Definitely a "Fashion DON'T" and old enough NOT to care!

I long ago gave up trying to be fashionable, trying to be trendy, trying to be cool.  I have a wardrobe full of clothes I like, that are comfortable (unless my weight has fluctuated too much!), and that look mostly presentable.  Still, that means that I have many articles of clothing that would warrant citations from the Fashion Police...not the least of which would be my collection of overalls.

Me, mowing in a pair of my overalls!

I love my overalls.  Seriously.  I love, love, love my overalls.  If you know me in real life, you know I wear them a lot.  I wear them to do chores, I wear them to work in the yard, I take them camping, I wear them to craft.  I pretty much wear them anywhere.   I know you'll find it difficult to believe, but it is hard to find overalls.  Despite my love of them, they haven't caught on in the mainstream fashion world, so I make do with what I've been able to find over the years. I have five pairs, all of which are 8+ years or older.  

Faded, dingy, old favorites!

My favorite pair overalls is roughly 15-years old and, yesterday, finally showed unmistakable evidence of how much I love them.  I was devastated.  A big old hole right on the butt.  Not on a seam, not easily hidden, and certainly not something I could just keep wearing.  It never occurred to me, however, to toss them.  Nope...not even for a second.  After a moment of hesitation, I decided that patching holes isn't just for kids clothes.  

Isn't this the cutest fabric?  Not exactly understated, though.

I pulled out one of the last little scraps of my favorite vintage owl fabric and got to work.  First, I enlarged a flower silhouette shape on the Silhouette machine.  Then I ironed Wonder Under on the back of my fabric and loaded into the Silhouette on the cutting mat and had the Silhouette cut the shape.  After that, I ironed it onto the section of my overalls and made quick work of using a zig zag stitch to attach the patch firmly to my beloved overalls. 

Look how big that patch is!  No hiding this!

Overalls are definitely a "fashion DON'T" and having a huge flower patch on my butt is probably compounding the violation, but I truly am old enough NOT to care.  In fact, I'm just happy to have my old friends back in wearable condition. 

Holding on to things you shouldn't?  Good for you!

Obviously, we've entered our Green period...

A few weeks ago, I shared this post with you.  Yes, a new bathroom floor was on my wish list, but I wasn't really putting it high on that list.  Obviously, the heavens had a different timeline in mind, so the floor and the toilet were replaced two months ago.  All that was left was some fresh paint...but what color to choose? (The yellow looks nice, as long as you can't see it with the flooring.)

Superman came home on leave for the holidays, and I put it in his capable hands.  He agreed that the yellow just didn't work anymore.  "I just can't decide.  You pick, please, but please, please, pick a color that is NOT tan or brown," I pleaded.  He picked Mountain Sage green and I said, "Great!  I'll make it happen."

So, now this bathroom is Mountain Sage green (to accompany our Celery Sprig green basement and our Water Sprout green bathroom)...

I must say, I really, really like it.  What do you think?  This is the first Superman is seeing it, too.

Life At Home - The Argh! Edition

Last month, as I was folding laundry in front of my dryer, water started dripping down on my hand from the ceiling!  There is an exhaust fan above the dryer and above that is my bedroom.  No water!

After I freaked out in my mind a little, I stopped to listen and realized that Valiant was in the shower.  I ran upstairs and made him turn off the water.  The drip stopped.  That was really good.  However, I had no clue what to do about it. 

 I confess I called Superman and woke him up in the middle of the night with this cheerful news.  Honestly, I didn't know what to do...water dripping down from the ceiling onto my dryer is not covered in my Wonder Woman handbook!  We decided to just leave the shower alone until Superman was home on leave and could have a look it at.  I thought that was fine because we're fortunate enough to have three full baths.   A little shuffling and we'd be fine.

A few weeks later, Mr. R., came home on leave from his job in North Dakota and we got to talking about my leak.  He insisted on taking a look so that Superman wouldn't have to worry.

After seeing how bad it was, I'm pretty sure he regretted that decision.  Apparently, the problem had been ongoing for quite some time...I had no idea.  Still, he had some free time, so I was able to hire him to fix it, so Superman wouldn't have to do it now. New subfloor, repaired wall, new toilet and new flooring, he even added tile around the edge to help prevent the problem from returning...it was a big job and I feel so lucky to know someone I trust to do it well.

He did a fabulous job, didn't he?  Now all I have to do is get Superman to help me pick a new paint color for the bathroom...I don't like the yellow with the new floor.  Do you?

It is not how Superman would have done it!

When we moved into this home six years ago, we brought with us Superman's "legacy" 36" Sony Triniton.  (It was cutting edge when Superman got it for our family more than eight years ago--he so loved it when he bought it...still, it is a beast with a huge tube on back.)  We placed it in the place of a "never-worked" gas insert on the main level of our home.  Superman just built a little cubby around it to house the components and it fits in beautifully.

Unfortunately, one of the components died last week.   Honestly, I would have just left it there for him, but it was making a horrible humming noise and I couldn't wait until Christmas to deal with it.

Valiant and I managed to muscle the television forward (OMG! It was so heavy!), but struggled to reach behind it to disconnect the dead component.  (We couldn't pull it all the way out because we'd never have been able to get it back up onto the hearth.)

Fortunately, Buttercup is a small little thing and managed to slip in behind the television.  (We'd just gotten back from the gym when I decided to undertake this little project--can you tell?)  Anyway, she could even stand up in there!  Don't touch the fiberglass insulation, Buttercup!

She got all the wires disconnected for us in no time at all and had fun doing it.  (She even dusted the back of the television while she was in there!)

 See?  The component is gone.  It is definitely not how Superman would have done it, but I'm not as strong as Superman and I think we did pretty well!  I just have one question:

What do I do with the empty space left by the removed component?  For now, the Halloween movies can be stored there.