after the heat of the day . . .

driving for hours

raindrops on the windshield and cloud cover were very welcomed.

We enjoyed seeing lots of trains on our trip.

On we drove . . .

The rain was nice.

The wind was WILD!!! Unlike anything I ever remember experiencing while driving along.

It almost seemed like a movie, things just blowing across the road in front of us. :)

Wanna guess where we were going now?

We're almost to the end (and in real life we're back home).

Today my mom is here and we are about to go out. I'll have to post about it if we have any more antics. :)

windmill arms

Remember this post with those giant windmills in Kansas?

Two summers ago my mom and I were on an antiquing girls trip.

In Hillsboro, TX we saw an 18 wheeler stopped in the town square with this HUGE thing strapped to it that sort of reminded me of a whale or a dolphin.

I had NO IDEA what is was. Finally, my curiosity got to me enough to go over and ask the driver (who was standing around waiting for a mechanic or someone to show up) and he told me that it was an ARM for one of those windmills. It doesn't look that big when it is way high up but it sure does when it's down near the ground!

Crazy, huh?

Kelly

you're right!

so sorry for the blurry picture, but yes, we next stayed the night in Kansas.

Our only hotel of the road trip but we wanted to get some miles in that night so we wouldn't have as far to go the next day . . .

We got to see Megan's beautiful Kansas. It was really neat.

I found two old cake pans at that antique shop. The bottoms come out of them meaning that you don't lose chunks of cake sticking to the bottom of the pan. You can just cleanly run your knife between the bottom of the pan and the cake.

We ate at a little cafe and had a cherry phosphate with ice cream added. :)

One thing I do miss about Texas when I'm away though . . . Blue Bell . . . the ice cream in the phosphate was soft serve! Oh my!

Have you ever been to Kansas? What do you like there? Favorite places to eat/shop?

I'm off to scrapbook with a friend today! What are you doing today? Kelly

next stop

what do you think?

Take me to St. Louie

Did you guess St. Louis?

You were right!

Kelly

this is an easy one

Okay, this is an easy one.

This was our next place.

Do you know what city and state this is?

Have you ever been here?

What are some of your favorite things to do here?

Places to eat?

People to see?

Kelly

ideas needed

Remember this post?

Well, I have these two old chairs out on the balcony. It's a nice little set-up actually except that the brown chair is not very friendly to sit in. :)

Can you see the split down the seat. Your skin can get pinched in there and it hurts!

It's not very practical to try to fix that existing seat so I'm ready to do something else.

This is where you guys come in.

I have thought about cutting a circle out of it and turning it into a planter. Always fun, but is it too overdone? Are there other fabulous ideas out there that I just can't think of at the moment? Have you seen anything neat done with an old chair? I would love to hear your ideas of what I should do with it and especially if you have a photo on your blog or one you can link to of a great old chair make-over I would be much obliged!

Kelly

Happy Fourth of July!

We are so blessed to live in this country!

Adrian and I enjoyed seeing so much of this diverse and great land on our road trip.

We are so blessed to have the freedom to be able to drive all around, go wherever we want, choose our careers, our worship, our dreams . . .

God bless America!

Kelly

road trip observations

great job Gina and Melissa in getting Illinois correct yesterday!

We enjoyed a wonderful visit and some great barbecue with our friends Jenny & Scott.

Now, onto some road trip observations:

Before this trip my opinion was that I didn't really like to stop at rest areas for bathroom stops.

I'm picky about a clean bathroom, I'll admit.

My top choice was to have bathroom breaks coincide with antique store sightings. Why not, right? I could take a spin through and see if anything caught my eye, use a bathroom hidden away in some back corner after going through a maze to find it. Why once there was even merchandise in the bathroom just waiting to be bought and I might not have even found those treasures! AND it was all half price!

Anyway, I am digressing.

We didn't have time for leisurely shopping/bathroom breaks on this trip. We had many miles to go.

We ended up stopping at many roadside rest areas in lots of different states and I must admit they are better than I remember. Some of them were very, very nice. What a great surprise. I don't remember them having soap before but they sure did. Many of them are indoors now and not open air and there is air-conditioning! I had to take a picture of the one above with those butter yellow hand dryers and the vintage looking green tile floors. :) Have you ever seen colored hand dryers? I haven't. Only white or black or silver.

