Author Archives: April

Clear as mud…

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Remember how I had  briefly mentioned my desire to paint the kitchen cabinets with a can of $5 oops paint from Home Depot? And how the color was a little darker than I wanted, and it would be SO easy to lighten it up with a touch of white paint?

Oh how nieve I was….and am.

Saturday, it was cold, and a little snowy out, the perfect day to chip away at my indoor Honey-Do list. (Yes, I make a Honey-Do list for myself. Don’t worry, Bubba has one too.) Somewhere near the top of this list, I hand penciled in an experiment with my oops paint. So, I got out my experimenting bucket, and played chemist.

Here’s my lab…

After pouring my too-dark-for-me oops paint into a clean and unused 5 gallon bucket, and of course after pulling on my white lab coat, stylin’ goggles and rubber gloves (not really), I began stirring a few drops of white paint into the mix.

Hmm…still too dark, and a bit blurry I might add.

So after adding and stirring, adding and stirring, adding and stirring, I ended up using a quart and a half of white paint. Bringing the grand total of this little experiment (so far) to $20. In hindsight, I should have just spent those same twenty smack-a-roos on the paint color I wanted. But then I couldn’t say I was the proud owner of the gallon and a half mud colored paint.

Here’s what it looks like on my cabinet doors.

The picture is dark and distorts the color a little, but believe me, it’s not pretty. I’ve contemplated adding even more white paint to see if that would lighten things up a bit. But after my investment of nearly $20 for “cheap” paint, I may just call it a dud and move on.

Live and learn I guess, oops paint is hit or miss. Unfortunately this time, it was a miss.

But to leave on a positive note, I’ll share one of my favorite hits, at least for this week.

3 jars, and a set of three metal scoops from Wal-Mart. The scoops were 3 bucks for the pack, and the small jars were $3  each while the larger of the three was $4. Not a bad deal, especially since they made me so happy.

Here are my little jars holding cotton balls and q-tips in the bathroom.

Oh and that reminded me, we replaced the old cruddy faucet with a brand new sparkly one.

I’ll be posting about that process soon. Once I find the memory card that has the photos of the grossness. It was nas-TEE. Although, I find myself saying that with every project that requires ripping out the old and putting in the new. Comes with owning a 50+ year old home I suppose.

I hope this post was as clear as mud to all of you!

Colors of Winter…

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For nearly a year now, I’ve been blog stalking. Stalking fashion blogs, DIY blogs, designer blogs, food blogs, photography blogs, blogs about blogs. I’ve grown quite an affection for the blog. That’s why I  started this silly little blog back in May, I needed a blog home. A place to come back and covet others blogs. You know the ones, with pretty pictures and pretty words, with proper grammar and witty comments, and  no run-on sentences. I know it’s wrong to covet, but I can’t help myself when it comes to other peoples beautiful blogs.

One of my favorite covet worthy blogs  is Pancakes and French Fries. This lady is hilarious, and beautiful to boot. ( Heh heh, I can’t say boot without thinking of Robin from “How I met your Mother”, a-BOOT). She’s recently started a series of color stories on her blog home, and has invited her blog friends, and I’m hoping blog stalkers, to partake in this project. And in keeping with one of my many New Years resolutions, I’ve decided to step out from behind my blog “stalkiness” and participate.

For January, Ms. Jules, chose grays and creams and pretty much anything that could be found on a cold winter day. So, I’ve done my best to find subjects that were gray-ish and creamy and sort of winter-y.  I will be a copycat for my first color story, and present this puppy in journal/story form.

In January…

We got married.  (Well actually, we got married at the end of December, but it was close enough to January I thought I’d include it.)

We ate lots and lots of oatmeal.

It snowed and the dogs got curious.

We welcomed Goldie into our little family.

We took pictures of big knockers ( DOOR knockers, get your mind out of the gutter!)

We yawned and took lots of walks in the park.

What did you do in January?

Perfect Imperfection…

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This is what I’ve been coming home to the past few evenings, but in much better focus.

Goldie’s  ginormous “condo” and various doggie entertainment spread throughout the living areas.

Not to mention the dust brought in from our furry friends…

Can you believe I dusted everything the night before?

