OLD WOMEN!

I just love the commercial urging women to get a mammogram with the catchy tune about "When I grow up, I want to be an old woman!" Are you familiar with it? It portrays older women in such a positive way as happy, active, dancing, and cheer leading ladies. Love it!

Below is a picture of the old women in my young life when I was 11 years old - two grandmothers and two great-grandmothers.

Here are some random thoughts about old women:

1. Old women attend a lot of funerals. Statistically, women out live men.

2. Most old women are grandmothers. They have time to build Lego castles and help dress Barbie in her skinny jeans. They are a wealth of information, and can discuss anything with a kid from grasshoppers to why 13-year old girls act the way they do, and why boys can be such dorks on occasion.

3. Just from experience, old women can usually put a decent meal on the table. They can make dinner out of nothing - give them a couple of eggs and a dib and dab of this and that, and they can fix a meal.

4. Old women really appreciate their modern conveniences because they remember what it was like to do laundry on a wringer washing machine and wash dishes by hand after a Thanksgiving dinner for 20.

5. They have learned the virtue of patience. Among other things, they have the patience to untie knots with ease - it doesn't matter if it is a rope, fishing line, but especially a kindergartner's shoe lace.

6. Today's old women are with it. They email, shop online, and some even blog! They own iPods, iPhones, and Kindles. They text and twitter and are on face book.

7. Old women can run a power saw to miter a corner on molding; or run a sewing machine to mend socks or a hole in a pair of jeans. And they practically can do it all at once - the original multi-taskers.

8. Old women walk to the gym, drive to church, fly to Europe, and cruise to Alaska.

9. Old women are smart. I bet there is even one out there that understands the proposed health care plan.

10. Old women together can laugh louder and have so much fun around a table with a cup of coffee and some chocolate.

12. Old women are having a great time out in the world today!!

I'M ALL GROWN UP; AND PROUD, HAPPY, AND CONTENT TO BE AN OLD WOMAN.

By the way, I do what the commercial urges and I get my mammogram every year. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, so make arrangements for your mammogram today. Don't you want to grow up to be an old woman?

Sally

P.S.: If you want to know what I look like as an old woman, take the grandmother in the middle of the back row above; blow-dry her hair and dress her in jeans and a t-shirt. That would be me.

OUR SUMMER PROJECT

Thanks to Susan at Between Naps on the Porch
for once again hosting Metamorphosis Monday. Be sure to check out her blog for a list of the participants this week.

FINALLY, I have a metamorphosis to post about. All summer we have been working on a project to make the flow better from our front door, through the entryway, and into the dining room. Phase I of the project included adding a mudroom in our garage with a large closet. You can read about that part of the project here, if you are interested.

Phase II included demolishing the coat closet in the entryway to make more room, then tearing down the wall between the entryway and our dining room.

In the past, when you entered through the front door this is what you would see. The front door opened the wrong direction, and guests were left trying to decide which way to go. There was a tendency to want to go down the hall to the bedrooms and not into the living room or the dining room.

In this before picture, the closet is on the right with the doorway on the wall into the dining room.

Now, this is what you see when you enter the front door and are standing in the entryway.

In this before picture, this is what you saw from the dining room looking into the entryway. That is the former closet on the left that was demolished.

In this after picture, this is the view of the entryway and front door from the dining room. The old wall and closet were where the little desk now sits. The front door has been switched around and now opens into the entry.

Bob did all of the demolition work, redid the hardwood floor, and redid all of the crown moldings and baseboards plus repainted the hall, entryway, dining room and kitchen. We did hire out the electrical work and had a friend who used to do high-end wall finishing work heal up and finish the walls. He did a wonderful job, and you cannot tell where the closet and wall were.

Then, we did a couple of small metamorphosis projects for the dining room. Years ago Bob made this plate rack for me when I was more into the shabby chic look. It has been up in the attic for a couple of years.

