Does this happen in your neighborhood?

Occasionally cows get out of the pasture and wander our streets...

This was last fall

Coming up the street

In our backyard inspecting our toys

Never a dull moment around these parts...  :)

Keeping it old school

Yep, this is how we watch TV...

Post script:  I think it's very fitting I published this on Thrifty Thursday - because this is one way we save money (and time) - not having cable....

Jonah's Room

This picture has been taken down. (Can you believe that picture is of a 3 or 4 week old baby?) and new one's have been put in it's place.

You can see pictures of our nursery makeover HERE. Be forewarned, it's a lot of green. There were a few suggestions to add another color, but I just couldn't. (My husband suggested to add some purple! That is why I don't consult him when it comes to decorating or fashion...)

So go check out The Green Room.

Friday Flashback

Me on a birthday, not sure which one - I'm guessing two or three

I'm sure you know the whole Nature vs. Nurture issue right? I only had to study it in almost every one of my classes until I changed my major in college. I think we are a combination of nature and nurture.

In case you didn't know, my whole house except my bedroom, is some shade of a lime-y green (I had to give my husband one non-green room in our house, though still a kind of green, but not lime...).

I just thought I liked color, that would be nature, just part of my personality. Then, I came across this photo... Maybe I decided to paint my house orange and green because it was on my walls as a child, that would be nurture.

Just kidding.

But, really, I thought it was funny that my house now totally coordinates with the wallpaper my parents had in their kitchen when I was little. How fun is that wallpaper?!

Did you notice that funny highchair?

Nesting in the yard

We rented for quite a few years, and my husband always said he couldn't wait until we had our own yard, so that he could mow it, and we could plant a garden, etc. Seriously. He said that.

Let me tell you, I don't think he meant it.

Today my nesting moved to the outdoors. I'm not really sure what I was thinking, because my mobility is quite limited. (However, I did plant flower bulbs earlier this week. I put my gardening cushion on the ground and sat on it, and scooted around the bed.) Anyway, there's a lot to be done.

So, I got my helper, Trevan, and we went outside. (He ended up not actually helping...) I started with the blackberries - the old vines needed to be pulled/cut out, and the new vines needed to be lifted off the ground and put on the trellis thingy. I did that, and then decided to have John come outside and pull the weeds around it. (He was working on another project for me inside.)

Well, I thought while we were out there, we might as well do the raspberries too. John wasn't very excited about it, but willingly obliged. Unfortunately his lack of enthusiasm and interest cost me a few raspberry plants.

Then, his lack of enthusiasm and interest cost me a broken terra cotta drip plate thingy. He tossed it on the ground against the terra cotta pot - was he thinking it was plastic? Hmmm...

Then, I noticed that my cilantro grew back from last year. I was so excited! But, clover was crowding it, because we hadn't weeded the garden yet. So, I asked John to weed the clover away from the cilantro too. John started weeding, not really excited about it, and then stopped and said, "How do I tell what I'm supposed to weed and what I'm not?" handing me a clump of clover AND cilantro. He had already pulled up one patch of the cilantro... I wasn't very happy. And, while he was doing that he kept stepping on the strawberry plants... Sigh...

So, I came back inside to continue my nesting indoors...

I just knew

My back yard. Taken right before a brief hail storm.

(Technically my backyard ends at the fence. I think the cow patties add a nice ambiance to the picture, don't you? We never even smell them.)

When we moved here, we were ready to end our renting days and buy a house. I looked at a bajillion houses, online and with a realtor. Online, I kept coming across the house we ended up buying, but it said there was a contract pending, so I never even bothered looking into it. Most of the houses and subdivisions I looked at were about 20-30 minutes away from where we ended up buying. But, for some reason I was drawn to this area, and kept dragging my elderly realtor (who didn't like driving on the interstate, so would take me the waaaay long way to see houses) out here.

I had taken her to see a house John and I were really interested in, and we were headed back home, when we passed the subdivision that our home is in. I asked her if she didn't mind turning around so we could just drive through it. We did.

We turned down the street and there was a house for sale. I went and got the flier and it met all the specifications that we wanted (4 br's, 2.5 baths, dining room, in our price range), she made a call, and we looked in the house. (SIDE STORY: I was positive that there had been a dog in the house, I could totally smell it every time we went to look at the house. No one else could, and they thought I was crazy. After talking with neighbors, we found out I was right. This nose does not lie.) As I looked through the house, I made mental check marks, and the kitchen and the view basically sold it for me.

Driving home, I knew that was the house for us. It wasn't my dream house, but it had the basics we were looking for. No bells and whistles, but we couldn't afford any bells or whistles anyway.

That night my realtor called with bad news that there was a contract pending on the house already. (Then, I remembered I had seen that house online.) I was bummed for less than an hour, because she called back and said we can go for it, because the buyers were waiting until their house sold.

There was another house we were interested in as well. John really wanted that house (30 min. away from here) because it would have been a great investment, and I really wanted to want that house too; but I wanted a home, not an investment. Besides, I already knew that this was the house for us.

