"YABBER-LINER" - ALL ABOARD

Izzie querida, I almost never know what to say to you. Your issues overwhelm me. Your determination overwhelms me.

Isolation ain't the best thing (been there, done that), but if it's what suits you now, then isolation it is.

You know I'm thinking about you, right?

Morning Crew

Super stunning day - very warm.

Thank you so much (((JPB, BEAgle, Boida))) - no worries - Charlie is back from France and we've had a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery long talk and quite a few tears - I now have a plan on which way to dance to do the least damage. I can and will survive a fall - ha, my feet can survive anything - the consequences be damned.

Done. Won't think about it again until I'm forced to deal with it.



Soooooooooooo, it's onto ripping off the wallpaper and the little fella will be back thisavo - he was at his Dad's last night. We're gonna get us a nice new lounge.



BEAgle - ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, another anniversary - that's so happy - you and MrsBEagle have been through so much together thru the years - it's fitting that your life is peaceful now. Soooooo, are you going to the Grange again? I might just have to have to Bailey's on ice to celebrate with you - would be rude not to a? Love you ((((D)))) x

((Blue smooches))x

Have a great weekend crew - thinking of those near and far...

x

Wandel - Love, love, LOVE seeing pics of your girls. I know you are a proud pappa, and the girls likely know just how lucky they are to have you!

Dutchy - Happy Anniversary! I know your day will be extra special. Have a toast on me, my friend.

CI - Not sure what part of CA you live in, but I was in the Berkeley and Stanford area in the late spring. It's such a small world sometimes.

I found some sweet, juicy peaches up at the lakes. I have some pie dough chilling in the frig, and I am off to turn those peaches into pies. Now, if we could just talk the guys into hand cranking some good ole' homemade ice cream, we'd have it made! I'm sure Dutchy would love to tackle that first thing upon getting out of bed, eh? It would sure beat the snot out of the ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery, even as good as that is.

Later taters!
xo

Babbling Baby Girl - ooooooooh, peaches sound delumshce! Love you very much Brooklyn - Charlie will be so pleased to hear from you. Take verra good care. ((((((((Babbling))))))))) always love you xox

Had a couple days of decorating and only done half a room of chip chip chipping of paint and trying to take the vinyl wall paper off... man, it's hard work with a twinging boob and trying to use my left hand as the right one pulls thingymajigs over Little fella has been trying to help and done marvellously. Went to the store (yes, don't all fall over, and didn't see ANYONE I knew = yay... spenr a couple hours potterring and hobbling around - chose the paints and found an uterrrrrrrly gorgeous wall paper I want to put up just a little bit..... I love it - but small room (well, ya know, in comparison to US rooms - but gee, it feels good to got the twee wallpaper off. Unlikely I will go with the wall paper, even half walls - but may have to make it into a picture

For the firs time in what... 8 weeks... I achieved somethin' and am so proud. Little sore, but good sore. It was good to go out for a few hours and try and come up with a paint plan... and I may go the whole hog and get brand new french doors <shudders at cost>- wood stain tho, not painted... open glass so clear views rather than squares of 8, but with good locking mechanims too.

I watched a nasty nasty film last night and had to turn it off... which never happens... scared the jeeeejeeeebus out of me, locked every door, window and put on all the lights. Very rarely I get scared of anything. This was gruesome. So put some very old Top Of The Pops on to distract me.

Anyhoo - had such a great convo with a Shelia Down Under who makes me laughs my bahookie off... she is Dreading my Browns and Creams lounge - but by the next time she visits, we'll have no doubt changed it again Just so proud of S-boy and I working together and as you can imagine, 2 kitties, 2 dawgs... all very interesting. Not sure I'll be able to move tomoz and still have 2 more walls to prepare but my sofas are MASSSSSSSIVe and joined together - not a hellinchance I can move them so will require big help for that. I may even have to ask the little fella's PaPa - we have such a good bond still - but it's ususally quite a performance, ya know! He does things HIS way... usually the difficult way

My Black cat is smooching right now - we talk all the time!

BEAgle - I have been thinking of you all day and so would love to treat you and Mrs B to a meal Down Under... I'll figure a way to do this - such a special occasion, you deserve a seat a Captain's Table with silver...heh...golden service - love you both so much and wishing you simply the most wonderful together. Spoil each other.
Love and big massive hugs (((((((((D*A)))))))))))xxxxxxx


Thinking of all the crew

(((((((((((Missy))))))))))) love you muchxxxxxxxxxx
(((((((((((JPB))))))))))) hope all is good in ChiTown xxxxxxxxx

(((((lyBlue)))))))) xox and yours xxx

Have a great week y'all - lovin' ya!

