Happenings at the Cates Ranch

Helicoptor Ride in Hawaii

2011-01-27T09:17:00.000-06:00

I know what you are thinking - about flippin time you put some pictures up from our Hawaii trip. Oh well - better late than never. Recently we decided to invest in Adobe Lightoom to enable us to edit our RAW images - which came in handy since the pictures were shot in the wrong white balance (flourescent so everything had a bluish tinge). I edited the pictures and was amazed at the things Aric captured - flying with the doors off was the best thing ever!! Although cold..

Enjoy..

Macadamian Nut Farms

Skylight

Kristy, Stephanie, Aric, & Nick

More pictures to come..

Dalton Pictures

2011-01-26T09:05:00.002-06:00

Recent pictures of Dalton; been playing with the camera a lot recently and Dalton is an easy subject (as long as he gets to lay down ;))

This is first time I have caught this particular Dalton pose.

One of my favorite pictures of him

Another favorite

In the winter, this is Dalton's favorite spot. Snuggling up on the pillows in the corner of couch; add a blanket and he is in heaven (and very noisy :)

December Catchup..

2011-01-25T21:05:00.000-06:00

Going to cover all of December in 1 post. Overall our lives calmed down heading towards Christmas. Few big happenings were the 2nd Annual Cookie Baking Extravaganza and Melissa's visiting the week after Xmas.

Cooking Baking - last year I brought pre-made aporns and decorated them. Since I am secretly obsessed with aprons :), I decided to sew aprons for the girls. The only bad part was that I bought the goods in summer (all but purple) and didn't start the project till 2 wks before (during the crazy time mentioned in the last few posts). So needless to say there were some late nights and emergency calls to my mother (and some assistance from her). I did about 98% myself; but the last part required a hand sewn finishing stitch (blind) that I had no idea how to do (thankfully Mom was happy to help)! This year there were 3 of us and we picked our recipes a little more sanely this year. We each chose to 2 recipes (and made sure not to do to many cookie cutter since that took forever last year). Enough talking here are pictures of the festivities..

Invitations this year (last year were gingerbread men)

Apple Doodles (really really good)

Candy Cane Kisses (good but a lot of work so you don't melt the kisses)

Chai Tea Cookies (really good, with frosting ok)

Chocolate Pinwheel (these were ok not the best)

Double Butterscotch (good)

Peanut Chocolate Swirl (ok to much chocolate for me and swirl didn't work out)

Our little helper, Ekam posing by an ornament he made for our tress

Ekam the photographer, Kristy, Jennifer & Paramjit

Supervisor Dalton, Jennifer & Paramjit

Jennifer, Ekam & Paramjit (double butterscotch cookies)

Jennifer, Ekam & Kristy (more double butterscotch)

The girls, I picked out everyone's favorite colors for the aprons

(Paramjit wore pink that matched and she had no idea about the apron!)

The second big happening was Melissa visiting. She drove from FL xmas night Our time was spent mostly just hanging out and catching up.. A few things we did do - went to our favorite cactus shop - Spicewood Spines (I LOVE LOVE that place), learned to knit from my mother, baked some bread, and in general relaxed. Here are a few pictures..

Inspiration..

Our purchases; we try to get pots that have a lot of babies and share with each other

Catchup Post # 4 Woodcraft Star Class

2011-01-08T14:18:00.000-06:00

At the beginning of last year, we were at woodcraft and I saw a star hanging in the store that I fell in love with. We promptly asked for the plans; but they were not avaiable for purchase. The good news was that you could take a class on how to build the star. So when Aric's sabbatical came around later in the year, he checked the class schedule to see if a class was happening during that time. Luckily it was! Since Dad was going to be here, we offered to pay for 1/2 of the class as birthday/christmas present and he said yes. Here are some shots from the class and the final product. Aric will be working on jigs to build more.

Catchup Post # 3 Jennifer's 30th Birthday Party

2011-01-03T17:25:00.002-06:00

This year Jennifer turned 30 and her biggest wish was to have a big party for her birthday. So that is what we did! It took a little while to decide what type of party which made for a short time to plan - but we pulled it all together and the party was wonderful! A few folks helped out.. James helped out by getting Jennifers requested cake - Pecan Praline Ice Cream Cake and he also got Cookie Dough Ice Cream Cake. Nick and Stephanie brought a veggie appetizer and a veggie entree and help with pictures (hopefully Nick will share copies with us!).

