Renovation Downtown

Last week we were treated to a tour of what's above our all time favorite shop down on the square - what a great space! I wish I had the money to renovate and live and work in that gorgeous space! Thanks for showing us around, Mary!

Gift & Gourmet - Seguin's Own Glamorous Shopping

Oh my - WHERE DO I START?! I L-O-V-E our new G&G shop down on the square - it gives me the same feeling and impression as when I walk into a Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware and William Sonoma. And now I can shop here in my own town and not drive 40 miles away. This is so great for our community and I am so proud to have G&G representing us all. I don't even know that I can write enough about how wonderful it was to see the new location finally. I will miss it being across from us on Austin Street but once I saw how well the shop fit downtown, I knew they found a good new home. The work that has gone into the shop is visible before you even walk in. The windows along the front of two sides of the shop let in a great light and the spaciousness is fabulous. I think I could seriously live there. Seriously. That's how beautiful the shop is and how much I love what Mary and all her team have down with the building and space. GREAT JOB!

Mark and I went on lunch to find his mom a gift for this weekend and we did. Too bad I can't show you what it is yet. :) Guess what else we found - Gretchen Bee Ranch honey AND Mark's book on the Seguin slave trade. At the same display! It was so awesome and gave us a great feeling. We are working on the display in the hutch we'll deliver to G&G soon but it was so sweet of Mary and her staff to put the honey and candles out on the tables. We loved all the accompanying bee-oriented baking accessories. SO CUTE. You can tell I love it, can't you. I won't lie. I really do. Go check them out and support a local business. They have never let us down with their high-quality products and customer service. And do you need it giftwrapped? They do that, too!

Windows & Birds

Here's a shot of some windows on the second floor of a building not currently being used for anything, that I know of anyway. I wonder what happened to the one with the broken pane. And I have been meaning to share this one of some beautiful little birds I saw last Saturday in our pecan tree in the backyard. I don't know what they are, perhaps finches of some sort? It was raining a bit that morning and chilly also. But the birds numbered in the twenties or maybe even thirties and they chirped and twirled a lovely melody as we waited for bee class students.

Gift & Gourmet's Future Home

Today after work, I drove home, saw Mark was not yet back from the bee yard so I swung by my favorite gift shop in Seguin. I just love that shop! This is a look at their new location down on the square. Soon, the space will be finished out and then the gift shop will move. We are thrilled G&G will be on the square. It'll be very visible during downtown events and it'll certainly add a touch of class down there.

Here's my favorite thing I saw at G&G today right before Mark walked around a shelf and surprised the heck out of me. Okay, you can get the extra small size or the extra large size. Holy moly! I have never seen a GALLON of Tabasco in person. lol

Tuesday Treat Day

After a somewhat stressful morning, my honey bee whisked me away for lunch. And to listen to me vent. What a great husband he is and a super friend, too. I am a lucky girl. So we went to Amy & Cathy's on the square and I had my usual portabella on ciabatta. Next time I want to try the Ultimate Turkey. My friend at work says it's super awesome so I need to give it a whirl.

Juan Seguin & Fountain on the Square

Today was a glorious weather day - sunny, no clouds, 76 degrees. Amazing. But I still wanted to share two shots from our visit to the fountain on town square on Friday. Juan Seguin was frozen. :)

Sky Watch Friday - Downtown Decoration

Happy Friday everyone - less than 20 days until Christmas. Can you believe it? Can't we slow down time somehow? Isn't it funny that when you are young, you want the time to move along faster. And as you get older, it moves so fast that you have no idea sometimes when you'll get a breather. Someone once told me, when I was young, that time only goes by faster as you get older. REALLY??? Is it because we have so much more we are doing or want to do? Is it because we are distracted by things around us that take our attention away from what's in front of us at the moment? I don't know. The Buddhist way of thinking involves being aware of the moment we are in right now so that we can fully appreciate what we are experiencing. I try to do this but sometimes fail; I guess that's what life is about - trying.

Soooo...on a lighter note, here's a shot of one of the wreaths decorating our square downtown. I really liked the sky that day (couple of Saturdays ago) and snapped this as we were getting in the car. There are some really neat old buildings downtown and sometimes I wish we had the money to convert one of those old buildings into a store front for our bee business on the first floor and a personal living space up top. That'd be so fun!

I hope y'all have a wonderful Friday tomorrow and a glorious weekend ahead. It's suppose to be EIGHTY DEGREES Saturday. Can you believe that??? Then it'll drop back down to a more acceptable 50 or 60-something Sunday and so on. Yay! I love wearing my jackets, and scarves. This morning we had frost all over the windshield. It was nice!

Be sure to check out the Skywatch site if you would like to see some more cool sky shots for this week. :-)

Walnut Creek Project

Here's a look at some of the activity down by Walnut Creek, behind the Voter Registration & Tax office. I can't wait to see how it's going to look once the cleanup and beautification is completed. It'll be nice to walk down along there.

