Met Monday

I've been a wreath making fool this fall! After I made the wreath for my friend Vicki, another friend, Allison asked if I'd make her one. I used a grapevine wreath, a fall swag & a few picks & silk flowers. I've started buying the flowers in a bunch & then I cut them apart. Most of the time it's cheaper to buy a bundle rather than individual flowers.

When I was at Hobby Lobby I saw these letters.

I'd seen on a few blogs people using letters in their wreaths. Allison LOVES monograms & initials so I thought it would be a perfect surprise for her! The "H" was made of some sort of particle board type stuff but it was this wood color. My first thought was that I'd cover  it with scrapbook paper but I wasn't sure how that would hold up & I didn't see any paper that I liked. So I moved on to the glitter area. Now, I'm sure all of you crafty types know all about the greatness that is glitter glue but I'd never heard of it! This stuff is AWESOME!! They even had it in orange!

I had some "umber" colored paint so I applied it to the "H", let it dry & then applied the glitter glue. I had some regular red glitter so I added some of that too. I was very pleased with how it turned out.

Here's the whole wreath.

And here it is hanging on Allison's door.

Next up will be Christmas wreaths!

I'm linking to Kristin's blog My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia & Susan's blog Between Naps On The Porch for Metamorphosis Monday.

Toodles!

Sunday Funday!

Here we are again. It's Sunday night. The weekend's over. It's times like this I wish even more that I didn't have to work. Oh well, that time will come one day. I hope anyway.

Today finds us LSU fans still scratching our heads. If any of you watched the game last night you'll understand why. It truly is strange, unbelievable & maddening all at the same time. LSU is 6-0. None of these wins have been pretty. In fact the majority of them have been very close to being losses. Then there's Les, aka "The Mad Hatter". He never answers the questions that are asked & the majority of the time when he's finished talking you say "Huh? What did he just say?". Maddening I tell ya. This has made for some very interesting debates, conversations, etc. There's one faction of the fan base that wants LSU to lose every game so Les will find himself looking for another job at the end of the season. Then there's the faction that like him (that's a very small group of people). After the Tennessee debacle last week, the majority had accepted the fact that we would lose to Florida. Everyone just didn't want to be embarrassed like last week. VERY few people actually thought there was even a chance LSU would win. I was not one of those people. I thought they were going to lose & lose bad. Anyway, after the game the general consensus among the fans is that Les has sold his soul to the devil. There's no other excuse for all of this so called "luck"!

Today Dean & I went to my parents old house so that Dean could help my dad & Scott move mama's piano to the new house. This hadn't been done yet because, well, have you ever moved a piano? It's not easy. In fact, it's pretty hard. Piano's are heavy. They make a special dolly to move them with. Mama was able to rent the dolly & they got it moved & in place at the new house.

While we were there we had lunch. Scott, Lydia & Logan were there too. It was really good. Thanks again mama!

So, now that the piano's in its new home, do you know what that means?

Yep! Logan has a new toy!!! And so does his daddy!

My friend Vicki has lent my mom a bunch of toys & stuff that her little boy Lane, has outgrown. This little dog is one of those toys. Logan LOVES this thing!!! He was rocking so hard I thought he was going to flip it over.

 Logan & I were playing with my camera. This is still the "pencil camera". The new one isn't here yet. I promise I do have makeup on but good grief I look pale.

On the way home Dean & I stopped at the Nursery & bought some pumpkins & mums for the porch. Then we came home & watched the Saints lose. That certainly wasn't pretty! Have a great week!

Toodles!

I Wear My Sunglasses at.....The Nail Salon

This afternoon I went to get a pedicure. This proved to be an interesting visit. While the guy was working on my feet, a couple of girls came in. They said they wanted mani's but they were waiting for a friend. These girls looked like completely normal college girls. The nail guy finishes with my feet & I move to the dryer. The girls are still waiting for their friend. I'm busy playing Words With Friends on my phone when I hear the door open. The door is right next to where I'm sitting so I can't help but notice this.

Yes, those are gold booties. Sorry about my finger in the pic. I was trying to be discreet but also make sure I got the pic. Would you like to know the funnier part of this story???

