I have been 2 busy!!

I know I have not posted in forever, but the entire month of May has been a blur. A tornado of activity, the likes of which I haven't seen in a long time! I really have to start at the beginning, when a sweet little "wicker" settee followed me home from the Habitat Bargain Barn at the end of April. Of course, it had no cushions, so a quick stop at Lowe's remedied that problem. Got it on the porch, and of course, the new cushions made the old cushions on the 2 green iron chairs look so bad...you know what's next, right? Back to Lowe's for new seats for them. Got them on the porch and all colorful new stuff made the rest of the porch look horrible!! Now, I've been wanting to redo this porch for awhile, but the sheer amount of stuff out there was daunting to say the least. Then one night my friend Steph was over, and after admiring a rearrangement of the living room, she informed me, as only a true friend will do, that the porch looked like crap! Thanks Steph...love ya too! But....she was right. So began the whirlwind month of May...cleaning, moving stuff, stuff & more stuff... cleaning some more, and finally painting! I live in a very old single wide mobile home, so I decided that I would paint the entire thing by hand, with a brush...a 3" brush, no less! I thought I would use this as" therapy"...there's something almost mindless about painting a sea of aluminum with a 3" brush. So I'm in "therapy"...and have been on every day off, cool mornings when I don't have to open the shop, some evenings when I get off work, and sometimes even in my sleep! So, it's cheaper than a shrink, or a grief counselor, and I do feel a real sense of achievement when I look at the house, but I have found and used muscles that have been ignored for far too long and are letting me know it! Now, the end of May is almost here, and all the "fun" parts of the house are painted. I'm am now facing a 60' x 8' expanse of ugly old aluminum, broken up by a shed, 1 door and 3 windows...arrggh!!! That's a whole lot o' brush strokes. Hey, maybe I'll have muscles in my arms after all this, instead of that weird thing I call the Granny Flap! Hmm...that shrink's couch is starting to sound better and better. Just kidding...I find that I feel much better when I am busy right now, and now I have the added benefit of my neighbors yelling "WOW!" at me as they walk by my house! Not bad for a 3" brush!! Boy, this post is really wordy...so I'll pop in some more pictures, and let them do the talking. My arms are getting tired...again!! Have a great week *elaine* ps...please ignore any weird, jarring elements in these photos if you look at them enlarged. The bottom of the mobile will be skirted, as soon as I can figure out a way to do it without taking out a second mortgage...oh and excuse the morning's gardening socks in 1 picture...what's that? You didn't see that? Okay...never mind. :o}