On our wedding day we bowed our heads and the priest proclaimed, "Crown them with honor & glory." Eleven years later, here we are living those very words. I feel privileged and honored to stand beside you as your wife. And in my eyes the life we've made together is truly glorious. Thank you for the strength, laughs, companionship, understanding, love, encouragement, & frequent spoiling over these past eleven years. I love you deeper & deeper with each passing day.
Today I thought I'd share some of the things I' currently crushing on. Ready for the rundown!
1. After a 2 year hiatus I am happy to be back in the graces of amazon prime shipping. I am now a mere 2 days away from having just about anything I can conjure up waiting for me on my door step. It would be accurate to say that the UPS truck is quickly becoming the boys favorite "big car".
2. Belle & I picked up the Sensational Gel Polish kit from Walgreens before Theo N & Thea L's wedding. For a mere $50 the kit boasts 10 complete manicures that can last up to 2 weeks each. Since it would cost more than that to get both our nails done for the big day, I decided to roll the dice & give the set a shot.
And after 2 weeks my nails are still going strong. Finding the time to fit in regular manicures is challenging, but having this kit makes it convenient and economical. Plus, no more chipped polish on my lil girl's fingers….one of my pet peeves.
3. And lately I've been using my polished pretties to pop open one of these ruby reds. Nothing beats the heat like a refreshing sip of champagne. These mini cans even come with their own straw, deeming them "Mommy Juice Boxes" around here.
4. On my Costco binge as Hubby would call it, I finally picked up their fridge organizers and love, love, love them. Our fridge had entered a state of disarray thanks to the constant barrage of sippie cups, cheese sticks, half eaten fruit & other lovelies the littles stuff into it on a daily basis. After a through wipe down and serious purging, organization has returned.
By grouping like items I can quickly locate a food and the transparent color makes it easy to know exactly what I have on hand. I especially love having one dedicated to meat. The set was only $19.99 and contains 4 compartments of various sizes. Besides my meats, I have a designated yogurt bin (our regular breakfast of choice), table condiments bin, and a delicate fruits/veggie bin.
Really loving this set. It is simple and functional…just want you need in the kitchen. 5.And as for functioning, this poor fellow is not. If you haven't seen this video yet you simply must. It starts off a little slow and then quickly becomes one of the most hysterical 2 minutes of your life. Hubby & I saw last night and I laughed so hard I was crying.
Alex Under Anesthesia
Happy Friday…we're off to sweat with the lions, tiger, & bears…oh why? At least the kiddies will be happy and maybe we'll stop off at Jamba Juice (if you're scratching your head at the last part, watch the video:)
Yesterday Bear & I added some fourth flare to the outside. The boxwood pots are sporting flags to greet guests and the neighborhood dog walking gang. I feel in love with a bunting and pull down set for the front entry, but at $250.00 I'm hoping to catch it at a major off season discount. Coupled with my desire to let the paint cure this entire summer before hanging anything on the door; the front is a little toned down, but festive none the less.
The new flag pillow adds a bright punch of patriotism over on the garage side of the house. It is holding up well…here's hoping it doesn't attract any birdie attention if you know what I mean.
Here is shot of the whole front…what you hardly notice the decor because of the massive Hawthorn covering most of the house!?! Hubby has been insistent the tree come down since we moved in & now I think it is time. That's a whole different post though people…back to the fourth.
My sweet lil helper…he loves the "vroom" and getting to "seep". Thanks to the grandparents hanging with the older two, I've been getting to spend lots of one-on-one time with my lil Bear. It is a sweet taste of what it would be like if Bear was our first. (Mommy note to Peanut & Belle: I wouldn't trade either of you for the world.)
Yes, yes back to the fourth….lots of rambling today I know. Out back the three herb boxes are adorned with stars & stripes. And before I start on yet another tangent I should just wrap this post up! Happy 4th & God Bless the USA.
Yesterday I spent the day hovering over Hubby (hugs to all of you who asked how he was doing). nursing a stiff and sore back of my own, and snuggling with my littlest little who isn't acting very little these days. All that translates into no fireplace reveal post gals..…. I'm still starring at the ladder and paint cans as I type.
But, I do have a quick DIY 4th of July pillow to share. Now that I have a nice little seating area in the front, I wanted to dress it for the 4th with a flag inspired pillow. Not able to leave home, due to the aforementioned reasons, I hoped online. When the search turned up empty handed, I headed into the basement to see what scraps I could dig up.
Low and behold I discovered a spare cream pillow cover, red fabric from the littles' disney shirts, and a blue "burlap-esque" fabric I used at Bear's Birthday Bash. After a few rustic snips of the scissors & generous dousing of spray adhesive, the pillow was nearly complete.
To finish it off, I broke out the potato stamp skills and added white painted stars to the blue fabric. Now Old Glory is ready to make a patriotic presence out front. As a side note, I plan to bring the pillow inside during rain. But as precaution, I added a coat of scotch guard and wrapped the pillow form in plastic before placing it in the cover.
After my Costco run this morning (I haven't stocked the fridge from our lake trip-yikes) I plan on ducking into Hobby Lobby to purchase a new flag bunting for the front door and a multitude of flags for our pots in both the front and back yards. I'll be back tomorrow to share the houses decked out in the Red. White & Blue.
