Garden Take 2

Gonna give it one more try...

I guess time will tell!

What Was I Thinking???

I knew that I had company coming on Saturday evening, but for some reason I decided to re-do my main level bathroom before they came.

Unfortunately, I decided to do this on Friday around noon.

I didn't think it would be THAT big of deal...I mean, really...how hard could it be to just paint a small amount of bead board?

Once again, I underestimated my time and ability, but with a little help, I also

PREVAILED!

Since we moved into this house 7 years ago I have been wanting to re-paint the main level bathroom.  It was a hideous bleen color (blue/green) and I really hated it.  On Friday I finally got around to changing it.

BEFORE:

This tiny amount of silicone took me an hour to get off of the wall...I scraped, I sanded, I swore...OK, not really...yes, really...but I finally got it off.  Stupid silicone! 

DURING:

I used Behr paint this time...

I will NEVER use Behr paint again. 

EVER.

I hate it...and that's an understatement.

THE FINISHED PROJECT:

Almost Epic Fail

I love Pinterest...it's not a secret.  When I finally sit down at night, I just want to look at Pinterest and find all kinds of wonderful and new projects to try.  

 I had seen some silhouettes on canvas that I decided to try, and, well, it wasn't as easy as it looked.

I have always wanted to be the kind of blogger that goes through each step of a project with descriptive photos and witty commentary, but I have to face the music and realize that THAT is just not me, and my boring photos and boring description will have to do. 

I started with 4 (four) 16"x20" white canvases and profile photos of my boys.
 

(I don't know why this photo is on its side...???)

With black craft paint, I painted the sides of each of the canvas boards.  I don't know why I did this...I guess I just thought it would have a more "finished" look. 

I'm cracking myself up as I type that.

In the meantime, I sent the photos to Costco photo shop to have them blown up to 14"x16" prints. 

When I got them home, I carefully cut the profiles out and turned them over to paint the back side with black craft paint.

Once they had dried, I used spray adhesive (as the Pinterest site told me to do) and glued them to the canvas.

And here is where the Almost Epic Fail occurred.

They didn't stick.

At all.

Not even a little bit.

And I've got a crazy internal conflict going on because I don't want to use any more spray adhesive and I can't use Mod Podge now because it will react with the adhesive and not work as it should.  I'm thinking I will just take them out to the trash and stuff them in.

And then I thought twice about that...

So, I put them in my extra room and shut the door because things that don't work like they should just completely tick me off.

A couple of days later, (today) I had an epiphany...

I grabbed one of my favorite things in the whole world--

SPRAY PAINT!!!

I taped the silhouettes to the canvas and then started spraying. 

And for the record...I'm thrilled about how they turned out!

As it turns out, it wasn't a fail at all, but a fun new addition to my upstairs hallway.

Score!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Mom and dad came down for a week, and the first project on dad's list was to build me a garden box.

I have wanted one for years, but just haven't had the time or talent to put one together.  I am lucky to have a "handy" dad, and he whipped out a garden box in no time at all.

Mom helped me decide what to plant, and then we got to work!  (I say "we" but it was mostly dad...my allergies and PNEUMONIA were making me a very miserable girl...)

I love it!!  Now let's just pray it grows!!

Thank you mom and dad!!

FOURTEEN

{FOURTEEN}

The number of hours spent with DIRECTV either on the phone or with a technician in my house in the past week.

You would think that someone at that company has a clue.

Turns out...NOPE...NOT SO MUCH!

Ugggggg.........

Another Awesome Find

At Tanner's baseball game on Saturday, I was complaining about not being able to get the red desert dirt out of my kid's baseball uniforms.  That is when my friend, Ella, told me about this awesome stuff:

Holy Cow!!  I don't think Tanner's white baseball pants have ever been so white!!

The only down-side is that it bleaches out any logo or stitching on the pants--the upside is that I DON'T CARE ABOUT THAT!!!

Woo Hoo!!!

Small Changes

...can make a huge difference.

I love that I can just add 2 new slip covers and some fun pillows to change the look of my front room. 

And...it was a ton cheaper than buying new furniture!

Score!!

Gadget Girl

Those of you who read my blog know how much I L-O-V-E gadgets!  Well, recently I've purchased a few and thought I'd better share.

