Rome wasn't built in a day

I started out with a lazy Sunday today.  I went to church and then out to breakfast with Mr. Saylor and the MIL.  We went to a new restaurant that just opened and it was a nice surprise.  They remodeled an old place that was run down and not very appetizing into a sweet little 50's retro place with very good food, even homemade jelly for my English muffin, YUM!

Once I got home I finished up Miss Saylor's bedroom, vacuumed and put nice clean sheets on her bed and washed her duvet cover. I picked up a little bouquet of flowers and put those on her night stand and was quite pleased with the look.  Later I realized that the dog was nowhere to be found and then it hit me...the old guy was up on her nice freshly made bed!  Once he came downstairs from his nap I barricaded her door since the old guy can bust open the door even if it's closed because the latch is broken.  Another project for another day I guess.

Next plan was to get outside and work on the corner of the yard but then it hit me!!! I forgot to pick up some computer program Miss Saylor had ordered at the Apple store.  I had Mr. Saylor drive me to the mall and drop me off at the entrance so that I could run in and pick it up.  I only had a few hours before she was due home and wanted to be sure I picked it up.  Can you imagine being gone for 10 days and coming home only to find that I had forgotten to pick it up?!  Well, I couldn't have planned it better and the guys in the Apple store were fantastic.  I am amazed at the level of customer service Apple provides and how far we've come in technology.  I showed them the text I had received from Apple to let me know the program was ready for pick up.  They scanned the text and within minutes someone brought the bag up to us and off I went.

After I got home I checked mail and found someone on Freecycle giving away a console table with two stools and a wall lamp.  Since Miss Saylor is moving in to a new apartment soon I decided to check it out.  I emailed them back and they were right in my town.  So I drove over to their house and picked it up.  Turns out they are tearing down their old house and building new.  It wouldn't be a lie if I told you I had a little bit of jealousy.  What a dream to be able to plan a home from the ground up. 
While we were loading up the furniture I got a call from Miss Saylor to inform me that her flight from New York to Chicago was cancelled.  Her group ended up having to stay the night at a hotel and will be flying out tomorrow.  She has always wanted to see NY but I don't think this was the way she wanted it to work.  Poor thing, she has been on a 7 or 8 our flight from Prague only to find out the last leg of her journey is postponed.  Travelling is never easy. 

Earlier in the day I started some shepherd's pie meat in the crock pot so I new I wouldn't have to worry too much about dinner.  Sgt. Buzzkill was in Michigan this weekend at my friends summer house so I wasn't sure what time he'd be home for dinner if at all.  This would make a good dinner or late night snack because I was pretty sure that he'd be bringing home a few friends. 

While that was cooking I was able to get out in the yard and start cleaning up the corner I had planned to work on.  Mr. Saylor was mowing the lawn while I was weeding.  On the way to the corner I made a side step to a little garden I started.  As I was picking weeds on one side I heard Mr. Saylor pulling something up and I stopped looked and blew a gasket because he was pulling out my newly planted Sweet Peas!  I will admit I used a few choice words that I hope the neighbor children didn't hear!  I started those darn plants from seed and was hoping to see them grow up the fence. Even though he replanted them I'm pretty sure they're not going to make it.  Why he decided to stop mowing and come start weeding is beyond me but at that moment I would have loved to whack him with a garden shovel. 

In the end I got most of the corner finished.  That corner of our yard is disgusting with weeds all over the place.  Most of them came up pretty easily but the grass needs some work.  I think I'll have to call out either Scotts or Tru-Green to have them apply weed killer.  I also trimmed this incredibly wild rose bush back there.  I've chopped that thing down a few times but it continues to return.  It's an unruly wild bush that blooms once and then just gets all woodsy looking.  This year I've decided to give her some attention and keep her trimmed and pretty. 

So, Sunday turned out to be a pretty easy day with a couple of accomplishments.  I may have lost a couple of sweet pea plants but I made some headway with the nasty corner of our yard. 

Debbie

Nothing much accomplished but still a fun day.

I got nothing done on my list today.  Nothing that I had planned but still something I needed to do but forgot to add to the list. 

A few weeks ago my son, who we refer to as Sgt. or Captain Buzzkill for many reasons you will probably come to find as this blog evolves, decided to change his brakes on his car.  The old brakes lay on my driveway since then.  Mr. Saylor wanted to throw them in the garbage.  Who throws huge hunks of steel in the garbage?  Does he have no regard for the environment?  Needless to say his suggestion created a lot of grief for him that day.   Since I'm in the steel business I found a steel recycling plant about 30 minutes away that is open on Saturdays where you can just drive up and drop off your steel scrap.  They pay you a few cents a pound.  Well, that's what I ended up doing today.  Mr. Saylor came home from work and we took a quick ride out there and dropped off the brakes.  We probably used more in gas to get there than the $2.71 we received for the old brakes but that's ok because I think it was better to do that then throw them in the trash.  What we did decide though is that we will start saving a bunch of our scrap metal and take it there.  I did tell Mr. Saylor that we at least need to save enough of it to justify spending the money just to drive out there.  Are we really saving the environment if we end up adding to the emissions by driving only to recycle a few pounds of steel?  Who knows but it makes me feel a lot better dropping it off there than throwing it in the garbage. 

