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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!

Estate of Mind

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With the planning of an “event” that still hasn’t taken place, I haven’t really set aside time to post all of the wonderful things I have planned to talk about.  There’s a lot happening at the Yellow Casa, aside from the big event slated to happen soon (I won’t be sharing a date until after the big event, everytime a date is announced something happens and causes us to change the date. Call me supersitous but I’m not willing to postpone that most special festivity again.), we’ve got Christmas time coming up.

I love Christmas, the smells, the sounds, but more importantly, I love “reason for the season”. It’s truly a time to celebrate Christ, and His wonderous love.

Recently the Sweetie and I hit up the local Goodwill and various estate sales. Here’s a glimpse into some of my Goodwill Hunting and Estating adventures.

First up, milk glass bowls.

These beauties are from Anchor Hocking, and according to e-bay and other “reliable” sites, they could be from the late 1940’s to the mid 1970’s. I have a hunch they are the ’70’s variety. But aren’t they cute with their little handles? And at .59 a piece I just couldn’t pass them up. They are perfect for that late night bowl of Lucky Charms , not too little but not too much. However my jeans would say otherwise.

Next we have the cheese dome.

I’ve really been jonesin’ for one of these. It’s small,  just perfect for a little pretty, and it only set me back $3. For fall, I put one of my many ceramic gourds inside. Much to my brother’s irritation, he couldn’t understand why I would want such a small “cake plate” and then not put cake in it, but a fake pumpkin.  Boys, sometimes they just don’t understand “pretties”.

And some more milk glass.

Have I mentioned how much I love milk glass? Well, I really love milk glass and I seem to be building quite a collection of it. This candy dish was too pretty to pass up. At $5 it seemed a little high to me, but I loved it too much to put it back down. And so, it sits on our coffee table, looking pretty, I even put some Christmas peppermint in it.  So Christmas-y!

And of course, the Sweetie and I can’t seem to leave a yard sale, estate sale, or thrift store without picking up a vintag-y looking book.

This was one of the Sweetie’s finds, he loves books with more than one story in them. So, this fit the bill perfectly for him.

Me and my shaky hands, makes for some pretty fuzzy pictures. This one isn’t as old as some of our other finds, it was last copywrited in 1960. Still a pretty cool book for a buck.

Here’s another fuzzy book. This one was one of my finds.

Alfred Hitchcock’s “Stories for Late at Night”, oooh spoooky! I love the cover of this one. Can you count how many Alfred’s appear?

Aside from estate sale-ing, and Goodwill hunting, we’ve been doing some of this:

Spying on the neighborhood, from the couch. Everything is better when done from your own comfy sofa.

Annie dog especially loves being sneaky about spying on the neighborhood, while lounging on the sofa.

And since the Christmas season is upon us, the Sweetie and I have been decking the halls of our casa.

More to come on Christmas at the yellow casa. We are still working on decking the halls. If we can make time in between our junk shopping hobby this weekend!

 

 

 

Hello Pinky…

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Over the long weekend, I thought it would be nice to complete the painting of my bathroom. If you remember correctly, I had started painting ole peachy blue way back in May. Being the procrastinator that I am, I’ve put off completing this little project until now. Actually, to be honest, it’s really not done yet. I still have some cutting in to do, and the cupboard doors still need to be painted. Unfortunately, those are still lime green, completely throwing off my soft blue soothing vibe.

Anywho, the ceiling of the bathroom was still the same old grubby white it was when we bought our little castle. So, off to Home Depot I went to purchase paint for ceiling. Now, being the novice I am, I thought that picking out paint for the ceiling would be a no brainer. I just wanted a boring white ceiling, that wouldn’t grow fun little organisms. A paint by Glidden seemed to fit the bill, it went on pink and dried bright white. Perfect! I would know where I had missed so that none of the old grubby white would show through my pretty new clean white ceiling.

Happily I went a painting, within an hour or so, my ceiling was pink, and slowly turning to white. Had I been thinking like a blogger I would have taking a picture at this point. But unfortunately, I was being very task minded and just wanted to gitter dun. And gitter dun I did. Within another couple of hours, my ceiling was bright white and pretty! I was thrilled! Until the next day, when the morning showers were finished. And I discovered to my horror that bathroom ceilings do not stay dry….

The above picture was taken after the ceiling had time to dry, so it was even pinker before. And no, that’s not something growing on the shower wall, that’s the plastic surround that we are planning on changing out someday. Hopefully soon….

Here you can see the pink spots more clearly.

But I would like to mention that after a week or so the ceiling paint seems to have “aged” so the pink isn’t as abundant. I guess I’ll just have to chalk this up to another home improvement lesson. Paint that goes on pink when wet, but dries white, does not stay white in a bathroom with poor ventilation.

