Soaking Up The Sunroom

I just realized that I started my last two posts with "I was sitting in the sunroom when..."  and well here I go again...sitting in the sunroom trying to come up with a good  letter S post for Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday when...

Ta da!  My answer was right in front of my nose.

We moved into this house last Spring and I fell in love with the sunroom right from the start and knew without a doubt that I would be spending a big majority of my time out here.  

The walls in here, along with the walls in the foyer, hallway and living room, were all a pale yellow.  Now, not that I have anything against the color yellow.  It was, after all, my favorite color when I was little and I even had a yellow bedroom up until I was 15...

But, it was a whole lotta yellow and it wasn't my yellow...  

I had to make my mark on this place so I had the walls of the sunroom painted a soothing, serene pale turquoise a.k.a Veridian Green.   Charlie hung my old oak mantel I had used for a headboard at the old house on the wall and after months of waiting, I finally got my wicker rattan furniture I had been pining away for.  

Woods surround our backyard so there are always birds and squirrels like that little wily one I wrote about yesterday  to entertain the wieners and their favorite place to nap is out here on the ottoman or on the tile floor soaking up the bright rays of sunshine that are so abundant out here in the mornings. 

It's the perfect place to drink morning coffee, blog, read and just unwind and soak in the beauty and splendor of the changing seasons...

I've been slowly gathering items at antique and bargain stores over the past several months and just about have this room exactly the way I want it.   

I found this oil painting at an antiques mall a couple of weeks ago for 11 dollars.  It just seems so happy to me and I fell immediately in love with it though I didn't have a good idea where in my house I would put it.  I read somewhere recently that if you choose and purchase only things that you really, really love then they will fall into place and it will all work out. And I am finding that there is much truth in that...

I can keep just about any kind of animal or fish alive for extended periods of time but I am not known for my green thumb.  This ponytail palm, however, is an exception.  I guess it has a strong desire to live because my first/late husband, Darin, had it when I met him in 1994 and here it still stands today.  It has probably tripled or quadrupled in size since then and I have re-potted it at least 3 times.  I'm quite proud of it...

We were sitting out here (you see, there I go again with that) over the summer when we decided a water feature of some kind would be nice out here so I searched the stores and surfed the web high and low until I found this sweet little fountain that takes up residence under the mantel..

This bronze statue of two boys playing leapfrog was a gift from my mother-in-law, Pat, several years ago and it is one of my most prized treasures...

This Tiffany style lamp is another favorite treasure and was a birthday gift from my mother last year..

And this vintage photo just makes me smile.  It's my mother in the 1940s.  She said she had been in a Tom Thumb wedding in her small hometown of Lindale, Ga that day...

I found this hummingbird picture several months ago at an antiques store and up until a couple of weeks ago, it hung in my living room but every time I looked at it, I thought it belonged over the windows in the sunroom. 

The star sconce I've had for years, the angels came from the same antiques mall I bought that happy oil portrait from, the little reading monkey fella came from HomeGoods, and the tin jug thing?? I found that little treasure in the basement of my old house...something Darin had found someplace and I've not an inkling as to what it is.  If anyone has any clue, please feel free to enlighten me...

The following pictures were taken on Christmas Day during the snowfall that brought my very first white Christmas ever!  I was over the moon...

And that, my friends, concludes your tour for today.  What about you?  Do you have a favorite spot? 

What was THAT?!

I was sitting in the sunroom with the Darling Wiener Dogs yesterday morning reading blogs, sipping coffee and minding my own when I heard a noise.  

My fingers froze on the keyboard and my super sonic hearing kicked in.  I cut my eyes from side to side and leaned into the air real close but saw or heard nothing except the tick tock, tick tock of the clock and the snoozing of the sleeping Darlings.  

I allowed myself to sit back and relax finally when I heard it again, only LouDER and this time I swore it was coming from the roof.  My heart was thumping as I jumped up off the couch, ran to the doors to lock them and Boom Thump Scatter, Boom Thump Scatter, it went again. 

Now the Darlings are up barking and on edge, running back and forth from the door to the windows...

