Birthday Weekend Fun.

I'm sure it is not surprise that I didn't get many pictures. Bobby turned 29 on Saturday and his parents and Granny came out to celebrate with him {us}!

Friday night we went to the baseball game in Midland. It was a fun game with many hits and lots for coupons! Bobby's dad even caught him a Frisbee for his birthday! We had a grand time and enjoyed it immensely.
Saturday {birthday day!!} I got up and made pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream. Bobby did some work around the barn and we kinda just hung out {I weeded in my garden and watered my ward and ect...} then we grilled some burgers and squash for lunch. Right after lunch, we headed to the pasture to pull a windmill. I know I've shared pictures on this before, but I wish I had gotten a picture of my hands. I looked like an orange man. I had rust and grease all over me!! After we got the windmill pulled and "pushed" we worked the few calves we had left to work!
We finally got home around 8:30 and got ready to go eat birthday day dinner in town. I was completely exhausted, so I was extremely happy not to have to cook!! We ate at the hotel settles. The Settles opened for business October 1, 1930, and was occupied until the early 1980s. It was then abandoned until this year. In January 2013 it reopened! They have done an excellent job restoring the hotel and keeping it "original" to the the era. They have lots of history through out the hotel! We had a lovely dinner!

Sunday we got up early once again and went to move the cows to a new pasture! We had left them in the trap at the windmill over night so they would already be up. We were going to trail them to the new pasture, but since it crosses the highway, we decided to just trailer them over. It was a nice morning getting to be out with the things that we love!! We got home just before noon and I made Bobby Crawfish Bisque. I guess since he likes to drag out his birthday, we were still celebrating! His family left after lunch and we had a nice relaxing evening.... minus the washer breaking and having water all over the laundry room to clean up.

The cows are enjoying some fresh belly high grass!! Doesn't get better then this!!

Happy birthday to my wonderful husband... with many more to come!!

M

Texas Cotton Tales!

I mentioned last week that my sister and I had opened an etsy shop. I've been wanting and urged to do this for some time now, but with a full time job and being a full time wife with a house to clean and supper to cook and too much time on Pinterest and too many ideas of things to make and spending any extra time working on said projects.... I haven't made the time to ever get it started. Well, that has all ended. I jumped off the procrastination boat!

I put a couple things on to see how they would do and to kinda figure out how to sell on etsy. Then my sister wanted to sell some baby swings that she had made. {One for her house for Miss Gracen, then one for NeNe and Nanny and Gran Nanny's house!! Oh, and for a niece!} Since she figured out that it wasn't super complicated and her and her husband work at a hardware store with a bounty of supplies to make the swings, she decided to start selling them!!

Even though there is more to come, we have a few items up for grabs {and we made our first sell the other day!!}!
You can check it out at
www.etsy.com/shop/texascottontales

Now you know we have stuff for sale, but I wanted to share a bit about our name and how it came to be!

As you know, my blog is At Home in the Cotton Patch. I had been wanting to call my etsy shop the "Cotton Patch", but apparently I'm not the first to think of that. So, my sister and I put our heads together to come up with a name that would encompass who we are and what we sell! Even though I've been the creative one all our lives, she actually came up with great names! She said, "Let's do Cotton Tales!". What a cute name, right!?!? But like Cotton Patch, Cotton Tales was taken. So now we are Texas Cotton Tales. I like it! Doesn't hurt to be a little Texas proud, either!!

The shops name is Texas Cotton Tales, but we might be in the making of a little baby line! So my brilliant sister named her swings, "Bushy Tales Baby Swings" with our products being called Bright Eyed and Bushy Taled. I would love to say our line, but I will wait until we have more then one item and more then one sale!! {I'm trying to work on a couple more items that would go under our "BE&BT" line! Let you know more when the time comes!}

Here is the Bushy Tales Baby Swing:

We have several different options in the shop right now and can do custom orders!

