Tag Archives: Humor

31 Days Day 4: Autumn Outside

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Yesterday I showed you how I made the coffee table more autumn like, well, today you’ll see how I’ve made the front porch a little more fall-ish.

The mums came from Wal-Mart, the hokey scare-persons I bought for 90% after Christmas a few years back, I think those came from Wal-Mart as well.

I love this wreath! It’s been on my door every fall for two seasons now. If you haven’t guessed, it’s a fake and it’s spectacular.

(Name that 90’s sitcom!)

The little signs in the flower boxes came from Big Lots (I think this store used to go by Pick-N-Save), again bought off season and at a pretty hefty discount. Some of the flowers stuck in there are fake, the theme this fall seems to be faux. I wanted some color and couldn’t wait for my natural mums to bloom so off to the dollar store I went. I didn’t want to put more real mums in the same box as the others for fear they may choke one another out.

But not all is fake out here on the porch, as mentioned above,  I hit up my nearby Wal0Mart again, and found these GIANT mum for $10 each. Typically I’m pretty cheap when it comes to this sort of thing, but this time I’d say they were worth it.

What have you done to fall things up at your house?

31 Days: Autumn in the Living Room

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This month, I’ll be talking about getting things done. You know, those things that nag at you everytime you walk by them, like that wall with the 20 zillion paint swatches on it, or those annoying little jars of nail polish that jump out each time you open the medicine cabinet. Yeah, those things, the annoying things, the things you end up ignoring or not even noticing after a while. So, October will hopefully bring a home for all those little jars of nail polish, and a painted wall in one color. October will bring a mix of big and small project, more than likely you’ll be seeing lots of smaller projects, the kind of satisfying projects that go quickly.

I love those quick satisfying projects that have a big impact. It really helps to keep the momentum going. Well, today is a teeny tiny thing, it’s not really a project, but it makes me happy so I’m including it in the 31 days.

  I turned my summer owls into fall owls.

You may remember this shot from my 31 days button. I like to recycle, especially when it means less work for this lazy girl.

The two big owls have been living on my coffee table since July, they were a gift from my uncle, you can read more about that here. The teeny squirrel and golden owl came from various thrift stores around town. Since this picture was taken, I have replaced the golden owl with a much cuter bronze owl that my mom gave me. I would have taken a picture of it, but by that point the table was cluttered again and I wasn’t in the mood to move keys, wallets and junk mail. Hmm…my spidey senses are tingling, maybe it’s time for a post about key and other “leaving the house” paraphernalia.  Would that constitute spidey senses to tingle? Anywho, the clear leaf containers came from Goodwill, I got a stack of 4 of them for $2. See? I may be a hoarder, but I don’t spend a lot of money on my hoard.

While I was setting all of this up, Goldie was helping.

Yeah, that had nothing to do with the fall coffee table set up, but I don’t feel that a post is complete unless I include a dog picture in there somewhere. But isn’t she cute? I have a fear that I may be turning intthe dog equivalent of the crazy cat lady from The Simpson’s. But instead of throwing cats, I’ll be throwing dogs.

And with that nice random thought, I think it’s time to conclude  today’s installment of Getting it Done, making the living room all autumn like and such.

Clearance Plants

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Here we are on day 2 of 31 Days of Getting it Done, and it appears that this 31 day challenge will really be a challenge considering it’s 11:30pm on day 2. Maybe I over estimated the hours I have in my day, between 8 hours of work, nearly 2 hours of dog time, and an 1 hour for dinner and dishes (I won’t lie, most days I let the dishes build up during the work week.) there doesn’t seem to be a lot of time left over to blog and do a project. But it’s only day 2, so I can’t throw the towel in yet!

Anywho, on this second day of Getting it Done, I had planned on talking about this great organizational project I had completed, but then the clearance carts in the Lowes garden center happened.

Yup, I managed to fit 4 large shrubs and three smaller ones in my trunk. Bubba (my husband) thought I’d never fit them all in there, but I showed him!

