Family Portraits

So what did I do with all of those portraits?  Well, first I made crafty mats for them.

With all of the things we frame around our house I am not sure why I never thought of covering plain mats with cute paper before. (I must have been channeling my inner Dana Peixotto that day.) Then I framed them all and tall Eddy was kind enough to hang them all for me.

Before:

After:

This probably constitutes the pinnacle of my life's work.

Old Tyme Cobbs

Over Xmas we came across this gem at my parent's house.

I framed it and hung it on our wall.

Why they weren't proudly displaying it before I will never know.

Portrait of a Rupert

The last of my portrait series.

See how I captured his snootiness?

Winter Blossoms

In Houston, things bloom in the winter. Especially our bougainvillea. Since we have owned the house, our little archway has gone from this

to this

Alright, so it needs some trimming, but it has taken over the arch in only about a year and it is blooming, blooming, blooming. I call that a win.

The Little Pantry that Could

Yeah, so, we. are. still. working. on. our. kitchen. Eddy has pretty much taken over as contractor hiring dudes to come in and finish it (and the bathroom). So close and yet so far! But there is one space that has finally come together: the pantry.

We used to have this *tiny* pantry. When we first moved in we were amazed that it was wide enough to barely fit a (drumroll...) microwave!

In fact, we specifically bought a kind of small microwave just for this wee pantry.  You can tell from this picture that it also contained janky homemade shelves, was crammed full of stuffs, and was rather cave-like. As part of the kitchen remodel, we had a larger pantry built.

But since this whole kitchen job went south, we pretty much stuck a plastic shelving unit in there and piled it up with the ole microwave. Yuck.

That is, until the fateful weekend we finally wired a light in there and painted it to match the rest of the (new!) kitchen color

We also visited the Container Store not once but thrice. (Well, actually five times by the time we got everything just like we (I?) wanted it in there. But we definitely went to the Container Store three times in one day. We even had to take a cocktail break in the middle there.) The result?

Look! It actually fits the microwave, a wine fridge, an espresso machine *and* lots of other stuff! Most importantly it looks pretty!

Most, most importantly it is finished. Complete.  Finito.  Over.  (Unlike the rest of the kitchen... Sigh.)

A Secret Now that Only Fire Can Tell

Recently, Sir Edwin of Westbrook

and Lady Rebecca of Westbrook

went to a Hobbit premier party. Said premier party included costumes. I decided we should go as the one ring. So I did the nerdiest thing possible and I cut out a cardboard circle (in two parts so that we could each hold one side, duh).

If you have keen eyes you will also notice that I was watching LOTR while I was making my Tolkien tribute craft. That's just how I roll. Next I painted the whole thing gold. Then I got serious about things and I copied the inscription from the book

using gold glitter paint.

Then we trounced about the theatre that night showing off our one ring,

playing LOTR themed games with like-minded LOTR nerds,

and donning authentic Hobbit 3D glasses (which we might or might not have made off with after the show).

I am Lady Rebecca of Westbrook, queen of the craft nerds.

Happy Tails To You

So, Harry Potter has happy tail. It's a common problem among pit bull breeds. Basically he wags his tail so emphatically without regard to what it might be smacking into that the tip of his tail bleeds. (Pretty charming, I know. Did I mention Harry Potter is looking for a home...) To treat the happy tail he has to wear a cone.

Sometimes he makes this face about it:

But more often than not he just runs through the house at top speed until that poor plastic cone shatters into a million pieces which I spend hours reassembling with packing tape. Also, we tried lining his crate with cardboard since he wags his tail real happy-like inside his crate when we come home.

Said cardboard lasted approximately two days. Finally, we hit on the idea of taping a sock over his tail.

We are happy to report that after a few days of Harry Potter Cotton Tail he is good as new! I am a dog genius.

(Self) Portrait of a Nicci

Nailed it.

Do you think I could use this as my passport photo?

Pigs Love Eddy

How could it be that we have never been to the Texas Renaissance Festival just the two of us?  The first year we went with Dave and Dana and the second year we took my folks.  This year it was just us.  We saw this dude.

He did an amazing pantomime act.

Oh yeah, also he juggled fire. We also saw this dude.

Yep. Very Renaissance-y. Eddy threw some axes in honor of Dave.

I petted some goats in honor of, well, petting goats.

What you can't tell from these pictures is that there were two pigs at the petting zoo. Eddy liked to scratch their backs. In return, they made these very loud SQUAUUUUNK noises at him. Pigs love Eddy.