Dollar Tree Fountain

OK, so we aren't really getting a fountain from the Dollar Tree. But I did go with the lightest and cheapest fountain of the three in the running for our backyard remodel.

This was my absolute favorite. I looked high and low for it to no avail. I've about decided it's a custom job and so a no-go. Time to throw in the towel and move on to options I can actually purchase.

This millstone fountain below is pretty danged cool. But it's only 36" wide, and so a bit too small for the space.

The fountain below is bigger and absolutely beautiful, but it weighs 2400 lbs. And just like the millstone fountain, all of the housing for the bubbler and catchment system is located beneath it. So anytime it needs to be repaired or replaced, it would be a nuisance to move it for maintenance.

In addition, these two are at a custom fountain shop in Santa Fe, so the freight would be pricey. Which leads me to the third fountain, and winner for our updated backyard space. It only weighs 633 lbs and is completely self contained. No cool splashing water trickling down onto river rock, but also no worries with lifting it at some point in the future since we don't keep a bobcat loader handy at the house for fountain shifting. I piggy-backed onto an order with a local nursery that sells this line of fountains, so it will be here in 2-3 weeks with their truckload full of stuff. The only freight I have to pay is for their local delivery dude to haul it the 7ish miles from the nursery to our house on his flatbed trailer. Patio and pool tile selected and now fountain ordered. Hopefully we kick off this project in about a week's time. 

The Baby Dog

The husband is calling her El Diablo, if that gives you any indication as to how she's settling into the household. Actually, she's pretty sweet. But she's a jumper and a chewer. And after some initial kowtowing to Ollie boy, she's holding her own with him. She's pretty feisty with her elders, but maybe that's how it went down at the kennel where she was raised. They're all sweet dogs, but there's still a pecking order and she was low girl on the totem pole. So she starts out meek and mild and then you see some sass.

Here's she-devil on the hearth, because Lord have mercy our Pepper is a nosy critter. Everything MUST be inspected and investigated.

Now she's queen of Ollie's toy basket. I had forgotten how a puppy is like having a toddler in the house. She races around with her toys in her mouth and then just drops them when she's tired or distracted. I find dog toy carcasses everywhere. And like little kids, everything gets put into her mouth to test it. And then swallow it if you're not fast enough to get it away from her before she takes a gulp. A teeny tiny zip tie got ingested on Saturday. So I've been watching for signs of stomach distress since I was NOT digging through her poop to look for it. She seems fine. Lots of energy for playing tug of war with Ollie and taking walks with us. Aspen didn't suit and so now her name is Pepper thanks to the 16 yr old daughter. Her coat of base black with some brindle and gray thrown in looks just like a container full of peppercorns with all that variation.

Falling into October

Statistically, it was bound to happen. I'd stay relatively healthy, somewhat sane, avoid getting hit by a bus and see my 50th birthday this month. The run from October to Christmas every year just makes me giddy. I love pretty much everything about this time of year. Football season, cooler temps (eventually?!), my birthday, halloween candy, Aunt Mary's pumpkin pie recipe and decorating the house before Turkey Day for Christmas. Santa Claus will be coming to town the week of Nov. 13. Because when you've been collecting Jolly Old St. Nick for 25+ years, you gotta put out the bins worth of decor and get maximum mileage out of my investment which the husband swears our girls will donate to Goodwill before my dead body turns cold. But whatever... I'm gonna enjoy it from now until I depart to the great beyond.

Over the weekend I was listening to Christmas songs to put me in the right frame of mind while I was browsing holiday decor at some of my favorite online stores. With my Santa obsession collection, I'm always looking to add new and interesting pieces. I think this Christmas tree base is super cute. 

But I'm not sure if it will work with that spinny thing that makes the tree slowly rotate. Because this year I really think I need one of those since we're going with a 7.5' skinny tree for the front living area. Growing up you could always see our tree from the street, so I really want that again here in my old age. I think that's another reason I enjoy the holidays, strolling down memory lane. 

