Monday Random Ramblings

Hey everyone!  I hope y'all had a wonderful weekend.  So tell me, are you ready for some random ramblings, because that is exactly what I've got today.

We are really starting to heat up here -- 105* over the weekend and 109* predicted for today -- yikes, right?  The Man and I got out early on Saturday morning and did some yard cleanup.  He trimmed the Mesquite Tree and I dead-headed and cleaned up the pots.

The Man has been babying this tree for a couple of years now, since we lost one of the big branches during one of our crazy Haboobs!  It's looking pretty good now.

I have two of these nice big pots of mums from last Fall, and they both graced me with

Spring blooms.  They won't last too much longer, and then I'll trim them way back and hope

they will be ready for blooming again this Fall!

My herb pot has been very abundant this Spring and needed quite a bit of trimming.  I decided to make a bouquet for the breakfast table -- smells delicious!

I know you've seen Mr. Giraffe many times, but I do not believe you have ever seen him with......

Such a jaunty headdress!  A couple of precious little girls, aka: Little Miss and Littliest Miss did

a bit of decorating the last time they were here!  Silly me, I alway use those tassels for lamps or candlesticks!

When it gets really warm and everything on TV is a rerun, we head to Red Box to catch

up on movies.

Whoever came up with this system, is a genius!  So, what did we see?

Monuments Men -- The Man and I both really enjoyed this movie!

August: Osage County had some incredible acting, but was very dark in its content.  We can all only hope that we do not have families that are this volatile.  If you have a real aversion to "potty-mouth" language, then this movie is not for you.  It was very hard to take at times.

I won a give-away!  Sweet Robin at All Things Heart & Home gave away 3 issues of 

Jennifer Carroll's new online magazine "Celebrating Everyday Life," and I was one of the lucky winners.

This is really a very lovely magazine.  Thank you so much, Robin!

As much as I enjoy the ease of reading a book or magazine on my iPad, sometimes a piece of work comes along that you just know you have to be able to touch and hold in your hands.  A book that will have notes written in the margins and passages highlighted with a marker.  A book that will get dog-eared and show signs of much love.  This is just such a book.

Myquillyn Smith is one of our fellow bloggers, but she refers to 

herself as The Nester at The Nesting Place.  Some of what really caught my attention was the following excerpts:

"Giving Up on Perfect......Instead of giving up on a perfect idea, what if you gave up on perfection?  Giving up is the first step to creating the home you love.  The goal of perfection does nothing but hold you back."

I thought, "Wow, is this ever true.....at least of me."  I am a perfectionist and many times it holds me back from doing and trying so many things.  I'm feeling such renewal from this book and seeing ways for me to just breath and let go -- okay, I know this won't happen overnight and will take some effort, but I'm truly seeing some possibilities for positive changes.  Yes, I highly recommend this book!

When the weather starts heating up around here, I spend more time in my craft room.

This past weekend, I spent some time perusing YouTube videos on organizing 

Becky Higgins' Project Life core kits.  There were several methods that looked interesting, but organizing predominantly by color sounded like the best fit for my style of scrapping.  I have several kits and had been using them separately which was kind of boring and frustrating.

After combining all of my kits and separating by color, I found that I had so much more fun putting my pages together.  I loved how quickly these photos of our Memorial Day weekend activities and our "California Cruisin'" vacay, came together in these pages.  The containers I used are from IKEA, and I had picked up several of these when I bought my Raskog cart.  They fit perfectly in the cart, BTW!  The other thing I like about this new system is how easy it is to move the plastic bins back to the Raskog when I need my crafting table for something else.

Aside from writing this post, twice (don't ask), doing some vacuuming & laundry.....

The Man and I also had a morning date here.  UGH....I don't like it, but I do it anyway!

I truly hope you will all have a wonderful week, do some fun-stuff, and make memories!

Happy Randomness

Hey everyone!  The last several days have been kind of a whirlwind of activities with some out-of-town family.  We had a great time, saw some sights, ate too much, DID NOT have TOO MUCH wine, and just had fun!  I was downloading photos and just decided to share some of our randomness before, during and after our company was here.

