Gah.

The dresser is making me sad. I looked it over after the first coat and it was not a pretty picture. It was not looking like the image I had in my mind of what it was going to look like .

The surface doesn't hold the paint like the other piece did. Its slick and paint and even with my sanding, its not the end product I would have liked. I re-sanded it and got very judgy with myself. I then walked away, I had hoped that the paint fairies would take care of it for me but they didn't.

So I came back to it. I put another coat on it, it looks marginally better, not greatly better but enough better that I am not as depressed about it as I was. There is a giant flaw on the top, I tried to fix it and I should have left it alone, but because I have so much experience with wooden furniture and wood working that I thought I could fix the imperfection and I only made it worse. Live and learn.  Now there is Mount Hubris instead.

Pinterest lies, Google Images lies! The entire internet lies about how much fun and easy DIY is.  In real life, DIY is hard and messy and time consuming and is not good for your self confidence! Things get messed up so easily and there you are with something you would never buy if you saw it out in the world and you did this .

But sometimes it doesn't get messed up or its  just good enough to not be too embarrassing or its even kind of cool - There is always something that only you are going to see, that spot on the piece that looks to you like a giant sore - no one else spends as much time with it or looks at it closely enough to see the sore, but the sore is still there. Sometimes it glows in the dark.

It's not always a nightmare, I have other painted furniture pieces that I do not hate. The dresser will eventually not be a terrible chore and I will eventually have to like it enough to spend a lot of time sharing a room with it. The drawers are going to be not much fun either and I'm going to buy more paint before I start on them this weekend. At some point,  I'm going to have to take off the tape on the parts I didn't paint , surely, that is going to be a very tense moment and I see it not being a happy time for me. I'm going to have to figure out how to correct the damage while protecting the wood and still getting the surface painted the way it needs to be.

I see a very wide, very long table runner in my future.

Hate Wal-Mart Pharmacy, they suck, and lie and have bad service.

Rocket did a good job displaying his anxiety at the dog shrink. Which is good because going in and saying his behavior has changed and he seems different isn't really good enough. He did his job and was a nut.

The doctor  spent some time with him, examined him and even did a blood draw. The doctor said he has relapsed. So. More meds, different meds, more diary keeping and a change of med schedule.

As I was talking to the vet - for an hour and a half! I started to notice hat there were a lot of signs things have been not great for a while. He hasn't slept well in months, his anxiety levels have risen, slowly, but they are more than they were. Lately however, it has gotten out of hand. He spent an entire night freaking out, he seems very unhappy when I put him in his room in the morning and he was always fine with that, he will not stay in his room during the day, after months and months of no problems, he peed the floor twice in the last month, when he gets out of the room he is destructive and this is dangerous and unacceptable. I also noticed just today that he needs to be veryclose to me, and this has not been the case.

I noticed this morning that he was in the kitchen doorway while I ate breakfast, normally, he goes back to sleep on the couch while I eat with kitty. Now its different, now he's back to being rightwithme.

I don't know what has happened and why he is sick again and I wish I had been paying attention before he was this unhappy. But, thankfully, I had the vet school and the behaviorist on speed dial and it was time for his yearly and hopefully, we can get him back to where he was.

And now Wal-Mart Pharmacy  needs to practice good customer service... Yeah, of course they dicked me over, its Wal-Mart! what did I expect! The pharmacy manager "kindly" said he would fill them this month, but after this, I'm going to have to go somewhere else and pay more because all of a sudden after months, my discount pharmacy card doesn't work anymore to buy meds for an animal. I have complained, but I am going to complain more and higher up. And then I am going to strip all my scripts from them and go elsewhere. Bastards.

Weekend Goings On

Didn't do much this weekend.

On Saturday we celebrated my nieces birthday with a Harry Potter themed party and that was fun! Some of the the little girls were very loud and needed to really get in touch with their inner Hermione Grangers  and Luna Lovegood's and spend less time with their Weasley twins. Just saying. Although, Hermione  could be really, really mean and if she had hung out with more girls, she would have been the queen of the school.

And everyone was either a Gryffindor or a Ravenclaw, doesn't Slytherin get any love? Its were he really hot guys lived, but they are too young for that yet, maybe its for the best and what of Hufflepuff? No one even spoke of that house.

