Battle with the Birds

We are in a battle with some birds. 

It started earlier in the spring when a bird or two noticed the mirrors and reflective properties of the window on my truck. They pecked and pooped all over the mirrors and down the doors leaving a big mess that was unsightly, unsanitary, and probably damaging to the paint.

I'd had this to happen before. So, I got a couple of plastic grocery bags, pulled them around he mirrors, and tied them on there. That helped a lot. However, they still would perch on the door and windshield and leave their mark. 

Then, I noticed that there were a couple of birds that had found an opening on either side along the hood near the windshield that is just about the width of my hand. I first saw them climbing out of that opening and flying away. Next, I saw them getting under the hood of the truck; plus, I saw them taking pieces of grass and straw when they went in. There can be nothing good about that. 

I moved where I had the truck parked in our back yard. I went around the side of the house and parked it on the concrete slab near our basement entry. I washed the mess they had made off of the hood, windshield, mirrors, and doors. Then, I opened the hood and began looking for where they had stashed the grasses and straw pieces. I could see a bit or two down in between the windshield wash fluid container and the battery. So, I tried poking my hand in there to pull it out. I could not reach it. I took sticks and long tweezers and all manner of pokey things to try to wedge the bits out but could not reach it all. I felt down under the fender well of the tire and saw some grass sticking out down there. So, we discovered that they were trying to build their nest between the plastic container where the battery rests and the plastic that protects the motor from mud being slung up by the tires. The Mister took the hose and flushed out what he could and we pulled some from the fender well and hoped the move would do the trick. It did not.

At this point, the Mister was on a mission. He found some old socks that I had banished to the rag bag for him to wipe grease on at the barn. Those old socks got stuffed into the openings at the windshield to block the bird entryway.

The next morning I glanced out the window and there was a bird hopping round on the hood of the truck. It would peck at one sock and then flitter over to the mirror and look at it and squawk. Then, it would skip over to the other side and peck at that sock and squawk. I smiled thinking that we had deterred them and they would soon find another nesting spot. 

Then, that afternoon I noticed the bird had come back and had brought a friend. They perched on the hood of the truck. Then, flew under the fender well and perched on the tire. Next, one would disappear under there and then the other would do so. After a bit, they would come out to sit on the tire before flying away only to return a little while later. Outmaneuvered!

The Mister is determined not to be outdone. I looked out the window earlier and noticed that the Mister was hard at work. He is tenacious. He whole-heartedly intends to win this battle with the birds. 

We have a whole farm here where they could nest. There are trees all around the place that would provide wonderful perches for their home. We are trying to be humane and considerate but our patience is growing thin. 

Just Three Things | #9

I have really become a homebody. I saw this meme the other day and it really sort of sums up how I've been feeling lately.

- What I've Been Watching - 

Mike and I are sports fans. I mostly enjoy watching the grandchildren in whatever sport they are participating in during the various seasons. It is fun for me to see their interactions and their skills with each sport and game. I have been a fan of college sports for several years - football, basketball, baseball, and softball. I particularly like following South Eastern Conference teams and, of course, my alma mater is the fav. Go Big Orange!

Mike, on the other hand, likes to watch all sports and doesn't really care who is playing. He can be channel surfing on the television and land on a random game and just watch for a while. However, he is a rabid fan of The University of Tennessee teams in football, basketball, baseball, and softball. He is one of those who talks to the television and yells at the coaches and referees and gets up and stomps around when things are not going well or shouts, "Yeah!" really loud when something goes really well. So, we have been watching UT football and basketball a lot lately.

- What I've Been Working On - 

I have been doing a bit of winterizing this week. Cleaning out the flower pots outside, covering up the porch cushions, blowing the leaves off the porches. There's also the never-ending chore of sweeping down the spider webs from every nook and corner of the porches. 

Earlier this week I went to the local greenhouse and bought a couple of flats of pansies and some rosemary and poked those into our flower pots. I had almost waited too long and there was slim pickings. I was going to go for cheerful and get some pansies in reds and yellows but they all looked a bit bedraggled. So, I wound up with good old blue and white and I smile each time I look out the window at them.

- What I'm Loving - 

Something happened with my years-old Pinterest account. I'll share more about that another day. So, I have created a new one. It is almost like I'm having to learn a new platform. Evidently I had ignored some updates or had just fallen into a rut because this seems very different from what I had grown accustomed to doing. 

I thought about just not having an account but I really like having a space to store inspiration and ideas for later reference with decor, recipes for cooking, and wise words. So, even though I lost all those treasures that I'd been storing up, I'm loving creating new boards and trying to figure out how to find some of my old favorites.

