• I had a horrifying dream on Saturday night. I had another horrifying dream on Sunday night. Last night, as we settled into bed, Don said, “You’ll only have sweet dreams tonight.” And I did…until the alarm went off at 3 am. This time, it wasn’t a smoke alarm, but the alarm for the front door, which I saw on the alarm pad when I ran downstairs to shut it off. The alarm company called and while I was on the phone with them, Don checked everything out. The front door was locked. The motion detector light hadn’t gone on. Clearly, there hadn’t been an intruder or the light would have been on.
Nevertheless, it was very unsettling. I couldn’t calm down and both of us went downstairs a couple of times to check everything out. I finally went back to sleep, thank goodness. We’ll talk to the alarm company today and try to figure out what happened.
• I spent several hours sorting through books – on the downstairs shelves and on the shelves in my bedroom, which was the bigger job. As usual, a good dusting was required and a pass with the vacuum. These books have been removed from the bedroom shelves. There’s yet another stack from the den shelves. First choice: my local library. Second choice: local used bookstore.
Now I have to find some boxes for them.
A very satisfying experience, which left me with extra shelf space upstairs.
It’s almost impossible to get a photo because the bed takes up so much space. But you can see open space(!) on the shelf behind my bedside table. The bedside table is an old typing table that I rescued many years ago.
Lamb Chop and her baby have moved over to the other bookshelf. The green lamp is only temporarily on top of the bookshelf. It needs to get rewired and I have no other place to stash it.
I’ll do my best to get a better photo this afternoon, when the light is much brighter in the bedroom.
• I sorted through my many decorating books, rediscovering some favorites, including these by Mary Engelbreit:
I have some of her other books as well, but these are my favorites. Living the Artful Life is based on interiors that were showcased in Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion. Simply gorgeous. The smaller books were written to showcase specific things: Fabric, Collections, and there was another one on Plates (which I thought I had, but maybe I only wanted to own it and somehow never did.)
I have three favorite magazines, all of which are now out of print: Country Home, Cottage Living, and Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion. I’ve saved copies of all three. Periodically, I pull them out for the sheer pleasure of reading them again. (With some hot chocolate, of course.) MEHC is stacked on top of the bookcase. The others are in magazine holders in one of the sections of the bookcase.
I have this dream that Mary will start the magazine up again, and a few years ago, she seemed to indicate that she was considering it. But it didn’t happen. I understand. It’s very difficult to keep a magazine going in this online economy. But, oh, how I miss it. I always felt that Mary was a kindred spirit. She got me. She understood the way I love to decorate, the things I love to collect.
• One other thing – a wonderful surprise – happened yesterday. Do you remember when Don went on Medicare in June and I was going to have to go on an individual policy? I signed up for that policy, which was going to cost more than our previous joint policy. Eight days after it started, June 8th, we found out we were going to be covered through Don’s union. It came as a total surprise and I cried with happiness because the cost was so much more reasonable and we will be covered for the rest of our lives.
So I immediately called NY State of Health to cancel the policy I had just started, explaining the whole thing to them. When I called the health care provider to ask if I could get a refund, they directed me back to NYSofH to get the policy back-dated. That involved a couple of phone conversations. They set it in motion, and on June 15th it went to the State/Health dept. for review.
I called every week to check on it. Still in review. After about 6 weeks of this, I asked if I should just stop calling and wait. Yes, they said. Once it’s approved, we’ll call you and we’ll send it on to the health care provider. But it might not be approved.
So I stopped calling. After about 3 months, I had pretty much given up, thinking I would never see that money again.
Yesterday, I went down to the mailbox to get the mail and there was an envelope from a company whose name I didn’t recognize. But I could see through the window that it looked like a check and in the corner was the name of my former health care provider. I didn’t dare hope. And even when I began to hope, I was sure it would be for less than the full amount I paid.
It was a refund for the entire amount. I was dumbfounded.
No call from New York State of Health, of course. I’m not surprised, because I’ve learned not to expect them to follow through. In the end, I don’t care. I got my refund!
Okay, end of chatty post for Tuesday.
Happy Tuesday.
A check in the mail! Sweet!! I recognize some of your “decorating” books that you have pulled out. I had many of the same…gave almost all of mine to my nephews wife a few years ago when she was starting her own interior decorating business. And, she has run a very successful business and also just (last week) opened a store!
Congratulations to your niece, Vera!
I also saved my Mary Englebreit magazines and look at them as the months change. I wonder what she is up to these days. I see her material at Hobby Lobby sometimes. My sister and I made a quilt using her fun prints. Off to clean because you motivated me to keep going!
