Call Me Farmer Allie

Okay well, maybe I haven't done any actual FARMING, but Kipper and I did take a fun trip to the Dallas Farmers Market this morning. We love to decide to go on spontaneous little adventures when we don't have a jam packed weekend schedule.  So when we both woke up around 7:30am on a Saturday morning (that NEVER happens unless we have to be somewhere) we decided it was the perfect day to head over to Dallas since Kipper had never been to the Farmers Market there.

Normally it is Kipper who has his camera in hand and taking photos for his photo blog Keep Calm and Snap On but today I was the one snapping away. The colors of the all the fruits and veggies were so pretty. And it is funny after helping Kipper grow his peppers this year, I have a lot more respect for farmers. Growing stuff is hard work!

 Since Kipper had lapband and I am trying to lose weight we have been TRYING to eat at home more, so we figured this would be the perfect place to get some goodies! Yet once we got there we might have gone a little over board for just the two of us, but never fear nothing went to waste - we split stuff my parents. But none the less, we had a lot fun picking out all the fruits and veggies!

But our little adventure didn't stop there! Before we headed home we took a few minutes to walk around the plan section of the farmers market and snap a few more pictures.

 We thought the highlight of the morning would be finding these flamingos. (if you are confused to why this would be a highlight feel free to check out the chicken collection Kipper got for his 39th Birthday)  

 But we were SOOOO wrong. The flamingos were only the beginning...we found Beyonce! I am sure many of you are thinking we are off our meds again, but that tells me you haven't discovered the amazement that is The Bloggress

It is okay, I was a little late to the Bloggress party too. But from the first post I read I felt like I was reading either my long lost sister's blog or a glimpse into the future of what is to come if Kipper and I ever have a baby!

Anywho, I am addicted and the story of Beyonce the metal chicken has caused lots of laughs between not only my girlfriends and I, but also Kipper and I! I totally threaten to bring a Beyonce home when he says I can't do one of my over the top crazy ideas. Which he has started firing back that if I bring a metal chicken home we are getting real chickens to raise in the backyard...which is NOT, I repeat NOT happening! (I have you met my 2 Boston Terrorists? The poor chickens wouldn't stand a chance!) 


So for now we are just having fun playing "Spot the Beyonce" when we go places! Plus we do have a small family of metal chickens from Kipper's Birthday! :)

Summer Should Get A Speeding Ticket!

This past weekend we celebrated Labor Day, which in turn is the signal for the end of summer. Like clock work the cooler weather has rolled in (which was a welcomed gift after the summer we have had!) Yet I am not "quite" ready to let go of summer aka Lake Bubble Season...Thankfully I have some totally awesome friends who know how to thrown great parties so the entire gang could say goodbye to summer in style.

We all countdown till G's famous Lake Bubble kick off party the first weekend of June each year. It is that one party of year we know that we are going to need the rest of the weekend to recover!  After that most summer weekends we all retreat to G's Lake Bubble to float, relax, share laughs and enjoy the ever so famous AJ burgers! We have shared many moments at the Bubble, beyond just summer fun: announcements of pregnancies and engagements, bacholorette parties, grieving and overcoming divorce, and many other major moments in the gangs lives. I know Kipper an I have met some of our dearest friends on the Bubble dock. The Lake Bubble is our paradise within the crazy world we live. 

So how do you top all of that in 1 day?? I will tell you how: Labor Day Sunday Funday G Game's!!  Imagine grown adults competing on teams of 4 against each other in games that are probably more suited for college co-eds than young professionals: inflatable slip and slide, life jacket diaper derby, water balloon pass, beer bat spin relay, and even a pinata full of mini liquor bottles!

Of course I am far from athletic so I decided our team needed glittered super hero capes! (Hey you knew I would find some way to make this a crafty affair!) I will note that if you make something like this that will be worn in water or get wet, make sure you use glitter paint, not glitter glue! The glitter I used was glitter glue and when the letters got wet, the glitter became gooey again. But it did dry again relatively quickly....

While our team the Bubble Bruisers did come in last or at least close to last (out of 9 teams) we sure did  look awesome!! Even though we didn't place and we were all sore for a few days afterwards, everyone had an amazing time. Then again, when you are blessed with the amazing (and crazy) friends that Kipper and I are blessed with, how could you NOT have an amazing time!!! 

I will warn you, next year, we will not only look adorable, but we are going to kick some butt! (I guess I should start training now! lol!) 

Allie's Headband Addiction Revisited

If you remember back in early July I did a post called Hello my name is Allie and I am addicted to headbands and hair bows...about what I was going to do to help keep our bathroom from being overrun by runaway headbands and bows. I am happy to report that while there were a few bumps with my idea: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

What started out as a cool vintage frame has ended up as the perfect headband organizer! Not only does it make it easy for me to keep them in one place, but it also helps keep the flowers/bows/feathers from getting messed up like they sometimes did in the baskets under the counter!

Here is a little run down of how to do this yourself!

Supplies you will need: 

• Frame
• Chicken Wire
• Staple Gun
• Pliers/Wire Cutter
• Fabric (I actually ended up nixing this)
• Hammer
• Nails (size depends on the frame/wood you use on the back)
• Wood pieces at least 1 inch thick (I used 4 wooden crosses I had from Micheal's and trimmed to points off with Chris' saw) 
• Paint to match your frame 

First turn the frame over, measure and cut the chicken wire to size. If you have a frame with ornate details you should put some padding down underneath it to protect it when you start stapling and hammering. :)

Then start attaching the chicken wire to the frame with your staple gun and trimming off excess wire. Start with one side and then do the side directly across from it second. You want to make sure that you are getting the wire pulled as tightly as you can without stretching it of shape.

When I first came up with this idea,  I thought this would be final step...I didn't really think through the fact the frame to be at least an inch off the wall in order to get the headbands to slide through and hang. BUT if you are doing this for just bows or to use as a bulletin board with close-pins - That is all there is too it! :) 

Since I wasn't prepared for this little roadblock Kipper helped me figure out the best way to fix the issue. I went to Hobby Lobby and Micheal's, but didn't find anything that I thought would work easily. I had decided I was going to have to take Kipper to the hardware store and we would have to get some big piece of wood to cute down. So the project sat for a week as I waited for a day we could go get this wood....

Then one night as I was getting something out of the garage a brilliant idea practically hit me in the face! (Well actually it did smack me in the forehead...I was getting a box down and another box slipped, hitting me in the forehead) I had some cheap wooden craft crosses  that were the perfect thickness! So on a whim I popped the battery into Kipper's circular saw and trimmed two points off each of the crosses. (hopefully God isn't offended by this...I would like to think he would be proud of my problem solving skills) 

After the pieces were cut I laid them out to where I was going to secure them. Once again, if you have an ornate frame, make sure to put some padding under it before the commence hammering!  I put 3 nails in the L shaped corner pieces.You just need to make sure the nails you use are long enough to go though the wood pieces, but not so long the break through the frame!

After you have everything secured. Paint the wooden pieces to match the frame and let dry. Once it is dry you are ready to hang it up! Of course I am a sucker for bling so I decided to add a little sparkle to mine. I had some stones I took off a pair of old pageant earrings that I had sitting around for ages. They weren't flatback so they didn't work with most projects, but were perfect to fit into the little spaces on this frame.

And now the final product!!!!!!!!!!! While not ALL my headbands fit (I know, I know...I have over 100....some are ones I have had since High School but still love/wear them...it's a problem) all of the ones with some sort of bow/flower/feather do! The other ones stack nice and neat in a small basket under the counter with my hair clips.