All that's left of the Christmas tree

The Wisteria Outlet is the absolute JAM!

I should mention that this is the most I have ever blogged! I think it's directly related to the fact that my class is over and my clients are few and far between right now!

Back to it, shall we?

My mother was headed to the Wisteria Outlet and asked if I had any requests. Yes. Two of these, please:

No Go.


A few minutes later she texted me this:

I had been eyeballing these Medallion Iron Arm Chair for a long, long time. Then they disappeared. This is typical for me. I watch and watch things, and then they disappear.
I think that is the Libra part of me.


Well, low and behold four of these fabulous chairs popped up! Regularly priced $299. At the outlet $179...After a little haggling...$74!!! SEVENTY FOUR DOLLARS, people! Granted there is a little rust on the back, but I can fix that!

I get ridiculously giddy over good deals! This is no exception!

These are going to look great around the (round) table that I have yet to find! :)

A new house

In my dreams, of course.

Santa did not deliver my extra bathroom/closet/office space. Bad Santa. I'm moving on to bigger and better things dreams.

I know that it will be extremely hard to leave the house we are in now. We have put a lot of sweat into this little place and I think it looks pretty good.

But, if we were to ever build, these are some styles I'm liking right now. Today. Highly likely things will change in 6 months.

Southern Living's Sandy Hook Cottage

I really like the floor plan. Love the porches. The only thing that is missing is a bedroom downstairs. We are dreaming, right?

If you notice the two front rooms separated by the vestibule. I picture it looking something like this:

And in the back, the kitchen and family room...

We can't forget about the back porch! 

This is one of my favorites from all of my pinterest boards...

One single snap shot from christmas

Christmas has come and gone. What a busy 48 hours! Holy cow. I only got one picture. The cookbook was actually intended for Jason's sister, but he got it instead. SOL, Erin. We've got your veggie book. :)

My goal is to have all the Christmas stuff in the attic by January 3rd, just before my next class starts. 

dish towel sweat shop

I have been really burning up my sewing machine. 

What you see here, multiple it by a million.

Just about everyone I know will be receiving monogrammed dish towels.

SURPRISE!

Don't be fooled. I did NOT make the actual towels. 

Those are from the TJ Maxx holy land.

I have had the sewing/monogramming machine for nearly a year and 

have used it more in the past 10 days than I have all year long. 

Lots of learning this week. :)

Myrtus Communis: Week 1

This week we had our front beds reworked overhauled gutted. We had everything ripped out. I wanted to replace the shrubs with a plant my mom has. She actually gave me the same plant a few years ago and to her surprise, I was able to keep it alive until this summer. Sadly, I forgot to move it out of the blazing heat/sun while we were gone to the beach. So now its dead. Boo.

She bought them (we think) in Brenham, Independence, or Roundtop, but we can't find them here. It didn't help that we didn't know what they were.

I took a bunch from her plant to Akin's, and within a few minutes the girls were making bets as to what it was. Before long they concluded that it was in fact MYRTLE! And they didn't have any.

They dipped the stems in some hormones? and sent two home with me. I am to keep them moist (her word not mine), and hope they start to grow.

Here we are at week 1:

Shop with Docs

We got word Friday afternoon that volunteers were needed as personal shoppers for the following morning.  A group of doctors donated money to the Lighthouse kids (50 children to be exact), and we were to help them shop. 

It was real sweet, the kids had no idea they were going to target, and had no idea they were going to be given $350 each to spend. 

shreveporttimes

There were some guidelines: $125 was to be spent on clothes and necessities, $125 on toys and $70 on a gift(s) for people in their family. 

I was excited to be a part of this! Sometimes I get a little teary about things like this--I'm a cryer. I just knew I was going to boo-hoo the whole time, which I did NOT.  Probably because the kid I was paired with continued to tell me how "bored" he was, and how he "wanted to go HOME!" I tried every angle to get him involved and make the day special, but he just wasn't having it. He was just a little turd. Such a bummer.

Jason on the other hand, had the cutest, roundest, funniest, most appreciative little boy EVER. They had so much fun together. 

Meet Darrel:

shreveporttimes

This kid was loads of fun. He told Jason he wanted to go to the clothes department first. HA. Not Jason's favorite department. Luckily, my mother showed up and helped fit both of our little boys with new threads. :) She was great! She just showed up out of no where and we were so thankful for her help!