Meet our new baby!

We can hardly wait to add a new member to the family. This is Aspen!

Our girl is the smaller black one on the ground. The gorgeous silver and black Cairn standing up is her momma, Trudy. It's our very own female Toto!

I've been talking to a Cairn terrier breeder recently with a momma dog that had some puppies. However, she also has a sweet girl she kept for showing and breeding from a litter born earlier this year on April 11. The breeder has decided she doesn't have time to really devote to her show training any more and so she's looking for a forever home for her. 

As much as the teenager wants a puppy to cuddle and coo over (and dress up in a halloween costume), I love the fact that this sweet girl is already housebroken, as well as crate and leash trained. Because seriously, the teen wouldn't be involved in accomplishing any of those things since she stays busy with school and cheer. Plus Aspen has already been taught sit, stay and leave it commands. That's the hard part right there, all of the grunt work of puppy rearing. Now we just have to wait and see how she gets along with the Cairn prince of our house.

We keep telling Ollie he's getting a new little sister, that he better enjoy his final days as an only doggie before we bring her home on Thursday. I'm sure he'll be teaching her all of his insider tricks, like how to use your lovely brown eyes to beg for food. That the morning walk is sufficient reason to go bonkers and act like a maniac while momma is trying to get you on the leash. And that squirrels are the sworn enemy, so it's necessary to bark at this shrill pitch that threatens to shatter windows. I'm sure we'll all be highly entertained as she gets settled into our routine and starts to feel at home, taking Ollie's toys he seldom plays with anymore out of his doggie toy basket. Stay tuned for more doggie details!

Outdoor Eyesore No More

Last night I received the initial design from the landscape architects for our soon-to-be revamped outdoor living space between the house and cabana. It's not a bad first stab. We'll be making a few changes, but it's nice to begin envisioning this area as something presentable where we can entertain family and friends. A freshly tiled swimming pool, hanging out by the new fireplace, tossing horse shoes or bags for corn hole in the remodeled play area - we're looking forward to all of it later this fall. 

*copyright Sarah Smith @ Cypress Landscaping

A Snarly Sorta Week

This week I've had lots of practice using my stern teacher, I'm 50 and not gonna put up with your BS voice. I wrangled with the cable folks, picture print folks and furniture store, in no particular order. My record looks like it may be 2 outta 3, but I'm still waiting to see if I get the outcome I want.

I'd like for my mother to have her own cable and wifi in the guesthouse, but you'd think I'm asking them to run the connection to Mars. Back in the "old days", the cable guys came out and could problem solve this sorta thing. They'd run cables up and over doors and around windows and bury it in the yard to get your money for their services. Nowadays, they come out - though not always at the time they told you OR even the same day - to take a look, then toss up their hands and cry uncle. 

I've chewed out sales reps and technicians and third party cable running guys who were boggled by the whole thing. For seven weeks. SEVEN! At one point, I just started laughing because it's a total comedy of errors. The sales reps promise things the third party cable running guys can't seem to comprehend and then the techs responsible for flipping the switch are left to give me the bad news and watch steam come outta my ears. So yeah, time to give the satellite dish folks a call after wasting lots of hours I'll never see again with both AT&T and Spectrum.

I'm sooooo excited about our travel pics wall in the new house. It's in the hallway running from the garage to the open living space, so isn't a particularly glamorous area of the house. But it gets tons of sunlight from the windows and is visible from the kitchen, dining and family rooms. 

We got off to a good start when we laid them out on the floor to make sure it looked *right* before starting to put nail holes in the wall. After the first couple pics, we discovered all four of the 16x20 metal prints had their hangers either sideways or upside down. So I rang up the Shutterfly folks and had to arm wrestle them into replacing the prints, as well as paying the shipping fee. Because seriously, who is gonna hang a pic of a boat upside down? I brought up every argument I could think of - I couldn't see the back of the pic to check the hanger on their website and didn't anyone pay attention to the finished product to see how it would hang? And even if I did order it upside down, wasn't it worth a call to the customer (ME) to ask if madam really wanted that pic of the Iceland black sand beach hanging sideways instead of right side up? Thankfully, the nice customer service rep on the phone decided it was worth the goodwill to make it right, and so we'll be putting the rest of the travel pics in their place next Friday once the replacements have arrived.

