Busy days!

We have been busy little bees lately!  After months of prayer, we finally sold the condo last month.  It was a bittersweet day for me, since the condostead, as I affectionately called her when I lived there, was my first home.  It was where I brought Tabbie Hoffman home as a one-pound orange fluff, where he learned about Mama's love and freedom and boundaries and where he taught me the same things.  It was where Larry and I first lived as a married couple.  It was where we brought Banjo home, too, where he turned from a scared, skinny little Banjo to a rambunctious bundle of pure joy and love.

So yeah, I was a little sad the day we signed the papers and let her go.  Lots of wonderful memories between those tiny walls!  But it was the right thing to do.  For us, for our little family and for the condo, too.  The guy who bought her is an investor and he's going to remodel her and "flip" her.  I pray that the person who buys her will find love, comfort and "home" there like we all did.

The first thing we did was GET OUT OF DEBT!  We paid off everything except our mortgage and whew!  That feels awesome.  Then we put a chunk into our savings account.

And then we went on a few shopping sprees!  We got a few things we'd been wanting for a while.  A new lens for my camera, a welder, some new shutters for the house...  Our biggest investment so far has been Larry's workshop.  We bought a steel building from H&H and Larry's been working so hard to get it just like he wants it.

Here are a few before and so far pictures.  This was the day after they delivered it.  Larry has added steps and a lattice skirt around the bottom now.

This weekend, he put up insulation and walls.  We had an electrician come out and wire it up and put in lights and electrical outlets.  It's really looking good!

He's going to build a work bench and put in cabinets and shelves.  Stay tuned for a big ALL DONE reveal!  We got an air conditioner for it and will get a little heater in the fall.  I'm so excited for Larry to have his own place to work!  He's so talented and makes such beautiful things for our home and for others that he deserves a nice place to plan and dream and work.

We got a couple of super comfy matching recliners, too. We have a hard time staying out of them!

Banjo has claimed his spot beside me while we watch TV.  

We welcomed a new family member, too!  Rosie!  She's an iRobot Roomba and we LOVE her.  She does such a great job for us.  She leaves "vacuum marks" on the carpet, too, and I LOVE that.  I love to see vacuum marks on the carpet.  Always have.  Call me crazy.  It makes me think the floor's cleaner.  Ha!  We are going to take up the living room carpet and put down some hardwood laminate and just have carpet in the bedrooms.  Rosie does so well going from carpet to tile and onto throw rugs and then back to carpet that I look forward to her being a part of our family for a long, long time.  She helps Mama a LOT!!  She's so much fun, too.  We've had lots of laughs.  I downloaded the iRobot app on my phone and I get updates when she's running.  If she gets stuck, I get a message.  She's only gotten badly stuck once, underneath the entertainment center.  The gap there is EXACTLY the same as her height so she got really stuck.  I had to move the entertainment center off her and she has some battle scars to show for it.  Little scratches on her top.  Oh well, if you don't get hurt, you ain't working!  And she works hard.  We love her.

The boys are still getting used to her, though.

Weekend ramblings

We went in opposite directions yesterday, Larry down to south Georgia to take care of some business and I went to Macon to a couple of estate sales with my friend, Debbie.  Larry checked out a sale in Albany that was all furniture (borrrrrring!) and then an antique store on the way home.

Deb and I had the best time!!  We even ran into a local celebrity at one sale and I got a gorgeous rug for our bedroom.  And at the other sale (a beautiful old home on Appleton Avenue, built in 1858, with the heart pine floors and ten-foot ceilings, sigh), I got a pretty red and cream tablecloth for fall, a red and white striped vase that looked like peppermint to me, a smaller throw rug and an aqua paisley throw blanket.

Larry brought home some pretties, too!  I'm slowly decorating the kitchen with chickens and roosters, since this stupid poopoo head county won't let me have chickens (yet) but when they dooooo, my girls are gonna be living in style!  This is what I have in mind.

The Chicken Ranch.  For Omelet, Poppy and Sunny Side Up.

