Spring at home

This weekend Indiana made her first overnight trip! My Aunt Kathy from Maryland was here visiting my dad and step-mom so of course we had to stop by! We headed down to New Braunfels Saturday morning and stayed the night. I was a little (okay, a lot) nervous about how Indiana would do overnight but as always, she was a rockstar. She definitely did have a bit of a meltdown during her witching hour, but honestly that's pretty normal, even at home. She was mostly her happy charming self and slept pretty great at night. I think I was more stressed out than she was, haha! She's an adaptable little thing.

Spring has definitely sprung at the "Brooks Farm", it's wildflower city! My dad has done so much work on his land, it's such a little slice of paradise. Especially when covered with flowers!

  

Boy Wonder has to climb on everything, of course!

Mini-donkeys, living the life. Grazing on green grass in the shade.

Whitey! The craziest pet turkey around. Maybe the oldest? They usually only live for a few years, but this guys going on five! He'll outlive us all.

  
And of course, a little Indiana who is never in short supply of someone willing to love on her:

And my Aunt Kathy! It was so good to see her. We are the only Brookses in Texas, it stinks being so far from everyone. I definitely think we'll need to make a trip up to Maryland soon so Indy can meet her crazy Brooks side of the family. ;)

Scenes from the homeland

Hello internet! Meet Mia, the newest member of my Dad's ever growing animal family. Isn't she the cutest? Saturday we spent the day down in New Braunfels at my Dad's, just hanging out. It was so relaxing. We hung out with the animals, laid by the pool, and my dad and Brendon had an epic afternoon of badminton. I also took a nap, which is worth mentioning because I never get to take naps. AND my dad made the best brisket I've ever had. Best. Ever.

That donkey!!! She is the sweetest thing. She loves to be pet and will follow you around to make sure that you do pet her. Such a fluffy sweetie!

Brendon taking an old tractor for a spin. My dad has three or four 1940's Ford tractors that he rebuilt and uses on his property. They're so cool.

My Dad's beeeeautiful cedar barn that is just about finished. He's built it all by hand(!!!) and the inside is as pretty as the outside. Daddio, build me a casa!? Those donkey's have a sweet crib.

Spending time at my Dad's house always leaves me feeling well rested. It's so laid back and as much as I love living in the city, it's beyond nice to get back to the country. There's a calmness out there that settles your soul. It's refreshing and we need to get out there more often.

Little escape

Life has been kind of gross lately. Not really gross, but just real busy and not in a fun way. I've been so worn out lately with work and Brendon's been going nonstop with school. It's just tiring.  But yesterday we escaped down to New Braunfels to my dad's for the day and it was really great. And much needed. We relaxed and just hung out away from everything. I wish we were able to do that more often. There's just something so relaxing to be at home out in the woods. Even with all the crazy animals. There are some insane baby chicks in the chicken coop these days. And these guys were a riot, as usual:

My dad is building this barn by hand, no big deal. He drew up the plans for it and everything. You see where I get this need to make things from?? It's genetic! Retirement = lots of time for projects. Also, retirement = this:

Wild mountain man. Check out that hair/beard combo! Most excellent.

Brendon and I are in need of a vacation. Like a real vacation, a decent chunk of time away from everything. We've been scheming and I think we've decided on a little road trip to New Mexico. Our road trip to Arkansas last year was just so awesome. It was so spontaneous and one of the best and most fun vacations we've had. I've a hankering to do it again, but this time we'll head west. We need to set some dates so I can start counting down the days. I need that light at the end of the tunnel!

DIY Bunting

Bunting. It's everywhere these days. All over the internet like cats. I don't allow myself to get onto Pintrest (we all know I'd be sucked in and disappear for weeks) but I'm sure it's on there. It's cute, it's fun, and it's super easy (and cheap!) to make. I made miles of it for my wedding:

Today as I was swapping out my V-day heart with my St. Patty's Day clovers outside our door I realized outside of that we have zero St. Patty's day decor! It's a brief holiday but still, I love holidays, big and small. Celebrations in general are awesome in my book. So I decided to make some green bunting to hang around the house. And I thought I'd share how to make it. Because it's stupid easy and if you're ever in need of some cute quick decor, bunting is a great solution.