Oh yeah, and being the bad “pet parents” that we are, Bubba and I allow Annie on the furniture. A decision I have regretted many times over…

Dust-gusting isn’t it? (Sorry, I can’t resist a good pun). All the leather cleaner in the world cannot keep that couch clean. I should know, within the past week I’ve cleaned it 4 times, and it’s only Thursday!

The coming home routine has turned into a cycle: dust the dogs, dust the house, dust me. We go through about 4 baby wipes per dog every night, not to mention the leather cleaner and dust rags I’ve been having to use nightly.

But enough of my whining, all this dusting has made me realize we need to make some changes in the backyard to keep the dust settled. Right now we have a “xeroscaped” backyard. Meaning we’ve got dirt and rocks, and what used to be trees and bushes.

Our yard before the new windows and before the dogs. Sometimes I miss those days, when the yard was ours, and there were plants to enjoy. But I digress.

Some changes need to be made to the yard to maintain my sanity and keep my allergies in check.  First, some sort of ground covering to keep the dust levels down. Maybe woodchips, maybe some sweet smelling mulch (I love the way good dirt smells), maybe a little of both. And of course, I’ve got to find a spot to put Goldie’s pad. As much as I love being greeted by two wagging tails when I come home, I really don’t love seeing a huge kennel.

We’ll see what transpires this weekend. But in the mean time, all I can do is enjoy my dusty, imperfect home. And remember, that all the imperfections is what makes my house my home. (Aww…how corny, someone should sew that on a pillow.)

Dog Gone It…

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This weekend held many activities, thrifting, shooting birds (with a camera), dog getting. Yup, we got another dog, on a trial basis mind you. And if she keeps barking all night and all day it will be a trial. She can look cute when her doggie mouth is closed though.

Her name is Goldie, for obvious reasons, she’s a lab mix, about 9 months old. My mother inadvertently took in two puppies this past fall. I say inadvertently, because she really didn’t mean to take them in, they just seemed to just show up in her yard. Goldie being one of them, and her brother Blackie (yup, you guessed, he’s on the darker spectrum of dogdom) being the other. They were playing with my mom’s other dog, Callie through the fence.

Here’s Callie…

Being the kind hearted woman she is, my mother took them. Hoping to find homes for the two little furry siblings. However, no one wanted them. So for the past 7 months now, mom has been fostering two dogs in addition to Callie. That’s three dogs in one little house, way too much for my sweet mother to handle if you ask me. So, we decided to take one of her furry fosters out for a test drive.

Annie was less than thrilled with this decision…

She now must share her window with a barking dog. Which totally gives away their location to unsuspecting neighbors.

Time will only tell what will happen with our new little golden guest. So far, Annie has been the perfect hostess, letting her new friend chew up her favorite outside toys. I didn’t get a picture of this sign of goodwill, since there was nothing left of said toys but a few shards of fluff.

With all the doggie goings on, I haven’t really had a chance to conquer some of my New Years projects. Such as:

1. Paint the kitchen cabinets

(the colors look less mud like in person)

2. Make the bedroom less headache inducing and more sleep inducing. Much like this blog post.

3. Take better pictures

4. Organize, organize and organize

5. Stop recycling photos previously used in the same blog post.

(Just keepin’ ya on your toes)

Well, I’m off to clean the house that most likely has a fine dusting of black and yellow fur.

Annie Wisdom

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A few wise words from Annie dog today…

Always play well with others…

Exercise daily…

Be patient when posing for the paparazzi…

Be on constant watch for good healthy food…

And above all, take time to relax and watch the world go by.

Zoom Zoom…

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Remember those old Mazada commercials from the late 90’s or early 2000’s? If you don’t here’s the YouTube video, so the title of this post will make more sense.

The Sweets (aka Bubba and Booger) and I have been saying that a lot lately, as we use our new zoom lens! Look what she can do!!

I’ve found with a zoom lens, it’s much easier to take pictures of my camera shy pooch.  This picture was taken from across the room. (Just between you and me, I think she knew I was taking her picture. )

Since Bubba dropped the camera off with me at the office, I got the opportunity to get artistic at work. (After the boss man left, and of course, after all important business had been taken care of. And near going home time.) Here’s the office water cooler at sunset. I’m sure it would have been more appreciated had I replaced the empty bottle with a new one, but I think the picture was worth it.

