Happy Monday!

Yes, that is right -- Happy Monday!  I am coming down from a perfectly delightful weekend and, although I will need a little rest from all the excitement, it was such fun.

We had the Bean for the weekend -- well from Saturday to Sunday and she is just such a delight.  We took her to her favorite restaurant -- Jason's Deli -- which she enjoyed immensely.  She says she is going to be a "cooker" when she grows up and have her own Jason's Deli.  Gotta love a gal with a plan!  In fact, she is always wanting to know what the "plan" is. 

Then, when we returned we searched for something to watch on tv.  We were looking for movies and she is quite enamoured with "Davy Crockett" so, as luck would have it, the 1955 version with Fess Parker and Buddy Ebsen was on our "on demand" service so we loaded it up and set about watching.  At exactly 12 minutes into the film I stopped it -- who knew there was so much violence in a 1955 Disney movie.  Of course, logic would have it that you couldn't have a non-violent War of 1812 or Battle of the Alamo but it just struck me that I didn't expect it to be so, well, graphic.  So, the search went on.  We finally settled on "Air Bud".  About a half hour into it she said it was taking too long and she needed to go to bed so we turned it off and headed to bed which meant tooth brushing, allergy meds, eczema lotion, and countless drinks of water, a potty break and finally, at 9:30 we were down for the night.  It took a little while for the party gal to decompress and fall out but when she did, she barely moved all night and woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed.  I, however, did not.  My "parenting" style includes staying awake most of the night making sure the child is ok -- even though I was sleeping right next to her.  Brought back fond memories of my own children when I would get up every hour on the hour to "check" on them -- and that was when they were well.  Almost never slept when they were ill. 

So, Sunday came and went, Mom and Dad came home from their anniversary outing and Bean helped Gramps and I cook dinner.  Finally, Mom was melting down and baby was tired and runnng amok so it was time for the good time to end.  Bags packed, toys gathered, good-byes said and they were off.

So what did Gramps and I do then?  We finished watching Davy Crockett, of course!

 Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!

Today was a lovely day.  First there was church then lunch with my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter.   There was also a lovely card.  When I got home there was a lovely card and gift from my son and daughter-in-law and grandson and granddaughter.  I love them all so much, they are so special to me.  All I ever wanted to do in life was be a wife and mother and I was so fortunate to be able to do both.  I am blessed.

After a brief rest and a cuppa we set out to visit Trader Joe's.  It isn't in our neighborhood but it isn't far.  However, I am going to be bold and just say it -- I don't like Trader Joe's.  It is too crowded and, until today, too cold.  We bought some bread that was good and the yogurt was fine but there is just something I don't care for about it.  However,  I have learned to love Sprouts and that is the store I will be frequenting.  They have hummus to die for.

After our return home and a dinner of yogurt and toast I have settled down to watch a movie -- "Letters to Juliet".

 So far it is good.  The scenery is gorgeous, the story line is cute and I am enjoying it.

It seems I have been a few days away from my blog home.  What was I doing?  If you recall, I had made mention of my very brown family room and how I wanted to do something to change it.  Well, I have.  I haven't made it less brown and in some ways I made it more brown but it is different.  I am not sure I was distressed over the color or the starkness of it.  So, I set about layering and texturizing and moving some furniture.

 I did a bit of sewing,  bought a pillow cover off Etsy and am figuring out a couple of more pillows.  All in all I think it is an improvement.  All I wanted was a little warmth and softness and I think I have accomplished that. Yes, I know, I could move the books off the end table.  That would help, too.  I have learned that clutter doesn't equal "cozy and lived in" -- it just equals mess.

I have also been reading.  I am currently reading "The Master Quilter" by Jennifer Chiaverini.


 

 

 It is the sixth book in the Elm Creek Quilts series.  It is different than the others I have read so far in that each character has a story and they all come together at one moment in time.  I have read about these characters through five other books and I have gotten to "know" them.  I am worried about Bonnie - she is having such a struggle with her ogre of a husband.  Judy is struggling with a job change and Diane is going to be facing a job loss as well as learning that her son is teetering on the edge of criminal activity.  Gwen is getting over the disappointment of being passed over for a job she wanted and deserved.  These characters have become real to me and I can't wait to see how it all works out for them.  I am almost finished with this episode and I am hating to see it end.

