Well, would you look at that...

It actually snowed this time. I'd like to send a big high five out to all the weather people who got it right this time. *High five* Just playing, seriously, I know the best you can do with predicting the weather is give an educated guess....so whatevs. But it is a little discouraging when you think a wave of snow is coming your way, time after time after time, and it doesn't show. So, I convinced myself that if I didn't think about the snow, didn't watch the weather, and acted like it was all just a bad joke maybe, just maybe it would come. And it did, woohoo!!! I good bit too! Here's to the first real snow of the winter.

My favorite tree in the yard...and Riley with her face in the snow, usual.

Again, with her face in the snow. She has this thing about sniffing until she hits ground...yea, I love her.

My attempt at a snowman...kinda creepy, but a snowman just the same.

Bubbly bushes

Hope everyone enjoyed the fluffy white stuff as much as I did! p.s.- Tomorrow's Friday... :-D

Until next time...

Treasure...?

While I will say my progress is not what I thought it would be at this point, at least I can say there has been some in the buffet redo department and that I fully intend on having the project completed by my deadline (January 31st, 6 days from now...). I have also decided no photo updates until it is complete, because really I shouldn't be blogging about it right now...I should be working on it. Buuuut, here's a little something to keep you interested.

While I was disassembling my lovely masterpiece, cleaning, and what not, I made a discovery. I found these tucked in the back of the buffet, under one of the center drawers.

A rubber band, an old poptop thingy, some old coin wrappers, and a black and white school photo (the most interesting of the bunch).

Whether you can call it treasure, I don't know. But fun to make a find just the same. Alright, that's all you get for now...more to come...in no more than 6 days to be exact. :0) Wish me luck!

The one and only, ever curious, and totally excited (can't you tell?) helper, Riley.

Until next time...

Simple Solutions

For a while now I have been hounding my hubs to get a "recycling center"... fancy for " small bins to throw your trash in at home until you take your trash somewhere else to throw in bigger bins". Yea, so it took me a while to come to the realization on the whole "seriously, they are just bins" idea. I thought I needed the ones with labels, holes specific to what you were throwing in the bin, color coordinated, slanted lids, yada yada...you know bells and whistles. But once again, "seriously, they are just bins".

So, shortly after Christmas, the hubs and I made our way to Lowe's because, of course, what happens after Christmas...SALES! We weren't specifically looking for anything that had to do with recycling. But we were looking for things to help us get organized. Along the way we came across a great deal on bins like these...
Regularly this little ditty is about $14 and we snagged it (along with as many we could find and thought we might have a use for) for only $5!! Five buckaroos, is way cheaper than any piece of a recycling center I could find.

As for labels, well my handy dandy label maker set to the largest letter option worked fine for me.

A grand total of $20 later, plus a few labels and my recycle center was up a running. It may not be as small as other options, but it saved me a good chunk of change and the bins are big enough to hold all the garb that we are throwing in until we can make it to the "bigger bins" to unload!

Hope this inspires some simple solutions around your ranch! Do you have any to share? Until next time...

PS- there has been some progress on the buffet redo...more to come on that later!

Weekend Walks

I love a good walk with the pup, Riley. She knows when it's coming, she loves when it's happening, and she is beat when it's over. These days we've taken to power walking it up and down the streets of town. Even though it's a bit chilly out (like really super 8 degrees chilly), there's something about getting all bundled up and strolling around with the pup that warms me up in no time at all.

Hubs and the PupRiley Girl

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Congrats to all you Packers and Steelers fans out there, I was one of only a few sporting my Skin's gear...one day. Hope everyone has a great week too....Happy Monday!

Until next time...

Goals, people!

Goals, deadlines, pressure. Whatever you want to call it I need it. Last year I purchased a beautiful piece of furniture, pictured below, with every intention of stripping, staining/painting, adding new handles and giving it a new home in my living room. It is to be the home for our television, DVDs, movies, etc.

That was in July....6 months ago July. Now it's January...and can you guess where this lovely find is located? Oh, what's that you say? Finished and in my living room, beautified for all to admire? Ummm, no. So far, I have stripped and sanded the top of the buffet...and it sits in our garage...and that's it. I know, lame.

So, in order to motivate me to make things happen my darling husband, SWL, offered up some encouraging promises. First, he says that if I can get the buffet finished and ready to move to it's new home in our living room we can get a new T.V.! I was like "Whoa! heck yes!!". And then he said, BUT (oh no, not the BUT) it has to be done by the end of January. Eh, reasonable.

Now, let's see...it's January 14 and have I touched the buffet? Ummmm, negative. So, the way I see it I need to step it up, turn up the pressure, set some goals, and start checking them off. Here we go, Project #1 2011 - Buffet revamp.
a- Strip buffet of any old stain/paint
b- Sand all elements of buffet to smooth surface as best I can
c- Remove old hardware
d- Decide on and purchase new hardware (aka handles)
e- Stain/paint buffet new color
f- Add new hardware
g- Put all the pieces together again, move upstairs to the living room

Seven steps. Seventeen days. That's a little more than 2 days per step. I can do this....I can.

This is the first project of 2011. There are several others that desperately need attention, but for now this is what will get my attention. What about you? Have you come up with projects, set goals? How do you make yourself stay motivated? Or should I say, who motivates you?

Tips are welcome, ideas are great, please keep 'em coming!

Until next time...

Did you know...

...mangoes = poison ivy/oak/sumac??


it's true folks...I normally never eat mango, never. And when I say never I mean I would turn my nose up from anything that even resembled a mango. But for the last two weeks that was my fruit of choice. It was all I wanted. Well, during that time I noticed some "bumps" around my lips, on my lips, an itchy throat....yuck! Thank you concealer. Turns out I am allergic to the delicious fruit. And even better when I looked up symptoms to verify what I suspected, I found this - "Mango sap contains a substance known as urushiol, which can cause a severe rash. This same substance is found in poison ivy and poison oak, members of the same plant family as the mango plant. Ninety percent of all Americans suffer from varying degrees of sensitivity to urushiol." (eHow.com) This is a lovely little fact considering that earlier this year (well last year, summer 2010) I discovered I happen to be in extremely allergic to poison Ivy/Oak/Sumac. So...FYI.

I will miss eating you Mr. Mango...

Until next time.

All wrapped up

Another Holiday season, New Year celebration....another year, all wrapped up. I really can't believe it is 2011, already. I feel like I just graduated from high school, just finished college, just got married... Time passes so quickly. I'm sure there were millions of resolutions made this New Year, usually all along the lines of eat better, work out, drop a bad habit, read more, etc. I won't lie, I'm right there with everyone else when it comes to cliche resolutions. In fact, mine were 3 of the 4 that I mentioned. But recent events, have forced me to push my focus in a different direction this year. While I still want to eat better, work out more, and all of that, I want to do it with different purpose.

Time does pass quickly and before you know it all the things we allow ourselves to get so wrapped up in aren't such a big deal anymore. The world has presented so many things to distract us from the simple beauty's, truth's, and joy's in life. It's easy to forget, or better yet...overlook, that which is supposed to mean the most to us. I am guilty. I need to refocus.

God, family, true friends, simplicity...this is where I resolve to keep my focus in 2011. I'm not saying it won't be easy to get distracted, it's always easy to stray. But I am entering the year knowing this is my goal and knowing that on the other end is real happiness.

I hope your New Year celebration was blessed and the blessing continues through the entire year. Resolutions are just decisions until they are put into motion. So it's time to get moving. Thanks for stopping in, until next time.