Beautiful Sue,you are a clever clogs. I have missed your Friday Paintings, so glad to have you back.Hazel

I've gotta tell you about our 1922 beach cottage made of spit and bubblegum. PO's? There must have been a PO for every year of the house's life. It seems that we are the first owners who planned to stay a while, without renting it out. It has gorgeous views, a beautiful beach and is in a very desirable second home and rental home beach community. So po's buy it, rent it for big bucks, never put a dime into it, and sell it-they then buy their 'real' second home. It was the cheapest, shabbiest, and only affordable house on Lake Shore Drive, so we bought it. 1. It's on a dune, and still sits on a two foot tall iffy crawl space. The walls of the foundation have holes. We found brand new boxes of floor jacks (to hold up the floors) in the crawl sp. Pre-sale, the inspector could not inspect the contents of the crawl because it was jammed with 80 years of stuff, deliberately. 2. Crawl contains the plenum (thingy which distributes heat and a/c to the various rooms), lying on its side and connected to the furnace in the first floor util room. Two of the four second floor bedrooms are unheated and un a/c'ed because the plenum is too far from the rooms. There are no chases, no ducts going to these bedrooms. I'm afraid room air conditioners will blow the knob and tube upstairs wiring. 3. There is no real drywall or plaster, just wallpaper smoothed out over paneling. Only thin paneling over random studs. 4. The floor under the second floor toilet was rotted, a common occurence I've been told. The metal linen cabinets in the solo upstairs bath were rusted, dented, disgusting. The shower was uh, kind of blue and rust colored. It was worse than fourth world countries' bathroom facilities. We gutted to the random studs, searched for elec in the most unexpected places, and remodeled into a beautiful room. 5. Bedrooms measured 7X9, 8X9, 9X9 and the master is 9X15 with a sloped ceiling, from 6.5' to 7' high. No upstairs ceiling is taller than 6.5'+. Painted paneling with many, many holes. Had to remove closet doors:they were gerryrigged and never fit. 6. Oh, yes, the popcorn ceiling panels collapsed in two bedrooms. Fixed it once and after the second collapse, we installed new drywall ceilings upstairs. 7. Instead of having regular can ceiling lights in the bedrooms, they had shower lights, which gave off, oh, 10 watts of dim. 8. The walls bow a bit, here and there. 9. The floors have holes but I covered every square inch with inexpensive laminate which looks great and has a few bouncy spots. A marble rolls on the floor from one end of the house to the other in a split second! 10. We have fixed most of the major things and it is now a cute cottage, but The afterthought utility room which holds the furnace, some water pipes and the water heater has a 13" wide door. However, the diameter of the water heater is 18". This may be the year when we create a new door from the wall of the util room to the outside of the house, to replace the water heater, whenever, not if. Still, 6 years later, some money, lots of effort, it's delightful and in great demand by family and friends. Oh, btw, dh and I went there for N.Y. Eve and a big snowstorm hit and we had to evacuate quickly, because, among other reasons, the only way to get down and out, would be like sliding down an olympic luge, aka known as high flights of stairs, unevenly spaced stairs. We went to the casino hotel and had a great time! Bev

Luvs, it's been a while since I thought about "child proofing" my house, but with a new niece coming in Feb I have been looking at things more carefully. Guess you will have to do the same! He is a little stinker! lol Have to start calling him Piro! I have a few friends who use the Peapod grocery delivery and love it. We don't have it here yet or I would consider it especially in winter!! Unfortunately I have not had time to paint yet. I have a few ideas of some things I want to get done, but no time to work on any of them yet. Hope to get working on them this week, but I'm hosting Thanksgiving this year so probably not gonna get anything significant done til after that holiday. I want to do the 12 days of Christmas, but so far no family has stood out to me that I know. Still thinking on it. Was thinking about finding some little platters at the $1 store and attaching a little poem "When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang out of my bed and tripped over this platter" for my neighbor gifts. Most people can use an extra tray or platter for goodies during the season. Will maybe make some goodies to go on the platter and maybe add "So I filled it with goodies in hopes it makes your season gladder"?? I don't know...kinda sounds cheesy! lol Still thinking about it. Also thought about making "snowball" cookies and putting them in a pail or something painted with a snowman head?? Oh actually I just remembered I bought some small snowman head cookie jars on clearance last year so that would be perfect!! Woot! Thanks for helping me brainstorm! lol I am running out of time, but I seem to work better under pressure! ha Well, just wanted to check in with you ladies. I promised I'd do better and I'm sincerely trying to get here a few times a week! I have to do my Thanksgiving shopping on Monday but perhaps I'll be back here on Tues. Talk to y'all then. ~Anj

Most any Teacher Supply store will have bulletin board packs for transportation and signs should be easy to find. Many teachers of young children use a behavioral program called "Stop and Think" and it uses a traffic light as a prop. I have even seen 3-D ones made of plastic. Good luck with your baby. My grandson is now 5 months old, has 2 teeth and thinks he should be able to walk already!