Update! I had been using the app on my phone and I tried to open my Pinterest account using my laptop. There was lots of flickering and glitchiness, but it finally opened. I have been manically looking at the boards and trying to salvage some recipes that I had saved there at least. I haven't shut down my laptop in a few days because I don't want to lose access completely and I'm trying to salvage what I can!

Just everyday life around here lately and I'm here for that. Ordinary days are really pretty much the best, if you ask me! Hope you have more ordinary days than out-of-the ordinary and things are on an even kilter.

Livening Up a Grey Room with a Roman Shade

Grey is a bleh color to me when it comes to decorating. I have hated the trend that everybody has been fond of - painting everything a neutral grey. To me it seems cold, dreary, depressing, and institutional or prison-like. So, I was not thrilled years ago when my mother-in-law had the walls and cabinetry in the basement painted grey. Knowing that it was to be her space, I did not want to object and really wanted her space to be her own. Now that we are reclaiming that space and repurposing it to meet our needs, I am learning to live with the grey as best I can. The paint is still in really good shape and I just cannot justify having it covered over just because it is not my favorite. So, I am looking for ways to live with it but liven it up.

One of the grey walls in the basement.

We recently began to turn one of the front basement rooms into an office. I need a dedicated work space, since I still work from home many days. I will also want an office-type space even after I retire. I will want a space for bill paying and working on our farm paperwork. I will want a space for writing as I want to write a book similar to the one I helped my mother to put together as a way to share her lifetime memories with our children. I will want to have a space for sewing and crafting when I take on creative projects.

So, I began to look for ways to liven up the grey room and make it more friendly. I decided that an easy way to get started with that would be to add a decorative window treatment. I knew that I didn't want to cover the window because I want all the natural light I can get coming in through the window. There are blinds for controlling the sunlight where it won't be glaring in and blinding while I work at the desk. 

My first thought was that I wanted to add pretty floral panels to the sides of the window and make the room rather feminine. Then, I realized that might not be a possibility because the window is not really centered on the wall allowing for a full drapery panel on either side of the window without covering any of the window. On the right side, there is about three inches and on the left, there is considerably more space.

So, I started turning through the pages of my 'house look books' and surfing the net and saving ideas. I began to notice a trend in what I was collecting. They seemed to all have some sort of floral Roman shade that draws the eye up but brightens and livens up the space. The inspiration I seemed to keep coming back to was this office with a Jacobean print shade and incorporated the greens and blues that I have going on in the room already. 

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So, my next turn was to dig through my fabric stash and see what I already had that might work to combine the color scheme I had started. Remember that I am trying to do this office on a budget and I want to use as many things that we already have as possible. I have a pair of pillow covers made of a Jacobean print that I first bought to try to work into a bedroom with my grandmother's cross-stitched quilt. The fabric turned out to be a bit too creamy or lean too far toward yellow. So, I made a couple of pillow covers that I use in the den and hung the rest of the fabric on a hanger to keep in my stash.

When, I pulled it out, I realized that it might just be the perfect fabric. It has the hunter green color that is found in the green check chair and it has a nice sky blue color that would brighten things up as well. So, I quickly decided that I ad found my fabric to use in the office. When I started measuring and planning, I realized that I was going to have to seam a couple of pieces together to reach all the way across the double windows. So, I gave my friend, Kathy, a call. She made thousands of window treatments over the years and I knew she would be a good resource. Of course, I watched dozens of online videos as well! The two that wound up being my strongest resources were How to Make a False Roman Shade and How to Make a Roman Shade. 

Kathy suggested that I might not want to have the seam running down the middle of the window because that might draw too much attention to it. After I sent her a hand full of photos, she told me that I might not need to worry about the seam showing because there was so much going on in the fabric and I might be able to match the print quite well. So, I went to work.

I measured my windows and measured my fabric and used the instructions provided by the YouTube videos. Then, I stretched the fabric out across the floor and ripped one end to get a straight edge. I know that isn't recommended for all drapery fabrics due to the width and the nature of the fabric's weave. It is just something I feel better about when I am sewing. A straight edge makes my life easier. Then, I began to stretch out the next run of fabric to match the print for the seam.

Matching it up was pretty easy. In my mind, I was thinking I would just sew the two pieces together to make a tube. Then, I would split one of the runs of fabric so that I had a seam on both sides and the center panel would be one run of the fabric. As it turned out, that match up wouldn't work out for me so well. So, I decided I would stitch the two together and see out the seam turned out. 