He put a stained bead board back on it and painted it black.

The second mini-met project was the painting of this wardrobe which over the years has stored linens, then displayed my collection of German Lustre dishes.

My collection has gotten out of hand, and I needed space to store dishes, not just display a few. So, the cupboard now has lace curtains on the inside of the glass doors to hide my addiction.

There you have it! Our house is quite small, and this remodeling project has really opened it up and it flows so much better. It took me 6 1/2 days of solid cleaning to get everything back to being livable. Now, we are decked out for Fall and ready to celebrate birthdays and the upcoming Holidays.

IT'S FALL!!!

Fall is in the air in Colorado!!

And, I'm in Fall-cleaning mode. Our summer remodeling project is almost completed, so now it is time to attack all of the dirt and dust from the project. Therefore, I need to take a little break from blogging to concentrate on getting this house back in order for all of the upcoming birthdays and holidays. Check back in a week or two - I should have pictures of our new and improved entryway and dining room!!

Thanks for your continuing support of my blog. I appreciate all of your interest and comments.

Sally

CLOCHE PARTY

It's Cloche Party Time! Please go check out Marty at A Stroll Thru Life
and check out all of the other partyers showing off their cloches!

I'm still in extreme cloche-envy mode, as I have yet to find an exquisite cloche at a reasonable (really cheap) price. So, in order to participate, I have dug out my cake dome which sits on a wooden pedestal. My father made the pedestal in his high school wood-shop class 80 years ago.

I have a small collection of miniature doll house furniture from the 1960s and from my childhood. A cloche is perfect to cover these little gems. I have a hard enough time keeping my regular house dusted without cleaning a pretend house.
What do you suppose the queen of this kitchen is cooking this Fall day? Looks to me like it must be a Pumpkin Crunch Pie.

Now, go check out Marty's blog to see what else is cooking under a cloche today.

MOSAIC MONDAY - THE WEDDING

It is Mosaic Monday hosted by Mary at Little Red House.
Please check out her blog for a list of this week's participants; plus take a look at the wonderful portrait photography that she is doing these days.

Not only is it Mosaic Monday, it is also Labor Day and our 51st wedding anniversary. Last year on our 50th I posted about marriage - click here if you are interested. This year, I thought I would talk about The Wedding! Weddings were different back in the 1950s in our community than they are today. Even a large wedding was simple. Ceremonies usually took place on Sunday afternoon as most people worked on Saturday. They were held in the bride's church, which was usually decorated with lots of fresh flowers. I suppose our wedding was considered quite large with 300 guests, but there was no fancy meal; just a reception at our house with cake, nuts, mints and punch. My parents had a large house with a finished basement and a beautiful backyard, and could well accommodate that many people. It was a gorgeous, September day.

In those days, the marriage was between a husband and a wife, but THE WEDDING was between the bride and her mother. Even the announcement in the local paper of the engagement had only a picture of the bride-to-be, and the up-coming nuptials were announced by only the parents of the future bride. Funny as it may seem, the groom was almost an after thought. All he had to do was show up the day of the wedding with the ring!!!!

In our small town, brides almost always had a formal, studio picture taken the week before the wedding that was then used in the newspaper with the details after the wedding.

Mother and I did all of the planning together, and I only remember having a small disagreement about the plates to use for the cake. With so many people, she thought we should use paper plates; but even then I loved dishes. You can see in the bottom left picture that I won out. We used Mother's large collection of Fostoria glass plates. She hired someone to wash dishes as they were used! Thank you, Mother - to this day I love using her Fostoria. I remember how beautiful and young my Mother looked that day - pretty enough to be the bride herself as she had just turned 39 years old the day before the wedding.

I'm eternally grateful that Bob showed up that day with the ring. I can't imagine what the last 51 years would have been like without him. It has been a wonderful life!!

