When we got Manny's desk I took one of the dining room chairs that didn't fit under the table too well because it had arms. So that made me one chair short. We went to the City Wide Garage Sale this past weekend and I found this chair for $12!!!! All it needed was some paint and it was done. I painted it today. Here's what it looks like.

This past summer we came to Austin a lot for Manny's job interviews. We would stay with our friends Will and Candice. One day Candice introduced me to the egg-perfect egg timer. I oohed and awed over it! I am all about convenient kitchen gadgets! But there's a funny and slightly embarrassing story that goes along with my need to have this gadget. I'm able to tell it because I can laugh at myself. I'm that blond in the family that says stupid things and never lives it down! It's okay! I can laugh along with them. So here it goes! When I was in high school I would lifeguard during the summers. Well one day before I went to work, my mom told me that she had hard boiled some eggs the day before and if I wanted to make some tuna fish salad with them then I could. Keep in mind that I never cooked in high school. NEVER! If I did it was a disaster. So I gave her a blank look and asked her if I needed to cook them again. Well she looked at me like I had ten heads! She asked why on earth did I think that I needed to recook eggs that had already been hard boiled. I replied with "I thought maybe they go back to their normal state." I was totally serious! That's the sad part. My mom replied with "What food do you know goes back to it's raw state after you've cooked it?" I obviously had no answer! She informed me that no, I didn't have to recook them and they were already cooked. I have never lived that story down and I have been graduated from high school for over 8 years now! I have many more blond moments like this. Needless to say, I have come a long way in the kitchen department. I actually have kitchen stuff on my Christmas list this year! Ha! I never thought that day would come! Even my mother has admitted that I've come a long way in the cooking department. I'm not trying to be a culinary genius in the kitchen like my brother but, I do wish to be able to cook tasty meals for my family. Now you see why I needed this egg timer. When we moved into our apartment in Austin, Candice gave us a housewarming basket and low and behold, she put in an egg-perfect egg timer! I guess she heard me admiring it all summer!

For those of you who don't know, this is Mitzi. She technically started out as my dog when I was a sophomore in high school but, my mom quickly became attached to her. They are buddies and she slowly progressed into my mom's dog. For the 10 years that we have had Mitzi she has never been a collar or leash dog. That being said, we let her out to run around because she always came back. Well yesterday I got a text message from my mom around 3:45 in the afternoon that said Mimi had let her out to go to the bathroom around 11:00 that morning, which is really normal. This time, she never came back. Mimi was worried sick and so was my mom. The minute I got that text my stomach sank and I just started crying. We didn't know if she was hurt somewhere or if someone took her. None of this was comforting. After they looked all over the neighborhood and the shelter they finally decided to call it a night. My mom said it just wasn't the same last night before bed. My heart broke for her. So my mom couldn't sleep because she was worried to death about Mitzi and I was having trouble sleeping because I knew my mom was worried and upset, plus I love Mitzi too. The last thing I want is for her to be gone. So today, my mom had my uncle go by the shelter to see if anyone had turned her in, which they hadn't. After my mom got off work, we were on the phone talking about Mitzi and rationalizing the whole thing. We both thought that her getting hit didn't make sense. Come on, she's dodged that for 10 years running free when she let out to go to the bathroom. It just didn't seem likely. While we were on the phone my cousin Ashley beeped in. THEY FOUND MITZI!!!! Ashley saw a sign for a lost dog while she was driving home from work in the neighborhood and called about it. It was Mitzi!!!! I got goose bumps when I heard the news. I was so grateful!!! I was grateful that it would give my mom and Mimi some release from the stress of her being gone but, also that nice honest people found her and tried to find where she belonged. Once my mom heard that she was back, she went straight to get her a leash, collar, and a tag! I am so glad that Mitzi is back and safe at home! We are all so glad and couldn't be happier.

You might remember my ottoman that my mom and I made for our living room. I love this thing! I knew it would be well loved. It is a foot rest, the place where I blog from most times, a dining table, etc. I wasn't unrealistic about this lovely ottoman. I knew it would get a few bumps and bruises. I thought coffee would be spilled on it or something of that nature. I never thought that a candle would melt on it. This is totally my fault but, in my defense I have always had candles on my coffee tables and never once had a problem. That is probably because I have never had a fabric coffee table. Originally I had a basket/tray with 3 candles in it. I had lined it with wax paper and put rocks on top around the candles. Well, my littlest candle bit the dust all over my ottoman. Manny randomly moved the basket off the table the other day and discovered my wax stain! I wish I had taken a before picture of the stain but, trust me when I tell you it was grapefruit sized and a dark green! Not pretty! My first instinct was to call my mom and ask her to bring the staple gun during her next visit because as luck would have it I do have extra fabric. She suggested that I research how to remove wax from fabric. I found a tutorial but, it was for removing it from clothing. I decided to give it a shot. And taddah! It worked!!!! You can barely tell anything happened. I'll keep my scrap fabric for a bigger boo-boo! Here are the pics. Oh and I have learned from my mistake and put a solid tray because I'm not willing to lose the candles. I found a $10 serving tray at Wal-Mart that works perfectly and I have to say I like it a lot better than the basket!

This weekend we went to Sweetberry Farms in Marble Falls. Our friends, the DeShazo's went with us. Will had to work, but Candice and little Ethan came. It was a really cute place and super crowded!!! It had everything! You could stuff a scarecrow, paint a pumpkin, hay rides, wildflower picking, etc! We didn't do all that. Ethan isn't even 2 yet so we played around in the pumpkins and did a few activities. When he was done with it we headed over to River City Grill for lunch. Candice's dad owns the restaurant and her husband Will is the manager. So Will got to be a part of the day during lunch! We had a good time. The pics are the day backwards, oh well! Enjoy!!!

So last week, I made a chicken pesto pizza. It was awesome! Since I made my own dough, I had another batch I needed to make. Manny will eat pizza everyday if I let him, but I decided to make a more classic pizza. Since the dough was made from scratch I couldn't put canned pizza sauce on it. I got this recipe from Annie's Eats. Here's a note: if you are not into spiciness or you have kiddos, then you might want to back off the red pepper flakes. We liked it with the spice, but if you don't scale back a bit or delete it all together. Enjoy!

I was browsing one of my favorite craft blogs JesseKate Designs and came across their styrofoam craft challenge. They made adorable witch hats. I decided to post what I've done with styrofoam. Here are my projects.