Happy New Year! (Favorite Posts and Stuff.)

Dear Readers-
It’s a brand new year. 2011 is gone. 2012 is here. To celebrate moving forward, I thought I would peer back into my archives and share with maybe the newbies what was most popular here at Potholes and Pantyhose.
Here are a few favorites from 2011-those with the most comments, or the most hits.
 

Remodeling my Master Bathroom was a pleasure and a success.
Biceps was out of town and I got to work recreating our boring bathroom. I loved the end result-as did Biceps. I think he mostly loved not having to do it himself….

Secondly topping the list was my DIY Spinning Composter:
This horrible picture of me has been repinned on Pinterest over 2K times. I wish I would have had the foresight to change out of my work clothes. I suppose it’s good for you to see me grubby and gross from time to time…

My Broken Mirror Art still gets a lot of action.
Biceps and I created this mirror from sections we no longer needed after our remodel. It still sits above our fireplace and still gets the oohs and aahs from newcomers.

My tutorial on Canning Jalapeno Pepper Jelly received more responses than I had anticipated.
The recipe is very simple-and if you don’t burn yourself on the hot steam from the canner-it’s also pretty painless.

I have no idea why, but this silly little post seemed to spark some conversation. My frizzy hair needed help, and I asked you for your input.
You have never failed, me dear readers and gave me tons of insight into the world of hair care.

My Pretty Paper Christmas trees not only got a lot of ooh’s and aah’s around the internet world, they received praise from family members and friends alike.
Turquoise and red have become a favorite of mine. Free and cheap are also favorites.

For fear of boring you, I’m ending with this post. My DIY Recycled and Cheap Rain Barrel.
This is a simple solution to gathering your roof water. The tutorial is rather simple, the process takes a few hours and you can go to bed at night knowing your water bill won’t be astronomical during the dry season.
 
I hope you’ve enjoyed a walk with me down memory lane. I know that I have enjoyed my time with you!
Have a great New Year-be safe, drink lots of water and don’t eat too much cake.
Happy New Year!

Linking up to: http://diyshowoff.com/2012/01/diy-2011-recap-party.html

Small Town Parade

I grew up in a small town in Kansas. A traffic jam might occur after our hometown football team–the Kansas State Wildcats–would win against Nebraska-causing the agricultural students to pull out their tractors and zoom 5 m.p.h. down our main drag.

 

Graphic courtesy of: albumelossless.wordpress.com
The only signs I witnessed of the “big-town” mentality was a coffee shop (that flopped) and the outrage over Metallica coming to play at our stadium-only to be greeted by a bunch of picketing conservatives.

 

Now that I live in the booming metropolis of Tulsa (which is really still considered a mid-sized town), I miss my hometown roots. I miss knowing the old men hanging out at the donut shop, the guy bagging our groceries and the names of everyone in my church.
I miss the small town parades full of “Sunflower Queens”, insurance company-sponsored floats, tractors, horse poop and candy.
So, I was elated when Biceps’ fire department participated in their district’s hometown parade just outside of Tulsa.

 

I grabbed my cute mother-in-law, made some coffee and headed out in hopes of witnessing combines (pronounced kom-bines) going down the road, noisy high school bands and scary clowns.

 

It became immediately clear that I would not be disappointed.

 

Of course, the Shriner’s were there. It’s not a real small town parade without them.

 

I don’t understand what exactly the “Shriner’s” are or even what they do-but I like seeing their very weird cars and eating the candy they throw at me.

 

The horses are typically put at the end of a parade-due to what comes out of their back end. However, these furry dudes were smack dab in the center of the parade.

 

Right before the fire department made their grand entrance. The boys had to dodge heaps of you-know-what.

 

This guy here is a good friend and belongs to the same fire department as Biceps.
He’s one of the sweetest men you’ll ever meet and lucky for him-he’s married to one of the sweetest ladies I’ve ever met in a long time. And yes, this is his really cute Dalmatian.
Too perfect.
The fire department was one of the highlights of the parade-at least for me and my mother-in-law.

 

We were so proud of this guy that’s throwing candy. At me and his mother.
He is so naughty. But you already knew that.

 

Boy, does he think he’s funny.
With my need for the small town parade satisfied, mother-in-law and I loaded up our candy booty and headed off to pick up the naughty boy, while dodging the horse poop left on the street.
Ah, I love the small town parade. It will tide me over until I can go “home” sometime soon.

Riding in cars with cats

Over the holidays, we are traveling to and fro, lugging the two furry beasts with us. The kittens seem to know what is up when they see the suitcases coming down from the attic.
Max usually makes a game of it, attacking any foreign object we’ve lugged down, trying to crawl inside and hide, infesting everything as we are packing.

Bianca takes it lying down. She’s chill.

 

But, get these two in the car and they turn polar opposites.
Maxwell, after a few nibbles of treats, sits back with a full belly and settles in.

 

Bianca, on the other hand, needs constant reassurance and several climbings ranging from Biceps,

 

…to me,

 

…to Maxwell,

 

…back again to Biceps. Treats do not satisfy her. She’s busy stepping on the window button, almost killing herself in the process, running back and forth and meowing.

Well, you get the idea. She’s what you’d call-“Unsettled”. It makes for a very long and interesting 9 hour cat-car ride. Very interesting, indeed.

The Hollywood Elite from the Golden Age

It might be obvious that I love a vintage era. An era with high heels, Grandma’s aprons, canning, making pies from scratch, listening to Getz/Gilberto and movies that were decent enough you could watch with the whole family. An era where men were men and ladies were ladies.

All of that said, dear readers, you would then surmise that the Golden Age of Hollywood would be classified as one of my favorites. The age where ladies wore gloves, men wore ties and when everyone could sing and dance.

Therefore, I was more than excited to once again be in Los Angeles for several days and stay at The Sportsmen’s Lodge on this last tour. (I am not getting kick-backs from this hotel…I wish I did, however…) This lodge used to sit outside of L.A., but urban sprawl has taken over and it’s now within city limits.

 

The Sportsmen’s Lodge is overtly famous for housing the Hollywood Elite-the likes of Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, and Donna Reed-were said to leave the hustle and bustle of Hollywood to hole up here.

 

According to hotel staff, Carey Grant dipped in this very pool on several occasions. I don’t care if it’s a true story or not…that is what happened.

 

The lobby and lounge were what I like to call, “swanked-out”. Meaning, really swanky.

 

In bygone times, acres of forest surrounded the hotel-allowing seclusion for the stars from their adoring fans. Now, a Starbucks is right across the street, along with a large grocery store.
I ain’t complainin’ about the Starbucks, let me tell you.

I would have loved to see the hotel in its hey-day. I know just what dress I would have worn if I was sharing a lobby with Marilyn or Bing. And, I have matching gloves that never get any action and would go perfectly with my dress.
Let me be honest-the rooms were nothing to speak of-decent, but not a Ritz Carlton by any means.
But, if you ever want to connect with “what was” and you happen to be in the City of Angels, I recommend stopping off at the Sportsmen’s Lodge.
Say “hi” to Carey’s spirit for me.