Quarantine and chill and kindness chatty clubhouse: Jump in and join the conversation! All is welcome!

[NYCgrrl]

Zoom parent/ teacher meeting today. I'm confident DGD is on track to move on to the next grade using the original manner of grading.

Tonight's dinner was my version of a carb pigout, LOL. Pan fried a variety of Chinese dumplings and served them with a new to me version of cold sesame noodles. I like the new ingredients but my standby is easier to have on hand.

Question of the day: 5/28: Is your home decorated "finished?"

I was reading another discussion about decorating and thinking how I feel like I'm always trying to finish a room to get it decorated.
I don't know I'll ever be done. My house is super pretty but one of these days I should probably put some pictures on the wall and I need to buy some new living room furniture and make my room look pretty. What about ya'll?

I'm of the belief that a home is always evolving/changing. Been living with the same large pieces of furnishings for decades but wall colors, fabrics, and accessories change much more frequently. I did change my couch when I moved into this space. It was supposed to be a temporary change but I think my mother's mid century sofa is a better fit here. I sold my well loved D/R table as it was too big for this apartment and different lifestyle but then so is my mother's so I'm currently looking for a new one.

 

[lynxstch]

Hope you are feeling better by today Tina

We have lived here for 17 years. Have done some repainting over the years, and replaced all the appliances, but we need to have everything repainted again , I want new colors in all the rooms, and we need new living room furniture. I am not big into decorating. Other than some pictures on the wall, and 2 bookcases full of books I don't keep a lot of trinkets. I used to have a ton of Disney stuff out, but it just got to be too much to keep dusting all the time (like music boxes, figurines, beanie babies, etc). We have a lot of Disney pins that I would someday like to incorporate into a big wall hanging of some kind, just haven't gotten around to it. It's not a large house, but it's big enough for the 2 of us and our furbabies.

Grateful today for air conditioning, as it got to 90 degrees yesterday
Grateful for the light rain yesterday morning for the garden and flowers, not so grateful for the downpours around dinnertime that pounded everything in the garden
Grateful that it's Friday, and they are predicting nice and cooler weather for the weekend

 

[PollyannaMom]

I'll say my decorating is "finished, but dated".

Some things could definitely be redone. And my style is a little too cluttered to be in a magazine shoot, but I like seeing memories here and there.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Yes, it is, but I am always changing and updating small things as I find them. We’ve been here a long time and renovated about 11 years ago so even those renovations are in some ways getting a little stale. The big thing we need to do is purge and I am working my way up to that, lol.

Today would’ve been both my kids’ college graduation, and DD’s nursing pinning would’ve been earlier in the week, so a little sad. But we feel worse for the HS grads seeing them around with their cars decorated and being a little unsure of what’s going to happen in the fall. Tough times.

I was thinking of you all as we were grilling last night and thought you might like to see some pics of the new grill (flat surface as opposed to grilling rack if you missed my posts about that). Pork was on sale so I picked up some marinated garlic Parmesan pork chops and some country style spear ribs (which I haven’t bought in ages) that we marinated in teriyaki marinade and we thought we’d cook them both to have on hand. They were good. I liked the teriyaki best, the kids seemed to like the garlic parmesan best. DH liked both.(The country style spear ribs w a simple marinade of brown sugar, garlic, soy sauce and orange juice is really good marinated for a couple of days even better.) I was unsure about the grill but it is growing on me; DH really likes it.

 

[apirateslifeforme]

to you, Tina. I hope you are feeling better today.

Question of the day: 5/28: Is your home decorated "finished?"

I was reading another discussion about decorating and thinking how I feel like I'm always trying to finish a room to get it decorated.
I don't know I'll ever be done. My house is super pretty but one of these days I should probably put some pictures on the wall and I need to buy some new living room furniture and make my room look pretty. What about ya'll?

This house will probably NEVER be finished. It's been in our family for literally 47 years and it's still a work in progress!

