Not gonna happen

Time goes by too fast when your kids are growing up, doesn't it?

A few weeks ago we were hanging out and I looked both my boys in the eye and said, "Ya'll need to just stop it."

"Stop what?" "What did we do?" they asked.

"Stop growing up! I mean it, ya'll just need to stop it right now." I replied.

Cade, my oldest, rolled his eyes and said, "Mommy....that's just not gonna happen."

Today was the last day of first grade for Cade. For some reason, this day was harder than the first day. Not sure why...I guess I realize that there just isn't any way to slow things down.

Here he is on the first day of first day of 1st Grade:


And here he is today, the last day of 1st Grade...ever!


Here's my other little munchkin when he graduated from Pre-K 2 last week.
He will be graduating from Pre-K 1 next year! How many dang graduations do kids have nowadays anyway??? But I digress.... Isn't he a cutie? :o)

It's officially summertime in these parts!

Goodwill Party!

Sarah over at Thrifty Decor Chick is having a Goodwill Party and I just had to share my latest find.

There is a Goodwill store pretty close to work, so about once or twice a month I'll spend my lunch hour looking for treasures.

I stopped in a few weeks ago and spotted an antique-looking dresser. I tried to act all noncholant as I walked over there as fast as I could. I almost did a happy dance right there when I saw the price tag...$50! I gave it a good inspection, tried all the drawers, did the "sturdy test" by grabbing the top edges and giving it a good shake to see if it would wobble. It was a good solid piece. Woo hoo! I was in love! This baby is coming home with me!

Here it is in it's new home in the boys' room:


I've been looking for a dresser for their room for months and am so happy with this one! I love the lines and detail. I haven't decided what kind of makeover to do on it yet, so for now I'm just going to leave it until inspiration strikes.

Head on over to check out all the other Goodwill goodies!

Extreme Makeover: Patio Edition

This is our sad, sad patio. Isn't it pitiful?




Let's try a different angle....


Nope, no help at all.

We have talked about doing something back here for the last few years. Wooden deck, pavers, stone work....I just didn't have a vision and it wasn't really in the budget, so we did nothing.



Until this year.

Our first choice was stonework, but it was a little over our budget, so we decided to do concrete instead.


Here it is in the 'during' stage.



And after we added plants and fabric shade panels to the arbor.








Oh yeah, I can definitely relax out here now!

To see how others are beautifying their surroundings, go check out the blog party at The Inspired Room.

Paint it is!

So, I have been a busy little bee over the last several weeks, preparing the house to host a baby shower for my friend Leslie. Nothing like the motivation of 20+ women coming over to get projects done around the house! :o)

So, last post I showed you this mirror and asked if I should paint it or not.


Thanks so much to everyone's advice! I went with painting it black and left some brown peeking through.

First I taped off the mirror part,


and then I took a candle and rubbed it all along the edges, in the creases and on the details. Next, I spray painted it black and once the paint was dry, I took a towel and rubbed the edges to reveal the brown. The wax from the candle works as a resist for the paint. It worked great!

Here's a close up of the top detail:


Another close up:


And now the big reveal!


Remember the before?


And the after:



I am thrilled with how it turned out! Thanks again, ladies, for your advice!

To paint or not to paint, that is the question....

Take a look at this mirror I scored at a neighborhood garage sale awhile back for $10! This thing is HEAVY! As we were loading it in the car, my MIL and SIL were asking where I was going to put it, my answer was "I don't know yet."



My husband swears that we have a room in our house that he's never seen called "I don't know yet" as I'm always bringing home treasures to put in there. :o) I just couldn't pass this one up...did I tell you it was $10?



Well, this morning it came to me that I should try it above the buffet in the dining room.



What do you think? I like the way it pulls light over to that wall by reflecting the glass patio door.



I think it needs to be another color though, right? What color? Black to match all the other furniture? Or another color to make it pop on it's own? Creamy white? Or, I could leave it mostly brown and darken the crevices and details with black?



Let me know what you think!

A work in progress...

Sarah over at Thrifty Decor Chick is hosting a spray paint party. It just so happens that I spent a little time over the weekend with spray can in hand.

For the last month, I have been working on a redesign of our master bedroom. I contacted Layla Palmer over at The Lettered Cottage awhile back for one of her virtual consultations and have been busy implementing her suggestions.

This past weekend, I was working on the windows. I took some 3/4 inch pvc pipe,(cut to size for me by 2 nice men at HD) 3 elbow joiner thingies, 5 coat hooks and some satin nickel spray paint...


to make myself a drapery rod to hold up my new chocolate brown panels...

I have 2 finials that I still need to add to each end. (that's them sitting on the window sill)





And since I loved the way the satin nickel finish turned out, I looked around to find something else I could add a little sparkle to and found these:


I have a few things left to do to finish the room and will be sharing the before/after pics as soon as I get it all pulled together.

Welcome

A few years ago, I spent my hard earned money on an electronic die cutting machine. I did my research and decided that the Quickutz Silhouette was the one best suited for me. I love the fact that there are no font or shape cartridges that you have to buy.

