Bloom Where You Are Planted!

My little stick Angel Trumpet "tree" will just NOT give up, however, it has always looked frail. Over a year ago I rooted it from a neighbor's yard. Tiny green leaves would sprout and then I would be negligent about watering (and especially in South Texas...It's a wise idea to water things!). When Ike blew into town in mid-September, hurricane winds whipped this little tree with a vengeance. I thought it was a goner, for sure! A few weeks after Ike I noticed it had flower buds popping out!

My first thought after seeing those miracle blooms were......if THAT little tree can produce such beautiful flowers after all the "hardships" it's gone through; then I have NO excuse for not "blooming where I am planted", right? Life often isn't kind, or fair, or exactly what we planned but I believe we (and God) are in charge of our destiny, and it's up to us what we make of it. I found the below on Daily OM and couldn't have said it more eloquently....

"Having a vision for our future that differs from our current circumstances can be inspiring and exciting, but it can also keep us from fully committing to our present placement. We may become aware that this is happening when we notice our thoughts about the future distracting us from our participation in the moment. We may find upon searching our hearts that we are waiting for some future time or situation in order to self-actualize. This would be like a flower planted in North Dakota putting off blooming because it would prefer to do so in Illinois.

There are no guarantees in this life, so when we hold back we do so at the risk of never fully blossoming. This present moment always offers us the ground in which we can take root and open our hearts now. What this means is that we live fully, wherever we are, not hesitating because conditions are not perfect, or we might end up moving, or we haven’t found our life partner. This can be scary, because we might feel that we are giving up our cherished dreams if we do not agree to wait for them. But this notion that we have to hold back our life force now in order to find happiness later doesn’t really make sense. What might really be happening is that we are afraid to embrace this moment, and ourselves, just exactly as we are right now.”

That may be Pollyanna-ish, but that's how I roll and how I get by! Below is another Angel Trumpet tree in my yard. THIS is how they are supposed to look...but I'm proud of my little Charlie Brown Angel Trumpet and I have a feeling one of these days it will be just as big as the one below.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING YA'LL....AND DON'T FORGET TO BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED!

Reflections -- Photo Hunt

I just got turned onto another cool thing....Photo Hunt. This weeks theme was Reflections and I have a PERFECT reflection photo!

Joyce Linnea's Cute Blog @

http://moderatesuburbanchick.blogspot.com/

http://tnchick.com/ aka PHOTO HUNT

This is another photo from my Italy trip. It's in Florence...isn't it pretty!

Garage Sale Lamp Renovation

ONE MORE PROJECT COMPLETED--this is how it started!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In an earlier blog I posted a picture of a lamp I got at a garage sale for $10. It is very heavy/sturdy and I loved the lines of it. It had been a funky pea green and yellow. I apologize, I over-zealously painted it black before I took a picture of it in it's original state. I wasn't sure if the lamp shade was going to be salvagable but I think it will do for now. I ran a bead of glue along the edges and added the black trim.
Here's where the lamp "landed" in my house. I needed a bed side reading lamp and this one was just the right height. My "headboard" is three separate mirrors that I previously faux finished from chocolate brown to the black with silver highlights. What do you think?

PINK SATURDAY!!

OK....this is my first attempt at "tagging" and I hope I've gotten this correct. If not, forgive me! I've attached the "URL" of the blog I think I'm suppose to ....but if not....any advice is appreciated.



http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/

I'm not much of a PINK girl....I like the color....I'm just in a brighter color phase as you can see by all my previous blogs. However, I did find some pretty pink pictures in my travel pic folder. Check out these beautiful pics....

The first picture is from my Mission Trip to Honduras this summer. This was taken at a lake-side open air restaurant the locals frequented. These jars were on all the tables as condiments like we would have salt, pepper, and ketchup. It's pickled onion and cabbage.

This is in my FAVORITE place in Italy....it's a city called Vernazza (Cinque Terra/aka Five Lands). It's not as touristy as Portofino and even more picturesque. This pretty pink church is right on the water. This was the view from my hotel room....ahhhhh.......!

Here's a cute little PINK bakery in the same city of Vernazza, Italy.

and....a pretty pink sunset from may favorite city...you guessed it....VENAZZA! FYI...Vernazza is the city is responsible for creating the delicious dish we know as PESTO....YUMMY!

