Johnny In A Dress!

Have y'all had a chance to meet Natalie over at Johnny In A Dress? She's the cutest little thing since sliced bread! Oh did I mention that 1. She's an AMAZING mother of two 2. She has the BEST home decorating ideas and tips & 3. She sews up the CUTEST things!

Last week, I ordered the CUTEST botton and rosette necklace that Nat made. I rocked it over the weekend and received SO many awesome compliments.

Do you want to ROCK one too? I LOVE JOHNNY IN A DRESS! <---THE STORE! Go support Natalie and her family! I know that I'm delighted I did. Just from our very fresh interactions with each other I can see us becoming good friends! How perfect since she's settled into my favorite state. Do y'all know which one that is?

Natalie sent me the best note today to TOP the worst day I could possibly have. I really wanted to shove my size 7.5 shoe up someone's behind but that all subsided when I read her note! She's just too sweet.I'm happy to announce that my ankle is starting to hurt less when I walk. I learned a very valuable lesson this past weekend. You NEVER pressure wash your granite steps and then attempt to walk on them! I learned that the hard way. I NEVER claimed to be graceful! There was a reason I ended up doing tap and my sister practiced ballet. I slipped off the side and ended up with a cut leg and by that evening my leg became very swollen and within hours you could see the bruise. Four days later and it's finally starting to feel better! Lesson learned!
I've been longing for a three day weekend. Finally it has arrived! Seriously, 2300 hours can't come FAST enough! I can't wait to enjoy every second of it! Saturday I'm going to go looking for the perfect piece of small furniture to refinish! Natalie has been a great inspiration to me! I love her style! I simply can't wait to begin!

Do you have plans for the holiday weekend?

Poor Ingrid.

This morning I jumped into Ingrid my sexy red BMW and headed off to work. She was running beautifully.

That was until I hit the UP HILL battle of traveling UP a very STEEP incline. She began to spit sputter and chug. Thankfully (Thank you Lord) I made it into the hospital parking lot and promptly parking Ingrid. Once out I inspected for any possible sightings of leaks and did my usual smell test to see if she was running a wee bit hot. Leak free but she was ticking and smelled a little hot. I've learned my lesson since the last bad Ingrid episode and closely track any on dash warnings. Nothing came up on my screen to alarm me.

I texted D to ask him what he thought I should do. Luckily my prince charming came to my rescue this afternoon. He took her to see what he thought could possibly be her issue.

Are you ready for this one.


Ingrid was simply thirsty. Practically empty. I guess this shows that I've been a little more tired lately and getting less hours of sleep. I guess I'll spend a night doing less and getting to bed at a decent hour.

An Evening of Odds and Ends

What time do you eat dinner? We are love eating an early dinner and by early I mean our household qualifies for the early bird special! But tonight became the exception. Tonight was fend for yourself and eat up any leftovers in the fridge! Cap wanted watermelon for dessert. Isn't this the coolest "grocery getter" you've ever seen? I can't help but wonder how many goods could I stuff in this Humvee on a trip to costcos :) I know Cap wouldn't let me find out. Ha!

Despite my back being a constant issue, I'm plugging away on my to do list for this summer. Mind you, I'm MONTHS behind where I want to be. But my husband has really stepped up his game and is making STRIDES at the projects he's started. Now if only the weather would cooperate my porch floor might get painted. And the patio set I purchased could come out of my car and be put together! I was able to finally plant a couple of the perennials that were given to me by coworkers. Oh and the flower beds are mulched. Hooray!!
What's the Corona and pie tin for? Getting rid of slugs! I asked Cap if I could take one of the leftover beers from his Man day a week ago. This bottle was in the garage ( his man gave) and I thought it might be claimed as fair game. What better way to finish the evening of odds and ends. Chips and Salsa.

P, P, and BBQ.

Do y'all have a nice patio and place to grill?

Summer in Vermont is TOO short! And currently I'm living without a patio or deck. But I do own this cute little house on a dead end street with a really cute covered front porch. Cap and I currently working on a plan to makeover our porch. I'm going to repaint the floor this week. Then we need to decide what to do with the railings and steps. I would really like to go to a more modern white vinyl railing for front and right side of the porch. My hope for the left side is to put in a set of stairs that will hopefully one day lead down to a cobblestone patio. Doesn't this porch rail look awesome? I think this style would give our house the fresh and updated look I'm thinking of!!

I found this really cute bistro set at Walmart today for $48. Yes, that's all I paid for it! Before purchasing I used my trusty little smartphone to look at the reviews. 4 Stars. WIN! I figured worse case scenario if I get one year out of it--I clearly would have gotten my $48 back in return. Now I just need some other ideas of what might make our porch enjoyable. Other than a glass of wine and a good book!

Do you have "porch decor"?

Oh and look at this great idea that I stole from Kelly. She had a sip and see and look at the great way to serve a berry salad. I can't wait to host my first BBQ at the end of July. Yes, I'm totally going to do this!


So back to my dream of a patio. We only have about two and half months of beautiful (good) patio weather. And because I love to plan ahead and know what I should budget for I've been searching the perfect patio furniture set for said future patio. I blame this fixation on Lowe's! I've been looking since March when they started setting up their summer display. I just want some that will comfortably sit 4-6 people and something that will either winter well or be broken down for storage. Good thing my momma taught me "beggers can't be choosers!" Ha! In my world, I can be choosy!

