I hit the Holliween jackpot

So a few weeks ago my dear friend Di who is the general manager of a retail store at nearby mall, was informed that her store was not going to have its lease renewed.  Since then , she has already got another job lined up so yay for that!  The store has everything on clearance and they had some old mannequin pieces that we're going to go to the dumpster.

Guess who is the lucky owner of those pieces? Yep - you guessed it - ME!! 

I have two sets of legs and top forms but they are headless and they don't have the stands that help them stand up.  I also have 3 arms with detachable hands. 

I can't tell you how excited I am! I may be  a little on the weird side but I like to think it's my creative side.  

As mentioned numerous times here on my blog, I have an epic annual Holliween party and I like to change it around every year.  I have some ideas for the mannequin parts but I'm also open to any of your ideas too.  I was thinking of burying the hands so they stick up out of the ground in the front yard.  

Happy Thursday yall!! 

I went back to Ohio

I am wrapping up my visit that I spent in Ohio 2 weeks ago.  I only mentioned the one night that Todd played in his band so far. We were there for 3 nights and 3 days so we were able to have some nice relaxing mornings.  We stayed in a Homewood Suites in a town called Maumee. They served breakfast until 9:00 am every morning. What was so funny is that we woke up every single morning at 8:45. If you knew how strange that is for big of us. I am not a sleeper. I am a very restless sleeper and I wake up very easily.  Sleeping late to me is 7:00 on a weekend. We stayed up late though every night and probably didn't get to bed before midnight.  Luckily there was a Cracker Barrel across the street from us.

Todd wanted to see his homes and schools that he lived in and went to.  We also saw where his dad went to elementary school.  We drove around a lot and spent some time in a cute town called Grand Rapids, Ohio. It had nice little shops and antique stores.  A beautiful river ran behind the Main Street. 

One thing I couldn't get enough of was all the lovely huge barns.  Out near where we were it was pretty rural. Lots of farms and crops were around. I lost count and gave up taking pictures of all the barns once I realized that dang near everyone had one.  If I lived in Ohio, I would have to have a huge barn!! 

Todd was super excited to eat at a place called Tony Packos.  In fact, we ate there twice.  If you remember the TV show MASH, then you know the character Klinger. Klinger was from Toledo and always mentioned his favorite place Tony Packos.  They're famous for their Hungarian hot dogs and chili.  I have to admit, they were tasty! We went to the original one that was close to downtown Toledo.  

Another night, while Todd had practice , I had the evening alone to explore. I ate at a chain that was also popular in that area called Charlie's. It was Greek and so yummy!  Afterwards, I shopped and didn't buy much but Todd and I bought a few shirts from the Harley shop the day before. I also bought some gorgeous antique chippy Corbels that came off a house there in Ohio. The lady at antique store was so nice and told us she was there when they removed from an old abandoned house. I love knowing the history of something I bought.  Todd suggested me going to a post office and shipping my purchases home.  Instead, 

I found a thrift store and bought a small carryon bag for one dollar!! It was perfect  to pack the corbels and tshirts in. We checked it for free and I didn't have to ship anything. 

All in all, I had a great time and enjoyed seeing a part of Ohio that I'd never seen before. Todd was happy and had fun  and we needed some time away together. 

Now for tons of pics:

Downtown Toledo 

Happy Memorial Day

Good morning yall! I hope and pray for a wonderful day - safe and sound. 

There will be no BBQ's today. Dallas is practically under water and we have 5 more days of rain in our forecast. 

We were invited to a friends house yesterday for a garage cookout and I took a dessert. I have found a Pinterest win!! I made a pistachio cream cheese dessert ball. Dang it was good yall! I served it with chocolate graham crackers.  You can't go wrong when butter , powdered sugar and cream cheese are involved. I added pecans on one side and shredded coconut on the other end. Delish!! 

Now for some Memorial Day memes: 

Fun night of music and friends

Exactly a week ago on Thursday , Todd and I were hopping on a plane headed to Ohio.  We flew into Detroit because it's not far driving distance to Toledo.  Todd's family is from that area and he went to school there some as a young kid in elementary and he went to high school his last 2 years (junior and senior).  He was in a band during those years and have remained in touch with his band mates.  A few of them still play today in other bands which is pretty cool.  They get together every 5 years and they play a reunion concert and this was why we were in Ohio.  The lead singer John organized the gig in a bar called the Bunker Bar that had this huge hall connected to it. Todds band is called Octavian and Johns band that he's currently singing for is Alter Ego.  Alter Ego pulls in quite a crowd because they play locally and have done well with getting their name out.  However, tons of people from Todds high school came to see the band and show support.  A few other members also live out of state now. 