This is a grape arbor with beautiful pink/red leaves and pink begonias covering the parking lot at the hotel in a small town just outside of Florence. Florence is in sort of a valley and we could see the lights of Florence from our balcony.

This fun pink balloon sculpture was along with waterways in Venice.

The REST of the Room.....

This is a continuation of my previous blog. The game room/bar/guest room (I still don't know EXACTLY what to call the room since the ex-left and took the pool table...LOL!) has the music and Coca-Cola theme too. I continued the ceiling papering with the sheet music. I wanted a huge mirror to go behind the sink in the little kitchen area, but when I priced one it was out of my budget. I was shopping at Big Lot's one day (do ya'll have those where you live???) and found the 15" x 12" (or so) mirrors for $5 EACH. I snagged up all they had and then came home and "played" with the look. The frames were goldish color and didn't quite give me the look I wanted...so guess what I DID...yep, you're right, I PAINTED THEM. I just toned down the gold with a little platinum so it blended in more with the mirrors. The top colored dots are coasters I bought at Ikea. They are rubbery and fit in with the colorful theme of the room.

This is a faux fireplace I've hauled around to several houses. It's been a couple of different colors (imagine that!) but it's adds a lot of architectural detail to any boring room. I've had candles and mirrors inside to re-create a faux fire. This year I'm working on a new "fire". The base is a styrofoam sheet rescued for the box my computer was packed in. So I guess that's officially another trash to treasure (LOL!) I mosaic'd (obviously my favorite new thing) on mirror pieces from my gigantic stash of broken mirror peices (see earlier posts on Shed/Windows). The tubes are recyled from an architect friend who received them as packing tubes...and of course it's a challenge to me to think of ways to use them. My idea, which I haven't completed yet, is to drill many holes in the tubes, insert Christmas lights on a string into the tube so the light will shine through the little holes.. I'm still playing with whether to use red/yellow lights or just use clear lights--the colored ones might look more like fire. What do YA'LL think? I promise to work on that soon and then post it.

PS: The little color dots in the arch are just painted on but they match the colorfulness of the room, yeah????

Treasure to Treasure

This a treasure to treasure (no trash here). My father was a violinist (for his fun and creative time); and a Chemist at a large chemical company by day to pay the bills. He passed away 15 years ago but as a homage to his love of music (and mine) I have created many things with his books of music. One of those creations is in my detached game room/bar area/guest room that sits in my backyard, behind the garage. The low, slanted ceiling in the bath and wet bar have been "wallpapered" with the sheet music. Throughout the years at flea markets/garage sales I've collected some musical instruments I hang on the walls for decoration. Can you see the saxaphone over the toilet?

This view is from inside the bathroom looking out to bar area. You'll also notice that I LOVE Coca-Cola stuff. I also covered the inside of the bathroom door with the music and then painted a thick black strip down the middle. This served as a "matting" of sorts to highlight the Coca-Cola pictures I cut out of an old calendar and then decoupaged onto the door.

Trash to Treasure Lamp Post

This is TRULY a trash to treasure piece....and since I'm new to blogging and didn't know I needed to take pictures of my creations from beginning to end, you'll have to excuse me. However, now I'm "with the program" and when I start creating Trash to Treasure items I will be sure to take pictures of all the puzzle pieces.

This "lamp" I have on my back deck started out as a Bug Zapper (the top portion) and a column from my friends front porch (the bottom portion). The bug zapper was retrieved from my neighborhood Big Trash Boutique (aka Big Trash Day). My ex-husband thought I had lost my mind...and maybe that's one reason why he's the "EX", he just NEVER understood my need to create. hehehe.

I pulled the guts from the bug zapper and put a couple of strands of white Christmas lights. I painted to column, stuck the zapper up top and voila! A new source of light for the deck.

This is a view from further out in the yard to show what the total scene looks like. As you can see I have much to do in the back yard and need to come up with a clever way to hide the utility boxes which are very common in Houston. YUCK! The trick is that the utility men need to get to them to be able to read them and the big box is my breaker box. Wow....are you impressed that I KNEW where and what it was...I am. This single girl thing is still kind of new to me but I keep busy with crafts and this new thing called blogging.

Final Days for the Fall Scarecrow

My Mum's have seen better days (they originally were ablaze with beautiful sweet yellow flowers) and it's time to put Mr. Scarecrow away. So say goodbye......he's off to the shed this weekend!

