Important Things

Last Sunday was a glorious day.

I had no real plans and the weather was sunny and unseasonably warm for January.

After finishing the perusal of my stack of decorating books checked out from my local library and loading myself with plenty of coffee, I decided to throw on jeans, a t-shirt and my rain boots and work in my backyard.

Dear Local Library: I love you. That is all.

I spent hours back there with my 3 trusted assistants scooping dog poop, raking leaves, lifting stepping stones, and trimming an overgrown grapevine.

My assistants

Eventually my husband came out to admire my work and to retrieve one of the dogs and banish him to the crate indoors, as his obnoxious barking at the neighbor's roof repairs next door were simply too much to endure.

My husband laid a towel out next to the pool for the 2 smaller dogs to lay on and sunbathe and I sat down next to them and my husband, passing him a beer and popping the cap on my own.

We sat for almost an hour talking about his running, my brilliant idea of wearing rainboots to do yardwork, our kids, the dogs, and all sorts of important topics like that.

Thrifted $5 rain boots

It was ideal and I would give anything to replicate it every weekend.

Except for the poop scooping.

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

Dealings

I've been working on a new room tour blog post for a while now.

It's still not quite finished but should be next week.

In the meantime I thought I 'd share an update on other things going on around here.

Mainly it's dealing with this:

You may recall this post about picking this stray guy up off the streets back in early June.

Housebreaking was no easy task but I think we have finally conquered that.

He is sweet and cuddly and is slowly learning how to behave.

But, as they say, there is no such thing as a free puppy.

When we first picked him up and had him checked out, he was treated for mites (scabies) and seemed to recover fairly quickly after 2 injections, a couple weeks apart.

Then, there was a tapeworm debacle.

The one pill treatment after diagnosis was easy.

Taking in a stool sample to get that diagnosis was less than glamorous.

We've also been getting all of his vaccinations up to date, which have to be spaced apart a few weeks each time which means we've had to wait to have him neutered until they are complete.

Unfortunately he's sometimes...amorous so that day will arrive none too soon.

This past weekend we took him in for his final round of boosters.

At that time I mentioned needing new flea treatment because it looked like he was covered in bites.

The tech said they were mites, not bites.

Basically it's mange.

Which is the other type of mites than what he had the first time.

So his fur is falling out in patches and he has bumps all over his pink skin and he's back to looking like a chupacabra again.

We're treating him with oral medication daily for the next month.

The good news is that the mange type of mites are usually immune related and caused from stress.

Since he's no longer in the wild and he's now receiving proper nutrition and soon will not have 'hormonal' issues wreaking havoc, the mites should stay gone once his treatment is complete.

Fingers crossed.

Because the 'do-gooder' in me is wondering what the hell kind of mess I have brought upon myself!?

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

Family Fondue Night

My husband has laid down the law about me bringing home any more of the following items:

Afghans

Quilts

Dogs (or any other multi-legged creature)

Fondue pots

The last one is really hard.

Because for whatever reason I am a complete sucker for fondue pots.

Especially inexpensive vintage ones from the thrift store.

Recently I decided it was time to break out the fondue pots for a fun summer dinner.

It was awesome!

Some people serve fondue in courses but I like mine all spread out on the table at once.

We cooked the 'surf and turf' and the mushrooms in avocado oil and a little roasted garlic.

Chocolate fondue with fruit and some dipping sauces for the meats.

Cheddar cheese fondue - so good with tart apples or broccoli.

Apparently fondue makes you sleepy and causes your head to tilt to the side.

That green fondue pot was only $2.

Fondue selfie

More like FUNdue, am I right?

Another cool thing about fondue is that you can cater to everyone's food quirks without having to make multiple entrees.

Meats, veggies and cheese for the paleo people...

Veggies, fruit, cheese and chocolate for the vegetarian...

and wine for me.

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

Buyerarchy

Without getting all environmentalist on you guys, I wanted to share my thoughts and approach towards consumerism.

In recent years I have tried to be more intentional about my own consumerism, not only for budgetary reasons but also because I feel better when I have less 'stuff' cluttering my life.

I do still buy things, of course, but I am trying to make my purchases more conscientious and intentional.

This is not easy for me because I like stuff.

Except when I watch an episode of Hoarders which makes me want to get rid of everything I own.

I came across the above photo while scrolling Instagram.

I'm planning to print it out and tape it to my forehead as a reminder.

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

Not Dead, Just Bored

Yeah, I thought I was dead, too.

But as it turns out I was just really bored with myself.

Also I think I had some winter blues and blahs.

But I've spent the past few months doing some 'soul searching' as the phrase goes.