Before DH and I moved in in 2014 (or rather, when I returned with DH in tow), we did a major remodel of the kitchen/dining room/porch. It was originally an enclosed breezeway with ugly brown 1970s paneling, no heat, bay window in the front, with a door into a mostly enclosed kitchen - that still had carpet in it! - which led into a dining room that had been used as a TV room (also with carpeting and sad 1970s wainscoting). We widened the doorway between the breezeway and kitchen, removing the door completely, and leaving a partial half-wall between the two rooms. Installed heat, removed paneling, took out the bay window and replaced it with an entry door and small window. Kitchen was completely gutted; we got all new cabinets and appliances, moved a few things around, and installed an island. We cut a pass-through in the wall between the kitchen and dining room, so now those 3 rooms feel more open. Installed hardwood floors through the kitchen and dining room. Took out the paneling in the dining room and moved the existing dining furniture and light fixture in there (it had previously been in the kitchen). I'm just not fully satisfied with the kitchen, as the cabinets are cherry wood and I had chosen "terra cotta" paint for the little bit of wall that shows. Now the whole room appears orange. But I love my countertop - instead of granite, I went with a high-def laminate that photographs like granite - and I really like my beige subway tile backsplash (had a heck of a time finding that; most places only offered white). And I love my mercury glass light fixtures over the island.

We have yucky old light green carpet in the living room, through the hall, up the stairs, and through the upstairs hallway. The walls in the living room are a deep buttercup yellow. I hate it all. I want to rip up the carpet and see just how bad the original red oak floors are (I was always told that they are in bad shape). I want to paint the fireplace surround (brick and wood). We still have 2 massive old dark wood bookcases in here that have seen better days. I have a ton of books, but I just want to get rid of these things. The end tables simply aren't my style either.

Our bedroom was my grandmother's and we still use her furniture. It's NOT my style at all, but at least have lots of drawer space. We definitely cannot afford new furniture. I like the deep "cafe au lait" beige walls and ivory trim around the window frames. I do like the carpet in that room - it's one of those mottled "modern shag" styles, in shades of brown, beige, and ivory, but it's buckling horribly.

We just did Josh's room last year when he outgrew his crib/toddler bed. He wanted both blue and orange walls, so we did just that - 3 walls are blue and one end wall is orange (not loud orange, but not peach either). We got a similar carpet to the one in our room, in shades of marbled blue and grey, and it's much more plush than ours. We had DH's childhood bed professionally restored and painted grey. (My FIL is a former prison guard, and the bed was made by the inmates at the prison. Solid wood. For what we paid for restoration, we could have paid the same for an identical, but cheaply made MDF bed. That was a no-brainer.) We put up display cases for his small PEZ collection and Good 2 Grow character bottle tops. I took a coat rack that DH made in school in 1985, painted it orange, and used stickers to put Josh's name on it, for all of his hats. Put up a couple of shelves and shadowboxes for travel souvenirs and some nice framed art (Boston team mascots and a cartoon map of Florida). His room is pretty well done.

Now just don't ask me about the 4th bedroom that is currently being used as a dumping ground for the stuff that we can't get rid of, but that can't go in the basement because we don't want it to get moldy...

 

[cabanafrau]

Decor is continually evolving on some level at our house. Seems there's always a need to move things around and freshen things up. Our house doesn't look like a magazine or HGTV at all though, more comfortable -- and hopefully tidy enough and presentable when we ever have company again.

I've been envious of the people talking all about how the stay home means their house has never looked so good, never been so clean. With neither my husband or I ever heading into the office and both of our daughters returned home full-time for now our house is not staying nearly as tidy as usual and I'm here all the time, constantly mulling thoughts of what I'd like to change or improve and feeling irritated about it. Have to dial back though because we've started a large enough project in the yard and that along with the delayed start to spring here means yard work in general is the priority for some time to come.

 

[easyas123]

My FIL is a former prison guard, and the bed was made by the inmates at the prison. Solid wood.

My Mom has/had???? a prison dining room table! And chairs! It's a nice, big heavy set- I remember when she and her friend went off on some special day when they were selling them, they both got one. Gosh - I bet that was late 70's or early 80's????It's been moved to different houses over the years, spend a few years in the garage, and is now gracing the dining room of my husbands brother & his wife!

 

[bobbiwoz]

Yes, it is, but I am always changing and updating small things as I find them. We’ve been here a long time and renovated about 11 years ago so even those renovations are in some ways getting a little stale. The big thing we need to do is purge and I am working my way up to that, lol.

Today would’ve been both my kids’ college graduation, and DD’s nursing pinning would’ve been earlier in the week, so a little sad. But we feel worse for the HS grads seeing them around with their cars decorated and being a little unsure of what’s going to happen in the fall. Tough times.