Let your new mothers know about us!!

Hope y'all have a great first day of Summer!!!!

M

Texas.

Today's post is for a link up party over at www.princessofthepanhandle.com. I don't do this much... well... maybe never, but thought that I'd give it a try. If you stopped by and read yesterdays post, this one will be kinda pointless.

Texas. It is a state I have called home most of my life. {I lived in Nebraska for a short stent!} I do love this state and it's great history. It is truly unlike any other state. I'm not going to go into some boring history about how we fought Mexico to gain our wonderful independance... I'll leave that to my husband.... I get that quite often. {As if I'm not a true Texan and don't know!!} He does get frustrated at me when I ask him history questions... like what happened or how. I guess I should know already. Oh well... he can be in charge of teaching our kids history some day!! And let me tell you... I don't think that he'd ever leave Texas. Maybe just for a short visit somewhere!

Here is one of my latest projects. It kinda show cases our love of Texas! There are several great ideas on Pinterest, so I had to steal one and make my own! You can see where our heart is... which is where our home is!!

*** Disclaimer... I am not a photographer... so you will have to excuse my phone pics!

Only in Texas

Just Texas
Pep, Texas 79353
Smiley, Texas 78159
Paradise, Texas 76073
Rainbow, Texas 76077
Sweet Home, Texas 77987
Comfort , Texas 78013
Friendship, Texas 76530

Love the sun?
Sun City, Texas 78628
Sunrise, Texas 76661
Sunset, Texas 76270
Sundown, Texas 79372
Sunray, Texas 79086
Sunny Side, Texas 77423

Want something to eat?
Bacon, Texas 76301
Noodle, Texas 79536
Oatmeal, Texas 78605
Turkey, Texas 79261
Trout, Texas 75789
Sugar Land, Texas 77479
Salty, Texas 76567
Rice, Texas 75155
Pearland, Texas 77581
Orange, Texas 77630
And top it off with:
Sweetwater , Texas 79556

Why travel to other cities? Texas has them all!
Detroit, Texas 75436
Cleveland, Texas 75436
Colorado City, Texas 79512
Denver City, Texas 79323
Klondike, Texas 75448
Pittsburg, Texas 75686
Newark, Texas 76071
Nevada, Texas 75173
Memphis, Texas 79245
Miami, Texas 79059
Boston, Texas 75570
Santa Fe, Texas 77517
Tennessee Colony, Texas 75861
Reno, Texas 75462
Pasadena, Texas 77506
Columbus, Texas 78934

Feel like traveling outside the country?
Athens, Texas 75751
Canadian, Texas 79014
China, Texas 77613
Dublin, Texas 76446
Egypt, Texas 77436
Ireland, Texas 76538
Italy, Texas 76538
Turkey, Texas 79261
London, Texas 76854
New London, Texas 75682
Paris, Texas 75460
Palestine, Texas 75801

No need to travel to Washington D.C.
Whitehouse, Texas 75791

We even have a city named after our planet!
Earth, Texas 79031

We have a city named after our state:
Texas City, Texas 77590

Exhausted?
Energy, Texas 76452

Cold?
Blanket, Texas 76432
Winters, Texas 79567

Like to read about History?
Santa Anna, Texas 76878
Goliad, Texas 77963
Alamo, Texas 78516
Gun Barrel City, Texas 75156
Robert Lee , Texas 76945

Need Office Supplies?
Staples, Texas 78670

Want to go into outer space?
Venus , Texas 76084
Mars , Texas 79062

You guessed it. It's on the state line.
Texline , Texas 79087

For the kids...
Kermit, Texas 79745
Elmo, Texas 75118
Nemo, Texas 76070
Tarzan, Texas 79783
Winnie, Texas 77665
Sylvester, Texas 79560

