It continues.... :)

Aaaand the avalanche continues.

I got a new coffee table...

then that meant I needed a new lamp...

and, well that meant new curtains of course...

to, ya know, go with my new couch and chairs.... :)

I thought I'd have some pretties to show you this week,

but it's just still not quite finished.

I'm still waiting on some things to get here, so hopefully in a few weeks

I'll have something to show you:)

And lucky me! On Friday I get to head to the beautiful

beaches of Ventura, CA for 10 days

to escape this heat for a bit,

and do a little house huntin'..... :)

And so on and so on ..... :)

So you know when you go to do just one thing in your

house, it suddenly turns into an avalanche of projects?

Or is that just me....??

Well, we're finally getting to redoing the downstairs bathroom.

Or the last of the ugly as I call it.

You gotta love my sign I hung on the door at Easter...

Ya hear that? All that hammering??

Music to my ears:)

While we were doing the demo, we discovered we needed

to redo the roof over the bathroom.

Well that turned into.......

Adding a covered porch off the side of the house....

We didn't have enough of the used brick that we found on the

property to do the entire porch, so we just made a "rug" 

out of what we had:)

This is the view out the kitchen door.

Well, then the covered porch meant we needed new trees....

then the new trees needed a new fountain...

and so on.

and so on.

and so on.....

Hoping for prettier pics next week:)

Proud mama.... :)

Have you ever had that moment when your heart just wants to burst with

mama pride?? You know, when your child does something so completely amazing

that you're left just standing there in awe...and saying to yourself- 

wow. just wow.

Well I had that moment on Saturday night.

Let me introduce you to the one and only beeeautiful Susan.

This is Rio's bf Chase's adorable mom.

And she just had a birthday.

You aren't going to believe it..

her 60th!!

Well Rio and Chase decided months ago that they were going to 

throw this amazing woman a surprise birthday party:)

And surprise her....they did!!
She had no idea. She thought Chase was bringing her into the
back yard to show her something he made for her:)

And I guess that wasn't entirely a lie? Because Rio and Chase
put together quite the party:)
And they did it all by themselves. With no help from anyone!!

There were beautiful flowers that Rio arranged herself in 

big Ball jars that are sooo Susan.

Chase hung a chandelier that they found at a thrift store over

the birthday girls table. He even painted the extension cord brown to

match the tree!! It's all in the details right?

And in between all that he made ALL the food for the 

yummy taco bar:)

Rio went to Denovo and cut out a huge 60 on the 

cnc router and then put lights in it.

It looked sooo pretty at night!

Seriously I wanted to steal this wheelbarrow...

That adorable gold desk was actually Susan's from her childhood:)

There were sharpie pens and rocks so everyone could

write Susan a birthday note:)

Perfect for the gal who has long been a member of the

Arizona Nursery Association.

Rio made all the banners and Chase hung these mismatched
Edison bulbs from the pergola over the dessert table.

Oh! and speaking of dessert...
How cute is her birthday cake??!!

Rio MADE all those succulents.
Uh huh.
She painstakingly shaped them out of fondant,
then hand painted every single one...
only to come home and find her dog had
gotten up on the table and EATEN ALL OF THEM!!!!
She had to make them all. again.

These ball jar sugar cookies are actually the one thing they

didn't make. How stinkin cute are they??

Terri at Fresh Cut Flours (cute name!) made them.

Every detail was perfect.

Right down to the 60 birthday candles:)

Happy Birthday to the beautiful woman who's been on an African safari 3 times,

still drives her VW bug (Abner) that she purchased brand new in 1972, still rocks

some gorgeous long blond hair AND...

if you've ever been to the Phoenix Zoo in December? 

Susan started the Zoo lights:)

Yeah. She's all that.

And a bag of chips:)

But I gotta say- I love you Susan most for giving birth to the one and

only Chase. Who loves my one and only Rio:)

Dear Rio and Chase,

Since now we KNOW you both can plan the bejeezus out of a party...