Last, but not least, of the folks to aggravate me this week are the furniture guys. I ordered several custom pieces from a local leather place and when they were delivered, the chairs we opted to do in a fabric were HIDEOUS. I think these were edited from the Archie Bunker show because they were just too danged ugly. The decorator that helped with these selects was appalled. So I upgraded to a leather option that would compliment the sofa and bench. That was back during the first week of August. The furniture company told us the reject chairs could stay here at the house until the new ones arrive. Until today. This morning on the way to the craft store, I got a call from some guy that the chairs blah blah blah I couldn't hear because it was on the bluetooth in my SUV. I was really happy at the thought of getting my new chairs. Guess again there sister. He was calling to set up a time to fetch the uglies. 

Once I got home this afternoon, I gave the furniture store manager a call to ask about the status of my new leather replacement chairs. Since they're coming from Norway, it seems they won't arrive at the port for another 2 wks and then take 7-10 days to get to the store. I explained how that isn't acceptable since we won't have any chairs to use for about a month. I'm hoping they see things my way and leave them here until my new ones are delivered. Store manager guy was gonna talk to the owner and get back to me.

So yeah, those are the highlights of my week. We did make it to the art museum fundraiser last night. After a rainy week, we all sat around with frizzy-fuzzy hair in the large events tent since it was held outside. No rain plan, it seems. The theme was Japan. And the band was amazing, though really loud since we were up front. Folks come to these things to socialize and network and so you end up shouting in the ear of your friend, spouse, co-worker, etc. It's rather annoying. Cool decor. And drinking sake out of a square wooden cup - not your usual Thursday evening, at least not at our house.

And last but not least, it's MEGA-mum! <insert deep base drum bongs here>

This makes me laugh because it's just so over-the-top. Talk about a pain in the patootie to put together. Not to mention the petite or slim teenage girls wearing these things around their necks. I can just hear it now at the orthopedic's office... Little Sue Ellen here had perfect posture until homecoming week.

I saw it outside the boutique entrance when I went to pick up a couple school spirit shirts I had made to wear to games - Go Panthers! When I asked the shop owner, she said only one girl ordered MEGA mum last year for homecoming, costing about $300. I seriously hope this doesn't become a thing at my daughter's school. Or at least not until after she graduates in a couple years. Then behemoth mums can be ALLLLLL the rage because I just don't have the craftiness or glue gun skills to tackle creating something this big.

Mom Homecoming Garter Logic 101

One of the cheer moms is making mums, garters, hairbows, etc for homecoming next week and 50% of the proceeds go to the cheer fund. But the prices seemed kinda high and we were unsure about the quality of the product since I heard a story of a really fugly garter a couple years ago that had to be fixed before it could be presented to the guy. I'm not good with a last minute scramble like that, so the 11th grader and I decided to give it a go with making our own garter for her date this afternoon.

We zipped over to the local Michael's - we prefer Hobby Lobby but they're rocking that closed every Sunday deal like Chick Fil A - to peruse the selects. That's when we went a little bit crazy. Awww, isn't this cute? I bet he'd like the football with his number on it! What about a baby cowbell? This silver ribbon is really pretty! And don't forget the glue gun...

The finished product looks fine, considering it's the first time either one of us has tackled a Texas homecoming garter. Bottom line is that I spent $50 on supplies when I could have had the mum lady whip one up for $40. I earned a couple burned fingertips from the glue gun for my frugal efforts that kinda fell flat, but we had a fun time putting it together at the kitchen island.