The details..
I was surfing the Evite sight and got inspired by an invitation that I eventually sent out. Here is the invite - I have always wanted to decorate with paper laterns and this was the perfect opportunity. I got different colors like the invite; found an online sight with great prices and fast shipping (http://www.paperlanternstore.com/).

Since there was the chance that we would have up to 20 people; I decided to order a table cloth for my table with the extenders in (don't have one and it is impossible to find my size table). I found a great site with great prices that made custom order table cloths and quick shipping (http://www.wholesale-table-linens.com/index.html). I ended up getting 2 - a brown linen for thanksgiving and a taffeta silver with embroidered circles; and 1 for the small table that Nick loaned us (light grey).

In typical Kristy fashion I went all out. Different color napkins (folded as crowns as suggested by Aric), tea light candles with tissue paper covering them in different colors, laterns on the kitchen pendant light (didn't get a good picture, they were from World Market) and tissue paper on the chandelier lights.

Food - we went with a Cajun Creole theme, one of Aric's favorite meals - Creole Cordon Bleu, Dirty Rice, no Meat Diry Rice, and Rolls. We had a few appetizers and I also made puff pastry with rasberry filling and dipped in dark chocolate, and ones filled with lemon curd. Everything turned out spectacular!

The final thing I did for Jennifer was to setup a photo booth for Jennifer to take pictures with all of her guests. Aric and I both enjoy photography; a long time ago we purchased backdrops and build a PVC structure to hold the backdrops - this worked out great! I also purchased paper latern string lights to have in the background. We set up a light and tuned the camera to that light. We put the camera on a tripod and had the remote to take the pics. Unfortunately, there seemed to be some issues with the auto-focus; but most of the pictures came out good, Here are some of the pictures.

Jennifer & Kristy

James & Jennifer

All the party guests!

Catchup Post # 2 Thanksgiving

2011-01-03T09:01:00.005-06:00

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays of the year. We never had big Thanksgivings growing up and I don't have much family but the folks that join us on thanksgiving are the next best thing. This year was the largest we have had in a long time. Most folks had been with us many times over the years. Here are some pictures that show the good food and good times we had.

James and Aric heading outside to get the turkey a'fryin

Turkey is frying and cold front on the way!

Yummy!

The spread..

The table

Buffet style; Paramjit brought Indian dishes that were quite tasty (far left)

Eating.. Nicole admiring Bunny.

Back (L to R): Carol, Don, Jessica, Jennifer, James, Olivia, Bunny, Paramjit, Ekam, Ginette, Nicole, & Daniel

Front Row (L to R): Diane, Dalton, Aric, & Kristy

Nicole and Jessica playing together

Paramjit, Bunny, Ekam (they have been joining us since the house on Marl Ct - 5 yrs or so)

The girls

Ginette, Nicole, Daniel (they have joined us once before at the house on Marl Ct)

James, Jessica, Jennifer (1st time!)

Kristy, Dalton, Aric

Catchup Post #1 Project Shed Completion

2011-01-02T21:01:00.000-06:00

Hello all.. We were quite busy during November and December so I fell behind on blogging. The shed got finished and looks great. There is still some work to complete; the insulation inside and painting inside but it sure does look great.

Thanks for all the help Don!

Project Shed - Update 2

2010-11-18T22:18:00.000-06:00

Good progress over the past few days.

Happy Birthday to Melissa!

2010-11-09T09:00:00.002-06:00

Here is a card I made for one my best friends. Her birthday is today and I hope it is a wonderful one. This card was inspired by a card I saw while browsing my blogs; I saw this image and thought it Melissa would love it especially when I added her favorite color - purple! The image is from The Greeting Farm - Creeycake Twisted Tea.

If you are checking this Melissa - Happy Birthday!! Love you and miss you!!

Project Shed - Update 1

2010-11-08T19:33:00.000-06:00

The boys made great progress today. The frame is now on the well. Need to find a drill that will work with concrete to actually screw it down.

Project Shed

2010-11-07T18:21:00.000-06:00

Hello all. Most of you know by now that Aric is on his 4 week sabbatical (yeah - he sucks!). With the time off, he decided to tackle some project he has wanted to do for a long time; especially given that his Dad is staying here with us for Aric's whole sabbatical. This past week they cleaned up the garage to be able to start working on the shed for the well
(also installed a dust collector). Here are some before pictures..

