the week ahead # 6

Welcome to this week's Happy Homemaker post... and my "week ahead"

The weather in Aurora CO this week
cold. Like many places in the US we went from hot 90's to 30's in a moment. We had snow 5 times in 8 days and yesterday we got about 4 inches or more. Last night was supposed to dip to 10F. We dug out the cuddle duds long 'wears and the poodle's sweater

can you just see my sweater?

and went for a walk in it. Might as well since it went on all the livelong day. It is supposed to go up to the 50's this week though.

                                    Breakfast
Yea for strong coffee! It's sunny today, which makes for a nice change, and we have bagels purchased Saturday at the bakery because we knew the snow was a comin' so I'll have one toasted.

                           As I look out my window
the snow is beginning to melt, the sun is bright giving me hope for the future (we went through 7 days of gloom here in "sunny" colorado which reminded me of my life on the East coast. Milo and I slept in til 8 when that sun came right through the blinds and said, "get up already!" I also see doggie noseprints all over the glass door, ewwww.

                        as I look around the house
the words from an old Bette Davis movie come to mind... what a dump! 
why am I so messy? I am still holding on to the fact that I'm not unpacked yet, but suspect I'm just messy and have a high tolerance for stuff sitting around. I type at the kitchen table, so I look into the family room, which has horizontal surfaces which collect books, magazines, pens, blankies, dog toys,people toys, etc.

                                             to do list
Well, number one, dammit is get the garage door opened. The torsion spring broke and the cars are trapped inside and dh can't get to work. Life is a brat. We got a home warranty when we closed on the house, and so far they are virtually useless. The AC went out in the horrible heat wave and they didn't even call back. Now they want to send Sears out in 5 days! I would not recommend buying a home warranty because of the delays.

Otherwise I continue to seek control over the house. My body wouldn't cooperate last week for the studio set up, however we did change out the summer clothes for winter, which is a big deal of lifting bins in and out of the spare room. Done! and I got a start on going through the boxes in that room which holds a lot of studio stuff.

I got Milo groomed this weekend too, had put that off for two extra weeks of hair growing so that done, I moved the grooming table up to the studio area to help me sort stuff.
That's my inside goal this week, get garage door fixed and get dryer lint cleaned out, and finally get back to making art.
Whew, that won't be hard.
Oh, and figure out how to use the new dremel tool toenail grinder on Milo's claws.
Oh, and all the other daily things that come up... handle those

                       Currently Reading
I finished the last fun romp of a book, and have started on the next in my Tea House series by Laura Child. Set in Charleston (how I love Charleston!!!) ( I grew up in Florida, and lived in MD until recently) the owner of the teashop finds her ex boyfriend floating in the new aquarium and works to figure out what happened. Agony of the Leaves 

                      On the TV 
well, I'm enjoying dancing with the stars and despite not knowing most of them, I like the ones new to me, and do not like the ones I recognized! Just goes to show
1. You do not have to be well known to be fun to watch
We are on our last season of "800 words" a series made in New Zealand. I LOVE this show! I found it on ACORN on roku, and we've watched series one and two and are on three and hope they are still filming new shows and I am in love with the characters.
Did you ever see the old show Northern Exposure?  This reminds me a little of that feel. A modern family loses their mother in an accident, and moves from Australia to NZ and finds a place to belong in a quirky town.

                      what I'm creating at the moment...
what I want to create is my new Halloween Pillow kit

purchased this weekend at our local quilt shop. They had double stamp days, for each dollar spent they stamped 2 on my card, so I splurged. Got the kit home and found out it didn't include the floss needed for the embroidery.

just one of my random sketches... "Idea girl"

ack, back into the archeological dig that is the studio space.

I had hoped to artfully decorate the yard for halloween this weekend with whatever made it's way into the garage but then the ground froze. We moved plants and pumpkins into the garage to wait for this week's 50's to return.
Creativity... what a concept!

                                            tips and tricks 
We moved from a teeeeeensy little master bath to a mongo ballroom of a master. It's cold after a shower so we pulled out the portable heater, and turn it on for evening showers. Quite nice! And I got out my terry robe to put on after toweling off, which keeps me warm while I make myself beautiful for bed.

                               Lessons learned this week
I met a lovely woman house sitting for her son, several months ago. She was walking some dogs, and impulsively I stopped the car and asked if she would let our dogs play sometime.
Now most people might shy away from some stranger doing that!

Not Fran, she gave me her number, and we did get together and I now count her as a new friend.

I like to think Heaven put us together. Like a lot of kindred spirits, we have important things in common and like people in general, we are quite different. It's the important things that matter.

She is a caring woman who was elected to the State legislature for the maximum four terms, and worked hard to take care of people while in office. Both parties loved her, and worked with her. She still works hard to help the State's citizens, despite being of a certain age and retired. She is smart, funny and kind. When she visits her son's house, now on market (sad face) she calls and we get together.
She called on Friday, and since DH had come home early we all walked and chatted. Her son travels and she came over to check on the house and found a totally empty fridge so DH offered to make her lunch. She happily accepted and we got a chance to catch up while she had an impromptu sandwich.

Food is love in many cultures, which I forget.  Because dh thought to offer and Fran accepted, we made a deeper connection by sharing our home with her. Sharing brings people closer.  On a grander scale, sharing resources brings citizens closer. On an even larger scale, cultures sharing with each other brings us all closer.
It's the same concept... sharing and understanding, counting on each other brings understanding. Understanding brings connection which breeds a happier world, no?

I'm thankful that Fran accepted our offer of hospitality so I could realize this lesson.

Here's hoping for a successful week, one of growth and health and laughter.

linking to
pictorial-tuesday
happy-homemaker-monday-
all-seasons-