Curtin Call

I’ve recently become obsessed with a “Trash to Treasures” website that I stumbled upon. Though I would not consider myself a “tree hugger”, I do realize that there is way too much trash being dumped into our landfills and I do try to be aware of what I purchase, how much I recycle, etc.

Well, check these out!

I love those and I have to have them!

Unfortunately, we don’t have any old wooden ladders laying around that I can “reuse” for this purpose but I’ve given hubby strict orders to be watching curbside in case someone else does (I’m not adverse to trash picking! LOL!)

Anyone out there got a couple wooden ladders they’re looking to get rid of???

Okay, so… the television and table lamp have arrived for the living room so, with the exception of a few decorations that I’ll eventually get, the living room is done! Am I excited??? Oh, yeah, just a bit! That was a project beyond projects and finally, the dust has settled.

Oh, wait… did I say the dust has settled??? Who am I kidding??? The dust can only settle if no one is stripping wallpaper, mudding and sanding walls. Which means they would have to be doing something like… sitting still. And my husband is not capable of sitting still. So…. onto the next project. The kitchen! Our goal is to get a new kitchen (cabinets, floor, appliances, etc) next winter but hubby has already started stripping the wallpaper and will apply a coat of primer in preparation for the big work that will be done next year.

It will look great and I really am happy that I have a husband that is able and willing to do such wonderful things around the house but really, I just wanted a dust-free house for a little while. Was that too much to ask???

Happy Halloween, all! You may recall – this is my absolutely, positively, most favoritist holiday!!!!

Well, I can’t stay here long, I have to go find me one of these for the boys:

Thanks to those of you that went over and visited Angie at Home Grown and commented on her “Gone Country” post. I’m happy to inform you that I won! I won!

I have not yet received my prize package but Angie has confirmed that its on its way! I’m so excited and yes, much as I hate myself in photos, I’ll try to get the hubby to snap a picture of me in my new John Deere garb!

That is where I’ve been. It is now Fall in New England which means we have two houses (ours and the MILs) to get ready for winter. Life has been very, very hectic to say the least!

Few quick updates:

The living room is now 95% complete (have you ever known anyone that can drag a project out as long as we can?!?!?!) I finally found curtains and a rod to fit our 119″ wide window. Yes, it meant bringing them to a tailor to get them “right” but, hey, we have them! Now, just to find the time to hang them….

The couch/chair/ottoman arrived and the ottoman was HUGE! It was NOT going to fit when the tables arrived and I was completely beside myself on how that could happen (we were a bit anal retentive about measuring the room for the furniture – anyone surprised by that?!?!?!) Well, turns out that the measurements that were in the catalog were put there by someone that was on drugs (I’m quoting the delivery guy on that!) and it was much larger than it was advertised so they did take it back. Now, I’m just waiting for the credit to my account….

The final pieces of wood molding have been cut, stained, urethaned and installed. Can you say “woohoo”!?!?!?!?

The tables arrived and I love, love, love them! THE best furniture I’ve bought in a long time.

The television is on order and is scheduled for delivery on Saturday. Excited??? Uh, yeah, just a tad!

I ordered a table lamp which I also suspect I am going to love, love, love but that was back ordered. Hopefully its shipping this week.

On the outside front:

Tree guys come today to do some pruning and will return Thursday/Friday to remove a HUGE tree from along the border of the woods which is leaning just a bit to scarily toward the house.

We have the railings on the deck sanded and have applied the first coat of stain. The decking is also sanded but waiting for the first coat. We’ve pretty much run out of time (with everything else that still needs doing!) to get to the stairs and second coat done so those will just have to wait ’til Spring.

A little off topic…Last week, as I was getting ready to leave the house, I heard the most obnoxious, scary noise from our backyard. It was 5:22 (my neighbor who asked if I’d heard it confirmed that time for me! LOL!) and pitch dark. Hubby had already left and I could not find the words to describe what I heard. I actually ran downstairs because I thought something had gotten in the house and attacked my cats. It was that loud (please don’t ask what I thought I was going to do if, in fact, something had gotten in cause I have no idea!) The neighbor suggested maybe fisher cats so I had to google. Turns out fisher cat sounds are easily confused with those of red fox, which I know we have in the woods so I’ve chosen to convince myself that its just red fox. Something about fisher cats just scares me.

So, that was a quick update. Lots of other happenings, too, but I’ll save those for another day.

So, I recently figured out how to get my videos from my recorder to here. That prompted me to tinker through the videos that have been on my camera for, oh, four or five years now?!?!?!

The first one I stumbled across was of Frosty and Shadow, clearly when Shadow was just a kitten, judging by the size of him:

Download Title

This is a more recent picture of the two of them:

And that one is being “nice” to Shadow as he’s really a wee bit bigger than that would have you believing:

He’s still our baby, though! Soooo cute!

(Just wait until I get the video of my brother’s dog singing a Christmas carol uploaded!)

Okay, I need your help. I also need your friend’s help, your father/mother’s help, your brother/sister’s help, your spouse/significant other’s help, as well as any stranger’s you might pass in the street’s help.

Angie, over here at Home Grown (aka: Big Red Couch) is running a contest and I have to have that t-shirt!!!!

My house may not be as country as Angie’s but before we moved there, we didn’t need that John Deere. I didn’t have deer running around my backyard. I would have never thought to “decorate” my yard with bird houses. I would not have a squirrel living in a bird house in my yard. I would have never built my “gardening bench”. I would have been perfectly content with my annual plants but am now educating myself on perennials.

So, yeah, I guess we do live in the country! Please, please, please help me!!!!! Its easy:

Just click here: Home Grown and copy and paste (or type) this: “Mary from Curtin Call sent me!” into Angie’s comment section on her Gone Country entry, and “I just maght git me that there John Deeah t-shirt, y’all!”