Master Suite Upgrade

It's done! Carpet installed and new fan hung and my poor cat doesn't know what to do. She hates the new carpet smell and didn't like the looks of the installers or the sound of their Spanish music one bit, disappeared while they were here and I couldn't find her ANYWHERE! I kept calling her and heard a THUMP in the kitchen. She had jumped onto the countertop and then up onto the top of the frig and then above my cabinets just to chill and have some quiet time. Bless her little heart. I picked a neutral carpet color that should go with about any color scheme and upgraded the pad to a better grade to make it cushy...... It's lighter than I pictured it would be but with my kids grown, it shouldn't be a problem. Just have to keep the grandgirls out of here with drinks. The fan was a cheapo white one with shiny brass trim and it made a clickety clickety sound that drove my kids CRAZY. So I upgraded to this antiquey looking one.... Is antiquey a word??? The one in the showroom had low watt bulbs in it and I liked the ambiance so I'm gonna change them out as the recessed lights provide plenty enough light when needed.

Here's another view. See the lamps? I bought the one on the left from Kirkland's several years ago. Stopped off at a garage sale yesterday and saw its mate and just had to reunite them.... I really need larger lamps but these wil do for the meantime, don't you think?

Just don't like the look of the white wicker rocker and am thinking of spray painting it. Any suggestions for color? It's funny how whenever you buy something new, stuff that looked just fine suddenly looks old and tired.... Here's one last view of my beautiful new carpet. Stainless steel side by side refrigerator is on its way so stay posted......

Happy decorating, everyone!!!!

Playing with Trains

What a fun weekend we had! Angela had guard duty so the girls came for a visit. We saw the new Shrek movie. And my new friend Johnny decided to bring his trains out to play.... Haylee had been digging in a box full of Kait's old dance costumes, thus the Carmen Miranda look. : ) We moved the kitchen table to clear room for the track. When the girls saw the circus train, they just about FLIPPED. And out came their animal shaped markers and beanie animals..... They stuffed those empty cars full of animals to the point that I was afraid it would be too heavy to move! Geez, I need to clean my back door, don't I????

Do you have ANY IDEA how hard it is to snap a good picture of the both of them at once?

They had a ball creating "tunnels" for the cars to travel through.....

There's that LOADED down circus train...... Cute conductor, huh?

Here's the Carmen Miranda tunnel......... Isn't she a living doll?

Angie took them shopping last week and they picked out their own clothes. They bought some matching outfits but mostly not...... My girls are growing up too fast! Hope everyone had a great weekend! I'm LOVING my summer vacation.

The Joys of Frugality

Well, this frugal lil lady has been staying out of the stores lately but Tuesday Morning was just a calling my name so I stopped by yesterday. I was in the mood to pilfer so I stopped down the clearance aisle and found these sweet resin Christmas ornaments..... They were marked down to 49 cents but when the clerk rang them up, they were 29 cents each.... What a steal, huh? Need to visit another Tuesday Morning and pick up a few more. I can picture them tied on my Xmas gifts with some pretty cream colored ribbon, can't you? DOUBLECLICK ON THE PICS TO SEE MORE DETAIL.... And the next thing that went into my basket was this iron cookbook stand. I TRY SO HARD not to spatter my books up but I'm not usually successful...... Maybe this stand will help.... $4.99....

And that dormant calla lily that popped up in the midst of my split leaf philodendrum was crying for a pot of its own...... Wish granted for $7.99.....

I NEVER look at clothes at Tuesday Morning but like I said, I was in that sort of mood...... And I scored this cute and cool gown by Esprit for $15.99..... Would work as a swimsuit coverup as well...

But my favorite find was a magnetic notepad that says............ "Insanity: Grounds for divorce in some states. Grounds for marriage in all of them." :) Couldn't resist that one... $1.99

The best part of all is that I walked out with all these treasures for under $50.00..... Happy thrifting!!!!!

Mother's Day Pics

Some members of the family who will remain UNNAMED tend to wince when the trusty old camera comes out...... I don't understand it. Here I am trying to document these special times for posterity and I get strange grimaces. GEEZ!!!!! What's a mom to do but snap those shots anyway.... KK, your habits are rubbing off on your wee niece. Shame on you!!! And no, you are NOT seeing double.... The two on the left are the identicals of the triplet brood. The two on the right are fraternal twins. Aren't they all simply adorable?

Here's a shot of all five of them.... Haylee, Emma or Isabella, Isabella or Emma (can't ever tell them apart), Alexandria covering her face, and Brooke hanging onto her daddy....

