Finally......

When hubby became ill, we no longer needed two vehicles and it was a stretch to cover two car payments so I parted with my car because the payment was considerably higher and I started driving his SUV which was a Ford Explorer Ironman Edition. It was a beautiful vehicle and he loved it.

But looks can be deceiving. First off, I have never driven an SUV other than to use his Suburban he used to have when I went on trips or needed to drive it for a few days for one reason or another. I have discovered in the past 18 months that I am NOT an SUV individual. I despised driving that thing. I did not like the way it handles compared to the smaller cars I was used to or the way it sat up. I like my down on the ground little cars. Always have. Always will. I like to zip and zoom and bop around in a small car. So a couple of months ago, I went looking for a car. I finally found one and brought it home yesterday. 

It's a Volkswagen Jetta. I have never owned a car this color and I am in love with it. She handles like a dream.

I love the sun roof or as they call it the moon roof. That was about the only thing on the Explorer that I liked.

And for a little car, it has a lot of trunk room.

I couldn't be happier with my purchase.

A day at the zoo...

This past Monday I took the three youngest grandchildren to the zoo. We had the best time. I love my special days with them. I had many of those special days when the oldest two were this age as well. Many wonderful Mamaw moments to fill my memories from all five grandchildren. I bought a cinch sac and had it personalized with Making Memories and that is what we use when we do our days out. Alexis took a picture of me carrying it so we could document more memories. This picture makes me smile because it means I was getting grandchildren time and because my rear does not look nearly as big in this picture as what I think it is. LOL. But it is also an incentive to lose weight!

We saw some wonderful things and were able to get a few good shots. Mr. Bear didn't move at all. He was just veggie out on a limb.

The kids were having a blast from the first moment we got there.

Alexis was so excited when she saw the Asian exhibit was opened. It's new and she has been wanting to go to it.

We were wondering if the symbols are the words that go with the pictures on the building. But since we don't speak Asian, I'm not sure we'll ever know.

I loved the little mist system and the Japanese lanterns.

Shelby and Colby liked the fountain. Colby said it was really cold. 

Alexis loved the information on the animals and the Asian greenery. She read every sign in there and touched everything they wanted you to touch. The tiger hide was so soft but she made me feel the tiger tongue and can I just say...OOOO GROSS! It just felt like tough sand paper but still...it was a tiger tongue. Yuck. 

We did see a beautiful tiger. I kept wanting it to look at us and it finally did.

Then it yawned real big and turned away again. Apparently he was not as happy to see us as we were to see him. 

They loved the exotic bird section.

Of course, we stopped at any play/recreation sections. They loved the tug of rope. 

Shelby liked skipping across the tree stumps.

Colby liked climbing the tree with the ropes.  

Alexis liked that as well. She climbed it real fast.

They were enthralled with big rhinos. But I agree with them that they are so dirty from laying in the dust that you can consider them beautiful. Alexis gave us some biology lessons about the horns of rhinos and the tusks of elephant. That child is so smart she's scary. And she loves to learn. Going around the zoo with her was wonderful because she read us info on every animal and plant that there was info on.

One of my favorites was the giraffes. This is the "baby" of the bunch. She is two years old.

We were able to see the lions fairly close, but other than wiggling their feet they continued to nap. But my hope was to see a good close up of the male lion so I was happy.

There was a lion statue and they all wanted their picture made on it. Alexis took the concentrated approach and looked ahead like it was taking her somewhere. 

Shelby took the I'm holding on for dear life approach.

And Colby took the Woo hoo! What a ride! approach.

One of our favorite moments and a place we spent a lot of time was with the gorillas. First we found this guy just sitting like a statue staring straight ahead.

Then we saw why....TWO mommies and TWO babies were coming down the hill. As we watched, he moved over some and they came down near him and then the kids played on the logs. One found a stick and the other tried to take it away from him. The Mom's pulled up a bunch of grass and weeds and then the kids dropped the stick and ran over to them and ate with them. Daddy sat off to side eating his own pile of grass. And it dawned on us...We were watching the gorilla version of a family picnic. It was so special. It made our day.

