This Week in Texas...

The weather is still cooperating here. My Jeep said it was 81 degrees last Tuesday when I was running my errands. It's cooled off since then, and it was overcast and mid 60's today, but as long as there are no more 40 and rainy days this winter I'm good.  

During the provisioning, I found a new Texas beer to try and a new Texas wine. The wine was good, the beer was fine but we like the Shinerbock better. (It was on sale at the H.E.B today- yay!) 

Sweet Red from Wimberly Valley Winery

ZiegenBock- fun to say, not as good as the Shiner

While I was out, I also stopped by the pet boutique and got the pups a Texas squeaky toy. Then I got a couple of house plants at Lowes. They're stocking up for spring- racks and racks full of snap dragons, petunias and poppies- stuff that wouldn't show up in NC for a couple more months. I'm looking forward to seeing what neat things I can grow here. Chuck wants a pineapple plant- I'll have to research to see if thats possible.

Doggy Texas

I've also been trying to come up with some good ways to add the turquoise color to the great room.  I ordered Metal Effects paint in copper and blue patina. Then started looking for things to experiment on. I found this little bird at target but he was black, and I saved a Mt. Olive pickle jar. I tried to do the patina by spritzing it on, but I'm not happy with the results. I'll try again soon.  The little pot came from Lowes as is.

Painted Bird, Peace Lily, Painted Pickle Jar

Ivy

 We also added a fan to our bedroom because Chuck likes to feel like we're sleeping at the North Pole. It's by Rowenta and its super quiet and has a good sturdy base, so it doesn't keep me awake and the Danes don't knock it over- both very important features.

Rowenta Fan

On Saturday, we got W's badminton net up in the back yard. It was so much fun to watch and video as the girls and Chuck tried to play while the dogs were out.

After a bit Madison brought out her volleyball. It lasted all of 2 minutes before Butter got her jaws of death on it. The only thing to do with a flat volley ball is to use it to swing your bulldog. Of course, watch out, because if she lets go you can punch yourself in the eye and slice your eyelid with your fingernail.  Yeah, that happened. 

Butter with her prize

Saturday night we made it to The Princess Bride quote along at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. SO MUCH FUN! They gave us blowup swords, wedding bells and bubbles to use as props and the whole theatre played along- it was awesome. The food was OK, Chuck and W had pizza,  M and I had burgers. We also all shared fried pickles. 

On Sunday we went to Tomball to try a steakhouse. It was very good. Again, fried pickles, Chuck had the Diablo burger, the girls had burgers and I had a filet. There were also milkshakes and a grilled banana (sooooooo good).  It was very reasonably priced, too, and they had real sweet tea! We'll be going back. 

 The girls had a birthday party to attend at the bowling alley in Tomball. Bowling here is the same as bowling anywhere. I took the family on the back roads to get home to show them the ranch-y areas. We saw all kinds of breeds of cows, donkeys and horses. Yay!  And speaking of livestock- we got our tickets to the Houston Rodeo all lined up. We'll take the kids to the carnival, look at all the animals, watch the rodeo and then the concert. Should be fun.

No plans for this coming week yet- we'll see what happens.

M and Butter doing homework

The Weather is Here...

Not Texas

Texas

This past week made it very clear we had evacuated NC in the nick of time. On Wednesday of last week, Mocksville a foot of snow. All day and the next I received pictures from friends and family showing those cold gray images. Burrrr. Texas, you ask? Currently 73 and sunny as I sit on out on our patio. Chuck and I ran around Houston today with the top down in the Solara. Ahhhhhhhh. This is the weather I was looking for. 

House wise, not much changed. We did, finally, get our bed. It's tall! So the bedroom joins the list of "done but awaiting picture/art hangings." Those things behind the bed are temporary- there were already hooks there- haven't decided what to do there. 

Bed

On Friday, the kids were out of school for a teacher work day. They were supposed to be off today but had to make up one of their snow days. They enjoyed the weather and played outside most of the day.

