I didn’t change a lot on my porch this year, but I thought I would share it anyway.
Tracy
My tree bit the dust last year so I bought a skinny tree the day after Christmas. It was much easier to decorate and I filled it full of ornaments. I added some leopard print ribbon as well. I am embracing my love of leopard print.
Tracy
My sweet 3 yr old miniature schnauzer braved a windy day while I photographed her. I love how the wind blew her fur and ears as she looked into the gusts.
Tracy
I love fall. The older I get, the more I love it. Last weekend I put out some fall décor. I need to buy some mums in the next couple of weeks to add to my porch.
I did a little costume try on today. I have had these for a year or two. My dog I adopted in March has never had the pleasure of playing dress up. She was not a fan. She was the bat.
Maddy just gave up and laid down without moving.
I don’t think they are going to like Halloween.
Tracy
We love to go to Almont, CO for vacation in Taylor Canyon. Almont sits between Crested Butte and Gunnison. We enjoy spending time in all 3 areas while on vacation.
This was our 3rd time to vacation in the area and it will be our most memorable vacation of our lives.
We arrived in the mountains on July 5th and everything was going perfectly. The morning of the 10th I traveled to Crested Butte for the Wildflower Festival. I signed up for a wildflower photo outing. Afterwards, I decided to grab a bite to eat and some roadside cherries before heading back to our cabin at Harmel’s in Almont.
I arrived back to the cabin and decided to eat some of the cherries that I bought. I then showed my husband the photos I took and we all hung out at the cabin for a little bit. My husband and son decided to go throw the football up at the lodge in the grassy field. I was going to stay and edit a few photos.
When they left, my stomach started acting up and I thought I had eaten too many cherries. Then I vomited violently and then my severe pain began in my abdomen. It got so bad I could hardly move. I was sweating profusely and felt delirious. My husband and son came back and found me moaning and rolling around on the floor. My husband is a firefighter and he checked my pulse and couldn’t find one. He rushed me to the Gunnison (population 2000) to the hospital.
I suffered one hour of pain before arriving to the hospital and another 4 hours while getting diagnosed and then waiting for surgery. They gave me morphine, fentanyl and something else while I was there. NONE of it worked. I thought I might lose my mind. Finally a CT scan showed my intestines were enlarged and in trouble. Luckily a surgeon that is looking to move to Colorado was working at the hospital that week. She was the only one who could do the surgery. No one else knew what to do. If she was not there it would have been really really bad. My intestines were twisted 8 times and strangulated. They were dying and about to burst. Traveling to another hospital to have the surgery would probably been a death sentence for me.
My lifesaver/surgeon just happens to be Dr. Good. 
My intestines twisted because I am missing ligaments that should have held them in place.
The photo below shows me after surgery with my GN tube; my first shower after several days in the hospital bed; when I finally felt like putting on makeup and clothes and finally my husband and I celebrating our 18th wedding anniversary on July 26th.
I saw this next photo on facebook and I so agree.
Tracy
I was in the mood for color this year on my front porch. I planted bright colored flowers and found some red polka dotted pillows from Target. A small hail storm wrecked a little havoc on my red geranium blooms, but they still look pretty good.
I brought my ladder back out because the corner looks boring without it. One day I will figure out how to decorate it better.
I shared this area recently. My fern is growing bigger. We have had lots of rain for our area which is wonderful because we have been in a drought for over a decade. My plants are happy and so am I.
My pots can cost a small fortune to fill with flowers. It gets so hot and dry that they start looking sad by mid summer. So this year I planted mostly succulents. I love them and they are much easier to care for and cheaper than flowers.
My favorite one is the one that has pink edges.
I found a little shop where a guy builds bird houses. I had him build this one for me. He uses the ends of pickets from fences that have rotted roof tops. It’s my favorite thing about this.
I really enjoy coming out to my front porch this year. I hope we keep getting rain so that my plants stay happy.
Tracy
I love quirky things so when I saw my friend’s moped and he said he might sell it, I knew it had to be mine. I bought it for our future farm. We dream of living in the country on lots of acres in the next few years. I thought my moped might be fun to use to drive down country roads or get the mail. For now, we take our dog (Izzy) for rides in our neighborhood.
I got Izzy some goggles for her rides. She sure looks cute in them, but she really doesn’t like them.
Tracy
I revamped my metal bucket that hangs by my front door after the baby birds left the nest and their poop all over the old faux flowers. I added a punch of red to go with the red geraniums I planted in my front flower bed.
Happy Mother’s Day. I hope you all have a wonderful day.
Treacy
I do some photography on the side. This week I took some track photos for my friend of her son. He is an amazing hurdler and is going to compete in state this weekend. I found this perfect quote to go with a photo I took of him and wanted to share it.
Tracy
I love spring other than the wind in the Texas Panhandle. I have done a bit of front porch decorating. I am actually in the mood this year to do some planting so I will have more to show you as the threat of a freeze decreases.
I found the cutest birdhouse yesterday. It reminded me so much of my mom. I put it on my porch along with her tall birdhouse I have has since she passed away 14 years ago.
I love how off center the hole is and the colors of the wood. The man I bought this from is working on something for me I will hopefully be sharing soon. The idea looks good in my head and hopefully it will in real life as well.
I also found the cute rosemary topiary bush yesterday. I am gravitating more towards plants than flowers these days.
I like the simplicity of them. I did add my usual faux flowers to the metal container by the door.
A pair of house finches left me a cute surprise inside of it.
I hope you have a wonderful Easter and Spring.
Tracy
