Join me over at Cache Crazy to see this weeks featured post. I'll give you a hint - giddy-up. See you there!
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Cache Crazy Tuesday 4-30-2013
Join me over at Cache Crazy to see this weeks featured post. I'll give you a hint - giddy-up. See you there!
Monday, April 29, 2013
Friday, April 26, 2013
The Snowball Effect Part 3
Do you ever get the itch to do something and then it just snowballs into more than what you bargained for? What started out as one lakehouse project turned into so much more. If you missed the original posts, you can go back and read Part1 and Part 2.
At the end of Part 2, we had completed most of the work we had wanted to do. I had bought some green paint to re-paint our downstairs railing and figured we'd get to that the next time we went to the lake. Apparently, I can't leave well enough alone....
Done!
The front door you see in the back of the above picture is getting painted next. Plus maybe a new curtain?? Looks like I'll be hauling the portable sewing machine to the lake.
Have a great weekend everyone - go out and do something fun!
At the end of Part 2, we had completed most of the work we had wanted to do. I had bought some green paint to re-paint our downstairs railing and figured we'd get to that the next time we went to the lake. Apparently, I can't leave well enough alone....
Done!
The front door you see in the back of the above picture is getting painted next. Plus maybe a new curtain?? Looks like I'll be hauling the portable sewing machine to the lake.
Have a great weekend everyone - go out and do something fun!
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Photos by Chablis - Springtime
Spring is in the Air (In Kentucky!!!)
One of my favorite things to take pictures of is flowers, and
springtime in Kentucky is the perfect opportunity to get some great shots. Our lilac is blooming and we cut big bunches and bring them into the house. I love the scent of lilac!
The azalea's are also in bloom....
And don't forget about the tulips....
The yard is getting some springtime visitors...
Some shots from around the lake....
But these were my favorites - I
got the chance to get a few pictures of a hummingbird! I have only had the
chance to see a hummingbird a few times in my life and have never had the
chance to actually get pictures of one. They are SO fast that I only managed to
get a few shots but the ones I did manage to get were totally worth it! He
(she?) is totally cute. If you look closely, you'll see him in both photos below....
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Cache Crazy Tuesday 4-23-13
Please join me over at Cache Crazy where my posts are the featured posts on Tuesdays. Read this weeks geocaching journey here.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
The Snowball Effect Part 2
So I left you the other day as we were beginning to paint Chablis' room at the lakehouse. You can go back and read that post here to find out how I got myself into this mess. So here's the room with it's new blue walls....
Like I've said before -it's a lake house, it's old and it's not perfect. This was the best we could do with the ceilings and it's just going to have to work. But the whole time I'm doing this, I'm thinking about my blogger friend Debbie. She has the most gorgeous lakehouse and I love, love, love the way she fixes it up. Go check out her blog. She just has the most perfect way of decorating everything and I keep thinking that my lake house will never look like hers. Another blog that's fabulous is Melissah's Coastal Style. Melissah is an interior designer and I always like everything beachy that she does. I was just saying that somehow what I picture in my head never translates into the finished product of what I do. Sigh...... I just don't have that talent. Oh well, I just do the best I can. Go over and visit both their blogs if you want to see some really beautiful work.
We stuck the old yellow curtains up for now until Chablis finds some new ones that she likes. We're thinking lilac/lavender....
So, ok, her room is done and we still had the bathroom mess to contend with. I figured that since we got the ceiling fixed in her bedroom we'd try the same thing in the bathroom, so we just moved down the hall, set up the ladder and got to work. But you know what that means.... Since I have to paint the ceiling, I may as well paint the whole stinking room.
When we bought the lakehouse we never did a thing to this bathroom. In fact, there were some holes in the walls and since I didn't have any paint cans of the original paint, do you know what I did? I just stuck some flower and ladybug stickers over the holes to cover them up. LOL. Honest injun! I think I have a very haphazard approach to decorating.
Here's what we started with. We fixed the ceiling, took down the shelves, peeled off the tacky stickers, spackled all the holes, caulked the entire room and then ran back to town for more paint, rollers and brushes.... I also had Louie install a brand new toilet really quick.
Chablis started painting......
And in 2 days we were done. The worst part was all the trim and doors - ick!
