Claudia — Page 1506

Some Changes

August 21, 2011 at 9:03 am by Claudia

I’ve been making some changes to the blog and I wanted to take a moment to share them with you. One change is subtle. I messed around with the html codes to make the body of the blog a bit wider. I have a little more room now both in the sidebar and the main post area. Brenda and I spent some time together on the phone and, between the two of us, we figured out how to do it.

For a long while, I’ve been contemplating changing the background for the posting area. I love, love, love the background I had with the faint vintage looking script and I am not thrilled with the idea of giving it up. However, when viewing this blog on other monitors and in other browsers, it seemed to me that the script fought with the text of my blog posts. Since my sincere desire is to make this blog readable to everyone, I changed the background to white. This, after trying every gosh-darned color hex code out there. I really wanted a cream color. Could I find one? No. Everything I tried was too dark. Shouldn’t there be a cream or ecru color available somewhere?

Don’t worry, I still have the code for the original background in case I want to change it back. Also, my friend Mandy, who designed my sidebar labels, graciously re-did them with a transparent background, so that I wouldn’t be limited as to my color choice.

The last change is one that I came to after a lot of thought. You know that times are tough here at MHC. We, like so many others, are struggling financially. I’ve written before about my conflicted thoughts about advertising on blogs. Sometimes, when a blog becomes full of advertising, it can become something other than it was. By that, I mean it can lose the cozy, personal quality that it once had. On the other hand, I have seen many blogs add advertising in a less obtrusive way.

The furthest thought from my mind is to make MHC anything other than what it has always been: a cozy, welcoming chronicle of my life and loves. I won’t let that happen, trust me. I am tip-toeing into the ad world by adding two small ads. In my research, I noticed that I saw these ads on many blogs, far more than I realized. So I’m going to give it a whirl. But subtly.

I always welcome your thoughts, my friends.

My mom is in the hospital again. She has a urinary tract infection and the beginnings of pneumonia. She is being given IV antibiotics and seems to be responding. Will you keep her in your thoughts?

Edited to add: My friend Diane came to my rescue! She sent me to ColorPicker and I found a much more detailed chart there. I, of course, insisted I had been there. I hadn’t. Since this post is about subtle, I’ve chosen Ivory, a subtler form of white. I’ll try it for a while and if it doesn’t work for me, back to white it is. Thanks, Diane!

A Fantasy

August 18, 2011 at 10:24 pm by Claudia

This is my piano. Many of you have seen it before on this blog. It was my grandmother’s piano. It’s a Chickering and it has a wonderful sound. It used to have ivory keys until they became chipped and cracked. When I had it moved to San Diego, I had the keyboard replaced.

My grandmother, my mom, my brother, sisters and various aunts and uncles played on this piano. It has a wonderful history that makes it priceless to me.

So why do I have crazy desire to paint it? (My grandmother rolled over in her grave as I typed those words.) It’s mahogany. The grain of the wood is pretty, but it is so dark. My grandmother had mahogany furniture, my mom had a mahogany dining room set – I grew up with dark wood. I’m not a big fan. Our living room is fairly light and airy. And then there is the piano.

But when I see photos like these (from Pinterest):

Source

Or this one, a favorite, that has been on my desktop for a few years,

Source

I want to grab a brush and some paint and go for it. Perhaps with some of that expensive chalk paint I’ve been reading about all over the blogosphere.

Upright pianos seem to take to being painted, don’t they? Maybe spinets and consoles (like mine) don’t adapt as well.

I’ll probably never do it. But I want to. What are your thoughts? Is painting a piano unthinkable to you? Or are you someone who would say ‘Do it!’

I keep hearing the words of my grandmother and mother in my head. And they are not pretty.

The winner of a copy of Just My Type is Mercedes Scott. Congratulations! Send me an email with your address and I will forward it on to TLC Book Tours.

Random on Wednesday

August 17, 2011 at 9:44 am by Claudia

:: Greetings on a foggy Wednesday morning. The sun has just popped out as I write this. After several extremely gray and rainy days, it is most welcome. I am ashamed to tell you how overgrown our yard is due to the rain and the fact that I can’t use the weed wacker until Monday. The doctor has ordered me not to lift anything heavy for 4 weeks, severely cramping my style. I can’t lift Riley when his hips are bothering him or help him up and down the stairs. Can’t weed wack. Can’t move furniture. I did slip up a bit the other day when a dead limb from this maple fell to the ground. I immediately went out to the yard to clean up the mess, toting one part of the limb to a pile on the edge of the property. As I started to lift another section, the voice inside my head yelled, “What are you doing?!?” I dropped it like a hot potato. Sorry, Doc.

:: Scout had to go to the Vet the other day. She had a huge hot spot and yucky stuff in her ears. Allergies and humid summer weather are not a good combination for my dogs. At least Scout, however grudgingly, will let me put something in her ears. Riley? No way.

:: Our hot water heater is dying. Oh joy. This is just one in a series of things in this house that need to be updated or replaced. Our favorite repairman, Gino, who is also our heating oil guy, came over to look at it yesterday morning. The diagnosis is eventual replacement but for now we’re trying to baby it along. Gino is a swell guy. He didn’t even charge me for his time.

I need to win the lottery.

:: After almost 7 weeks without coffee, I grew tired of the endless stupor I seemed to be in every morning. I did pretty well. I really did. But it took me hours to wake up. That’s okay if one is still recovering from surgery, but not when one is trying to actually get something done. I gave it up for two reasons: it wasn’t good for my gall bladder, nor for my slightly high blood pressure. Well, the gall bladder is no more. So I made a deal with myself. One cup of coffee a day. That’s it.

Oh, how I missed it. Thank goodness I still had some Peet’s French Roast in the refrigerator.

:: I had been obsessing about a metallic rattle I kept hearing when driving our car. Don is perfectly capable of ignoring these things but I am not. The car was driving just fine but it is 10 years old. I stopped by our mechanic’s garage yesterday. A loose heat shield. No biggie. Sigh of relief! He’ll fix it when the car gets its annual inspection in a few weeks.

:: Lots of drama and worry continues on the parent front. I seem to spend a good portion of the day on the phone with my dad or my sister. I don’t know what we would do without my sister. Because my parents decided to relocate to Florida ten years ago, Meredith has been the one who has to handle all of the middle of the night phone calls and everything that goes along with aging parents. My crotchety parents are not always as grateful or appreciative as they should be, but I sure am.

:: Look what arrived in the mail! My friend Meri sent us some jumping jacks! I suppose they are really for Don, as it is his collection. Lord knows, I have enough collections around here. Aren’t they cute? I promise another photo when they are hanging in their proper place. A big hug to you, Meri. Thank you.

:: I forgot to address a comment or two on this post. Florida Bird asked if I would post a tutorial on the fabric lampshade. To be perfectly honest, I did a sort of slap-dash job on it. So I don’t feel qualified to guide you through a tutorial. I’m fine with the way it looks, but I have a feeling a tutorial should be a bit more precise than my “grab-some-fabric-and-glue-and-if-it-doesn’t-fit-slap-some-more-fabric-on” way of working on this project. Also, Into Vintage said she was admiring the jar of cookies in the background. Well, they are cookies, just not for us. They’re dog biscuits for Scout and Riley.

:: If you’re interested, there is still time to leave a comment on my book review post. You might win a free copy of Just My Type, a book about fonts. You have until Thursday evening.

Okay. I’ve talked enough. Bye for now.

Some Changes

A Fantasy

Random on Wednesday

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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