Oct 5, 2015

Marvelous Monday Update 10/5/15

THEATRE
Over the weekend, I went to see The Crucible at a local community theater.  The actors and actresses were fantastic.  The young actress who played Betty was a bit fidgety while in a coma.  She kept rubbing her eyes and running her tongue over her teeth, LOL.

The 1953 play by Arthur Miller dramatized and partially fictionalized the story of the the Salem witch trials.  A small group of teen girls in Salem, Massachusetts were caught dancing and conjuring with a slave girl in the woods.  To avoid being punished, the girls tell lies that Satan had invaded them and forced them to participate in the rites.  It quickly escalates into witchcraft accusations of upstanding members of the community.  Thrown into the mix are greedy preachers, landowners trying to steal others' land, and one young woman infatuated with a married man and determined to get rid of his innocent wife. Arthur Miller wrote the events and the subsequent trials where those who demanded their innocence were executed, those who would not name names were incarcerated and tortured, and those who admitted their guilt were immediately freed.  The play was written as a parable of the Congressional Communist witch hunts led by Senator Joe McCarthy in 1950's America.

DIY
Since my parent's estate auction was an epic disappointment, we decided not to sell the house until after we've done some work on it.  My brothers have done a great job putting a new steel roof.  We can now repair the plaster in the living room where the months and months AND months of rain caused a collapse two days before the auction. 

Since there's a lot of walls to be painted, I invested in a Wagner Sidekick.  Years ago, I had a Wagner Power Roller -- the Sidekick is the newest version.  I've finished painting one of the bedrooms using it.  It makes the job go a lot faster.

This room was turquoise/cobalt blue!
 I've started to scrape the peeling paint off the walls in my old bedroom.  It's a messy, messy job!
Not sure why the paint was peeling in the room, but all the walls looked like this.

East Wall - Scraping in process!
South Wall - More Scraping
STITCHY STUFF
This was a quick stitch, but a bit fiddly to put together.  Several years ago, Glenda in MT sent me a RAK of gold DMC memory thread.  This design called for brown memory thread, so I improvised and spray painted it with expresso I had left over from ABC Lessons.

Design:  Heads Up
Designer:  Cherrywood Design Studio
Magazine: 2012 Just Cross Stitch Ornament issue
Fabric:  28ct White Linen
Fibers:  DMC
Embellishments:  Handmade cording, 
DMC memory thread arms, fabric scarf

17 comments:

Joy said...

That snowman has called out to me before. How hard was it to assemble?

Denise SA said...

Hope your decorating goes smoothly love the snowman

Unknown said...

Looks like you have your work cut out for you. Your new gadget will come in handy.
Love your snowman - I've never seen that one before!

Christina G said...

This looked like really hard work. Hope you get a good amount for this property.

Vickie said...

Wow! What a lot of hard work you and your siblings are putting into the house.

Snowman is adorable.

Deb said...

Wow, that is a lot of work. Will look fabulous when you are finished. I hope you get better results with that house sale.
Adorable snowman. Clever to paint the thread!

Sue said...

Love the snowman!!! Too cute. You are one of the most hard working ladies I know! You are doing a fantastic job. Don't work too hard, though...........take more time for YOU.

Love you,
SM

Thoeria said...

The snowman is adorable!!
That's a LOT of hard work you're doing there! Honestly.....I wouldn't know the first thing to do!

Faith... said...

Good luck with the painting, I hope your investments pay off when you sell. Cute snowman!

Anonymous said...

Your snowman finish is adorable. WOW that's alot of scrapping & repainting. I know it look great when finished though.
Betty in AZ

*-* said...


Lots of improvements to your Parent's home along with all the painting to make it look good.
I love the snowman, how cute.
Kay.

Katie said...

What a job you've been doing. I'm sure it will look amazing when you are done. Love the snowman!! Too adorable. Congrats.

gominam said...

Wow, amazing how you get this done, how many more rooms? Love the pretty snowman:)

Akila said...

Wow, that's a lot of painting you have to do. The snowman is so cute

Anonymous said...

I know that is a lot of work to get the house fixed up and in good order to sell.

Love the snowman.

Marl

Carol said...

If your siblings are anywhere near as handy as you, Meari, you'll all have the house looking shipshape very soon! Best of luck with all that painting--glad to read you invested in something to help it go quicker.

Oh, the snowman is adorable--I may just have to take another look at that chart in the JCS issue! And only you would think of spray painting the memory thread and having it turn out so good!! Well done!

Vickie said...

Where do you get all your energy??? Remodeling a house, stitching and finding time to exercise....you make me tired!!!

Love everything!!!