Snakes:1 Me:0

i woke up this morning with a plan of attack.  I had two things on the agenda.   1) clean house 2) clean out flower bed.  Got the first one done no problem.  The second not so much.  We had an issue with snakes last fall but after we noticed them it cooled down enough that we didn't see them the rest of the winter.  They made an appearance today.  I was on a roll and thought for sure i would get the whole thing cleaned and ready for planting until the first one came out.  I really HATE snakes and once i see one i can't get past it so i decided i was going to get rid of the problem... or try and convince my son to.  I told Syler to go get the shovel and all he had to do was chop it in half.   He was excited until it came time to do it so i grabbed it without giving it any thought and chopped down on the snake.... it was the grossest thing i have EVER done.  I can't kill a bug because of the crunch.  I had to run away because i was gagging so much.  I literally had shivers from being so grossed out.  And i didn't even kill it.  I just gave it a little cut.  But it couldn't really move that well anymore so then i had to figure out how to get rid of it.  Syler was intrigued by this point and raked it into the ditch.  Then Chasley came out to see what we were doing and she started to freak out because she is part of a "nature club" that her and her friends made up and they are not supposed to kill any wildlife.  Way to make me feel HORRIBLE!   But i wasn't going to give up and decided to work on the flower bed again.  But right away saw another snake!  Seriously.  We have a tree in our front yard that they have made a home under so we walked over to see if there were any and there was a bunch.  We need to fix this problem and soon.  I CANNOT handle them and can hardly go in the grass out of fear that i might step on one.  Ok i can't talk about it anymore, i noticed i am making faces just writing about it.

Let's talk about something pleasant.  I am so excited about this outfit that i ordered on Etsy for Cici's 2 year photos.

I ordered it from Avry Couture Creations on Etsy but i just tried to go to her shop on etsy and it is no longer on there.  Bummer!

Read More

Holy fabric!

Today i got my fabric order from fabricguru.com.   Ummmm.... i might have ordered too much :/  lol  I think i have enough to cover the entire living room!  I was actually worried i hadn't ordered enough.  At least it is cute and i can prob use it for some other project.

Read More

Ongoing battle

I have been in this ongoing battle with my living room since we moved here.  I had red curtains at our old house and thought i would reuse those at this house.  I picked a honey yellow color and really liked the color... until now.  The room just wasn't doing it for me so i tried  to dress up the curtains by adding some stripes.  I am just not feelin it.

Today i was looking on fabricguru.com and found this gem :)  For only... wait for it...$3.95 per yard!!!!  I didn't know the look i wanted but knew i wanted this for the curtains.

I am thinking a greyish brown color would look great on the walls.  I want something that black and white photos will really look good on.  These are some colors that i thought would look good.

I have black leather furniture.  So it would go good with these colors too.

In other news.  Syler had a music program last night.  I didn't find out that he had a music program until he walked in the door at 4:30 and told me he had to be there at 6:45.  After i whined like a baby for a few mins  we moved quickly along to get dinner and get out the door.  Here are some snapshots of our night.

Read More

Mission complete

I have been working on this for several weeks now.  I haven't been working on it very consistently but finally finished it!  Feels good to check it off my list.

I was given some pallets and have many ideas for what i want to do with them but this is one that i knew i could do on my own.  I never could have imagined what a pain pallets are!  They are impossible to take apart if you want to use individual boards.  I had to use a saw and cut them apart.  BUT... it was worth it!  It was a great workout for my arms... so kinda like killing two birds with one stone.  My husband says he has never seen anyone work so hard for home decor... like out of breath, sweating about to pass out kind of work!  I am sure that there are many that work harder than me at it.  I just don't like to wait on anyone for help.  When i want something done, i get it done no matter what i have to do.  Unfortunately that leads to some not so great outcomes :/  I am an impatient gal!

Anyways, i have seen several different versions online of people using pallet wood to make floor to ceiling signs.  This is the direction i went with it.

(wow that is a blurry pic :/ yikes)

I used different sayings or words to describe what "LOVE" should mean to a family.  I wish i would have just put "Love is..." at the top then i wouldn't have had to use "is..." so many times.  But i had some words or sayings i wanted to use that didn't need an "is".  Hey you live and you learn.  I love it besides that!

I am the first to admit that i need a daily reminder to be patient, forgive, nurture... and so on!  It is at the end of the hallway so there is no way i can miss it.

Linking up with:

http://thetrendytreehouse.blogspot.com/

Read More

weekend business

We had a very nice relaxing weekend.  Made a cardboard post office with the kids on friday.  It wasn't pretty but it kept them entertained all evening.  We made one of those large blue mail box's and Syler made some PO box's. Elena was the post master.  She made her own desk out of a box.  And Chasley was a mailroom clerk.  Amazing how far some cardboard and using their imagination can go!