Forgive me, Iz -- but I seriously LOLOLOLOL'd and still laughing over this!! Mostly because I have been frightened that way too, and you painted such a good picture! How come us girls get scared of things like that and guys don't seem to?

I love your accomplishment with the house, just be careful and don't overdue.

I just came indoors because the skeeters are horrible! Biting little shits!

xo

ha! I'm still picking paint off the walls with my nails... not the best nail file in the world but 'eh! Earlier S-boy and I got our little paint pots out of different colours that we bought today... slapped them on the wall just to see what they looked like... we now have a patchwork of "neutrals" and nyah... can't say I'm terribily impressed so gonna have a quick look through the colour books again and then off to bed.

Yeah, re the scary, not much scares me really (bar the hairy mama 8 legged things that scutter around) but I don't do any kind of horror movies but ooooooooooooh - this programme was super yeuch.... <shudder>. Nasty nasty nasty. I will never go thru a carwash again (well, not that the car ever get's a wash ) or check a man-size box in the attic!!!!!!!!!!!! HA! My ex was scared of all the noises when we lived at Links Tor, he was a Scots townie - 'twas always me that had to go and check anything out with feather duster in hand, ya know, coz that was gonna be a big help That was a big mahousive Victorian house in the midst of nowhere by the moors - bless the ex, he couldn't go outside without a torch tho after 10 years there, he did get a little bigger and braver but he never liked it went the mist came down.

Mind you, when Scooby-dawg howls in his sleep (only at night time), sheesh, sounds like the Hound of the Baskervilles is having a romp downstairs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bless him, he howls himself awake, but only a few times a year.

Anyhoo - back to my colour books and shall see ya tomoz. love you (((((((((((Babbling))))))))))))) xoc

Ya mean there's a chance it won't all be poo-brown! Neutrals are greatly over-rated. Get some colour into ya!

thought about you today.

while I was on my hands and knees with big scissors trimming the grass around my flower beds. (weedeater is broken)

but I truly felt as though I were giving the garden a "haircut"...

loads of damsel flies buzzing everywhere. but no frogs.

and my attempt at bleeding hearts ended in failure.

the endless drought was too much for it.

hope you are back to being able to watch the world through your lens again soon.

Hi JustBrooke, so kind of you to remember my special day, we did open a bottle of Champers and drank a toast to your wellbeing and happiness Keep smiling gorgeous. (((JustBrooke)))

Oh Izzie you flattered me with your nice words. MrsB. and I had indeed a lovely day out in town. Called in at "Stanley's" one of our best sea-food restaurants and had a whole grilled flounder each with side dishes, out of this world.

It was a lovely winter's day, about 23 degrees and cloudless. After the meal we had a long stroll through the shopping arcades and bought some clothing items on special. Now home and waiting for phone call from M and tribe. Hope your day is as good as mine. (((Izzie)))

ahahahhhahaaaaaaaaaaa.... nope, it probably won't be neutrals (well, it maybe) - I keep laughing at our phone call and decided geeeeeez, that Shelia won't ever come back if we have poo browns - it's gotta be colour... am looking at all the books and JUST.CAN'T.DECIDE!!!!!!!!!!! I live in colour in my head tho with not picking up my camera for weeks, maybe I've muted a little!!!! As you know all the sofas are dark brown sumptuous leather (mmmmmmm thee best sofas ever), can't change them and it's not a massive room - what to do! We also looked at carpet yesterday - with all the animals gotta go with practical and non-furball-showing. Decisions decisions.

Anyhoo, MaMa and PaPa are on their way over now to help move his sofa... it's soooooooo heavy and will take the 4 of us to do <boob is wincing before I start>. PaPa had another 'little turn' at home on Saturday - so... hmmmm... need to keep a close eye on him. He's a little stubborn like me and want's to do what a 20 year old body does... but we can't He won't be told either

Rock - it's actually quite therapeutic cutting the grass by hand - tho we don't have the heat you do and we have very soft grass - very different to the grass stateside. It started raining last night (well, you can hardly it call it rain, we are being dewdropped/misted on) and tho it's warm, it's very damp out there - everything has grown again overnight We're so green - really beautiful in the gardens. Hoping you will get some refreshing weather out there.



