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.

Time Flies...

I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted anything. Several things have been a contributor to my absence. First I'll blame the Twilight books. I am now finished with all of them, and kinda sad that I am. I really really enjoyed them. Second I've been workind outside in the yard and garden alot trying to get everything planted and trimmed. A lot of work but nothing picture worthy yet. I just finished a couple of projects I thought I'd share.....

I put down laminate wood floors in my craft room, and I love them so far. They were fairly easily to install once I got them started. My cat loves them more than I do, and I have no idea why. He is always sprawled out on it. Avery pefers to be pampered with his pillow and rug.

Speaking of animals, last night I babysitted my Mom's pomeranian, Bella (she was named before I started reading Twilight). I sat down to paint and she hopped onto my lap and the next thing I knew she was laying on the table on top of all my stuff. She thought that's where she belonged.

Actually I don't blame her, since my cat still thinks she's an oversized rat and tends to stalk her whenever she comes over.

On to a couple of projects. I've been playing around with my Cricut vinyl cutter and with embossing my own metal tiles. I combined the two for a house warming gift for my cousin.

I've been working on some picture frames to sell at my shows in the fall, and these are the first two I've finished. I painted the letting on them and then lightly sanded it to look worn. I'm having a long of fun making these....

Hooked on Bead Board

I am more hooked on bead board than I realized. When I went to take pictures it was everywhere. You saw pics on it in my bathroom a few weeks ago. Here are few, er actually of lot of other places I have it...

In my dining room I have a plate shelf that goes around the entire room with beadboard on top of it ...

I have a couple of shelfs and cabinets that have it as the backing or door.

It's hard to see on that one, but the back is bead board.

My kitchen walls and ceiling are bead board stained Americana...

And my most favorite piece of furniture is solid bead board. It's made of recycled boards that have the greatest peeling turquoise paint....

Julia at Hooked on Houses hosts a really fun Hooked on Party on Fridays. Its always fun to look at all different posts.

The Perfect Saturday....

Do ever have days that just make you smile when you look back at them? Days that nothing really special happened, but that were just fun and enjoyable? Saturday was one for me.

Oh wait with one exception.....We went to watch a Powerlifting Competition that my cousin was coaching. All I can say was it was crowded with stinky STINKY boys all hyped up to lift a bar with giant weights on each end. I love sports so I thought I'd enjoy it, but it was not my cup of tea.

Okay onto the fun part. My Aunt has been telling was about this store for months. So we finally found a weekend when we could all get together. I was in heaven just pulling into the parking lot.

Recycled Memories is located on Hwy 181 outside of Floresville, TX. The owner Dawn, is super nice and has a lot of unique pieces mixed in with antiques and wrought iron...

I'm thinking about that locker unit for a future laundry room I'm planning, or maybe in a garden shed....

She had a barn in the back that was full of furniture. I only got pics of a church pew and a cool apothocary cabinet...

So you know I didn't come away from this place empty handed. I scored a small wrought iron bird bath and this neat piece. Its three shutters that are framed together and has a great patina. Here starts my Met Monday post. Sorry it took so long to get there. I've had this fake fireplace for a few years. It covers the return air vent that is annoyingly in the center of my living room wall. So I'm giving it a makeover starting with the shutters. So should I continue and paint the fireplace? Any color suggestions???

And to top off my day I got to visit with my bestest friend and her family who where staying in Castroville for the weekend. It's really fun to give another person's kids lots of sugar on Valentines at 7:30 at night. The sugar rush was good for many many laughs...

Bathroom Remodel

I thought I'd share my bathroom. About 6 years ago I bought an old pier and beam house that I completed gutted and rebuilt. My parents helped, but I did most of the work myself. I have to say tearing out the pink bathroom was at the top of my list, that is until I realized there was 6 inches of concrete below the floor and on the walls.

This is the only before pic I have. You can't tell but the floor tile is pink also.

This was a small wall at the front of the tub that created a small cubby hole for the toilet. It was gross. Before we started we thought it was just going to be popping the tiles off with some minor cleanup. Yeah were we diluted or what. This house was built before plywood was made, and definitely before cement backer board. So what did they use instead? Concrete inbedded with wire mesh. The walls had 4 inches of concrete on them, and the floors had over 6 inches. So out came the sledge hammer.

After all this was cleaned out we took out the wall that formed the cubby hole, and had to put in 4 or 5 sheets of backer board to build the floor back up to the level it was. The plumber was not happy about having to drill through it all. I hung, tape and floated, and textured the sheetrock and then the fun began.

After I got the sheetrock finished I painted it the brightest yellow I could find. I think it was called school bus yellow from SW, but not sure. The pics fade the color out, its actually a much deeper yellow than that. I finished the bottom of the walls with white washed bead board and trim.

My grandparents had always had a clawfoot tub in their garden with cactus growing in it, so I asked them if I could have it. They agreed, and I had it refinished, and then later found out it was my great grandparents bathtub from their old farm house.

I picked up a bunch of metal pieces with great old paint on them and hung them around. This bigger piece is actually two pieces that I hung together. I got the bath sign in Canton.

My mom gave me that great mirror. It's supposed to hang vertical, but it works sideways too.

The only thing that bugs me about this room is my faucet. The one I bought didn't fit and I had them put in the cheapest one they had with the intention of getting a better one. Six years later and I still have the ugly one.

Hop on over to The Remodeling Guy's Link party to see other great remodels....