Our New Neighborhood & Some Fun Family Time!

Hey everyone!  I'm almost ready to reveal my new kitchen, but it's going to be a long post with lots of photos, so you had best rest up!  For now, I thought I'd show you a bit of our new neighborhood & some pics of some family fun-time, which we get to do on a regular basis now -- YAY!

I kept forgetting to take a pic of our new home from the front (and this isn't even that good) without autos in the driveway, so I grabbed my Point 'n Shoot from my purse just as I was returning home from an errand.  We have a landscaper coming tomorrow to do some much-needed cleanup & trimming.

We live in a very large, planned community development with six or seven different neighborhoods that each surround a park/playground.  Our neighborhood is called The Vineyards, but no, there is no wine being made here....lol!  Any grapes on a vine here right now in our extreme heat would 

be called "raisins!"

We fell in love with this area because of all the well-planned & well-maintained streets and 

common areas.  

This is the playground & park in our neighborhood.  It's less than 2 blocks away from our home, which is going to be so great for the Grands.  There are barbecues, picnic tables & a huge grassy area for playing soccer or just running around.

This is another green area with some of the walking/biking paths.  This is a block from our home.

This is less than a block in another direction.  Again, more sidewalks for walking or biking.  There are over 27 miles of these paths throughout the development.  I love having all this well-maintained greenery that we do not have to maintain -- YAY!

We had lunch with these little sweeties on Saturday.  Flynn is going to be "3" in just a few days, and Avery is 6 months & almost crawling.  I'm lovin' that I can see them just about any time I want to -- again, YAY!!!

We had lunch here, which is located in the Scottsdale Quarter shopping center.  If you haven't tried True Food Kitchen, I highly recommend it.  I'm not one bit prejudiced either, even though our son is the Executive Chef.  It certainly keeps him very busy because there are now four restaurants, another one at the Biltmore shopping center, one in Newport & another in Santa Monica.  He does a lot of traveling!  I know, shameless plug, but I'm a proud Momma!

Just in case you were wondering how Abby made the transition, I guess pictures speak louder than words.  To say she is lovin' her new surroundings would be putting it mildly.  She really didn't have any adjustment period at all, but she has become quite the huntress.  We seem to have a lot of crickets in this home, but until the "Bug Man" comes, Abby is leaving "death & destruction" in her wake!

Another little excursion I went on last week was to find this little piece of heaven on earth!  I'd been dreaming about going here (yes, I'm being rather melodramatic) since we moved.  We used to be 4 hours away & now less than 10 minutes -- YAY, YAY & YAY!  I spent 2 gloriously uninterrupted hours just getting acquainted -- my cheeks hurt from all the smilin' I was doing!

This is just a bit of a tease for my upcoming kitchen reveal.  Yes, I've caught the "Fall Decorating Bug" that is just starting to sweep blogland.  Take 2 aspirin & call me in the morning, or just go with-the-flow & start gathering up all those seasonal lovelies.

As always, thank you so much for stopping by & please come again soon!

CAS

I'm happily linking to:

 Kim's WOW Us Wednesday Party

 Open House Tour

One Small Victory!

Hey everyone.  I'm still unpacking & trying to decide where everything will go, but I did get one room complete.  Well, it still needs to be painted, but that will wait for awhile.  Even a small victory has made me feel so much better, and that would be my guest bath.

This bath is not fancy by any stretch of the imagination, but it's bright with the glass block window, has double sinks, & a fair amount of storage.

One thing that was totally bugging me, were these little towel hooks.  Now these might work for some people, if you have little kiddos & this is their bathroom.  It was not working for me, however.

Soooo......The Man & I purchased a new towel bar & 2 matching hand-towel rings at Lowe's.  We chose to go with polished chrome because it will work with just about any decor.

The Man filled all the holes, & we will be painting, but that's not a priority right now.

