TIME

Why does time go faster the older you get?

Because the younger you are, each day is such a significant percentage of your life so far?  And as you get older, this percentage becomes less with each year so days increasingly become insignificant?

Because as children, we live in the moment, because we don't know there's any other way to be?  As we get older, we're wrapped up in too many things to be in the present moment, and days pass without you really realizing it?

Because we get into a routine and do the same thing day after day and they all seem alike?

Have you arrived at a point in your life where you've realized and decided that life is too short, and you need to start living differently?  Did something instigate it or was it gradual?

What did you change?

Blue Skies

Must. Get. Sun.

I miss summer.

Here's a couple lovely reminders I took last summer at the capital building in Madison.

After the Flood

I didn't realize until after I took this picture

that the bark spelled my initial.

You can see how high the water was -- it washed out this bank

and exposed the rocks and tree roots.

The flood carried huge rocks down the creek,

so there were a lot of new fossils to look at.

And a feather. :)

Trunk Show!

I just ordered the posters (finally!) for my show that's coming up in April.  What do you think?  Even though I can't make changes at this point, I always appreciate constructive criticism!

During and After

So here was what the bathroom looked like when we moved in:

The wallpaper actually wasn't too hard to get off -- super heavy-duty stuff that just came off in big sheets.  I'm pretty sure that was the only part of our entire house remodel that was easy.

As you can see, it was a lovely shade of pink underneath.  And seeing how there was only a bathtub....

...in this next pic

 you can see our lovely solution to that -- it was quite interesting, but it worked. And it was only supposed to be temporary.

Eventually, we rented a dumpster and gutted the whole thing.  Since we were living in the house at the time, we sealed off the door with tape to try to keep the dust out of the rest of the house.  We filled up buckets with plaster and lathe, crawled half-way out the window, grabbed the bucket, and climbed down a short ladder to the ground. The bathroom is on the first floor, but the window was high enough off the ground to make the whole process very difficult (not to mention extremely amusing to our neighbors).  Oh, and did I mention there was quite a bit of snow/mud/slush on the ground too?

You might be wondering why the room is completely gutted, but our shower curtain contraption is still up.  Yeah....this was our only bathroom, so we needed to continue using it!  If the room looks a little bigger, it's because we tore down a wall to combine the old bathroom with a closet and old stairwell behind it.

In this photo you can see that we installed the new bathtub where the old closet had been, and the new closet is framed in.

Yay! Old tub getting removed and original wood flooring pulled up to save for another purpose.

Fast-forward quite a bit, and we have it almost completed in the next photo. Just need to put doors on the laundry area. You might notice our cabinet has a big crack in it. That's called character. :) We bought an antique cupboard and dropped a sink into it for our vanity. The overhead light fixture is also vintage.

This was all several years ago.  Just recently we decided to put our house on the market (you know, because it's such a good time to sell :), so we made some revisions.  We replaced the vanity and light fixture so that we could use the antique ones when we build our new house.  So the last photo is our official "after" pic I guess. This also shows some of the original oak woodwork that we removed, refinished, and put back up. Overall, we were pretty happy with how it turned out, especially considering its humble beginnings.

Before

We bought our house "as-is." Besides personal items being removed, everything else was left in the house...from the towels in the bathroom to the can of coffee in the frig. Here is what the kitchen and bathroom looked like when we moved in:

Wow, right? Which do you like better, the carpet in the kitchen or the wallpaper in the bathroom?   

Ohai!

I wish this pic would have turned out better, but I love how his head looks really big and his front legs look tiny. Reminds me of the dancing cats on the Hallmark e-cards.

This is my Wilson. He's a miracle cat who received wonderful care from the kind vets at Companion Animal Hospital in Madison, WI, several years ago. Dr. Pagel and Dr. Kay saved him (with the help from their surgical-specialist friend). After it being touch and go (he had to be resuscitated once, his bladder burst twice, and he had three surgeries) he recovered enough to rip his IV out, and we finally took him home with a bladder the size of a pea (no pun intended). But apparently it stretches over time, and the doctors encouraged us to get a "pet fountain" to entice him to drink more water. The cats were a little confused at first, but they now love it, and my guests love to make fun of it. Good times all around.