Love Them Rubber Biscuits...

We didn't actually plan it this way, but after a long first day of floor staining, we needed to get out of the stinky house and take a break. We had gotten tickets to a concert that we couldn't wait to see and they have a restaurant there, and dinner and music was just what we needed! Where? The House Of Blues at Downtown Disney! So, one center cut pork chop, some wild mushroom pasta and a piece of chocolate mousse cheescake later it was almost show time....







Oh...didn't I tell you what the concert was? Here's a hint.....

Hmmm...don't know yet? How about these brothers in this cop car....anything?

No...not these brothers.....

These Brothers.....!

What a great show...all of the classic Blues Brothers music and some new stuff thrown in. The show was Sold Out and I was surprised to see a much younger crowd...guess the parents of those kids passed along the Blues Legacy! They were selling the new CD after the show and Zee Blues (Jim Belushi) was signing each and every one...very cool guy. I think seeing this sold out crowd would have made Jake very happy...

It was so great to see Dan Ackroyd in his Elwood Blues role..lots of dancing and harmonica playing and he never took off his sunglasses..not once! Elwood's not moving quite as fast as he used too, but he is one slick guy.

If you've got an extra minute, and you're a Blues Brothers fan, click on a couple of the songs in the player. They did them all and it was the 1980's all over again...okay, okay, I'm old...whatever. :)

A woman once asked Elwood if he and Jake were police officers. Elwood answered..."No Ma'm...we're musicians."

Knock On Wood

And so it begins! The floors are in and being prepped for oiling as we speak. There are some uneven edges and there has been one very quiet guy here all morning planing down the edges so nobody gets bumped. And, he is using little pieces of sandpaper and hand sanding the entire floor. No kidding!!

Anyway...here's the entry foyer...(no baseboards yet)






the steps up to the living room......

the family room......(these walls are very textured...3 kind of a sand color with a shade darker glaze and 1 dark green with a black glaze. I know, but it's neater than it sounds)

And out of all of these boards, this is my favorite. We used it in the foyer right as you come in the door. It's pretty long, but I had to show you the close up of the saw marks and nail holes! Love those. Now we have 3 more days of oil..one coat per day...and hopefully carpet & baseboards next week. Dare I say...almost finished??? Ack.

New foyer light...just a touch of saloon, right??

And since I can't get any of my Fall or Halloween stuff out, I made this cool box for one of my Ebay winners. Look at this little girls face...priceless! She looks like she wants to beat the snot out of somebody...

So, there you have it...another day and a bit of progress. I hope, I hope, I hope.....

Gator Country (and I don't mean Molly Hatchett)

Busy day yesterday...floor installation guys, woodworking guy, electrician guy...busy, busy, busy! The Hub came home at his usual time, and was just sitting down on the back porch to do his afternoon crossword puzzle and sodoku (nerd alert). Then I hear him ..."Hurry! Hurry! Look out back...look out back!"

I look out our bedroom glass door and here's what we see....uh, yeah. 6-8 feet of Florida gator, heading right for the beach! He came in a bit closer after this was taken, but from here, we were about 100 feet or so from where he was. This is taken from the deck that is off of the upstairs bedroom.




There had been some otters playing in this shallow area and we saw the fins of some big shallow carp, but he just sat there. After about 10 minutes, he turned and headed back out to the deeper part of the lake....no luck this time.

Kinda creepy, but this lake is full of people on jet ski's and tubes all the time. We have a boat, but there isn't enough money anywhere to get me in that water...or any water, actually. Just remember...in Florida, if there's water, there's gators.

Oh...and sorry for the Molly Hatchett crack. For those of you that get it, it's pretty funny, right?? :)

Jake

Orange kitty. Orange crate. Can't get much cuter than this....

(By the way, that's not his Orbit gum.....)

I Am Just So "Board".....

In the last "renovation that is taking a lifetime" installment, we were deciding on which wood to use for the floor. While I was strongly in favor of the Guinness Oak (partly because it would have been done by now) after talking it over with The Hub, the Granary Oak is the winner. It is beautiful, very distressed looking with lots of saw marks and worm holes...just what we were hoping for!







Without going into all of the gorey details, the wood was delivered...and put in the family room.
Of course, this all had to be un-bundled (?) and moved upstairs to the living room. Yea...why not?? It had to be spread out and stacked just a certain way to allow it to adjust to the climate in our house. No, seriously.....





So, The Hub moved it all and stacked it just so...and installation begins tomorrow!! Or, so they tell us. The installation crew was here most of today doing the prep work and that must mean installation is really going to happen, right?





And, that's where we are. Should take the rest of the week to install and finish and then we move on to carpet and base boards! Yay.

Feelin' A Little Crafty

Even here in hot and sunny F-L-A we are getting ready for Fall! We had a "cool front" pass through over the last couple of days and it's been pleasant outside. Still about 85 but very low humidity and lots of breeze.

I love Fall & Christmas and live through all of you that have changing leaves and frost on the ground. Halloween is my favorite holiday I think and I made a couple of Halloween pieces to get things started...

This is a plain wood frame from The Dollar Store, painted black over orange and sanded to give it that distressed look. Then covered with a mixture of ground cinnamon and nutmeg. I used a piece of scrapbook paper for the background, stamped out a small tag and added some aged cheesecloth and sweet annie under the glass...

Aren't these the cutest little witches ever?? This is an altered image from Kris Hurst at Blissfull Elements ...I have her image CD's and use the pictures for tons of stuff.

All little witches have to have rules...

I don't completely agree with the "No turning boys into toads" thing, but whatever....

These little putka pods look just like tiny jack pumpkins..and they are covered in cinnamon, too..

And...here's the back. Just left in it's pristine, found condition...can we all say "1980's country stuff"??? Just a thrifted kitchen cutting board...

"Happy Fall" !!