Hello, sewing... it's been a while

After much debate, I decided to add some window treatments to our kitchen and breakfast nook. I love, love, love the fabric from World Market, so I bought it as a huge curtain and trimmed it down to fit the windows. After dusting off the sewing machine and getting reacquainted with it, I knocked it out in a few hours. I think it turned out very nicely. And I even have enough fabric left over for some napkins. Fun!

Spring Break Projects

Hopefully someone, somewhere, is relaxing on spring break. Not this gal. I have projects on my list that need doing. Randy actually helped jump start my projects with a kitchen backsplash. We both decided that we really loved our old kitchen's backsplash and how easy it ended up being, so we wanted to do it again. Plus, it would help our house look a little more personalized. In about five hours, we had it up and looking good!

Monday came, which meant it was time for painting. With Randy off to work, I taped, edged, and painted both the kitchen and some of the breakfast nook walls. All the cabinetry and backsplash made the process a little lengthy, but I think it was well worth it. We now have a kitchen that's warm and welcoming, versus stale and blah. 

Next, I need to find a few decorations for the barren breakfast nook wall and perhaps a new light fixture for over the table. But, all-in-all, I think my spring break is off to an awesome start! 

Weekend Review

I had the highest hopes for this weekend. On the list was getting lots of pots for container gardening, going to a nearby nursery to pick up a few trees for our bare back yard, and planting up a storm. So, Saturday, Randy and I went to Garden Ridge, a warehouse of all sorts of things ... including (what I thought to be) cheap garden pots and planters. Man, I was wrong. They had a large assortment of all sorts of pots, but none of them (including the fake real-looking pots) were cheap. Disappointing, to say the least. I'm using pots for my vegetable gardening this year, since we're in the planning stages for landscaping our back yard. I don't want any permanent garden boxes yet, so I was on the look-out for decently priced pots.... Garden Ridge was not the place to go. Instead, we came away with a still pricey, but nice looking medium-sized pot for our front porch. Whatever. I'm over you, Garden Ridge.

So, we took our search to Walmart, the place I try not to completely support but usually do because they have the best prices. And, as I waltz into the garden area.... there are beautiful gleaming pots.... for cheap. Red... green.... gold...
 

So, planters, check. Got a red and green one, as well as some herb pots for indoors. We also picked up a indoor little greenhouse for starting seedlings. Lettuce, peppers, scallions, parsley, cilantro, and chives are all planted and sitting nicely in the sun in the dining room. 

Sunday, we decided, would be the nursery day. We were looking for 2-3 trees that would provide some privacy, as well as eye-appeal, since our house sits a little up on a hill, which allows our neighbors to view right into our back yard. Crape Myrtles are very popular and grow well in north Texas, so we were hoping for some like this...

But.... after waking up on Sunday morning with a runny nose and endless sneezing, I am sitting here still in pajamas. No trees for us today. Randy mowed the yard while I cleaned the house. But other than that.... I've been useless. Hopefully this work week will go quickly... next week is our spring break, so I can get my gardening and planting done then. I also hope to paint and spruce up the kitchen with window treatments and the like.... lots to do! I don't have time to be sick for long! 

Weekend Thoughts on a Weekday

This week has been quite a week... already. So, it really makes me happy to see in my planner (which is full of work-related scratch-outs, reschedulings, meetings, trainings, etc) that this Saturday has a neatly written "Melting Pot with friends" on it. Hallelujah. It really couldn't have come at a better time.

I've been fortunate enough to meet some really great work colleagues, who have turned into some really great friends. So this weekend (for the second time), Randy and I are going out with our friends Marianne and her husband, Jorge. Last month, we all enjoyed some really great tapas at Cafe Madrid, which then led to listening to some tunes at a local bar afterwards. This month (ooo so excited), we're headed to my favorite restaurant... the Melting Pot. Delicious. Everything about it is awesome - drinks, cheese fondue, salad, the main course meats, & to-die-for chocolate fondue. And with great food will come good conversation... Marianne and I are both speech therapists, afterall.