Anyway. I bought wood filler for the issue on the top of the dresser and it was hard! wood filler is sticky and gross and at the same time, dry and like silly putty. I made a mess with it and ended up having to sand most of it off. Sigh. It did solve my problem to a point though.

Right now it looks best at a distance. There is work yet to do and I haven't even started on the drawers yet and I haven't found the new pulls either.


My parents came up for the party, my Dad found time to do Rocket and I a huge favor - Not so much a favor for Rocke as much as me, the cat, the house and everything in the house. I've had enough of Rocket channeling his inner Houdini

Hopefully this will not inspire him to dig under or break though the door. To back up our new plan for him to stay in his room all day, we are going back to the dog shrink for his annual re-visit and hopefully she will help us out.

Friday Cat Blogging

Kitty smiles!

Crazy

Two days this week the dog broke out of his room minutes after he was put there and ate stuff he did not need to eat. I don't want him foraging in the house and I don't need him to eat things that are not food, its dangerous and it sets a bad precedent. I really don't need him to get the impression that things with batteries are toys or snacks or snacks that are toys.

He has taken to breaking out more frequently lately and its not cute, it s dangerous and while he doesn't happen every day, he's escalating  and one day he's going to "play" with the wrong thing and he's going to choke on it or eat something poisonous. Something has to give.

What broke the camel's back finally is Wednesday night he didn't sleep. He panted and paced and and wouldn't sleep or be still. If he doesn't sleep I don't sleep and that's not okay. I tried everything I knew about to help him relax. I let him off his leash so he could wander the house, I took him outside in the middle of the night to pee and I filled his water bowl. Finally at 1:30am, I dosed him with Melatonin and that in combination with everything else, finally got him to at least stop panting and wandering and eventually, he went to sleep.

I hate that he was so clearly uncomfortable and unhappy! Its awful to know that he is having a freak out and I can't help him through it. I probably should have dosed him with his real panic meds, but I was too tired to think that rationally.

I was sure that after the night he had he would sleep all day - I know I could have, but nooooo!, ten minutes after I left the house for work he had broken out of the room and was lose in the house in a tizzy. By the time I got home there had eaten anything he could find that look edible and some stuff that took him destroying to figure out were not..

He's going back to the dog shrink on Monday to see what his issues are and have his meds adjusted, before that though, his door is getting locks he can't get to. I'm going to lock his butt in that room! I am afraid that this will cause him to try to tunnel out but hopefully the shrink will  make sure he doesn't have the desire to do that.

I'm betting now that he has fully entered adult doghood and his weight has changed and his chemistry is different, that his meds just need to be dialed up a notch to deal with his full adult self. Think happy thoughts for us.

Spark.coms Chalk Thing

While I was painting with paint inside in the shade over the weekend, a  lot of folks spent the weekend painting with chalk in the heat outside. Here are some images I liked, some are done year after year because they are pretty and everyone likes being a part of pretty even if it is a cliche that gets done year after year after year, it still pretty, others I hadn't seen before, the chalk preemie was a new one.

I was also there for the people watching

How I spent my Tuesday evening

First I cut up and blanched and froze the peppers and tomatoes I've collected over the past several days. The peppers join a big frozen family but the tomatoes are very lonely, they may be getting company soon but even under base case scenario thinking, all of them, will barely make a single batch of sauce. Sadness.

And then I faced my nemesis.

Look at it! All dirty and gross and so not ready to be painted! What a pig!

Oh my Gosh! What a difference a sponge bath and some severe sanding makes! It's gorgeous and so ready to be painted! What a make over! You can tell it has really good bones! I'm kidding, its impossible to tell that anything has been done to this piece of furniture.

 

tape, tape, tape

Ready for the next step.

What I did not get a picture of is a sizable indentation/failure to the surface of the  veneer. It appears the last owner had something too heavy for the peice, like a TV on top of it and it kind of dented the top. I could get some wood filler and make it all even, but, there will always be something on top of the dresser, I don't really want to fool around with going and getting wood filler, figureing out how to apply the filler and then sanding the filler until the section is even. Its not a priceless piece of history and it was never a really expensive item even before I took it off the curb. I think putting that much work into it would be over kill - however, if it doesn't look right after a coat of paint, I might think I made a huge mistake. Would it be worth it to do all the work? Advice would be appreciated.

