I think Spring is my favorite time of year, things green up and flowers/shrubs are in bloom. I worked for almost a week weeding flower beds, planting some flowers and shrubs and then mulching. Some of the Pansies from the Fall are still hanging in there, so I plan to leave them there for a while. Meanwhile, I am done and ready to just enjoy the yard!
Happy Spring!
Although, with this bread, I think one can! Hubby has a friend that made this onion beer bread and so he decided to make it. The whole house smells like Heaven! Haven’t tried it yet as we are taking it to some friends tonight but I can betcha it will be a winner. Do I really have to wait???
Another year come and gone, my how the time flies! I want to thank you for reading my blog, I look forward to 2018 and new adventures!
I wish you Peace, Love and Happiness – MERRY CHRISTMAS!
And all through the house, Tracy was racing like a mad woman to get everything decorated, and cleaned and baked before she became a grouch! This year we are hosting THREE Christmas gatherings, so I started decorating a lot earlier than normal. It all started out where I decided first to organize the room where I keep my decorations and craft supplies. I shifted ALL of the Christmas stuff to the living room and it looked like a tornado came through!
Slowly I got everything done, in the house, outside the house, did my baking and today did the house cleaning. Also, finished all my Christmas projects that I was working on (those stressed me out, wasn’t sure if I would get through in time – but I prevailed!).
And voila! Tis the reason to be jolly!
All is calm and all is bright – in the hallway!
There are quite a few more pictures as I decorated almost every single room in the house (the dogs were lucky I didn’t decorate their doggie condo!).
I wish you a Merry Christmas and to all a fabulous New Year!
Back in August, we purchased a used motorhome. This is the first time we have ever owned an RV type vehicle. We thought it would be a great idea when we go out of town dancing to stay in one vs a hotel/motel. We got a 2003 Trailite B Plus. It did need some updates, but the body was in very good condition.
Initially when looking at it, I wanted to rip out the carpet, recover the sofa bed and seats, paint a couple walls, wallpaper one wall, and make new curtains for the door and for privacy. Well, plans changed. I discovered that ripping out the carpet was a LOT more work than I wanted to get in to, and reupholstering the sofa bed/seats were as well. I decided I really liked the fabric after all that they were covered with. I took several photos of what it looked like before:
One wall had this horrible dark paneling stuff and it was buckling. I thought I could rip it off but someone must have used super duper super glue stuff. The other walls were covered with wallpaper that I didn’t like.
The first thing I did was take down valances that were over two of the windows. After doing so, it was so much “cleaner” looking:
I decided to paint the wallpaper walls and then use a paintable textured wallpaper for the ugly paneling wall. I have never used this stuff before so was a little nervous, but turns out it wasn’t that hard. I decided on two colors that I was going to use, a cream color and light blue.
The cream was going to be used on the walls by the kitchen sink and the sofa bed. The blue was for the paintable textured wallpaper.
The knobs and pulls on all the cabinets were a brassy color and I didn’t like that either, so I faux painted all of them in bronze, gold and black and then sprayed with polyurethane.
In the process we discovered the refrigerator did NOT work. We were told it did and tried to negotiate with the previous owner to go in half to get a new one, but no deal. His argument was we had already negotiated quite a bit off so that should help cover it. When we got it in, discovered it didn’t have a front “cover” and was this ugly sorta stainless steel color. Well, we had some thin paneling in the metal building, so hubby cut it to size and stained it. I love this even better!
I decided to also faux paint the counter tops along with the table as I didn’t like them either.
I made new privacy and back door curtains as well.
After
So, I put up this sticky (contact) paper on the walls behind the stove area. I really liked it as it had dots of blues and browns. Well, yesterday discovered that it didn’t stick so had to take it down. Had to come up with an alternative plan – and I did. I painted my own dots!
First I textured the walls and when it dried, I used the same cream color paint that was left over from painting the living room and sink walls. Then using the contact paper as a guide, I used a round foam craft brush and craft paint that I had and dotted on my own dots!
The bathroom has a new shower curtain (with brown dots no less!) and is clean, items have been stored that will stay in here and we are ready to take our first trip. In fact, we have a reservation in a couple of weeks at an RV park about 3 hours from here and I am really looking forward to it. This will be a test to see if we really like RVing or not.
And, finally I am done!
Oh, one more thing. I was in Hobby Lobby a while back and found this ornament and had to have it of course.
Greg put a brisket on the grill today and it was so tender, you could cut it with a fork! I made a side of butternut squash (from the garden) and seasoned with season salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and just a touch of brown sugar. This was yummo!
What do you do when you have so much freshly picked okra and you don’t want it to go bad? You make pickled okra of course! This was hubby’s first time to make it so hopefully in a few days we will see how good it is (I am sure it will be very tasty!).
I guess about a couple of months or so ago, Greg asked me “when you gonna get a new car?”. I said, “why, I like what I got and it drives just fine”. Well, after a while I decided to do some research on SUVs (those without third seats as to me, they are useless). In 2008, we bought a Nissan Murano and have been very pleased with it. Have had very little issues with it and no major ones. We have over 120,000 miles on this car! One day when I took it in to get an oil change (which, back then I got oil changes as long as I kept the car), I decided to walk on over to the sales room and look at new Muranos. I really liked the style.
We needed to take the Murano back in to get a tire sensor light fixed as it wouldn’t go off and there were no issues with the tires. This week we did that and then walked to the sales room and test drove a 2017.5 Murano. Oh boy, things sure have changed since we bought the last one. Anyway, we told the guy we also wanted to test drive another make/model just to make a comparison and then would make a decision.
Long story short – we DIDN’T test drive the other one (Greg asked me if I was wasting time by doing that and I said “probably”).
So, today, I brought home MY NEW 2017.5 NISSAN MURANO! Honestly, I wasn’t that excited about it until we went to pick it up. I wanted the Pearl color (which cost a little extra) with Cashmere interior (have had dark interior for years and it gets hot in the summer!). The inside of this car is luxurious! Plus the technology aspect had me a little worried (so much to learn), but I have already gotten a lot of that taken care of (for me to read a manual is like Greg going to the mall – ain’t gonna happen!). It got initiated with the Love bugs that have been horrible this year and dirt from our road. I am pretty sure I am gonna love it!
When turning in to our entryway after coming home from church, Greg noticed the Peach Drift Rose that is planted at the front gate, and the varying peach colors. Drift Roses have become my favorite kind of rose – they are easy to maintain, grow low and come in a variety of colors (I think I have all of them too!) Plus, some smell amazing!
Cato Fashions Blog
There are 5 sisters. She's the middlest.