It'll happen.  :)

Anyhow, Larry found some Jadeite Rooster stuff!!  A huge measuring cup/pitcher, a lidded canister and two shakers.  I love 'em!!  They look great in the kitchen window.  And they're perfect for the little Jadeite rooster we got in Florida last summer.

He found a pretty little Napco lady head vase for me, too!  I LOVE her little flippy hairdo!

I have wanted a See Rock City birdfeeder for soooooo long.  Not the birdhouse but a feeder.  Well, yesterday at the first sale Deb and I hit in Macon, this one was hanging in a tree in the backyard and I grabbed it.  The roof is metal, they don't make them like that anymore, so it's old.  It's rusty but, to me, that just gives it character.  It's had a life!  And it's perfect.  I hung it in a tree in our backyard and filled it with bird seed.  I love it.

Larry pulled up the sunflowers today.  I was sad.  But they were dead and needed to come up.  They only bloom once or twice per stalk and they sure did their job this summer!  They were gorgeous.

I've planted some red sunflowers next to the house and I hope they'll grow tall there by Thanksgiving.

Larry added some more new fence this weekend, too.

One lone little wildflower blooming between stones in the backyard.  I scattered wildflower seeds all over the place in the spring and they are finally blooming.  

And these pretty things are two poinsettias I had as decoration on the porch last Christmas!  I just planted them out by the fence and hoped for the best.  I'd never planted poinsettia before.  They seem to love it out there.  I'm excited for them to turn red and bloom.  With our weather, though, it'll probably be January or February. 

Chest-of-love

Larry's been working on refinishing the cutest little antique chest-of-drawers and we finally moved it into the house today!

It's solid wood, with six tiny drawers at the top and then the three large drawers.  Since we have replaced all of the drawer and cabinet knobs in the entire house with different ones (no two are alike!), he used our old kitchen knobs for this chest.  He stained it with dark walnut stain and it's just perfect!

Here's how it looked all sanded down:

 And here's how it looks today!

I found this little handmade yo-yo quilt runner somewhere along the Peaches to the Beaches route last month, I put it on the top and I think it looks beautiful there.
 

And someday when someone buys it at our estate sale, they'll find this written on the back.

Earth Day and a birthday!

I left Larry at home today on Earth Day cutting grass and replacing more of the fence and finishing up a chest-of-drawers that he's been working on and I spent some of the day down home in Montezuma for our Katie's third birthday party.  Katie loves Minnie Mouse so a Minnie party it was, complete with cake, cupcakes and pizza!  She got Minnie clothes and toys and Larry and I gave her a Minnie Mouse sofa!  She was so cute opening her stuff.  

I just love this picture of her when she saw Minnie on that little sofa.

Here she is tooting her birthday horn!

Clumsy me, I busted my camera while I was there today.  The strap came loose and I dropped my camera on the concrete step.  10 seconds earlier and it would have landed on the soft dirt and been all right.

Owwee.  Hopefully we can get it fixed.  I finished the birthday party taking pictures with it and they all turned out good so it still works, you just can't see the picture.  I probably won't forget hearing that craaaaackkk any time soon.  It sounded like my ankle felt when I broke it.  Owwee.

I came home and finally got my little garden planted.  I decided to try container gardening this year so I planted my 'maters and peppers in a pot and I planted zinnias in the middle.  In two other pots, I planted my lavender, sage and rosemary.

I still have flower seeds to plant --- wildflowers, zinnias, marigolds and mums and I even got a pack of catnip to plant in a pot for Tabbie Hoffman.

Maybe tomorrow... 

Busy July!

We've had a pretty busy few weeks!  It seems like the summer months are just flying by.  School starts back here next Friday!  That seems crazy.  I'm still enjoying my summer!  Well, I am when I'm some place that's air-conditioned!  We have had such a hot, hot summer.  My poor garden is struggling.  We're getting lots of tomatoes but the peppers are suffering in this heat.  Two bells and one jalapeno is all I've gotten off them.  And the banana peppers haven't even bloomed.  I try to keep everything watered and then we have the sprinkler system on four nights a week and it's still not enough.  It's just too hot.  