How I spent My Weekend

Rocket and put in an appearance at the Dog Olympics and we had a good time, even though it was too hot and we couldn't stay because we were just falling out. We did see some very cool dogs though so, it was worth it.

Then I got to work.

This  was a very ugly peice. Ugly and unusable - too much to ask and the kind of thing that an ugly piece of furniture can not do. If it wasn't heavy as all hell it was out the door . However, I am a nice person and I saw potential, the potential to be some where that could grow into sweater storage.

 The bones were there,, it just took a lot of sanding and cleaning and repair and many coats of paint and new pulls  to bring them out.

Next up?

Emmy 2015 Results

8:16 Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series - Allison  Janney, Mom

8:26 - Best Writing in a Comedy Series - Veep

8:28 - Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series -  Tony Hale, Veep

8:36 - Guest Actor/ Actress In a Comedy -  Bradley Whitfield/ Joan Cusack

8:37 - Directing in a Comedy -  Jill Salloway, Transparent

8:41 - Best Actor in a Comedy Series - Jeffery Tambor , Transparent

8:53 - Best Actress in a Comedy Series - Julie Louis Dryfus, Veep

8:57 - Best Reality Competition Program - The Voice

9:04 - Best Writing in a Mini-Series or Limited Run Series - Jane Anderson,  Olive Kitterage

9:09 - Best Supporting Actress Mini Series et al - Regina King , American Crime

9:15 - Best Directing Mini Series et al - Olive Kitterridge

9:25 - Best Supporting  Actor Mini Series et al - Bill Murrey, Olive Kitterridge

9:28 - Best Actress in a Mini Series et al -  Frances McDormand, Olive Kitterridge

9:35 - Best Actor Mini Series et al - Richard Jenkins, Olive Kitterridge

9:43 - Best Mini Series et al - Olive Kitterridge

9:50 - Best Writing Variety Show - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

9:55 - Best Variety Sketch Series - Inside Amy Schumer

10:02 - Directing Variety Series - The Daily Show with Jon  Stewart

10:04 - Variety Talk Series - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

10:09 - Writing Drama Series - Game of Thrones

10:19 - Best Supporting Actress Drama - Uzo Aduba , Orange is the New Black

10:21 - Best Directing Drama - Game of Thrones

10:28 -Best Supporting Actor Drama Series - Peter Dinkledge, Game of Thrones

Everyone who died.

10:40 - Best Actor Drama Series - Jon Hamm ,  Mad Men

10:44 - Best Actress Drama - Viola Davis, How To Get Away With Murder

10:51 - Best Comedy Series - Veep

10:54 - Best Drama Series -  Game of Thrones

Friday Cat Blogging

Putting the Pine back in Camp Knotty Pine

My fabric/sheets arrived!! I'm so excited! Its not just that I can stop shopping for fabric, because I love a good hunt, but I can also stop shopping for green paint! Paint shopping is something that always looks like so much fun when you are not doing it. Its a fun in theory thing that never actually comes through in practice.

The fabric

It is not the ideal pine sprig and pine cone pattern that I originally was inspired by, but that was made my Pottery Barn and it was 1) three years old and no longer available from Pottery Barn and 2)  somewhat more available on Ebay but for $125 for a twin flat sheet . I had to adjust my expectations.

I tried to widen the net and look beyond the pine cone but I couldn't settle on anything that really made me happy. I found what made me "okay" but not what made me happy. I would prefer to be happy with design choices I'm going to be living with for a long time, "okay" isn't good enough for what is going to be a long term relationship.

Please note paint swatch pictured above does not photograph true to color. It is a much more a piney green, very dark shade. I went through my huge library of green pant swatches one by one and the lighter and brighter greens just didn't work at all. I had been hoping for a more Kermit green, but it that wasn't in the cards, I am very happy with the shade I decided on though, we're good.

