Summer Adventures 2014 - Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch

Last weekend we packed up the car and headed south to New Braunfels to visit the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. It's a drive-thru car safari in the heart of hill country! It was super crowded! We got a late start so we didn't arrive till about 12:30. We had to wait a while just to get to the entrance. Once inside, we visited the restrooms, gift shop, petting zoo and then headed out for the driving safari.

It was $61 for 2 adults and 2 children and 4 extra bags of food. They provide one bag of food with your admission. The bags are big so we had plenty of food! 

As you can see by the picture (overload) it was fun for all!

Not sure where all my other pics are? This is the only pic I could find of Sofia!

Yardsale Fun

I admit, every now and then I do enjoy a good yard sale! It's fun, it reminds me of good times with my mom as a kid, and hey, you never know what you could find!

When we first moved to DS (Dripping Springs) I noticed a banner in town advertising the United Methodist church's upcoming rummage sale. So I thought "maybe I need to go check this out" and so I did.

The yard sale started at 8am on Friday. So I scooted over to the church and was kinda surprised when I saw a line waiting to go into the church. Of course I thought this was kind of exciting too!

 

So I got in line and chatted with some of the other bargain hunters about how I was new in town and tried to get some information about this sale. Turns out, it is the BEST yard sale around! Yay me!!

As we waited in the line I could see a woman from the church explaining something and holding up  a bag. I wasn't sure what was going on. Well, imagine my surprise when I got to the front of the line and found out the sale worked like this:

• The church gives you one bag at a time (it was a large, tough bag)
• Every thing at the sale without a price tag can go in the bag
• Fill up your bag and pay.......ready?....$4

YES - $4 for whatever you can fit in the bag!!! Woo Hoo - you guys, I'm an excellent packer! lol

So, wanna see what my bags (yes bags) got me?

Bag #1 - $4

So this was what bag #1 looked like unpacked:

Pretty amazing right? Now, I may not even end up using all this in #harrisonwhitfarmhouse BUT it all felt right to me!

• The lamp will get a makeover and a new shade
• the metal buckets (from Gardenridge with a combined value of $60 - price tags still on bottom)
• 5 cup glass measuring cup
• the metal western towel bar things each had a price tag on them for $25 from a local boutique - these are going either on the patio or in the treehouse
• other random items that just caught my eye and well, when you are dealing with a crowd and everything in the bag is just $4 - you just grab it!

So when my arms were aching, I went and checked out. You have to pay to receive another bag.

Bag#2

 

The second bag was a little less exciting, but for $4 I got:

• a very nice wool (not from Target) rug
• a large potter barn bowl
• an apothecary bowl
• a cutting board (that I plan to stand and age darker)

After these 2 bags, I strolled over into the section of the sale with price tags and I bought a few things that for some reason I didn't take a picture of:

• an enamel bowl, $5
• a painting. $2
• black step stool, $5
• 2 large metal plant, $4

 So I did manage to spend a little bit more and then I headed home.

Well, while I was at the sale, I heard that on Saturday everything was 1/2 off! I had seen a dresser that I thought I might want for a project so I decided I would go back on Saturday just for the dresser!

Of course the dresser was gone on Saturday, so instead I managed to fill 2 more bags at $2 each.

Bag #1 - $2:

That's right! These beauties cost me a total of $2! I plan to paint them for either the family room or the kids play room.

Bag #2 - $2:

Nothing really exciting:

• a wooden tray
• an outdoors pillow (I plan to monogram)
• and 3 wooden coat racks to hold jewelry in the closet or for storage in the garage

So, that was it!

Overall, a fun time and a few good items to work on for the house. For now, it's all in boxes in the garage!

So, do you "do" garage sales? If so, have you found any great treasures lately?

Craigsli$t ROCKS - Pottery Barn

CL continues to keep me happy!

This weeks project: a desk chair for my desk area in the kitchen.

Enter this Pottery Barn gem:

It matches these treasures perfectly - slightly larger nailhead trim - no biggie.  I paid $150.

Here it is today on Pottery Barn:

Price from PB to have the exact chair shipped to us: $426.39. I saved $276.39!!

What's your latest CL treasure?

Hodgepodge Wednesday

It's my first time to play along with Hodgepodge Wednesday! If you want to join in, visit From this side of the Pond.

1. Since you weren't Hodgepodging last Wednesday, how did you pass the time? Last Wednesday I visit our local Farmer's Market while listening to marathon conference calls. ick.

2. What's the first word that comes to mind when I say marriage? Yes, one word. WORK.

3. Summer officially arrives in the Northern hemishpere later this week. Does it feel like summer where you live? Describe your idea of the perfect summer day. Um...yes. Dripping Springs, TX is hot and humid! I just moved here after 14 years in Phoenix (where it is already 110) so this is a nice change. I have missed the humidity. Yes, I said it! I'm born and raised in Alabama so I love me some muggy weather. Now, ask me that in late August and I might have a different tune.

