I won! Again!!

These blog giveaways are fabulous! I will have to do one when I have more followers. But one things is for sure I must be lucky at them because I just got this delivered to my door...
A custom cut Redi Shade!

Okay I had never heard of Redi Shade either but I'm glad I know what they are now. This fabulously designed simply to install "Simple Fit" is all mine and it was Free!!!
Thanks to the blog giveaway from Embellished Bayou.


The window I installed it in, is in our master bathroom, which lets in a lot of great light.


The problem is in the morning it shines right in my face, the curtains are sheer and still let a good amount of light through, but the main problem lately is the heat! It's been 110 here during the day and having an insulated shade like this one is really going to cut down on how hot our bedroom has been.

As soon as I installed it it felt cooler in the room. By the way, it literally took me 5 minuted to unpack it and install it.




Thanks again Embellished Bayou!

Too hot for fall

The colors of Fall are inspiring me to decorate, but the temperature here is not! It is a sweltering 105 today, and its just too hot to go outside for more than a few minutes.

I made this beautiful Autumn colored banner out of spools of thread and some ribbon. These were recently given to me, and I hope to find a good use for them someday, but for now aren't they pretty hanging on my pin board like a rainbow of beautiful shades of color.


Fairytale pumpkins are absolutely one of my favorite decor pumpkins, but I just recently found out that they are a great cooking squash too! I got this beauty at Trader Joes yesterday for a great price, especially as I will be using it to decorate our entryway for over a month and then we will roast it & eat it!


Despite the heat we had our winter wood delivery come yesterday morning. We now have a half cord of seasoned oak ready to go for those cold winter nights and weekend mornings. I can't wait!


I went digging around in the kindling pile of oak we have from removing some dead branches form our tree out back and put them in a tall vase for the front display. The different kinds of lichens from decades of growth add the perfect amount of spooky to what are just sticks.


I am a huge dork for Lichen, I love it! If you care to know a bit about the lichen we have on our trees here I have some pictures and a little info. They are so beautiful and delicate, each grow at a snails pace and they add so much character to the ancient trees in our town.

Lace Lichen, or Ramalina Menziesii is one of the fastest growing lichens in our area. Its also known as Spanish Moss and is a beautiful webbed pale green and only abundant in places without polluted air. You will see tons of it hanging all over the really old oaks and other trees that have allowed it to grow for a long time.


There are so many species of Lichen I can't tell you which we have exactly on our tree, but this is a close up of what some of them look like.
Growing at only an inch a year I have seen boulders almost completely covered in them.


Although dry and brittle they need moisture to grow.

Spooky Came Early

One thing about Mrs. B that Mr. B has learned to accept is the little patience that I have when it comes to decorating, present giving, or any type of celebration or holiday. Especially when it comes to Halloween.
I know.. I know, its not even October yet or technically Fall, but I couldn't help it. I haven't gone overboard, I only decorated the entryway so far and I'm sure I'll be adding more to that as we get closer to Halloween.




These mini pumpkin pedestals are really fun, I picked them up at a thrift store for 50 cents gave them a coat of black spray paint and they are now displaying two adorable yet scary pumpkins that I plan to make into a pie after I'm done decorating with them.


Here are the 70's brown candlestick holders or whatever they were before I repurposed them.

Little Finishes Outside

We spent most of this beautiful September Saturday outdoors. After a great walk this morning with Baxter to go feed the ducks, we headed into town to pick up supplies for the day.
Rory had ordered lots of parts at the auto supply for the Bronco that will hopefully help get it running again soon. We then took a trip or two, or three to the hardware store for the rest of things we needed for the day.
I picked up a roll of burlap and some velcro to improve the look of this cool old metal work desk that I've been using as a planting table and storage for our garden tools.
Here it is with all of my junk under it.