I am done .....finished..... I am spending the rest of my summer enjoying the lake. This Snowball Effect is exhausting. Well, except for a few finishing touches to the bathroom and Chablis' room. Oh, and I have a quart of paint sitting here so I can paint the railing in the sunroom. But I'm ignoring that for right now.
Like I've said before -it's a lake house, it's old and it's not perfect. This was the best we could do with the ceilings and it's just going to have to work. But the whole time I'm doing this, I'm thinking about my blogger friend Debbie. She has the most gorgeous lakehouse and I love, love, love the way she fixes it up. Go check out her blog. She just has the most perfect way of decorating everything and I keep thinking that my lake house will never look like hers. Another blog that's fabulous is Melissah's Coastal Style. Melissah is an interior designer and I always like everything beachy that she does. I was just saying that somehow what I picture in my head never translates into the finished product of what I do. Sigh...... I just don't have that talent. Oh well, I just do the best I can. Go over and visit both their blogs if you want to see some really beautiful work.
We stuck the old yellow curtains up for now until Chablis finds some new ones that she likes. We're thinking lilac/lavender....
So, ok, her room is done and we still had the bathroom mess to contend with. I figured that since we got the ceiling fixed in her bedroom we'd try the same thing in the bathroom, so we just moved down the hall, set up the ladder and got to work. But you know what that means.... Since I have to paint the ceiling, I may as well paint the whole stinking room.
When we bought the lakehouse we never did a thing to this bathroom. In fact, there were some holes in the walls and since I didn't have any paint cans of the original paint, do you know what I did? I just stuck some flower and ladybug stickers over the holes to cover them up. LOL. Honest injun! I think I have a very haphazard approach to decorating.
Here's what we started with. We fixed the ceiling, took down the shelves, peeled off the tacky stickers, spackled all the holes, caulked the entire room and then ran back to town for more paint, rollers and brushes.... I also had Louie install a brand new toilet really quick.
Chablis started painting......
And in 2 days we were done. The worst part was all the trim and doors - ick!
I am done .....finished..... I am spending the rest of my summer enjoying the lake. This Snowball Effect is exhausting. Well, except for a few finishing touches to the bathroom and Chablis' room. Oh, and I have a quart of paint sitting here so I can paint the railing in the sunroom. But I'm ignoring that for right now.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
The Snowball Effect Part 1
Do you ever start a project and before you know it, it's turned into a whole mess more work than what you bargained for? I call that the Snowball Effect and it seems to happen to me a lot.
Every year when we open the lake house in the spring, there's always little things that need to be done. You know, clean away the cobwebs and the dust that accumulated over the winter, open the windows, clean up the yard, that kind of thing. So Chablis and I started on the yard, pulling weeds around the patio and spray painting the lawn furniture....
Swept off the back deck and pulled out the deck chairs.....
Cleaned out under the deck where we found the remains of an old army soldier that Tony and his friend had strapped a cherry bomb onto a couple of years ago...... Another one bites the dust.....
Petey inspected our work and kept getting his chain wrapped around everything. He is no help!
Weeded the back garden and planted some flowers and tomato plants.....
So ok, that wasn't bad and it only took us 2 mornings to get that done and then we moved inside the house because I was itching to move the front room furniture around. I hate our front room - it's long and narrow and just such a stupid shape. We decided to dust and vacuum everything as we shoved the furniture around into a new arrangement. So this is what it looks like now and at least we can get the front windows open and actually sit and look outside....
You would think I'd be happy with all that and just leave well enough alone. But I can't, because I am insane and this is where the snowball effect came in. Last year we had a mild earthquake in our area and it rocked the ceiling loose in Chablis' bedroom and the main bathroom. Since it was the middle of summer and we had more important things to be doing, like swimming, fishing and water skiing, we had just taken a bunch of screws and the power drill and shoved the ceilings back into place.....more or less..... And it looked like crap but I just sort of ignored it. Until now. Like I said, Snowball Effect.....
We go back into Chablis' room and I took one look at the ceiling and decided now was the time to get that fixed. We pulled out the drill, screws and some spackle, climbed up on a ladder and got the ceiling back together and spackled in. As I was standing on the ladder my little pea brain started spinning and I decided that we may as well paint the ceiling and since we were going to go to all that trouble, then we may as well paint the whole room because I hated the pink walls and before I knew it, we were on our way to town to get paint, and brushes, and rollers and drop cloths. Did I mention that I'm insane?
