Tips for World Domination {at Boggle or Scramble With Friends}

So I know I mentioned I'm not a huge game player, but I"m kind of addicted to Boggle and Scramble With Friends.  I seriously LOVE this game!   I did win the sixth grade spelling bee after all!  ~wink~wink~ So word games are kind of up my alley. 

I have had a few friends and family members beg, I mean, ask me for tips on how to play because I don't mean to brag, but I kind of keep kicking their trash!  :D  I don't know if I'm really all that great of a player in the grand scheme of great spellers, but none of my friends have been able to beat me yet.

So because I love my friends 

and knowledge is power and all that, 

here are my top playing tips on how to 

dominate your friends at Boggle or Scramble With Friends:

1.  Learn and know some of the really easy letter combinations that will give you multiple words lickety split like these:

TEA

These three letters will give you lots of words right off the bat:

Tea
Eat
Ate
Tae
Eta

2.  Secondly, look for the letter S nearby any word and if you can pluralize a word, then try it!

By adding in the S to the above three letters you now can get exponentially more words:

Teas
Eats
Ates
Etas
{sorry, Taes isn't a valid plural though}

But!  That's not all!  Now you can make even more words than just plurals of those others.  Now you can get:

Sea
Sae
Seat
Sate
Set
Sat
Seta
East

So now we have 17 words from just four little letters {depending on their location on the board}.  And you can get those ones really fast if you know them!  There are other words out there that will give you combinations like these too, though some may give you less words, but knowing them gives you fast, easy points!  And since I'm feeling nice here are a few more quick and easy ones!

Ser ~ Res ~ Ers
Sit ~ Tis ~Its

 They don't give you quite as many word options as TEAS {which is the grand daddy in my book so far!}, but they do give you fast points!

3.  Another easy thing to look for that will make lots of words for you are double ee's.  If you have ee, chances are you will have lots of word options close by {and even more if you have an S nearby too}.

Just add another letter in front like p, t, l, d, s, n, c.

pee
tee
lee
dee
see
nee
cee
etcetera, etcetera and so forth!

Lots of options there!

Now look for endings on any of those double ee words.  If you have an l you might be able to get peel.  A d could give you a deed, or a seed or peed etc.  Or hey, there might even be an S nearby! ~hint~hint~

Next tip!   

4.  Make a word longer with -er and -ed combinations if you have them.
Oust can become ouster and ousted.  And sometimes you can get lucky with a bonus S!  For instance, ouster can become ousters! 

5.  Look for words within a word.  For instance STOP has TOP.  Don't forget to go backwards also.  Backwards its POTS and POT.  There you go!  A few more quick words.

6.  Work the board in sections until you exhaust all your word options before you move on to the next board section, or letter combination.  Be strategic this way or else you end up jumping all over the board and miss words because you're sidetracked with other words, or you forget if you have already gotten that word or not.

7.  Try words forwards and backwards.  Got becomes tog and lee becomes eel when its backwards and several other words work this way too.  When I first started out I always spelled things backwards to make sure I was getting words ~ I actually learned a few new words this way too btw. Keep your fingers moving smoothly and swiftly ~ don't worry if you don't get words or misspell them, just keep the fingers moving along trying words out.  This is a key to getting your speed and word count up.  Just go for it.

8.  And when you think all is lost and you just can't seem to find any more words...then remember to tilt or scramble the board for a fresh perspective.  Most times new words will suddenly appear when you couldn't quite see them before.

I'm really not a "pro" at this, but knowing these handy tips have helped to give me an edge over just about everyone I've played so far.

Phew!

Now if you made it this far, then go forth and dominate!

May the force be with you!

~ ~ ~

Do you have any word tips for Boggle or Scramble With Friends?

My eyes! My eyes!

I'm still trying to get a good picture of my eye.  Apparently I need a macro lens.  Do I have a macro lens?  I have no idea!  I do have a Canon something or other that I don't use very often because my iphone is just so much easier and more convenient to use most of the time! 

