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)

Family Time

I've been enjoying having both of my kids home today. We've chatted, helped each other with chores, and laughed so hard my stomach hurt. My kids are so much fun!

Twenty-eight years ago, at this very moment, Greg and I were shaking hands and getting hugs in the receiving line after having said "I will" and vowing to make a life together. We made it through all the stages: newlyweds, house, babies, parenting, jobs, and now empty nest. Now we're on the brink of a new stage: grandparenthood.

Here's a photo of our little one who is coming in the Fall:Already sucking it's thumb. :o)

I know we're in for a new kind of fun and we can't wait!

Through the Lens

I love to give my digital cameras to the kids and see what they come up with. (Usually lots of photos of my carpet or the television.) This time each twin had a camera outside. Here's what they saw (with no photoshop alterations or editing) through the lens:
Garett looked down from the deck, over the bird feeder and lawn chair.
Grace was focusing on the iris in the foreground:

They were excited by the marigolds - I think Wyatt brought some home from school.

Garett's self-portrait:

Grace came dangerously close to showing my "cartilage", right Abbie? :o)

Don't you wish the wind would blow Grace?

Uncle Greg's cool truck:

They'll be here on Tuesdays each week during the summer, and I think there will be photography galore on those days.

They Say It's Your Birthday!

I say Happy Happy Birthday, Honey!

The Vegetable Garden Begins

Last weekend Greg worked really hard getting the four raised beds staked down and filled with composted dirt from a local nursery. (Here they are stacked up in the back yard - that's where they were stored until time to fill them.) I did pound in stakes and drill screws for this last bed. But I was the one taking photos, so you only see Greg doing the first one. I did the rest. :o)

I do have to mention that each of these raised beds is exactly the same distance apart, and yes, they are in a perfectly straight line down the middle of the back yard. You can thank my OCD honey for that. :o) If I'd done them, they'd be "approximate" and still work okay, but he's got them looking very nice.

He used the pickup to get four loads of dirt, and each one had to be shoveled off the truck into a pile on the ground. I helped on Friday afternoon with the first load, then had to work on Saturday morning while he went and got the other three. At least the last load was still on the truck when I got home and I could help with that one. Once he had the big pile, he was able to use the Bobcat to fill each bed after he staked it down.

The dirt isn't completely composted, so I've been pulling out chunks of grass and tree stems, etc., but it is nice and loose and the beds look great. By using raised beds, the soil won't get compacted by us walking or sitting on it, and we won't have to rototill every Spring. Yea!

Now we can let the planting begin!

The Composter

I've wanted a composter for many years - a place to put yard waste and food scraps and do good with putting it back into the earth. We looked at many options, but never agreed on anything. Greg kept telling me to go ahead and buy one, but I thought they were too small. I wanted him to put together some pallets for me to just toss stuff into, but he didn't really like that plan.

Recently I was looking at blogs and came across directions for making a composter using a large Rubbermaid trash can. I happened to have an empty can in the garage, concrete blocks in the garden, and plenty of "green" and "brown" components to add to it. The only thing I had to buy was a package of bungee cords to hold the lid on, cuz you know with the wind we have here, it's a good possibility that lid would end up across the street in the neighbor's yard!

For brown stuff I used leaves that had piled up on the south side of the back deck the past few weeks (stuff blows in and piles up there all year round), some torn up newspaper, and torn up brown cardboard. The green stuff was mostly lawn clippings and a small bucket of food scraps from the kitchen, including egg shells, strawberry hulls, banana peel, and some shriveled up cilantro. Fruit and veggie scraps, only - no meat or animal products at all, except for egg shells. One good thing for compost that I don't have any of right now a pile of worms. Any of my Adams cousins remember picking up night crawlers for Grandma to use for fishing? I'll tell you about that another time.

So I filled it up, sprayed it with the hose, and rolled it around on the ground a little bit. It's now heavy enough that the wind won't take it.

I should have some nutritous dirt to add to the garden in a few weeks. I'll let you know!

A Little Re-Do

Okay, so I looked at that canvas I put in the bathroom yesterday, and while I liked the simplicity, it started to seem "too" simple. So I did made a little addition today and like it much better: Now I'm pretty sure I'll lose the ivy and bird's nest and put something else there. Just need to figure out what that is... :o)

Rainy Day Play

It's been a dreary, soggy day here, so my gardening plans got postponed until another afternoon. Instead, I thought I'd finish an art project for the bathroom I'm redecorating.
It's been several years since the "public" bathroom in our house has had a makeover, and it was looking a bit tired. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it, until one day when I was sorting through my scrapbook papers and came across this piece. The colors are fresh and spring-like and they inspired the new color palette for the bathroom. In fact, I decoupaged the paper to a 12"x12" canvas and turned it into art to hang on the bathroom wall. While the paper alone is pretty, I knew I wanted to add something simple to it. I love birds, and have collected a few patterns for bird crafts. This particular pattern came from Skip to My Lou, a creating and crafting web site. I did enlarge the pattern a bit to make the bird the size I wanted for this canvas.

I wanted the bird to face the other direction, so I flipped the pattern to trace it. My pencil was pretty dull, so when I traced, it didn't really leave lead marks, just a slight indentation in the canvas.

I went over the tracing with a black paint pen.

To finish the edges of the canvas, a little black/white polka-dot ribbon worked great. I used scrapbook adhesive for that.

Here's the finished project, hanging above the toilet. I'm thinking I might add a ribbon hanger, but want to look at it a few days before I do.

The silk ivy and little bird and nest are a "cottage-y" touch that adds softness to the room. We'll see if the cats leave it alone...

Since I decoupaged the canvas several days ago, it really only took a couple of minutes to finish this up today. I'm one step closer to having the finishing details done in the bathroom, and spent a rainy afternoon being productive. :o)