Also, a big hooray goes to Wendy's. We stopped there one day and in their bathroom they had installed something on the door called a "step and pull". At the bottom of the door there is a simple little ledge. You put your foot on it and use it to open the door instead of having to touch the door handle with your hands or try to open it using a wad of paper towels, etc. Genius!

Have you seen any "step and pulls"?

Where do you like to stop on road trips?

Kelly

p.s. One other fun fact: There is an iphone app that will tell you how far till the next rest area, where it is and what amenities it has. Pretty neat.

edited to add: you know what my smart and observant grandma just pointed out?

There is a hand dryer next to nearly every sink. I hadn't noticed before she mentioned it. No more dripping wet hands across the bathroom floor and then having to do the "shuffle by the other people who are waiting to use a stall/sink/only dryer". Yea for this rest stop! Way to go guys. Kelly

after Pittsburgh . . .

We were not done!

We got back in the car and started off again.

We drove through:

and spent the night in the state:

that has a state dance - square dancing!

where Cracker Jacks were introduced

that boasts one it's cities as the "Pumpkin Capital of the World"

Any guesses?

Kelly

high atop Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh has a really cool mode of transportation. They're called inclines and it's a railroad type car that gets pulled right up the side of a hill.

There's a big cable like this:

and cool spinning wheels like these:

That pull this car:

up to the top so you can look out and see this:

This was Adrian's and my second time to go. We had gone before the first time we went to Pittsburgh when we were first dating. It's a fun excursion that I'd recommend if you're ever in the city of three rivers.

my husband knows me well

While we were in Pittsburgh, Adrian took me to a place where they sell recycled building supplies. He knows me so well. If we had a big ole truck I would have been buying pieces of trim like this.

If I had $50 bucks just lying around I would buy a REALLY cool old house number like this.

(Well, I wouldn't really spend $50 bucks on it but if they marked it down and my house number really was 5812 then we might start making a deal. :) )

There were bins full of these and yellow bins full of hardware pieces for a quarter each.

This chair was only $2!

But I didn't buy it.

But I did buy some stuff and pick up three things out of the free bin by the door. :)

Kelly

turquoise doors

I just love these turquoise doors with the big numbers on the transoms. The architecture in Pittsburgh is definitely different from what I'm used to in Texas.

happy day

I interrupt this road trip report to say . . . 

today is my birthday.  :)  

I hope you all have a wonderful day and enjoy doing something fun.  

I have already been the recipient of yummy Italian cream cake cupcakes and I think we're going to go to some garage sales, the farmers market and eat some ice cream.  :)  

I was out of pocket this week and had set some road trip updates to autopost but for some reason I guess they didn't.  Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled road trip updates coming up.  

need more clues?

do these help you out?

City of champions (don't worry, if I wasn't married to

Adrian I wouldn't have known this info either) :)

beautiful lamp post in someone's yard

I got a kick out of the juxtaposition here. :)

And finally, Steelers gear!!! Go Steelers

Now do you know? I'm trying to think of a good prize . . .

Also, have you ever been to this city?

What do you like to do here? Are there any restaurants where you like to eat? Places to shop? Kelly

next stop

After eating dinner and dessert in Ohio, we drove on here:

just in time for this:

and later some of this:

and definitely eating this:

chocolate cupcake, peanut butter buttercream and pretzels mashed into the top

If you're a long time reader of my blog you might remember this place being mentioned before and possibly what city/state it's in.

So, ladies and gents, what are your guesses?

City?

State?

Bonus details?

Kelly

Ohio!!

After Nashville, we drove through Kentucky and into Ohio.

We stopped in Columbus for dinner at a pizza place we found on tripadvisor.com called Rubino's. The pepperoni/double cheese pizza was yummy and piping hot. For those of you in Dallas, it was a little bit like Campisi's with it's thin, crisp crust.

As we were driving down the street to Rubino's to meet up with our call ahead order, we spotted Graeter's ice cream shop. I had heard that Graeter's was yummy from Modgirl and so we had to save room for an ice cream stop on our way back to the interstate of course! :)

I had mint chocolate chip on a sugar cone and Adrian had black raspberry chip and mocha chip. The mocha was AMAZING! We ate our ice cream and enjoyed watching a chipmunk and the fireflies beginning to blink. (Has anyone ever seen a chipmunk in Texas? I haven't and therefore find the little creatures especially cute and charming.)