Kathy suggested that I press under one of the fabric's selvage edges to make the matching a bit easier. Plus, I could just stitch along the fold of the pressed edge and my seam would probably be easier and nicer to match up. It worked beautifully!

The fabric panel on the right has the selvage pressed under 

and the two pieces are pinned together to match the print.

With excitement, I stitched the two pieces together and gave the entire thing a nice pressing. 

Then, I turned to the other selvages and sides and realized that it wasn't going to work out as a had envisioned. The edges and the print was not matching up as I'd thought it would. So, the beauty of having this space is - I could walk away from it and leave it out for a while to decide what to do next. I ordered some trim tape to cover the seams and thought that might be the way I would go. 

At this point, I was going to have to make the shade shorter or have less folds 

or cover the seam somehow because the sides were not matching up as I'd hoped.

The more I thought about it, the more I began to think that the print of the fabric was not going to show the seaming as obviously as I had worried it might and I wouldn't need to do anything for it to be camouflaged it at all. So, I just decided to cut one side off and press the seam out and stitch the lining to the fabric. Then, hang it and hope nobody noticed the seam.

Close up of the seamed fabrics

As it turns out, that was the right thing to do in this case. The shade looks nice in my office and really adds some life and pulls the colors I'm using in the room together.

I love how it brightens the space and looks feminine and cheerful.

Even with the sunlight streaming in, the seam is not obvious at all. And if somebody is nosey enough to look and see if there is a seam, they will just have to find it!

Designating a Room as the Office

 One of the things Mike and I knew immediately that we wanted to do when reworking the basement and parceling out his mother's belongings as she had wished is that we knew I need a designated space as an office and work room. 

Since I was sent home to work during Covid, I had just perched on a little desk space that my parents had made when I was a girl and it worked out fine. Sometimes my need to be online in a live virtual meeting was an inconvenience for Mike. Sometimes there were distractions when I needed to be working. All too frequently, I worked long, late hours because it was just too easy to work with my computer and desk right there.

So, now we have the space for me to designate a room as the office. Just after Christmas, I noticed an inexpensive desk and chair offered for sale on Facebook. It was just the right size - large enough to hold my laptop and extra monitor and microphone and notes but not a big executive desk. So, I jumped on that and brought the desk home. Mike helped me get it out of my truck and into the room. 

I shoved the wicker sofa, chair, table, and accessories to the other end of the room. With the beginning of the new year and a new school semester I was beginning work in my new office!

I had already decided that we were going to set this office up on a shoestring budget. I didn't want to spend a potload of money to make it beautiful and functional when we already have so much stuff. However, I also wanted it to be beautiful and inspire me to work.

With a little time, I began to search for inspiration to make this really become a space where I want to work and am inspired to do good things. So, I started thumbing through my 'look books' where designers who are featured in places like Southern Living show how they have decorated homes for clients and themselves. I began to scroll through Pinterest and Instagram and save ideas that I saw which inspired me. 

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My first thought was that I would put my desk in the space where the window would be off to my side. So, this office really inspired me. I had thoughts of painting the desk and adding panels of drapery at the window and really making it a feminine space.

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I began to notice that another characteristic seemed consistent - there was shelving and storage in each of them. Knowing that I wanted to set this up on a shoestring budget and that I might not always want to have built-in shelving and storage in the room, I began to try to think of how to provide that shelving and storage in another way.

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I also noticed that several of the pictures I was saving as inspiration had cozy seating. Knowing that the Mister might stop in to visit and chat, I knew I would need an extra spot to perch. I thought it would also be a good thing to have comfy seating for when I'm not doing computer work. So, a comfy chair or seating area needed to be included.

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Sometimes saving a picture sparks more ideas and would prompt me to consider things we already have that could be put into service. For example, in the image below there is a green checked wingback chair. There was already a green checked wingback chair sitting in the room that had been my mother-in-law's. Seeing the drop leaf table also made me realize that there was one in the basement den and that might be a great way to have expandable surface space. It could be handy when I want to craft and need more surface area for spreading fabric out or other crafting supplies. 

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Seeing a couple of photos that had the desk centered up in front of the window helped me to realize that I could be taking full advantage of the light there. The room is in our basement and is painted what I call 'prison grey.' The paint color was chosen by my mother-in-law and is still in good shape but grey is just not a color I like. So, I hated to go to the expense of repainting when the color is rather neutral. I decided that I would just use the assets we have and make the most of it.

