Ten On Tuesday

1) Today was PJ, Beauty and Scrappin' day. What's not to love? The PJ part is self explanatory I'm thinking... the beauty part was that I gave myself a fresh pink sparkly manicure and waxed my brows and other facial areas that were in need. I asked Darrel if now I was going to have that look like a guy who just shaved his mustache and everyone keeps looking at him trying to figure out ... hmmmm what looks different about Joe today... He thought this was quite hilarious and me? Yep I'm worried I had just that many little hairs growing on my upper lip...

2) The scrapping part? Yes... Believe it or not I actually managed to finish a whole layout. I remembered how to scrapbook. I mean from may till late August? I was thinking maybe I forgot. Obviously this layout is about our day at Brookfield Zoo last December. That was the day before the great water and electrical crisis of 2010... remember? When we were at the zoo I got this magnet that had the name of the zoo with part of it in bright animal prints. That is what gave me the idea for the title. I created it in word art in publisher, using the fill feature to fill each letter with an animal print image I found using a search engine. Then I just used my large format printer to print it right onto the cardstock. I couldn't seem to come up with too much other patterned paper I could live with so I also printed some strips of the animal prints on cardstock and used those too. The peacock feathers were also a google image that I printed on cardstock and then carefully cut out. Kinda cool right?

3) Somehow or another while web surfing today I ended up on the Elle's Studio blog. I remember now... I was looking at Keisha Campbell's scrap space because it was featured on Scrap Scene. On Elle's site I saw this link for a free pdf journaling book. It's got some cool info and layouts in there.... thought you might want to check it out too!

4) LOVE this cool ruffle scarf I saw on Pinterest. Did you notice its a do it yourself? My sewing skills are quite minimal and quite beginner but I would love to make one of these. So maybe one of you out there is experienced at sewing. What do you think? Could one of us newbies at sewing mange this? I am wondering how hard the elastic thread would be to manage. Not so sure I'd want to do the dyeing either but love, love when she dies it teal. So pretty!

5) Did you ever do macrame? I used to when I was a kid/teen. I think I made bracelets maybe? Not sure if I ever did one of the famous plant holders. Ha. Anyway, when we were out the other day I saw someone with a macrame ankle bracelet. I thought how cool! I need to do macrame again and promptly came home to see what I could find on the Internet. Now... this may be a bit ambitious.. maybe.. for a first project.. but how pretty is this! Of course.. it would need to be in pink. Thinking I might try to find supplies when we go shopping next. Perhaps I should also figure out what the heck a Lark's Head knot is.... You think?

6) So yes.. also on Pinterest... perhaps I've spent a bit too much time there lately? ;) I saw this link for making homemade ice cream in zip lock baggies! Now how cool is that? Like shake n bake for ice cream. My husband loves homemade ice cream so we are thinking this might be a very fun vacation week project... I wonder if I can add chocolate chips...

7) My friend Anna invited me to an online Thirty One party today. I haven't looked at the Thirty One stuff in a while, but remembered that I was wanting one of those large utility totes they sell. I think my friend Lori has one and it seems perfect for all those times you need like a bin rather than a bag. So I ordered one of those and then I happen to spot this pink ruffled cinch sack back sack bag..... Oh my goodness... one of those might have accidentally fell in my cart too. Don't tell Darrel. :)

8) Did you know Prima has come out with some scrapping tools? How have I not heard about this? Somehow today I landed on  Lisa Barrie's blog. She mentions taking an Ingvild Bolme class. Well Ingvild does awesome work for prima.  Her work is usually heavily distressed. LOVE. Well she now has her own line of tools including this multi distress tool! Oh my goodness.. Well I need that immediately. I tried to find them for sale online but the best I came up with was a preorder here. And yes... I did just that. Didn't want to disappoint you. :)

9) Tomorrow we shop! I am thinking 3 different malls, one being an outlet center, ought to keep us busy don't you think? We also are having dinner out and I cannot wait!

10) Speaking of shopping... did you ever notice on facebook that it will show over on the side what you posted one year ago today? Well... one year ago today I posted asking if it was a bad thing that we were shopping and the very first thing we did was to spend $26 at Godiva...Apparently we are creatures of habit almost down to the exact day. Funny thing is... I love that. Routine makes me happy. It's that OCD, don't like surprises thing. :)

Time to switch purses and head to bed for the big shopping trip! Hope your week is going well. Blessings!

Fun In The Sun...Yes... Again

So I'm beginning to wonder if I have some repressed gene that has just like come to the surface in the past 2 years or so... A gene that means I'm like part fish or part George Hamilton or something because I love the pool or the beach and I love getting some sun! Please tell me I am not like orange or glow in the dark like George Hamilton... No? Good.. And yes... Isn't this a fabulous look? Hair all water logged... How come Darrel gets to look all cute water logged or not?

I love, love floating in the pool or the lake, sitting in my beach chair in the water and relaxing in the sun with a good book! Love it. It is so peaceful and vacation like and relaxing to me. So color me happy that day 4 of our vacation was spent at Holiday World. Yes. Our 3RD, count them 1, 2, 3... visits to Holiday World this summer. Happy about that. What did we do there? Mostly we spent our time camped out near the wave pool. The good one in the Bahari area.. not the other one. We tried the smaller one last time and it was like "was that just a wave that went by? Did we miss it?" ha!!












Usually the itinerary is to arrive at the park when it opens, which is generally one hour before the splash park side opens. We use this time to get some food for an early lunch. Generally at the Alamo which is Mexican. Didn't get to go to LaCarreta so this was the next best thing. Food isn't bad! Especially considering we are in a theme park. Yesterday was perfect. The weather was great. Perfect temps. No humidity. Sunny and nice breeze. Perfect. We were sitting ready to eat our taco salads, there was a Christian music show playing to our right so we had some great music to listen to. I was with my beloved husband. Just this peace and feeling of being blessed and so thankful washed over me. Found myself praising and worshipping in my soul... was having church right there in the middle of Holiday World. :) We had a great lunch and then headed to find the perfect beach chair to call home for the rest of the day. We sat in the water, we rode the waves, we napped in our beach chair, I read some on my Kindle and yes.. we had a treat or two. From open to close... we enjoyed each moment.