AND they had the neatest ceiling fans inside. They all were connected by belts so that they all ran together off of one motor. It was neat. It was a very fun date on day two of driving cross country.

Have you ever been to a Graeter's?

What's your favorite ice cream shop and where is it?

What flavor do you like to get?

Cone or cup?

Kelly

p.s. you guys are right, the road sign was from Kentucky. I forgot and thought it was after we were in Ohio but I was wrong. Sorry for a misleading clue and way to go for those of you who knew Kentucky!

do these help?

Guess a state.

Guess a city.

Bonus points for other pertinent info guessed. :)

I've got one reader who I'm really hoping might recognize something in this photo because I went to one of these places because of your recommendation. :)

Kelly

clue #2

Do you know what state we're in now?

(without googling these places?  come on now!)

Kelly

where do you think we went next?

back to the guessing game!

so where do you think we went after Nashville and took this photo?  

arrggg . . . I make it hard, don't I?  Hey, if there ends up being a prize then this couldn't have been *toooo* easy a game, now could it?  

Another clue to come later today.  :)  

Kelly

Nashville

We went to Nashville!

We left Dallas and drove to TN and had dinner, visited and spent the night with my aunt, uncle and cousins. It was so wonderful. Family is just one of the most special things ever. Then we drove on to Nashville to meet up with a whole slew of friends from college days. It was SUCH fun! Thank you all for making the effort to come! It was WONDERFUL to see you. I feel so good after spending time with you. It is terrific.

We ate at the Pancake Pantry. A girl we met on a plane a few weeks ago had told us about it and who knew we'd make it there so soon! I had the sweet potato pancakes with cinnamon cream syrup - um yum!

Have you ever been to the Pancake Pantry?

What did you get?

What is your favorite kind of pancakes? Do you make them at home or get them out?

What is your favorite breakfast restaurant and where is it?

Kelly

Guessing game

So I said more info to come about the road trip in the next post.  Here's the next post.  

Just for fun, let's play a little guessing game.  Do you know where this photo was taken?  Now I realize this is a hard one - very little architecture or scenery to go on.  Unless you know the people in the photo above (and some of you do) you won't have the faintest clue where these people are all congregated.  

So, if you'd like to play along with this road trip guessing game, in  your comment put as much info as you'd like about where you think this photo was taken. 

There may or may not be a prize at the end of the guessing game.  :)  We'll have to see how it all turns out.  As the "game show hostess" of this arbitrary game, I also reserve the right to skew the point system depending on if I told you in person where we were going on our road trip beforehand because that just wouldn't be fair, now would it?  :)  

I hope you'll all play along!  

Here we go! 

for one point, What state do you think we're in?

two points - what city?

three points - what establishment do you think we are standing in front of?

Have fun!  Kelly

road trip

Remember these????

Do you remember what they were for?

Yep, our next road trip.  We've been on a road trip!  

More info to come in the next post.  :)  Hope you're having a good day!  Kelly

today was good . . . and so was yesterday

Yesterday I wrote about the change in plans. Today I *did* get to go to the Chocolate Angel with my friend Jenny and share chicken salad sandwiches, strawberry pretzel salad and wonderful conversation. What good things have come your way today?

change of plans

"water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink"

uggg . . . we're having torrential downpours here and I had plans to eat lunch with a friend today at a place called The Chocolate Angel. How great does that sound? And go to my favorite thrift store. I headed out not afraid of a little rain and then ran into HIGH water and later saw an 18 wheeler stuck in a veritable lake.

Time for a change in expectations. I was disappointed. I was frustrated. I wanted to do my own thing. How gentle God is with us when we get impatient and want our own way. He reminded me that I can change my attitude or I can continue to have a pity party.

So, home I am now, clothes changed, tennis shoes and yoga pants on instead of my summery skirt and sandals, ready to dig in here today. I can take this change of plans and make the best of it. He will help me.

In case you're wondering, the photo of the water above is not the muddy waters flooding the city streets. It is a photo I had of the water below the railing of a cruise ship when I went on a vacation with my extended family three summers ago.