I am using What's It's Color to pull out and identify the colors in my eyes even with my poor photographs.  It's been fun!  Here are mostly my skin tones:

And a few trying to get

just my eye colors:

The fuzzy green eye pic:

I tried zooming in on one of my eyes from

the top picture but it was too small and pixelated.

But I thought it would be interesting to see

what colors it was pulling out still.

I think the second and third pictures are probably the most accurate so far.

I think it is interesting that the background colors of these pictures are changed to the dominant complimentary color.  So for my skin tones it is this:

For when my  eyes look greener, it is this:

And I'm not too sure I like the complimentary colors for the other eye pictures.  But its interesting that blues are complimentary to my skin tones and to my greener eyes because I have always liked wearing those colors and, like I said in my other post on my eyes,  I suspect my eyes stand out the most when I'm wearing blue-green colors.  This will definitely require some experimentation ~ the other suggested color palette combinations are interesting to think about too.

I may be going about this all in the wrong direction so I'm going to take Jeanine's advice and read the book Color Your Style: How to Wear Your True Colors by David Zyla who goes into this in a whole lot more detail.






Man, I am having way too much fun with this!  I'm going to keep trying to get a macro lens and get some better pictures of my eyes!

Oh Jeanine!  Look what you started!  LOL!  ;)

My Edwardian Alter Ego

{click pic to enlarge if you can't read it}

Funny because I really related to him

in this post I wrote too!

Take the quiz

to see which Downton Abbey 

character you are.

Happy Chinese New Year

Gung hay fat choy!

Um, that would be Happy Chinese New Year!

{I think?}

The toddler was a little  confused why we

were celebrating New Year's again!

Oh well!  He got into the chopstick thing!  These little chopstick training holder guys are so cute ~ they celebrate every time you take a bite! Though they look like they are happy for a touchdown! Lol!

Did you celebrate?

My New Boots

Back in December I mentioned I wanted some cute buttercup yellow boots. Well, I haven't quite found the right yellow boot of my dreams yet, but Target online has a bunch of fun rain boots to pick from.  Here are a few I pinned.

I know rain boots aren't your traditional snow boot, but you can find them in a lot more fun colors this way plus they still keep your feet dry.  You just have to wear warm wool socks to keep your feet warm.  But if you're running errands to and fro and only getting in and out of cars then they are a fun accessory to brighten a cold and dreary winter day!

Here are some rain boots I recently found 

at Walmart that are bright and cheery!

I feel so cute when I wear these
with my pink polka dot scarf!

{Having fun with some new photo editing software lately!  :D }

Rain or snow! 

Bring it on!  I'm ready to play!

~ ~ ~

Linking up to Visible Monday!

Rustic Whole Grain Rolls

The other day my sister in law made these fabulous homemade {with love!} whole grain rolls.  Her kids hated them.  Or maybe they were afraid of them because they have {gasp!} seeds in them!  So she gave them all to me!

It's too bad they didn't like them because they really were quite tasty!  But I, um, don't really feel all that bad because now they're MINE!  ALL MINE!!!  Wahahaha! 

Love you, you silly kiddos!

 Tell your mom I want the recipe now!

Mwah!

My Head Is Going To Explode

This family room is beginning to consume me!   The howling wind woke me up this morning around 3:30 and I haven't been able to go back to sleep yet.~my mind keeps thinking about what to do in the family room.

The fabric I want is too expensive.  Of course!  But I haven't totally exhausted all my local more reasonable fabric haunts yet so I'm still on the prowl.

We went out for the first time to look at furniture last night.  I was pretty disappointed in what I found.  My husband jokes that I get ideas and images in my head that I want that just don't exist anywhere.  But at this point in the looking I feel like my options are still wide open and there are so many possibilities of what I could do in the space that I haven't necessarily ruled anything out.  Yet it doesn't help because I don't have a clear idea of what I do want either so that the sales associate can help me locate it.  I guess I was kind of hoping that I would just see something that made my heart flutter and I would just know that was the piece for me!  That actually has happened to me before in the past.  Several times, in fact.  But that didn't happen this time.