It's probably my brain's subconscious way of keeping me from having a midlife crisis since I'll be turning 40 this summer.

I've actually been thinking about a lot of things that I might not normally want to touch with a 10 foot pole on a blog.

But, one of the things I've come to terms with over the past few months is that not expressing an opinion because you think it's going to offend others, keeps you from being true to yourself.

And then you and your blog become phony and lame and surface-y.

So, while there are still certain topics I am not comfortable blogging about (mainly to respect the privacy of the family members who have to put up with me every day) I am hoping to share some of my personal obstacles and revelations as I, hopefully, start blogging regularly again.

Here's a glimpse of some stuff from the past few months:

My oldest daughter and I during a college visit at the school she ended up choosing.

Practicing being Canadian during our long, cold, snowy winter here in Texas.

Christmas Eve at home.

Wiener pics.

New Year's Eve shenanigans.  I know...I should have been a supermodel, right?

I cut my own hair. And took a selfie in my bathroom.  I'm the worst selfie taker EVER!

Weekend geocaching with this special kid.

Some simple DIY projects. The times they are a changin'.

Spending a weekend with two of the most amazing people I know - my grandparents.

More to come, you guys!

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

Life and Love Lately... a picture story

I'm foregoing any long diatribes about what I have been doing over the past few weeks and submitting, instead, a photo summary so that you can rest assured that I am still alive despite a 10 day boxing match with a certain cyclospora parasite which finally ended with me kicking that parasite in its parasitic testicles and emerging victorious!

Behold...my life over the past few weeks.

I celebrated my 39th birthday and ate yummy cupcakes!  My fave was a salted caramel chocolate cheesecake.  But I managed to choke down most of the others, too.

Me on my birthday.

We have been visiting colleges with my oldest daughter who will graduate this year.  This school is ranked #1 for cute boys. It's also #1 for being a school you will pay loans on for the rest of yours, your children's and your grandchildren's lives!

Us at the Horned Frog statue at TCU.  Students supposedly rub his head for good luck on exams, although I never did that once when I went there.  Maybe that's why I never did so well on tests...hmmm

I finally got around to polishing the brass hardware on several pieces of vintage furniture I inherited more than 15 years ago.  If I had known the difference a little polish would make, I probably still would have procrastinated for 15 years.  Because that's what I do, sadly.

I painted our entryway/foyer that I have been pondering and thinking about for several months.  You can see some of my ponderings on the wall here.

Yes, it's black.

And I am totally in love with the end result!  My favorite part is the enlarged photo of my grandparents during their early years of marriage - more on that in a later post.  I still need a new rug, of course, but that will have to wait until I find something perfect.  Which, if you know me, translates to 'cheap.'

I also painted my bathroom black which has been my plan for a long time.  The bathroom is going to be a big, costly project but having new paint for now makes me feel less 'I-live-in-a-crack-house' -y.

A rare moment of relaxation with the love of my life.  And my husband.  Bahahahaha!  I love that man more every day!  I love my dog, too but she poops on the floor too often.  My husband almost never does that so I love him more than her.

My favorite summer dinner.  Because sometimes it's just too damn hot to eat a big meal.  And sometimes I'm too lazy to cook a real meal.  And sometimes eating a light meal means you can drink less wine and still have a lovely intoxicated evening.  Which means I'm saving money and conserving resources.  Man, I am so green and frugal it's not even funny!

I've also been spending lots of time with 3 of my favorite people in the whole world.  They're total swaggy gangstas as you can see by this picture.

After chiseling off the layer of dust that had accumulated since the last time I cleaned these shelves, I styled them up all pretty and properly.  Which took me about 2 hours because shelf styling is something at which I am completely inept.  I used these pictures as my inspiration because there was no way I was attempting this on my own!

I also got around to staining my bar shelves that I installed several months ago.  I styled these, too, but obviously am not quite done - updated photos for that gold frame are hopefully getting done today.  Unless I can find something else to do to put that off for a while. 

I know - a pile of ribbon is probably not the most exciting thing you ever imagined.  But, I just bought a huge bag of remnant ribbon for a little over $1 and it's my inspiration for my next project which is this...

It's my really ugly sunroom which currently serves as a steam sauna/mosquito sanctuary.  I've got some good stuff planned for this room but it's definitely not going to happen overnight so you should come back soon to see how things are going.

 

Okay, so that's what's I've been up to in a nutshell.

If you're already following me on Instagram then you've probably seen several of these photos so I apologize for the redundancy.

If you're not following me on Instagram but want to see some of my daily 'Life and Love' then feel free to follow/stalk me.

See you soon, peeps!

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney