menu. . .

Breakfasts: PB/Nutella toast, cereal/grits, waffles, buttermilk blueberry breakfast cake*, eggs w/bacon and toast, hashbrown baskets*

Lunches: ham quesidillas, chicken salad, homemade hot pockets*, bean burritoes, ham sandwiches, soup and grilled cheese, leftovers

Dinners: 

Grilled chicken w/grilled corn on the cob and baked beans

Tacos w/ rice

Potato soup w/salad

Chicken Alfredo w/broccoli

Pot Roast w/potatoes, carrots, rice, & black eyed peas

*If you are observant, you'll notice that the blueberry cake, hashbrown baskets, and hot pockets are repeats from last week. I never got to make the cake or pockets, but I did make the baskets. . .

And, they were SO GOOD that they're on the menu again this week! (Please note that I made them with scrambled eggs.)

For more Menu Plan Monday, head over to I'm an Organizing Junkie!

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While I've got you checking out links, here's a few GIVEAWAYS!

• Lori at Studio Waterstone (of Macro Sunday fame) is giving away a fabulous suede journal AND a beautiful cuff! Go there now and enter!
• Art Bead Scene is (as usual) offering up a Studio Saturday giveaway. This time it's for some of Jennifer Heynen's ceramic beads!

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New necklace

Moonlit Shadows Necklace

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Onward with my day, even though Asia's got me feeling like this

YAWWWWWNNNN!!

All Over The Place

Don't you just love randomness? Here's a ton of it for you!!
I FINALLY got in my craft room today for a few hours and when I left it, this is what was on it.

Of course, my shadow (Asia) was there the whole time to supervise.

I've written and re-written this about six times in my head and twice more on the computer.
Let me just say: I save links. LOTS of links and I'm ready to start purging some of that information here.
What I'm sharing today was originally intended for my other blog, but I've since given that up to just post here.
These are SOME of the crafty links I have saved of some cool projects and inspiration I've found.
Tonight, I just randomly picked a topic - collage/mixed media/decoupage and these are the links that I've tagged with those subjects. Enjoy!!

• List of collage techniques
• Make collages online 
• Scrabble tile pendant tutorials 
• Decoupage your ceramics

Maybe the next time I throw these links at you I'll give you some more information. Maybe.

Craft Room Reorganization - the Beginning (MMSM)

 Apparently, March is "Craft Month" or some such thing.

Recently, I've stumbled upon a wealth of jewelry craft inspiration in the form of some new Bead/Jewelry bloggers. Reading and reviewing their blogs has really made me want to get my crafty butt into gear.

While EVERY month is a craft month to me, I want to really put forth the effort THIS month to be crafty or work on my craft room every day this month, even if for just a few minutes. I started yesterday.

After an incident with my kitchen oven (see my Facebook page for more info), I pressed my luck and decided to bake/cure my polymer clay pieces (top of the page.) I have a persnickety craft-ONLY-designated toaster oven (it takes me FOREVER to get it to the right temperature and keep it there.) Really, it's a pain in the arse. Since I had some waiting time (while it was shuddering to the right temp and then while baking the beads), I started working on some organization in the craft room. [If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm ALWAYS working on getting the craft room organized.]  As I started on these tasks, I made a few realizations:

1. I have entirely TOO MUCH stuff in the craft room. Really, it's overwhelming.
2. If I actually go through every bit of it, I might be able to find some items to part with. (via donating, freecycling, a yard sale, maybe even a giveaway here or something along those lines)
3. Just BEING in the craft room to clean, might incite me to actually create more.
4. Limiting the amount of stuff I have to use might mean I actually USE the items I have.
5. Having a clean and clutter-free craft room might incite me to use the room more often.
6. Using this method on the rest of the house too might not be a bad idea either.

The hardest part is being ruthless about what to get rid of and what to keep.

I'm only going to do this cleaning/organizing/purging in small increments of time, to keep myself motivated.
I started yesterday with my main craft table and then a side table. I only cleared off enough of the craft table to basically put down the polymer clay beads. But then I was ruthless on the side table. I had already started on it when I took this picture. It was MUCH worse than this.

