A Little Facebook Funny

I read this thread between DH and Darling Cait on Facebook. I just had to share, she is such a wit. I guess it's funnier if you live with musicians, but pretty cute anyway. DH is always making cracks about Cait's taste in movies - she loves Xmen, Batman, Sci Fi. Actually I think she just likes to go the the movies lol! Cait has been practicing for her band placement auditions. She got the music on Monday, first round of auditions was Wednesday. And apparently the music is a BEAR!

Cait: has never felt the saxophone was her arch-nemesis - until now...

DH: What X men movie is that from?

Cait: X-men 440: The B Sharps

She told me if she didn't laugh about it she would cry, so she might as well laugh. Got a call Wednesday night - made the A list so on to the 2nd round of auditions. Yippee!

Outdoor Wednesday - Hubby's tour of Austin

Welcome to Outdoor Wednesday, graciously hosted every week by Susan at http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/ Make sure to stop by and see what beautiful outdoor scenes everyone is sharing this week.

This week, I thought I'd take you on a night tour of Austin. DH and a friend went out last Friday and did some night shooting in Austin. He said that you meet the nicest people when you set up a camera on a tripod and turn your hat backwards lol.

The Broken Spoke is a legend among Austin dance halls. Now in the middle of an extremely busy urban area, it still has the feel of a beer hall in the middle of nowhere. Can't you just hear Asleep at the Wheel playing in the background?

How about a bite to eat at the Magnolia Cafe? This is a fantastic little restaurant. Don't let the sign fool you, the food is great and we're always GLAD that they are open!

Just thought that this shot came out really neat. Congress Avenue, going past the Austin Motel. This is a really neat old place that has been restored to all of it's vintage glory.

Statue of Stevie Ray Vaughan on the shores of Lady Bird Lake

Love this shot of the Austin skyline from the shores of Lady Bird Lake.

Hope you enjoyed this mini tour of Austin. Now don't forget to stop by Susan's and see what everyone else has to share with us this week.

Celebrate a fantastic giveaway!

It's time for a celebration! Claire from Life of a Southern Belle is having a fantastic giveaway! It's nearing her 300th post so she wants us to celebrate with her. She is giving away not one, but two copies of a book that I have been anxiously awaiting the release of. And check out the gorgeous cashmere scarf that she's parting with. Not to mention a precious candelabra and even a $20.00 Starbucks gift card - who couldn't use that extra kick in the morning now that school is back in session!! If you haven't visited Life of a Southern Belle before, you don't know what you've been missing. Smart, sassy, opinionated and funny! For starters, check out her Funerals in the South series. I'll wait for your comments thanking me for leading you to this fabulous lady. Click on the link below to check out this beautiful giveaway. Tell Claire I sent you!

Life of a Southern Belle: Soon I'll Be Posting Number 300! Let's do a GIVEAWAY!

Oudoor Wednesday - Praying for Rain

It's Wednesday, so that means it is time to go outdoors! Outdoor Wednesday is graciously hosted by Susan at http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/. Susan has a beautiful blog full of wonderful photographs and decorating ideas. This is one of my favorite blogland events, especially right now. It's so hot that I'm not going out much, so I enjoy the virtual tours of cooler places. And I especially love seeing pictures of beautiful gardens and lawns that are still alive! As I'm sure you've heard me gripe, er, explain, Texas has been in the middle of one of the worst droughts in our history. I thought I'd give you a little show and tell of how bad it really is.

Last week, I heard thunder - yes THUNDER! I was so excited to go outside and see this. This is the pretties sky I've seen in months!

Now here's something I haven't seen in a long time - raindrops on my car!! Yippee!!

I was so happy that I ran right outside and starting splashing my feet in one of the (very) few puddles that formed in our driveway. It was so funny, I looked around and half the neighborhood was outside doing the same thing! The pictures that follow should give you an idea of why we were celebrating...

You may remember seeing this picture from my Hometown Tour post. This is "Blue Hole" one of Georgetown's favorite outdoor spots.

This is what "Blue Hole" looks like now. The only blue I see is the sky.

Remember the peaceful scene with the ducks floating in San Gabriel Park?

I think for now they will have to be content with a mud bath! This is basically the same spot, just from a different angle. Everything looks so different right now that it's hard to get your bearings.

Low water bridge at Mankin's Crossing...

Guess we don't need the bridge at the moment.