This cutter can cut any true type font you have installed on your computer and it also cuts .jpg files. I've mainly used the cutter in my scrapbooking projects, cutting out titles and shapes for my pages. I was able to cut silhouettes of my boys a few weeks ago and have had a few other ideas for home decor projects on my list of things to do.

I couldn't wait to get my hands on some vinyl and play around with it on my Silhouette cutter. The hardest part for me is making a final decision. I knew that I wanted to cut "welcome" for our front door and I must have looked at a gazillion fonts before I made up my mind. Here's what I ended up with:


**click on the picture for detail**

I love the way it turned out! (except for the hideous builders gold door handle which will be changed out soon) The font is Chopin Script and it was a free download from somewhere on the internet. Now I'm looking around the house to figure out where I can do more vinyl lettering.

I need help...

update on 01/31/09:

YAY!! I FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT!! WOO HOO!!
I had the sweetest offer from Melanie to take a look at it. Isn't she sweet?? I ended up figuring it out on my own, I don't even want to go back and think of all the hours it took me.

Now I need to get back to spending my energy on being creative! :o)

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See that annoying "exceeded bandwidth" error in my header up there? Where is that coming from? Ugh! I cannot figure it out.

I was using a free blog template and a few days ago, I signed on to my blog and saw those ugly errors everywhere! I panicked! I quickly reverted back to using one of the blogger templates, but that one error up there remains. I have gone thru the HTML code line by line (I am no programmer/coder/smart computer person, but hey, I tried! ha ha)

Can anyone tell me what I need to do? I would be eternally grateful and you would save me from going completely insane.

My sanity is in your hands....

Mason jars + hose clamps + molding = FABULOUS!

photo courtesy of Country Home.

How cute is this??? Another project to add to my To Do list.

I'm (almost) famous!

One of the blogs I follow is Layla's over at The Lettered Cottage. She is such a talented designer and she posts such inspiring photos and decorating advice.

Several months ago as I was cruising Layla's blog, I came across this post and stopped dead in my tracks. I had been trying to figure out a home improvement project to work on with my Stepmom over the Thanksgiving holidays. I quickly sent her the link to Molly and she thought it was a great idea.

Once we got the project completed, I decided to send Layla and email to say thanks for the inspiration and sent her the before and after pictures. When I heard back from her, she asked if I minded if she shared my pictures with her readers. MIND?!?!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? What a huge compliment! I was so excited!

So, last night as I was catching up on my favorite blogs I came across her blog entry from last week. (Can you tell where this is going yet? ha ha)

I'm famous!! Go and check it out for youself! Country Kitchen Cabinet re-do.

Thank you Layla! What an honor to be showcased on your blog!

First project of 2009 - Done!

Okay....so after seeing silhouettes of sweet children all over blogland, I knew that I had to do one of each of my boys.

So after coaxing and bribing them to stand against the wall, turn to the side, "STAY STILL FOR A COTTON PICKIN' MINUTE! QUIT JACKIN' WITH YOUR BROTHER!"...deep breath, take about 10 shots of each kid....breathe....

I got this:


and this:


I pulled it into my photo editing software, (AKA Photoshop Elements 4.0) and turned them into this:


Then I pulled that into my electronic die cutting machine, hit a few buttons and came up with this:


Aren't they cute?? I got the frames from Hobby Lobby. The clothespin in the middle was a 2008 project. (click on the picture to enlarge)

Now, I can mark this one off the list of projects. I only have about a bazillion left on there.

What is next on your To Do list?

Year In Review....Top 10 Pictures

I'm joining Jules in the Top 10 party over at
The Roost. Here are my favorites from 2008

Us with Doug's brother Scott, our SIL Lisa and our nieces Sam and Katie at the Gaylord Texan Ice Show. Over the past year, we have grown closer and I am so thankful.



For the animal parade at school, Brady was a puppy with a pet monkey.


Cade lost his first tooth.


Having a scrapbooker mom, these two are used to having an camera in their face all of the time and really know how to ham it up when they feel like it.


Look at these two beauties. Doug surprised me with them....he finally gave in to all of the hints I'd been dropping for about a year! Now, if they'd only come out with an invention that would fold and hang up all the clothes I'd really be in heaven.



A day of garage sales with my MIL and SIL. We had soooo much fun and found so much stuff! We're going thrifting next week for SIL's birthday....can't wait!



Kitchen project. I was inspired by Layla over at
The Lettered Cottage. My stepmom helped me remove the doors on the upper cabinets, paint and we added hardware to all the other doors and cabinets. I love the way it turned out.



Our Brady Bear turns 4.



I saw this sock monkey and wanted to get a picture of Cade standing in front of it since our pet name for him is "Cade Monkey". He was not cooperating with me and decided to make a face when I snapped the shot. He wasn't even trying to look like the monkey, but he totally does! ha ha


The love of my life. This picture was taken after our 4th of July vacation in Crystal Beach. He didn't shave at all that week and on the last day he shaved all of his scruff into a goatee. Hubba hubba!