4. "Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability."(Sam Keen) Is laziness ever respectable? Do you have a lazy summer planned, or something semi-ambitious? I sometimes enjoy lazy! We plan to have lot's of summer adventures with our kids, which started last week with this.

We have a big Orlando trip in August that we are all looking forward to!

5. Past or present, who's your favorite television dad? Why is he a favorite? Is he anything like your own dad? Ken's dad from My Friend Flicka. He was a cowboy! I wanted to live on a ranch and ride my horse all day (I always had horses growing up). My dad was awesome, but he wasn't a cowboy!



6. June 18th is International Picnic Day...share a favorite picnic memory. My Honey and I had a pcini on the beach in Kauai in 2012. It was romantic and wonderful! We drank wine from red Solo cups and watched the sun set. It was beautiful.



7. The travel site Trip Advisor lists the top five islands in the world for 2014 as- Ambergris Caye in Belize Cayes, Providenciales in Turks and Caicos, Bora Bora in French Polynesia, Marco Island Florida, and Lewis and Harris in The Outer Hebrides (Scotland). Have you been to any of these? Of those listed (and if price were not a factor) which would you most like to book for a holiday? Bora Bora!

8.  Insert your own random thought here.The Goodwill store can be amazing and awful all at the same time.

Craigsli$t ROCKS! - Restoration Hardware

Confession: Whitney + following  a budget usually doesn't turn out well. But my Honey is an expert at it. So we recently sat down to plot out the budget for the interior decorating portion of the new house. We really only kept a few things from our house in AZ. The new house is getting almost all new furnishings - this is VERY exciting. However, we have a budget and we are sticking to it!

Well, I love getting more for less so I knew I would turn to CL to look for some items. Now, that being said, I am PICKY!!!! I am only looking for name brand, like new items for the most part. I'm not looking for BIG projects - yet ( I do have some plans for dressers in the kids rooms and those will be a project).

So once we were settled this week in the rental, I made my list of search items, I set a daily reminder on my calendar and I went to "work" searching for items.

In the #HarrisonWhitfarmhouse we have one large living space for the kitchen, family room and dining room. No formals for us! In fact it's 20' w x 37' l. So we have lots of things to get for this room.

I started with our bar stools. The island is a little over 9 feet long. I knew we wanted something fairly neutral because the dining chairs are undecided at this point.

Well, trusty ole CL didn't let me down!!

I picked up these 4 Restoration Hardware beauties last night! Of course I took over an hour to go 22 miles (thank you Austin traffic) but it was well worth it! They are brand new and sat in a beach house during staging.

We paid $525 for the 4 stools.

Here they are on RH:

Price for 4 shipped from RH to us: $1345!  That's a savings of $820!

What's your most recent CL treasure?

Summer Adventures 2014 - Tubing the San Marcos River

This weekend we headed out to San Marcos, TX for a little summer fun. It was actually a little overcast but that didn't stop us from having fun.

Our first stop - the Pottery Barn outlet. Fun for me - not so much for the boys! I'll leave them at home next time! I did pick up a few things I felt like I "needed" - lamp shade for Sofia, galvanized tray and caddy and a little pillow I plan to paint a monogram on for the porch. (ignore all the junk in the garage)

After we left the outlets, we decided we needed food. So we let Honey pick since it was Father's Day weekend after all.  Honey picked BBQ (naturally) so we drove a little bit further to Lockhart, TX. Now, in Lockhart you have a few good choices: Kreuz, Smitty's or Black's. We wanted Black's, but the line was SO long, we settled for Kreuz.

This was our first time to go. The line was a little long but not too bad. I think we waited maybe 30-45 minutes. The group behind us assured us it was worth the wait.

Once inside, I went to the counter to order sides and drinks while Honey continued the wait for meat. Thankfully I was able to get us a couple of beers to cool us down! There's no AC on the "meat" side of the building!

When it was finally our turn we selected some sausage, ribs and brisket.

Now. This is where our mouth should have been watering. I mean this is FAMOUS TX BBQ. Well...it was ok. Not a lot of smoke flavor, the ribs were fatty and just overall not what we thought it would be.

 

So after our so-so lunch, we finally headed over to tube the San Marcos River. It was really crowded, but everyone had a great time!

 

Have you been to Kreuz? What BBQ should be we checking out in TX?

Five on Friday

So happy to link back up with The Good Life, A. Liz Adventures, Carolina Charm and Hello! Happiness for  Five on Friday!

1. Hello Texas!! We made the move to Dripping Springs, TX

2. Work started on #HarrisonWhitFarmhouse

3. I hit up the Goodwill and found great treasures!

4. Sofia experienced her first real injury that required a trip to the hospital:( Luckily no stitches, just medical glue.

5. We got a HUGE storm! This was the first time I have gotten to fall asleep to thunder and lightening in YEARS!! The rain made my trail run this morning even more lovely!

Happy Friday!