Next time you complain about the rain, remember, you could have NONE! And if you have an over abundance this year, feel free to send some our way. Now, make sure to stop by Susan's and see what pretty scenes everyone is sharing. And you'll have to excuse me, I'm going to go pray for some more rain. And I'm leaving my car windows down at night for good measure - just checking out the accuracy of Murphy's Law!

Outdoor Wednesday - A squirrely lunch and a happy boy

It's Wednesday. Yippee for hump day. But more importantly, it's Outdoor Wednesday, so graciously hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer. If you haven't met Susan yet, you really need to go by and check out her blog. It's beautiful! And Outdoor Wednesday is such a fun weekly event. Make sure to drop by http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/ and say hello, you'll be so glad you did. I've been MIA alot lately. Work has been nuts, we've had family visiting from out of town and it's been so hot and dry that I haven't felt like taking many outdoor shots because everything looks awful! But my daughter got this great shot a week ago as she and some friends were eating at an outdoor restaurant in Denton. I thought it was so cute, just look at that little paw on her friend's hand as he nibbles a chip. She sent me this via mobile upload, and I immediately sent her a message to not give that poor little thing any hot sauce!



Last week, we were blessed to have my husband's niece and her two children visit from Philadelphia. Jessica is 8 and is such a smart, fun little girl. Julian is 3, and he is ALL BOY! His very favorite thing in the world (this week, anyway) is firetrucks and firemen. On the last night before their flight back to Philly, we took the kids to Shake's Frozen Custard for a treat. As we were getting ready to leave, one of our Georgetown Fire Department trucks was pulling up. I took Julian's hand and walked toward the truck, his eyes getting bigger with every step we took. As we approached the truck, I asked one of Georgetown's finest if I could take a picture of my visiting great nephew in front of the firetruck. "No ma'm" he replied, much to my dismay. "But I can let you take a picture of the little guy IN the truck". Julian was estatic. He had such a ball, and shook the hand of each of the three firemen. I don't think he will ever forget this, but if he does, Aunty Kathy has a picture to remind him! Don't you just love those "blue raspberry" lips!


Hope you enjoyed these shots. And don't forget to stop by and visit Susan and see what else people are sharing for Outdoor Wednesday.

Rewind Wednesday - Through an artist's eye

It's hump day! Time for another blast from the past so graciously hosted by Kelly and Victoria at design-ties.blogspot.com/. This fun weekly event lets us repost something from our archives, allowing us more time for gardening, decorating, putting our head in the freezer to escape the heat - you get the picture! If you haven't been to visit these gals, you really should. They have a fantastic blog chock full of great decorating and great humor! This post originally appeared in February as a Metamorphosis Monday link. I thought it was a fun way to try and see things through the eyes of an artist.


Today I am sharing a different kind of metamorphosis, the one that occurs in an artist's mind as he is painting. This idea actually originated with a phone call from my husband. Late Thursday afternoon the phone rang and it was DH, who was at Pier One. Now, first you have to understand that if I want to go to Pier One, I have to drag him kicking and screaming (or at least alot of frowning). So my curiosity was piqued, to say the least. He said he was looking for props for the gallery window. DH " Do we have a bottle of red wine that I can use" Yes, we did. "Do we have a wine glass that I can use" Yes, we did. "I'm looking for a bottle glass vase" - well you may have to go to Pottery Barn for that one. "Where can I find white linen napkins or tea towels?" At this point, I was thinking of all of my tablescaping buddies in blogland, so I told him to check TJ Maxx, Marshalls, etc. In the background I can hear him clinking and clanking through all of the glass ware and I got a fit of the giggles. I told some of my blogland buds that I can't do a tablescape to save my life, but my DH was doing one! Needless to say, he wasn't amused. So I asked what kind of display they were doing, and he said he wanted to mock up two of their still life pieces so people could see what the set up looked like, and how the artist actually saw it in the final painting. So I thought, hmmm . . . this could be a great idea for Met Monday. I'm out of projects around the house (actually I'm not out of projects, I just haven't started on any of them!) So this is what I came up with!

This is the basic mock up for a piece entitled Tropical Reflections.

"Tropical Reflections" by Kyle Polzin courtesy of Windberg Enterprises

Props used for a piece entitled Island Interlude. Notice the wine bottle - DH said ours had

the "wrong" type of label, so I was shopping Thursday night for a bottle of wine with the "right" kind of label! The clerk asked if I liked this particular wine, and I had to tell him I had no idea, it was being used in a window display. I think he may have wondered if I'd already sampled some!