BEAgle - ha, about 23C and cloudy here - glad you've had a wonderful day - shall look up Stanley's! Enjoy the rest of your anniversary... love you so much D. Send my love to M&K and lots of love and hugs to A. xx

((Blue))xox


Back later y'all - thinking of those near and far xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hello there Izzy old fruit.

Speaking of fruit, I've just had one of these yellow Pakistani mangoes for my lunch- have you tried them?- simply divine.

McTag is eating mangoes. I am playing with my computer. Meanwhile, Izzie is doing all the physical labor.

Hello dahhhhhhhlin Taggers - nope - not had me a mango, they kinda remind me of avocado's... have.absolutely.no.idea.why texture, it's all about texture! Verra pleased you enjoyed yours tho. I could do with some very cold melon balls right now - that would be rather nice. Good to see you POMcT - hope life is being very gentle with you. Love to you and the Cabin Boy. xx

jw - I laughed loudly when I was listening to the Blue's Brothers yesterday - special agents in Illinois - thought of you Hope it's a little cooler out there for you guys. x

Yes, you are right jw! Hard labour!!!! I am a PINK lady. oh.good.grief. It all looked so easy ya know, take off the wall paper and paint the room - deary me... I am plastered in PINK - the dust is unbelievable as we've had to take the paint off too - and so far have only managed to do 2 walls - having to chip the paint off - chip by chip by chip, speck by speck by speck. PaPa and MaMa have been helping and have just left for the day - we are all shattered - literally non-stop for hours and hours. DEFINITELY got to have new carpets now <don't ask>. I'm not too sure how I am still moving; my hands are in the shape of the scrapers and my feet and ankles are none too happy - but, to be honest - it is just sooooooo good to be able to achieve something and to be able to say "I did this" <pats self on back, can't often do that>. Little fella says he wishes he had a magic wand and that it could all just be done because this is gonna take a good couple weeks to do... (he's off to Greece with his Dad and the new girlfriend soon so, hopefully, it will be finished by the time he gets back) - but I was trying to explain that when you make the home you live in, it's so much more of an accomplishment doing it yourself, than having someone in to do it... even if it's hard work

of course, being my PaPa's daughter - I see the side of me coming out that is just so "Dad" <shakes head>... 'if a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well'. Dad and I actually had quite a giggle today - we were on a roll and chuckling about our most annoying likenesses and how we are both like Granny (she died in '88) - dates, conversations, details - memories like elephants we have - really.really.really.annoying.for.everyone.else.

Today is probably the longest time I've spent with my Dad in the same space during the last 5 years.

I'm not sure if they'll be over tomorrow but I shall crack on anyhoo... chip chip chip - gotta do whilst I can, plus it's keeping me distracted from my thoughts.

Cannot believe just how much plaster dust is throughout the house - everything is covered in a little pink blanket. Ha, will take me the rest of the summer holidays just to clean the house. Thinking of getting new French doors too into the conservatory... oak, triple opening 2.1m x 2.4m big windows... hmmmmmm, it's a thought...

OK - gotta go have a raspberry kiss bubble bath - catchy'all laterz xxxxxx


<thinking of raspberry diva for the colour of the back wall >

You can think of them as me and joefromchicago:

Izzie - such memories your post brings back. I've painted many rooms in my decades, since I've done batches of remodelling, but what I remember most is the first and the last ones. As a generalization, I'll just say I like color, and have been at times pretty radical about that, or very genteel about that, ending up more recently liking somewhat greyed tones of light to medium intensity colors across a lot of the spectrum.

But, to my point, the first and last rooms I'm remembering are because of the scraping efforts involved. The first one was in the first house my family bought in west Los Angeles. Well, actually, also the last house. It was a nifty fairly small 30's place that we all liked. My room was in the front, facing the street, and I was thrilled... except for the paint color. (I forget what color, but my parents didn't like it either.) I had just turned sixteen. It had paint over wallpaper over paint over wallpaper, and possibly one more paint over wallpaper, over real plaster. Good grief. I used single edged razors (many, and carefully) in a razor holder. It took absolutely forever. I got every little smidge off and the room clean. Then I primed and painted. I picked a nice light slightly minty green, two coats. I then hated it for the next several years, but I was done. In retrospect, those were good days, as my family had a lot of subsequent troubles and so I remember then as relative harmony with the three of us working on different projects.

