And Then Sometimes The Picture Turns Out Like This

So, my Pops always likes to take pictures of my sisters and me and our families in all our Easter Finery Glory in front of the same dogwood every year.

Love - LOVE - my Pops, but his photography skills are not always stellar. This one in particular cracked me up today:

* Poor Matthew - who HATES to have his picture taken - looks like he is getting his fingernails ripped out.

* Michael on the other hand, merely seems to have his sweet little eyebrows attached to an invisible string that Al is pulling behind him. Could those eyebrows BE any higher?

* And then there's me and my hair. Working the Miraculous Finger Comb. And also, evidently getting ready for a big smooch.

* Bless his heart, Alan is our pinch hitter looking the most normal of the group. And yet, still wearing the cell phone that I Asked Him To Remove.

How in the WORLD did Andrea get us to clean up so good????

Nellie is Finished!

True Horribly Embarrassing Confession [side note: and why am I even confessing this other than I've operated on No Holds Barred before and am continuing the trend]: I watched every episode of "Denise Richards: It's Complicated" over the past few days. Yes, it's mindless and shallow. Maybe I've needed a little mindless and shallow this week (or maybe not and I'm trying to justify myself). In any case here are four revelations that I did not anticipate:

a. Denise really seems like a nice person. Of course, she tends to run on the trashy side, but she really comes through for her friends and family.

b. Denise is a total animal nut. She may even be an Animal Hoarder like the crazy folks up the street from me. Fortunately, her animals appear healthy, so I wasn't tempted to steal them away like I was the pitiful mange-y cat from the Cat Hoarders house that I encountered on my dog walk this week.

c. Denise totally needs to learn to not talk with food in her mouth. She's adorable, yes, but not so much with the salad falling out of her mouth.

c. Denise has the greatest relationships with her sister and father (mother passed away a couple of years ago). I really think they would do anything for each other and everyone is so extremely supportive of each other. It was very refreshing to see this, actually. For some unknown reason, Denise and her sister, Michelle, call each other "Nellie." After hearing this 4024 times in these episodes, the name grew on me a bit. And seemed to fit my little transformation below:

Nellie circa November 2010 at my Shoppe

Nellie today in my foyer!

For The Maybe 1.5 of You Still Out There That Check In On This Blog

Well. Hello there. Shock of the world, I actually still am alive. And yes, that is about the 936th time I've said that.

For shame! Why in the world have I let work, and well, life, get in the way again of my blogging? TEN DEMERITS!

Surprise: the china hutch has been completed and sitting in my entryway for a couple of months. Pictures to follow! How have you been surviving without knowing it's completion status?

Surprise: in the meantime, I have also painted (pictures to follow!) Alan's grandparents' dining table that we received when they passed away. We used to use it as a dining room table with the leaves in (we'll put it in the kitchen sans leaves), but it got replaced by this beauty. Alas it's also been sitting in our garage for a couple of months - painted white, but not poly-ed - so now it needs another coat of paint thanks to...

Surprise: I bought another dresser at Wonder Store (which, side note: seems to be upping their prices a bit) and used Alan's grandparents table to hold my project supplies while I rehabbed the dresser. Did you follow that? And let me tell you, this dresser looked like it had been sitting in someone's moldy basement and had been a residence for a rodent type. However, it's found a new life with some sanding, painting (silver metallic spray paint! Yippee!), and well, just cleaning in our living room. Pictures to follow!

Best Surprise: I had such a kind, sweet thing happen today: I received a comment from someone I don't know (Dana!) regarding my tufted ottoman post. Now, folks, this has never happened before. And frankly, I've been so terribly sporadic in posting, I didn't hold out much hope for hearing from people I DO know again. But it's just fun to "meet" other bloggers and to follow the trail of getting to know others from the comments you (or they leave) on some of your favorite blogs. She found me from this blog, which you know I love. The beauty of this is, her blog is also right up my alley, and I would be remiss if I didn't pass it along to those of you out there who are DIY-ers and/or have interest in design. And if that's not you, go check it out anyway because she is about as cute as they come.

Stay tuned. Please?