Staying within the budget was up to us. They gave us a little notepad and pen and we just had to wing it. I ended up forking over an extra 40 bones for my kiddo, but Jason did really well. He came in under budget. Check out his note taking skills:

Towards the end, we were in the men's underwear department looking for my kids dad a gift (slippers, scarf--not underwear), when Jason's kid pops up out of the clothing rack waiving around some men's Superman bikini underwear, yelling "oooo oooo my daddy say he neeeed these! he want 'em reaaal baaad!" I'm talking blue underwear, with red trim, and the superman emblem on the crotch. The real deal, y'all! At one point he was holding a pink wallet for his 'mommaaa' under his arm and waving the superman underwear around. Funniest sight ever.  Unfortunately, Jason didn't feel they had room in their budget for them. 

Cut to the check out line. Who comes up $15 under budget? DARREL. And what does Darrel want to do with that extra $15? HE WANTS TO BUY HIS DADDY SOME SUPERMAN UNDERWEAR! The funniest thing ever! Greatest kid ever. 

It was a real fun morning. I think I got teary once. Okay twice. Once at the beginning when they got there and were told--they were so excited. The second was at the end. There was this sweet kid who had one bag and one box--as opposed to the other kids around him who had multiple bags and bikes and scooters and other ridiculous loot.  

He was soooo proud of his box. 

He picked out a Christmas tree. I'm telling you I nearly lost it. Ohmygosh. I mean really. Of all the other junk he could have gotten--he gets a freaking Christmas tree! So sweet. So sad. So happy. So proud.  I don't know. I just lost it. I think about how freaking excited I get around Thanksgiving, knowing I'm getting a tree...I have never ever, ever known a Christmas without a Christmas tree. 

Such an awesome way to celebrate the holiday season! 

Eff tha Po-lease.

I'm gangsta. No, not really.

Okay, so I  have relatively strong opinions about some of the shreveport coppers. I think they are idiots. No need to rush into defensive mode. I said some.
I have been taking 'data' on interesting/questionable things I see cops do when I'm out and about.
Today was a little different.

There is an intersection in Shreveport that is in serious need of a camera. People are shameless about running this light. Maybe they think they can beat the orange, but fail. Big time. So I was headed North on Line when I spotted a five-oh blow through the light. I was hot. (I think the douche who cut me off moments before triggered my *rage.) I was so hot that I followed the cop. I decided that I would say something to him if we got stopped next to each other at the next light. RED. So I roll down my window and he does the same.

Me: I am not trying to be accusatory BUUUT...I have seen some serious accidents at the intersection of Line and Pierremont due to people running the stop light. And I actually just saw you run it.

Ahole police: Ma'am, I DID NOT RUN THAT LIGHT.

ME: Okay, maybe you didn't notice ;) but I saw ya, and it happens. It would be awesome if we got some cameras, or police presence. Its so dan---

Ahole cop: MA'AM. I. DID. NOT. RUN. THE LIGHT.

ME: Okay, all I wanted to--

Ahole cop: I'M GONNA TELL YOU AGAIN. I DID NOT RUN THE LIGHT. THE TIMING MUST BE OFF (bullshit), BECAUSE I WOULD NEVER RUN A LIGHT.

It's not a case of bad timing. I have been watching that light forever. And even if it was, the city would be stupid to have not noticed or fixed it.

Anyways, our light turned green and I managed to get in a 'its dangerous--don't run it.' And turned on the first street I could. My inspection sticker is way out of date and I'm pretty sure I didn't have my seat belt on.

I can GUARANTEE that had there been a camera on that light, it would have proven he ran it. I have seen a gazillion regular ole folks and shreveport's finest police officers run that light. Hey, I'm guilty too. At one point in time, I thought it was a good idea to do sixty mph between fern and fairfield just to avoid red lights. Not any more. :)

Fiery decor

I lit a few candles on the mantle  tonight. I was very careful to move the garland and the lighted berry garland away from each candle. Apparently not too careful.

Jason was in the kitchen and I was straightening up, I walked into the dining room and could see HUGE flames exploding on the mantle in the living room. Okay, maybe not HUGE, but six inches high. Enough for me to scream a good ole HOLY shit! 

The crazy thing is that the lighted berry garland still lights up! I loved those berry's--they came from the late great Smith and Hawken. Irreplaceable. Ah well, at least our house didn't burn down! 

'Tis the Season...

Oh, it is my favorite time of year! I love gearing up for Christmas. However, its been a little spotty this year. The class I am taking is pretty demanding so I have been pulling out and putting up Christmas decor during breaks from work and homework. Needless to say, it looks like a tornado is hovering over our living room.

Jason and I got our tree the day after Thanksgiving, like we do every year. With his eyes glued to the game on TV, he contributed by hanging holding the lights.

Ollie, my helper. 

Ellie 

We started hanging the lights outside. Not quite finished.