Vintage Ornaments At My Door!

When I came home today, there they were! All nicely wrapped up in brown paper. Straight from Montreal! They are so pretty! Even more so than I had imagined and so perfectly vintage. I can't wait to decorate with them. I kind of just want to keep them displayed in this vintage cardboard box!

Up close pictures of a few of my favorites:

Happy Holidays!

Deck The Halls

Well, to get in the holiday spirit, I did a little decorating, crafting, gift wrapping, herb harvesting, and pecan picking. My neighbor has a HUGE pecan tree. It can be a little high maintenance with all the leaf raking and limb maintaining. So, since there is a plethora of pecans that fall into my yard every other year, it is only fitting that I help myself right? Well, I think so anyway. From my garden, I also harvested a bit of Rosemary, Dusty Miller, and Daisy's to put in vases in my house for a sweet little decoration.

In the herb/flower arranging process, I found a friend!

Apparently he likes to eat flowers because about 24 hours later, there were holes all in this pretty little yellow daisy and that squirmy little thing was no where to be found!

So, while I was outside picking up pecans from the ground, I met a neighbor I have never met before. He was walking his dog and I am sure was wondering that that crazy lady was doing digging around in the leaves. But, after I explained what I was doing, pecan scavenging, we had a nice conversation over my neighbor directly across the street digging up his yard and putting in astro turf. Yes, astro turf! This baffled us both but it looks so real and the yard will be green year round! Jeff is very jealous because they don't have to mow their yard anymore.

The neighbor that I met is a retired police officer and his wife is a potter! She has her own home pottery studio fully equipped with firing kilns! She also teaches classes. So, it was meant to be that I was out there crazily picking up pecans out of the dirt. I think I may have to go ring their bell and take a class or 2! He told me what house they lived in. It is the sweetest house up the street with the most fabulous herb garden out front that I have always admired. I think I really like them already!

Ok, so...I can't believe that I actually have a few gifts wrapped and under the tree! I am getting a handle on things early this year. Come to think of it I do not have a whole lot of shopping left to do but I have major craft time to put in! All this wedding planning put me behind in the Christmas crafting area. Anyone want to join me for a crafting day? Maybe a glass of wine, appetizers, a Christmas movie; ie: "The Holiday", and some fun time crafting by the tree?? It will be too much fun! But for some reason, I feel this holiday season flying by so much quicker than in the past. I wish I could stop time just for a little while.

I am taking a new approach on decorating this year. Yes I am using the same decorations but, I am trying to change things up a bit. I have also decided that I am decorating the kitchen with a retro Christmas theme. I purchased some vintage ornaments from ebay that are heading my direction soon. I have a 2 foot silver tree that I put on top of the fridge. Once those Vintage ornaments come in I am going to hang them in the kitchen from the window I think. I also picked up these cute little vintage elves at an estate sale with my sister when she was visiting...

She has the 3rd one with the little deer. I also scooped up this great hand made tree skirt! Can you find Cedella? She loves creeping in my pictures just when I hit the button!





It goes so well with my handmade tree theme. I am working on making some cookie cutter ornaments for the tree that I saw the the recent Martha Stewart mag. I picked up a 40 pack of cookie cutters on sale at Joann's the Saturday after Thanksgiving for only 6 bucks!

It is going to get chilly tonight! A cold front is blowing in. You can already feel it and I can't wait. I love this cold weather! Fa la la la la la la la la! (O.K. that was a bit too much)

Cheers!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! I woke up bright and early this morning to the enchanting sound of the on-call pager (do you sense my sarcasm?). But, during a full morning of problem solving, I was also able to juggle in a little biscuit making. I stumbled across this recipe a few months ago and have been wanting to make it ever since! They just looked so darn delicious!

Oh, and they were so darn delicious too if I do say so myself. I actually altered it just a bit. I used maple sausage links and extra sharp cheddar cheese. They were surprisingly very easy to make, even when highly distracted! I am planning to make them again for Christmas and, since I will not be on call for Christmas think I may pair it with a little holiday mimosa. :-)

Happy Turkey Day. Gobble Gobble!

Cheers!

Seasons of Color

Fall is my favorite season. There are so many beautiful colors! I enjoy looking out the windows of my house because every angle is full of fall colors, so many colors!

This past weekend I worked on the usual house cleaning but also on getting ahead in my Christmas shopping. I refuse this year to be stuck in traffic trying to shop! I live in a highly populated area. Soon, the access road to the major highway next to my house will be barricaded off because there will be too much traffic. I love the area I live in because it is close to everything but I despise living in this area this time of year. Several years ago, when I was in high school, I had an immature moment and went shopping at the mall on Christmas Eve and got stuck in parking lot traffic for an hour, never again! So this year, in my older...more mature 30 year old state, I am getting a handle on this shopping stuff early. Yes...there is a possibility this may be all talk because there is a part of me that likes shopping when all the decorations are up and the Christmas music is playing but...we will see. I think online shopping is going to be my best friend this season! Amazon.com here I come!

