I haven’t felt  like writing lately…..

I’m so sad to share the news that our sweet baby girl Clover passed earlier this week. We were shocked to hear that she had a tumor in her tummy and was bleeding…… poor little girl. We came home from dinner and found her in the hall way unable to walk.

She brought so much joy and happiness to our family … she will be missed more than words can express!!

Thank you Lord for blessing our lives with this amazing dog…she is beautiful in every way!!

Just found this picture of Clover and me. It was taken  about 9 years ago….. at our other house

Have you seen this little video clip of a horse race with horses named “My wife knows everything” and another horse named “My wife doesn’t know”

Today I was at Home Depot and got a glimpse of the new Martha Stewart cabinet line ….they looked really pretty!  The clerk gave me a catalog and I snapped some photos for you in case you haven’t seen them. I’ve been wanting to update our kitchen for awhile. When we moved in the first thing we did  6 years ago was paint our cupboards and change out our hardware. Since then, it has pretty much been on hold…other projects and things in life cause lack of motivation. Since I have been starting to feel better I’m gaining some motivation. Even though we won’t replace all of our cabinets in our kitchen I’m thinking about a few changes and after seeing this new line….Martha looks like a great choice with good options! I really want to add some glassed doors, more open shelves and beefed up corbels… along with a few new upper cabinets…. I think the great thing about painted cupboards is the fact that you can add to them and paint out the new ones to match and it all flows…. even if they are a different color. I’ll have to price compare with a local cabinet maker to see what my best cost option is.

PS.  I heard they are also going to start selling her drapes/curtains in late Sept….I’m kind of excited to see those.

This is the only store display they have  at our local store right now (photo below). I’m hoping they do larger examples. Loving this pale yellow….

Nice baseboards and beautiful extras like these fantastic corbels!!

No wasted space…here’s a cute end cabinet message center…

Really pretty potting station….

She shows you color ideas and has matching paint.

Plus special corian coordinates.  I’m curious about pricing…the salesperson didn’t have any pricing info because it is so new… I’m so happy that they share the paint colors…. I’m really liking the yellow and green and have been thinking of doing one of them on the island.

Speaking of kitchens….I have been working on our kitchen back splash today and I’ll share a sneak peek. I’ve had bead-board wallpaper sitting in a box for the last 6 months waiting for me to use it. Well, the last few days I have been car less and felt motivated to get at it….  I’m putting the paper right on top of the Formica (sort of a temporary fix in my mind). They used the same thing on the back splash as they did on the counter. I’m not sure when we are replacing the counters. … I want to do something to the black edge, maybe paint it…. I’m not sure how well it will last. If anyone has ever done it can you please offer advice

Pic of our current kitchen counter and back splash:

after peek one section done with the help of this product…..I know this is nothing new to blogland but just decided to share just in case you haven’t seen paintable beadboard wall paper.  I’ve looked at another type and it didn’t have the same depth in the grooves, this looks very realistic! I noticed on the Home Depot website that Martha has her own paintable beadboard wall paper. I haven’t seen it in person to compare it.

…several more to go…. Good news is it only took just over 10 minutes. I still need to paint it but it doesn’t look bad as is….

There is a little metal trim on the left side and at the bottom, I left it there for now….. I’m still working on an idea to protect the bottom from water…this section isn’t near the sink.

 Yesterday my husband and I celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary along with my brother and sister-in-law…..yes, we had a double wedding!! We didn’t actually celebrate with them yesterday…a few weeks ago we all met up at a mountain cabin in NC with our families to celebrate….it was so much fun!! Our kids presented us with snapfish photobooks they put together for both couples…it was such a sweet and thoughtful gift!!!!

Yes, we were stylin’ with my big hair and my husbands center part…hey isn’t that in style again. You know you are old when the styles that were once in ….are back!! Ha!

Thank you to those hanging in there with me even though I’m not on that often anymore. Things have been going pretty well…but the diet has been really hard. Pray that I don’t cheat!

PS. This isn’t on the diet but I had to share.