We think it's high time you plan a wedding.

Just sayin..

Love, 

Dorie and Susan

Guilt free.... :)

I buy bananas every week. Sometimes they get eaten,

and sometimes they don't:(

I finally realized that (duh) I could peel them, cut them up and 

freeze them because they make for the BEST smoothies!

Well did you know that if you take those frozen  bananas...

and throw them in a food processor with their favorite 

friend the strawberry..

and give it a spin..

(be patient, it takes longer than you think)

you end up with this delicious guilt free ice cream??!!!

then you can take that bowl of guilt free deliciousness and

head over to your favorite chair

and watch this movie...

you're welcome:)

Snug as a bug in a rug..... :)

I saw this rug at Home Goods and immediately fell in love with it.

What's not to love, right??

It was perfect for my bathroom.

Weeeell, over a week ago I went on yet another one of 

my cleaning rampages. You know, the kind where you wash

everything in sight? 

Like a rug that OBVIOUSLY wasn't meant to be washed,

but the crazy lady on the rampage didn't think about reading

the washing instructions...oh no!! that would be 

completely SANE.

Well now look at it:(  :(  :(

Completely ruined....

It won't lay flat.

I thought that maybe if I left it just sitting there in the

dining room, that maybe somehow?....just somehow??...

it would magically fix itself??

Nope.

And I just couldn't get myself to throw it away!!

I kept thinking maybe I could do something with it....

one day after giving Little Bully a bath, I set him down

and he went running around the house like he always does,

only this time I could hear him snorting and flopping all over....

when I went to see what in the world he was

doing, I saw this. 

And that's when I swear he was saying....

 Mom, please don't feel so bad about your rug.

It's become my favorite doggy bed ever....

Oh the food... !!

I ain't gonna lie. I love food. 

I love to cook it, look at it, and yeah- eat it!

And I'm blessed to share this love with my family:)

Feast your eyes on our Easter brunch...

We always share the cooking responsibilities

when we get together for holidays:)

My adorable niece and I put together these easy peasy lemon curd

desserts. Just a crushed graham cracker layer on the bottom, then 

layers of lemon curd and whipped creme. We added a little lemon

zest into the whipped creme for extra yumminess. Topped it with a 

thin lemon cookie and a quartered piece of kiwi:)

It just isn't a brunch without scrambled eggs!!

 My favorite roasted asparagus makes the perfect pairing for those lovely

scrambled eggs:)

Just olive oil, sea salt and pepper. Roast at 400 just until they begin to brown a bit.

Top them with some grated parm and lemon zest.

My sweet niece Jess made the most beautiful fruit salad.

It was watermelon, strawberries, blackberries and red grapes with fresh

mint and orange zest:)

Oh man! it was good!!

There was a lot of hugging...

and a whole lot of laughing:)

Is my mama the cutest or what??!!

She brought her famous shortbread. I had a piece this morning with

my coffee. One of the many perks of hosting is you get the leftovers!

Chase made these crescent rolls filled with eggs, sausage, cream cheese 

bell peppers and onions.

Delicious!!

My sister brought this beauty....

Ina Gartens Sour Cream Coffee Cake.

Yeah, pretty aand tasty! 

Oh, and those little muffin things on the right are

Pancake Souffle Muffins made by my fab sis in law:)

She even busted out the homemade Strawberry-Maple syrup!

The hubby cooked what seemed like 185 lbs. of bacon 

for what seemed like 6 hours:) 

...there wasn't a single piece left!

Because we all know that leftover bacon is criminal!

 Theeeen, we moved on to the all important egg hunt:)

Let me just shout out some love for my cousins adorable girls.

Yes, they are a sweet as they look:)

A big thank you to my sweet friend L.O. for letting us 

egg hunt in your beautiful secret garden:)

It was a wonderful day spent with the ones I love:)