Crafting is also back in action! I have picked up the sticks again and am also going to get out the wheel, Christmas crafting here I come! Oh, and there will be more blog entries for sure. I have neglected my poor little blog recently because, you know, I have had wedding magazines to look at. But, since I have looked at about every wedding magazine there is this season, I can now be preoccupied with blogging and crafting once again!


Cheers!

I Hope Everyone Had A Happy Halloween Weekend!

This past Halloween weekend flew by! For me it was very busy. On Halloween morning we met up with Jeff's mother, brother, aunt, second cousin, and my mother for brunch at Joe T. Garcia's. It is a local hot spot here in Fort Worth. It was Jeff's mother's idea to have our wedding rehearsal at Joe T.'s and a mighty fine idea at that if I do say so myself. So, we went to test out the food and secure the deposit. Oh, the food was fantastic. I completely forgot to bring my camera, otherwise I would have taken a picture of it!

The outside patio of the restaurant is absolutely beautiful! There is a pool/fountain and it is completely lavish with flowers and vines. We are going to have the rehearsal dinner in the "Villa". So, after a nice brunch we went home and hung out with Jeff's brother and then some friends came over for a little Halloween evening excitement.

Ok, I am not a fan of scary movies and refuse to subject myself to complete and total terror, not my idea of a bang up good time so, the boy's went to see Paranormal Activity and the girls hung back at the house and made dinner. We had a total of 3 trick or treaters!! Now, you see my exclamation? This is actually an increase from our one that we got last year. This neighborhood I live in is full of kids but they all go to Elizabeth Blvd. All the kids in town know that is where you go trick or treating. You need 2 trick or treat bags to hold all the loot you get over there! This is bit of a disappointment for me because I love trick or treaters! But, none the less, it was still a good time and the kids that came to my house hit the mother load. Oh, and there was a bit of extra candy left over for me!

Then on Sunday my sister, niece and brother-in-law came into town! I have been looking forward to their visit for a while! I always have so much fun when they come into town. Violet said that she was a tiger for Halloween. I am sure she made the cutest tiger ever! Jeff and I got her the Fancy Nancy Halloween book and shipped it to her before Halloween so she could enjoy it. My sister said that Violet liked the book so much she called herself a "fancy tiger."

You know, the best gifts are handmade gifts...especially hand made gifts from your favorite little niece! Violet made me a pumpkin house with a chimney and smoke! What a creative mind the little one has! She made it out of a paper bag. She stuffed the bag and then twisted it at the top to make the stem. She painted it with orange paint and glitter and drew a little house on the front with the marker. She said that the stem was a chimney and it needed "smoke" so, she glued cotton to the top of it!!

I hope all the little witches, wizards, and goblins had fun this weekend!

Cheers!

Another Lovely Weekend

The weather here has been so nice the past few weekends. We have gotten a lot of rain lately but the weekends have been nice. The rain has been very nice for my gardens. I was able to clip a few of my herbs and flowers to bring in and enjoy while the sun shines through my windows!

On Saturday, my mom, a family friend, and I did a bit of wedding stuff. The family friend is going to be our flower arranger. Not to worry, I do not plan turn into bridezilla and only talk about the wedding until the wedding day. :-) We went to a local wholesale florist to get ideas for what kinds of flowers are going to be available for this time next year. I told my mom before we got there that I wanted pumpkins for part of the decorations. When we got to the florist, we saw the cutest tiny pumpkins that were hollowed out and had flowers in them. So, I plan to incorporate that in my decor! It was better than the pumpkins that I had imagined! We had a lot of fun there. There is a pumpkin making demo there this Wednesday, if I am not to tired after work, it would be fun to go.

After the flower market we grabed lunch and talked about deorations and flower arrangements. Then, my mom and I headed to Southlake for more shopping. We stopped over at Nordstrom Rack, my new favoriate shopping venue!

We had dinner at Mi Chula's again since we loved it so much the last time. Go, you must go there! They have the best prickly pear margarita and their salsa is fantastic!

Last time my mom had tamales. They were so good and I was starving so that is what I had this time.

After Mi Chula's, we headed over to Crate and Barrel. I really love this store and am considering registering there. My mom thought it would be a good idea to go in to see if I really do want to resiger there. So, after looking around, it was confirmed. Registration at Crate and Barrel will take place.

We did a bit more shopping and after a long long...but fun...day, I came home and crashed.

Today I continued my shopping spree and went shopping at DSW for winter shoes. I hate closed toe shoes but in winter it is a necessity for your toes to be warm so open toed will not do! I had great luck! I love DSW.

Jeff had a buddy over for the Cowboys game. He vacuumed the couch to help me clean a bit. Come to find out, Cedella likes to be vacuumed.

Eventually I will stop shopping and wedding investigating and start crafting againg so, no worries. Crafting blogging is in store for the near future. I gotta kick it up a notch and get this Christmas crafting underway! I can't believe it is almost November!

Cheers!

ACL 2009!

