Olivia and Her Hopewell School Awards Triumph

Daughter Olivia is just finishing her school year as a 6th grader. She rocked it. Totally. I mean she owns that 6th Grade.
At the Awards Ceremony she received lots of awards but the reality is that she won the two most important ones. She was chosen as the Best Overall Student in The Academically Talented Program and she won the Math Olympiad. That means she got the highest score in math. Out of everyone in the 6th grade. Everyone. Even the boys. She goes to the public school, that means there's like a million kids in that 6th grade, not 23. A million.

Stone Wall Rehab and Facelift

So I'm thinking it's been a long time I've been hating on my stone wall out front.
A stonewall-hater, really? Yes, they exist in rural Chester County, PA, and I am one of them. My particular stone wall is covered in cement and chipping, filthy white paint. Sacrilege. It has been seven years and ten months that I have been forced to live right behind this... this... this...abomination. No, I didn't do it. Shut up. The vandalism occurred before I bought the house. I actually bought the house this way, that's right, wheeled the wheelbarrow of money to the closing table with the stone wall in that condition. Genius. If you're faint of heart where stone wall are concerned, avert your eyes....

O jeez, YOU LOOKED! OK so now you at least have some idea of the scope of pain I've been suffering these past 7/10.

But seriously, how cool would it be if there was a real place, not a make-believe place, where rock piles sprung from nearby woods? If only the Universe would send me a sign.....something to let me know what direction to go...anything at all will do. HOLD ON, WAIT FOR IT... Is this a sign?

YES! It is. It is a sign. Unfortunately not a sign for rocks, for that I had to drive three towns over to find a rock pile sprung from (not nearby) woods. Oh yeah, now that is a rock pile.

If only I had some minions to throw the rocks into the truck.....check it out, minions! One minion even has her work shirt on already. It actually say "rockin' out" on the actual work uniform, uh, I mean T-shirt. I take that to be yet another sign from The Universe saying "it's time to move the rocks out of the pile and into the truck for our Mommy Overlord."

Three trips, much gasoline, sweat, more sweat, filth, and smashed fingers later....

There's a respectable pile of rocks not stacked in front of the offending stone wall.

It's a start on the most massive cover-up since Watergate.

Texas and Kansas Inspirations

Wow, such wonderful and intense bloggedy blog girlies out there! How much do I enjoy checking in with Joni at Cote de Texas every day? She is my reason for living anymore (OK, one of my many reasons). She inspired me to clean my floors yestersay. She inspired me to make the call and claim the craigs list swivel club chairs--a mere 75 miles and two states away. I have fallen back in love with my house again. And that my friends is due to Joni.

Oh and of course Rechelle over at My sisters farmhouse keeps me rolling. So funny and yet so serious. How does she balance the two? Not well sometimes but she suffers for her art and we reap the joy of her journey. Sometimes you plant a tree and sometimes the tree plants you, right Rechelle?

The Egg or the Potato?

I FEEL LIKE CHICKEN TONIGHT...CHICKEN TONIGHT...CHICKEN TONIGHT

How do you thank a chicken? I mean besides not cooking her for dinner. They get themselves into the cutest little predicaments and scream "take the picture now!" Like say maybe she's in the clay pot ruining pansies....

Maybe she and her best girlfriend are on the window ledge passing time just ruining a window box...

Or maybe she just laid an egg the size of a potato and lived to eat out of the dog's dish another day.

Miss Henny Penny you're all that!

The Vineyard

Am I really that person who knows there's got to be another destination on the annual vacation other than Ocean City MD? Hey, it's been working for 45 years...why the big rush into some vast unknown? I could learn something very new, thus forfeiting a cherished and all too familiar sweatpants feel of a night strolling the boards...

Is every vacation meant to be me trying to get the fantastic action shot of either Liv or Francis enjoying Trimper's Rides to the fullest?

Or maybe I was meant for more sophisticated surroundings...surely if it's good enough fro Barack and Michelle, I should fit right in.

MARTHA'S VINEYARD

OK, SO THIS IS THE REALLY CLASSY EXPENSIVE PART, we didn't stay there but...we did stay on island--as opposed to off island. Here is our darling little cottage.

Oh so just kidding! I actually forgot to take a picture of our charming little cottage except for the window.

So this is how; with the help of a friend, I finally broke the bonds of Ocean City, MD

THANK YOU DONNA!

Little Miss Henny Penny is taking a dirt bath in a pot that should have some lovely pansies in it but instead she's probably trying to lay an egg in it.

The cutting garden is full bloom. It's mostly cosmos and some other orange flower which I forgot I even planted. I did have sunflowers but they're all gone now.

OK, I give up. How do you delete a pictue after it's been posted?

But Why Can't I Live in a Stone House?

I don't know the exact day or year even when I became this person with superior taste. Only a house made of stone will make me truly happy. Big and grand as it is, Cannondale is only a lowly brick house. The stone foundation, stone steps and stone wall out front are only a reminder of what I don't have. A stone house.

More About That Dining Room

The floors have been stained and polyed. I've moved the farm table forom the kitchen to the dining room and put a mishmash of dining chairs around it. Happily painted the mantel black (thanks Donna!).