FLAUNT YOUR FLOWERS

For the first time, I'm going to participate in Tootsie's "Flaunt My Flowers" party. I've always been so intimidated by her beautiful gardens; but, right now my front garden looks pretty good thanks to my husbands attention to it. The Blue Mist Spirea has just started to bloom - the smell of it and the alyssum is delicious. The Monarch butterflies are swarming around evidently liking the smell and taste, as well.

The white daisy-like flower is actually a Profusion Zinnia, one of our favorites. There is a glimpse of the pink Profusion Zinnia in the lower left corner.

Please head on over to Tootsie Time to check out all of those participating in showing off their flowers. If you haven't been to Tootsie's blog before, you are in for a treat. Under 'green thumb' in the dictionary, it says "Tootsie"!

BLUE MONDAY - SUMMER'S END

It is Blue Monday, so please go check out Sally's blog, Smiling Sally
for a list of the participants.

I really am BLUE as summer is over! School starts for our grandkids tomorrow - back to a regimented schedule, no more lazy days, or journeys with Bob and I to experience summer fun.

In an effort to broaden their horizons through another generation's eyes, we took several short road trips this summer with Caitlin and Wyatt. Nothing was more than a couple of hours in the car or nothing was too expensive with just picnic lunches or fast food. I didn't realize they had so many BLUE shirts until I checked out the pictures - perfect for BLUE Monday.

Bob took them fishing a couple of times - once on the river and once on a lake. One very hot day, we went to the go-cart track in The City; and WOW, did they have fun driving for the first time!

On another very hot day, we went to historical Bent's Fort on the Santa Fe trail and to the Koshare Indian Kiva Museum to experience life in the 1800s.

And, finally we experienced one man's dream at Bishop's Castle in the Rocky Mountains with the bonus of a whole week's exercise climbing turrets and towers.

We loved every minute of the time spent under the BLUE skies with these adorable, well-behaved kids . They are growing up way too fast.

DIRT, DUST AND A GIVEAWAY WIN

Last week, I went to The City to get a haircut, my mammogram, and to shop; and when I left my foyer looked like this. The doorway straight away is to the dining room and kitchen and the door to the left is to the living room. On the right is the wall of our coat closet.

By the time I returned home, this was the wall to the coat closet down to the studs.

The next morning, I went to have coffee with some friends, and when I returned 3 hours later; this was the wall and door to the dining room and kitchen.

A man with a crow bar can make fast work of an old closet and wall! This is something I have wanted done for a long time to improve the flow of our entry way. I'm sure the next time you see this, things will have improved when the wall and floor are all healed up. Just look at that dirt and dust. But, already I'm loving the openness and feeling of space.

* * * * * * * * * *

Ellen at Nouveau Stitch recently had an apron giveaway, and I was the winner. If you haven't visited Ellen before, hop on over to her blog. She does amazing things with a sewing machine that you will enjoy. When I received the box, it was filled with goodies to use for every season.

Check this out! There were Fall candles; a Christmas towel that Ellen made on that amazing sewing machine of hers; four cute bunny napkin rings to use during Spring, and then four little Summer lawn chairs that my glass votive holders fit in perfectly. Then, there was the black and white apron! My 12-year old granddaughter latched onto the apron right away. She was needing a new apron to use at my house because she is getting so tall.

Thanks, Ellen, for a fun giveaway!

OUT AND ABOUT IN COLORADO

Susan at A Southern Day Dreamer
is hosting Outdoor Wednesday for us to show off our outdoor pictures. Check her blog for a list of the participants this week.

We're on the road again with the grandkids in an effort to have some new experiences this summer. We headed into the mountains to view Bishop's Castle. What is more exciting for a 7-year old boy then to see a real castle? Since Caitlin is just a month & a half away from being a teenager; she was a little less enthusiastic, but ended up having a great time, also.

The castle is the vision of Jim Bishop who acquired the land in 1959 at the age of 15. The structure started as a family cabin, but grew into the castle constructed by Mr. Bishop's own hands of stone and concrete with wrought-iron bridges and walkways that cling to the towers.

