Summer Pear

Earlier this year I painted the dining room a color that I had painted a big swatch of on 2 walls in that room and had liked. I primed several times and painted that color of paint twice. As I was removing the tape I noticed the color, actually took in the color and I hated it. It didn't look like the paint card at all. I repainted the room green. I liked that color. My mother loved it. Then I moved to the living room and painted it a gold. I liked it. I realized once all the tape had been removed, furniture returned to its original places that the living room was a green gold and the dining room a blue green and they clashed. I am not good with color. I left it be thinking I'd get used to it. I didn't. I didn't want to paint the living room. There is too much wood trim in that room to tape and furniture to move, so dining room it was. 

I primed and painted it Tapestry Thread khaki color (upper right). You guessed it, I didn't like it. It was too washed out, lacked color. So, I opted to paint it the same color as the living room; Summer Pear (lower left). 

 

I like that color in both living and dining rooms, most of the time. People that have seen both rooms don't believe they're the same color. This house does weird things with paint color. These two pictures are a perfect example. 

 

It's hard to get a good picture of the paint color and the color changes several times a day. 

 

There's a long window above the buffet that doesn't have a covering on it, so the washed out area is from the bright sun streaming in. That is my new IKEA bookshelf. I'm very happy with it. It's very solid and sturdy.  

 

The enamel pan on the top shelf right holds small cookbooks. 

 

 

You might wonder why the one shelf is mostly empty. Here is why;

 

He insists on laying there and is happy to rearrange some cookbooks to do so! Yes, he's spoiled and so for the time being the shelf will remain empty. 

Ring

I got Ring Pro for my front door and am planning to put a second at the back door.  Ring is door bell/motion detector that allows you to live view, record and view missed movement and answer your front door from anywhere you have internet access on your phone.  I love it! 

 

Expecting company and have to pee first, go ahead.  The Ring app chimes when movement is detected in the areas I've specified and I am given a heads up that someone is pulling in the driveway. Forgot to check for mail, check the app for motion detection alerts while I was at work to see whether mail was delivered. 

 

This is a screen shot of a recorded motion detector video. Ring began recording when he entered my yard and continued to record for 45 seconds, by which time he'd moved out of sight. I'd have taken a better picture, he's easy on the eyes, but I don't have a signed consent to share his picture. The image quality is really good. 

How about if someone is at your door at 10 o'clock at night? You can view who from your bedroom and then speak to them through the App on your phone.  This is great as my old wood floors creak and I doubt I could get to the front door to look out the peephole quietly.  Potty training your toddler and someone rings your bell?  Check the phone app and answer through the app if you desire; Hi So-and-So, I'll be at the door in just a few minutes. (My friend Jenna has been blogging about potty training!) Someone casing the house to see if you're home to break-in and you're at the store, the app will notify you of movement even if they don't ring the bell and you can talk to them; May I help you with something?  The other night after 9 pm the app alerted me to movement on the porch. Spooked, I quickly looked at the live view.  Turns out it was a pretty orange tabby taking shelter from the rain.  

 

This is a screen shot of the live view. To stop live view, I press the red button. If I want to speak to someone outside, I press the green button. 

Motion detection works by heat, so trash blowing through your yard won't set it off, but vehicles will.  You control the motion boundaries and unless you're worried about some vehicles driving around, you shouldn't include the street in your boundary. At least thats how it works on the one I purchased.  There is a cheaper version, so read specifics before purchasing. 

You also control the frequency of alerts that you receive. I have it set on the second highest frequency and get alerted when ever there's movement in my front yard or porch. If motion continues, you get multiple alerts. The following screen shot was taken after I had been out front feeding the birds. 

 

Mowing also triggers a lot of notifications. I don't mind it, but if you did, you could turn notifications off while you were out front. 

I ordered mine through Amazon, but I've seen them for sale at Home Depot.  In addition to the purchase price, Cloud recording storage costs $3 a month or $30 a year per device or $10 a month or $100 annually for unlimited cameras.  I alsp purchased a extra piece that I installed first that the Ring doorbell goes on top of. This extra piece allows me to angle the doorbell to include the driveway. Depending on your layout, you might not need it. 

