Ancestors

My husband’s aunt has some wonderful oil paintings of  ancestors to the Deupree family.  Her grandkids are doing some genealogy research and needed photos of the paintings.  I took my digital camera to her house and wanted to share them with you.  I have always loved looking at them when I go to her house.

 

The paintings are of  Oden and Elizabeth Hayes.

There is also an old photograph.

This is John Lapierre Johnson who was at Gettysburg.  He was taken prisoner and spent the remainder of the war at Belle Isle Prison.

 

We are also fortunate that a relative has done massive research that is available online.  She has a website for the Deupree family dating back to the 1700s.  It is really fascinating.  If you want to take a look you can see it here.

Winner and a Vacation

The winner for the CSN Giveaway is

Entry #41

Michelle who said:

“I love looking through CSN. We're in the middle of building a house and there is so much there that I would love to buy for it! Right now I am looking at some cool pendants for over our island.
What a great giveaway!”

Congratulations Michelle.  CSN should be sending your your email gift card for $60 soon.  Thank you for entering and have fun shopping for you new house. 

Vacation

I will probably not be around for the next week.  We are heading for a week of fun in the sun.  We have been anxiously reading the oil reports for Florida and it seems we are in the clear right now for our vacation to Siesta Key.  I hope you all have a wonderful week.   I know I will!  :)

 

4oth Birthday

I thought I would share a few photos of my 40th birthday.  I had to work today.  My coworkers gave me cheesecake and a gift card and my sister brought me flowers and balloons to my work.  This evening we went to dinner with my family at a local Mexican food restaurant that I really like.  My son told them it was my birthday and I had to dance around a sombrero wearing a sombrero.  I will pay him back later.

Here are my flowers and balloons.

Here is a photo of me and my sister.  She is 5 yrs younger than me.

Me and my oldest nephew.

 

My youngest nephew and son.  These kids were the butt naked ones in the post about Memories at my Mom’s Lake Place.

My husband and his dad.

My son with my husband’s stepmom.

My husband’s aunt and my sister. 

I  need to share a sweet story.  I was kind of grumpy most of the day.  It has been really busy at work and I didn’t sleep well last night.  I have to stay on a tight schedule as a hygienist.  So I make it through my busy day and come home and get my run in for the day which causes profuse sweating.  I really just wanted to go to bed, but I had birthday dinner plans and had to shower.  I got my 2nd wind and enjoyed dinner.  My nephew came home to spend the night.  We weren’t home for very long when the doorbell rang.  The neighbor boy who spends most days at his grandparents that live down the street brought me a handmade card.  His mom also,named Tracy, died 3 years ago in a motorcycle accident.   Here is my card.

That 10 year old little boy gave me $20 of his own money.  It so touched my heart.  Of course, I couldn’t accept it so I told him his thoughtfulness was the best present I could ever have and I wanted him to use his money to do something really fun and that would make my day.  What a generous little boy. 

One day left to enter the giveway that ends Thursday June 24th at 5pm central time.

Enter Here.

Bathroom Redo, Custom Towels and a Leopard Print Frenzy

We redid our bathroom about a year and a half ago and I was in a leopard print frenzy at the time.  I still like it, but I am not as crazy about it as I use to be.  I wanted leopard print towels.  I looked and looked and looked.   They were either too expensive or not the right color so I made my own.  I bought some towels and sewed bands of fabric on the edge. 

 

Here is the functional towel.

This bathroom was horrid before we redid it.  It was a cramped little space, but had a huge vanity area next to it.  There was not a sink in the vanity.  Just a big area to put on your makeup if you didn’t mind waking up your husband since the space was open to the bedroom.  The houses in my neighborhood were built in the 70s.  Most of them have this vanity area.  The only photo I have is the photo I took when we toured the house to see if we wanted to buy it.

We took out the wall that divided the bathroom from the vanity area so it could be one big room.  Here is the vanity area now.

