One decade

Happy anniversary to my husband....it's our tenth. : )

It sure has been a wild ride and I'm looking forward to the next ten. I love you!

Wowed

I must be honest....I'm not really a fan of Kristen Stewart. 


Sorry, Twilight fans.....


She never seems to be smiling in any picture I've seen of her. Any interview of hers that I've read shows her to be somewhat pissed off at her sudden fame. She wears some of the most beautiful designer gowns with.....sneakers. Really?

So, I have to say I was absolutely stunned when the latest issue of Vanity Fair appeared in our mailbox. She is on the cover and this is the best picture I have ever seen of her by far.

The dress....the hair....the makeup. Looks a.maz.ing.

By far her most glamorous look. Well done!

A visit to Swedish wonderland

That's right, we made a visit to IKEA last week. My kids love to go to IKEA.....and I do, too. We have one that was built a few years ago in Cincinnati, so it's really nice to be able to go whenever we want. Usually, when my mom, sister and I would go, we would go to the one in Minneapolis and we would buy everything we saw since we didn't know when we'd be back. : ) Now, it's nice to browse and not feel any pressure.


We went on a Tuesday, which was nice, since the kids' meals are free. My daughter is now potty-trained, so she is able to go into the play area. Yessss!! They also have storytime at 1pm on Tuesdays for kids in the restaurant area.


I'll share a few notable things I saw there....I really liked this white greenhouse! I might have to buy this one sometime.

I have been in l.o.v.e. with these metallic mirrors for a long time, especially the tall one below.

I could totally see it leaning up against one of the walls in my house!

I really liked these pillows....a mix of print and embroidery. So cool.

My best finds were these scarves that I found in the fabric area. They were on clearance for $6 apiece. I was totally drawn to them because of the turquoise colors!!

They are the perfect size for a sarong....or I might take the pink/turquoise one and make some kind of top.

Of course, I had meatballs for lunch.

The kids enjoyed their lunch in the kids' area....

And we finished off the day with storytime...Miss Heather was really good! She tells a story and finishes off with a craft, as well as giving away a few stuffed toys.

We got some frozen yogurt for me and some cinnamon buns for the kids and headed home. Victory declared. 

T-shirt redo

Last week, I was cleaning out some old bins that I had in our spare room. One was full of old t-shirts that I had from when I was in high school and from marching drum corps. I never really wear any of them, especially since a few of them are way oversized and not fit for use besides PJs.


You got any t-shirts like that?

I've seen a rash of t-shirt makeovers on blogs and from just poking around on the internet. So, I decided to give it a run. Here where I started....

As I said, I did look at a few blogs and online tutorials.....they were helpful! Ultimately, I kind of just did my own thing. : ) Since the shirt is too big for me, I pinned the sides to take in the shirt.

My next step was to cut off the sleeves. Keep your scraps....you might need/want to use them!

 Then I ran a seam down each side of the shirt.

I decided to try on my shirt to see exactly how I wanted to fix the top. 

I decided to make a shirt that tied through the front and the back of the top of the shirt. I'm not sure what that is called! I considered doing a halter top. But...I need to wear something underneath and I'm not a huge fan of strapless bras for everyday wear. I thought this would be perfect.


 So, next I cut off the neck ribbing.

I cut from the underarm area and curved it up to the top. After trying it on, I ended up cutting it further in for the right fit. Remember....you can always cut more....you can't put back what you cut off if you cut too much!

I folded down the top of the shirt and ironed it down and pinned it for the casing....(keep in mind that the shirt is inside out so the wrong side is facing out).

After running the seams along the casing at the top front and back of the shirt, I cut off the band at the bottom of the shirt so I could use a piece of it for the string.

The nice thing about t-shirt jersey is that when you pull it tightly, it curls up nicely!

I pinned a safety pin to the end to thread it through the casing.

After trying it on, it was a little gappy under the arms. So, I took them in a bit to shape the shirt a bit, about an inch down.

And the finished project...

I'm loving my new shirt for summertime...bummin' around in style!

Party Time......

Time Travel Thursday at The Brambleberry Cottage

Fridays Unfolded at Stuff and Nonsense

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Show and Share Day at Just a Girl

Simply Creations Link Party at Simple Home Life

Addicts (not so) Anonymous Addicted to Decorating

Sunday Showcase Party at Under the Table and Dreaming

Project Parade at The DIY Showoff

Creative Bloggers' Party and Hop at Homemaker on a Dime

Tip-Toe Thru Tuesday at Crayon Freckles

Pinspirational Thursday at The Artsy Girl Connection

Make the Scene Monday at Alderberry Hill

Sunday Salvation at Sassafras Salvation

Tuesday Talent Show at Chef n Training
Flaunt Your Flowers  at Tootsie Time
What I Wore/What's Up Wednesday at Rae Gun Ramblings
Sunday Roundup at A Rosie Sweet Home
Overflowing with Creativity at It's Overflowing
Manic Monday at Silo Hill Farm
Mannequin Monday at Artsy Girl Connection

A berry good time

Now that summer is here in full force, the kids and I have been keeping busy. We spend a lot of time at the pool, of course, but I love doing lots of different things with them during the summer. We have a lot more freedom to do things in the summer....since we're not trying to fit in day activities just on the weekends.


Yesterday, we went berry picking....black raspberries, to be exact. We had a great time! We went to a big berry farm about 25 miles away. It is one of the biggest berry farms on this side of the Mississippi.


