Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Last weekend, my best friend got married. She had a short and sweet wedding at a local hotel and then we went to various places around ES to party. I may post photos, but probably not. If you're my friend on Facebook, they are there.

Before we went down, we decided to take some time to ourselves (aka without Lily) and so we went down there and took some enjoying the sites. We took the trolley around town, did the Ghost Tour at the Crescent Hotel, walked around the whole town (yes, we WALKED in the crazy heat), and had a great time. I LOVE the buildings down there. The majority of the houses I took photos of are from the 1880's to early 1900's (maybe 1905 or so). They are beautiful!!

You'll want to click on the pictures and make them full size, especially of the first oen so you can see just how pretty this door is! I wish my house had this on the front porch.


Yard art was big down there. I have a lot of pictures of various ideas but I think this door frame/shape may be the best. It was either this one or a similar one that they had tried to have ivy grow on but it didn't work. How cool would be if it had worked though? Or a clematis? If I could find a good, fun, pretty door frame for Lily's garden, I have the perfect spot for it!!


I WANT THESE GATES! 'Nough said!


The next two are the same house (obviously) but I love it. However, I would NOT want to paint all those details. It's definitely pretty though.


The porch. Can you imagine sitting here?


Don't you love this pot? I'll take a few, please! I also like the rocks mixed with the hens n chicks.


Isn't this gorgeous? The house, the yard, the plants....


This fence section was about 4-5" tall. I WANTED it so bad. It was hidden on the property side of their fence, underneath a plant. I seriously thought about taking it, as it was so weirdly located that I doubt the owner knew about it. It would have made a great fairy gate for Lily's garden (or just a cute piece somewhere). But I didn't take it. It's one of things that I wish I had done though. Now I'm just going to be in search of the impossible - a teeny tiny little gate.


This, I guess, was their potting shed. They had it full of junk. Wouldn't it be great for a doll/play house for Lily? There were a lot of these little homes around the walk.


And finally, there were a lot of homes that backed up to this cliff/cave/rock wall and a lot of them had doors into it. One house for sale even advertised the size of the room. How cool would that be?!?!

Obsession

Have I mentioned my newest obsession?

It's plants. Yep. Plants. Especially lilies. (Of course!)

13 months ago, I had NO lilies. Then I gave birth to the best Lily of all! And as a gift for that Lily, I was given a lily named "Gordon Biggs". If you know me, you know why that is important. If not, it's just a really pretty lily.



We were given 5 lilies from my boss from his garden as a present for our Lily. It was a great gift. Unfortunately, it appears two of them have died. Maybe three.

This year, for Lily's birthday, we were given another lily. I forgot its name, but will find out soon.



Then we decided, after arranging the foundation stones, that we needed more lilies.



And then I bought 4 more.






But the garden seemed empty. I know a lot of it is because the path isn't in and neither are many plants. But it's still empty. And there was a sale at the local garden center. Half off all lilies. My pocketbook just cringed. So I bought one more.



One. That wasn't enough.



I went back and bought four more. I don't have pics of them as I accidently left them in my car a little too long and today's flowers died.

And that, everyone, is what started my newest obsession.

Rugby

Ahh, Rugby. You're my baby boy! I couldn't find a more recent photo, so this will do.

Rugby will be 7 in October. Seven years old! For some reason, 7 has always been in my head as the age he will be when he passes away. I know that's stupid, but it's true. He's a huge dog and big dogs don't live that long (as compared to little dogs, like my Sugar who passed away in 2006). He's been worrying me a little lately... panting ALL the time and more recently, making a weird noise every once in awhile. I know I'm probably just making nothing into something.. he's panting because he's hot and we don't use our A/C all the time (it's broken, still haven't had it looked at, and we don't run our borrowed window units unless necessary), and he's a huge, BLACK dog. Of course he's going to pant. But we had to our bedroom's air on last night, I was finally chilly enough to use the big blanket (it takes a lot for that to happen) and the boy was still panting.

I guess you can say I'm worried. I love the big guy and although he can be annoying (mainly due to his size and large amounts of hair that is everywhere), I don't want him to suffer, and even worse, die. I know, I know, all things die. But I'm not ready for him to go.

This summer he'll be going to vet for check ups, so we'll see how much he really weighs and what they think. For now, I'll just keep making him happy and maybe a trip to the farm is in order...

Zoey

Making herself comfortable.

Published with Blogger-droid

cardinals grooms cake

I made this! what do you think?

Published with Blogger-droid

2009's Resolutions

I realized I had made a list of resolutions last year... let's just see how I did.
1. Paint nursery. - DONE
2. Decorate nursery. - Not quite where I want it, but kind of there.
3. OK, just completely turn old office/storage room into nursery. Hopefully before May. Preferably before March. - DONE
4. Paint kitchen cabinets and walls. - DONE
5. Redo master bedroom. This means everything - pull out drywall, what insulation is there, frame in four walls, hire out the insulation, new sheet rock, paint, and then maybe, just maybe, decorate! I want this done before baby in May. At least the walls up and ready to paint. - NOT DONE!
6. Buy rug for dining room. - Not Done.
7. Finish paint removal on nursery door. May need help with this to prevent my pregnant self from inhaling bad fumes. - I painted it instead of stipping it to the wood.
8. Paint "hallway" (area between nursery, front bedroom, and bathroom). - Nope.
9. Paint stairwell to basement. Probably same color as "hallway." - Nope.
10. Buy new furniture for TV room. New love seat (to replace large couch) and maybe a nice recliner. And possibly TV unit and storage areas. Move furniture around to better suit baby's needs. - Nope, except I moved it around. So half way.
11. Sell books online. Or get rid of books. - Not sure what books, but nope, didn't sell any.
12. Buy baskets for shelves in TV room for dog toys, organizational needs. - Kind of.
13. Continue to de-clutter house. - Not really.

Resolutions

I'm not a huge fan of resolutions only because I can't seem to keep them. But, I also have made some in the past that just aren't the easiest to keep.

This year, however, maybe I'll make some smaller ones...

1. Try to keep the house cleaner. I haven't let the dishes pile up, but I'm not the greatest with dusting. I could vacuum every day because of the dogs and cats, but it can be hard with Lily. However, she's now into everything and crawling, so this needs to be done at least every couple days or so.

2. Save some money. It's just a matter of time before something breaks in our house again and I'd like to have some money set aside so it's not always put on the credit card and slowly paid off.

3. Speaking of credit cards... I was doing a good job last year in paying them off. I have two now and although their limits aren't high, they are high enough that I don't like it when they are full. So, my job is to keep them cleaned off as much as possible.

4. Watch what we spend! This goes for eating out more than anything. We spend a lot (well, Doug spends a lot) going out because of his schedule. I'd really like to watch this.

5. But speaking of saving... I'd also like to do some spending... We really need a new couch/living room furniture. So I'd like to find something nice that will last.

6. We also really need to put a fence in our backyard. This would give the dogs somewhere to go when the weather is nice. And cut down on how much hair is in my house (obviously not much, but some!)

7. And the biggest one... HAVE THE UPSTAIRS OF MY HOUSE COMPLETED!!!!!!!!!!! This includes finishing the drywall, painting, cleaning, two doors being made (into our storage areas), and trim. I'm sure there's more on that list, but that's what the majority of it seems to be.

Where I am...

... I haven't done much with this blog in awhile. But I am posting more on the baby blog, so feel free to check it out. I think that'll be where I update everything baby and family related and use this for when I do stuff that's creative, either art work or stuff to the house. But that'll be awhile until I have the time, energy and freedom. Someone has me busy, so my hands are full. But she's precious and I wouldn't have it any other way.