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!

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!

Fortress of Solitude

Posted on May 13, 2011 by April

Just like Superman, I now have my fortress of solitude! Yep, that’s right the wall is complete! Granted, one wall is a row of block higher than I had expected, but that just gives me that much more privacy. Which is quite lovely considering we had zero privacy to start with. Here’s a little reminder of what the old wall looked like before construction began.

Notice the ugly chain link that was serving as a trellis? That would soon be going away.

Here you can see loose bricks.

And more loose brick…

This is my leaning tower of terror. See, how the wall curves slightly? That’s caused from an old tree that had grown right next to the wall, and had been chopped down many years ago. It’s stump had been left, leaving pressure on the old block wall, causing a weakness. But the stump had been there so long, it was pretty much rotted away and came out of the sand pretty easily.

Here you can see how low the wall actually was, we could look all the way down the street into all of our neighbors backyards. In some spots the wall was 3ft high, in others it was 4 ft. The perfect height for neighborhood kids to look over and watch you water your weeds. I’ll miss the kids, they really were sweet. But, I love the privacy!

The morning work was to begin, they pulled up, unloaded, and started tearing down the old tittering wall right away.

Our old bricks were so crumbly it didn’t take much to get it demo’ed.

Did I mention the amount of supplies needed to get this job done? This only shows half of the stuff they actually used, since most of it was still on the truck. Dummy me, I didn’t get a shot of the truck with all the brick and toys.

Remember that old chain link trellis? Yeah, I was happy to see that go down. I may or may not have done a happy dance.

Unfortunately, they weren’t able to get my fortress completed in the two days we had hoped. Apparently, the old bricks they had planned on reusing were too crumbly to be used again. They had to buy more bricks, and put in more reinforcement.

But on the bright side, the dogs liked having new things to sniff over the weekend.

Here’s what the wall looked like after two days of their hard work, and my annoying picture taking.

My plants got a trimming too, I hope the poor little things come back. They were already half dead before my yard became a construction zone.

After keeping the dogs away from cement, that apparently smelled too good to resist, Monday finally rolled around. The poor guys worked another full day, but finally, after 5 full days yard-less, and 3 days of a yard full of brick layers, the fortress was complete.

The doggies love their new lookie-loo holes. The neighbors, probably not so much.

Did you notice the wall seems to have helped with trash being blown in from the street? Well, probably not, since you don’t live here, and don’t see it in person. But believe me, it’s really helped. We’ve had a few windy days since completion, and I’ve had a lot fewer McD’s wrappers tangled within my Rosemary. There was so much trash blown in on these windy New Mexican days, that I just couldn’t keep up with it. I typically pick up trash once a week, when it really needs to be picked up everyday. Apparently the “trashiness” of my yard did not go unnoticed, one of the wall guys politely mentioned that he had hoped all of their trash had been picked up, because they were unsure what trash was already there. Talk about an embarrassing moment. I foresee much yard work in the near future.

Speaking of yard work, last Sunday I went to Wally World with my lovely mother (not the fanciest way to celebrate Mother’s Day, but it suits us), and the good folks over at W-world had all potted plants marked half off! It’s like the little plant fairy’s knew we were coming. And they knew it was a deal my mom and I just couldn’t resist. Certainly a perfect way to celebrate Mother’s Day with my gardening loving momma.

Three shopping carts full of plants later, 1 cart for my dear mother, and 2 for me. I ended up with 3 Spanish Brooms, 4 Snowball Bushes, and one green bush that I can’t remember the name of. Plus, several annuals that will go in pots in the front.

Yeah, we may have gone a little overboard, but boy was it fun. And yes, I am the crazy lady that brings her fancy camera with her to Wal-Mart. You wouldn’t believe the odd looks I got while taking the photo above.

Well, off my fortress of solitude, to untangle wrappers out of my plants!

Tail Spins

Posted on March 24, 2011 by April

The past few weeks Bubba and I have been shoveling, scraping, occasionally cursing, and wishing we’d had enough funds to higher our own guy. No we haven’t put a hit on anyone and buried them in the backyard, but we have torn out the old xeriscape, weed membrane and all.

Here’s our progress thus far…

{Notice the little aussie shep enjoying the newly un-earthed and muddy dirt that lay under the old plastic weed membrane and pea gravel.}

Here’s what we started out with…

It doesn’t look so bad in the pictures, but it really is that bad. The dirt and dust get trapped in dog fur and carried into the house. Yuckie…so there is definitely a need for some sort of ground cover. You can find more of my ideas for the yard and some before pictures here.

As you can see, we’ve got a lot of work to do. Only half the yard has been stripped of it’s gravel. And that half hasn’t been tilled under and seeded yet. And I am still researching pet friendly and desert friendly plants to put in the flower beds.

But in between all the work and the planning, there is plenty of fun being had. For instance, Bubba and the doggies have been going on “spins”…

More??

I don’t think so buddy…

Of course both dogs get a spin

But personally I think Annie likes the hug more…

Aww…

P.S. Bubba would like it noted that in the sequence of Goldie being spun, it may appear she was dropped after her spin. But to the contrary she was gently placed on the ground, he was simply asking her if she would enjoy another “spin” around the yard. Thank you, and good day!

Green Clovers Abound!

Posted on March 17, 2011 by April

I am not one to proclaim my crafty skills from the rooftops, I’m not even one that really shares a lot of her crafting attempts. It’s not that I don’t have “skill”, it’s that I get antsy, and want no need the project done. Projects with immediate results are my favorite!

I recently experimented with one of these immediate “results projects”. With it being St. Pat’s day, I thought I would share one of my classic crafty fails. A jolly green wreath…

I started out with a dollar store wreath spray painted white, some dollar store faux flowers, a wooden green clover I had on hand, and some left over ribbon from my sister’s wedding.

Here’s a during shot, quite a complicated process. I cut the cheap-o flowers short on their stem and just stuck them willy nilly into the wreath.

Then, I tied my clover to the wreath with some of my leftover ribbon.

And here she is on my front door…

A little dinky looking, and a little crooked, but full of that St. Paddy’s Day cheer!!

Maybe for Easter I’ll buy a wreath…

Sleeping Beauty

Posted on February 25, 2011 by April

I’ll admit it, I’m lazy. And I’ve been super lazy about blogging lately. Not because I have nothing to blog, because I just simply can’t sit down and do it. Not right now, not with all the other important things to get done

You see, Bubba and I have decided to throw a party this summer…at our house…that is currently painted with 20 kazillion paint samples, and dare I say, so cluttered it could almost end up on Hoarders. This party would celebrate our marriage (because at the actual wedding we didn’t really have a party, and only included immediate family), and as a very belated house warming party (I’ve lived in the yellow casa for nearly 3 years now). So, needless to say, there’s a lot of work to get done between now and this coming summer. And I’m hoping I will have a lot more completed projects to blog about. Let’s just say, I’m a great starter but a horrible finisher!

To decompress from all the stress and frustration, I’ve been looking at pretty rooms on House Beautiful. Particularly bedrooms, our bedroom is less than relaxing. The Bubba and I definitely have our work cut out for us in that room. So, I am definitely in need of some inspiration.

Have a great weekend!!

All photos courtesy of House Beautiful, and are linked to the HB site.

Clear as mud…

Posted on February 11, 2011 by April

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…

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?

Perfect Imperfection…

Posted on January 27, 2011 by April

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…

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)