A Good Long Weekend

Well first off, we pulled of the surprise part of the party. My favorite aunt and cousins came into town early and we all went out to eat and do some shopping. Mom never suspected a thing, because that's what we do when we get together. We eat and we shop. I thought it would be hard to kill almost 3 hours after we ate but time flew by. My mom later said she wondered why my aunt looked at every single shirt in Cato's. It was fun visiting with family and friends.

I've had some construction going on at my house and they are finally finished. I had a porch added and a small laundry room built. Being the do-it-herself-er that I am, I told the contracter that I would paint the porch and finish the inside of the washroom. After working in the heat a little bit yesterday, I questioned my decision a little. Taking a break from filling in all nail holes, I watched this two little ones. They were having quite a discussion. They are mud swallows. They eat mosquitos, so we always welcome them with open arms.
So here is an inside shot of the little room that is very unfinished.

My first experiment was to paint the tar paper that is showing on the inside. I was afraid it would bleed through it.

But so far so good. I only got a small section done before I thought I was going to melt, so stay tuned to see how I finish the room.

Jen over at Sanctuary Arts is hosting a makeover party. I didn't get to do the project I wanted so I thought I'd share my mailbox. I cut this out with my cricut and the Sure Cuts A Lot program. It sure brightened up her plain mailbox. Be sure to go visit Jen's blog, she does beautiful work.

Small makeover.

This coming weekend we are surprising my mother with a Retirement Party. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that it's at her house. Her friends love to do this to her, because she has the perfect party pad. So I have been trying to get both of our places ready. She just thinks that I'm being super nice for mowing her yard, and such. I've been rearranging furniture in my house like crazy. Since it's a small house there isn't that many ways to try. I don't have pics of all of it yet, but I did get some of the church pew that I moved into my dining room. I used to have it in the living room, but it was way too crowded. It fit nicely on this wall. I finally got to hang the last of my Canton purchases over it.

I did get one small project finished. I've had this shelf for probably 15 years, no joke. Sad to say in those 15 years it was never painted or shown any love. So I gave it a face-lift. I added some beadboard and trim,

a shiny new coat of paint. I really don't know if it had ever hung on my wall before. I always remember haveing it in the back of my closet. Sorry for the bad pictures.

A collaboration with my Brother

So growing up in my family, my brother was always considered the "Artist" and my mom and I dabbed in crafts. After college I got more serious about my crafts and took some decorative painting classes and started doing craft shows. My brother went to the Art Institute in Houston for awhile and studied Graphic Design. He now is very successful and lives in California. He isn't in the art field anymore but his girlfriend has got him dabbling in painting again. So for Christmas I asked him to paint me a picture. I discribed a painting I had see but couldn't afford, and was anxious to see his version of it. The other thing about him you should know, is he loves to torment me. So he comes home with two blank canvas' and some paint. He said he'd get me started, but I'd have to finish it. Arggg, I was frustated. I like to have patterns, instructions, or at least some guidance.

I forgot to take before pics of both of the canvas'. What he left me with is the above pic. It was really pretty but too bold of colors for the room I wanted it in. So these canvas' sat in my Mom's guest bedroom for 5 months until last night when I got brave and jumped in to do my part.

So I started toning it down with some turquoise, my new favorite color.


Then I added some clouds, and the silhouettes of two scissortail swallows sitting on a line. I have a real life pair of these birds that live in tree in my front yard every summer. I love to watch them fly and swoop around after insects. I'm really happy with it, and I'll admit that I'm happy it has a little of him and a little of me.

I thought I'd share a small project I just finished up last night. Sorry I forgot to take before pics. This frame started out being very modern with metal edges. I decoupaged some scrapbook paper on top of them. I painted two of the glass with chalkboard paint, and replaced the other two with some cork tiles I found at the Dollar Tree. I painted the cork black and waalaah, a new desktop message center. I still need to make some cute pushpins for it.

I just found Chrissie Grace's Chalkboard paint party! Check it out for some really neat projects.

Spring Flowers

I was playing around with my camera and I thought I'd share them. My poor plants have seen it all this spring. We have been going through a drought, so they haven't got nearly enough water. At times I think I'm back in Lubbock because the wind seems to blow nonstop. We even had a pretty bad hail storm (that was pretty rough on my car, but that's another story). On top of that, our neighbors pet deer seem to like us better and have started living at our house (that's another story too.) I usually have a whole bed of larkspurs blooming, but between Peanut the deer and the bunny rabbits, I have none. Peanut also ate my Hibiscus, which I was not happy about. Luckily I still have a few plants that are thriving despite the mother nature and the wild life....

Esperanza's (Tecoma stans) do very well in our area.

It gets really hot in the summers on my front porch so I've resulted to collecting cactus and succulants.
The hail storm also did a number on my garden, but everything survived. I have it fenced off so that Peanut and the bunnies can only lick their lips and drool over my fresh veggies. We got to eat our first batch of lettuce this weekend. The funny thing about me is that I'm not much of a veggie lover, but I love to grow them. I'm growing tomatoes, lettuce, green beans, peas, cucumbers, peppers, bell peppers, and squash. Here's a pic of my little bed of lettuce. It's the first time I've grown it, and I have to say it was pretty good.

Visit A Southern Daydreamer for more Outdoor Wednesday posts...

Fun Weekend...

We took off Friday and headed north to stay in Arlington with my cousin, and Saturday we joined up with a ton of crazy Parrot Heads to tailgate before going to the Jimmy Buffet concert at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco. If you've never been to or seen the tailgating of Buffet fans, its a riot. This was our fourth year to go, and we decided to dress the part this year.... So I here we are sporting our beautiful bikini clad bods, errr tshirts....

Had to get a shot of our cute rear view....

We weren't the only crazies out there. Here are a few others. I think I'll leave out R rated ones...

I think this poor fellow stayed way way too long in Margaritaville....
One group handed us these cute little little "Cheeseburgers in Paradise." They were Nilla wafers for the buns, a mint for the patty, icing for the cheese, and green coconut for the lettuce.

These people just partied on their boat all day, which was docked in the parking lot of the soccer stadium...

Okay so I promised no R rated pics, but this guy was too funny not to post. As we were walking by, we complimented him on his parrot bikini. Men in bikini tops, coconuts, grass skirts are not uncommon at Buffet concerts. So as we were giving him a thumbs up, he decided to flash us!

What if....

You've heard, "If these walls could talk." I LOVE of old battered quilts, and I always think what if these quilts could talk. Just imagine. The amount of time it took for them to be hand stitched, and then the amount of use it took to become this thread bare and torn is just amazing. Think of all the stories that they've heard and the history they've experienced.

This weekend I found one at a market days in Bandera, Tx. I took it up to a little old lady that was selling it to ask the price. She told me that she wasn't good at pricing so just tell her what it was worth to me. It caught me off guard, because quilts are priceless to me. So I named my price, and she immediately asked, "Why?" This stumped me too, so I explained that I use the tattered quilts to make Teddy Bears and that's all I could offer. I thought I'd upset her, but she was tickled with my plans, and went on to tell me she was a quilter and would be happy to sell it to me.

So hopefully I'm doing my part to help these time pieces live on. I only use quilts that are too worn or stained to be used anymore. Here are a couple that I have finished. The sweet purple and pink quilt had inks stains in several places and tears in others. The white one is from an old chenille bedspread.

Check out other cool posts at ReInvented's Trash to Treasure Party.