Even though this is a fun activity, it's pretty educational. I fielded a ton of questions from my son about how the farm works and why the plant things the way they do. I like that they learn where food comes from (not the grocery store). They are learned how much work it is to pick a small basket of berries like those we might buy. : )

It was a beautiful day....we have had a heat wave and after some rainstorms the night before, the weather was in the mid-80s with a nice cool breeze.

At one point, my son found what he called "Berry City." He really liked finding good spots that had a lot of berries.

We had to coach our girl on which berries to pick.....NOT the red ones, just the black ones. : ) She spent a bit of time blowing the dandelion puffs....

Here is a pic she took of me..

We had a nice picnic lunch under a tree before doing a little more picking. Here is a shot of the field from our lunch spot.

We ended up with berry fingers......

....and a nice haul of fresh berries.

Yum......

Great painting finds

We've been painting at my house. I think I might have a slight obsession with painting the house. It's such an immediate and easy change for a room. When we moved into this house, the sale was being handled by a relocation company. They painted almost every room a peachy off-white. I can't stand it....so we are eradicating it, one room at a time.


I snapped a pic of this brush....this is one of the first paintbrushes I bought to do painting. On the advice of my dad, I bought a good-quality, angled brush. I painted our two-bedroom condo and most of the rooms in our old house with this brush. I'm a bit sentimental about it. : ) It was time for retirement, though.

For one of my last painting projects, I found this little guy in the paintbrush aisle. I love the small size of it.

Since this is how I hold my cut-in brush, it is perfect for me. SO much more comfortable than my old brush.

I also picked up some Frogtape. WOW....this tape is awesome. The lines this tape produces are a.maz.ing. It is a bit on the pricey side, so if I tape baseboards, I tend to use regular masking tape. The blue tape never seems to work so well for me....I'm not sure why. BUT...if you are painting lines with different colors of paint, Frogtape is your product.

See??

Lov-e-ly.

I'll share more from this big girl room later on.....xox.

Lucky coincidence?

So, after redoing two different spots around my house, I realized that I had unintentionally created a splash of color in my front room.....

The yellow blooms on my hypericum shrubs work well with my yellow accents.....I honestly never thought about using the garden to complement the inside of the house.

A happy (and welcome) coincidence, indeed.....

Light fixture facelift

You know those house projects that seem to take......um, forever? Well, this light fixture update was definitely what I would consider a journey.


It started with a light fixture we inherited in our house when we moved in. To be honest, the light fixtures are way better than any I've ever inherited in a new or new-to-us house. Rubbed bronze and perfectly serviceable. Just nothing special. : ) You can see the edge of it in the below pic. Actually, the thing I disliked about it the most is that the bulbs and the shades hang down.

Although there are some beautiful light fixtures out there that cause me to drool, I have a perfectly functional light and there is no reason why I couldn't give a little update to mine.


I got to work removing the fixture so it could be painted. Also, since it was meant to hang over a table, the chain needed to be shortened.

After a few coats of brushed nickel spray paint and some links out of the chain, I rehung and connected the wiring back up. I picked up some bulbs that were smaller to fit the shade I had.

I had a shade from a lamp my mom gave me that I decided to spray paint a taupey, off-white color. I wanted the shade to hang upside down (with the small end on the bottom and big end up) to cover the bulb....my nemesis!!! Once it was painted, I had to figure out how to hang it. I decided to use some washers and attach them with hot glue. Then, I could use some thread to hang the shade.


Find some washers in my coffee can of random hardware....

Aha......got some.

The inside where I glued the washers..

And.....unfortunately, this was a FAIL. The shade is made of heavy paper and not at all light. I had to keep regluing the washers and finally I gave up the fight. There had to be a better way. At this point, I hit a wall. The shade, screwdriver and hardware sat on the cabinet in the room for two weeks or so.


Well, I finally got off my duff and finished it up. I decided to use a razor blade to make some tiny cuts right by the edge.

I strung it with some fishing line. You can see some gobs of hot glue left over from my other attempt.

I hung it up, evened it out and......success!

I added some chandelier crystals I bought at the hardware store.

I also added some beads....I spray painted those plastic colored beads, cut them to size and hung them on the fixture. You can barely see the fishing line in that spot.

SO glad to have this project done!

I am considering adding a dimmer to this switch, but I'll wait a while for when I need a project to do. : ) I'm super happy with how it turned out. Much better in the room. 

Party Time......

Time Travel Thursday at The Brambleberry Cottage

Fridays Unfolded at Stuff and Nonsense

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Show and Share Day at Just a Girl

Simply Creations Link Party at Simple Home Life

Addicts (not so) Anonymous Addicted to Decorating

Sunday Showcase Party at Under the Table and Dreaming

Project Parade at The DIY Showoff

Creative Bloggers' Party and Hop at Homemaker on a Dime

Tip-Toe Thru Tuesday at Crayon Freckles

Pinspirational Thursday at The Artsy Girl Connection

Make the Scene Monday at Alderberry Hill

Sunday Salvation at Sassafras Salvation

Tuesday Talent Show at Chef n Training
Flaunt Your Flowers  at Tootsie Time
What I Wore/What's Up Wednesday at Rae Gun Ramblings
Sunday Roundup at A Rosie Sweet Home
Overflowing with Creativity at It's Overflowing