A WALK AROUND MY HOUSE

For some reason I got the urge yesterday to just walk around my house, snapping pictures of anything that grabbed my attention. Then I got another urge -- to share them with you.  Big news first. TaaDaa!

At last! We finally have a matched set of undamaged chairs, and it only took them six months and three tries to achieve it!

Down at the other end of the living room, near the grandfather clock, is a spare dining room chair. This is where we always stash anything that we need to remember to take to one of the kids, next time we see them. More often than not these days, it's usually something like this...

some snuggly-cute onesie outfit for that funny little fellow in the photo. It was half off! How's a grandma to resist?

If you're looking for something good to read, might I suggest this novel on the sofa table?

It's about an aristocratic young count who manages to avoid the firing squad after the revolution, but instead gets sentenced to a lifetime of house-arrest in the attic of the finest hotel in Moscow. Fascinating!

Back in the bedroodio, there's more exciting news. The Sudan/Barcelona travel journal is finished, and has been packed up and mailed off for adventures of its own. Who knows where it might end up?

I'm just so happy to see the surface of my art table again! 

Meanwhile, out on the balcony, it's definitely time to replace that rug. We have a resident squirrel who loves to lounge in our damp window boxes when he wants to cool off, and chew on our rug when he can't find any buried acorns in them.

Hopefully he won't be quite so tempted by this plastic one.

Since we have to go outside to get downstairs, I might as well show you what Hubby has been up to.

First he installed this gorgeous screen door for me, then he went on a mad painting spree, including all four outside doors, an old TV cabinet on the downstairs porch that we store gardening stuff in, and a couple of rocking chairs -- all in triple-digit-temps!

The Laundry Room Attached To Our Garage

I know you've all heard about my bedroodio, but did you know Hubby has one too? Unless we are expecting house guests, the downstairs bedroom always looks something like this.

Remember the new wall shelves for photos that I shared recently? The ones I chose in order to remove some of the clutter from our upstairs walls? Well, Hubby took that idea and ran with it! Now every surface of every wall downstairs looks something like this...

even the ones in his tiny little closet-sized office.

That's one happy boy!
 

THE BEST/WORST AGE

Sherlock is on the case!

We've been lucky to see a lot more of Lex and Little Goober this week than usual, thanks to Lexi's hubby being in Vegas for the huge annual hackers convention, Def Con. Being alone with a rambunctious toddler 24/7 can be exhausting, and we were more than happy to give Lex a break now and then.

Gone are the days when he was content to just sit on the floor playing with a toy or snuggling with his puppy dog. Rather, he is now the famed "object in motion" who has discovered the joy of climbing...

which is why the sofa cushions have to stay down like this, relegating poor Izzy to the much less comfortable sofa arm. Poor Izzy.

One heart-melting development is that, as soon as he spots us at the door, he immediately reaches his arms for us to take from his mama, seeming very happy to see us. Squee!

Calvin and Izzy vie for attention. Poor Izzy.

 
Another big plus is that he will finally pick up a book and bring it to us, wanting to be read to. Yippy Skippy!

 
In case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit of a book fanatic, and usually have several going at once. When the kids were young, I never had any problem whatsoever saying "NO!" to the hot new toys, video games, or trendy clothes they asked for. However, I could never say no to books. They didn't even have to ask for that first Harry Potter book. I pretended to buy it for Austin, when really I just wanted an excuse to read it myself, and when each of the sequels came out, there were three of us fighting over who got to read it first! Needless to say, between his parents, grandparents and the book shower the Muses gave me, Calvin already has quite the collection.

Unfortunately, the book-reading sessions only last for a few seconds, then he's right back to being a whirling dervish. On top of his non-stop running from one room to the next, he has now learned to open drawers, cabinets, dishwasher, etc., and delights in pulling everything out of them. Which is why Papa John usually ends up like this, halfway through a visit.

Still, we love and appreciate every minute of being able to watch him explore his surroundings and try to figure it all out.  Izzy, on the other hand, is not so sure about this latest version of her baby Calvin. In fact, she's starting to resent being plopped on and tugged at by this much larger kid, and is feeling the need to reclaim some of her territory, so Lex and Nate are being careful never to leave them alone together.  We went through the same thing with our son and dog 30 years ago. Fortunately, our Munchkin was smart enough to get up and take off whenever she heard Austin coming. Hopefully, Izzy will soon learn to do the same -- at least until Calvin figures out what the word "SOFTLY!" means. Poor Izzy.

Bye-Bye!

 In the meantime, good thing God mad babies so darn cute, huh?

HANG IT!

I hate hanging pictures. It's such a pain. And, even if you had them hanging perfectly straight when you started, all it takes is one person walking through our living area for half of them to end up askew. Plus, we just had way too many of them on our walls -- thanks to Hubby's reinvigorated obsession with photography -- forever being switched out and moved about. So, I decided to try something different. Something which allows one to switch things out at will, without the use of hammers, nails, screws or wires. These simple shelves can be ordered in all different sizes and several different colors.

I like it.

I really, really like it.

THE END IS NIGH

Believe it or not, I've finally started working on the very last spread to go in my Sudan/Barcelona travel journal -- and it's only taken me a year and a half to complete it!

This page was prompted by my desire to utilize at least one of these color-mad Antoni Gaudi cards I picked up at the visitor center in Barcelona.

I spent all of last week creating these pages...

which were inspired by these fun recipe post cards purchased in one of the gift shops...

and all the business cards I collected from our favorite eateries there.
 

Both of these spreads started with a background collage of nothing but torn up liners from the inside of security envelopes. Those in the Tapas spread were all black and white, while the Gaudi page will be all blue and white...

which I never would have been able to do were it not for the YUGE packet of envelopes that showed up in the mail one day, from my dear sister-in-law Priscilla!