Here is another highlight of vacation. My husband likes to cook me breakfast. As you can see... he does a pretty awesome job at it too. French Toast like his Mom used to make, turkey sausage and an egg... it was quite yummy. He is also pretty great at pancakes, waffles and omelets.


Another vacation highlight? Time to scrapbook. What is this big white square? Well its a layout.. can't you tell? Ha!!!! Actually its the beginning of layout I have in my head and am trying to commit to paper now. I did my title in publisher and printed it right on my white cardstock. Been working on it slowly today... Perhaps by the end of the week I'll have a whole layout done. As you might have guessed... the subject is a trip we took to Brookfield Zoo.

Finished my book, The Help yesterday. Excellent, excellent book. Totally need to see the movie now. Started this book next because I saw that movie on lifetime on Saturday. I am reminding myself of the days when I used to take 6-8 books on vacation and read all of them. Loving that.

Any Project Runway watchers our there? Did you see the last show where the designers did clothes to go with New Balance shoes? They have the 2 winners for sale on Amazon now. I thought this dress was cute... but um not so sure $118 worth. Besides.. its a long maxi dress and on my 5 ft 2 inch self I am guessing it would make me look like I was playing dress up when I was a kid! ha! This was the other outfit. Also cute.. but pricey!

Thinking of ordering this new Scrapping idea book. Nora Griffin is one of the contributors. Always enjoy looking at her stuff and that of several of the other bloggers that are part of the book.

And with that... I think I will go take another look at my layout and see if any more progress is in my future. Hope your week is going well. Not sure what is on the agenda for tomorrow but I know there is a shopping day coming up soon! I asked Darrel if since he bought me a pair of Ugg Boots during our vacation shopping trip last year if that was now like an annual thing we do on vacation.... For some reason he didn't see the logic in that idea? I mean I'm thinking this new style with the nice chunky heel would be a good choice...

Blessings!

A True Fish Story...

I am thinking this is about the point when my husband started really enjoying our vacation. It was about the moment that he pulled a 19-1/4" Large Mouth Bass into the boat! It was sooooo fun to see him get to do that! He loves to fish, but it seems can never coax that big one to grab the line. Until yesterday. This is the biggest fish he has ever caught. Once he got it into the boat, we were trying to figure out if it was long enough to keep because it had to be at least 15". We didn't have a ruler or a tape measure. Good planning huh? Well you don't want the DNR to be checking up on you and have a too small fish on your stringer but we sure didn't want to throw him back either. Then I remembered I had a printed out crochet pattern in my bag and maybe we could get close enough, measurement wise using an 8-1/2 x 11" piece of paper! ha!! Well this was successful enough because we knew he was past 15" for sure so on the stringer he went. When Darrel cleaned him at my parent's house later he got the real meausrement and was pleased to find it was 19!! Cool huh? Now he is wishing he could have gotten a weight on him too! I am sure next sporting goods store we are near he is going to be buying a scale.. measuring tape.. and a net.. but we will get to that in a minute.















We decided to spend the day on Friday at Patoka Lake. Several years ago we had rented a pontoon boat for a few hours, and we really wanted to do that again. It was SO fun and relaxing. We got there as close to opening time as we could because we didn't want to waste a minute of our rental. Darrel signed the agreement and went over a quick lesson/checklist with the marina guy and we were off!















It took us about 1/2 hour to drive to the other end of the lake. The weather was warm, sunny and perfect. The lake was quiet because it was a weekday. Darrel did some fishing. I got some sun and read on my Kindle and OK.. I might have had a nap in there somewhere.














We brought along some snacks and lunch and about midday we drove to the dam area.. parked right in the middle of the water... and had our lunch. That was fun and peaceful.. have I said that already? I have decided we definitely need to own a boat and a swimming pool... do I have any rich relatives out there that want to finance that for me? No? Guess a girl can keep dreaming huh?














After lunch we pulled into this little cove and that is where the fish really started biting. He caught the bass, and then not too long after, this pole that he had in the water with a bobber on it started leaving the boat! ha! He grabbed it and knew he had something big on the line again.... as you can see by the bend of the pole. It was a catfish. Really good size, maybe bigger than the bass. Got it all the way too the boat and just as he was about to grab it... the line broke. Thus the need for the net we did ont have. SUCH a bummer when that happens. I really wanted to see him reel in another one. He did catch a small bluegill too. It was a hugely successful day fish catching wise and so fun to see my husband enjoy himself!

After the fish catching we pulled up by the beach area and got into the water for a bit. This required walking thru mud that felt like quicksand as my knee's disappeared into it and I lost my flip flops several times! It was yucky! At least we had the reward of the beach and the boat on either end of the walk so that made it worth it!














We had to be back at the dock by 6 PM. I could have easily stayed out for several more hours. The girl who checked our boat back in was very interested in Darrel's fish. She said the radio station called earlier asking if there was any big catches for the day and if they had known what Darrel caught they would have told them about it Cool huh? On our way back to the car, I snapped a picture of these floating cabins that they have for rent. How neat is that? A floating cabin where you can pull up your boat and park just like parking your car outside a hotel room! ha! Like the idea, but am thinking the $200 a night price tag is a bit steep!














We spotted these in the gift shop and Darrel decided I need to have one. I just love him. Do you see what it says? Gotta Have Pink. It might as well have said Deanna's Gotta Have Pink because it had my name all over it. :)














My parents live near Patoka Lake so we headed there to get cleaned up from fish smells and lake water so we could go to dinner. We decided to head to El Compadre for a 2nd visit. It was pretty good.. but our waitress was not the best and I liked what I ordered last time better. We'd probably go there again though if we are in the area. I had to snap a picture of my date because he is very cute when he is all tanned and relaxed.. don't you think? He then of course needed a picture of me. Not sure if it was because I am tanned and relaxed.. bwa ha ha ha..














