DIY - Wall Decor. (but not a tutorial)

I am not crafty.

I am not creative.

I am not a thrifty shopper.

but I continue to try.

I started this project back in oh say June and finally have it done to show you. It had been sitting on our kitchen table and/or back room when guests were over just collecting dust, imagining itself done with its proper place on the wall.

What is it, you may ask? Well of course, what else could it be but a wreath made solely of coffee filters.

Stolen Creativity. Check.

Crafty. Check.

Thrifty. Check.

I told ya I am trying.

Alas, I am done with this monstrosity, delightful project which in the total of these 3 months, eh took me about 2 hours give or take. Definitely was not priority number 1 on my list.

and here it is folks....

from this...

to this...

Just gaze upon that crafty, creative, thrifty creation, will ya? Sad it will be coming down in a little over 6 months now.

Update.

• The summer is flown by. Who can believe we are in the second week of August already? Who can believe I have only blogged once and it is the second week of August? 

• We tried one more time to be adventurous at Praia Fest two weekends ago. We grabbed some friends, PB&Js, chips and a bottle of wine (basic ingredients for deliciousness) and were all set to go for a boat ride that took us out for about an hour to the other side of the island. In typical Azorean fashion, the captain of the boat decided he didn't want to do it that day and there was no boat to be found (when we had already confirmed the time and date earlier in the week). No warning, no sign, no nada. The marina shared wise words of wisdom with us and told us "Maybe tomorrow?" FAIL.

• We had our first hiking experience this weekend. We climbed walked up Santa Barbara (the highest point on Terceria) with some friends. 2 hours, about 8 miles and a TON of rain later we were all soaking wet and glad to check that accomplishment of our list. Today's side effects = soreness all over.

• B has wrapped up another class for the semester with a beautiful 'A'!! This past semester along with his classes, he accumulated 15 hours of credit by passing CLEP test (credit by exam test). A paper is due this weekend that will finish up his second class of the semester. He will kick-out one more class for the summer starting August 22nd. Whoop! Go B!

• We are going to Sao Miguel next weekend (the biggest island of the Azores). We are excited and ready for a break of the everyday and some different scenery.

• Next monday, is our 2 year anniversary, so we will probably throw our celebration in with the weekend, especially because we may not end up seeing each other but for mere moments that day. I am gearing up for a killer week starting that day. I have 50+ people to prepare dinner for, for Vacation Bible School, a carnival that I have been coordinating for the spouses group that happens to fall in that same week, and not to mention keeping up with the regular things like work and feeding B. Also add in that we will be gone that weekend prior. Yikes.

• As the summer slowly fades to fall winter, I can see the end of the year approaching and my goals for 2011 still have no check-marks beside them. I am half way done with my book and countries goal and know for certainty I will have those achieved by the years end. The language one was worrisome, how was I going to do this with a lack of self-discipline and time? No other way but to force myself. As a military spouse, I fall under the MYCAA program to receive financial aid for an eligible certificate or associates degree program. Since I am doing this for mere pleasure and self-improvement, and there is a cap to the financial aid I am going with the certificate program. My plan is to enroll this week in the college and program and be ready to go by the fall semester. So I may not get a check-mark by this goal but at least I started the tasks.

• We attended the Quarertly Awards Breakfast last week (was that last week?). I already mentioned how B won Airmen of the Quarter for his squadron. This breakfast was to congratulate him and the others for winning that award along with competing for AoftheQ for the whole base. Unfortunately, we can't win them all, and walked out empty handed. Next quarter.

That about wraps up what you missed the past two weeks at the Morris abode. I have been wanting to change up the blog design for quite sometime now. Maybe you will see a change in the upcoming weeks. ;)

Are We Old or Just Boring?

Friday was the kick-off the biggest event here in Terceria. Praia-fest!  A 10 day festival filled with music, food, parades, and Hoobastank. Yes, you read that right. They will be here August 3rd.

People take leave for this. I don't get it?

Being the social butterflies that we are, on Friday we were determined to surpass our 10:00pm bedtime and head out to paint the town red. Some lovely folks were in on the fun too. We thought that if we had a late dinner together, we could all help each other stay awake.

Some rain and a brinner later (breakfast for dinner, which equals YUM!) there were many thoughts spoken aloud,

"Does anyone really want to go?"

"I think it is going to rain again."

"We still have next weekend."

As you probably guessed it we missed the kick-off of Praia-fest.

We made up for it yesterday, by going out with some other lovely folks to walk around to see what there was to offer and enjoying some wine from one of the restaurants from Maderia (another island of Portugal, closer to Africa). This time we did it right, and left the house a little after 6:00pm to assure we would make it home before 10:00pm. :)

Mason, The Ranch Dog.

Ever head of the Pioneer Women?

She has quite an amusing blog, a women with many talents.

Her blog vs. my blog = no contest.

