Tag: home

Life

Decking the Halls: Christmas at my house

Here’s something you might not know about me–I used to get paid to decorate Christmas trees. Lots of them. Big ones (one that required a 20-foot ladder) and small ones. Real ones and fake ones. It sounds fun, but when you’re on your twentieth tree of the week and you still have your own waiting to be done at home, it gets old fast. What I can say is this, I learned a lot. Such as wired ribbon is your best friend and you can fill up a lot of space in a tree with some nice big bows. (Yes, we made our own bows. Cutting pliers and floral wire lived in my pocket back then.) Silk flowers worked well too, stuck into the branches. Items found in nature are just as good. I became very in tune with what was growing around the homes I was decorating–and even on the drive over. No Juniper, or Holly, or Cedar, or pine bough laden with cones was safe from me and my cutting pliers when I needed texture and filler to decorate with. A little greenery goes a long way. Tie an old stack of books with a bow and shove […]

Life

A message to my friend…

NOV. 13th UPDATE: DONNA WON 1st PLACE! ====================== Yes, romance writers can live a strange life, often trying to keep the professional and the personal separate, and often failing at doing so. Sometimes you just have to give in and combine the two, so here it goes, a personal message to my friend, delivered in a very public forum because, honestly, I think these words are pertinent to us all… Dear Donna, Tonight you go into the finals of the competition that has dominated your life for the past 8–or is it 9–weeks now and I know right before you take the stage you like a little pep talk. I am delivering mine now, away from the noise and crowds and chaos. Remember way back to September 23rd when we all came out to support you for your ‘one and only’ night in competition because you thought it would be fun, but you never expected to make it in, and then look at now. It’s November 12th now and all these weeks later you are 1 of only 3 remaining. Being one of those 3 finalists, having made it through this far, means you are already a winner. The only […]

Life

My Kingdom for a fuel nozzle…

January 2, 2010 Day 2 without heat and I’m inspired to blog. So far 2010 is proving to be ‘character-building’, shall we say? After waking yesterday to a 50 degree house and outdoors in the twenties, the husband spent New Years Day battling the furnace at the end of which he emerged filthy and carrying a tiny brass fitting that he declared the culprit for our lack of heat. Being New Years Day, and the fact all the trades in NY, including plumbing supply houses, are union, no one was open so in a last ditch effort, said part is now soaking in my nailpolish remover, in hopes to rid it of a possible clog. Keep in mind we woke to the sound of snowplows this morning so no, it hasn’t gotten warmer here in the northern ‘burbs of NY State. So what did we do for heat?  This is the part where all you people who are building or renovating a home, or just interested in various home heating methods, should take note. Thankfully, when we installed a new tile floor in the kitchen a few years back, we put electric heat beneath the floor. Easiest thing ever. Buy the wired […]