Living in the Country

There are certain liberties you have when living in the country, outside the confines of gated communities. 

You are free to do just as you please.

Like this.

This, my friends, is a mailbox.  The Armadillo Sheriff.

No Home Owners' Association telling these people what to do!

Visions in Marble

Pareidolia -
We've all heard about the miracles of seeing Mother Teresa's face in the cinnamon bun

or

 

Obama's face on a piece of toast.

That's what Pareidolia is; a phenomenon involving a stimulus that we perceive as being significant.  Other examples of pareidolia are hidden messages on records played in reverse. Who, my age, doesn't remember the  "turn me on, dead man" message heard when "Revolution 9" is played backwards on the Beatles' White Album?  I was depressed for a very long time believing that Paul was really dead.

But I'm a big girl now and I know that he's alive and well.

This is another type of pareidolia.  Do you remember lying on your back in the grass, staring at the clouds, imagining all sorts of shapes that resembled animals or faces?  Like this fish.

I personally have been experiencing this phenomenon in my bathroom.  On the marble tiles to be exact.  Here, let me show you my collection thus far.

The continent of Africa is on my floor

So is the San Andreas Fault

Does anyone else see the chili pepper???

Oh, and I experienced this phenomenon in my pantry too.  Take a look what I found in my potato basket...

The Powder Room

C. loves to show people the powder room.

It's not to show off the sink he found online

It's this.....

This is Rocky our stuffed raccoon that normally does not come out of the cabinet until Halloween.  However, C. has been having way too much fun watching guests walk into the powder room then jump and scream when they turn the corner to look at the loo.

I know, it's disturbing on a whole different level isn't it?

Some Things We Think Are Fun

With most everything done I thought I'd post some photos of odds and ends; things around the house that I like - for one reason or another. 

These sweet little buttons of wheat are the hardware we selected for the kitchen and the pantry.

This square drain grate is from an outfit called Ebbe Square Drains (original huh?).  We really liked them and the tile layer did too.  It's much easier for him to cut tile or stone in a square rather than than a circle.  We selected the polished chrome but they come in a lot of different finishes.

They are not screwed in like the round grates.  They sit in the square drain riser.  The grate comes with a grate puller and whenever you want to clean the trap you insert the grate puller into one of the holes and simply turn and pull it up.

These cast iron dog heads are being used as coat hooks in the mud room.  They came quite rusted.  We wanted to keep some of the rust because we wanted them to look old.  I scraped off the loose surface rust then coated them with a matte sealer so none of the remaining rust would come off on our coats.



Charles found these wall sconces at market. 

They add a nice little glow in the evening.

The built-in ironing board is for the laundry lady to de-wrinkle all of our clothes.  Unfortunately, the laundry lady would be me.  I hate to iron.  Perhaps it stems from mother making my sister and I iron hankies, pillow cases and sheets when we were young.  Sheets, really?????  I didn't question that then but now I think back and wonder why....

I do have a nice little shelf to hold the iron and a bottle of Tito's spritzer bottle.

And this is how I reward myself after an afternoon of ironing.  A most refreshing cocktail made from freshly squeezed grapefruit juice and Tito's.  Do you think if I drank a couple of these while I was ironing I would enjoy the task more?

The TV Mirror Complete

Remember this? 

 A cubicle was built in my closet directly behind the central mirror in master bath.  This picture is taken from the bathroom looking into the closet.

Now I'm taking the picture from the closet looking out into the bathroom.



Here, the inside of the "box" was painted black as well as the wall that the two-way mirror will be mounted on.


This photo turned out really strange because the white walls you see are actually black.  I am standing inside my closet taking the picture through the two-way mirror. 

We purchased an 18" flat screen, set it on the Satellite box and pushed it flush up to the mirror back.


And, Voila!

Live from Victory Park with the News 8 Daybreak crew.

GO MAVS!!!   Game 2 comeback!