Not so sure about the relaxed part anyway. Been having a little trouble with that. Sometimes it takes me a day or two to calm down, relax and de-stress. Been having that problem this time around. Today has been better.

Today has been pretty lazy actually. We slept in, Darrel made amazing French Toast for breakfast... OK... late lunch... and other than that I've been playing on goodreads.com, blogging, facebooking, and yes... I actually started a scrapbook layout. I think I remember how. I think the last thing I did was at Natl. Scrapbook Day time. What is up with that! Gotta change that. I need some creativity each day... it helps me keep sane.. or in the attempt to stay there anyway. :)

Speaking of goodreads..... Are you on that site? I could browse on there for days I think. Darrel says I have a reading sickness... It goes with the shoes, scrapbook supplies and tanning sickness I've got going. Ha! See I have over 300 books on my Kindle right now. (Most are Kindle feebies). However... when I see a friend mention a book they liked on Goodreads.. well I have to check it out! Then while I'm on there I'll notice a list like top Christian Fiction or favorite books of 2011... or some such thing.. and I have to.... HAVE TO... check it out. Someone says this book was so good, I loved it, well then I might need to read it too! I might be missing out on some great book or new author I haven't read before. Then of course I have to check Amazon today for the latest freebies and grab any of those that look promising. Reading. I've loved it since the first grade and I don't see that changing anytime soon. There are just too many good books to get thru! Right now I am reading The Help. I think next will be this one. I downloaded a "sample" from Amazon today. Of course if I love it, well then I'll need to get the rest and keep right on reading!

We have plans tomorrow... and for the rest of the week. Some of them might include St Louis Zoo!!! Excited about that. Haven't been there since we went on our honeymoon so thinking that will be very cool! I'll be checking back in. Look for me on Monday perhaps! Have a great weekend. Blessings!

Thankful Thursday

So last Friday, after the pedicure, when I decided I must immediately purchase a new e-reader sleeve.... I saw this purse. I decided immediately this must be my new fall purse. Why do I need a new fall purse? Well doesn't every girl need a new fall purse? I thought so. Normally I would probably pick the black or the brown, but nope. I need this one in wine. It's beautiful in the wine and I love the little metallic VB logo in the lower right corner there. The drawback... it's like $90. Of course all Vera purses of this size are... but couldn't they like have a sale or a coupon or something? That would make my life much easier. And no... it has not been purchased yet. Maybe I'll luck out and find a really great deal on one of our vacation day shopping trips? yes?

Yes, I did manage to get all of the work down so that Vacation started Wednesday around 5:30. This was much better than like oh 8 PM Wednesday which is what it was looking like when I was figuring up how many things I had left to do when I finally went to bed on Tues. night. I did some praying that things would come together with accuracy and efficiency, that the phone would be quiet.. and that the copier would be cooperative and I am happy to report all of those things happened. The copier had on little fit, but it was while Pastor Mark was using it and he wrestled it back into submission. :)

We seem to have this tradition of starting vacation time by going out for Chinese food which is exactly what we did for dinner Wed. night. We are fans of China Wok right in our little town. Their buffet is quite yummy. I threatened to do some scrapping the rest of the evening.. but all I managed to do was be a slug in my chair and watch TV and read my book.

Today was very productive... if sleeping a whole lot counts. Apparently I've been very tired and its caught up with me. I did manage to go for a 3.5 mile walk and for a rare treat.. Darrel went with me. He says I am faster now than he remembers. I considered this a good thing. Other than that I made us a skillet cookie. Darrel made us some pizza for dinner. And we did some planning and gathering needed for our plans for tomorrow. What are our plans for tomorrow? Let's just say there is water involved... You'll have to tune in Saturday to find out the rest. :)

Many things to be thankful for this week! Such as:

• getting my work done on time
• vacation!
• walking with Darrel
• a husband that can cook!
• Sophie & Sydney
• a pretty pink pedicure
• a new Vera Kindle case
• and OK.. yes.. the Kindle itself
• Pretty weather for walking
• a few hours at the beach over this last weekend. I love and adore the fall but I am not quite ready to give up my beach time!
• being able to work at home when needed
• reading
• our pretty new duvet cover
• prayers from my husband and friends
• safe travel for my parents
• new scrapping supplies.. got a great goodie box from Websters pages this week!
• good apples
• the fact that I now actually WANT to eat apples
• the desire to keep walking and keep trying
• friends
• faith in action Sunday at church
• my first day driving a golf cart.. very fun. I might need one now. :)
• did I mention vacation?
• fried chicken livers... yep!
• time with my husband

I have lots I want to share, and now with some time off, I am hoping to have time to do just that this week so please stay tuned! I should be back on Saturday for sure. Thanks for reading. Blessings!

Ten On Tuesday

1) Got a fresh pedicure on Friday. It's um very pink... and yes.. I got a little adventuresome this time around. It's sort of a pink and white zebra stripe with a little sparkle thrown in. Fabulous. I love it. I must now always wear open toe shoes so I can stare at all the cute pinkness.

2) While I was getting my pedicure, another lady and I were both reading on our Kindles. She had the 3rd generation. I have the 2nd. She happened to notice my pink case and was asking me about it. I told her I was in the market for a new one because mine was starting to wear out! She said she had one that she didn't like because it was too big. She then asks if I know that Vera makes e-reader cases... I said yes, as a matter of fact... I did. Apparently this was all it took to push me over the edge of going to buy myself one because when I left the pedi place... I walked like 3 doors down to the Vera place and bought myself an e-reader sleeve. I got it in this color... Very Berry Paisley.. and I am quite pleased with that. I am like needing to read even more just so I can carry around my pretty pink Vera Kindle case.... Now. That being said, I am not sure I'd be happy with the case if I had a 3rd Gen. Kindle. It would be too big, because it fits my 2nd Gen Kindle quite nicely. Just FYI if you are also shopping for an e-reader sleeve.

