My Little Dream House.....

First of all...you should all know that I'm totally house-obsessed. I love them all. Even the ugly ones and especially the small ones. I don't know what it is about me, but I really tend to gravitate toward smaller bungalow-type homes. And I like the years 1910-1940. This particular house is older than that, but we all make exceptions, right??

Here is the back of the house - you can see it from the park with the green chair.

Here is the side of the house - I have another shot of the side, but @#$!* Blogger won't let me add the photo for some reason. There is a beautiful brick patio off of some french doors in the side yard.



Here is the front of the house. There's also a great house across the street with an amazing garden, but Blogger won't let me add those photos, either.

I've told Zuddy if this house is ever for sale we're buying it. He probably put it right out of his mind immediately because if he remembered every time I said something like that, his hard-drive would be full.

Oh - who am I kidding? We'll never move. Our new neighbors, Pam and Jeff, have pretty much cinched that up for us. We love them. They moved next door last year and we simply can't get enough of them. They moved from the suburbs after their kids all flew the coop. They wanted to live in the city again, like when they lived in Philly. I think they got a little more "city" than they bargained for, if you know what I'm sayin'.

So....on the kitchen-front: I've replaced the doors on the bottom cabinets. I'm waiting patiently (a-hem) for a couple of paychecks to come from my last project so I can go buy a new sink, faucet, garbage disposal and schedule the countertops to be installed. Zuddy hasn't even started his honey-do list.....and Zuddy, if you're reading this: you'd better crank it up a notch. Or you'll be sleeping in your car.

I took Noodle to the Dr. yesterday and she has another strep infection. And now I've got a bug, too. I feel like doo-doo.

I just love our nurse practitioner, Beth. Last year she had to do a throat culture on the Noodle and it was utter pandemonium. I was totally horrified at the way the Noodle acted and I made her write an "I'm sorry" note to Beth after the incident and now Beth just doles out the antibiotics instead of giving her a throat culture. I shouldn't say that. She actually finds another reason to just give them: an ear infection, scarlet fever rash, etc.... Anyway, she still remembers that when the Noodle was a baby she loved listening to Fleetwood Mac at her day care provider's house (It was the only thing that would keep her quiet. She eventually got thrown out of that daycare for being a very difficult baby. This is why I have one child, people.). The Noodle is always heavily into a different song/group. Right now it's Gwen Stefani, so Beth always finds out who the Noodle's current musical obsession is centered on. Isn't that sweet? She's always really talking to the Noodle. We just loooove her. Going to the doctor is such a positive experience for her now because of Beth. Sorry for the tangent. Just had to give some love to Beth!

Hope you all have a great day!

Sunday Walk

The noodle and I had a little walking "date" together on Sunday morning.

You see, we pass by this giant green chair almost every day and she's always wanted to climb on it. So I told her on Sunday that we'd walk to it. It's just across the river from where we live:

This is a little garden look-out before we cross the bridge.

Ooooooo! She sees the chair! A burst of energy running across the bridge!

Half way across the bridge. Isn't this a great view? Not to ruin your view, or anything, but if you lived here you'd know that lots of people like to jump off this bridge. I used to work as a cook on one of the boats you see down there. It was an old tow boat that someone converted into a bed and breakfast. Very cool. Very cool, that is, until you'd have a dining room full of people and a dead body slung into a boat and passing by the big picture windows for a drop-off at the marina.

Lookie! Here's the chair!




Ahhhh! We made it!! The noodle climbed as much as she wanted. She had a ball.

You can see how brown it still is here......we can't wait for some flowers and leaves! I took some pictures of one of my favorite houses behind the chair. I'll post them later......it takes forever to upload these pictures. Trust me, though, you'll love it!

The noodle is very sick today. Man.....she's been sick a lot this year. She complained about not feeling well on Monday morning, but she does that every school day. Well, she came home after school with a 102 degree temperature. I think I lost that Mother-Of-The-Year award again! I'm going to call her nurse practitioner today. Have a great day!

