Computer hiccup!

Hi to anyone who may be reading. I had a bit of a computer hiccup. My new laptop is acting up and I've had to go back to old faithful! My ginormous four year old cluncker laptop. My camera came in and I've been playing with it. I will have so many picture to share this week!!!

Bye!

Camera impatience and shoe score!

So today I just couldn't stand it anymore. The doorbell rang several times this morning and not once was it ups! I had to get out of the house. I went shopping. Where does any frustrated shopaholic head to first?? Heaven, or some of you may know it as DSW. First, I knew it would be a fruitful day when I scored a front row space! They were clearing out for the fall inventory and setting up lots of sale signs for the upcoming Sales tax free weekend here in Texas. I was looking for a certian shoe that I just saw at Dillards. They're by Via Spiga called Danielle. When I first saw them last weekend, everyone in the store faded away. My euphoria was dashed quickly, they are $215. So I had high hopes of finding a good knock off at least. Not today, but I will keep looking. I was still very happy as I was leaving. I found a super cute pair of black flats that will easily become my go to shoes. I also found another super cute pair of flats that will go great with an outfit I have.  I love their clearance section!!  I was also hoping to find a pair of yellow heels. I love for my shoes to be a pop of color in my outfit. I don't always match, but my outfits go together. I watch what not to wear dontchaknow!

Then it was on to TJ Maxx. I found a super adorable little sweater for $10.00 and two tops, also on clearance. TJ Maxx is right next to the grocery store so that was next and I bought some flowers while I was there. I love to have flowers in the house and I was on a specific mission for smaller flowers for the tablescaping I've been doing.

After I got home and the camera was still not here...I checked my tracking number and its not due here until the 20th! AAAHHHHHHHH~I will have so many posts to share. So many pictures. Oh, and there was just the slightest slightest touch of cool in the wind this evening. Take that with a grain of salt, it's still 100 here today. But I can feel what we call fall on the way here in the land of two summers. In September the monarchs will be flying through on their way to Mexico. Soon after that all kinds of cool birds start flying through and stopping over at our bird feeders on their way too. Some even stay, I guess we are far enough south to be south for them! I'm getting the camera just in time! :)

Night y'all

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday! I had a very productive weekend! I got several things knocked off of the to do list! I hung a roman shade on my back door. I sewed little rings into the curtains covering my breakfast room windows so that I could use them like shades. I also hung my new super long drapes over our front door! Our house faces west, we have a leaded glass door with a window above. Temperatures here in the summer can be easily into the 105 to 110 range. A lot of heat comes in during the afternoon/evening hours. We can already tell a huge difference!

Yay me!

Unfortunately I have no pictures for you! I am stalking the ups guy, waiting for my camera! Hopefully tomorrow.

This weekend I also have been rearranging and tablescaping a bit. I'm having lots of fun with it. I'm adding some of my granny's small tables in and removing for now some of the larger tables. I'm trying to find a good place for her milking stool! My little tablescaping experiments are going well. I definitely like them better now and it feels so much lighter and less cluttered, because well, it is! LOL

I signed up for school this semester and my boy is just about all ready for his first year in high school! EEKKKK!! He was accepted into our school districts early college high school. That means that he will graduate from high school with his associates degree! And it will be for free!!! Happy dance, oh yeah, happy dance! Since he wants to be a doctor (right now) that will mean that the college money from us will just stretch that much farther. Meaning that much less debt upon graduation.

Okay, hopefully tomorrow...pictures!!!!

Bye y'all

Hello there! I have been out and about in blogland and came across a great post today. So informative! It was over at Colour Me Happy. Maria wrote about accessorizing.

I'm not a designer, but I love design and having beautiful things surround me. I do have a handicap...I don't know how to edit. I have beautiful things I've purchased for myself, things others have chosen for me, and beautiful things from my grandmother. I mean a lot of things from my grandmother. Some I love, some I love only because they were hers. She had two sons, four grandsons and me. Guess who was spoiled?? I am the only person who wanted lots of her things. I did say no to most of it, but a certain percantage just had to come home with me. She is my favorite person on the planet, the one person I felt completely safe and protected with. I have no problem getting rid of stuff. I don't keep gifts because they were gifts. I don't have a problem admitting I made a bad decision and getting rid of it. But my granny's things are just not going anywhere, yet.

