Happy Thanksgiving!

I've been sitting here trying to figure out how to start this post, and my brain is not cooperating . Maybe because I'm high. I came home from doing last minute Thanksgiving preparations, (getting a mani/pedi! Duh!) to a house with every window open, ceiling fans on, and the heater cranking. Not one foot in the door and the fumes hit me. My sweet love of my life decided to put a coat of something that will forever damage your lungs, on the cellar floor.
(This is a custom carving that my daughter had our carver in our shop make for the hubby 2 years ago in anticipation of his beloved wine cellar. Our last name is Understiller- get it? Cute huh.)

I held my breath and braved the toxic elements to get these pics for you. Anything for my blog buddies!!

This is the cellar floor (originally a root cellar). The brick we found in the back yard when we bought the house, and the wood is again- our old fence. The hubby spent all weekend putting it down. No easy feat! The boards being so old were a pain to work with. But with much persistence and my constant cheering "you can do it!!" he completed it! How cool is that!! The hubby is nothing short of amazing I tell ya :)

Yes, I'm soooo very thankful for my husband. His talents many, his heart huge :) He puts up with more than his fair share of crap from me, and still wakes up every morning and says "good morning beautiful". I don't deserve him, but somehow the Lord thought I did :)

Have an amazing Thanksgiving everyone!

Craving a craft... :)

After spending what seemed like an eternity cleaning the garage these last two weekends, I was dying to do something a little creative :)
I came across this blog a few weeks back where Susan showed this tutorial on how to make these cutest felt flower pins. Susan suggest sewing hers, but I just used hot glue.

They were soooo easy. I'm not kidding easy. So I made a bunch, and I love them!! I made this one out of a scrap of burlap I had lying around :)

You can wear them on sweaters,

Or on a scarf,

Or on a scarf on a sweater!! :)

I wore this one to work yesterday :)

Now git to gittin!! Christmas is right around the corner!! :)

I always feel like somebody's watching me....:)

This is where I spend hours doing all kinds of stuff I find highly important. You know- blogging, facebooking, online shopping, emailing :)

But seriously? Sometimes I feel like I'm not alone. Maybe because I face the "wall o dead" as I like to refer to it. All those old pictures are of my hubby's family, in the most beautiful old frames. I really do treasure all of them. But one in particular, just stares. And stares. At me.

I try to break the creepiness by taking a glance at Wallace's baby pic, (I know! he was sooo adorable) but then I look up- and there she is!!

She has such a stern look to her, but her eyes seem so gentle. It's like she's keeping me in line or something? And it's like she knew I was going to say something about her being a little creepy, because no sooner had I taken this pic that I hear WHAM!

I turned around to see this. My sweet baby Wallace pic on it's side. Hmmm. My hubby said "are you okay?" from downstairs.

I had to laugh. "yep, I'm fine!" And then I turned to her and said a very respectful "I'm sorry". For without her, I wouldn't have that amazing husband of mine :)

**Oh and that shelf thing on the "wall o dead" is an old plate rack I found in my son's backyard when he bought the house. Score!!

Hideous mantles and microwaves... :)

After just cleaning off my mantle from Halloween, I'm sort of in a funk. Can't figure out what to put up there for Thanksgiving. No really, I just keep staring at it with the hopes that something will inspire me. Nothing. So I went searching. I googled Thanksgiving mantle decoration and look what came up!!!!

SERIOUSLY??? What the??? Huh?? Oh, come on!! I've been laughing so hard over this picture!! It's HIDEOUS!!! I mean, I don't think I owned even two of those dried thingys back in the 80's when they were popular!! Maybe I should have typed in Thanksgiving mantle decoration 2010???
In other hideous news: I broke down. I bought a microwave. (what you can't hear is the applause and whistles from the hubbs.) I hate microwaves. We've been living without one for about 2 years now. On purpose. I heat things up old school. In a freaking pan. On the stove. Like we all used to before the microwave. But after listening to my hubby complain time and time again about my old school ways, I caved.