I have to keep going with this, Doris. Next up, the dreaded closets!
I am so happy you got your refund!! Yay! I got rid of so many books on decorating and quilting (they were my Mom’s books) when we moved but I still have more books to go through again. The alarm going off must have been scary. Hope all is well. Hugs!
It was very, very frightening, Linda! I’ll be glad when we figure this one out, if we ever figure it out.
That is wonderful news Claudia, isn’t it nice when you go to the mailbox and it is not a bill?
I saved all of my Country Home Magazines, it broke my heart when they stopped publishing, they do put out a special issue twice a year though, no advertising , which is nice. I have mine sorted by seasons so it is always a nice surprise to pull them out at Christmas I always discovered something new!
Have a lovely day,
Sue
Oh, what a good idea! I’ll sort mine by seasons, too! Thanks, Sue.
Well, it’s sure been a time for negatives and positives (glad you got that refund; sorry about the nightmares…similarly, I’ve been having nightmares, in multiples, and I never have nightmares, but I think it’s because I’m so fearful of what’s going on with the headaches since my fall in early September {unless it’s the headaches themselves causing it}, and the CT scan I have to have today, which I hope doesn’t scramble my brain with its powerful radiation; I’m irrationally/guardedly {?} more fearful of the radiation [as a cancer survivor and too many xrays throughout my life for other issues including three big-gun CT scans] than I am for what they’re looking for…brain bleed, clot, etc. …and, at this juncture, I just want it over with and yearn for the day when I can again live without a headache all day and all night but it doesn’t help that I had one physician tell me he feared I was nearing my lifetime rads, which happened to my dad’s wonderful and dedicated cardiologist who wound up dying, back in the day, as a result of exposure to too much angiography with his patients, or so I was to understand).
I have a few books of ME’s; not a lot. She has a good soul; good heart. I don’t know much about the decorating angle; missed all that! But I probably prefer Susan Branch’s illustrations to hers although you really can’t compare them; ME so often channels the 1920s and 1930s in her depictions of children which I just LOVE. They almost look like images of my mother when she was a little girl.
Have to say, Claudia…you can’t be too careful about the alarm going off. You’re certainly wise to troubleshoot. Can’t just throw it off to the wind or a power surge or electrical short. In the days before Christmas last year, we’d actually/stupidly{!} turned off the alarm when my husband left very early one morning for work. Someone must have been lurking and seen him leave as I returned to bed in the dark house. What we deduced is that someone tried the doorknob…but then encountered my barking dog, who was frantic (and wildly attacking the door knob, which was a first for her … she often lays by the front door as protector when I’m alone in the house with her; just started doing it one day, my loyal big shepherd girl; how I adore her!). For the first time in a long, long time, my neighborhood then experienced a rash of attempted burglaries, a couple of which were successful although the police then thankfully got a handle on the problem with frequent patrols/presence, etc. … but, from now til New Year’s, I’ll be a bit “on duty” myself. I did my online holiday shopping in Sept and this month so that no packages will be sitting on my porch when I’m not here off & on in the coming holiday weeks, as we had a rash of thefts last year in our town with crooks following especially the UPS trucks and taking parcels from people’s doors before the homeowner could even react…and that was just one block over from where I live.
So, not to be TOO uneasy (hyper vigilance can undo you) and the main thing is that you’re doing all you can do with the alarm company and checking things out…but I understand how unnerving this is for you. I’ve been awakened by a smoke alarm in the wee hours and it’s completely disorienting and unsettling. (In that case, the furnace had come on in the night even though we’d turned it down…really chilly night…and we did indeed have a problem with some accumulation in the ducts, so the alarm did what it was supposed to do and we had the unit repaired the next day of course. Was a house we were renting.)
Maybe you could ask your near neighbors if they have been having anything weird going on?
My one story (above) wasn’t the first time somebody has tried a door knob on me. In my other house before this one, again my husband left fairly early for work although it wasn’t dark, just raining (there were former years when we DID have RAIN in SoCalif!!) and I got up just after he closed the front door to make sure he’d locked it, because he notoriously forgets to lock doors. I happened to glance out the peep hole and saw a small truck pull into the curb just up from my front yard, in the no-man’s land between our house and the one next door. I thought it was odd but nobody got out of the vehicle. I shrugged it off and left to go do something and, sure enough, my three dogs went nuts at the front door, so I looked out the peep hole again and the guy is retreating at a run, up my steps to the street. Never rang the bell; never knocked on the door. ‘Way too early for anybody being at the door in the first place. So, again, I do think he saw someone leave, thought the house might be empty, no lights on, somewhat dark in the rain and no neighborhood activity yet, very early in the morning … and he gave it a try. Bad guys looking for an opportunity. We didn’t have an alarm on that house. I totally called the police but I couldn’t give them much. Every single home in our small 9-house ‘block’ had been hit with burglaries except ours at that point. My dogs saved the day, though. Was bizarre and freaked me out! Later that week, a neighbor on the next street happened to glance out her window and saw three people trying to lift a ultra-heavy decorative stone fountain out of her front yard at 6am!