Fortunately our lovely sales associate took us into the back room to look through the books and fabric swatches so that I could see that I had more options than what was just on the floor.  I appreciated that.  For some reason I thought this particular store didn't do custom pieces ~ I thought my only options were what I was seeing out in the show room.  That put a whole new light on my choices.  Now I need to get clear on the design lines I want and then we can work on the fabric choices.

But I still don't know what I want yet.   Today I will be trolling the internet to find inspiration pictures.  And I think I will be pulling some of our old furniture and bookcases into the room temporarily to play with some layout options.  {Boy, my husband is going to love that!} I want to actually see more what it would feel like in the space even though the pieces aren't exactly what will end up in the final room.

So that's what I will be up to this weekend.

What are your weekend plans?

Working on the Family Room

The family room feels a little dark now ~ I have dark carpet, dark furniture, dark curtains ~ and I really feel like I need to add a little more lightness.  I was thinking of adding more lightness through the window treatments and switching those out.

I found the perfect fabric. I mean the fabric of my dreams! This is exactly the fabric I have been picturing in my mind for months now.

via

A large graphic trellis print ~ green on a white background.  Oh it is perfect!  And lovely! {I would be ok with chocolate on a white background too if the green doesn't mesh well with my couches.  The couches lean a little more on the olive side but the green does feel more muted and not too bright in this photo though I haven't officially seen it in person yet.} 

I want long luscious panels.  But hello!  Do you know how expensive that fabric is?  And do you know how many floor to ceiling panels I want?  Oh, you know, not much, just 10-14!  Ten on the minimal side, you know, just to get by and cover the windows, and fourteen if I want to beef up a few spots with more fullness!  Or about 3 yards a panel, so you know, nothing much!  Only like 30-42 yards of fabric!  Aaaaahhhhh!   What am I going to do???  I think fabric is so important in a room! But ouch!  That is going to add up!

I need to figure out how to use less of that particular fabric but still include it somehow.  I think I can get away without it in the bay window and maybe just use a small portion of it to trim out some white ready mades somehow.  And I won't need too much to replicate a window treatment similar to this no sew treatment I did over the kitchen sink.

I also really want to use this photo I took in Hawaii a few years ago.

It's one of my absolute favorite stops along the Road to Hana!  It mesmerizes me!  I could sit here for hours ~ no probably more like days just watching the water crash up against the dark rocks!  And I think if I had some major life crisis that I would need to go there to help heal my soul!  {Hey, its good to have a strategy just in case! ~wink~wink~}

I was thinking of having it printed on canvas.  Here is a mocked up version in photoshop though I think I would want to go for a cropped square view of it like the picture above instead of the regular rectangle version below:

So that's where I'm headed currently, though I still need to find new, coordinating furniture for the other side.

Man this is all starting to add up!

So what do you think of the design plan so far?

Any ideas on my fabric dilemma?

Three Things To Help Combat Overeating

I can learn a lot from my daughter.  She teaches me things she probably doesn't even realize she is doing.  Recently she taught me two things you can use to help combat overeating.  This is the part where I mention to her that it is great that she is being a good example and point out that people really do watch and pay attention so make sure you are always choosing good things so you can always be a good example etc!  But I digress...back to the subject at hand.   Two things she has recently taught me:

1.  Slow Down

She takes half an hour just to eat a roll.  Granted, she is talking a lot while she does this.  But it is something that is a good habit to practice so you don't rush through your food and end up eating more than you should.  Some cultures are known for eating long dinners clear into the night.  These are cultures that don't tend to have a lot of overweight people.  They aren't stuffing themselves until their seams burst all night long.  I think they are probably enjoying each others company and talking a lot while they are slowly eating and savoring the moment. 

If you want to take your dinner experience up a notch I recommend trying to stretch yours out a little longer too.  How?  

Take a bite. 

Put your knife and fork down. 
{You are using your knives, right?}

Chew. 

Swallow. 

Talk with your family or whomever you are dining with. 

