Summer 2013

Going to try to sum up our summer in one post.. so here goes!

Meet my obsession- Instagram  Merging housework with a fun app? Works for me! 

OKC 4th of July celebration 

Snuggling with Anna 

Beautiful cake I found on Pinterest. Pretty nerve-racking to make, but in the end it turned out okay! 

Totally sinful 

Hiking with Daddy 

At the movies at Lifechurch.tv 

Photoshoot for my Etsy Shop- VMM 

NO WAY !! 

But we can dogsit for my Uncle! Meet Bear- he's a sweetheart 

yummy eats 

Fun at the pool 

My nephew Grant & Ryder out catching grasshoppers… totally a boy thing. Mama says,  "ewww"

Ryder not sure about the lizard "smelling" him 

Riding a poor old tortoise 

Nothing like a nice mud fight between siblings 

New TV Stand- upcycled furnishings

I was doing some online research looking for some inspiration & I came across this lovely yellow thing, they said it came from IKEA.

I saw some beautiful bright pieces in her post take a look! 

So that IKEA yellow dresser is discontinued & the only available one was in an overpriced eBay auction, so on to plan B. I spent some time searching through Craigslist, ended up finding this piece below. It was a little larger than I wanted, but I liked the traditional style of it. When we got it it was a really dark walnut color, I wanted to add some new color to our living room so I sent my hubby to Lowe's for some spray paint. He started texting me all these pictures of what they had. Really Valspar? For the longest time the colors of spray paint was pretty limited.. but this was unreal. Valspar has entire color rainbow in multiple satin, gloss & flat finishes. I ended up letting him pick out whatever he thought would look good(I will admit I was scared),  he ended up getting Flat Gilded Pesto. 

 Not a bad deal, these are $5 a can & it took 3 to get the job done.

Next time I paint, I will pay attention to the wind forecast! Was battling the breeze all day.  

I did 2 coats, or enough to give good coverage, especially on top where there would be more wear.  I let it dry & started sanding it so It would look more rustic & worn.

All finished! Lighting in my living room isn't the best, but I love all the storage in it & I just added some blue & white knobs from Hobby Lobby & she's all done. 

The destroyer of all manicures.

NEXT PROJECTS…. 

Apothecary style coffee table with a lift up lid, and a matching end table. Wonder what color to do?! I found these a few weeks ago, it's funny how oddly similar they are to the TV stand. Love how that worked out. 

April is here!

Greetings! Not happy with my blog frequency lately, but we have had a lot going on & many thoughts on my mind. We have been preparing our garden for this season & deciding on what to plant this year. 
So far I have some herbs planted, we have several varieties of tomatoes & a sweet pepper plant, some onions & garlic. 
My daughter has a cabbage plant she is personally tending to. Bonnie has a contest with 3rd graders, they all get sent home with a cabbage plant & whoever has the largest one at the end of the summer wins a 1,000 scholarship! That is neat to get kids excited about growing! On this link you can see that some children must be feeding their plants tons of miracle grow. Lol....  http://bonniecabbageprogram.com  
We didn't do a lot in our garden last year, but what we did decide to plant did really well.
 We had a scorching, dry drought of a summer & halfway through July it got too hot & things were drying up. Funny part was, the tomatoes & green peppers, once the weather started cooling off in late August early September, things started growing again! We pulled our last pepper & tomato in November & we weren't even tending to them or watering them. Glad they made it. 

Our Oklahoma summers have been really unpredictable. 
The girls are in the middle of their volleyball season, that has been fun to see them in action, they are really enjoying playing together. It is nice they are on the same team. 

Ryder has been enjoying Pre-K & learning so much... & when he is not at school he is begging to play X-box. ugh :) 

Something else I have been up to is Just Between Friends. It is a crazy big consignment sale that travels to different cities. I have shopped at one, but I have never been a consigner before. It starts the end of this month & I have been busy gathering clothing my kids have outgrown & tagging them for the sale. I am on a cleaning/purging of junk frenzy & it feels good to get rid of clutter. I have clicked the box to "donate" all my items that don't sell. I don't want them back! 

Some fun things we did in March.....

My friend Jennifer got a Silhouette Cameo. We summoned a craft afternoon asap & I found a lovely vintage frame I bought on Etsy & we put an "N" & Mod Podged it. 

Ta-da!! 

Day with my sister & my sweet niece! 

Me & my honey had our 6 year anniversary. I commemorated it with a nice chalkboard doodle. 

Ryder & I attended a Mommy/Son barn dance at the Orr Family Farm. 

We are suddenly shy & dancing wasn't an option. 

So we snuck off to the barn to milk a fake cow:)! 

Avery found a ladybug 

Lowe's trip! Time for some home improvement projects 

Well finish the month off with some harmless Easter baking! The diet starts in April right?? 

Blessings!! 

XOXO

Valentines Day roses for teachers

Mason jars, Mason jars everywhere. I have seen some cute crafts/ideas lately that involve jars. My Daughters wanted to get their teachers roses for Valentines Day.
I was looking for some vases lying around the house when I remembered the last time I sent flowers to school in a vase, we had a problem with water being spilled. So we didn't want that this time.
 In the garage I have a few jars with lids waiting for a good use.

 Aldi had some nice bouquets of roses in pink, red, yellow & coral.  Very reasonably priced too. 

I thought if holes were punched in the top of the lid, it might prevent water spillage & help the flowers stand upright. Found a rubber mallet & a screwdriver & punched away. 

Trimmed the bottoms... 

Voila'. Idea worked like a charm & no spilled water today! 

The girls were excited to give their sweet teachers some love today!