Blogging Day!

Gosh, I miss having time to blog. So, today is my designated day to catch up. Hopefully, I won't get a hard time from blogger and I can get through it in a reasonable amount of time. LOL.

Okay....off and running (weeeeee)

Mother's Day
It was great! Even though I still did my typical "MOM" stuff like making huevos rancheros for breakfast, a pork roast for dinner, doing dishes, straightening up, yada, yada, yada, I did take some "ME" time too. I decided to dye my hair again. Up until 2 years ago I had dyed my hair some version of red for the past 20 or so years. I couldn't remember why I quit dying it. That was until I remembered that I hate to touch-up the roots. Oh well....

I also broke down and bought some nail polish. I bought 3 in fact. So....I did my finger and toe nails. Now if I could loose that extra 20 (really 25) pounds, get the extra skin removed from my eyelids, and get into better physical shape I WOULD HAVE IT MADE! LOL. Pretty tall order, though. I better go sit down and think about it. LOL.

Tomorrow DH and DS are taking me to Brennan's for a New Orleans Jazz Brunch (a late Mother's Day gift). I LOVE THIS PLACE! I can hardly wait. Here, go check out the Menu for yourself. It's such a nice place. Valet parking, champagne cocktails, Shrimp Remoulade, Eggs Benedict, Banana's Foster. YUMMY!!!!

Speaking of MOM's Day. My DH gave me the most wonderful present. A plane ticket for my mom to come and visit. I'm so excited. She has never been to our house in the 4 years we've been in Texas. And I haven't made a trip to Phoenix in 2 years. Telephone calls and email only go so far. Now, all I need to do is find some fun stuff for us to do while she's here. I don't get out much!

School is out next week. YAY!!! Monday is my last day of the year for packing a lunch in the morning. And Thursday is my last day for waking up a 16 1/2 year old who can't wake up to an alarm.

I leave for Charlotte, NC on the 30th. I am going to Nationals for the USBC (bowling). I don't expect to win any money but I am looking forward to 5 days with 'the girls.' No cooking, no cleaning, no laundry, no errands....FUN FUN FUN! If anyone reading this post has any ideas about what there is to do, see, etc., I would love to hear from you. I can't seem to get any useful information from the Internet.

Current projects. Well, there's actually only been two. First I made myself a cell phone pouch. The pattern was a no-brainer and it went together 'sew' easy. Even the lining (BONUS). I just love the way it turned out. I have room enough for a pen, ID and credit card, some cash, my phone, and a lipstick.

And I was finally able to use some of the beautiful goodies that I have received in swaps, for MEME's, etc. I have a really tough time deciding what to use since I couldn't use it all! LOL. In the end...this is what I came up with.

The back is brocade and it just shimmers. The photo really doesn't do it justice. Of course, on this particular day, none of the photos I took turned out very well. Oh well.... As for the strap, I decided just to add a place to 'clip' them on. I have a number of different straps and chains, in different lengths. I wanted some flexibility and now I have that. I also needed a place to put my keys (I only carry 2: car and house). Next I'll be working on a beaded key fob.

Second, I made Bella a little cushion for the end table that she won't stay off of. Actually, this project was DH's idea. He had to prod me for awhile but then I caved and made it for her. I've resigned myself to the fact that she is not going to stay off of that table. So, I guess if you can't change something, you can at least protect the furniture. LOL.

And the verdict is....she LOVES IT! You can't see it but there's a strap underneath that velcro's together to keep it taut on the table. And I put a little non-skip shelf liner under it so what when she sees a squirrel and bolts off of the table, she doesn't take the lamp out with her.

BTW, this is what she sees while she's resting on her cushion. There's squirrels out in them thar trees!

Okay, it's time to let her get back to relaxing. LOL.

Lastly, there are the flower beds, an unexpected visitor and a planting experiment. First are a couple of photos of flower beds. I did this as an after thought, and didn't really do a great job with getting photos of the nicer, more colorful areas of the yard. But then again the point is that the weather has been cooler. The humidity has been WAY down, and our foliage is growing nicely. My little rose bush is in full bloom and the Tea Rose that we planted recently has 2 blooms already. Gosh, I hate to think that I might start liking roses. LOL.

We lost one of our established hibiscus from last year's freeze. The other two had to be cut back nearly to the ground but they are leafing out nicely and will be blooming later on this summer. Just for good measure, we planted 4 more of them. Along with a wide variety of other plants/shrubs. As you can see the Hostas and Firebushes are huge. The Day Lillies are blooming nicely and I THINK, the Hardy Lillies will bloom again.

You can just see (if you squint) my favorite yellow tree in the left hand corner of the photo. We're not sure if we will let it reach tree status or not. Maybe just a nice, plump bush would be good. Hmmmm.
This is a Cotton-tail running out of the front yard. When I went out to get the newspaper I never expected to see this little guy. It was munching on some weeds that DH had pulled out and left on the lawn. I went in and out of the house to stare at him for 10 minutes or so. Then when I finally remembered "MY CAMERA" I barely got a snap-shot before it scurried away!

This little beauty will someday be a potato! At least that's what my DH tells me. He grew up on a farm, chose agriculture for his trade, and loves to plant and grow things around the yard. When I described my understanding of a potato plant, he laughed. I won't even offer that version to you. Anyway, this was his "SEE" how it's done to convince me that he knows what he's talking about.

Well, I think I've covered it for now. Thanks for stopping by!