Friday, July 31, 2009

Off my rocker and onto The DC Big Flea

Made my first haul to DC yesterday and am leaving in a little while, hoping to beat the rain, for my second load. That should do it. It's just me in one space; this time I plan to not overwhelm myself since I've been overwhelmed for just a little too long building up to this. So I'm making this post then when I return I'll have party pics from not only the flea but also last week's visit from our close family friends. Not so much a visit as that would be from guests; it's more like they live with us. No frills-pizza, having out watching movies, everyone comes and goes as desired-truly family. Got some funny pics though I don't want to forget to share. Until then have a great weekend.

Cool stuff from Empty Nest Estate Sales

Janine (Nene) and Fran know how to throw a great estate sale through their biz Empty Nest Estate Sales.
Not only are the wares great, but at the one last week, I wanted to buy the house...truth be known, I still do. Fab. I picked up many treasures only a few of which I'm showing you now 'cause I still haven't had the chance to unpack the box all the way. I took out the things that I knew where they were going and I'm waiting to play with the others.
Cool antique weather stuff; even Paul liked it!
Just a re-do of some of my faves while adding new ones.
This is the souvenir plate (yes, I'm multi-tasking-so shoot me!) I got in Bermuda. Of course the color was first but it depicts the traditional little cottages in bright colors that are everywhere there.
Said plate inspired me to re-do a faux pas area I had recently decorated. Whew, better, I think. In these times don't forget about those garage and estate sales where it's sooooooooooo much fun to grab a great item for $2 or a handful of 50 cent items-cheap thrills! Empty Nest has another really cool sale this weekend, check out their blog (link above) for details; you've got plenty of time to go there and the DC Big Flea...coming up...

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Bermuda shorts

Even though we've been home over a week and I haven't completely unpacked my suitcase yet, I'm determined to do this post before y'all loose interest. Several days, including the day we flew in, it rained. That's why it's so beautifully colorful and lush there. This day the clouds were rolling toward us, the other tourists ran, we got the best spot on the beach, then it rained lightly for a few minutes, the main part of the storm staying out at sea. It's handy to travel with a meteorologist and be well versed in the study of said area. You can see how blue the sea is and the sand has a pink hue. Beautiful!
Matt's definitely a fish to the water. He met a Texas brother and sister the first day and ended up playing at the beach with them two days. Another day he played with some other Texans. You can't swing a dead horse anywhere and not hit a Texan...we're everywhere.
There are actually 181 islands that make up Bermuda. We used the bus and the ferry to get around from end to end to see all. If you aren't careful and watching, just minding your own business...
...the captain will put your son in the driver's seat and let him drive the ferry across the open sea!!!! It was so fun to see him having so much fun and power.
Happy to be near water.
Lucas tells me this is the very latest in water sports, the new cool thing to do. I thought the dude was just differn't. Paddling standing on your surf board. Makes sense when you're somewhere there aren't waves but you want to get around. Pretty cool when you think about it.
The grounds of the hotel where we stayed were beautiful featuring even really friendly ducks.
Color from the flora, from the sea, sky, and even the houses. The traditional Bermudan homes are painted a wide assortment of bright colors from orange to mint green. There's just color everywhere and for a person like me it's just great visual stimulation. Not overdone in my opinion, just perfect for there.
And great, fun places to eat. The locals and tourists eat at the same places which makes it even more fun to get to interact or see how they get to live. Most get to work three jobs just to make ends meet; things are very expensive there, if you think $7 for a loaf of bread is expensive. Everything has to be imported so it's high. Where else would a native Bermudan want to live-no where, it's an island family of friends. I wouldn't leave either.
Yum...one of the less expensive little snack eateries we found in St. George. Food can't taste bad when it's served in a pink restaurant.
We were warned about The Swizzle as we arrived on the bus from the airport so we went there twice. Great food and laid back locals, pub food. Of course the above sign says it all for me. How can you not relate. It applies to most excellent women too! These are the photos I took. Paul took many more and many more of us so if I ever get them from him I'll had them on. It was a great trip, very relaxing but you also feel like you "do" something because you are hanging out on a boat on the way to another restaurant!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

What procrastination I've been working on...

..okay, the greenhouse. I think I've perfected it by working on it the last two nights. Finally got the correct layout by just "shopping" in my garage and putting more effort into it. If only I could use that energy for dinner or the workroom...
...can you guess by the outfit where I'm going to get away from my dooties? We are going to Bermuda! Got my outfits already to go. I know that's pretty far to go and drastic to not have to work on my workroom but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. Hey, I've worked hard to get this look down to honor the place from which the term came. I wore them all the time growing up when they weren't at all in style so this could be a real cathartic trip. I may be able to work through my Bermuda fashion trauma. I hope I'll be blogging from there. If so, it will most certainly be with a British accent. I'm sure I'll sound just like Britney trying to sound just like Madonna-oh boy!
I also spent almost 3 hours watching the MJ memorial today. I wouldn't have used that time for anything else. It was wonderful and I cried almost the whole time. It was fully befitting of him and his legacy. He was my age so I truly grew up with him but so did my twenty-something year old sons and my almost teen son. I thought I'd be fine knowing his music would always be around but it looked like he was going to make us love him even more with his new art. The clip of him rehearsing the day before was astounding; he looked pretty darn healthy; I started mourning him all over again. And those kids, well, I don't have to tell you...I just hope that the world and those close to him don't make things any harder on them than it already is. I love you more MJ.

Friday, July 3, 2009

What WILL I do next...