3) As I sit in my chair in our living room blogging to you... I am surrounded by work. Office work. My office work. Darrel's office work. We both came home with an armful. Does it have to be SO stressful for one to leave for vacation for a bit? Yes? It's that way for everyone? We aren't special? Why does that not make me feel one bit better. I suppose you are also thinking um Deanna.. if you have SO much to do, why do we find you sitting here blogging? Well.. that would be because I've been chained to my computer working for much of the day and if I don't take at least a short blogging break... I fear my head may soon explode. I'll get it all done by the end of the day tomorrow right? You aren't worried? Wish I wasn't.

4) So date night report.. that seems like eons ago... trying to remember what we did? Oh yes! Log Inn. Dinner. Chicken Livers. Shopping. It was a good night! First we went to a restaurant somewhere between our little town and the Big City called Log Inn. They were once upon a time a stage coach stop and they serve great chicken dinners family style. You are only supposed to be able to do family style for 3 or more, but you can order 2 adults and a child's dinner and pretend to be 3 and also get to enjoy family style like everyone else. Quite yummy. We ended the evening with a trip to the mall, Lics, and Kohls. Lics is an ice cream place. It was rather disappointing, note to self... stick to Baskin Robbins next time. Kohls was fun. Came home with a great little Vera Wang skirt and a couple of very cute "skorts" that were $11 each on clearance. I love clearance.

5) Regarding the chicken liver thing... I love them. fried chicken livers. Not something you can find on just any old menu so when a restaurant has them... I get pretty happy about that. Darrel on the other hand would be quite happy to live the rest of his life never ever seeing a chicken liver again. So we got to wondering... how many people love them? How many hate them? I posed this question on my facebook page and apparently fried chicken livers and people is a whole love/hate kind of relationship. The replies cracked me up. Some were ewwwing and gagging all over my page.. others were like sign me up for 2 servings. Toooooo funny. So how about you. Fried Chicken Livers. Yay or nay?

6) Lysa Terkeurst (Made to Crave author) was blogging the other day about "the fabulousness known as the paper calendar." Well that got my attention because as we all know I am definitely a planner kind of a girl AND I completely agree about paper calendars and planners being fabulous. It's just not as satisfying crossing something off of my to do list electronically... OK? So Lysa links to her favorite calendar on this site. Oh my gosh... look how cute those are! Spiral, 2 page per week, with monthly calendars, PINK, tabbed and personalized. What more could a girl ask for? I am soooo ordering one from there for 2012! Then I check out this girls blog... and discover she is a paper crafting lover. She likes pinterest... she drives out of her way to get her favorite burger... and she wants a 2nd wedding. See.. I should have known... planner lover, paper crafting lover.. a girl after my own heart.

7) Speaking of interesting blogs, have you ever checked out Chloe's Nails? Not sure how I came across that one but take a look at what this girl accomplishes with mainly some nail polish and scotch tape! Quite impressive... I am liking that look she did using the deco scissors.. Hmm I have some deco scissors.. not to mention a pile of border punches... that could be a fun look huh?

8) Vacation. You know what that means? We shall be hitting some restaurants. Especially Olive Garden for their endless pasta bowl thing and Red Lobster for Endless Shrimp. Assuming of course the shrimp thing starts in Sept. Last year it was like mid month... I hope its earlier! Love Endless Shrimp!

9) What else is on the itinerary vacationwise? Holiday World. Yes. Again. Patoka Lake. We plan to rent a pontoon boat and spend the whole day on the water! yay! Beach... either here or Patoka. Shopping!! Maybe Indy, Louisville... or possibly IL? Haven't decided. Lori told us about a cool little town in Missouri we are thinking of checking out. There is more... but my brain is on overload and the rest escapes me at the moment. I think it must also include sleeping.. lots of reading, maybe some knitting and crocheting and yes... perhaps even some scrapping! I'm thinking I'll spend some time with Darrel too.... bwa ha ha ha ha ...

10) OK... I've delayed the inevitable as long as I can. Must get back to work. I have a Newsletter to complete. Bulletins. Powerpoints.... and that's just the stuff I can accomplish from my chair.. more awaits at work tomorrow so I better get with it. Darrel is sitting here working his hiney off on his blueprints... putting me to shame. So until vacation commences.. I bid you goodnight!

Blessings!

Thankful Thursday

So you've seen the bathroom um a few times right? How about a little bedroom tour today? See I am finally getting my house cleaned up and in order from all the bathroom chaos and actually was liking it good enough today to share a real life photo! Shocking I know. Our bedroom is supposed to be kind of a shabby chic/vintage kind of a mix. Maybe no one else sees it... not sure... but we like it.. and even more so today with a few additions! Once upon a time all of our bedroom furniture was this darker cherry finish. When we moved here, my Mamaw had some nicer dressers than what we owned so we opted to buy those and then Darrel painted and distressed them quite nicely. He is good like that. So now we have a mix of the painted and wood finish and I like that it is not all matchy matchy...














The walls are a sage green and the comforter used to be that same color. Until I spotted this duvet cover on the Pottery Barn website. I like it sooooo much better than what we had. I wasn't sure if I'd love it with the quilt at the foot of the bed, but am happy to find out I do! The quilt is kind of special to me. We bought it in Eureka Springs AK on our last vacation before moving from Illinois to Indiana. On that vacation we knew we were moving and were talking about how we wanted to decorate and change the house and we bought this quilt to go with a sage green bedroom. Believe it or not... I was not a big pink fan at the time... however the quilt has lots of pink. Guess that worked out well huh? I am currently shopping for some new shams to replace the crocheted ones at the headboard. We've had them forever and I am pretty tired of them. I'd also like to replace the ecru throw pillows. Maybe we will do some pillow shopping while on vacation coming up!














Tonight Darrel helped me and we finally put up this awesome wall decal that my friend Lisa gave me like um a year ago... or longer... I know.. we are bad. OK, so we are slow but we get there eventually. I have another wall decal from Lori that I am thinking of using on the bathroom door. Haven't decided yet...