Ribbon Embroidery

This picture is a little somethin' my Mom made for the Noodle. Isn't it incredible? I wish I had her talent or, at the very least, the desire to do something fabulous like this. I hope you can click on it and see some detail.

That's all for today. I was just changing the Noodles sheets and I gazed at it. It's one of my favorite things.

Mouths of Babes.......

A conversation when the Noodle got home from school:

Noodle: "Ohhhh GREAT." (rolling eyes.)

Martha: "What?"

Noodle: "Where did those chairs come from?" (pointing at chairs with accusing-sounding voice.)

Martha: "Grandma brought them for me. The dining chairs are ours, but I left them at Grandma's. The other one used to be Aunt Jacquie's."

Noodle: "Now you're going to get all involved with that chair." (eye roll)

Martha: "What do you mean by involved?"

Noodle: "You're always getting involved with things......"

Martha: "Do you even know what involved means?"

Noodle: "Yes! It means falling in looo-ove." (hands on hips. She's getting a little sassy these days.)

See? I wasn't kidding when I mentioned a while back that the Noodle is starting to notice my used furniture issues!

Okay, so we have our umpteenth birthday party of the year. I'll show you my favorite gift to give these days:

Do you see that little bowl of dog food??? It doubles as doggie doo-doo. You feed the dog and then lift up the tail and....viola! The doggie does it's business.

Then the doggie can go and eat his own doo-doo. That's where things get really fun!

Okay, that was gross. Sorry. But Zuddy and I got such a laugh from this. On the original packaging the excrement was arranged in a pile ever so neat.

Can you imagine? Telling the stylist what their assignment is for the day? Then telling them to get out their tweezers and make the pile of doo look messy, like poo, but still neat and appealing so as not to gross out consumers????? Oh - and the poo doubles as food. So make the food look like food and not poo. Ha haaaaaa!!!!

Oh - all right. I'll stop it with the poo-talk.

I'm getting the itch to take down our ugly chain-link fence. But I can't. I'm doing the kitchen, remember?

When we got married and moved in, I still had a year left of college (expensive, private college, people. And I'm still paying for it, thank you very much.). Instead of having a wedding, we used our money to buy the house (Thanks for the dough, Mom!) and went to the Justice Of The Peace to get married (whole other can of worms with Zuddy's family. And I'm not opening that one here.). Zuddy didn't want to live in this neighborhood, but the house was in such great condition and the price was even under what we could afford. Way under. There were a bunch of things done to the house that we didn't love, but we didn't have the money to change them and they weren't all that bad - they just weren't what we'd pick out.

Well.....11 years later I want to change everything. NOW!!!

I hate our deck and now it's actually not in good condition anymore. I want to take it down and have a patio instead. And I really want a pergola. And a pretty black iron fence. And the basement finished off.

But I'm doing the kitchen, remember?? Please. Remind me about the kitchen, will you? The KITCHEN. And remind me how much the OUTSWING patio doors with screens are going to cost us. We should actually go look at those this weekend and get a real-life quote. I checked a website and it said about $3500.00. Does that sound right? Ouch.

So, thanks for listening to that little ramble.

This blogging stuff is really quite cathartic!

Have a great Saturday! We sure are going to! I can't wait to get outside!

Zuddy's Honey-Do List

I saw Heather J's and I had to do one......

Ooooops! I did it AGAIN!

No - not another mocha.

Dudes.......

How could I pass this little honey up????? I mean, come ON!! And I'm not calling Manuel the budget-buster this time, though. I'm going back to Vicky. She'd better call me back this time, or I don't know what I'll do :)

My Aunt was working on recovering this at my Mom's house. My Mom is selling her house, so she wanted it out of her house, but my Aunt didn't want it anymore.

So where do we bring it???

