AJ's Bedroom Window View

I am still in Florida staying at my daughter's house. They just bought their house and moved a few months ago and they have not bought a bed for the guest room yet, so I am sleeping in AJ's bedroom. I was not planning to link with Outdoor Wed. since I am not home and I did not upload any pics in advance but AJ, my granddaughter, reminded me that I could take pictures outside their house too. Good idea! She already has a blogging mind, LOL!

Outdoor Wed. is hosted by Susan of http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com./ Go visit Susan and check out all her amazing outdoor pictures and those of her participants.

Peeking in between the blinds hanging from AJ's window, this is what I see.

Isn't that a pretty and peaceful view?

Thanks for coming by and thanks to Susan for making us show our favorite outdoor pic of the week.

3 Videos of AJ

3 or More Tuesday is hosted by Tam at http://www.thegypsyscorner.com Be sure to visit Tam's blog and then check out her other participants sites and check out their lovely 3's.

I have been in Florida spending time with my daughter and granddaughter. AJ and I flew with my stepdaughter and her husband to meet John at Detroit airport in Michigan and we drove to U of M in Ann Arbor to watch the first football game of the season.

AJ and I flew back to Tampa yesterday. I do not know where AJ gets her energy from cause I sure was exhausted from the hectic weekend. I could not even find my vehicle in the economy parking lot. Turns out that I was in the wrong floor. I thought it was 3-02 but it was actually

2-03, lol! As soon as we got home, she took my camera and started taking videos of herself and asked me to put them on my blog, so here they are.

Here she is singing.

and dancing.

Sorry for the closet. This is their home office. My son in law keeps his clothes here cause my daughter occupies the whole master BR walk in closet. AJ closed it when she noticed it was open.

This last one was after the Wolverines/Broncos game. She kept skipping and hopping up and down the Big House Stadium bleachers.

Hope you enjoyed my 3 contributions for today. Thanks, Tam for hosting this fun event.

Blue Water and Latest Yard Project

I was trying not to show the pool again but I just love the way the urn with yellow mums looks there against the blue water that I just had to share it with you.

Blue Monday is hosted by Sally of http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/. Please visit her and then see all her participants' entries too. I promise you won't be disappointed.Blue and yellow just look so pretty together.
Now, it's time for Met Monday, which is hosted by Susan of http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/. Go to her blog and see lots of amazing transformations.
I want to show you how my latest project in our yard is going. It's not all done yet but it's getting there and it is looking a lot better, I think. My granddaughter calls this our secret garden because you cannot see it unless you go all the way to the end of the yard and look down.

This is how it was after the pool was built. See all the shrubs and all that mess under the trees?
We added these railroad ties even before we decided to build a pool and I have started working on it but when they dug out the dirt for the pool, most of the dirt and some cement fell here and buried a lot of my plants and killed them.
We hired a gardener to help me clean and trim the shrubs. I have never stepped in there before it was cleaned up because I am terrified of snakes and we have them around. Do you see how much more yard we have now?
We laid some bricks on the ground and put an iron swing there and a bench seat. Then I added this tall table and stools. The stools came with outdoor cushions but I did not put them on cause I am not done working here. I want to add some brick flooring under the table set too.
This is pretty much how it looks now. It's livable and I can actually go down there and sit on the swing without being nervous about snakes.

I had put some mulch in the beginning but everytime I water the plants (I water from above), the mulch just all get washed down so I decided to lay red rocks. It blends well with the brick of the house too. I think it looks good, what do you think? Just for the top part, we used up 14 bags so we still have a long way to go.

I had the gardener plant some hosta and bananas under the big oak trees. We still need to add mulch around and probably more plants.

This very heavy stone bunny was dug out from behind the bushes. We moved it here. I think

the smaller grandkids will enjoy rocking it. I think I will just add mulch underneath instead of planting grass because it will be hard to bring a mower down there.

I planted a calamondin citrus tree near the bunny.

Hope you enjoyed seeing the yard progress.

One more thing, can anybody tell me what type of snake this is and if it is venomous? The gardener just killed it. It was on the flower beds. Ugh!