  

         

The skies opened and the angels started singing -- we finally retired our old bbq after 30+ years of great service to our family.  The old girl survived a few years in the Oregon rain and was then subjected to many years of dust storms and constant baking in the sun here in Arizona.  She was made of cast aluminum, so there was not a speck of rust, but she was not cooking very evenly anymore and having a few other struggles.  Poor thing kind of looks like the "ugly stepsister" to Cinderella, her shiny, all stainless steel replacement!

      

Cinderella is definitely a beauty with four cooking controls and a side burner.  We are hoping she performs as well as the faithful one she replaced.

 

This beauty is hanging over our back wall from the neighbor's yard.  Does anyone know what this is? A couple of people on FB thought it was a Butterfly Bush, but it really does not have the same shape flower as that bush does.  It's beautiful and I will enjoy it for as long as it wants to hang out!

Our company arrived on Wednesday -- The Man's brother and SIL.  They wanted to eat at our son's restaurant, so off to True Food we went.

True Food is in the Scottsdale Quarter.

Just one catch -- Little Miss and Littlest Miss were there, too!  

Aack!  Littlest Miss says this all the time!

This is the Quarter's new Restoration Hardware -- yep, that sucker is 3 stories!  It is HUGE!  Not a place I shop, but it is fun to snoop around.

B & J had never been to Casa Grande Indian Ruins, so this is how we spent one of our days.  I wrote rather extensively about the ruins HERE, when we visited this amazing place with some other visitors.

Brothers!

Notice any similarities?  BTW, our sweet guide, Libby, was just delightful and so very well informed and knowledgeable. 

We were starving after our travels and headed for Joe's BBQ.  If you live anywhere in the Phoenix metro area, a drive over to Joe's in Gilbert is well worth the time and gas!  Sorry, I was hungry and forgot to take a pic!

I don't know about y'all, but when we've had company and enjoyed that camaraderie for a few days, it's a real let-down when they leave.  We've just kind of puttered around the house today, not really doing too much of anything.  

An idea came to me this morning over coffee for a new vignette for our breakfast table.  I used my old tool caddy, added a very old cream and sugar that had belonged to my great, great grandparents that I filled with some stainless and napkins, then added in an older salt & pepper set,

Plus some little skinny jars filled with some flower clippings.

I'm really liking how it turned out!

This is my current iPhone wallpaper -- so cute!

And this is my iPad wallpaper.  You can find these and many other selections for FREE at 

Becky Higgins Freebies.  Just scroll down to Project Life Mobile Wallpapers if you are interested.

This is kind of strange or weird, but we bought this large selection of deli meats and cheeses to have when our company was here.  Well, this morning I thought I'd better repackage it and toss this huge container that was taking up so much space in the fridge.

The tray part of the package just looked way too useful to toss, so I took it to my craft room (after a good wash, of course).

I placed a 12x12 scrapbook paper pad inside so you can see how big this tray really is.  It has just a 3/4" edge around the perimeter, so I'm thinking it will be perfect for some crafting -- you know, containing glitter, bling, or just random stuff.  I always look at things with an eye for recycling.  Do y'all do that?

Well, I have probably worn out my welcome and overloaded you with pics, but it was just that kind of day.  Oh, just so you know, I did do laundry and remake beds!

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend and are, hopefully, enjoying some warmer weather wherever you are.

Carol

Just Some Randomness or Maybe It's Rambling, You Be the Judge!

Hey everyone!  Do you ever have a day where your mind just doesn't want to settle on one thing?  Well, silly me,  I'm talking to Bloggers, and our minds are always juggling a gazillion different things, right?  Right!  Some days are just worse than others, let's put it that way.

Coffee! Coffee! I Love My Coffee!

