Tuesday, May 31, 2011

We've been paintin

How did you spend your weekend? We spent ours painting!

I showed you the 'game room' in this post.


This is what it looked like Friday night.


We painted on Saturday and got everything moved back into place. I plan to replace the two chairs with a small sofa - eventually. It's on the list, just not at the top of the list.


I even hemmed and ironed the curtains before I put them back up. (they originally went up straight out of the package. I used the iron on tape that comes with them to hem them)
(I'm also in the market for a chair to use with the desk - the folding chair is too wide to push under the desk)


We moved the chairs to the wall opposite the tv and moved one of the bookcases against the half wall (stairs on the other side of wall) I still need to re-work all the stuff on the bookcases. Can you tell that the green in the game room is darker than that on the stair wall? Can't decide what - if anything - to hang on the stair wall. Any ideas?


I really like this green color. (Patina, from Lowe's) We left the ceiling 'boring builder beige'.


Now I need to re-hang all baby boy's play posters. If you looked at the before post, you know there are quite a few to hang!

I'm trying to find just the right pink to paint my sewing room/office. Hopefully it will be the next room to loose the beige!

Friday, May 27, 2011

A little sewing


I've been wanting to make a runner for this table for awhile now and I finally got around to it this week.


The table is on the 'to be painted' list - but it is a long list so who knows when it will happen.

So, what are your plans for the weekend? Mine involve paint. Lots of paint. Green paint. Maybe some white, and maybe some blue. Depends on how long the green paint takes. (the table in the pics will eventually be white - just not this weekend)

Hope you have a fun and safe holiday weekend!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Finished that part.


I finished the (hand) quilting part - just in time since both DWTS and Idol are over! I still have to make the binding but I am on to other things at the moment. (the quilt on the bottom is one my grandmother made - I brought it back from my parents last week to do some repair work)


I also spent some time cutting up strawberries! We went to the Strawberry Festival last weekend and brought home half a flat of berries. That's a lot of strawberries for just the two of us. (this was only part of them) Not a bad berry in the whole box. We ate on them a couple of days then I sliced some to eat over Angel Food Cake and I still had some to slice up for the freezer.

We have lots of sunshine here. Yes, that is a good thing, but we really could use some rain. Guess we will be watering the yard again this evening.

Hope you are having a great day!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Lookie!

I got something new - okay, I actually got it a few weeks ago but I'm just now getting around to showing it.


I ordered this magnet board when I was at the 3 Stitches retreat back in March. It took awhile for it to come in and I've had it a few weeks. It comes in teal or pink. Of course, I got the pink one! The white easel and round white magnets come with the board but I picked up an extra magnet for mine. (I think the teal one comes with a brown easel and brown magnets)


A pink crown! Couldn't resist.

Sure, I could stitch with the 'plain' magnet boards I already have, but why not add a little fun to the mix!

Hope you are having a great week!

Monday, May 23, 2011

Back in Texas!

Baby boy and his bride are back in Texas!


Is there anything better than getting a big hug from your child when you haven't seen him in forever? (okay - 9 months, but it seems like forever when you are a mom!)

We drove over to see them on Friday. Ashley had to work but Jason didn't have to start until yesterday so we took him to J'ville to visit with my parents for a few hours. Brian met us there so we had two of them together. Still don't know if we will be able to get them all in the same place at the same time while they are here. After visiting in J'ville we drove back to pick up Ashley and go out to dinner. Made for a late night but what is a mom to do?

The Shakespeare festival is in full force now so they will both be working 6 days a week. Shows open the end of June! If you are nearby, you should check it out!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Summer cut


Nicholas got a haircut for summer. So far this is the only picture I've been able to get. Every time I get out the camera he runs under the chair! Goofy dog.

Have a great weekend!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Date night

Tuesday night was date night.


This is where we went. (tickets were my mother's day gift from the hubby)


Could have been better - minus allergies (really hard to see when your eyes are watering through the whole show!) and seats could have been closer - yeah for huge monitors! No way to know ahead of time that allergies will be in full force, but note - buy tickets earlier next time!

With that said, it was a great show!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Needs a haircut


He needs a haircut


and apparently he doesn't want his picture made


Just turned his backside and walked away.

Well. He is at the beautiful shop as I type! Think he will let me snap a pic when he gets home? Probably not.

Had a date with the hubby last night. Allergies are still kicking my butt but we went anyway. I'll have to get pictures from him - I haven't figured out how to zoom in to take a pic with my phone (and I didn't take my camera) so the ones I took are crappy. I should have figured it out before last night!

