Autumn's Patchwork Quilt

As the leaves begin to change, I can see the beauty of the season from my kitchen bar stools.

And it's beautiful.

Table Topics Tuesday: Shopping with abandon

if you could win unlimited shopping from one store, which one would it be?

Unlimited. The magic word. Clothes, shoes, accessories - oh my! Or wait should I buy things for the house? New furniture, new bedding and such.

I could pick Target and get both. Aisles and aisles of stuff. Unlimited stuff. It would be what dreams are made of.

But...

It is the beginning of our outdoor season and I have a new deck to accessorize. Lounge chairs, planters, maybe a deck box and a new grill. A few hanging baskets and outdoor lighting to prettify it all up.

Maybe a small garden. Or a big one. New kitchen cabinets or hardwood throughout. A spa tub or custom shower with multiple sprays. Paint, hardware, granite - all shiny & new.

Lowes it is! They can deliver my dream house and outdoor bliss. I can already picture it. My own personal paradise.

Now it's your turn:
if you could win unlimited shopping from one store, which one would it be?

Size DOES matter

At least it does when it comes to decks & that's why we choose to go with a 20'x24' on the back of the house.

We could have gone a little bigger, but I didn't want people to be able to look into my bathroom window. Paranoid much?!

Before:




During:





After:








Big props to our deck guy & S! They made it through this project only sacrificing a thumb. And it was well worth it in my opinion.

My favorite things

A few of my favorite things from this past week:

The teen participating in Homecoming week & dressing up with friends as Kiss.*


Taking a few quick pictures of the kids before the homecoming dance since they were running late.


Being able to walk around my finished deck.


Seeing this gobble-gobble sitting in the corner.


Having these ladies over for a Sunday/Birthday dinner.



*Notice the absence of "Gene Simmons"? The kid that was supposed to the fourth backed out. The guys still had a blast & I still got embarrassing pictures to pass around when he least expects it.

Mission Accomplished

Sorta.

Before:





After:



You'll notice that the painters tape is still up because I need to give them a second coat, but already the difference is AMAZING.

Although I did briefly consider purple & neon green as suggested, I took the advice of many of you and went with black because, and I quote, "black is classy".

I concur.

**Please ignore the empty flower bed; I'm in the midst of cleaning it out and planting new mums for fall & bulbs for spring.

"Trim the Fat" Tuesday (+ a ?)

I took a little break from TTFT last week since I was on vacation. I'm happy to say that I did consume lots of water (and sweet tea but that's another topic) & I got PLENTY of exercise. BUT...yes, there's a BUT...I didn't take my vitamins. Heck, I barely remembered to take my Yaz everyday.

Out of sight, out of mind. ~sigh~

Since I've been back, I'm still drinking water & taking my vitamins again. I'm not that happy about it, but I'm doing it.

My vitamins suck ass.

Initially I was taking a large, horse-sized multivitamin that nearly choked me every morning so I asked for recommendations. Someone suggested the chewable variety so I ran to CVS and picked up TWO bottles. (Buy one get one free- I couldn't pass that up!)

It's like chewing a large, horse-sized piece of "orange" flavored chalk. It is disgusting & I dread chewing them. I've even considered just swallowing them without chewing but I don't know how that would work once it's in my gut.

So here are my goals for the next week:

1. Drink 4 glasses of water a day.
2. Buy NEW vitamins.
3. Take vitamins everyday.
4. Do 20 minutes of exercise 3-4 days a week.

You'll notice I wasn't specific about the type of exercise. Instead of limiting myself to videos, I want to be able to count lots of walking or working outside in the yard. So basically my goal is just to get off my bootay.

So how did you do this week?

If you are participating in "TTFT" don't forget to link up at Angie's place!
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Before you leave me, I need a little advice.

It's time to paint my shutters...



...but I can't decide what color. HELP!

...Could You Be My Neighbor?

A sign similar to this went up in the front yard of the house next door to us a couple weeks ago.

It does not excite me.

I'm not good with change.

I liked very much that my old neighbor kept to themselves. In fact, I'm not even sure who lived there. It was rumored that it was an older lady but I swear to you that I never saw anyone coming or going from that house.

Now we are anxiously waiting to see who our new neighbors will be. And we pray that whoever it is, they don't mess up the very essence of our street.

I say that because we have been burned in the past.

This is our second home. Our first house was in the city and located off of a business main road. It was suitable for what we needed at the time, but it was truly a starter house. We always knew that it wouldn't be forever; however our neighbors made it pretty nice.

On one side there was a retired RN, that had survived breast cancer and now devoted all her time to gardening. Her backyard was full of roses...beautiful roses that ranged the spectrum of the rainbow. Evelyn took great pride in her yard and it showed.

A family with 3 boys occupied the home on the other side. They were fairly nice, and we seemed to get along well. SS and one of their boys became friendly when they played on the same baseball team one summer. My lil sis befriended the older boy *ahem* and my husband became pals with the Dad.

Keep in mind that we lived in the city, so the houses were closely situated having only a few feet of yard that kept us divided. It was a blessing that our neighbors were good people, and we took that for granted.

After about 4 years of "comfort", the neighborhood began to change. People a few houses down moved and rented their house out. Then Evelyn passed away. And eventually the family next door fell on hard times and had to move.

The new neighbors were nothing like the old. They didn't care about Evelyn's roses, and barely managed to keep their grass cut. Which is more than I can say for the people on the other side. Sometimes their grass would be over a foot high before they would cut it. That alone drove S crazy.

Along with the changes, we started to outgrow our starter house. Plus, we wanted to put a little distance between us & the neighbors. All of a sudden those few feet of grass seemed pretty claustrophobic. The city looked grimy and our street had forever changed.

So we packed it up and moved to the country. Our street now is a very quiet, cul-de-sac with only a handful of houses, each one having an acre or more.

We got our breathing room and then some.


We've been there for 4 years and it's been dang near close to perfect. Even though there are a few cosmetic things I'd still like to change, it's exactly what we wanted.

And our neighbors...for the most part they keep to themselves, often waving as we pass. Sometimes S talks to the neighbor to the right. When a tree fell down on our street and blocked the road, one of our neighbors came out to help remove it. After we first moved and one of my cats wandered off, another neighbor called to let me know.

We've already got one set of new neighbors. This past summer a new family moved in right across the street from us. Imagine our surprise when we realized their daughter had been in the marching band the year before. Occasionally those particular neighbors will ring our bell (sometimes at weird times) but overall they keep to themselves too.

Now I just hope that the new neighbors appreciate our quiet neighborhood, and do their part to keep it that way.

And if they can't, please God let them be good looking, down-to-Earth people who keep a well groomed yard, ride Harleys and like a good margarita on the weekends.

I'm just sayin'...