Today was also the day we had tickets to a White Sox game. I thought the game was at night and started at 7ish.  Turns out it started at 3:15 which means I would not be able to accomplish anything else being that this game was in the middle of the day.  What's great about a White Sox game is the tailgating parties.  Since there isn't much to do around the ballpark and the neighborhood isn't exactly the safest, a lot of fans get there early and have huge tailgate parties.  BBQ grills, picnic tables, bags games can make the day much more fun, especially when the team isn't doing so well.  These tailgaters don't skimp either, they do it up, I've even seen a couple people hook up a blender to their car and mix up margaritas.  Mr. Saylor loves to tailgate and so hours before the game we ended up running to the grocery store and picked up some pre-formed burger patties, some chips and some salads.  He filled the cooler with ice, margarita mix and tequila and even cut up some limes.  Away we went to the game parked and began our little tailgate party.  I was quite impressed with Mr. Saylor's set up.  Then I saw this really cool Coleman camping propane grill that I have to have!  Now I'm going to turn into a tailgate maniac!  We had our little Weber charcoal grill and we paled in comparison to the guys around us with these fancy Coleman grills.  Our next game is the end of July (we split some season tickets with my brother) and believe me I want one of those grills! 

The weather was perfect!  It was cloudy and a cool wind was blowing so we brought some sweatshirts just in case.  Hard to believe that those poor people on the west coast are suffering in 100+ temps and we're bringing out sweatshirts.  When the clouds broke up the sun actually heated things up sitting in the parking lot.  Our seats are in the shade so it was a little cool once we got in the game.  It stayed around 65 degrees for most of the game.  Sox lost but the day was nice. 

Unfortunately I was not able to cross anything off of my to do list for today which means I'll have to double up tomorrow.  That's ok because my daughter will be home from her trip and if I get nothing else done I want to be sure I get her bedroom ready.

Have a great evening.

So much to do at Saylor Street Cottage

I've got a hefty list of projects this weekend along with the regular house cleaning.  I wish I could justify the cost of a cleaning lady but it's just not in my budget.   I'm trying to pay off some debt so even though I could probably squeeze it into the budget it just doesn't make sense to pay to have someone clean the house when that money could go to a credit card or two or three.

Miss Saylor Street is coming home from a ten day school trip in Germany tomorrow and I want her bedroom to be clean and cozy.  Her bedroom was a disaster so much so that I didn't even want to post a before picture.  She will be moving to an apartment in the city soon and had already started boxing some of her things.  I decided to help her a little with that, except I didn't want her to think I'm in a hurry for her to leave.  She's my little buddy so I will miss her coming home at night and having her here on Saturday and Sunday mornings for our spontaneous little treasure hunts.  The good news is that she'll be in an area of Chicago that hosts quite a few antique shops and second hand shops so I'll have to travel down there more often. 

So, this weekend projects are:

• remove the old liner from painted trunk that Miss Saylor found in the garbage.  We painted it and now need to replace the liner.  We have some old toile fabric that I'm going to use.
• dig up and till the corner of the yard that doesn't get much sun and plant some of the little ferns I found on sale at Home Depot.
• finish cleaning up Miss Saylor's bedroom and have it cozy for her homecoming.
• put up a privacy fence along the garbage cans
• secure the chippy fence behind my English garden in the corner. 
• Plant my new herbs

Now that I've listed what needs to be done it doesn't look like much of a list.  However this has to be done in conjunction with cleaning the rest of the house.  This little Cape Cod is not very big so it shouldn't take long.  Oh, but I almost forgot that I have a White Sox game to go to tonight.  Mr. Saylor will want to go early and tailgate. So my Saturday hours are limited. 

Pictures to come on the finished trunk and yard.  I want to take pictures of the yard so that I can watch it's growth next year.  I hope the little ferns come back.  I never seem to have luck with ferns in any of my previous gardens. 

I'm heading off to get some coffee and start my projects.  It's going to be a busy day.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Was my house haunted?

This is a picture of my house in Chicago where I grew up. When my parents were looking for homes and we first pulled up to this house back in the 70's my mother saw a little boy in the doorway. She asked the owners where he was and they told her they didn't have children. 
 
For years afterwards while living in the house we'd all hear strange noises and we kind of thought it might be haunted but never really cared, nothing bad ever happened. One evening, in the wee hours of the morning after a long night of dancing the night away my friend dropped me off at my house and said "Debbie, your little brother is still up?" I didn't think anything of it because my mother used to love to stay up late on the weekend nights with the kids and watch scary movies. So, when I went in the house expecting to see everyone up and ahem, trying to look sober, lol, I came in to find no one awake and all sound asleep. I later asked my friend about it and she said it looked just like my brother Duane.

So, take a look at this picture that my brother Duane recently took? Do you see the faces in the window? Pretty spooky right?

I might add, we did not have a cross on the front of our house.  This was added by the new owners.  I wonder if this has any significance to what may continue to go on in the house???

Re-igniting A Passion For My Home

I don’t know at what point I became so interested in home décor.   I was crazy about it back when the kids were small.  I lost interest as they were growing up for so many reasons.  I suppose I can attribute my new found interest to Pinterest.  Today there are so many blogs about home décor and gardening that I can spend hours looking at pictures and watching tutorials.  The down side of that is that I do spend HOURS reading blogs. 

Right now I have a Google Hangout going on about chalk paint and the Pioneer Woman is on TV cooking.  And I’m getting absolutely nothing done in my own home. 

However, little by little all of the blogs and TV shows and Facebook pages are slowly igniting the passion for decorating I once had.  I’m slowly changing my surroundings.  It’s ok if it takes a while.  Both of my children are in their early 20’s now and are no longer under foot.  

I’m going to re-enter the world of chalk paint, distressed furniture, sewing, cooking and gardening.