Our door was locked and the outside light hadn’t gone on, so I know it was something other than someone trying to get in. And if someone tries our doors, the alarm doesn’t go on. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to get back in after being away!
Surprise money is the best! I used to love Country Home….but sadly I didn’t keep any issues. Course that brings up another issue…what to save, and what to purge…and how much should we save? Good job on the book purging…I was clothes purging yesterday. Feels good to have that done. Surprised you even got back to sleep after your alarm went off. Hope you find out what happened. Enjoy your day! ;)
It took a couple of hours to get back to sleep, Donnamae.
We’re kindred spirits! I love Mary Engelbreit and the now defunct magazines you mentioned. I saved the paper dolls from the Mary Engelbreit magazines for my (hoped for) future granddaughters. Sadly they’re both not really into “girly” things and I’m sure my now 13 year old granddaughter just threw away the paper dolls I gave her. I can so relate to nightmares and broken sleep. Since Hurricane Matthew sent the pine tree through my roof I wake almost hourly every night and have had some very unsettling dreams. I’m so glad you got your insurance money back. Unexpected blessings are the best!
I know you’re still waiting to hear from the insurance company, Laura. I’m so sorry you have to go through this. Fingers crossed that you hear from them very soon!
Leading the Artful Life is such a beautiful book. Everything Mary Engelbreit does is done so well, such a talented woman. I do wish she would bring back her magazine.
How nice that the insurance company came through and did the right thing.
Have you considered listing your decorating or craft books on Etsy? If they are not vintage yet, you might be able to list them under supplies if they are craft oriented.
Wishing you sweet dreams and quiet alarm systems.
Too much work, Jay. Taking photos, listing them, then paying postage, etc. – I’d rather just donate them so someone else can enjoy them, free of charge.
Thanks so much, Jay!
Love a surprise check! I got a $10.00 rebate from Wrangler weeks and weeks later, made me smile. I also have all the back issues of ME Home Companion, sorted by seasons, and very well used. My favorite. I also like Mollie Makes, printed in England, but noticed the last issue (from Barnes & Noble) was nearly $ 15.00…..too much …our old bookstore (now closed) charged about $8.00. I still like real magazines and books, although I have access to digital, it’s just not the same!
Mollie Makes is too expensive as are all the Somerset publications. I just can’t afford that. In fact, I just recycled a bunch of Where Women Create magazines. Nowadays, I just look at them in the bookstore and I usually find there’s nothing there that I have to have.
Unexpected check in the mail!!! Such fun! My husband got a letter in the mail from “Nielsen” yesterday ~ the ratings people ~ asking him to take part in a radio survey. They enclosed a crisp dollar bill! Wonder if they consider that an incentive to take part?? Not sure what we will do with that windfall……..
Love ME and I thought she might bring back her magazine, too. Oh, I surely miss it. It is fun to look back. I never think her ideas go out of style.
So much purging to do. It never ends. Have a terrific Tuesday, and hope you get some ideas or suggestions from the alarm company on what might have happened.
We got something recently with a dollar bill! You have to hand it to these guys!
Hi,
I am happy you received your refund. I am writing to tell you to make sure you get a donation slip from your library for a tax deduction. I always get one from library when I donate books. I use the amount that the library charges for resale to claim. It is not a lot but everything helps.
Take Care,
Kaye
I don’t know if I will know what the library ends up charging. I know I should report these things on my taxes, but I usually don’t. We just donate and leave it at that!
I have saved many years worth of Victoria Magazine. There was an interruption of a couple years when it was out of publication but it was rescued and brought back to life! I love the magazine so much because it is beautiful visually and beautifully written. I understand how you feel about your favorite keepers. Whenever I need to de-stress and relax, I pull out my saved treasured magazines.
It is a great pleasure to donate books. I especially like to donate mine to the Women’s Prison Book Project.
It’s a lovely way to de-stress, isn’t it?
Yes, I love to donate books, Carolyn Marie. It’s very satisfying.