When I was looking through my new Martha Stewart mag. I spotted this easy Oreo celebration cake that made me think instantly of my nephew…(he loves Oreos). How cute is this cake for a crowd at any age! It will take some time stacking the cookies…but I love the fun look and mostly because it is unexpected!! I’m going to do this at one of our next  parties…

The party that Martha featured the oreo cake at was a New York City Apt. house warming event…  It was an adult black tie affair that wasn’t stuffy at all. The owner converted his dining table into a plexiglas ping pong table for added fun and had monogrammed paddles!! Wow!!

When my son takes his Ping-pong table from our basement…. I’m thinking …..maybe my husband can make us a portable one out of plywood that is hinged together in the middle. (it would have to be painted) We could open it up and put it on top of our dining table…install a portable net and inst-o fun-o!

don’t you love how they used red lipstick on a mirror… to keep score!

Loads of balloons were the only party decor brought into the space…. what a perfect festive touch!!

We’ve been out of town…but I’m back.  I’ve been distracted from Bargain Hoot lately for several different reasons…..

1. My health.  I just started a really strict program and with God’s help I’m on a path to kick Rheumatoid Arthritis in the next 18 months…. I’ve never shared with you that I have battled RA for the last 17 years. It has been a long road, one I could probably write a book about. The journey has been extremely humbling in so many ways, as I have had to learn to depend on the Lord more than ever and others to do things I can’t do myself (which also requires more patience)  …..That has been really hard for me, since I’m the type to burn the candle at both ends and get things done… I’m learning that is what got me into this mess in the first place.

2. We’ve been on vacation celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary with family (We had a double wedding) it was so much fun!!

3. I started www.getcampie.com .

4. While I’m on this new program I am suppose to rest a lot more ….so that means less time for everything else including blogging. I originally started BH as an outlet to give, help and encourage others in all different ways.  …. In the back of my head I thought maybe, just maybe, if I worked hard enough on my blog and had enough interest I would one day place ads on my site and maybe earn a little $$ to help pay for some of my medical expenses….. I’m not sure where I see BH in the future…. I’ll just take it a day at a time…and blog once in awhile.

Thank you so much to those of you who have been an encouragement to me!  Pray for my healing as I go forward on this new program…..

PS. I know it seems weird that I started another blog and yet I talk about blogging less.  The other blog had actually been in the works for awhile…it just happened to come together just before I started this new program.

Through tests and trials we finally figured out what is wrong with our dog. She has a condition called Megaesophagus.

 Megaesophagus refers to a syndrome in which the esophagus becomes weak and flaccid, and subsequently becomes much larger than normal, hence the term megaesophagus.

Through a google search my husband located this interesting chair called the “Baily” chair. Here’s a youtube video that shows how it works. Basically she sits in it for 20 minutes after she eats and drinks and gravity forces the food and water into the stomach.

NOTE..THIS IS NOT MY HUSBAND AND NOT OUR DOG!!!
Also, note that Clover doesn’t sit this calm and still in her chair that my husband just built. I tried to take a picture but my camera isn’t working right.

This has really helped Clover, she has only had 2 episodes of bile vomit in 4 days.

Today I witnessed my son receiving his master’s degree, it was an emotional time for me…. more so than even high school! I’m not sure why…  Here are a few pictures of him and my DIL. My mom and I made a celebration lei for him with dollar bills, candy kisses and ribbon. I saw one similar to this on another blog and thought it was so cute! Theirs didn’t have colored ribbon, but we added that to tie in the school colors.

This is funny!!!

Hey you all!! I’ve had this little side project I’ve been working on (another blog) and am just now sharing the news!

So please come over and check it out.  Don’t forget to friend me, I’d love to have you follow!!  I’m dedicating the blog to my dad who passed away and my FIL (who is back home and getting stronger, thank you for your prayers). They both gave years of their life to the RV industry.

The site is  www.getcampie.com  It is going to be an online parade of vintage RV’s plus other camping related topics!!

Here’s my button….. hope to see you there too!

                  Loving these pics with madd hat inspiration…. it even crazed me into doing a wedding inspiration board….

If you took these first 4 beautiful photos please tell me…I forgot who you are…

My inspiration board titled : Time for Love!