On Saturday i spent the day with my good friend celebrating her birthday.  I tried sushi for the first time and then we did some shopping.  I actually enjoyed the sushi.  But i wasn't adventurous enough to try any with raw fish.  We went to some really fun home decor shops and antique/2nd hand (one we referred to more like "5th hand"... they didn't filter the stuff that came in very well.  Why people would donate underwear with stains really baffles me, EWWWWW!)  We had a ton of fun going through all the stuff.  Here are some of my purchases.

I also bought a cute feed sack that i didn't get a pic of.  Planning on turning it into curtains.

I also acquired a stash of pallets that i have been having fun with. But i am taking my time and spacing out my projects.  I made some shelves for my living room.  (will upload pics once i get all of my photo frames and nick knacks added)  And i made this headboard for my son.

His room is still a work in progress.  But getting closer to getting it done.  He loves anything to do with cars and racing.  He got his first dirt bike for Christmas.  His dream is to race.  We have a family friend that he got to go see race his dirt bike and he really looks up to him.  He has got a great mentor.  Just makes momma a bit nervous :/

Now it's time for some "cuddle time" with my Lena Bena.  She always reminds me and the hubs if we haven't gotten our "cuddle time" for the day.  She just walked in the door from 4-H.  Then it's off to bed for this girl!  Night all!

Read More

Key to my heart...

My parents came to visit us this weekend and we had such a great time!  Time always flies to quickly!  They left after church this morning.  So i took the afternoon to read!  What?!?! That makes for a second day in a row!  Yesterday me and my mom read while the kids played outside in the snow with food coloring.  I filled water bottles up with colored water and they went out and had a blast coloring the snow!  I had to "test" it first and kinda didn't want to stop!  We are all just big kids right??  Anyways... Cici my 22 mo old fell asleep in my bed and everytime i moved to get up she woke up so i had to sit there and just read... darn!  But i was feeling the need to be creative this afternoon and had a piece of molding that i bought at a flee market for $5!  I have been wanting to do something to it for a while.  It use to say welcome on it and sat on our front porch but all the neighbor kids would pick the paint off when they came over or waited for us to answer the door :/  It didn't say "welcome" anymore so i just had it shoved away in the garage.  But i had a thought today and i am the type that when i think it i have to do it right away... i am very impatient!

The local flea market that i love to visit has a huge tub of these or 5 or 6 bucks a piece!  I need to get some more!

I just sanded it down and applied the white stain that i created for the wash basin table.

Then i painted a heart in the middle and let it dry.

Once it dried i sanded down the heart so you could barely see it and then applied a light layer of the white stain over the heart.  And this is how it turned out.

You are probably wondering why i have empty baskets on my wall... there will be plants in them soon!

Read More

DIY growth chart

I came across these free printouts from  http://justsomethingimade.com/  go here to download yours.  Just print them out on 8 1/2 by 14 paper.  I printed mine out on cardstock sheets.  I ran out of black ink and they came out a different color, but i actually really like the color they printed in.  So i went with it! The kids are loving it!

*Make sure when you go to print to change your page scaling to None to make the picture 12 inches long.  If you use fit to printer margins or reduce to printer margins the picture will only print out at 11 and a quarter inches long.

This project was featured!!

Read More

Wash Basin table reveal

I gave a little sneak peak on this project earlier this week... well i think it was this week :/  This week seems kinda like a blur to me!

Well this was from my great grandma, and possibly my great great grandma.  I will have to get a little more history on it.  I have been wanting to do something fun with it but since it has been in my family i have hesitated on doing anything to it.  Well, i clogged the garbage disposal last week... oops :/  And it took alot of work from several people on getting the pipes all cleaned out.  Note to all those reading, do not poor a crockpot full of roast down the garbage disposal, it doesn't "dispose" so well.  And if you are wondering why i would pour out a crockpot full of meat down the disposal, i tried a new recipe and it was NOT good.  We ate sandwiches that night instead.  But back to the clogged pipes...  one of the pipes in our basement leaked on the top of the cabinet the whole day and i didn't realize it until it was too late.  This is what it looked like.

So i decided that now was the time to make it pretty again!  Here is a view from the front.

It is in really good shape.  It also has a piece with a bar that goes on top where they would have hung the towel.  But i am using that in my daughter's room on top of her dresser.  I sanded it down but kept a some of the darker stain because i wanted it to show through.

I thought it looked pretty good just like this.  But i have been wanting to try to white wash a piece.  So i made my own stain.  You mix 1 cup of water with 3 cups of paint.  But i did add more water to mine because it was going on too thick.

I love the details!  I am planning on changing the hardware but this works for now.

Read More