While in Utah I purchased this beauty

I love it!  I really do.  I'm not kidding.

They boys love to cook their corn dogs in it because it's not as scary as the "big oven", and it makes the corn crispy instead of soft (like in the microwave.).  I love that it doesn't heat up the entire kitchen, like the oven does.

SCORE!!!

The next gadget is this baby

The sad thing about this is that my kids asked me what it was. 

And, Kevin keeps asking me if I know what year it is. 

 I think that he thinks I've warped back to the '70's. 

Maybe I have. 

So what??

I, however, am thrilled that I don't have to wrestle with a piece-of-garbage-does-not-work-hand cranked can opener any longer.  Seriously, I think I've spent $50 trying to find a hand held can opener that actually works, and then have to replace them because they break.  Bleh!!  We'll see how this goes. 

This little beauty used to be my favorite gadget, until yesterday, when it was replace by my new favorite.  Here it is...do you know what it is??

It's a carpet rake!!!

I love it!  It perks up my matted down carpet, while removing all of the gross stuff that gets caught down deep.  I am so glad my gal Tiffany told me about this!!  I just rake and vacuum and the carpet looks soooooooo much better...especially on my stairs!

The next gadget on my list is this:

My microfiber duster!!!  It picks up, and holds all of the dust.  It doesn't just swish it around.  When it's dirty I just throw it into the wash and BAM, it's ready to go again!!  Woo Hoo!!

OK, now brace yourselves.  Here is my new FAVORITE gadget...

I got it yesterday at Wally World, and it brings joy to my soul.

Drum roll, please...........................................................................

It is the Shark Professional Pocket Steam Mop!!!  (Say that 10 times fast!)

I mopped my tile with it yesterday and it looks so good!!  I also used the hand attachment to clean my wood blinds and my bathrooms.  The steam gets into nooks and crannies and makes all that nasty filthiness come out, and then you just wipe it away.  The hot steam kills germs and odors and you don't have to use any chemicals.  Love, love, love, love, LOVE!!  They should hire me to be their spokesperson.  hee hee hee

Anyway...I'm in gadget heaven right now. 

 Sadly I have to go to Costco. 

 I'm hoping it won't kill my vibes. 

Peace! 

 (Oh, wait...that's the 60's...)

I've Been...

My mom left me a message on my cell phone yesterday that said two things.

1.  You haven't updated your blog lately.

and

2.  Call me.

So...I've been...

Repairing...

...only to find out that I didn't have a tool needed to fix what I needed to fix.  And, yes, I'm doing it in the house because it was 113* in my garage.  I'm not exaggerating.

Redecorating...

...my bedroom...

I found this comforter set for a fantastic price and just went with it.  New curtains, lamp shades, and decorative pillows finished off the look.   

And...I'm recuperating from a whirlwind summer. 

It doesn't help that I have a ton of extra time to sit around and think of all of the things I want to do to/in the house.

Catching Up....Again....{sigh}

Remember a few posts back when I said that I would try to update the Blog daily?  Well, I should never make statements like that when I know myself well enough to know--without a doubt-- that daily updates will NEVER happen.

I don't know how some of those bloggers out there do it. 

They update DAILY. 

And it's almost always interesting.

I am certainly not that interesting. 

And, I guess I just don't have that many things to say. 

So, even though I got called out on my lack of daily blogging (you know who you are...RACHEL) it has not prompted me to suddenly become a deep thinker, or a crafter, or a political whiz, and it has definitely not spurred me on to blog more often than maybe once or twice a week.

I hope you can live with that.

I know that I can.

So, since I don't update daily, and we have established that I will never update daily, I will now attempt to catch you up to speed on our going-ons.

Grandma and Grandpa L, and Scott, Katherine, and Bubba {Chase} came down on the 2nd.  For some reason this made me want to "home improve".  Since I (sadly...sniff, sniff) couldn't get the couch I wanted, I opted for a switch-a-roo of a couple of the rooms in my house.  I decided that we aren't 'Dining Room' people and moved my office into the dining room area.  I like the arrangement...it's out in the open and I don't feel like I'm in a dungeon when I'm on the computer.