I would say at least 300 people came out. It was so cool!!  

The live show was Saturday night and my birthday was the following day. Right at midnight, Todd and my friends wished me happy birthday.  My friend Janet drove up from Columbus which was a little over 3 hrs away.  We met 8 years ago when I worked there for a few months.  She brought her friend Connie who was a total hoot!! They brought a banner, a pink boa, a strobe light for the table, bracelets that light up, and a toy tambourine  as party favors for birthday. They really made me feel special and also  not alone while Todd played.  

I had a great night and so so happy I went to see Todd play with his friends. 

Here's a few pics from the night.  I still have more about my weekend there but I've got to go now. 

My patio chair redo

So 5 weeks ago , we were having a pretty day and I was just hanging around the house.  I have to take advantage of sunny days to do any of my spray paint projects.  I had bought a cute patio chair that was bright pepto-bismol pink with a faded floral seat cushion.  I really didn't mind the pink but I wanted our patio furniture to not clash as badly as it did.  

I spray painted the chair metallic silver and I painted another chair the same color because I was on a roll.  Then the seat needed some help.  I grabbed a cute bag that I had bought from Target last Halloween.  I had colorful skulls on it and I liked the fabric because it's waterproof.  I grabbed out my staple gun and took the seat and placed it in the bag.  I cut all the access off and just stapled it under the seat. Boom! Done! Easy Peasy!! 

And here is the results. I'm pretty pleased  without. Especially with all the rain we've been having.  

So what do you think? Have you covered any furniture before? I've only done outdoors chairs and a stool so far. 

I'm so grateful!

Hello yall! Happy Tuesday to ya.  I am still trying to unbury myself from emails at work from being gone 2 days last week.

Last Friday was put on purple day for Lupus awareness and I could cry from the sweet sweet gestures from my friends. I had 2 friends text me pictures of themselves wearing purple, I had people tagging me on Facebook wearing purple, I had a friend mention it on their blog with some purple flowers and one blogger even changed her background on blog to purple and created a cartoon for it. 

My heart was so full all day!!  It doesn't take much to spread the word for important messages to get out. Especially now that we have so much social media avenues , they can be used more for good and not evil. (lol) 

I won't post the pics of friends that texted me because I don't have their permission.  I will post what I saw on the blogs and my own picture.  

Todd took my pic while waiting at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. 

This mention of Lupus was from my buddy Chris at Tilting at Windmills. 

This was created by Cherdo at Cherdo on the flipside.  How cute is this!! She even added my blog name to the shirt. 

Many of you bloggers mentioned you would wear purple.  I just wanted to say a HUGE THANK YOU for participating in this.  I appreciate more than you know.  If you know someone with Lupus, you know that you wish there was more you could do. I feel so helpless when my mom is suffering. I hate it!! It's the small things like lupus awareness day that makes me feel a little better. 

Put on Purple May 15 ( Friday)

Hey y'all, Just wanted to let you know that this Friday is Put on Purple day for Lupus Awareness.
May is Lupus Awareness month and every year they have a date to Put on Purple.
This is from Lupus Foundation website:
Join the growing number of individuals, communities, media and celebrities that Put on Purple™ for lupus awareness and tell people why. Getting your purple on is an easy way you can help the Lupus Foundation of America raise awareness of lupus and show support for those who are living with the disease.

SAVE THE DATE: Put On Purple on May 15, 2015

 Take a picture of yourself or have someone take pic and upload it to social media with hashtags #POP and #knowlupus  . You can tag me and say you're doing this for my mom ( Donna) , or my friend Marla at Luck Fupus, or maybe you know someone that has Lupus that you're doing it for.
Its something easy and free but will get the awareness out there.  Wear something purple folks!


I'm packing my purple to wear on Friday since I'll be out of town and I already moved into my purple purse for the occasion.

Thank so much and have a great weekend!!