Pick up your knife and fork and . . .

Repeat.  

Practice the art of dinner time conversation in between every single bite and enjoy being with the ones at your table.  That will slow you down which will make it harder to overeat!  That sounds easy enough, right?  If you're dining solo then try learning to eat with chopsticks ~ that will also help slow you down and make you take smaller bites. 


The second thing I learned from my daughter was when she only ate about half of her dinner the other night. 

So I asked her, 

"aren't you hungry tonight?" 

and she said, 

"Mom, I sighed". 

{like duh! Remember?}

You sighed?  Oh yes!  The sigh!  I totally forgot I had taught her about "the sigh" a few years ago! 

2.  The Stop Sigh

That would be the stop sigh not stop sign but they both do the same thing.  Tell you when to stop!!!  What is the stop sigh you might wonder?  Well, it's an interesting little trick your body does when you are eating.  You are doing it without even realizing it.  If you pay close attention while eating there will come a moment when you sigh.  This is your body's cue that you are full and you should stop eating.

A lot of us keep eating past our sigh because we aren't paying attention to our body's cues and then we end up overeating.  I know, sometimes the food is just so tasty you want to keep eating it but I've found when I listen to my body it helps me lose weight or maintain my slimness {when I was slimmer that is!  I need to start paying attention to this cue again!}.

If you feel hungry shortly afterward,  then it would be wise to pay attention to what you are actually putting in your mouth.  For me, I need to make sure I have some good proteins, they help me feel full and satisfied longer than empty carbohydrates that spike your sugar levels and give you a crash and burn hunger quickly. Which brings me to my next point which is not necessarily one my daughter taught me, but one that I hope I'm teaching her:

3.  Eat High Quality Foods

You will be surprised at how little your body needs before it is full. Our stomachs really don't hold that much ~ I think they say about a fistful of food? If you are slowing down and paying attention to your body's cues you will find that you are eating less ~ I know, duh!  But the point I want to make is if you are eating less food then it becomes very important to be sure that you are putting in nothing but the best, highest quality foods! 

Yes, that means you can  spend more money on less food that is of high quality because you won't be eating that much of it! Yes, go ahead and indulge in those rich sauces.   Go for the full fat flavor!  {Remember fats aren't all bad!  Some are very good for you!  And they will also help you stay feeling full for longer as long as they aren't loaded with too much sugar!}  Enjoy the good stuff!  Make sure it is real food, not faux processed stuff.  Don't fill yourself full of junk!


Anyway, these are all tips that have helped me in the past.  But I needed a good reminder!  I'm glad my daughter is such a good example! I am renewing my resolve to be a little better!  Here's to mindful eating!

Do you have any tricks to combat overeating?

photos via

Pumpkin Spice Warmer

The weather was cold and dreary today.  A few in the family have been battling colds and runny noses so we have been blissfully drinking our herbal teas lately.  But as the flurries began to fall this afternoon I decided to have some fun and bust out a Pumpkin Spice Warmer instead of  hot chocolate for the kids when they came inside from playing in the snow.

Pumpkin Spice Warmer 

4 cups milk {or milk substitute}

1 cup Sucanat {or brown  sugar}

1 cup canned or cooked pumpkin

4 tsp pure vanilla

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Combine everything in a saucepan and heat on medium high.  Stir until heated through.  Serves about 4.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!   My daughter said it was like drinking a pumpkin pie!  Mmmm!  Pumpkin pie!  Yum!  :)  If you're like me and don't like things quite as sweet, you could decrease the amount of sugar.   But really this has a nice, comforting flavor that is fun for colder weather.  Enjoy!

The Love Language of Service

Believe it or not, Valentine's Day is about a month away.  This seems like a good time to review the Five Love Languages.  I love this book.  It has revolutionalized my relationships with my husband and my kids.  This book is about how you give and receive love and by knowing the love language of your spouse, or kids you can show them love in a way that really speaks to them. 









