A Fence Post

We are nearing my very favorite time of year...fall.

As I sit here and watch the Texans pre season game, I look forward to a game every Sunday, Bean Chili every Sunday, coffee on the cool, crisp fall mornings and a fire in the fire pit in the evenings (we have never been big fire in the fire pit people, but I have always wanted to be.  Hopefully, this will be the year).  And what about the smell of the heater being turned on for the first cold front of the season?  

Ooooo weee - I feel happy even just thinking about it.

For now, though, the temperature is in the 90's and we are guzzling ice cold, bottled water.

Booooo.  Haha, no...actually, I have enjoyed this summer a lot more than usual.

We worked on our fence today.  

 

I took pics, but they didnt come out very good.  This is the only one that I could salvage.  

Mike started the project a couple of weeks ago - he used the auger to dig the holes and cemented the posts.  

Then his parents - my brother, Leo, and sister-in-law, Pam - Ronnie and I all pulled together and put the panels up.  

I gotta say I had a blast doing that with them and it only took us 3 half days to do it.  

All we need now is the gate.  Woop!

I am grateful to have had such a great day.  

Mom spent the night again last night and we got up and made a good ol' breakfast of eggs bacon and toasted new potatoes left over from last nights pot roast dinner.  

It has actually been a great weekend, not just a great day.  

Hoping everyone has a great one, too.

Pre-K Graduation Slide Show

One of my favorite things to do is make picture videos.

Meaningful music just seems to add so much to pictures.

Anyway, last year my sister in law asked me to help her make a picture video of her pre k class. 

We spent hours looking for the right songs, we made videos of the children telling what they would like to be when they grow up and we mixed those videos up within the ton of pictures my sister in law took throughout the year. 

It was such a good video we did it again this year. 

The one new song we can suggest for a pre-k graduation picture video is The Friendship Song by Carbon Leaf, from the Curious George movie.  Very cute song.

Last years serious song was Let Them Be Little by Billy Dean and this years serious song was, My Wish, by Lonestar.  I had used that song for a 15th birthday (Quincianera) video.  Beautiful.

I digress....

Now, this years video was extra important to me because the twins, my great-neice and great-nephew were in the pre-k graduating class!!

Whaaaat????  Say it isn't so!!! 

They just amaze me.

The things they say and do crack me up.

 

  I just  completely adore them!

And, my heart swells when they walk in, see me and say with delight, "Aunt Jenn!".  Usually, Baby Girl does that.  Baby Boy just smiles and waits for his hug, pretending he doesnt want one. 

What really gets me is when Baby Girl sees my mom.  She makes my mom feel so special because when she sees her she runs up to her and gives her a big ol' hug. 

Oops...I digress...again.

As I organize and put all the pictures together with the videos, I end up falling in love with ALL the children.  They are all so sweet and their personalities are just so pure.  God bless them!!

So here it is...the Pre-K class of 2012 video.  Enjoy.

Door Dilema Solved

Happy Friday!!

It has been a beautiful, fall week here in Texas.  Gorgeous weather!

Sometime last week we decided it was time to retire the ol' Home Depot cardboard box door cover.

We are not ready to replace it with a new permanent door since it still functions well.

So, we went to look for a piece of thin paneling to cut to size, but for one, we couldn't find one we liked and for two, all the paneling cost more than we wanted to spend. 

Previously, we thought we would give the glass a semi-transparent finish, but neither the local Wal Mart nor the Sherwin Williams had the spray to do the job. 

We took a chance and checked and Sutherland's and lo and behold they had it!!!  Woot! Woot!

 

The first thing we had to do was give the door a good cleaning.  It still had some glue on it from the vinyl letters that identified it as the Sweet Creations bakery. 

We thought we might have a problem with the glue, but a little nail polish remover took it right off.

Then we sprayed it with some glass cleaner to get it nice and clean and we were good to go!

We were a little concerned at first, because the sun sets on this side, so it can get pretty hot without something on the door.  The semi-transparentness lets some light it, but not so much that it gets too hot.

 

It also provides enough privacy that you can't really see in.  You can see images if they are close to the door, but if we want to run around in our skivvies, we can!

Now you see 'em...

Now you don't...

We had actually considered painting the whole thing and trying to make it look like an traditional door, but this was so much easier as there was no worry about which color to choose or controlling the over spray.

I love the way it looks from the inside when the shadows of the trees fall on the frosted glass.

It actually looks a little better in the pictures than it does in real life and it still looks a little "commercial" but, hey, Rome wasn't built in a day :D

Expounding

The first REAL cold front came in today!

When I say "real" I mean one that I could actually tell a change in temperatures.

It was nice and cool and windy and fall-ish today.  I LOVED it!

Mom and I went to visit Aunt Mercy today.