Since I am a happy girl when I can organize something.. I am loving getting this little hook thingy attached to the dresser so I have a place to hang my longer necklaces and beads. It's attached to the side towards the bed, so for the most part.. when you aren't standing and trying to take a picture of it, its hidden. See... didn't he do a cool job painting and distressing this dresser? It was all oak finish! On a side note... that little pink lamp always sat in Mamaw's bedroom. The quilt on the chair? Mamaw made that for me when I was a baby and it is now one of my treasures.














I have also been wanting to hang this picture forever... it's been on the floor behind the chair collecting dust. This was probably a cheap dept. store kind of painting but it hung in my bedroom when I was a little girl. I love it and I used to love the little girl saying her prayers with her puppy. I hung it next to the painting that has my favorite bedtime Bible verse on it... "I lie down and sleep in peace for you alone O Lord make me dwell in safety..." so now I have my verse and my prayers right beside me for bedtime. Yep... I am a sap like that and sometimes... OK sometimes often when I am struggling with depression feelings.. fear and anxiety can hit me hard at night and these things, they comfort me.













On the other end of the room, Darrel hung this pink canvas picture for me. It has a verse from Philippians on it about thinking about lovely things.. and it was a gift from my friend Kay. I hung it by my vanity area to remind me to think those good thoughts each day since lets face it.. in my struggles, my thinking can generally be about 90% of my problem.

This dresser was also oak finish and Darrel spruced it up! You might remember I bought the vintage train case on ebay. It holds my makeup, brushes, etc. that I use everyday and when its time to travel, I just have to throw in my hairspray and grab my curling irons and I am ready to go! Love that thing.

This little gem may be one of the best purchases I ever made... See since my vanity area is at my dresser, my curling iron, flat iron and hairdryer chords were forever getting tangled, and were always always in the way should one want to say um open a drawer! Drove me insane! Was forever dumping one of them in the floor. Until one day I said um Deanna... what about getting one of those holder deals like they have at the salon and attaching it to the side of the dresser. Turns out this was a brilliant idea because look! I found this one on Amazon and I love love love it! It is steel so this also comforts me should my OCD self allow me to actually leave the house without turning something off! Did you notice my Dalton Bronzer there too? Love that stuff... The basket was from the simply shabby chic line from Target.. another fav.

I have soooooo many other things running thru my head that I'd love to blog about.. but once again the hour is late. So for now, must close with my thankful list and hope the rest doesn't ooze out of my brain before I manage to get it blogged. :)

This week I've been thankful for so many things such as:

• our day at the State Fair.  It was perfect.
• that our day was safe.  There was a bad accident there the following day.  Still somewhat stunned about that.
• a much cleaner house.. gives this girl some peace..
• freshly painted pink fingernails
• my husband .... there are not words to describe the depth of my love and feelings for him
• Sophie & Sydney.  They just make me smile.
• Ashly's awesome tea party
• seeing the balloons at the fair
• Thursday's at home.
• walking
• perseverance
• vacation.... 4 work days.. unless Sunday counts... which it usually does... until vacation
• the new bathroom.. Lisa said she got a new Pottery Barn catalog today and she swears our bathroom was in there.. bwa ha ha ha.. I love it. 
• crocheting and knitting.. forgot how much I love to do that
• turkey stuff... we are loving like turkey burgers, turkey Italian sausage.. turkey breakfast sausage... Turkey...who knew?
• did I mention a clean house?  yes?  Just making sure.
• a husband who is willing to help with housework when needed
• a good walk outside today... it is still hot out there
• my job and the good people I get to work with
• the awesome friends and family that are sponsoring me for the suicide prevention walk
• a lighter than usual regular work week that came on a week when I have 2-3 BIG extra projects.  This has been a very good thing.  Helps a girl keep her sanity...
• scripture
• tall shoes
• LaCarreta lunches
• showers in the new bathroom  - We are so blessed to have a new bathroom with running water and a place to get clean.  I think of the people Darrel met in Haiti.  We heard recently that their only/main water supply is contaminated and they are not sure there is another source.  Running water and a bathroom seems like such a small thing in the course of our day that we don't realize what a huge thing it is to be thankful for.

Headed for bed.  Work tomorrow.  Then a pedi I think and then.. date night!  yay.  Might be a pizza and movies at home night.. which is sounding pretty prefect to me.  :)  Blessings!

Ten On Tuesday

1) Yes.. I know. I disappeared again. You'll forgive me won't you? Life has been just a little more than I can handle lately and some days I am doing good to stay vertical when needed. Let's see how much catching up we can do with today's post.















2) Yes, last Friday we had an all day date night kinda day. We went to the Indiana State Fair and had a beautiful perfect day. How could you not have a beautiful perfect day with this cute guy as your date? I just love it when date night starts when I wake up! I vote for that every Friday. Who is with me?














3) See... I told you we were going to the fair otherwise known as "how much deep fried food can a person eat in one day." I figured this was the perfect visual for that statement don't you think? Did you notice that the menu includes deep fried Koolaid and butter? Are they serious? We did not try anything from this booth there was way too many other treats to enjoy. My favorite thing? A plate of nachos at the end of the day... I should have known to stick with the Mexican food and I'd be happy right? Maybe LaCarreta should have a booth there next year.





















4) We got to see lots of cool events this year. This was the Peking Acrobats. They were pretty amazing. Um do you see how high in the air this guy was? They also did like 10 people on one bicycle... very impressive. We also saw the "can-struction" display like last year. Look at this one that is of "The Incredibles"

Very cool huh? Constructed entirely from canned goods. Before this exhibit we got to watch the wiener dog races. OK. That was way too cute watching these little dogs race for the finish line. They were quite excited about that too and SO fast.

5) Near the end of the day they had a hot air balloon glow. It was like the gravy on a perfect day. I love watching hot air balloons and we got to go right down on the field and walk around them and take pictures and talk to the owners if we wanted. Loved it.

