Never give up hope!

I like to think that I am a patient, positive and hopeful person and today I was rewarded!

This is my mother's engagement ring and it has been missing for 9 years until today!

My mother died in December 2000 and I was given her ring.  In the beginning I wore it all the time on my right hand but took it off at night and for other reasons.

It was September 2001 when I realized that I hadn't seem my mother's ring for a while and even though I looked all over the house for it I could not find it.  I didn't even have a photo of it.

The last time I remember wearing it was to a business dinner in late June 2001.

But June to September 2001 there was a lot going on.   I was taking golf lessons  (taking the ring off to wear my golf glove) and I even remember leaving it in the glove box of my husband's rented car one time.  At night I'd often put it on the bathroom vanity which I realized after I lost the ring was very close to the edge and an easy drop to the garbage can!

I tried to think of what could have happened to it - did it fall in the garbage or did it fall off my nightstand and get vacuumed up?  Did I lose it outside or did someone take it?  I'd hate to think that but the thought did cross my mind since we'd had a new one-time babysitter and used a new cleaning service during that time.

After a couple of years I considered calling one of those pyschics to see if I could get a clue to it's whereabouts.

After 6 years and for our 15 wedding anniversary my husband had a ring made for me in a similiar style to my mother's ring and it was even a Topaz (which was her birthstone).

Every once and a while we'd talk about Grandma Maria's missing ring and wonder where it could be.

Since we hadn't moved house I figured that one day it might show up again.  To be on the safe side I always checked pockets, purses, and drawers before giving anything away!

Today I was preparing for a garage sale and needed to clean out my golf clubs to sell. 

And I found my mother's ring buried under a bunch of change in one of the pockets!

I know what you're thinking - didn't I look in my golf bag?  Of course I did - it was the first place I looked -  but I never actually EMPTIED it before today.

New Chairs?

I took a break from sewing and did some stuff on my "honey do" list that my honey hasn't done for me this summer.

First up on the list I had to spray paint these mexican bar stools we have in our outside bar area.  I just paint them with Rustoleum Rust Proofing spray in Rust colour to hide the rust!

I also needed to spray paint these Japanese lanterns to "freshen" them up.

BUT while in the spray paint aisle at Home Depot I grabbed some black satin spray for a little experiment.

You see since my flooring reno I have been very slow to bring stuff back into my house (you should see my garage!). 

I was thinking that I would buy new kitchen chairs to go with our antique oak table but I couldn't find any I liked for under $400 each!  Yikes!

So I decided to spray paint them - of course I started with the broken one first just in case!

I think they turned out very nice!  Not to mention the "recycling" factor.  Don't you agree?

Yes I also spray painted the Ikea lazy susan too! 

Once I started spray painting I found it very hard to stop and found myself looking at everything in my house with renewed interest.

Alter it with Vinyl Clings!

I recently "redid" my kids' upstairs homework area. 

This is how it looks now - I always forget to take Before photos - sorry about that!

I bought an Ikea black table top and brushed stainless legs but had a hard time deciding which drawer unit to buy. 

I really liked THIS ONE but felt it would take up too much space and I wanted something that would fit under the table.

I decided on Micke from Ikea (no longer available) but I hated the white drawers and I really wanted something that was all dark brown or black.

So to "funk" it up I decided to add some vinyl clings to the drawer fronts to take away some of the "white".

I'm really happy with how it turned out:

Stampin' Up! has a whole line of Definitely Decorative vinyl that would be suitable for this kind of "redecorating" as well you can find lots of these wall art clings at various stores. 

If you can't find what you're looking for you might want to consider buying the vinyl and making your own with a Cricut cutting machine or cutting out shapes with some dies and a Big Shot.

Flooring Reno Phase 1 complete....

Sorry !

I know all my cardmaking friends will be disappointed but I'm so tied up with this flooring reno that I cannot do anything until it is done.

BUT if you are looking for photos of my flooring reno (Anita and Yvonne) here they are:

Our kitchen eating area - yes the baseboards are going in this week and the walls will be repainted:

Front Entrance - the carpet on the stairs is being changed on Tuesday!

These are our back stairs - yes we even tiled the stairs.  They will have oak nosings when the baseboard guy comes this week.  We will change out the mudroom flooring to a ceramic tile that is very similiar to this slate at a later time.

Powder room - again in need of baseboards!

Getting there....

Well the demolition has finished and the tiling has begun!  I'm going out in a bit so I don't get boxed in.

Here are some more during photos:

These tiles were just laid on Friday and they have not been washed or sealed yet.

It's hard to tell from these photos but the slate tiles are being laid in a pattern using 24x24, 12x24 and 12x12 inch tiles

The workmen have just arrived so I better get packing up my COPICs and some images and head off to ScrapArts to colour in peace!

Not stamping!

We are under going a WHOLE HOUSE flooring renovation - actually the craft room/den flooring (cork plank) and the kids bathroom floor (travertine tile) are not being redone but everything else is!

So the whole family is holed up in one small room most of the time and when the workmen leave we have limited access to the rest of the house.

I'm always forgetting to take before and after photos but today I remembered to take some BEFORE shots - well not really before before but before the new stuff is put in. I guess they are more like DURING shots!

Here are some photos of my first floor - the tile has been ripped out and new tile will be laid over the next week and a bit.

Front entrance:

Kitchen:

Family Room:

Following that will be 2 days of carpet installation -in the living room, dining room as well as up the stairs and all the bedrooms (including closets - with 2 teens this is going to be the worst part!).


In the meantime I am printing up some digital images to colour (from Mo Manning, Kimprints, Digi Stamp Characters and Michelle Perkett) and brushing up on my Photoshop skills!

My Stamp Room Revisited

I've made a few minor changes to my stamp room since I last shared photos.

The first one is I added a THIRD Making Memories Embellishment Centre so the wall over my table looks like this now.
I found these nifty drawers for my centres and instead of just labelling them I used photos to identify what's in them.
I changed out my mish mash of binders to all black and added a Decor Element rubon on 2 of them.