This ruffly (but manly) burlap skirt hides all that mess. I sewed it with a large heavy hem to add weight to the skirt to keep it down. I attached it with a peel and stick velcro to the bottom of the drawer. Having the seam in the center was a must for grabbing supplies with ease.
I picked up this great big orange begonia while at the hardware store and potted it into a bright pot, from Mexico. The blue piggy was a gift from Rory last Christmas.


Rory rewired and hooked up these two flood lights under our Oak tree in the front yard. We have been wanting to light up the tree since we bought the house, but its been on the bottom of the list. We are really excited to see it, but its not quite dark enough yet, I'll update this post once we can get a good shot!



Here we have one giant Oak lit up in the night. I couldn't really get a great shot with my tiny point and shoot camera and I could have really used a tripod. You can see the moon peeking through the branches.

Fall is in the air

I know its not technically Autumn yet, but I am excited for the season. The weather isn't quite cool enough for a fire and my fall decor is still in the closet. But I just might bring it out before Sept 22nd this year.
Here are some beautiful Fall and Halloween decor ideas I'll be getting my inspiration from soon.

Gilded pumpkin display

Country Living




Martha Stewart Living

Creepy Green Glitter Skulls

Martha Stewart Living

Bookshelf tree



Country Living

Labor day weekend was just that

We spent the last two days laboring outside in our backyard. It was hot out and a ton of work but we had a blast working together and rewarded ourselves with a great looking backyard and some treats afterward.

Here is a photo of the right side fence in back from a couple months ago. We took the pool cover out in June, I painted (almost) the whole fence last week, we ripped out the weeds and gnarly rose bushes, and this weekend we dug and dug and planted 4 fairly mature 10 foot queen palms and 5 flax plants.


After! You can't see the flax plants in this shot as they are quite small at the moment. They should grow pretty quickly and add a good amout of color.





We plan to line the edge of the plant bed and the lawn with natural sandstone rocks.




After our 2 days of manual labor we felt like a treat or two. I whipped up a couple Piña Coladas as we were wrapping up the job site and took a dip in our pool. I may have even hung out in the hammock for a minute.


Then!! We went crazy and made these outrageously delish burgers. On fresh organic brioche buns, with organic beef, tomatoes, lettuce, avo, grilled onions and pickle. They were so fresh and decadent, no need for a side. They were a couple of monsters, just what we needed as we worked up quite an appetite.

Panna cotta

Yum! I made a new dessert for Rory's dads birthday. Rory and I have had it before at one of our favorite restaurants, but I have never made it. It's quite good. If you have never had it before its a faintly vanilla flavored cream custard. Its made with gelatin and no eggs at all, so all you taste is the delicious cream. I served it with a homemade caramel sauce that was epic, and a chocolate ganache sauce.

Here is the Birthday boy's plate!

Finished an oil

I finally had the time to finish an oil painting I had stopped working on months ago. It was about 90% done and then the Master bathroom renovation got in the way.
I am happy with it, but not thrilled. I think I need to work on my paintings with full concentration to be really satisfied with my work. I tend to speed through them sometimes and it shows up in the quality. (I am typically quite hard on my art.)
So here it is! You be the critic.

Look what's new in our home

Thanks to Domestic Ease and their great giveaway of $500 worth of gift cards for Pottery Barn.
We now have two of these beautiful and large bed side lamps in our master bedroom. The color goes perfectly with the cedar green linen pillows that I made months ago, and the size just fits the space.
They are the Brookshire Ceramic table lamps with the large burlap shade instead of the linen one that comes with and shown advertised. I think I fell in love with the shade when seeing these gorgeous mercury glass lamps with them on. The ceramic style goes with our decor, and I know I could have never talked Rory into anything silver, so these were a easy and great choice for us both.


Here is the before shot with the thrift store lamps I picked up when we first moved in.



Thanks again to all at Domestic Ease for being so generous and best of all having a fabulous website!



I spent the rest of the winnings on some great new kitchen items I posted about here.