The air up there

Posted on October 24, 2011 by April

I am participating in a ” 31 Days of…” series for the month of October. You see a whole bunch of sweet blogger buddies have been getting together the past few years to do 31 posts in 31 days. The topic is always something they have a passion for. This year they have invited all of their readers to post 31 days of their passions. If you are interested in participating in the 31 Days of…series, or you’re just curious about what everyone else is writing about, please visit The Nester, Jen, Melissa, Sandy, Darcy, Emily, and Emily. I hope you enjoy my series on finding treasures both vintage and of the heart. Let’s hope I can overcome my inconsistent blogging habit and share those 31 posts within the next 31 days!

Well, after enjoying a nice weekend of just being, I completely forgot that I was supposed to continue on with my 31 Days series even on the weekends. Oopsie! I’ll try to do better, promise!

Anywho, in keeping with my theme of treasures, and the treasure of being, or the treasure of experiencing all the beautiful and marvelous blessings around us. Today, I wanted to share with you the joy of living in New Mexico. Particularly, in Albuquerque during Balloon Fiesta. If you are not familiar with the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, please visit their site. And if you are too lazy to click on the link, the Balloon Fiesta is a yearly hot air balloon rally held the first full week in October. Over 500 hot air balloons participate yearly. Which makes for quite a display when you consider every balloon is different, and they even have special shapes. My favorite this year was Spider Pig…

via Balloon Fiesta

If you aren’t a Simpson’s fan then you probably didn’t get the joke. Just in case you haven’t seen the Simpson’s movie here’s a clip:

While running around town chasing balloons, at the begining of October (because frankly Bubba and I are too cheap to buy tickets to the actual fiesta), we had the great opportunity to see a lot of balloons hovering over our fair city. And you know the old saying, “What comes up must come down”, that includes balloons. So we get to see our fair share of balloons landing and deflating. It really takes all the air out of the experience! (HAR-HAR)

Here’s one we saw the first day of the fiesta…

Landing, apparently she must be caught and held down or she stays in the air. I’m certainly not a hot air balloon expert. I’m just an observer.

After she’s been caught a tarp is laid out and the balloon is held down by ropes.

Then they start to let the air out of the balloon. Air part of the balloon is turned off, and they start to pull on those ropes.

The balloon is still being held by ropes, but it’s mostly down.

It sort of looks like they are letting the air out of an air bed to me.

It was a lot like taking the air out of an air bed.

After all the air was squeezed out they rolled it up. Much like a sleeping bag.

See that guy with a group of kids? Yeah, they are sitting on the balloon. Apparently, there was still some air to get rid of before placing the folded up balloon in it’s basket. A good time was had by all, I’m so glad Bubba and I took the time to stop, and enjoy the treasure of being.

And Annie-dog got a little closer to getting over her fear of bouncy houses and balloons. I guess it helped to see one go down, you could say it took the air out of her fear!

Isn’t my Bubba a sweetie? He lets me take boo-hoos of pictures while he gets pulled around by our lovable but bratty poochies. By the way, he’s all mine, and no big sister, I will not let you have him when I’m done. Even though I promised to share my future husband with you when I was five!

Just Shoot Me

Posted on October 1, 2011 by April

I am participating in a ” 31 Days of…” series for the month of October. You see a whole bunch of sweet blogger buddies have been getting together the past few years to do 31 posts about a topic that they have a passion for. This year they have invited all of their readers to post 31 days of their passions. The blogger that first introduced me to this series was The Nester, if you are interested in participating in the 31 Days of…series, please visit her site for more information. I hope you enjoy my series on finding treasures both vintage and of the heart. Let’s hope I can overcome my inconsistent blogging habit and share those 31 posts within the next 31 days!

If you are interested in reading what I had to say about vintage and heart treasures, please follow the below links:

Well Read

Got Pot

Mindy the Mendet

Wanna go to the show?

The first day of 31 days, doesn’t it feel like the first day of school? Except there aren’t any new teachers to meet, or awkward seating assignments there’s only the fear of writing 31 posts in 31 days! Although, I’m up for the challenge, especially considering I’ve decided to share 31 days of treasure hunting. No, I’m not talking about buried treasure on some deserted island, this treasure could be vintage treasures found at your local Goodwill or found-already-owned-items that can be re-purposed, or even heart treasures that the Lord has sweetly whispered. The topic of treasures could be too broad for this series, but let’s see where it takes us shall we?