All you need is some sort of card-stock/sturdy paper, a ruler (or if you're good at eyeballing, forget the ruler), scissors, sewing machine/needle and thread, and fabric. I happen to have a plethora of scrap fabric so I just grabbed all my greens. You can buy your own if you're not sitting on a cache of scraps, remnants would be a good and cheap place to start. Any color is cool! Matching is not necessary! I ended up not using that green polka dot print fabric since it was a print and not double sided. Something to consider if your bunting will be seen from both sides.

Make yourself a triangle! My sturdy paper was a flyer we got in the mail, recycle y'all! This will be your pattern. Mine was 6 inches across and 7 inches down, but you can make them whatever size you'd like! Long and skinny triangles or short and fat, you're the boss.

Trace your pattern on your fabric! I folded my fabric in half a whole bunch so when I cut it I was cutting multiples. Don't worry if they're not perfect, perfection is totally overrated in this instance. And in most.

Kick your cat off your stuff and continue with the rest of your fabric until you've got a whole bunch of triangles!

Now sew those suckers together! You can sew them in a pattern or just grab random colors, as I did here. A sewing machine surely speeds things up, but you can totally do this by hand. You just need the corners to be sewn together. If you do have a sewing machine, you can just run a stitch along the top of all of them.

And before you know it, you've got a big ol' strand of bunting! It took me maybe 10 minutes to sew them all together.

I ended up going back and finishing the edge with a wide zig-zag stitch for a little more stability. You could totally sew the whole thing together like this from the start, if I had thought of it earlier I would have. Have a serger? Lucky you, serge them all together!

You could also connect the triangles together with one long ribbon across the top. Perhaps in a contrasting color? I think that would be super cute. Plus, you could leave a long bit of ribbon at each in to tie your bunting to things. Ribbons = bows, y'all.

Hang that nonsense up and get festive! I made a loooong strand. This actually goes a bit farther off to the right. It makes me happy! Our little home is ready for St. Patty's day!

Make some y'all! Or don't, I will never know. But like I said, it's SO easy and incredibly cheap. You could probably throw this together for under five bucks if you had to buy all the materials. And it looks great and is so fun. Baby showers? Birthdays? Christmas (I am shocked I don't have this in christmas colors, obv going down this year)? Or just have some up year round! Why not? The options are endless! Get crafty!

Back home

I am back in Austin and life has resumed normality. Dallas was a nice little vacation from daily life but I was very ready to come home. I do miss my fancy rented Camry though, that thing had some get up and go. Plus after driving that car for a week and going back to my big go-cart, I've decided I'm pretty sure my Xterra doesn't have power steering.

Tonight was a refreshingly quiet and routine evening, something that I missed so much in Dallas. Being at home with Brendon is my happy place. Hanging out on the couch, cooking dinner, giggling about silly things when someone should be studying; life is good here at the Hogan home.

Tonight we made pretty legit easy meal, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen. Spaghetti with Broccoli Cream Sauce. It's tasty, y'all. AND you get your veggies in. You could even make it with whole wheat pasta and be extra healthy. We haven't really gotten on board with the whole wheat pasta thing. It's just such so... gritty.

Scenes from the kitchen:

Not much smells better than sauteed butter, onions, and garlic. Okay maybe cookies in the oven.

Look at the mop on this boys head! He had been growing his hair out for his Ace Ventura costume and it has gotten slightly out of control. He needs a hair cut REAL bad. He is also now growing his "beard" out for "no shave November". We'll see how long that lasts.

It is good to be home. Make that recipe, y'all!