The 5 Love Languages

After 17 years of marriage  my husband and I decided to try and figure each others out.  We thought we knew each other pretty well, so it surprised us when we figured out how both of us truly do feel the most loved.   After my husband thought about it, he decided he feels the most loved when I serve him by making sure he has clean clothes to wear, a clean house to come home to, and yummy meals.  I wanted to clarify.

"You mean, you feel more loved by this than if I tell you how awesome and manly you are??? {the language of praise/words of affirmation}"

Uh, yeah.

 "Or you really feel more loved by this than if I gave you a backrub??? {the language of physical touch}"

Yes, but then he had to clarify that one which we won't go into here, because this is a family friendly blog y'all and I know my nieces and nephews read this too!  ;)  Anyway!  Moving on!

Anyway!  So I am having a really hard time wrapping my head around this one.  I know my husband said he feels loved and cared for when he comes home from work to a clean house, and a hot meal with clean clothes put away in his drawers, but honestly?  These don't feel like love statements to me.  They are chores for me.

So if he comes home to a messy house, does that mean I don't love him?  If I'm too frazzled to cook a meal, does he feel any less love?    Intellectually I get it I guess.  I can see how being taken care of would make you feel loved ~ obviously.  I'm just having a hard time getting past the chore aspect of it day in and day out.  These are things I feel are just expected of me anyway ~ not grand gestures of love!  And the daily cleaning of the house, the never ending laundry and always trying to think of something to cook for dinner ... aren't they things you just don't notice after a while if they are always being done?  Will he still feel loved even then?

So in thinking about this, I've decided I should put more thought into the tasks to make them feel like I am personalizing them for him.

I can make more of an effort to cook him a special treat that I know he likes.  Or his favorite meal more often.
 
I've even decided maybe I should make cleaning the bathroom even more special and fold down the toilet paper like they do at the hotels I've visited.  Lol!

And!  I've been haunting the stores for cute little heart shaped trinkets I can put in his drawers when I put his clothes away.  Right now is a great time to find them {or when they go on clearance after Valentine's}.

 These are all from Hobby Lobby

My favorite one is this little envelope you 

could put personalized little notes in.

Or if you wanted you could create fun little printable messages or print these cute ones from The Happy Home Fairy:

More on my pinterest page

I don't know.  Maybe that is straying a little into the gifts category of showing love but it makes it seem a little more as if I'm saying I love you when I put his clothes away.

Anyway!  So my love language is quality time.  {So when the Hubs asked me to accompany him on a business trip to Washington DC last year?  Yeah, I was swooning!  :) }

And for those who need a little review of the 5 Love Languages, they are:  Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service and Physical Touch.

Do you know yours?

Your husbands?

Your kids?

Do tell!

The Eyes Have It

We all know that certain colors look better on certain people.  I now know that black certainly doesn't compliment me, but on others it does.  Coloring has always fascinated me.  Recently my fashion friend, Jeanine at Seasonal Color Analysis ,  has been having a lot of fun exploring and refining colors in her wardrobe.  She linked to a fun way to personalize your color palette by examining your own coloring in a specific way that fascinated me.

She introduced me to the concept of Body Harmony Colors where you analyze your eyes, cheeks and gumline in natural daylight to see what colors they are, then combine them into a list of colors to wear that will compliment you.  It's a little more complicated than that, but you get the gist. {She links to Living Life As A True Summer where there is a little more how-to info if you're interested!}

My eyes in natural daylight

So I've been trying to get a good picture of my eyes to study.  Incidentally, while trying to get a good picture of my eye I was able to capture pictures of crazy things reflecting off my eyes, like the photographer with their camera {ahem!  That would be me!} or this one below where you could see a white car parked on the side of the road at preschool pickup.  Craziness!

See the car?

My eyes are what I've always called hazel but really they are chameleon eyes.  They change colors depending on lighting or what I'm wearing.  And when I was trying to get a good picture in various different light settings I got a range of different eye colors.

Honest!  This is still my eye!