So here sits the beast. A tiny beast, the cheapest tiniest beast I could find.

She's ugly and doesn't deserve the prime real estate she's hogging on my counter. But worse? She's supposed to be sitting on a shelf in my pantry.

Yep right there. The hubby even put a plug in there while we were building in hopes of someday owning his precious micro. But when I look at my lovely organized pantry, I can hardly bear the thought of making room for that ugly. And I weirdly think it's going to emit some crazy something all over my food.

Counter? Pantry? Counter? Pantry? It's a lose- lose situation :( Your thoughts??

Osage and Steel Grey... :)

I often think about all the wonderful things out there in blog land. I mean, you can find a blog on just about everything! I could spend hours checking my favs and longer looking at their favs! It's seriously addicting. But let me tell you, the things you learn!! Take last week for instance,I was reading this blog (scroll down till you get to Thurs. Oct. 14) and she was talking about these crazy looking balls. The osage orange.
As I took a closer look I couldn't believe it. Every morning when I walk to my local coffee shop with Wallace I would pass these laying all over the ground. JACKPOT!!
So last Friday I took a bag with me and brought home the loot! Aren't they the CUTEST?? I love them, and keep putting them all over the house :)

The blog had a lot of information on them, numero uno- they aren't edible. But who cares right?? They're GORG!! :)

Oh and another happy I learned about this week: this fantastic nail polish. It's the best grey color ever! I read about it here. (again, scroll down to Oct. 14 post) Thanks Ashlyn!

But trust me, it will quickly become your fav :)

Rimmel - Steel Grey. I found mine at Target :)

The before...the during... :)

"For a dreamer, night's the only time of day."

And a dreamer I am! Take a look at this before pic of my master bedroom. That build out around the window was not supposed to be there. But when your dealing with a historic home with no air conditioning in ARIZONA, (how in the world did they do it back then??) we had to make room for all the duct work. At first I was beyond annoyed. You see I had planned to put my bed on the wall to the right, but with that duct business I was forced into putting it under the window.

This is the during. I say that because I'm still waiting on curtain rods that I had to special order because of the size of that gigantic window. Normally I am a "never put a headboard in front of a window" person, but in this case I had no choice.

Isn't that headboard a beaut?? I found it at Urban Outfitters of all places! I saw it out there in blog land and knew it would be the perf thing for my room! Oh yeah, and sorry for the dark pics, cause of course in typical Dorie (the procrastinator) fashion, I just snapped these last night!

I still have my summer bedding on here because it's still stinkin HOT here!! That long pillow is an old grain sack that I found in Texas that just happens to hold one of those body pillows perfectly :) That crocheted thing at the end of the bed is (I think) a tablecloth? My mom gave it to me and I just folded it at the bottom of the bed because I liked the texture :) This week I'm going to hightail it down to Domestic Bliss and get to ordering that duvet I've been dreaming about. Believe it or not, it gets pretty chilly here!

Hopefully those darn curtain rods will be here this week so I can show you all the curtains! Some are already done and it makes such a difference :)

What's old is new again... :)

When we tore out the old fence (we had to, there was no repairing it) we ended up with a huge pile of beautiful old white chippy painted wood. Luckily my hubby shared my feelings about someday making "cool stuff" out of it :) Well that day arrived on Saturday morning! The hubbs got up and was itching to build something. Yes I know, I'm soooo blessed :)

So while I was out and about doing really important stuff like buying candles and plants for the porch...

He made me this!! Cuuuuute right??!! I love love love it :)

And so does my silly dog. Yep, on Saturday night I made this yummy appetizer plate for our guests to enjoy and while we were taking a tour of the house....he jumped up on the table and devoured the brie cheese. Not the prosciutto, sopressata, crackers or grapes, oh no! The cranberry crusted brie. You can still see the evidence, right there by his foot.