It's a NEW YEAR!!

I have been "on vacation" for twelve days. I haven't gone anywhere, just to my Mom's for Christmas celebrations and to see family members and a store now and then. Lisa and I did get to see "Doubt" and it was really good. Don't miss it. Meryl Streep won't disappoint you and the setting is exactly as it was in 1964 when I was in first grade in a Catholic school. I also had a fun New Year's Eve party.
What I did do over these past twelve days is get lots of sleep and accomplish many things on a long "to do list". Knowing that I was taking off several days around the holidays, I kept adding to my list which included cleaning the oven, cook top and refrigerator (they are now sparkly clean), dusting, vacuuming, and decluttering the whole house, replace the smoke detector and thermostat batteries, updating my finances in Quicken, organizing and filing important papers in my home office, purchasing items for my bathroom makeover, priming the walls in the bathroom. I also watched lots of movies on TV for the second or third time and spent quality time with my feline friends. There were occasional opportunities for snow shoveling but my neighbor has been very good to me so I only needed to do the lighter work. I didn't do any quilting but I did manage to knit about one half of a new winter scarf and I made a list of quilt projects for the future.
Here are some pictures from some of my renovation projects:

This is in my family room. I primed and painted this one panelled wall over the long Thanksgiving weekend. I used lots of blue tape and a really good primer. I had to prime and paint the windows too.

From another angle.

The wall and windows are painted but I am still awaiting my contractor friend to add the new crown molding. The room is much brighter now. The walls are a light beige and the windows and trim are glossy bright white. I like the new roman shades.

Muffin and Seally in a rare moment. Muffin is actually laying over top of Seally. He is a heat seeking feline in the cold winter months. When I paint, I turn the heat down and the cats obviously get chilled.

The first floor bathroom before the priming but after all the towel bars and window treatments have been removed. Preparation takes most of the time in a painting job. I can't believe I really liked this wallpaper at one time. It is so dated.....mauve, teal and dusty blue...yucky to me now.

Partially primed.

The bathroom is 4 feet by 6 feet. I decided not to remove the wallpaper. I did that years ago.......never again. Everyone counseled me not to paint over the wallpaper. I did it anyway. I bought a really good primer (not Zinsser) and it makes a big difference. Two coats and the wallpaper is hidden and it is staying stuck to the wall. Yipee!!!

The large mirror should probably go, but I can't afford seven years of bad luck and it makes the room seem very big. Priming around the toilet and pedestal sink is not fun. I keep focusing on the end result.

What a difference it makes in covering up that late 1980's wallpaper. I also have to paint the ceiling and get the overhead lights replaced too.
The bathroom is now all primed and waiting my final decision on the wall color. I would really like to do a limey green, but I am too practical so it will be a khaki color instead white glossy bright white moldings and trim.

Now for some backyard scenes:

This unusual bird appeared on my Sugar Maple the other day. He was creeping up and down the trunk. He isn't a woodpecker as far as I know. No red anywhere on him. Do you know what he is???? UPDATE: She has been identified as a female Downy Woodpecker. Isn't she cute??

I also saw this big hawk fly into the backyard and perch on the Sugar Maple. He/She was obviously looking for dinner.

I got only a few good pictures of the hawk. I don't know what kind it is. Could be Coopers?...Red Tailed?, Red Shouldered?......Do you know???

I just love my new camera. It has 18 X zoom and it really helped take the pictures of these birds. I also took the picture through the kitchen window. WOW!!!!