I ended up with:

Two of these, for 7.50 each. They will live in the backyard, and they’ll be pretty big guys once they grow up.

Two more of these, for 5.50 each. These flowery gals will live in the front yard.

Two of these, for 2.50 each. For the front yard.

And one of these, I didn’t read the label and thought this guy was another boxwood. Since, these get pretty big he will live in the backyard.

After unloading everyone it was time to get my dig on. Everything went well, until a few minutes into it, I hit a small road block.

Actually, it was a water line 3 inches below the surface. Why they put a waterline right smack in the middle of a flower bed and at such a shallow depth is beyond me. All I knew was that this posed a slight problem, and I had to change my layout slightly. And when I say change my layout, I mean digging all of my holes three inches closer to the outside edge of the flower bed.  Hopefully, the roots of the my new sticks won’t cause problems with this water line down the road. I guess only time will tell. But in the mean time, this is what the front yard is looking like now.

It’s still looking a little sad, I need to put in new mulch and would like to lay a little sod out there to green things up a bit. Living in the desert has given me a greater appreciation for green things, well maybe not the scary fuzzy green things that seem to lurk in the fridge. I see a fridge cleaning post in the near future.

Once I got the four shrubs planted, I was too pooped to start digging holes in the back for the Privets and the Holly. Plus, it was time for the season premiere of Once Upon a Time, is anyone else hooked on this show? Honestly, I can’t get enough of it.

Anywho, the last three shrubs have been sitting on my front porch for nearly 3 days now. Which has given me a little bit of time to do some research, I found that both Privets and Holly shrubs are toxic to dogs (!). Yeah, toxic.to.dogs. I have two dogs that consume just about everything that enters their yard. So, sadly, my beautiful ,new and cheap plants will not be going in the backyard. In fact, I’m considering returning them, if they are that toxic to my doggies, I’m not sure I want them in any of my yards. Although, after researching the Boxwoods a little more, (after they have been planted) I found they were also toxic to dogs. Actually, it turns out a lot of shrubs aren’t good for little dummy dogs who insist on taste testing everything.

So, I learned a valuable lesson, always research plants before buying them or in my case planting them. You never know what could be harmful to the little dummies you love.

Green Eyebrows

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Alright, I don’t really know where this post is going to take us, I just know I have a random assortment of photos I took and then edited. So, I would hate to waste them by letting them just sit on my hard drive, waiting for that perfect blog post when it may never come. Besides that, who said a blog post really has to be about anything. Can’t it just be a post about nothing, like Seinfeld was a show about nothing. Maybe I’ll just yammer on about the injustice of a hair in my marble rye or that woman in the ladies room that couldn’t spare a square.

Anywho, as always, grab a nice tall glass of sweet tea or your preferred beverage of choice, sit back and enjoy the randomness.

This is Annie, she’s always so sweet and so kind, when there’s something edible involved. Otherwise, she takes her stringy tail and butt flaps to her nasty bed where she can ignore us all from a distance. For some reason, I feel she is silently judging me.

This is what she was eye balling when I snapped this image of cute sweet normal dog Annie.

My breakfast, well my Saturday mid-morning breakfast. On a normal day my breakfast consists of a banana eaten hastily while entering the on ramp of I-40, generally 10 to 15 minutes behind schedule. Tardiness is my constant companion.

So, back to Annie, she’s definitely the most unusual dog I’ve ever had the pleasure of sharing a home with. She communicates by yawns. No, I don’t mean normal silent doggy yawns, I mean low guttural Dorthy from Golden Girls yawns.

This is the most close I could come to capturing one of her yetti yawns, usually the mouth is opened much wider.

Aside from yawning and begging, she enjoys photobombing, and like everything else Annie does, she does not simply make an appearance in the background of the picture. Any Annie appearance is always front and center, toothy grin and all.

She does enjoy posing though, particularly with her newest conquest.

