HATE CRIMES...

I normally try to keep this blog light hearted and show only pretty things here but I just have to share this with you all today, especially those of you who have children.

Well where do I begin today except for to say that I am in fear for my daughter's physical well-being.

Why?  Because there's a little girl (soon to be graduate) at school who has been bullying our daughter for a while now.  She has been telling her that if she ever gets the chance she is going to "wreck" my daughter's car and more recently she has told my daughter on more than one occasion that if she could get her hands on her she would KILL her. We have told our daughter to just ignore her and that her threats were idle.  You know how teenagers are...but in light of what happened at our house the other night, we are thinking that maybe we should take these threats a little more seriously.

 Late Tuesday night or in the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday someone, a stranger, came to our residence and unloaded a fire extinguisher inside my little girls pretty little red Mustang, coating everything with yellow powder (Mono Ammonium Phospate). They then turned around and got into my husband's car where they rifled through his glove box, left the owner's manual and papers out on the passenger side seat and stole his briefcase which held his laptop computer.  The van and truck were undisturbed.

The police have informed us that they think this is just a "harmless" little teenage prank and that there is nothing to be concerned about, but I don't think it's so harmless.  If this bully has carried through with her threat to "wreck" Kayla's car, I wonder if she is dangerous enough to attempt carrying through with her threat to Kill my daughter.  There are so many hate crimes among teenagers these days that you just never know what a person is capable of.

Truthfully and in all honesty we don't know at this point if the girl at school is the one who did this (or is behind this little "prank") but I just can't believe this is coincidence or that it was a random act of mischief.  I believe that whoever did this knew exactly who's car they were vandalizing.  They may not have gone in intending to steal a laptop, it just happened to be there for the taking, but I do believe they intended their attack against my daughter.

Oh and I just received word while I was typing this, that they also took my daughter's backpack from her car. I guess I will be making another call to the police this evening.

I hate to accuse someone of something without knowing the truth but it's just my gut feeling, a mother's instinct, that "she"...the bully, had something to do with all this and now I fear for my daughter.  What will this girl do next?  If she gets in trouble for this incident will she blame my daughter and then commence to commit murder?

I know this sounds overly dramatic but this sort of thing...HATE CRIMES...is happening all over our country.  People, including teenagers, have gone off the deep end, shooting people and robbing people simply because they look different or have a different social or religious background.  Who knows what their reasoning is.

What's a person to do to protect themselves and their property from these haters? We feel violated and vulnerable.  It's scary to think that people would just come onto your property, take and do what they will while you are sleeping.

I do know this one thing for sure, whether the authorities find out who did this or not, that by this weekend a camera surveillance system will be installed on our property.  Not one person, or animal, will step foot on our property without us knowing about it.  And, if they do find out who did this, I just want to tell them that though I am a merciful person, I do not consider these acts of theirs a prank as they are not funny to me. We will be pressing charges...two counts of tampering with a motor vehicle and two counts stealing.  Both of which are felonies.

Sorry for rambling there with a little threat of my own...huh, huh (clearing throat).  I know this is not a pretty post but if you have teenagers in your house who are being bullied, or any other child for that matter, please don't ignore it.  Go to their school authorities and report any verbage or confrontations to them.  You might also inform your local police officers of such things.  You can also file a formal ex parte order of protection against them at your local courthouse for free if you feel you need to.  It never hurts to be safe!

Also, if you can afford it, install a home surveillance system.  They aren't cheap but it's for certain that if someone does do something to you or your property, they will not get away with it.

Anyway, sorry for this heavy topic today, but if it helps just one person avoid being the victim of a hate crime, then it was worth every word.

Thanks for listening...

SOFA SLIPCOVERS AND A PEEK AT A VINTAGE FREEBIE...

Top of the morning to ya my friends.  What a great day to be alive!  Though it's still chilly downright cold in our neck of the woods, the sun is shining and it looks as if the rest of the week will be boasting Spring temps. I love spring and I don't know about you, but I am ready to get out in the yard and do a little gardening. Better yet I am ready to break out a couple large glasses of Iced Tea and do a little sitting and chatting on the screened porch. Sounds like fun, don't it?  Maybe you can join me.

In the meantime let's talk about some slipcovers I ordered from SureFit.  I ordered a sofa cover and loveseat cover a while back.  They arrived right before leaving for Illinois...

Now I know you might be wondering why I ordered slipcovers since I just got the new furniture in December...