Oh sure, get me in more trouble :)

So! Blogging friends: I want this little beauty to POP. What colors should I cover it in? Anything come to mind?

I'm DONE with my recipe development project! Woo Hoo! I feel like I just took a final exam and now I'm free.

It's a gorgeous 50 degree day here. I'm going outside to see how my compost cooked over the winter......have a great day and a great weekend!

Hel-lo LOVE!

I'm feeling sooooo much better today! I'm almost done with a project due tomorrow. I will be done in plenty of time, so I feel right on track and the recipes I developed weren't totally inedible :) In fact, I brought the finished recipes to Zuddy's work and the boys in the office inhaled them. They love my job because they get to sample creations. AND Zuddy only works 6 blocks from our house!

The NOODLE, however, was another story this morning. Poor pumpkin. She didn't want to go to school again this morning. She was so tired and she burst into tears right as Zuddy was walking out the door for work. He was so bummed, I could tell. He wanted to stay and comfort her, but he was already late.

Luckily, I was able to comfort her with the promise of a home-packed lunch, a "parent pick-up" (instead of riding the bus) after school and dinner at her favorite restaurant, Noodles & Company (how appropriate, huh?) Then we listened to her favorite song the whole way to school (I drove her and I put the "repeat" button on the cd player.) and talked about what an awesome day it was going to be. That pretty much took care of everything.

She's such a little tender heart. Mornings like these are why I'm so thankful to be home. I just feel like she needs me right now. It was easier to go to work when she was a baby.

So - crisis averted for Mom and Daughter! I'm right where I should be. Next year might be different, who knows. I just feel like I should want to go back to work and I really don't have that fire in my belly like I did before having my girl. Yet when I'm home with no projects, I get bored and unhappy. Argh!

Hey! Heather J. mentioned that she loves toile. Well, our bedroom has a toile bedskirt and matching slipcovered headboard. The headboard was bought for me by my Mom who found it for $10 at a garage sale.


But watch out!

Whoa! Underneath that conservative toile covering, this headboard is all Elvis, baby! A red velvet hunka-hunka burnin' love!

I was right! It was great to be at work yesterday! Boy.....I'm just trying really hard to find a balance that works for me. Right now I've got 22 recipes to develop and a kitchen in shambles.

Quick background: I lost my full time job a couple of years ago when the company I worked for was purchased by a company based in Ohio. Everything was moving to Ohio. We ultimately decided to not to go because of a monster-raise Zuddy got to stay put (Thank you Mick!). So the raise was good enough that I didn't really need to work too much and I could go back to food consulting. Great! I also wanted to become more involved in my community and do some volunteering. Perfect! And the Noodle was starting Kindergarden so I'd be able to be home with her so she could just do a half day afternoon program.

Well, I found working full-time really hard. Part of it was my own fault. I wanted to be the BEST! I wanted to WOW my manager. Well, that was just impossible. I stressed myself out totally - and dang it - she just wanted a little help getting the work out the door! I didn't need to re-invent the wheel! Sooooo.....2 years and big ol' Zoloft prescription later, here I am. Trying to figure it out. Wasting time blogging all the live-long day :)

How do you other Moms do it? I mean, I don't have a little one at home all day anymore, but I really want her to have the luxury of having her Mommy around before and after school. And summers. I want her to have a nice, fairly unstructured summer break. Last year we went to the pool almost every day. It was incredible!!

How do you other Moms do it? What makes your lives fulfilling? If you're working outside of the home, how much is too much? I'm curious.....

So here's a little teaser picture:
I have to get some caulk for some of those gaps, but look how clean and white those cupboards are!! Woo Hoo! And look how gross and dingy my old wallpaper is! Boo Hoo!

Have a great day!

Working Today

I think you can tell from yesterday's post that I'm crabby. You know why? It's because I'm a woman. Other than that, there's no real good reason.

It will be very good for me to get out of the house today and go to work.

