Mr. Darby, Our new Westie!

I didn't formally introduce our new member of the Horowitz family. After losing Miss Bridgette this last June, we had a hole in our hearts. We knew no new animal could replace her...but, it would be nice to have a little fluff-ball of joy around again.

He will be 3 January 13th. We did not expect to bring home a full grown dog and then fate stepped in and we found Mr. Darby! He is a retired show dog champion. We can't believe how lucky we were to get a leash trained, potty trained and loving dog. He fit right into our family and even Miss Scarlett our cat likes him. She has major attitude and we weren't sure how she would react. We couldn't have asked for a better fit. Not to mention he is a snuggler, a big bouncy ball player and very much the watch dog, without the barking...does it get any better? We adore him!

 

Introducing..........Mr. Darby!!!

Look at that face!!!!!!!!!!!

Notice Darby peeking out the French doors, watching me taking pictures....

Darby playing Davy Crockett in homeschool...but looking more Russian, LOL!

Darby on the sofa and Scarlett on her favorite chair.

Darby by Santa only a week after we brought him home. Probably confused at all the Christmas decorating chaos!

The proof they get along! This was the week we brought him home & the boys begged to have him in one of their beds for one night....or a few hours. It got a bit crowded.

This was the day we brought him home...fast friends plotting for Parakeet dinner, LOL!

Parakeets are Really fascinating!!

His first ride home...geez, he is SO mellow!

He loves listening to the piano...soooo sophisticated, I said that in a Thurston Howell accent! Am I showing my age?

Happy Holiday's and Thank you for letting me share our new addition! We adore him and no doubt he will be in more posts...he follows me everywhere!!!

Happy Decorating & Relaxing Holiday's!

 

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Our Blue Christmas

Well, I guess my wish to get blogging once a week was a bit ambitious for our first semester of homeschooling. Oh well, one can dream of being more productive.

I made some changes to our home & homeschool room, ill post those soon,I know...surprise, surprise! If I haven't said before, my husband jokes he could never go blind...I change the house around too much.

We decided to add blue this year for Christmas.So some blue ornaments from Wal-Mart, blue pillows from Home Goods, & blue sheets from Sam's Club and the house was finished. The new sheets were long overdue and WOW they are soft!! We love the blue accents. I made the new stockings with a hot glue gun. They are FAR from perfect...but, we like them! There are 5 of them, the 5th one is shared by Mr. Darby the dog, Miss Scarlett the cat and the Misses Cookie & Fluffball the guinea pigs.

Landen wanted the tree to have the train going around it this year. Hard to keep straight with a cat attacking it...but it is fun!

You may notice the formal dining room painting is from the dinette. I moved it there to add more blue and we like it there. The dinette I had a painting upstairs in the guest room I had grown less fond of;but, loved the frame. I carefully removed it from the frame and painted the back board with chalkboard paint. Then added it to our dinette. Funny how a little "switcheroo" makes such a difference.

Our new addition at Thanksgiving 2 year old almost 3, Mr. Darby...notice he likes the same view Miss Bridgette did. We sure love having him in our family!

Now don't laugh at my stockings...they are not perfect by any means, but they work well. They were a blue pinstriped fabric and burlap from Wal-Mart.

Mr. Darby's bed and "lovie". I had this fabric from Landen's, my youngest's, nursery bedding. I kept it...it was just too cute! It has rabbits, fox, geese, etc. dressed as humans. He loves the stuffed bunny and chews on it to fall asleep and most of the time it is still in his mouth when he's asleep.

This time it was the pillow....LOL!

Our Jester keeps watch over our Holiday cocktails. I bought myself some Southern Sippers, mason jars on a stem, they keep us laughing with every sip!

My Nutcracker Baker...Love him!

My new Nativity scene. My old one somehow lost a wiseman and a shepherd lots it's head...not very Holy is it? So I went on the hunt and found this in downtown Grapevine at Holy Grounds a coffee and Christian gift shop. So sweet and perfect edition to our home.

I had to include my boys working on their gingerbread house....practically in their pajamas. But, isn't that part of the holidays?

And our neighborhood S'mores Party! Even Mr. Darby had to join...even if it was just to lounge by the fire. A fleeting glimpse of my husband...he's always at work. But, I don't complain when I get to stay at home with our boys and now homeschool them.

This is one reason the Holiday's in Texas are neat..60's aren't bad when you want to play outside. I do miss my childhood Colorado & Montana winters though.

Our Christmas picture of the boys & Mr. Darby~

Mr. Darby listening to the piano play...I know...could he be any cuter?? Can you tell we adore him?

Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday's & Happy Decorating to You All!

 

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Our Texas "Ponderosa"

You can almost hear the theme song from "Bonanza" playing in the background. I would move to the country in the mountains tomorrow, but since I can't, I brought the country to my yard! I wanted to grow veggies and needed a maintenance free way of doing it, so I picked stone. Wood raised beds scared me, I'm the one maintaining these, so with not a lot of help from my husband....stone raised bed it is.

So, we had the raised beds made for a song. The best part... the stone was FREE from my Mother-in-laws leftover stone pile in her backyard. I was more than thrilled! {I am always trying to find a way to be frugal & stretch my dollar}. Then, I knew I wanted the split rail fence & arbor I had envisioned there for the last 8 years, since my kids little playhouse was there. Well, they outgrew the playhouse, now it's a little garden. I asked the guy that built the privacy pergola, and he said it was less than $100 in materials! So, we bargained on the labor & voila!