Cozy

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I have all these posts in my draft folder just waiting to be posted. However, I just can’t seem to make the time to put the finishing touches on them to share. So instead, I’ll post a pretty fall I came across, it’s currently one of my favorites. I love the colors, it looks so darn cozy.

{NY Times}

I leave you with some encouraging words from Romans 12:12

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

Weekend Ideas

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So, to start the weekend off, I thought I’d share some quick projects that could be done in one weekend. These are courtesy of County Living. Feel free to click on a picture for more information.

Update your kitchen sink. Now this is something our kitchen could stand, a new faucet. Actually, our kitchen could stand some new cabinets, new flooring, and dishwasher. But that’s another post for another time.

Conquer your closet. Funny that this one was on Country Living’s weekend list, because it’s on my list as well. Honestly, though, it’s been on my list for months. But this weekend, I am determined to at least tame the shoe jungle that’s going on at the floor of my closet.

Re-do your front door. Yeah, I know, I included a red door in my post yesterday. But I just can’t seem to get enough of them. Especially after painting my own front door red. I’m still working on the accessories though.

Create a mudroom. Now this might be hard for me to accomplish in my little casa. There really isn’t much of an entry way. But with some thought, and little bit of furniture re-configuration I bet I could figure something out.

Convert Closet into office. And once I get my closets all organized and pretty, I wonder if one of them couldn’t be converted into a mini-office.

So many things to check off of my to-do list! I’m off to organize, paint, clean, and hopefully photograph my progress to share on this little bl0g that could!

Have a great weekend!!

Punkin’s

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Since Halloween is coming upon us on Sunday I thought I’d share some spooktacular ideas. They are all courtesy of Martha Stewart. If you would like to find more information about a certain project just click on the picture.

These jack-o-lanterns look so warm. I wish I had made the time to carve a couple this year.

 

I guess I’m really liking the jack-o-lantern this year. Maybe tonight I will pull out the ol’ carving knife and whip up a glowing beaut of my own!

Spooky Crafts

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Planning a wedding has become so much more time consuming than I could have ever imagined. So, needless to say (and I’ll say it anyways), my Halloween and Fall decorating ideas haven’t been done. I really don’t forsee them getting accomplished this year, but at least I can blog about my favorite crafts ideas this year and dream. So, thanks to Martha Stewart I’ve found some pretty cute craft ideas for Halloween. Feel free to click on the pictures to find out how to do these cute little projects for yourself.

These cute tin pumpkins are so sweet. With  just a few cans of left over paint, a hammer, and an awe, you’ve got some pretty AWEsome pumpkins. And the best part about these is that they can be used year after year. That is, if they don’t get lost in the garage.

This jar idea is cute, and I bet you  could even implement this idea for other holidays. For Christmas you could paint your jars red and green with cute little elf faces. At Valentines Day they could be red and pink, at Easter you could have happy pastel bunny jars.  And they don’t necessarily have to have faces. But I think those smiling faces are just too adorable not to use!

Good ol’ Martha Stewart called these “funkins”, and they could be fun to make. Glow in the dark powder and inexpensive fake but carveable pumpkins and a black light is all you really need to make these. Since this project sounds so easy and quick it might be something I could actually complete!

This project seems a bit time consuming for me, but I thought they were creepy yet understated. Which is what your Halloween decor should be right?

If you’re going to dress up for Halloween why not dress up your candles too? This little craft only requires some tissue paper, tape, an exacto knife, and of course a candle holder with a candle. I really like this idea, because for one it’s not permanent, and you won’t have to worry about storing a season specific item all year long.

These ideas definitely got my crafty wheels turning! If I try any of these projects I’ll be sure to post about it. But don’t keep your fingers crossed, the headless horseman might come and make chocolate bars out of them! MAHAHAW….

This Gourds Mine!

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I know, my posts about fall decorating are coming in a little late and few and far between. But I am working on some totally gourdge ideas to inject that harvest spirit into my casa. Sorry, I just couldn’t resist the pun!

A couple weeks ago, I went pumpkin shopping for real pumpkins. If you remember from this post I went crazy with the fuax pumpkins from our local handy dandy dollar store. Well, this time, I finally gave in and brought home some real pumpkins to put outside. You know the, the kind that won’t blow away! Here are a few of the small ones. Aren’t they cute?

But they looked a little plain to me, so I thought I would brand them with a couple monograms. I decided to use the first initial of mine and the sweetie’s first names, A and J. So, I took some stencils, some black paint, and a sharpie…

I ended up forgoing the V and replaced it with an &, which I thought was a lot cuter. And much safer so that we don’t have all of our initials hanging out on the front porch.

