I Spy...Around My Home

Hey there!! I'm linking up to Little Miss Momma again this week for her I Spy series. This week's I Spy theme is "Around the Home". First let me tell you a little bit about my home.  It was built in 1919 and as far as I can figure it was "remodeled/updated" in the 1950s. There are a lot of archways (doors and built ins) and everything is lath & plaster. It has hardwood floors that need refinished and all the original woodwork has been painted over numerous times, which is a total bummer. I love my house though and I can't wait until I have every project done.

Whoa, the most ironic thing just happened. My mom called to wish me Happy Homeowner Anniversary. I have owned my house for five years today!! Crazy! I didn't even look at my calendar today so if she hadn't of called I would've forgot. Thanks for reminding me mom! :)

Without further adieu...

I spy my newly painted room.  I don't know what that weird blotch is on the right wall.  It's not there in person.  Hmmmmm. 

I spy my "spider killer".  See how big the spider is?!  The arrow is pointing at him.  Okay, so he looked much bigger in real life.  Ick!

  

I spy my china hutch that used to belong to my Great-Grandparents.  My Grandma gave me the Depression Glass dishes and those funky fish came from my best friend.  Ignore the dust!!  :)

I spy my favorite ceiling in the house.  It is in my old bedroom (Pacen's room now) and I miss it!! 

I spy the border in my living room that took me FOREVER to do.  I traced each letter onto the wall using that old transfer paper from the 80s and then painted each one in.  It says, "She sells seashells by the seashore." 

I spy the apron Pacen painted for me for Christmas a couple years ago.  Yes, it's a snake.  :)

I spy Mad Morty Kidd!  (For some reason this picture won't turn right side up even though it is right side up on my computer.)

"A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams." ~ Unknown

Bedroom and Vanity Chair Makeover

The past couple of weeks I've been painting my room.  If you recall from this post my bedroom walls were a very bright color.  Actually, in that post you can only see one wall...the bright yellow.  The other three walls were actually green, blue, and red.  All with that orange trim.  You see, my room used to be Pacen's room.  We traded bedrooms back in January or so because I ordered a bigger terrarium for Bali, Pacen's Ball Python, and there just wasn't enough space in his room for all three terrariums and his crap toys and such.  My old bedroom is huge and I thought it only fair that Pacen and his snakes get it.  Besides, I didn't need all that room.

I lived with the bright primary colors for a few months and then I'd had enough.  I had to paint it!  So, I took some leftover blue and green paint from this room and mixed it with some leftover ivory paint from my old room.  I was going for a Caribbean turquoise color and after a bit of mixing I happened to match it perfectly to a picture on the front of one of my Caribbean Travel magazines!!  Nice!!  So the upper part of my walls are painted Caribbean turquoise, the bottom part is white, and the trim is a tan color that was left over from when I painted my living room.  So, the project ended up being cheap!  The only thing I bought were curtains and curtain rods.

 I got everything hung back up and organized and then I decided that my vanity chair looked awful and totally clashed with the new color.  This chair was here when we moved in and I thought it was too cute to toss. 

I now look at it and think, "Holy crap!  This chair is hideous!"  Luckily I have a lot of material lying around the house (I found some major good sales at Wal-Mart last year).  I chose a fabric that I liked and that I thought went well with the new color and re-covered the seat of the chair.  I don't own a staple gun so I used a hot glue gun to glue the fabric in place on the bottom of the chair.  Here it is after the makeover...

One of these days I might repaint it,  but I think it looks much better than it did and it took me less than ten minutes to re-cover it.  I'm pretty happy with my new room and I feel like it is now officially mine!

"There's a world where I can go
And tell my secrets to
In my room
In my room" ~ The Beach Boys

A Simpler Era

Today I'm linking up to Changing Lanes for her weekly Blue Plate Special.  As Changing Lanes explains, "The Blue Plate Special is designed for you to share your weekly favorite(s), something you learned this week, or anything still on your mind come Friday (your meat). Then add three photos from your week (get it! meat +3)."  Thanks Changing Lanes for having me!