Well tomorrow is going to be one of those beautiful patio days and I have to work. Shucks!

Remember Always Reward Yourself.

Do you need a vacation?

If so where would you go? Do you have a favorite vacation spot?
A favorite time of the year to travel?

Cap and I LOVE to cruise. The photo above is a clear reason why we love it. That is the pool at 8pm. We had it all to ourselves. So even though there were 2,700 people on board. It was as if we were there all alone. The photo above shows the beauty of vacation. I love the FOOD. Vacation is a time where I can choose to be as good or as bad as I want. Vacation is meant to be guilt free :)
This is what a REFRESHED Hee looks like. Vitamin D and no alarm clocks to wake me gave me the power I needed to get back to the "normal" hectic life that we live.


HOWEVER.

I've been working some seriously long hours and attending multiple appointments a week. I just need a couple days to get away and clear my mind. I need to escape the house work, the gardening, the Humvee project and all the other things that pop up day to day. I need SUN.

Life is GOOD.

Reward yourself.

Oh Snap!

Thank you to the higher being (God?) for snapping me back to reality this evening. I attended my executive board meeting at the CJC (Community Justice Center) this evening at the auditorium. It wasn't until I started towards the building that I saw the big red cross.
I forgot it was the emergency shelter for the 25 families that were displaced almost three weeks ago by the flash flood that hit our city. Yes, I forgot. Shamefully I forgot that those families were still living in there. I forgot all the devastation that they experienced. There whole lives turned upside down. Lost homes, lost cars and some people lost their jobs because no way to work means no work. Some of these have HAD their whole world turned upside down.

Some are trying to figure out how to put their world back together or hold on to whats left.

The city is still carefully cleaning up and examining the streets for possible sink holes. They are closely watching multiple hills for land slides. Unfortunately the city is at the mercy of mother nature.

Then there are those that are trying to find the "light" side of things. FREE MUD! That's an understatement.

However, it wasn't until tonight that things really fell into perspective for me. I drove in driving Ingrid (my BMW), walked into the aud carrying my leather Dooney and Bourke purse, and wearing my completely designer brand outfit. I realized how much I take for granted. How many things that I treasure are just items that can be replaced. It was just what I needed to wake me up and to get me to stop dwelling on the things that don't matter and start focusing on the things that do. First thing, start cleaning out and donating to those that lost SO much! Oh and two, praying that they all find the peace and strength to get through the days ahead of them. X,

Big Doin's. Big BIG Doin's 'round Here.

We finally got a new vehicle. It comfortably seats four. It also has plenty of cargo space. I would say it's great on gasoline but it runs on diesel.


Let me introduce you. Blogger reader this is Thor. Thor meet our blog readers :)

I'm sure you can tell it's a Hummer but this isn't just any old Hummer. Well it is old. Ha! But this is the REAL deal Hummer. It's a 1985 American General Humvee.

Well ya'll might be wondering why Thor arrived on a flatbed. Well that's simple he came with a few electrical issues. No lights. No directionals. No windshield wipers. &Thankfully all really EASY fixes! But it would have been impossible to make the 630 mile trip from Butler, Pennsylvania to our home without those essential functions. We were just tickled pink when the driver showed up with the beast! I was however NOT very happy with AAA. I'll save that rant for another day. Until then I was continue to observe all the work that Cap is putting into the beast :)

Delivery Complete.

Delivery Complete. Kinda sorta like MISSION complete. Well anything that saves me time is a mission complete! It was almost like finding a shortcut cleaning the shower.

Shower Cleaning Short Cut (WARNING-Tangent): I bring a Magic Eraser, Baking soda and a sponge into the shower with me. While my hair is "setting" with my conditioning treatment for five minutes I scrub the "shit" out the shower tiles.


My box of goodies arrived this afternoon. 14 pounds of goodness! Thankfully Cap was home when FedEx delivered the box since we ended up having some terrible thunderstorms this afternoon. That cardboard box would have been a train wreck when I got home this evening. The FedEx guy told Cap that was the biggest box of soap he's ever delivered. I think he thought it was bars of soap. Little did the guy know that he just brought me paper towels, toilet tissue, ziploc bags and laundry detergent. Ha!

With all seriousness, I'm SO excited and SO happy with this company! I've already started to make my next list.

I forgot to mention that they allow you to mail in manufacturer coupons to them and they will credit your account. WOOT! An additional discount. I'll take that any day... WIN WIN!

Discovery Of The Day...

Today's discovery was the BEST one I've ever made when it comes to helping me save time!
I ordered EVERYTHING that was getting low in the house. Tide, Bounce, Bounty, Charmin, Ziploc bags, Fridge freshner and Swagger (Dom's newest favorite deodorant). $78.35 worth of goods and I SCORED them for $49.30 + free shipping.

Thank you SOAP.com for the 1st time user coupons and the FREE shipping for a purchase over $39. Yes, it was surely a WIN WIN!

I didn't have to spend time at Walmart weaving through all the carts people leave here there and everywhere. Nor do I have to wait patiently (impatiently) inline behind screaming women and their misbehaving children. The less time I spend at Walmart the better. It means I have extra time to spend with my boys doing the things we want.

If only I could find someone or a service to do my grocery shopping. Hmm...