Here they are looking a little more green.  Sometimes they look brownish or greyish.  I think my true eye color though is more like the very top picture.  My favorite eye color is when they turn blue green.  That's when I get the most compliments on my eyes.  I would love to figure out how to emphasize them to be this color more consistently.  I've never really paid attention to what I'm either wearing, or how I did my makeup on those days when they stand out like that.  But I think they tend to do that more when I'm wearing blues and greens. 

So these body harmony colors really intrigue me and have opened up so many questions for me.  If I take the colors of my eyes and wear them, will they stand out more?  But what color are my eyes really if they are always changing colors on me???  Oh no!  I feel like I'm about to head down a rabbit hole!  Lol!  And then I wonder, what would an iridologist have to say about my eyes? Haha!  Make that two rabbit holes! ~wink~wink~

Sorry about the quality on the closeups.  Not sure what to do about that to get a better picture except maybe a better camera?  Lol!  :D

My Current Favorite Accessory

Recently this gold and pearl necklace

has become my favorite accessory.

It's a long strand I like to double up

that I bought at Target last year.

So, nothing fancy but...

It goes with almost anything!

I love that!

~ ~ ~

Do you have a favorite go-to piece?

~ ~ ~

Linking up to Not Dead Yet Style for Visible Monday

Nester's Home Goals Party

Nester once again has challenged us to post our goals for our homes, so before I get to posting goals for this year, I thought I would review last year's first.

Backyard Patio Spruce Up:

Not much happened in the yard this year other than cleaning it up a little and finding I had a cozy little corner under the pergola since the plants have grown a little more mature.  Aaaahhhh!   None of the other goals I posted were completed!  :)

Master Bedroom:

I actually accomplished the new paint, the new dresser vignette and getting rid of the tv which is coming back {because otherwise I don't see my husband at night so I'd rather fall asleep next to him even if he is watching something on the tv}.

Update the Teen's Room

Loft bed was removed, new furniture arrangement created but no new bedskirt yet ~ I have the supplies, I just need to finish it. 

Update the Toddler's Room:

Loft bed was put in and then was taken out because it took up too much room.  And the toys were organized and decluttered.  Hip, hip, hooray!  But!  We had to repaint and the airplanes had to come down ~sniff~sniff~.  Now he wants a fireman room. Guess I will be working on that this year.

Update Family Room: 

 
Well, we certainly DID update it!  We knocked the wall down.  I'm getting the plantation shutters I wanted and even getting a few new pieces of furniture.  Hooray!

So my goals for this year?

I'm still going to hope to finish off the basement and get built-in cabinetry for the study.  But realistically, I want to get things more organized and simplified and decluttered.  I need to finish decorating the new family room, and redecorate the toddlers fireman room.  So those are the major goals I'd like to accomplish this year.  I'm sure lots of other little things will get done along the way so we will see what this year brings!

What are some of your home goals?

Farm Adventures

I mentioned the other day how I want to create relationships with my local farmers and how this year I wanted to add happy and healthy animals into my diet instead of drugstore meat where I have no clue how it was raised.  So last week my son and I headed out to a local organic meat farm to pick up some fresh chicken, beef and pork for the freezer.

You can see the chickens and pigs as you pull up.  So we decided to go visit them before heading into the barn to pick up our goods.  The pigs were happily oinking away and I thought, "Whoa!  We're going to be eating one just like you soon!" and it almost freaked me out!  And that's when I realized how far away and out of touch from my food I've become.  Meat does not grow in some little plastic wrapped package ~ it came from a real, live breathing animal.

So I whisper some words of heartfelt gratitude towards the pigs as my son starts frantically tugging at my me.  I turn around to see this:

A little piggy had escaped and was running and beelining it straight towards us!!!

Now, I have no clue what a pig will do to us and my son was pretty nervous so we booked it into the barn lickety-split!  This is when I make my grand entrance and introduce myself to the farmer for the first time:

"Well, hello farmer!  So nice to meet you!  I hope to create a long and lasting relationship with you and your meat!"

But it really went more like this:

"Eeek!  Hey!  Um...there's a pig on the loose out there!  Help!!! Save me!!!!"