I'm also excited for this Saturday, because I bought Marianne's children (Jennasey & Mateo) my favorite children's book, Unlovable. Jennasey (an awesome 8-year old who is one of the few children who could convince me that having kids is a good thing...) came over one afternoon with Marianne, and we all made glass pendants. She fell in love with our pugs, so I thought it was fitting that I give her the book, which is all about a pug named Alfred. So cute. A good lesson. I know they'll love it.

Snow Day Fun

Three days of unexpected free time has allowed my creative juices to flow after a long hiatus. After two hours of mulling around at Hobby Lobby, I came away with some goodies.

I made a little window box for our master bathroom window. I used turquoise, red, golden, and plum flowers to give some much needed color to our bland bathroom. 

I've also had a renewed interest in homemade soaps/body products. So, I whipped up a body scrub infused with patchouli essential oil. It's also sitting on my bathroom window sill just ready for me to use with a calming bath.

 

And, to round off the bath theme, I played around in the kitchen with some ingredients for soap. 

The pug soap was made with mashed banana for moisturizing dry skin. It actually doesn't smell too much like banana, which is good, since that scent isn't my favorite.

This one is green tea soap infused with tea tree essential oil. Super fun. Can't wait to use them both. 

Viva Grant, Oklahoma!

After finally biting the bullet and hiring a pet nanny to watch our pooches so we could have a night away, we're back home and enjoying a lazy Sunday. All is well. The pups lived. We didn't blow our entire savings account. Life is good.

A few weeks ago, Randy's coworkers planned a trip to the closest casino around, which happened to be in Grant, Oklahoma (Texas doesn't have casinos). While initially Randy blew it off and used our dogs as an excuse not to go, we both started mulling over the idea that maybe a night away would be a good trial period for the pooches and a pet nanny. So, we booked a room at the hotel & casino for a fun night away. I even planned our route to drive us by Paris, Texas, so we could see the 65' eiffel tower, complete with a cowboy hat on top.

We set out late afternoon. Our first stop was the eiffel tower. Disappointment would sum that sucker up in one word. After 2 road closings and a GPS that was a little unsure of re-routing, we said forget it. (Sidenote: when you name your town after one of the most chic places in the world, you should at least try to live up to it. There was nothing but run-down houses and a few scattered cows. Blah). Here's a googled picture of what we were supposed to see.

After we gave up that little mission, we headed on to Grant, Oklahoma to meet our soon-to-be fortune. We checked in, crashed at the hotel a bit (which was really nice and clean), ate at the buffet (pretty good food, too), and then decided to get the night started at the ATM. 

Let's just say this.... we didn't loose everything. At one point, we were up $30 (too bad it was only 10 minutes in to gambling), then we were down almost everything, and we regained most of it to end up only $50 behind. Not bad. Especially since we were at the place for 5+ hours (okay, so I got a little addicted to a certain spot.... I can see how people can get caught up in the thought process of "If I just keep playing, I could recoup what I've lost. Maybe this next time will be the big one"). But we did stop. And I thought, for $10 an hour of entertainment, we had a great time. I was more impressed that Randy and I outlasted all of his coworkers. We were the first ones there, and the last ones to leave. It was nice to prove to myself that I'm not as old as I act during the week (my current bedtime is around 9:30, with a shower and in pj's by 8:00). And, in the morning, we visited the breakfast buffet, which turned out to be awesome, since our tab was picked up by a really nice couple who had a coupon for $30 worth of food... which they did not use entirely. Awesome. It was our lucky day....maybe we should've tried the slots again....

All in all, Randy and I enjoyed each other and a weekend away. We need to do it more often (like maybe next week... I feel like we could hit it big if we just had another chance..... ha. just kidding.)

Sad, but true...

Just one of the reasons our educational system is failing....