Current Projects

I got this lamp at a garage sale a few weeks ago. I didn't get a true BEFORE picture but to describe it as a pukey pea green and gold ceramic would be an understatement. However, I was too quick with the ever present black spray paint so, live and learn. NEXT time I will get a before true pic.

Those that know me, can attest to the fact that I love to faux finish. SOMETIMES I leave things alone with just one paint color but, not this time. Check out the silver highlighting I did on this lamp to show all the interesting detail.

This is the other cool garage sale find.....it's in pretty good shape and my neighbor bought it and put it in my garage for me to "work" on. I'm hoping she'll forget about it and I'll eventually have it on MY porch!

This is my little shed project. These windows (and four more) were given to me by a neighbor who was replacing all their old windows! LUCKY ME! I painted them red to match my backyard decor and then mosaic'd them with broken mirror

pieces I got from my local window/mirror store.The windows are complete now AND the tree was removed. It was a big pecan tree that I had removed this past spring and I'm SURE glad I did. When IKE blew in September 12,

this tree probably would have fallen and landed on my house. I fussed when I had to pay several hundred dollars to get it removed, but in retrospect...I sure was glad I removed the tree when I did or I might be one of those families in town

with a BIG BLUE TARP on my house in place of a roof.

Here is the finished window and the pecan tree removed. I had a new stone patio put in this summer so there is a nice winding path to the little shed. Currently the shed is for storage but I would one day like to turn it into a storage shed/potting shed.

My cat, Riley

Riley's name was already decided upon before I found her in a neighbor's garage. I knew that my next cat would be named RILEY, because at MY house any cat there leads "the life of Riley".

On a spring evening, seven years ago, my neighbors were grilling shrimp and a sudden thunderstorm arose. We drug the barbeque pit into the garage to finish cooking, and didn't see a tiny platinum and white kitten sneaking in the garage hoping to get a taste of the shrimp. It wasn't until the next morning we heard a wee little meow coming from the garage. After further investigation we discovered this fiesty kitten stuck behind some boxes and she couldn't get out. I promptly adopted this beautiful cat...and gave her the name I'd been saving--RILEY. To this day she still has permanent laryngitis from crying all night, trying to get out of that garage. She doesn't really meow....she makes a noise that sounds like....MEEEEPS!!!!

Amsterdam Window Shopper

While traveling in Amsterdam last year

I ran across this window shopper....

doesn't the shopper look like an

elf from Santa's Workshop?

Lily's Christmas Photo

Isn't this just the sweetest, most
beautiful tuxedo cat! Her name
is Lily and she is my friend's
pride and joy. She's a petite little
thing but has a large personality.
Her favorite people food is
strawberry jam and
she LOVES to "talk".

Santa Carson

This is my sweet puppy Carson, last year when he was

only 6 months old. He BARELY fit into that

Santa Suit LAST year.....I'm SURE it

will be too small

this year.

Carson, my sweet White Schnauzer looks like

he is watching for the REAL Santa!

Chest of Many Colors

The little chest on the right wall has been in my family ever since I can remember and it's been a multitude of colors. Several years ago I stripped it and never did get around to painting it. I changed the hardware and that's how it sat until a few months ago, when I "got in the mood" to paint it. I painted it the red color I have on my kitchen and dining room walls. Once painted I put a very thin glaze of black paint over the entire surface and put it on heavier in cracks, crevises and edges. I think it turned out pretty good....what do YOU think?

Christmas In My "Hood"

This is a picture of my mantel in the dining room. It's a see through fireplace

that looks into the living room . I have a large colletion of Santa Claus' and now have started collecting snowmen. One reason, is they are just so darned cute, but I can also leave the snowmen out through the winter months.

I'm getting in the spirit of Christmas today! My plans include getting my stuff out of storage, looking to see what theme I'll go with this year and get at it. I always like to change things up. I'll use some old favorites and create some new things. Today is a beautiful, sunny, dry day with highs in the 60's...which is actually COLD for Houston. That maybe what's also pushing me towards Christmas decorating. I won't be home for Thanksgiving so my Halloween/Fall decorations have carried me through November.


A few years ago I used mostly green (not actually Christmas dark green) but the fun, funky almost lime green on my tree. However, those didn't show up as well as I had anticipated so today I'm going to look and see what I can do about changing them up some....hmmm....maybe red polka dots on a green ball. I also have a lot of Radko-esque ornaments that are very classic. I guess I see what way my creative wind blows when I start to look over my storage boxes.