Valance Victory

I finally got the guest bath valance made and hung to match the custom shower curtain. The olive pom-pom fringe was the perfect finishing touch; I was so excited when I found the whole bolt on clearance at Hobby Lobby for just a few dollars. I had to order the Waverly fabric online (from their Colonial Williamsburg collection), but I railroaded the print so I only needed a few yards.

The bamboo poles were at a discount/salvage store; I think they were meant for fishing rods or gardening stakes since they were in the outdoor section, but I thought they would make lovely and inexpensive custom rods. They cut really easily with the miter saw, too. I just wrapped the spot with tape so the pole wouldn't splinter and chopped through. It was hard to find brackets and curtain rings big enough for the large diameter bamboo, but I finally rounded up the right ones at Lowes and Target, respectively. I thought about doing a grommet heading, but I'm happy with the way this turned out. I still need to decide about painting the blind slats or replacing it with a woven shade. Stay tuned for the exciting decorating developments!

Making Contact

Since Jeff and I will soon be in Sandusky with one of the largest gatherings we've enjoyed in recent years, I thought an updated version of the old-fashioned calling card was in order. We haven't seen some of our old friends in quite a long time and are bound to make plenty of new ones. Having a card with address, phone number, and emails will save me from writer's cramp in an attempt to exchange contact information with everyone.

So, I used a site from which I've ordered business cards in the past and designed a "family card". Here's the finished product! (I've blurred the contact information just for Internet privacy, but it's quite legible on the real deal ;-)

Movie Time!

Jeff took me to the city's free "movie in the park" Saturday night to see Singin' in the Rain on the big (inflatable) screen. It was so much fun! We brought our popcorn and drinks, chairs, and a blanket and enjoyed a cool evening breeze under the stars with Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds. Jeff even had fun, too! (Since we've been taking ballroom lessons, he's been more tolerant of dancing scenes in general; and what man can't admire the athleticism and stamina of Gene Kelly ;-)

Jeff had watched a number of my favorite musicals with me in the first few years of our marriage, but he had never seen this one. I'm often quoting my favorite lines and songs ("And I can't stand him", said more like "an' Ih caaan't stan' 'em", and of course the "Good Morning" song), so he finally got to see the context.

Interesting notes: Debbie Reynolds was only 19 years old when she starred in this, her first, movie. Gene Kelly was paid $2500 per week, and she received just $300! She ended up on bed-rest for three days after weeks of training under Gene Kelly himself to prepare for the role. And, to add insult to real physical injury, some of her vocals and tap-dance tapping still were dubbed in by others. But there is no doubt from her later works that she really could dance and sing!

What are we to be called?

Evans' Family Crest

We had someone ask us recently whether, in referring to multiple of us in the Evans family, it should be "Evans" or "Evanses". I know the rule for possessive; since it is a two syllable word and ends in an "s", you just add an apostrophe if speaking of the Evans' house, the Evans' dog, etc. But what if someone isn't talking about our things, but about the plural us? As in, "those wonderful Evans(es)"? I did some research and found this:

When a family name (a proper noun) is pluralized, we almost always simply add an "s." So we go to visit the Smiths, the Kennedys, the Grays, etc.When a family name ends in s, x, ch, sh, or z, however, we form the plural by added -es, as in the Marches, the Maddoxes, the Bushes, the Rodriguezes. Do not form a family name plural by using an apostrophe; that device is reserved for creating possessive forms.

When a proper noun ends in an "s" with a hard "z" sound, we don't add any ending to form the plural: "The Chambers are coming to dinner" (not the Chamberses); "The Hodges used to live here" (not the Hodgeses). There are exceptions even to this: we say "The Joneses are coming over," and we'd probably write "The Stevenses are coming, too." A modest proposal: women whose last names end in "s" (pronounced "z") should marry and take the names of men whose last names do not end with that sound, and eventually this problem will disappear.

Since I failed to follow their suggestion and instead went from a rather simple last name with no troublesome s's at all to one with various rules and too many exceptions, I must now pay the price and try to resolve this. So we Evans(es) end in an "s", but with the "z" sound, so we fit the second rule; but the exception examples of Jones and Stevens sound an awful lot like Evans, so we're back to square one. I think, after this inconclusive research, either way would probably be correct! I will defer to my husband on his preference for the additional "es", since he's had the name longer and has a greater vested interest ;-)

I've been "published"!

Wow, the Internet really gets around! About a month ago I posted my avocado bathroom remodel on one of my favorite sites, the Home Decorating forum at GardenWeb. That site gets a lot of traffic, so you never know who might respond to a post or see a thread. Well, I guess the powers-that-be at iVillage read it and wrote a short item on their Home and Garden digest House Calls! You can view their blurb here.

And here is my original thread at GardenWeb with photos, details, and instructions. I guess I'm going to have to really buckle down and finish some other on-going projects around the house so I don't let my new-found fans down ;-)

Looking up

We returned home well after dark last night following a late dance class, and the full moon was already quite high in the sky. This gave Jeff a perfect opportunity to try out his new telescope, since any astronomical object must be well above the horizon to be seen from our yard with the forest of pine trees sheltering the neighborhood. He strategically parked the pickup truck and used the roof of the cab to steady his new Celestron. So there we were last night, standing in the bed of the truck observing the brilliant moon, and wondering how long it had been since we last had a good long upward look at the sky.