6) We ended our day sitting outside the grandstand, about 9-10 PM enjoying our last snack and the beautiful weather and just talking and OK... cuddling and holding hands. Yes.. we are mushy like that. Aren't you supposed to be on date night? I thought so. Well beautiful ending to our day, but the sad thing was that the next night, just like 24 hours later, there was a storm, and the stage inside the grandstand collapsed and 5 people were killed. Many were injured too. It was very eerie and sad to know we had been sitting there enjoying our day the night before. It just didn't seem possible and I found the whole thing very sad and hard to grasp. Please pray for the families that lost loved ones.

7) On Sunday I was invited to a Tea Party by my friend and "honorary daughter" Ashly. She had attended a tea party that was given as a bridal shower when she was in California recently and she wanted to give one of her own when she came home.














8) Ashly and her Mom did all the party preparations. Look how beautiful they had the tables set up. Lots of pink stuff!













There was also lots of yummy treats that we got to enjoy with our tea. They had the best chicken salad. Guess how they got their recipe? Ashly and her Mom went to Arby's, ordered a chicken salad sandwich and dissected it. ha!! They did a fabulous job too. I got to take home some left overs which I have been enjoying for lunch all week! :)

9) Our tea party favor was that we each got an antique tea cup to take home with us. I picked one with pink.... are you shocked? I love antique dishes and especially pretty little tea cups. I used to enjoy hot tea quite often and found it quite relaxing... how did I get away from that? Now that I have a pretty new tea cup I'd say its time to start that habit again. Plus.. the next day at work, I found 2 more tea cups in my mailbox! I guess I got a bonus... don't I feel special. :)

10) Oh... a little tidbit I forgot to mention about the fair. Would you believe... I didn't manage to leave the fair without buying a new pair of shoes. Yep. It was not planned... honest. See I wore my Birkenstock sandals which are always, always my most comfortable for walking all day. I never ever have a problem with them. Until this time. This time I noticed they were feeling a little loose, but didn't pay a lot of attention until my feet started to hurt. I was getting blisters on the balls of my feet. Well I hadn't realized that on this particular pair I had never tightened the straps after my weight loss. Apparently this was more of a problem then I knew. Well it was only like 6PM and my feet were NOT good and we still had LOTS of walking we wanted to do. Well then we remembered we had seen a Crocs booth when we first arrived. I ended up with a pair of these. They felt soooooo good, like putting on my slippers when my feet were sore and tired. Plus they were marked down to under $18 so not a bad deal either. You really can't even blame me.. it was Darrel's idea. He bought them... honest. What a nice souvenir from our day at the fair.. navy blue crocs flip flops. :)

I promise to reappear by Thursday for Thankful Thursday and possibly tomorrow too. We shall see how the day goes. Hope your week is going well! Blessings!

So I missed Ten on Tuesday....

1) So yes... sorry... I missed Ten on Tuesday. I brought a note from my mother... Can I be excused? Thank you. Been having a couple of those no good horrible terrible very bad days... and Tuesday was like all consuming. NO time or energy to post yesterday so perhaps instead... I will give you Eleven for Wednesday? Fair enough? I thought so.

2) Let's start with bathroom progress. New moulding is finally going up. Is it done? Um no. Why? Because not one stinkin' part of this process can just be normal or easy. I swear it must be written down somewhere. But before I whine... lets talk about how cool the moulding looks! It does right? So far we have the chair rail in, and part of the door moulding. We had the baseboards in... but that will have to wait a moment for the whining. See how cool he cut the board over the door longer? Why? Because in this old house.. that is how the original mouldings looked! I love it! Now we have to go back and putty the nail holes and then yes, once again pull out the paint to touch up those spots. Will we EVER be done with painting? I think I will be a little Old Deanna when that happens...




















3) As for the whining... See this door? Well as my sweet husband was preparing to install the moulding, we discover that the entire door frame is sticking out too far into the bathroom. Lovely. NOT. The difference was because when we pulled the old plaster off the wall and replaced it with drywall, we then made the wall thickness um thinner... This means that he had to pull the whole stinkin' frame out! This of course involved pulling off finished cherry moulding in the kitchen.. I was not thrilled about this. I just want the moulding to go up and be done. That isn't asking so much right? The door there is original and will stay. We have three of those doors and somewhere on the to do list it says "refinish doors" We um haven't gotten around to that yet... I actually kind of like the old dirty paint.... But I am also dying to see what the wood will look like stripped and refinished! Also because of different wall thickness and wainscot thickness, the baseboards aren't meeting up with the door frame correctly. This means they had to come back down to be planed. We will be done some day. We will. I am determined.














4) Is this not the cutest? Last week I had a mammogram at the hospital. As I passed the hospital gift shop on the way to my appointment I thought hmmm that place looks fun. Need to check that out. Of course I did just that on my way out and I found these adorable little key charms! Look at her pigtails. She just makes me smile. The one's with a "D" on them didn't have a pink dress, but I thought it was quite appropriate that she was wearing pink shoes... Don't ya think? Maybe they are pink Danskos like me.

5) Finished this book this past weekend. It wasn't bad. Not the best book I ever read, but a good story. Another story that reminded me of Angela's Ashes. It's about Italian Immigrants in America and how life was for them back in the early 1900's. It was based on a true story. I'd recommend it.

6) Currently I am reading Indelible. It is my first e-book for Blogging for Books! Liking that. So cool I can get them for my Kindle now. I am also going to be reading Heaven Is For Real. I loaded that on my Kindle months ago and never got around to reading it. This Sunday our Pastor is starting a 4 week sermon series that pulls inspiration from the book so now I want to get it read and be part of the gang that has already read it or is reading it! Have only heard rave reviews for that one so I can't wait!

7) This Sunday I get to attend an official Tea Party that a friend is giving. I am supposed to be dressed up and... wear a hat if I have one. Um the only hat I have is a pink ball cap. I am thinking this is not the look I would be going for with my black dress and my fabulous shoes... So yes, at this point I am prepared to be hatless... Maybe if I make my hair big enough no one will notice? Bwa ha ha ha ha...

