When Fawn meets fawn…

Yesterday a familiar face wandered into our neighborhood.  I’d seen him with his mom earlier last fall.  But today Mommy Deer was nowhere to be found.  I, of course, was worried for the little guy, especially when he let myself and my kids get this close.

He came no closer than four feet away and I was mesmerized.

He paused long enough to get a good look then off he went as graceful as could be.

Today the poor little darling came back.  Alone.  I now fear the his Mom is gone for good.  Probably the victim of an accident with a car.  I’ve seen way to many deer along the side of the road near our rural town.

I reluctantly let Lea take out some apples for the little fellow. 

He gobbled them right up.

I know we can’t continue to give him treats or become too friendly with him.  If he gets too used to us, then it will be so much easier for him to get hurt by the next car driving along.  He’s just so small and my heart breaks that he’s alone.

So we’ll watch from our front window and wish him well.

And be grateful that he graced us with his presence.

Makeover Madness

So Makeover Madness has officially taken over our Household – The De-Hoarding is still progressing although it has slowed considerably.  I know I haven’t posted in ages because I wanted to show you a completed room.  As we speak I’ve got 4 area’s of my home that are hugely different from their original form, yet they are not quite there.  My Young and Gorgeous Counselor could sense my frustration with not having anything BIG so show (so to speak).  So, she sent me back home to WOW you with all the little accomplishments I’ve made over the past couple of weeks.

FawnDear completed her first-ever from scratch Woodworking Project.  I built some wooded, or maybe I should say composite based Cornices to hang over the windows in the front/dining rooms.  Here they are with only one coat of paint.

 

I know lousy lighting, but yes that’s molding.  Wow, I can’t believe I used Molding???  It involved a lot of kicking myself for not paying more attention in High School Math Class.  I never did master the lessons on Angles, and Percentages.  Fortunately, my husbands Big Boy Toy had a lot of the measurements already guesstimated for lumber Numbskulls like me.  I never would have figured out the angle I needed was 31.62.  Thank you saw company.

I’m totally digging trying out all the power tools.

Do guys intentionally say they will do the carpentry work because they are afraid that if we try it and like it – we might claim it?

Regardless, I measured and cut, and muffed up.  Then measured cut, nailed, glued and screwed my creation together.

I did ask the Hubster to mount them on the wall for me.  Of course they were mounted in studs and with some good Drywall anchors where no studs were to be found.

So Big Thanks to my Prince Erik for pitching in on this step. 

I rewarded him for his handy weekend contributions by turning the tables on him.  A couple of years ago he was 14-day-guy for me, so this year I surprised him with his very own 14 Days of Valentines. 

Each simple card went along with a little gift.  And although they might sound silly, it’s the thought that counts.  Examples were on Day 1, I gave him an adjustable spice rack (he loves to cook) for our new kitchen.  And the card mentioned thanks for the spice he brings to my life…  Ahhhhh, am I adding too much ooey –gooey?  Some gifts were dress socks, some nut packets or jerky.  I think his favorite day was day 4 because it was 4 lbs. of Seafood.  Oh, and he liked day 12 as well because I gave him 12… well something I can’t mention here.  Anyway it really did feel great to do something nice for the guy. 

Currently I’m furiously setting up my Dining room as the Curtain Sewing room.  Can’t wait to hang some curtains after a few months of giving the Neighbors more of a show than what they were intending to see.

I also filled the home with mind numbing oil paint fumes as I slowly put some touches on part of our kitchen cabinets.

Here’s T-rev sucking it in for your viewing pleasure.  So I’ve now let the cat out of the bag.  Yes, we have repainted nearly every surface in our home.

I also finally framed my carefully selected artwork for the Front Room.  After going to a framing store and nearly choking on their estimated price of $700 plus for frame, mat’s, glass etc.  I went the cheaper route of finding a similar size frame at Goodwill for $25.

I had to paint it white, and I did end up paying the craft store to cut the matting for me.  But then I put it together.  The matting was around $80, only because I didn’t wait for a dang sale.  But $105 compared with $700 is a great deal.

Here’s another peek, I haven’t really staged it yet, just hung the picture, and threw a couple or items on the mantle.  Hopefully it will do until I can get around to the thoughtful decorations.  The picture is by my favorite Artist Carl Bloch and is called Fra Hellebaek.