On this first day of 31 days, I’ll share something old…

Can you spot it? Yeah, there’s some old books there that I plan on sharing with you later on, and there’s some ceramic pumpkins from last year, but I wouldn’t call them vintage especially since they came from the dollar store. Give up? Well, O.K. You see that small camera there, on top of the stack of books between the pumpkins? Yep, that’s our first treasure, a 1930’s Kodak movie camera. I bought it at a local thrift store for $1.34 a couple weeks ago. And it still works! At least, something happens when it’s wound up and cranked! It’s missing a lens, and I really don’t know if film can be found for it anymore. But doesn’t it look cool sitting atop my coffee table accessorizing those books?

Here’s a side view…

And a detail shot…

You really can’t see it in the pictures above, but there are settings for different weather conditions like, bright sun on light sand or snow, plain bright sun, hazy sun, open shade in clear sky, and cloudy bright. Pretty high tech for back in the day if you ask me. The whole camera is made of metal and covered in leather, it’s a Kodak and dated 1937-1938. It’s beautifully old and one of my favorite pieces. And all for less than $2! That certainly makes for a treasure in my book.

What have you recently found that made your heart go pitter-patter?

Party Pooped

Posted on September 2, 2011 by April

Finally, the much awaited party post!!! Unfortunately, there aren’t too many pictures of the party itself. As mentioned here Bubba and I were much too busy hosting to snap all those artistic photos I had hoped to capture. You wouldn’t believe the last-minute running around involved in setting up for a little party. Or maybe I’m just an inexperienced hostess with poor time management skills…. Naw, that couldn’t be it!

Anywho, the photos I plan to share with you will be a mix of the few photos I was able to snap. But most have come from my sweet uncle and my Bubba’s brother, who is also very sweet. They did an excellent job of capturing the “essence” of the much planned for party.

It all happened in our little casa’s back yard…

(Wish I had remembered to put my luminarias along the walk way. That would have really dressed things up out there!)

This was the scene before we laid the food out or any of the guests arrived.

All those milk glass vases came from my Goodwill and thrift store collection. I didn’t realize how many I had ~~hoarded~~ collected over the past few months.

I decided to go with a lemon lime theme, so everything was shades of yellow and green citrus-y goodness.

All of the tables had a grouping of my milk glass vases filled with my favorite yellow flowers. In the background of this picture you can see that we used plastic dinnerware. For the next party, I think I will use real dinnerware if possible. It really classes things up, plus a metal fork won’t fly away in the wind like a plastic one will. But, it was nice not having to wash a kazillion pieces of cutlery. In hindsight, those table runners really didn’t work in my breezy backyard either. Things to note for next time…if there is a next time, I had no idea how stressful this little event would be!

In the tree we hung tissue paper pom-poms in shades of yellow, green and white. Along with yellow and white lanterns that looked oh so romantic when lit up.

As the guests walked into my urban oasis, they were greeted by the Wedding Tree, one of my first Etsy finds!

Instead of going with my original plan of the thumb print tree, I decided having the guests sign their names on a leaf would be much less messy than sticking their thumbs onto an ink pad. Plus it saved everyone from worrying about getting finger prints on their pretty clothes. And I still have a sweet memento to hang on my wall and enjoy everyday.

Going with my lemon and lime theme, I found a sweet seller on Etsy to design a tree in yellow and green. Can you believe I ordered the Wedding Tree the morning before the party, and that evening the PDF file was waiting for me in my inbox?! After I was over my shock of such quick service, I planned on popping into Staples the next morning to have our tree printed. And print they did. If I ever need any type of graphics work done, I’ll be sure to contact that Etsy seller again and have it printed at Staples!

The green bowl you see is one of Bubba’s Goodwill finds, the pen holder is a crystal vase my mother gave me for Christmas. And the verse in the frame…

Is my father’s favorite verse:

“But they that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 43:31

And above that, I hung an airplane from Dad’s collection. Since my father passed away several years ago, it was so very important to me to have an element of Dad incorporated into the celebration.

After everyone had signed the tree and oohed and ahhed over my flower arrangements and pom-poms (not really) it was time to eat!

