Chicken Protector?

Things have been slow around here. Cold, rain, and snow has prevented a lot of outdoor work..or, rather, the desire to do outdoor work. It's much nicer to cozy up by the fire than to bundle up and schlep around outside.

We're cautiously optimistic that Harry has finally learned that he mustn't kill the chickens. He hasn't been agressive towards them in a long time and we're consistently leaving him out there unsupervised with them. In fact, they seem to follow him around. Maybe they're taunting him, maybe they like his company, maybe they feel protected, or maybe they're just too stupid to remember that he was picking them off one by one. Even the big white rooster (we thought it was a hen until he started jumping on the hens in rooster fashion), who was mauled by Harry a few months ago, doesn't seem to remember the incident.

We were averaging about half a dozen eggs per day until it got really cold. Now we get 3-4 per day, which is still more than we need. I have six dozen eggs in the refrigerator at the moment and I give them away to anyone who visits us.

Sad Harry

Harry is a bit sad this week. We had him neutered so he has to be confined for the next five days and he has to wear this collar for ten days so he won't lick and chew his incision. I don't know what's worse, the confinement and boredom or the neck brace. He's almost nine months old and 86 pounds.

Venison

This is all that's left of the venison. I've never liked venison before, but this was good - tender, not gamey. The guys did a really good job. They grilled it just right. The rub (a Bobby Flay recipe) consisted of peppers, coffee, mustard, and some other stuff. They used mustard seed rather than ground mustard, and it was a bit heavy on the coffee, but it was OK anyway.

The Centerpiece

I don't usually decorate for any holiday or give any thought to such things as centerpieces, but this year I went all Martha Stewart and made an arrangement for one of my tables. I drove down the road and cut limbs off of trees, arranged them in a vase, and ... voila!

Man Cooks

Mark got a deer at his deer lease a few days ago, so it has been decided that venison will be on the menu tomorrow. Since we ladies don't know how to cook venison (that's our story and we're sticking to it), or, according to Mark, we're lazy...the men are cooking it.

Tom looked up Bobby Flay's venison recipe which consists of marinading it in vinegar for two hours, then making a rub, rubbing the meat and letting it marinade overnight. It has been entertaining.

Implementport

This is Tom's latest building project. His friend, Charlie, who among other things, is a welder and he welded it together. This is for parking tractor implements under to keep them out of the sun and weather.

So, Charlie told Tom about this guy that puts up and takes down billboard signs. Who knew that the billboard signs were actually huge plastic tarps? Well, they are. And this guy sells the tarps really cheap, like 10.00 for a 32' x 20' and 15.00 for the 40' ones. And Tom had this great idea to use them as "walls" for the shed. That way, they could be rolled up out of the way on any side so that the implements could be moved in and out more easily.

It's a grand idea in principle...not so much in execution. I had a picture in my head of how this was going to look. This picture in my head does not match up with reality. Instead, reality is a big eyesore that I don't like to look at and, in fact, am quite dismayed about.

Chicken Fun

Chickens love their dust baths.

Repairs Underway

New floor is being installed today. I had a bit of an altercation with the foreman. The guys that tore out the damaged floor damaged some of the texture/drywall around two of the windows. The foreman insisted that it wasn't their fault and that the water caused the damage. I know that he is wrong about that, but I decided that I wouldn't argue about it anymore. He called his boss and his boss said that if we threatened to hold back any money for the cost of repairs, to just pack up and leave. Of course, he had me in a bind. I couldn't tell them to leave because I want my floor finished.

Some day, I will learn to check and document every move that construction workers make.

And Then There Were None

All my goldfish are gone. I'm pretty sure a racoon got them. We've seen one hanging out down the driveway several times. I think he's been fishing in my water tanks. Hmmm, I want to get more fish this coming summer because they did get rid of the mosquito wrigglers, but it could get pretty expensive feeding the local 'coons.

Caterpillar or Cat Scat

Whoa. I thought one of the cats had pooped in the garage when I saw this. Upon further inspection, I discovered it's a dead caterpillar. The biggest caterpillar evah. I'd love to have seen the moth that this would have become.

Fish Update

I have one fish left. Four of them just disappeared. I'm thinking a bird or a racoon reached in there and got them. Two I found floating belly up. One is left vigorously swimming around in its tank. I cleaned the waterers yesterday and thought that might kill it, but it's still alive today. Poor thing is probably lonely.