This time it happened to be a bowl I used to hold that nasty dry crap, otherwise known as Iams, when her regular bowl was infested with ants during the Great Ant War of 2012. By the way, after numerous attempts at putting an end to the battle of the ants, I still have survivors, cornstarch and Raid don’t seem to phase them much. Anyone have any ideas?

Although, Annie can be a very sweet dog, she can also be quite ruthless, especially when it comes to time outside. Poor Goldie tends to get the brunt of this ruthless-ness, as evidenced by the green eyebrow. That’s a grass stain, caused by Annie slamming Goldie’s head into the lawn. All summer long Goldie has had odd green eyebrows, it took us a couple weeks of monitoring to figure out how it was happening. Poor Goldie lets Annie-Devil take out her many frustrations on the Golden One during their outside time. I should probably mention though, Goldie and Annie are the same size, Goldie could easily take up for herself, but her passivity tends to keep her from doing so.

(Not that I would know anything about being passive.)

I always end up having to break up the head slamming fest. Sometimes, I wish there was someone to break up the head slamming fest that I tend to allow myself into at times. I suppose I do have someone that intervenes when the head slamming and grass stained eyebrows become too much.

My Savior, Christ Jesus, He’s always there to pound on the window when the head slamming becomes too much.

“121 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

2 My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.

6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

8 The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.”

Psalm 121 KJV

So, He does help me even when my head is being slammed against the perverbial lawn, and He doesn’t even take a break from watching over me. How could I possibly be worried over a few green eyebrows when I know He will be there when it’s too much?

And look at that, this post really did have a point!

Also, Happy Autumn a week late!!

Note: Although I mention name brands within this post such as, Iams and Raid, I am not being compensated for such mentions. They are just brands that make a frequent appearance within my household, much like dust bunnies make frequent and ever present appearances under my sofa.

Thrifting Thursday:Thrfriday

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So, another Thrifting Thursday on a Friday, at least it’s only one day late. And it’s finally Friday!!!! *Enter Happy Snoopy Dance Here*

With the end of the week, comes time to talk about thrifting. Lately, I’ve been showing some restraint when it comes to buying everything in sight, but this week I couldn’t help myself.

This little guy was too perfect to pass up, and was 25% off, so that brought the “adoption fee” down to 75 cents from a whopping 99 cents. I know, such a big spender right? Anyways, since I’m a nite owl myself, this little possible sugar bowl(?) was just too cute to leave on the shelf for someone else. I have always been a notorious night owl, even as a baby! My parents have told me stories of staying up all night trying to rock me to sleep but to no avail, I just wanted to be awake. Some things never change I guess, even nowadays, with a morning job, I often have to force myself to go to bed by 1AM. Mornings, though, yeah, those are almost painful, and I’m ALWAYS late for work. So glad I have a boss that’s sweet enough not to kick my butt into the unemployment line from my frequent tardiness.

So, back to the bowl, I couldn’t resist his charms, the owly-goodness of it, and the handmade-ness, and who could resist those blue flowers? Yes, I’m making up words, but it’s my blog and if I want to make up words I’m allowed. Besides, it’s Friday, all goes on a Friday right?

Indeed, one mans trash is another mans treasure. Or rather, one mans discarded craft is another woman’s treasured piece of owl hoard.

So tell me, are you a night owl or one of those annoying cheerful early birds that steal all worms from us night owls?

Weekend Happenings: Randomness

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Happy Tuesday all! I trust you all had a great weekend, and an easy Monday. On this Tuesday, I don’t have many words, but I have lots of pictures. So pull up a comfy chair pour yourself a tall glass of sweet tea and enjoy.

This weekend, I realized I would never make it as a 50’s housewife. I took it upon myself to make Bubba his favorite fried eggs, everything went smoothly until I had to turn them over. It was at this point I turned the spatuala over to the cook of the house before more disaster ensued.