YES, this GUY is the wearer of the booties!! Keep in mind it was 90 degrees today. Not really boot weather. Those are sunglasses he's wearing in the salon too. The story gets better. At least I think it does. When his friends told him they'd already picked their colors his response was "Oh, I brought mine with me". Yeh, that's when I noticed the bottle of polish in his hand.  HILARIOUS!!!! It was all I could do not to laugh.

That was my excitement for the day. Other than the pedi, I had a visit from Allison, Joey & Cael. I made a wreath for Allison & they came to pick it up. I'll have pics later. I had a nice nap & Canes for dinner. Now we're watching the LSU game. They're doing surprisingly well. I don't care if they lose but I don't want to be embarrassed like last week. That's all.

Toodles!

The Kitchen

This week at Kelly's Korner  is Kitchens. I'm ready for new floors & counters. Sadly, Dean needs some convincing. Hopefully, we'll be able to make it happen. This is our corner pantry. The opening to the left goes into the dining room.

I love the corner sink. This is at the front of the house so we can always see what's going on outside. I bought the flower arrangement at Kirkland's & added the hydrangea's to it.

This is a piece I got a couple of weeks ago. I got the pumpkins at Hob Lob.

This is the kitchen & breakfast area from the end of the kitchen closest to the dining room.

These cabinets are between the fridge & the pantry. I've been thinking about making those doors glass front because those are the cabinets that have a lot of stemware. I need to do something with the lamp cord too.

This is one of my favorite things in the kitchen. It hangs next to the windows in the breakfast area.

A closeup of the cute little spider candle holder. I got these at Kirkland's after Halloween last year.

I'm also sick of the placemats. I'd like a runner but I haven't found one that I like. I've been throwing the idea around of attempting to make one. We'll see.

I seem to have a problem take pictures straight!

We put all of the corks from our wine in this jar.

Our server. The picture is another R.C. Davis print. The candy corn candy dish also came from Kirkland's. Sorry for the horrible glare. I couldn't get a good picture.

Still a glare but you can tell it's a swamp scene. I love R.C. Davis prints because there are all sorts of hidden things in the pictures. A butterfly here, a bird there. Just really neat.

That's our kitchen. I'm planning to paint the cabinets but I need to do a bit more research before I take on that job. It's not going to be easy.

Toodles!

Our Anniversary

I had a couple comments & a bunch of emails about my butterfly pictures. Thanks! I thought they were pretty too. I took them with my current camera. You know, "Pencil Camera" as my friend Wendy dubbed it. It's actually much more annoying that I first thought it would be so I've ordered a new camera. WOOO HOOO!!! I'm very excited. After doing some research, perusing a lot of blogs & asking for LOTS of opinions I decided on this one.

It's a Canon Powershot SD1300. I was planning to wait until closer to Thanksgiving to see if I could get a deal but I found it online on sale with free shipping & no tax so I ordered it. It shipped tonight from Salt Lake City. It says it's coming via UPS but it's not scheduled to be delivered until the 13th. Good grief, why is taking a week?? Anyway, I plan to do something with this camera that I've never done with any others. I plan to learn how to work it!! This isn't the first time I've said this. I'm going to try really hard to follow through. I just really hate reading directions. I'm like a man when it comes to that. Generally, I just read enough to figure out how to take a picture with the auto mode & that's as far as I get. I would really like someone to just show me how to work everything.

Dean & I had dinner tonight at Louisiana Lagniappe. Our 7th Anniversary was Monday & I had a meeting at Church that I needed to attend so we went tonight. If you're ever in Baton Rouge or in Gulf Shores/Orange Beach you must try it. We had Fresh Fish en Papillote which is fresh fish (it was black drum tonight) topped with lump crab meat and shrimp stuffing, baked in parchment paper and finished with a light garlic beurre blanc. Soooo good.

Yesterday, I had a manicure.

The color is OPI's Aphrodite's Pink Nightie. It's very shimmery & kind of a neutral pink, if that makes sense.

I hope everyone's having a good week!

Toodles!

Outdoor Wednesday

Now that it's starting to cool off here my lantana's have gone crazy! Seriously, the one I have planted in my rock garden is out of control.