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I began to scroll through online estate sale postings and Facebook Marketplace. One of the first china cupboards I saw, I fell in love with. I thought the color of the wood was nice, warm, and light and might not even need painting and liked the number of drawers for holding things. The catch was that the seller wanted more money than I wanted to spend.

A friend started surfing and looking for similar items with smaller price tags. Yet, when I would inquire, it seemed that each one had a catch - something might be broken or the drive was more than an hour away or the seller didn't respond. So, after a couple of days, I bit the bullet and bought the one that tugged at my heartstrings. When I got it home, the Mister was all grumbly but I could tell he mostly was grumbling about having to move it more than anything else. He had lined up my bonus son to come over and help provide some brawn to get it unloaded and placed in the space. So, the three of us manhandled her into my new office!

Once in place, the bonus son commented, "That's a nice piece of furniture." So, the Mister rolled his eyes and I puffed my chest out and all was well with the world. Immediately, I moved the green checked wingback chair that had been sitting in the corner over on the opposite side of the room and things started taking shape.

Next, I dragged a drop-leaf table from the basement den down the hallway and set it across the room from the new cabinet. The color of the wood was almost identical. Plus, it would provide that expandable surface area when needed - and it is a nice, beautiful piece of furniture as well.

Things that are always being considered as I work on this space to make it a reflection of who I am and what the intended focus of this room is include:

• It is a basement room and there is very little lighting - only one can light in the center of the room.
• It will be used for my work as an instructional designer until I retire from the education business.
• It is where I will be working on writing projects and will continue in that capacity even after I retire.
• It is where I will be doing stitching and sewing in the space. So, there will be lots of stray threads and scraps of fabric.
• When I sew, I will also be using the ironing board and iron. So, there will need to be open space for that vital equipment.
• I will need to store fabrics, trims, thread, office supplies, crafting supplies, and such in there.
• I want the space to be a work horse but also keep to my shoestring budget.

So, the designated office space is taking shape. Updates will be shared in a later post. It already looks quite different from the photos here but it still has a journey to go before I will call it meeting up to my inspiration.

Happy Independence Day!

From our house to yours!

Porch Oasis

During this time of staying home our front porch has become an oasis for me. The sun shines in during the morning hours which is great during this cooler time of year. It was also great during the summer months because the shade would cool things down as the sun rotated around to the other side of the house. I have enjoyed sitting out there and watching the world go by down the highway that runs in front of our house. I'll take a tablet out there and check my personal email and catch up on blog reading. I'll peruse some online magazines or Instagram and pin some inspirational photos. 

Sometimes it would just be my loyal companion and I and sometimes we might have a few visitors.

I was so grateful to have this space as an outdoor room where we could read a book, watch the world go by, take a nap, and just relax.  One thing I did notice during July and early August is that even though the space was shady after lunchtime, it still was a bit hot. Plus, late in the afternoons when there was no air stirring the mosquitos tried to feast on me. So, Mike and I talked about it and decided a ceiling fan might be a good investment.  As with most home choices, Mike left it to me to decide the style and location. So, when we had Richard Stanaland from The Tool Chest here to do a few handyman jobs, I made sure to have the ceiling fan ordered and ready to install.

Since it was already October before we got around to having the work done, the dog days of hot weather were already past. We've had a warm day or two and I turned the fan on in the afternoon when I went out after finishing up work. So, I know that the stirring air discourages the mosquitos and bugs somewhat. I'm looking forward to the breeze it will provide when next summer comes, though!

Patience

I've been bugging Mike to put a new top on the table for the front porch.  A few months back a strong wind storm did a number on it and broke the glass top that was on it. 

Mike doesn't have quite the urgency that I do for the project.  So, I'm having to be patient. 

Patience is hard for me.

Yesterday, when I had finished working from here at home, I hopped on the ATV with Mike and we went for a ride.  We rode all over our ponderosa and even a little bit of the neighbors'.  We wound up back at Pop's barn where I checked out the progress of the seedlings he has been nurturing.

Then, we eased around the side of the barn to go close up the greenhouse for the evening to keep the new seed trays from getting too cool during the overnight temperatures.  I noticed something as we rode by the seedlings again.  Do you see it?

I think my exact words to Mike were, "I like how you crafted that plant table."

He responded, "Now, honey, that is a fine example of some redneck-carpentry there!"

So, today, when I mentioned how nice it would be if I had a new top on that table on the front porch so I have a place to set my coffee cup, he began to tell me how he would be glad to bring me one of those red plastic tubs and some different pieces of lumber to stack upon it.

Somehow, I'm learning that patience might be easier than I thought.