Other city names in Texas, to make you smile......
Frognot, Texas 75424
Bigfoot, Texas 78005
Hogeye, Texas 75423
Cactus, Texas 79013
Notrees, Texas 79759
Best, Texas 76932
Veribest, Texas 76886
Kickapoo, Texas 75763
Dime Box, Texas 77853
Old Dime Box, Texas 77853
Telephone, Texas 75488
Telegraph, Texas 76883
Whiteface, Texas 79379
Twitty, Texas 79079

And last but not least, the Anti-Al Gore City
Kilgore, Texas 75662

And our favorites...
Cut and Shoot, Texas 77303
Gun Barrel City , Texas 75147
Ding Dong, Texas
West, Texas (it's in Central Texas )
and, of course,
Muleshoe, Texas 79347

Here is what Jeff Foxworthy has to say about folks from Texas...

If someone in a Lowe's store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you may live in Texas;

If you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you may live in Texas;

If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you may live in Texas;

If 'Vacation' means going anywhere south of Dallas for the weekend, you may live in Texas;

If you measure distance in hours, you may live in Texas;

If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you may live in Texas;

If you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both unlocked, you may live in Texas;

If you carry jumper cables in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you may live in Texas;

If the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph --you're going 80 and everybody's passing you, you may live in Texas;

If you find 60 degrees 'a little chilly', you may live in Texas;

If you actually understand these jokes, and share them with all your Texas friends, you definitely live in Texas .

Here are some little known, very interesting facts about Texas .

1. Beaumont to El Paso : 742 miles
2. Beaumont to Chicago : 770 miles
3. El Paso is closer to California than to Dallas
4. World's first rodeo was in Pecos , July 4, 1883.
5. The Flagship Hotel in Galveston is the only hotel in North America built over water. Destroyed by Hurricane Ike - 2008!
6. The Heisman Trophy was named after John William Heisman who was the first full-time coach at Rice University in Houston .
7. Brazoria County has more species of birds than any other area in North America .
8. Aransas Wildlife Refuge is the winter home of North America 's only remaining flock of whooping cranes.
9. Jalapeno jelly originated in Lake Jackson in 1978.
10. The worst natural disaster in U.S. history was in 1900, caused by a hurricane in which over 8,000 lives were lost on Galveston Island .
11. The first word spoken from the moon, July 20, 1969, was " Houston ," but the Space Center was actually in Clear Lake City (South of Houston) at the time.
12. King Ranch in South Texas is larger than Rhode Island .
13. Tropical Storm Claudette brought a U.S. rainfall record of 43" in 24 hours in and around Alvin , TX in July of 1979.
14. Texas is the only state to enter the U.S. by TREATY, (known as the Constitution of 1845 by the Republic of Texas to enter the Union) instead of by annexation. This allows the Texas Flag to fly at the same height as the U.S. Flag, and may divide into 5 states.
15. A Live Oak tree near Fulton is estimated to be 1500 years old.
16. Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in the state.
17. Dr Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. There is no period in Dr Pepper.
18. Texas has had six capital cities: Washington-on-the Brazos, Harrisburg , Galveston , Velasco, West Columbia and Austin .
19. The Capitol Dome in Austin is the only dome in the U.S. , which is taller than the Capitol Building in Washington , DC (by 7 feet).
20. The San Jacinto Monument is the tallest free standing monument in the world and it is taller than the Washington Monument .
21. The name ' Texas ' comes from the Hasini Indian word 'tejas' meaning friends. Tejas is not Spanish for Texas .
22. The State Mascot is the Armadillo. An interesting bit of trivia about the armadillo is they always have four babies. They have one egg, which splits into four, and they either have four males or four females.
23. The first domed stadium in the U.S. was the Astrodome in Houston ..

Cowboy's Ten Commandments posted on the wall at Cross Trails Church in Fairlie , Texas :
(1) Just one God.
(2) Honor yer Ma & Pa.
(3) No telling tales or gossipin'.
(4) Git yourself to Sunday meeting.
(5) Put nothin' before God.
(6) No foolin' around with another fellow's gal.
(7) No killin'.
(8) Watch yer mouth.
(9) Don't take what ain't yers.
(10) Don't be hankerin' for yer buddy's stuff.