Skip along some decades to my last house, a serious fixer upper. I brought the back small bedroom down to the plaster, this time scraping only wallpaper. I took photos of the scraped wall because it was actually rather beautiful as it was, all sorts of scraping indications that looked like an abstract painting. I'll scan them, but not for this post right now. Anyway, I painted the ceiling and door to outside and the woodwork a cream white (it was already white), and the walls primed and then painted a ... vintage rose, which was really a greyed raspberry. So that was my computer room for a bunch of years. I liked it. The city was in a cool misty climate, and the color happied up the house while still being "vintage", which was appropriate for the age of the house itself. If I have any warning, watch out for too bright. You might like it very bright, but live with it for at least a few days.

Have fun..

Hey Osso - ah, I can't sit still right now so have been chipping away some more. The walls have distemper (no no, not the canine variety) underneath the paint - and it's this that's soooo hard to get off. Tried it dry and wet - going with the dry now (hence the dust) as the wet has kinda made a bit of a mess of the carpet (even with dust sheets down).

When I was a wee Iz, Mom and Dad owned an old people's home - can't remember how many bedrooms... 20 or so... anyhoo - when I was home from boarding school I would spend hours with Dad decorating rooms - it was a continual job around the house. He taught me a lot (I inherited the stubborn gene) and I've always decorated everything myself - the last few years have got a lot harder tho.

What's funny (not haha) is that tho I love colour - I have always had neutrals or pastels in the home (except the kidz rooms) - reason being, I would be able to see spiders on the walls!!!!!!!! (talk about letting a phobia run my life!!!!! )

Anyhoo - I am now thinking "Moulin Rouge" for the back wall



with soft velvet for the other 3 walls



(of course, everyone sees colour in a different way)

no doubt, I will change my mind in the next 15 minutes or so

- ha, I know I could never live in bright - it would limit my world thru the lens I reckon - I'd get an IzKindaColourBlindness I reckon.

I will post up a photo later that will make you laugh. You were saying about the abstract patterns etc - well, it's simply amazing what you see when you step back from the wall Dad and I laughed and laughed - he got a pen and wrote some names and S-boy just simply could NOT see the image.

I'll put it up and see if anyone can see what we saw!!!!!!! Need to get up and chip some more now...

Chips Ahoy! (that's a brand here in the u.s., I think)

Ok, some wall scrape photos, all three artifactual as the photos were naturally not just the same as the wall, and the scanner manipulation added to the unlikeness.

Still -


Loved the vintage switches. Had the wiring redone, keeping the switches and fixtures as much as possible. Watch money pour..



This was a short time effort with a device I bought at the lumberyard for getting wallpaper off. Tossed it nearly right away. I think I got rid of the damned dots by more scraping, but maybe I didn't try since I was going to prime.



The rest of the room walls were like this, except that the general coloring was lighter, well, hey, different, and definitely not visibly green/blueish.


I don't think I ever took a pic of the finished room. It was neat, maybe 9 x 12 feet, one window facing the fair sized side yard and the old japanese maple tree/garden, and the other, out the glass windowed door, down the back steps, to the short back yard and olden garage.

oooooooooooh, they look divine; lush POMcT I have a pineapple in the fridge... chunks tomorrow mmmm mmmmm good. x <eating a gooseberry fool right now.... oh oh oh oh oh yesssssssssssss!>



Osso - really loved number 3 - I have scrap-booking paper that looks just like that - in green blue!!!!!! I see your sight there Osso - cool. GREAT!!!!!!!!! thanku x

Here's some of the day progressing - bombsite - tidier tonight but had to take the sofa's off the walls - ha! can even see the TV from here right now!!!!!



darn, can't remember if the flashvar is right - give it a go tho!

done for the night - hands too swollen, ya know, on the palm where the scraper handle pushes against- but I reckon just the one wall to do...course then there's the filling, sanding, skirting rails, coves... heh - man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Will be nice tho.

Thanks Osso - enjoyed talking about my day with you.

Wonder if the crew could PaPa's image... we did chortle - especially with what he had written on it





Little R&R for an hour - gonna get me a Baileys to toast BEAgle & A's anniversary... think that would be very fitting.

Blue baby - miss you sooooo much. Wish you were here. Take care of you love, come feather your nest soon. LyBlue xox x


Missy - thinking of you too darling Dixie - love, hugs, always xxxxx