Fall Colors in January!

Hey, everyone!  Well, I'm stickin' to my guns about blogging less & only when I have something interesting to share.  I've been amazed at how much I am getting accomplished & will actually have another post or two coming up soon.

Now these might not be the gorgeous "Autumnal" colors that many of you experience in the Fall in your neck-of-the-woods, but I'm pretty darn excited about what's going on around here right now.  We've lived in AZ for almost thirty years and have never experienced this before.  Our home-town area has selected many deciduous trees to combine with the more typical pines & olives.  I don't know all the different species, but we do have cotton wood, ash & certain types of oak.  Anyway, I've been wanting to capture some of this loveliness to share with ya'll, so The Man & I took a stroll around our neighborhood.  I'll try to be mostly quiet and just let you enjoy!

So for those who think AZ is all desert, cacti & palms, think again!  

We have "Fall Colors" that come in January!

Thanks for stopping by & please do come again.

CAS

Something New!

Hey, everyone!  I hope ya'll are having a nice start to this wonderful New Year!  Part of my reflecting process on New Year's Day, was the decision to open a new blog.  This blog, which I am calling My Daily Journal, is just that.  I felt I needed a place to respond and react to "life."  This is where I will reflect on each day, make my crazy lists, vent my frustrations, rave about my joys, & just be totally myself.  There won't be many pictures (unless they are completely in sync with what I'm writing about), & I won't be talking about decor or paint (unless I'm adding a prompt to one of my crazy lists....lol!).  If you want to follow along, make comments, do your own venting or share how you deal with every day chaos and events, I welcome you with open arms.  If you are not interested, I'm totally fine with that, too.  Selfishly, this is truly for my own benefit;  but if it some how benefits some one else, that would bring joy to my heart.

I fully intend to continue to post here in An Oasis in the Desert, just not quite as much.  I've been blogging for a little over a year and find it to be both a blessing and a curse.  The blessing, of course, is all of you who are always so supportive & kind.  I feel so truly close to many of you, like you are a great friend living right next door.  The curse of blogging is that for me, it has become so addicting & just sucks the life out of my day.  I find myself being torn between working on a project or blogging.  Sometimes, I find that most things I do are being done for the soul purpose of blogging about it.  I'm not saying any of these are wrong for anyone else, but they are causing me frustration.  Soooo......I'm backing off a little.  I'm planning to post only once or twice a week when I have something to share.  I will try to comment on your blogs as often as I can, but don't worry if you haven't heard from me in awhile;  I'll eventually catch up.

Ya'll are some of the nicest, most sharing & caring people I've ever "known," and I hope our friendships continue.  I'm wishing you all good blessings and wonderful "dreams come true," in 2012!

xoxo, CAS

Saying Goodbye to 2011 & Happy 2012!

Hey, Happy New Years Eve!  Everyone seems to be doing their own version of a "Wrap Up" of 2011, so thought I'd do that, too!  It's really been a momentis year for us - lots of work, plenty of stress, & great joy!

First BIG decision of 2011 (actually decided just before Christmas 2010) was to sell our home and move closer to our children, and second decision -- another BIGGY was that The Man would retire as soon as the house sold!

We had already done some major changes/upgrades to this house, but bathrooms were not among the major redos, so we had to punch them up a bit!  We started & finished this project in Dec. '10.  You can go HERE if you want to see more.

Then it was time to do this......

Excitement & scariness all wrapped together!

Then we had the joy of meeting Avery Quinn! 

I almost got our precious little Avery for a birthday gift (just 3 days earlier), but then The Man gave me this & thus started the "picture taking maniac" that I've become! 

I made Valentine Treats & Cards for family & friends!  See HERE  & HERE

We found the perfect new home for us!

I wish the seller's car hadn't been sitting in the driveway, but you get a pretty good visual.

We signed the papers on our new home!

Then I started doing a lot of this HERE and......

these started stacking up!

Otherwise, I occupied myself with small crafting projects that didn't make big messes!

I won a great give-away HERE!

Happy 42nd Anniversary!

Happiness is this sign in our front yard!

We did a U-Haul run to our new home!

I'm so excited to share a tour of our new home HERE.

It's early August.  This is Yuma, AZ & the temp is 110*+, & we are moving!

You can see how it all played out HERE.

Next day was "moving in day," equally hot, but these guys never slowed down!

See it HERE if you must!

Took a breather from unpacking & did a bit of exploring.  Well, look what I found!  To see more of my discoveries go HERE.

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?

This was my first victory on getting one room set up and presentable.

It's a very "Special" day!

  He is RETIRING today!!!!  For the last 3 weeks, since we "officially" moved, he has been staying in Yuma to work, only coming "home" on the weekends.  He has had August 31st planned as his "retirement" for awhile now.  He was given a nice "retirement luncheon" yesterday with several of his work friends driving over from Corona, CA (that's where he used to work & is the main branch for the Yuma division) to bid him farewell & to wish him a very "Happy Retirement!"  So after a couple of hours in the office this morning, he will be "packing up" & walking out the door for the last time!  

We had our first "Family Celebration" on Labor Day HERE

We made some light fixture changes HERE

I revealed my kitchen for the first time HERE.

Fall began happening around HERE.

I found my perfect breakfast room table on Craigslist for $125.....I know, right?  And....it also came with 2 more chairs, a 24" leaf & custom pads -- woohoo!

From left:  Kristy, Annette & me.

 We had a very small "Blogger Dinner" in early November for some Phoenix area bloggers.  Life happens and there ended up only being 3 of us, but we had a great time.  Annette at One Perfect Room and  Kristy at Hyphen-Interiors are both just adorable.  I was definitely the "oldster" of the group, but age didn't really seem to matter.  We are all just "Bloggers" with things to share.

I won another give-away!  Thank you Elmer's Glue and Destiny @A Place for Us.  

I finally finished my "studio" craft room that I've been planning & dreaming of for months.  You can see Part 1 HERE & Part 2 HERE, if you are a gluten for photo-overload!

Another semi-major change -- shutters are now on all windows!

And then another change -- new granite HERE!

We celebrated a very happy Thanksgiving Day.  To see more, go HERE

Plenty of extra special hands to help me with Christmas decorating -- cookies & gingerbread houses,

getting the tree all set

with just the right ornaments!

Christmas started popping up all over the place.  You can see more HERE, HERE, & HERE.

Betty Crocker was in the house!

And, once again, I won!  This time it was a delightful snowflake pillow cover from Dawn at Creative Cain Cabin.

I know, people, I am so lucky!

And we had a beautiful Christmas Eve with the entire family& these are the only photos I got!

Taking pics of 6 crazy wild kidlets who are hyped up on sugar & so excited

about opening presents, is just a heck of lot harder than I thought it would be.

  

Well, it was an amazing, exhausting, exciting, stressful, & fun-packed year for us.  We are looking forward to 2012 & all that it will hold for us and for all of you.  I wish you all a very, very

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  See ya next year, ya'll!

xoxo, CAS