Happy Easter!

Hope everyone is having a Happy Easter.

 Awhile back, I tried something new and daring.... Crafting by Skype!  It was a project put together by my cousin Susie. She, my sister and two other friends were together at Susies' house, way out west, in Idaho. I was here, and we all made Tim Holtz style Easter tags.  It was so much fun, and we plan to Skype again while doing another project. 

 The one on the left is the one I made and had to keep because I made a little tear in it.  The one on the right is the one my sister sent me in the mail. She always tells me that when she makes nice cards she wants to keep them all!  So I am very thrilled that she chose to send me one of her lovely tags.  Thanks Sissy!!

Luck o'the Irish

Even though I'm Irish, I don't think I've ever made a traditional Shamrock/Leprechaun card. Well I suppose, back in gradeschool for sure.  I may have bought a few over the years long ago.  But still....  I made this little Spring/Irish kinda feeling collage.  HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY. 

Bright and Sunny

I live on what I call the shady side of my street.  The morning sun streams in the back side of the house so it's nice in the kitchen in the a.m.  Which means we get the afternoon and evening sun on the front of the house.  During the very long, very hot Texas summers this is not so enjoyable.  Regardless...I have been relishing the early mornings in the back of the house.  It's still very cool, low to mid 40's in the a.m. and starting to warm up to mid 70's in the afternoon.  My perfect idea of a great climate. These kind of days aren't around for very long, so I do my best to really enjoy them.

Hubby and I have been trying to overhaul our menus lately.  We go in stages of eating out a lot, and eating things that really aren't good for us.  Then we alternate to only cooking at home, and eating what we know is good for us. During the latter stage, we end up feeling very virtuous about it, but actually feeling BETTER as well.  Funny how that works, huh?

Most mornings breakfast is oatmeal.  But mornings in a hurry, it's something quicker. For hubby that means a breakfast sandwich at a fast food place. He calls it his Buffett breakfast...  he saw in an interview with Warren Buffett that he eats the same thing most mornings, from the $1. menu.  HaHa  Yesterday I had one of my favorites, which I don't have often.  I have a love/hate relationship with bagels.  Mostly because I could never stop at just 1/2 but always had the entire thing.  Those things are HUGE you know!  Well, I don't feel so bad when I can eat just 1/2. Then I treat myself to cream cheese and a bit of  Fig Preserves. This is almost the best jam I have ever tasted.  The label says 50 calories per Tblsp. I use less on 1/2 bagel.

Did you notice my new bright yellow straw placemat?  I picked them up at Target last time, on clearance for .67.  Every year they have these, in different colors.  I was suprised they had the bright spring-like color on clearance.  I can't resist getting a few new ones each year,  I wouldn't have gone for the yellow, but have been using this old tablecloth lately, and thought a pop of bright would be nice with it.
I haven't mentioned any Target finds lately because I simply have been behaving myself and not going there as much.  On the same trip that I got the placemats, I found a few Nate Berkus stationery items, shown on the same yellow placemat.  It looks a little faded in the photo, but is is really bright in person.

 

Keeping with the yellow theme, here's what I had in the late afternoon, sitting on the front porch in the sun when it was 75.  This is only 7 oz., just the right size. A friend told me Dr. Oz said it is healthy to have one "light" beer a day.  I don't know if this one is considered light or not, I just like it.

 

I cooked us a healthy dinner of green beans and quinoa and a salad, along with bruschetta with sauteed garlic and tomatoes.  We were hungry and ate it fast so no photos.  It wasn't that exciting visually, but was very good.

I love me a rainy day

I ran a lot of  errands yesterday and it was 75 when I got home mid day.  Dry though, and windy as usual.  Today dawned nicely... around 40...right now it is 53, east wind 3mph and 93% humidity.  So much better than earlier when we had those high winds and danger of fire because of the low humidity.  I feel energized when it rains for some reason.  Plus I get to stay in and putter around today. I've been cleaning and organizing a bit so I can do some papercrafting this week-end. 

                                            Oak to the left

Oak to the right

 

 Asparagus fern new growth and Purple Heart Wandering Jew. Purple Heart I love this plant and it grows quite well here, I have it in both the front yard and in a couple of the beds in the back yard.  It spreads and can get out of control if you let it.

Tiny succulent coming back in the pot where the birds or squirrels ate the jade plant that was in this pot.  Don't know what this little guy is, but I hope it spreads quickly.

The trees are beginning to sprout and things are turning green around the neighborhood.  I keep forgetting to mention, we finally got rid of the plumbers.  They finished about a week ago, and the crew came back and filled in the trenches.  The entire side yard is just dirt and is going to remain so until we get the foundation work done.  We are trying to ignore that little problem for awhile if we can.  Hubby is going to spray for any weeds that come up.  I'm working on a design that incorporates ground cover and a stone pathway from the drive to the gate.  No grass there as it is under that big oak tree to the left (top photo), and grass does not grow well there. Neighbor and I have discussed a collaboration of some sort.  The property line meets at the tree trunk.

looking forward to a relaxing week-end.

Our Day at The Races

Getting to the racetrack on Saturday was pretty easy. Our tickets came with a parking pass and we were able to go in a back way instead of the main entrance. It took us about 20 minutes from the house to the Lot F parking. We got there at 8 a.m. Then the fun began...walking through a field of rough terrain, mostly uphill, against winds of approximately 20-25 mph. We had checked the weather forecast and knew it would be cold and windy, so we had layered our clothing appropriately, or so we thought. It took about 20 minutes to get to the entrance. I was already pretty cold by that time and jokingly remarked to Hubby, I'm ready to go back home. The sun was warm but the wind was brutal and it was only about 45 degrees by then. We learned later that with wind chill, it was 35 most of the day.