So, that is what the week has held for me.  This week -- who knows?  For some reason I have been very thoughtful lately.  I have no idea why but I get this way from time to time.  I don't know if it is sadness or a slight bit of depression but I prefer to think of it as thoughtful.  There are so many things I have been interested in over my life time that I have always put on the back burner.  For some reason, now, I have the urge to do them.  I want to draw, I want to write, I want to sew, I want to read -- there are not enough hours in the day but I am trying.

Maybe this week I will be able to sandwich in a bit more blogging!

Oh, BTW, the movie was great! A chick flick for sure but even for us old chicks.  I recommend!

Homestead Farms


On Thursday Hubs and I decided to go on a little field trip.  The weather was gorgeous albeit windy but we decided to just go with it and get out.  Our exploration of choice was a place called Homestead Farms on Keller-Hicks Road, Keller, Texas.

Homestead Farms is a small farm owned and operated by the Farris family -- a young couple with a young family.  Homestead Farms is geared for children and families and is very welcoming.  It is a bit difficult to find and get to due to road construction but we knew where we were going so we didn't have any issue. It is really sort of amazing how a short drive down a driveway and suddenly you have left a busy street with a lot of businesses and you are smack in the middle of the country.  It was great.

I took quite a few photos and I think they will tell the story of Homestead Farms far better than I can. So....

Crops looking good!

Tractor

Pretty chickens

More chickens

Silly goat -- or is it?

chicks and bunny -- there were also some ducklings

brocolli

rosemary

Beautiful hanging baskets

Somebody stayed in for lunch

baby goats

More baby goats -- very friendly

Just a fraction of a huge herd of dairy goats

The name is Billy -- Billy Goat

And pigs -- very large pigs

Flower and vegetable plants outside the farm store

Beautiful -- I mean handsome -- rooster

Loved those chickens

The tomato crop -- they grow really good tomatoes

The farm store

The farm store is very small but very interesting.  They stock their own produce as well as produce from other neighboring farms.  They also have meat from local producers.  There was an interesting stock of coffee and honey  and soap-- beautiful, gorgeous-smelling goats milk soap.  I bought the one that is scented with rosemary and mint.  It is lovely.  We also bought a couple of tomatoes and a package of pork chops.  The tomatoes were fantastic -- tasted like tomatoes and made my husband think of growing some himself.  He is still thinking about it.  We had the pork chops for dinner tonight.  Hubs grilled them and they were very good.  I will be going back for more.  They also have chicken and beef and I am anxious to try both.

We were looking for something different to do and this filled the bill.  It was interesting and fun but most of all, it was peaceful.  Right off a major road, who knew we would find someplace so quiet and so serene.  They have picnic tables and benches and I think next time, we will be toting a lunch box with us to just sit back and take in beauty of the country.

Thanks Farris family for creating such a neat place!

Into the Garden --


I have never been much of an outdoor person.  I am allergic to everything and really don't like being hot which is a bad thing since I live in Texas.  However, this year I seem to have a change of heart -- I am ready to embrace the outdoors -- right after I take my Claritin.

Saturday we went for a little shopping at our neighborhood plant nursery and picked up just a very few things.

Archie's Gardenland, Fort Worth, Texas

Lovely pink geraniums -- we didn't buy these

Peach and yellow Cannas -- or these

Very round, puffy hanging baskets with something purple in them - or these

Superbelles-- these came home with us!!

 We came home and Hubby got right to work.  We don't generally plants a lot of seasonal things but we do have a few pots and hanging baskets that we like to fill with things that we have learned do well in the spots we have placed the pots.  So, here is the results of his labor

Lovely pink Superbells

The little crabapple tree we planted two years ago -- growing nicely

Crabapple tree with the Skullcap at the base

Purslane

Purslane

And yet more purslane

The large Crabapple tree on the side

Somewhere in this hot mess is Arlo and his fairy door.  I think I will be relocating my little gnome as soon as I can find him!

So, that is the garden early in the season.  We have lots of work to do, everything needs to be washed down which I had intended to do today but it just didn't happen.  I am looking forward to getting it all spiffed up, though, because I really want a cuppa out on my patio!

Musing Mondays (Apr. 28)

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

The Library

Every week or so we take our granddaughter to the library.  She loves the library.  In fact, we took her to our local used book store the other day and she thought she was at the library and gathered herself up quite a stack of books.  Ha! That is another post.

