Honey Bears and In-laws

So, I’ve finally been going through the zillions of photos I’ve taken over the past several months and came across a trip Bubba and I took down south to Las  Cruces over the long President’s Day holiday. Yeah, I know it’s June, and these shots were taken waaaay back in Feburary, let’s just say I’m behind, and losing at the game of catch up.

Instead of getting all wordy like I always do I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Okay, I lied, I am going to get wordy, but only to explain the photos, because some of them really can’t speak for themselves. Well, they can but I’m a chronic interrupter. So anyways, that sandy stuff in the middle of this photo is the Rio Grande River.  And those mountains are the Organ Mountains, very pointy.

Here’s another view of the Organ’s set in contrast to an alfalfa field.

Here’s where we almost got married. From another view you don’t see the green houses, but instead see the surrounding gardens. The grounds are operated by the local college, and quite often you’ll see some pretty interesting plant life. One year they did an entire ornamental pepper garden. It was gorgeous!

And here’s a giant rooster. Bubba wouldn’t let me bring him home. Maybe one day I will surprise him like the Bloggess (may contain four letter words, and I don’t mean words like “skinny jeans”) did for Victor.

And here’s a bench made from a Ford tailgate. I couldn’t fit it into my trunk so it got left behind.

And an old church, I love old churches.

This one is in Old Mesilla, Basilica of San Albino, gorgeous church.

While we were in town we stopped by to visit my Bubba-in-laws.

Father-in-law with Bubba niece.

Isn’t she the cutest? I couldn’t get an un-blurry shot though, the little rascal moves like lightening.

Here she is with her momma, enjoying some chocolate cake.

Speaking of momma’s, here’s Bubba’s mom.

After visiting with family it was time to head home and bail our brat girls out the kennel, which is actually considered a pet boutique. Yes, I’m that weird dog lover that can’t bear the thought of my beloved pooches spending any amount of time in a kennel. This place allows free range dogs, so the girls are part of herd while we are away. I think they like it…they come back exhausted as one usually does when away from home and ones favorite chair.

Or ones most prized sunny spot near the fridge….

Anyways, getting on with it…

Since the three day weekend fell around Valentine’s Day Bubba made my favorite brownies from my favorite cookbook by Helen Corbitt. The recipe can be found here.

As I munched on the most delectable of brownies and decided skinny jeans just weren’t in the cards for me I enjoyed gazing at the red tulips that Bubba surprised me with.

And unloading all the sweet honey goodness I found while poking around a farmer’s market while visiting the southern part of the state.

I couldn’t resist the teeny honey bears.

And now I’ve run out of pictures and words…how’s that for an eloquent ending?

Mother’s Day

Three Friday’s ago I got to celebrate Mother’s Day with the two most important women in my life…

My sweet Momma…

And my sweet big sister….

We spent the day running between three doctor appointments, but we still had fun. It doesn’t matter where you are, there’s still laughter to be shared when you’re with your most favorite of people.

After running around from one appointment to the next we came back to my house for pie.

Obviously, it was yummy since I didn’t think to snap a photo until I’d already eaten half a piece. It was Millionaire Pie, but I can’t remember which recipe I used. So, you’ll  have to hold tight for a post about that later on. It’s delish and not very skinny jean friendly.

Brat dog Annie seems to have inherited my sweet tooth, always begging when there’s something sugary to nosh on. And being rude to our guests. Imagine if a human were to stare at someone while they enjoyed dessert. Actually, it is for this very reason I don’t deny myself dessert,

I fear the staring would be off-putting.

Anyways, it was a great day, spent with two very beautiful and special women.  The Lord has truly blessed me to have given me both a mother and a sister that can share the title of friend.

Banana Pudding

Words…I have so many words….it’s been so long since I got to share my words on here. Oh, and I can’t forget all the pictures, I’ve got two 8GB cards full of photos that are just waiting to be edited. But I don’t have the patience to go through them right now, you’ll see those later, hopefully sometime this year.

On Tuesday the nice people at WordPress kindly reminded me that I’ve been rattling on about randomness on this blog for 3 years now. Three years! Where did those three years go? And how should one celebrate such a milestone? Hmmm….maybe with some banana pudding perhaps?

It was yummy by the way…

And of course someone had to have a very unhygienic taste…

In the eloquent words of my brother-in-law…..YUCK…..

The pudding was nothing fancy, it was the lazy girl banana pudding recipe on the side of the Jell-o puddin’ box. Took a whole 5 minutes to prepare, but oh so worth those 5 minutes in my stuffy kitchen.

And the green glasses the pudding was served in came from Goodwill a couple years ago. According to the label that was attached ,they were hand blown in Italy. I don’t know how authentic they are or how old they are, but I liked the color of the green glass and the bubbles floating in them. You can’t see the glass bubbles in the photos, but the glasses are slightly seeded.

There are so many other things to talk about, but there isn’t enough room for all of that in one little post. So, let’s enjoy some gratuitous dogs photos shall we?

Goldie ponders deep doggie thoughts from her chair. And yes, again, the dog.has.a.chair. I never thought I’d be one of those people that would give up a perfectly good chair in the living room for a dog. But then again, I never thought I’d be one of those people that would have a blog, and then blog about her dogs. Guess I’ll just have to step back and enjoy my dog person weirdness.

I don’t think Annie minds though. She just wants more banana pudding.

 

Pretty in Pink

Since apparently I have taken to posting once a week, and that once a week happens to fall on what I call Friday Eve which also happens to be Thrifting Thursday around these parts, I’ve decided to give Thrifting Thursday a break for a little while. It’s not going away forever, heck, you might even see it next week, but I want this blog to be more than just about thrifted goodness. Yeah, I could post more than once a week, and I always plan to, but then life and work come into the mix. Honestly, after staring at a computer all day at my 9-5 ,the last thing I want to do is look at another screen once I get home. Okay, I do look at the TV and that’s considered a screen, but you catch my drift.

So this week, let’s take a look at what’s going on in the backyard. Particularly, the magic that’s happening with my apricot tree.

Here she is mid-March, in all her pink blossom goodness.

A little over watering has caused some shoots at the very top, I’m thinking they should probably be trimmed at some point. But for now they make for a dramatic shot reaching towards the sky.

Here she is in early April, just about ready to show her summer green.

I haven’t gotten out there to take a picture of her this month, but she’s in her full summer greens now.

Which means the dogs can wrestle under the tree without worry of knocking off any pretty in pink blossoms.

Thrifting Thursday: Thrifting with the Royals

Can everyone say Friday-Eve? Yeah, that’s what I call Thursday’s now, makes them that much more jovial dontcha think? Well, to celebrate the wonderfull-ness that is Friday Eve, I like to partake in what I call Thrifting Thursday. A time when I stop and reflect on all things gloriously thrifted. It’s been a very long time since I’ve gotten to celebrate my Friday Eve in such a manner, so I might be a little rusty. But here goes….

This week I’ll be showing you all the great and marvelous thrifty goodness I’ve spotted while out and about.

If only I could sew. I loved this Pfaff sewing machine. The chair went under the table and looked like a drawer when stowed away.                        It was adorable.

Apparently, this guy was purchased in June of 1962. I love it when these items come with a known story. Ya know, instead of making one up to fill in the gaps.

Then I found this giant. I loved the chunky wood and the sturdy-ness. Not so much the dark wood, but that can always be changed.

If you don’t believe me about the chunky-ness, here’s a shot of the lower door. That’s at least 3 inches thick.

And the little drawers were just as chunky. Let’s just say if this cabinet were a woman, she’d be wearing curvy fit jeans.

Speaking of curvy, I’m such a sucker for chests with curvy lines. Wait, that came out wrong. I think you know what I mean.

It was all I could do to leave this curvy beauty, but she was a bit wibbly wobbly (timey wimey, Doctor Who much?) and I didn’t have the time to rid of her of her wibble.  So, she was left to be adopted by someone else who had the time for her, doesn’t every girl deserve that?

Oh, have I mentioned how much I love old electronics. I don’t necessarily want to bring them home, but I do enjoy a quick sniff around to see what they’re all about.

This one had me with all those cool knobs, well the two knobs. There aren’t many things you can buy these days that have knobs on them.

I’m not a coffee drinker, but I liked the way this coffee grinder looked. Maybe it’s the history and the untold story that intrigued me.

And I found these awesome thrones! I have no idea what I would have done with them, but darn it they’re thrones and everyone knows a queen needs a throne for her castle.

Thrifting Thursday: Catching up with the Care Bears

My records indicate I’ve missed a couple of Thrifting Thursdays, so one is due. But today, I really don’t feel like doing a thrift heavy post. There’s been so much randomness happening lately, I’ve been having trouble keeping my jumbled mind on one topic. So how about a random post mixing in just a little thrift for sweetness?