My sunflowers seem to love the heat, though!  They are so beautiful.

They are still just a'bloomin' away along the fence!

Speaking of the fence, we're getting a new one!  Larry started on it today.  I tried to talk him into waiting until October when it's much cooler to start it but he's going to replace it in sections and he did this section in an hour.  I kept him hydrated with ice cold lemonade!

I've always hated the one red board scattered all throughout the fence!  It's like they started painting it and then changed their minds.  Weird.  Anyway, we are going to have a brand new one and then we'll decide if we want to paint it or leave it as it is.

The past three weeks, we went to the movies and saw the new Tarzan movie, we battled a really bad case of food poisoning with Larry (we think it came from some boiled peanuts we bought at a roadside stand), we discovered a new store in town that sells nothing but mid-century modern vintage (our favorite!) furniture and things and we joined the worldwide phenomenon Pokemon Go craze!

I follow a mid-century modern Facebook page and I have been sooooo jealous of the vintage Viking bud vases so many members of that page find at estate sales out in California and New York and pretty much all over.  I have NEVER even seen one in the wild until we visited That Store on Watson.  The owner is a really nice fellow named Victor Dunigan and the things in his store are from his personal collection of over 30 years.  He has the coolest stuff!  And he has beaucoups of Viking vases!!!  I got this one when we were there.  I am so in love!!!  It is so lovely in person.  This picture doesn't even begin to do it justice.  Victor has some really cool ideas for his store.  Parties, contests (an Ugly Lamp Contest, which really sounds fun!) and creating your own terrariums.  He sells many different varieties of air plants, too (we got one!).  There is nothing even remotely like his store in this area and if you like vintage furniture and home decor as much as I do, I recommend you go check out Victor's store!  It's at 4088 Watson, Suite 100.  

We went to an estate sale yesterday and found this beautiful Turkish rug for $15!!  I didn't even try to haggle.  I was like, "Here!  Take my money!!"  It's beautiful.  You'd pay that (or more) anywhere else for a piece of Chinese crap.  No thanks.

Larry and I have had so much fun playing Pokemon together!  He got a Pikachu Friday and he helped me get mine yesterday.

I'm 2300 points away from Level 16 now and I've caught 56 Pokemon.  I am ADDICTED.  The best place to go play in Warner Robins is the Museum of Aviation next to the base and I hit it every day after work!  

It's crazy how this game just took off like it did and I just took to it like I did!  I joked on Facebook that when the first Pokemon craze hit in the late 90's, I felt like I was too old to play.  Ha!  Not too old now, though!  It's a lot of fun. 
 

The Peace Bench

Larry built a garden bench this weekend and it's so pretty, I don't want to put it in the garden!  I just love it.  

I didn't get any before pictures yesterday but here's one of him sanding it today.

And painting it...

And here's the finished product!  It's five feet wide, wide enough for me, him and Banjo or Tabbie, if he wants to.  Now I just gotta find us a cushion or some pillows and we'll be all set.

Weekend project!

Back in the winter, we made a list of things we wanted to get done around the house this spring and summer.  Repainting the picnic table and benches was one of them.  We did that yesterday and Larry even replaced the whole top of the table that had a couple of rotten spots so now we'll have it for years and years to come.

Being the counterculture folks that we are, we wanted something different from just a brown table and benches.  Larry had the idea of doing every piece a different color and I picked the colors.  I was going for beachy colors.  If you've ever been to our house, you know our "style" is eclectic.  We like vintage, we like the beach and we like stuff that reflects our hippie hearts.  My friend, Lisa, even told me Thursday that our house looked like it belonged at the beach!  

So for the picnic table and benches, I picked stone gray, seafoam green, cool blue, latte and cream.  I painted the benches and Larry painted the table.  And it's a good thing we painted the picnic table and benches before we painted the deck (that's another one on our list!).  I'm just sayin'.  :)

I think they turned out beautiful!!