City Cleaners

Here's our cleaners we like to visit. Mark's been going to them for many years now and I take my things there also whenever I need special care for my clothes. This is family run and they are really nice folks who remember you and if you forget a Spurs pin on your lapel (several times), they will keep it safe for you. :-) We like frequenting family operated business like City Cleaners.

Downtown Seguin

Gosh it's been a tiring week and today was another eventful and draining day at work. It's the weekend, however, so that's a chance to relax and do fun things for ourselves. This evening we started with another great workout at the Wellness Center, a yummy pizza (yah! no cooking!), a great visit from my step-daughter Melissa, playing online, finishing up my James Rollins book and watching the Spurs (though they are losing, again!).

I was going through some pictures I snapped recently and I liked this one enough to share. I shot this downtown on River Street, just outside the doors to City Cleaners. I'll post about them soon since we like taking our clothes there. As you can tell, it was a gorgeous day with a beautiful sky to go with it.

Tomorrow's fun? Bee activities and then lunch with a great friend from SA. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

A Cup of Joe & Some Art

This is a mural depicting scenes from our town's past and can be found on the side of the Chiro Java, a coffeehouse down on the square.

Vogue Shoes

Here's a shot of my favorite place to shop for shoes. Sure you could go to a huge department store, discount outlet megashop or some other impersonal place to buy shoes. But I prefer to be able to park right in front of the store (sometimes on the side if it's "crowded") and also to have nice conversations with people who live in the same community I do. The staff at the store is wonderful and caring. They don't just sell you shoes. They talk to you about the shoes and what you do and what's best for that and whatever else that might come up. It's fun! And it makes me feel good that they take the time to make sure I have what I need. Without smothering me.

On the last trip, I got Mark a new pair of cross-trainers for working out. And I eyed some shoes I am going to put on my birthday wish list. I love shoes! Oh, and when I went, there was a big sale so I got his shoes regular price, and a pair of black pumps for 1/2 price. Cool! :)

Lunch on the Square

Last week I met Mark for lunch downtown on the square at Amy & Kathy's. I posted about this little eatery already back in 2007. It's a great place -- sandwiches, soup, pasta salad, great desserts. I was sitting at our table and thought Mark's silhouette looked cool with the store front and square behind him. I enjoyed watching traffic and people go by as we ate. It sure was a nice break from work.

I remember it was a beautiful day; perfect weather for parking around the block and walking over. I thought, how nice it is to work near home so that I could meet my honey for lunch. It was one of the nicest days for me.

Blue Fountain

Greetings from Gainesville, FL. I have really missed posting and while I am pretty exhausted, I am trying to catch at least the first half of Spurs/Hornets Game 5 and post this before calling it a night.

We're doing some training and today was a rough day. Technical issues, training manual issues, blah. Everyone's great though but we didn't even finish everything so that's not a great feeling. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

This is a shot of the water fountain on the square downtown from the stroll we took last week. I zoomed in and shot several close-ups of as the lights changed colors. I chose this one today because we are close to the coast and we wish we had time to see the Atlantic if only for a little while. I love the Atlantic - it's where I grew up and spent each summer with the family. Great memories.

Whipping Oak & Sky Watch

We have some very old (estimated 500+ years old) and very beautiful oaks in town. Some are also very famous! This is a shot of the Whipping Oak on the north side of Central Park (our downtown square). The ring you see here is about 3 inches and was driven into the oak about 5 feet up from the ground. During the mid-1800's, prisoners were tied to the ring and receive their punishment in the form of lashes. Mark showed me these after he learned about them during some research this week. He found two of them on the square. I thought it was very intriguing to think of the justice dispensed there on the square.

You can Google "whipping oak seguin" for more information or check out these links: Texas A&M or Seguin Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Other famous oaks include: the Civil War Oak (Seventh block of West Baker Street), the Coffin Oak (Corner of South Camp and West Donegan Streets), the Ranger Oak (Gonzales and Camp Streets), the Goodrich Oak (South end of Goodrich Street), and the Sam Houston (Sixth block of East Nolte Street). No longer standing are the Hanging Oak (Corner of South River and East Nolte Streets) and the John Ireland Oak (Middle of North Travis)

And for Friday, here is my Sky Watch. You can check out other Sky Watchers as well. Have a great weekend everyone!

Fountain on the Square

Sorry we got home from Kennedale (TX) too late to post but we did have a great trip. The mystery will have to wait one more day. I want to post this before heading to bed. We just got back from the Spurs game so it's pretty late.

The water fountain received a makeover recently and now it displays beautiful colors throughout the evening. I got several shots I like and wanted to share this with you. You should stroll around down there in the evenings...before it gets to hot! :)

Mystery on the square post tomorrow; I promise.

A stroll on the square

I am once again traveling and missing my honey so I want to post this shot from one of our walks around the square last week. Mark was very patient as I snapped away. He had something interesting to show me based on some research he is doing with documents at the courthouse. I will share some of my photos from our stroll, along with the mysterious bit of history he learned.