I un-separated the playroom/ little boys room, and moved one of the dividers down stairs to separate my office from my front room.  Kevin thought I was crazy when I had the idea to do this, but when he saw it I think he was pleasantly surprised that it looked ok.

 My neighbor informed me a week or so before I did it that she can see "straight up into Tanner's room" from her front yard so I also installed a blind in the window over my front door. 

Once that was done I decided that the upstairs hallway needed something.  I don't know why I care about the upstairs hallway...no one sees it except our family and I can guarantee that my boys couldn't care less what the hallway looks like.

But, I had the idea, and when ideas strike, I act!

I really, really like how it looks.  It makes me happy when I walk up the stairs and see my family photos, and remember back to the time when my boys hands were as small as they are in the plaster cast molds. 

By the time I finished all of the re-purposing and re-arranging my guests came!! 

It was about this time that Kevin informed me that our yard guys would be coming to give our yard a makeover. 

Woo-hoo!!!

My dream has always been to live in a beautiful farmhouse with a wrap-around porch complete with a couple of rocking chairs and a hound dog.  It would be surrounded by lush, green trees, and have acres and acres of green grass. 

But then I wake up from my dream and remember that I live in Arizona. 

 There isn't anything lush here, except maybe my neighbor, Jack Daniels. (hee hee)

In Arizona, you decorate with rocks, and rocks replace grass.

I get it, really I do......desert, water (or lack of), extreme heat...but it doesn't mean that I don't want some grass!! 

Well, a fraction of my dream came true last week when the yard guys went to work!

They raked away some of the rock, installed sprinklers, and put in lovely cement curbing. 

And then Ty decided to destroy the curbing...

Yes, those are Ty's footprints. 

He learned a hard lesson as he handed his dad the $50 (that he had been saving to buy a new bike) to pay the cement guys to come back and fix the paver.

But, when it was all said and done, we were the proud owners of GRASS!!  Yipee!!

So, this all happened while G&G Lewis and Scott, Katherine, and Bubba were here.

We had so much fun having them down here!!

We all loved on Bubba. 

He's so sweet and mellow!  We adore him!!!

The only down-side to having a baby in the house is that the boys start getting ideas...to which I have to explain, very resolutely, that this baby factory is CLOSED, and there will be no more discussion about it. 

So, there.

Now, where was I???  Oh yes...we ate at Firehouse Subs and In-N-Out, and on Friday we went to the Swap Meet.  Vaughn found him a treasure, which he wore to Tanner's baseball game on Saturday night.

No, that is not his real hair...just in case you were wondering...

It's attached to the visor.

Nice, real nice. 

And very, very comical. 

I'll give him this:  It was only about 40*.  I'm sure all of that extra "hair" kept his head warm!!!

Even though it was cold, we had a spectacular Arizona sunset...Gorgeous!!

We had a great visit and are so thankful for a loving family!  Come again, soon!!!

The month of February may be the month of love for some people, but for our family it means the official start of BASEBALL SEASON!!!

My favorite season of the year!!

Ty and Treyson had Little League evaluations last Saturday (the 12th), and Tanner has started baseball camp prior to 8th grade try-outs which are in a couple of weeks.

We are going to be super, super busy, but I LOVE it!!

Yesterday was Valentine's Day.  Hmmmm...I don't want to be a hater, but Valentine's Day, to me, is stupid.  Do we really need a special day to do things for the people we love, when we should already be doing it anyway??
I don't know.  I just don't like the holiday.

But, I did do more than usual by making a cake with pink, red, and white sprinkles, and I did grace my kiddo's beds with a heart cut out and a special treat for each of them.  Then we made our favorite dinner...Pizza Pockets!!!

Kevin got a cut out heart and an enthusiastic, "HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!",  when he got home from work at 9:15 p.m.

It's a good thing I hate Valentine's Day, or he would have been in big trouble!!!  (hee hee hee)

We're actually going to celebrate our 16 YEARS together next week in San Diego.  That's something worth celebrating, for sure!!

Whew!  So that about sums it up.   

I would say that I'll update soon, but I can't promise that!

xoxoxo 

Oh, wait...I almost forgot...

So, I ventured out today in my SWEATS. 

That's a big step for me.

And to my dismay, this is the first person I saw...

Yep, it's just me and the old dudes...

and our grey sweats.

Wow.