Well, here it goes.  My meat for the week.  I have been thinking a lot lately about how I wish time would reverse back to a more "simpler" era.  For example:  The 14th century when gypsies were more common or the 1950s or any other time during the past that seems "simple".  Since I obviously wasn't alive during the 50s or the 14th century I really can't say that things were "simpler", but at least it seems life moved at a slower pace.  I always feel like I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off.  I have to be here and there and here and I get stressed and wore out!  I would love to live the life of a gypsy.  No real belongings, nothing to necessarily worry about...just roam from town to town with my horse and wagon doing odd jobs here and there for food and drink.  (Plus their fashion sense was amazing!  Well, I think so anyway.)  Today I was driving to the nearest Wal-Mart (1 1/2 hours away) to get groceries.  Between here and there is an antique place and outside was a gypsy wagon!!!  I got super excited, especially since I've been considering their way of life!  I had to take a picture!  How amazing would it be to fix one of these up, go to Europe, and just roam the back country?! I now know deep down in my heart that I was meant to be a gypsy. 

Now my three:

 One of the signs that Spring is on the way!!

  

A nice bike ride through the canyon with my mom and one of my sister's.  WINDY but nice!

Chillin' out with one of my "nieces" (on the right) and another friend's baby girl.  Love babies!  (Bad picture cause it was taken by me with my phone.)

"Time, you old gypsy man, will you not stay, put up your caravan just for one day?" ~ Ralph Hodgson

Seriously, Mother Nature? Seriously?!

This morning I woke up to this...

Yes.  Snow.  What the hell?  It is the middle of April.  Did Mother Nature not get the memo?  Hello!  April SHOWERS bring May flowers.  It doesn't say anything about SNOW showers.  I think it can safely be assumed that "showers" means rain...the liquid form of rain...not the frozen, cold form.  Okay, fine.  I've lived in this area for 30 years, so I guess I should be used to this by now, but damn...Mother Nature is being a dirty tease this year and I'm so tired of it!!

Also, I don't know if it is this weather or what, but I am exhausted today!  I can't seem to keep my eyes open and all I want to do is go home, crawl into my nice warm bed, and go to sleep.  But no.  I have to sit here in front of a computer for another two hours!  I hate that I have to sit in front of a computer 9 hours a day, almost five days a week.  It is depressing and fattening.  And today it is causing my eyes to hurt and feel droopy! 

On a somewhat brighter note, I just looked outside and it finally quit snowing.  It had better not start again! If it does I may very well pack up some of my belongings, grab Pacen and move to the Caribbean.  Maybe tonight I should look at one of my diving magazines or one of my Caribbean Travel magazines, or one of the Yachting magazines a friend gave me.  I'll sit in my newly painted room (not quite finished), that is now the color of the shallows of the Caribbean and imagine the ocean breeze blowing through my hair while I sit on a yacht sipping a Tequila Sunrise, checking out the hunky ripped captain that I hired.  *SIGH*  I love dreaming! 

"To shorten winter, borrow some money due in spring." ~ W. J. Vogel

I Spy...In My Neighborhood

Today I'm linking up to Little Miss Momma to participate in a new series she started: "I Spy". This week's theme is "Neighborhood". Before I move on with the project/game let me first say that I absolutely adore Ashley aka Little Miss Momma. She is a sweet gal and I think she would be a real blast to hang out with. I would also like to say that I'm 110% positive that her little guy, Baby W, would instantly have me wrapped around his little finger! :)

I love that Ashley came up with this new series and I hope she continues it. Pacen and I used to play "I Spy" all the time. We'd sit in the park and play "I Spy" instead of playing on the equipment. Sometimes we still play...usually when we're driving somewhere. It's rather hard where we're from cause there isn't a lot to spy along the highway. A lot of prairie. :) There is a lot of "I spy something black." "It's a cow!" "I spy something yellow." "It's the line on the highway!" Haha!

Okay, so moving on. I SPY...

This 1950s circa Chevy (?). It sits in this spot year-round. Sad.

An abandoned house (one of 4 on my block). Sad too.

My flower bed...damaged cause I accidentally ran over it. Sad again. On a brighter note...check out all the tulips coming up!! Yahoo!!

Today I noticed that a lot of the houses in my neighborhood have cool porch columns. I like the brick columns.

Pacen walking to his buddy's house.

Some of my neighbors already have blooming flowers. I wish I did.

Another abandoned house on my block. Victorian style and spooky. Love it!