Both Mom and Aunt Mercy are at an age where their bodies ache with arthritis but we were able to go outside and enjoy the beautiful weather for a little while. 

It felt so good to sit with two women that I love dearly!  They both have sacrificed so much for me throughout my life.  I am so grateful to have this time to spend with them.

I hope it is still cool tomorrow so I can open up the doors and our one window :).

So, I was being a little lazy in this previous post but thought I would expound today.

We have three dogs...Lacey - 13 years old, Maggie - 8 years old, and Jake - about 7, I think.  This post and this post include Jake and this one will include Lacey Girl.  Maggie...it is so hard to get her to sit still for a picture, but someday soon I will post about her also.

Lacey wasn't too keen on being still either...

She is the best dog.  So sweet and so gentle and full of so much love.  She is so very easy to please.  She has very few grey hairs for a thirteen year old Lab-mix. 

I had two Lab mixes, Max and Dixie, when I met Ronnie.  Then one day, at one of his grandson's baseball games, Ronnie opened up his jacket and pulled out this beautiful, brown fur ball.  She had and has the most soulful eyes.  I instantly fell in love and was shocked that Ronnie got her for me.  She has been a real joy in our lives.

We have done a couple of projects around here.  

For one, we painted the outside chairs.  Nothing wild, just plain ol' black.  They were getting rusty so we used rust resistant spray paint...from the dollar store...so, no, I dont expect it to last long, but we shall see.  They look really nice, now, though.  I haven't taken an after picture, but I will soon.

I also started installing the peel and stick vinyl flooring in the bathroom last Friday. 

Key word...started.  Today is Tuesday and it is about 2/3's of the way finished. 

Our projects are important to us, but life keeps happening and we have really been enjoying it, causing projects to be moved to the back burner, occasionally. 

We had the best time Saturday morning.  My friend, Veronica, texted me Friday night to let us know her daughter would be playing a soccer game here in BC Saturday morning. 

We went but I forgot my dang camera.  If I want this blog to be my job, I'm going to have to get a little more serious about it, huh? 

Anyway...it was so much fun watching those kids, about 8 or 9 years old, be so intent on soccer!

Jazz (her blog name) did a great job.  All the girls did.

And they WON!  It was an exciting game.  I could kick myself for not having pictures to post!!!

Another life event that kept me from the bathroom floor :) was the Baptism of my nephew's son (in his heart.  The boy was about 2 years old when my nephew met his mom.  He is now 12).  

We were happy to say yes to being his Godparents. 

Isn't he a cutie???!!!

We spent Saturday evening sweeping and dusting and getting ready for the Baptismal service and the bar b que dinner we were having here afterwards.

Then Monday we started another project! 

Whaaaaaa??? Yep.  We are just random project starting peeps.

I'll just give you a sneak peek for now because I need to go to bed soon...we are going thrifting in Lake Jackson tomorrow.  I gotta get rested up for that, ha!  Hey!  It's hard work.

Anyway...here is your sneak peek:

I bet you can guess.

What about you guys?  Started any random projects lately?  What about wonderful life events? 

You know no matter what is going on in your life I hope you all are happy and well!

See you again, soon.

A Thousand Words

 

 

Deck the Halls...or the Mantel

Hey You!  Hope everything is going well over in your part of the world!  All is well here, but we have been such busy bees or poor time managers.  In our defense, though, we have been on the road some, also.   

It's funny.  In October we were very optimistic about selling our house...like "dream on, baby" optimistic.  We were so sure we would be in BC by Christmas we even went ahead and took the Christmas decorations over there.  As I posted previously, Ronnie grabbed them on one of his trips to BC.  But, once we took everything out there was still a few things missing.  Just some glittery poinsettias and glittered eucalyptus leaves and other accessories, but we just could not think back to last year and where we put those few things or even in what we put them away.  We knew they would be in a little box because it was just a few items, but put our finger on it...we could not.  Of course, once we gave up looking for them, they appeared...in the garage...somewhere.  

I digress.  Okay, now the results of our little projects.  Crafting really is fun!  And, it really doesn't have to be expensive!  I was very happy that we did would not have to spend a dime on the tree decorations.  I had spent about five bucks on Dollar Tree 2/$1 tree embellishments to use to dress up our green garland, but did use them for the tree when our other embellishments went AWOL.  Thanks to my sweet hubby for all his help with the tree.  His choosing to decorate the bottom part on the tree was a little questionable, though, since I am 4' 6" and he is 6' 1", but I'm definitely not complaining!