My security alarm failed twice…once, while I was pregnant, the alarm went off and I rushed downstairs with my baseball bat, 8 months pregnant… no intruder, all windows and doors locked. So I turned off the alarm. As I was climbing the stairs with the bat slung over my shoulder, my sleepy hubby came out of the bedroom, all groggy and asking, “what’s going on?”, as he was rubbing sleep out of his eyes. “Go back to bed, honey, I got it.” Turns out one of the contacts corroded, which can happen here, so close to salt water.
The second time, the internal alarm went off and it was so loud and went on and on. The security rep I called finally figured out the problem (the alarm wasn’t sounding outside, just inside, so we were even considering going to a hotel for the Ishtar!)…the battery ran out! He told me how to turn off the alarm and I went to Radio Shack the next day and bought the battery. That alarm was really obnoxious.
I loved ME Home Companion! I kept all the issues when I subscribed, but I don’t have all issues. I was disappointed, too, when I heard the magazine might resurface, but didn’t. My mom loves Cottage Living and was disappointed when the magazine went defunct.
Hurray for clearing out! I donated a trunkful yesterday (feels so good to clear stuff out), and sold three pairs of boots to the used clothing store. I had enough money to take my daughter to lunch, buy groceries, and have a bit left over!
So great you got the FULL refund!
Wow! What a story! I’m sure hoping Don figures this out, but he’s been gone all day, so I don’t think he’s called the alarm company yet.
Good news on your refund!! I too, saved all of those magazines which are no longer in production. ME was and probably will always be one of my very favorites! I just love her work and home décor. Bella’s favorite stuffed toy is her Lamb Chop. She loves that so much. She carries it around with her and anytime I am gone and come home, she’s standing at the front door with Lamb Chop in her mouth. Funny dog!!
Have a great week.
Judy
I love her, too, Judy! I think I have that little Lamb Chop – the one I call my Lamb Chop’s baby – because I got it in the dog toys aisle! Give Bella a kiss for me!
I too enjoyed those same three magazines and was so disappointed when they ceased publications. I kept the first and last copies of Home Companion just to save on space at our house. I so loved her decorating style. Now I get my magazine fix by checking out what’s new on Pinterest, but it’s just not the same.
I know everyone loves Pinterest, but there’s just too much there for me. I feel overwhelmed. I can’t remember the last time I was there. At least you enjoy it, Barbara, and that helps when magazines are going out of business!
I can’t bear to throw away my MEHC’s either!
Do you hear that, Mary? We’d love to see you back again.
At least I have a granddaughter to save the Ann Estelle paper dolls for…
Yes, Mary, we want you back!!
Funny how these insurance companies are so anxious to get your money but so slow at getting any money back to you…I miss ME magazine too and her precious whimsical art…I think I loved the paper dolls the most…I was a big fan of paper dolls when I was a kid…
I loved paper dolls when I was a kid, too. Brings back happy memories!
Congratulations on your check in the mail! Good things happen to good people. I, too, love Mary Engelbreit and have saved her old magazines. Nothing better to browse through. It is ridiculous what magazines cost now, especially the decorating ones. I used to buy a good many of them, but no more. $12.99 for a magazine? Ridiculous. I hope I can catch your tossing out binge. My house would thank you!
I know! They’re too pricey and none of them is as good as MEHC or Country Home or Cottage Living.
I have dozens of design books too, mostly from my 20s and 30s when I was doing that sort of thing. I don’t know if I could give them up though, because every once in a while I just love leafing through them & seeing all that beauty. And luckily there’s plenty of room for them too. At least, there is for now. My autobiography collection IS beginning to creep up on the available space. PS – isn’t the best mail ever when you get $$ you weren’t expecting?? And it only took 5 months1 LOL. Like finding a $20 bill on the sidewalk, or in the cushions of your sofa or something. Huzzah! You should do a little something fun with at least part of that money.
I kept most of my decorating books except for some that I just didn’t care for all that much. The good thing is that I’m reacquainting myself with the ones I do love!
Claudia, I haven’t read any of the above comments so I don’t know if this question was addressed, but the picture over the bookself of what looks like a wolf, I don’t believe I’ve seen you discuess it before. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before. Can you tell us something about it? Thank you.
I have written about it before, but it’s probably been a long time, Carol! Its called Lone Wolf and it’s seriously beautiful, with a wolf on a snowy hillside at night looking out over several houses with lights on. It’s in its original frame. We bought it many years ago in San Diego.
What a relief to know I’m not the only one who saves magazine. I was a charter subscriber to MEHC and still have every issue! My husband thinks it’s kind of weird I won’t part with them.
He just doesn’t understand how truly fabulous that magazine was, Kay!