Fresh Flowers From Far Away

How are you? Hopefully good! This weekend was good. My parents came to visit and it was a really nice visit.

I have been working on a big outdoor project and will share the progress soon. I had to share with you how awesome my dad is though. You see these flowers??? Well they came quite a long distance in a bucket. I adore my parents and am very fortunate to have great parents. Anyhow my dad was so sweet to think of me. He plucked several gardenias off of their bushes and put them in a bucket to bring me. It was very special to me.

The flowers are so fragrant that they freshened up the patio very nicely. I put a few in water for a simple decoration.
 

It's a nice way to decorate!

A New Fence!

What have you been up to with the longer days? I love this time of year and getting to spend so much time outside.

Right now I am so excited- we just got a new fence for our back yard and it's like Christmas in May! We have been telling our kids we wouldn't get a new fence or a dog unless we won the lottery. So now that we have a new fence you know what they are thinking. They are already talking dog names. Ummm we love dogs but not anytime soon... 

The new fence has already made such a difference to the whole family. It has opened up the yard and extended our outdoor play time. Before we had a short picket fence that only enclosed part of our back yard. It was cute and I liked the look of it but we wanted more privacy and a feeling of security. It's a little hard to describe without showing loads of pictures but there is a retaining wall on one side of our lot that the picket fence met up to. A stray dog could jump in our yard before, and people could cut through our yard where it wasn't enclosed. There is a natural wooded area on the back side of the lot that was outside of the fence. 

BEFORE


Now we have a 6 foot tall wooden privacy fence for security and privacy. 
We opted for arched gates for a more decorative look. 

AFTER


BEFORE


AFTER


We just realized that we can take some yard toys (mainly a battery operated children's jeep) in the back yard that we couldn't before. YAY for wider gates. Our property is fenced in all the way to the back now so it is a great feeling to know I can let the kiddos out to play in the back yard and not have to worry so much. I'm thrilled that we finally took the plunge and fenced in the whole back yard. Pretty cool!

So if you live in a house as opposed to an apartment, condo or townhouse, do you have a fence and what kind? What do you prefer?

Organize Outdoor Toys

Ahhh to sit and kick my feet up is nice. I have a problem if I haven't mentioned it before. I do not know how to relax. Does anyone else have this issue? I seriously cannot sit still. I have to force myself to slow down to veg out and relax. Ridiculous, huh? It takes pure exhaustion to cause me to lounge. 


Having said that I have been working non-stop after hours in the woods of our back yard. I've been working steadily for a couple of months to clear out the brush. I am starting to see progress. YAY! While I work to cut down trees, weed, rake leaves and such, the kids like to play in the fenced in area of our back yard. They have got so many outdoor toys but they stay entertained playing with each other.  


I was at Aldi a couple of weeks ago and found this Suncast deck box below. It was about $40.00 which I thought was a steal because I have seen it for much more. I couldn't pass it up. It was one of things on my "to look for list" but I had not begun to look for one. 


Anyhow it has been the best money I have spent since having Auto Bell clean my car! You should have seen me get this thing in my car. Ha, it wouldn't fit so I had to open the box and dissemble it to get it home.




The box is awesome! It's super simple and has no extra parts. The sides and lid all snap in place. It feels good to have some organization to the patio. Talk about bringing the indoors out! Is there anything you have bought this Spring that has made life a little easier?

Moving Furniture As A Cheap Compromise

So tell me, are there things that you and your significant other don't agree on in your house? My hubs is pretty good about handing over the decorating to me, but there are moments when he has an opinion that I would rather ignore. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and compromise though!

Here is the thing we haven't been agreeing on. LOL. It's really so silly too. Hubs mentioned it one day and I just figured he'd forget it so I kinda ignored it but then he said it again so it was obvious it was something that bothered him.

It's the position of our rectangular butcher block type kitchen table. We have a fake french doorway and the door that leads to our back yard is on the left side and he thinks you need to be able to open the door all the way to have a wide walkway to get out the back door. The problem is that we have a small light fixture in the kitchenette and if you move the table to open the pathway, the light won't be centered over the table. It's not a problem for him but it's a problem for OCD me! hah!

We originally had the table so it fit the room well lengthwise. I've racked my brain about how to solve this problem. Should we get a round table or a square table? What would fit the best? Hmm. Hubs even talked and moving the light fixture but I really don't want to move it and have to fix a hole in the ceiling. No SIRREE!