I started researching Fall planting a for Texas, went to our local nursery and they had lots of advice too. Now I have tomato, cucumber ( not looking so hot ...sigh....),lettuce, spinach, leeks, broccoli, Georgia collards, basil & rosemary. I have pumpkin pie pumpkins, and tomatoes blooming. I'm so excited! I also built with some pallets a mini deck, for my future bistro set. I may end up getting rid of it, if I find a great set that's too big. But I had to have a place for me to relax in the shade. This is my first go around with growing...wish me luck!


These are Before & After of the back corner, now affectionately called "The Back 40 of the Ponderosa"...can you here the Bonanza theme song now?....I Love it! Be sure and notice my vine fence in the raised bed, it's my old iron fire-screen, I hope my cucumbers make it...if not there is always Spring.

I had to add stepping stones...my rose bush even looks happier! I also added some lavender. We shall see if I can keep it alive. Regardless of the photo, the lavender will get full sun, and only pea gravel as "mulch" according to a website. So, I'm crossing my fingers.

 

The back of the fireplace was always an eye sore to me. I wanted vines, nothing did well with our soil. So the raised bed and bringing in soil to either side of the raised bed allowed me to plant perennials or in this case pumpkins.

 

In the midst of this project, I wanted the rain barrel my husband bought me, & it sat in the garage or 4 years, hooked up. Yay! He helped me get it installed, 2 days later with a big Texas storm it was near full! It's on the side of the house, so not too conspicuous.

Finally, I moved my little bench from the back to between the pampas grasses. It makes the right side of the backyard more meaningful. I added these great little planters, my husband surprised me with. I planted pansies in them.

I love my new gardens & my new privacy. I feel like I really do have a touch of the country in the suburbs. My kids & the neighbor kids love it too! Funny how all of these little changes attracted so much activity to the backyard. My neighbors have come over more now too. I love how growing things really can make your life grow in friends & memories.

So, one thing I learned...it's never too late! I waited 8-9 years for this. I've never been so excited to get my hands dirty!

I hope you all like the changes & get inspired to make some changes to your homes & yards!

Happy Decorating or "Farming"!

 

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Operation: "Privacy"

pri·va·cy

/ˈprīvəsē/

Noun

The state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other people.

The state of being free from public attention.



What to do with a neighbor that insists on violating your personal privacy or even "sense" of privacy. You know what I mean? When your in your backyard (if you live close to your neighbors, have 6ft. fences & different topography so at times, you see their face), and you can see your neighbors in the yard. But...you don't make eye contact, you may wave, but you return your eyes to your yard and let them feel like they have privacy. Well, not my over the fence neighbor, that I will call "Gladys Kravits" & her husband. If you are young enough & don't know who Gladys Kravitz is? Look it up...that's her... but worse & more mean!

Unfortunately, my next door neighbor & I share our back fence line with "Gladys". Gladys decided to remove the fence between us without telling us & asked us, (me & and my next door neighbor), to pay half. The kicker was, neither of us knew about her deciding to take down the fence and my next door neighbor was out of the country when they did it. "Gladys", even thought we were gone too...nice! We had to leave 2 days after it came down and the fence was still not back up. We came back to a shorter fence than either of us,(me & my next door neighbor), wanted, which was 8 feet. We had already given them , ("Mr. & Mrs. Kravits) our quotes from another fence company & then never heard back from them. Well, thank goodness we weren't obligated to pay half! I would have gladly paid half for what 2 of us out of 3 had asked for...8ft. privacy fence. But I was left once again with no privacy!!

Now what? She can still see us, she & her husband make a point to hang out in their garage and stare into my home. The last straw was them building an illegal brick flower bed along the fence line at the same time, that blocks the drainage easement, redirected the water flow to my property & installed a french drain under their flower bed that drains to my property. this I discovered at the bottom of our fence. Ugh! So, complaining to the city revealed they had no permission & no permit.

They decided I was evil. The husband was flipping me off in their driveway & pointing at me all while I was INSIDE my home! I had no escape from them. They even turned their chairs on their patio to stare at us in our home. They even climbed the fences to my yard & my next door neighbors to hang over and look at our yards. They even did this to my next door neighbor during a pool party...the nerve!!! We were fed up!

So, my husband and I had a tall screen built. A huge privacy screen!! I love it!! I have my yard, patio & inside of my home back! We built in benches too. I was sooo inspired, I even built a pallet sofa & pallet coffee table. I went nuts! I put in stepping stones, a split rail fence & arbor to my very own herb & veggie garden. I have had a blast. Freedom is an exciting & inspiring thing. I couldn't sell my house & move to the country to escape them, so I brought the country to our home.

 

 

The one layer of lattice was not enough, they still made a point to stare and gawk! So an extra layer it is...

In the next post I will show you before and after of my vegetable raised garden beds. I added a split rail fence and arbor to my back garden and behind the fireplace, I had another raised bed made and planting room on each side, which is now growing pumpkins...they said I should have them before the first frost here in Texas...sure would be fun!

 

I am also lucky enough to have a friend trading my interior design service for her sewing service. As you probably coud see, my cushions on the main sofa are covered by a sheet. Mrs. Squirrel has for two years decided my sofa was a place for her to get nesting supplies. So they are in desperate need of recovering. She is also sewing covers for my new cushions for the new benches & my pallet sofa. YAY!! I will post pictures of the final cushions later. Hopefully now that homeschooling is in a routine, I can post more regular updates! Thanks for the patience. But the evolution of our home never stops. I sure am glad, I love decorating and making our home cozy.

Happy Fall & Happy Decorating!

 

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