Isn't it pretty??

 V was hard at work at home today!  He put up the chair rail in the kitchen!!

That's a shot of the tall cabinet by the dining room.  I didn't show you the garbage can ;)

Isn't it lovely!!??   He does such nice work.  Here's a close up:

I really, really loved the little leaf motif on this.
Now, I think we need a few bits of baseboard in place and the kitchen will be FINISHED!!  Two rooms in one week- be still my heart!!!
Things will slow down a little in the next few weeks, he does have some contract writing to do for his employer, and, good news, his other employer (who lost her contract a while ago so no more subcontracting to him) has more work for him. Hooray!!  And a writing assignment that's just up his alley.  He needs to write an article on how to cut your energy bill without spending lots of money.  I do think he could almost write that one in his sleep, not only from our own experience but because his other job is for an energy company and he writes about energy all the time.
Work for me was hectic and now, once again we've got a band concert this evening (I14 this time). At least this concert starts a little later so we're not quite so rushed. But still, I've gotta go feed people.

Random babbling

Whew, what a day.  Work was busy and I came home to tend chickens and get everyone fed before we rushed off to K11's winter band concert.  The concert was a combination of the beginner and advanced elementary bands.  The beginner band sounded like, well, a beginner band, with a mercifully short performance.  The advanced band (K11 is in this one) sounded much better.  It's amazing what a year of practice can do.
Tomorrow, we have another concert. I14 and the high school concert band will have their winter concert. Now THOSE guys can play!
I woke to snow this morning.  And it stuck around all day.  Not a lot of snow, maybe only an inch, but it makes things look quite seasonal.  Maybe I'll finally get into a holiday mood.  Of course, the snow took me by surprise this morning and I was confused.   I didn't sleep well last night and was having a weird dream about the chicken coop and shop being on fire when my alarm went off (I think I'm paranoid about having that heat lamp out there on the thermal cube).  Anyway, I went to let the dog out onto the deck and when I saw the snow, not being fully awake, I immediately thought it was ashes from the fire.  I really need to get into the shower first thing to wake up!!
I think we may be putting up the tree on Saturday.  It may actually be a several day affair because Spaz always climbs the tree so we usually give him a day without ornaments to get his jollies out.  Although last year he wasn't too bad.
I ordered V's other gift today. Shhh...  It's a secret...
I also ordered some serger thread.  Not from the same place.
V put up the towel racks in the upstairs bath.  NOW we're really living!  I don't know if I can stand the strain.
Ok, I really am babbling.  I only got a few hours of sleep last night between having a series of coughing fits that made it difficult to get to sleep and then waking up at 2:40 and having difficulty going back to sleep.  I think I'm going to hit the hay.

Sometimes...

 It's the little things that mean the most!
This morning, I painted:

 Later this afternoon, V installed the paper holder:

 After two years of having the TP setting on the counter, it will take some getting used to. Next thing you know, we'll have towel racks... unheard of!!
Of course, the room isn't officially finished, we still don't have window or door molding up, or the base trim. But it is SOOOOO much better than when we bought the house.  We went from this:

And that's even with a flash.  It was a dark, wooden cave.  Even the ceiling was the same dark wood color, and with only two little wall lamps to light the entire room.   Ewww...
But now, behold:

Much lighter and brighter.  It even seems bigger.
All in all, a good day's work.

I think today may be the first day this season that it has failed to get above freezing.  Pretty amazing considering it is December.  But it was cloudy and about 28 all day, with a wind that went through you so it was nice to have an inside task to do.

And, BTW, don't you just love paint color names?  This color was called Turtle Dove.  Who gets paid to think up these names?!  I think I want that job.

Happy Christmas to me...

...EARLY!!
Today, V and I took a trip to Cedar Rapids, 30 miles north, to run some errands.  Our local home store, while they had a particular wood panel (that V uses for backing for bookshelves) in stock, the new shipment was a slightly darker shade and wouldn't match the rest of the wood downstairs.  So, we ventured off to the sister store in CR with a scrap to see if we could do a color match.  Our store was also out of several bath fixtures (towel rods, etc) that we wanted.
Of course, paneling and bathroom stuff acquired, we just had to stop at the Hancock Fabric store nearby.  Our fabric store options here in town are rather limited and I refuse to shop for fabric (or anything else, for that matter) at W**mart.  While we were there, we checked out a sale that I was aware of. And V got my Christmas present early:

I've been doing my research and this model got very good reviews for the price and a couple of people I've talked to who have this machine really, really like it. A bonus is that it comes with an instructional DVD so I can learn how to thread it!  V says I can open it but that kind of seems like cheating.  Christmas is only a few weeks away.  But can I wait that long??  It's sitting there, on the table in my sewing room, just looking at me!
But, I probably won't be doing much sewing tomorrow anyway.  The reason we were anxious to get all the bath bits we wanted is that V finally finished all the drywall work in the upstairs bath.  The primer coat is on and I'll be doing the finish painting tomorrow.  So, then we can install the towel racks and even a TP holder!!  And all this after only two and a half years.  It has been SOOOO, nice  the past few days to be able to shower without having to go to the downstairs bath.  We've got this bad habit of getting projects done to the 'We can live with this' stage and then taking a long time to finish as we work on more pressing things.  I guess that's a problem when you buy a disaster of a house with so many things that need done.  The upstairs bath was gutted and partially finished before we moved in but we were contemplating putting in a different window so V wasn't in a hurry to finish the drywall.  With bare drywall over the shower, we really couldn't use it.  But FINALLY!!!!  WOOT!  Maybe soon I'll have my wish of one room completely finished!! (I'm still waiting on my chair rail in the kitchen so it isn't officially finished)   THAT would also be a fabulous gift!

This is help??

Spaz was helping me cut out V's smoking jacket this afternoon.
Acting as a weight on the fabric is one thing- but I drew the line when he started pulling out the pins.
4 different fabrics later, the jacket is cut out.  Velvet for the body, black brocade for collar, cuffs and pocket trim, interfacing and flannel for extra padding in the collar and cuffs.

Paged to the ER

Fortunately, it wasn't bad.
Yesterday afternoon, about 3:30, my pager went off at work.  It was a text to call the emergency room.  NEVER a good thing!!  Our friend Sharon was in the ER and wanted me to get in touch with Roger.  She had been at work and had become dizzy and short of breath- bad enough that her employer thought to get her to the hospital.  Fortunately, it was nothing serious- well, not bad- serious.  She was dehydrated, overstressed, overworked and not sleeping.  The poor thing, she has been so stressed, taking on more and more responsibilities since Roger had his amputation.
I did manage to get hold of Roger- he already had gotten her phone message.  V picked me up from work and we went to their house, brought in the mail and walked the dog since Roger doesn't have his prosthesis yet and can't walk their energetic big dog.
Sharon was released and we picked her up at the ER and took her to her car which was still at work.  I did admonish her that "IT IS OK TO ASK FOR HELP!!!"  I'll have to be more diligent about checking in with HER and not just Roger to see how things are going.

Today, I finally got the heat lamp hung in the chicken coop for when the temps get really frigid this winter.  We've got spoiled chickens.  We've already got the heated water base so their water doesn't freeze.  For the heat lamp, we found a 'thermo-cube' with a built in thermostat that will turn the lamp off and on between preset temperatures so it isn't on all the time.

I'm planning to cut out V's smoking jacket this afternoon.  I haven't had time to get to it yet and I wanted to prewash the fabric.  Yes, even the velvet.  I know that this jacket will get thrown in the wash so I want the fabric to be able to stand up to it.
J17 is working to design a logo for me.  For one of her computer graphics classes she is taking, she had to design one anyway so she is using my hopeful business to kill two birds with one stone.  I'll hopefully be unveiling a new blog soon for the crafty stuff.  I have secured a custom domain and may ask our friend Mike if he will host it for me.  I do think J17 is at least as excited about this venture as I am.

Gotta go- I've got too much on my list for the day to spend much time with blogger... as tempting as it is. I've already wasted time researching sergers.  I'm thinking that maybe I'll ask Santa for one of those.  Anyone have any recommendations or warnings??  I've used one before but don't own one.

A curious thing

In the past two days, I have found two eggs on the floor of the coop.  Yesterday late afternoon, when I went out to check (we got 7 eggs!!) there were no eggs in the end nest box (they don't like that one much- I think it's too exposed) two eggs in the middle box and 4 in farthest box (against the wall).  And there, on the floor next to the wall almost in front of the next box, was an egg.  Hmm...  I wondered if the prime nest boxes were occupied and someone couldn't wait.  Ok, no problem.
Then this evening I went out to check. None in the end again, one in the middle and three in the far box.  Not too bad for the first of December.  But, when I turned to check to make sure they have enough food, there on the floor, right by the feeder, was another brown egg.
Now I'm really confused.  Two consecutive eggs on the floor??  Could I have a new layer who is inexperienced?  I thought all the girls were laying already (although with almost everyone laying brown eggs, it's hard to tell) but I've never had everyone lay on the same day- the max I've ever gotten was 8.  Or could there be something else that is making one of the girls lay on the floor?  Anyone with more chicken expertise, feel free to weigh in!  Until this, I haven't found any eggs on the floor since September when most everyone started laying.  I think most of the girls laid their first on the floor and then figured it out.
Or, maybe, as K11 suggested, someone is just sad because of Buffy and is protesting.  Um, yeah.


Oh, and it's snowing here.  We're not supposed to get more than an inch and it's supposed to get back near 40 tomorrow.  What weird weather we're having.