Tag Archives: Summer

Dog Days of Summer: Wiped Out

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You ever feel like you need to be 40 different places at once, but there’s only one of you and you can only be at one place at once? Yeah, that’s how things have been around here lately. Between workie things and housie things, there just hasn’t been enough April to go around. So, when the work is done and I’ve chased all the other rats in this rat race, you’ll find me on the couch with my feet up getting acquainted with my most recent Netflix obsession, vintage Doctor Who. ( I can’t get enough of the 4th Doctor)

 

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Dog Days of Summer: Friend

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Sharing my life with two shedding, sometimes annoying, yet loving dogs I find that the dog is not only man’s (or woman’s) best friend, but we are dogs best friend too. It’s a two way street, they are happy to love us no matter what we say, what we wear, or how we smell. And we are happy to provide them food, shelter, daily walks, and nightly car rides to search for the elusive kitty. It’s comforting knowing we’ve got each others back.

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Especially when it comes to your best friend helping you get a clearer picture of the world.

Dog Days of Summer: Freedom

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Today in the great US of A we celebrate our independence. This is a time to reflect on the sacrifices made by the brave men and women in the armed forces who have given of themselves for this great country of ours. Thank you for fighting for our freedom…

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Nothing says freedom like the wind flapping through ones ears.

Seriously, though, thank you, to the men and women who have and are serving our country.

Happy Independence Day everyone!!

Dog Days of Summer: Ahhh…

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It’s been hotter than blazes here in the southwest this summer. So hot in fact, the little thermometer on my car has read over 100 degrees every evening on my commute home. Let’s just say, it’s pretty miserable for everyone. Especially for our beloved furry friends. We’ve had to take some pretty extreme measures to keep them cool too…

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Ahhh…

I haven’t heard any complaints since someone got their own personal fan.

Please remember, our furry friends need special care to stay cool in the heat. Maybe not a personal fan kind of special care, but make sure they have water and a cool place to lay down. And please, please, please don’t leave your pet in a hot car. You may only be a few minutes but it only takes a few minutes for the interior of your car to reach over 100 degrees. No one wants a cooked puppy dog.

Holy Yellow Cow!

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Apparently, I’m becoming one of those once a week bloggers. It was never my intent, I’ve always wanted to be a once a day blogger, gladly gabbing on about the newest happenings at my nest, or sharing that cute picture that I just shot of my puppies or sweet Hubba Bubba.  But alas, I’m lucky if I can scramble on here and quickly type up a post with some pictures thrown in. Actually, that’s not quite true, my posts take thought and time, I edit every single photo you see on this blog and try to be careful with those things called words. Maybe that’s why I’ve turned into a once a week blogger, it’s the time that it takes to put these posts together. Maybe I could become an everyday blogger if I were to include fewer word circles and start eating more potassium to prevent word diarrhea. (Yeah I went there)

Anywho, I’m not really sure how to transition from word diarrhea to how I prettied up my living room, so I won’t. Let’s jump right into the visuals shall we?

Ignore the ugly leashes that are so glaringly obvious in photos, but apparently are completely ignored while living in this space.

So, remember in my last post I finally got to reveal something finished on the ole blog, my oh so beautiful new floors? Well, I didn’t get to talk about how I prettied it up. With the living room having to be completely dismantled to install the flooring, it gave me a chance to finally work with a blank slate. This was a foreign concept to this pack rat, an empty room? With open, flat surfaces? Where does the clutter go?!  Well, the clutter hasn’t gone anywhere it’s just being stored in boxes in the sun room until I can figure out what I want to get rid of and what I want to keep. I am hoping to shake my pack ratty-ness and give away or sell most of the items that don’t have sentimental value to me. There’s just too many things to spray paint in this world for me to be wasting time dusting yet another thrift store knick-knack.

After putting all the furniture back in the room, and enjoying a completely clutter free space for a few days, I was ready to play around with some new accessories. I wanted color, lots of color, it’s summer after all. So, I started out with my new favorite yellow cow.

Yes, I know she’s a creamer, but the Bubba and I aren’t coffee drinkers, and I couldn’t bear the thought of putting Rillo away in a cabinet.(That’s what I’ve named her, short of Amarillo, which means yellow in Spanish. From what I’ve been told.) The flowers I clipped from my now dry and crunchy front flower bed.

Working with Rillo as my inspiration, I pulled items from around the house that would coordinate with her yellow glory. I found that my small collection of globes and a vintage children’s book brought the perfect mix of bright and fun to the room. Perfect for a summer setting on the ole coffee table.

Apparently, I easily fall victim to trends, notice the other globe on the end table in the foreground? Oh, and I can’t forget these guys:

Yeah, I totally went with the  owl craze too, but I never follow a crazy trend  I’m not completely in love with. Those owls and my globes are some of my favorite things in the room. Here are a few others.

C.S. Lewis is awesome, that’s all I’m sayin’.

Monograms are almost as awesome as C.S. Lewis. But the only monograms I  seem to find more readily are A’s. Oh, well, I’ll just be a self centered little A and only have my monogram selfishly displayed.

What changes have you made to make your home more summery?

Post One Hundred

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Finally, the 100th post. Most people fall upon this milestone well within their first year of blogdom. However, I must be a late bloomer when it comes to blogging as my  post one hundred is falling 4 months after my first blogiversary. Which by the way, I nearly forgot about, and had to include in one of my monthly wrap ups. Unfortunately, those monthly wrap ups have also fallen to the way side. Consistency is boring don’t you think?

Anywho, to celebrate 100  well written and life altering posts (Har-Har), I thought it would be fun to revisit some of the milestones that occurred here at Casa de Yellow. So let’s revisit those bad photo laden and run on sentence  ridden posts shall we? (Not that you can’t find those in more recent posts.)