I went through each container, bag, etc. to see what I have and want. I didn't go through the stacking container on the right side of the table. This contains my beading wire, thread, cord, hemp, etc. It does need a thorough cleaning as I haven't used hemp in YEARS for my designs, and I've got a TON of it. Plus, who know WHAT ELSE is lurking in those drawers. I just about filled a gallon-size ziplock with shrink plastic pieces, ugly jewelry, random loose beads, etc. It was tough getting rid of some of those items, but here was my result!

The picture's a little blurry, but you get the general idea. At some point, I'd like to find a better sorting method than those metal planters. They work for now though.

My next project is my bead stash. It'll probably be the hardest for me to purge. It needs to be done. I'm running out of space, yet I keep buying more. Tragic!! As well, it's hard to tell what I need in the mess of the chaos. The beads will take me the longest to go through, I'm sure. I'll just do a little at a time. Here's how the beads are stored now (under the table I just cleared.)

That's Asia, my craft room companion, on top of one of the fishing tackle boxes.

Wish me luck!!

For your patience with this post, here's some "Made Me Smile Monday" goodies for you:

• How's this fat guy ever gonna get through the bus doors, nevermind finding a seat. Can you imagine what those other bus-riders are thinking? 
  
  
  
• If you know me, you know how very much I LOVE all things Lord of the Rings related. Have you seen these Lord of the Rings Facebook Status updates? They are AWESOME!!! And awesomely hilarious!!
• Who doesn't like to watch famous people mess up? Here's a collection of bloopers (movies and TV) for your viewing pleasure and amusement! 
• This door is alarmed . .. I soooo would have been the person to put up the post-it if I had seen this.
  
  
  
  
  I hope this makes a better Monday for you!!

Kitty Cat VooDoo

By a show of hands, who out there has a cat?
I LOVE my kitty, but she has been driving me nuts today. Well, nuts in the sweetest way possible.
Usually her attempts at making me crazy include: tearing around the house, doing skateboard tricks off the hallway walls, testing out the durability of the carpet with her claws, and meowing incessantly like she's locked in a closet or something (actually,she's better behaved when she's locked in a closet - accidentally, of course.)

Today, though, she can't seem to get enough of my lap. I've let her nap in it on and off all day while I've worked from home. But, every once in a while I want my lap bare so I can look over some work papers. As such, I've moved her off the lap. Before I know it, she's there again and I have NO IDEA how that happened.

I remember taking her off my lap and the disgruntled look she gave me. I remember her easing herself back toward my thighs. I remember her placing her little kitty paws ever so slightly on the top of my leg and resting the kitty head on those paws. After that, everything goes blank. Am I overcome by the cute factor? Is there some kitty voodoo that she does? Is she a ninja? Who know?
All I know is I currently have a whole, sleeping cat in my lap as I write this.
Heyyyy, she's purring.

Blogging Self-Pity

Geez, I must be pretty boring or a really bad host. After looking over my analytics program, I realize that I'm getting fewer and fewer visitors. The ones who actually visit are only staying for less than a minute.

I've got to find some way to get some more attention here. Flashing my boobs always worked for me in college. Yet, I'm not drunk enough to try THAT this morning. I'm also not really sure what to do to improve this standing either. Suggestions? - Wait, who am I kidding? If you guys aren't leaving comments, answering polls, or reading this BS for more than a minute, why would I expect you to give me some suggestions. . .

I'll continue to post here for my own selfish, misguided reasons, and I'll pretend that I'm getting more attention than you.

Aaaaaand, since I'm being selfish - I shall post a picture of my cat for me to enjoy!

After a long day of highlighting, Asia collapses in a spot of sunshine in the floor while still clutching the bright yellow tube.

Simple Notes (& TT)

I kinda let loose yesterday, huh? Sorry about that.
How about today I just do a simple list of what's going on:
-I'm getting to work from home today. That means that I'll take some short (5 min) breaks every 45 minutes or so to get the laundry, dishes, and house picked up.
-I put a roast in the crockpot earlier and now that's all I can think about. It better be good.
-My cat (Asia) is driving us crazy. She walks around the house just meowing over and OVER and over and OVER.
-The dang laptop keeps losing internet connection and makes it hard for me to get any work accomplished. Grrrrrr.
-It's really nice to have Twitter on days like today. That way, I can still feel connected to other people, without having to actually interact with them. (Yes, I know I'm a tad antisocial.)
-I use three feed readers to manage the blogs I read: one for work, one personal that I read daily, and one for blogs I just want to remember to check in on from time to time. Is this obsessive? I do want to mention that my daily personal one includes 222 blogs, divided into 14 different categories.
-I may have an internet addiction.