So, i began the process by taping the stencil to the pumpkin:

And then using the sharpie to outline the letter:

Then filling in the letter with my black paint, using dollar store water color brushes. I really do love the dollar store, there are so many treasures to be had there!! If I had remembered to take a photo of my pumpkin at this stage, you would see a photo here. That’s what I get for watching the late show while doing  a craft.

Here are my sweet little pumpkins all done up and displayed on the front porch:

They look kind of sad there, sitting next to a naked pumpkin. I think I’ll have to do some more dressing up on the front porch. My poor pumpkins need something to sit on. I’ll have to go shopping around the casa to find a “free” something to use up here.  What do you suggest I add to bring in more pizazz? Maybe a mini scare crow? Some autumn leaves?

Shopping Saturday

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Yeah, I know it’s actually Monday. But I want to share with you the treasures I found during my Saturday shopping trip. Plus it gives me a good excuse to re-live the shopping high and take my mind off of the fact that it’s Monday!

Well, all that shopping made everyone so tired, we definitely shopped till we dropped. Even Annie Dog partook in the dropping!

Anyhoo, Saturday I went shopping as I frequently do on weekends. Just ask my debit card. The poor thing has burn marks from being swiped so often! Well, this weekend was no different from any other, but  I ended up scoring some awesome treasures. First up, a pretty vase I found at Hobby Lobby:

I probably should have removed the stickers from the apples before shooting this picture, but I guess that’s just keepin’ it real!  Actually, I ended up with two of these pretty vases, and will probably use them as center pieces in an upcoming event. By the way this event I am referring to is my wedding. Calling it an event seems to be a lot less stress inducing than calling it a wedding! So, after the “event”, I can use these pretty vases for so many different uses. At Christmas time I can put some pretty glass balls in them, at Valentines Day something pretty pink and red, at Easter time some sweet looking wooden eggs. The possibilities are endless.

And then we went to Big Lots. That’s where I spent the most, but I found the coolest little treasures!

These little candles are about the size of a shot glass, from what I’ve heard. I don’t have any personal experience with a shot glass. But, these candles came a dozen to a pack for $7 bucks. You can’t beat that, less than a buck a pop! And here they are all lit up:

And here’s Annie giving me the evil eye for taking pictures of candles instead of her:

Then we have my Corelle Hearthstone plates. I loved them because they had a nice heavy weight to them and they were yellow! I just couldn’t pass them up, especially at $3  a plate! I picked up 4 of them, so,  for a grand total of $12 I now have some pretty plates to set out for my fall meals. Aren’t they the perfect color for it?! They are yellow on top and black on the bottom. The yellow keeps them cheery enough to use on a summer table too.

I usually do a lot of window shopping during my weekend treasure hunting trips, but this week I just couldn’t resist. Don’t you think these treasures were worthy of residing in  casa de yellow?

We all need more thyme…

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With my dirty house and uncompleted projects, not to mention my frazzled mind,  I thought it appropriate to share some time management tips I’ve found while lurking around the web. Maybe it will encourage me to actually implement them in my own life. Hopefully, then all the painting and cleaning and organizing will finally get done!

{Table and Home}

1. Keep a list. Yeah, this would be a good tip, only if I could keep track of my list. But funnily enough, those helpful little lists always end up being found at the bottom of my purse a month after the fact.Maybe I should clean out my purse more often. Or stop making lists and then sticking them in my purse!

{Margarets.com}

2. Evaluate how you spend your time. O.K., this is a big one for me. And I must make a confession here, I am a TV junkie! The first thing I do when coming in from work is turn the TV on. Of course after petting the dog, and getting a plate full of yumminess that the sweetie has concocted. If I were to omit the TV portion of my evening, that would free up a good 3 or 4 hours of time that could be spent making my casa the casa I know it could be. (Yes, I am militant about giving my house a pep talk.)

{BestBuy.com}

3. Plan your week. This could be helpful, at one point in my life I remember that Monday’s were always grocery shopping and laundry days. Now a days, Monday’s are come home plop on the couch and watch Monday night sitcoms.  No laundry gets done, which my overstuffed hamper can attest to, and our pantry is filled with food that the sweetie has deemed acceptable. Honestly, I haven’t found Ramen noodles acceptable healthy fair since I was a 21 year old college student. The ingredients for his yummy meals are usually purchased that evening. So, we never have food on hand to prepare a quick and healthy dinner. If I do not set aside an evening to do laundry then I at least need to re institute my Monday night trip to the grocery store.

There you have it, three good solid tips to a more timely life! That sounded like it should be in an obituary. Maybe, 3 time saving tips to allow you to get your house clean and still watch Monday night sitcoms!