Friday, June 29, 2012

It's FRIDAY and I'm EXCITED!

Yay for the weekend! Yay for Friday! And yay for having time to get started on the many paint projects I've got going on this weekend.

Not to mention it's a ploy to get the hubster to work on cleaning the garage and re-doing our church pews which are exactly 19 months behind schedule! @*#$)#@*@#)*$@

So a few of the paint projects this weekend primarily focus on and in the Laundry Room. It's a room that I've been wanting to update, as tiny as it is, with some bolder colors (bolder than anywhere else in our home). I'm SO EXCITED! I've got the paint, I've got the brushes, I've got the wood, and I've got the drive to get this started this weekend, even if it's only the base coat. It's a start!

And I'm also going to work on sprucing up some iron baskets that I grabbed years ago on a trip to Laredo with family. See previous blog about that here: Mexico was Perfecto! 

It's the two standing ones and the one basket on the floor that will be repainted and repurposed. (but I have yet to figure out a crafty way to use these baskets....hmmmm any ideas (besides planters)?) They will be matched similarily to the current bold colors on our patio. (the Foot Stool )


And I have such a cute idea in my head  for this decal I just hope and wish and hope that it turns out on the wall as good as it does in my head! Hopefully it ships and arrives QUICK!
I just love reading that saying -- it makes me laugh every time!

Happy Friday y'all!

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Nephew #3 is HERE!!


Well, I think we are done adding bambino's to the Chumchal family for a few months. Hudson Charles made his arrival (after a long day for us - can you imagine how long it was for my sister!?!?!) on Wednesday June 20th.

Look at this 9lb 8oz, 21 3/4" long cutie!

And here's Mr. Max meeting his cuz for the first time!
(Max is 11 weeks older than Hud)
 VERY PROUD Auntie and cousin
Here Hudson is meeting Uncle Bert

 AND - my most FAVORITE picture -
Auntie Mo and her boys
Brody (Hudson's older brother), Max & Hudson


We are blessed! So.Very.Blessed!
Happy blogging, y'all!

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

I love to read!

Yes. I mean it. I LOVE to read. It's probably my favorite pasttime and I don't do nearly enough of it. The hubster doesn't understand it. He's sooooo NOT the reader. He'd rather be designing or fishing or something outside. But hey! I read outside - so get the best of both worlds.

Reading lets me focus on anything but the 'now'. It's so refreshing! And once I get even a teeny tiny bit hooked, that's it - I'll read AS OFTEN and AS LATE and ANYPLACE I can! But don't ask me to read a book again. And don't ask me what it's about after I'm done. I get in some alter state of mind I guess and once it's done, so am I. But I still remember which ones I love and could probably give a "cliff's notes" if I had to! :)

I've been a reader all my life. Even when I was young, I read - every Little Golden Book I could get my hands on (or someone would read to me), Nancy Drew and whoever wrote that Sweet Valley High series?! I love Nora Roberts. I've read a few Nicholas Sparks. I've read Harry Potter. Loved the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. And I'm on the last book of The Hunger Games trilogy. I just finished book 2 - Catching Fire, last night. LOVED IT!

I'm pacing myself before starting the third and final book - Mockingjay. COME ON WEEKEND and POOL TIME!

It took me just a short while to get into book 1 - The Hunger Games. And yes - the Hubster did take me to see the movie on opening weekend. It was gooooooooooooooooooooooood!

And is this not the most beautiful girl? I'm terrible with actors/actresses names, but she is just beautiful and fits the bill of what I expected Katniss to look like, from the depiction in the book. WELL DONE movie folks!


I truly did breeze through Catching Fire. It was a page-turner!!

I can't wait to start Mockingjay!!
 Happy reading y'all!


Friday, June 15, 2012

Back Breaking Work

I remembered this morning that I never blogged about the project we were working the same weekend I did my patio footstool. Well - here it is!

And it IS and WAS back breaking work. The Hubster and I were both exhausted, but he more than me. Bless him!