Saturday,we had some landscapers come and clean up the beds a bit, and they're also going to draw up plans for the back yard. We have our follow-up appointment with them on March 8th. With the weather changing, I'm looking forward to green stuff. I finally got the succulents back outside, too! For lunch,  we found a Thai place that got good reviews. It was pretty good- definitely worth going back to- but different than our place in NC. After lunch, we went to our first Texas gun show. It was downtown and roughly the same size as the Charlotte, NC show.

Sunday, was a lazy day. We got manicures, ate at Lupe Tortilla (quickly becoming a favorite) and took in The Lego Movie at the giant Silverado Theatre. It was actually a cute movie. On the to do list is the Alamo draft house which plays our favorite old movies as "quote-a-longs". Princess Bride, Monty Pyton and the Holy Grail etc. I'm looking forward to one of those working with our schedule.

Chuck was off today and we decided to have a grown-up Houston day. We got Chuck's plates and sticker- he's official now, too. Then, we went to Red Fish Grill for lunch and had yummy sushi. We'll definitely go back there. Next,  it was off to Spec's (awesome liquor store) for an awesome bottle of tequila and then the highlight of the day was a trip to Westside to a phenomenal gun store - Collectors Firearms. Their inventory is amazing! They have cases of Colts- old to new, civil war guns and relics, canons, a couple machine guns from various wars, a case full of Lugers and Broomhandle Mausers, all the new stuff you could possibly want - even a rack of Tavors- (my next gun). It was great- we will be taking certain guests there (Doug, Dad, Scott- looking at you) when they come to experience Houston.

Nothing big planned for the next week. I'm adding a steakhouse to the restaurant to-do.  Maybe Saltgrass or Pappa's? Maybe ask the neighbors. Then, rodeo is coming up soon- really excited about that- need to pre-order our tickets.

Shrimp Tempura with Southwestern salsa and guacamole

Nigiri, tuna roll, and the white dragon roll.

Yay!!! Texas shaped tequila! 

Butter says hi! 

Southwestern the Everything

So- fair warning, this is going to be image intense- a lot came together in the last week. The weather hasn't been cooperating. I think we broke Texas- really. I can get cold and rainy in NC. And while it didn't affect school this time, here is my house last Tuesday.

Just a dusting

I received a couple of cabinets I had been waiting on. First was a wall mount curio cabinet that I got on Etsy for M. She has several little carvings and mineral specimens to display and we wanted to keep them safe. I'm very happy with the craftsmanship.

Madison's Curio

I also ordered some cheap shot glass holders for all  my souvenirs since I'm using the mantle to display them. They're all on the wall in the game room now, and there's plenty of space for more. Yay vacations! 

Shot Glasses

On Thursday, I went for a trial session at a local gym. I have really been missing my workouts! It took some digging but I found a place that offers very similar workouts to K.O.R.E. Yay! It kicked my butt, I guess that's what you get for taking almost 2 months off to move halfway across country. Back at it tomorrow. 

Over the weekend, we decide to explore downtown Tomball. We had great success! We looked in a couple antique stores, an art gallery hat features local artists, had cupcakes at Frosted (Chuck loved the bacon maple cupcake), spoke to a guy at the music shop about drum lessons for Willow, looked at antique firearms and cutlery at Bob's, and finally hit the mother load of all things southwestern at Ottis' Emporium. We hemmed and hawed over some pieces at the art store, but nothing was just right. Well, at Ottis' we decided to embrace our inner cowpoke and Texas the everything. 

cattle horn hat rack for the foyer

New end table, cowhide star mat and lamp for beside my awesome chair

Matching massive coffee table drapes with a cowhide runner

Also got the traditional Texas star

And course the longhorn skull and skin

All the dogs were incredibly interested in the assorted cow parts, but Butter LOVES the cow! She likes the skull, and sniffs and cuddles with the hide. She'll follow it anywhere- and she doesn't try to chew it- just loves it. When it came time to hang it she climbed around on the back of the couch and watched. This morning she climbed on the couch and just stared up at it.

Butter laying with her cow

Why are you putting it way up there! 

So that takes care of the mantle and the giant wall. Following our decorators recommendations we got one long curtain rod, and opened up the curtains for the upper windows. So much more light now! I also switched out the light bulbs in the ceiling fan for brighter ones- what a huge difference.  We also had to pick up a ladder for all of these projects. I guess we're growing up since we're having to buy our own DIY stuff instead of just borrowing Dads. I'm so excited about the ladder though- it can be an extension ladder of various 

Here it is opened up.

