A Wild Turkey that will peck your toes.....

My Dylan made a very important donation this week.....he used his own money to pay for a thermal bag to take to Children's hospital for mothers of babies that are in ICU and need to have their milk transported safely.  He works hard to earn money and this is how he chose to spend it....this boy is special!

 This boy (Brody) is just as special.....he told me for my birthday next week he is coming to my party and bringing me a gift!!!  When I asked what, he said 'A Wild Turkey to peck at your toes'....now I ask you who else would get that for a birthday present???  I told him I was afraid it would hurt Rocky and he said that Gramps would build it a pen under the coral tree....he has it all figured out....along with loving the empty room as we renovate!  He filled it up with tents and trains and cars!

 Most of our week our house looked like this outside......

 and this inside.....

My anxieties were peaking at this.....

Rocky was so confused....he even drug all his toys out to make his own mess (he thought it was my new design theme....)

It was great to get out of the chaos at home and go to Dylan's 3rd grade play.....

 He was the best pilgrim ever....it was a whole play about Thanksgiving and I would love to get a copy of it....they talked about the new world, being cold, hungry, the challenges, etc....

 Needless to say we were so proud of our little pilgrim......

 I spent hours and hours looking at rugs, bringing them home and taking them back!  This made the final cut and I love it.

 Almost done.....couch was delivered....still playing with arrangements....

 Rocky approves!

 Need a little something here.....

 I think this is gonna work.....

 Rocky loves the linen sectional.....I am trying to adjust to the 'natural look' of linen and wrinkles....I have refrained from steaming it as that would defeat the purpose....ocd...ocd...

 Still playing with the chair and if it fits.....I have 2 of them that match and I think I will take them to consignment shop and get something new....I love our family beach picture taken when the kids were in high school.....

 Sorry for bad pic...it's sunny here!....I ordered 3 pillows for the couch that match these prints....

 And the best news of all....The Addie arrived for a quick weekend trip!

Poor guy....we keep him soooo busy....he is our Tech support, loving son, big brother, great uncle.....the boys were so proud that he got to see them play ball....

 And adding to the list, best grandson ever!  He is driving my mom and Mitzi back to Arizona today after staying with us for months....we will meet up again for Thanksgiving as we need to stay around here for a few days to wrap up some things....

A big week ahead....Thanksgiving is my favorite of all holidays!!!  Let's talk turkey...you know the kind that will peck my toes!

Happy Thanksgiving!

And so it begins......

 

So I have been focusing obsessing on my new vision for the Living Room.....mostly just shopping for new couches and rugs and inspiration from shops I love.....I imagined it being a calm and relaxed project, totally care free and vowed to enjoy every minute!  I know all too well that things out of place affects my OCD, control issues and anxieties....I am already at my threshold lately.....a good nice calm project might be just what I need to refocus and enjoy!

 

But it never ever ever goes to plan!  The flooring arrived this week; however cannot be installed until next week.....all the cars have to stay out of the garage except the pony....me no like that....

 

....we were at a neighborhood 'Frat Party' last night and the neighbors on the corner decided to have a yard sale today....we decided to take advantage of getting rid of some of the furniture we are replacing.....however we could not for the life of us figure out how to get this 42" couch out a 36" door.  Above our pay grade.   Thankfully one of our neighbors is a set designer and he came down and in about 30 seconds had it moved outside....he is a magician!

Then I was not going to move anything until Tuesday in prep for install Wednesday, but we had to move some things to get the couch out so I had to pile it in the dining room....I am already twitching with angst.....me really no like this.....

 

I still have all this to move but no room in the house so will have to move it outside....let me tell you that cabinet is stacked and will take hours and lots of room.....another pile....ugh



 So I do what I normally do when things are out of control....start a craft project that I can finish!  This looked fun and I have years of old Christmas cards and thought my mom would enjoy helping!

 We traced and traced and traced and cut and cut and cut.  Somehow in our busy work the count for how many sides we needed to bottoms got doubled so I ended up with a stack of sides and not enough bottoms!....obsessive gene must have exact amounts you know...ok, now I feel better!

 It was fun to lay out all the themes and colors and make them mixy matchy....

 I worked non stop to finish one, just because I knew it would be good for me to complete something with everything else torn up.....

 It turned out pretty good....1 down, 200 to go.....a good road trip project!

 Best moment of the week:  Friday school pick up...Rocky is just as happy to see these sweeties as we are.

When I look at this, all is right with the world....just will close my eyes around the house for awhile!  I asked for it!

Farm House Look to Beach Cottage Look and a few Pilgrims inbetween!

Kristen saw this at a Thrift Store and loved it....and thought I needed a project....which I love to do so I said bring it on!

 

 To match her house she wanted a dry brush grey....I went with the Behr Primer and Paint and it was smooth sailing....

 I kept the distressed look and shades of brown to tie in with her hard wood floors.....

 She wanted the doors to look like they were sitting in a farm house for years and I love the way they turned out.....

 Here is the finished product in it's new home.....we spray painted the hardware a deep steel gray and she painted her focal wall a blue silver color and it ties in so nice with the rest of her house!  Done and Done!

Besides a lot of consulting work, condo rental viewings, paperwork that never ends and taking my mom around I did not accomplish much more than that this week! 

 

One thing I did was score a major Thrift Store find on these Annalee Thanksgiving pilgrims and turkeys.....paid pennies on the dollar for their cost, new with tags.....this thing I have for pilgrims!  Combined with the genealogy research I am doing perhaps they are channeling to me?????

We need to replace our carpet in our living room....one too many visiting doggie spots to certain areas!  We are extending the hard wood floor we have in the rest of the downstairs and it will match perfectly.....it is distressed walnut and sort of looks like this.....

 I think I will replace the sage green in the living room with more of a beach cottage color palette:

 This will mean lots of listings on Craig's list, rug shopping, husband coaching, but I hoping to achieve something like this....kinda....sorta.....but still in the planning stages......

Stay tuned!

Puzzling Observations!

 

We do a lot of puzzles around here....its rare we have downtime to do one....so when these two natives were restless, I got out a new puzzle of the USA.  It was amazing to watch these two work.  My mom was fastidious, quiet and working pieces and checking to make sure they fit.  Steve who is usually quiet, talked non stop, 'I need a piece with a little green and a hook'...'Do you see a piece with a little flag on it...' he paced and stressed and stood to get the 'big picture'....

 

Then Kristen, Brian and the boys rolled in.  Kristen took the lead seat and commanded the leadership of the puzzle.....she approached it like a timed competition and would put pieces in with both hands on different sides of the puzzle....it was amazing to see her approach....

 Her and Brian worked really well together....very compatible.....supportive and complimentary.....

 Brody was excellent on the colors and the shapes and very focused in each piece.....

 Dylan knew the states and capitals and would comment on little facts about each state, he would refer to the box to double check his work.....

 Dylan was the most thoughtful.....he saved the last piece for his great grandma to complete.

 We dashed out to the boys ball games and then came back and with Halloween a few days away we then made pretzel chocolate treats to Boo the neighbors!

 My little sneaky sneaksters made the deliveries, rang the doorbells and ran off......

And with Halloween out of the way, time to observe my favorite or all holidays - Thanksgiving!

 I tried something different this year and put everything in the great room instead of all over the house......

 I might have overdid the shelves.......

 My little collection has grown and grown and grown......

 

 

 

I still have more to put out ....the last few pieces of the Thanksgiving Puzzle!