Just a little rock

See it...

Hiding in the bottom of my purse...

It does not look special or different sitting among the other rocks...

Nor special among the leaves...

But it is very special to me. My OH and I have been married for 26 years and that little rock has been with me the entire time. My OH loves to collect rocks from various places and he picked this one up from a deer lease. This deer lease was one of his favorite places to be and is located outside of Vanderpool in the Texas Hill Country near Lost Maples State Park. He found this one, polished and shined it up, sealed it with something to keep it shiny and during our first year of marriage he gave this rock to me. He told me it was just a little rock but he wanted me to carry it with me and whenever I saw it to remember that he loves me and will always be there for me. So even though this is just a little rock to some folks, this little rock is special to me. And my dear OH continues to be my rock that I lean on and love very much. Thanks honey for being my rock.

Painting furniture

It was such a beautiful weekend this past weekend and with the weather being not in the triple digits I got some furniture painted. There are a few ladies at the antique store that have been selling shabby chic furniture so I decided to give it try. Actually I have been collecting "practice" pieces for awhile and my OH wants his garage back. The final push was the fact that I got a new booth in Galveston and needed a locking cabinet to display small items. I didn't want new furniture (plus did not want to pay high prices) so my first piece was a old buffet top that had seen better days many, many days ago. I wanted 3 doors to open and to be able to lock. Of course the piece I had found had 1 door that opened and the two others were stationary. Enter my wonderful husband who can do wonders with woodworking. He cut the doors so I could have 3 doors and added locks. Then it was my turn. I have been wanting to paint furniture for awhile and was afraid to start, afraid to mess things up, just afraid to try something. But I needed the hutch so with brush in hand I dove right in. I didn't think to get a before picture but here is what we came up with.

We had to add glass to the centers of the shelves and all in all I am pretty pleased with the results. There wasn't a bottom so my OH also built a simple bookcase that I painted white and stained the top a golden oak. I wanted alittle more for the bookcase so I added blocks and put cutouts stained on the top. I think displays well in my Galveston booth.

Well...since I got over being afraid (my OH says he doesn't know why I always doubt myself) I can't seem to keep my paintbrush dry! Over the weekend I also completed a sweet little octagon table. Of course I didn't take any before pictures of this project either but hey...I was busy painting! Anyway, for both pieces I used primer first, then painted a light grey color latex paint. I then used a sander to add the distressed used appearance. After that I used a blue wash followed by a brown wash. Here is the top of the table after the brown wash.

The door of the table has great details which really show up after painting.

Of course before painting I removed all the hardware and while I had the items off the furniture, I spray painted a dark brown and highlighted with a copper metallic paint. The contrast is so pretty.

After everything was dry, I put a water based poly coat on the table since this piece would probably be used and I wanted to protect the paint.

Not too shabby if I so say myself...wait...I mean pretty shabby blue table!

Ok...now I am working on a twin bed that yes I remembered to take a before picture! I plan on shabby chic white for this piece. I really like painting old furniture and changing old, damaged, needing work pieces into new useable pieces.

By the way...I am having trouble posting comments on some of the blogs I follow...is anyone else having that problem and can anyone tell me how to correct that problem?

That's all for today...come back soon.

Life Does Get In The Way

Hi all! I know I have been bad and have not been keeping up with this blog and I apologize and I am going to try to do better. But as it is said - life gets in the way - of things we enjoy. For a quick update...3 months ago I was so very, very, very tired all the time. It seemed that I could be driving and would almost fall asleep, mid-day naps that would last for hours was starting to be the "norm" for me. I had gone to the doctor for a check-up and mentioned this to the doctor and she ordered tests because this was not the way I wanted to continue my life. Sooo...the diagnosis came back that I am a diabetic. So for the last 3 months I have been trying to get a handle on this new way of life that has hit me. I have been put on a low dosage of medication, ordered by the doctor to lose about 25 lbs and exercise and if I do well and get this under control and I can get off the medication. So me being me...I started an exercise program, have gone to a free nutrition class and when that didn't seem to help with my trying to change eating habits, requested and have attended an nutritional class that was great! I am happy to say that I have more energy than I have had in years! No more naps, getting things done, creating new meals and am finally able to accept that this is going to have to be my way a of life. I have to go to the doctor in 2 weeks to check the ACL levels to see if I am headed to being off meds. So that's why I haven't posted to this blog or have been able to read others.

To be honest...I was very depressed and felt like a failure because I had become diabetic and didn't want to do anything. But, my oldest daughter sent some books that explained this disease...and it seems that I have had many of the pre-existing conditions. She also encouraged my by saying that I have the ability to manage this and not admit defeat. I had gestational diabetes with all 3 kids, have be pre-diabetic for years and when I mentioned to my mom that I was diabetic...she said oh me too! You would think that she would have told me years ago but our relationship is rather...shall I say...different. The last factor is that stress can push you over and the last 2 years of my job was unbearable and I think with all the pre-existing conditions I have, that's what pushed me over the edge. So I decided that I love the outdoors, horses, painting, riding, my eyesight and toes so much that this diabetic thing was not going to control my life...I was going to manage it. So there you have it.

Now on another note I want you all to see my Cyrus now. I posted about him on my first blog and want you to see him now. He has now become my trail horse and we are once again looking for my husband a good trail companion. Cyrus is just alittle much for a beginner. On the trails if he gets nervous he will start a little dance and chomping on the bit which will lead to his little meltdown. If you ignore this and sit down a little further in the saddle he settles down but will get wound up real fast and pop off the ground about 5 inches which is alittle scary to say the least. I think he did this to get the rider off and probably did this in the past and I really feel a rider who is not confident will get shaken up a bit. Not good for the rider or horse. I love riding him on the trails and decided to keep him. What's another horse right?

Here he is the day we picked him up in February 2010

And this was taken in July 2010 before a ride. I think he has gotten so much better looking with the exercise of being ridden and proper feed has given him.

Well that's way for now...come back soon!