I’ve decided to change my spare room into a guest room and I’m rather excited about shopping for the wall paper, paint and all of the items to make it cozy and guest worthy. I have a lot of things to pack up and put in the attic, since I sort of used that room as a storage space. It doesn’t bother me though, lots of things can be donated to various places, and then what I want to keep can be stored. I love to do home decorating and home improvement, so this project will be fun. Redecorating is great!
T-shirts for a cause
My niece is into donating blood for people who need it, and she called me and asked if I would please help to find her, or at least look into finding some custom t-shirts for not only donating blood, but also for various cancers and other causes she is involved with. I have to say, that where I live there is no place that I am able to grant her request, so I had to do some online searching.
Custom t-shirts for her causes are important to me. My niece is so dedicated that I really admire her and when she does her walks and supports what she believes in, I indeed want to help her. While looking online, I also found that I could have shirts made up that I would like to distribute and also tell people where they could get them, considering the fact that the nearest big city from where we live is an hour and a half away, that has any shops that we could get these shirts from.
Of course because I wanted to help my niece, I went online. The custom t-shirts I found, not only could be made to pertain to her causes that she is interested in helping, but also the wording can be basically anything that a person would wish to put on a shirt. I like this idea, since I can also buy shirts that can be worn with my niece’s and nephew’s sports and activities to show support to them, or for the fact that I am proud of what they are involved in. I can also have the shirts made up as special gifts, at a great price.
Patio furniture
I keep looking at my patio and I’ve decided that I want a whole new ambiance for it and it’s use. That means new patio furniture. My sister suggested looking at Adirondac chairs as a beginning and then go on from there. I’ve seen a few of my friends chairs of that brand, including a pair of really nice looking and comfortable rocking chairs and fell in love with them. I’ve always had a great infinity for rocking chairs and comfortable chairs to relax in. I think rocking makes for peace once in awhile when things seem too stressful.
While I was looking for chairs, I was totally amazed at the other items from this company. For instance the picnic tables. I found one that I would love to have. The smaller size of it, would be totally perfect for my patio. Plus it doesn’t really look like the usual picnic table one normally sees. It’s actually quite classy and also very durable. Perfect for a small party of guests. So far the wheels in my mind are remodeling my patio so that I’ll be totally ready to do it by the time Spring is here.
I figured while I’m “mentally” getting myself a new patio, I’d also look at park benches to see if there was one that also would round out the look I want for my patio. Sure enough…there was a patio bench with cushions and even a pillow that looked great! So, with my little nest egg I save for just this kind of project, I might just take my sister’s recommendation into mind.
Dislike of shopping
I used to enjoy to go shopping. I never really liked clothes shopping because of having to of course, try everything on, but it was never bad if I had someone with me, since they could go out and get clothes they knew I liked, and bring them in for me to try on. Now, trying to shop for something to wear for the up coming wedding, and also shoes, then trying to figure out what to get the couple for a gift, is sort of loosing it’s allure. Not to mention going to store after store to find what I’m looking for…that is getting old fast. Kicker is, I have another wedding and a baby shower to go to in the next two months also. The thought of shopping online is more appealing to me now that it ever was. And just giving money to the couple makes a whole lot of sense to me!
Larger sizes
My sister in law was having a terrible time as she is a big boned woman and gained some weight that she really is having a hard time getting toned back up. I feel for her, as after her last child was born, she has not been able to drop the weight she had gained. She had a hard pregnancy with the last baby and had to be on total bed rest, which also made her put the weight on. She wears plus size dresses, but she is having a hard time finding a nice style, and she was always fashion conscious in the past and dressed really nicely.
We have a family wedding coming up and my sister in law is working out and watching her diet, and though she is loosing the weight it is slow going for her but she has really toned it and we are trying to find her a plus size dress to wear to this function. Bless her heart…she works so hard, and I see how difficult it is for her to drop the “baby” weight, but the whole family encourages her and she and I have gotten online to find that perfect dress to wear to the wedding. I’m sure she will be just beautiful, as I think she is and always will be both inside and out.
I know how hard it has been for her to tone up and also shop with the kids very young still, so I’m going to surprise her with one of the dresses she has her eye on. Its a lovely plus size dress, and it also has a slimming effect to it. It also can be worn places other than weddings!
Sundresses
For the last week I have been living in my bathing suits and shorts. Today I had to put on a T~shirt and go into town for supplies at the lake place. Even at 7:00 am, it was beginning to swelter and my the shirt was pretty much soaked, (ICKY) after about a half hour. Mom always says, “Women glisten, they don’t sweat.” Bull! I was sweating my butt off even at that early time. I even made a mental note to call Mom and have this debate with her, once I got back to the cabin. Anyway, I had to pick up a prescription at Kmart, and saw loads of clothes on clearance. Normally I don’t buy clothes from there, but I couldn’t refuse the really nice looking sundresses that were only about 6.00 each. They are really light weight and I love to wear dresses like these. It was a good deal so I ended up with five of them. I figure if need be, I can even throw one on over my bathing suit. I’m glad dresses are making a come back of sorts. These would even make great gifts.