On a happy note, I've signed Miss Noodley-Doo up for Urban Tennis. I'm totally psyched for this. Remember my friend Amy? She did this program when she was a munchkin and ended up being a really good Tennis player. I think they meet every day for an hour or so and - bonus - it's only 2 blocks away from our house! It starts in mid June. I'm sad I'm working for the month of June, now. I want to take her there.

About Amy.....she's having computer problems, so she can't get me pictures to post. I have "Amy...part one" written, but I think we need a picture of her as a grade-schooler, don't you? Aim, maybe Friday night I can come and pick up some pictures?

What else can I bore you with??

Oooooo! I'm thrilled about this one. Remember how I told you I'm a block club leader? Weeeellll, we have a bunch of problem properties in our neighborhood. Mostly rental properties owned by slumloards.

BUT - there is a convenience store 2 blocks away that is very scary. When we moved here, it was a nice, clean-looking Super America. I could go there for milk, butter.....what-have-you. Well, about a year after we moved here, the SA shut down (they didn't sell gas at this location....and it seems they've only kept the ones with gas stations). Right away these dudes bought it and I went there once. It was gross. The owners smoke in there. The place looked instantly run-down and there's garbage strewn about outside the property. Well, there are rumors flying about that the owners are selling drugs from behind the counter and other people are selling right outside this place. We've told our block club coordinator and the city inspector and the cops who attend our meetings, but I've never made a formal, written complaint.

I finally made a formal complaint to the city about this. And I urged the block clubbers to do the same. Well, guess what? I was driving past the store? Cops! "Chatting" with a couple of kids standing outside the store! Yay!

I want to buy the place and open my own slightly upscale convenience store. Just food. No cigarettes. Have it be a CSA drop-off site and have all sorts of fresh organics. Also, a dinner entree selection every night. Something I've made from scratch. I've been thinking about it for the past year. However, when Zuddy and I were watching some show on CourtTV about shops getting robbed, I kind of shelved it. Also, I was looking into the cost of all of the refrigeration and that was almost as scary as getting robbed. :)

Well, I'm ready to start thinking about it again. That whole "lose-your-shirt-in-an-instant" aspect isn't so appealing, though. But I am thinking about it again.

Happy Monday!

Oh the birds are singing, the sun is shining.....my child is back at school today!!!!! No - really - we had a great time together, but I have a bunch of work to do, so I'm glad to have a little solitude here.

Zuddy got 2 of the cabinet ends outfitted with beadboard. There are 4 to go. I'm starting to get a little miffed.

I got some hinges spray-painted over the weekend.

I've been advised by many people to buy new ones, but I've found out rather quickly that hinge shopping isn't exciting. And I'd have to shop for hinges online. Blech. There are a lot of different hinges out there, people. What are the chances I'd quickly find the ones just like mine in a nice pewter color? Please don't answer that. Just nod and smile and tell me, "spray on, sister". Thanks.

We went to the In-Law's for dinner. "Sahara" ham and potatoes mixed with cream of mushroom soup were served. With pickles and olives. Please don't think I'm joking. The pickles were the vegetable and I'm pretty sure the cream of mushroom was of the low-salt variety. And that was pretty much it - besides the red jello mixed with whipped topping from a deli.

I've said enough, haven't I?

Oh, but afterwards the Noodle and I went for a little bike ride - the first of the season for me! Woo Hoo! It was 40 degrees yesterday, but it was beautiful and sunny and it felt so great to be outside. Why is spring hatin' on us??? I can't complain....I've heard someplace in Ohio had 16 inches of snow!!!

Go on over to Janelle's web page and look at the dogwood blooms she took a photo of. I wonder if I can get anything like that to live a full, happy life here in the zone 3-4 tundra? Anyone? Anyone?

Here's another funny blog. I'm reading the archives right now. Check out February 2006, where she writes a "letter" to Limited Too.

Have a great day!

Borat.

Ohmygod.