Long story short - we bought this house.

Sometimes when I'm driving home, I think of how things have worked out for us here; good neighbors, good friends, perfect area for us; cows in the backyard with shopping five minutes away. Feels rural, but it's really not. I know this was the house for us. Even though, I'm ready to sell it and buy a house with more space, I know this was where we were supposed to be. It may sound silly, but it's true. I love sitting at my kitchen table and staring outside at pretty sunsets, or dark blue skies.

I always tell people when they are looking for houses that when it's the right one, they'll just know. Well, that's how it was for me anyway.

Still decking the halls...

I'm running a little more behind than I ever have this Christmas season. I still have four 18 gallon tubs of decorations to put out. Guess what? They most likely will stay right where they are... Oh well.

I did, however, get Christmas tree number two decorated, and I love it. Orange and green, what's not to love?

We have had Christmas tree number three in our room, naked, for quite some time now. Earlier, I had decided I wasn't going to decorate it, then yesterday decided just to go for it. I'm so glad I did. I love it.

This tree has so many holes, it is decorated two deep. Decorations to fill the holes close to the trunk, and then decorations on the ends of the branches. I had this great beaded garland, but it wasn't enough for the whole tree. Oh well, there's always next year...

I was in Target earlier this week and I walked by the Christmas dishes, and something caught my eye. I turned around and saw this placemat that would go perfect in my room! So, I took it home and made a pillow for my bed for the holiday season! See more about it HERE.

They also had some great towels, and I bought one of those for my bathroom. It matches perfectly.

Thank you, Target, for helping deck my halls.

How I got my husband to stop piling DVD's on the mantle

You know how sometimes it doesn't matter how many times you ask a person not to do something, they do it anyway? Well, I haven't known what to do with our mantle since we bought our house. I always had plans of decorating it for every holiday, but it never happened. Instead, I just arranged a lot of pictures of us and family there, but I never really liked it. I especially didn't like it when John would lay the pictures down and pile DVD's on top of them (instead of putting the DVD cases back in the shelf, they were laid to rest on the mantle).

Finally, I was tired of it, and got the idea to use all the little pumpkins I bought back from my trip to Ohio to make an arrangement on the mantle. I bought this great garland at Pier One, and I already had all the candles packed away in the garage. I did have little gourds in the arrangement as well, but when those rotted, I replaced them with fake little red pumpkins that I thought matched the garland so nicely.

Mission accomplished! There have been no DVD's piled up on our mantle in over a month.

It's sad to have to throw away my little rotting pumpkins - now I just have to figure out what to do for Christmas...

Design Dilemma

My friend and fashion consultant moved far, far away, so I went to her favorite store to harness some of her creativity and found this. Normally, I wouldn't pay so much for a dish towel, but I took it home and made it into a pillow. (Yes, I like to find additions to my home in random places, I have a placemat matted and framed in my bathroom, I've made a valance out of napkins, the curtain tie backs in my room are necklaces, I made a crib quilt from a king sized quilt... the possibilities are endless!)

The first floor of my house is orange and green. Not always the easiest colors to find accessories for. Easier now than when we first painted all these crazy colors (the design world finally caught up...) Anyway, I saw this towel and fell in love. Orange... cute green trim... ADORABLE.

What's the dilemma you ask? Well, the background color on the towel is cream, I don't particularly care for cream. (Even though my bedding in my room is cream and black, but when I was looking years ago for that, no one was making black and white, so I had to settle for cream. Of course, now, there are plenty of black and white options available.) So, cream, the dilemma.. the other pillows I have are white and green. I'm not one to mix cream and white... I'm not even sure about the two styles of pillows put together...

What do you think? Is it okay for pillows that have cream and white on them to co-exist in the same room? (they won't even be on the same couch if that helps, and in this picture you really can't tell it's cream, but it is...) Also, should the green pillows be moved to another room or are the styles okay together? (they could have a home in my kids room, their original purpose, but I like them so much I want them in the living room...)

Thanks for the input, my brain is functioning on overload, I just can't make any more design decisions.

Home decor and more!

Things were looking a little droopy around here.

I like having plants in my house, though it seems they don't like living in my house. John wants me to get fake plants, but I like having real ones. (For the record there are four other plants still living.) Some of these plants have been dead for a really long time. The ugly, withered leaves have been haunting me, pleading to be thrown away. Well, I finally got around to getting some new ones.

One trip to the nursery, one trip to Home Depot, and two allergy attacks later...

Did you know?

(The following taken from the tag of this plant that was put in our half bathroom)

"Ironically, Lucky Bamboo is actually not a bamboo at all, but rather a Dracaena! Lucky Bamboo is the primary plant recommended for improving Feng Shui and for creating spaces where you feel safe and more energized to meet the demands of today's high-pressured world."

Good thinking on my part to put this in our bathroom! While sitting on my throne I totally need to feel safe and energized to meet the demands of today's high-pressured world.