Thank Heaven's for this little gem - a rented sod cutter!
Because I like to talk and always tell too many details to any story, here is how this all started. Last year the oldest stepson graduated from High School. yay!!! We were throwing a graduation party for him the day after with a whole bunch of our family and closest friends. Well - we have (and it's the truth) the smallest back yard on the cul de sac. Well, there was an open-to-the-street area that could not be used for anything -- seriously. So we asked the HOA to extend our fence, and they approved. So we finished that project the morning of his graduation party (June 2011) -- which is why you can see in the pictures below our fence is much "newer" than the existing fence. And the photo gives away the tough task we tackled this June. We made our fence area match the existing area by adding two crepe myrtles and some hawthorns. But why did we have to have a sod cutter, you ask? Well because all this was WEEDS! Not our beautiful St Augustine like the rest of our large yard has, but seriously - WEEDS! I hated it. Despised it. But now it's gone. Hoo-Rah!
The work is done!! And as soon as we have a weekend to break up the clay (thanks Katy Prairie!), then we'll plant some new carpet grass and water like nobody's business!
This was the first removal of weeds, which was then when I suggested we get the sod cutter. SO GLAD we did. It's the third time we've rented it and it's been quite helpful. (the first time was to cut out the grass for my rose bed and the second was for our garden, i think)
And here is the Hubster's truck LOADED DOWN with all the removed weeds. It was seriously low-riding in the back. And why do I have a picture of it, you ask? Because he started a new job on that Monday and we had to have the back of the truck cleaned out for vacation on Tuesday, so I had to go and unload it at the dump! Thirty dollars later......
 Full up, loaded down. DAUNTING!
 But thankfully I have a great stepson that met me there and we unloaded it in 30 minutes. (yay for young, able-bodied, college kids!) But it, too, was hard work. It was 90+ degrees and here is an awful picture of me to prove it -- this is how red and hot and gross I was after the visit to the dump!
Of course I headed straight to the car wash and $5.00 and 45 minutes later the bed of the truck was much better. Only a few remnants of dirt and weeds in the back remained.

NO MORE SOD CUTTERS, hopefully!!!!!

Happy blogging & weekend, ya'll!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Beakers!

Now who doesn't remember wayyyy back when in science class in Junior High and High School working in the lab with BEAKERS! and Buntsen Burners and strikers and all that went with it? I remember always being scared of lighting the flame with that darn striker thingy! I'm NOT a pyromaniac - to this day. But oh what great times we had in Mr. Blohm's science classes!!! Makes me sit here and smile just thinking about them and my classmates and how long ago it was.

So I was out antiquing the other day and saw these and just had to have them. They were a definite bargain as well! Reading through a blog prior to antiquing someone mentioned Beakers and then I came across these two pretties.....and jazzed them up last night with a few roses from my rose bed. The colors are so vibrant and my bushes are full! I have 17, and not one is the same color! LOVE IT!

So here's some pretty coral roses in my beaker.....
 And here's a few lavendar ones with a beautiful white rose I added to snazz it up a little.
 And here's a close up of the beaker -- I'm loving the made in USA marking!!!!!!
I'm PROUD to be an American!
These two additions cost me a whopping $2.00. Yes, $1 a piece. I scored them half price (reg $2/each)! That was definitely a GOOD SNAG in my books! ;-)

Happy blogging, y'all!

Monday, June 04, 2012

Outdoor Stool - what a transformation!

THIS is only a small part of what I got up to this weekend (the rest to come in a later post)! But I have to say - it was the most fun to see what it was, to what it is now! Check it out.....

I mentioned to my mom over Memorial Day weekend that I was needing a stool for our back porch. I wanted to put my feet up on something as I was rocking in my rockers. She immediately said "Oh I've got an old foot stool that you can have." No doubt it was a cheap garage sale find from years ago. And it's cute! I loved the legs and the size, but WHOA - hello 1962! :) I saw beyond the obvious and to what it could be, in my crazy little head.

So here's the before:

But lo and behold there is a surprise inside - it's a foot stool with a HEATER!!!! Yes, a heating pad in it! ha! 

This is what the "heater" was. Some sort of heating pad installed. I was curious to see what was inside so thought you might be too!


















 So here goes - first coat of primer on! check!


So what was my inspiration, you wonder? Gotta love Pier 1! I had my plans in my head and I nearly walked out before this caught my eye:

 Or do I go with the reserve side?! ohhhhh the decisions!
Anyway .... back to the point:

Got the seat cushion broken down, the new padding put together, the button sewn through and all of it reattached to the stool's top piece. SUCCESS in and of itself!

I am LOVIN' this new stool. Here she is:

And here it is sitting pretty on our back porch with the matching rocker pillows - the whole ensemble! I love the pop of color it brings to the very crammed and needs to be extended back porch! OH! Don't let me forget the citronella plant we bought as well....I'm a mosquito-attractor and it sucks! ha ha I'll do anything at this point to help with mosquitos!!!
So - anyone venture to guess what my NEXT project is based on this picture? ;-) *sigh*