Have you seen it? Probably. Everybody in the world has seen it but me.

Let me just say.....it's a good thing I don't need to look at the keyboard when I type.

Because I begged Zuddy to poke my eyes out with skewers and throw them away after we watched the nude wrestling scene.

But I can remember it. And I see it very clearly in my mind. **shiver**

You know what that means?

At-home lobotomy. Now.

Other People's Cast-Offs.....

This is one of my (many) dirty little secrets. Well, it's starting to come out little-by-little. Nope.....it's worse than the mocha issue. My little Noodle is even starting to clue into this little tic of mine:

Here it goes:............ I'm Martha and I love other people's cast-off furniture.

When I see a good-lookin' chair at an antique shop - or better yet, on the side of a road - well, it just makes my heart go pitter-pat.

Whew! I feel a little better now! It's out there! Admitting your problem is the first step to recovery, right? RIGHT?

I got this little problem from my Mom. Her problem is with dishes and linens, though. She used to drag me to garage sales and estate sales when I was young. I hated it. When I was in high school she did find me some funky pj's at an estate sale that I loved. I think they were silk. BIG wild print. I wore the bottoms all the time with big sweaters. We called them cadaver pajamas. Any time we found something at an estate sale, it was cadaver______. Cadaver chair, cadaver art, cadaver dishes.

So, anyway, over at SavvyCityFarmer, there are a lot of cast-offs that she makes oh-so-beautiful. She is really an artist. I noticed that she has something for sale at a store in Chicago. Well, the Noodle and I are going to Chicago at the end of the month! I'm totally checking out that store. I think I saw it featured in Cottage Living Magazine a while back.

So here's my last cast-off:
You're going to have to click on the picture. It's the sofa in the back. Oh! And the lamp! Got that one from Kirsten, my divorce-desk accomplice.

You know? I may go up there and take another picture and post it later. You can't see it very well in this photo.

I found this little beauty on my way to work. It was sitting out in front of an apartment building. I passed every day for a week and each day I'd say to myself, "Self.....you've got to check out that little beauty tomorrow."
And the next day I'd be in an even bigger hurry than I was the day before.
So finally, one day I get to work and I call my Mom: "Mooooooommmm? Could you please drive over and see if this is worth picking up?"

Well, hello? This is my MOTHER we're talking about, people! Of COURSE it's worth picking up!

Anyway, she calls me after she picks it up, breathing hard with excitement, (Kind of like one of my sis-in-laws have just given birth to a precious new grandchild): "Oh! It's perfect! Custom made! Down cushions! We picked it up and put it in your garage!"

Now, I've shown considerable restraint over the years. Until I found this little sofa, I hadn't brought much into the house. I can admire things and walk on by. But it's getting harder and harder, people.

A couple of weeks ago? There were these great leather club chairs sitting outside an antique shop? Ohmygosh. My heart was aflutter. It was so hard to not stop and have a little look-see at these beauties. But I have nowhere in my tiny little house to put them.

Well, one day the noodle and I were going somewhere and passed the shop. They were still there.

But guess what?

My neighbors, Jeffy and Pam were sitting in them!!!!! Yay! I beeped my horn and gave them the "thumbs up" and by the time the Noodle and I got home, Pam and Mitch (Jeffy and Pam's son) were sitting in the chairs in their driveway! Yay! Oh - they are so comfy. They don't even need to be recovered and they're from the '50's!

Anyway, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Oooo. I forgot to mention something: The person my Mom normally uses for reupholstering just would not call me back about reupholstering my little sofa. So I took it to a place in my neighborhood. I'll never do that again. It cost me more than if I would've bought a new loveseat.

And I hate the way he did the cushions. To me, it's a no-brainer. Use a little foam-core and wrap it in the old down. Nope. He just used the foam core. I took the cushions back and told him I was unhappy. He wrapped them in fiber. They're better, but I'm still not happy - but I've spent enough on them.

