This girl and her new windows...

Guess who has new windows?  (OK, I will give you a hint - it's me!)

I am so excited to see the new windows go into the project house.  Before, they were aluminum windows.  We could not decide at first if we wanted to replace them or not, but once we considered the way they looked and the efficiency factor, we just had to bite the bullet and do it. 

Most of the windows were straight forward to replace.  However, a few on the front were a little more difficult.  The day we first looked at the house, I said the arched monstrosities in the front were a dealbreaker.  Every time I looked at them, I could just hear the chant in my head:

U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi, you ugly, yeah yeah, you ugly.

..........

So when I pulled up recently after work, and saw the new windows, I almost wept big ol' rubbed oil bronze tears.

Ugly plaster arches no more!  They still have the arched window inserts on order but they will be here soon. 

But, what is already there is 1 gillion-bazillion-trillion percent better.  (One of my closest friends is a math teacher/guru.  She will probably tell me gillion-bazillion-trillion is not a number, but I would have to disagree.)

Yay for windows!

Beautiful things...

My family has the most amazing tradition.  With a family the size of mine - 2 grandparents, 6 parents, and 8 grandkids that range from the uber responsible & intelligent 16 year-old to the ornery & mischevious 4 year-old - you have to get creative to keep everyone together.

So, a few years ago, we started the official "birthday bash" where we gather the whole loud, rowdy clan together twice a year to celebrate the family's birthdays.  Half are celebrated in the fall, half in the spring.  The locations and activities always vary, but some things remain the same - it is fun, loud, memorable... Oh, I could go on.

..........

 This time, we went to stay at a hunting lodge outside Seymour, Texas, and the result was an onslaught of beautiful things.

The sunrise out of a ground hunting blind was breathtaking.

 

The native Texas surroundings were inspiring far away...

and up close.

The house was Jaw Dropping (like I am still drooling from all the high end finishes and custom details)

The inside was just as stunning as the outside with super rustic furniture which was so UP-MY-ALLEY!

And details that were perfect for a hunting lodge (just a little sneaky peeky into my personality - I would so rock this light in my house - hunting lodge or not!)

There was an abundance of opportunities for pretty pictures of my oh-so-pretty babies.

And then, there was the most beautiful thing of all.  My heel wearing, bling-rocking, big-city-living sister doing this...

just beautiful...