Unintentional Hiatus

I had every intention of creating posts; but, I took an unintentional hiatus from blogging among many other things and retreated into books and life. I have been organizing, cleaning, painting, creating, etc. and etc. and making a lot of progress. At least, it is a lot of progress for a person like me! I also recently found a series of books by a favorite author and could not put them down. I am reading the third and final book in the trilogy and I had bought these last Thursday on my day out.

By "my day out" , I mean I took a day off from home and life. I went shopping in New Braunfels after an appointment with an audiologist. I went to two antique stores and found a gluten free bakery called The Red Oak Bakery that had somewhat good scones and some delicious cupcakes. I then searched for more antique stores in New Braunfels, drove for a little bit and ended up in Historic Downtown Gruene. It surprised the heck out of me! But, that place was quaint and lovely.

Anyway, back to the books I mentioned above. When I realized the author had continued to write about a fictional world that got me hooked way back in my latter high school days, I went looking online for more books and found quite a few. Yes, I purchased them because the local Half Price Books store never have any books by this author. I rarely buy new and have not done so in eons; but, I did get these "free" by using a portion of our cash back on a credit card we have.

I received my new camera three days ago and it is a learning curve. It is more or less the same as my old one; but, the buttons are in different locations. I am loving the new and slightly bigger LCD screen.

Hopefully, I can get my act together soon, get some decent pictures and start blogging once again. We will see as life is going to be a tad busy from hereon.

We have a short camping trip coming up to prepare for. I am actually looking forward to seeing people! It is going to be kind of like a family reunion. I am also hoping that we will take a few "staycations" or short vacation trips this summer. Both of us need to get away from it all.

In the meantime, I hope all of you will be blessed by this little break of mine. Ha! :-)

Macro Monday {Pink}

All taken on April 1, 2015

Note: I just received notification that my new camera has finally shipped. It should arrive either Wednesday or Thursday. I'm am so happy about that because I have been missing it especially since a bunch of gorgeous butterflies have been passing through the area.

Slapdash Satudays

• 8 Crucial Innovations in the Invention of Photography

  {History}

Feline Friday

I was outside organizing my beads and getting them ready to be put into the cabinets I found at a moving sale. {You can also see the cabinetry painted and being put up here.} At the same time, I kept an eye on my cats. Gracie came along and hopped into this box and snoozed. She was happy and content to be outside and near me.

Guest Room {Mis}adventures

I was full of anxiety and stress beginning March 8th due to the fact that the guest room needed to be painted before March 31st. I needed something in a hurry! I had no clue to color scheme and no inspiration jumping off point. I usually design based upon favorite picture(s), painting, fabric or whatnot. I once used a border wallpaper I loved as a jumping off point for designing a whole guest room and bathroom in North Houston. I had a blast with that one as I had no deadline.

The guest room is also going to be the gaming and exercise room. It will also have access to Satellite TV; so, people can watch TV. The hookups are there; so, why not?

I decided to try to decorate with either video game(s) or red, white and blue theme (which is both patriotic and Mario). I wanted something green in there too. Do not ask me why. I just did.

My favorite video games are anything Mario, anything Sonic (the Hedgehog) and anything from Link (The Legend of Zelda).

I had nothing for pictures to hang in there; so, I went shopping online and came across an Etsy seller that goes by the name of RoomB31 that made some cool video prints and the majority were from favorite games of mine!

Dan helped me choose seven small prints. When they arrived, I went shopping for things including paint colors and some cabinet handles.

I chose the color Admiration P340-1 (top color of paint chip card) for the walls and Reviving Green P340-3 (bottom color) for the cabinetry.

Note: The colors on the site links I provided may not run true to the colors on the paint sample cards provided within the store. At least, they are not accurate on my laptop. But, I provided the links to give you an idea of what I have chosen.

I also took Dan to see some cabinetry pulls (handles). I was having trouble choosing between three different pulls. Dan made the final choice and I really like what we chose for both the coloring (copper tone) and the fact the detail on the handle reminded me of The Wind Waker (The Legend of Zelda) game.

We completed painting the entire room (including the ceiling) by March 22nd. Lest you think I did not lift a finger, here I am with no shoes (just socks), raggedy baggy pants and an old shirt:

It is a terrible, terrible picture of me; but hey! It's proof! Ha! I actually painted most of the ceiling while Dan did the tedious painting.

Once the walls were painted, we could breathe and relax just a tad and return to other unfinished projects around the house.

Some nice young men came in and installed some partial cabinetry on April 1st. Dan purchased the paint I had chosen for the cabinetry one night after work. I came down sick in the night of April 2nd and ended up not being able to help paint over the weekend. I was pretty miserable and felt so bad for not being able to help out. Dan was a good sport and besides, I am not a very good painter. I think he might have been relieved that I was not painting. Ha!

Anyway, I walked in after he painted a first coat on the majority of the cabinetry and immediately hated it. The color made me want to puke. It was way too much yellow and not enough green. I made a huge mistake and felt so upset. This was the first time I could not visualize a color within a room on account of the fact the colors I picked are downright weird.

Here I am sick without a fever (thank the good Lord) and needing to go into town to pick a darker color. I was feeling so miserable; but, I was determined because the painting needed to be done as soon as possible. When we reached the store, we went directly to the same color family as the wall color. With Dan’s help, I ended up picking Anime P340-5 for the color of the cabinetry.

When we got home, I crashed and he painted. Once a coat of paint was put on, I was immediately happier with the color choice. The painting of the cabinetry was finished late on April 5th.

The top color of the left card is the wall color. And amazingly, the cabinetry (darker) color is a perfect match to some colors in the pictures I used as an inspirational jumping off point.

The young men returned on April 9th and finished the installation of the cabinetry including hardware along with the pulls (handles) we chose. Dan finished the touch up painting the following weekend.

I had taken pictures; but, anything I took after April 12th was lost as my camera died and the data on the compact flash card was corrupted. So, the final picture will have to wait until I get my new camera.

I have since shopped for and purchased bedding. We also replaced the ceiling fan. The room, in spite of it being incomplete, is now ready for guests to crash (sleep in). Several days notice in advance is required so that we can pick up stuff and make it safe for guests. After all, the house is still a work in progress.