The jutting dragon is made of recycled hospital trays; and the fireplace vents through the dragon's nose expelling smoke.

We climbed and climbed up through narrow turrets and outdoor walkways to reach as high as the dragon. We didn't go up any further, as it was getting a little scary without as many guard rails. Plus, Grammy & Papa's legs aren't as young as they formerly were!!!!

The large ballroom is decorated with beautiful stained glass and skylights.

There were also rocks to climb.

What a fun day we had enjoying the castle and having a picnic lunch in Colorado's glorious mountains.

The castle is open to the public at your own risk for free. Donations are accepted for the on-going construction.

MET MONDAY MUDROOM

Susan at Between Naps on the Porch
very graciously hosts Metamorphosis Monday where everyone has a place to show off their before and after pictures. Be sure to check out her blog for a list of the participants this week.

Every summer we try to tackle a big project. This year it was time to build a mudroom using a small portion of our garage space. My husband, Bob, is always working in the garage (aka the workshop) creating dirt and sawdust. We were tired of the freezer, etc. covered with dust. In the large picture below, the freezer formerly set up on that platform just outside the kitchen door. He had started installing the studs for the new mudroom; then in the small picture, he had installed the new sub-floor.

Here are the three men in my life working on the drywall and insulation.

Here is the completed mudroom after seven weeks. Bob did all of the work himself except for the electrical and a weekend's help from Mike and Wyatt.

In the upper left corner picture below is the door to the garage with the freezer on the left and a cupboard for storage on the right. In the bottom left picture you can see the door to the new closet on the right of the picture. The big picture on the right shows the open doors to the closet and to the kitchen.

In the new closet on the left of the picture below are double hanging rods for our coats. Behind the coats, there is storage for seven huge tubs of Christmas decorations. In the upper right picture below there are shelves with tubs to hold stuff like light bulbs, sweeper attachments, etc. and storage below for the two sweepers.
The bottom right picture again shows the freezer and the door to the garage. We still have room above the freezer for a cupboard if we decide we need it.

The area is not huge, but we are already enjoying it immensely.

This is just Phase I of the summer/fall project. Now that we have the new closet, we are going to demolish the old coat closet, knock down a wall to enlarge and improve the flow of our front entry. Stay tuned to view more dust, dirt, and mess at our house.

VINTAGE THINGIES THURSDAY!

When my husband, Bob, was growing up; he began working in his family's grocery store at age 6 sorting potatoes and candling eggs. He has fond memories of stocking shelves, cutting meat, checking and carrying out groceries at the store when he was not in school or doing sports. He worked there until the week before we got married. We did a lot of courting over a bag of groceries being carried out to the car. My mother never had to beg me to run to the grocery store to pick up something!

We have several items that came out of the store, but a favorite is this old gum-ball machine with a patent date of 1923.

I'm sure that all of those growing-up years in the grocery store helped develop Bob's strong work ethic. To this day, in retirement, he still works everyday around the house, in the yard, and substitute teaching during the school year. Who says there is anything wrong with a little child labor?

Thanks to Suzanne at Colorado Lady for hosting Vintage Thingies Thursday and a chance to show off our old gum-ball machine.

MOSAIC MONDAY - DETAILS

Sometimes, for no apparent reason, I become dissatisfied with the interior design of my home. I want something different. To cure this feeling, I often just walk around the house and look at the details.
I think about what I like, what pleases my eye and my personal aesthetic.

Today, I took my camera as I walked around.

I like a variety of textures and patina. Rough versus smooth! Delicate versus chunky!

Fine versus primitive plus I need my favorite colors!

Shiny versus dull!

Light versus dark!

The feeling of discontent has passed. I love my home just the way it is.

Thanks to Mary of Little Red House
for hosting Mosaic Monday. Please check out her beautiful blog for more mosaics.