Another member of the family...

My last post showed a pic at the end of my baby dog Brandy. She is by no means a baby, but she's my baby. She's definitely a Daddy's girl, but she's Mama's baby. She is such a lover dog. We've had her since the summer of 2001. She was the last one left of 5 puppies. Per my usual bawling routine while at the Humane Society building... my husband spotted her... asked if they would bring her out to us to spend some one on one time with her... and we ended up taking her home. She is part beagle and part boxer. She is a smart dog... very loyal, very protective... a little paranoid... but absolutely one of three loves of our lives as far as poochies go. I named her Brandy because her color looked like a glass of fine brandy...and I also have always loved the song "Brandy". (I think I recall that 3 Dog Night did that?) How ironic if that is the case... we've got 3 dogs.

This is my middle dog... Dizzy. She's another Mama's baby. I cannot tell you the amount of mornings she spends sitting on my lap (hanging over a bit on either side)... in the winters. She is what we call a lap-dog extrodinair. A true pure bred beagle. She is just so one tracked minded, it's difficult to get her attention long enough to get her to come in the house after letting them out to go potty. Especially in this type of weather. Not all the ground is covered in snow, and there are just so many different directions her nose wants to take her.



My husband and I have many nicknames for her. Whizzer, Dizzy-Whizzy, (she used to pee a lot before we got her housebroken), Wheezie (sometimes when she's breathing while sleeping, she sounds like someone wheezing). Precious, Sweet-pea... and I know that doesn't cover all of our nicknames. But that doesn't cover everything. We also used to sing different songs about her... Like... "Here she comes just a walkin' down the street singing Do-Wa Dizzy, Dizzy Dumb Dizzy Do". I don't know... I should be careful... I might end up with PETA on my butt because our dogs are so mistreated. Not really... we are serious about choosing our pets... and we rescue what we can. Dizzy we have had since 1999. Her face has so much white on it at this point in time, but her mask when she was a puppy was so adorable. I fell in love.



Enjoy your weekends.

Hugs,
Penny Sue

In the beginning...

Well, in reality, this is far from the beginning... but at least it's looking like a beginning again for our kitchen. These pics are of my old basement door (without steps) and my new basement door (with new steps) which was the first thing that needed to happen in order to expand my kitchen.










I love this old house, but there isn't one thing about it that makes anything related to "fixing up" remotely easy.














I have a curved front stair case just inside my front door in the foyer. This is where the hubs felt structurally was the safest to put a new doorway and steps. He studded up a short wall to help support the weight of the stairs, and to close in the basement. This now has sheetrock on it waiting for drywall... which is where I come in.











So, these are my brand new basement steps (using reclaimed lumber from other sources). No new trees were sacrificed in the process of this project, I'm proud to announce. We try very hard to reuse and recycle. It's important to us.













And voila... here's the brand new door (which is recycled from my husband's cousin). His cousin has had this door from before my husband and I owned this house. Truly amazing how the Lord provides for us.

I hope you all have a wonderful day in the Lord! I had a fun day meeting up with a cousin who lives rather close by and we had breakfast. It's always good to spend time with her. She's just so precious!




The last pic I have to share is my baby Brandy... snoozing peacefully on the settee.




Hugs to all,
Penny Sue

A Confession of sorts...

Moving on to the kitchen. Actually, we're not moving on... we are just continuing. We have so much work to do in this house. Those of you who happen to visit me on a semi-regular basis, will soon figure out I live in a complete continuous construction area. There is a never ending supply of things to do.

These are pics of my kitchen as it is and has been for a very long time. However, I would just like to offer the fact that before April 2007, my husband was a self-employed Heating/Plumbing/Air Conditioning/Bathroom Remodeling guy. He was hardly home. Now that he has a "regular" full time job, it's 2 and 1/2 hours away. He lives 5 days out of 7 with his brother down near Philadelphia. So.. he's actually home less now than when he actually lived here. But... God has been faithful in taking care of us. Anyhow... I have been very hesitant to share pictures of my home with those of you I know because you all have such gorgeous homes... and I feel silly putting pics of my home on my blog... actually, a better word would be embarrassed. Anyhow... I've decided to share our construction woes and hopefully accomplishments. Sometimes, with our lives, we find that something is definitely more pressing on the priority list than what we might be currently working on. With a house that was built in 1840-something, there is always something to fix, take care of, repair, alter, update... and I've decided to swallow my pride and show what's really going on in my life. Not everyone lives in a picture perfect house in reality. Especially me! :) Thank you in advance for your kind understanding.

So, the past two weekends were spent relocating our basement door from off the "sunroom" that the hubs worked on this past summer. I have pics, but I need to transfer them my computer. Now that this is complete, we can start making the kitchen of my dreams. My husband has great creative ideas for these things. He will walk around a room in the house with a pad of paper, pencil and a tape measure. He comes up with such fantastic ideas, great use of space, and trying to keep the integrity of our house in tact. I'm so thankful for his many talents. We could NEVER afford to pay someone else to do this stuff for us... so we are very thankful that God has given him the desire and ability to do what needs to be done. We joke with each other that by the time we die, the house just might be the way we want it.

Well, I've revealed much today about myself... that I have been very ashamed to share with you all... but I realized that keeping it real is very important. I need to keep it real.