Olivia Conquers Broadway

My daughter Olivia is an absolute star. Here she is with her tall friend Morgan (Witch #3). Olivia performed the part of Witch #2 with an unbelievable amount of believability in The Elk Ridge School production of Macbeth. The talent and dedication she and the entire cast put forth were truly admirable. Well Done All!

The dining room in fabulous Cannondale has two personalities. The first and most domineering side of him (her) is regal and commands respect. "I have a corner fireplace, my ceiling is 10 feet and am in possession of two large sash windows" Now the flip side to that two-faced little witch...floors are an unholy mess and what floors there are--are sloped at an alarming angle. It faces north and the wind howls fierce and shakes the windows. And sunlight, there's not enough.

So in an effort to tame this shrewish side of Cannondale's Dining Room, I've commissioned floor boards from the repurposed lumber of the Oxford Water Authority Covered Bridge plained and sanded. I had Rueben and Levi fit the boards. Now apparently its up to me to sand and refinish.
Here are some before and after photos. Good luck figuring which is which!

So I've painted the library with Farrow and Ball Pavillion Gray and used Hardwick White for the trim and fireplace, still not sure what color the bookcases will be....

Working on the library.

Finally Done (sorta) Painting

So now I have my own Big Green Monster!

Gettysburg Grey

After many long and agonizing indecisive months I have finally chosen a color to paint the Fabulous Cannondale. The color chosen is Benjamin Moore's Gettysburgh Grey. I have a few pictures that I am happy to share with both of you readers out there on the Blogeshpere.

Mow Better Now

RECIPE FOR ABSOLUTE FRUSTRATION:

Buy an acre and a half on a hilly, slopey damn lot, add 187 year old house, stir in a limited budget, fold in a not-so-handy husband and that my friends is the recipe for an overgrown lawn.

As luck would have it it, our saviour neighbor is God on earth and fixed our riding mower and now spousal unit is actually mowing the lawn.

It's the little things...

A New Cutting Garden

This past weekend, I broke the news to spousal unit that I wanted make a cutting garden (read: you dig holes, make fence and let me spend 200 bucks). So guess what he says? Yeah really, he says "well that's what we're out here for"-- Boom, I finessed my neighbor Andre (hardest working man on my block) to bringing his tractor over and tilling the grass up for me. Then continued perfecting my finessing abilities by making unit dig fence post holes (it is NOT a cutting garden without a picket fence around it!) and tonight we kept up digging holes--lots of holes for a 12' x 18' garden I know. Anyhoodle poodle, I need to figure the easist plants that will grow and not make me work too hard. So far so good on that front.

Garden craps out --I'll bury dog in it.

I will buy a new camera, God is my judge!

It's Medication Time

Whoa! Can't even believe what happened last night on the HGTV DREAM HOME GIVEAWAY? I only wish I could have been at the bar with Lauren Lake after a couple of Appletinis! That alleged "winner" and I use that term loosely gave me the "willys". She was so weird, all those ticks and folded arm body language. She choked out her thank you and left it at that. Boy oh boy the show I would put on if they'd knocked on my door and handed the million-dollar house-keys to me. "Where's the jet? LET'S GO LAUREN!! We're going to FLORIDA right now! Richard Branson, one jet please and yes you may stay overnight in my dream house, and bring a guest! JUST GET ME AND MY NEW BEST FRIEND LAUREN LAKE to FLORIDA and into my new Dream House nowsa!
Why her? Why not me?

Hello Again, Rumors of my Demise have been Greatly....

Well, you know the rest...exaggerated. My only, and it is an incredibly lame excuse, is that my digital camera is broken. I can say that I've really missed sharing my thoughts with all the nice bloggers who've been supportive with so little asked in exchange.

So no new pictures but here is something you haven't seen yet--my bathroom, it's back and white!

I would love to show pics of the new trampoline we got the kids...of my new soapstone woodstove that absolutely saved our bank account this winter...and my two new mantels, one in my office and the other on my bedroom fireplace--just too gorgeous. There's so much!! I'm buying a new camera today!! Thank you for helping me make that decision! You guys ROCK!

Hello Ladies of the Club!

• I'm busy with my job lately


• and busy supervising my neighbor boys who are scraping and painting the Cannondale front door surround and front windows.


• I'm also trying volunteer more at the kids' schools--Book Fair and Halloween Party--oh yeah and not miss my daily excersize...


• and reading a super-fantastic book: "The Virgin's Lover" by Phillipa Gregory. It's historical fiction about Queen Elizabeth, highly readable, cannot recommend enough!


• Hey Ann! Some chesse with that wine?


• I'm fine. Lost more weight, my doctor thinks I'm her best diet patient ever. I'm crazy happy about this turn of events.


• Is everybody enjoying my bullets? I couldn't be more proud.


• I really am going to try to find a Russel Crowe picture and put it up on this post. His new movie "American Gangster" with Denzel Washington is opening today! Liam and I are going to see it this weekend for sure.Anyone go see "3:10 to YUMA" it was Russel's last movie and was fabulous! Take your husbands to it--you owe them one after all those chick-flicks they sat though...Fingers crossed for this picture post.....


• I suck at this, it's taken me one hour to get this done.