April 26, 2014

Easter At My House (or Better Late Than Never!)

Well, now that it's been a week since Easter, I thought it was time to share what little I did for Easter.   If you read my last post, you know that I'm fully involved with taking care of my 93 year old mama, plus running my own household, so there isn't much time for decorating.   I just don't have energy to put into getting stuff out and putting it up.   As you can see, my Easter decorations are still out...as of this writing!    Anyway, I wanted to show you what little bit I did get done.


I have several boxwood wreaths but the one on my front door is huge...I lucked out and found it at Steinmart last year for around $60!    So for Easter I added a pastel egg wreath and plopped one of my monograms in the center.


I tied the egg wreath on with some scrap green ribbon



The monogram is just being held on by pulling some of the eggs through the monogram letters.

In my dining room I took an old wood tray which had a bad water mark in the center and painted it with two shades of white/cream spray paint.   It gave the layered look I was after....then I sanded it back to the original wood in some places.







Then I used two bags of white Easter "grass" and an assortment of things I pulled from around the house.   The only thing new I bought was the white distressed lantern....on sale at Michael's for 50% off!   I always try and buy things like this when they are on sale or using a coupon because who wants to pay full price?! The "eggs" in the mini-cloche are from Wal Mart...a dozen for $1.97!  They are ready to be painted but I wanted to use them in their "pristine" state and I think they look pretty realistic.

On the sideboard I added a faux boxwood round ball to my tureen I found when we were in Fairhope back in February at TJ Maxx.   I got two of the large ones and one medium size one.


On the mantel in the den I used some white books, a favorite bunny and that's about all.   Everything else was already on the mantel so it was a very simple change.




I'm leaving for the beach on Wednesday with my sister...5 days of fun in the sun and I can't wait!  

I also wanted to mention that I'm having a lot of trouble posting so I'm not sure if it's my computer or Blogger...if some photos don't show up I'm doing to remove this post and try it again...hopefully after I hit "publish" it will show up correctly.


April 17, 2014

I'm Still Here...and Happy Easter!

Well, it's been a while since we got together here on the ol' blog so I wanted to pop in and let you all know why.    You may recall that my mom is 93 years old and I am her full time caregiver.    The last few months have been a little rough on her.   She had to have 5 teeth extracted and then we've been following up with other dental work on her remaining teeth.    I took her for a hearing test last week and we ordered hearing aids.    None of this is covered by insurance but thankfully we finally got her house sold last October (after 4 long years on the market) so that money is really coming in handy.    Suffice it to say that a lot of my time is taken up with seeing to her and her needs....a priority in my book.    Something has to go so the blog falls way down the line.

Today when I went to get her for her hair appointment, her arm was all bandaged up and she had a huge knot and bruises.   Come to find out, when she was being bathed this morning, she apparently slipped and fell.    She's sore and bruised and didn't feel worth a flip.   I was really upset I hadn't been called as I found out this happened around 6:00 a.m. this morning and when I got to her assisted living cottage at 11:00, no one had called me!   Well, they had called my home number but I was out running errands early today BUT they have my cell number and my husband's and trust me, when I got through with the on call nurse, they will be sure from now on to call every.single.number they have until they reach me.    Ridiculous!    When we got to the beauty shop, her hairdresser was out with an emergency so the person that did her hair...well, let me just say, when my mom left she was in tears.   I don't know if that person has ever fixed hair before....it was a total mess!     Hopefully, one of my hairdresser friends is going to do her hair next week.   It's always something, isn't it?    I know in light of all the disasters going on right now in the world, these are minor things...I totally get that.    But my goal is to have my mom as comfortable and happy as I can make her.  

On the home front, we are hosting Easter this year, as we always do.   I have a few things out, my dining room table decorated and my mantle and that's it.   Hopefully I can get some pictures of that and post them...but it may be AFTER Easter!   

My daughter dropped by one evening this week and she had the twins' Spring pictures.    I can't believe they are going to be 10 years old next month!   
 Here's a little collage I made...the first photo is them riding a train at the mall one year at Christmas (looks like Jackson is licking the window...yuck!) and how they look now....growing up way to fast for me!   Jackson told his mama this was his "fake" smile!    Taylor was upset about her hair....the drama is starting!    Ms. Taylor and I are now wearing the same size shoe (6) and she's excited that she is almost as tall as me (5'1")...she'll pass me soon I'm sure (just like her mama did).   Exciting times ahead!

 Recently my husband got himself a new phone so he is now in the 21st century.   He wanted to be able to text and get "on line".   The first two days he added all his contacts.    Next he downloaded three apps...Auburn football schedule, weather channel and Angry Birds!   Now I understand the football schedule and the weather app but I'm not sure about Angry Birds...he knows Jackson plays that so maybe he was hoping he could play a game when he's at work....he'd kill me if he knew I told ya'll that!   The other night I was in our bedroom watching TV and he was in the den....I got a text (from him) that said I Love You!   I had previously told him I had to be the first woman he texted.   So now my sister and daughter text him just to mess with him...he's so excited he's getting texts!

My sister and I are heading to the beach in two weeks and I CANNOT WAIT!   No husbands, no kids, no grandkids and we may turn off our cell phones.   We'll be there 4-5 days (she may have to go back to work early so the 5th day is iffy right now) and we plan on sleeping in every morning, hanging out on the beach and pool, eating and of course, shopping.   I've checked the weather forecast and it's only supposed to rain the 2nd day we're there...we might have to make ourselves shop that day!

Guess I'll end this rambling post by wishing everyone a blessed Easter weekend.