Let me give you a quick run-down of how my conversation with Zuddy went when he was balancing the checkbook and found the carbon copies of the checks I wrote to the upholsterer:

I'm upstairs on our bed watching TV.

Zuddy: (comes up the stairs and peeks at me through the banister) "Mupp, who is this "Manuel" that you wrote a $750 check to?"
Me: (real breezy-like and casual): "Oh....that's the sofa-guy, remember? I told you about him. Manuel. Great guy."
Zuddy: (starting back down the steps), "Oh yeah! Okay. Sure."
Whew. Crisis averted. He's gone. 10 minutes pass.
Zuddy: (starting back up the steps) : "Uhhhhhh......so there seems to be another check for the same amount to Manuel, but it's a week later. Is this a mistake?"
Me: "Ummmmmm......no."
Zuddy turns around - very controlled-like and silently heads back down the stairs.

So. You see, it's best I don't pick up more furniture for a while.

Okay. Here it is. Totally worth it......uhhhhh.....I mean I'll never do that again. Bad. BAD!

Funny stuff.......

This chickie-doo cracks me UP! I'm only half-way through her archives, but it's knee-slapping-laugh-out-loud hilarity, people!

I've got to stop now. I really need to get some actual work done that I get paid for. I've made a deal that if I get two recipes done today I can read more of her blog.

Music selection today:


Go and git it. Especially if you're a girl. It's such a great, uplifting cd. India rocks.

Now. The other one I'm listening to (just to balance out the hipness factor of Inda.Arie):

Zuddy and I were watching a documentary on PBS about these two. He bought me the cd last night while he and the Noodle had a daddy-daughter date. Pretty sweet.

Awwwww crud.

It's snowing.

Pictures From Family Day!

Lulu (or Louie)


We had an awesome day.


Schmackie

Blondie
Noodle

Snack at the coffee shop.

Uhhhh.....turns out Schmackie loves iced mochas. Is that bad? Check out Louie in the background!

The only thing missing was Sweet Angel. She had a fever and couldn't be with us.

Family Day!

I'm so excited....I have my oldest brother and sis-in-law's kiddies here, my niece, "Lulu" and my nephew, "Schmacker". They spent the night last night. We kicked Zuddy out and "asked" him to sleep in the Noodle's room. So it was me and the three kids in our attic bedroom.

I just love peeking in at Zuddy sleeping in the Noodles bedroom. It's so funny to see one of his hairy legs peeking out of flowery, shabby chic bedding!

Today we'll also have Zuddy's cousin's little girl, "Blondie". She is such a sweet girl and the three girls play so well together! The Schmacker and I will go to a museum while the girls play at my Mom's house. I'm also hoping to tromp around in the woods today. There's a great park near our house with a waterfall. We'll take some pictures!

I should link to my brothers new blog, The Garage Gourmet.
So - I totally get the title. Good stuff. My brother is an excellent cook and his garage is his "man crisis center". Got it.
But......but then you get there and there's a picture of their beloved new kitten, Ace. In fact, both entries in his brand-spankin'-new-blog are about Ace.
So it leaves me to wonder: Are we cookin' up Ace for dinner???? Is Ace starring in the next Garage Gourmet Recipe??? My palms sweat each time I visit the website. I feel a little sick to my stomach. And believe me, I will be looking around the house for Ace before I eat the "mystery meat" dinner over at their house.
I'm just sayin'.

Okay, so Zuddy got the under-cabinet lighting installed!!!!!!! Yay! All he has to do is cut the power off and hook it up and we're good to go! I'm hoping he will put the beaded board on the cabinet ends and trim out the cabinet bottoms to hide the lighting next week. He still has some major holes in the soffits to patch up before I can do anything about the wallpaper.

I have to tell you, I had a great time learning about Amy on Saturday night! I've been too busy to do her write-up. I'll get it done this week, though!

Have a great day!