Here is the Shed!

Now the fun begins. They are building the frame in garage and then taking it out to the well. Of course Dalton is always there to manage the project.

More to come later..

Halloween Costume Party!

2010-11-06T15:50:00.001-05:00

I admit it; I have been a bad blogger. Work got crazy, took some different vacations.. Which I will post about later.. But to make up for it :) here are pictures from our fabulous Halloween Party!

Decorations

Rope lights lit the path to our door; there was a strobe light in the garage also.

Tombstones in better lights

1) Simple - RIP

2) Here lies Johnny Yeast pardon me for not rising

3) Bill Blake was hung by mistake

4) Harry Dresden He died dong the right thing (Dresden Files reference)

5) Barry DaLive

6) Here lies Mr Mere got run over by a John Deere

Table a few nights before the party; didn't get any the date of the party.

Close up of centrer piece; I glittered the bones and candlesticks. Used a red candle stick to dribble wax on the white tapers.

These had highlighter fluid and lit up with the black light there.

Ghost we had on the back porch that was motion triggered; to windy to have a great impact.

Food

Punch with dry ice and gummy worms :) Tasty - here is the recipe: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Magic-Potion-Punch

Sourdough bread with oranage food coloring - supposed to simulate a pumpkin.. Queso inside; new recipe from halloween magazine that I thought was quite tasty!

Red velvet cupcakes courtesy of Jenna (yummy!)

Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cupcakes, Peppadew with Andoule sweet pepper cheese, and pigs in a blanket made to look like severed toes (by the far the most popular treat at the party).

I also make sugar cookies; pretzels dipped in dark chocolate (lactose free) with sprinkles and dipped in white chocolate with candy melts in candy corn colors.

Spice cupcakes courtesy of Jenna

Severed toes!

Devils food cake courtesy of Jenna (very very rich)

Vegan Mocha Cappuchino Cupcakes, roasted pumpkin seeds

Guests

Anthony and Jenna -- Vampire and Dark Angel

Raven -- Pirate (Captian Morgan Pose)

Jeremy, Megan, & Christopher (T-rex)

Megan and Christopher

Trex

Farmer James, Farmer Jennifer, and Jessica the Bovine

Jessica & James

Nick and Stephanie

Stephanie and Jennifer

Aric and I (50's Pin-up girl and Greaser)

Kristy, Jennifer, and Dalton

Dalton in his black belt Gi

Mom as a nurse, and her little Stinker (Marley)

Sloans bad influence..

We all had a great time. A lot fewer people showed up than we planned for (means there was way to much food left over!!) but none the less we had a great time. The invisible man joined us for our party - but we were unable to capture a picture - Aric's dad Don! Can't wait to for next year's party.

Hope you had a great Halloween!

Completion of Our Pond!

2010-05-30T23:28:00.001-05:00

We finally finished the pond. A few weeks ago, we went to Hill Country Water Gardens and bought some new plants since most of the ones from last year died with the tough winter we had. Once there, Aric was inspired to complete the design for the waterfall and construct it. The patio is basically completed also - will post pictures to show it better later..

For Dalton, this is his big fish flavored water bowl! The fish always come to visit when he is drinking.

Aric has a timer on the lights - here are some night shots.

We hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoy the pond!

Wildflowers blooming on our land right now..

2010-04-14T22:10:00.000-05:00

Hello - I thought I would share with you some of the wildflowers that are blooming on our property right now. I did not seed them - they occur naturally! Sorry, in some cases the picture quality isn't always great. Eventually I hope to update the bad ones. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Blue Gilia - blooming profusely!

Blue-eyed Grass

Celestial

Fleasbane

Fringed Puccoon (definetly need a better picture!)

Plains Black Foot Daisy

Plains Yellow Daisy (I also see Four Nerve Daisy in nurseries)

Primrose

Texas Dandelion

Verbanan (blooming like crazy everywhere!!!)

Cow Vetch

Wild Onion (blooming everywhere!)

Parralena (something weird happened with upload - oh well)

Journey for Bluebonnets

2010-04-12T22:07:00.001-05:00

This past saturday, we decided to go hunting for bluebonnets. Boy did we find some AMAZING displays! Aric and I were joined by my mother and Nick and Stephanie. We had a great time exploring and snapping tons of pictures! The only disappointment was the long line at Coopers in Llano - we were too hungry to wait.

