Away for a few days.....

LOML and I are saddled up and riding out to the Hill Country to celebrate our anniversary!! Today is 4 years of wedded bliss and 9 years since the first kiss! ((I'm such a teen-ager!)) The journey we have had over the last 9 years has been filled with more love than you can imagine, tons of fun, laughs, tears, challenges, patience and teamwork.  I hope you enjoy your week-end and if you want to come celebrate with us ... you can find us here!
xxoox!

2nd closing today!

I sold this commercial building north of downtown Mckinney. The building is cool on the inside has a fireplace and a vintage kitchen sporting a minty color tile from the 70's! The guys that purchased plan to use for a meeting place for their Harley chapter meetings, bbq's etc.. The property has a huge back area full of beautiful trees. They plan to start remodeling soon... so I will keep you in the loop and if you ride a Harley .... this may just be the next cool place to hang out and have a cold one!! Hugs!
Valarie  

What's on your nightstand?

On my nightstand, my favorite are the beautiful roses and mint from my garden, a few books I am reading now for personal growth... The Millionaire Next Door & Strengths Finder 2.0. Both are fabulous books and an eye opener!!  The old telephone sitting on the nightstand was one I found at an estate sale, LOML wired and it actually has the old ring... (love it!) and a crystal candle holder have had for years!  The red mirrors over the nightstand were goodwill finds and I painted them red ((of course!). What's on your nightstand??
Have a great day! Valarie

It was on the curb.....

Seriously while driving around attempting to find homes for sale by owner, or homes for lease, etc... I came across a home that was being foreclosed. HUGE pile of junk out front ... and I spotted this flower cart underneath it all!! I could not believe it! I walked to the door to make sure it was okay - the man said "Take IT"..  Doesn't she look like she has found a new home?  
Grins...
Valarie 

Happy Sunday ...

From my nest @ 1110 to your nest!
Smiles..
Valarie

Vintage Scale....

I found this little jewel at a garage sale last week-end! $8 bucks! I think it is really fun as a planter for my pink impatient!  Hugs! Valarie 

Easy Peasy Apple Pie

Kim @Daisy Cottage, had an amazing pie recipe on her blog ... so I tried it! Yummy! My photo of the masterpiece below is not that pretty ... I should have taken a great photo with a piece of pie on a vintage saucer, with a cute napkin tucked in .... and I did think about that. But.... when it came out of the oven LOML & the angel grandson could not wait... and then when I went back to take the photo..... well you know the story....

Easy Peasy Apple Pie

8 Granny Smith apples, cored & sliced

1/2 cup butter

3 T flour

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup water

1 box of two refrigerated pie crusts 

cinnamon and nutmeg to taste

Melt butter in sauce pan.  Stir in flour.  Add sugars and water.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce temperature and simmer 5 minutes.

Place one pie crust in bottom of glass pie dish.  Fill with sliced apples.  Sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg on top.  Pour liquid over apples.  Cover apples with remaining pie crust.  Cut slits into crust.  Set pie dish on top of cookie sheet and put in oven.

Bake @ 425 degrees for 15 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for 35-45 minutes. 

Thank you Kim.. it was amazingly easy to make and ohhhhh so good!!
Hugs,
Valarie

FOR ME?

Look what was delivered to me from LOML (love of my life).  A good luck bouquet for this week! Aren't they beautiful? Hope your day is off to a great start! Mine sure is!!  Have a great day! Valarie  

1 2 3 4 5 .....

I found these little jars with numbers at a garage sale for $1! I loved them .... all lined up in my kitchen window with my beautiful roses.  I have one pink rose bush and it bloomed today! #3!
Hope you are having a blessed Sunday! SMiLeS! Valarie

everything is coming up ROSES!!

These beautiful roses are in my ROSE bed overlooking the pergola area. Have you ever planted  DAVID AUSTIN roses? from East Texas!?  i planted these 5 years ago and as you can see below they are going crazy! My grandmother was a natural at growing roses planting  JFK Roses - I remember the smell of the roses and how she had them displayed beautifully throughout her sweet home in miniature vases.  If you love roses,as I do... I highly recommend these!   Easy to grow, very hardy and they really put on a show! 

Have a great Saturday! Valarie 

vintage enamel sink full of color!

One of my favorite things to plant in the spring... an old enamel sink full of colorful flowers! I blogged about this last year... here! It really is a focus now with the new shade garden in place! Happy Friday!! Happy Planting!! Valarie

exciting news!!!

