I'm dreaming of a White Christmas

Well, it appears in spite of my denials to the contrary, winter is finally here. At least for now. Now, will someone please make it stop? I've already shoveled about 6 inches this morning and it is still coming down. Enough already. Have I told you how much I really hate snow? Well, I do.....

TLC update

I thought I would share a "new" photo of our latest family member. He is now 5 months old and quite a terror. He is shown here with one of our other cats, Caesar, who was my mother's cat that we "inherited" when she died. Caesar hates all his brothers and sisters and TLC is just about to be properly reprimanded for breathing in "his space". Pretty much all it takes to cause a real showdown with him. Silly cat is doing quite well for only having 3 legs, but I am positive we will have to resort to tying the Christmas tree to the wall again this year or it will be a disaster waiting to happen. Last night his new favorite toy was my tablecloth that he found fascinating until he brought everything on it crashing down on top of him. Lucky for him I had actually cleaned off the table recently!

Bah Humbug

Well, here you have it folks, the full extent of my Christmas decorating so far. See, I even have the pine cone ornament up. (OK, so I had to hang it somewhere until the tree is up or the cat would have it all over the house and broken.) I figured as long as I was washing the remaining Thanksgiving Turkey from the chalkboard wall, I may as well add the Christmas art. Then I took one look at the calendar and freaked out seeing the doomsday countdown is once again way too far along for what I have to accomplish.

OK, so I know Monet and Rembrandt won't be calling me anytime soon to scope out the competition on my dining room wall. No photographers will be loosing revenue from my skill either. My family thought I had lost what little mind I have left when I announced last year I was going to paint the dining room wall with chalkboard paint. I'll spare you the variety of rather negative comments I received, just say it wouldn't make family hour.

See, my kitchen is completely done in black and white. Walls, floor, cupboards, appliances, dishes, cow-spot accents, etc, etc. Our house is VERY small and rather dark since we only have one large window in the living room which connects to the dining room etc. When we moved in I had Prince Charming attach a picket fence to the lower part of the dining room wall, and we used a section of lawn edging to make a shelf for above it. I have loved it ever since. That is until I got the bright idea to paint the upper portion with chalkboard paint while he was out of town. Black chalkboard paint. See, safer that way, just do it and suffer the wrath later. Joke was on me trying to paint around all those points on the pickets as he had taken the power tools with him that I would have needed to remove the board to make it easier to paint.

Well, I digress. I did it and after I started drawing on the wall the critics decided it wasn't so bad after all. See I have this neurotic habit of hanging banners for birthdays, New Years, Christmas, whatever from the shelf. Now all I have to do is write the messages in chalk, draw a dorky picture, and hope one of the critics erases it before it is over 3 months outdated. It always gets a good laugh from my adoring family as they try to figure out what the heck it is I was attempting to draw in the first place. I have finally discovered why I never became a teacher though, chalk plain sucks to write with, let alone draw with. I can draw a decent stick figure with pen/ink, pencil, watercolor, even crayon. I can paint with acrylics and oil (hate oil). Overall, a piece of chalk becomes a weapon of mass destruction in my hands. I brake it. I drop it. I erase, and erase, and erase. Well, you get the picture. Not to mention the fact we have textured walls that Prince Charming told me from the first idea that it would never work for that fact unless we spackle the wall flat again. Good grief Charlie Brown! Never one to back away from a challenge, I did it anyway. By God, I like it and I don't care what the critics think.
Chalkboard paint, its a good thing. Decorating and getting in the Christmas spirit this year, Bah Humbug!