And . . . saving the best for last. . .


Baby boy and his bride are on their way back to Texas! This (pic) was the last time we saw them - last August, on their way to New York. They will be in Texas for the summer. Not close enough to see every day (sniff) but at least close enough for a few visits! Won't get to see them today but SOON! It just makes me feel better to know they will be 'here' for the next 10 weeks!

If my eyes weren't watering so much from allergies, I might just shed a few tears of joy at the thought of seeing my baby boy soon!

Hope you have a great day!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Lemonade

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. . . isn't that how it goes? Or when your dog breaks your pretty blue birdbath - make a bottle tree!


I can't seem to find the pics, but last summer the lizard chasing (squirrel chasing, coon chasing - whatever moves chasing) dog broke my blue birdbath. I couldn't seem to part with the base and kept a potted plant on top of it the rest of the summer - but it blew off every time the wind kicked up so I needed to find something else to do with my base. I ran several things through my head and this is what I came up with (for now) I'm still working on blue bottles (I want them all blue on this one - might use other colors on another one later) The fence pieces hide the utility boxes . Eventually (hopefully by next summer) this will be incorporated into a flower bed.

The wee bit of rain we had last week was apparently enough for something to start blooming. Not sure what but it must be something my allergies don't like. I thought they were bad when we were in J'ville but they are actually worse here. Argh.

I'll take my whine and go now.

Hope you are having a great (allergy free) week!

Monday, May 16, 2011

A sneak peek


I finished the stitching and beading parts of my project - now I need to head to the frame shop and pick framing. (hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday) Now I'm ready to get back to the quilt. I need to mark the borders so I can get that part quilted. (all the blocks are done) Unless I get side tracked onto something else. I'm sure that never happens to anyone else. :)

Have lots of things on the 'to do' list for this week, not to mention the 'I would like to get done' list and the 'wish I had time for' list.

Hope you had a nice weekend - and have a great week!

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Mark all read

I hated to do it but I had to use the 'mark all read' button in my reader. I had so many unread posts there was no way I could ever catch up. I hate doing that because I know I missed something good!


Since I have no picture to go with this post, I am posting an old one - from the old house. This is the Texas Sage that was in my front flower bed when it was blooming. If I had any planted here it would bloom in another 2 days because we actually had RAIN yesterday! (they bloom 3 days after rain - how they know the difference between rain and a water hose is beyond me) How is that for tying the pic to the post?

I don't have any wild notions that I will be able to keep up from this point but at least at the moment I'm starting with a clean slate. I'm sure I will be behind again by the end of the day. Oh well.

We have a chance for rain again today - keep your fingers crossed!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Looking out my front door



So, I stepped outside to take these instead of taking them through the door - I figured you didn't really want to see the ever-present, no matter how often I clean it, dog snot and slobber that is on the storm door. Anyway - this is the 'back side' of the flowerbed with the mushrooms in it. See all the gardenia blooms? I can't keep up with them. They bloom, and wilt faster than I can keep them pulled off but they sure do smell good! (though I don't like anything with an artificial gardenia scent - I'm weird)



Still lots of buds waiting to bloom.



Yes, we need to trim the shrubs - again! Personally - I would not have planned this sidewalk this way. It is pretty much useless. (I guess if I parked in the garage it might be a little more useful, but, well - that's not going to happen!) I would have had it curve back out to the sidewalk that runs in front of the house. To change it would mean having to go through the HOA - not something I want badly enough to do at the moment. I can save that for later. :)

It's cloudy and windy today. There is actually a small chance of rain today - and a bigger chance tomorrow. I'm not holding my breath - or closing the back windows on my van just yet - but at least there is hope!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Tinkling toadstools



Look! I have more toadstools! (and look at all the vincas coming up - I didn't plant any in this bed this year!) I just call them my mushrooms, but they are actually called 'tinkling toadstools'. They are ceramic and the top just sits on top of the stem and if there is enough of a breeze, they tinkle!

See how dry that mulch is? We keep watering, but if we don't get some rain the mushrooms might be the only color in the flower bed. The geraniums do have some buds on them but they are only blooming a few at a time. We NEED RAIN! (no hurricanes, thankyouverymuch, just some rain will do)



I showed these awhile back - I only had three then. I got the large blue one and the small green one at a nursery in East Texas before we moved. Went back to get more and they no longer carry them. I've been looking for them ever since and I finally found the large green one at the hardware store here. It was the only one they had and I bought it even though I already had the small green one. (I had a coupon since I had mailed something - our post office is in the hardware store - it was only good for that day and who am I to waste a coupon?) Anyway - a reader saw them in a store in WV and offered to get some for me.



