Odds and Ends

I got frustrated with my last post, mostly because I couldn't figure out how to efficiently place the photos where I wanted them, and it was taking forever. So I gave up on it and left it half-finished. (I seem to be sensing a pattern here...half-painted red front door ring a bell?) So onward to a new topic, and if I ever get back to my black and white post, I'll let you know.

In today's news: my entire house is finally clean, so I am rewarding myself by sitting down with a Coke (which I know I should not be drinking) at my computer. And for you skeptics out there, I must admit that by "entire house" I am not including the office because that's Robert's domain, or the closets, because let's face it, those are just not going to happen in this mommy's lifetime and I hardly think its fair to count them. I will organize closets when my children are all grown up and move away and I am bored. And yes, by "clean" I mean I picked everything up and vacuumed the whole house, and the kitchen is clean. So stop nitpicking (I can hear you doing it) and be impressed with me!

I was sad yesterday, though. I found some chairs and a table on Craigslist:

http://albuquerque.www.craigslist.org/fuo/1601812566.html

They looked really pretty in the picture, and I had this brilliant plan to buy them, paint them black and stencil gold leaf patterns on them just like in the picture from Sense and Sensibility in one of my previous blogs. They were also very cheap, and Robert actually said I could buy them if they were in good shape. So we finally drove all the way to the South Valley to look at them, and they were not nearly as nice as they looked in the picture. They were pretty old and a bit shaky and smaller than they looked. So there goes that plan. Now I'm coveting these chairs from Overstock.com:

This is my favorite chair shape - I think they're called "empire chairs" - and we had some that looked like this but were folding chairs when we first got married, but now they've all broken. I think $150 for 2 chairs is pretty good. however, I am afraid that they will be broken in shipping, if we buy them from an online site. hmmm...

In other news, Gabriella has declared that she wants to eat with the rest of the family. She will be 6 months old on Monday and she has started throwing a fit every time we sit down to dinner and just give her toys. So she's trying all sorts of new things - tiny bits of meat, peeled grape halves, apple slices, and even cheerios - and she likes everything so far...except banana. Ahh, Ellie-girl, you are truly a daughter after my own heart!