Goldilock's Bed

Bad News

The living room floor is being torn up today. About half of the plywood subfloor is soaked and delaminated. You can see in the picture where the water has soaked through to on the plywood. This means that plywood has to be pulled up, too. Then we have to wait for the concrete underneath to dry out. If it's humid here, it could take weeks. That might mess with our Thanksgiving plans.

Water Damage

This is what the water did to our floor. Some of the boards are buckling up enough to push the baseboards off the wall. Demo is scheduled for Tuesday. Hopefully, the plywood underneath is OK. We'll just have to give it time to dry out, then install the new wood over it.

He Said, She Said

"Are both cats in the barn?"

"No, one is missing."

"Which one?"

"The black and white one."

Ummm.

But...

We found the flooring on the internet for 6.30 per square foot. And when Tom ordered it, they gave us a 5% discount, which just about paid for shipping.

Ahhh, the magic of the internet.

Too Good To Be True

Despite the fact that when I called the insurance company the first time about our water damaged wood floors, they told me that it was covered under our policy, they are now telling me that it isn't.

Since Direct Buy no longer carries our flooring, I'll have to pay 10.00 per square foot for the flooring alone. That doesn't include the tearing out and the installation.

"So, it doesn't cover it...OK, I get it, but don't sit there and tell me that you didn't tell me that it was or that I didn't clearly explain the water damage. You did and I did."

Bad day.

Sold!

The buyers signed the closing papers on our house today. They are supposed to take possession Thursday. Let's hope they don't die before then.

We spent the day finishing up packing and cleaning.

It is done. It is finished.

Wheee!

The fish are still alive.

Meagan gave her hermit crabs to the neighbor's little boys. They are enthralled. Go figure.

Moving Day...Again

Tom and I spent the day at our other house packing up. Mom helped us. We worked 7 1/2 hours, packed up the pick-up truck and the back of Tom's car and we still have more to get. Of course, things couldn't go smoothly...where's the fun in that? One of the bathroom sinks backed up so Tom had to deal with that for a good part of the afternoon. He couldn't get it unclogged, so he poured Drano in it and left it for the night. If it isn't unclogged by tomorrow when we go back, we'll have to call a plumber.

I think the house is punishing us for leaving it.

Crazy Daze

On October 13th we had four inches of rain in one day. Walking through the living room, I discovered water squishing up through the wood floor boards. Bad news. Water was rushing to the outside corner where the dining room meets the living room and got so deep that it was above the foundation, so it came in (probably a weep hole) between the concrete foundation and the wood floor, soaking the plywood underneath and ruining the finished wood.

I thought about a third of the room would have to be replaced, but the wood floor guy that came to give us an estimate said the whole room would probably have to be replaced. We won't know until he starts pulling it up. And I've waited this long for him to get back with me with an estimate. He's having trouble getting the supplier to call him back.

In the meantime, we've been haggling with the buyers for our other house. Finally we agreed upon the contract and everyone signed. Then their inspector found several little things that needed to be fixed and said that the heaters were old and might need to be replaced. The buyers latched onto that and said they were going to terminate the contract if we didn't replace the heaters and several windows. We had the heaters inspected and cleaned and they are perfectly fine. We told them that we would not replace them or the windows. After haggling some more, we told our realtor to just terminate the contract because we're sick of dealing with them. As soon as we did that, all of the sudden they decided that everything was OK and they wanted to close right away.

So, we went from "we're going to terminate the contract" to "we want to close in less than a week". So now we are scrambling to find the kids a place to live and getting the house emptied. Tom spent the day with Jim and a friend packing up all the big stuff. I'm going back as many days this week as it takes to get everything else packed up. Hopefully, it will take just one day and Tom can come back with the truck and trailer to clear it all out.

It will be really great not to have to worry about the other house when it's finally sold, but this week is going to be crazy busy.

The Big Stink

Just when the last odor had worn off, Harry has gotten himself skunked for the THIRD time.

Pearlie is right. He is a big dope.

My Fish Experiment

I read somewhere to put goldfish in livestock waterers (tanks, buckets, automatic waterers, etc.) to keep the mosquito population down. The theory is that they will eat the mosquito larvae and live just fine in the tanks. So while I was in Dallas yesterday I dropped by the pet store and discovered that I could buy "feeder fish" for 13-24 cents a piece depending on how big the fish was. I guess I never knew that some people had pets that required feeding them live fish.