I choose to look at today more in the fashion of these photos than in the muddied waters and disappointments of changed plans. I'm off to fold laundry and iron our new dust ruffle! Have a great day! Kelly

p.s. What are you doing today?

summer strawberries

strawberries and angel food cake on a vintage blue melamine plate

add some whipped cream

and a cutie nephew

What a lovely afternoon in Missouri a couple weekends ago! Thanks, Cecily!

Kelly

p.s. Sandy has a fun strawberry post here.

and Jen has a SUPER yummy looking strawberry pie recipe here.

hApPy SuMmEr!!!

It's finally here!!!

Sum-sum-summertime!

I am soooooooo happy to be out of school I can't even tell you!!!

I am so excited to be the homemaker, not the leave the house in the seven o'clock hour get home at 3 something or 4 something and then be the homemaker after teaching hundreds of kids everyday and having a lot of my energy sapped, but the home all day homemaker.

Laundry, cooking, planning meals, reading, organizing, nesting, decorating, garage/estate/thrift shopping, friend & family visiting, Bible studying, traveling, crafting, blogging, sleeping in, working out, home-making here I come!

Hooray!!!

photos: yummy raspberry sorbet made by my wonderful husband

afternoon project

I was a little discouraged.

I really love to spend time out on my patio in nice weather, journaling and reflecting, doing Bible study, etc. I like to water green growing things. I like to feel the breeze blowing around me. Until a few hours ago my patio basically looked like the above.

The lovely herb garden my sister-in-law gave us for Christmas died a mysterious death after coming along nicely for weeks and weeks.

I could go right out to a nursery or Wal-mart and buy a supply of plants but for various reasons, this summer isn't lining up to be a good summer for us to try to grow things. Green, living sorts of things. And keep them alive. So, what's a girl to do?

Step one: gather up some "stuff"

can of old hardware bought at an estate sale a few weekends ago for 50 cents I think,

a trowel, a rock my brother brought back to me from the top of a

Colorado mountain many years ago and some colorful pots

and some sheet moss bought at Joann's

search the house for some cute "little" things

pluck them out of their present places and stick them in a moss covered pot!

Very pretty!

But then the wind starts picking up and something rolls over the edge of the balcony

and breaks and you decide to take that pink glass eiffel tower

right back inside before it too becomes a casualty

and you look for some more stuff

like this adorable little red phone booth that has lived on my fridge for

as long as I can remember and reminded me my mama was only a phone call away.

It used to make a phone ringing sound when you pressed the button but now it doesn't

and the door is now held on my gloppy glue gun glue and it had found it's way

to the seldom seen side of the fridge so . . . out it goes to a new home!

And even though it's plastic, you still prefer that it and your sheet moss don't blow away at the slightest provocation, so you do what any "gardener" would do and you break out your . . .

GLUE GUN!

And your husband wakes up from his nap and comments "I've never seen anyone glueing anything to dirt before. Awesome!"

And you add these fun garden clippers for weight that you also got at the same estate sale as the hardware, again for 50 cents or a quarter because you liked the way they look

And after various tweaking and arranging and gathering and tying and glueing,

you end up with this:

chair bought at a garage sale a couple weeks ago for $3.50!!

Re-painted white and number added inspired by Wendy

but that's only one comfy chair to sit in and there are two of us now and this weekend I found this!!!!

I was sooo excited to spy it at a garage sale that I stopped at on the way home from mailing the baby gift. It was marked $15 and I got it for $8!!! Yippee! Yippee!

and it will go up here alongside the number 3 chair

(hee hee, I noticed you can see the rust on the bottom in this photo! oh well)

So here's my question for you. I want to paint the wicker chair. I think I want to paint it black.

But the number chair is white. Or I could paint it a color. What do you think and why?

I'd love to know!

Oh and I want to credit seesawfaith and kelli whose little container gardens with miniatures I saw a few weeks ago that were percolating in the back of my mind and inspired my afternoon project! Hope everyone is having a good Sunday afternoon. Adrian and I are about to go out and enjoy our 8 month anniversary present to ourselves. More to come on that later. Kelly

p.s. does anyone know anything about "outdoor friendly pillows"? Thanks! Kelly

I added this post to Rhoda's Monday party of sharing things you've found at estate sales, garage sales, etc.

baby love

packaging up a baby gift to send today

so sweet

just for my mama

who's been missing me doing any new blog posts, here's

a belated one about our spring break shopping adventure.

