Party Settings - I Should Iron Tablecloths

Well I am going to take a short break from talking about real life because I don't want the blog to be to heavy. Most everyone who reads the blog on a regular basis knows the biggest change in my life and I go over that later in the week.

While on break though I did have a lots of fun. We had a girls night at my house back in mid-April. Most of my close girlfriends from high school were able to make it except for Brandi and she was sorely missed.

I of course have no pictures of us during party, but here are the pictures of my table before the party. I used my good china. Yippee!!! I am always happy when I get to do this:) Plus we sat at the dining room table another big plus for me.

I did decorating on a budget. One of our florist here has a great deal that you can buy a stem for a dollar. I take them up on this offer all the time. This time I bought five spider mums, five roses, and three some sort of tall stems.

I cored out five apples and and cut florist foam to fit into the apple. I was amazed how long these little apples lasted.

I used the rest of the flowers for a vase on our little side board.

Overall I was extremely happy with the way everything turned out and I always love spending time with girlfriends we never seem to get enough of it.

(These pictures do tell be one thing. I need to iron tablecloths..................)

Part Two - Tornado

If you are just reading this part one of this story can be found here.

As I started talking to Lex the magnitude of how bad it was shocking. She was explaining to me how there was a woman trapped in the gas station down the street from her apartment. The Big Lots on the the opposite corner from her apartment was gone.

The windows of her apartment were busted out and her car was heavily damaged with the windows being shattered because she had decided not to stay at track practice like I had first assumed. Eventually it was determined that her car was in fact totalled.

Then I turned on the T.V. and started watching the news, this was probably a mistake. I couldn't believe the images that I was seeing. I was truely stunned and horrified. I think the one that stands out to me most was the one I saw on the Today Show the next day. It is the one where the guy is standing with his camera facing the hospital and it looks so close to the hospital. Well Alexis apartment is just south of the hospital. It really hit me then how close this monster was to her.

We headed up to Tuscaloosa at about 9:00 Thursday morning to pick Alexis up and bring her home. As we drove into town we went in a back way so didn't see to much damage. We parked near the hospital and proceeded to walk over the railroad tracks. We then entered a war zone. The buildings looked like they had exploded. Across the street from Alexis apartment complex was gone. The parts of the buildings that were standing had marks on them signfing that they had been searched. Just like what people saw during Hurricane Katrina. This is what we could see from Alexis front door.

Her friends were very excited to see adults and were ready to go home. I don't blame them I was ready to go home. They then told us about their experiences. Alexis left track practice early because the weather had taken a turn for the worse and she wanted to go home. Her strength coach asked her to stay but she told him that she would be fine.


She headed home and the sirens started. The sirens had been going off almost every other day for three weeks so it didn't really affect her. She jumped in the shower. Meanwhile her other roommates were downstairs. One was cooking a snack and the other was in her room. The one cooking heard something and ran upstairs and looked out her window and thats when she saw the monster headed towards them. She banged on Alexis shower door and told her to get out and get downstairs.

Alexis grabbed a towel, her dog, and of course being a college student her cell phone and ran down the stairs. All three of the girls and the two dogs crouched in the closet while they heard the windows break. At some point Alexis called her best friend Stephen. All he heard them breathing real hard and loud noises. Then he said it was just silent and her started yelling their names. He wasn't sure what happened.

Alexis came back on the line said they were okay and she had to call her dad. That is about the time my dad called me. Around the same time several of Alexis friends were on campus watching the tornado barely miss the hospital and just knew that Alexis apartment was in the path. In fact her good friend Billy along with several of his fraternity brothers headed towards her complex thinking they needed to look for her. As they drove down one of the main streets they could see through what use to be a neighborhood and saw Alexis apartment was standing and stopped. They started helping people who were trapped.




When we left Tuscaloosa that afternoon, I had changed. I have become more thankful and the realization that life is to short and you need to love every minute of it because things can change in an instant.

Where In the World Has Dawn Been?

