Donna Harris, REALTOR® & ASP - Hill Country Austin Lakeway Homes

Martha Stewart sent a goodie package to one of my neighbors so she threw crafting party last night. We had a blast trying to figure out how to use some of the tools. To an extent, we felt like fools reading the instructions for a paper cutter that cut the design into the sides, a glue stick, and other things that weren't completely obvious to use.

Martha Stewart sent three different kits. One was a card making kit, one was an ornament kit, and one was a box kit.

My Card was the guinea pig card as I was the first to try to figure out how to use the paper edging, through trial and error as you can see... definitely not "perfect" by any means. But it was still fun. The foil embossing for the "Happy Birthday" was tricky, but turned out cool.

My ornament also didn't turn out the greatest. Note to self, decide what you want on it before you start! Also, it probably would have made more sense to start with the background, and then written "Alyssa" on top of that... I tried it the other way around...

Some of the other ornaments that others made turned out good...

I think I made the best box! Again, I used the paper edger, but this time, I had figured it out and it came out perfect on both sides. I even stuck two cupcake stickers on it instead of just one. It's called a "Cupcake Box", but it's currently holding my glitter ornament.

As I mentioned, these came as kits, so you don't have to go to the store and try to coordinate anything. The kit comes with matching colors and accessories, like the zinnia flower on the card and the cupcake for the box. I'm not sure if they're exclusive, but they were pushing Michaels Arts and Crafts pretty heavily, and also gave 50% off coupons to buy anything from Martha Stewart's collection.

Not really sure crafting like this is something I could do all the time, mainly because I don't have the patience for it, but thanks to Martha Stewart, we had a great Mom's Night In last night and it was a lot of fun!

**Are You Packed Yet?**

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way.

For real time Austin TX listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

Copyright© 2009 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Martha Stewart - Goodie Package of Crafts * was first published on donnahomesblog.com

Amy's Ice Cream - Hill Country Galleria - Bee Cave Austin TX- FREE ICE CREAM give away!!

Today, November 4, 2009, between the hours of 2-6pm, Amy's Ice Cream will be giving away FREE Ice Cream to celebrate their 25th anniversary. This is good at all locations except the Airport. This does include the brand new store at the Hill Country Galleria Bee Cave Austin TX.

If you have time today, stop by and show your support for one of Austin's locally started businesses.

**Are You Packed Yet?**

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way.

For real time Bee Cave TX listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

Copyright© 2009 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Amy's Ice Cream - Hill Country Galleria - Bee Cave Austin TX - FREE ICE CREAM * was first published on donnahomesblog.com

The Hill Country Galleria - Bee Cave Austin TX - had their trick or treating event last night. This was Alyssa's first time to trick or treat as last year, she wasn't even one yet, and she didn't like her ladybug costume.

We had visited the Austin Zoo and Animal Sanctuary a couple of times, and she became obsessed with the Tigers and "big cats" so I bought her a Leopard costume. "I don't like that, Mommy!" I heard that for two weeks. Yesterday afternoon, she decided she liked it when I put the head band on her head and took her to the big, three-way mirror. After that, I didn't have a problem putting the costume on her!

We even saw a big Elmo. She smiled, but wouldn't go up to him. I picked her up for a picture, and a lady walked right in front, so I had to crop it down, but it's still cute.

We'll be sure to stop by the Hill Country Galleria next year too! They were great hosts!

**Are You Packed Yet?**

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way.

For real time Bee Cave Austin TX listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

Copyright© 2009 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Real Estate - Austin TX Homes for Sale are Selling Strong * was first published on donnahomesblog.com

New Construction Homes - Austin TX - The color brick you choose for your new home says a lot about your personality. When our brick started crumbling and falling apart around us, and we were forced to choose a new brick, it was very hard.

The brick we originally chose has a lot of depth to it with reds, oranges, blues, browns, greens, and greys. It was called Western Sunset, and had many colors you would see in the sky during an actual sunset. In a nutshell, it had personality, and we liked that a lot! It's the brick on the right.

We also liked that it was not "brown" like all our other neighbors chose; be it light brown or dark brown or medium shade brown, they are all chosing to use brown. I didn't want to be just like everyone else, so we eliminated brown from our choices. Because of that, there were only a couple of options of brick to choose from.

As you can see from the picture on the left, we chose a darker red. It has red and black, with a little orange and brown to give it further depth. That was something we really looked for, a brick with multiple colors. Something about it we don't really care for is that the bricks aren't actually rectangular. Each brick has a notch out of it on one corner, so it looks like the brick is installed in uneven lines, but the mortar is just going around the beveled joint.

Before deciding on a brick color, drive by several homes with that color as it'll appear differently on different styles and sizes of homes. Also, it'll look very different if your samples are using a different color mortar than you will be using.

Right now, about 1/3 of the house is the new red and the rest is the old. They're slowly making their way around, but the rain hasn't helped. I thought it was cool that the two bricks meshed up at a window like this so you could see the difference without showing two different pictures with different lighting.

More rain tonight and tomorrow, so hopefully they'll finish the front today and start to work on the next side on Friday. And just a reminder, we are living in this brand new construction home as they're doing all this work. I can't get out my front door or the garage doors. It's currently a safety and fire hazard, but we're managing.

**Are You Packed Yet?**

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way.

For real time New Construction Homes Austin TX listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

Copyright© 2009 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* New Construction Homes - Austin TX - Choosing a Brick Color * was first published on donnahomesblog.com

Geronimo Park - Apache Shores - Lakeway TX is a quaint little park that has a lot to do. We didn't even know this park was back here. We were just driving around looking for more boat ramp options to launch our boat on Lake Austin or Lake Travis.

This cute bridge goes over a stream to get to Geronimo Park. It must have been built by some short people because my husband had to duck under the signs on either end, and he's barely six feet tall.

You can sit by the stream that runs through it and just watch all the water bugs scurry around. The water was completely clear, which is unusual, so we could see to the bottom. Also, because of the rain we've had the last couple of weeks, the water is moving pretty fast, and the little water falls within the stream are flowing nicely.

There is a typical playscape at the park, but they have two things that most parks don't have. Remember back in the day when you would get on a car or animal or whatever shape, and there was a huge spring at the bottom and you would go back and forth, front to back? They had a modern-day version of one of those!

They also had this little thing that simulated a dump truck. There were two handles, and one operated the scoop back and forth and the other moved the scoop up and down, and then the entire thing swiveled so you could dump the gravel wherever. My engineer husband loved this!! Toys for the adults at a park is always a plus!!

We'll definitely keep Geronimo Park - Apache Shores in Lakeway TX in mind on hot days next summer as it has a cover over the playscape which you don't find very often.

**Are You Packed Yet?**

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way.

For real time Apache Shores Lakeway TX listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

Copyright© 2009 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Geronimo Park - Apache Shores - Lakeway TX - Quaint Little Park * was first published on donnahomesblog.com