The Pink Guitar

The kids were very excited that Jessica has moved back to our house and they are able to spend some time with her again. (We're all excited that she's moved back to our house!)
The kids come here on Tuesday mornings while Leslie works, and we try to do something new and fun each week. This particular day found Jessi at home, so she helped entertain them by bringing out her guitar. (You should have seen Grace's face when she saw the guitar was pink!) They sat in a row for a mini-concert,

then each one got to take a turn. Wyatt sang of his love for Spiderman and regaled Ironman as being "awesome"...

Gracie also sang of Ironman...

Garett sang "Life is a Highway" from Cars. He's a Lightening McQueen boy.

Shortly after their performances, Jess inadvertently hit the ceiling fan with the neck of the guitar and broke some strings. That put an end to the music making that day, but I'm sure there will be more. Remember how Tucker loves pink? He'll want his turn...

Patriotic Decoration

This was a "use what you have" craft project I threw together last weekend. I've been looking at a piece of 4x4 in the garage for awhile, thinking about painting it up to be a firecracker for 4th of July. Turns out I already had red, white, and blue spraypaint, so I didn't have to buy anything.
This photo shows the piece I started by painting white. The other piece shows what it started out like.
It took several coats of white to get soaked in enough to cover. You'll notice the wood isn't in great shape, but that's okay. It lends a more "rustic" look to the finished product. The next step was cutting several stars out of adhesive-backed vinyl using my Cricut. I rubbed the edges down really well,

then painted the top section blue. Peel off the stars right away, then leave it to dry awhile. I had a fan running in the garage to help the drying process.

For the stripes, I taped off the blue section, then ran tape down the remaining length of the wood.

Make sure you really rub down the edges of the tape - then spray a couple coats of red.

Remove the tape immediately and let dry.
Here's the finished product sitting on the porch. It really catches your eye when driving past the house.

The best part was not spending any money to make it!

Happy S'mores Day!

That's what I'm calling today, S'mores Day, since we didn't bbq or have fireworks here, but we did light up the fire pit and toast some marshmallows.
Jessi was kinda crabby about having her photo taken...

Here's Greg, putting marshmallows in the fire. Yeah, I need some longer toasting sticks. These metal skewers from the kitchen were a tad too short.

The fire pit was Greg's birthday gift from last year. We've only used it a couple of times, but I look forward to crisp Autumn nights outside next the fire.

Nick made his s'more with a York Peppermint Patty instead of a Hershey's bar. He said it was "very delicious".

I know my marshmallows were toasted golden brown, crispy on the outside, melted on the inside, and just perfect. Even though it was a cool, cloudy, and sometimes rainy day, both my kids were here, and that's the best way to spend any day for me - the s'mores were just a bonus!

Real Men are Pink!

Remember how Grace and Garett decorated the sidewalk yesterday? Little did they know that their artwork would decorate Tucker today:

I let the cats out the back door this afternoon, turned around to grab my sunglasses and turned back around to find Tucker rolling around in the pink chalk, having the time of his life.

Admittedly, he looks a little silly running through the house, chasing Max to wrestle, but real men do still wear pink, right? :o)

How Does The Garden Grow?

With all the rain we've had the past few weeks, the garden is green and lush, and has grown, but slowly. Now that the temps are heating up, I expect to see the plants shoot up quickly.
Here's where we began last month: Here's where we are now. I labelled what is where, but you'll have to click on the photo to enlarge and read it. In the blog-spirit of "keeping it real" you can also see all the weedy glory out there. Slowly but surely I'm making progress in getting rid of them.

Oh, and here are Grace and Garett with their artistic rendition of a sidewalk chalk garden. They had chalk from the driveway (around the corner of the garage) clear up to the bottom step of the deck. This was my favorite garden decoration today. :o)

Topping off the Windows

A few years ago I was inspired to create an easy window topper pattern by a photo that was posted on a home decorating bulletin board (this was before the advent of mass blogging, and I didn't save any information about who posted the idea, so unfortunately I can't give credit). I needed something for the four sunroom windows and the one in the kitchen.

The first set I made was during the 2006 holiday season. This fabric was on clearance and is a nice heavy weight for winter. I didn't get back to this project until the next Autumn when I found a pair of lightweight floral panels on clearance and cut them up. I used the same pattern as the winter ones, but for the kitchen window I make it a bit shorter.

The next Spring I picked up this red/white print for the summer version of window toppers. Last weekend I finally pulled it from the box and whipped these up in less than an hour. (The kitty is wanting to be outside and is pouting because I won't let him go roll in the mud.)To make the pattern, I measured the width of the windows and added an inch for seam allowance. Then I cut a paper rectangle that width, and the length I thought I wanted. (To get paper that wide, I taped together a couple of large desk calendar pages.) Another measurement to find the bottom center, then drew lines from the sides (with a few inches of drop to cover the shades) to the center to make the point. After I cut it out, I taped it to the window and made whatever adjustments were needed.

After cutting the fabric, I just used fusible web hem tape to finish each edge (no sewing!), then attached the topper to the top of the shade using Velcro. Easy on, easy off.

I love having different toppers each season, giving the room a fresh new look every couple of months.

Going National

A week ago on the weekend, Alan raced in a regional qualifier at Millville, MN and is now headed to Tennessee in August to compete in the AMA Air Nautiques Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn Ranch. This is "the" amateur motocross race and he's been preparing for it for two years.
Angela sent me a few photos from last week. In this first one, he's taking the "hole shot" - that means he's taking the lead position out of the starting gate going into the first turn. Getting the hole shot is always a really good thing. (He's number 17.)
You may want to click on this one to enlarge it. Here he is in the air...

He finished first in the 45 and over class, ensuring a spot at the Nationals. We wish him the best of luck in Tennessee, and Al, don't break your femur! :o)