However, as we were standing in line at the LIBRARY I noticed a lovely mystery book on one of the display shelves close by.  It is "Death Comes to the Village" by Catherine Lloyd.  Being the sucker for covers that I am, I snatched it up and brought it home.  It is the first time, in a very long time, that I have checked out a library book for myself and I was surprised at the exhilaration that came over me -- just like when I was a kid.  The library was one of my favorite places and I could lose myself there for hours and that was exactly how I felt this time.

I brought home one book that grabbed my attention, not a stack of random reads off a sale table.  I was excited to read this one book, not just put it on the shelf for "someday".  It brought back many great childhood memories.  I didn't realize that just one borrowed book could do that.

So, my thought of the day is that maybe it is a good thing that the B&N near me closed.  I have often said that the library is under utilized, under respected and should be protected. Maybe I need to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.  The library near my house is a short car ride away, much closer than B&N, maybe I should be going there instead.  I sure did like the way it felt.

 

Bored, Bored, Bored!!!!

About 8 years ago the Hubs and I moved to a newly constructed house in a subdivision that is gated and geared for empty nesters with the added perk that we don't have to "do" the lawn -- it is done by the HOA.  Of course, we pay for it but we don't have a choice, it just happens.

So, I was thrilled.  No yard to do, just flower beds to putter in.  The house is big enough but not too big, although I would like another bedroom.  This was my first "new" house and I figured I would be a happy little camper here forever.  When we moved we got rid of some furniture, bought some new furniture, we relished in the fact that there was hardly any carpet which we don't care for and I was set.  Or so I thought.

Hubs and I were always DIY-ers with little projects going on.  Here we are in a new house with nothing to do.  I guess we will have to think about painting in a couple of years but that isn't want I mean.  I like the idea of putting things together and now it is "done" and I miss projects.

So, since there are no walls to knock down or porches to close in, I have to come up with something so I am looking at changing some of the furniture.  At this point, Hubs isn't talking about it.  However, the fact of the matter is, I am tired of brown.  We have Craftsman Style furniture that is made by the Amish.  It is very well built, solid cherry and leather covered.  In brown leather.  All brown.

The end tables are brown.  The coffee table is brown.  It just looks like a big brown blob. The chairs, there are two, are quite comfortable except that they are too big for me and when I sit in mine, my feet don't touch the ground.  I have solved that with a small footstool.  The couch, however, has to be the most uncomfortable thing on the planet.  The seats are too shallow, the backs are too straight and stiff and you can't lean up against the arm of the sofa without a pillow because the arm cuts into your side.  The one redeeming quality is that it sleeps great.

It is lovely furniture but what I would like to do is keep the chairs and replace the sofa with this --

 It is a loveseat which would be shorter than the sofa we have now but I think that would be ok.  It is a cream colored twill slipcover with triple padded seats and arms.  I think it looks luscious.

We also have travertine floors with no rugs and my husband absolutely hates throw pillows so it all seems stark and hard-surfaced to me.  I would like a little softness.  I doubt I can negotiate a rug but I am thinking I might be able to swing the sofa but I hate to get rid of the current one.  It is such pretty wood and the leather is nice but everything
                                                  
                                                     is

                                                         so

                                                               BROWN! (and uncomfortable)

Oh well, I doubt we will change anything but I can dream, can't I?

Pink Saturday!

I was up early this morning -- as usual, unfortunately.  For some reason I can never sleep in.  However, that gives me time to indulge in some of my favorite things such as blog reading.  One of the blogs I frequent is How Sweet the Sound hosted by Beverly Edwards Abbott.  Today I happened upon her Pink Saturday blog event and thought I would participate.  However, when I started taking photos, I realized that I have very little "pink" around me.  Hmm...pink is one of my favorite colors so maybe I should incorporate more of it.  Maybe I would be a cheerier person?  Nah, I am already pretty cheery.  I digress.  

In any event I hunted high and low for pink things and came up with precious little but I am looking forward to sharing what I did find with you.

Nothing says pink like Hello Kitty

Everybody has Easter Eggs laying around, right?

The Pink Bunny twins

Lovely display of dianthus -- more red than pink I guess but lovely still

Pink salvia

Pinkish embroidered pillow on pink gingham chair

Pink Stained glass

Gorgeous pink porcelain rose

So, there you go, my pink contributions for Pink Saturday!