Laughter is the Best Medicine

There is nothing better in this world than laughing. Two of my sisters came to Texas to visit and they brought the "best medicine" with them. They make me laugh and laugh and laugh. Not giggle or chuckle, but that hard laugh that you beg them to stop because it hurts your stomach, your lungs and your face. Not to mention the immediate need to find a restroom, you get the point.

The best part of sister laughter is that they make sure it is in the worst place. In a quite place, or a crowded place, and no where near a restroom. This week it was in an antique store. As we were walking around the store we saw a end table with a marble insert. My sister saw the end table and said, "Every time I see a table like that I think of my move out of my apartment I shared with "Bob", not his real name.

Here is the story: For the sake of the story I will call my sisters Lynn and Jean.  Jean was in her early twenties, she broke up with her long time boyfriend, and was moving out of their apartment. Lynn is a few years older than Jean and she decided to fix Jean up with a guy that she worked with. I am not sure why, but they set it up so that the guy, we will call Tom, came over to help her move. Awkward!

So, Tom was helping to carry furniture out of the apartment and trying not to feel like the elephant in the room, and Jean is just trying not to break into tears any moment. Not your typical first date. Tom picks up an end table that had a marble insert in it, and not realizing that the insert slid in place, it slid out of place and fell out of the table, at about 3 feet high, right on his foot. Now you know that had to hurt like the dickens. He was a trooper, limping around and still helping even though he had to be in terrible pain. Worst date ever. Jean felt so bad and was sure that he was injured badly. When he went to leave Jean apologized profusely and knew that was probably the last time she would ever see Tom.

A week or so later Lynn went into work and on her desk was Tom's toenail, along with a note thanking her for setting him up with Jean.  Lynn said at first she thought it was a seashell until she looked at it and she was totally grossed out!!!!!

Let the laughter begin. For me it actually began when I heard that Lynn sent that poor boy to the apartment, and by the time the story was done I had to walk away before I exploded. The whole time begging them to stop. Best laugh ever!!! No restroom insight!

Thanks Lynn and Jean for a wonderful week and for always making me laugh!

Happy Birthday Edy!

First day in her new home!

Our dog Edy turned 9 today. She was born on Fathers Day in 2007. We were living in Indiana at the time and the School Counselor at the Middle School where I worked had a mini dachshund that was a therapy dog. Her name was Freddie and she was the sweetest dog I had ever met. Freddie was pregnant and I was really interested in getting one of her puppies. We had a hard sell to convince my husband that he really did want a dog, lol.

Could this puppy be any sweeter?

After the puppies were born and they were several weeks old my son and I went to look at them. We watched to see which one had the best temperament for us, meaning lazy and calm. Then when it was time to choose my husband and I went to make our final choice. My husband picked Edy up and it was love! She not only looked like her Mom, but she had the same sweet temperament.

Doing what she does best. Resting!

Edy has been with us for 9 years and has gone through 3 moves. She handled each one like a champ. She traveled with us for years during hockey seasons and she really loved staying in the hotels with us. Edy would travel with me on my trips from Indiana, with a stop in Ohio for a few days, on our way to Virginia before our first move. She has been on trips from Indiana to Texas and Florida, and from Virginia to Texas and Florida. Never once was she a problem.

Edy on our trip from Texas to Virginia.

Edy has some behavior issues, as do all animals, she loves to get into the trash. Because she is short it is usually the bathroom trash can she chooses. If there is nothing in the trash she is happy to unroll and eat the toilet paper. She also loves Bounce dryer sheets. Edy loves dirty socks and my husband is always more than happy to roll them up and play fetch with her using his work socks. I am not sure who is the discipline problem in that example. In my opinion the biggest behavior issue she has is that she licks everyone. She will sit next to you and lick you forever. Well, she will if you let her, hint, hint husband.

Knees are delicious!

Edy and I are together most of the time now that my kids are out of the house. I have three kids and two grandchildren, and all of them have been called Edy by me at one time or another. I am not proud of it, but there it is.

I am the one and only Edy!

Even though I am the main care giver for Miss Edy, My husband loves her the most. When he is home the two of them are inseparable. She is either standing next to him or on his lap. When he leaves on a business trip and she sees he is leaving with luggage she will sit by the door for hours waiting for him to come home. When he comes home from work, or a trip she whines and cries with joy to see him. I must admit that the kids and I are a bit jealous at times of the bond these two have, lol.

When will he get home?

I describe Edy as the dog that acts like a koala. She sleeps pretty much 22 out of the 24 hours in the day.

One of her many sleeping positions.

