Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Out With the Old, In With the New

Check out what's happening at our house this week (photo of breakfast area, taken from in front of the great room's fireplace, right)...all of the old paint, wallpaper/borders, etc., are in the midst of being removed...and this is what chaos really looks like! The furniture that's left in the house for staging purposes (and to make certain that the house is considered neither "vacant" nor "unoccupied") is piled in the middle of the floor...covered with protective plastic sheeting to minimize any damage from the dust and drips. Good thing, too, since they painted the ceiling today. Tomorrow: the walls get a coat of Builder's Beige (much the same color that you see on the walls already...only it will be fresh, as they say).

I hate this much confusion in our lives, but it must be done...or, at least we believe that by doing this, we will be able to sell our house in MO much faster than if we didn't...and get on with our new lives in NC. Still, I can barely find a perch in the middle of all this dust & clutter. Yeeeooow.

To keep myself sane in all the hub-bub, I am concentrating on a new knitting project...two socks at a time on two circular needles! Missy M actually got me going while we were at her house for Christmas, loaning me her book "Knitting Circles around Socks" (shown, left). Unfortunately, she found the book to be frustrating, as all the steps are written for right-handers...something she finds too many times. It took me a while to plow through the directions and decipher the diagrams, but I think I finally figured it out. As you can see in the photo, I've made it through the heel(s) and am well on my way on the foot(s)...er, feet. I try to do a little on this project each evening in order to calm my anxieties and settle me down for sleep. Learn something new each day, right? Right!

In addition to all the inside work that's being done by our contractor, Leave It To Weaver, Mr. T. and I grabbed paint brushes this afternoon and took advantage of our first (and potentially ONLY) "warm" weather day (55 and windy) since all this began. After the contractor's guy finished power-washing the house, Mr. T painted the trim and the columns on the front porch, while I applied the stain to the deck out back. Both projects turned out well, and we are thankful for having this brief opportunity to tackle the exterior details that needed decent weather for doing.

So, how will we be spending New Year's Eve tomorrow? Probably recovering from another work-day around the house. But, never fear. I do have a bottle of Stone Hill Winery's Steinberg White chilling in the fridge, and I found a couple of festive wine glasses on seasonal special at Schnuck's today when I went to get us a salad for lunch...and we have some party hats from last year that didn't get packed. I guess the movers thought we might need them...? Maybe we can get some Chinese Take-out and then clink our red glasses of white wine to toast in 2009! We're such party animals, aren't we?

Here's hoping that it will be a good one for us all...

Sunday, December 14, 2008

OK, So I Couldn't Stand It

I'll admit it. I'm a Christmasaholic. I love everything about Christmas (except, maybe, fruitcake...:). And, so my earlier declaration that "there will be no decorating for Christmas around the MO home this year due to the up-coming move" was barely out of my mouth before I started.

I first put that basket of green boughs, cut from the bottom of Missy M's Christmas tree, on the front porch. They looked so lonely that I went to Lowe's and bought a wreath for the door. Oh, and I decided that the Santa Nutcrackers that usually stand by the front door (and need painting so terribly) could pull Door Duty just this one last time.

Then, because I had so many, I created another basket of boughs for the dining room table. And, while looking for the Christmas DVDs to take to Missy M's, I spotted the child-sized Rudy and Rhonda Reindeer, packed separately from the other stuff...and they just begged to be allowed to sit on the sofa for a while. And, what should be in the bottom of the bag? Why, two stockings...which are now gracing our mantle.

Then, while looking for something else entirely in the garage, I came across my Rudolph antlers and nose for the car. So, there's Miss Lillie Pearl , sporting her Holiday finery while in the parking lot at the Y (in the photo to the right)!

Ahhhhh. Much better.

Of course, it really will be much better after this week. The movers arrive on Tuesday to start the 4-day packing process...and then most of our "stuff" heads to NC. We will keep just enough (to-be-donated-later) furniture in the house to be able to stay here while waiting for it to sell. Everyone...think positive real estate-related thoughts!

Monday, December 1, 2008

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

Let's check the ol' calendar on the wall. December First. Right! Let's look at the thermometer on the kitchen window. 28 degrees. Brrrr! Now, let's look outside and check the weather. Snow on the ground and still coming down. Yep. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I'm actually thankful for the wintry weather to remind me of the season, since we won't be decorating for the Holidays around this house this year. No, we'll probably be loading up the moving truck to send our stuff to storage along about December 15th. Makes me a little sad since decorating is such a fun thing for me. You know, getting out the Christmas China and Waterford "Twelve Days of Christmas" wine glasses...unwrapping and placing the 50+ Nutcrackers...picking out just the perfect size tree (and then removing some off the bottom so it'll fit...:)...going through all the many ornaments we've collected over the years and deciding which ones/how many we can use on the tree this year......oh yeah, I'll miss all that for sure.

Fortunately, while we were visiting Missy M for Thanksgiving, she suggested that we go get her tree and decorate it. Yea!

We found a beautiful Fraser Fir at Lowe's, which was tagged as a 6'-7' tree, but reaches almost to the 8' ceiling, even after a trimming and a hair-cut! Mr. T. did the lights, and topped the tree with the Star and Angel (a gift from Auntie D). I tied ribbon on the new teal (matches her colors perfectly!) and silver bell ornaments. Then, Missy M placed all the ornaments and the raffia, just so. She has such a wonderful eye for design, so her tree always looks magazine-perfect (as you can tell from the photos).

She's also got her own collection of Nutcrackers going, as you can see in the photo (below). We found a cute one this weekend that's actually an Advent Calendar...or, a Countdown-to-Christmas calendar. He seems to fit right in! The Harrod's bear on the right is from a trip to London a couple of years ago.

OK, so I did bring back the branches Mr. T removed from the bottom of her tree (we didn't want the doggies to do too much damage as they investigated...:), and I plan to place them in a basket on the MO porch, along with a red bow, ho, ho, ho. At least I won't be a total Scrooge. And, of course, I'm consoling myself with the vision of returning to the NC mountains next year, selecting and cutting down my own Fraser Fir...and then eating a yummy meal at the Daniel Boone Inn in Boone, NC. Ah...memories...ahead of time!

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