I will admit that I have been absent for far to long. Many of the things that are in this post are still extremely fresh and every time I hear them my eyes feel up with tears. My family though is very blessed and very lucky.





I have talked about my younger sister Alexis several times on this blog before as being on the track team at the University of Alabama. She was extremely lucky during the tornadoes of April 27th that touched down in Tuscaloosa.



The day started as many others had this past semester, including a 15 minute conversation with my sister that morning about what was going on her life. Living in south Alabama our weather had been steadily getting worse all aftday and by 5:00 when I left it looked like it was going to storm. I checked Facebook before I left work and Lex had posted a picture from track practice where the weather looked like it was turning bad.





About two to three minutes into my drive home my best friend called and asked if I had talked to Alexis. I told her I hadn't and asked her why. Her husband is the district manager for Wintzel's and was in their Tuscaloosa store. He had called to tell her about the tornado. I wasn't really worried they had bad weather for weeks plus she was at track practice. They would keep her at there in the basement.



She and I stayed on the phone for the rest of drive home as she told me what she was seeing on T.V. boy it sure wasn't pretty. It was the longest 20 minute drive ever. As I was pulling into my neighborhood my dad called. I clicked over and and asked if Alexis was freaking out. He said "Yes, That's her I will call you back."



I have to apologize because you have to understand it is only 5:20 I have no idea what is going on in the rest of the state. I haven't seen the T.V. I am clueless but I won't be for much longer. I clicked back over to Brandi and said my dad was going to call me back because Alexis was calling him.





As I pulled into my garage (thank goodness I made it home) my dad called me back. I will never forget these words, "Alexis is okay, the tornado hit her apartment and her car is totalled. Goodbye." Yep, thanks dad, don't hold back or anything.











I clicked over to Brandi asked if I could call her back and immediately called Dennis and started hyperventilating. He didn't help telling me there wasn't anything I could do. Thanks not what I wanted to hear.



I hung up from him and figured that I would try Alexis, but doubted that I would ever get through. I was wrong. I have never been so happy to hear someone's voice. (By the way I still hadn't turned on the T.V., this probably was a good thing.) She started explaining what she was seeing. I couldn't quite grasp what she was telling me.

Did I ever the next day when we went to pick her up and heard her side........................

Easter Decorations

Well.....I had a girl's party this weekend and I needed to spice my house up just a bit. Right now it is a little boring. I mean yawn!!!

I decided that we need some Easter decorations. I made some mod-podge eggs that I have hidden in a bowl in the kitchen. These eggs got more action than I expected. This was the second party that we have had since moving in and I can for sure tell that even though our kitchen is attached to our great room that the kitchen is the attraction. It is giving me the itch for some demolition. Even though everyone loves the kitchen I think the flow could be better, plus the overhead cabinets are an awful height. They are to low.

I also decorated the mantel. I got the bird cage at Pier 1. The candle holder is a wedding present from my grandparents and you will always see it on our mantle or somewhere in our decor. The vases were on hand. The eggs are from Pier 1. The bunny is from Hallmark and the ferns are from our backyard.

The breakfast area table was supposed to be the app table but I don't think we used it. The center piece hurricane lamps were already on hand. The eggs were from Michael's, while the bunny was from Hallmark.

The only other decorations for Easter are in our kitchen area. They are in a little area that is supposed to be for a microwave (if you find one that fits.) The bowl was on hand, the bunny's are a gift from my aunt, and the vase was a wedding gift. The eggs in the bowl are from Michael's and include the Mod-Podge eggs.

I will post pictures on the party setting later in the week. I have to do something I have been dreading, our TAXES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Have a Dirty Secret......

Okay so my close friends know it isn't that dirty......I hate to clean. I detest cleaning. I can do it and I know how to keep a clean house, but there is so much I would rather be doing. I would rather do anything than clean my house. (Side note here: I have never cleaned a toilet in my house during my married life. I absolute refuse. I am not the one that gets its nasty.....so Dennis is in charge of toilets.)