Our trip took us through Kingsland, Inks Lake over to Llano. This year is great for wildflowers - I highly recommend you take a few hours to check them out! We are thinking to take a shorter trip this weekend. Just can't pass up more photo opportunities - it has been many years since we have had displays such as these.

Enjoy!

Gardening at it's best

2010-04-04T21:57:00.000-05:00

Last year I had 6 blue bonnents in my side yard garden. This year - there are to many to count! I hope that it keeps increasing every year. In the middle of the blue bonnets I planted 2 different kinds of tulips - that should both naturalize and more will come back every year. Wow - watching this area this past few weeks has been amazing. Here are some photos (that don't do it justice) of the process.

Tulipa Saxatalis (free bulbs from Southern Bulb Company) & Blue Bonnets

Close up of Tulipa Saxatalis

Tulipa Saxatalis, Tulipa Clusiana 'Tinka', & Bluebonnets

Tulipa Clusiana 'Tinka', & Bluebonnets

Close up of Tulipa Clusiana 'Tinka'

I leave you a final picture of Dalton with the blue bonnets.

Happy Easter and Happy Spring!

Plant Shopping

2010-04-04T21:30:00.000-05:00

I have taken multiple trips to nuseries this year - I have a hard time walking out with nothing. On this trip, Paramjit joined me. She wanted to try her hand at some hanging pots and a cactus landscape with some guidance from me.

Our first stop was Natural Gardener; I got there 5 minutes early - BAD IDEA!!! Traffic was backed up everywhere waiting for the gates to open. We found quite a few thing here; Petunias,Chocolate Daisy, California Poppies, and more.

Our 2nd stop was Sunshine Gardens up 620. No pictures, but found some pretty flowers and herbs! Next on the agenda, Spicewood Spines - all cactus nusery in Spicewood Springs. I have been there many times and just love the selection and the owners - they are so nice! Afterwards we decided we were starving and tried out a cafe at the Galleria - it was good. Last stop for the day was Lowes for some potting soil - but it turned out they had a bunch of annuals on clearance - so we picked up a few more things! As we were going to leave - Paramjit figured out she had locked her keys in the trunk. So while waiting for her husband, we hung out in my car.

Here are some flowers Paramjit purchased.

Birthday Card

2010-03-02T20:49:00.000-06:00

Sorry I am behind on sharing any news or crafty goodness. Here is a sample of the crafty goodness that I have been working on recently. Aric's fathers birthday was last week so of course I had to make a card. I decided to use my newly acquired hot air ballon stamp set from There She Goes Stamps that I am loving. I really love how it turned out - hopefully Don enjoyed it!

While I was on a roll, I stamped a bunch more balloons and scenes to color!

Signs of Spring

2010-03-02T20:32:00.001-06:00

Daffodils! I would have never thought we could grow them in TX - but here is proof. The ground is still muddy - hopefully I can get some better pictures once it drys out and hopefully more blooms!

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T08:22:00.004-06:00

Merry Christmas to everyone! We hope you are having a wonderful day.

Baby Shower Mania

2009-12-24T17:15:00.000-06:00

This fall has been quite busy for me - I threw 3 baby showers (might be more like 2.5 but that is not a story for this post). Anyways - folks that know me know I go a little crazy doing this kind of stuff.

The first baby shower was for my best friend, Jennifer - it was a Rain Forest Themed shower (theme for the baby's room also). Here are some of the items that I made.

Invitations

Thank You Cards

Mini-Album

Wall Art for Nursery

Shower Gifts, Bookmark on the front of that bag

Rainforest Tree

Aric made this for the nursery, we used it at the shower as a decoration also!

The second baby shower was for a co-worker, but it didn't end of happening due to illness. We just exchanged gifts one day after work. The theme for this shower was princess. I made mini-album but apparently forgot to take pictures.

Invitation

This was for a banner. Use a stencil - I loved the way it turned out!

The third and final shower was for our good friends, Daniel and Ginette; we planned a couples shower. The chosen theme was butterflies! I was so excited since I have soooo many butterfly thing to use. Unfortunately I was running late on finishing most of the items so there are not many pictures. One final item for the couple is an album for the first year of their sweet girl's life. That is a work in progress - I will post some pictures when I am finished.

