"In the Spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt."

I don't recall ever having such Spring Fever as I have this year. There's something about seeing the fruits of your labor grow and bloom in all their glory.

I had the idea to find different "window boxes" or in my case "porch boxes" at various thrift stores. I made some wonderful finds, with the help of a friend, and have been potting different flowers and plants in them for the past couple of weeks.  It took a lot of spray paint and patience, but today I was finally ready to hang them all.  Dad helped, of course, because without him, I'm not sure I'd get anything accomplished. Thanks Dad!

Front porch:

Small green box in the center of the railing. Bleeding Hearts at the foundation. LOVE!

Coral box on left. Yellow mailbox right center. Pallet box bottom right. Hydrangea bottom right at foundation. LOVE!!

Side (south) porch:

Back (fence) area:

Found these rubber boots at Salvation Army, poked holes in the bottom, filled with dirt and Voila! 

I found everything but the plants at thrift stores. OH! And then there's this:

It's a newspaper roller for fireplaces. There's a handle, which I had to remove, that will roll newspapers nicely to use when making fires. Best find with the help of my friend. 

I'm working on a new paint project for a neighbor friend up the street. I haven't gotten any farther than transferring the letters to the painted wood, but my goal is to have it done by the Antique Walk, which is fast approaching. So maybe not...

The Whyte house

And now, as I type "The Whyte house" I think the H in house should be capitalized. Damn. I had it that way and then thought, Nope, I need smaller case letters. But now. Yah. Capital it is. Sometimes all it takes is a step away to realize what looks right and what doesn't. 

I have my job interview with the City today for the Deputy City Clerk position. It's a job I've wanted ever since finding out the City Clerk was retiring July 2018, the deputy would presumably become the clerk and the deputy position would be open. I'm happy I got an interview (11 people applied, whittled down to 4). I'm generally not too nervous during interviews, but this one feels different. Maybe because I actually want it. Maybe because these people "think" they know me already so it's a bit different atmosphere than going in cold. Maybe because I really, really, really don't want to come across as a dumbass and fear that I will. Maybe because I don't feel "good" enough. 

I'm just doing what I always do, which is read through the job description, my resume, cover letter and application, my answered interview questions and various recommendations I've received previously. I realized today, I should read those recommendations daily because they're glowing and I actually believe those people thought those things about me and so they're a nice boost to my ever-declining-self-esteem. 

My interview isn't until 6PM this evening so I have all day to not think about it. :)

"Bikini season is right around the corner! Unfortunately, Baskin Robbins was closer."

Below is a bench (or a side table) my dad made for me out of tree stumps!  I had brought him a big 'ol stump from when I helped some friends cut down a tree and asked him to make me something out of it.  I had no idea what.  He found another stump down at the local tree dump and made this masterpiece.  It's beautiful!  My stump is the top portion of the bench and It. Is. Gorgeous.  I'll have to send a picture to my friends in CB...

Mom & Dad are contracting out a new sidewalk at the front and side of my house (to be done after the Antique Walk) and since the sidewalk is going to have to curve around 2 huge trees & their stumps, Dad and I moved all of the bushes we had planted on the South side of the house 2 years ago.  Five total.  Surprisingly, they all seemed to have survived the move...

My living room wall was peeling paint so I did this...

Doesn't it look like an upside down baby and an upside down person? Too weird...

 Dad came over and smoothed joint compound over the disaster area (which grew considerably from above) and then I painted today...with paint I had in my basement for the last 4 years.  Apparently, it had gone bad.

It's supposed to be French Toast (color) but it looks like Dijon Mustard! 

Grrrrrrrrr, so I'm heading to Walmart tomorrow to see if they can match my French Toast paint.  Dad says what I did was good primer.  I liked his white plaster look better.  This looks like baby poop!


I finally finished my cousin's wedding gift (pic below).  I almost have my niece's complete, which is a damn good thing because it has to be done by Monday, June 19th when Mom & Dad head out to Cali for the wedding.

What do you think?

Inside the heart are their initials (L & K) and then "love" through the center.

It is by no means perfect, but I think I'll write something in the card to that effect and how perfect marriages are made of two imperfect people who refuse to give up on each other...or some shit like that, lol.  

