I'm Taking A Break

I need a break. While I love blogging and will continue to do it—and you've read my sentiments on this issue several times—I need to work on getting healthy for a bit of time. Why is it that pain always seems to find a new place to set up shop?!

Then the other day hubby's doctor's office called to confirm an appointment. Hubs hadn't told me about it and when we got home a few hours later I asked him about it. He told me his right arm started hurting on sunday when we were in Washington visiting our granddaughter, couldn't lift it to comb his hair, shampoo, towel dry his back or reach the car radio, just felt like he was loosing control of that arm. (He's left-handed.) He was thinking some "old age" disease was taking over his arm and/or body. That will be 2 weeks today. He said he didn't want to worry me because of my leg. I chastised him sufficiently, and he went to the doctor last friday. Doctor said it's muscular (what's going on with this family lately and our muscles?!) Anyway, he gave hubs some gel to rub onto his arm 3x a day. Needless to say, we're much relieved!

So with a full schedule of physical therapy on my horizon and putting my hubby before anything else, I thought a break would be in order. The physical therapist said I injured my ham string and the abductors and adductors in the groin area and will be doing PT in his office 3x a week for the next 8 weeks in addition to doing it twice daily at home. I cannot tell you how difficult it is to get comfortable—standing, sitting or lying down. He told me I could not be on the computer for more than 10 minutes at a time. It may be a month, just not sure at this point. But I need to concentrate fully on getting my back and leg back into shape after the fall, or actually the flip, I took in late August. Be back when I can. In the meantime I'll suggest to you to go back and read my first posts to see how pathetic they were. Just goes to show you we can all improve with practice. ;-)

Oooooh, I'll definitely continue to do Pink Saturday because I love it so much. And please forgive me for not commenting very much these last few weeks. It's been a pain to sit here much, and I cannot even sit in my craft room chairs at all,l so I'll only be doing things that allow me to stand while crafting. And prayers are much appreciated. I'm only injured, not dead, chicks!
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But I'll leave you with a few pieces of eye candy.

I found these bright pink and white polka dot plates at the Dollar store and couldn't resist buying them, although I was there looking for things for someone else.

 

With that being said, just enjoy these photos taken the last day of September with my garden's last hooray. This hydrangea bush is under my office window seat.

 

 

I cannot believe these are still blooming. I am truly blessed by God for such a long blooming period for these magnificent roses.

 

And as you can see if you look closely, this rose bush is covered with aphids. Love Bunny will be spraying it on friday, the 1st of October.

 

And these little rose bushes in the back yard have produced beyond my imagination. I plan on getting more of them for back there next year. I love looking out our patio door and seeing such loveliness.

 

This one near our front porch is still producing blooms also. I just cannot believe how blessed I am with all these plants.

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I love beautiful things. I mean I truly appreciate and love them. I buy them because I love looking at them and having beauty in my life, in more ways than one. While my style may not be your style, I think you'd be hard pressed to find much that isn't lovely in my home. I truly hope your home is your place of loveliness and serenity.

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Pink Saturday 10/2/2010

 I have an announcement tomorrow so be sure and check it out.

Happy pink saturday. Be sure and join Beverly and the other participants by clicking on the logo below.

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 This past week I visited with Donnie at New Blessings Everyday, Kelly at Simply-Southern-Suburbia, Lynn at LS Art and Design and Roz at La Bella Vita. They're new to Pink Saturday so check them out and see what they have.

I found these, and more, gorgeous papers recently and couldn't wait to show you how lovely they are. I'm going to use them at mats or maybe just frame them.

 

 

 

 

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Random Thoughts:

We recently bought a camp oven and just love how it cooks while camping. When Love Bunny opened it up and took a look at the instructions, it had this caveat:

If you don't have a copy of these instructions, call 1-800-xxx-xxxx.

Duh, if I don't have a copy of them how in the world would I know where to call? Have some companies gone a bit too far? Hmmmmm???

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While at a restaurant recently, there was a table next to us with a family—husband, wife, young daughter and young son. I watched as they all zipped out their cell phones and started talking and/or playing games! They didn't communicate at all other than to order their food. What in the world is the matter with families that they can't stay off the phone when dining out? In a public restaurant? With other patrons close by?

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Have you ever wondered from where the term severance pay comes? Well, I'm gonna tell ya, chicks. It comes from being beheaded centuries ago. The person being beheaded paid the executioner a bit extra to separate his/her head from their body with one swift stroke. Hence, the severance pay.

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Love Bunny and I were recently in the bathroom grooming for the day and I asked him a question. He gave me some inane answer and I told him that the answer was stupid. I told him I recognize stupid when I hear it. Yep, he's used to me by now!

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I am OCD about numerals and letters. When I know we are moving I call ahead to the phone company and ask for certain numbers, not prefixes as that can't be done, but the last 4 digits certainly can. If the one I want isn't available, I ask them to give me choices and they give me a list. I then choose the one I want. I don't like 9s but have a few numerals that I love. I like a cohesiveness in my phone numbers. I also got my cell phone number to have the last 4 digits as my home number. See you can do it.