Beating and pounding on the countertop demanding FOOD!!!!! LOL

Here they are. My two precious grandbabies swimming in my sister's pool. Haylee was shaking so bad that her teeth were chattering. It was unseasonably cool for Louisiana yesterday.

Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day.........................

The Blue Hour

Susan over at Between Naps on the Porch recently posted about a neat phenomenon called "The Blue Hour." Each morning and evening there is a small window of time when the sky appears a deep royal blue when captured in a photograph. Susan discovered it entirely by accident when she was taking pics on her porch and did some research to learn more about it.Down in my neck of the deep South, the evening Blue Hour occurs between 7:58 p.m. and 8:32 p.m. daily........... Pretty neat, isn't it? In order to get the best quality shot, be sure to turn off your flash and set the camera on night shot....... When I took these photos, the only thing I could see in the viewfinder was the light of the bathroom window.......

The photos below were taken before I turned off the flash..... I was convinced that no picture would appear without the flash but much to my surprise the image appeared....

The Blue Hour is still visible but not so pronounced with the flash on.

Pretty neat, huh???????????

Sunflower China

Woooo hooo! I'm getting more prompt with this tablescape stuff. Thanks, Susan, for hosting Tablescape Thursday. Please visit Susan at www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com. I stopped in at TJ Maxx yesterday afternoon with my BFF Kim and found these cute sunflower plates on the clearance rack, marked down to $2.00 each. Kinda hard to pass up such a bargain, don't you think? DOUBLECLICK ON THE PICS TO SEE THE DETAIL! I pulled out my artificial sunflowers and red dessert plates and had the beginnings of a charming new tablescape.... Here's a bird's eye view.

Sure wish I had some red glasses to accessorize with. Wouldn't that be beautiful? But alas, I'm just a single gal on a budget still trying to refinance this darn house of mine....

If you haven't tried to buy or refinance lately, a word from the wise..... Pay your bills on time and work on improving that credit rating. Even though I NEVER made a late mortgage payment in 27 years nor ever one single late car payment, my ex wasn't the best at his bills and the old credit rating isn't pristine. Not bad, but certainly not pristine. And oh what a fuss the bank is causing as a result. I could string that guy up by his toes, and I'm not talking bout the mortgage loan officer either!

This whole refinance thing has been going on since September now. They told me I needed a property settlement and I got that, only to be told they needed final divorce papers. Grrrrrrr! So now I'm going with a different company that says divorce papers aren't needed. Hello??? I knew that all along.

Please forgive me cause I digress..... Here are the beautiful sunflower plates on black glass chargers. Doesn't that make for a sweet tablesetting?

They coordinate beautifully with the red dessert plates that also came from TJ Maxx.... I sure wish they'd quit advertising so much on TV cause the lines are unbelievably long these days.....

Some day I'll be able to afford to entertain with my pretty dishes.....

HAPPY TABLESCAPE THURSDAY!!!!!!!

New Dishes for Tablescape Thursday

Posting my tablescape early this week because I have a hot date tomorrow evening.... ;-)
I'm linking up with Susan over at Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday. Being a single girl on a budget while this divorce thing happens, I've been doing my best to stay out of the stores. But TJ Maxx was just calling my name last night and I gave in to temptation....
Doubleclick on the photos to see the detail. Aren't these bird plates by Royal Stafford just charming? They match my kitchen decor so perfectly that I couldn't resist. And oh what a steal they were...... The plates were $3.99 and the cute salad plates were $2.99. How can a girl with any amount of shopping savvy pass that up????

I mean really, passing them up would have been a huge mistake..... Don't you agree? The colors matched the stripes in my patio umbrella so well that I decided to do an outdoor tablescape.

But then couldn't wait to see them on my kitchen table, so you have some shots of that as well. ;) SMILE ;)

Here are two of the plates on display. The walls are gold, not brown as it appears, not sure why that happened. BTW, check out my carefully weeded and mulched flower bed in the background. I love springtime so!

Okaaayyy, back to the outdoor scenery. These cool, breezy spring days make dining outside so refreshing after a long day of work. And speaking of work, there are just 36 days until summer vacation!!!!!! Woo hoo!

Here's a good shot showing the details of the design. I wonder what kind of bird that is. Any bird watchers on board?

I think I went a little overboard on the photos.....

Here's one last shot of my tablescape. Isn't it lovely? Anyone care to join me for dinner?