On the menu was smoked pork loin, potato salad, pasta salad, and bbq’ed beans. And for dessert, cupcakes in three flavors: chocolate, carrot, and vanilla. Along with oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip and lemon cookies. I also threw in some brownies for good measure. You can’t have a party without some cavity inducing sweets!

(If I had thought to take some shots of the food, you would find those photos here. Instead I’ll share shots of everyone enjoying the festive feast.)

All of the sides and desserts I picked up at the grocery store, but not after visiting two different grocery stores the morning of the party. Being the scatter brained little party planner I am, I had forgotten which store I’d ordered the cupcakes from! Thankfully, the sweet ladies at the first grocery store were ever so helpful and called each Albertson’s in the area until we located the right store. That saved me so much time and frustration!

Unfortunately, that was not the only sweat inducing obstacle of the day. But I plan on dedicating an entire post to that story. Let’s just say it involved law enforcement, the fire department, and a very sleepy April.

All in all, the party was a success. Both Bubba and I enjoyed sharing our home with friends and family. Our guests enjoyed the food and the atmosphere. My fears of cops coming in and breaking up the party, or angry neighbors calling said cops to break up the party were all unfounded. Everyone enjoyed themselves, there was lots of good food, and lots of good company. That’s really what a party is all about anyways right?

Both Bubba and I are so very thankful for the guests and all those sweet people that helped out. Those that helped in the set up and those that helped us take it all down, and for those who simply graced us with their presence. I know a lot of our guests traveled from far and near and sacrificed money and time to be in attendance. Not only am I thankful for our sweet guests, I’m also thankful for local law enforcement who saved our house from being burnt down (again, that’s for another post), and for the sweet ladies at Albertson’s that saved me time that I didn’t have.

Before I sound like an actress tearfully accepting an award and thanking all those that ever “spared a square” (thousand points to anyone who can guess which television show that’s from!), let’s share some advice. To all of you who are planning a backyard party or any type of event at your home, if someone offers to help, take them up on it. Yes, you can do it yourself, but do you really have time? The answer is a loud and resounding NO.

Between landscaping the yard, scrubbing the kitchen, and pulling Bubba’s dirty socks out from underneath the couch I had no time. There was hardly enough time to buy the food and other party supplies, design and mail the invitations (which by the way were not mailed until 3 weeks before the party!), plan on the decor (I forgot to put lighting up, instead of the cozy romantic evening I had planned on, we ended up with a dark and spooky evening), or have an impeccably clean or at least moderately clean home (There were parts of my home that were used to stash clutter and other I-don’t-know-what-to-do-with items while in my mad frantic rush to clean two hours before the party. I just know some of my guests saw what horrid conditions my washer and dryer live in!). Aside from those things, relax , enjoy your guests and all of your hard work! And remember, cupcakes can be tracked down, fires can be put out, but memories cannot be remade.

Dust Bunnies

Posted on August 19, 2011 by April

Two posts in the same week? Nay, two posts back to back?! You may wonder if my slackerdom mentioned in the post yesterday has been cured. No, it hasn’t, this is merely a post of avoidance. The avoidance of dishes that beg for attention every time I enter the kitchen, or the laundry that reproduces like those dust bunnies that reside under my couch and every other available dark place in my home. Or all those thank you cards that scream to be sent, a month after the wedding reception/house warming party.(I promise those will be sent out before my first wedding anniversary!)

This post is all about avoidance, and sharing photos that I couldn’t cram into my post yesterday. But mostly avoidance. It’s much easier to sit here and tap away at my keyboard than peel myself from the sofa and scrap last nights dinner from the dishes awaiting me in the kitchen, or finally carry those towels to the washing machine, or relocate the breeding dust bunnies to a more appropriate home.

Ah yes, the joys of procrastination. Let’s hope the urge to avoid will dissipate before the end of the weekend. I’m hoping to get those dust bunnies relocated by Monday!

This past weekend, Bubba and I went to the former Carrot Capital of the world to visit my sweet sweet mother.

Goldie especially loves Mom, maybe it’s due to the fact that my mother rescued her from certain doom that is Mom’s neighborhood (strays don’t stand a chance on a busy street with speeding cars). Or it could be that Goldie just loves anyone that’s willing to let her transfer her golden needles to them via a good cuddle. Mom’s a regular yellow dog magnet. They are drawn to her like dust bunnies to a rarely visited corner of a living room. And it’s not just yellow dogs, it’s all dogs. She’s currently got three dogs, one of which is up for adoption.

