Shut the Front Door ... Day 59 ... Goodbye February!

It's Day 59,

and with that, the shortest, yet painfully longest,

month of the year is finally over.

 

 

Since tomorrow is March and we are supposed to be having an early spring (yea, make me laugh .. hysterically), I'm expecting all this snow to be gone by the time I wake up in the morning.

Somehow, I think I have a better chance of a meeting with some happy fellows who want to dress me in a comfy white coat.

 

While I dodge the white coat people, how about another drive-by photography tour?

 

To get anywhere,

you must first survive the luge.

 

Look up.

But only if you want globs of snow dropped in your eyes.

Ha!...

It's as if the branches are pointing in all directions and saying, "Looky there".

 

How about a short tour of the little ole' Village of Remsen?

Established in 1798.

 

The blacksmith shop.

Circa 1800.

 

Old Baptist Church dedicated in 1893.

Is currently the Remsen Arts Center.

Methodist Church built in 1892.

 

Remsen Central School.

Looks nothing like it did when I was there.
Updated to it's current standing in 1980 and 1997.

 

This is what the school looked like when I was younger.

(source: 1970 yearbook. photographer unknown.)
Building was dedicated in 1935.

 

Didymus Thomas Memorial Library.

Corner stones laid in 1908.

 

The dates I included with the pictures above, I found on the Village of Remsen's webpage.

Click here to see these facts and to find more information about the Village of Remsen. 

 

Time to go home.

 

Why is it so dark and cloudy up there?

It's like living at the top of Mount Doom.

 

Snow plow took out the stop sign and buried it in the snow bank.

 

Story of my life.

 

It's all uphill from here.

 

Goodbye February!

See you tomorrow March.

Which incidentally, I hear you're coming in like a lamb.

You better stay that way.

 

Shut the Front Door ... Day 58 ... Death by Flip Flop?

I think everyone can relate to having that one thing that you just love wearing.
That one thing you pretty much wear until it falls off your body.

The comfy jeans,

the raggedy flannel shirt,

or the holey sneaks.

I've had pretty much all the above but...

I love my flip flops.

(even though when I stand in the sun, the rivets get really hot and burn my feet)

 

I got these puppies on clearance at Sears (this is not a sponsored post) about 5 years ago for $8.

That's like ...

$1.60 a year.

13 cents a month.

(I make sure I get every penny out of the stuff I buy)

 

They are falling apart.
 

I had to glue the bottom back onto the left one last night.

It was flopping in the breeze and damned near killed me while I was coming up the cellar stairs.

 

When I bought them, it took me about a week to realize that they were really, really comfortable but when I went back to get another pair,

NONE LEFT!
 

Not one single pair was to be found.
 

Of course they had 2 pair in brown but I wanted another black pair.

I snatched up the two brown pair anyway...$8 for leather flip flops is a really good deal.

 

If anyone knows where I can find a pair (or 3) of flip flops like these (in black),

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE,

let me know.

 

There's a rumor going around that summer is on it's way!
My source seems pretty reliable?

And I need another good pair of black flip flops.

 

 

Ha!

I was so concerned with taking pictures of my shoes that I almost forgot to take a picture of

Day 58.
Almost.

 Can you guess what kind of day this was?
Yea, that kind of day.

 

 

 

Shut the Front Door ... Day 57 ... Mid winter blah. Has anyone seen spring?

Day 57.

 

Oh my goodness. Another dull dreary day.

Did we always have to live through this much dreary before spring?

 

I'm beginning to wonder if there are really zombies walking the streets

Or...

Is it just New Yorkers

 walking around in their normal mid winter,

pale skin,

vitamin D deficient,

dreariness induced,
stupor?
I just can't explain the missing body parts.
 

 

I've also noticed that it's THE LAST WEEK OF FEBRUARY and not one single solitary sign of spring can be found.

 

I asked the chickadee if he knows where spring is.

He was a little rude.

No help here.

 

I asked the cows if they know where spring is.

They just seemed to be overly concerned about the fresh stash of grass they found in the barn.

No help here either.

 

I asked the deer if they know where spring is.

Finally.

Hey, wait for me.

 

Crap.

 

 

 

Shut the Front Door ... Day 56 ...Glittered trees and flying monkeys.

Huh.

Day 56

Started out dull and dreary.

Surprised?

I'm not.

It's the trend around here apparently.

The sun didn't show it's face until about 10 minutes before sunset.

 

All nice and happy sunshiny sky in the west complete with glittered trees and green orbs.

 All mean and nasty cloudy sky in the east.

Heck, it even looks like I'm about to be run down by a herd of trees.

Or is that a pack of trees?

A gaggle?

 

Anyhoo..

 

It's like OZ here.

The good witch in the west.

The bad witch in the east.

Wait?

Isn't that supposed to be the other way around?

 

If only I could get my hands on a pair of red glittered shoes.

And a dog that fits in a picnic basket.

No wait.

Yea, red shoes, a dog, a picnic basket.....

and a house that I can just drop on random people.

And FLYING MONKEYS!!

I'll trade the shoes for the flying monkeys.

 

 

 

 

 

Shut the Front Door ... Day 55 ... No time for Nascar when there are unfinished projects.