Before that, I spent most of a month working on this spread...

which was inspired by the packaging from a most delicious chocolate bar, purchased at our favorite bakery/confectionery/cafe in all the world --
 

a most excellent way to utilize all those hand painted collage papers I've been creating with my Gelli plate!

Once that final Gaudi spread is completed, I think it just might be time to send this baby out into the world, just to see what happens.

After all, you never know if you don't even try. Right?

SUMMER BLISS

I can't believe summer is already half over, and the Muses and I just now made it to The Blue Hole, on Cypress Creek, for our first float of the season! Now that the temps are a steady stream of triple digits, it's quite the popular place, thanks to the always-cool water and the blessed shade from those ancient eponymous trees which line its banks. We are ever so grateful that, unlike the ones along our section of the Blanco River, these were spared from the devastation of the floods.

Mobs of people had the same idea as us yesterday, but the Muses and I have a secret modus opperandi. Wait and go around 4:00, when people are starting to poop out, and walk past all the moms with little kiddos in the shallow section. Keep walking past the hordes of teens and tweens standing in long lines at the the rope swings, awaiting their two seconds of bliss when they can swing out and let go with a Tarzan-like scream. Then keep on walking until you reach the very last ladder down to the water. Climb in there and paddle your float or tube down even further, until at last you reach the rope with a sign saying something like "Halt! Private Property". Then, at last, you will have reached the one and only calm, peaceful spot in the entire place.

Well unless, of course, the Muses and I happened to get there before you, in which case we'll be laughin' and yakkin' our heads off.

COLOR-MAD COWGIRLS

Miss Paula and Mister Toad came in for a one-nighter this weekend. We decided we were getting into a rut so it was a try-new-stuff weekend. As usual, we were having so much fun together that I pretty much forgot to take any pictures at all! But, that's actually a good thing, when you think about it, cuz it means I was fully "present" in the moments! We met up in San Marcos, which is undergoing a bit of a renaissance for some reason, with new stuff popping up every time you turn around. The guys headed off in one direction (to an Irish pub for burgers, followed by a stop at their favorite little cigar shop) while we gals headed off to try a new-to-us place, the tea room at The Price Center. Since I forgot to take any photos there until we had demolished our stuffed cabbage rolls and Salisbury steak, I thought I'd share this link to a review by fellow hill country blogger and foodie Charlotte Caldwell. The food was pretty yummy, and the big old house and gardens where it's located were gorgeous. The only thing we didn't really care for was that it was full of old people. What's with that? Oh, and the fact that they were out of their usual Baklava dessert. But that actually turned out to be a good thing, since it led us to Rhea's Ice Cream, the newest brainchild from the Root Cellar group. All flavors are made by hand, in store, with the freshest ingredients. Some sound kinda strange, but trust me, they're gooood! I tried their S'more flavor, and my dad would've loved the Big Red flavor, but Miss Paula went with their very best seller, Raspberry Jam With Goat Cheese. Yeah, I know you just wrinkled your nose up at that but, trust me, it's their best seller for a reason!

We also checked out a new dress shop I read about in a local publication. It's named after the owner's little daughter, River Rose. Is that a cool Hill Country name, or what?  Best thing in the store? This color-mad display on the back wall.

If I didn't have the world's tiniest closet, I might be tempted.

As it is, I'm on the verge of getting rid of all the hats and boots I already have, since I can't even remember the last time I wore any of them. Besides, I need more room for grandkid stuff!

Biggest surprise of the day? The fact that the Blue Dahlia Bistro, a long time Austin favorite, has opened their third location right there on the San Marcos square! It really got me to wondering, what's going on with this no-longer-sleepy-little-town?

A VERY GOOD DAY

 
We had an awesome day with our daughter and Little Goober on Wednesday. Someone very sweet gave them a family membership to Thinkery for his first birthday, and Lexi invited us to go along with them. We've been wanting to check it out since we first heard about it, but they do not allow unaccompanied adults, which is probably a good thing. As it turns out, with that family pass, Mima and Papa John got in free too. Woohoo!

The place was jam-packed, it being the end of summer -- when it's 100 degrees out and frazzled moms have run out of ideas for entertaining their kids -- so we squeezed our way past all the mobs around the big kid stuff and headed straight for the room designed just for those 30 months and younger. Unfortunately, they do allow older siblings to come in with them, and we had to watch Calvin like a hawk, to keep him from being knocked over or trampled. It will probably be much more relaxing when school is back in session.  He didn't seem to mind the tumbles one bit though...

as long as no one tried to take that purple onion away, that is.

As you can see, the whole place has a veggie garden theme going.  There were even veggies he could pick...

and special portholes where he could glimpse what was going on underground or inside trees!

Afterwards we walked just a few doors down to have lunch at a new place called J.T. Youngblood's. Only it's not really new.

If any of you grew up in the Dallas area back in the 50s and 60s, you probably have many fond memories of going to Youngblood's for Sunday dinner.  Apparently the current owner grew up doing just that, later bought the rights to their secret fried chicken recipe, and has now opened this place in Austin. Of course, the interior is now very hip and cool, and many of the sides have been updated for modern tastes, but the delicious chicken is still served with yeasty handmade rolls, a plastic bearful of Youngblood's honey, and some old-fashioned bread and butter pickles.

They even have Dr. Pepper floats and root beer in a frozen glass!

Not to mention the handy takeout window with reserved parking spots for pickup.

Afterwards Hubby needed to make a quick stop at the best camera store ever. While he was in there, Lex, Goobs and I went next door to the best children's shoe store ever. Then we all met back up at the best toy store ever, which happened to be next to that.

It was a very good day!