There are tons of pigeons around the old building that currently houses my office. Using the zoom lens I was able to zoom in on one of these little rats with feathers, and the nasty windows.

And just for fun, here are some shots of Bubba cooking dinner.

We had steak…

And veggies…

Annie helped…

All this kitchen talk has reminded me of my most recent DIY endeavor.

Yep, I’m gonna paint the kitchen cabinets. After cleaning the “poochies” off of the floor of course.

The lighter color is Ashwood, by Bher. And the darker color, I’m not really clear on what color that’s supposed to be. It was on the reject shelf at Home Depot. But for a $5 can of Bher paint, I’m not complaining. It’s even specially formulated for kitchens and bathrooms, and it’s got the primer already in it. Although, once I got it on my cabinets, I realized it may be too dark. So, I’ll be experimenting with lightning up the green with a little bit of white. I’m hoping to get the color close to Ashwood.

Well, I’m off for now. Maybe I’ll actually help my Bubba fix dinner tonight!

Take a picture, it lasts longer…

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I’ve been doing a lot of that recently, since I got this for Christmas…

The Sweets got me, or rather us a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT. She’s an older model, from 2005, but works really well for a starter DSLR. Ebay has so many treasures to offer!!

In case my picture was too dark, here’s one I borrowed from an online store. My camera is silver, like the one on the left.

Here are some experimental shots I’ve taken recently.

I love cows, they are always so happy to oblige when they realize you aren’t there to eat them.

A cattle guard, these are all over the place in the backwoods around here. A little side note, this is not the above cows, guard. They have their own bouncer , named Bruno, elsewhere. (Yeah, I know, that was a horrible and cheap joke.)

A fancy bike trail in the middle of nowhere.

An old rustic house in one of the historic areas of town. I loved the trees against the blue skies.

And of course this beauty does some awesome close-ups of our winter weeds.

And she makes the winter river mud look pretty! You can almost count all the crane and geese that have stopped here.

I had to take some pictures of the sweets and Annie in their natural habitats. They aren’t quite as nervous as the cows were. Here’s the Sweetie doing his thing in the kitchen, by the way, he’s making brownies…. FROM SCRATCH. I knew there was a reason I married him. I mean other than the whole love thing. (Oh, and if you look in the bottom right corner, you’ll see a glimpse of a home project surprise.)

Annie loves her dirt.

Oh yes, and her begging.

And I thought I would mention, we’re still married after two weeks. Maybe it’s the pretty shiny prizes that keep us together.

Or it could be the cool certificate you get in the mail a week later!

There’s some projects brewing at the yellow casa. So, once I’m done playing with my new toy, I’ll have to set aside some time to get them done. I can’t wait to take pictures of the process with the new addition to our little camera family!

New Digs!!

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Actually, they aren’t my new digs, but the Sweetie and I rented them to house our out of town guests for our wedding. Yes, I can call it a wedding now, since it’s over and done with. *Enter relieved and exhausted sigh here*

Anywho, here are some very blurry shots I took as we all hurriedly gathered our things to leave our little mansion away from home.

I loved the stained concrete driveway. And of course the grand entry way, in fact, there were two of them!! See?

The front door was ginormous!!

And the grandness continues once you come inside….

See those pretty wooden pretties? (Yes, I just used “pretty” twice in one sentence.) Those were all over the house.

And the kitchen was spectacular! Just hanging out in that thing I felt like I should start calling myself Tipper (or another rich person name, that would otherwise have gone to a fluffy white poodle).

The counter tops were pretty, a little dark for my taste, but still picture worthy.

And the pantry was ginormous! I know I’ve used different variations of that word in this post. But everything in this house, just seemed HUGE! Especially compared to my sweet 1200 sq ft abode.

The main island and the smaller island in the foreground were tiled in a pretty green tile. Oh, and did you catch that? This baby had TWO islands!!

And if you can’t tell, this house was ROUND. The living room was round, the kitchen was round, even the fireplace was round.

And if I had my other camera, I could show you the round windows that encircled the living room. Instead, I’ll show you the round windows in the master bedroom.

Which probably would have been more dramatic had I taken the time to open all the blinds. Anywho, the master was HUGE. And I don’t mean, Oh, it’s slightly larger than my closet huge. I mean huge as in I could fit my casa in this thing huge. And that’s just the master bedroom and bath.

It even had it’s own grand entrance.

The master bath, had to have been my favorite. This was taken from the bedroom looking into the bathroom. There were TWO walk-in closets, a HUGE jetted tub, a walk-in shower with a “seating area”, and of course a water closet (I love saying that, I guess it’s the Tipper in me coming out again.)

And when we first saw the master bath, they had folded a towel in the shape of a swan by the tub, just like those fancy schamncy hotels.  Wish I had taken a picture of it before it got used!

I know a double sink wouldn’t seem like a big deal to most folks, but after sharing a sink with the sweetie for a while now. I can definitely appreciate a luxury such as this.

A bit blurry and dark, but the shower just seemed so fancy to me, I had to include a shot of it.

The sweets and I have considered renting the house again so that we can enjoy it more. With the wedding and all that had to get done, we really didn’t get a chance to scope it out. I didn’t even get to take a bath in the big pool of a tub!

This house was beautiful, but honestly, I couldn’t have been happier to come home to our sweet little casa. There’s something about coming home to your home. Especially when it’s so small you don’t have to get up to talk to your husband who is in the back of the house while you are in the living room. There’s something to be said for slothfulness.

Mawage…

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“19 We love because He first loved us.”

1 John 4:19 (NIV)

 

My new husband and I in all our greasy goodness after the festivities. (Boy, I wish I’d found my powder compact before we took this picture!!) We’re so blessed, thrilled and exhausted. Who knew there would be so many preparations the week before and the week of the event. But it was so worth it to celebrate with our family, the Lord truly has blessed me with a loving family and now a beautiful and loving husband.

Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree…

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O.K, maybe the sweetie and I really aren’t “rockin'” around the tree as much as we are chillin’ around the tree. We aren’t exactly the “rockin'” types. And apparently this year we really aren’t the decking the hall types either, since there hasn’t been as much decking of the halls as there was this time last year. It might have something to do with a certain “event” on the horizon, or we could just be getting more lazy in our old age. The Sweets turned the big 3-1 yesterday, and I will be leaving my 20’s behind this coming April.  Eek…

But enough about getting old and being lazy, on with the Christmas cheer!

 

My sweet mother bought me this tree at an after Christmas sale. Apparently it was less than $20 bucks, so I’d say it was well worth the money since it’s been 7 years and she’s still shining bright (the tree, but my mom is still shining bright too!). The star was a recent purchase at Big Lots, I’ve had differing varieties of bows and snow flakes topping my tree for the past several years. But this year, I decided it was time to finally get a star to top our tree. How traditional of me.

And speaking of traditional, I always decorate my tree with memories and family tradition in mind. So, ornaments from childhood, or that are reminiscent of childhood are a must. For me, the Pokey Little Puppy and Starbright, sum up my childhood interests.

And for the Sweetie…

Why Pacman of course. The man is still obsessed!

And if you look to the right of the tree, you will see our stockings that have been hung with care. Too bad the picture wasn’t taken with care, my camera doesn’t seem to have a shaky hands setting.

The three stockings are for the Sweetie, myself, and yes, we’re the weirdos that hang a stocking for the dog.

Above the stockings, is the mirror. I used a sharpie (no, worries it comes out with Windex and some elbow grease) to write a verse from Luke 2:14:

“Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.”

Although, I might switch it out for Luke 2:10-11:

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

And Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a nativity scene.

It’s not the most elegant nativity, but it holds special meaning for me. My mom purchased this at a discount store 25 years ago, back when I was in Kindergarten (Yup, I’m that old). I remember playing with these figures year after year. My mom gave in and finally let me take it home with me 4 years ago. And now it’s one of my prized possessions, and definitely the first of the Christmas decorations to come out of the bins.

I would love to share more, but that’s all I’ve got up so far. There’s still the Christmas table scape to do, and some finishing touches on the outdoor display. Or maybe not, like other bloggers out there, I am trying to make this Christmas a simpler one.