I'm trying really damn hard to lose weight this week, so in an effort to do so, I put this on my kitchen cupboard where I keep the goddamn peanut butter M&Ms....because just not buying them would be too easy!

It worked today....so far.  

"And they lived happily ever after....but who said together."

I have two family members getting married next month...on the same day.  While my immediate family will all be in California at my niece's wedding, I will be with my aunts & uncles at my cousin's wedding in Iowa.  So! I'm working on wedding presents.  Tell me what you think.

The top one is for my cousin (the wedding I'll be attending).  I've painted the heart white and will paint the rest in black.  I'm just tracing everything onto the wood using an ink pen over the paper templates.  The wood's soft enough, it creates an indent so it's easy.

The one below is for my niece.  For some reason, blogger isn't loading the picture correctly, so you'll just have to turn your head.  :)  This one, I painted a part of the board with white and will fill everything else in with black paint.

Like this!

Both boards looked new when I got them.  You know what new wood looks like, right?  I wanted to age it or make it look like it'd been sitting outside for awhile.  I found this technique I wanted to try:  Put some steel wool in a glass jar with vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar).  In another glass jar, make some tea.  Let everything sit for 24 hours.  Then I wiped the tea on the board with a rag, let it dry for at least 30 minutes, then wiped the vinegar on the board using the same rag.  Let it dry.  I did two coats of this procedure, but it worked after only one.  I wanted to see if it got darker with two...it did, a bit.

And that's it!

It is difficult to work on something like this when all I think about is douchebag.  How did I ever think we would be married? Idiot.



Have I told you about MyFitnessPal and MapMyFitness?  Shan got me hooked on them both.  My Fitness Pal helps me track my caloric intake daily.  I haven't lost any weight (I'm 125 now) but it's great to see how horribly I eat!  Not really.  I'm not sure it's helping me at all.  It basically tells me I'm either not eating enough or I'm eating too much and I'll weigh the same in 5 weeks.  Thanks.  Thanks a lot.  The other app is better - Map My Fitness.  It helps me log every exercise I do (from cleaning house to lawn mowing to total body gym workout) and adds those calories burned to My Fitness Pal to show me I CAN EAT MORE!  Like this:  My caloric intake should be around 1,400.  Subtract the food I eat in a day (usually well over 1400) and then add the exercise (usually anywhere from 300 to 600 calories) and I get a number of what I have left to eat!

1,410 - 70 (2 tbls of creamer) + 0 (exercise so far) = 1,340 calories to eat yet today.

Can you see how it might not really help?  Because I see a number after I've exercised and think, "Wow! I can eat a lot!"  The problem is, if I'm not watching WHAT I eat, it doesn't really matter how many calories I'm taking in.  If all my calories are from Peanut Butter M&M's, but I stay at 1,410 calories per day, I'm still not going to lose weight.

I started this shit back in April (tracking my calories) and I weighed 125 lbs.  I still weigh 125 lbs almost 5 weeks later.

*sigh*

Shan says I need to measure myself instead of weigh myself because muscle is heavier than fat.  *eye roll*  I understand that.  However, I know measuring myself isn't going to show me any difference, either.  I'm practically a boy, my measurements are so close.  36-34-36 (chest, waist, hips).  My clothes fit the same (if not a little tighter because now I have a butt and thighs- in a good way).  In fact, I can't fit into some of my clothes which is just flat out depressing.  So I simply avoid those clothes.  I throw them on the floor to make them think about what they've done.  :)

I haven't exercised in a few days.  I've slept.  A lot.  I'm so damn tired, I could stay in bed 24 hours a day.  I'm blaming the bat.  Either it gave me rabies or I'm so tense when I'm in my bedroom (why must it always wake me up from a dead sleep swirling over my head in the dark???), that I'm not properly sleeping.  I haven't slept with the lights off since.  I wear an eye mask and pull the blankets over my head and make sure Garfield is in bed with me instead of hiding out upstairs.  If I can't have a man to protect me from a bat, I'm going to use my cat.  That seems healthy.

