20 Years, Where Has the Time Gone?

Twenty years ago this summer I graduated from high school. A couple of weekends back, I had my twenty year reunion. I was not going to go, but through the past few weeks of talking to people (who were not in my class) and a one who was in my class. My mind was changed and I was talked into going. Go have fun and enjoy every bit of the night was the advice I got, I was determined to do just that, once I decided to go.

Friday night started with a social night at a classmates house. Once I decided to go to the event, I had to get ready, what does one wear to a gathering at a classmates house where some of the people you have not seen in 20 years… I decided on Jean Capris and a v-neck t. Finally get there and it was a great time reuniting with people that I had not seen for 20 years. While some people I had connected with on Facebook, there were many that I really had no idea what they had been up to.  One of the nicest but at the same time most frustrating complements was “Your single, have no kids and have your own house… you are a catch for any man.” Or something close to that. While I know he meant it as a complement, at the same time, he made me think what is wrong with me.  All in all, the night was fun.

As Friday night wrapped up, I had made a decision to attend the next evenings event.  Saturday night was a nicer event at a local restaurant. We were going to be on the back patio… summer time, 20 year reunion… again, what to wear. After going through my closet, I realized that I had nothing that I wanted to wear, I decided to go shopping for something new. I found a cute silky tank top which I paired with black capri pants. I arrive, get my name tag and talk to a couple of people. Saw my “best” friend from high school (totally got the cold shoulder) and talked with a couple of other classmates. As I was sitting at a table, a few husbands came up and asked if they could sit at the table. I said no problem and asked who they belonged to… I got some BS answer and had to walk away and find a drink. Funny thing is just by looking at them, one could tell that they were assholes in HS… and some people never change. The rest of the evening was spent catching up, listening to a band and having some drinks.

Once the “party” was over… we headed down the street to a local bar. Where some classmates who didn’t come to the event were hanging out… and I ran into “Guy 2” from my previous post.

While I wasn’t planning on going to any of this reunion… I am so very glad that I attended both nights. If I had any advice to share, I recommend going to your reunion.

What my town needs… at least in my eyes

So I have had some time to get sort of settled in my house and my neighborhood. I have some wants for my town to add to my list of things to make this little part of the world a little better. Now I know no where is perfect, however, I am loving my neighborhood. I have joined our neighborhood organization… and provided some ideas of things that I think would be fun for our neighborhood. There are also some things that I think my town needs…

1.  Trader Joes… or Whole Foods… I’m leaning toward Trader Joes, they have great cheese and wine.

2.  A wine bar or a place grown folks can go to meet other grown folks. How does one make new friends as a grown up?

3. A better public transportation system. One that runs into the evenings… so you cane be the responsible one and not drive after enjoying some of those adult beverages.

4. They need to build up the downtown area. I can tell, and actually know that at one time it was a busy city center, however with the invention of the mall, the store front stores went out. 😦 Just a sad state of the world.

5.  A real farmers market. When I lived in Kansas City, I fell in love with Farmers Markets. Here is the link to the Kansas City Market http://www.thecitymarket.org/ check it out you will see how amazing it is. It has a little bit of everything and some great produce. This could also build up the city center. Just a thought. One of my biggest frustrations is that the current farmers market is on Fridays from 8am – 2pm. Makes it very hard for a person who works to go and enjoy the farmers market.

Those are my 5 things that I think my town needs to improve the lives of those living here… mainly me 🙂 Thanks for reading!

 

My weekend in pictures… Things that made me happy

This weekend was a busy one, some of the best times from the weekend, I didn’t take pictures of… Friday night, I went to dinner with one of the coolest, strongest woman I know, didn’t take pictures. Saturday morning, had to get an oil change… during the oil change, my mom and I walked around the “French Hens Market” and then checked out the stores downtown. When that was done went out to my parents house and found a cute little tree frog in the garden. Then on to church and Cruise Night. Sunday morning, my parents headed up to my place to help me pick up a free stack of bricks. Two truck loads, loaded by hand. Did I mention that I have GREAT parents? I have no pictures from the bricks… because we were too busy moving the bricks to think about pictures. After moving the bricks, on to Home Depot… where there were no pictures taken either. Picked up some new plants, some hardware to hang some shelves, and some bug spray. Pictures from my DIY planter to come! 🙂 Check out the other pictures:

Car from the cruise night… I could see myself driving down the road, wind blowing through my hair.