Don't you love digging into the Christmas decoration boxes and re-discovering all the junk decorations that have accumulated over the years?  A lot of times one might get into those boxes and think, "Goodwill...trash...Goodwill...".  But sometimes if you look at them with an open mind you can change them up as your tastes change.  I was happy to find these decorations and decided I could make them fit into our red and gold theme with a can of gold spray paint: 

My favorite way to decorate is with garland everywhere...on the mantel, surrounding the fireplace, in the windows....   But, when I tried that in this house, it just didn't feel right.  So this year I tried something a little different.  First, we changed out mirrors.  Rae, you may recognize this mirror...it is the one you gave us but we painted it all gold.  The Martha Stewart inspired poinsettia wreath looks nice with it and it really "lightened" up the mantel, weight wise and color wise.  The Gold Nutcrackers helped lighten it up some too.  Those guys really added a lot of bang for very little buck!  I love the sparkle in the little gold trees, especially at night.  The little bit of light in the room reflects off the glitter.  It's like having my own stash of diamonds and gold.

 

 

Well, that's it for our decking the halls!  We had a good time getting things together and a differing opinion here and there, but it's done.  Now, we can concentrate more on enjoying the Reason for the Season!

What about you all?  Are you all done decorating?  Any favorite decorations you just cant let go?  Doing ok with holiday stress?  We sure hope so, but if not, come back tomorrow or the day after with a cup of hot chocolate and check out our post on the Christmas program we attended at the First Pentecostal Church in BC.  Hint:  there will be videos of precious little children singing.  Once you see those you will say, "Stress who?"  It is a program you will surely want to check out next year if you live in the area and/or seek out something similar in your area.  Looking forward to seeing you then!

Christmas Crafts

We have been trying really hard to get our Christmas decorations up.  My hat is off to those of you who actually get your decorations up the week of Thanksgiving.  Oh, how I aspire.  But, here it is December 11th and we are just now finalizing our decorations.  Which, that is actually ok since we wait until the Epiphany to take them down. 

The web is chock full of inspiration for Christmas crafts.  The first place I usually look to is MarthaStewart.com.

Love this Ribbon Poinsettia Wreath 

 So I made this one...

Now, I went to one of the major craft stores to buy the materials necessary to make this wreath.  The Styrofoam wreath forms were $3.99 and up. 

Normally, I wouldn't care, but we are really trying to find the best deals possible now-a-days, so I went to the trusty Dollar Tree and they had a plain, wood wreath for $1.00! Ok, it IS a little different, but it is workable.  Not only that, but I am making some glitter trees and the cones at the craft store were $3.99!  Dollar Tree...yep...$1.00.  Yes, they are a little shorter and smaller, but I can make it work.  Take the four bucks you saved and go get ya a latte or a Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milk Shake from Chick Fil A (stay tuned and maybe we will have a homemade version that will save you some calories.  We sure are going to try!) 

It worked fine.  I went there tonight to get a few more things and they had Styrofoam wreath forms also for a buck which they did not have the other day.  Save yourself some money and time and check out the Dollar Tree first. 

Next, I so loved this blue spruce wreath trio, also inspired by Martha Stewart 

Which led to this:

I had some old Dollar Store wreaths we had used at our house in BC.  I am so glad I found a way to put them to use here in Dickinson.  And then there is the nutcracker idea I found at House of Hepworths.  I bought these at the Dollar Tree.  I had actually been there the day before I read HOH's post, but I did not remember seeing any nutcrackers.  So, of course I went back.  This is them before:

 

Then I stripped them of their hair.

Don't they look much younger??  At first, I painted them white, like Allison's, because I really love them white. 

But it didn't really go with my Christmas colors so I took a chance and tried painting one gold.  I like it. I did not think it would be as pretty as the silver one Allison did, but I think it is.  Now, I just have to finish them.

 

And this garland we have had for years.  I am the type that likes everything.  Aren't multi-colored lights so awesome? But white lights are beautiful and elegant.  But, blue or green or red lights are unique and always look great.  Same thing with Christmas trees.  I like a multi-colored tree, I like monochromatic trees with white lights.  I like it all...which makes it very hard for me to pin down an exact "style" for myself.  Anyway, these are from my multi-colored decor days. 

I am going to transform them to fit into our golden decor of today.  Me and my friend, Can o' Krylon paint! 

For real, folks.  Final Christmas decor pics between now and Monday.  I know, I know...I said that a week ago, but like I said...For Real!

Plugged in

We have electricity!!

 

Thanks to Alfred Coeffer, we finally have electricity.  First of all he made it financially feasible for us the get the work needed, done.  I really does pay to look around and get several quotes.  We had already built a relationship another company and we had pretty much indicated that we were going to be doing a lot of work and that we would have liked for them to do it.  Then they wanted to charge us $300-$400 to add a couple of ground fault construction plugs and isolate some lines.  Do What????  My husband called them several times trying to negotiate with them, to no avail. 

So, as much as we hated to, we called some other electricians and found Alfred.  His quote was a third of the other electrician's quote.  "Sold to the girl with the pony"!!  Alfred you have our gratitude and our business.