It's 'Techie Tuesday," when I share some of the geeky-interest items from the internet and elsewhere:

• Here's a font-like movie-geek quiz. See if you can recognize the movie from just a single letter of the font from the movie poster. I didn't do great, but I did get a few of them. Now, you try.
  
• And for some more fun, try this little game - Switch. There is a tutorial. Beware, it can be addictive.
  
• I really enjoy those "I Love the World" commercials from the Discovery Channel. Here's one a group did on their own:
  
• This online tool will help you oldify your pictures. It's all in chinese or japanese, but it's pretty self-explanatory. I did it with a picture from my nieces' birthday party in April.

Let me know if Tuesday's topics don't interest you at all. I've been thinking of doing something else on Tuesdays. Lemmie know!!

Mattress Prep

Yawn! Getting ready for a new mattress is a bit more work than you would think.
We bagged up another lawn and yard bag of clothes (all his!), gathered a box of items to donate (plus the old mattress and box springs), and threw away several large boxes of trash. Then, I vacuumed the floor and cleaned some stains on the carpet before LOML* put together the universal bed frame. After that, we decided to trim the cat's nails before blowing up the air mattress and heading to, um, floor. Neither of us slept too well on the air mattress. Apparently, the kitty wanted revenge and was CRAZY - which kept up LOML*. However, the air mattress was not the most comfortable surface for me. Now, I'm sore and have a headache that just won't quit. We CAN'T WAIT to go to bed tonight!!

"Techie Tuesday" is making an appearance today.
It's not much, but here you go:

• Make a mandala online. I did!
• Check out flickr vision where you can see what picture other people around the world are uploading to Flickr, in real time. Pretty cool.
  

Have a great day. Oh, and good news, if you ever come to stay with us, the air mattress is ALL YOURS!! It is more comfortable than the sofa bed, really!!

*LOML=Love of My Life

Cheering Myself Up and WWWW

I'm having a really BLAH day.
This getting pregnant thing is much harder than all my 'accidental pregnancy' friends and family make it out to be. I'm trying to find things that make me feel better liiiiike -
1. the thought of going to the new Thai restaurant tonight for dinner
2. remembering the good, tight hug LOML* gave me this morning when I was so upset
3. a chocolate milkshake with lunch
4. these pictures I took all by my lonesome
They're not much, but I like them. I'm still playing with the settings on my camera to get the effect I want.

Those make me feel better AND guess what?!! It's "Wild Wild Web Wednesday" and I want to share some things with you because you coming to read my blog makes me feel better too. (5.)Here we go:

• Domain names can be misleading, so before you buy one - think about all the ways it can be interpreted.
  
• Wanna be a ninja? Who doesn't? Check out this ninja recruitment ad. AWESOME.
• I made you this monk-e-mail message. It was fun.
• These sheets could be fun.
• I haven't gotten my stimulus check yet, but have had some fun checking out how others have spent theirs.

Happy hump day. I'm feeling a bit better now that I've shared with you. Thanks!

*LOML=Love of My Life

Catpeople

Just a quick, random observation:
Do you think it's true that people and their pets take on similar traits?
Lately, I've found myself distracted by (and compelled to watch) bits of fuzz and hair that are floating near or above my head.
On some occasions, I swat at it. At other times, I just watch it. Seriously!
I make fun of my cat for doing this exact. same. thing.

Working at Home

I've been able to work at home some lately, and it's been really nice. I have worked from home in the past and was concerned about how easy it was to get distracted. However, I'm finding that I am less distracted here than I am at the office. I'm not really sure what to make of that other than the possibility that I am consciously trying NOT to get distracted. My baby kitty, Asia, likes having me home. LOML* also works at home and we are able to take lunch together and all. Yet, we try to keep to our separate areas to ensure we get our work done during the rest of the day.

Of course, this is what I'd really like to be doing: napping in the sunshine!!

*LOML=Love of My LIfe