So, we often feed our dogs morsels from the table while we eat. Therefore, this one sees fit to beg at every meal. Does this make us bad pet parents? And does calling myself a pet parent make me crazy?

With that in mind, I spied this mug at a thrift store. This is the first side.

And this is the other side. For some reason it reminded me of Annie-Dog.

Which brings to mind this other thrifty find. I know this is how Annie feels about her kibbles, makes me feel a little guilty.

Then I remember the evening pulls I get taken on every evening.

I’d say the evening pulls are worth it though, since it makes my puppies tired. And I get to take cute doggie butt pictures afterwards.

And I get to spend time outside, while they all wait for me to take pictures of a weed.

This weekend I also got to spend time with my mom. Isn’t she pretty?

We went shopping for craft supplies while she was visiting. She’s starting a new hobby of quilting.

While I’ve taken on the hobby of crochet. I’ll talk more about it later, if I remember, no promises of consistency around here.

We ended the weekend at Goodwill, that is next door to a rug store with questionable architecture.

The sunset was breathtaking though.

What did you do this weekend?

Pretty Pics from Pinterest: Humor Edition

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The end of the work week brings with it the joys of the coming weekend, and with the weekend come plans on how to use that precious non-work time. Every weekend, I set a goal on how to properly and adequeately squeeze as much as I can out of that non-work time.  Last weekend I wanted to make the sunroom more inhabitable, that didn’t happen. Instead I ended up spending my time doing chores that were screaming for attention, like the ever growing pile of laundry and the fur bunnies that often propagate under my couch. (A note on fur bunnies: if you have large dogs that have fur, then you will have fur bunnies, not dust bunnies,fur bunnies. And I can’t forget to mention the fur tumble weeds, those are the most distressing. End Note)

So this week on Pretty Pics from Pinterest, I’m not going to set any type of virtual goal for myself. My only goal is to relax, oh yeah and finally do the dishes. Can you believe the amount of spoons and bowls we use in my house hold? I would swear we eat more than just cereal and porridge! Anyways, I wanted to end this very busy work week on a light note. Instead of pretty pictures, let’s look and things that make us laugh shall we? By the way, if you want to see the original source, click on the image.  To the best of my knowledge these are the original sources, but I can’t make any guarantees.

Via I Waste So Much Time

And with that I wish you a tail waggin’, ears flappin’ in the wind weekend!

Weekend Happenings: Labor Day

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Alright, so Labor Day is officially behind us, in fact it’s two weeks behind us at this point. But I never got to share what we did on Labor Day, which apparently after looking at the photos really wasn’t that much aside from eating and riding in a car. Speaking of riding in a car, my Bubba and I decided to take a teeny tine little non-overnight road trip to Madrid NM. And it’s not pronounced MUH-drid it is clearly MAD-rid, ask any of the locals they would be happy to clarify that for you.

Most of the trip looked a little like this, especially once we got to Madrid. Note to anyone who is thinking of visiting this quaint little town over a long weekend, it’s gonna be crowded and parking will be at a premium. Which is why we didn’t stop, we drove through it and made a vow to return when things weren’t quite as busy.

But all was not lost, I did get a glimpse of the diner that was featured in the movie Wild Hogs.

Along the way we did see some pretty New Mexican scenery.

Then we tried our hand at homemade chili rellenos (ray-en-oh). If you are unfamiliar with this spicy delicacy, it is a green chili stuffed with monterrey jack cheese battered and deep fried. Delicious, and oh so fattening, but come on, it’s stuffed with cheese breaded and deep fried, how can a girl pass that up?

Tuseday brought with it the return to work, but also a little surprise:

My very own  Swingline stapler thanks to our sweet office manager. Let’s hope they don’t move me down to the basement stop giving me a pay check and ask me to kill roaches, a la Office Space.

How was your weekend? Deep fry anything interesting?