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Letters? Same thing. I don't like Ys especially but prefer Is. While I can't do much about that, I still prefer looking at Is. Love As also. ;-)

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Romantic Country Rooms #4

Aren't these rooms lovely also? Girls, look at some of the ideas in these room, adapt them to your homes and run with it.

Pair a red and white check chair/sofa or cloth with a kilim rug and some old pottery found at a garage sale. Do NOT be afraid to mix several patterns in a room. I think it's dramatic when done.

Or look around your house or your mother's or grandmother's house for some old furbelows (trims) and bibelots to showcase in your homes. Showcase them magnificently!

Add drama with a bold color somewhere in a room.

Or find what you might consider an ugly oddity and showcase it. I'll bet you it will grow on you. That has truly happened to me.

While I absolutely love pink and most colors associated with reds, I'm not averse to other colors, especially yellow. Yellow is a cheery color when you have a dark house. Nuuuuu, I'm not changing my walls from pink to yellow, but I truly LOVE pink and bright yellow together. I guess the owner of this room does too because she pairs those bright yellow walls with a red/pinkish sofa on the left.

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Unveiling the Living Room Now

Now, you know I can't stop once I'm on a roll, right? Okay then, once I put the covers on I noticed that there was a bit too much white in the room in that area. I love white and love those curtains, but it needed some color behind that sofa. I then put up the curtains I talked about here. I like it much better and will even more once I can get that Solartube in the ceiling. (I'm saving for it!) But before I show you the big photos of the sofa I thought I'd show you the fabric, texture and makeup of the slipcover up close.

So here is the room now. The curtains have a color in them that makes the red Thomasville chair go with it even if the photo looks odd. Colors aren't exactly true on monitors as much as in person.

And I also put this pillow that I bought at Ethan Allen 15 years ago back on the sofa. I like a mixture of pillows on my sofa and don't think it's too formal to put on there. Even if it is formal, I like it and that's what matters. :-)

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Lorena's thumbtacks

My birthday was recently and a sweet friend gifted me with these adorable handmade roses thumbtacks and magnet for my fridge. I absolutely love receiving things like this in the mail. It just makes my heart sing, lifts me up and gives me joy to know someone is thinking of me. Are they not gorgeous?!

Then of course I had to show you where my little ribbon tree is in my house. That's not to say it'll stay there forever, but for now, this is where I'll display it. And yep, I put it inside a little box that has a faux fern in it. I just like doing things differently and that give me eye candy for my soul. :-)

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Napkin Rings for Pink Saturday 9/25/2010

Happy Pink Saturday. Click the icon below to be taken to Beverly's other participants.

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I've collected napkin rings for 25 years at least. I simply like the look of them all gathered in a bowl for visual effect or as I like to call it eye candy since I'm a very visual person anyway. So after hunting in the garage attic for our garage sale in mid June Love Bunny found them and brought them down to sell. I held them back to perhaps put them on eBay or my selling blog La Maison Rose. I truly cannot abide Mr. LB selling them for 50¢ for dozens of them like he did my other thing—pillows and shabby chic storage boxes. Does this mean I have "separation" issues?!

I have rabbits, teddy bears, roses, Christmas, fabric ones, rooster, some purchased in Ireland, simple wooden ones, silver, masks, a few plain ones, some seashell ones and many that just touched my heart at that particular time.

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Showcasing the New Slipcovers and a Peeve

I finally received my new slipcovers! Now remember, these were made for another Ethan Allen sofa with the same style as my 15 year-old sofa I bought from them that they don't make any more. They just happened to have the same sort of style with an inch or two difference. This was the post where I first introduced the difference in styles. It fits almost perfectly but remember it was only $400.00 and it was custom made for the other sofa that was just a tad shorter. I'm well pleased with it. I can wash it but I don't think I'll ever have to wash the main section, just wash the cushions if they get dirty from visiting kids and grandkids.

Here I'm just starting to put them on.

I realized after taking this photo that I had knocked the ribbon tree over.

Here I uprighted the ribbon tree but the photo lighting is not as good or accurate as the above photo.

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While I'm sitting here blogging I want to add one more thing to this post. Another lovely blogger put her thoughts on her blog and gave me permission to quote her. They also struck a chord with me so here they are:
I've spoken about there being room for all types of bloggers out there. But I have one more thing to say about blogging that has to do with basic good manners. House/cottage, nesting, crafting, creative blogs are, by their nature, more cozy and welcoming than are political blogs, for example. I spoke of those bloggers who get hundreds of comments and never return the favor. I realize that keeping up with hundreds of comments on each post is impossible. We're all busy and sometimes it takes a while before we can return the visit. But when several comments are made over a long period of time and no effort is made to respond, whether by email or a visit to the commenter's blog, well, that sticks in my craw. It's rude and there is no room for that. I know it has happened to all of you. It certainly has happened to me. Those are the blogs I stop visiting.

So here's my suggestion: If your blog has become so impossibly big that you can no longer take the time to communicate with your readers who are, after all, the reason you have become so popular, then perhaps you should stop blogging. Because you've already lost the heart and soul of what made your blog so attractive to begin with.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. When I see so many ads, the heart and soul isn't there anymore.
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