Speaking of man, I have met someone - Brian.  He's 44, handsome, funny...but a bit of a know-it-all, which annoys me to no end.  Dude, I'm 41.  I'm not a fucking idiot.  I don't need you to tell me what I'm doing wrong or how I can do something better.  Why must men talk?  Can't they just shut up and listen for once?  Or must it always be about them?  I'm carrying a lot of baggage from dickhead, so I'm maybe not in the best place to give somebody a true chance.  I don't believe a word that comes out of any man's mouth anymore; I'm suspicious of everything; I assume the worst; I protect myself emotionally and don't really give a fuck.  So, yeah, I may not be the best dating material right now, but I'm willing to give him a shot.  He's the one who caught the bat the other night - I was hiding out in my bedroom laughing my ass off at how ridiculous I am when I'm scared.  I want a man around to protect me from bats.


That's all I have time for this morning, dear reader...or all I have the capacity to write about anyway.  Thank you for always reading (even if there are only 3 of you!).  It makes me feel less alone knowing someone out there is interested in my life....

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing...I saw this on Pinterest."

Well, they're nowhere near perfect.  They're not even as good as I expected them to be.  But they're something and they're done! 

Dad's genius idea saved my ass.  I didn't have anything on hand to secure the mason jar to the Woof wood, but he suggested screwing the lid to the wood and seeing if the jar would still screw into the lid.  I was skeptical but WTH, gave it a try and VOILA! It worked! Thanks, Dad!!

I'm so glad I got them done in time to give them to Chris Wednesday night after he gets off work.  Whew!  Though, if I had it to do over again, I'd stick with tracing the letters and painting them on.  As for the picture, it would have worked if maybe I had painted the wood white prior to "gelling" it to the wood.  The grain showed through too much so I had to reprint the picture.  I glued it to the wood, Mod-Podged over it, then sprayed the whole damn piece of wood with Krylon Clear Glaze.  The picture started to come unglued (I just used Elmer's stick glue) so I hurried up and slapped on some more glue and held it down before the Krylon glaze got too tacky and made that impossible.  It's good enough.

And now...time for bed because my head is full of snot, I'm sneezing like mad and I know it's only going to get worse...Fun times ahead!

"The bad news is time flies...the good news is, you're the pilot."

A week in pictures.  

School coming down

Deer 1, Amy 0 (because the damn deer lived!)

Cute(?) couple

Celebrated Chris' 50th b'day w/ Mom & Dad Friday night - Quilt Mom made him (now at his house, dammit).

Mexicans took down Chris' dead tree.  Then they did this with their truck. 

Chris got a quilt - I got an awesome box(?)/ stand from Dad (see below)

It's perfect! 

Celebrating Chris' actual b'day with him Wednesday night/Thursday morning, when I'll give him this.  Not great, but not too bad.  Still needs a glaze covering (tonight). 

All I got time for folks!  More to come later!!

"If only our tongue were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak.”

I don't much feel like writing or sharing or much of anything. But if I don't do it today, then tomorrow's will just be a book and you don't want that...nobody wants that.

Yesterday seemed like such an easy day without Elvis. I was busy a lot of the day so that may have helped. But today...not so much. I kept dreaming about Elvis last night and I even woke up at one point and said, "Elvis, I can't breathe..." and then realized he wasn't there to hear me. Today is definitely sadder than yesterday.

But here's something that perks me up (a bit)

She's getting a little too comfy...

And I have been busy. Dad came over yesterday morning and drilled a hole in my bedroom floor to move the cable-cable closer to the new placement of my t.v. - using 3 splitters was causing quite a bit of interference. So that worked out good. And then he drilled a hole in my "Lucky" sign so I could add a star. I hung it here:

In my bedroom b/c Mom said hanging it outside "might send the wrong message". Hmm, hadn't thought of that! 

Turned out great & project done. Feels good.

And then today I made this:

from this:

It's just edging fence painted white with an old shirt stapled to the back and coffee filter flowers...all of which I had, so no money spent. And really didn't take long at all. I told Mom I might hang it on my front door. She didn't seem to like that idea (does she ever like any of my ideas?) but I'm going to give it a whirl.

What to do next? Better get on that time-sucking-vortex called Pinterest and find out!