The Hens Huddle!

There's a problem that underlies writing about rural life. While the natural beauty of one's surroundings is fun to describe for a time, after a while it becomes difficult to do without being redundant. After all, how much can one say about the grass and the trees, the birds and the bees, beast sightings, washed out country roads, lawn mowers and weeds?

So, when something special happens, like when company's coming, things get pretty stirred up around here. "Wooo hooo, compney's comin, something different to write about, let the party begin".

The build up begins on the day arrival dates are confirmed. You start to clean things you wouldn't otherwise clean. When we knew we'd have family for the pre-Thanksgiving weekend, Sis and I not only cleaned the inside of the kitchen cabinets, we painted them and put down new sticky paper (they're beautiful, but we're the only two who know it).

Of course that was only the beginning. We went on to clean windows, and linen, and porches, and driveways, and closets, and drawers and... you get the picture. Plus menu planning, grocery store and liquor store runs, a couple of trips to the airport and finally, the moment arrives.

We're all together doing what we always do when we're together. Sitting at the dining room table, specially made snacks placed in its middle, chatting, joking, catching up and making up for not doing this often enough. The champagne flows, the conversation is all over the map, and we revel in our relations.

Our visit this week was special because it was only us women. No hubbies, babies, boyfriends or Nephews, just Sisters, Nieces and Moms. One or two missing, but very happy for the five who were able to make the journey. And of course, a great time was had by all. Happy Thanksgiving.

Before And After!

Amazing how much good a little paint will do for almost any surface. The small room we just finished used to house this white, high-boy dresser (below to the right) a not-so-good before photo. Sis painted it black, added new hardware and we moved it to another room where it now lives very high-brow with a new sleek look. If you ask me, moving the dresser here helped in several ways. Before, it lived in a room with a low ceiling and sat on white linoleum. Now it lives in a room with more than 12 feet of ceiling and sits on a hardwood floor. It no longer dominates the room and has a more sophisticated appeal.

I feel like frikin Martha Stewart!

The Little Room that Couldn't!

So this is the old window seat in the little room we've been painting, before picture. As you can plainly see, it needed a couple of coats of paint. I knew this would be so cute all spruced up, and once again, for the first time, I was right. All in all, it didn't take very long to get the painting and clean up done. Sis took out the white high-boy dresser that was there on the wall to the right, painted it black and switched out the knobs for a really updated look. I'll post photos of that soon. In its place, we took the little antique display chest that was partially blocking a window in the other room. A perfect fit for the little room that couldn't! Well now it can! Plus, freeing up the window wall has added a nice feature to the other room.. See how things work out?

Here's how it's looking today. We still have some last minute details to see to and finding the right floor covering should bring it all together. The room doesn't really have a function at the moment, but it does flow nicely with connecting rooms, and offers some nice storage space and a place for books and things. What do you think?