Thankful for...

I worked Thanksgiving. But that is fine.
It gives me a chance to earn some OT. And for that I am thankful.
I'm thankful for a few other things.
Things like a family that I can count on no matter what. A family that loves me and doesn't judge me in spite of my many faults and foibles.
I am also thankful for my friends, both online and in the real world. They make me think, they make me laugh.
I really don't want to get maudlin.
I really just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving.
Be well, be happy.

Tile ain't so tough

With help Sunday from the manfriend, I got the tile up behind the stove and on the wall where the new glass-door cabinets are.

It went pretty fast with two of use working, but since we didn't start until almost 1 p.m., there was not time to do the wall behind the sink.

The tiles are 3x6 inch hand-glazed ceramics from Sonoma Tile in a color called Damask.

I ordered it at Classic Tile in Hermosa Beach and it took exactly a month to arrive. The people at Classic Tile were very friendly and knowledgeable and they had an amazing selection.

I felt like what I was ordering was so mundane compared with some of the displays they had.

But the tile looks great on the walls.

There is some fine crackling in the glaze and some color variations. I like that.

I think it gives the tile more dimension than if it was all perfectly the same color.

The only thing was that there also were slight variations in size. So the grout lines, as best we tried to keep them perfectly straight, will not be.

Oh well.

I am fine with that.

I sealed the stove and cabinet walls yesterday and then set about doing the sink wall.

Yep. All by myself.

I no longer fear the wet saw.

Of course it was still a bit daunting. I have never done this by myself before and at $17 a square foot, I really didn't want to mess it up.

It's not like I could run out to the Home Depot and buy more tile if I ran out because I miscut a bunch.

I do have a fair amount of tile left. The manfriend thinks I should go ahead and tile all the way up behind the hood.

It would be much more dramatic that way. But those diagonal cuts at the top of the hood might be tough.

First I would need to measure very carefully to make sure I even have enough tile to do that space. It was not factored into my order, but I gave myself a large cushion for mistakes that didn't happen.

Then I would need to be so, so, so careful not to miscut anything because I wouldn't have a lot of leftover tile to play with there.

Anyway, it took me about the same amount of time to do the one wall by myself as it took the two of us to do the two walls. Seems logical.

So I didn't get any grouting done.

But it will get done. Maybe by next Monday.

I think it looks awesome. It will look even better once the bright white grout is in and I paint the trim moldings and back door a bright white.

Overall, I am pretty darn pleased with my tile and with myself.

Click here to see what the kitchen used to look like and a picture of the inspiration kitchen.

I think it stacks up pretty nicely compared to the inspiration kitchen. What do you think?

Not a bad way to spend the morning

Some of you know that I work Saturdays and odd hours and holidays and all that fun stuff.

It could be better, but it could be worse. Right now I have Sundays and Mondays off work.

At my last job I had Fridays and Saturdays off. Better.

When I first started this job I had Mondays and Tuesdays off. Worse.

But I generally like my job as an editor/page designer. I find it interesting.

I like that while the job itself may stay pretty much the same, the content does not. It helps keep the job fresh.

I also like that I do not have an inbox. Nothing piles up in my desk. When I leave work at the end of the day, I know my job is finished and I get to come in and start fresh the next day.

The series of deadlines also works well for me. Give me two weeks to finish a project and I am likely to wait until Day 12 to start on it. It will be done right, but I will procrastinate.

Give me a series of deadlines to meet throughout the shift and I will pretty much beat every one of them.

It's kind of like a sprint rather than a marathon. And since I tend to be competitive, it's a great fit for me.

Typically I work from noon to about 8 p.m. Not bad hours compared to the 3 to 11 p.m. I used to work.

It still gives me plenty of time in the morning to wake up around 8:30 or 9, make tea, have some toast and check in on the news.

It also usually gives me time to get a chore done at home or to run an errand before work.

Then, when I leave work, I can come home and have dinner. Sure it is about 9 p.m. by the time I eat dinner. But I am almost always up until at least 1 anyway.

So what have I done with my morning so far:

tea

English muffin

news

watched a show I had recorded

cleaned up after cats

a load of towels

painted my toenails

blogged

Not bad at all considering it isn't even 11 yet.

Now I am off to get ready for work. I need to hurry though.

I still have to stop on the way to get gas and buy groceries for tonight's dinner.

Enjoy the weekend all!

(picture is from a trip to Yosemite a few years ago)

Something for Sona

Sona over at Sona Says has a thing for lighthouses.

But can you blame her? What other thing that is so practical has such a whimsy and romance about it?

This photo was from my trip to Savannah for the SND conference a few years ago.

I took a day trip out to Tybee Island, Ga., and found the Tybee Island Light Station.

And yes, I climbed all those stairs to the top.

How could I not? It was a beautiful, clear and windy day. It was perfect.

Pretend sometimes

So I went to the stamp convention Sunday in Carson.

According to my friends, this used to be much bigger, but it still seemed like a lot of vendors to me.

I ended up buying a few things. Surprise, surprise.

But I did try to keep that in check. Mainly I wanted to look at the ideas there. And I wanted to find something that would make me try something new.

So that new thing is going to be watercoloring and using pastels. I don't do too much of that now and it seems a bit labor intensive for making a lot of cards. So I probably wouldn't use it for Christmas cards, but maybe for swaps of 10 or fewer or for cards I make specifically to give to someone.

Anyway... here are some photos of a few of the things I bought:

I have no idea what I am going to do with this one. I don't usually work with stamps of this style. The samples I have seen tend to be very detailed and embellished and, well, somewhat over the top for me.

But I like the little guy with his funny wings.

And I like that the sentiment is "Pretend sometimes."

The stamp is from Stampers Anonymous.

I got all these at a booth called Savvy Stamps.

The dot background stamps will be pretty good for many occasions and types of cards. The poinsettias were just pretty and they had some nice examples of how to use them.

They had a ton of stamps, all on the small side, which I like. I could have spent a fortune there, so I made sure to set a limit for myself.

They have a decent gallery area on their Web site.

This cute little Christmas stamp is from Memory Box.

It is about 2 inches tall by 1 inch at the widest point of the image.

I walked by this display a couple times and didn't see this stamp until I went back to show a friend something else they had.

But once I saw it, I wanted it.

I did get a couple other things that don't photograph so well. Things like unmounted rubber stamps and acrylic stamps.

Overall I had fun. They have this show a few times a year with varying numbers of vendors. I think once a year would be about enough for me.

Now I just need to find the time to play with all my new toys.

Tile. Yay!

Woo hoo! I got my tile today. It looks quite nice.

Now I have no excuse for not painting the kitchen.

So I will do that Monday.

I hope to have the tile up and grouted and sealed a week after that.

That is the last thing. Then the kitchen is done.

Oh wait. I still need a threshold for the back door. But that is in the works.

Thinking of you...

Just a quick post to upload the photo of my card for this month's swap.

Nothing fancy here. Just a nice, clean card in a color scheme I really like.

The dots on the pink paper are from a roller stamp (Stampin' Up).

I inked the sentiment and flower stamp (Stampin' Up) with markers to get all the separate colors.

The centers of the flowers are tiny pink and brown page pebbles.

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That is all. Back to what you were doing.