Thirty-One's Fall Goodies

Last week was the fall premier for the new line of Thirty-One products. I thought I would share some sneak peaks of what to expect from Fall/Winter 2017. The catalog goes live August 1st. Here are 12 snippets of some of my favorites.

They have been asked for a couple years to bring in more purple. Well, they did it this year that's for sure.

I thought of Ms. Debbie at Breathing in Grace when I saw all this. Especially the new icon of tennis shoes that is on the striped bag in the bottom right of the picture.

I especially love all the pouches with the purple.

They have incorporated some new shade of greenish blue. It looks one color on my phone and a different on my computer so I'm not sure what it is. The one on the right is called peacock pebble and the one on the left in the greenish is called dotty weave.

Lots of new wallet colors and patterns to choose from. And if you look closely, they now have a zip top laptop sleeve. That is going on my wish list for sure.

They are bringing out some browns and some blue that blends very well with it. I love the blue floral pattern.

Tons of gray this year which goes with just about everything. Notice the little owl on the front of the small carrier on the bottom left? That's one of the new icons that you can customize the color. My granddaughter, Alexis, is owl crazy. She has seen the icon and wants something with the owl on it. We can look at the new book when she comes over next week so she can see what she wants.

Some red and black stayed in from the last catalog. The plaid pattern was extremely popular. All of those products go good with some of the new grays as well.

I am loving the Moose pattern. Isn't it adorable?

In addition to the wonderful bags and accessories, they are still offering some beautiful jewelry.

That have added navy pillow to their line of pillows that you personalize to make it your own. There are a lot of choices.

And they are kicking it up a notch by adding more items for the men and boys in your life. Lots of solid grays and black as well as new camo patterns. They even have a new icon that is deer antler. They are carrying over the HERO line of icons for EMT's, Police, and Firemen.

It's going to be a great season!

The never ending project....

Do you have that one room that always seems to be a "work in progress". Well, if you follow my blog you will see I have a billion ideas on how to do my home office. I have even followed through at times and shared the finished project with joy. Only to look at it a month or two later and realize it is still not what I wanted. Having said that, let me tell you I am at it again. 

I am happy with my some of the organizing parts I have done and those will not change...at least not much. My challenge is the two separations of office/craft areas. To be more specific my office desk and craft table. My desk needs replaced. I even tried moving it into the living room but when I do my Thirty-One work, all my papers are still in the office. That's not working. So I want to put my desk back in the office/craft room. But it is really too small for what I want in a desk. So I started looking at options. According to Pinterest, you can create your own with a couple of file cabinets or drawer units and a piece of counter top.

While this is very clean and very lovely and has lots of room. It's not very cost efficient. So I will continue to search for the perfect desk. In the meantime, I am also not very happy with my folding table I use for a craft table. I toyed with the idea of sprucing it up with a "skirt" around it. But that seems like to much work. Especially to get the look they have here.

Although, the skirt on this one is nice and would cover up those unsightly legs on the table. I have cabinets and shelves and stands that I use in that room for my office files and craft supplies, so I just want a big desk top for my computer, printer and a filing tray, pen holder, stapler and a lamp. Drawers are not required. This might work good for converting a table into a desk. And the 4' table I have would be the perfect size for a desk.

On a side note, I saw this in my Pinterest search for offices. I think it is adorable. 

Back to the desk dilemma. So If I do use the table I have for a desk, I still need a table for my crafts. So I was thinking just to get a second table like the one I have. Use one for a desk and one for crafts. The one for crafts, I could actually paint the legs like they did here to dress it up a little. I honestly think this is kind of cute. And talk about easy. The table is only around $24 at Sam's and Walmart which is way cheaper than a desk.

A final option is to check out tables like I have only in color. Walmart carries a 6' in different colors. I love the red. That would up the look of the plain white table. But I need a 4' not a 6'. I will keep looking.

Decisions. Decisions. I think pay day will require a trip to Walmart or Sam's.