I am going to get started on the paint portion of the project this weekend. I can live very well with the room as it is now but I can't live with paint fumes  or the dangers of wet paint while I'm living up there this winter. I won't move up there for at least another month and that will give me time to get the pieces painted.

The paint in real life

Piece One

I don't think anything has ever been more "before" than this. Its old, heavy and not very attractive and it was deemed too old and heavy  and unattractive to remove from the house when the last owners family emptied it years ago.  Its been on the bench for years but its time to for it to join the starting line up because I need somewhere for my sweaters to live and it will hold a lot of sweaters.

I'm going to thoroughly clean it and sand it and get it ready to go. It may need to be primed but I would like to not do have to do that step because laziness. I prefer to think about whether I want to use a mat finish or go for a gloss. I'm looking forward to getting started! Yay for projects!

Happy 3rd Anniversary Rocket!

September 14-15, 2012

These are from his first weekend home, Google photos is our friend. Those dates are important to me for other reasons as well.  I first looked at this house on Wednesday, September 11, 2002, when there was a rotting squirrel in the backyard perfuming the property.  I put my offer in on  Friday, September 13, 2002 .

 I can't remember what day I closed on it, but  been raining hard all day and my basement was flooded and the power was off because it hadn't been turned back on yet, so the  sump pump couldn't pump the water out and its alarm was screaming( for real, being  too close to it too frequently when it was going off destroyed the higher registers of my hearing) when I opened the door for the first time. Welcome home!

Please note I didn't know what a sump pump was much less that my house had one that it needed.  What I did know the house needed was a dog. It also needed a fence, so that happened first, but on December 21, 2002 I brought my Daisy home. She died on June 6, 2012. Rocket was born on July 15, 2012 and I brought him home on September 14, 2012. The circle of life.

Garden Update 9 2015

Organic gardening is not pretty and is entirely luck of the draw, some years you do well, some years you roll craps. In other words, some years you use pesticides and fungicides - both gifts from above, don't let anyone tell you otherwise, and some years you don't get around to it until too late. The garden has been through some changes. So far this season I've lost seven tomato plants - more than I have ever lost before. In a normal year I might have a single non-starter that dies early and maybe one that produces briefly and then turns to dust.

This year has not been a good year in the garden, I planted more this year that I have ever before with an eye towards giving a lot away and still being able to put a lot up. This has not come to pass, I haven't given away a single tomato! and I have frozen only eight. It is a bad year for freezing and putting up, its a good thing I don't really like tomatoes for causal eating or this would be a real blow.

I'm not sure if its clear, but that is a empty hole where I had planted a bunch of tomatoes. To the far right is some hateful suckers from a   useless tree I would have had removed but my neighbors really like it .

I did plant more than normal, so I have quite  a few plants left hat are still more or less producing

Most of these will never ripen. I don't know if they are getting eaten by evil beasties or they just wither, I haven't found a lot that have been violated and I'm not finding a lot of ripe or even going-to-be-ripe fruits. Its odd.

This is odd

It used to be two and now its one. Its probably going to die. I know this because it has the same skin condition most of them have

Things aren't completly bad, there is some good news

They don't look too bad and if I keep a close eye on them I'm going to hopefully be useing them in my soups this winter.

The bright spot of the garden are the peppers! I've put a lot of these up and even managed to give some away.  

These plants in this bed  have done much, much better than what I planted in the "old" garden. They have been watered in the same manner and had the same weather. They have no skin conditions and have been growing quite happily and getting ripe and fat. I take fruits off about every other day. I need to get back to putting them up because I have been enjoying them with too many meals. I need to be more responsible with them because they are also finite.

As part of an experement, I planted what I thought were leeks but were probably really just green onions. I planted a butt load of these with great effort.

I have pulled two other plants. All the rest didn't make it.

Speaking of plants that didn't make it

My corns produced weird, shrunken little ears that were not eatable. They plants withered and I pulled them out. I came back from vacation and they had come back as well. Thus far, no ears, but its nice they came back to try again.

So for next year we are going to make some changes, I'm not sure what is going to change - apart from the sprinkler doing the watering, that is off the table, the drip hoses will be coming off the bench for sure but other things are going to have to be severely tweeked.

It was a bright day today! The blanching pot and I have a date!