Hello?

Boy! Long time no blog, right?  Sorry guys… apparently I have to be “in the mood” to blog as well.  :-/

I do have some pretty fun pics to share though. But I’m a construction geek and love this kind of stuff, so fun may be a relative term…

We finally had a break in the rain and our pool construction has started!  I swear, as soon as we said “Build it” we guaranteed ourselves a good couple of weeks of rain.  I’ve got to give a shout out to Rocky Kirk with Lonestar Pools.  We met with 5 different contractors… and of the 5, he was the only one we felt completely comfortable with.   For some reason, a good pool builder is hard to come by in Houston, because the nightmare stories some of our friends told us really had us shakin in our boots… Not that I wear boots. Ever.

Here’s a before shot of the backyard with the trees tagged for removal…

After the trees were removed (but before the stumps were ground) The girls had a great time hula-hoop ring tossing with the one stump that was left.

 

Here’s a hazy shot from my bedroom window of the dig starting this past Friday morning… This was at 7:30 am…

And this shot is from 4pm on that same day… These guys didn’t waste any time… We went from paint lines to finished rebar in one day…  Wanna come sit in my hot tub? :-)

Beginning of Day 2… another glare filled shot from my bedroom window… Sorry…

And by the end of the 2nd day, you could see the general pool idea…

They didn’t work on Sunday… obviously, but on Monday they arrived bright and early… EARLY

and made a big HUGE mess of my entire back yard… That monster tool in the background dug a trench around the whole thing for the plumbing that finished up on Day 3, then the electrician did his work on Day 4.  At the end of yesterday, we had our second inspection for the trench.

Wanna know what happens when you are at this phase of pool building?  When your entire yard is ripped apart and a HUGE dirty mess?  Yep, RAIN COMES!!!  AHHHHH…..  That’s where we are this morning… waiting on rain, crossing my fingers that is doesn’t stop them from coming out and filling in the previously mentioned huge dirty mess of a trench… because the only way this mess could get worse is if it turns into a HUGE DIRTY MUDDY mess.

So for a recap of all those pics, here’s what the yard looked like a week ago…

 

and here’s where we are now…

 

I keep telling myself that it will be totally worth the expense and mess when I can have a glass of wine in the hot tub and relax myself into oblivion…

Yeah, totally worth it.

Back to School

My baby starts Kindergarten tomorrow morning.  I don’t know if I should be sad, or really really REALLY excited.  I’m leaning toward the latter… She’s kind of boisterous and I think we’re ready for a break from each other.  In true Holly fashion, I finished her 1st day of School jumper with 13 hours to spare.  I work better under pressure I think ^_^. 

This is the Martha Pullen A-line jumper pattern modified to have just a top inner lining, instead of being fully lined.  It’s just too hot for that sort of mess right now.  And as an added bonus, she’s required to wear shorts under her dresses this year.  It’s a red chambray fabric that is thick enough that you can’t see through it, so the 1/2 lining worked just fine.  Better in fact, given that there isn’t all of this fabric to turn as there usually is. 

The appliqué is from Sew Many Designs.  These designs have always stitched out perfectly.  The digitizing is FABULOUS…  I’m really jealous of digitizers… even with the “mack daddy” program that came with my Creative Vision (4D Embroidery Suite) I still don’t have the guts to try my hand at it.   

 

Decor Keeper

 

How do you organize your home projects? 

I’ve seen several blog postings recently on how to keep all of your home project info organized. 

This is not that kind of post.

I don’t organize my home projects. Maybe I should, but that would require too much effort for me.

  I DO however keep this super cute pink photo album with me at all times.  It has basic room info (window measurements, paint chips, fabric swatches, and bits of trim) that I can use when I’m out and about.  I can’t tell you how many throw pillows I’ve returned because I picked the “wrong shade of green”.  Really, it’s embarrassing.

And here’s a handy tip… Keep a tape measure with you at all times!!!  I’ve measured dozens of media stands looking for one that hit 49” wide…. and having this clip on tape measure with me has been a huge time saver (for me and any salesperson who’s SURE whatever they are selling would work for me)

  

View of the inside… just staple what you have to a 4X6 card and it can easily slide in and stay put!

Mosaic art

Yet another Summer activity that kept us busy…

Foam tile mosaic art.