...to keep from having to face that stinking workroom? Well, since you asked, today I went to give Julie a "corrective" haircut and some things caught my eye. One was a "Betty" lamp; an antique lamp that used candles but has been converted to electrical use; perfect for my little closet.
Speaking of the little closet, here are some updated photos since I reigned myself in a bit so that the other shops had more room to get in and out of and move furniture, bodies, etc.
The before photo of my front porch, blah, huh? Was I just in love with it a couple of weeks ago? I must be confusing myself with someone else.
During the same haircut I saw that there was a great price on a three piece wicker set (not that I didn't already have one of those, but blah, right?)-this is PJ's we're talking about here. My racing mind jumped at it. Then, taking the lamp right out to the closet, I pondered the old green rockers we'd had on the front porch that had not worn well out in the elements so I sold Jody on the idea of ridding them via me and letting me replace them with my own set of wicker chairs with the couch at the side of the building. I mean, it's a very nice set I now have for sale but I'd had it, what, two weeks. I KID...it had been a few years...very long for me.
Does it not look fetching? Well, apparently I went too far for some and I'm way in the dog house for switching the full size wicker couch for a love seat. I mean ranting and raving. But once that part is over it turns quite peaceful for me while I get frozen out. AND, if I get locked out, I have this nice porch with a comfortable chaise to sleep on. Win-Win! And just look how much cuter the off-white wicker looks in front of the shop and how much better it looks without the funky old green rockers now on my porch. Win-Win!

Not quite ready for prime time...

I never (never say never) try to do two projects at the same time but I hate this workroom re-hab so badly that I started a long-overdue project of painting the back door that goes out onto our deck. It's always been just off-white trim color and our deck's never had much pop except for the flowers I put out in spring. This year I didn't want to do too many flowers; I didn't want to have to constantly keep up with watering so I've used other means of decor color.
Sooooooooooo, since I had the original "coral" paint from the first try on the front door, I decided to perk up the back door with that color. Then I got really inspired and decided to trim it in the same green as the front porch shutters. I like it. I "finished" it last night. Taking the both sets of grids off means that the glass in between eventually falls out. The first set was before Paul came home and I caught the glass from the outside as it was falling through into the inside. Voila! for my first trick. I waited for Paul to do the second side while the dark clouds are rolling in. I thought myself quite the clever he-woman; taking both sets of grids off and painting both sets, the inside set being in great need of freshening. AND it means I can clean window sans grids so they get nice and clean. I basically broke apart into three pieces the first outside grid getting it off but did much better on the second set because I was more careful and had help. After painting all and drying the first set went back together easily. The second door, not so much. We looked like two drunken idiots trying this and that to get it together. The low point was when the glass fell onto me and knocked me to the floor with the power drill whirling away in my hand and the window laying on me. Many times during this process I kept thinking of all those shows I've been watching in the background on DIY (I'd do better on the DUI channel-just kidding) thinking, "I can do that.", but now I realize I'm not quite ready for my own show as we took turns catching the falling 2/3" window through the hole in the door. In the end we went with half assed and a prayer and called it finished. Looks good, no? Adds a nice pop to an otherwise blah background. And pop it could, if a nice breeze comes through and hits that loose glass side.
Got a new umbrella and chaise cushion plus throw pillows for the chairs and it's another outdoor room. We have been using our front porch for that a lot lately, now we have two extra living spaces. Sweat equity, baby.
This is the basement door which shows how the upper door looked like before. Pre-painting ambition plans included doing this door too (it's Art's entry), but I'll wait for recovery. This project made the re-hab seem like a cake walk. After Bahamas at the earliest.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Growing up? So soon?

I made a long-thought-out-but-jump-in-with-both-feet decision last weekend. I'm going back to school! Yes, school...the very thing that Mrs. Hardaway ruined for me in kindergarten. It's taken me this long to think of going back again. 51 and thinking about what I want to be when I grow up. Well, maybe not so much what I want to be but, what I want to have accomplished in this short life. The true motivation is that both my grandmothers went to college and my mother got a college degree, my dad got two degrees, but my sister and I are the first generation in three who haven't graduated from college. I think that's a darn shame. There are so many wonderful stories of kids and others who are the first in their families to have gone to college and gotten a degree. I think it's a crime that my sister and I were given every opportunity to graduate at the "normal" age and didn't take it seriously. I really didn't know what I wanted to be (other than wife and mother, not that there's anything wrong with that, just after 30 years...), still don't, but that doesn't mean I can't get a Liberal Arts degree. I'm taking a full load-15 hours-3 art classes, Sociology, and Philosophy. With all these hours and the two and a half years of attendance in my late teens-about 3 1/2 completed hours (hopefully kidding, transcripts have not arrived yet)-I should be wheeling my way across the stage any moment. Well I feel good about it and love having a meaningful, productive reason to get up and out each day other than laundry and vacuuming. Not that raising a teen at home is not worthwhile, I just have some extra time in between his school hours to do something to improve myself so here I go............................woooooooooohoooooooooo. Already scheduling my days of skipping out to see an Aggie game and meet my mom in New Mexico for her birthday. Oh, I forgot to mention the most important part...I'm planning to transfer to A&M so I can graduate from there like my daddy. Sorry Mom, UT was good enough for you but I'm all TAMU...it's from being breast-fed in Kyle field-your bad-my good. Wish me luck, although I don't think drinking, disco dancing, frats, and many boyfriends are going to be the issue this round that they were before so I think slightly more maturity, skill, and desire will outweigh the more frivolous way I went about it before. You never know, though, my slip is always showing.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Been fishin'

Or I should say, Ben fishing. Maya just sent me this photo of Bennie fishing with his daddy, Eder, the first time. Wow does he look big?! Just turned 3, it just gets better and better from here. I'll leave out the teen years but they are so fun in their 20's too. I couldn't keep this preciousness from y'all.