Or something like that.  And this is when I had my second revelation about my food.

I am sooo NOT a farmgirl!!!!

I mean, I was freaked out by a pig!!!  A pig!!!  They are much smaller than the herd of cows that tried to gang up on me once.  The cows were going to ambush me and stampede me.  Honest.  I saw it in their big brown eyes.  And they were gathering together and staring me down.  Yep.  That's a scary story too!  But that should be a story for another day!  ~wink~wink~

So, yeah.

Have you ever been around farm animals much?

~ ~ ~

{Sorry about the bad photo taken with my phone while we were running away in terror! At least I had the presence of mind to hurry and snap a pic!}

Thoughts On Home Improvement

So we started our little home improvement project a week or so before Halloween.  It always takes us 10 times longer than we think it will!  We are DIY'ers and we're pretty slow at it since most of our actual work time is done on weekends and my husband can be a perfectionist and really takes his time to get it perfectly the way he wants it.  To be fair though at least three of our weekends were taken up by other things such as a health crisis or a wind storm!

My husband enjoys doing projects like this and is good at it.  I don't have the patience for it.  I can't stand the extended mess it creates.  And I can't stand painting.  I'm not good at it.  And I'm not afraid to admit it.  I have accepted this fact.  This is why I am a lifestyle blogger instead of a decorating or a crafty blogger.  I just don't enjoy doing that crafty stuff.  I can appreciate it and admire others who do it.  I mean, I really don't mind hiring others or buying from people who do enjoy creating that kind of stuff and are actually good at it.

It kind of reminds me of this scene from Downton Abbey:

Matthew {the young guy}:  I've been meaning to speak to you about Mosley.  Would you find me very ungrateful if I dispensed of his services?

Lord Grantham:  Why?  Has he displeased you in some way?

Mathew:  Not at all ~ it's simply that he's superfluous to our style of living...

Lord Grantham:  Is that quite fair?  To deprive a man of his livelihood when he's done nothing wrong?

Mathew:  Well, I wouldn't quite put it~

Lord Grantham:  Your mother derives satisfaction from her work at the hospital I think, some sense of self worth...

Mathew:  Well, certainly -

Lord Grantham:  Would you really deny the same to poor ol' Mosley?  And when you are master here ~ is the butler to be dismissed?  Or the footman?  How many maids or kitchen staff will be allowed to stay or must everyone be driven out?  We all have different parts to play Matthew.  And we must all be allowed to play them.

Yeah!  I mean, who am I to deprive people the chance to create, make beautiful things and be paid for it so that I don't have to???    "We all have parts to play!" and I am willing to play mine.  Next time, I want to hire out our home improvements!  Gosh!  I'm so "noble" ~wink~wink~.

By the way, Season 2 begins on January 8th!  I am so excited!!! I can.not.wait!!!!  If you haven't watched it yet and love period dramas then hurry and get yourself caught up!!!

Now was that a crazy tie-in or what? 

What about you?

  

Are you a DIY'er?  

Or would you rather hire things out ?

Sneak Peek of the Remodel

Here's a sneak peek at the mini remodel.  

We are almost finished - the carpet was installed earlier this week and I have slowly been trying to put things back together.  The main portion of our remodel was knocking the wall out between two rooms to make a larger family room.

We didn't really use the formal living room in the front much anyway so it was kind of wasted space.  Believe it or not, even though we still have a portion of the wall left {it has all sorts of wiring and duct work running through it so we had to leave it} we have a lot better traffic flow through here.

We beefed up the baseboards and 

trimmed out the openings.

My husband did all of this himself.  

I think it looks pretty awesome!

Everyone thinks I should put some sort of vinyl something

up there above the window opening.

But I'm not sure what I would put.

Suggestions are welcome!

I think my husband did a fabulous job!

We still have a few other projects to finish like hardwood on the stairs and landing area and new railings but this was the main focus of the remodel.  More pictures later when I have found some new furniture and have put everything else back together again!