Told ya! I have a problem keeping things alive in hanging baskets so I planted lantana in them this year. EPIC fail. They died too. I'm not really sure what the problem is. Any ideas? I really like ferns in hanging baskets but I usually can't get those to live for more than a few weeks. I need help! Anyway, I'm glad the lantana on the ground are doing so well.

Saturday I noticed there was a flock of butterflies hanging out around the lantana. I know it's a plant that attracts them but I've never seen so many at once. There were at least 5 big ones & a bunch of itty bitty baby butterflies. They were so cute!

 I wasn't able to get any pics of the babies. They were moving so fast!

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm linking to A Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday.

Toodles!!!

Better Than The Louvre

In our house, one of us is extremely laid back & the other is extremely high strung. Care to guess which is which?? I'm the high strung one. I worry, I plan & worry some more. Why am I telling you this? I'll get to that. When we went on our cruise in January we met some people from Michigan.  One guy, Daniel, was originally from Tennessee & graduated from the University of Tennessee. He told us he was coming to town for the LSU/Tenn. football game. We've kept in touch via email & were looking forward to the visit. Throughout the week we had emails & phone calls from several friends that live out of town that were coming to town for the game that wanted to get together. As of Friday, there were no definitive plans. This is where the high strungness (is that a word?) comes in to play. I get nervous when I don't know what's going on. I like to have plans. The Friday night tentative plans were for Dean & I, along with our friends Cliff & Sheri that were on the cruise with us, to bring Daniel & his friend, Tiffany to eat at a great restaurant that's off the beaten path. At 5:15 we got a call from Daniel saying that they left New Orleans later than planned & were stuck in traffic. Yeh, I think we forgot to mention Friday afternoon traffic to him when he was making his plans. Anyway, Dean, Cliff, Sheri & I went & ate & made plans to see Daniel Saturday. Well, I say made plans. By that I mean that Dean & Daniel agreed that they'd talk Saturday morning & figure out a "game plan".  See what I mean about being laid back? We went to dinner & it was fantastic! The restaurant is called Roberto's & it's in Sunshine for those of you around here. It's a really old general store that has been turned into a restaurant. I had Grouper with a buerre blanc sauce topped with fried coconut shrimp. Ahhh, it was delish!!! We decided to have dessert. There were lots of choices but we decided on the blueberry bread pudding with rum sauce. It was GREATNESS!!!! Loved, Loved, Loved it!!! When we got home it was such a nice night we walked over & sat on the patio with some other neighbors.

Saturday, I wasn't feeling well so I dropped Dean, Daniel & Tiffany off at LSU. Dean played tour guide & brought them all over campus. They visited a lot of different tailgate parties & ate until they couldn't eat anymore. Everything they ate was something they'd never had before & they loved it all.  Dean was able to meet up with one of the other friends on campus for a quick visit. Tiffany told me later that Dean was the best tour guide she'd ever had. "He was better than my tour guide at The Louvre". HAHAHA!!! I laughed but she was serious.

Right before kick off I went & picked Dean up & we came home to watch the game. It was the most awful thing I've ever seen. The bad part? As awful as it was LSU WON!! Have I said it was awful? I was so embarrassed at how it all went down. Anyway, plans were made to have Daniel & Tiffany & some of the neighbors over after the game to eat & watch Alabama & Florida play. Dean fried fish, crawfish & french fries, crawfish stew & grilled redfish. Everything was so good. We were hoping our other out of town friends would be able to stop by but traffic wouldn't allow it. We live about 3 miles from campus so getting to our house after a game takes hours sometimes.

Today is Amelia-Ann's birthday so one of her friends that lives next door to us, McKenzie, baked a birthday cake. McKenzie is a fabulous baker!

 Amelia-Ann getting ready to blow out the candles.

She's 12 now. I can't believe how fast time is going. Dean & I moved in our house a week after Amelia-Ann's family. She was 7 at the time & so little. We adore this little girl & I hate that she's growing up!

All the kids enjoying cake & gelato.

 I promise the kids weren't drinking the beer!!

 Amelia-Ann was worn out from the days festivities.

 She was sound asleep under that pillow!

We had a great weekend & as usual it was too short.

Toodles!