The Past Month in Pictures

Things with the house are not falling together as quickly as I'd hoped. Unpacking seems to be taking AGES to do, but I'm soldiering on. I thought I'd share a picture-heavy timeline of what I've been up to over the past month. Most of these come from my CraftyHope Instagram feed so you may be familiar with them if you already follow me there (which you totally should!)

So, we bought an older house on five acres with a pool (you can see some of the house tour in my last post)

On our first day out at the pool, this little guy was flitting around. I adore his colors - the denim blue and teal are dreamy.

We started the renovations with some ceiling scraping. This guest bathroom was easy-peasy. I cannot say that for the other rooms we attempted. We ended up with texture in the bedroom and gave up on the sunroom (for now).

While exploring the property and structures on it, Pat found this gem. It's an antique exposure meter for photography. As soon as Pat picked it up he handed it to me, knowing that I would treasure and use it (eventually).

The property has a lot of overgrowth on it. In particular, it's full of air potato vines; an invasive plant to say the least. We've been working on getting rid of it, but it will be a long, long process. I was especially taken with this natural arch it formed as it grew up a small tree and grabbed onto the fence from there.

After the ceiling-scraping fiasco, we finally started getting some paint on the walls. Here's the first few strokes in the craft room. The color isn't very true in this photo, but anything was better than the peach!

We scheduled the movers a week after we were in the new house to make sure we had some time for the scraping and painting. I was excited to finally get some furniture in and make it feel more like home.

These built-in shelves int he kitchen were covered with stained rose wallpaper. I freshened them up with some shelf paper. Much better!

During he first two weeks, we spent a portion of nearly every day in the pool. Pat was off work, and it was the perfect way to cool off from the renovations. Our pool is on the chilly side with all the shady trees around it. We don't mind as it offers lots if privacy and seclusion.

The pile of boxes has been daunting. The majority of the ones in this photo are just for the craft room (go figure!). And, yes. . .there are a lot of liquor boxes, but they were FREE and with two mortgages, we like free.

One of the main challenges we've had to deal with here are the 14 feral cats that the previous owner left on the property. While we are very much cat-lovers, the poor things are sick and flea-ridden. A local organization is helping us relocate them and get them the care they need.

We've reinstated margarita Fridays but with a twist: we're making the meals and drinks at home. We had friends over for tacos on the kickoff night. 

However, that's not to say that we've completely nixed eating out completely. A friend of ours opened The Bone and Barrel in downtown Fairhope, and it is GOOD! I mean, my burger was even licking my fries! 

I lucked up and won this Vintaj BIGKick prize package on the Vintaj Facebook Page. I recorded a video of my unboxing the BIGKick, but haven't really had any time to play with it yet. Just wait, that's coming for sure!

Our oldest niece is in her high school's band. Their football team played against our local one so we both attended our first football game in over 20 years. 

I FINALLY started unpacking the craft room. I'm finding myself struggling with a little less space and where to put everything. It keeps stalling me out and thus taking much longer than it should.

For Labor Day, we went against the grain and didn't grill out as planned. Instead, friends made some homemade ramen. It was our first 'real' ramen experience, and we loved it!

I delayed unpacking the beads as long as I could but finally delved into transferring the two huge tubs of them into the bead cabinet. It took all day as I sorted out what I knew I'm not interested in using anymore.

Another trip to The Bone and Barrel was in order. This time we tried the highly recommended Fried Ribs and were not disappointed. My Tuna Sandwich wasn't too shabby either!

At long last. . .Yesterday I FINALLY started pulling out beads and components for some jewelry-making. 

There's been plenty more activity that didn't wind up in pictures - like the start of college football season! Once again, here's hoping that things will get to some semblance of 'normal' soon and I'll have something else to share with you later. Thanks so much for all your support and for hanging in there as I deal with this transition in my life.