In a cat's eyes...

... all things belong to cats (old English proverb).


And that includes the big screen TV.


It's just the latest in a succession of household items that Baby believes were put here just for her amusement.


She loves to lay on top of the TV and bat at the people or movements on the screen.

I can't even imagine what she would do if we put the Animal Planet on. She'd probably try to go right through the screen.

She eventually tires of playing...

... and settles down.

For about a minute.

In upcoming posts I'll share more of Baby's playthings. Items that used to be our playthings :)

Hope you all have a good week!

Donna

The good, the bad, and the ugly....

The Good:

A teaser of what the top of the TV looks like now....

A basket of 'faux' flowers (gotta love Home Goods!) and two stone birds that I brought in from my garden. (Can you tell I'm desperately trying for a garden theme to get me through the rest of the cold New England winter?)

The Bad:

What the top of the TV used to look like.... cable box, VCR, and speaker... bad, bad, bad....

The Ugly:

Elephant #1 (from previous post), in all its glory...

Back in November, we (I) decided to spiff up the monster TV and all the electronics that go along with it. These old TV's are not attractive - they have a very narrow 'shelf' top, but as you can see from the side view, they become quite large about half way down... It just doesn't make for a pretty silhouette...

So we (I) decided to attach a larger 'shelf' to the top of the TV (part of my plan to conceal the ugly silhouette). We (hubby) measured and cut a piece of plywood to fit the top of the TV...

Now we needed a way to attach it to the TV... Industrial strengh Velcro to the rescue!

We used the whole package and just kept placing strips on the top of the TV, with the interlocking strips on the bottom of the plywood shelf.

Since the back of the TV had two small flat surfaces (visible if you enlarge the photo), dowels were screwed into the shelf and now rest on those two surfaces for additional support.

The next step was to paint the front lip of the plywood shelf... I thought I'd just have to paint the front strip, but you could see a bit of bare wood on the bottom sie of the shelf between it and the TV, so we carefully removed the shelf (thank goodness all the Velcro strips hadn't been applied to the bottom of the shelf at this point)....

... and I painted a few inches of black on both the bottom and top of the shelf. (I didn't paint the entire shelf because I had plans to cover it.)

Now it's still a big old elephant (there's no disguising that), but it looks a heck of a sight better than it did before. I'll show you the finished project tomorrow.

Donna

An elephant in the room. Actually, make that two...

...and I'm speaking literally rather than figuratively, with said elephants being our huge treadmill and our outdated 'big-screen' TV (Mind you, I'm not complaining about having either one - I love having access to the treadmill during the long New England winters and there's nothing like watching a favorite movie on the big screen!!!) ... But I have spent the past couple of years trying to find the proper layout for our family room whilst working around these two giants...

Summer, 2006


(click any photos to enlarge)
Definitely not working. The treadmill blocked the bookcase....


... and threw the whole room off kilter...


... not to mention the fact that the topiary and angel on top of the bookcase (see first photo) had to be moved every time someone used the treadmill due to the 'vibration' factor... (Who wants a falling angel or potted plant hitting them on the noggin during a workout??) And if you look closely you can see the big-screen TV on the far right, just under the half-wall, completely blocking the other bookcase...

Summer, 2007

It was time to try something new...


The treadmill got moved to the far corner of the room, behind the sofa... Definitely an improvement. The big screen TV then got moved to where the treadmill used to be... Big mistake....


No matter which wall the TV was placed on, it still sat in front of a bookcase, along with the DVD player, VCR, and cable box sitting on top of the TV as well as on one of the bookcase shelves. Such a cluttered mess.... (quite visible if you dare to enlarge the two previous photos)...

A couple of months ago I mentioned I'd been 'tweaking' the family room and I think I've finally come up with the best furniture arrangement possible (given that these two giants aren't going anywhere)...

So there are still two elephants in the room, but they're definitely getting easier to live with... I'll share the new bookcase and TV arrangement in an upcoming post...

(P.S. I also put the window pane lattice back on the sliding glass doors... I missed it.)


Donna