Party Alert!

When your high school buddy is turning THIRTY (can you imagine that for cryinoutloud?) a bang up big party is in order.

Laura is just the girl to make sure that particular kind of party happens.

What else would old girlfriends do to celebrate such a momenteous occasion but go out and

PAINT THE TOWN RED!!!

But first a really great invitation must be sent.

If painting the town red is the theme, why not send the invitations out in the form of a paint bucket, with a paint brush and color samples included inside?

And a red feather boa stashed in the can as well, just to get into the party spirit right away.

Decorating the paint cans was going to take a little time, so the two of us sat at the kitchen table and proceeded to decorate.

Thank heaven for stickers!

That sure made the decorating part easier. Putting all the little confetti bits around the can took time, but in the end it was worth the effort.

The cans looked GREAT!

Inside the can was a paint brush and the paint sample chips.

Does this sound like a fun party or what???

Pedicures, trolley tours on the red old fashioned trolleys, ceramic painting, dinner at Red Lobster, then going out and hitting the town for dancing and fun.

After we got the cans all dolled up, Laura hot glued them inside a cardboard boxes and sent them out via Fedex.

She also emailed everyone the details as well, timing it so both arrived at the same time.

(Which was a good thing...after she sent them she realized she hadn't included a date anywhere on the paint can invitations. Oops.)

She'll be flying out to San Diego on Monday night, and meeting up with her old high school girlfriends for an all day party on Margo's big day.

Isn't that just too cool?

Boy do these girls know how to have fun!

(And the invitations were just a taste of all the stuff Laura got for fun! Flashing birthday tiara anyone?)

Seeing the sights; taking you along on the ride...

The other day I was reading a blog that was written by a young woman who was all wound up about how wonderful Canada was.
It touched me to read how passionate she was about her country and all of it's unique beauty.

I'm passionate about where I live too. America is a beautiful country. Texas is an amazingly beautiful and diverse state.

And Houston is...well, Houston is...umm...err..let me think.
Oh yeah, now I remember.
Houston is America's fourth largest city.

You know how most major cities have iconic sights?
Places like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Franscisco, the Statue of Liberty in New York City, and the Mary Tyler Moore statue in Minneapolis?
Places that people from all over the globe yearn to visit someday?

Well Houston has those kinds of sights too.
I've been working hard at making sure that I see all of them.
I've learned that life can change on a dime, and if you put off going to see something you may never get to see it at all.

With that in mind, Wednesday afternoon Laura and I switched on my cell phone GPS, jumped in her car and drove 28 miles to see.... this.

(You might want to expand this picture.)

Pretty cool fence, huh?

A screen made from recycled materials.

A lovely patio.

All the materials, all the shingles: Recycled materials.

A particular kind of recycled material.

Can I hear a big AMEN here from all my blog readers out there?

Yes indeed. This is art at it's finest.

No, wait...this is art at it's finest.

Have you figured out where we are yet?

Oh come on...guess!

(Above is a close up of the house's shingle siding. )

Creative, don't you think?

Surely by now you have figured it out.

This wall is a lot like a stained glass window, don't you think?

All those shingles....

All those bottles....

Really, isn't it totally obvious where we are?

OK, Laura will act it out for you.

It took a lot of hard work to finish this house.

Six pack needing kind of work.

And there is still work to be done.

There is still space for more creative expression.

Such neat and careful work.

(The sky above the house as seen through a crepe myrtle tree...gorgeous, no?)

The wind creates lovely music to enjoy here in the patio.

OK, OK...I guess if you haven't guessed where we are by now I should just go ahead and show you the sign.

I just know you are going to slap your forehead and say "Duh...I knew that!"

The Beer Can House! The house that is completely covered with beer cans, and walls built of beer cans and bottles.

39,000 beer cans!

Fabulous!

You probably should sign the guest book.

I told you: People travel from all over the globe to see famous sights like this.

Imagine how much money you have saved by visiting the world famous Beer Can House via my blog!

It has been stated that perhaps Mr. John Milkovisch who built this place had actually lost his marbles.

Nope. Plainly he knew exactly where he put all of his marbles.

Can I get another AMEN from all the reader who can now say they have been to the Beer Can House?

Amen and A-MEN!

Nice wall, huh?
Yup, only in Houston Texas.

The house across the street from the Beer Can house is owned by someone who is PROUD to be an American, and PROUD to be in Texas as well.

The Houston Texas downtown skyline.

Lovely, isn't it?

Pretty clouds.

Uncrowded freeways.

So much to see, and so much beauty to be explored around here.

As our city's unofficial motto puts it:

"Houston: It's worth it!"

Yeah!

Downward Dog, Upward Cat, and seasonal respite

It was SO gorgeous on Wednesday morning that Laura suggested we attempt to do a yoga workout outside in our newly spiffed up garden.

She got out the mats and we popped a yoga video into the laptop and started to work out.
Tiggie came outside to give us some pointers on stretching and balance.

He thought the Downward Dog pose was absurd.
Personally he recommends Upward Cat poses for grace and agility.

The video kicked my butt. Laura did much better with it than I did.
I really need to do more of this stuff; I am about as limber as a bread board.

We both got a good laugh from the tape. At the end we were instructed to focus on one simple thing that we wanted to try to do today. "For example," the instructor said, "You could decide to focus on remembering to breath."

I understand what she meant, but seriously, if my breathing was dependent on my remembering to do it, I would be blue and unconsious most of the time.

My memory is pretty well shot these days, and I am far too easily distracted.

After the work out we changed into bikinis (I borrowed one of hers...) and we did ten minutes on each side laying out in the sunshine to up our vitamin D level.

I enjoyed watching a beautiful curled feather of a cloud drift by.

Then a bigger cloud came by and it got down right chilly.

We rolled up our mats and headed inside.
I have to admit having a cat help you with your work out is pretty darn cute.
And being able to work out in the garden and sun myself in January is a huge make up from Texas for the other eight hot, humid, and mosquito plagued months that I deal with the rest of the year.

A few new flowers in the flower pots....

Love stamen, as always.

All of this PLUS more was trimmed from the yard on Tuesday. The clean up landscape crew was amazing.

It is nice to have a new sunny yellow theme for the flower bed.
Tiggie appreciates it too.

We all do.

Dear God;

Thank you for letting there be a few days each year without mosquitos!

I'm still laughing...

Dawn put a link to this Jenn Gee's etsy store on her blog yesterday. Dawn herself has crafted some really rockin' coffee cozies, but noted that a coffee corset would really kick things up a notch.

I'll say it would.

You might remember my corset trying on session in New Orleans awhile ago. I wasn't sure if a corset was really perfect for me, but I am intrigued by the idea.

So...meanwhile....maybe I should just get a coffee corset instead.

Doesn't it just say "I'm hot, and my coffee is too?

Yeah, I should. So I am going to order a coffee corset right now.
Feel free to order one for yourself by clicking here.

(Jenn Gee makes unisex coffee corsets too. I flew that idea past Mr. B. Umm, not so much of a great idea for him. Go figure.)