Sunset Cat

I’ve been searching on Craigslist on & off the past few months looking for another bookcase.  With all the pets, the books are much better protected behind glass, so I wanted to find either another barrister bookcase or a double-door case like we found awhile ago.  Plus, despite our constant decluttering efforts, our books resist [...]

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From Princess of Pink (who I found through Ravelry) and Casaubon’s Book (the original source of the following challenge) I found the Independence Days Challenge. You’re supposed to do the following as you are able (as often as possible, daily if possible)

Plant something
Harvest something
Preserve something
Plan/Manage
Cook Something New
Work on Local Food Systems
Reduce Waste
Learned a new [...]

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Well, for now, at least; all the windows we’re going to be working on in the near future.
Colony Wood Screens put up the last of the screens this past week in our bedroom and the cats’ room. The screen look & work great; we are very happy with them. They are [...]

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Nice view from the south side of the house of the ‘dry wash’ area and the nectarine/plum bed.

This “David’s Choice” is doing fabulously; the other died. They were only about 4-5 feet apart. I have no idea why the other died.

I’ve named all the areas of the yard for my own [...]

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Dave painted the other living room window last week — it looks great! Now I just have to decide what I want for curtains….
I’m starting to hunt again for rocks & boulders for the front yard. Eventually I’d like to have salvaged enough rocks for some sort of low fence.

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Ooh boy.
1. Windows. This includes finishing painting the new windows (no, not done yet); screens (scheduled for March); removing & repairing & replacing the trellises outside the bedroom & cat room windows (needs to be started before the screens); removing the blinds mounts from the insides of the dining alcove windows & repairing the plaster, [...]

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021
Originally uploaded by stephannie_t.
My mother in law Rosemary made this quilt for us!!!!!!!! It is not only gorgeous but sumptuously soft to snuggle into.

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So far the new plants seem happy….
….as does all the grass and the nasty little clover like crap that’s coming up like no tomorrow now that we’ve had more moisture in the air.
At least at lot of the poppy seeds seem to have sprouted.
The sky is finally blue today after all the smoke from the [...]

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The screen guy came out about a week and a half ago. He’s gotten very busy so we won’t have screens til January. Bummer. He was really nice, though.
I’ve been sick the past week so we haven’t done any house chores.
On the list of to be done as soon as possible:

Prime & [...]

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Yolo Air 2
Originally uploaded by stephannie_t.
We still have to finish painting the kitchen, but here’s a pic with one finished wall.

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Aren’t they gorgeous? We still have to paint them, and I still need to modify the curtains. I have some antique swing curtain rods I’m thinking of using.

Here’s a close-up of one of the bedroom double-hung windows:

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The guys from the window restoration place are putting in our windows today!
Before I left for work this morning the guys were doing some initial placing of the casement windows in the living room (replacing the louvered windows that replaced the original casement windows (sigh)). The windows looked absolutely gorgeous! Pics to follow.
Also, we started [...]

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I’ve cleaning up some of the documents on my laptop and found the list of recipes for our housewarming party. We kept to a Spanish theme, serving some Spanish red and white wines, several types of cheese, bread, olives etc, as well as a selection of warm tapas. My only main non-theme food [...]

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I love my old house. I really do.
But we have to return two of the three ceiling fans. My lovely, lovely (albeit non period) Casablanca ceiling fans.
Because of basically old house issues.
The electrician installed one in the cats’ room — it has 3 steel pipes with wires running to its outlet. Our [...]

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I’ve contacted a company who makes old-fashioned wood screens about making screens for our windows, as well as a company who restores old windows as well as custom building windows in the same style. The window person is coming out this Monday to do an estimate.
We also have an electrician coming out Monday as [...]

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