 

Walking into the wind with the sun behind us.

 

I was trying to be mellow about the fact that Hub thought we should get there so darned early. We went directly to the grandstand to locate our seat numbers,there were only a handful of people there that early. There were practices running on the track, the first race did not start till 10. We went walking around the area and located the two coffee vendors. LOTS of people in line there! The staff people that we spoke to were all freezing, and trying to stay in the sun as much as possible. Throughout the day I found the best place to be was leaning against the side of a couple of the buildings in the sun. That was the only way to be protected from the wind.

There were three races that day, they kind of all ran together in my mind and I couldn't keep the different classes of vehicles straight in my mind when they were running in the same race. We both took a lot of photos, and I tried to pick out a collection to represent the day. The main race started at 3:00 p.m. and we got to see the start and the first few laps from the skybox area of the main grandstand. Even with earplugs the sound was deafening, but exciting all the same. Then we made our way back to Turn 15 where we watched the rest of the race.

 

 

All of the car photos except one are of the main race, the Grand-Am. The red 51 car is from the first race.  The driver is Reba McEntire's son.  I picked that one to watch before I knew who was driving.  He was in first place for several laps, then kept falling back, then moving back up a few slots, then fell out completely.

 

In the photo of me up at the top, that is what my hair did most of the time. From one side to the other, then straight back!  I remarked that it looked like Donald Trump hair!

 

 

 The little orange Corvette was my favorite car in the main race.  Later in the race, it came into the pits and hit one of the mechanics.  He wasn't badly hurt, just knocked down. The car driver received a penalty though.

It never warmed up the entire day and when the sun started going down it got even worse in the Grandstands.  People started leaving because they were so uncomfortable.  We stayed until ALMOST the end. I was willing to stay until the bitter end no matter what!  Hub kept asking me if I was ready to leave, and I kept saying no.  When it finally dawned on me that he wanted a different answer, I said okay and we got out of there.  Came home and watched the rest on t.v.  Right after we left, there was a spin-out in Turn 15, right where our seats were located.

It never seemed really crowded to me, except for the last race.  I read in the paper Sunday that attendance was right at 27,000.  So it was pretty light, considering the F-1 race had close to 120,000.  It was a fun day, but I was tired on Sunday and spent most of the day relaxing.

A Trip to The Track

Yesterday I went with Hubby out to our new Circuit of the Americas race track to take a tour. He went to the opening F-1 race in November, and ever since he's been "on a list" of people they are trying to get to buy season tickets for the upcoming events at the track.  I do like watching racing sometimes, but I am not as big a fan of it as Hubby is.  It was quite impressive though, to be there in the stands and see the incredible views.  We were shown several different vantage points, from the starting line where the pits are, and several of the turns, where the grandstands and boxes are.  It was a gorgeous day, even though it was incredibly windy.  The previous day we had 55 to 60mph winds here that snapped a few trees off and did some damage around the entire area.

Blue skies over the race track.

The view from Turn 15 was our favorite. Row 23 or 24.  Mid-price in the range.

The tower and ampitheatre.  There will be concerts held here. They have had a few already but we haven't gone yet. I haven't kept up with who all has played there so far, but I know Aerosmith was there, plus a country band that I don't recall,  and The Lumineers are coming in April.

It was a nice drive out in the country and it remains to be seen if we will become season ticket holders.  I know Hubby is interested, but for me, I doubt that I am going to want to go to that many races.  Still, it is easier to sell two tickets if we need or want to, than one, so that may be the route to go.  

Herding Turtles

  On Thursday night, I was able to take my friend Pat out to dinner for her birthday.  Afterwards we went to one of our favorite Targets, looking for Nate Berkus clearance.  We didn't find much, but bought a few other things there.  On the drive home, we were discussing other Target locations that we might be able to stop at before they closed. The two we knew of were both too far away, since it was already after nine p.m.  I said let's just go home, but she was determined to hit another one.  So we arrived at the one closest to my house.  Now mind you, I had already seen all the Nate Berkus clearance there a couple of days earlier, and there were no tortoise shells.  So, at 9:45, we walked into the store as all the other people were leaving.  We ran to the household goods...and there they sat, 4 of the tortoise shells.   We quickly grabbed them all.  They were 50% off, and we saw a couple other things we liked, however they were only 30% off.  As they announced the "five minutes before closing, please bring your purchases to the checkstand"...we were still shopping.  When we got to the front we were the last people in line.  We were laughing hysterically and I think the check out lady thought we were two crazy old chicks.  We were, but we rescued those turtle shells and got the heck out of there!! We laughed all the way home at our good fortune.

This is the photo from Design Sponge, I got the yellow shell and the gold sea urchin.  She got the white shell and the white sea urchin.   Hubby had found me a yellow shell earlier in the week, at regular price, and the darn thing hung crookedly on the wall.  So anyhow, today I took it back.  

Today between Pat and I, we visited 6 different Targets.  At all but one we found the tortoise shells, but still at regular price.  The one that had them on clearance, had them for only 30% off.  One must really hit a lot of Targets to find the clearance price they want to pay, because they are all different.   We did each get a lamp, that we had liked when it first came out, but not for $50.00.  We got them today at 70% off.  We spent a lot of time texting and talking on the phone while shopping.   I got one Nate towel at one store, and Pat found me two more at another store. It was a lot of fun, but part of it is just the thrill of the hunt. We don't really need any of it, we just like Nate Berkus designs.  I do think we are done Targeting for awhile though.  I feel like I worked hard today, and all I did was shop.

 

This is some of the new Nate Berkus collection that just came in. It is being released tomorrow, but two of the stores already had it set today. Notice in the first photo, the tortoise shells on the bottom shelf that are still part of the first collection. Thankfully, I did not see anything in the new collection that I feel that I really just have to have.