Y'all git all that?

Lord, keep Your arm around my shoulder and Your hand over my mouth.

I thought that this was a cute little saying! I found it on facebook, so you may have seen it around, but it has got some cool facts!

Have a great hump day, y'all!!

M

 

Land of the Free...

I know I have been awful at keeping this thing updated. I've had good intentions, then life comes rushing in! Last week was busy with me being out most of the week. I had to go to central Texas for a funeral so that took up most of my week. No complaints here, though! I got to drive through some beautiful country and stop at a couple cute antique shops! Plus, I got to hang out with my sweet niece and make her giggle! I love sweet Gracen giggles!

Now a disclaimer: I didn't take these photos. I just stole them, but she is too cute not too share!!

Redneck Swimming Pool/ Feed tub

I got home on Friday evening and then had all weekend to get some projects done. {Which is always great!}
Even though I did do a little house cleaning, I mainly got to mark several things off my lists!

One thing I did while I was "dusting" was take down Spring decorations and put up Summer. Since I hadn't shared my latest Spring decor, I took a couple pics! Now, you will have to excuse my awful photography skills. I just used my phone and they didn't turn out very well, but you'll get the idea!

 

I got me an old branch and made me a 'spring bloom tree'! I think it turned out so adorable!

These are my spring blocks... I change them for every season. Bobby gives me heck and says that he thinks it funny that I have that up there as if we might forget what season it is... Well, I like it! So there!

I got many ideas from my creative mom over the couple days I was there, and so I had to put them into action once I got home. Of course, I stopped by Michael's on the way home and picked up a couple things!

I made the bunting to go with my new American flag my mom quilted... I told you she was good!

 

And since I had one, might as well make 2! Maybe I will sell one!

 

This cutie was an idea off none other then Pinterest! I have it on sale on my etsy shop if anyone is interested!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/texascottontales

Check it out! My sister has some cute stuff on there, too!

Here is me telling everyone it is SUMMER! I know it is obvious, but there it is!! And I'm loving my red, white and blue this year... we can celebrate all year!

 

This was another idea off Pinterest. A girl actually makes them and sells them on Etsy. you can check out her shop, she does any state and and color I believe! I decided to make my own! Didn't turn out too bad, if I do say so my self! This also go along with my red, white and blue!!

I have a couple other projects up my sleeve... or in my head, I should say, but I have other things I need to get done! Like yesterday I cleaned the mud room and touched the paint up in there!! Go me! And praise the Lord we have had rain to make mud and make the "mud room" useful!!

Speaking of rain... I have pictures from weekend before last of our garden. Not much has changed since then... except the weeds are doing well off the rain! We do have a couple blooms on some squash and cantalope, but that's about it. After you see the pictures of how enormous our garden is, you can imagine why I don't want to make it thrive. This was the guys {Bobby and his boss, Dennis} idea, so they can take care of it. If I had it my way, it would be WAYYYY smaller!!

 It might be hard to tell from this picture, but that is the garden. Well, there is still some to the left you cannot see in the picture. From here all they way to that big barn in the back. Yep... it's huge! Most of it is supposed to be corn, but it's obviously not doing too well!

Green Beans

Squash

 I borrowed the 4 wheeler to take out the trash since the pickup was hooked up to the trailer. It's about a mile down to the trash pit... I made them run!!

 But, they got a ride back!!

 Then I hauled some rock for another flower bed on the south side of the house. Moving rock is as far as I've gotten! Hopefully I'll get around to it soon!

Hope y'all have a wonderful week and a cool SUMMER!!!

M

Friday Photo.

Just a quick pic. Will update soon, but wanted to share this cutie!! Have a great weekend!