Thursday, February 04, 2010

a good day.

After "yesterday", I am happy to report that today has gone much better. Actually, it wasn't that yesterday was a "bad" day, just that it was a day that I would have been happy to forget. I do want to say thank you to my dear readers.. I got so many nice comments and emails, and I appreciate your kind words and encouragement.

So.. here's "our" boy. Chester is coming along so quickly in his obedience lessons.. he is a quick study for sure!!! He comes to classes with Camille and I three nights a week. On Mondays, he is an "official" student in the puppy class, and since I am teaching, Sadie has been handling him in the classes for me. He loves to go.





Tuesday night, he was with me again. I use him as much as I can as my "demo" puppy, just so we get some work in, but I fear he often spends much of the time waiting and watching from a crate. This past week, I asked Rick if he would mind working him in the advance class. Rick was thrilled to do it, and he's a very good handler, so I knew that Chester would be in good hands. He was as steady as any of the other dogs in this class, his stay work was perfect!!! and he's feeling much more comfortable on the gentle leader.




Guess, he figured that if "we're going to be here awhile.. might as well get comfortable"!!! I am having great fun working with him, and there is no doubt that I will miss him when he heads off for "college".. but I know for sure, someone is going to get a great dog with him!!!!



Today, we also got a full day of work in at the house. That was SO great!!! Ed worked on some more of the wiring and getting the downstairs bath ready to finish sheet rocking. It just needs some odd and end pieces and he didn't want to "ruin" full sheets if we can finish it off with scraps. I got the ceiling painted in the pantry and then Ed got the lights put up in there. That made a big difference.

Then, I was "onto" the mudroom. I really do like that yellow, but it is bright, and I have been thinking that I would like to "add/tone" it down a bit.

Stenciling!!! seemed to be the answer. So, I began to look around for stencil things. Guess what, they're not easy to find. When we did the other house, I guess stenciling was in "vogue", because you could get patterns, brushes, paints without even looking that hard. I did find things on the Internet, but I don't know.. it was hard to find just what I was looking for.

I had everyone on the hunt, and last Sunday, Kassy called to say that she was in a local store that had some stencils and she thought there was one that I might like. Since it wasn't much money, I asked her to pick out the one she thought I would like (and it's Marden's for you local folk).





And that "green blob" above....


turned out to look like this.....























Once I did that first piece.. I just couldn't stop until that one wall was done. (it was kind of nice that I didn't have to stop so I could go to dog class)



And, even better, it fit perfectly on the wall, and ended at the corner with a "half".. When the trim goes up around the door, some of the stenciling will be covered, but that's OK, because then I don't have to try and squeeze it in.

Tomorrow, I will get the other wall done. I think I am just going to do the two main walls, because the other walls will end up with a lot of trim going around the doors and window, and I don't think there will be room enough.. but, we'll see.

this house is going to be so much to decorate and finish.... better get my dear hubby moving!!!!











barns...

Tuesdays - on my drive to teach dog classes, I go thru some very pretty "country" ie: horse and cow country. Which, of course, means there are some very nice barns!!!

I love barns!!!I have always loved barns, and the fact that we have built two of them -- is a real blessing.





This beautiful barn (and the picture above) is where we buy our grain (and other farm things). It's a "restored" dairy barn, and even though it's now a store, they didn't "ruin" the inside of it. I LOVE going here, and it's (sadly) one of those places where you always spend more than you expected to.





and just random photos of some of the other barns I pass along my way. I wonder "when" they were built, "who" built them.. and I can just imagine how it was when the owner got to use "his" barn for the first time. I remember how we felt the very first night our horses slept in their "own barn".






yup, "America" will be alive and well, as long as she keeps "her barns".....