What tha? Something is on the roof.  SomeBODY is on the roof!  My mind is running wild...I'm thinking of leprechauns, those crazy little garden gnomes like in the movie or, or even worse! 

What if it's a rabid raccoon or possum or a giant river rat or even, OMG....a person!? Some crazy man is on the top of my house trying to find a way in here to...to...kill me!! 

This sound is way too loud to be a tiny little chipmunk or squirrel.  No way could a squirrel make that much noise! 

I finally got up my nerve to walk out on the deck but saw or heard nothing.  I went back inside thinking I must finally be having that nervous breakdown I've been warning the demolition duo I'm going to have for the past 6 years when I look out the window and see him sitting there like some sort of statue of a Greek god, gazing out into the yard as if he was the mighty king and ruler over all the land.

He even had the nerve to look over at me once while I was taking his picture.  I'd swear the little piss ant was taunting me.  After I took about five hundred and thirty two pics of him, I decided to walk outside and around to where he was, just to see what he'd do.

And of course, the little chicken sh** had vanished into thin air leaving the wieners sniffing the ground and cocking their baffled little heads up to his empty throne...

Crazy Squirrel!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Early Friday evening we were sitting in the sunroom when I started smelling something burning. "What is that? Did somebody put something in the microwave?! I smell something burning! Something is BURNING!"

Dracen fesses up that he was popping some popcorn and that he just hit the "popcorn" button. Charlie opens the microwave door and out pours the smoke, permeating our nostrils with the oh so pleasing odor of burnt to a crisp popcorn.

What smells worse than burnt popcorn? Well, okay I can probably think of a few things but it's definitely right up there in the running for the absolute nastiest household smell.

Turns out it was one of those little snack size bags that requires much less time than the normal bags and besides, that popcorn button even burns those too so you can imagine how obliterated this thing was.

Now, although I cleaned that sucker out, every.single.time. we turn it on we are once again blasted with that funk. Stink.Stank.Stunk.

Saturday night we deposited the demolition duo at Momaw Pat's for a couple of hours and headed out to a Valentine's dinner at 1859, a quaint little romantic restaurant in an old house that was built in the year...1859. Awesome. Any place that offers a decent key lime pie for dessert is alright by me.

Yesterday afternoon we went to see Gnomeo and Juliet in 3D and I have to admit, I was entertained. Who knew garden gnomes led such interesting lives? I'm now considering the possibility that I may just need a few of those little guys to spice things up in my yard.

When we got to the theater, the parking lot was pretty crowded so Charlie dropped us off at the door. I went ahead and bought our tickets. 36 dollars. We then ordered two medium popcorns and 4 medium drinks to which the girl behind the counter informed us was not our best deal and that it was, in fact, cheaper to go with larges.

Well then, by all means, Supersize us.

Y'all.  I kid you not.  These drinks were like 2 liters.  Dracen had to carry his like a football.  And they didn't have the extra long straws so our little straws kept sliding through the hole and getting drowned in a great big ocean of coca-cola.  

Charlie said we could've gotten a straw extender for an extra 20 bucks and I'm sure that if they had offered one, that price would have been just about right. 

Good thing we stopped at the dollar store on the way for our Twizzlers and Airheads.  And tape.  for Dracen's Valentines. 

He picked out his Valentines for his class at Target last week.  He couldn't make a decision between the Laffy Taffy ones and the Starburst ones so I let him get both since I felt kinda bad for his class that they aren't having a party. 

Second grade and no Valentine's party.  Poo.  The teacher sent home a list with everyone's names saying they could send in cards if they wanted but no party.  They didn't even decorate a cute little bag or box with cutout hearts to put them in.  

He really seemed okay with it.  I think I was more disappointed than he was. 

I was not disappointed, however, after I stumbled out of bed this morning , down the hall to the kitchen where I poured coffee all over the counter and floor while trying to hit my red mug and then into the sunroom to let the Darlings out when I saw a great big wicker crate with a red bow with my name and filled with lots of Valentine goodness... 

Happy Valentine's Day!