Get R Done Friday!

This is my first time to participate in this

Friday Meme.

Get R Done Friday is hosted

by ClassyChassy at

Expressly Corgi.

I found out about from

Barbara Jean at Treasures From The Heart.

Thank you Barbara Jean

for letting me know about this opportunity.

I imagine most of the time I will do this meme

on my Sewing and Craft Blog,

but today I did something in the kitchen.

I have been home sick the last three days,

but today I felt better enough to tackle the kitchen.

I am almost too embarrassed to show you the

before picture.

But then you might not realize how bad it was

and why I needed to tackle the kitchen.

So without further ado,

here is embarrassing picture.

See what I mean.

Almost can't even see the counter.

I don't feel like doing anything when it is that bad.

So time to get at it.

I started with loading the dishwasher.

Then I put away what was in the drainer

which is in the sink.

And I went on from there.

In the process of putting things away,

I came across this candle warmer.

The scent is getting weak in the candle that is in there

which is a Pumpkin Spice type of scent.

I think I have melted the scent away now from

frequent use.

Time to put another candle in there.

TA DA!!

I did it!

There is the proof.

You can even still see the damp spot from wiping down the counters.

LOL!!

Ahhhh.....

Looks so much better.

The stove area.
I even hid some things up in the cupboard.
B-Daddy is probably going to have do some hunting.
The coffee cup on the stove is my cup for the day.
Currently it is right here beside me as I type
not there on the stove anymore.
heehee

The microwave over the stove does not work,
so we have this on the counter one we use.
Someday we will replace the over the stove one.
But they are not cheep I mean cheap.

I decided to put out my Halloween placemats I made last year.
Some of you may remember my posts about making those.
The table runner looks a little big for the breakfast bar area.

A close up of the yum yum fabric.

And the witches hat fabric.

Another view.

In the corner there you can still see B-Daddy paper tiger stack.

I will leave that for him.

I originally made this placemat and tablerunner set

for the round table we have in the family room.

I may still move it over there.

But guess what?

I have to clean it off first.

LOL!

For today, this is all I can handle.

Hope you have a great Friday!

~Linnea~

Vintage Thingies/Tablescape Thursday

I am doing a double duty post today.

Vintage Thingies Thursday
and Tablescape Thursday!!
Thank you to Suzanne over at Coloradolady for hosting Vintage Thingies Thursdays.
And thank you to Susan at Between Naps on the Porch
for hosting Tablescape Thursdays.
I have shared this tablecloth before, but not on a Vintage Thingies post yet.
Here is a picture of it before I washed it.
This tablecloth was made many years ago by one
of my hubby's grandmothers.

Helmi is here to watch how I do the cleaning
and trying to help too.
Now I have it soaking in my sink.
I should have worn gloves that day.
My hands were a mess after all the soaking I did that day.
This was not the only vintage thingie I cleaned that day.
Here it is after I cleaned it.
I could not find the stains anywhere
so I guess that means they came out.
Yay!
The tablecloth all stretched out on the table with a blue one
underneath.
Now I want to get tablecloths in other colors
for different looks for that table.

A closeup of the edge.
Beautiful work.
There are a few places where it has come apart.
I may play with that and make sure it does not
come apart any worse.
But I have to say it has held up well over the years.

Another vintage thingie I used are these napkins.
They belonged to my godmother years ago.
Her last name started with "L".
Since my married name also starts with an "L"
They were passed on to me.

A couple of these had stains on them and the Oxyclean
got them out just fine.

Another Vintage Thingie I used in my tablescape.
This tablerunner made my mother-in-law I think,
but it could have been one of the grandmothers,
was very dirty on the folds.
So it was soaked in the Oxyclean too!
Look no fold lines.
Worked great as a tablerunner in my
Easter tablescape!
See, here is a peek at my Easter table.

Here is another Vintage Thingie cloth
I had to soak also.
Another handmade from hubby's family.
One stain did not come out.
You can barely see it just to the above right
of the butter dish I'm using as a dome thing here.
This is on my coffee table.

And now for the Tablescape part!
This is only the second time I have done a tablescape.
My Good Times Noritake Progression China.
Capistrano Silverware.
Princess House Glassware.

The little baskets were from the Dollar Tree.
I got two of them.
The bunny salt and pepper shakers
I found at the Hallmark Store.
I added green grass to the centerpiece
like one commenter suggested when I posted this
centerpiece idea earlier.
More pics of the bunny salt and pepper shakers.
Aren't they cute?

A final peak at my table.

I will have to share that high chair in the background

in another Vintage Thingie post.

Because it is a Vintage Thingie!

Happy Thursday!

~Linnea~

My Saturday

Actually I think I want to back up to Friday. I had mentioned in my sewing blog that I had worked a long 8 hour day which normally don't do. But with a trip coming up, working the extra hours in this pay period will help for our trip to a wedding we are going to at the end of the month. Anyhoo, on the way home I noticed smog in the sky, or was it smoke, or was it fog rolling in from the ocean with the setting sun colors on it, or just plain pretty clouds. My husband was seeing the same thing on his way home too, but from the south. I was coming from the north. He wondered the same things I was wondering. Eventually I got close enough to realize from the smell that it was smoke. But could not tell just where the fire was burning. The smoke was so widespread it was not obvious which direction it was coming from. We found out it was burning in Napa County to the east of us and the strong winds was blowing the smoke our way. We had been getting red flag warnings due to the strong winds and fire danger because it is still so dry. What little rain we got earlier in the month did not really help much.