Thanks, Sally and Susan for another fun week!

And thank you all for visiting and commenting!

Mammy's Cupboard

It's double post time again for Sightseeing and Pink Saturday. Pink Saturday is hosted by Beverly at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/. Anybody is welcome to join me for Sightseeing Sat. I will upload Mr. Linky at the end cause I am traveling and might not be able to read comments on time to add your links. For today, I decided to share our pictures when I took my guests from Chicago and Florida to Mammy's Cupboard for lunch. Sure beats cooking for a lot of people and I thought the experience for them eating under mammy's skirt would be unforgettable, LOL!
Do you think her skirt could pass for pink? I think it does cause I would not call it orange. Mamy's Cupboard is a restaurant in MS, which made it to the 40th of the 50 Stange Buildings of the World, according to this site http://villageofjoy.com/50-strange-buildings-of-the-world/. The restaurant is only open from 11 to 2 for lunch from Tues. to Sat.

This is what I had, a good ole southern dish. Yummy!
But I couldn't wait to finish my meal so I could have a taste of these mile high home made scrumptious desserts. Yummy! We ordered a slice of each of the desserts and shared them so we can taste them all. My favorite was the chocolate merengue.
Here is the happy contented group.

If you want to participate and share some of your travel or any sightseeing pictures, please copy my Sightseeing Sat. button with a link on your post and then add your name and your permalink below. Thanks.

I hope you enjoyed sightseeing with me. I kept this post short and am posting and scheduling it in advance cause I am busy packing and preparing for another trip.

Thanks for coming and thanks Beverly for hosting another great Pink Sat.

French Dining with a Little Russian Touch!

Thursday is another favorite play day for me. Why? Because Susan is hosting Tablescape Thursday over at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ Won't you come and join us? Let's play!

I wanted to use the blue and white toile table cloth that we bought from the French side flea market of St. Maarten. Let me show you the ones taken at night first.

And now, the day time pictures.

Salt and pepper shakers I bought from an antique shop in Destin last 4th of July.

Did you notice my Russian czar and queen vodka decanters? I bought them when we went to Russia and I would not allow anyone to drink the vodka. LOL! Can you blame me for wanting to preserve them? I think they are just too beautiful.

I had the white tray sitting in the garage since I bought it from a San Diego trip about 2 years ago. It was like 70% off and I could not resist getting it, thinking that someday, I would use it for something, and that someday finally came.A Russian couple in their horse carriage.

I am using my Bernard Limoges candle lamps again.

These are our everyday flatware. I think they look Frenchy enough. I used 2 kinds of white plate chargers, "Lace" from JC Penneys and another white chargers with a different pattern from either Horchow or Neiman Marcus.

I used a white and flow blue tureen for my centerpiece surrounded by 4 vases with flowers, Limoges candles, the small Russian carriage and a ceramic egg, all gathered in the white wooden tray.

I did not realize that we get a small glimpse of the pool from the formal dining room until I saw this picture.

Toile napkins I found on Ebay. I was so happy to win them and there were 8 of them.

I grouped 3 candle holders, a plain blue and clear glass from Princess House, a blue and white ceramic one I brought from our Florida home and my glass hurricane tealight candle holder.

I won the silver salt cellar from Ebay also. I have 2 of them and the tiny spoons I got from a local antique shop here.

Notice the tassel I added on the tureen lid?

I sure hope you enjoyed this tablescape. It's funny cause I started creating this because I had a set of dishes that I did not know where to put cause I am running out of storage. I emptied the cabinet where these were stored so I can store the other ones and then just started setting the table with these.

Thanks for coming by and thanks, Susan, for hosting another TT!

Beautiful Sunset

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by Susan of http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/.

Be sure you visit Susan's blog and check out her participants' blogs also. You will see some amazing outdoor pictures for sure.

I have only 1 picture to share. I took it last night. I looked out the window while I was cooking and saw this. I immediately got my camera and shot it. Isn't that a pretty orange color?

I appreciate you all for stopping by and commenting and Susan for hosting this event.