Pictures

Not that there's a ton of you out there who read this, but I wanted to make sure I wrote it down so I can remember. In any case, new house and I need to start making it feel a little more homey, so I figured what better way than with pics of family and friends, right?
But I don't just want random pics, I guess that'd be ok for later, but I think I would really like to have pics of my family and friends either cooking or eating! How cool would that be to have a house full of pics of your friends and family doing what you love best, right?

So! If you happen to be reading this and have a pic of you, you and me, you and significant other, etc etc eating and/or cooking and you'd like to be in a frame in my house, let me know and send em my way!

Backyard update

So instead of going to the Austin Rodeo BBQ competition and stuffing myself silly, I decided to stay home this weekend and take care of some more backyard stuff. I know I know, bad bad, but the saving grace is that there is some work going into a Texas Hill Country BBQ tour sometime in middle May =)

New Bublina Frutescens and river rock placed around the transformer finally!

From Backyard_garden

close up, unfortunately, the two closest to the fence here got TRAMPLED by the stupid power company guys when they hopped my fence to install the new power lines for the new houses behind me. >(

From Backyard_garden

More river rock and two new hibiscus plants put in, hibiscus was my grandmother's favorite flower...

From Backyard_garden

two more hibiscus plants put down in the corner,

From Backyard_garden

A couple of shots of the length of the back fence

From Backyard_garden

From Backyard_garden

Cooook (and some garden pics)

So it looks like the new flowers I put down have started blooming a bit more, it looks quite nice!

From Backyard_garden

From Backyard_garden

From Backyard_garden

And I ended up doing a bit of cooking last night, just had been a while. Decided on some stuffed chicken breasts using my own homemade sourdough bread stuffing with roasted tomatoes and pan seared broccolini! btw, love broccolini, damn good stuff...

From Food

From Food

Oh, and I got suckered into a new pair of motorcycle boots, my old ones have been going downhill fast (pieces breaking off, etc), and one of my more favorite gear stores (newenough.com) had the new Sidi Vertigos on CLEARANCEEE, only catch was that I had to buy the white ones, but they look pretty darn good anyways!

From Ducati bikes!

From Ducati bikes!

More gardening

I finally got around to putting some petunias and snapdragons in the ground, my first real set of color in the backyard. Not bad. I was planning on making that corner a bit of a sitting area, but I may decide to just put a Japanese Maple there and leave the corner be a nice looking area...

From Backyard_garden

From Backyard_garden

From Backyard_garden

From Backyard_garden

btw, my honeysuckle is growing like crazy, it won't bloom, but dang it it's wild!

From Backyard_garden

Green Thumb

So I've been working on my backyard garden a bit, trying to do some landscaping, but it's slow going as my finances are still pretty jacked up at the moment, but slowly and surely it's coming along!

Updates:

From Backyard_garden

Nice Bougainvillea from Barry, thanks!

From Backyard_garden

I've got the electrical transformer in my backyard, so the lattice went up and added some japanese honeysuckle (beautiful red blooms) and some star jasmine (beautiful white flowers)! Both plants actually bloom at different time periods, so I should have some fragrant blooms for a good portion of the year and maybe some bees and hummingbirds! =)

From Backyard_garden

Right in the middle of back of the yard, Japanese honeysuckle that will hopefully just go wild on the back fence and some small foxtail ferns that will surround a couple more layers of plants in between, TBD ;)

From Backyard_garden

Little different view here with the Compact Nandinas shown to fill in the areas in between. I'm going to find some nice button ferns to plant in curved rows around the Nandinas

From Backyard_garden

Nice closeup of the foxtail ferns


So hopefully as I get some more money, I can fill in the gaps and finally get the nice riverstone or crushed rock I can place around the plants,
Whatcha think??

House moved in and SNOW in Houston!!

OK! So I've been moved into my house for almost 2 weeks now and things are starting to settle a bit, not COMPLETELY yet, but we're getting there that's for sure!
I've still got a couple of pesky warranty items that need to be taken care of, but I've learned you just need to keep on them and don't give up!

So let's start with a few of the house pics, then get to the fun!

Kitchen's shaping up quite nicely, in fact, I probably spent the most time on trying to get that room all spiffed up ;)

From House DONE

From House DONE

Breakfast and bar area, always ready for guests to chill and have a drink and some food!

From House DONE

The living room with the new couches (man I need a bigger TV!)

From House DONE

From House DONE

Bathrooms

From House DONE

From House DONE

From House DONE

And the study!

From House DONE

and don't forget my OTHER favorite room

From House DONE

From House DONE

Now for the fun! Snow in Houston!!

From House DONE

look at the pile!

From House DONE

which helped in making...

Leaning snowman...

From House DONE

standing snowman

From House DONE

And snowman without scarf-because-I'm-not-about-to-leave-a-scarf-out-for-people-to-steal-but-it's-totally-ok-if-they-want-to-steal-my-2-dollar-santa-hat-but-that-would-be-really-sad-if-they-did...

From House DONE

DOOOHHHHH, and just like that, my poor snowman didn't make it through the night, heck, didn't even make it through one hour... can we have a moment of silence please?

From House DONE

This thing deserves an update

So it's been VERY busy as of late. The house is now pretty much done, with my very first official walkthrough happening on Monday.

From House update, pretty much done!

I really love my master bath shower, that thing is awesome!

From House update, pretty much done!

And of course the kitchen's no slouch either:

From House update, pretty much done!

From House update, pretty much done!

All utilities are set to turn on when I close next week, even got my trash can already:

From House update, pretty much done!

Insurance is set, mortgage is done, one furniture order is set to be delivered a week after I close.

Still have plenty of stuff to set up, pest control, one more furniture order, mattress(es), linens and blankets, groceries and toiletries. With all that still left to do, I unfortunately don't think I have enough money to get my nice big TV yet, so it's going to have to wait ='( but oh well, such is life =P

On my way out to Kelly's engagement party in Austin this weekend. This time next week, I'll be a homeowner! *clap clap clap*