Round Robin: True Colors

Color is the theme of this Round Robin challenge. The idea is a simple one: Show us something that's unusually colorful, exactly as your camera captures it. You can rotate, crop and/or sharpen your image, but don't adjust the tone or colors in any way.

The past two weeks have been very dark and dreary for the most part, so colorful pictures have been a bit hard to come by. This photo is of a small, mosaic sign I in my front flowerbed. I like the contrast between the spring theme and the snow on the ground in front (which is a rare occurrence for us here in the south). There's even a weed popping up through the snow by the sign!
These next pictures were taken in Juarez, Mexico this time last year. Despite the fact that we stay in the middle of a desert, and work with the poorest of poor in that city, color is everywhere--
From clothes drying on a line . . .

to paper flowers in the market . . .

to the bright paint colors used for fences and houses.

We just learned that our trip for 2011 (which was scheduled for next weekend) has been canceled due to security lessons. I will miss the vibrant colors there and the people who have become my friends over the years. I pray for their safety and for an end to the violence.

Temptation

Why is it that just before a weigh-in, all the blog posts in my reader look like this?????

Source: Pepper Design

Source: The Vintage Pearl

Source: Giver's Log

Pier One Knock-Off

Today we had another snow day----especially crazy since there's been absolutely no snow and very little sleet. They canceled school yesterday evening when the forecast looked pretty dismal, but as is often the case for Louisiana weather, the storm moved north of us and left us with rain and dropping temperatures. Not that I'm complaining! It's been great to have another day off.

This day off gave me the chance to complete a little project I started last weekend. Over on Knock-Off Decor I saw DIY Maven's knock-off of this photo frame from Pier One.
(source: Pier One)

After school one day last week, I stopped by Pier One to take a look at the frame in person. For $28, the price wasn't too bad, but the white or black color choices weren't exactly what I was looking for and I really needed it to be horizontal rather than vertical.

Instead I decided to make my own, just like DIY Maven did. She offered a great tutorial on her site and I used it as a guide, modifying it a bit to fit my needs. I spray-painted a shiny frame that I had on hand,, along with mini clothespins and small eye hooks.
After carefully measuring the space, I screwed small eye hooks into the edge of frame at equally spaced intervals. I ended up making a 6-space frame instead of 9.
Next I cut a piece of wire a couple of inches longer than the distance across and attached one end of the wire to an eye hook. I threaded clothespins onto the wire and attached the other end to the opposite eye hook, keeping it as taut as possible. Unfortunately, several of the hooks broke off as I put the wire through them and I had to re-do them with new hooks.

Here it is, completed and hanging in my living room with a few photos. I think it will be fun to change out the pictures from time to time and perhaps add other pieces of memorabilia such as tickets, etc.

Tree Trimming

The tree trimmers came yesterday to begin work on the big cypress in my backyard.
I'm sad to see it go.
Kevin came with two of his sons and they took turns climbing the tree and cutting through the ivy. It was back-breaking work, I think and very time-consuming. At lunch this is how the tree looked:

After my workout last night, I found a message on my phone from Kevin. Unfortunately, a large limb fell from the tree, crashing through my storage building. He was able to cover the hole with a tarp he found inside the building
and hopefully everything inside has stayed dry through the winter weather drizzle all day today. Looks like I'll be needing to build a new storage building a little sooner than I'd planned.

What is that?

On my way to church this morning, I stopped at the traffic light by the duck pond, just a few blocks from my house. As I waited for the light to turn, I caught sight of this very odd, large roundish ball near the road.
As I pulled up to get a closer look, it moved!
I guess this is a nutria----he was huge. . . . and hairy. . . . and kind of creepy.

One More Day Of Snow

This morning I peeked outside to see if the snow was still there. I mean, the temps were down in the 20's, so I knew it hadn't melted, but for some reason I needed to see it once again. And now, with the morning sun shining, it glistened and sparkled like sugar crystals.
The snow was hard and really slick, but the footprints from yesterday's mail delivery were still there,
as was the snow in the bird feeder
on the tire swing
and in the bird bath.
By noon, the temperatures had reached above freezing and water dripped from every overhang. The roads once again became busy and the snow became dirty slush against the curbs.
There is still a bit of snow left in the shade,
but, by tomorrow afternoon, it is sure to be all gone.
Until next time . . . .

Sneaux Day

It was so nice to sleep in a little longer this morning. I could have turned off the alarm last night since the school system had already canceled school for today, but there is something quite satisfying about turning it off and going back to sleep.

During the night, it snowed. This morning, a thin layer of fluffy white snow covered almost everything.


Then, it sleeted, making the layer of soft snow hard and slick.
(yep those are my pj's peeking out above---I stayed in them extra long this morning)
Emmi was not at all sure about the cold wet stuff that coated the grass and then once again fell from the sky. But, I loved it!! I would have been happy for it to snow all day long--especially since I had nowhere I needed to be. I brought in a few logs and settled down in front of the fireplace.
Callie and Jordan ventured out around noon and came to my house to take advantage of the central heat and wi-fi. It was nice to have them around. AND, Jordan helped me install the new light fixtures I bought for my kitchen. Here's the before----nasty fluorescent lights (only one of them worked):
And the after:
It's not a perfect remodel since there's still a bit of sheet rock work to do, but I like these so much better. It's been so long since I had both lights working, I'd forgotten how bright the kitchen could be!