This and That Monday

Happy Monday everyone!

Mandy, Piper and I have had a productive morning at Costco.  Our Costco card expired in July and we're experimenting with not having one.  With just the two of us, it's hard to justify the $55.00 a year cost of membership.  I don't think I actully use it enough to save $55/year.  So this morning we went to Costco using Mandy's card.  I spent $150.00!  So easy to do there.  You have to buy such huge amounts though, that I think I have enough toilet paper, paper towels and ziplock bags to last Dennis aand I for years!  Does anyone else find that the savings don't seem all that different than at, say, Walmart or is it just me?

The shower gift is finished, laundered and gift wrapped.  Two blankets, two sweaters, two hats and two pairs of socks.  Whew!  It was a marathon of knitting and crocheting and, of course, I still played with Miss Piper too.  :-)

A  little closer look.

Now I'm working on a doily in a CAL with Pammy Sue over at Scotty's Place (on my sidebar).  I'm on row 17 and I fear I'm far behind everyone else since I wanted to finish the shower gift first.  The pattern is more complicated than most doily patterns I've used and the directions don't seem very clearly written, but that could just be the way I'm reading them.

When we moved into our house a little over 12 years ago it was newly built and we put the "cheapo" vinyl miniblinds in, because, frankly, with landscaping, AC and all the other things that have to be done with a newly built house, that was all we could afford.  One by one they "bit the dust" so to speak and we were left with just four blinds working out of 11 windows.  This weekend Dennis and I bought new blinds at Home Depot.  They are 2 1/2 inch slats and white faux wood.  We installed three of them on Saturday and four yesterday.  I must say, we've gotten pretty good at the installation.  Whereas the first window took about 1 1/2 hours, by yesterday we were slapping them up in about 1/2 hour!  Hubby put them up and I trimmed the excess slats from the bottom.  We were like a well oiled machine and are thinking about hiring ourselves out to install them for people.  Just kidding, although the $25.00 a window that home depot charges for installing them is an incentive to me!

This is in Mandy's room (or the upstairs guest room).  That picture on the right is one that Mandy drew in the 8th grade.  Yes that's a wallpaper border by the ceiling.  I know they went out of style years ago, but Harumi, one of our Japanese girls helped me put it up and I just can't take it down.  I miss her.

Blinds open.

Blinds closed

A closer view of the "molding" valance at the top of the window.  It's  little hard to see because the wall color is so close to the blind color.  One of the things that I like about these blinds is they don't have the wand thingy to open and close the slats.  They have two strings that you just pull up or down.  So easy.

We had to special order the blinds for the three narrow living room window and they should be in this week.  The rest of them they were able to cut to size right at Home Depot.  We still have the kitchen window to install but we ran out of time yesterday.  I am really happy with them and wish we had done this a long time ago.  The gentleman that helped us at the store was great!  Very helpful and knew just what sizes we needed.

Here is a shot of Miss Piper on Saturday.  It was a cool day and she wore her new "Princess" fleece outfit that she got for her birthday from her other set of grandparents.  She looks so serious here.  I think she had been counting her money.  Very important business!  Papa gave her five pennies and she carried them around all day, actually she's still carrying them around and counts them constantly.  And of course, Elmo slippers.  We gave her the slippers for her birthday and she loves them.

I hope your week has started out well for you all and I'll see you all again soon my friends

"Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is he one who takes refuge in Him." Psalm 34:8

Blessings,

Betsy