So I bought six of them, figuring that if they all died from my experiment, I wouldn't be losing more than a buck fifty and they were destined to die anyway. I put them in three different waterers yesterday, checked them today and they are all still living as far as I can tell. A couple of the buckets have an overhang that the fish can hide in and I couldn't see them in one of those buckets, but in the other two, they were swimming around. So far so good.

Finished Woodshed

The woodshed is finished enough to store wood. Tom will decide later if it will be necessary to put a front on it.

P U

Harry got himself skunked last night. He is stinking up the place. We're trying to live life without touching or being touched by the Abominable Harry Snowman. He's probably enjoying his newfound cologne.

Beautiful Weeds

Who wouldn't love this view?

Woodshed

Tom decided that we needed a woodshed, because what farm is complete without a woodshed? And besides, it's kinda hard to burn wet wood.

So a woodshed has taken root out beside the house and construction passes the time of day. I helped a bit today, but thank goodness Charlie is coming tomorrow to help. Mostly my job consists of standing idly by while Tom builds and I hand up screws and blocks of wood and look for things that he has lost or forgotten...basically, a gopher (go-fer?).

Butchering Day

We had too many roosters, so we had to butcher some. I desperately looked for a place to take them and have it done, but I couldn't find any meat processing place around here. Surely there is one somewhere. Tom decided to do it himself. He read the How To in our chicken book and Larry came over to help him (in the picture, they're setting up a makeshift table to work on out in the field. I told him I didn't want to see or hear anything about it. Meagan and I went to the flea market. It took Tom and Larry from about 8:30 to 11:30 to process two of the roosters. They had to take a break for lunch and to help a hay buyer load 90 bales of hay, then they went back to the rooster processing and finished up around 4:00.

Six roosters in all. We have three left, with ten hens. I think we need to get an incubator and hatch a few. Last week something got one of the hens and ate it's head off. The chickens are starting to range further and further from the house and coop. I think the hen got to close to the woods and something in there darted out and got it.

Hmmph.

Big dope.

Pear Harvest

One more than we expected.

Weather Report

Warm and sunny. Winds are from the south.

Awww

Little Miss Fluff snoozing on her little bed by the window.

Mole Exterminator

Harry has taken it upon himself to dig up and eat every mole he can find, which is fine except that catching a mole often involves digging a hole in the yard half the size of his body. Sometimes he'll hear them digging and will wait until they surface. Here he is with his loot.

Sold!

I sold Cosmos today and not a day too soon. Now that he's gone, I can move the does out of the small pasture into a the larger one with an enclosed shelter. He's going to be Big Man on Campus at another dairy farm.

And we're getting rain, lots and lots of much needed rain.

Lots of Eggs

We're getting plenty of eggs now. We've been getting about four per day, but today we got seven. The fake eggs worked their magic and the chickens are all laying in the nesting boxes instead of on the floor. Yesterday, I saw one of the hens sitting on one of the fake eggs. She lifted up for a moment, reached under and turned the fake egg over and sat back down on it. So I guess she was trying to hatch it as her own. I read that when a chicken starts to brood (which, I think, means sitting on her eggs to hatch them), she will stop laying eggs. We don't want that to happen, so I removed all the fake eggs so as not to encourage brooding.

Wasted Days and Wasted Nights

I think I'm wasting a lot of time lately. It actually feels kind of good. **guilty**

I'm not milking any goats and my garden is at a point where it needs little attention. It's almost completely weed free (thanks to hours of weed pulling followed by some nice cool weather which stopped bermuda growth). There are just a few pieces of bermuda tucked in amongst the tomato plants that are just about done making. I've cut and pulled out all the finished veggies and planted most of my fall garden which is coming up but requiring little effort at the moment. I don't have to mow the grounds every week any more because we haven't had much rain.

Sooo, I have a lot of free time that I should be filling with other projects. But since those projects aren't urgent, they are getting ignored.

Maybe I can do some tractor work or something for Tom...next week. Things will turn around soon enough.

New Goat

We bought another Nubian milk goat on Saturday. She had a baby in June so she is still in milk. I would have preferred that she was not in milk because I didn't want to milk again until this spring and I also thought it would be better for the goat to have time to adjust to us, it's new pasture mates and our routine first. But all of the goats at the farm where we went had kidded in June, so all of them were in milk. I did not foresee the problems I would have, though.

