Okay. So the insulation guys , weeks ago, told Tom they'd be here today. (Our house has almost no insulation. Can you believe that?). 

So I cleaned the house (well, straightened it) and shoved around all the boxes, junk and beds upstairs so that the guys could easily saw into our walls. I even shoved Lennon and McCartney into their carriers and placed them into a quiet corner of our living room.

At 8:00 a.m., I began waiting. Tom called from work at 9:10 and asked if the insulation guys had arrived, I told him, uh, nooo, then searched a drawer for their phone number and gave it to Tom who called me back and said they're coming tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

Oh well. Of course, I could be all, like, "Man. And here I got everything ready and was all mentally set to have it done today." But naw, I'm choosing to view this as a Free Day. A Gift Day. After all, it's one of Tom's rare day shift days and I have the mostly-all-straightened house to myself. I can do whatever I want, maybe even catch-up on all the tasks I've procrastinated. I just have to shift gears.

So that is what I'll do. The shifting gears thing.

Beginning now. I finally got a start on our weeds-and-iris-only front flower bed. I like it so far:



That dolphin sculpture I got at a yard sale last week. The tiny wicker chair was a curb find on one of my walks at our apartment, heck, we even found the flowers on the curb, too.



I moved this table to our front porch and that's where I spend lots of time early in the morning or late in the afternoon, depending upon the heat factor (enlarge this one if you can. I love the colors):



Already it's peaceful and lovely out there and it's not even clean or painted yet. But it's a bit cooler now. One night we decided to go "curb shopping" in our old town and we returned with quite the haul--the best thing? We found three bamboo shades for the front porch, hung them so, although it still gets warm out there, it takes a bit longer.

Remember when I told you we desperately needed a dresser for our guest room? Well, alas! We bought one at a yard sale this weekend for $20 (a tad hard to spend that much. You get spoiled when, for years, you pick dressers off the street for free). But this one is perfect, old, sturdy and exactly what I was seeing inside my head:



My best decorating advice? Glimpse what you want inside your head first--that way you're not wandering aimlessly through stores, with no plan, hoping something will appeal to you. Instead, you're stepping through them as though on a mission to grasp what you've already pictured clearly.

Perhaps that's some good Life Advice, too. Hmm. If we don't know what we want, how will we ever find it?

And nearing the end of the photos-- we found a mirror at a yard sale and placed it over the couch because 'they say' it makes the room look wider. It does.



And see the old-fashioned ashtray stand?


That was another yard sale find and it's for me. No, I've not become a smoking farmgirl. heh. I just needed something to place my drinks on while I sit upon the couch. I love the old-fashioned-ness of it, like something you'd find in a cobwebby old mansion. Yet one day I'll use it for something else--someday Tom and I will find a small glass-top coffee table at a yard sale, the one we've already envisioned inside our heads.


******