Well, it's like this, we needed to protect the new furniture from the cat who has decided it's her new scratching post. She has not left it alone since it arrived. We have sprayed her with water and we lock her down in the basement when we're gone but, she is relentless and possibly even retarded, because no matter how much we spray her or lock her downstairs she just keeps doing it. Did I ever tell you she was a Nuisance? Fitting name don't ya think?

We were thinking about getting her declawed but I really don't like doing that. I think it's inhumane, but that's me. Besides, buying slipcovers was cheaper than a trip to the vet and it was my opportunity to get the color furniture I have wanted from the very beginning...white (or off-white I should say).

I purchased the stretch damask slipcovers in Ivory/Oyster when SureFit had them buy one get one 20% off. I love the raised damask pattern.  It's so pretty and I think it goes perfect with my old house...

While I will say that I am not a slipcover sort of person because I don't like things that look all mussed up, I do like these.  Though they are a little too big, they are stretchy and can be pulled tight and tucked in good. They are wrinkle resistant, unlike cotton or canvas slipcovers, so they always look nice and crisp, which is a plus in my book;and, they are WASHABLE.  We need that in my house!  They are also easy to put on and take off which is GOOD because I don't like fussing with stuff!

Another good thing, Nuisance has not tried clawing at the furniture since I put these on it.  Go figure! Anyway, though I would prefer to not have to use slipcovers at all, I really do like these.

Now onto some other happy news...

I have been looking for a large mirror for the dining room.  I wanted something vintage and have been looking everywhere but had not found ANYTHING that I liked.  Well, it just so happened that my mother-in-law had this...

and was getting ready to throw it away because the bottom side broke off.  I had never seen it in their house so I don't know where she got it, but she said I could have it.  Oh and by the way, she said, "Do you want the mirror that goes in it?"  REALLY!  You know I said yes.

I got out the Gorilla Glue and attached the bottom side last night.  I will be working on putting the mirror in soon.  I HOPE to get it hung by the weekend.  I'm SOOOO excited!

And, for all of you who spied the crumbs on the rug, I might even vacuum this weekend too! Hahaha.

Until I see you next time, have a great day!

PAINT, HARDWARE & LIGHTS IN THE KITCHEN...

Happy Monday y'all!  How was your weekend?

This weekend was a productive one at my place.  I finished up painting the kitchen cabinets and installed new hardware, then the hubs installed a couple new pendant lights up over the sink for me.

I am really starting to love this little farmhouse kitchen of mine now.  What started out as a barely functional, horribly ugly, dirty and tiny little kitchen is really taking shape and just might end up being my favorite room in the whole house.  Well here, instead of me just talking about it, let me show you all the details...

Looking pretty good, huh?  The fresh white paint really brightened these cabinets up and the new hardware and lights are the icing on the cake!

We will be replacing the formica on the counter soon, I hope. I want to go with a black granite look. However, we have never worked with formica so we have kind of been putting this job off.  At $80 a sheet we would hate to botch things up, if you know what I mean. In the meantime and for the sake of pictures for the Historical Society, I am just going to glue the missing strip back on.

The new hardware is from Lowes. I suppose the old hardware would have sufficed but the knobs were stripped and kept falling off...A REAL PAIN...and the drawer pulls were fine but very utilitarian so I went with something that I feel looks more suited to this old house...BIN PULLS...

Though the new hardware set me back about $75.00, it was worth every penny!  OH, I AM SO IN LOVE!!!

I am even more in love with the new lights over the sink....

The old ones never worked right.  Not only were they too flush against the wall making it impossible to change the light bulbs, they flickered on and off too.  We never used them out of fear they would start a fire. Needless to say it was kind of hard doing dishes.

In case you are wondering, I didn't have any reservations about getting rid of the old, ugly lights either because they were NOT original to the house. The last owners ran wiring just for the sake of installing lights over the sink but put them in a bad spot and then wired them wrong...the dummies! But now we have LIGHTS, real working, correctly wired lights over the sink. The hubs rewired everything, including the switch and outlet and installed the new fixtures in a better spot. He's such a sweetie!!! Now if I could just get him to do the dishes, hehehe.

I chose inexpensive pendant fixtures from Lowes in brushed nickel ($15.00 each) and added beautiful mother of pearl mosaic globes (Lowes $17.00 each)...

PERFECTLY GORGEOUS!, aren't they?

While I still have bunches of projects left to do in here like...install new Formica counter tops,  make window treatments and paint the ceiling...just to name a few, I am so very happy with how this sweet little farmhouse kitchen is coming along.

Until next time, have a wonderful day!






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