So we cleaned all the furniture, took down the curtains and the shelves, spackled holes, shoved the furniture out of the way and painted the room. But you'll have to come back and read the next post to see the finished results as well as the other project we tackled.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Some Really Big News
Well today I got a big surprise and a huge honor - I've been asked to become a weekly contributor and administrative author at my favorite geocaching blog - CacheCrazy! Woo -hoo!!
As you all know, I've been submitting posts over there for quite some time now and I really enjoy writing for CacheCrazy. The authors over there are a great bunch of writers and geocachers who share their adventures and stories from around the globe. It's a wonderful group to be associated with and I can't thank Kevin enough for asking me to join their team.
Stop over at CacheCrazy and check them out. If you want to know anything about geocaching - you'll find it there. And if you're already a geocacher, share your stories with us. We've love to have you.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Book Review - The Adventurers Guide to the Outdoors
BOOK REVIEW - The Adventurer's Guide to the Outdoors
Rizzoli Publishing is releasing © The Adventurer’s Guide to the Outdoors, Universe, 2013 and I can't tell you how excited I was to get a copy of this hardcover book in my hands. As a lifelong camper, hiker and nature lover, this is the type of book that I can truly appreciate. Written by Guy Grieve, it showcases 100 essential skills for surviving in the wild with easy to follow explanations, light humor and clear illustrations.
The first thing I really liked about the book was the bright red hard cover, embossed with black lettering and a great outdoors illustration. If you love books like I do, then you'll understand what I mean when I say that the book is a pleasure to hold and run your hands across. At 7" x 9" and 292 pages, it's the perfect size to sit and read in your favorite chair, but equally easy to toss into your bag or backpack.
The book is broken down into 9 chapters. My favorite chapter was the first one - Getting Ready. Experienced or not, this chapter is filled with excellent information on basic supplies, the best types of clothing and shoes to have, and equally important, what not to bother taking along. Study up on the climate, terrain and weather patterns you may be experiencing and how to plan your route.
The use of GPS units is becoming almost commonplace in the outdoors, but believe it or not, there are situations where a GPS will do you no good. Get a compass and learn to use it. The section on compass instruction is particularly good and informative.
Knowing how to set up a campfire and actually starting a fire is certainly an important outdoors skill. What would you do if you're out in the woods and you don't have a lighter and your matches are wet? If you read, study and teach yourself to use the bow and drill method, you'll never panic if the situation arises.
Want to float down a lazy river, cross a pond or just sit back and let the current do the work? Learn how to make a raft, complete with a dry deck.
One complete chapter is devoted to "Climate and Terrains of the World" and includes..
There is a wide variety of information that can be used in numerous settings - things like finding and purifying water, starting a fire, preparing a meal, digging a toilet, what to do in an emergency, hunting or fishing for food, building a shelter and rescue techniques. The section on Observing and Hunting Prey gives tips on where to locate different animals, how to hunt them and includes an excellent chart showing track patterns along with a wide variety of footprints. I seriously doubt I'll ever be in a situation where I need to build an igloo, but if I am, I will be prepared! The instructions and illustrations on how to build one almost made me wish we still had a few feet of snow left in the yard. For me, that was one of the most interesting sections in the whole book.
Rizzoli Publishing has once again released a winner! I enjoyed the light touches of humor throughout the book, the excellent descriptions and how well everything was organized. Chock full of practical advice on 100 essential skills, this is one handbook that any outdoors minded person would enjoy and treasure.
If you're looking for a hardcore survivalist guide, this is not the book for you. As openly stated in the Foreword the reader is given ideas at a basic or beginners level about how to go about a task. For a seasoned outdoors person this may not provide enough in-depth information. But this resourceful book will definitely provide most people with a basic knowledge of practical outdoor skills for a wide variety of situations. If you enjoy the great outdoors, the wilderness or adventure, then this book is for you! It is packed full of advice and no matter how experienced you are in the great outdoors, this book will probably share something with you that you'll find useful. Youngsters just discovering the great outdoors will delight in this book and it will benefit them for years to come. Adults will surely learn new things and who knows, you may be looking at deer tracks in a whole new way or waiting for the next big snowfall so you can build an igloo! Give me a call - I'll come help you.