The moment I have been waiting for all year...well...the second moment I have been waiting for all year. ACL! This year we drove down and met some friends who stayed with us in the La Quinta Oltorf. Ah, gotta love the La Quinta Oltorf. A great location and a shuttle to and from the music fest. Thanks to our hustler Frank. He got us there and back every time! Unfortunately, due to the over populated horrific traffic in Austin, while driving in from Fort Worth, we were delayed and did not get to see K'naan. This seems to be the going thing for us. We tried to see K'naan in May but he pulled out of the concert. But, we will see K'naan like it or not!

Friday was a beautiful day. We all had a great time. When we arrived, the gate people had a symbol on their shirts that look like the sign for Pi. Jeff started mouthing off the number for Pi, 3.14159265, and asked the gate person if that number had any meaning to them. Well, this got him a free 3 day pass, we all had single day tickets. Of course, those kinds of things happen to Jeff all the time!

On Friday the weather was cool and breezy and the newly laid grass was so green and soft. It looked like a golf course, very different than the hard ground, dirt, and little grass from years past.

Then, on Saturday the clouds came.....

Now, I love the rain...I love being outside (when it is not sweltering)...I even love being in the rain outside. But, being in the rain allllllll day long? Hmmm, but I coped and had fun. It rained all day. It would stop for a minute, and then pour down! I knew there was a chance of rain before we left on Friday. We even had a stop to get ponchos on our list of things to do before we left. But, since we were running late we scratched that and figured we could just get ponchos when we got there. Well, come to find out, all the ponchos in the entire Austin area were sold out! Not a poncho to be found! Why you wonder, well, there are people that bought all the ponchos up and were selling them for like $10.00 at the festival!! Price gougers! Ugh. So, we knew that we did not want to spend $10.00 on a poncho because we wanted to spend that on food and booze while in the fest (the food was fantastic!) :-). So, what would any clever person do? Go to the dollar store and purchase plastic table cloths! The table cloths were festive colors of red and green, I found them in the Christmas section. So...once we got into the festival, we just tied that table cloth around our necks and popped open our umbrellas. Did we look like superhero's? Yes, yes we did. Did we feel ridiculous? Well, honestly we were having so much fun we did not care.

Then, there was Sunday, the aftermath.....

On Sunday we had lunch at Kerbey Lane Cafe with a friend who moved to Austin a few years back. This place is to DIE for. If you are ever in Austin, I highly recommend it. There are so many fantastic places to eat in Austin and this was one of them. I had a baked potato omelet and french toast. They even have pumpkin french toast there!

After lunch we made it into the festival. I should have heeded the warning signs as we were walking to the festival entrance, people were covered in mud up to their knees. I thought, surely it is not that bad. As we were getting closer and closer to the entrance, I could hear the Toadies...oh, excitement kicked in. Then, there was a smell, a very horrible smell. The smell of well...to keep it politely, feces. We just brushed it off to the porta potties needing to be cleaned. But surprisingly, they were usually nice and clean....well except for Friday when people were using them as trashcans and they were full of toilet paper and beer cans.

So, we get through the gates, I had a melt down for about 30 minutes (If you ask Jeff it was longer). Why did I have a melt down? Well, all that green grass from Friday and Saturday was gone. Completely gone and all that was left was mud about 3 inches deep. I was confused when I saw this, almost as if I were at Woodstock and not ACL.

After struggling to keep my flip flops on, I gave in and walked barefoot, yes barefoot in the mud trying to maintain my balance so I would not slip and fall. Mud started to build up between my toes, and it only got worse, way worse! Like, to the point mud was almost up to my knees.

(This is actually one of the only somewhat grassy spots that we could find!)

Then...there was a moment of complete bliss....Ben Harper!!!

A little Ben Harper snippet, remember this is armature video! :-) :

I fully, well, I would be lying if I said fully...none the less, I recovered (for a moment)! Mud, what mud? This is Ben Harper! Melt.......

Then, we squished our way over the see Michael Franti and he put on a fantastic show! I am actually glad that we even made it to his stage. I had to foot ski down a hill and then walk over a piece of ply wood to get there.

Michale Franti looks teeny tiny!

More ameture video, Michael Franti:

While enjoying Michael Franti, the smell of, well what I mentioned earlier, kept lingering and this is when I had the realization that ultimately, we were squishing through cow manure all day because that is what was under the top layer of soil. Mmmm, good times. Nothing a bit of hand sanitizer can handle. Yes, there was lots of hand sanitizer used on this trip.

Oh, and then the moment have been waiting for the minute I purchased my tickets....Eddie Vedder! Oh. He practically sang every song from Ten and I felt like 14 again. It was wonderful. I was melting the more and more he sang with a huge smile on my face...and then I realized I was really just sinking deeper and deeper into the mud. I was so in awe, I did not get a good shot, but I took just a fragment of footage on my camera.

Our friends had to leave right after the fest on Sunday. So, Sunday night Jeff and I recuperated from the fest. On Monday we took it easy and before we headed back to Austin, we stopped over to Torchy's Tacos for lunch, yum! It was a very fun end to a very fun weekend. I love Austin. It is a fantastic place.

Cheers!