 It all looks really good as a whole. The iPhone pictures don't show it well enough , so I guess you'll just have to come visit. The only thing we plan to do at this point is add some color- pillows, something for the table and mantle. Not a rush- I'll know it when I see it.

A couple other things that went up this week...

Found these on clearance at HobbyLobby for M's bathroom 

 

Hung W's T-Rex just where she wanted it on her mural

I have plans for W's bathroom and I'm still working on my craft room. Chuck and I worked in the garage and got it tidied up over the weekend, too. Still some hanging and sorting of tools and fasteners to do, but we made a good dent. 

For meals- we tried Submarina and sub shop close to the house, food was good service was terrible. Oh well. We also ate at Lupe Tortilla again. Soooo good! 

This week we're expecting out head and foot boards, and a landscaping company is coming to address the drainage off the patio and help with some stuff in the backyard.  The kids are off school on Friday so we get a long weekend. Yay!

February Comes to Texas

Anther week gone in Texas. We've had crazy weather again. The kids were out of school on Tuesday for inclement weather, but by Friday they were wearing shorts to play outside. The weeks are beginning to form a routine. Most of last week was tidying up, and unpacking the last fees boxes.  I got my craft room unpacked and mostly set up. I'll be changing things around so they're more accessible, but at least it's all out of the middle of the floor now.

Craft room! Those plastic bins go when I figure out how to organize the shelves.

Got all the chairs built in the dining room

On Saturday, we had an interior designer come for a consultation on the great room and Chuck's office.  She had some good easy ideas to get us started. The curtains are going to stay but get opened up more- one long curtain rod so the curtains can hang between the windows and on the sides. We're looking at some metal art for the wall above the fireplace and a really large something for the big open wall. She set up the current sectional so that it looks great (why couldn't I see that?) and we put our small Ikea Expedite under there larger one and raised it up- it looks so much better!  

Couch is out in the room, new target lamp, higher Ikea shelves.

Moving on, I told her about this awesome circle chair I saw at Ashley furniture before we moved. She said sure it would work. We also needed a console table or credenza for the foyer so she recommended The Dump. Really cool furniture store! Ok- in NC it's easy to find one-of a kinds and market samples of good furniture for a decent price. The Dump is the place in Houston. After all our rooms were measured and we had an idea of the direction we were going (she's drawing out and compiling pictures for us now), we headed to The Dump for a console table and then we were going to stop by Ashley for my chair. Well, we found a console and Oh MY! I FOUND A CHAIR!!! It's a round swivel chair like the Ashley one but soooo much better! It's big, and cushy, and FURRY and theres crocodile leather on it! It's AMAZING! We bought it instead of the one at Ashley and it was delivered today. YAY! I can't say that I would pay that for all my furniture needs, but this is one fantastic chair. 

Console in the foyer

After furniture shopping, we stopped by Pappa's Seafood for lunch- checking off another restaurant in the Pappa's chain. It was very good, as we have to come to expect from the Pappa's brand. We had calamari for an appetizer, Chuck had fried crawfish tails, the girls both had fried shrimp and I had a shrimp po'boy. Then we all shared a Hershey cake for dessert. It was all very good and I brought home 2/3 of my sandwich- it was huge!  Chuck had the traditional shrimp po'boy leftovers breakfast.

Today was rainy and cold again. We waited around for the Chair of Awesomeness, then went to a neighborhood Superbowl party. The kids ran around like hooligans, I think Chuck watched a little of the game between trips to the kitchen fur candied bacon (OH YUM!) and I staked out a spot in the kitchen corner and talked to the 2-3 neighbors I already know. I have recommendations on a vet, and I have a pet sitter lined up! Also somewhere to get farm fresh turkey and rabbit. Yay! we didn't stay to finish the game; school day tomorrow, but it was fun. 

Monday looms- laundry and grocery store lead tomorrow's list of things to do. No big plans for this week so far.

And now, THE CHAIR!

It's plushy.

It's furry!

It's mine.  Dogs stay out!