Hugs, and good night...
Penny Sue

I am so sad...

I don't know how many of you follow the Shabby Chic blog by Rachel Ashwell... but her company is filing Chapter 11. They are closing their Connecticut and Long Island stores. If an icon like Rachel can suffer so from our economy, how are the rest of us supposed to press on and succeed? I'm saddened!!!!!

After that wonderful news, I hope that this post finds everyone healthy and happy. After all... without that, what does the rest mean anyhow.

Hugs,
Penny Sue

I have been so blessed today

I just wanted to take a break from all the hustle and bustle of my life and say that I spent some time today just thinking about the billion and one things that I have to be thankful for. But not just a sense of thankfulness... but a sincere belief in my Lord and Saviour, that everything good in my heart and life comes directly from His hand. Today, front and center are my husband and son.... and then my earthly "heavenly" father.. Dad! I have been truly blessed by each of these men in my life, each in their own unique fashion, designed solely by my heavenly Father to each have their own specific impact on my life and all coming together so perfectly, like a beautiful puzzle, with all the pieces in tact.

It totally amazes me when I just sit and think... and listen for that still small voice. The one that speaks and nails me right in the heart. My verse, when I was fighting my breast cancer, was "Be still... and know that I am God". But the part that was my favorite, and I used to just hug my pillow at night and whisper over and over again... was "Be still... and know..." Whatever I was going through at the time, sickness, sadness, fear, hopelessness, uncertainty... was this overwhelming feeling of "Be still... and know..." that I will take care of you, I will sustain you, I will hold you up when you feel like falling down, I will hug you, I will love you, I will hold your head when you are too weary from life to hold it up. All of these things from such a simple verse. "Be still... and know... that I AM God." I love and cherish these simple words.

I praise the Lord for His grace and mercy... that He shows me every day. I am secure in whatever I set out to do... that His will for my life is to see good... not harm, come my way.

I have met some truly amazing women on this blog. I have been humbled by their spirit. I have been inspired by their talent and creativity. I have been uplifted by their encouragement.

Might this be a testimony for those of you in blogland that long for something that you just can't put your finger on. It is the peace and love and forgiveness of the Heavenly Father... and the love of Godly women in your life that are for you, whatever you need them to be. I am truly blessed and humbled and blown completely away by such revelations today. I always used to say that God saved creating the woman, Eve, for Adam, until the end... because He saved the Best for Last! God knew just what He was doing. We were created special, specific, and for a very sacred purpose that no man or beast could fulfill. Can I get an Amen Sista!?!?!?! :)

Thank you, my sweet blogfriends, for your wit, wisdom, and warmth towards me. I cherish you all, ladies. Hats off to you!!!

Hugs,
Penny Sue

Dedicated to My Dear Miss LeAnn... :)

I always forget to load my pictures in backwards order, um duh! Anyhow, this is my craft room when it was almost finished. I dedicated this post to Simply Dandy... as she's into those funky colors. Is this funky enough for ya honey?

Scrolling from bottom to top is the first pic... from the doorway looking to the north side of the house. As you can see, there are two openings. These open into the same open space, but they are like little cubby holes for storage. The two doorways make it easy to access whatever is in there. I'm going to make doors out of old windows for them I think. Not sure yet. The next pic (#2) is facing the opposite direction towards the door. The next pic (#3) is my sewing table facing the support wall where my husband left some storage space behind. It has a dividing little wall so I can store stuff from both ends, without having it be too deep. Pic #4 is the lighting and my personal little space with a desk and my favorite lights in the whole house. If any of you have seen the italian glass shades at Lowes that are multiple colors that look all swirly and gorgeous... I got me three of them. They are so pretty when they are lit. The colors are the bright green with cobalt blue and they make me think of whirl pool. I'll have to take pics of the lights when they are on.

Anyhow... this is just one of the treasures my husband has done for me. The door that you go into used to be just a very small crawl space hole. One day I came home from doing something (I don't even remember what), he says, "I have a surprise for you." He took me by the hand, took me upstairs, through the little old walk in closet in my son's old bedroom... and there is this door, and on the other side of the door was a work light and a piece of plywood on the floor. The rafters were still up for the most part, so ya had to walk very carefully. And you had to stay on the plywood or you'd go through the ceiling into the family room. So... what started out as a "wasted" space... this was his creation.

Gotta go get ready for work. Hugs to all and to all a good day.

Penny Sue

My birthday boys

My guys birthdays are two days apart and we celebrated with cake and ice cream last night at the 0:00 clock of the SuperBowl Game! (What an awesome game!) They were on opposing sides... but in the end, agreed it was a great game. I'll leave out who wanted whom to win... to spare the fragile male ego. I have to tell you that when that 100 yard touchdown run was made... I was on my feet jumping up and down... spilling my drink everywhere (thank goodness for dogs that clean up after the Mommy). I have never witnessed such a thing! It was completely amazing. If I live to be 100 years old... and watch football every week, I don't think I would witness the same play again. I loved it. It was such an exciting game to watch... no matter who won.



So, these two pics are from my new camera. I'm really liking this learning experience. The Canon Power Shot has a bit of on LCD screen help, but most of the information that you need to learn about taking good photos comes from reading the manual and learning by trial and error.

It's time for bed... gotta go...
Hugs,
Penny Sue