SO finally, I just turned the table in the room and it works. I should've taken a picture so you could see its position up against the bar but I'm excited. I'm telling you, it's the littlest things that make a big impact!


The room is still very functional and there is plenty of room to get around the table on all sides. Pretty sweet! Are you furniturer changer/switcheroo? I love moving furniture around but we rarely do. If we find a good room configuration, we normally keep it that way but this was fun and it made the hubs happy!

Clearing Woods and Enjoying It. Seriously.

Long time no see! How you been(and yes, I meant to say "you". : ) Since I have shared very few pictures of myself I thought I would start out with a recent one of me. It's my poison ivy/poison oak PREVENTION getup! I'm clearing out some woods in our back yard so I got my prescription sunglasses, safety goggles and mask thing going on. I do not want poison ivy, poison oak or any other kind of poisonous leaf rash. This is Mu-Wa with my ears pushed out a little from the goggles! No wonder my kids were laughing!

Hope you had a great Saturday! Mine started off with a neighborhood yard sale. After the last one I said NEVER AGAIN so I couldn't believe I was doing another one but this one turned out waaaay better! The rest of the day was great too!

Sooooooo... The back yard is something I started working on a few weeks ago after getting two high estimates from landscaping companies to clear the wooded area. It would be great to have it all cleared in one day but I'd rather save the money and do it ourselves. We have a fenced in area but want to make use of the extra land on the back side of the property. Eventually we hope to tear down the fence to have a bigger yard.

BEFORE I STARTED


AFTER Lots of raking and cutting trees and weed killer.


This picture doesn't quite capture all the work I have done but we can tell a huge difference already. I have taken 4 huge loads of trees and  several bags of leaves to the curb for pickup. Lots more to go but I'll keep you posted on this job. 

AFTER LOTS OF CUTTING, RAKING, BAGGING & PILING - see the pile of trees to the right just behind the fence. Oh it might be too hard to tell what it is...

Do you have any experience clearing out woods? I have been watching videos on the best ways to rake and bag leaves and you wouldn't believe how many I have found! Unreal! 

Until next time, I hope you are enjoying this Spring weather! I absolutely LOVE being outdoors after hibernating so long! 

Conserving Now ENVIROSAX Bag Review and Easy Entry Giveaway!

I'm very excited to get to review Conserving Now! 

Have you ever heard of them? If not you need to:

 Check.Them.Out.Now!

Conserving Now is working to educate people about reducing consumption 

and preserving our planet. Who isn't all about taking care of our planet?

I had the awesome opportunity to try out a bag of my choice and 

I chose the ENVIROSAX After Dark Series Bag 2 (below). 

I love it! I love what the company is trying to do to make the planet more GREEN  

and not adding to landfills.

100% of their profits from ENVIROSAX bags fund their classroom kits. 

It is the company's goal to give every teacher and student in America the tools necessary to stop using plastic bags themselves and to educate their friends and family on the dangers of plastic bags.

Here is my bag, in person! I've been using it as a diaper bag and I absolutely LOVE it!

With the style I picked out, my husband shouldn't be stealing my bag!

 

Here is how it arrived!

 

It's very stylish!

SUPER CUTE!

 

I would recommend the bags from Conserving Now!

If you'd like a chance at winning your own, please sign up for the EASY ENTRY contest below! It starts April 16th.

Disclaimer: I received the ENVIROSAX bag for this review from  Conserving Now.
All opinions are my own.

Basketball Themed Birthday for the Final Four!

How are you? I hope you had a nice Easter and got some down time. It has been so long since I have posted and it has been completely unintentional but I took a much needed break from work to play and regroup. Road trips are awesome that way! I just love hitting the road to have a change of pace and scenery. This trip was neat for me because I took the kids 8 hours away (the furthest with little ones) to visit my parents and thankfully it went well. Thankfully the kids were good and I was able to keep them entertained in the car. I wasn't sure how it was going to go but we had fun. 

So what have you been up to? Been decorating anything lately? Hu? Anything? Well our little guy turned T-W-O during March Madness so I bet you can guess what I have been decorating! Yes, a cake and randoms for the small Birthday party. The little guy is totally obsessed with balls - soccer and basketball so I tried to do it up simple and in a ball theme!

CAKE
 

 

 The TABLE

 

CAKE POPS A Pom Pom sort of flair!