A couple Tuesday’s ago (April 2nd) I turned 20+12, for those of you without a calculator handy, that’s 32. That means, I have been alive for 280,506 hours,  11,687 days, 1,669 weeks, 384 months, and 32 years, give or take a few nanoseconds.  That’s a lot of time to waste on Pinterest, blogging, photographing my beloved canines, and in general piddling around this little world of mine. And I wouldn’t give up any of my 1.01e+18 nanoseconds on this earth for another life.( Thank you Google for doing the math!)

So here’s what’s been happening in my little life as of late….

Painting walls, more on that later. That one red wall in my kitchen was driving me nuts, now I have one wall painted one of these two colors.

Reorganizing, our storage room or what others may call a spare room had to get cleaned out and fast for a special guest (Hi Mom!). Isn’t it crazy how much chaos occurs before the order can begin? And yes, that’s a twin mattress in my living room, blocking my TV. What better motivation to get things done than by blocking ones television.

Things haven’t been all chaos in the month since I last blogged. There’s been some time spent on the couch. Relaxing.

Eating some popcorn.

Hammin’ it up.

Enjoying the company of pancake man.

Having a drink because, everyone knows that puddle water tastes the best after leaping tall buildings.

I still can’t believe Easter has come and gone. Before we know it, we’ll be celebrating our mother’s and then our father’s, and then it’ll be time to pull out the red, white, and blue.

But in the meantime, there’s the memory of Easter and the enjoyment of the here and now. Which as it happens, it’s still spring time! Personally, my favorite season.

For Easter, I had the great pleasure of hosting my Mom for dinner. I pulled out all the pastel glassware I could find. Which happened to be the glasses, but the plates were white. That counts as pastel. Sorta..

She brought with her some beautiful tulips. My favorite flower.

A few days after Easter, I enjoyed my first glass of tea as a 32 year old from the most mature glass in the cupboard. Who says you have to stop drinking your favorite beverage from Care Bear glasses once your 30′s come along?

Not I, which is probably why I’m starting a little collection.

So, I’ve got Cheer Bear (my personal fave) Tenderheart and Grumpy Bear.

Originally offered by Pizza Hut in 1983 or ’84.

The entire set included six of the most popular Care Bears, the three that I’m missing, Funshine Bear, Good Luck Bear and Friend Bear. Plus, the three that I currently use whenever they are clean, Cheer Bear, Tenderheart, and Grumpy Bear.

These glasses bring back so many childhood memories….aww…yes…the glorious ’80′s. The decade of my childhood. It went by so fast.

Better remember not to blink now, or I’ll open my eyes and be in my 40′s!

And on that note, I bid you adieu!

Spring has Sprung

Happy Spring everyone!!  As most of you know, today is the first day of spring, and honestly I couldn’t be happier about it. I am certainly not a winter girl, the cold short days really take their toll on me. But now that the days are getting longer, warmer and the opportunities to get out and play in the sunshine are more abundant, I can shake those winter blues like Annie shakes off the dead winter grass from her back. It’s quite exhilarating, shaking the winter blues that is, not shaking grass off my back.

With spring upon us, I’ve been enjoying a few spring-y touches around the house.

Daffodils, they’re so sunny and bright, they almost smile.

They make me smile right back at them. I’ve also discovered glitter covered eggs from the dollar store.

They maybe a little tacky, but at least my table looks Easter-y.

Recently, I’ve been seeing my sweet momma a lot, and finally got to give her the Valentine’s gift I’d stitched up for her.

The scarf came out huge, apparently I have gauge issues.

But sweet momma tried it on, anyways. Under Goldie-dogs watchful gaze, of course.

Oh, and spring not only brings with it daffodils to my table and finally a grass free dog, but also new birds to my yard!

A male Northern Flicker Woodpecker.

Guess the bugs living in between the stepping stones didn’t stand a chance. I couldn’t get a shot of him flying, so I borrowed a shot taken by Laura Meyers, who obviously has a quicker shutter finger than I do.

Via

Doesn’t this guy have a gorgeous undercarriage? The one munching on bugs in my backyard had more of an orange-y undercarriage than the one pictured above. But he still took my breath away. It’s not too often we get birds other than pigeons and doves hanging out back there.

Now that spring has sprung and the sun is shining brightly, I’ll be taking my leave out of doors. (And maybe cut back on my BBC viewing.)

Happy Spring Everyone!