Finally Finished With My Faux

The tile is in. Here is the picture. Pat, pat, pat. That's the sound of me patting myself on the back. Well, it was a long haul you know. Lots of dabbing & spraying and then I had to build up the base with mortar so the tile would be flush with the real ones when I glued it in. Actually, this is really a Trompe L'Oeil job.

The entire apartment is finished and ready to go. Now I can get back to some serious knitting.....oh wait.....now there's yard cleanup. The plaid washcloth I started last night is going to have to wait a bit.

When I came home from the hospital last August, my DN (Dear Neighbor) brought me a huge vegetarian pasta feast and brought DH a pasta dish with meat. The basket of food included gorgeous brown heirloom tomatoes grown by another neighbor. I saved some of the seeds and I'm hoping they make it without damping off. The tomato was chocolate brown and tasted so good---like a beefsteak but better. Here's my

tray of future Heirloom Tomatoes.

Sometimes Old Houses are Rough Work

The tile job in the bathroom at the rental is finally finished. I just have to go back to do one final cleaning, make sure the oven works, do a few little touch up things. The front yard needs to be raked and the front porch floor has peeled! Anyway, the tile job wouldn't have taken all that long, but I just can't keep at it like I used to. My back is my excuse....plus I was trying to get my sock project finished....which I did that too. Here's the sock. There are two; I could only hold one above my head at a time for the photo.

It was hard to get a nice photo of the sock with a foot in it. Next time I will do the pictures flat on a table.

I'm already thinking about my next project. I have a huge stash of yarn in my closet. I'm going through it tonight to figure out my next project. I pull out the yarn, and then search for the yarn type on Ravelry to see what everybody is making with theirs.
And yes, I will install the faux tile in the blue fireplace. It only needs the gloss clearcoat now.

Can't Faux Worth a DARN!

Here's the blue fireplace in our apartment. I cut a piece of tile from the bathroom project to fit the hole in the lower left corner. I'll draw grout lines on it and I'll spray it with a nice shiny clearcoat. But so far, it doesn't look so good. I dabbed on the basecoat and tried to mottle it so it looks like one of the tiles, but it's harder than it looks! Each tile has varigated shades of a blue to aqua to almost black on them.



Here is what I have so far. It's just the first coat. I can tell already that I will never be hired for my artistry and there are probably about four more coats in my future!












See what I mean?


In other news, I did ok at Kroger today. 53%. I bought OJ, light bulbs and a couple of plug adapters for the apartment and some frozen Ore Ida hash browns without coupons. Yes, all those items were thrown in the cart by my husband. I was not prepared for that. But the good news is I didn't have to load the car, carry it to the house or put it away by myself so it was worth it. The 53% even included free items on my cellfire card ---a free 39oz container of Maxwell House Coffee (woohoo) and a free 20 oz. Coke. The free items were from the basketball game they have going on their website.

Lasagna; Regular and Vegetarian

I made two pans of Lasagna today. One for dh and a smaller one, vegetarian style, for me. I left out the egg for mine and the beef, substituting Boca Crumbles. I need to pick up some TVP to use for substitutions. Those Boca anythings are expensive. I had plenty of help in the kitchen. Duke helped me by cleaning off spoons before I put them in the dishwasher and Bink and the Dachshunds were there for moral support. I already had a piece of mine. It was really good. Really above normal good. Duke likes vegetarian food too.

Duke got a bath last night and is wearing the nice St. Pat's Scarf that my sister put on him. He spent part of the day at his Ciocia's house visiting his brother, Princeton. It was a lot easier for me to pick up "yard debris" while he was gone yesterday.