Way back in May 2010, this little blog that could was born. My first post extolled the joy that is Polyvore. Within this post I explained my plans for our living room, which at the time was Caribbean Sunset, a nice warm yellow tone. However,  that has recently changed to Oat Straw by Behr. It’s more of a tan with some nice grey undertones. Not as bright or jarring as Caribbean Sunset, but no less smile inducing. Here’s what I had planned for my living room in May 2010. Click the picture to see what I said about the room.

Apparently, my style choices have changed over the past 1 1/2 years.  Those choices now lean more towards neutral walls with pops of bright color here and there instead of bright walls with pops of color everywhere. I have found this change to be much more soothing to my style palette and my little eyes. Although, I still have an appreciation for color, and see nothing wrong with homes that still favor the bright walls. It’s just not for me anymore, or at least for right now. Whose to say that I won’t be repainting my walls yellow within a year?

After sharing the joys of Polyvore,  I finally talked about painting our one and only bathroom. This may not seem like a huge feat to some, but for me and Bubba it was a big deal. Our old bathroom was peach and minty green with hints of mold and water damage. So, after finally getting an exhaust fan installed to eradicate future mold issues, I was able to paint our lone loo, Cincinnatian Hotel, a pretty light blue by Valspar. Here’s what she looked like after I stuck a fork in her and called her done. (Please excuse the poor quality photo, this was taken at night with my simple point and shoot and long before I got my fancy schamancy camera.)

Not much happened in July 2010, just the usual inspiration pictures from the interwebs. I did try my hand at a book review without much ado (Woo-Hoo! Rhyming is fun!). August came, and finally something big and life changing happened…

That’s right, Bubba finally gave in and put a ring on it. Once I was over the stunned shock of being a betrothed woman, the wedding planning frenzy began, and then quickly fizzled. At first I was super excited about having a shin dig all my own. But then the stress started in, dates were set and then changed,  illnesses came and went and then came back.  All of August and September 2010 I was  laid up with a horrible case of bronchitis that caused me to lose my voice. Bubba thought this was hiliarious. Until he realized this meant he would be making all the phone calls to priests, preachers, and dressmakers. (Karma rears her ugly head! MAWHAHAHA)

With wedding planning going on, I really didn’t blog much, except to share some verses that were pretty poignant to me at the time. Actually, I still read through them. It’s like April from a year ago is teaching present day April. Those posts touched on subjects such as timing, waiting, impulsiveness, patience, and constant prayer.  At the time I was struggling with these issues, in fact I still do. So thank you 2010 April! Maybe 2011 April should leave some wise words for 2012 April.

The fall of 2010, marked a very short engagement to Bubba, teeny bit of illness and some wedding plans mixed in for good measure.  Bubs and I toyed with the idea of running off and getting married with just us. We also thought it might be nice to wait until spring had sprung to say our vows. But in the end, a quick engagement is what best suited us. After 7 years of dating bliss it was time to experience martial bliss. So, on December 29th 2010, we became Mr. and Mrs.

Getting married was stressful and if I could there would be things I would have done differently. But the man I chose to marry? I wouldn’t change that for the world. And I got to share our special day with some of my loved ones and lots of his. It really was a blessed day.

January flew by, and before we knew it we were in February. The month of love brought a new furry friend cuddle up with.

Goldie, the lovable yellow lab mix. In this post I talk about having her on a trial basis, but little did I know I’d fall for her loving brown eyes and sweet tail thumps “hello”.  I am proud to say that Goldie is now a permanent fixture in our home.

March blew in and brought with it more cold weather, and the hope of a green lush yard. Bubba and I ripped out our crusher fine in preparation for grass seed. So our yard went from this:

To this:

You can read about the beginning of the yard saga here and here. Sadly, after looking at these photos, I can see that the plants were in better health before any work happened. Wonder if it could be linked to some bad wood chips.

Here is my yard a couple months ago:

The grass that is 50% dead there, is now more like 75%. I’m hoping that by watering a little more and fertilizing it should come back. I may also over seed this fall. Here’s to hoping the dogs don’t completely destroy my efforts!

In April, things were still windy, but that didn’t stop me from celebrating my 30th birthday and taking a quick roadtrip to Arizona. Where I partook in the hype that is In-n-Out Burger. The verdict…meh. I much prefer the local favorite Lotaburger. But I’m not biased.

In May, I finally took the plunge and had our block wall stabilized and extended. In the lower part of this picture you can also see our attempts at grass seed.

June flew by, and I was working too hard to worry about maintaining a silly blog, there was a party to plan for darn it! But I did manage to complain about cheap mulch I paid a pretty penny for. Which still causes me grief when I’m stabbed by mysterious sharp objects every time I weed or clean the yard. Honestly, the stuff gives me the creeps and I fear it may be responsible for my dying established plants. GRRR

After the frustrations of June, July finally arrived! Which meant that it was finally time to party!

A great time was had by all. Even I had boo-hoos of fun! All that work and stress was so very worth it to be able to share my home with friends and loved ones.

After all the work over the summer, I wasn’t really up to much in August and September.  I spent my time trying to catch up on blog posts, general house maintenance and reconnecting with my old friend, Sir Sofa.

That’s my year and 6 month review, lots of big milestones happened over the past year and a half, our lone loo got a small makeover, I went from girlfriend, to fiance, to wife in less than a year, the backyard is slightly more grassy than it was last year, and we have our own little fortress of solitude in the back. Wonder what the 200th post will bring…

Party Pooped

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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.

Slacking

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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.