Tablescapes and linens....

So for those of you that are unaware I am a big dork- no really it's okay I am aware that I am. I am 'old fashioned' in a lot of my likes and in a lot of my views, but thats okay it's what fits me well and I like my self. okay... getting of subject and rambling.... sorry about that...

I can spend hours and hours searching though pictures on-line for things like tablescapes and table linens, window teatments, and area rugs. Even down to differant paint colors and home decor. Now I know that this is pretty normal for a lot of woman- this is how many of us get (Well, those of us that are idea challenged anyways) ideas for new things. And every once in a while I run across one of those 'JACKPOT' sites that has a bunch of pictures for me to browse through and gather ideas from. Well, I found one of those websites yesterday so I thought I would share it with you, after all I don't want to be greedy with my find.

The site is called linen lovers and I just love their tablescape ideas. They are simple enough to were I don't feel I have to take out a loan to buy new things to get it to look the same or at least close. And to top it off they have great prices on all of their things too!  So as a preview of what is on their site here are a couple of pictures...
*All pictures are from the site linen lovers.com and may or may not be under copy right laws. These Photos are used for site preview showing only*

Bridal table... oh so pretty!
Ducky table...so stinking cute!

4th Of July table...one of my favorites!

Spring table...makes me want to sit down with some good friends for brunch and tea, in a pretty dress and heels.

Pink Presants... one that Melessa would just LOVE right down to the cake on top.

Pink and Yellow Flowers... anyone up for some laughter and chilled coffee?

These are a few of the tablescapes that I really like from the site. Head on over there and check them out and all that they have for sale and to look at! Then head back here and let me know which one or ones are your favorites...I love finding out what everyones likes and dislikes are.
Happy tablescape 'hunting'!

Super Couponers?... You BET!

Click on this link: 'Super Couponers' Clip Their Way to Savings at the Grocery Store - ABC News to watch/ read the entire segment that I saw.

The link above is to the show that I saw a couple nights ago on the show 'Nightline' on ABC. I don't watch the show very often but this night I was glad that my hubby paused on it. I have a new goal... to become a super couponer. I use coupons, I even have the same 'set up' for my coupons as the gentleman in the story - It's a three ring binder with baseball card keepers in them, you slip your coupons in to the card slots and it makes it easy to view what you have and keeps everything nice and neat. I even have mine separated with dividers, so paper coupons are together, can foods, pet foods, etc you get the point.
I in fact got the idea for it all when I saw a friend of mine shopping with her coupons that way. I thought "Wow! that's sooo smart! There is a good chance that I would have never thought of that!" -
I don't have the room at the moment for the storage that is needed to coupon this way but once we move from here and build a house I will and YOU BET I will start shopping like this! Can you tell I am a little excited about the whole thing? I can't help it, saving money is exciting! How can it not be? Who doesn't ( at least 'Who' being most woman) love the thrill of a good deal or even the 'hunt' to get a good deal? I know that I do.. in fact I drag my kids along so that they can both ( Yes, even my son) learn how to 'hunt' correctly!

a sneak peek....A review and giveaway...

Drum roll please.....





My first giveaway!
I am SOOOO very excited to be able to do this...
I have recived the book Journal Buddies for Boys to read and review and to give away a signed copy of the book to send to one lucky follower.
I will have more details posted in a few days...soooo keep your self posted to find it all out!!
Best of luck to everyone!

Comments fixed..

The problem that was wrong with comments has been fixed! Again it is thanks to a wonderful friend visit her blog here. So come on people leave me some comments! =)

Sad News....

Well it is March 27 and still no puppies for Niko and us to play with. She still has mastitis but getting better with each new day. Niko has started to loose her 'baby belly' and we now are thinking that she is having/ has had what is called a pseudocyesis (pronounced “sudo-sigh-eesis”), for more information on what that is and how it happens click here. We are all saddened by this new turn of event as we were all looking forword to having some puppies to play with and her first litter.  We would like to breed her with another dalmatian if the vet tell us that it will be okay, but ONLY if we get the vet's blessing to do so. Her health is what most important to us. This is why there are no cute pictures of cute new to the world little puppies posted on here.
Well, I better go and give her - her meds for the night and get to bed.