Look at this little bug, check out the driver’s door…

check out the passenger’s side door… see the difference?  🙂 Love it! And the colors!

Awww the little tree frog!

Sign would look great in my bedroom!

Found in one of the downtown stores. I have an old lamp and the silk lampshade is falling apart. When I saw this, I thought what a great way to use something instead of adding it to the landfill. Watch for another DIY project to come!

Great words to live by!

Cute planter, Mom and I both liked. Looks like another DIY project in the works!

Still have a lot to do to get my house together, but things are slowly coming together both inside and out. Love the chance to get out and get ideas to do to my house.

DIY Fairy Gardens

This weekend, my mom and I attended a class on building/creating Fairy Gardens. Blumen Gardens was offering a crafts and cocktails afternoon. Sounded like a great girls day out, garden stuff and drinks. So we headed out for our trip to Blumen Gardens… it was about 2 hours from my parents house. So I headed out early to their house and we started on our way. Upon our arrival, we had some time to walk around and see lots of great plants. So our class was about to get underway. We were given an empty box and some basic explanations. Next we would fill our box with dirt, and pick out plants for our fairy garden. Some of the people brought items from home, some picked out a lot of additional items to add to their gardens. My mom and I focused mainly on the plants and rocks. As we didn’t have a lot of ideas as to what we were doing. So my original fairy garden looked like this.

All this for $15 plus a watermelon mojito (really tasty) 🙂

However, today, as I was looking at the fairy garden, I wasn’t happy with it. It didn’t turn out how I wanted, and I had more ideas of what I could do. I actually created two fairy gardens from my original one.

New Fairy Garden #1 –  Using a bucket that I was going to plant in, this was the perfect plan for the bucket.

New Fairy Garden #2 – using the box we got at the class

This is a really fun craft/gardening idea… next is to add accessories. Hobby Lobby here I come. I think in the doll house sections we will find some cute stuff.

Yard Crashers or I <3 Ahmed Hassan

One of my “new” favorite shows is Yard Crashers with Ahmed Hassan. I am only hoping that once I have signed that contract, Ahmed finds me at Home Depot, Menards or Lowes… or what ever hardware store he hangs at. I will say YES, you can follow me home. On a side note, if he asked me to follow him home and help him in his yard, I would probably say yes to that as well. 😉 My new yard is pretty small, but I have some wonderful ideas.

If I could have my dream backyard, I would love an outdoor kitchen, an outdoor soaking area, a deck/patio area, a fire pit and a nice garden area with both edible and flowering plants.

The outdoor kitchen is similar to what I like, but a little big for my little house. I would want it built to scale for my house and my life. This picture is out of Texas where everything is bigger. What I like is it has the grilling/kitchen area, and the fire pit all in one.

This teak tub is something I cam across one day, and while I like the material, and it would be great for soaking, it isn’t big enough for socializing. I would love a larger teak soaking / hot tub, but I hope the hot cabana boy comes with it. If I wasn’t able to have this, I would like a swim spa that allows you the current to swim against.

Raised beds and container gardens are a great asset to a small garden and is also something I would like in my garden/yard area. Lots of containers around the outdoor kitchen filled with fresh herbs, tomatoes and peppers.

So while I have lots of ideas, and the willingness to do the work, I personally am lacking the “skill” to do it all myself and since I am just buying the house, I will be lacking the funds to create my dream yard. So if you know Ahmed and the crew of Yard Crashers… PLEASE send them my way.

*** Just a note… none of the above pictures are mine, if you click on the pictures, they will take you to the links of the product, company, or person where credit is due. A big thanks to google images and the individual websites to help me find pictures of what I am looking for.

Sepia Sunday – Toes

One of my favorite pictures, even better in color because you can see the pretty red on my toes. This picture takes me back to the summer. This was at a Joliet Jackhammers Game, sitting out on the lawn, on a blanket, toes out. Even though there is no sand makes me think of the song Toes by the Zac Brown Band. I am ready for spring… I hope to have a nice long spring and a great summer to have my toes out in flip-flops and sandals.

What are you most excited about for spring and summer?

Sepia Sunday

I took this picture during a garden walk in the Pullman Neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Loved this water feature. Now that I have a house I can start thinking about landscaping and the likes. Looking forward to finding and creating wonderful places and spaces in my yard. Hope to create something just as beautiful as this. Spring can’t come soon enough.

Wordless Wednesday

Memories of Summer