The two girls in the picture look almost exactly like my Lea and Hope.  I knew the moment I saw it that it was the perfect picture for our front room.  My husbands love of boating and ties to his Danish Roots are represented as well.  Just wait until you see how perfectly it ties my entire Front room together.    It gives me goose bumps that it fits so perfectly.

So Yes, the Home makeover is progressing.  Even though it’s now progressing slowly.

Our family is also following our sixth anniversary tradition of Unplugging for the month of February.  No T.V., no Computer or Internet (unless it’s homework).  No blog browsing (I promise I’ll come visit soon), No Video gaming…  More Madness.

The kids have adjusted as expected.  First weeks a nightmare, then they start coming alive.  Hope had a hard time because I’ve been plugging her in over the past few months to work on my De-Hoarding.  So there were a few days of her mauling loving the cat and walking around moaning that she missed her electronics.  But she’s bounced right out of that zombie phase – Thank Goodness.  If I had it my way – I’d keep the blasted electronics turned off Forever!  With the exception of Blogging, of course.

And Pumpkin our Ninja Kitty Cat, we’ll let’s just say, it’s been his worst month yet.  With all the smothering loving from bored kids, he turned to the streets.  Sadly, the street cats didn’t take to kindly to him and the poor thing came home a bloody, sad mess.  Clearly his ninja skills have failed him.  Several set’s of stitches, some oozing drain shunts, a $305 dollar vet bill, and one humiliating Cone-Of-Shame Latter…

Pumpkin’s a much humbler fellow, realizing that hugs from Hope are not that bad after all.

And if painting a kitchen, building cornices, dealing with six, I mean seven unplugged kids and a maimed cat are not enough, I’ve added another Makeover project to the List – ME!

My husband and I applied for a contest where our local fitness center was going to select eight teams or couples and give them 12 weeks of trainer’s, nutritional counseling, weekly incentives, and a whole lot of support to essentially shed some pounds and build some Fab Muscles at the same time.  So four weeks ago Prince Erik and I were jumping for joy, more like jiggily bouncing, when we found out that we were one of the lucky teams that they selected.

Wa-hoo!  A perfect opportunity to lose that nasty 65 pounds of emotional eating I gained dealing with the Unbloggable.  And I’m doing it with past success information and even more help from my Young and Gorgeous counselor in dealing with the whole mental/emotional side of eating. 

I’m thrilled for the opportunity to get something like 24 training sessions from a personal trainer – it’s something I couldn’t afford on my own.  How blessed am I?

Of course they are judging on percentage of body weight lost and not lbs. lost.  So I was the recipient of a fabulous Dunk Tank experience.

  

Sorry about the view.  I  guess it would be an understatement to mention that I’m pasty white, right?

Apparently getting tanked gives them a more accurate measurement of how much of your body is fat and how much is finely tuned muscle.

 

According to the tank – I’ve got 72 lbs. of blubber to lose before I’m at optimal healthy weight. 

So there you have it.  The FawnDear and Prince Erik Makeovers have just been added to our list of current projects.

So here’s the dreaded Before’s.  Funny we must be married, or something, because our starting weight was an identical 227 lbs..

 

Can only get better right???  Well let’s hope so, because I KNOW you’re not tuning into my posts to see scary pictures like these posted every other day.

So week one came and went and guess which team lost the most?  Before I answer, I need to clarify that I want all the teams in the competition to do stupendous!  I want them all to hit their personal goals.  I’m their biggest cheerleader.  But, I’m pretty confident that I’ll be right up their with the best of them.  The A-Team (as we are called) are on everyone’s hit list because we won week one.  Between my husband and I, we lost a combined 21 lbs.  It’s week one.  We didn’t starve, but we did exercise 6 days a week, but never for more than an hour and we did count calories and keep them within our 1500-1800 calorie range.  We followed the rules and it felt great.  Our prize – Two haircuts, which we will use for our Fab makeover. 

Week 2 – I lost another 3.  Prince Erik hit a little wall and didn’t lose anything.  But we are still on track.  We came in forth the second week. 

We are currently in the middle of week #3.  This is my hardest week by far, but I haven’t given up.  In addition to competing with the other teams – there’s a little competition between me and the Prince.  Seeing who can outlast the other on planks (me) or weights (him).  It’s awesome to have a built in support system.

So there you have it.  The Month of February in a nutshell.  I promise not to hold out on projects until they are all completed.  It’s easier to just show a little at a time.