She seems to be distraught, looking and calling for her baby; not eating much. Her udder is very full, but she will not let me milk her. We have to force her onto the milking stand and while I try to milk her, she kicks, jumps, twists, bucks, and fights it the whole time.

I've decided to just risk letting her dry up on her own because it is just too stressful for both of us. Hopefully, she won't get mastitis and be ruined as a milk goat. She has good bloodlines and should be a good milk producer in the future if we can keep her healthy.

Ouch!

I'd like to know which one laid this egg.

Tennis Elbow?

Tom has been suffering with tennis elbow for about a week and a half. Apparently, it is very painful, so he has been trying to take it easy for a while. He's better now.

So, Harry has been limping since last Friday. Tom took him to the vet yesterday and he has...tennis elbow. Isn't that ridiculous.

Harry is a little over five months old and a little over 63 pounds. The vet said he smells like a skunk. I hadn't really noticed him smelling, but I have been smelling skunk for several days.

Sale Barn. Ugh.

Tom and I went to the auction at the sale barn today just to see the process in case we possibly wanted to buy cows from there. We had some friends that were going and expected to meet up with them also.

I can tell you right now that it is not a place that I will be going to frequently. In fact, I'll probably never go again. We only stayed maybe ten minutes, but that was enough for us both. It's loud with the auctioneer shouting non-stop into his microphone and big steel gates opening and closing as they herd the animals one by one in and out of the small sale pen. They poke and prod and smack the animals so that they'll move quickly through the right gate.

We missed the goat sale, so we just saw some of the cows. Some of them were emaciated and a couple of them feel down. They were just poked and yanked back up and shoved through the gate.

Our friends said that last week there was a goat that was in such pitiful shape that nobody would even buy it for a dollar. They said it was dragged into the arena and dragged out by the horns. Now, I know from experience that if a goat doesn't want to go somewhere, it will flop down and you either have to wait until it decides to get up or you have to drag it. So I don't know if that was the case with that goat or if it truly was so feeble that it couldn't walk. Either way, I just can't stomache that kind of treatment.

Even Tom didn't like it. I said to him that I thought briefly of bringing Cosmos to the sale barn because we really need to sell him, but before I could even finish my sentence saying there was no way I could do that, Tom was already shaking his head, "no".

Eggs!

We have arrived! This was the one thing we've been really anticipating. Now we can call ourselves farmers. There are seven perfect little eggs, which means seven chickens are laying. It's funny that they all laid their egg in the same place. One of them was still warm, so I guess they just waited for their turn throughout the night. None of them laid in the nesting boxes we have for them, so we'll need to take the advice of my chicken book (thank you Tina) and put some fake eggs in the nesting boxes to encourage them to lay in there instead of on the floor.

This is so exciting!

I Can Feel It Coming On

Oh yeah, another painting project is erupting from my inner self. This finished garden shed is begging to be painted. But, I must finish the bathroom cabinet first.

Completely off topic...do not buy a Hoover Windtunnel vacuum cleaner. It is the worst thing ever.

Watermelon

I only got two decent sized watermelons off of the three vines I planted. This one is a bit over ripe, so I better go pick the other one quick. Our neighbor had loads of watermelon. Don't know what happened to ours.

House Update

Yesterday, the buyers backed out. From what I gather, they object to paying for the house in gold coin. In exchange for accepting their rather low ball offer, those were our terms. So, it seems that they may have been bluffing because our realtor told us today that they still want the house. The Freddie Mac contract that the mortgage broker wants to use needs to be amended for our particular circumstance. The buyer is in a hurry, but we're having to wait on permission from Freddie Mac to amend the contract, blah, blah, blah.

So, who knows what will happen. One thing is for sure...we will either sell the house, or we won't.

Searching For An American

**sigh** I just got the worst manicure ever. I've been trying every nail shop that I can find out here trying to find one that has a bona fide American manicurist...one that speaks English as if she was born here. I finally found one today, but was sorry, indeed.

The place was not particularly clean even though it was in a relatively new shopping strip. They charged twice as much as the Vietnamese shops. I just about choked when they said it would be 15.00...I mean, for just polishing my nails? Not even filing, taking off old polish, rubbing cream on or anything? I should have said no thank you and walked out then and there, but I decided to give her a try. I'm willing to pay more for English spoken American style and understandable.