8) So you know my love for Bath & Body Works and this definitely includes their hand soaps, especially the moisturizing ones. Well I was out, they had a sale, I had a coupon for free shipping... so voila! New soap on its way. Will did you also know they now have "hand soap sleeves" to pretty up your bottle of hand soap? Check this out. I picked this one to go in the new bathroom. Look at all the other cute styles! I mean I am not so much a Halloween person, but how cute are the Halloween styles? Love!

9) Um and I should clarify on number 8 there... I love Bath & Body Hand Soap, the original deep cleansing ones. The new foam type ones... not so much. I bought one of those. I tried hard to love it, but then, one morning as I depressed the pump to get some soap to wash my hands... it for the 900th time spit soap on my shirt. And sadly... this was past my patience limit and that soap was no longer allowed in my house... And I'm sorry, but we haven't made up since..

10) Do you like the gauze sponge poof things to use in the shower with shower gel? I really like those too and recently I was in need of a new one. Of course I picked one up at where else... Bath & Body Works right? Well I needed a pink one... and for the life of me could NOT figure out why on earth the pink ones had um what looked like orange ears. Darrel and I are like OK.. what are those for? Are these left over from Easter? Is it supposed to be a duck? A bunny? Do the little orange things serve some washing purpose I am too dull to understand? Well... color me enlightened I now see on their web site that the little orange things are supposed to make it a "citrus" sponge. Gee... why didn't I think of that? My sponge was apparently supposed to look like an orange or a grapefruit or something. I must say.. with this new information I am not one bit sorry that as soon as I got my sponge home... I ripped those puppies right off....

11) Guess what? In a few short days we will be attending the Indiana State Fair... otherwise known as how much deep fried food can one person eat in the span of one day! We of course are just going to see the exhibits.. but hey if we pass say oh, a deep fried twinkie, a milkshake.. a corndog... some Indiana corn on the cob... a "garbage burger" (a burger type sandwich with a pork pattie, topped with bbq'd pulled pork.. YUM) or something along those lines... well then we probably should be polite and sample one or two of those things right? It will give us something to do while we visit the balloon glow or the giant calf statue or perhaps the world's largest pig... You know. Important stuff like that. Perhaps on the way home Darrel will get hit on again... I mean that was so much fun last year... :)

There... a bonus 11! Are you impressed? Tune in tomorrow for Thankful Thursday. I am thinking of starting a new post for Wednesdays soon too and will have to fill you in about that....I also keep meaning to share more from the house cleaning devotional (I know.. I promised you the 6 things... I haven't forgotten) and an article about blogging that was in Where Women Create... I have a list... I'll get there... I won't forget you. Thanks for reading! Blessings!

It's A Girl Thing...

So can you guess where we've been today?  Yep!  Beach day!  It was perfect.  Wouldn't have thought it when we spent the night listening to loud thunderstorms and woke to cloudy skies but it was hot and sunny and the water was the perfect temp.  It was great, great, great!

Instead of our usual, local beach/lake, we headed over to what is called Boggs Creek.  It is a bigger lake that allows boating with water skiing and tubing and that kind of thing.  This creates quite a "wake" which means lots of waves heading for us and our beach chairs.  It is really a good thing because it keeps you nice and cool to have the water constantly washing up on you!  Felt like we were in the wave pool at Holiday World! 

Funny thing happened... At one point, Darrel and I were out in the water, about as deep as you can go.  Darrel notices he has a little girl climbing around in his chair back at the beach.  At first we thought this was pretty cute.  She was just maybe like 2-3 yr old range.  The scary thing was there didn't seem to be a parent in sight.  We were also a little worried she was going to knock our bag in the water and it contained things like our phones.. and my Kindle.  We were still concerned she could fall or wondered why no one seemed to be watching her.  Finally we see a woman running towards her and assume she is coming to collect her daughter.  You'd think right?  Um nope.  Instead, she has like a swimming pull up thing in her hand and proceeds to change her daughter on Darrel's chair.  Would this bug you?  I could have even lived with this, but then she sets her mostly unclothed child, bare bottom right on the chair and I was just waiting for her to put the diaper she just took off of her right on the chair too.. At least she did not do that.  It wasn't like the beach was crowded.  There was tons of room to have their own spot and to take her up on the sand and change her.  There was also a beach house up behind us.  Anyway...About this time we head back to our chairs and try to be polite and kind while she and her daughter and 2 other people who were either friends or family are also right there with her.  Her daughter is still on Darrel's chair.  She doesn't move her.  While we are trying to get thru to sit back down, I look over and now the little one is standing in the water and piling sand into the chair..... I nicely, politely said "please don't put sand in the chair."  At this point the mom finally picks her up and tries to brush the pile of sand off and they move on....... and we were left to wonder if we are too touchy or if that whole exchange was as intrusive as it felt?  I don't think any of them ever said one word to us... like maybe sorry.. .excuse me... hello... thank you? 

We headed to the beach straight from lunch and had went to lunch straight from church, so we needed somewhere to change. Darrel's office is on the way so we made a pit stop there to change in the bathrooms.  We have visited before on our way to the beach, like once or twice.. and he always leads me to the bathroom that he always uses when he is at work.  OK girls... help me out here.  The aforementioned bathroom is in the like storage/warehouse looking kind of area.  It is a boys/girls bathroom.  It has a urinal.  It kind of reminds me of like a gas station bathroom, but way way cleaner OK?  Just the style of it and where it's located.  I jokingly say to him "so now you are taking me to the like truck stop bathroom right?"  He looks at me laughing and says "the truck stop bathroom?"  I said doesn't he know I'm a girl and wonder if like the girls in his department use this bathroom?  He decides at this point to take me upstairs.  Well girls... upstairs is a beautiful new bathroom, slate tile, pretty, smells nice, bath and body works soaps on the sink... um did he just meet me?  Of course us girls would choose this bathroom.  A girls walks in and sees a urinal and has this urge to turn around and check the door to make sure she entered the right room!  ha!  I asked if his (woman) friend who works across from him uses the storage area bathroom and he says no... she goes upstairs.  Hello?  See... case closed.  I told him the rule was.. if given a choice, us girls do not pick the bathroom with the urinal in it... I'm just sayin'   :)  Doesn't he remember I'm the like loves a nice hotel kind of girl?