Now I have a pink one and a purple one too! I have a whole mushroom family! I just love them.

Thanks so much Donna!

Monday, May 9, 2011

My boys

I hope you had a great Mother's Day!
I missed making a post the end of the week - we went out of town Thursday morning and I had a surprise when I got home so I didn't get around to a post on Friday. (I have a really good reason - hang on!)


I'm so proud of these three guys. They have all grown up to be find young men.

I miss the days when I could gather them all up for a photo. This one was taken last summer - the last time they were all together. Jason (youngest - in front) will be in Texas for the summer but I'm not sure schedules will allow for having all three of them in the same place at the same time. (he and his bride will both working at the Texas Shakespeare Festival in Kilgore)


This guy was my surprise on Thursday! He came for a surprise visit! (his dad knew he was coming, but I didn't know until he walked through the door) I really enjoyed getting to spend time with him on Friday. As much as I love having them all together, I also love getting to spend time with them individually. It was a great surprise!

Hope your weekend was wonderful!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

A new project


I'm starting a new project. Yes, I know I have plenty started already but I need this one for a gift - which is why I'm not showing the chart, just the supplies - minus the buttons I forgot to put in the pic. (said person might happen upon my blog, though doubtful, plus - if I don't get it finished in time. . .) I'm changing two of the thread colors. I'm replacing the called for ecru rayon with the darker color DMC (I hate stitching with rayon) and I changed the braid from a white one to the silver/gold one.

Anyway - FAS and the quilt will be on hold for awhile. I made a little progress on FAS (will show later) and on the quilt I only have 3 blocks left to quilt then I'll have to decide how I want to quilt the borders.

In other news - the DVR is on the fritz - again. Let me just say, if you have a choice between the DVR from the cable company and TiVo - go for TiVo. We had TiVo for years and loved it. When our cable provider 'upgraded' and made our TiVo useless (since it wasn't HD ready) our choices were to buy a new TiVo (and I wish we had done that) or go with the cable company's DVR. This DVR is the pits. (not the word I really wanted to use) Last time it was screwed up I managed to get it back working by re-setting it but that didn't work this time. Called tech support who basically had me do the same thing - then she told me she couldn't help me and would have to send a tech out - first available appt. - FRIDAY. So, in a nutshell - TiVo ROCKS, cable DVR - not so much. (since I really don't know what cable company you have, I'm really only speaking for the one we have, which I'm not naming here but if you want to know, email me) Cable/internet service isn't bad, but that DVR may end up in the middle of the street soon.

I'm off to iron my fabric and start my new project!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

A tisket, a tasket

I won a little basket!


A couple of weeks ago I went to a local quilt show and bought some raffle tickets. There were maybe 45-50 prizes and you could put your raffle tickets in whichever ones you wanted. I think I bought ten dollars worth of tickets (which would have been 12 tickets) I got a call late that afternoon that I had won a basket! I was on my way out of town and the lady that had the basket was leaving the day I was coming home but we finally met up this past Friday and I got my basket.


The basket, several quilting books (that I haven't had time to look at) and some fabric! Haven't figured out what to put in the basket yet - I should use it to organize some of the 'stuff' I have. I'll get right on that! Ha, ha, ha.

Hope you are having a great week!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Empty Nest


Bad dog. She doesn't just stalk squirrels - she has been stalking the birds on the patio ever since they started chirping.


I've been trying to protect them with stuff pushed up in front of the drawer without blocking the opening for mama bird to feed her babies (see the table I had pushed up there?)


Well, yesterday the birdies decided it was time to leave the nest. This is the second birdie to come out. I'm sad to say the first one didn't fare well. Bad dog might be an old dog (9 years) but she is still fast and she jumped up over the table and snatched the first birdie as soon as it poked it's little head out of the drawer. Hubby was outside but she was too quick for him. We ran bad dog in the house and didn't let her back out until the other three babies were safely gone.


I guess these two couldn't decide who should go first.


They hopped along behind the deck box


and off the patio and under the fence into the neighbor's yard. Her dogs weren't out so I hope they made it safely to their new home. (of course her dogs might not think they are bird dogs like one of ours does)


Mama bird was coaching them along. I'm sorry about your other baby, mama bird.


Now we just have an empty nest.