In The Moment

 I am hot and so is she. She looks miserable.

So hot and miserable that she is digging her claws into the bed.

Oh yes, hot and miserable but not toooo hot and miserable to get up and sniff the camera. 

Cheers! 

Happy Things

Handmade things are happy things. I love handmade gifts that have thought and meaning behind them. Today, a good friend, "J", stopped by to bring us a gift.  He is extremely talented and made us 2 gorgeous shelves out of wooden wine boxes. Our other good friend "H" is a Sommelier and apparently has access to many wooden wine boxes. So, very talented "J" turns trash into treasure.  He even hung them for me!

Fancy wine box #1; a nice spice rack for the kitchen:

 I love the detail that he added inside the shelf.

 He also added this cute little shelf that I put my vintage pigs on.

 Fancy wine box #2; a nice shelf for my newly remodeled bedroom:

A side view with the original wine box rope handle. 

There is actually a hidden shelf with a sliding door! This is the part that the wine bottle was package in. 

I took down what I had there before and put in another place in the room because I though this fancy wine box shelf fit there perfectly!

So, today is a happy day, thank you J! I told him he needs to sell them on Etsy!

Cheers! 

"You Should Sell These"

That is what Jeff told me this morning during breakfast. I guess that means he liked it! 

I took the Hatch Chile scones and made "breakfast scone" with a turkey omelet and Munster cheese. I toasted the scones with butter.  Yep, it was yummy. 

Happy Sunday!  Now, I am going to go work on my knitting. I think this may help bring the Fall weather to Texas sooner. 

Cheers!  

Market Weekend

Friday, I split work the minute the clock struck 4:30 and headed straight to the Hatch Chile Festival at Central Market. I look forward to this every year. There are tons of Hatch Chile's to choose from among tons of Hatch Chile Foods...breads, cakes, fajitas, quiches, meatloaf, crab cakes, risotto cakes, and the list goes on.

I stuffed my face with several of my food items before I could get a shot of them but there are 2 things I cannot live without when I go to the Fest...

Hatch Chile Scones and....

 Hatch Chile Chocolate Brownie! Yum!

Today, I went with my parents to the Cowtown Farmer's Market. I always head straight for La Latte Dairy.  They have the best goat cheese ever. I picked up some onions and split squash with my mom.

Here is a shot of my veggies and the Hatch Chile's! I am going to roast the Chile's, chop them up, and freeze some for later use. 

Something else I cannot resist from the Market are the tamales from Hot Tamales. They are to die for!

Jeff ate practically all 12 of them by himself! 

After the Market we stopped into Amaryllis. It is a great plant shop right next to the Market. The store owner is so nice and come to find out her daughter-in-law is a Social Worker!  She is very knowledgeable on her plants, has great deals, and some great succulents. 

I picked up a combo pot for my Grandmother that is very cute!

For myself (of course I could not resist) I got a cute Fittonia.  All I need to do is plant it.

The Fittonia is going to take the place of the succulent I had in this pot that actually shriveled up and died because it could not take the heat. Now, I thought that was unheard of! It is almost impossible to kill as succulent! 

To finish the day off, a bit of knitting and a girlie movie! 

Cheers! 

How To Make A Headboard For Your Mattress

As a part of my recent bedroom makeover I made a headboard for my mattress. It was super simple and only required a few materials.

First, you will need a piece of wood of proper size for your project. I purchased plywood from Home Depot. They will cut it the size you need for free! You will need foam, but, you could also use an egg crate. This may be more economical because I found that foam can be super expensive. You will save yourself about 20-30 bucks going with the egg crate if you get the non-fancy kind, at least from what I can gather. In addition, you will need scissors, a staple gun, hardware to mount the headboard to the wall such as a French cleat, and fabric (I used brown faux leather). 

Lay down your fabric, then the foam, then the board.

Trim a bit of the fabric off, however, leave enough to pull over and staple to the back of the wood.

Staple the fabric to the wood.

Then mount your hardware to your headboard (and wall) and hang.

There you have it.

Just a few suggestions. If you use an egg crate I would wrap 2 layers of fabric around so the headboard does not look bumpy. You could take cheap fabric for the first layer and then add your nice fabric as the last layer. Also, you can change this up as much as you want. Decide to change your bed linens? No problem. Just go buy some new fabric to change your headboard up too! 

Cheers!

Bedroom Makeover

I know I have been MIA lately from blogging. There has been a lot going on with my family so I kinda lost my creative gusto for a bit. But, I feel the creative bug has bit me again, especially since it is time to start crafting for Christmas! 

I have been thinking about about the fall and winter months because it has been so unbearably hot here! It has been so hot that my spoiled animals that normally relax on the bed or couch have been laying on the hardwood floor because it is cooler there. I may need to do that myself come to think of it. It has been so hot that my wonderful cucumber vine was only able to produce 4 cucumbers before the rest of them shriveled up and died. So did my pumpkin vine that was growing so well. I guess that is what happens when you have plants growing in full sun in the 110 degree temps.  Next year I will start growing a bit sooner and take extra precautions to keep them sheltered from this scorching heat.  It has been so hot and dry my grass is a very interesting dried up shade of orange. Something  have never experienced before. 

So, what is one to do in the heat? Redecorate! I have been working on this for several weeks but it all came to fruition this weekend after I painted the room. I love it!  Here are the before photos of my previously drab bedroom:

Yep, pretty bad, I know!

And for the after:

To start things out, we got a new mattress. Good-bye circa 1980's mattress. You served us very well but some things will always need to be upgraded and a mattress is one of them. I have been sleeping like a baby ever since!

I also made a headboard. I have been wanting to do this for a while. I think it adds a lot to the room. I don't know why I did not do thins sooner. It not in my budget right now to buy a fancy bed frame but I think this headboard will do quite nicely for a while.  I will post a tutorial on it tomorrow. It was super easy to make. 

New lamp from T.J. Maxx!

My mom painted this picture when she was in either high school or college. I love it and it goes with the colors of the room perfectly! I decided to hang it on the wall above my bedside table. I think it is perfect there.

This picture my Uncle took in Crested Butte, Colorado. I have the other 2 that go with this picture hanging in my bathroom. They are so beautiful and remind me of happy times. I had it hung somewhere else in the room before but I think it is better under this little shelf. I picked up a nice blue tea light holder at Target on clearance so I put it on top of this little shelf. It is a bit hard to see it though. 

Ah, my curtains. It it is amazing how much curtains will do to a room. I'm telling you, curtains are the bomb. What is even more bomb is that I got these curtains from the Family Dollar for 10 bucks a panel. Thank you very much. 

I put my shadow boxed back in the same place and had to display the cake topper my sister made for my wedding. I love it and it will always be a piece of art in my house.  The decorative piece of wood with "love" on it my dad made. He was a wood shop teacher before he became a bit time business man! I love that this room incorporates the artistic side of different members of my family. 

I moved these candle holders from over the bed to the dresser. I need to add a picture or decal to complete this, however, for now it will do.

Ziggy enjoys the new bed and bed linens. 

All new bed linens for my new mattress and headboard thanks to Bed Bath and Beyond.  I want to put something on the wall above the bed but I have not found that perfect thing yet. When I do I will post. 

I used Silver Drop paint from Behr. It was actually my mom's idea. She thought it would compliment the hall and living room that I painted French Gray a few months back. She was right. It looks great I think! Sorry the lighting is a little off in these pictures. I have a fancy camera that I still don't know how to use properly! :-)

Cheers!