Late Winter Yard Clean-Up

Today is sunny and almost 40 degrees, so my plan is to ready my bucket and pick up dog poop. It sounds like a good way to ruin a good day, doesn't it? I have a few Target bags which are perfect for heavy loads (pun intended) and I'll use the bag to line a plastic cat litter container so I can make the job go quickly. I know I won't get it all since there is still a lot of snow out there, but I can make a big dent. There are plenty of sticks and things around too that I can get. I'll have less to do later because believe it or not, we are only 7 weeks away from last average frost. I'll be going over to our rental house yard too, since it has to look spiffed up before I try to rent it later this month.
I may even be able to wash the windows in the garage that face my patio pit. They face south and it gets warm enough even now that I can do the inside and outside.
Yup, rather than go out there and see nothing but work, I'm going to go out there and enjoy just being out there without having to wear layers of clothes, gloves, a hat and the warm things I put in my shoes when it's really cold!

Change in Day Light

It's March and Spring is coming.  The light during the day is changing; the sun actually comes out and dries off a shoveled sidewalk.  This photo shows how I like my snow.  Off the sidewalks.

Here's my latest scrap-tastic yarn project.  That's a horseshoe cable.  These cozies are wool so they do insulate....they just aren't decorative.  They can be used on cold cans and bottles too.  I'll probably keep going with these and donate them to Planned Pethood to sell.  I can see making some with dog and cat paw prints on them.  It's the least I can do for the group.  I do answer their phone line, but I haven't taken a foster since last summer.

You're looking at a growing Avacado pit.  This is the first time I've had any success with an Avacado.  This one worked out because it already had a shoot coming out of it when I peeled the Avacado.  The other tray is grass.  I've trimmed it twice and I put it in the cats' food bowl so they can get their greens.  They usually chew on any plant material I bring in here so I figured a little grass would enhance their diet and happiness level.  Once it's grown nice and thick I'll set it out for them to chew at will.  I hope one of them doesn't get the idea that the dirt in there is for burying pee or poop.

There seems to be a theme for the month of March

....a second dirty job in just as many days. I just got done bailing out a toilet. It was a clean toilet---never used, but I still have to take a shower after something like that. My husband installed the new toilet in an empty apartment, but it had a hairline crack that he noticed when a small puddle began to collect on the floor. I decided to sponge out the tank and then used a rag to get every bit of water from the bowl so his job will be a little easier later tonight or tomorrow or whenever he gets to it. I think we should've bought the toilet I saw at Costco for less money and a two-button system. A light flow for number ones and a second stronger whoosh for number twos. But, since I'm not the one who can carry anything, I'm a slave to the type of toilet the man wants to buy. That's the only way I'm a slave though. And keep in mind I can always hire a 'handy' and pay them to bring home the heavy things that rank really high on my "This is the Kind I Want" list.
I finished the grout job in that bathroom. FINALLY. All I have to do now is wipe the haze off in a couple of hours and then go over there to mist the grout lines for three days. That was a big job and I'll put up a photo when it's all sealed & spiffed up. I used 6x6 tiles this time. A couple of years ago I used 4x4s and that took a lot longer. I don't think I'd use the 12xs in my own bathroom, but I know from direct experience that I'd never go smaller than 6". Maybe rectangle or the 1" kind that are webbed together in 12" squares. That might be cool.

Jumping in with both feet; but pretty dusty

This is my first post. I was hoping to come up with a higher level of journaling, hence the name Blahgavadgita with the 'blah' describing my blabbing, but not so much eloquent prose today since I spent the afternoon at my other house pressing the reset button in the furnace. I think there is something stuck up above in the exhaust flue because the heat sensor switch is cutting out, but I have to wait to clean it out until my hubby comes home and moves the cabinet that is in my way. I am able to poke at things and press buttons, but I can't swing an old hoosier-type cabinet away from the wall without ruining my back. I got the pipe off the furnace and that is why I am all dusty, but I'm sure that is nothing compared to what I'm going to get into when hubby helps me get way up there. If it gets sufficiently cleaned out but the heat still cuts out, then it means I have to get a new limit switch. You know I've had that furnace 19 years and it's taken me this long to figure out these basic things. I don't hate paying the furnace man so much anymore......he can get done in 15 minutes what would take me hours + running back and forth to my laptop for instructions and/or part numbers. Then usually I still have to get dh involved. Then he spends several hours, a few phone calls, and a couple of laptop visits. Yes, the furnace man channels answers from places that I cannot tap.