The tips of my fingers look like I let a 10 yr. old paint them. Seriously. White polish all over the tips of my fingers and under my nails, globby polish. She had to take the polish off and start over two or three times on some fingers. And all she did was paint on the white tip, then put a top coat on. I asked for another coat just so it would last for more than two days, but I'm seriously wondering if I want my nails to look like this for two days.

I would have expressed my disappointment to the young girl at the reception desk if she hadn't been yakking on the phone when I left. I thought they should know why I would never return.

I guess I'll be a regular at the Vietnamese shop from now on.

Starbucks, Here I Come...Not.

I had been looking forward to getting a Starbucks frappucino for a week. The closest Starbucks to us is a 45 min. drive, so I try to get one whenever I go to Dallas. That was my plan. Go to Dallas, shop, get my hair cut, enjoy a frapp. Alas, it was not to be. I ate lunch at Wendy's and apparently, something did not agree with my stomach, so I felt a bit sickly afterward. It is not a good idea to load one's stomach up with frappucino when one's stomach is not up to par. I toyed with the idea of getting one anyway and suffering the consequences, but in the end decided I wouldn't enjoy it to the fullest knowing I wouldn't feel good afterward, so why ingest all that fat and not enjoy it.

So, I passed on the Starbuck experience today and I am very disappointed.

Hello Out There

Didn't anyone watch my goat video? Come on! It was funny. I should have gotten at least one comment on it. Scroll back down, y'all must have missed it.

Fun Projects

Can it be August 17th already!? Life is flying by me at a dizzying rate. Ack!

Well, while Tom frolicked in Dallas yesterday and today (he's working on our house contract among other things) I finished up painting the bathroom cabinet base. I'm still working on the doors (in a previous picture) and will be painting those white drawers some funky colors. It was fun, but I nearly had to stand on my head to get the lowest parts painted without sticking my hand in the wet paint above. Guess I should have started at the bottom and worked my way up - hind sight. This is my first effort with oil paints and I did not know that it takes oil paint so very long to dry; ten days or more, then I have to wait six months before I can put a coat of varnish on it.

Why? You may ask. Why, would she paint a bathroom cabinet like that?! Because she likes a bit of funk here and there. Funky ugly is what I call it. Funky ugly is beautiful.

Tomorrow, I will be the one frolicking in Dallas. And I will actually frolick, not work.

Twenty-one Chickens and Counting

We had dinner guests last night and forgot to close up the animals before dark. When Tom went out to close up the chicken coop, he discovered a stray cat had killed a rooster that had been accidentally left out of the chicken yard. The cat ran off sort of in the direction of our neighbor's house, so it could have been one of hers. Hopefully, it wasn't because it will be shot if it is seen again.

Then, this morning Harry killed the Barred Rock chicken.

Don't ask me how that happened.

The chickens should be laying eggs already. I'm not sure why they aren't, but at this rate, we won't have any chickens left to lay any eggs.

House Contract

We just got word from the realtor that someone signed a contract on our house. We don't know the details yet, but we're praying for a good outcome and a quick sale.

Yay!

It's My Blog and I'll Cry If I Want To

Today was mowing day. It’s my job to mow the grounds and around the corner along the fence line by the county road. As I rounded the corner, I could see the stray dog out by the neighbor’s mailbox. That’s where he hangs out. It’s probably where he was abandoned by his owner. The strays sometimes wait for weeks where they were dumped; waiting for their master to come back; knowing nothing else, nowhere else to go.

This stray was dumped with a companion, maybe a littermate. They didn’t look much alike. One was solid black like a lab and the other black and tan like a hound, but they looked to be about the same age, maybe about five months old – about the same age as our own livestock guardian dog, a Great Pyrenees and Anatolian Shepherd mix named Harry. Harry isn’t supposed to like strays. It’s his job to keep other canines off of our property and we want him to learn it well.

As I neared the stray, well, he’s not really a stray being as how he didn’t stray from anywhere. He had no choice in the matter. He was where his owner put him - out in the country so he couldn’t find his way home. He’s alone today as he has been for the past week and a half. Our neighbor’s driveway is right across from his mailbox which is on our side of the street, so that I mow around it each week. I ran into our neighbor a couple of weeks ago when the two strays happened to be out there. “These your dogs?” Nathan asked. “No.” I said. “Somebody must have dumped them then.” Says Nathan. “Yeah.” I respond. He speaks again, “You know what that means.” “Trouble?” I say, envisioning dog packs running amok and killing our chickens. Instead, “I’m going to have to shoot them.” He says. “Oh.” I’m speechless.