Just before we moved,  I received an email from Rondell @ Something Nice & Pretty that I had won this cute give-away.  She was so sweet to hold off shipping for a few days until I got moved into our new home.  The give-away was this adorable wooden box w/a handle & this vintage Ball/Mason jar.

I was pretty sure I would use it in the guest bathroom, but didn't know exactly how I would use it.

Well, this is what I did.  What do you think?

I just tucked in a few little guest shampoos, body lotions, etc. plus some extra hand towels & face cloths.

I just grabbed a bit of faux ivy & this spray of bendy branches to add some height & texture.

Great place for the Q-tips!  Love the tin lid on this jar!

The light fixture is another replacement project, but not a priority.

The towels, art & metal candle holder were all from our old house.

Bought this picture at Kirklands several years ago, & it's perfect with the colors I like for this bath.

My sweet daughter gave me this cute little metal tealight holder.  It, too, works great in this room.

I know, I know, it's a bit early for Halloween;  but these foaming soaps & little candle holder (all from the Bath & Body Shop) were just so cute & worked with my color scheme.

Green Apple Candy -- yummy!

Sour Drop.......these glow in the dark!  The Grands love 'em!

Cute little green monster.......right now he has a "Frosted Cupcake" candle that smells so delish!

The other refills I have are Pumpkin Patch & Spiced Cider.  Anyone in the mood for Fall besides me?

I love this glass block window.

I combined several natural elements that I already had & that happened to be in a box 

I had already opened -- Yay!!!!

So, anyhoo, this is how the room transformed.

Not a "giant leap" for mankind, but definitely a "small-step" for me.  Hope you enjoyed.

I'm happily linking to:

Amaze Me Monday

Table Top Tuesday

Tuesday's Treasures

WOW Us Wednesday

Friday's Unfolded

Inspiration Friday

"Moving In" Day!

Hey everyone.  Before I share a few pics of moving in day, I just want to thank each and everyone who has made such sweet comments on my last few posts.  Sorry, I'm too busy to respond to each of you individually, but I truly appreciate ya'll.  Hopefully I'll get my head above water here soon & get back to visiting each of you.  I MISS ya'll!

I can't say enough about the professionalism of this moving company, Always Professional in Moving.  The owner, Ray, was right on-time, arriving at our new home at 7 a.m.  The very first thing he did was put down  long blue cloths that stretched from well outside each entry & then into the house.  This was to clean the hand-truck wheels before they ever went onto our carpet.  They unloaded the flatbed first.

Several of the crew had been with us during the "Move Out" day, but there were a few newbies, too.  After unloading most of the garage (The Man's stuff.....lol!) & lots of boxes, Ray herded the crew into our laundry room to wash up before they started handling our furniture.  I was sooooo impressed!

They used large sheets of plywood to section the truck & keep things from shifting.

The Boss Man kept shouting orders of caution & instruction.  I heard lots of  "rack 'em, stack 'em."  They would sort and stack the boxes according to the room locations (I had marked those rooms clearly on each box) & as soon as there were 4 boxes for a particular room, one of the crew would slip them onto an awaiting hand-truck.  They were definitely "worker bees" that day.

Prior to the movers' arrival, I put directional sheets all around the house so they would know where things should be located.  I had also made little marks on the walls where things needed to be centered.  They always made sure that any electrical cords were easily accessible for us.

I have unpacked about 75 boxes so far, and there has been no damage or breakage.  The kitchen is all unpacked, & my FiestaWare dishes are all safe & sound.....WHEW!  

It feels so truly wonderful to be in our new home.  The Man is retiring at the end of the month, so he can be here full-time, too.  Even-though it felt like this whole "buying-selling-moving" process had taken a long time, it really has only been 9 months since we made the decision that we wanted to move to this area.  That's a lot of juggling in a short period of time, well, at least it is for us "older folks!"  We feel truly blessed that everything has fallen into place.

Again, thank you for hanging in there with me & for stopping by.  Please come again soon.

I'm happily linking to: 

WOW Us Wednesday