I am not getting paid for this commercial and only sharing as I'm very happy with it and think you might be too!

Firsts

I've been keeping track of firsts for the year on the side of this blog.  My most recent addition is that I turned the air conditioning on for the first time on June 10.  Lyncoln was very glad!  I've noted when I first mowed, planted the garden, saw the first hummingbird.  I'll note when I first harvest something from the garden and first turn on the heat (I'm already ready for that and it isn't even summer yet!). Besides those listed on the sidebar, any more firsts you think I should be documenting?

April Shower Tasks part 3

My table, chairs and buffet were my grandparents. I have several of grandma's tablecloths and some I've found at flea markets or on sale. Prior to my move, I kept the leaves of the table dropped and only needed, used small tablecloths. Since moving, I keep the leaves up most of the time and need longer tablecloths. I've been storing them folded or rolled in a small shelf within the buffet. Where Lyncoln is in this picture. It was a pain to remove one and they were always a wrinkled mess.

 

So, I decided to hang them in the hall closet. The hall closet hasn't been remodeled in this house in a long while. It's wallpapered! The picture below is of the wallpaper on the ceiling! Who wallpapers a closet and the ceiling in the closet??

 

The above wallpaper is on the ceiling and upper 1/3 of the closet. The bottom 2/3 has this paper;

 

Wallpapering closets and their ceilings; I think not!

I used three different types of hangers to hang my tablecloths. 

 

I love how I can easily and quickly find the tablecloth I want to use. 

 

 

I found the above cloth at one of those highway, miles long garage sales and the cloth below came from an estate sale.

 

I probably should have washed and ironed them before hanging. Maybe I'll get around to that another time! 

This hanger is holding some of the table runners I use to cover the buffet. 

 

Three projects that have been on my to-do list for a long while accomplished; paint the lazy Susan, utility room bench and address the tablecloth issue. Done! I love a productive weekend and I hope to have many more this summer! 

April Showers Tasks part 2

Since having moved in here I've wanted to paint the lazy Susan in the kitchen.  The previous owners used it for food, but I use it to house my mixing and serving bowls. 

This cat and open doors, drawers and bags! 

 

It was kind of gross; 

 

 

My main goal in painting it was so that I'd have a surface I could wipe clean. I used the same high-gloss paint I used to paint the hallway. 

 

I didn't prime and it took three coats. I let it dry 24 hours before putting items back. It's not perfect, but really only I will see it. 

 

 

I'm so excited to have that finally done! 

April Showers Tasks part 1

April showers postponed my yard plans and so I made a list of things to tackle the last wet, gray and cold weekend in April. I accomplished several small things and three things that had been on my list for months. 

1. Bench for the utility/mud room. I've been working on this since January!

I sanded and painted a bench I had found at the Sparks and White Cloud KS Flea Market last September. 

 

Oops! I accidentally broke one of the legs on and had to glue it back together. It's not meant for anyone two legged to sit on, so I was comfortable just gluing it. 

 

Then I removed the disgusting old cover and batting. 

 

And tried out several feed sack coverings;

 

I waxed the wood, covered with new batting and feed sack and placed it in the muddy mud/utility room.

 

Check out that sunshine! It had been a couple of days since we'd enjoyed sunshine! 

 

The main purpose for this bench is to catch my purse and bags as I come in the back door. That and be a catch all for laundry, groceries and what not. I thought the cats might enjoy laying on it, but they prefer the rugs on the washer and dryer. 

If you give a mouse a cookie...

He's going to ask for a glass of milk!

Are you familiar with these children's books? Painting the dining room reminded me of those stories. It started with paint and as I painted I started thinking about curtains. Oh and I'll need new light switch, plug-in face plates (or whatever they're called). The ceiling fan was awful with the burgundy paint, but not as bad with the new paint. Though I'll probably still want to update it some. I'll need to recover the chairs. Oh and maybe sooner than later I'd like to build built ins or at least a better bookcase for my dozens of cookbooks. Does it ever stop? 

If you're not familiar with the stories; click 

HERE to listen to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.