We aren't dirty people but between the two of us and two/three dogs the house gets messy. Most weeknights I don't get home till six and I sure don't want to clean after that. Our weekends are so full between my volunteering and Dennis' golf who wants to clean.

So for spring cleaning this year I decided to bite the bullet and hire someone. Best investment I ever made..............

DD came highly recommended by two of my friends but she also cleans the house of one of Dennis' golfing buddies. So we felt pretty comfortable with her cleaning ours. Not like she is going to ruin three other relationships by messing with our house.

I packed Shea and Wolfie up for doggie daycare because they needed play time, baths, and their nails done. I also took Joe our foster dog, but he was expelled from doggie day care. Yep he a is 10lbs ball of TROUBLE.........

Since Joe only made it an hour at doggie day care before I had to take him home. DD had just started when I brought the doggie school drop out home. It was around 9:30. She was cleaning our laundry room garbage cans. (Poor dear that is the nasty one in the house for some reason.)

When Dennis came home at 5:30 she was out side cleaning our patio table....no small feat considering the pollen that was all over it. She also blew off all three of our patios. I am not sure if they had that since we moved in.

It gave me such a comfort to come home from a stressful day at work to a clean house that night. I got to enjoy my weekend. I went to see Lex's home track meet. I played in my backyard. I had dinner with Dennis family Friday night. I did paper work (not fun but it needed to be done.) I worked on a new craft project. I probably wouldn't have gotten those things done if I had had to clean all weekend, but I didn't:)

Of course I will have to do touchups here and there until her next visit, but I won't mind so much because it isn't overwhelming.

Yes maybe the money could go to something else, but it is going to my peace of mind. You know this is a risk I am willing to take to enjoy life a little more.

PS - This is a picture of me and the track star:) I look awful, but you get the idea

Lighting Risk!!

I decided to join up with The Nester to about taking risk!

My biggest risk by far for us has been purchasing our new house. We loved our old house but after being being broken into twice in three years, I had had enough.

Walking into our new house, Dennis had much more faith in my decorating skills than I did. He saw more potential than I could. (I mean the mirrors were bad, but the murals of Mother Earth and the Dragon were awful.)

My first room to complete was my dining room/foyer. I had to change the foyer light. It had a nice pendant light but it just not appropriate for the space. I love the look of the drum lamp shades. I scoured everywhere looking for one to DIY, but could not find one.

Then I remembered the awesome lamp shade that I purchased at Lowe's when I was staging our old house for sale. So I ran down there during one of my lunch breaks and found the perfect lamp shade. It was the right size and color.

When I brought it home though I of course got the look from Dennis.......you know the look. The look of "is this really going to work." After he insisted on doing it himself instead of me. (I did give the instructions on the attachment.) It was finished in five minutes flat. It took us more time to figure out which breaker to turn off than to hang the new fixture.

I love the look and the price tag under $22.00. Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish all of my risk turned out that cheaply and that perfect. Maybe I would stop getting the look.

I'm Back!!!!

Okay well it has been a crazy last month. I was lucky enough to foster Joe and Pete our foster dogs. While it is very rewarding to be able to foster animals having two puppies in the house is an adjustment and does not lend it self to much craft time or painting time.

This past weekend Pete was adopted, but we still have Joe. Pete is going to be an amazing dog and I miss him greatly. I wish I could keep them all.

Also that last few weekends, when I get most of crafting done, has been gorgeous down in the deep South. It has been warm and sunny. It makes it very hard to stay inside. Believe me once summer comes I will not want to be outside.

We are enjoying our new yard. So far the daffodils have bloomed. They were a bit different than what I am use to. I am use to the yellow daffodils, these were white with pink lips. (I can't believe I didn't get pictures.)

Our azaleas are about to peak in the next couple of days. I think we have 8 varieties, there may be more. Our Gerber daisy is in bloom and the day lilies look like they are going to bloom like mad. The hydrangeas are leafing out (I can't wait for those to bloom)

Over all I am so happy with our back yard and I still love it. Will probably plant a few knockout roses though since I love them so much.

Hope you had a great weekend and stay tuned. Enjoy the pictures!