Updates Lately

Posting has been light lately mostly due to technical difficulties, because Blogger in Internet Explorer is now refusing to allow me to upload photos from a URL so I can't show you some of the cool stuff we'd like to be doing, and we haven't actually been doing that much cool stuff on our own. 


The biggest things we did over the weekend were sort through my grandparent's house, and work on the mantle.  My grandmother died before Christmas, so we've been trying to get the house ready to rent or sell, and that includes cleaning out a garage and storage room full of my grandfather's tools.  As part of being married to a guy who likes to build stuff, I do not turn down free tools.  So when M. showed me the giant overflowing box of stuff that he was planning on taking home, I told him to just get a second box and that we would find space for whatever he thought we needed.  As I carried in TWO giant outdoor extension cords on rollers, I regretted that only very slightly, because for the most part, he picked items that we will actually need/use and that are in good shape. 

I, on the other hand, have acquired a great deal of my great-grandmother's china and have to figure out where to put it.  I think we know who is the less practical family member.  There are a few pieces that we came home with that I'm really excited about, like this vase which was hand painted by my great-grandfather. He used to take a lot of ceramics classes when he was recovering from a bad stroke, so he painted a lot of ceramic Christmas trees and pumpkins, but I didn't know he had done any vases, and this one is in my colors, so I was really excited that my aunt had unearthed it. 

We also acquired a lot of books.  Because we are crazy people who believe there is no such thing as too many books.  Actually, crazy people are the ones who believe there is such a thing. 


After we unloaded the car on Sunday, M. moved the car out of the parking pad and got to work sanding the mantel.  He's got it almost down to the wood, and while we'd like to stain it, it just has so many parts that need to be patched that we are worried it won't take the staining well, and there are some parts that the paint is not coming off of.  The jury is still out on color, but I think a natural color that is a few shades darker than the walls will work nicely.  Everything else in the room is a dark brown, so that is probably what we will end up with, but I'm wondering if there is any way to do accents or a two-tone look.  (Tuxedo look?) We'll keep you posted!