I closed my first sale yesterday!!!  This is what I sold to a dear friend Tracey! The photo above is the property, was the old greyhound bus station in Mckinney, the cute yellow cottage was attached. All zoned commercial. Located on Tennessee off the Historic Square! I can not share yet what Tracey is doing with the space... other than this.... Probably open June 1, it will be full of fun and funky things, that all you girls will love. This is a stop you will have to make when you come up for the Home & Garden Tour on June 12th.... oh and one more secret...  Tracey's garden is on tour... so you know the once greyhound bus station will open as something FABULOUS!! Make plans to come see us!!
Hugs!!
Valarie

Goodwill find....

Found this little lamp last night at the only shopping place in my town... GOODWILL! for $6! I realize muted colors are in, burlap and linen... but if I spot a red lamp shade or anything with color I can not stop myself!!  This little find now sits on the bar between the dining & kitchen area with a few of my favorite cookbooks and few silver pieces!  Please tell me red will always be "IN"!!
Hugs!
Valarie

Garage sale beauty!

                                                                                                                                                       I found this beautiful silver bowl at a garage sale this weekend! $$5 BUCKS!
Love it ... filled it with a few of my favorites... lemons & green apples! Happy Tuesday!

Before & After Landscape today!! Shade garden!!

LOML and I started our day very early! PROJECT: Shade Garden
BEFORE PHOTO

AFTER:  10 hours later!
FACTS: The shade garden is 50 feet long. We used one ton of Oklahoma chopped stone, 2 trailers of mulch, 15 hostas, 6 ferns, 3 japanese yew trees, 3 flats of liriope, 1 flat of impatients.  I added a few of my favorite concrete pieces I had collected from my friend Jo...  bird bath, doves, & a few angels. The plants are a bit sparse now but here in Texas with 75 degree days the ferns and hosta will grow rapidly, and come back year after year! Hostas are the best kept secret, very hardy, as well as ferns... if you have lots of shade and moist grounds these are the plants for you.  The next step is to pebble where the grass is .. then add flagstone for the walkway! Maybe in a few weeks.....  (if we recover from today!) hope you had a great day!! xxoox! Valarie

Vintage Baby Bath & Pansies

A few of my favorite things in the spring..... the bird feeder, the mosaic birdhouse, the climbing roses, and of course the vintage baby bath tub filled with yellow pansies!!

Hope your day was sunny!
Valarie

Succulents....

I bought this old oil lamp last year from my friend JO and an instant planter for succulents it became!  I enjoyed it last year hanging under the pergola. Over the last few days noticing the  succulents have come back.. hardy as ever. Can't believe they survived the winter!  Don't you love the discovery of Spring and all it brings? Smiles! xxox!  Valarie

Happy Easter!! & 400th post winner!!

Hope you all are dressing your nests with the finest to entertain your family & friends.... I am saddling up to ride out to spend time with Mama & sister in East Texas!
Before I go I would like to share the CROWNED CASA is the winner of my 400th post give-a-way! Winning a $50 gift certificate to shop with Laurie Anna!
Blessings to you all!
Valarie

A gift that will last...

Grandson is turning 10!  Not every 10 year old would want this gift.. but I am the MIMI! AND he tells me " I ROCK" so maybe he will love it as much as I loved scrapping a collage of the special memories of the decade of his life!  Ticket stubs of movies we enjoyed, sporting events, camps, retreats, birthdays of the past, his first tricycle, his championship baseball trophy, the Mavericks ball kid, go carts, zip lines at retreat we attended, all of the memories and joy that grandchildren give us! 
Hugs! 
Valarie  


PS.... DONT FORGET TOMORROW IS MY 400TH POST - SEE POST BELOW FOR DETAILS!! LEAVE ME A COMMENT AND YOU ARE ENTERED!! 

basketball anyone?

We are just enjoying the beautiful weather and trying to keep up with our little Jack....
Have a great day!!

PS... #398 POST.. Give-a-way drawing held on 400TH POST!! 

Goodwill find....

LOOK WHAT I FOUND AT GOODWILL THIS PAST WEEK-END!!  I gave this red candle holder a spray of my favorite red paint, added some candle holders on the bottom! It was marked $10 bucks at my fav Goodwill ...  I said "WHERE ARE THE BOTTOM CANDLE HOLDERS?" she said "GOOD POINT, how about $5 bucks"? I smiled and said thank you!!  Can't wait till tonight to a little candlelight under the pergola with LOML!

PS... TODAY IS MY #397 POST.... I am having a drawing on the day of the #400th post!! if you want to enter leave a comment! The give-a-way is to one of your favorite shops in Texas -- you all know, love and adore her.....  she has a booth and a store in Canton.... need I say more? $50 bucks all for you... the winner!! ANYONE CAN ENTER AND ANYONE CAN WIN ... Laurie's Anna's Vintage Home can ship...... 

HuGs!
Valarie

2 rusty bucketS & a pink geranium.. my favorite!

