Trip To Huntsville, TX

Several months ago I reconnected with a long time family friend Melissa via FACEBOOK. I JUST LOVE FACEBOOK! Soon we were visiting the brief distance from Houston to Huntsville, TX (about 50 miles) and catching up as though the 25 years we missed out on didn't exist.

Melissa is a true entrepreneur and is just so fun. Her bubbly enthusiasm for life is contagious. She has a beautiful old home she painstakingly renovated and I was lucky enough to visit overnight. Among Melissa's many activities are holding a City Council Seat, landlord to multiple properties in a college community, caterer, a family/relationship counselor practice, travel the globe..AND she has a big heart for the furry critters (SPCA).
I was invited to come to her SPCA fund raiser and we had a ball ! Great food, silent auction, wine tasting and karaoke. Those small town folk really know how to throw a great party! It was supposed to last from 7-9 p.m., but the real party-er's stayed until 2:00 a.m. and it was the HIT fundraiser of the year! Above is the pretty bedroom I had the pleasure of staying in.
Aren't the pink, green, and black colors used just perfectly in this cozy little reading corner?

Here's a little corner decorated just so perfectly !

The bathroom was just a gorgeous. For an old house this was the largest bathroom EVER! The pretty white and black tile set the tone and the green and rose theme was carried throughout.

A built in niche is a great place to host all sorts of pretties! And did I mention Melissa major in Home Economics in College and can sew ANY kind of curtain, pillow, etc that you could dream up!?!? Don't the striped curtains with the fringe balls look sweet?

Check out the VERY COOL tile floor in this view of the bath.

And since we were raising money for animals I couldn't help but include these pictures of baby horses and their family. As you may know, Huntsville, TX has several prisons in and around the city. Many of them raise agriculture to feed the prisoners and as a source of income. One prison raises horses and I always love to drive by. It's such a pretty, picturesque scene.

This is the resident cat....wet from a morning rain and overlooking the back yard where the previous evenings SPCA soiree was held. I think she's still tired from staying up until the wee hours of the night...what do you think?

And finally, this is my beautiful, sweet, entertaining and lifelong friend, Melissa. The rest of her house is JUST as gorgeous and meticulously decorated as the sweet guest bedroom I stayed in. Hopefully, I visit again soon and can give you a tour of the rest of the house!

I'm Back to Blogging....FINALLY!

Hello friends....I'm so glad to be back to blogging. My computer had a virus and it's being "cleaned" up now. And I'm SO proud of myself...I figured out how to connect my laptop to my cable for Internet service. So THAT allowed me to finally download my camera so I could begin to blog again. Here is a little of what I've been up to........
My friend Vicki and I traveled to Mena, Arkansas on Mother's Day Weekend! It's about a 7 hour drive from Houston but we enjoyed the sites and each other's company and the drive flew by! Here's a peaceful, bucolic scene of pretty cows on a hillside, just as we are arriving in Arkansas.

One of our first adventures out was to the local Wal-Mart and just LOOK what kind of specialized ice cream they have. And people say TEXAN'S are proud of Texas....how about those Arkansas Razorbacks!?!?!? They have special ice cream!

Downtown Mena is small but full of history and beautiful buildings. While cruising "antique store row" we spotted the old train depot. Parked by the depot was an OLD police car. Isn't it cool?

I've never seen so many cute houses in a few square miles than in Mena. If you've followed my blog for long you know I have an affinity for DOORS and WINDOWS! I thought this was was precious.

A few houses down was this beautiful home. I lOVE the wrap around porch and the round turret. As a little girl I dreamed of a house like this and the round room would be MY bedroom. If you look closely, you'll see the left window is boarded up. Mena had a REALLY bad tornado come through about a month and a half ago. The damage was devastating but the people of Mena had rallied and people are helping each other and they are rebuilding.

By the time my friend and I arrived, a lot of the debris had been picked up and removed from the street. Hundreds of huge, mature trees were lost and many homes flattened. The strong wind had stripped many of the trees to bare. I've grown up on the Gulf Coast all my life and am used to hurricane's but this just blew my mind. It was so RANDOM. Blocks would be destroyed and then one or two homes would be untouched.

Another view of the devastation.

On a brighter note, we stayed in the most beautiful Carriage House that had been relatively unscathed by the tornado. The main house and back yard had some damage but this little place stood strong. This is the bedroom in the upstairs of the house we stayed in.

This is the other end of the bedroom. A BIG plate glass window opened to a view of Mena.

Here's the cute little dining room!

And the cozy living room!

Here is a picture of the BIG house that was in front of our small, cozy carriage house. Isn't it beautiful!?