I was provided an advance copy of the book for review purposes and asked to give an honest review. All opinions are my own.
All illustrations credited to: © Sam Chelton, The Adventurer’s Guide to the Outdoors, Universe, 2013.
All photos and illustrations property of Rizzoli Publications. Do not reproduce.
Rizzoli Publishing is releasing © The Adventurer’s Guide to the Outdoors, Universe, 2013 and I can't tell you how excited I was to get a copy of this hardcover book in my hands. As a lifelong camper, hiker and nature lover, this is the type of book that I can truly appreciate. Written by Guy Grieve, it showcases 100 essential skills for surviving in the wild with easy to follow explanations, light humor and clear illustrations.
The first thing I really liked about the book was the bright red hard cover, embossed with black lettering and a great outdoors illustration. If you love books like I do, then you'll understand what I mean when I say that the book is a pleasure to hold and run your hands across. At 7" x 9" and 292 pages, it's the perfect size to sit and read in your favorite chair, but equally easy to toss into your bag or backpack.
The book is broken down into 9 chapters. My favorite chapter was the first one - Getting Ready. Experienced or not, this chapter is filled with excellent information on basic supplies, the best types of clothing and shoes to have, and equally important, what not to bother taking along. Study up on the climate, terrain and weather patterns you may be experiencing and how to plan your route.
The use of GPS units is becoming almost commonplace in the outdoors, but believe it or not, there are situations where a GPS will do you no good. Get a compass and learn to use it. The section on compass instruction is particularly good and informative.
Knowing how to set up a campfire and actually starting a fire is certainly an important outdoors skill. What would you do if you're out in the woods and you don't have a lighter and your matches are wet? If you read, study and teach yourself to use the bow and drill method, you'll never panic if the situation arises.
Want to float down a lazy river, cross a pond or just sit back and let the current do the work? Learn how to make a raft, complete with a dry deck.
One complete chapter is devoted to "Climate and Terrains of the World" and includes..
- Temperate
- Mediterranean
- Alpine
- Tropical
- Tundra and polar
- Savannah and desert
There is a wide variety of information that can be used in numerous settings - things like finding and purifying water, starting a fire, preparing a meal, digging a toilet, what to do in an emergency, hunting or fishing for food, building a shelter and rescue techniques. The section on Observing and Hunting Prey gives tips on where to locate different animals, how to hunt them and includes an excellent chart showing track patterns along with a wide variety of footprints. I seriously doubt I'll ever be in a situation where I need to build an igloo, but if I am, I will be prepared! The instructions and illustrations on how to build one almost made me wish we still had a few feet of snow left in the yard. For me, that was one of the most interesting sections in the whole book.
Rizzoli Publishing has once again released a winner! I enjoyed the light touches of humor throughout the book, the excellent descriptions and how well everything was organized. Chock full of practical advice on 100 essential skills, this is one handbook that any outdoors minded person would enjoy and treasure.
If you're looking for a hardcore survivalist guide, this is not the book for you. As openly stated in the Foreword the reader is given ideas at a basic or beginners level about how to go about a task. For a seasoned outdoors person this may not provide enough in-depth information. But this resourceful book will definitely provide most people with a basic knowledge of practical outdoor skills for a wide variety of situations. If you enjoy the great outdoors, the wilderness or adventure, then this book is for you! It is packed full of advice and no matter how experienced you are in the great outdoors, this book will probably share something with you that you'll find useful. Youngsters just discovering the great outdoors will delight in this book and it will benefit them for years to come. Adults will surely learn new things and who knows, you may be looking at deer tracks in a whole new way or waiting for the next big snowfall so you can build an igloo! Give me a call - I'll come help you.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Get your copy here
I was provided an advance copy of the book for review purposes and asked to give an honest review. All opinions are my own.
All illustrations credited to: © Sam Chelton, The Adventurer’s Guide to the Outdoors, Universe, 2013.
All photos and illustrations property of Rizzoli Publications. Do not reproduce.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