So, back to editting. With all of her things and all of my things, I have too much. I also have problems deciding what looks good and how to accessorize. I have bought some pretty things that are still in my "decorating closet" I just don't know how to incorporate it. Now, after reading Maria's blog post I think that I have a renewed interest in trying. She really boiled it down to an essential three things. Flowers, candles, and books. After snooping around at other blogs I could see that the clean uncluttered tabletops with just a few beautiful things really spoke to me, and almost without fail followed this rule. Looking around my house, things look cluttered. That's the deal! Too much of a good thing is just too much.

Now, lots of ideas are running around in my head! I need to start rearranging. I'm on it and I will be posting before and after pictures. My new camera should be here between the 18 and 20, so I will try using my sons cheap camera, now that he's found it in his room. If it doesn't do well then pictures will have to wait until then, but I'm really chomping at the bit to get started tomorrow. I also have a super cute pair of shoes that I want to show off tomorrow. We'll see.

Night y'all! Buh-Bye

Shut up!

Today, I found a 5 foot by 3 foot frame at Hobby Lobby for $29.00! I told you! Shut up, right! I'm going to paint it a nice dark brown and turn it into a collage frame. I'm pretty sure I'll hang it in my hall way. So excited! I also got a very large $169.00 clock for $57.00. I may have to paint the face of the clock a lighter color, but what a deal! I have high ceilings here and I have much bigger walls to fill than in my little 60's rancher in Houston. I'd have pictures, but again with the dead camera. I'm thinking I'm going to get a nikon 12.0 mega-pixel camera. It's on sale at Best Buy and seems to have all the features I'm looking for. I've heard good things about nikon and since my sony died an early death I want to go with a different brand. Anyone possibly reading with any experience or suggestions for the very camera illiterate girl here?

Thanks y'all

Buh-bye for now

Camera death and house woahs

Hi! Well, I have a bit of a hiccup here! My camera is dying a slow death! I can no longer take decent pictures AND it's cheaper to buy a new one than to repair it. Isn't that the way it is now, nothing is built to last, everything is disposable. It's frustrating to me. I have things of my grandmothers that still work! A radio from the 30's, it's only am, but it's working and I can't say that about my not cheap little system I bought about 5 years ago.

Anyway! We are on the hunt for a new one and in the mean time let's talk about hurricane Ike, shall we? Ike did some nice damage to our home in Houston, just as we were preparing to put it on the market. Just our luck, right? Of course the Texas Windstorm insurance didn't pay enough and we had to have adjusters out two more times after the first one to get all the money we needed to get the roof repaired, all of the sheet rock in the garage replaced and a small area inside the house as well.

The timing of this has left us living in a rent house in the valley rather than building the house we planned to be living in by now! It's a nice rental, very new and clean. But, it's not my home and I'm very limited on what I can do here. I did paint, I just can't live with builders beige. I did two feature walls and painted my office. Now we're suspecting that the owners of the house are wanting to sell. Our intuition was whispered to when the owners sent a real estate agent out to take pictures on Tuesday. Hummmmmm we said to ourselves, what is going on here. This is definitely not a house we'd live in long term, it's just too small and the backyard is less than 10 deep, no seriously 10 feet, we could jump into our neighbors pool from our back door!

We have the roof on our Houston home finally, it took until June to get everything done, but at least the house is tight and weatherproof now, in case there's another storm. We have renters in the house thank goodness. We are feeling between a rock and a hard place. AHHHHHHH There I feel better. We are really hoping to live in this rent house until we move into our own place, now maybe another year away.

I hope to have some readers come along for the ride when we build. I'll need input!! Lots and lots of input.

Buy-bye for now!