While the Cat's Away

My hubby went big rig truckin' this week with his buddy.  You know the kind, you can sleep in them and you hate to get behind them on the highway?

Anyway, I've been looking at my stairs.  These are they:

Shortly after we moved in here, I proceeded to strip wallpaper from every room in this house.  It wasn't pretty.  I truly hated wallpaper after all of that.  I removed the paper from this stairwell also.  A few years ago, my hubby thought wallpaper would look nice there because the walls looked so nice plain.  I agreed, unwillingly, but I did agree.  He picked out the paper and put it up.  I said nothing but I hated it.

Gathering inspiration from another blogger who tends to do things when her husband is away, I stripped off the paper and painted the walls my beloved Cloud white from Benny Moore.

So much better!

When hubby came home today, he noticed the change right away.  And guess what, he loved it!  Why he doesn't just let me make all the decisions around here I'll never know.

Are You Scared Yet?

I mentioned in my weekend update that I had watched the television program on TLC about hoarding.  This show causes me to have panic attacks, but I just Cannot. Look. Away.  We filled up a truck load of stuff:

This is the back of our half ton truck.  Hubby had to make space in our storage shed for hay.  This shed is about the size of a single car garage.

This is what remains:

These are just a few things lounging around outside the shed after the clean out.


Inside the shed now:

Yes, Gentle readers, this is after hubby cleaned it  out.


Do you see what I have to deal with here?

This is stuff that is hanging off the rafters for pete's sake!  There is a doll carriage up there from when I was five years old!!  I could cheerfully get rid of it all, but I have a daughter who has no room for anything at her apartment and a husband who has a very hard time parting with stuff.  My daughter has pack rat tendencies but she comes by it honestly. My mum kept everything and so did my dad. Hubby always told me to get rid of stuff but not to let him see what I was giving away or throwing out because he always said what he didn't see he wouldn't miss.

Daughter #1 happened by before we could dispose of the evidence.  She took things off the truck and admonished me not to try to get rid of her things again!

When we have gotten rid of things before, we usually just put them out at the end of our driveway and without fail, people take everything.  One day my hubby was coming home from work and someone was picking through the offerings.  He told my husband we had the best junk ever.  Who knew?

I think I need to go out to the shed under cover of darkness and abscond with a few truck loads of valuables junk.  If you see anything in those pics that you cannot live without, just let me know.  I'll leave it at the end of the driveway for you.

Picture Perfect

Do you remember my dining room mantle?

Do you remember that I said those pictures had to go?  They are covering up little secret cupboards that are now a secret no longer.  It was hard to find something because there was little wiggle room in the measurements to cover the openings and fit properly above the mantle.  On one of our forays into Homesense, I found these:

 
They are sepia prints of staircases in Paris.  I really like them because they are serene and don't yell "Notice Me!"

I wish I could get a better shot of them, but there is some glare from the glass.

I don't know why Homesense doesn't offer me a job.  I must own half the company by now because of my many purchases and free advertising.

I feel so much better when I walk through the dining room now. I was going to remove those word stickies that came from the dollar store but so many of you liked them so I kept them up there.  Let me know when you want me to take them down.

This Weekend I...

Had Chinese food for date night.

Did laundry.

Was NOT a horse widow.

Went here for hubby:

Cooked a roast for the first time in months.  Had new potatoes and beet greens with it.

Went to church.


Watched this:  Became very scared.  Pics to follow.

Watched this:

I

 I met my hubby at a wedding.




Link up with Keys to the Cottage and share your weekend!

I Think I Can

A short while ago my husband and I went to Homesense because we're wild like that.  We like to tempt ourselves by talking each other into buying things we don't need.  I happened upon a picture of the New York skyline that I really liked.  My husband encouraged me to buy it because it was a nice reminder of my trip there.  As I examined the photo more closely I realized I had taken pretty much the same photo when I was on top of the Empire State Building.  I didn't buy the picture.  When I got home, I looked up my photo.  This is it:

It is pretty much the same photo as the one at Homesense except that they had changed the colouring to this:
This is my photo and I warmified it myself.

I love it!  And I saved myself $25.00  Now I just have to find a frame and a mat for it.  Hmm, might not be such a deal after all.

This Weekend I...

Since Monday was a holiday around here, I included it with my weekend wrap up.

Date night:

I don't like it when Brucie plays a sociopath.  In my world, he's always the good guy.

Had a doggy sleepover with Oreo again. Big Sookie.

G

Good boy Oreo.  You're so nice and quiet, not like those shrieking, hyper girls.

 They requested anonymity.

 Read this memoir from start to finish in one go:

Loved it.

Went to a different church on Sunday. Did not wear my hat.

Went to #2's for a steak barbeque. ( Can any of my lady readers tell me if a sudden aversion to ground beef and spare ribs is the start of being a vegetarian or is it just hormonal?  Hubby is worried his menu choices may be seriously depleted.)

On Monday, I was a horse widow for the entire day.

This is pretty much how I spent it.

Link up with Keys to the Cottage and share your weekend!

Holiday

Happy New Brunswick Day one and all!