Dec 4, 2010

Lonestar

Austin is home to the Texas State History museum.  We learned recently that they admission is free on the first Saturday of each month.   So a month or so ago we made plans to check it out this weekend.

I have to say it was a nice way to spend several hours.   The lobby of the building was being decorated to the hilt for a fancy special event.   On our way out we learned that it was for someone’s wedding reception.  Wow.   That is going to set someone back a pretty penny.

Afterwards we made pizzas at the house and played with fellow wiificionados Marty and Sue.

Dec 3, 2010

Morning in the kitchen...

This morning as I was making coffee,  I saw this shadow cast by the sun coming up and shining through the kitchen window.   I knew I had a pretty packed day today, so I snapped a quick pic — the most inspiration I could muster at that hour.

This may be the closest I get to my camera today, so …. here it is.   Still life:   Morning in the kitchen.

Uh, pay no attention to the dirty faucet 🙂   I just noticed that.

I’m looking forward to the weekend!

Dec 2, 2010

Star of Bethlehem

I noticed this flower while dashing past the floral aisle at HEB — a  Star of Bethlehem.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen one before.   Very pretty.

Didn’t buy it but snapped a quick pic instead.

Dec 1, 2010

Oh, yes I did...

Whew.  FINALLY got to take a break this week.   I took the opportunity to go to dinner with Monte.  We hit up our favorite Indian restaurant.  Yum!

The nights are getting chilly (it’s December, already?!).  But no wintry weather was going to keep me from having some ice cream for dessert   🙂

Hey, without rewards, where would we be?

Nov 30, 2010

Pretty

It’s that time of year – my Christmas music book has made it’s way to the top of the music stand.

And it is open to this song.   I really love playing this one.   But, in looking at this just now, I realize that it’s not really a Christmas carol.  Or maybe it is, because it’s basically about Mary, who was front and center on the big day.

Here’s a youtubelink if you would like to enjoy it.   Note that I know I will never be able to play it like this… I don’t even have a big-kid music book.  But a girl can dream, right?

 

 

Nov 29, 2010

Content-free

Monday.   I won’t even go into what my day was like.   Suffice  to say I didn’t get to capture a moment to share here.

But I’m determined to keep this 365 project going…so here ’tis.   Captured in the wee hours of the next morning  🙂

 

Nov 28, 2010

Mesmerizing

Every once in a while it’s important to take time out to stop and smell the roses, or to stare at the lava lamp – whatever works for you.

Nov 27, 2010

Welcoming the Christmas season

I put up a Christmas wreath today.   I’ll probably put a few other decorations up this weekend.

It will be over before we know it, but I really love celebrating this time of year.    Monte was playing some swinging carols this morning.    It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas…

Nov 26, 2010

Curtain shopping

I decided to brave the Black Friday hoardes,  figuring that the things I was shopping for might keep me out of the mainstream retail frenzy.

I want to put curtains up over the sliding glass doors in the gameroom this winter.  So, I set out with some color swatches for the wall and floor color to find something that would work.

I found some things I really liked.   However, I am going to have to keep looking, as I realized about an hour into it that what I needed was a traverse curtain rod.  Two of them, actually – one that opens to the left, and one that opens to the right… so that we don’t have curtains blocking the doorway when they are drawn.   *sigh*

Back to the drawing board.

Nov 25, 2010

Passing through

I baked 2 pies and yeast rolls, and sides for the feast.  Monte was on turkey duty.

At exactly 1:09PM I stepped outside to cut some fresh rosemary to put inside the turkey before we put it on the grill.   It was completely still, and 77 degrees.   While I was out there the wind began to blow out of the north – the much talked about cold front had just arrived.  By 1:30 the temperature had dropped into the 50’s.     We knew it was coming but it’s still amazing to experience it.

As I was standing in front of the kitchen window, this buck deer trotted by.   We usually see lots of deer in the winter, but I haven’t seen one in a while.

Well, one year ago today my dad passed away.   I can’t believe how quickly a year has gone by.    Rest in peace, dad.

I’m thankful for so many things.   Friends.   Family.   Good fortune.

I hope your day was as nice as mine.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nov 24, 2010

A forest of my own...

This is the  Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  I worked til about 1:00 and then the guy came to install the new blinds in the gameroom.   I’m hoping they will ward off the cold this year.   And just in time, too!  It has been crazy hot and muggy here all week.  We had a high of 87 today.  But TOMORROW night it is supposed to be in the 30’s and then perhaps into the 20s on Friday night.

I think this is the cold blast that brought snow to Seattle over the weekend… it’s just taking its time making it down here.

This is a shot of part of the little forest in our backyard.   We have a normal back yard/lawn area behind the house, beyond that a thick stand of trees, and then beyond that a clearing  in the part of the back yard by the shop that gets full sun.

I really love my little forest of trees in the middle.   We have hacked at the scrub trees and pruned tons of branches every year to help out the native trees –  but it still looks wild.

The sun was sinking low on this last warm autumn afternoon.  I’m looking forward to some rest and relaxation.  I hope you are too.

Nov 23, 2010

November sky

Finally got away from work this afternoon.  I started checking things off my holiday-vacation-to-do-list.

This is a shot of the sky above IKEA, stop #2 on my list for the day.   I thought the light and shadows looked interesting and tried to capture some of it.

I ended the day with a nice dinner at Chez Nous.  Delicious!   Thanks Lori, Laura and Ann!

Nov 22, 2010

Happy Birthday!

If today is your birthday, I hope it was a special day.   Special for me meant spending the day not at work (or trying not to be) and with my sweetie.  We are taking the week off.   Not going anywhere…that we know of yet.   Just taking it easy.

Monte baked me a chocolate cake from scratch with raspberry in between and powedered sugar on top.   Looks GOOD!   I got to lick the spatula, too.

If I weren’t a grown woman of 29, I’d just tear right into it!    🙂

Nov 21, 2010

Another weekend in the books

We had another nice weekend.   The weather was really warm – in the 70s.   Monte worked on the boat and I worked on fun stuff.

If you recall my post a few weeks back about the catboat windtoy that monte made me…  well this weekend I painted it and we put it up, and it works great!   Here is a link to an animated gif to see it in motion (you’ll have to wait a bit for the 2+ MB file to load).

I also tweaked my blog a bit and have indulged myself by getting a dedicated domain name for it:  sheila365.com.   It’s still hosted on WordPress, but you can get to it directly with the new domain name.  Any and all old links to sheila365.wordpress.com will still work, too.

This is a shot of the Chinaberry tree outside the shop.  All the leaves have fallen and it’s just loaded berries.   Monte suggested taking a picture of the many chinaberries looking up against the sky.   This is my take at it.   The sun was just dropping so there’s a bit of pink in the sky.