My husband goes to VFW meetings each month. He is the chaplain for his group now, so he needs to go to the meetings. Since I need to play the organ today(Sunday) I went with him. He dropped me off at the church so I could practice while he was at the meeting. That worked out well.

I was up before the sun this morning which most mornings I am now that it stays dark longer in the mornings. We have a motion sensor light outside the window/sliding door here in the sewing/office room. I could tell the light was on. So I peeked out the window and saw an orange tabby cat on my husband's truck. That light is usually turned on by cats in the area and usually they scamper away when I poke my head through the vertical blinds. But this one was fascinated by the movement of the blinds. I decided to try to take a picture of the cat. By the time I had gotten the camera he was sitting on the step watching the blinds move. I got the picture below through the window and the screen. It was hard to get a decent picture without opening the door. But even the flash did not scare him off. We kind of played peek a boo for awhile before he finally scampered off.
My husband had to go to an overnight retreat with the Youth and Family Ministry Team from our church. So I went along to bring the car back home. We pick up another member of the team who also lives in our town. Remember our church is over in Napa County. The team members carpool to the retreat. After they get organized I go in and practice the organ again, in preparation for today. It was a good practice session. After church I go to the fabric store, which I talk about on my sewing blog. Then it was home.

It was strange to not have hubby home for that long. Especially after it got dark. I tried to keep busy, but did not accomplish as much as I hoped. But I did do some decluttering, reading a few newspapers, scanning through catalogs and replacing the old ones with the new ones. I also started to decorate another area with fall decor, but it is still kind of bare as you can see from the picture.
I need to get more of something to fill it up a little more. The "THANKS" I got from the Hallmark shop and the three pumpkins I got at the drug store. Maybe I will stop at Walgreen's again after work one day this week and see if they still have some of that garland left. I will have to play around with it more. The dresser scarf is another inherited item from my husband's family. I am realizing I have quite a few areas to create viginettes of fall decor, just not enough to fill or use all of them. I need something taller here because of the blank wall. I do have a turkey wall hanging I made. I could hang it here this year.

Well, that was my Saturday. I wish I had gotten more done. Oh I did wash and dry two loads of clothes. That counts too I guess. But one can only do just so much each day. Have a Blessed Sunday.

Timing Couldn't Be Better

Good thing I got the family room cleaned up, well mostly, and got the table cleared off so it can be used as a place to sit and eat again. My niece is in the area on a short leave from the Air Force while she is between bases. She is also our goddaughter and we consider her very special to us. She came over to visit and had dinner with us on Monday. We just ate a simple salad and had grapes from our grapevine. And yippee we were able to sit at the table together instead of trying to balance our plates on our knees in the midst of the mess. It was a wonderful visit. Almost as good as having our daughter home, but not quite. Our daughter did call while our niece was here. From this end it sounded like they had a crazy conversation. Of course that is not unusual, they always do. The girls are close even though they are 5 years apart. When the girls were growing up I sometimes would have my niece with us when we were out and about and people would think both girls were my daughters. I would have to explain one is my niece and one is my daughter.

Now it sounds like I will be hosting Thanksgiving this year. So that means I really need to get to the rest of the house and put up my fall decorations. On to other projects to help me get ready for that. Now that it is cooling off, that should make it easier to tackle more housecleaning. These hot flashes make it hard to stay focused on things if it is also hot out there.

Hope everyone had a good Wednesday.

Cleaning the Family Room

I have been inspired by some of the beautiful rooms and corners and other special areas other people share on their blogs that I decided to jump in to start cleaning the family room. This is where we hang out most of the time and the mess has been driving me crazy. I needed to feast my eyes on something nice when I relax in my recliner. The picture below is the before mess. Now you know why it is driving my crazy. Plus the dusty smell we were getting was getting annoying. I would wrinkle my nose and say to myself "time to do something about this." Time to vaccum really good.

I went over the carpet several times to really get up the dust and dirt. What a difference! You can really smell the difference when you walk out of room and then come back in again. That makes me smile! Also got down most of the cobwebs and did most of the dusting.

This picture shows how much better it looks now. I can't believe I actually got the entire table cleared off. We took out a the center leaf to make it a circle. Takes up less space that way. That table is a very good maple table that used to belong to my late Godmother. I know the table cloth does not really fit that table, but I don't have any round table cloths. I have a fall theme table runner somewhere around here that I want to use. But I need to get a round fall color tablecloth first. Then I need to find that table runner. Right now I can't remember where I put it!

This morning my husband said, "what a different feeling to walk in here!" He is right. It does feel different and better too! I still need to finish straightening up the bookcase by the table and along the right side of the picture out of sight still needs to be cleaned up and straightened and dusted. I am starting to smile at my room now and that is what counts. I am now motivated to continue and perhaps get some of my fall things out do some fun decorating. I have a set of 3 cloth pumpkins I made one year. I usually put those out each year. Happy Monday!