Is Three Enough?

This month we are focused on pastels for our Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I'm a little thin with pastel colors but I did manage to scrape together three Grandma's Jewels. I'm doing this using the English Paper Pieced method.

Three Pastel Grandma's Jewels for June

Pastel Orange

Pale Yellow

Mint

This week has been a busy one. Mom turned 93 on Thursday, June 18th. At Physical Therapy on Wednesday, they surprised Mom with a birthday banner, a couple balloons, cake, and a bottle of wine! Mom was delighted with the thoughtfulness and surprise of it all.

Mom's Birthday Cake & Wine

I made "Party Cookies" for Mom with the intent to pass them out to the neighbors. Unfortunately we are in a younger neighborhood with everyone working so only one plate got passed out and then we've been too busy to distribute any more. We will try to do more this weekend. After all, it's not everyday that someone turns 93 so it's definitely worth the effort.

Mom's Birthday Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies with Party Sprinkles!

On Thursday we took her to dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse where we met with Fred's sister Betty. We had good conversation with our dinner and didn't get home until after 9:00. Unfortunately we missed several "birthday calls" from the family.

Fridays are always busy for Mom because it's her standing appointment day for getting her hair done. This time I also got a trim so we were gone a little longer than normal. When we got home she got one big phone call from my brother's house -- two of his kids with spouses were there for Father's Day Weekend! So much to catch up on with all of them!!

In the meantime we're getting our deck replaced. The old deck was giving me some safety concerns.

Looking Down Where the Railing
is Pulling Away from the Deck Floor

Showing How Far the Railing
has Pulled Away

Rotting Wood Under the Stairs

The old deck has been demolished and the framing for the new has been completed.

Old Deck All Gone
Shed in Background will be Removed Too

Deck Demolition

Framing Completed

Deck Frame From the Ground Level

Completion is expected by next weekend. So looking forward to enjoying the new deck!

That about wraps up the old and the new around here. Please feel free to join the other RSC bloggers HERE to see what scrap-happiness they've gotten up to lately!

I Like Thursday #133

First I Like Thurs post of 2024. This year is starting off with a bang!!! The day after Christmas, we had company consisting of 7 adults and 2 dogs. That made my house a total of 10 adults, 3 large dogs, and a kitty. Quite the zoo around here. We snapped a quick picture of the dogs resting because it was a rarity. That's our 71# Gracie in the foreground, next is my brother's 80#, 1-year-old German Shepherd "puppy", and finally, laying at the front door is my niece's 3-year-old, 85# Golden Retreiver Mac. That's a lot of dog in this photo!

This sweet picture is my 90-year-old mother on the right. Next to her in the middle is Mom's daughter-in-law Karen (married to Mom's son), and then on the left is Katharine, Karen's future daughter-in-law (who will be marrying Karen's son). Three generations of daughter-in-laws!

Fred tried to get a picture of all of us, except himself of course. We missed our niece this year, who probably could have gotten a shot of all of us including her selfie!

So the house settled down for a  day or two and then came a little renovation. Note in the picture above how the wall on the right is partially painted, partially not. I'd removed the wallpaper quite some time ago and decided I didn't like that job. Haha! On the left you can see the very dark wallpaper is still in tact. I decided to contract out the wallpaper removal and repainting of the dining room, entryway/hall, and front wall of my sewing room. Here are a couple of pictures after Fred & I cleared out the dining room.

HD Painting & Stain LLC showed up to begin the job January 2 at 6:45am. They stayed until 5pm and returned at 7am on the 3rd to complete the entire job. Here are a couple of in-progress pictures. YAY! The wallpaper has been removed. Don't you love how the previous homeowners painted that merlot red only down to where the wallpaper was going? That deep red was actually previously painted from there up to the ceiling. So very dark!

Of course, during the process Gracie wanted to be part of all the excitement going on. She managed to rub against a wall sometime during the job.

Gracie still wearing her paint souvenir!

Then Mom supported herself going down the hall and got fresh paint on her hand one time and then again on the outside of her hand up to her wrist later. So you see, the zoo continued well after the company left! Lol!

My kitty Polly was traumatized during the entire process.

Polly checking out the situation

What the heck is this all about?

Yikes! They're coming back!

A couple "finished" pictures. Next step, get things put back.

Light bulbs replaced while they were up there!

Worth every penny spent!!!

I put my sewing room pretty much back together first and quickly finished off my two Twilight Stars blocks for the week.

There was a lot of sitting time with embroidery in hand, waiting to see if anyone needed anything during the renovation. I ended up finishing the current Red Threads embroidery block during Mom's P/T appointment yesterday. I really like this fuchsia block.

New Year's Day we enjoyed the Rose Bowl Parade. We just love hearing & seeing the marching bands and admiring the beautiful floral floats.

This has gone on long enough. Suffice it to say that we are liking the "new look" in the front of the house, we enjoyed our company but are glad to return to normal, and we're looking forward to the next home improvement project. Stay tuned!

Movin' It Forward Monday

Just a quick post for Movin' It Forward Monday. Em and the girls have been busy this week and I think you'll enjoy seeing what we've all been up to lately. Check it out at the link above.

It's been VERY COLD here in the Midwest lately. I've taken my dog on her walk for several mornings in a row when the temps were in the teens. The wind, of course, makes it all the worse but we put one paw in front of the other and keep at it. Several miles later we're grateful to return to a warm home. Here's a couple pictures of Gracie on the frozen tundra, as I like to say. Loved the blue sky this morning.

While I have been busy sewing a little on this and that -- no, I haven't jumped on the Good Fortune wagon -- the biggie for me this week was working on this:

Pretty sure this wall paper needs to go and needs to go NOW! I set to work on the first wall the other day. After an hour or so, it looked like this:

This wall has been completely stripped of the wall paper and the baseboard & plug plate replaced. I need to decide what color paint to use on the lower half and check into chair railing. Check out that burgundy red -- that's the color the top portion of the walls were in the entire dining room and down the front hall. Way too dark for me!

Busy week as tomorrow is my guild's Christmas party, a doctor appointment Wednesday followed by putting Mom's Christmas lights up, Rosemary's Tips & Techniques on Thursday, and TAS meeting Saturday. So much fun!! Livin' it!