A man and his dog

 This is just a breath of fresh air in the middle of a super hectic week.

I am learning how to use the camera better and what better subjects :)

Aren't they cute together?

Speical Guest

This weekend we had a special guest with us all the way from IOWA!

Dad Shanks came for a weekend visit. 

It was perfect weather for high school football, the mammoth museum, garage sales, and hanging out.

We visited the Mammoth Museum that houses a real excavation site.

We made a random stop at a garage sale and scored these rollerblades for $5.00! Yeah!

Then, we made a stop in West, TX. To the best of our understanding, Gramma Shanks had relatives that once owned land in West. It is famous for its Czech culture. We ate at a recommended pizza house.

 And we tried our very first SKUNK EGG!(& zombie pizza-that was really good)

Also, he got to meet our roommate, Marquie! My cousin.

Isn't she lovely

 

It was a great weekend and of course it went by way too fast. But we had a great time and we even scheduled a trip out to Ohio to visit his family! I'm excited about that. 

Thanks for paying us a visit, dad! Can't wait to see you again!

Deal of the Day...or year!

Months ago when deciding what colors to do the bathroom upstairs, I knew that I wanted black and white floors. So everything kinda revovled around that.

So, I bought this one square foot of tile and it has been lying around the house for six months.


So, now that I gave myself a kick in the rear to get it done, I had to go buy more tile.
Well, something funny happened. When I went to go buy it, I realized it was $4.05 per sq.ft. There is no way I would have thought that was a good deal! No way! So I hunted a little more. I first went to lowes. They didn't have anything cheaper in black and white but they had this cute, vintage octagon tile for only $2.57 (not on sale).


But as you can see, its all white. I bought one thinking that I could buy little black squares and replace them. But, there were no little squares there. So I headed to HomeDepot.

When I got there, I found the same tile I had just bought but with BLACK & WHITE!

It was the same price too! I told this to the guy helping me and he said that they don't price match - they beat their competitors by 10%. Well, I had my receipt (in hand...cause I am crazy like that) and showed it to the cashier and he gave me my 10% off!

The best part is...I had a $30 gift card!

So, in conclusion, I got 20 square feet of awesome black and white tile for a total of $23!!!

take home lesson: always ask about price matching! I wonder how many times I've missed out!

An urge to purge

This weekend I got an urge....to purge.?!

I have been super scared to redo the floor in a small powder room upstairs. This is it.

A few months ago I started the renovation (if you can call it that) in the bathroom. I painted the cabinets, countertop, and shelving. But I stopped when it came to the floor. It is only about 20 sq. ft but the toiled scares me!

So this weekend....I broke out the demolition tools and started tearing it up.
I used a chisel and a hammer. It was SO loud, I broke out the ear protection....better safe than sorry, right? Plus, they go with my outfit..not! Neil snuck up on me.

This is what it looked like after just a few minutes!

The rest is pulled up. Actually, I lied. There are six tiles that go under the toilet that I just left there. BUT, I got this far and if this isn't motivation enough to finish the floor, I don't know what is.

I'll keep you posted on the decision process AND hopefully we will have AFTER pictures soon....

Family Weekend

This past weekend, we had my sister and her boyfriend over. It was good to finally spend real time with him and of course it is always fun to have my sister around.

We visited the campus but had no luck with the bears :(

Then we visited my sisters favorite store SPICE and got OSO's frozen yogurt...yum.
(side note: OSO's is in downtown Waco and is owned by the wife and daughter of Art Briles, Baylor head football coach..oso is spanish for Bear..so it all makes sense now)

We watched a highschool football game.


(this was a hilarious round of pictures. the newspaper photographer never said a word but got right in our faces...really awkward)

And of course we watched the Bears beat the Iowa State Cyclones.

TOUCHDOWN!

HIS FIRST COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAME!

All in all, it was a fun weekend.