 

PENNANT BANNER

 

 

 

 BALL EGGS OVER THE TABLE

CANDY

 

GOING ON A BALL HUNT, BALL HUNT!

The kids had a ball. Get it?!?! 

What kinds of themes have you done for your child?

Cute Find At Good Will

I have a confession to make. I hate clothes shopping and if I go out looking for clothes I usually end up looking at house stuff instead. I never did show you the $7.00 lamp I found at Good Will. I could prolly be on What NOT To Wear for my dislike of clothes shopping. I have the best intentions but fail miserably when I have to go buy clothes. 

So anyway, about the lamp - I thought I was going to spray paint it to change it up but I left it as is because I thought it was sooooo cute. I never used to go to Good Will for house things but you CAN find some neat things if you look hard enough! It goes great in our son's bedroom. It matches perfectly and if I ever want to change it up, I will! I especially like the whimsical shape of it. So what kind of things have you found?

Kitchen Makeover

Today was about the laziest day I've had in a while but it was nice. I piddled out in the yard and inside the house and still have lots to do, but today I have the "it can wait" attitude. Hope YOU had a good day!


I wanted to share our KITCHEN MAKEOVER! We started it a few years ago and made the changes slowly, as we could afford them, but it's pretty much complete now. The house was about 7 years old when we bought it and it really was a bare bones house with a good bit of wallpaper and borders and no real upgrades. 

The RESULT

 

 

BEFORE PICTURES BELOW

 

 

The kitchen had light wood cabinets (which we kept) with light vinyl flooring that showed every speck of dirt that collected. The white counter tops were difficult to keep clean. I could set a wet grocery bag on the counter after unloading groceries from the car, and the lettering off the bags would stain the counters. I spent a lot of time scrubbing to get the stains off. We also had white appliances, which I LOVED the appliances but we decided to upgrade refrigerators to buy in bulk and so we went with stainless steel. 

 

 We chose Uba Tuba granite. It looks green outside but indoors it appears darker. We lucked out because we got a really good deal on the slab we picked out and the granite installers were able to do our kitchen using only one piece and no seams! 

NEW GRANITE - The start of the redo

 

 

We chose a simple back splash with glass tiles.

 

We chose a goose neck pull down faucet. The other one started leaking and broke so it wasn't just for aesthetics. ; ) The undermount sink is really nice. The old sink was white and had several cracks and stains so it was great to be able to replace.

 

We chose porcelain tiles in the kitchen and kitchenette, on a diagonal to give the room a nice look, although it was tough on the man doing the floors because of all the cuts he had to make. It seems to give the room more dimension and contrasts well with the cabinets and other flooring in the house.

 

I like pictures and I like seeing the pictures of progress instead of just the Before and After! Hope you enjoyed too. I look forward to seeing YOUR kitchens too!

Cover A Lamp Shade With Fabric

How are you? It has been a VERY busy week and a VERY busy weekend. I am sitting here doing one of my favorite things. I'm sitting watching HGTV and eating popcorn in peace and quiet. I adore our children and feel blessed to have them but some days it's just nice after they go to bed. If you have kids, you might understand. ; )

The week was jam packed with work, soccer practice, two games over the weekend and lots of yard work and oh a trip to the Urgent Care late one night because our almost two year old dislocated his arm. I think I have a few more gray hairs after this week. 

So I must share a fun project that got me into blogging! Do you notice all the awesome lamp shades in stores these days? I really like them and would take home so many lamps if I.) I had room and 2.) I had the money. A lot of the lamps and lamp shades I have seen are outrageous in price, which I just cannot see spending, especially if I can do it myself! 

 

 

So all you need to do this project is a neutral lamp shade, preferably white or offwhite, the fabric of your choice, adhesive spray in a can, a pencil and fabric scissors! It's so easy and so much fun. Be sure to do it outside!

 

 

Play with your fabric and position it around the lamp. Lay it on a table and using a pencil, roll the shade and mark the fabric with a pencil. Leave about an inch wider than the lamp. Using fabric shears, cut the fabric, spray the adhesive on and wrap the fabric to fit the shade. Spray the shade and lay the fabric. You can smooth out the fabric as you go. It's so easy to fix too because the fabric is very forgiving. The glue is tacky so you can pull the fabric off and easily re-stretch it if you need to! You'll need about a quarter of an inch on top and bottom to wrap the edges over the shade. Let the shade dry overnight. You'll have an awesome new shade when you're finished! Do you think you'll try this? I'd love to hear if you do!