Doggy Update....

Well today we took Niko in to the vet for her post check up from last week. I have some good news to share!-
The meds they have her on seems to be working well and she is getting better, we don't think that the mastitis is going to be gone by her Thursday March 25th due date which means that Mike and I will be on bottle duty every 2 hours. But we did it with our kids so puppies shouldn't be any differant right? Well...I hope not! LOL I have bottle fed calfs, goats, foals, and even a pig or two in my life time so what is adding a puppy to the mix right? LOL Hope I'm not to out of pratice!
The swelling has gone down a lot in her nipples and there doesn't seem to be much blood left in her milk, there is still some there and the Doc said a another week or so on the meds should clear everything up. So with any luck we will only have to bottle feed for a week or so! I am getting excited about having a couple of puppies - yes, you noticed I only said a couple, we don't think that she is going to have very many puppies she has gotten bigger but not huge. For her 1st time I think that is best ( for all of us!). - around the house to play with.
Well, I am hoping that the next time I up date you on Niko it will be with how many puppies she has had, that they are all healthy, and everyone is doing well!

Other then Niko there isn't anything new or exciting going on here spring cleaning starts this week at our house I just haven't really told anyone else yet in fear that they might all run away and find something else to do or some where else to be!

Comments.....

Just as a heads up comments aren't working at the moment 'we' meaning my wonderful friend Nina ( see post below) hopes to have them up and running soon....because if I was to try to fix it myself... there is a good chance that the computer would explode from it all!

I hope to have an update on Niko and all things here tonight, but at the moment dirty dishes in the sink are yelling at me to get up and clean them.

Happy Spring!

A BIG HUGE THANK YOU.....

I have to state that I have some of the MOST AWESOME friends ever....
What do you think of the new layout and look of my blog???
I have the wonderful Nina over at The One Fantastical to thank for all of it, she sat online with me for hours and did the entire layout, graphics, and bottons for my blog! If she wasn't so far away I would bake her desserts for a week as a thank you!
And to think her doing my layout for me all started with me just wanting a wider 'posting' area! LOL I can't thank her enough for all her hard work that she put into making my blog look all pretty and sweet. Head on over to her blog and check out all of the great post that she has.
I can't even start to thank her enough!!

Spring had Sprung!

Well today I was putting up sheers curtains in the craft room and looked out the windows to notice that the trees has buds on them! I am so excited! Spring is here!!
so here are a couple of pictures ( of course!)

Close up of the buds!

Get ready for some warm weather!

 As I mentioned above I got some sheer curtains hung up in the craft room- I have been wanting to do this for a while but I didn't know what I wanted to do it with- curtain rods, wire rope, etc...
I ended up up going and getting coated wire rope- it's really a clothes line. When I went to price out curtain rods it was just going to be waaaay out of my budget ( which was pretty much nothing LOL) for as many as I needed. I had 6 windows to cover, so instead I bought 10 picture hangers, the wire rope (the clothes line), 4 swag hooks,and I already had the sheers from a Mom's Night In that I held last year at my home. I then placed all of the picture hangers at each corner of each window and the swag hooks at the very end corners - the outter ones - then I ran the clothes wire from one end to the other and then hung the curtains on them and then placed white sheer scarves on top to hide the wire. In the middle of the wall where the scarves ends meet I placed some matching flowers and a bow.
Here are some pictures of the end result... I would love to know what you think! Please leave comments below =)

The view looking at the work tables

The flowers in the middle where the scarves meet


I want to place flowers in the center of the two windows facing the tables also, I just have to go get more flowers.

Corner detail - I just knoted the scarves around the swag hooks

Long view of the room

A little better view looking the other way

Everything that I used to hang the curtains up

 So far so good... nothing has fallen down yet! LOL

I am VERY pleased with how it all came out, it doesn't block the light so there is still good light to work by in there but it defuses it enough to it is no longer blinding. I think it gives it a nice little 'girly' touch to the room -A little romance and a little sweet looking all wrapped up in one.