Fall Wreath Round Up

While browsing for fall wreaths, I found a few other ones besides our tulle wreath inspiration so here is a round up for those interested in creating your own!

Source: steamykitchen

Source: LDS Craft

Fall Wreath

Sticking with the fall theme, I decided to have a craft night with my cousin.

I found this cute tulle wreath is totally different than the wreaths I am used to. And the colors are perfect for fall.

I decided I would try my hand at it. So off to the fabric store I went. I ended up with a yard of various tulle colors. My cousin and I cut up all the fabric into strips. And got a lovely pile of tulle.

While shopping, I found out that foam wreaths are a little pricey. Some were up to $9.99 each! But, once again, Pinterest came to the Creativity rescue. I saw this idea on Pinterest and made a quick trip to the HD and got me a one.

The article said that you could get lots of foam tube for cheap. In the plumbing department, I found 6 feet of foam is only $0.97! We were able to make two wreaths!

After tying what felt like 1000 ribbons of tulle, we ended up with two really cute fall wreaths!

It's Fall Ya'll

I think summer hit a brick wall. We had 90 days of 100 degree weather! Thursday was 100 and BAM! Friday, Saturday and Sunday have been beautiful! In the 80's, light breeze. I took advantage of the weather by working in the garden, napping in a hammock, reading in the rocking chairs, running outside again, and I even pulled out the fall decorations.

Hope your fall is off to a good start!

And the winner is....

LOVE LETTER!

I am excited, although I have no idea how I am going to do this....I guess that's the fun in it!

Here are two examples of how it might look.

I think it is a fun, unique way to personalize your space. It would especially be cute for newlyweds with the Mr. & Mrs. in the title.

So, I am off to find an envelope sent to us recently :)
Hopefully, it will be finished within the month.

Thanks to all who voted!

rock the vote #2

If you missed Rock the Vote #1, it was a good time.

Round 2 is here and today we are voting on our "master" bedroom.
First, let me say "Excuse the bed making in these photos." It happened to be after our puppy sleeps on it all day :) But, it does give an example of the color scheme.

We are looking for fun, appropriate bedroom art to spice up the place. So here are the contenders.

1) Love Letter: This would be a blown up copy of a personalized envelope. I have had this picture saved on my desktop for 2 years!

2) Chalk Talk: The idea would be to create a chalkboard (hopefully oval) from an old mirror or frame. This would allow a change every season, holiday, etc. It sounds so fun!

3) Puppy Love: We have two puppies that we love. This is another DIY project with large canvases.

Now it is time to vote for your favorite! I do believe you can vote more than once. Invite your friends, too. Voting ends Thursday!



Come back Friday to see what won!

From the Inside looking Out

Sometimes I get all giddy when I drive up to my house. I just love the long drive way. I like the way our house looks so cute and welcoming. I like our little piece of land.

But sometimes, I get giddy inside. I love our comfortable couch and our open layout but, I usually find myself smiling from the inside looking out.

Here are a few reasons why.

1) This is our view most nights. The sun sets directly in our kitchen window.

Its a nice way to end the day :)

2) This makes me smile because of its simplicity. I love that we try to live a simple life and be green. But even moreso, when I see this out of our back door it usually means that the mister is doing laundry and I am not :)

3) Why wouldn't this make you smile. He acts like the king of his castle. This is a regular spot for him as he protects his home. Although, sometimes he stares inside...like when we are eating dinner.

So that is my perspective from the inside looking out. Hope your views bring a smile to your face, too!

Hallelujah! It's raining Rain!

Last night we had thunderstorms!!!
Texas has been in deperate need for rain.
Friday and Saturday it was raining in San Antonio, but not at home.
Saturday night it rained in Waco, but not at home....we were driving back from a game and it literally stopped raining about 2 miles from our house.

But last night, it happened!
For the first time since MAY!
We got 2 inches of rain and our first chance to use our water collection system!

Both got filled about 1/3 full. At least we know it works :)