Evolution Of The Gallery Wall

A month ago I asked chatGPT to recommend a design update for this wall in my living room. 

Because I am using the free version, I am limited to how many pictures I can download and questions I can ask in a 24 hour period.  There was a lot to work through so it took some time.  Plus, every time I asked for it to mock up an image, it would change a major unchangeable item. 

These were the pictures I started with. 

I spent a lot of time working on different layouts. 

I streamlined the room and started with a blank slate on the wall. 

After asking real life people, I changed the layout again. 

There was lots of measuring and contemplating.  And maybe a few extra holes in the wall. 

But I finally finished it. I asked chatGPT to evaluate it. 

It wants me to raise it up 4 more inches (even though it recommended earlier to start it 6-8 inches lower),remove the horse brasses (lower right) and somehow tighten it up even more.

Joe said he liked it. I will take his opinion over chatGPT any day.   Now I get to look for an interesting mid century bench to replace the chest. 

Calm Before The Storm

Snowmageddon 2026 is being predicted for this weekend. 

As you can tell from the map, we don’t know a whole lot yet.  

But we could use a little moisture. The dry weather has been great for Joe to be able to get around the farm with the tractor feeding. But it hasn’t been so good to keep the water troughs full.   This one is in the horse field. The 10 cows from the cattle drive earlier are now here. They will have to be moved tomorrow so hopefully the trough will fill up some before the arctic blast freezes everything solid. 

On my way down the driveway going to work this morning I had to stop and take a picture of the beautiful sunrise. It looks like the calm before the storm  

I also have an update on my shades. I think they look nice from the outside.  But I needed them last month when we had a crew putting a new roof on the house. 

I will have to brag on the double sided tape I got to attach the fabric to the metal rod.   It actually came from Dollar General (I had a $3 off $15 that was good all month not just on Saturday). There were rave reviews. So far it is working great.   I would highly recommend it if you need strong double sided tape. 

 

DIY Roller Shades

The last time I pulled down the cheap vinyl roller blinds in my bedroom, they smelled so bad I had to leave the room.  It is hard to tell what sort of toxic fumes they were emitting.  I had a thought about ordering some custom shades but that thought disappeared when I saw the price.

  

Let’s see if this could be a successful DIY.  I had a piece of fabric that was large enough but I didn’t like how bold the pattern was.  Solution, use the back side.  I took the existing shade and threw away the vinyl but kept the rod.  There was a lot of measuring and ironing.  I used stitch witchery to bind the edges.

I also changed the shades from inside mount to outside mount.  Because I had wooden valances that I didn’t want to take down, it required a lot of tools to finally attach the hardware. 

Tada!  With the sun coming through you still see the pattern but it is very muted. 

I need to check from the outside tomorrow and see what it looks like from that direction.  I am not quite finished. I need to get some doubled sided tape to attach the fabric to the pole.  I just used scotch tape to test it out.   And I need to get something to use as the bottom bar.  So far, I have just used stuff I already had.  The same thing on Blinds.com for the three I just made, would  have been over $1000.  I am counting this as a DIY success.

 

Happy Birthday, Almost

With lots of love and family we celebrated Sadie's 5th birthday (2 days early).  After a meal at Cracker Barrel, her choice, we reconvened at my house for cake and presents.  

Sadie and Allie have had colds recently and no one wanted her blowing on the cake.  So she got 5 candles on a cupcake. 

She may have gotten more presents than Christmas.  A big hit was the special jewelry from Gigi. 

She did not get bongo drums.  Those are Joe's from Christmas.  

I think Allie knows that she will get to play with everything too.  Plus, her other grandmother brought her a big bag of gifts.  

Mike tried out the "wall walker" trying to get a spider web off of the ceiling for me.  

Linda and Ann helped Sadie was her "rescue" pet, a stuffy wrapped in a net that dissolved in water to reveal what kind of animal.  Then there was a lot of towel drying, blow drying and combing.  

But the most time was taken up pickle hunting.  I hid it really well this year.  

Virginia had set up a family survey and presented the results in a very professional and humorous format. 