We also closed off the mater bedroom wall that lead into the vanity area. 

Here is a photo of the sheet rock that closed off the space.

And now.

So here are some of my leopard print frenzy decor items.

I decoupaged some leopard print tissue paper on the base of a lamp.

I painted a frame in leopard print.

And I bought this print to remind us daily we are blessed.

Thanks for stopping by.

Linking to

Anything Related @ All Thingz Related

Make it Yours Day @ Backyard Eden

Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts

Strut Your Stuff @ Somewhat Simple

Feature Yourself Friday @ Fingerprints on the Fridge

Show & Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home

Motivational Burlap Dry Erase Board

I love blogging.  In fact, I am addicted.  Doing alot of this

has kept me from this.

I have still been exercising, but not with intensity. I went from working out 6 days a week to about 4.  And some of those days I walked my dog for 3 miles instead of running 3 miles. I just don’t get the same satisfaction of accomplishment from walking, but my dog sure is happy.   I kept an exercise journal for 2 years and when I started blogging I quit journaling.  I hated writing none on days I didn’t exercise when I had my journal.   I decided I needed another way to write down my weekly exercise accomplishments.  I am trying to get my 5K down to a faster time so that is what I am focusing on.  I gotta have goals or I don’t get anywhere.   I would like to do 2 things.  First, I would like to run a 5k (3.1 miles) in 26 minutes or less.  Second, someday I would like to run a 10K.  So here is my new motivational dry erase board.  It is next to my treadmill so I can be motivated to run faster or longer when I see my previous times. 

I have to have several things help me get through my miles.

Music.

A fan.

And sometimes my tv that I have tucked away and hidden, but it can be seen from my treadmill.

I am really happy with the way it turned out.  I spray painted a frame with oil rubbed bronze and then used spray adhesive on the foam board that was already a part of my frame to attach the burlap. 

This might be good material for Donna’s Gitter Done party at Funky Junk Interiors.

I am on vacation starting Saturday.  I can tell I really need one.  Did you notice I wrote Monday and Tuesday instead of Sunday and Monday on my dry erase board?  Tuesday hasn’t even happened yet.  And the dates should be June 20-June 26th.  At least it is erasable, too bad the photos aren’t.  I am too tired to take new ones so I will just leave my mistake on here. 

Linking to

Anything Related @ All Thingz Related

Get Your Craft On @ Today’s Creative Blog

Memories of My Mom’s Lake Place

My mom had a little trailer at a lake about an hour from where I live.  It is a very dry and hot area in the summer. The lot was filled with yucca plants

when she first bought it.

She transformed it to a beautiful garden.  My mom had the greenest thumb of anyone I have ever known.  She would be a great example of decorating or gardening on a budget, because let me tell you the woman was FRUGAL!   In the first photo you can see that she was making chalkboards before making chalkbaords was cool.  My mom died (ten and a half years ago) when my son was a little over 1 and a half years old so these photos are some of the only mementos I have of the short time she spent with my son.  I debated about sharing these photos because the kids are butt naked.  My mom would let them run around in the buff and play in the water.  So if this offends you then don’t read any further. 

I had to take photos of photos. 

This is my favorite photo in the whole wide world.  I commissioned this photo to be painted by a local artist.  He used pastels.  I have posted about it before.

The photo.

The Art.

Here is another view of the pond.  This is my youngest nephew swimming in the pond.

Here he is on the steps leading to the pond.

This is my next favorite photo.  My son and nephew are watering grandma’s flowers.  My son has the hose and the clenched hiney.

This is my oldest nephew and my son.  My oldest nephew spent a lot of time at the lake with my mom.  He still misses her so much.  He was 8 when she died.  He just graduated form high school this year.

And this is my son and nephew chilling out and finally dressed.

I wish I could have had many more memories at the lake with my mom, but at least I have these.  I hope you enjoyed the photos as much as I enjoyed sharing them.