"Island Interlude" by Kyle Polzin, courtesy of Windberg Enterprises

The window as it looks now. DH said that they have had more people stop to look at this vignette than any other display they have done. Here's hoping that we have done our part to stimulate the economy! (Excuse the reflection in the glass, I could NOT figure out how to get this shot without getting myself in it too)

Hope you enjoyed this - it was one of my favorite posts to do. Now jump on over and visit Design Ties and see who else is being lazy, er, digging up treasure from their archives!

Sunday favorites

It's Sunday, time to stop and relax and take a trip down memory lane. Chari at Happy to Design hosts Sunday Favorites, a great way to revisit your favorite posts from your archives. Summertime is so busy that it's nice to take a break and share an older post. It's also a great way for your new blogging friends to see some of your posts that they might have missed. This week I'm going to be twice as lazy, er, efficient. This was a guest post written by my darling daughter Cait after her January trip to Washington DC. Hope you enjoying seeing this great city through her eyes! Then make sure to stop by and say hi to Chari at happytodesign.blogspot.com/. She has a lovely blog and is such a sweetie! You'll be glad you did!

CAIT GOES TO WASHINGTON!

Patrick and his mom, Colonel Figures

Feeding the Sea Lion

Panda playing possum

Korean War Memorial

WWII Memorial

For the first time in my life I feel short!

Stained glass at Mount Vernon

View of the Potomac from Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon

The Three Muskateers at the Capitol

The Capitol Rotunda

Stacks at the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress - Mom's idea of heaven on earth

There he is, the blacksheep of Mom's family - Crime and Punishment Museum

Washington Monument

Isn't this view unbelievable?

I promised my friends from Micasa that my darling daughter Cait would do a guest blog about her recent trip to Washington DC. Little did they know that she would agree to it only on the condition that I play Guitar Hero with her! The things I do for my friends, sigh....
So without further ado, here is Caitlin with her travelogue.

Hello everyone! I just got back from the lovely city of Washington DC on Monday night at around 10:00 pm. Needless to say I was exhausted from a very very busy week of activities, but I did get to see some really cool things and experience some....interesting sights. PS-Feel free to skim, this is a LONG post. First of all let me preface this post by telling you a little about who I was going with and why. I went to Washington DC with my boyfriend Patrick and our mutual friend Anthony. We went to visit Patrick's mother, who is Col Figures of the Pentagon....I could tell you what she does....but then I'd have to kill you : ) Anyways, she actually lives in Virginia in a city called Crystal City, but it's a short metro ride into DC. For the first few days Patrick's mother had to work, so we were left to our own devices....oh no right? Patrick had me make an itinerary for the trip, and the first thing on the list....the National Zoo!!

Tuesday-Our first day was supposed to include the National Zoo and one of the Smithsonian's...at least that was the plan until we walked in, got a map, and realized that the trail was 10 miles in total. My boyfriend then made a very astute observation...."Wait a minute, it took me 2 1/2 hours to RUN a HALF-MARATHON." We were in for a long day. It was a very awesome experience. Besides my feet and back hurting, it was a gorgeous day, not too cold, and all of the animals were out and about. I took close to 50 pictures that day and got a few great shots of some of the animals. The coolest thing we saw there were the sea lions. We got to see them while their trainers were "feeding" them.....aka playing with them. These sea lions were playing fetch and one was even helping the trainer clean his own habitat. It was awesome. After the Zoo it was already 5:00 and if I learned anything while in Washington it was that it has NO night life to speak off. We decided to head back towards Crystal City and hit the Pentagon City Mall. It was HUGE. And what's worse is that my boyfriend and Anthony came out with nine bags and I came out with none.....there's just something wrong with that. Then we went and had dinner with Patrick's mom at a restaurant called Joe Theismanns which was a 5 star restaurant in a sports bar...the food was great, just definitely a strange atmosphere. We called it a night after that and went home and crashed.