Planting buckets & window boxes today...
Hope you are enjoying the beautiful weather!!
xxoox!

MaGic CooKiE BARS!!

Thought I would bake something sweet for LOML and I date night! I love these - my mom called them howdy Doody bars... but i think most folks call them magic cookie bars... either way they are to die for!! 

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1 cup Nestle chocolate Chunks!! (yummy!)   
• 1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
• Instructions
• HEAT oven to 350°F. Spray 13 x 9-inch baking pan with no-stick cooking spray.
• COMBINE graham cracker crumbs and butter in small bowl. Press into bottom of prepared pan. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumb mixture. Layer evenly with chocolate chunks, and coconut. 
• BAKE 25 to 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Loosen from sides of pan while still warm; cool on wire rack. 

Yummy!! What did you have for dessert tonight? 

Happy Saturday night! 

Valarie 

Sharing...

This morning on my walk around the block, I thought I should share this beauty with you. This house is on the main street when enter into the McKinney Historic District. Home sits on the corner of Waddill and Louisiana.  This home has been under renovations for a while, but they are making progress daily. I adore all the leaded glass the many fireplaces, the wrap around porch...... Don't you love it? 

i am here... i promise....

Hey, all you sweet friends that email me. I am here and life is grand I promise.  I am however struggling on how to turn off the business and turn back on the fun... I am loving the real estate business.. I can market property my way, (no more corporate), I can make a decision without a 30 page power point business plan, I create my own budget, I can pop in and check on all of you through my blog dashboard for a second if I want (could not do that in corporate, firewall blocked) can go to lunch anytime in the day (not an option in corporate world, had too much work to get out!) so you can all imagine I am loving the flexibility of being my own CEO, my own marketing department, etc...  I do miss finding time to go junkin', work on my tablescapes, re-arranging my cottage, Goodwill AND the many friends you all know and adore that have fabulous darling shops that I have not been to since end of last year!!
I completed the Keller Williams 4:4:3 (boot camp) end of Jan - The 4:4:3 is a fast track to success with 4 sales, 4 listings, in 3 months, it is a way to get grounded for a journey of success.  I am 1/2 way there and have another 30 days to achieve... I am hitting the pavement hard... To date, I have sold 2 commercial properties, and have 2 listings... I am thrilled beyond words and jump out of the bed each morning for a new day of hope and promise. I can not thank you all enough for your support!
Now for all of you in Texas in Denton County, I have a new listing in Lewisville... $178, 000 .. Super home, pristine condition, new roof, new radiant barrier in attic... Won't you send me a first time home buyer (tax credits still apply)?   xxoox, Valarie

P.S. Any referral you send me I pay a referral fee!  

Someone you all know and adore......

Is having a birthday on Friday!! I wanted to make sure you all knew so you could hop over and wish Tina.. Cherry Hill Cottage a very happy birthday!!  Tina, I wish you much celebration and sparkle on your special day!
Hugs, 
Valarie

Is this a Dream?

Could we possibly have this much snow on March 21?  Look at all the snow here @1110! Normally in Texas, all our spring gardens and flowers are in the ground and moderate temps of 65-72. This morning it is very cold, the wind is blowing very hard (look at my flags) and the snow is coming down in sheets!!  Only in Texas!!  I love it!!  Y'all come on over!!
Have a blessed day!
Valarie  

Dreaming all day @Laurie Anna's post!

No doubt Laurie Anna has more energy than many of us put together!!  Go to her website and check out more of the fabulous pictures... I am sharing just enough for you to begin to dream....  oh and one more thing... you can shop on line for many of the "fabulousness" finds that are in these pictures.. like the super cool bottle drying rack, or the silverware molds... yep I'll take both of those please...  Have a good afternoon shoppin' and dreamin'..
Hugs..
Valarie

Ever been to the Lewisville Feed Mill?

Today I had to take care of some real estate business in Lewisville and on the way home this old feed mill caught my eye! I stopped to buy a few of my favorite herbs and when I went inside and saw all the history to this place... I asked... "Can I grab my camera?" Nicest folks ever... family owned business for generations. At the feed mill there are old scales hanging, old signs, the coolest cash register ever, loved the old cabinet with all the seeds, but my favorite for today was the most darling baby chicks! Just in time for Easter! if you ever get a chance stop by... you will be glad you did.. Hope you enjoyed the field trip!
Happy week-end!
Valarie

Iris blooming!

I have 3 blooms this morning.... aren't they beautiful? There is a cluster of 5-7 and normally 3 have bloomed every spring since moving here in 2002. I often wonder who planted the bulbs and what year?  I will call them my vintage iris! 
Smiles..
Valarie