Anyone else in denial that it is nearly July already!!
On Friday morning I packed up the kiddies and we journeyed over to meet Hubby at the lake. It was the first time I ever had a solo "long distance"car trip with all 3 of them and I'm happy to report it went off without a hitch. We didn't have to stop once during our 3 hour excursion!
Upon arrival, we spent the day lounging in the water, tubing & swimming.
On Saturday, Hubby & Bopi put the waver runner in the water much to the littles' delight. If Belle wasn't out on the water she was making her way around the cottage looking for someone to take her on the waver runner…she is obsessed, just like her daddy!
Sunday, Theo N came & performed his uncle duties playing with and entertaining Belle & Peanut.
He introduced Bocce ball to Peanut & the lil guy is hooked. I know that we will be playing a lot of this summer.
All of us enjoyed the relaxing weekend away, except for poor Hubby. During the course of the weekend his foot was run over while launching the waver runner; he discovered a wasps nest while docking said waver runner (along with its angry inhabitants); and had the wave runner hood crash onto the back of his head while he worked on the fuel line. My poor, poor Hubby. He appears to have escaped a concussion, but will see the doctor in a few minutes at my insistence. I'm no longer sure if Hubby's love affair with the water is still intact….it might take a bit of coaxing to get him there over the fourth:-) Fingers crossed for a clean bill of health from the doctor.
Hope you all are enjoying the official start to summer!!!!
The rug switch didn't work so you all can guess what that means....the fireplace update is underway. Can't wait to share it next week. Have a fabulous weekend!
If you have followed the blog for awhile you'll know that I have been itching to get rid of the brown accent wall in the family room since forever. I am not a fan of accent walls and after years of diaper changes, Valley Forge Brown no longer reminds me of milk chocolate.
So up the ladder I went & started painting the wall to match the rest of the family room (and kitchen for that matter). After one coat of paint on the first side I stopped. Partly because the wall needed to dry before I could lean the ladder against it to apply the second coat, but also because I sort of miss the brown. Dare I say that, but without the depth and contrast of the darker color the room actually feels smaller and very bland. (Yes that is House Hunters on the TV.)
What's a gal to do? Head to Pinterest of course. After perusing my boards I came up with two viable solutions.
1. Swap out the current rug with the one in the nursery.
Perhaps this addition of color with break up the monochromatic scheme of the floor & walls.
Nursery Rug: A soft blue gray
Family room rug: Taupe & Ivory
2. Whitewash the fireplace.
I love the warmth and character of the fireplaces in the photos below. (Totally off topic, but isn't that master dreamy!)
And just for fun, I played around in PicMonkey quickly to get a sense of how it would look.
Once the baby wakes up, I'm off to snatch the rug out from under him…quite literally. I'll be back with an update tomorrow and in the meantime feel free to let me know your thoughts. Would you ditch the brown walls? What about whitewashing the fireplace?
Out of all the makeovers we've completed in the house, second to the kitchen, the deck has to be my favorite. We tackled this project in two phases. Expanding the deck and adding a door from the kitchen was completed last year. We then spent that summer & fall out on the deck "living" in it and getting a feel for exactly how we wanted the space to function.
Once spring 2013 rolled around it was time for Phase two: the addition of furniture. We needed to accomplish several key objectives:
Comfortable table seating for 8.
Lightweight chairs the kiddies could easily maneuver.
Sturdy furniture to accommodate our multigenerational family.
This table & chairs set satisfied both the seating requirement and my desire for a neoclassical style. The aluminum construction makes the chairs very lightweight and easy to move around the deck or carry into the yard for seating during pool/slip-n-slide time.
In the lounge area we opted for a full size sofa and club chair rockers in wicker; Hubby's preferred look. Throw pillows on the couch carry over the dining chair cushion color and unify the space. The look was easily accomplished by dressing up store bought pillows. You can read my fretwork pillow tutorial here. For the lumbar pillow, I removed the original embellishments and replaced them with a ruffle I fashioned from the basement drapes fabric remnants.
The best part of all is that I can lounge in the rocker with an ice tea or glass of wine and have a direct view of the littles on the swing set.
When it comes to outdoor accessorizing white flowers fit the bill. From my favorite double impatient in the hanging basket to urns of white blooms surrounding the deck fountain. (Belle gifted it to Hubby on father's day back when she was 2 years old!) White flowers are the perfect accent. I even have them lining the deck staircase & railings.
I planted these pure white hydrangeas in the bed in front of the deck addition. My hope is they will eventually grow large enough to camouflage the deck footers. I'm thinking I might need a back up plan though. I'm not convinced they'll be happy under the gigantic river birch who's foliage provides shade for a good portion of the deck along with the swing set.
When planning the deck out on paper it was hard to judge how well the different styles of furniture would work together. Happily, the look is exactly was I was going for…..similar but not too matchy matchy. And the gentle pop of color in the chair cushions brings just enough contrast to the otherwise tonal color palette. The deck has become our own oasis and the kiddies beg to eat nearly every meal out here.
Most importantly though, our home now has an outdoor space where we can comfortably entertain our friends and family from the youngest to the oldest. With all three objectives satisfied I would have to say mission accomplished. Bring on the summer BBQs!