Later that afternoon I heard one gunshot from Nathan’s direction, then another. That’s that, I thought. Well, at least they wouldn’t starve to death. At least, the coyotes wouldn’t catch them and tear them to pieces. At least they wouldn’t be killing our chickens in a couple of months.

A couple of days later, I saw the black and tan. Somehow he escaped the bullet. He’s alone now. He lays in the middle of the street…waiting. He lays by the mailbox…waiting. He hunts for rats to eat. Sometimes he’s lucky enough to get one.

On this day, he stands up as he sees me approach on the mower. He takes a couple of hesitant steps towards me. He has big brown eyes that wait for a kind word from me. I know that if I say one word, he will run to me. It makes me tear up just thinking about it. It’s been weeks since he’s had a kind word or a pat. I gaze at him as I pass by trying to assess his temperament and imagining how he would react if I tried to get him in a kennel. I plan out in my head that I’ll put the kennel in the truck, pick the black and tan up and take him to the humane shelter in town, wishing his owner had done it instead of me.

I don’t speak to him as I make several passes back and forth. Each time I pass, he stands ready to be called, looking at me with big solemn eyes, ears laid back submissively, occasionally gently waving his tucked tail. When I’m done I drive back up to the house and forget him as I get on with my busy day.

I was not going to be allowed to forget for long. This afternoon Tom wanted me to drive the truck, pulling the trailer so he and Charlie could pick up the last bales of hay in the field, the one right across from my neighbor’s driveway.

As we were rolling slowly along, the black and tan was sitting in Nathan’s field about 50 feet from his driveway. Nathan came driving out, stopped his truck, got out and reached back in. I could see that he was reaching for his rifle. He rested his rifle on the fence post and aimed at the dog. I covered my face wishing I could be anywhere but there, wishing I could block out the sound. The gun popped and the black and tan screeched in pain. The first shot didn’t kill him. I watched and cried as the dog thrashed and yelped as Nathan walked back to his truck and reloaded his rifle. It must have only been 20 seconds, but it seemed like forever. I watched in horror as Nathan walked back towards the black and tan. As he raised his rifle to take another shot, the dog ran towards him, yelping, until the second shot rang out and he tumbled silently to the ground.

So, whoever it was that dumped your pets on an old county road thinking that someone would take them in or that they’d live a “born free” frolicking life in the country. You’re dead wrong. But don’t grieve yourself over it, don’t lose any sleep tonight. Your dog has suffered so you wouldn’t have to. And I’ve grieved in your place.

Elephant Corn

OK, this is just scary freaky. What happened to my corn?

What IS This?

Now that I see it in a picture, I'm pretty sure it's a young coyote. Tom saw it in the field as he was cutting the hay and called to tell me to bring the 22. It was about the size of a fox, but didn't have a fox-like tail. It's too little to be an adult coyote, but didn't have any puppy-like qualities other than it seemed totally unaware that it should run and hide. It didn't run until Harry went after it. In fact, it barely acknowledged our presence and we were pretty close to it. Whatever it was, it was extremely thin and up close it was almost hairless looking. Quite ugly, but that didn't ease my suffering over Tom shooting it. I stood nearby for a long time watching it to make sure it was dead and not suffering...until Tom told me to come away from it.

Coincidental that this happened today, because last night I watched a program called Obsessed. It was about people with OCD and featured one woman who was obsessed with animal's suffering - abused, abandoned at the pound, lost, etc. I'm not sure how it affected her life (I started watching about midway through the program), but as she described her feelings, I knew exactly how she felt because I feel it, too. She kept crying, "Look at their faces!" and I was thinking, "I KNOW!"

Curtain Fabric

Here's the fabric I bought to make curtains for my windows. I don't love it, so I'm not terribly excited about it, but I was sick of searching for fabric that I love (that I could afford as well), so this will do.

The first picture is the fabric for the half bath and guest bath. The second is for the master bedroom (the blue is the right side) and the third is for the large kitchen window (the fabric on the left with the circles) and the living room (the fabric on the right with the vine).