Here he is helping mom do dishes, actually he doesn’t help. He only watches until he’s shooed away. His name is Buddy, recently neutered, 6 months old, and very friendly. If anyone is interested please let me know. My mother will gladly give up her sweet foster dog if you can offer him a loving forever home. If we can get him to stay still long enough, I’ll post a picture of his sweet face.

While in Grants, we saw all the sights in town and in nearby areas.These jewels were found in a neighboring town, that consisted of 4 mobile homes and 3 ancient adobes. Small town goodness at it’s best.

Here’s one of the four mobile homes. Everyone’s definition of a castle is different, sometimes it’s a mobile home with a grand entrance.

Or just a little fixer upper…she just needs a little elbow grease and some love.

This was Bubba’s favorite part of the visit. Apparently, Transformers are big with 31 year olds these days.

Aside from visiting my sweet mother, my favorite part of the trip was visiting the airport that I used to frequent with my father as a child. Dad was a private pilot and loved planes. He even had the pleasure of owning a plane two times in his lifetime. However, plane ownership is not for the weak of heart or the empty of wallet and he had to sell them both.

Even during the times he didn’t have a plane, he would still head down to the airport once a day to visit with the manager and other flight enthusiasts. I loved tagging along, and hearing the stories and seeing the planes. All those buttons were too tempting to not take a peek at. To this day, I still enjoy airports and planes. And as always, snap copious amounts of photos…

I loved this one, it was shiny! And a tail dragger! I have a soft spot for tail draggers as that’s what my dad used to fly when I was a kid and we’d go on our Sunday afternoon flys. I’ve got a Father’s Day post I’ve been working on since before Father’s Day that details these little Dad stories even more. If this procrastination bug ever goes away I’ll get that one up.

Speaking of procrastinating, I can’t ignore the cries of agony coming from my dirty dishes that are begging to be washed, and my damp towels that are surely growing something mysterious by now, and the ever growing dust bunny population.

Here’s to a great weekend filled with equal parts productivity and relaxation!

Slacking

Posted on August 18, 2011 by April

My slackerdom has finally cast its ugly net onto my blogging habits now. Today I realized it’s been nearly a month since my last post! There’s got to be some sort of cure for this slackery. It’s even reached it’s craggly cold hand into my photo editing, as I am still working on editing all the photos for the much awaited and talked about party post. But rest assured, that is coming very soon!

The lack of posts doesn’t mean that Bubba and I have been sitting around twiddling our thumbs, or that I haven’t been snapping copious amounts of dog photos (believe me, my furkids run when they see that huge black clicky box). It just means that I’ve been too preoccupied enjoying the summer. There’s been too many fun things to do out and about rather than sitting at home typing away at my laptop. Even with all those great and spectacular things that have been keeping me away from my beloved blog, it was high time to come back for a little RR in my cozy net cottage.

So pull up a virtual chair and grab a glass of virtual lemonade and cozy up on my virtual front porch for a photo story of what we’ve been up to these days.

Like observing the local wildlife. Be very quiet, the native Annie dogs are grazing.

Notice how intently my Golden girl is still observing the grazing Annie. This is what the evening dog outings entail. Run, eat grass, run, watch other dog eat grass, repeat as needed.

This tail, although it may look harmless, has caused the demise of many a milk glass vase. But isn’t it beautiful?

Aside from observing grazing Annie’s and avoiding happy dog tails, there’s also been other wildlife to enjoy. I’ve got a pair of praying mantis’ living in the front flower bed.

Annie loves to observe Bubba in his natural habitat, the couch, with a Sponge Bob Square Pants Gameboy.

Sometimes the observing pays off, and you get a new frisbee.

A tail wagging new Frisbee.

And a tail wagging and sniff inducing chew bone.

Also crazy eye inducing bone.

After the new toys had been sufficiently chewed, torn, and otherwise played with, it was time for an evening drive. Goldie loves car rides.

Annie not so much.

But once one has arrived at one’s destination, it’s all business. SNIFF SNIFF

We take our walks seriously around here.

