horses.

i have been keeping an eye on ann wood for quite awhile now. i fell in love with her little birds after hearing about her on d*s (where else?) and i check her blog regularly to see what wonderful things she is up to. from birds and vintage wedding dresses to ships and cardboard castles, she always amazes me with what she comes up with (using found/old/recycled materials nonetheless). i've seen her 100 horses before, but was delightfully reminded of it today because she shares this project on d*s, and includes a template for 3 different horses with instructions on constructing them. i think this is a wonderful creative outlet that would only take a few minutes a day to complete and the possibilities are endless. the patterns could also be altered to create different animals, which would be fun as well. these horses would be a great, inexpensive way to decorate a child's room... and depending on their age, they could make them themselves! i know what i'll be spending some time on this week... and you should too! check out the instructions here...

the yard.

i know all of you are probably sick and tired of hearing me blather on about flowers and vegetables and the great outdoors... well, i'm sorry. you are just going to have to get used to it. that said, we actually did something to our yard this past weekend! this is one of the pretty begonias i got...

and this, my friends, is our little storage building in the backyard. i got some plastic pots and with a little help from the in-laws, screwed these puppies into the side of the building and planted tomatoes, parsley, rosemary and basil. mainly to keep the dog from chewing on the plants, but i like how it looks as well. we also planted some zucchini and squash in the actual ground...

this is most of the rest of the backyard. we do have a little patch of grass closer to the house (towards the right side of the photo and the storage building from above is on the left hand side). this is the patch of dirt that is driving me crazy. we think the previous owners had fake grass/turf in this section because we keep finding stakes pushed into the ground... anyway, we added some more dirt and sprinkled a little grass seed and have been watering it twice a day so that soon we may have some actual grass right there...

i have other plans for the backyard (and front yard, for that matter)... the problem is time and money. right now i would love to just have more time to do things... we have a patio set that is currently being refurbished (read: FIL is remaking the table top for us) and we have high hopes of owning a grill this summer as well. there are some trees we would like to cut down and replace with a snowball bush, a gardenia and some boxwood... i'm also hoping to plant some peonies and would LOVE to grow some hydrangea (though i'm thinking i would have a hard time keeping it alive) will post more progress photos as we continue along, these were just a few quick snapshots from the weekend...

love stamps.

just got back from the post office... had a few international orders that needed to go out... and saw these beautiful new love stamps in the glass case. had i not been in such a hurry, i might have grabbed a pack of these. but, i will definitely grab some soon. back in the day, i was an avid stamp collector (technically, i still am i guess, since i still have all those old stamps...) and this makes me want to place these in a pretty frame and call it art. you can also purchase here.

my kind of math.

ahhh, this site makes me laugh. i could spend hours clicking through and learning/reminding myself of these 'formulas'. ..and this phrase hits a little too close to home. been thinking lately about all the classes i shoulda took in college... all the different things i coulda done differently with paperlust... and what i woulda been doing if i had not had books to work on lately :) ahh, well, you win some you lose some...

books. and a new camera...

a few books that i just completed... don't you love the texture on that black book? and i am having way too much fun taking photos of my books with my new fabulous camera! i cannot wait for a little free time to go experiment some more... and learn how to use all the fancy settings.

old photos.

i could spend hours looking through old photographs. the last time we were up to see the folks (amarillo, not that far away) my mom and i started going through a box of old pictures and i brought some back with me to scan in and enjoy! i plan on getting these printed and framing them. we have waaay too many photos of ourselves in our house... need some others :) the photo above is actually of my mom...

this is my mom's side. that's her (the youngest), my aunt sue, my uncle charles and my uncle fred. poor little pony...

another one of my mom's side (that's what most of these are). same folks from the pic before, but this one also includes my grandmother margarete and my grandad henry.

this one is my favorite. it's of my memom (dad's mom) when she was little. so many people think that this is a photo of a young me that's been made to look old... but nope!

i guess i really should have posted these on mother's day... but it seems like i'm always a day late and a dollar short... anyway! can't wait to get some of these framed and in our home. gotta love the scanner...

belated books.

a few books that were done a little while ago... i seem to have misplaced some other belated book photos as well... should have some more posted soon! too much going on...

graduation!

yay! doug is officially an engineer! (and yes, i did his graduation announcements...)

this was a cute little toy that danced/played the chicken dance and graduation song...

doug got an xbox 360 for his graduation gift, and my 

friend lachelle made this awesome cake as a surprise! 

it looked great and tasted even better...

thanks to everyone for coming to hang out with us on saturday,

we had lots of fun!!!

on the up and up.

i would imagine this is how doug is feeling right about now. he got his final grades back yesterday and is now an official engineer! graduation is saturday, but we are not attending... instead we will be having a party in his honor (we thought that our time would be better spent celebrating outdoors instead of inside with tons of people we don't know)! friends and family are starting to arrive from out of town and we couldn't be more excited. graduation is always a little startling it seems... really, i don't have to go to school anymore? but it will be a fun and challenging new chapter in our life.

to those we'll be seeing this weekend - have a safe trip and we can't wait to see you saturday! everyone else have a wonderful mother's day weekend...

beautiful print from kristinenoel

more diy.

i promise i will try my very best to limit my garden posting after this... but i just couldn't resist sharing these great diy ideas (and beautiful photos) from a new favorite website: diyideas.com.

this website has tons of great ideas and tells you how to put it all together! seriously considering subscribing to the magazine... but it seems like every mag i subscribe to goes under... is it me?

the pots above would be great to fill with herbs and attach to the side of our storage building...

and i have already considered fencing off an area for the garden so that our dog won't think we've created a personal salad bar for him... this would be a nice pop of color...

i have several vegetable/fruit cans saved from cooking that i just couldn't bear to toss, thinking surely i could use them for something. well, now i know what i'm going to use them for!

these are a little more advanced than what i will probably be able to do myself, but i would love to create a little pond out of an old tub!

and this little shelter is to die for... i've dreamt of building a pergola to stand on the concrete block of what used to hold the little metal storage shed. though with our west texas winds, i don't know that attaching fabric of any kind would be very smart...

and of course, didn't really get to work in the yard much this weekend... (sigh) maybe soon!