Joe won, "who would last the longest without their phone".  Now that he has a new iPhone 16e, we will see if that holds true.  

More blow drying of the stuffy.  

And Matt was the pickle champ.  His persistence paid off and he was rewarded with a cereal box Spiderman watch. 

 

25 Days Of Christmas, Day 20

"When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter...

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof, The prancing and pawing of each little hoof."

Not exactly Santa's reindeer, but there was quite the clatter.  Today they started working of the new roof we contracted for 3 months ago.

And they decided to try to turn around a ton truck in the narrowest part of the driveway. 

 

"With a little old driver, so lively and quick," NOT!

 My birdbath is now completely trashed.  

On a happier note, Sadie and Allie came today to spend the night.  They wanted to watch Unicorn Academy first.  But I said, "let's ride a real unicorn."   They decided this was a good idea.  Plus, they had on the proper attire.  

We also decked out Clyde in all the red things I could find in the tack room.  We even tied jingle bells in his mane.  

If you tune up the volume you can hear the bells jingle as Clyde trots.  

Allie still does not want to trot but she does like to walk fast.  

I took over leading her and Sadie played in the sand.  After we finished riding, we make molasses cookies, watched one episode of Unicorn Academy, played witches and princesses, walked to the tiny house, fed the dogs and ate out at CJ's.  Sadie even admitted that she was tired.  

 

Unexpected Visitor

Emily and Keiran came to visit for a couple of days. They left this morning after I had gone to work and Joe had left out for the day. On my way home from work I got a slightly panicked call from Joe. When he had gotten home the walk through garage door was open and the door from the garage to the house was open. When Joe stepped into the house, whoosh, the stray tom cat that has been hanging around occasionally ran out of the laundry room and into the house. Joe went on a cat hunt and found Kit Kat upstairs on a bed. But he could not find the stray. 

When I got home I joined the hunt. I found him under the cedar chest in our bedroom.

Now, what to do with a wild cat in your house. 

I opened some windows hoping he would jump  out. 

But no, he just jumped everywhere else. 

He even tried to climb the bookshelves.  That's him on the 5th shelf up.   I told Joe to get the fishing net. His response was, “do we have a fishing net?”  He found it and I slithered under the bed where the cat was hunkered down. Joe waited on the other side of the bedroom door. 

I am a professional, don’t try this at home. I was able the get the hissing and spitting cat into the net and threw it (gently) out the window.  I spent the next two hours trying to rid the bedroom of tom cat odor.  Luckily, I have couponed for a wide variety of cleaners and air fresheners. 

Meanwhile, Kit was relaxing on the back porch. He has been grounded and banned

 from having anymore friends over. Emily and Keiran will get a lesson on how to close a door. 

And I may have to get rid of the doormat in the laundry room. Looks like the whole thing could be my fault. 

 

Three Things

1- I finally got the wall pockets from my brother hung yesterday after a Mike marked the studs for me.  

After arranging and rearranging them, I finally decided on this placement.  Right now I just have some succulents in three.  I might change that out eventually.  I was thinking about orchids but succulents are what I currently have.

2- Had a nice just walking ride on Hugo today.

We haven’t had rain in over a month.  Things are really drying up and getting critical. 

But the views were still nice.

 3- While watering some flowers next to the porch, I saw this very long snake skin.  I will have to stay alert when I am working in the yard.   Maybe it can catch a couple of rabbits. 

Hugo Monday

I have been a little off on blogging lately. I had to work an extra day last week and this week.  I have also had a bad cold and now a very painful ear infection.  But Monday I did manage a ride on Hugo. 

He doesn’t really need lunging but it is his idea.  He runs into the barn and just starts trotting circles.  Sometimes I am able to get him to stop quickly and get him caught.  But other times it can take up to 20 minutes before he will let me catch him.  He is an odd horse.  

 He is getting much better at stopping, backing, side passing, and moving off my leg.  He is still not much for cantering.  He usually starts pacing.  We are pretty sure he is part walking horse.  But his trot is pretty nice.   Now that I am on an antibiotic and ear drops maybe I will start feeling better and get back to blogging.