I would like to get an area rug but that will have to wait...  since the room is blues and purples I want an area rug to match and I have a feeling that it is going to take me a while to find one that doesn't cost me an arm and leg to get it! =)

updates and catch ups...

 Many things and nothing at all have been going on here... so here is an update of it all or at least most of it!

Melessa is now on spring break until March 29th - so at the moment we all are getting to sleep in a little *YEA!* . ....*doing the happy dance*

We are still waiting on Niko our dalmatian to have her puppies - we think next week on the 25th is her due date. I took her into the vet ( AWESOME vet btw... office information listed at end of post) this past Tuesday because of blood mixed in with her milk it turns out that she has mastitis go here for a link to infomation on 'it' and what 'it' is. She has been put on meds and we are hoping that everything is cleared up before she gives birth that way she can nurse if not she will stay on her meds and Mike and I will have to bottle feed the puppies ( we are hoping for just one or two puppies- we can hope right!?).

 Here are some preggo pictures of Niko... these were taken about 2 weeks ago

She LOVES her bed she spends 98% of her time on it!

Baby or should I say Puppy Bump!

Looking for a bully rub

Almost snoring!

just in case you were wondering... Yes, that is a fire fighter's blanket (yep, Mike's 'work' blanket under her on the bed) it has become her all time favorite blanket to sleep with, she is so cute and soooo spoiled! She is like another child!

In other news...

Mike has been doing an AWESOOOOOME job on Melessa's doll house! What a great dad he is =) He has been working on it every moment that he can, and Melessa helps out Dad when she can. It is so cute to watch the two of them standing out there in the garage painting and talking with each other. I love that they are making a bond that will last a life time and one day maybe Mike will go through this all over again but only with our grand-daughter.

here are some pictures of the current doll house...

Here is a picture of the doll house all put together but yet to be painted....

Here is it with the paint started

It's getting there!

A close up of the pink color...
If there was ever a color that was/is Melessa this is it! LOL she is my tough girly girl and I Love it!
Well other then this there hasn't been much going on here...

in the great wide open..... landscapes

For those of you that know me you know that there are things that I truly just LOVE like for example.. a breathe taking picture of a back country road. I don't know what it is about open fields, wooded land, and live water that makes my heart sing but they do. Mike and I have been talking about where we want to retire. I know that retirement is years and years away but we like to have a game plan and a early start on things. One thing that I do know is that we are going to build our own home click Here to be taken to the posting of what we want it to look like. One of the places that we have been looking at is in Bowie County, Texas.. near the town of New Boston, Texas. I am one of those people that like to research everything if I can so of course I starting looking at pictures of the area and came across a couple that are just stunning so, I wrote the wonderful lady that took them and asked if I could post them here to share with everyone.. I got lucky and she told me Yes! So here they are:
New Boston, Texas:

(To see the pictures bigger just click on them)

I could just picture my grandkids running and playing on this back country road. With no worries, no cars, just giggles, smiles, and fun. Who doesn't want that in life? What a dream come true ( for us at least!) that would be!

I want to thank Ellen3Davis from www.Flicker.com for letting me the use her photos. Head on over there and look her up she has some amazing pictures for everyone to look at. I believe that these pictures have even won a couple of awards too.

Ice in the Desert...

Well I have had several things that I have wanted to post lately... and I have started SEVERAL posting, but something always seems to pop up and I don't get it posted for what ever reason so tonight I am trying to get some of those posts posted! ..... here is one of them....

 I always think it's funny when you tell some one that you live in the desert and all they think about is how hot it gets. People tend to forget that it get down right cold here too! We had a dusting of snow again not to long ago and I snapped a couple of pictures of it ( as always! you know me with my camera!) but one thing that was kinda cool ( yes, I said Cool LOL) that I have never seen before is the ice that was hanging off of my truck when I walked out to take Melessa (on the 30 second drive) to school that morning. Here are a couple of pictures I snaped before my hands froze! What are some of the things that has happend in your area this winter that others might be a little shocked to learn? I would love to know... leave the info in the comment area =)