Wednesday-Air and Space Museum. We woke up super early this morning and decided to try and hit two of the Smithsonian's starting with the Air and Space Museum. After getting lost a few times and getting blown over by the RIDICULOUS wind we finally stumbled upon the massive building. This place was HUGE. There were about 5 REAL planes hanging from the ceiling on one half of the museum and on the other half there were about 5 missiles hanging from the ceiling. It was definitely a site to see. We ended up spending most of our day there as well. There was just so much to see. We saw an IMAX movie called 3D Sun narrated by Al Roker and my friend Anthony and I jumped into a flight simulator where he was the pilot and I was the gunner....we shot down six enemies which looking around was a pretty pathetic score....oh well, I tried. After the Air and Space Musuem we decided to go out back to the National Mall and get some good pictures of the Capitol and Washington Monument. We then got back early and went and met Patricks mom for dinner. For New Years Eve we went to Alexandria and did First Nights Alexandria which was a huge street there that was shut down with lots of local music artists and activities such as comedy and magic. We had a blast! We went to a church service where Washington and Robert E Lee attended and then we went and saw a Barber Shop Quartet. Since Patrick's mom treated us to a very nice dinner, Anthony and I decided to buy her a nice dessert. We went to this resturant called Cozi where they had mini butane burners so you could make s'mores at your table. We rung in the New Year there.

Thursday-Mount Vernon! Today was the day we traveled out to Mount Vernon and spent the whole day there. It was extremely beautiful, they have done a wonderful job preserving that building. We got a private tour of the manor and we got to travel around the entire property and see all the crops, side buildings, and gorgeous views. We decided to hop the bus back to Crystal City so we could grab dinner and go see Seven Pounds (btw-excellent movie, I definitely recommend it). However the bus was insanely packed. Apparently everyone wanted to leave at the same time and we had to pack in with about 30 people STANDING for 2o minutes....it was pretty awful. We got a good hearty dinner to recover and walked the 2 miles to the movie theater.....because the metro wasn't running....kill me : ) We survived and hit the bus on the way home.

Friday-White House! I'm not going to lie to you, the White House was the biggest let down of the whole trip. It was pretty boring. We only got to see the ground floor and the 1st floor which were all the historical things you could have seen online. Also it was a self guided tour which made it even more lame. After the White House we went to hang out at the apartment until our Capitol tour at 2:00. We got there a little early and got in an earlier tour group. On the way we spotted the Library of Congress and decided to hit that after the Capitol. The Capitol was super cool! It was a guided tour of the building and we got to see some really neat sights including the center where all the points of DC meet up and the old Senate Chamber. We then took the tunnel to the Library of Congress and we were just amazed. We got there just in time for the last public tour and we were taken aback by the beautiful mosaics and sculptures in the building. It was one of the most beautiful buildings I had ever seen. I got my mom a coffee mug and a "passport" which is essentially a library card. We then went and saw Union Station and headed on home.

Saturday-Today we decided to go to the Eastern Market, get some good seafood and see Crime and Punishment, a museum there with exhibits on criminals, laws, all the torture devices you could imagine. It was pretty gruesome, but super interesting. The Eastern Market was SUPER cool. I got a really beautifull Billie Holiday painting and we bought Patrick's mom a photograph she really liked as a thank you. I also got my dad some pistachios because they are his absolute favorite. The seafood place was called Legal Seafoods and it was EXCELLENT. Definitely best crab cakes in Washington. After that we rushed back to the apartment and got changed to go see an off-broadway production called Next to Normal. It was surprisingly good as well.

Sunday- Our last day : ( We woke up early and went to our Washington Monument tour. The tour itself was kind of disappointing, essentially all you did was go up the elevator and get off but the view was definitely worth the wait. It was incredible to be that high up and see three different states all from one building. Afterwards we went to the National Portrait Museum and had to do a quick skim of that so that we could get back to the apartment with enough time to metro it over to the airport. We got to the airport with plenty of time and realized that our plane was delayed an hour.....which totally killed our layover in Atlanta...only 50 minutes. We were told by Airtran that we would make our flight, buuuuut that didn't happen. We missed it by about an hour. They couldn't get us on another flight confirmed until Tuesday morning. So we got a hotel Sunday night with some meal vouchers and stood on stand by ALL day Monday. The first flight was a no go, and on the second flight only one of us was called. At that point I went and talked to customer service and got Patrick and I's seats upgraded to first class on Tuesday morning just in case we didn't make the last flight, which was not looking promising. However, at 8:50 pm they called our names and even got us seats together! It was a long flight home through extremely bad weather, but we got home safe and sound to meet our friends and our luggage (the most important thing at that point)!

All in all it was a great trip and I would definitely recommend a trip to everyone who is interested in history and beautiful buildings....oh yeah, and GREAT food. Hope this satisified everyones interest in the trip....you can tell I'm her daughter right? Can't stop talking : ) Have a great year everyone!

Caitlin