Puppins want a treat?

Sonic is dog-friendly, and most of the time when Gypsy is in the car with me, they will offer me some dog treats (Milk Bones). Joe and I went the other day and accidentally left the bag with one and a half treats in the car.

Yesterday, we gave those treats to a homeless man with a Doberman. That dog was SO HAPPY to get real dog treats! :)

Puppins loves Papa

I have a love for interesting leaves

Mayfield

Yesterday was a warm one and I am hesitant about what temperatures the summer brings. But, it was a day off together, which meant we needed to go on an outing. We talked about swimming - I want to go to Deep Eddy Pool and Barton Springs sometime soon. But in the end, we decided on visiting Mayfield Nature Preserve, which was mentioned last week with our peacock picture.



We gathered Gypsy and some water and headed out. Upon arrival we discovered that dogs are not allowed - understandable in the garden area because of the peacocks. We trudged through the preserve trails for a little bit where my flipflop-feet got covered in dust and stabbed by a stick. After taking some pictures in a tree we headed home. Mayfield is still on our list of places to see, as the garden area looked really nice!

DIY Fun

I'm always looking for ways to decorate and I prefer to do it myself ("DIM"). I have been reading DIY blogs recently and found one of today's projects at Design*Sponge. I started out with IKEA's Dalom Pedestal Table and added a bunch of patterned paper circles. It came out really well!

My other project today involved painting and upholstering two barstools that have seen better days. They were originally in Joe's mom's kitchen and were handed down when he moved to College Station. After a sitting in the rain and mud at one his parties they were never the same.

Here's the before and after, respectively.

I haven't finished covering one of the stool seats since the glue gun sticks that I bought today are too large for my glue gun. :( Oh well, I'll finish tomorrow.

Joe's only comment about these was that they look military. Thanks babe!

Updates

We haven't been anywhere new in Austin since Mt. Bonnell, but I wanted to post what's going on. We went to Houston over the weekend where Joe and I spent most of the time apart. We did get to meet up with a bunch of friends on Saturday to sing karaoke (or in my case, enjoy and cheer) at the Mezzanine Lounge. After watching the tail-end of the UFC fight (and me counting down the everlasting minutes because it was dreadfully boring) the karaoke began. The KJ even remembered Joe from times past. She said she loved him!

She did lose Joe and Andrew's second requests until the very end, but at least they both got to sing for a second time before the end of the night.

Here's a clip of Joe singing "99 Problems" by JayZ. (It's very dark and some of the lyrics are explicit)

We were excited to visit with a bunch of friends. Andrew just got back from Spain, Heather has been in Houston, and we haven't hung out with her since moving to Austin.

I also saw my bestest from high school, Michaela. I finally got to meet her boyfriend, as well as checking out her new apartment, which was fully of Kayla-crafty style, inspiring me to finally get going on some apartment updates. Tomorrow's project = upholstering and painting our bar stools. Crossing my fingers.

Mount Bonnell - hot, hot, hot!

We both took a day off of work (for different reasons) and made it a day of fun activities. It started with a little bit of sleeping in, which is always nice in the middle of the week. Once done with that, we hung out with some friends for a little bit, and Joe played story teller - something he does very well.

We then grabbed some Einstein Bros. and headed to Mount Bonnell. According to AustinCityGuide.com, "Austin's Mount Bonnell is one of Austin's oldest tourist attractions being documented as far back as 1850. It is the highest point within Austin City Limits at 785 feet." Like everything else we try, Mount Bonnell has been recommended by several people for beautiful, scenic views, which sparked our interest. It did not disappoint.

We went at a pretty toasty time of day, around 2:30 p.m. The puppins came along with us, of course. Mount Bonnell is located off of 35th Street, west of Mopac. The winding road takes you through West Lake Hills and some lovely houses. Once you turn on Mount Bonnell Road, you know you're climbing a mountain - Joe's Honda got a workout driving uphill.

After parking, we walked up a steady flight of rocky stairs in the shade. We came out on a round sitting area with several sets of natural rock benches and a lookout spot with the most gorgeous view of the Colorado River and the wealthy bits of Austin. By this time, Gypsy is panting like she just ran a marathon.

We continued down a rock path with lookouts on our left of boat docks, mansions and hillcountry scenery. After walking for about 10 minutes, while sweat dripped in our eyes, down our backs and through our hair, we realized the poppins pads were burning up and it was definately time to go. I wish it hadn't been so hot or we would have kept going.

Luckily we had a cup of ice water for Gypsy to drink out of, because I have never seen her pant this hard or this much. I carried her little scalding body back up the hill and down the stairs to the car, where we blasted the AC and headed home.

But before we made it back to Mopac, we passed the Mayfield Nature Preserve (now added to our list of to-do's) and saw a colorful and stoic peacock.

Joe and I concluded the evening with our first Capital City A&M Club Happy Hour. We did our best to meet and greet and make friends. Joe even found out about National Karaoke League from the president of the club. We'll see what happens with that! :)