Pretty Pics from Pinterest: Sunrooms

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Hello Friday!! This week sure felt a lot longer than 4 days, maybe it was that extra long weekend that threw me for a loop, but things have really been a little weird this week. I just couldn’t get back into the swing of things, but it’s Friday now so I’ll worry about getting back into the swing of things on Monday! With it being Friday, that means it’s time for my weekly Pretty Pics from Pinterest post, this week we’ll be oogling some pretty sunrooms. I’ve been working on a little sunroom make over at my house, our sunroom has sort of been a catch all for the stuff we couldn’t let go of, but didn’t really know what to do with. That sort of sounds like the rest of the house doesn’t it?

Anyways, I’ve decided it’s high time that the sun room become a room that we can actually use. Our house is pretty small, about 950 sq ft excluding the sun room. So, we really need that extra hanging out space that the sun room provides. I’ve gotten the room fairly well cleaned out there are just a few things left to do. This weekend I have made a promise with myself to finally finish it, or at least put some curtains up. With that in mind I’ve been hitting up Pinterest for some finishing off design ideas for this sunny little room.

By the way, if you are on Pinterest and would like to follow me, I am April@theyellowcasa.wordpress.com, I still don’t know how to put a Pinterest button on my little blog. Maybe I need to own my domain? Does anyone know how to get those snazzy Facebook and Pinterest buttons??

Anywho, on with the eye candy! As always, if you are interested in seeing the original source of these pretty pics click on the photo or the link provided below the photo to be taken to the original website.

Pinterest via Jenna Sue Design

I love the colors she used in this room, and that coffee table is awesome, her how to can be found here.  Also, those floors are a cool idea as they are wood look tile. I toyed with the idea of putting those throughout our house, but threw the idea out when I priced out how much that would cost for the whole house. Instead we went with vinyl plank floors, you can read more about my floors here.

Pinterest via Hooked on Houses

Julia at Hooked on Houses has such a sweet sun room, it looks like the kinda place you could curl up and read a book in. I am really loving the green and yellow she used in this room.

Pinterest via Young House Love

How could I not include John and Sherry’s sun room, they are the rock stars of home blogs and DIY renovations, if you haven’t heard of them you definitely need to check them out. So, I am sharing their room because I loved their floor embellishments and window treatments. I may have to utilize their curtain concept for my sun room, soft yet still allows the light in and the view to be seen.

There ya have it, three gorgeous sun rooms, if that doesn’t give me motivation to finally get my sunny room functional I don’t know what will.

Have a happy weekend everyone!!!

 

Thrifting Thursday: Shopping the Squeakel

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Wow wee has this week gone by fast! It’s already Thrifting Thursday! I can’t believe it’s nearly the end of the week and this is the first post on the ole blog this week. I owe you guys some posts, particularly a Weekend Happenings post. Since it was a nice long three day weekend, I have lots and lots of photos to share, aren’t you excited?? So stay tuned for that very informative and useful post.

 So, here we go, I need to mention I’m playing around with some artsy-ness and a watermark, so if they bother you let me know and I’ll go back to my plain jane editing.

This blonde buffet had me at 1/2 price, but alas, our casa is much too small for him. Can’t you imagine all of my treasured milk glass stored in this beauty though?

How about a shrimp on a stick? I don’t really care for shrimp, but I thought this set of appetizer plates were pretty adorable.

I love old chairs with an interesting shape.

Imagine them reupholstered in a more modern fabric, and refinished with a paint treatment or even just polishing up the original wood. Is it just me, or do you have a tinge of guilt about painting over perfectly good wood pieces? Don’t get me wrong, I love the way painted furniture looks, but something deep down inside me tells me that it’s wrong. Maybe it’s Bubba, who is adamantly opposed to painted furniture. I am too when it comes to a valuable antique, but when something is obviously not worth that much I still find myself hesitating.

On a lighter note, how about this monkey lamp? He wasn’t really my style, but he made me smile. Here’s a close up..

I guess he’s asking for more monkey chow.

What have you found recently? A shrimp on a plate? Maybe a monkey lamp? How do you feel about painted furniture