(Note: I love playing around with the different effects in Picnik, hence all the different photo finishes.) :)


"Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies." ~ Jane Austen

The ABC's of Me!

I saw this and thought it would be fun and a good way for you all to get to know me! :)

{A} Age: 30! Yes, I'm actually excited about this!
{B} Bed size: Full. Yes, it seems rather small, but a majority of the time it is just me in it.

{C} Chore you hate: All chores. Haha! Okay, okay. I absolutely hate dusting! Hate it! My house is always dusty and I only dust 2 or 3 times a year. *hiding my face in shame*

{D} Dogs: None. I used to have a Dachshund named Percy, but we didn't have enough time for him. :(

{E} Essential start to your day: Shower. I don't get to shower every morning (sometimes it's an evening thing) but a nice hot shower in the morning is great for kind of waking me up. I am not a morning person.

{F} Favorite color: Yellow! It's a happy color!

{G} Gold or silver: Silver
{H} Height: 5' 9"

{I} Instruments you play: None. I played the clarinet in grade school and HATED it! I also played the piano when I was younger...too young to appreciate it. I would LOVE to learn the piano and fiddle.

{J} Job title: Office Clerk is my official title, but I feel I surpassed that title years ago as I am in charge of quite a bit. Soon it will change to Bookkeeper.

{K} Kids: One very active 10-year-old boy.

{L} Live: Lusk, WY. Say what? You don't know where Lusk, WY is? You've never heard of it? Nah...I just can't believe that! :)

{M} Mom's name: Terry
{N} Nicknames: Wookie (started in high school cause I hated being called Brookie. It stuck and almost everyone from my home town calls me Wookie...even my dad).

{O} Overnight hospital stays: C-section in 2000 (multiple night stay). Yup, that's it. *knock on wood*

{P} Pet peeve: slow drivers, whiny kids, and people who chew with their mouths open! I have many more, but I'll leave it at those three.

{Q} Quote: "If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it." I don't know who said it, but it has gotten me through a lot so I had it tattooed on my side! :)

{R} Right or left handed: Right all the way (except for certain times during golf).

{S} Siblings: Two sisters. Quinn is 28 and Raine is 25.

{T} Time you wake up: On work days I wake up between 6:15 and 6:30 (usually) and on weekends I sleep in until 9:30 or later. I know, I know...I'm just wasting the day. But my bed is so comfy and I'm so tired!
{U} Underwear: I usually go commando. Yup.

{V} Vegetable you dislike: I love veggies! I think the only one I have found that I don't like is creamed corn (but I love normal corn).

{W} What makes you run late: Me. Me not realizing that it takes longer to get ready than I'm willing to admit. I'm in denial.

{X} X-rays you've had done: leg and back

{Y} Yummy food you make: According to my dad I'm a great cook so it's not often I make something that isn't yummy. I'm not bragging either...I HATE bragging on myself. My cooking skills were passed down from my Grandma who is an amazing cook and I wish all my dishes were as good as hers!

{Z} Zoo, favorite animal: Oh geez! I am a major animal lover! This is hard! I would have to say the Elephant Shrew (unless the zoo has an aquarium...then I would have to say Dolphin or Sea Turtle.)! But, seriously...have you seen the Elephant Shrews?! SO CUTE!!!


"Getting to know someone else involves curiosity about where they have come from, who they are." ~ Penelope Lively

Golfing Cake

Today is my dear friend/co-worker's 40th birthday. I decided I would surprise her with a cake in the morning. Well, it's not necessarily a surprise cause I asked her what kind she wanted, but the final version is a total surprise. A while back a blog I follow, Sisters Stuff, made a post about a golfing cake. Twyla and her husband love to golf so I thought it would be the perfect cake for her.

I think this is maybe my 3rd fondant covered cake...and I feel I didn't do too bad. Still need practice, but I think Twyla will like it! When I got done with the cake I looked outside and this is what I saw! Mother Nature is a dirty tease! It has been pretty nice lately and everyone was sure Spring was finally here, but then this has to happen! Ugh! I guess it is kind of pretty though. A little.


Look how BIG the flakes are! Good grief!



"I wanted to buy a candle holder, but the store didn't have one. So I got a cake." ~ Mitch Hedberg