But the best description of this sweet dog is with one word, LOVE! We sure do love her!

Happy Birthday Lady Edy Carmello O'Wickets!

Decoupaged Paper Mache Letters

I have wanted to do something with the brown paper mache letters they sell at craft stores for a long time now. I would walk past them in the stores, and even bought the letters to spell SEW for my sewing room, but I had not started a project with them yet. My granddaughter's nursery has given me the chance to do something fun with the baby's initials.  I bought the letters at Joann Fabrics, but you can get them anywhere, even Walmart. I bought the 12" letters for the nursery project.

I was only going to cover the front of the letters, so I needed to paint the sides and back of the letter before I started to decoupage the front. I painted several coats of white craft paint on the brown letter to make sure it was completely covered.

I purchased several of the same Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit paperbacks to use to cover the letters. Supplies I needed to start my project were a jar of decoupage glue, an exacto/utility knife, scissors and scrap cardboard. The cardboard was to protect the table surface from any cuts with the utility knife.

To begin, I cut out a page of the book and laid it on the letter using a specific part of the picture, or the words on the page.

When I got the page into the position I wanted it on the letter, I would hold it in place, and use the exacto/utility knife to cut around the edge of the letter.

 I would then take the knife and cut a straight edge or angled cut on the two ends of the piece. I would use the scissors to clean up the edges if needed.

 You can cut the pieces however you like, but I tried to mix it up between pictures and words.

I cut all the pieces out first and then put a light layer of glue on the front of the letter, and laid the cut out pieces on the letter starting at one end and working up or down the letter. When the letter was completely covered I let it dry.  Lastly, I put a layer of Decoupage over the top, and sides of the whole letter.

Here are a few pictures of the finished product up close.

I hung the letters on the wall with velcro picture hangers. Now I can't wait to start the letters for my sewing room.

Nursery Framed Picture Collage

My daughter enlisted me to help decorate my granddaughter's nursery. She wanted to decorate it in a Peter Rabbit theme using the Peter Rabbit bedding from Pottery Barn.

Pottery Barn's Peter Rabbit Quilt

The inspiration for the room came from a watercolor picture of a Peter Rabbit scene that my daughter painted when she was a teenager.

This painting by my daughter was the inspiration piece for my Granddaughter's nursery.

We decided we wanted to use white antique and Victorian looking frames for the baby's wall. I went on some shopping trips to Home Goods and some local antique stores, and I was able to get about a dozen frames. I also found a cute small white wood doll chair for the room.  Some of the frames needed to be modified a bit. I had to take the table stands off the back of some of the frames so they would hang flat on the wall. Some did not come with backs at all. For these frames I cut a back out of scrap cardboard and taped it to the back to hold the picture in place.

One of the antique frames I bought for this project.

This is the back I added to the antique frame. As you can see I used the cardboard from another frame. I did not have to use tape because this frame has built in tabs to hold it in place.

Next, I went shopping for some Peter Rabbit books. I went to local book stores and found some paper back and hard back Beatrix Potter books that had some beautiful pictures in them. Not all the pictures were of Peter Rabbit, but her pictures and stories were of animals, and many were perfect for the room. The paper back Peter Rabbit books I bought I used for decoupaging letters that I will talk about in a later blog. Most of the framed pictures I used were from one of the hard back books.

This is the book I used for most of the pictures.

This is an example of one of the pictures I did not use. As you can read the subject matter is not appropriate for a baby's room and the picture pretty much reflects the story. Yikes!

I decided I wanted to hang the chair in the picture grouping, and on it I placed a stuffed rabbit that belonged to my daughter when she was little. I put a green gingham ribbon around it's neck to match the bed quilt and curtains. I hung it under the framed words from the beginning of the Peter Rabbit story.

For one of the frames I used a few paragraphs from of one of the books and cut out two circles, one a little smaller than the other. Then, I cut out two rabbit ear shapes. I put them together to look like a rabbit and then added a large cotton ball for the tail. I glued it to a green piece of card stock and put it in a frame without the glass.

The pictures I love the most are of the mice in the shoe, and the mouse wearing a dress and knitting. They are so sweet and very girly.

There are the classic Peter rabbit pictures, and Beatrix Potter wrote poems, nursery rhymes, and stories that had some very sweet illustrations of animals dressed up. It was hard to choose which pictures to use.

I love how the Guinea pig is using the brush on her hair with the hand mirror and perfume bottle sitting next to her.

I am very pleased with the way the wall turned out, and I will have a few more blogs on the baby's room, before I reveal the completed room.