I was thinking of you all as we were grilling last night and thought you might like to see some pics of the new grill (flat surface as opposed to grilling rack if you missed my posts about that). Pork was on sale so I picked up some marinated garlic Parmesan pork chops and some country style spear ribs (which I haven’t bought in ages) that we marinated in teriyaki marinade and we thought we’d cook them both to have on hand. They were good. I liked the teriyaki best, the kids seemed to like the garlic parmesan best. DH liked both.(The country style spear ribs w a simple marinade of brown sugar, garlic, soy sauce and orange juice is really good marinated for a couple of days even better.) I was unsure about the grill but it is growing on me; DH really likes it.

View attachment 497793View attachment 497794

Yum!

 

[Snowysmom]

I am not into decorating my house. As long as it isn't a pig sty I am happy. DH likes to put things up on the wall and he is running out of wall space. Actually I told him no more stuff on the walls. I would like to see some of the wall paper. Does that count as decorating? I did just buy new curtains for the dining room, living room, and kitchen. I want more curtains for the other rooms so maybe being home so much is making me want to change things.

Gratitude:
Dog being groomed next week
Haircut next week
Take out for dinner tonight so no cooking. Plus I get my weekly glass of wine.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I have not heard from the dog groomer and DS still hasn’t been able to get a haircut here. We are just in Stage 1 of reopening so no doubt things are crazy. The rest of us cut our hair ourselves but DS was a holdout for his barber. He has never had his hair so long before.

Tonight we are going to try to do something to celebrate the non-graduation we’ll probably get take out and find somewhere nice to eat it (given that restaurants aren’t open here). I was going to have a pinning ceremony for DD and some of her friends but there’s no telling when that could happen so she and I are just going to go to a special place today to do it, just the two of us. The big thing is that it’s a welcoming into the nursing profession and I can do that for her.

 

[cabanafrau]

I have not heard from the dog groomer and DS still hasn’t been able to get a haircut here. We are just in Stage 1 of reopening so no doubt things are crazy. The rest of us cut our hair ourselves but DS was a holdout for his barber. He has never had his hair so long before.

Tonight we are going to try to do something to celebrate the non-graduation we’ll probably get take out and find somewhere nice to eat it (given that restaurants aren’t open here). I was going to have a pinning ceremony for DD and some of her friends but there’s no telling when that could happen so she and I are just going to go to a special place today to do it, just the two of us. The big thing is that it’s a welcoming into the nursing profession and I can do that for her.

It's very nice that as a fellow nurse you are quite appropriate to bestow her pin on her. I once got to see the ceremony of a lawyer being admitted to the bar where the sponsor was her father. It really was warm and lovely -- until dad eventually needed an editor who would have tightened things significantly before it drifted significantly into the weeds where dad was taking a victory lap for getting through law school himself and his career triumphs. Somehow I suspect you'll make it warm and lovely, and memorable, without need for an editor.

 

[cabanafrau]

I'll say my decorating is "finished, but dated".

Some things could definitely be redone. And my style is a little too cluttered to be in a magazine shoot, but I like seeing memories here and there.

Clutter is not my friend, yet somehow it manages to be my constant companion. I have a stack all packed up in the basement, ready to go as soon as donations are being accepted again. We were purging early on in the stay home and had to stop because things need to go before we can comfortably manage to work our way through more stuff. Hopefully when the dog days of summer hit and we're cooped up at home with nothing to do we'll be able to enjoy working in the cool of the basement to get through the rest of the purge.

I think some of our taste would be considered dated, but I don't care. I prefer woodgrain cabinets in the kitchen and I'm sticking with my white refrigerator that doesn't match the stainless appliances that make me twitch to look at because they never look clean or streak free enough to make me happy.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Prayers all of you are feeling well today and will have a good weekend I have said this before and will do so for the duration of this thread (which I'd love to see carry on for always), I am grateful for each of you in this thread! This kind and safe space among friends is truly a Blessing. The stories or comments I have read lately of shaming or quick judgment upon another fellow human being are simply so very sad and most definitely not too kind. I pray all remember that indeed all are precious children of God. Thank you all so much for extending kind cheer to so many.

Congratulations to all graduates!