We went to Ross and found a bunch of stuff to try on and in the absence of a dressing room attendant or a sign telling us how many items, we wheeled in our cart. :)

We were already feeling giggly and then I reach in my purse for something and my hand comes in contact with these funny disguise glasses that just happened to be in my purse (yeah, and I don't even have kids.)

So my mom gamely put them on for a photo and then we took these:

We like being together, can you tell?

Sidenote, that black and white dress with the big red and orange poppies was my Easter dress this year and I'm wearing it to a wedding this weekend! Ready to get my dancing shoes on!

So two random questions for this post:

What do you enjoy doing with your mom?

Do you enjoy dancing at weddings?

Have a great weekend!

School is almost over and hopefully posting from me will pick up!

Five more days but who's counting???

Kelly

silver tray

Last year I used it like this . . .

This year I'm using it like this . . .

I think the Nester would be proud.

happy

This basket makes me happy.

It sits on top of my refrigerator and not only is a joy to look at all alone up there in it's "unclutteredness" but it also is holding plastic cups, etc. Yea for storage. This was a wedding gift from two of my co-workers. They know me well. Off to do some laundry . . .

Hope you're having a good day!

What are you up to today?

Kelly

Travel Tuesdays - Chicago May '09 edition

Have you gathered by now that we really like Chicago?

It also helps that we have family there so there's a good excuse to visit a lot.

Mother's Day weekend found us in Chicago to spend time with family.

We ate at one of our favorite breakfast spots, Clark's

walked along the water

hung out with family (and I really wish I had more pictures of that part of the trip but unfortunately I don't)

went to Navy Pier

enjoyed blooming, heavenly scented things

rode a water taxi

walked around the city

saw this statue

rode in a taxi

and ate well (not just breakfast places although that seems to be when I was taking photos)

(they give the ladies milk duds)

Do you have any trips planned? Where are you going next?

weekend treasures

My friend Jacquie called Saturday morning and said there was an estate sale across the street from their house. Since I was nearby after meeting with some girls from church, I went over.

I walked up to the door to see a 50% off everything sign!

*That* is fun to see! I enjoy slashing all the prices in my head as I walk through.

$1, nah 50 cents! etc.

I scored these fun treasures for only $1.49 total.

The handkerchief has a B on it but it was so beautifully embroidered and so inexpensive that I got it. I don't intend to keep it for myself.

The black plate was a steal at 12 1/2 cents. :) It will hang on a wall or go into a display.

The rhinestone buckle was attached to a black fabric belt that wasn't all that attractive so I just looked past the belt, bought it quite happily and promptly brought it home and freed it from it's frumpy black entanglement. I'm not quite sure what it's next life will be yet but it's exciting to think of the possibilities.

What would you do with it? Did you go to any yard sales or estate sales this weekend?

Kelly

p.s. Then today (Sunday) my friend Brenda brought a couple of treasures to me from a garage sale where you could take whatever you wanted for 25 cents ~ for all of it! The furniture was $10. Anyway, she brought me a hand mixer and handmade shooter marble with inscription. Really neat.

Then Adrian went with me to an estate sale where I got some other treasures. I would like to post pics of all that but honestly I need to go to bed!

Happy beginning of the week. Kelly

Pokey O's

Last night we went out for a little treat.

We had a great time at Pokey O's.

If you live in the area, you've really got to go.

Fresh baked cookies and Bluebell ice cream.

You pick your cookie flavor (we both chose two different cookie flavors for our sandwich).

Then you pick your ice cream flavor.

They stack it all together for you and off you go!

It was delicious!

Plus we discovered some fellow Steelers fans there AND the nice guy working gave us a bag of the "brokey pokies" (broken cookies) when I commented on the cute name.

It was a fun date with my sweet husband.

Do anything fun this weekend? What'd you do?

Did you know . . .

my husband built a house?

Well he did.

Actually he remodeled a house that was built around the time of the civil war.

It is really, really cool and it makes me very proud of him.

Now, if anyone would like to buy a house in Missouri, just let us know. :)

Kelly