I didn't plan for them to match our patio set but when I was painting the blue bench after the green one, it hit me.

Yay for three-day weekends and home projects!

Just bluetiful!

There's an old Southern tradition to paint your front porch ceiling blue, supposedly to chase away spirits and to keep wasps and bugs from nesting (supposedly, again, insects feel too high up when your porch ceiling is blue and won't nest there).  While I don't believe in haints (the only spirit in this house is the Holy Spirit!), we have had wasp nests and birds nesting on the porch.  

I just loved the idea of a blue ceiling and keeping close to my Southern roots and since we have this super nice front porch now, we decided to do it!

Larry painted it today and I think it turned out beautiful!!!  We used Valspar's Clear Blue Sky and it's as close to the color of the sky today as we could possibly get.  It's so pretty and bright and it makes me happy just to look at it.

 

(It's gonna be) A good year for the roses

There are three rose bushes out by our mailbox.  The yellow knock out rose was already here and blooming when we moved here, the other two, a red and a pink, I planted last spring.  This weekend was really too cool to plant my garden.  The soil temperature is right at 55 degrees so I figured I'd give it another week or two and mulch my roses instead.

Here's a before and after!

This pretty sunny yellow knockout rose blooms a beautiful lemon yellow and then in a day or so, the blooms fade to a lovely ivory cream color.  I just love her!

The red roses will be busting out any day now!

These are a beautiful peppermint pink and white.  

A little rose food and fertilizer and some fresh mulch should be all they need to have a blooming good summer!

Sunday Cookies!

Today I tried something I've never tried before.  I attempted to make Larry's Grandma Grace's springerle cookies.  Or "springlies" as she called them and he loved them.

A springerle is a type of German biscuit with embossed designs that you put on with a rolling pin made especially for them.

The rolling pin looks like this and I want one so bad.  They are beautiful!!  I don't want a new one either.  I want one that a little German lady used to make her family Christmas cookies with.  Nothing else will do.

But since I don't have one, I improvised and made Grandma Grace's springlies and we cut the dough out with our Christmas cookie cutters.  

Here's what you need!

4 eggs

4 cups confectioners sugar (1 pound)
4 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons ground anise (all I could find around here was anise seed so I poured the entire jar into my coffee bean grinder and ground them all up)

 

Mix together the cake flour and baking powder and set aside. 
In another bowl, whip eggs and sugar until the mixture is thick and light.
Stir in ground anise.
Add flour, mix well.
Roll into a ball and chill in the refrigerator for an hour.
Lightly dust your rolling space (ours was a sheet of wax paper) with flour, roll out the dough and cut your cookies.
Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. (This wasn't part of the recipe but the first batch stuck to the cookie sheet so I sprayed cooking spray on the cookie sheet for the rest of them.  Worked beautifully!)

They do look a little biscuit-y.  Best part?  Larry said they were just as he remembered! 

We cut a few bunny rabbits and ducks, too, 'cause we're counterculture like that.  :)  Oh!!  VERY important note here.  The recipe instructed to bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.  And my high-tech oven took that very seriously.  The first batch was a little browner than I liked.  The other batches baked for 15 minutes and they were perfect.  I guess you just have to know your oven.  Me and mine are getting there. 

So there you have it.  German Christmas cookies!  I hope I made Grandma Grace proud.

I also made two dozen snickerdoodles using this easy recipe.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Cream together the butter and 1 cup sugar.
Beat in egg and vanilla.
Combine flour and cream of tartar.
Add gradually to creamed mixture.
Combine cinnamon and 2 tablespoons sugar.
Roll into one-inch balls and roll in cinnamon/sugar mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. 

While I baked cookies, Larry worked on some Christmas presents he's making.

 And when all our work was done, we relaxed in the hot tub!  She's a beaut!!

We tried to enjoy ourselves.  You know, tough job and all that.  (I was terrified Larry was gonna drop his iPhone OMGGGG)