I am so very thankful and extra Blessed this Friday:

My Dad was able to get two containers of Kroger Disinfecting Wipes early this morning.
A late night package last night from Amazon of envelopes are a perfect fit for blank note cards I received as a gift.
Cooler weather today= a cooler apartment without need to turn on A/C But what a Blessing to now have A/C to turn on

ETA: Cabanafrau, I still prefer white appliances to stainless or black. I am pretty traditional in decor taste, homey, lol old fashioned perhaps

 

[bobbiwoz]

I think our retirement home is decorated to our tastes. With my sister, we have owned this house for 22 years, it was a vacation home, and it was bought furnished. Very few things from the former owners remain, maybe two end tables that we use for plants. My sister left a few things that we appreciate, we updated one bathroom and the kitchen, and we added a bay window.

The loft area is DH’s Man Cave, and an extra bedroom is my Reading Room. His is decorated with his favorite momentos and pictures, and mine has predominantly Disney decorations. We are happy here, and it has been ours alone for three years. My sister has the house next door. That had been our Mom’s.

My gratitudes today are for this house and the peace of mind it brings. Because we owned it before we moved here full time, it never felt that we were moving to a totally new community. It’s scarcely populated in winter, that’s fine with us, we have enough neighbors to be neighborly.

 

[easyas123]

Well, I'm sitting here on the porch cocktail in hand, waiting for the t-storms. I highly suspect they will skirt around us....
Story of my life! I do LOVE a good storm!
Got my powerwasher troubleshooted/fixed (ahem, operator error) and am looking forward to finishing that project tomorrow. Sons girlfriends folks invited us over for crabs on Sunday afternoon, looking forward to that.
My husband turned on the AC, blamed it on the dogs....look if I can hold out being in my late 40's and 'enjoying' frequent sweaty nights and can handle it I should have thought they could! Of course, this is the same man who took ownership of the cooling pillow I got myself but didn't care for...He calls it his menopause pillow
Do you SEE what I have to deal with?!?!?!
Natchos for supper tonight. Back to real food tomorrow evening.

 

[lovemygoofy]

Happy Friday to all,

Thank you for the well wishes. I have felt better today. I didn't go far and just did light housekeeping here. I started season 3 of the Crown on Netflix. I know I'm behind. I tend to wait on shows I know I'll like because I don't want to waste them all then have to wait. I'm an odd one LOL It's beautiful out this evening and seems that super nice weather is on its way for the weekend before the humid starts to roll in.
No word on my mom's place opening up yet but I appreciate them being so careful and will be grateful for it. I'm trying to be patient as you can see I'm not that patient.

Dinner tonight was fun. I made a "shrimp boil" using some new potatoes, halved corn on the cob, cut up summer sausage, and some shrimp with old bay and butter boiled with spinach berry salad on the side. My husband really likes it and easy to make if nothing else.

Tomorrow we are going to see some friends who are out with their girls camping this weekend. We will take our own chairs and not get too close but I know they are being as careful as we are. I'm excited to feel like I'm doing something "normal."

Gratitude today:
Feeling better
Season 3 of the Crown
Beautiful day

I hope you all are well and having a great day.

 

[lovemygoofy]

Question of the day 5/29: What's your favorite kind of appetizer?

I saw Easy mentioning Natchos for dinner and I saw NYCgirl having potstickers for dinner made me think about appetizers.
I would much rather eat tapas or several appetizers than a big entrée sometimes. I love happy hours with small plates or half price apps with a drink or two. I'm looking at Cheesecake factory for this! Some of my favs include buffalo chicken dip, potstickers, lettuce wraps, and tatchos. What about you all? Favorites?

 

[Meriweather]

We don't usually eat appetizers
Fried pickles
cheese sticks
chips and salsa


DGD is over today. We have been in the pool, baked cookies, played games and still going to get some reading in.
She is spending the night.
I'm making her favorite pizza for dinner. We have having left over smoked stuffed pork loin, asparagus and salad

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Glad to hear you are feeling better, Tina.

Thankful for all of you who have gotten to see friends and extra family.

Apirateslifeforme, I forgot to say earlier I think it's neat your home has been in your family for so long!

I usually don't do appetizers either. I always do have some chicken broth before a meal now

 

[NYCgrrl]

Definitely a lover of appetizers as dinner. My favorite? Gosh that's hard but a variety of tapas would surely make me happy.

Tonight I "treated" the man to hotdogs. Made some sauerkraut for him and he asked if he could have baked beans too. Hey I don't live in his tummy. The combo sounds like a night of total gastrointestinal misery to me but at least he's happy - for the minute, LOL. I had some chicken broth with veggies as it's just to sweaty hot for me to have much of an appetite. I need to call management on Monday and have them check the central a/c; doesn't seem like it's giving off much cool air.