Invitation

Baby Shower Banner, I also made a ton of butterflies and put them on the bar and up the stair case; they turned out so awesome!

We decided to make cupcakes instead of ordering a cake, and I cut butterflies out of fondant and covered them in glitter - they turned out great!

I think I am retiring from the baby shower business. 3 showers in 2.5 months was a little bit much. But I had fun doing everything and enjoyed sharing this time with my friends.

More Butterflies..

2009-12-23T20:33:00.000-06:00

Playing catchup..

Aric and I had the week of Thanksgiving off. There was an abundant amount of butterflies during that time. We also decided to try something new - we put a very ripe banana out near the Lantana. This attracted some butterflies that we had never seen before! Enjoy!

Bordered Patch (1st time I have seen one!)

Painted Lady

Monarch

Queen

Goatweed Leafwing (1st time ever!)

Red Admiral

Reakirt's Blue

Buckeye

Latest Happenings..

2009-12-09T22:17:00.000-06:00

Been meaning to post a few different things but have been keeping busy getting ready for Christmas. For the first time since we have been together, Aric and I put up a Christmas tree. We got a clearance tree (12ft tall!!!) last year after christmas. Looks pretty cool in the room.. Here are few quick pictures.

Aric, Kristy, Diane (Kristy's mom) & Family Friend, Rose

Of course there is Marley and Dalton..

More pictures to follow later. We are having the 1st Annual Cookie Baking Extravaganza this weekend and are planning some photo shoots for everyone's Christmas cards. Should be fun!

Sunrise

2009-11-19T20:41:00.003-06:00

Staurday morning I woke up earlier than I would like on a Saturday morning. While heading the kitchen to grab breakfast I look out the window and noticed the sunrise was beautiful. So I grabbed shoes and a jacket (it was chilly) and capture the following pictures. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Deck Update - About complete

2009-11-18T21:47:00.000-06:00

Just in time for Daniel and Ginette's baby shower, Aric finished up the deck for the most part. There are still a few touch up items and next year we will do benches and plant boxes to totally complete the project. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment.

Crafty Happenings..

2009-11-12T20:14:00.000-06:00

In the midst of working on baby shower stuff - I actually found time to do some Halloween cards and treat bags. As most people know - I love love love Halloween stuff and can't resist a new stamp set or paper. Here are some of things I created this year - as usual I went overboard - can't do the same design for everybody!!!

An Abundance of Butterflies

2009-11-10T21:57:00.000-06:00

Halloween weekend the lantana's in the backyard were covered in butterflies. I was able to get pictures of some that I haven't captured before. I really enjoy trying to catch pictures of each of the different species of butterflies and then identifying them. Next year I hope to plant more plants that butterflies will enjoy.

How many butterflies can you find?

Gulf Fritillary and Varigated Fritillary

Gulf Fritillary

Gulf Fritillary in Flight

Varigated Fritillary

Horaces Duskywing (Skipper)

Fiery Skipper

Orange Sulphur

American Snout

Giant Swallowtail

Our Latest Project

2009-10-21T21:32:00.005-05:00

Our latest project has been to build a deck with a stock tank pond embedded in it. I was purusing an Austin gardening blog that provided the inspiration of using a stock tank as a pond and the idea took off from there. Here is the design that Aric came up with in Google Sketchup.

We finished the design idea in early August and got the materials by the end of the month. We originally were going to use Trex composite decking but ended up finding someone at Lowes that was extremely helpful - so we changed to Choice composite decking (and saved a lot of $$ in the process). Our original goal was to try to finish the deck by Oct 25th (we are hosting a baby shower for a good friend at work) - Aric has been diligently working towards this goal. Austin weather is helping thing - while we are happy that we are finally getting rain - it makes working outside not possible. Anyways - here are a few photos to show the process.

The first step was installing the stock tank.

Nick and Steph were gracious enough to come help out. Things weren't going great that day - we made 2 trips to Lowes because the drill bits for the concrete were getting killed.

As you can see, Dalton is managing the project.

This was monday before the guys got started (Oct 19th). Daniel and Matthew came over to help.

So far we love it! Aric is planning to take friday off this week (no rain hopefully) to try to finish by Sunday.

Testing

2009-10-11T11:21:00.000-05:00

1st post to check all is good!