just maryse

Before!!!!!

want to see something crazy?

this is what our house looked like in 2007. 

meh. yep, that's kind of how i felt about it.

a few days after this picture was taken, the shingles were ripped off, the windows were all replaced and more insulation was added.*

 

we had this going on for a day or two per side.

 

and the decorative brick in the front was torn off.

 

the whole house was covered in tyvek and the east and north sides were covered with this awesome blue siding that looks like shingles. 

then winter came. winter 2007. and nothing else happened.

spring 2008 came and went. a little bit of the west side got done and work started on replacing the decorative work in front. 

in 2010, we broke up, primarily over this, for almost a year.

then i started taking anti-anxiety meds and didn't really give so much of a shit anymore.  heh.

 

this is what the house looked like earlier today.  bushes are gone (my father-in-law got carried away with the chain saw one day last fall) and there's been progress on the brick. 

but see those white boards in the front?  to the right of the mini? roofing supplies delivered this morning.  because tomorrow, we have a crew of workers coming over to FINISH THE WHOLE DAMN THING!! brick will get done. siding will get done, and we'll have a beautiful new roof to match. 

AND I AM SO EXCITED THAT I CAN NOT CONTAIN MYSELF!!!

it's only taken 5 years....

*all of this work was done primarily by J with help from our brothers-in-law and his dad. it's great work. we didn't hire someone because he fucked it up. it's just that it needed to get done. he's promised that he's never going to attempt a huge project like this by himself again.

And the Winner Is......

thanks to everyone for your comments.  it was really nice.  and i'm sad that i don't have copies for all of you, but ...

i do have a winner.

MOLLY!!!!

now i've "known" molly for awhile now. and she's not a knitter or crocheter (i know! what the hell) but she is a very very talented quilter. she makes such pretty colorful things.  go look.  i mean it.  right now.

see?

anyway, thanks to everyone for playing along.

by the way, this is the fussy cut blanket designed by the  mason-dixon ladies.  the pattern is in the book.

 

Blog Anniversary Week Contest

why stop at one day.

one of the greatest opportunities that came my way as a result of this blog is getting the chance to help gale zucker and joan tapper with their great book Craft Activism. i learned a great deal and had so much fun.  thank you both for including me. 

so in honor of it being my blogiversary week, i thought it might be fun to have a contest.

leave me a comment between now and friday, April 20th 11pm ET and i'll put all of your names into a hat and choose a winner at random.

you want this book. i swear it.

once again, thanks for visiting all of these years.

Eight Years

HEY GUESS WHAT TODAY WAS!?????  IT'S MY 8 YEAR BLOGGING ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!

yessiree.

how has this blog improved my life? 

1. yesterday i spent some time with stitchy mcyarnpants at slater mill in pawtucket, rhode island and then we had a yummy dinner together. i met stitchy through this blog.

2. earlier today i whined with adrian over gchat while we both tried to do our taxes (i finished mine by the way. yay me). i met adrian through this here blog.

and

3. tonight when i discovered a moth in my yarn, and ended up throwing 25 skeins of yarn and one ripple blanket in the trash, did i cry?  no i did not. thanks to being distracted by the fact that i've had this blog for 8 years.  so thanks to that. 

and thanks to all of you for stopping by all of these years.

 

 

The Rut Race - Day 2

i love things to be organized and i don't like clutter too much, but i also can tend towards being lazy. OMG SO LAZY. and also afraid of huge projects. so although i'd wanted to do a little closet decluttering for weeks and told myself i couldn't until i got the secret project done, now that that was gone (mailed yesterday) it was quite possible i'd not bother, because OMG IT'S SUCH A HUGE PROJECT!!!

but i talked myself into it because i knew i'd be pissed at myself come tuesday when the feeling would overcome me and i'd be at work, wishing i could be home cleaning out my closet and moving my winter stuff out and my summer stuff in.

so i did it (well it was that or taxes and that's what monday is for.)  AND MY CLOSET LOOKS SO PRETTY!!!

also, you know how people say (me included) how we don't have anything to wear. oh i have plenty to wear.  just too bad some of it is too tight these days. (yuck).

 anyway it's nice to know again what i have and don't have. i still can't find my big ass turquoise linen scarf so it's quite possible it's just gone forever. oh well.  i loved that scarf. i may reward myself by buying myself some yellow shoes i've had my eye on.

that's all i've got for now.

this shot is lousy i know but i don't have time right now to edit some photos and i can't have a blog post without a picture.  IT WOULD BE UNACCEPTABLE!