Tune in next time for some excerpts from Where Women Create, and I'll also explain about the 6 things devotion I mentioned.  Hope you have a great week!  See you on Tuesday.  Blessings!

Waiting.... Is Not My Best Thing...

Waiting for date night to begin....

On the schedule for this evening we have a double feature consisting of Soul Surfer and Limitless.  We plan to eat copious amounts of pizza and bread sticks from Bobe's and perhaps enjoy a little popcorn... M&M's and Ben & Jerry's too. I really wanted to try that Late Night Snack flavor.. but sadly they did not have it.  I settled for New York Fudge Chunk I think it's called?  Haven't had that before either. 

Speaking of M&M's... I just had my very first pretzel M&M.  I figured I was missing out when I heard that my niece and her friends were scarfing down bags of them at my Niece's birthday party.  If teens like them, must be a good thing right? 

While I am waiting I am browsing the latest issue (aug/sept/oct 2011) of Where Women Create.  I don't buy it very often because it is quite expensive... but this month, they have an article on Tim Holtz and show his whole workspace.  VERY cool.  They also have articles on Becky Higgins, Stacy Julian and Melody Ross among others.  I supposed it probably didn't hurt that the cover of the magazine this month is um fuchsia and yellow.  Very pretty!

While we enjoy our pizza, once my date gets home with said pizza, we will likely watch the newest episode of Project Runway.  We are new groupees for this show... we got sucked in during some recent Saturday marathons of past seasons.  So far I think my fav. is Anya but the jury is still out. 

I am considering starting a new crochet project which would be one of the little teddy bear hats.  I have several patterns to try, although I don't love any of them as much as that first one I spotted on Etsy... via Pinterest.  While perusing bear hat patterns I also spotted this little knitted bear... now how cute is he?  Should my knitting skills ever progress past scarf maker... I might have to give that a try!

I am happy these arrived today... I got them in purple and they are quite fabulous!

In October I am going to be doing a walk to benefit the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention.  I am walking on a team with my friend Ashly in memory of her brother Caleb.  We lost Caleb to suicide in Feb. 2010.  We are hoping to raise funds in honor of Caleb so that other families can be helped and perhaps avoid going thru this kind of tragedy.  If you'd like to help please check out this web page.  At the bottom you will see my name (Deanna Koontz) and if you would please click there and then on "support me" on the following page.  Thanks! 

OK.. my date just called and he is still 30 minutes away with the pizza.  Did he not think to tell the pizza place that patience is not my best thing?  How can one start date night without one's date...not to mention a great pizza?  ha! Perhaps I'll go play with a kitten or two... good idea.  Hope your Friday night is awesome!  Blessings!

Thankful Thursday

Can you spot the new additions? Yep, more bathroom progress. Tonight we got the towel bar and the clock up on the wall. We think the towel bar is original to the bathroom. We think the bathroom was put in sometime in the late 40's because my dad was born in 43 and he remembers playing in this room when it was a closet. Cool huh? Originally we thought we'd just use a towel hook, but when Darrel took the bar off the wall and we realized the bar was solid glass... we set it aside just in case.




















Tonight we decided to see how much we could get it to clean up by attacking it with a Mr Clean eraser... do you not just love those things? It cleaned up good, but it doesn't look brand new or anything. I was good with that. Don't want it to look brand new. I wanted it to look like it should look in 2011 after Mamaw first put it on the wall in 1940 something. It's cool right? Or only if you are one of us vintage loving people? We thought it was cool to see that Restoration Hardware sells a reproduction that looks just like it.

You might remember that we picked up the clock at Pottery Barn a few months ago. It is perfect. Just the look I had in mind. So excited to be at the finish line of being done with this project. Saturday we should get a majority of the moulding installed and I cannot wait to see how that looks too!

Oh my goodness did you get to enjoy the beautiful weather today? I got to walk outside without being in danger of heat exhaustion. I think I forgot what that was like! Can't remember the last time I made over 3 miles without having to stop a couple of times and cool down. It was fabulous out today. After my walk I got to go and spend my last weekday at the beach for this summer. How can so much of the summer be gone already? On the other hand.. its only Aug. 4th so perhaps we are rushing it a bit? I fully intend to be in summer mode until at least labor day and more if I can milk it! Ha! Anyway, the beach closes during the week once school starts which is next week. It will still be open for the weekends thru Labor Day so you can bet I'll be taking advantage of that when I can. It was perfect at the beach today. Not to hot. Good water temp. Floating on my pretty pink raft and plenty of time to read. Perfection.

Much to be thankful for this week such as...

• progress around the house. the cleaning devotional has really been helping my motivation and having more order in my home is helping my cluttered head... and my stress level.
• nearing the finish line on the bathroom
• getting ready to start a new Bible study
• Lauryn's 16th birthday party
• Sophie & Sydney
• a rare during the week lunch date with my husband
• walking outside
• summer at the beach
• weekend afternoon naps
• watching our favorite TV shows with Darrel
• our fun shopping and movie date night last week
• giving gifts to friends
• new scrapping supplies
• turning even a trip to the hospital into a shopping trip. they had a great gift shop!
• a marriage conference Darrel and I are preparing to lead at our church this fall
• new zumba DVD's
• progress... patience...perseverance
• chocolate sheet cake!
• a pedicure with a friend
• our upcoming vacation
• new crochet patterns
• kindle books
• our state fair date this week
• Mexican food
• our home and air conditioning during all of this heat

Hope to be back to blog this weekend. There was a cool entry in the Mary and Martha devotional today about the "6 things." Have you heard of that? Loved it and its the 2nd or 3rd time it has crossed my path lately. I'll share more on the weekend. We hope to have an at home pizza and movie date night tomorrow I think. Hope your weekend is fabulous! Blessings!