My New Toy

Before we get into today’s post, I’m sure you will all be pleased to know I found my legal pad. Thanksgiving prep has now begun.  I've gotten my menu written out, checked my pantry, and added what I still need to my shopping list.

It was in a knitting bag, by the way. My legal pad, not my shopping list.  

Speaking of , the plant is going to feed us Thanksgiving dinner next week.  Yeah, they're serving us fried catfish and chicken strips.  

OK, moving right along…I got me a new toy.  

It's an exercise board.  I'd been doing the deep squats at work, but those are tough on my knees, so I've been looking for something else to do that doesn't require leaving the house.  Several years ago, I'd bought one of those Simply Fit boards, like this.

The only problem is that it was so hard to balance on, and it just wasn't as fun as I'd thought it'd be.  I ended up giving it to a coworker, who tried it and said, "I see what you mean."  Shortly after that, I went searching on Amazon and found the one above.  The only thing is, I wish I'd gotten the larger size, because I have to keep my feet too close together and it just feels awkward.  I supposed I'll get the hang of it eventually, but the important part is, I'll be able to work some of my glucose down.   And I can do it while I watch TV.  

In other news, I have a new project as well.  If you've been reading the blog for a while, you'll remember I had a whole series of posts on "bricking".  It was all about me stripping the thick, gloppy paint from the bricks behind my wood stove so I could re-paint them.  

It took a minute, but I finally got it done, then painted the bricks what I had hoped would be a light gray.  I wanted it to look like stones.  Not sure how I thought that was going to work, but it's what I did.  And I do like the color and how it turned out.  The only problem was it made that corner so dark and gloomy.  I didn't really realized how dark and gloomy until I was putting out my fall decorations this year, and found an old photo of the way it looked when the bricks were white and the mantle was green. 

So I decided to try to lighten it up a bit.  I bought some acrylic white and started lightly brushing it over the bricks.   I don't want to go too heavy with the white, because I want the gray undertones to show through.  I've only got this much done, but I'm liking it so far. 

I'm not sure I'm going to do the base, too, or leave it solid gray.  We'll see.   It's all temporary, anyway.  When I am finally able to get my house fixed up, all of this is going to go.  Even the stove.  I want to replace it with something that looks nicer, like one of these:

Not necessarily this exact one, but something like it.  Whichever one I choose will be much more aesthetically pleasing than what I have. 

And finally, when this thing blooms, it's going to be stunning.  

I'll be sure to post a photo, of course.