Camping fun!
As I’m am still up at the lake cabin, I have been thinking a great deal of having my nephews come stay with me here for a few days or even a week. “My boys” are ages 8, 10 and 11. I know they share my love of fishing, hiking and nature. They, unlike me also love to rough it outside. Of course, when ever we have “camped” they have done the camping and I have provided the “must haves” (that they no doubt could do without, but groove with since they are goodies and really cool items that I know they love). This place has two bedrooms, kitchenette and living room with a large fireplace, and yes of course indoor plumbing, but boys are boys and I know they would want to stay in a tent in the yard.
I called my sisters to find out what the boys may like or need for this adventure, and the hands down, the answer was Sleeping Bags!! Apparently young boys go through sleeping bags quickly. At least my rough tough ones do, so their moms say. I personally love buying the boys things that they want and need, and also spending the money on items that are well worth the price when it comes to durability.
I’m really looking forward to having the boys with me up here at the lake. It will be a riot and I’ll even have some fishing companions! I’m starting a list tonight on the “goodies” I’m going to shop for and have to go through the shed to see what kind of shape the life jackets and such are in. It’s been a while since the kids have been up here, and I know I’m going to have some restocking to do.
Finding Alexa!
I’m contemplating looking at new custom address plaques. I’ve looked at a large variety and never knew there were so many to choose from though. Here is the kicker…I have a perfectly good mail box, with my name on it, and also the house number that the County gave out to residents. They are the kind that are mounted on the mail box post and have numbers that sort of reflect and glow in the dark. I personally think they look rather tacky, and people still drive right by the house, but hey, they were free.
I still haven’t made up my mind what kind of plaque I want, as there are so many residential address plaques to choose from. I have a hard time making up my mind what kind of pants I want to wear on any given day, so choosing something like this takes a lot of thought.
I did find some really cool Whitehall address plaques that I love. They have just the right amount of class without being over the wall with it, and they also compliment my house and gardens also. I’ll be pouring over plaques until I find just the right one though, I imagine. Until I do find one that I can’t live without, I’m having fun looking at them all!
A great place for plants!
Awhile back I was thinking about how I have been running out of room for all my plants and flowers and also that my house needed some kind of sort of finishing touches. I decided to check out some window boxes. I’m not sure if I’m going to get anymore, as I do indeed have a few, but it was cool checking them out along with all the other various containers to plant in. I do however have to, or actually want to have more space for my living friends.
While browsing I did come across some items I really liked. I loved the idea of garden window boxes, that I actually thought I could plant my herbs in, that seemed to be actually becoming a ground cover in my garden. I thought that they would look nice trailing out of the box itself, and also thought about adding some smaller flowers in with the herbs.
Since I already have a few window flower boxes, I looked at those to see if I could find some that matched. And even if I couldn’t, who cares? I could mix and match them evenly to make a unique look and since it’s my house and what I like, who cares if there might be questions about why I didn’t have boxes that didn’t exactly match one another. I’m not into the normal things like some picky gardeners are. Next spring the neighbors will no doubt be looking over here to see what I am going to add next to my gardens and they may be surprised at what they see!!
A unique gift!
My youngest sister bought a new home after living in her previous home for about four years. I wanted to get her a gift, but not something that she already had or one of those run of the mill gifts that everyone seems to give for lack of imagination. I visited her new house and saw that she had a lot of stainless steel items that were really shiny, clean looking and modern, in the house. I personally think the things would be rather hard to keep finger proofed, but she assured me that it wasn’t hard at all and even showed me this cleaning that she had, so it set my mind to working. Once home I got on the internet and let my fingers start shopping, or at least “look shopping”, and I came across some great items, including a very shiny stainless steel letter box, but nixed that idea, as I had noticed that she had a mail box in the shape of a little barn that I new she loved.
The home does have a really awesome fireplace, so I checked out the Blomus four piece stainless steel fireplace accessories. Now these, I thought were really cool looking, as I could imagine when a fire was going in the fireplace, they would sparkle and shine and well…look pretty awesome. I of course bookmarked that page to go back to later, in case I didn’t find anything else I wanted to get her. It totally amazed me how many really awesome items came in stainless steel and it was hard for me to decide exactly what I wanted to get her, that I knew she wouldn’t have or get from others.
Finally I settled on the stainless steel garden torch bowl. No one ever said I bought ordinary gifts, and I would absolutely love one of these for myself. They are a bit pricey, but my sister is worth it, and from what I have read, they are durable and also very pretty. My sister loves outdoor torches and table lights, so I am hoping that she will love this as much as I do. Maybe with my next pay check, I might splurge and get a couple for myself. I could call it a early birthday present!! 🙂