Shop Class

I'm so excited! Want to know why? Sure you do! Tonight is the first night of my Woodworking class! So what if you don't care - but I think it will be much fun. Learning about all the tools of trade, crafting a piece of furniture from your own little hands, the smell of sawdust...

It's a 5-week class offered at my local community college - my thought is to craft a 50's inspired side table, we'll see how that turns out. Maybe use hairpin legs on it, hhmm. Then, I've promised I would make Coco a barn for her horses - hope it doesn't look like a ghetto shack. I'll be posting my progress on the whole adventure and hopefully at the end, I will still have all my fingers.

image courtesy of The BAFRA

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

So Chloe went on a regular field trip to the Farmer's Market with the "rents" and she brought back this sweet bouquet just for me. How can one mommy be so lucky?

image courtesy of me

You Say It's Your Birthday!

Nothing like your baby's birthday making YOU feel another year older. I must say though, 11 years ago today at precisely 12:07 p.m., Chloe-Bell came into the world simply screaming and made my heart melt and it certainly has been a sloppy mess o'love ever since.

When I look at her nothing else matters and everything is put into perspective - the world slows down just a little and before I know it, I'm usually rolling with laughter because she's the funniest person I know. I couldn't be more proud nor have I ever accomplished anything else in my life so great {tear ducts starting to work, gotta go now...}

Here's to you Coco, my cup runneth over...

image courtesy of me

The Funniest Girl I Know

So Chloe and I were out running around this afternoon, first stop was to pick up some new headphones for her...well I guess they are for me too since silence is bliss right? Anyway, all of the sudden Chloe says, "mommy, you are the bus to my stop". She's always coming up with these great one liners out of nowhere, but apparently she caught sight of a city bus stop sign and there you have it. So, her one liner made my day and indeed, she too, is the bus to my stop.

image courtesy of clker.com

Full Circle

Yep, it's been quite awhile since my last post. A lot can happen in a month. The sale of my house FINALLY closed...a lot of wine was consumed during that painful process and I'm still experiencing night terrors and blackouts over it but that's another story for another time.

So Coco and I are back at the "rents" until I find my needle-in-the-haystack 50's ranch. Yea yea I know there are tons of 50's ranches but you know from previous posts that I want a very specific mod 50's ranch. I have hope, tons of hope.

Anyway, coming back to the house that my mother grew up in, the house that I essentially grew up in visiting my grandparents, really brings back the old childhood memories. It is a house right smack dab in the middle of Winston Salem, around Wake Forest, and my mother has pictures where all you could see were fields. Looking out of the window now, there are apartments in the distance, houses across the street, continuous traffic, etc. I found the pic above online from this very area from 1965. Very few houses and buildings really - drastically different from today.

I remember going down to the dug out basement sitting on a wooden stool eating homemade sauerkraut out of a huge enamel pot that my grandmother made. I sat in the backyard with my grandaddy and shot cardboard boxes with the pellet gun and climbed apple and peach trees until I couldn't climb another branch. I would go into my grandaddy's shop in the backyard and "tinker" and somehow the days lasted forever.

I hope to give Coco a slice of this life I experienced even though life is very different now. She's been going outside lassoing branches and playing with her horses while sitting in the dirt of the garden - maybe she's on the right path.

image courtesy of flickr.com

Going Going Gone

Recession or not, my house is under contract!  After three months on the market{ain't bad huh}, I accepted an offer and now Coco and I are surrounded by unpacked boxes awaiting our closing date in July.  Maybe if I wait long enough the boxes will miraculously pack themselves?  Ok, what ever.

I am very excited to start on our new house hunt soon for my 50's gem.  We'll be bunking with the "rents" until I find our next {and hopefully just perfect for us} home.  In the meantime, I'll be sitting by my garden willing the fruits of my labor to ripen so I can eat them before the move.

image courtesy of take the day off

Berry Good

So I felt like I was on my death bed the last half of last week with a nasty sinus infection but really started to feel quite a bit better yesterday. On yesterday's agenda was an unexpected assassination of wasps on my deck to which Coco was crouched inside peering out of the bottom of a window to watch the vicious scene. That was really the only excitement on our Sunday, jealous?

A silver lining to our day...what is better on a Sunday evening than having farmer's market strawberries thrown on the top of some Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream? Nothing, nothing I tell you! This dessert made all things right in the world again, at least in my world.

image courtesy of me

Bangs and Bands

So I was sitting here with headphones on searching You Tube for some music and just happened across some of my favorite hair bands from the 80's.  This music brings back such good memories...a lion's mane of hair, california coolers {in the 2-liter bottles that is}, and jeans that were so tight you had to lay down to put them on and then have help to get up.  Ah yes, those were the days.  I salute you bad ass hair bands and all the cases of Aqua Net that you used...

Skid Row - I Remember You
Tesla - Love Song
{My bad bad chick!} Joan Jett - I Hate Myself for Loving You
Faster Pussycat - House of Pain

video courtesy of You Tube; L.A. Guns - The Ballad of Jayne

Field Of Dreams

I am in love with this fish-camp prefab dwelling designed by Rocio Romero. Would love to have one of these on the beach in Costa Rica...complete with fresh fried fish and cold beer. Dream...

image courtesy of Dwell

In-Room Dining

To cap off, what was a very nice long Easter break, I enjoyed some in-room dining last night.

We'll start with Easter Sunday...all of my family got together as usual for a full day of watching the Master's Golf Tournament, playing ball outside {which thankfully didn't result in any injuries like normal - nope, I take that back - my sis-in-law did fall down as we were having sprinting races, brush it off, brush it off}...back to the topic at hand. We also participated in a vicious egg hunt, hey there was money hidden in some of the eggs - duh. Lastly, we filled our bellies with a dinner of good ol' southern bbq and slaw sandwiches, hushpuppies, potato salad, sweet beans {coco's recipe}, and a honey ham. All to be washed down with strawberry cake. It was so darn good!

End scene, cut to Monday...ok, so from the honey ham came what? Yep, a ham bone and what does one do with a ham bone? No, not what you are thinking. You make ham and bean soup out of it which is precisely what I did. Slaving over the stove for three hours produced the best soup I have ever made - even Chloe was lapping it up. The soup literally had 20 different kinds of dried beans in it, yeah fiber! Therefore I thought what better way to enjoy the best soup I have ever made? In room dining {see, this story has come full circle}. Is it weird to enjoy eating dinner on the comfort of your own bed? I think not.

Guess what's for dinner tonight? Beans, beans the musical fruit...

image courtesy of me