If you give a girl too much medication...

She will redecorate your whole house

Below is my version of If you Give a Pig a Pancake.

Last year I had mono all summer. By fall I was itching to do things but the doctors discovered I have a thyroid problem. I had been monitoring it for several years and it finally decided to start acting up enough for me to become a pin cushion every six weeks and get an ultrasound every six months. So I started meds and then they upped my dose. I felt pretty good. Really really good in fact. I was like a toddler on a basket of Halloween candy.  Found out later it was a wee bit much, but man was I a one woman team of accomplishment. Maybe a "little" irritable and twitchy but my house is starting to look great. They downed my meds and suddenly I was getting half as much done but probably a nicer to deal with.

So enjoy my trip into insanity. My husband didn't, but my house sure did.All these projects were completed from mid September to mid November.

One late September morning, I looked at my drapes and decided I no longer liked them. So I took them down. While taking them down I got a good look at the wallpaper border in the kitchen and decided that it too had to go.

 So I removed it. The walls didn't look good with it off so I painted...

 The entire downstairs.

While painting the downstairs I looked in my dining room and decided it need a window treatment. So I made one. Through the window I saw some really ugly bushes.

So I decided to rip them out.My husband came home from work and said, "honey where is the hedge?"


 And plant Blueberry bushes in their place.


And since I already had a shovel in my hand I might as well take out some other bushes while I was at it.



Now I was all sweaty so I decided to take a shower and found that I really hated the flooring in my bathroom.(That is my daughter who decided to help paint the walls on a different project and a whole other hilarious story)

So I tore it out and put down tile.

Very satisfied with the new tile I decided to treat myself to a nice game on the computer, but when I got to the office I noticed the wallpaper was peeling so I started taking it off.  (old picture but you can really see the paper)

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 And noticed that the carpet was in really bad shape. So I ripped up the flooring and put down hardwood.

 

Then I discovered the walls needed paint too.

So I painted the room.

If they up my meds again, I might decide I no longer like the drapes in the living room.

Adventures of a repressed farmer

So what can a repressed gardener do over the winter? Way too many things. Planning and planning and planning and maybe some more planning to the point your husband thinks moving to a southern location might work just so you can get outside and start planting three weeks earlier or...channel that energy into fun projects. I found time to do both.

I love home improvement. Not as much as my growing things but breaking things or building things can help me pass the winter season. I love the winter as much as a cat loves taking a bath or maybe as much as my son loved taking his first bath.

My mom should have named me Demeter, as it was she stuck me with the name April which was probably just as prophetic. I could easily climb under a blanket in January and hibernate until mid March. Bears have the right idea and I think that I have ample fat stores that could support that kind of lifestyle. In addition, I have more blankets than the average toddler, in various colors and fabrics of course (I love you Target), the weight alone could crush a small mastodon. So if I am not being clear, I really hate winter. A lot. Really. A lot.

But I did get some interior work finished so here is my first project:

Painting and flooring in the office.

Old ugly peeling wallpaper and nasty 20 year old carpet...

I am not thrilled with the wall color but I painted it, fauxed it twice with two different techniques so I just wanted to be done. I don't like painting with blue. For some reason the color multiples and looks way darker than you expect. My husband really wanted blue. He does a great job with the fact that I use flowers (not cheesy yucky ones but nice attractive and stylish ones) in my decorating with what can only be described as an alarming frequency and passion. Flowers are pretty and make me happy.

So while the end result isn't the epitome of office sophistication I was hoping for, I have to admit it looks a lot better. Bonus, the hardwood flooring doesn't bother my husband's allergies.