Although she is quite entertaining, my fascination with her comes from the sole fact that she has not 1 but 2 basset hounds. B dreads the day I found her. Oh what life would be like with 2 basset hounds. :)

The point of this tale.

My sweet and thoughtful friend (whose basset hound we were babysitting) returned with her family last weekend. With her she brought us this...

Can you sense B's excitement?

An animated children's book by the Pioneer Women about one of her basset hounds named Charlie. Told ya, many talents.

It was beyond the point of cute, maybe it only comes across that way to people who have a deep love for basset hounds, but really, it was really really cute.

This picture was taken solely for blog-related purposes. However, me trying to pose with Mas to read him the book turned into having to get a treat out to lure Mason's head down which turned into him nawing my hand off and getting slobber on my new favorite book.

I wonder if the Pioneer Women is looking for a basset to make a sequel?

Deliciousness

I became super excited yesterday morning as I was browsing the internet. Forever, I have been trying to find an organizational system for ALL the recipes I find online. I mean ALL people. Ask me what I do on my small bits of free time? I browse recipes online.

Back to the point.

For a moment, I thought of printing out all the recipes and organizing them in a binder by category of food. Ha. That thought was fleeting.

I also thought maybe to copy and paste them all in to word documents and keep them organized in files on my desktop. Still a little too much effort there.

My approach as of now, is to save the webpage I find as a bookmark under the proper food category it belongs to. It is workable but sometimes chaotic. I always forget recipes I have tried, and whether we liked them or not. As well, recipes get shuffled to the bottom of the list because new recipes trump them. These recipes have been limited to one category, which drove me a little batty. If it is a chicken and pasta dish, I was forced to choose one or the other and it usually got piled under the loads of chicken recipes I have come across.

BUT NOW!!!

I have My Delicious. Oh the glory! Now every recipe I come across, with a quick swift of the mouse I can add it as a bookmark to "my delicious page" which houses all my recipes by as many categories as I want: chicken, pasta, new recipe, blackbeans. Think of the possibilities. I can access this from any computer I need and it does all the organizing for me! An added bonus, is that it accounts for all the other users who have bookmarked the same recipe, so you can get a sense of how popular/yummy the recipe is.

Please if you are a recipe hunter, stop what you are doing right now (which is probably hunting for recipes) and try this. It is life changing!

Can you sense my excitement?

Semi-Roughing It.

About a month ago a group of us took out into the so-called woods to endure what will now always be remembered as "My first legit camping experience".

Obviously, I was too lazy failed to blog about it then. So I am making up for my mistakes now!

It took us about a whole hour to reach our campsite on the other side of the island. A whole hour due to stopping at some other campsites to see what they had to offer, 2 Portuguese buffets set up in the middle of the road, oh and of course the fact that we didn't exceed the speed of about 50 km/hour. Get the picture?!?

This camping was the real stuff, down and dirty. There was no running water or power which equaled bathroom trips of holding your nose, working out all your leg muscles, and an accompanied flashlight holder by your side. Let me just say hand sanitizer became our best friend. Broken glass and annoying birds were endured for the gorgeous views and seclusion the site had to offer.

All in all not too terrible, I exaggerate for added effect and to keep you to come back and read my blog. :)

This time around, we got smarter! We wanted to have a giant sleepover go camping again as one last weekend hangout with our friends who are leaving for good next weekend to Germany.

What better way to save time and hand sanitizer then camping in a friend's backyard. We had a wonderful time, much more my style camping, plus all the puppies got to come play this time, which always adds for enjoyable entertainment.

We will miss y'all, Lindsey & Karl! Till next time!

We're Getting Closer.

Everyone is grouped in sections when they PCS (permanently change stations). Our group falls somewhere between the months of December through the end of March.

Our stateside list is not due to come out till the end of October. The group that is right before us had their list come out on Wednesday. Although this list and the list we get in October will have no relation to each other and could be either somewhat similar or completely different, it is always fun to play the "What If ?"game and see what would possibly happen if we were able to choose from this list.

Here is what we got....

There are 3 EQUAL Overseas Returnee jobs listed for 'Senior Airman' for AFSC '3D0X3 - CYBER SURETY' at 'All Locations'

Rank: SRA	AFSC: 3D053 -- CYBER SURETY	Number of Jobs: 1
Location: SCHRIEVER	Base/Location Code: DC	State Code: 08
Rank: SRA	AFSC: 3D053 -- CYBER SURETY	Number of Jobs: 1
Location: FT HOOD	Base/Location Code: SH	State Code: 48
Rank: SRA	AFSC: 3D053 -- CYBER SURETY	Number of Jobs: 1
Location: HOLLOMAN	Base/Location Code: MU	State Code: 35

Let me decipher what this says for you. Our choices would be Schriever AFB in COLORADO, Ft Hood in North Texas, or Holloman AFB in New Mexico. Maybe this is a sign that we might be headed back to the South.

Wooo Colorado!! Lets hope this list is relatively the same to the one we will receive in October.