 

The Rut Race - Day 1

want to know what helps me not feel so meh? finally finishing a secret project. ooof. i've had this thing hanging over my head for months and all of my free time has been spent working on it. and it's finally finished. it'll be out of my house just as soon as i finish this post.

that said, OMG I LOVE IT SO MUCH THAT I DON'T WANT TO LET IT GO!!!!  i'm pretty hard on myself. i see flaws in my work everywhere. and not that this is perfect, but OMG IT'S SO COOL LOOKING! even better than in my head.

unfortunately, i can't show you anything. that's why it's a secret.

i can just show you this.

 

 

The Rut Race

part of my daily early morning routine includes going through my google reader and checking in on all of the blogs i follow. usually i just glance at the pretty pictures (i "read" a lot of design blogs) but this morning i actually read kim werker's entire post about her current rut and her effort to get out of it.

like her, i'm in a rut.  G-I-A-N-T rut!  work is meh. i feel meh. i barely socialize any more because i can't muster the effort. i've spent several weekends lately just sitting on the couch watching tv in my pajamas. i just don't feel like myself. i'm tired. and sighing a lot. sigh. heh.  i have absolutely no discipline even for the simplest things. or energy. i just feel gross and old and yuck and blah. and did i mention meh? something's got to give.

so i'm joining her in her quest to get out of her rut. i've got a little badge her to show you how committed i am.  ha!

i have no idea how i plan on doing it. but i'm going to start by getting out of my pajamas first thing in the morning on the weekends.

and eating oatmeal. 

 

 

 

Eye Candy Friday - Spring

one of the first signs of spring around my neck of the woods is the crazy ass yellow of the forsythia. 

we have one bush in our backyard but i'd really like a few more bushes. 

i just love the color.

LBK likes to hang out near it.  and she is black, but spends so much time outside in the yard that her coat has taken on reddish highlights. when she was an inside only cat, her coat was black.

 

Hump Day

the past couple of days i've taken to playing with instagram.

i've been taking some photos with the big camera but mostly just of my face and nail polish, which i'm sure YOU ARE SO WANTING TO SEE! i did get a new lens too -- 35mm 1.8.

but i don't want to edit them.  I DON'T WANNA!

and taking photos with my phone is just so easy.

plus the filters are kind of fun.

yeah that's all i've got.

March 5 - 9 Photos a Day

remember this?  so i kind of dropped the ball, didn't i.  oops. these random goals i set for myself just don't seem to be firing me up.  plus i caught the plague last week and only today did i feel well enough to go to work. no voice though.  and when  i do manage to squeak something out i sound like peter brady.  so that's a treat.

 but before giving up with this photo a day project and before i caught the plague, i did get a few shots.

March 5 - A Smile

March 6 - 5pm

 

oops yeah i missed it by 38 minutes.  I WAS CONCENTRATING ON MY WORK DAMN IT!

March 7 - Something I Wore

new clogs! also i'd like to note that there was still snow on the ground in spots on march 7th.  TODAY IT WAS 85 CRAZYPANTS DEGREES! 

March 8 - A Window

 

there is serious SCIENCE going on in that building. 

 

March 9 - RED

the scarf, the lipstick (tarte lipsurgence natural matte lip tint in fiery), the blotches on my face. heh.

yeah and that's it.  i hear that i inspired some of you to give this project a whirl, so there's that!

ok, i'm going to go to bed.

good night!