Hey everyone!  I hope y'all are having a great morning.  My morning has to start with a great big mug of coffee.  Do you love your coffee, especially your morning brew, as much as I do?  Well, some of you probably do.  I didn't even start drinking coffee until I was into my twenties -- like a gazillion years ago!  I've given up caffeine a few times, but always come back.  Now I don't have a fancy-shmancy coffee maker, just my Hamilton Beach Thermal coffee maker, but into that 10-year old machine goes a good quality coffee and all the little extras that make it my special "cuppa."  Well, when you have these special accoutrements, you need a place to have them conveniently available  displayed, right?  Hence, "The Coffee Station" was born!  Thanks to blogs and Pinterest, there are more "coffee station" ideas out there than you can shake a stick at -- from super-simple to the "extreme," from very practical to "this is so pretty no one can use it," and everything in between.  So, today I thought I'd share what I've come up with over the last couple of years.

Well, obviously, this was before I ever saw my first "Coffee Station," because this is super-simple!  I have my coffee maker, coffee canister, my Fiesta Cream & Sugar, and a small ramekin for my spoon.

Bloglovin' Time!

Following via Bloglovin'

Okay, another issue solved (I hope) -- you can now follow me on Bloglovin' when Google Reader goes "Bye bye!"

Retail Therapy on the Cheap!

Hey everyone!  I hope this has been a terrific week and that your upcoming weekend will be awesome!    We are going to a Polish Festival on Saturday to enjoy some brats and such, and then we are going up to Lake Pleasant just to see how that area has changed in the last twenty years since we last visited!  The weather should be perfect, but I will be keeping a watchful eye open at the lake for the sound of rattles, since this is peak time for our slithery rattlesnakes -- did you know they don't mind the water?  Eeek, I'm creeping myself out!

Anyway on to happier things like my "retail therapy."  I think I must be one of World Market's very best customers -- well, The Man thinks so anyway!  I signed up for their Customer Rewards Program, and I'm telling you, there are some real perks.  All you have to do is enter your telephone number whenever you make a purchase, and wonderful things happen.  For every $100 you spend, they send you a $10 reward coupon to use however you wish to in the store.  I absolutely love, love, love their coffee and for every 6 bags you purchase, you get a reward coupon for a Free one; but that's not all.  If you purchase coffee on Wednesdays, you get double points, and they always have their "Coffee Specials" on Wednesdays!  How cool is that!  Oh, and last but not least, you get a $10 reward coupon on your birthday!  Now, maybe you understand why I like this store so much!  I get their email alerts, and last week (on Wednesday) they were having a BOGO Free promo going on their coffee!  Yippee, I was off to buy a supply of my favorites.

Well, I got my coffee but then had to do some looking around and guess what I discovered?  

I found their "Clearance" section!  I'm not talking about the seasonal stuff that they keep right up front where you can't miss it -- I'm talking about a couple of racks of table linens, kitchen towels, aprons, baskets, and much more, all tucked back in the far back corner of the store!  

Everything was at least 50% or more off.  These kitchen towels were so darn cute, and turquoise is my current "color crush!"

Turquoise and red - yes, yes, yes!  Now why would they have all this wonderfulness hidden away?

I'm always on the lookout for table linens that can go with the many colors of my Fiesta dishes, and these certainly do just that.  I wanted a set of 6 but only found 4.  I may check out the other WM that's close by.

The napkins are nice and big, and the fabric is a soft linen.

And the placemats are reversible -- BONUS!

I also found these napkins rings, and they jumped right into my basket!

Whew, after all that shopping and saving so much money (wink! wink!), all I could think about doing was making The Pioneer Woman's Perfect Iced Coffee (you can get the low-down HERE).  This is my favorite caffeinated beverage when the weather starts to warm up.  I always blend these specialty coffees with my regular Costco brew (half & half) -- there is still great flavor and is much more economical than using them straight!

So, there you have it -- retail therapy on the cheap!  And you know what?  I had just as much or more fun than if I had an endless supply of "$" to buy anything I wanted.  Yep, it's the "thrill of the hunt!"  Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful weekend!