So, next week we can build our fence (if the city has gone by to mark where the pipe lines are) and start some demo.  Woot Woot!!

We have some baked chicken and potatoes cooking in the oven, some salad chillin' in the refrigerator and some Vodka mixers gettin their chill on in the freezer.  Look for a post on tamales in Casa Causpanic Kitchen, soon.  Mom and I are going to make some and give you step by step advice on how to make your own Holiday tamales!  After you see how much fat is in them, you may not want to ever eat a tamale again.  Nahhhh!

So happy you stopped in at Casa Causpanic!  Wish you were here to savor the aroma floating around the house.  What's for dinner at your house?  Any particular dishes you like best on the weekend?  Send us some recipes, we love to try new things!  Until next time!  Have a great weekend!

Note:  Photo courtesy of worksafety.com.

820 8th Street

This is old news for our friends and family, but we really loved 820 8th Street and made many memories there, so we decided to document the remodel. Ronnie and I had already decided to move to my old home town even before he was transferred to the office that was closer.  So, after a few updates, we sold the house we were living in.

             

We bought a little travel trailer for Ronnie.  And visited often.           

           

           

And we purchased a 1701 sq ft house in my home town built in the 1940's with lots of huge oak trees.           

Living Room Before 

 

 These pictures were taken as we were house hunting.  We both fell in love with this house.  Ronnie loved it for what it was.  I thought it was adorable, but I always had a picture of "what it could be" in my head.  In order to make the house more attractive to buyers, the seller had the dark carpet installed (covering beautiful, character rich hardwoods) and built the storage you see along the wall.           

 

Den (enclosed garage) Before 1

 

Den (enclosed garage) Before 2

 

I think the counter top in the kitchen had been updated, but nothing else.  The little door you see on the far wall was one of those old timey "in the wall" ironing boards.  We sure hated to have to disturb that.           

Kitchen Before 1

 

Flowery wall paper border, mint green walls and a very old dishwasher that I would not put our dishes in.  That's Mama in the picture.  My beautiful mama.  She always goes with us when we look at houses.           

Kitchen Before 2

 

When we were house hunting I was fascinated by those cozy, lodge like walls.            

Master Bedroom Before

 

The master bath.  Oh, my.              

Master Bath 1

 

The master bath shower.  Double Oh, my.  We discovered later that the pan under the shower was leaking water and not only was there mold in the tile grout but also major mold in the surrounding walls.           

Master Bath 2

 

We were not able to do everything at once, but the master bath was a must!  We hired a contractor to do this work.  In hindsight, we could have saved some money by doing the demo ourselves.  Also, I learned a hard lesson about getting a firm quote as well as the questions, "will that be extra?"  and "how much extra?" during this project.  Our final tally was over double what we were quoted.    Owie.        

Mater Bath in progress 1

 

Master Bath in Progress 2

 

I did not have the foresight to know I might want some nice after pictures so these are not pics of the final result, but they kind of give you the idea.  I remember our budget did not allow for us to get new cabinets, but a couple of coats of deep chocolate-brown paint and some new hardware really made them feel new.  Note:  proper preparation is a must - sanding, priming - hard work, but worth it.  We did not want the expense of buying new doors, either.  Plus, the existing doors were perfectly functional, but the wood outdated them.  A coat of paint on this door was enough to keep them from attracting negative attention and that was fine with us.  It was so convenient to be able to buy all of our material, ceramic tile and border tile at the Home Depot.           

Master Bath After 1

 

 We were able to go from a single sink to a double sink which we knew would be a plus if we ever decided to sell.  The original mirror ran the length of the counter, but it was very old.  We considered keeping it and updating it by framing it with some wood or tile, but it just had too many blemishes.  I found these very inexpensive mirrors at Wal-Mart.  Two was better than one in this case as Ronnie is 6' 1" and I am 4' 6"!  The chocolate-brown and the neutral beige tiles were a beautiful backdrop for the brushed nickel fixtures.  I would have loved to have had oiled bronze fixtures but again, our budget did not stretch that far and we felt it would be way too much dark brown.  So, since we had the same tile and  border in the shower, we placed a punch of the dark brown into it with an oiled bronze shower head and knobs.  Unfortunately, I don't have pics of that either (kicking myself...and Ron!)            

Mater Bath After 2

 

In the end, it wasn't completely updated, i.e. the cabinets, but it was perfect for us.  Plus, it helped us increase the homes value.  I know I put all the before pictures in this post, but being new at this, I am very slow.  I see a "Part II" in our future.  A good part of the day has passed :O and Ronnie is napping.  I'm gonna watch the end of the OU/Longhorn game and then throw some burgers on the grill.  It has been a sweet day!