Busy Times

In the past several weeks since I have not posted on this blog, my family had gone through several issues.

1.  My mother-in-law has been in and out of the hospital and a couple of rehab/nursing centers.  Her health has been failing since the first of the year, and we have spent more time than ever looking after her or visiting her in different medical facilities.

During her last rehab stint, we rushed to paint her condo.  Since our grand plan for the year includes selling both condos and moving into a larger home together, this is necessary, and her being out of her home for what turned out to be 10 days presented an opportunity to paint and fix up her place.  Of course it was extremely hectic as I am still working full-time, so my hubby did much of the work himself while juggling visiting his mom and putting in the occasional stop at home.  I worked with  him on the weekends, we finished what we could at midnight the night before Easter, which is when we promised to bring mother home.  I do hope to post a few pictures of a couple of the projects at her place later.

2. Easter.  I was too exhausted to give it the attention I wanted to, but I still made our too-old-for-baskets daughters Easter baskets and had a much appreciated our family only brunch before checking out mother-in-law at the home. Anyone who has needed to juggle other family desires with the need of a more full-time individual understands how this family time apart is needed.

3. My oldest daughter celebrated her 21st birthday.  We spent the day before at an amusement park, had the family party with grandma/mother-in-law the next day.  The following week she gave a party at home for her friends. The party was based on a Mardi Gras theme.  God bless the Dollar Store, you can get so much good party stuff there and still afford to feed your guests.

Don't you just love that humongous stuffed bear my hubby bought her?  He's still taking up half the couch, we don't know where else to put him.

4. I officially filed the paperwork for my retirement.  Since I work for a government agency, I am supposed to do this 3 months in advance.  My retirement date is July 5.  I am so ready.

I hope everyone is enjoying their spring fast turning to summer.

Jane

A New Bathroom Look To Come

Since we are going to put our condo on the market this spring or summer, I'm thinking in terms of 'staging' it.  Take away our eclectic collection of 23 years of decorating clutter, and update it with a more modern look, putting out just enough tasteful decor pieces to look lived in, all set on a background of fresh paint in modern tones and glowing furnishings.

We haven't gotten very far in preparation.  Much of this has to do with my mother-in-law being sickly and needing my hubby to be at her place daily. I go over and help out when I can, and between that and my usual 40-hour work week, there just doesn't seem to be much time or energy left for doing the cleaning and prep work involved with painting walls and redoing finishes on bathroom counters and the like. 

A couple weeks ago, in a self-indulgent shopping trip I was browsing through the clearance section of Anna's Linens and came across this handsome shower curtain in shades of browns and beige, with a touch of yellow accent.  Some recent tours of local model homes has convinced me that shades of coffee-colored browns were very much in vogue, so these are the colors I have in mind to put on our condo walls. This shower curtain is perfect to hang in our master bath, right after we get it resurfaced. I snagged this shower curtain for the bargain price of $2. Score!

The shopping area I was in also has one of my favorite stores, Ross, in it. In perusing through the home center there, I found this attractive large fleur-de-lis. I had in mind that this was something I could put to good use if it was at all a reasonable price, and in locating the price tag, was rewarded with another clearance price - $2.50.  Wow, two complete bargains in the same hour span, it was a good haul for me. I brought them home knowing that they would work well with our upcoming color scheme.  I even had a new picture I had found on clearance a few weeks before at I believe Marshalls, which fits nicely with the new look I'm hoping to achieve.

Putting this display together I am inspired to get going on actually making these improvements. One improvement I'm currently working on getting my hubby on board with is painting the countertop in our master bath to look like granite. Our countertop is one solid molded piece incorporating the sink bowl. Around the drain in the sink are lots of small lines, a grazing effect. Beside this, there is nothing wrong with the counter and I'd really rather put our money and efforts into more serious projects. Lately I've discovered articles about a painting kit which allows you to recreate the look of granite over your existing formica - and I'll assume whatever manmade material ours is.

It will make such a difference to transform the look of this counter, even though we know no one will be fooled that it is the real stuff. Then all we need to do is replace the flower-embellished handles on the cabinets and exchange the ugly 1980s builder light we always meant to replace and never got around to doing.  Oh, and that wall painting thing, yeah, that too.

Finding Your Fit

Ever hear the phrase, happy as a nine-pound cat in a five-pound box?  Missy illustrates that point.  She is a sucker for any box she can cram her somewhat pudgy self into.  Not that I'm judging her chubbiness, mind you, my body has definitely blossomed over the years as well, those extra treats play havoc with both kitty and me.  I am just not quite as fond of squishing myself into spaces which seem as if they would burst at the seams, as this poor shoebox looks like it's about to do.

Shadow here looks like the box was measured to hold her.  Even tho Shadow is 5 years old, she still looks like an older kitten, smaller than your average cat, and lacking much more than a stub of a tail. This box is positively roomy for her.

Between the two of them, I feel more like Missy in our current condo.  I count my blessings regularly to have our own home, but every year our girls get bigger, our condo feels like it's getting smaller.  We intended to upgrade to a house in a few years when we bought our condo. That was almost 24 years ago, and the opportunity to move to that larger home with yard just didn't materalize. We managed to raise our two daughters and cats in our two-bedroom, 1000 sq. foot abode, and have many happy memories here. Squished as it is, our girls talk about how they'll miss it when we leave.  As we consider our next move after my upcoming retirement, we talk about finally being able to upgrade to a larger home, at a time when other families are considering downsizing.

Keep your cozy boxes, I am looking forward to having room to sprawl out.   Wish me luck finding our perfect place.