Just as cool in person

Happy Tuesday yall! I mentioned in a post last week that I was going to meet a blogger Laura at
 We Really Got This in person.  It was so much fun!! We met last Thursday at Houlihan's at 6 pm and yall, we didn't leave until 9:00.  She lives about 5 towns over from me so we met somewhat halfway between us both.  I had an idea of what Laura looked like from some pictures on her blog.  When I walked in I saw her and I smiled but then she was talking to the lady next to her so I thought maybe she's with her.  I was talking to the hostess but I kept staring at Laura and she said Are you Holli?  That's how friendly she is just chatting up the person next to her. So something I would do. I get asked by my friends often why I talk to strangers. hahaha!
I can tell you that it was just so easy to talk to her and I didn't feel awkward in the very least.  I was a little nervous because I always have a little fear of " what of she thinks I'm a big goober and we don't have anything to talk about".  It was seamless!  We have so much in common from our age, neither one of us have kids but our dogs,  to our taste in music, down to the exact favorite Mexican restaurant that is not the most popular around Dallas.  Fun! Fun !
I'm glad we put it out there and really set a time and date and had our meeting. I have had excellent luck in meeting my blogger friends around my community. In fact, Julie from A Beautiful Day is a very close family friend of ours now. She helped with my wedding and I don't know what I would have done without her then.  We used to live closer so I miss doing as much as we used to together but we always stay in touch.  Thank goodness for social media too!
If you end up realizing you have some close by bloggers- I encourage you to meet them! Yall are a blessing and we already have the whole blogger thang as a connection.  When I met Deb from Just Keepin It Real Folks in person a few months ago while I was visiting North Carolina- it was the highlight of my week! It made traveling and working away from home so much easier and she was a doll.
I understand that some of yall may be shy and prefer the safety of being behind your computer. That's OK too. I am very social and not a shy bone in me.  For those of you who don't know, I'm a corporate trainer so I have to get up and speak in front of large crowds or via the web almost daily.  So I get very excited to meet people.

Pardon the blurry but my camera was dirty I think.  Anywho you get the jest...

Did I mention that I'm going out of town this week? Todd and I are going to Ohio for the weekend. He has several friends and family there and went to high school for a while somewhere close to Toledo.  Todd is a drummer which I've mentioned a few times and he's playing in a reunion band get together at the Bunker Bar in Holland, Ohio this Saturday.  If you're close by, come meet me and rock out with the band.  We come home Sunday which happens to be my birthday.  Very busy weekend coming up for sure!


Have a great day!

Mothers Day didn't SUCculents

Hello yall! Happy Monday to you. Hope everyone had a nice weekend and if you're in Texas- a safe one.  We've had some serious crazy weather here in DFW area with flash floods, tornados, winds and rain. Yesterday morning the tornado sirens woke us up blaring into our bedroom. We don't live far from the fire station and our window faces the street.  Not the best way to start your day for sure. Our neighborhood was Ok thank goodness! 

Since Mom lives so far away and I'm not a mom myself, Mother's Day was always just another day.  After church, Todd and I had a fun day running errands and grabbing quick lunch. We ate Canes chicken because it was buy one get one free for the occasion.  Later in the afternoon I received a sweet text from my  stepdaughter Alison that made my day.  

I invited my stepmom Deb to dinner and told her to pick where and when to meet. We enjoyed a yummy dinner ( Mexican food) and I bought her 2 bouquets of flowers from the grocery store close by. They were gorgeous roses and tulips. Daddy was feeling good and it was so great to spend some time with them. 

When we got home, I had a card on my pillow from Jax and Lila.  Todd said they saved their money and pitched in to buy me a card but he had to cover the difference. lol!!  They are too sweet and I love being a mom to furry babies. 

Just before we went to bed, my stepson Collin sent Todd a text that said : Tell Holli  happy Mother's Day from us.  This is the first time he has ever acknowledged me for Mother's Day and it means so much. 

I saved the texts by taking pictures of them. 

He at least spelled my name with an I. Lol 

So overall my day was a good one and I'm very blessed. 

Last week we had a few days of sunshine and I was sent an idea from my sister in law using vintage cars.  I was inspired and went to Home Depot to buy some soil and some succulents.  I'm very pleased on how they turned out. Now I'm just concerned they don't blow away or get flooded in my backyard. 

So did you have a good weekend?