We also take our sunsets seriously. And I mean seriously, is God a great artist or what? He creates a beautiful sunset for us to be blessed with every evening. And they are all different. I hear sunrises are just as awe-inducing, someday I will wake up early enough to enjoy the beautiful sunrise our Lord has made for us….someday.

All that running and chasing and picture-taking calls for a special treat. How about some peach cobbler? Bubba made this from fresh peaches, baked in his new vintage Fire King dish.

Here’s what it looked like a couple of days later.

We may or may not have had cobbler for dinner one night this week, and it may or may not have been eaten straight from the casserole dish. And my jeans may or may not have screamed out in agony.

After all that cobbler it’s time to snuggle up on the couch with your sweetie.

That pretty much sums up the goings on at Casa de Yellow. We have been slacking on some of our chores, but certainly not on our enjoyment of summer.

Lazy Days of Summer

Posted on July 21, 2011 by April

If you haven’t guessed, our belated wedding/ house warming party is now over, done, finito! Honestly, I wasn’t sure if we would all make it to the other side alive, the preparation, the work, the stress, the sleepless nights, (did I mention the stress?) all seemed to take its toll. But surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, we made it, and we can now relax and revel in the fact that we have our spare time back. We no longer need to spend our weekends moving rocks or scrubbing the bathroom. That is, there are no chores or projects on a deadline any longer. Unless the bathroom is starting to turn green and fuzzy, then we are definitely on a deadline to kill that green germ-y beast!

All this talk of having no time for fun makes it sound like I did everything on my own, but that’s far from the truth. I know without a shadow of a doubt that things never would have gone so smoothly without the help of our family and friends. From set up to tear down, our sweet loved ones were there! My aunt and uncle from Ohio even flew down for the party! I never felt so loved. My poor sweet mother came over 3 times in one week! That’s asking a lot when you consider there is 81 miles ,one way mind you, between my house and her house. She must really love this little party planner!

By the way this little party planner would love to share lots of great artistic photos, but alas, she was much too busy making sure everyone had a place to sit and food to eat. But now that the dust has settled, I really wish I had taken the time to document more of what we ate, and how things looked. Especially, now that I have had the chance to think about how much time went into those things. But really, I got some nice snapshots of all our sweet guests, which is much more important than the food or the decor. Maybe I can sweet talk some of our guests into sharing the shots they were able to capture while Bubba and I were busy hosting. *Hint Hint*

In the mean time, here’s what we’ve been doing with all of our free time…

Enjoying our messy house, which has been cleaned up a bit since these pictures were taken. I can only handle a disheveled kitchen for so long.

All those glasses on the table are from the party. I insisted on using real glasses, even though I had to buy them behind Bubba’s back! He wanted to use all plastic ware as it doesn’t need to be washed which is a valid point. But I just couldn’t bring myself to seeing red plastic cups on my pretty tables. So, the morning of I ducked out to get some last-minute items, one of which was the real glasses you see here. Purchased from the dollar store, a box of 16 for $8 , not a bad deal if you ask me. However, upon my return home with my purchase, Bubba’s only remark about the glasses that we will surely reuse, “Well, your washing them after the party!” Thankfully, Bubba’s sweet aunts must have sensed the tension and took the initiative and washed all of them when I wasn’t looking! Marrying into a huge family, with 8 new aunts, certainly has it’s benefits! Thanks to my new aunts-in law!!!

Aside from dodging dish washing, I decided that after three months of having dirt under my nails, it was high time to do something girly and relaxing. So I went and got a mani-pedi. The poor lady that had to sand off my hooves, wasn’t quite as relaxed. But she got a good tip for putting up with my nasty hooves and dirty finger nails. I love being a girl again!

I’m not the only one relaxing these days, no Bubba didn’t go with me to get a mani/pedi. The doggies must have gotten tired watching all the work, this was the scene on our sofa the day after…

{By the way, I have some posts coming about my new gallery wall, which by the way will be relocated, and my new living room paint color!}

A couple days after the party, my mom was back in town to drop off my sweet aunt and uncle at the airport. As always, the puppies were oh so excited to see her. Especially Goldie…

My golden girl refused to release my mother from the ultimate snuggle…

There came a time in the middle that all my poor mother could do was grin and bear it.

When we weren’t napping on the sofa or terrorizing our guests with the never ending snuggle, we all enjoyed a nice sunset stroll…

There’s nothing like kickin’ back and watching the sunset…

This was our view…

Sunset strolls make some of us very happy…

However, some of us prefer trolling the internet for good deals…

Sunset walks are fun and call for a butt wiggle at the mention of them, (yes, sometimes I participate in the excited butt wiggle) but watching the neighborhood from the comfort of your own home is priceless…

Before my aunt and uncle had to head back to the Buckeye state, my mom and I got to grab some precious time with my aunt at Goodwill. I love watching sisters shop, especially when they both have such flowery personalities (notice the floral theme). See, much like other families, in mine we tend to have similar styles and tastes. At least for the women in my family, I really can’t see my uncle wearing a pink shirt with white flowers.

Since, I don’t have a lot of party pictures to share yet, I will give you a sneak peek of what I do have. Some of these were taken after the fact, others were taken as a practice run before the party. Example, the beautiful pork loin that my sweet husband made the week before.

Here we have my tissue pom-poms, this was taken a week after the party so you will have to excuse it’s droopiness. I made at least ten of these guys in yellow, white, and green. Our theme was lemon and lime, I just love the way yellow and green just go together perfectly. If you are interested in making your own pom-poms please visit my good friend Martha Stewart here.

I also hung yellow and white battery operated lanterns in my little tree. Most of them came from an online store, but I picked up a few extra white lanterns at the dollar store. I found the dollar store lanterns were much brighter and held a battery charge much longer than my special order lanterns.

I had lots of color hanging from my tree with the pom-poms and lanterns, but I also wanted color on my tables. Enter my bazillion and twenty yellow flowers, I was able to use all 16 of my vintage milk glass bud vases! It was an exciting time.

And we’ve gotten to enjoy these cheerful guys long after the party.

I’ll end on the most important aspect of throwing a party, the food!! Here is the practice pork loin that Bubba smoked the week before. Isn’t it pretty, and he even achieved the much sought after pink ring, which means it was smoked perfectly, not that it’s raw! Which was my first inclination when my sweet husband proudly proclaimed the perfection that is the pink ring. At least when it comes to smoked pork.

I have a story to tell about the smoking meat the morning of the party. But since I am at 1, 326 words now I’ll end with a few words of advice. When having a party at your home, hire out as many home improvement professionals as possible, hire a maid, and be sure the fire department is on speed dial!

Green and Spring all over

Posted on March 31, 2011 by April

March to me means, green and lots of it. Maybe it’s that certain holiday that requires most of us to wear green lest we suffer the pinchie consequences, or it could be all the green that’s popping up in the emergence of last years dafodlis and iris bulbs.

Or the FRUITING Mulberry tree in the backyard. Yup, fruiting, which means we have mushy mulberries littering our walkways during the summer months. Yummy but messy.

The rose bush is sorta coming back, I hope the ole girl didn’t completely freeze over the frigid winter.

Hopefully soon I’ll have some green grass to show you, but if you are interested, tales of our grass growing saga can be found here and here. Here’s Bubba sowing the seed…

Is that a sprout?

By the way we have the little fence up to keep the brat dogs out of our grass experiment. It’s not working…

Here’s to hoping for lots more green in the coming months!!

P.S. I am linking up the the monthly color story over at Pancakes and French Fries. This month the color was shades of yellow, but I cheated and decided to switch April and March (I’m a rebel like that!). Now, here at my casa/blog March will be emerald and April will be yellow. Sorry Jules, hope you forgive me!

I Heart February

Posted on March 1, 2011 by April

February brought many things, first of all a Valentine’s Day celebrated with my husband. Our very first V-day spent as Mr. and Mrs. April (yeah, Bubba hates that one). He brought me these lovelies to celebrate…

Then we took a stroll downtown…

Fur to cover your Hide anyone??

How about a pint of Glorietta Beer?

After all that hide covering and beer drinking you’ll probably want to take a nap on your Supreme Bedding.

And after your nap, you can wake up and enjoy a beautiful sunset…

I hope February brought you many pleasant strolls, happy naps, and pretty sunsets to enjoy!

I am participating in a Color Story Linky Party over at

Pancakes and French Fries. Please join the fun!

Colors of Winter…

Posted on February 4, 2011 by April

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?

Dog Gone It…

Posted on January 25, 2011 by April

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)