Day 55

 

You know, before I started doing this "Shut the Front Door" series, I never realized just how many days we have that are so dull and lifeless.

It's like Groundhog Day over and over and over and over....

 

No wonder I feel like scratching my eyes out before spring.

Just another reason why that worthless little rodent would be put to better use by sitting in a cast iron pot with some potatoes and carrots.

 

So anyway,

today was a special day in history.

Today was the first day a woman was first in line at the Daytona 500.

Do I normally watch Nascar?

No.

Did I watch it today?

No.

Because of this monumentus 1st for womankind, do I feel more empowered?

Why YES!

Yes I do.

And I celebrated my newfound empowerment by making my husband pull his but up off the couch DURING the race to help me finish up this project...

 

You see, I hate using the drill.

It's heavy.

I usually can't hang onto the thing while holding on to the wood,

 the brackets,

 and the screws.

It's an emergency room visit just waiting to happen.

 

I'm sure he would rather watch the race on his own tv while using a drill than on the tv in the emergency room while someone's typhoid toddler coughs and sneezes all over him. 



Castaway bed in Marine Harbor Blue

Last summer when I decided that I was going to try to build a business out of salvaged furniture, I started sifting through stuff that I had been hanging on to since my kids were little.
I picked out items that meant something to me, my kids picked out items that meant something to them, and then I was left with a pile of odds and ends that were too good to be thrown away.

This little twin size spindle headboard and footboard was in the castaway pile.

I spent several months staring at it, sizing it up, making plans, and finally, I decided where I wanted to go with it.

First order of business was to make a few cuts.

This is my way of jumping in with both feet. Once your project looks like this, you basically have to keep going. There's no turning back.

There were several holes where the bolts for the railings went through the legs and since it was once part of a bunk bed set, there were also holes in the top of the corner posts.
I didn't want to spend hours/days filling the holes and waiting for the filler to dry.
I found a dowel that fit nicely into the holes and cut it to the size I needed for each hole.

I put tape on one side of the hole to keep the glue from running out.

 

This way all I had to do was wait for that little bit of glue to dry then I filled the small gaps with filler.
I don't know why there is crayon all over this.

 

 

Once it had sufficient time to dry, I sanded down all the rough edges.

The next steps were a little stressful.
They involved trying to get the pieces I cut in half attached to the piece I left whole.
Measure, measure again, and then measure again.
My grandfather used to say, "Measure twice, cut once" and "You're a pi$$ poor carpenter if you make a mistake you can't fix" and "I cut it off twice and it's still too short".
The last one was a joke.
Really.

Anyway... back to the project.
I had to search high and low to find brackets that would work for this. They were either too big, too small, not the right color.
Finding the right hardware is just aggravating sometimes.

 

For the life of me, I couldn't find brackets that would work here so I just attached it with screws.

IT'S ALIVE!!!!

Can you see where I'm going with this now?

Ok then.
I attached a small board to each side so I would have something to attach the seat to.

Then the whole thing got two coats of CeCe Caldwell's Maine Harbor Blue.

Once the paint dried, I applied a coat of CeCe Caldwell's Satin Finish.

Then I used boards that were salvaged from a discarded futon frame to make the seat.

At this point I realized I had a bit of an engineering issue (which was brought to my attention when I attempted to sit on it)
I don't want to hear one word from anyone.
Got it!.
Good.
....So a few strategically placed braces were added (so overly ample behinds...like mine...won't find themselves parked on the floor).
A brace across the front.

 And a brace from the back to the newly added front.

 

Now I have a nice sturdy, safe, little bench that's perfect for the garden or porch.

 

I like my hat.

This post was added to Make the Scene Monday at Alderberry Hill.

Shut the Front Door ... Day 53 ... aaaand Day 54 ... More glass garden art.

My bad.

I took a picture for day 53 but by the time the day was over, I was too lazy to bother writing up a post for it.

So here it is, day 53 and day 54.

 

Day 53

There was a light coating of ice and snow on everything in the morning but it didn't last too long. Before noon, it warmed up a bit and the ice melted and the trees were back to their usual drab color.

 

Day 54

Yea, today is a typical late winter, gloomy, drab day.

 

It's started out snowing just a bit.

It's that kind of snow that looks like teeny, tiny little styrofoam balls.

I know there's a name for it but I don't have a clue what it is.

 

Actually, I'm going to take back part of that last paragraph.

It's snowing like crazy now.

It's still that funky little ball type snow though.

 

No wait. It stopped snowing.

Never mind.

Now it's raining.

 

Can you see where this is going today?

 

Well anyway.....

 

I spent the day working on more glass thing-a-ma-jigs for the garden.

I blogged about this type of project not too long ago.

You can see that post here.

 

I simply take a bunch of random glass items like teacups, saucers, bowls, and vases and turn them into garden art. They can be used as small planters, bird feeders, bird baths and/or sun catchers.

I'll apologize in advance for the quality of some of these pictures.

It was after dark when I took them and they just simply need sunshine, not flash bulbs, to look their best.

 

Of course having them surrounded by a bunch of beautiful flowers would help instead of plopping them in the middle of my pitiful fern.