Paintin' Perfect

Dining room before

So, I've been a busy painter this last week.  We had a planned week vacation from being parents (Em spent the week up with Gma & Papa up in MN), so I decided to tackle a painting project while I was toddlerless.  The room that seemed easiest to take on was my new dining room.  It's square, has easy to cover wood floors, and was easiest to pick a paint color...or so I thought!


I had picked out a lovely shade of blue called "Adrift" from Lowe's.  Once I got it home and started to paint it was drying very blue...too blue.  My MIL Teresa came over a little later to help and as soon as she walked in I told her i hated it.  I could tell by her face that this just saved her the need to lie to me.  "Good," she said "Because I was going to have to say WOW that's blue!"  So, then I was in a dilemma, I had already purchased 2 cans.  I thought it was a nice blue, but too bright, and maybe a bathroom blue I called it...then it hit me I could use this color up in Emily's bathroom later on.  This may not have been the exact blue I would have picked, but it will do and I won't be murdered by my husband when he finds out I had to go back and spend more money on paint. 

The next trip to Lowe's went better and I picked a more grayish blue called "Lighthouse Shadows".  This one still turned out a little more blue then I wanted, but in the end it had the effect I wanted. 

After

 

Now I know what you are thinking, great room, ugly light fixture and I couldn't agree more!  We have a new light fixture picked out, but it will have to wait a month until we have time and funds.  Here's the fixture I want to put up in case you are interested or just want to buy it and send it out to me...Pottery Barn Light.  Picture it above the table and without the wicker shades...perfect right!

Summer Randomness!

It's been a few weeks now and the new house is really starting to take shape.  We have almost all the boxes unpacked and things are finding their places slowly.  This is why I have been MIA with the blog, but when life gets crazy some things fall by the wayside for the time.  Crafting is another thing that has been put down at the moment, but I hope to be back in a creative swing by the end of the summer.  Until then, I would love to share some fun things I have found lately...

• Now that I own a home I love love love Lowe's and Home Depot!  I hated these stores before but now when I walk through the doors I find they hold endless possibilities!  Pretty sad I know but it's true, this girl will now add Lowe's gift cards to her Christmas lists...haha.
• I seem to be addicted this summer to magazines and catalogs.  Every night before bed I have been curled up with Better Homes & Gardens, Country Home, Southern Living, Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, and on and on... I think this has to do with the above comment about home improvement because I am perusing to find ideas for the new house. 
• A favorite new blog of mine that was shared by my MIL Teresa - The Pioneer Woman.  Please check her out.  She is the author of the children's book Charlie the Ranch Dog, and is a hilarious and industrious woman.  She has wonderful recipes, gardening and home improvement advice, plus lots of fun giveaways.  Emily loves her book and picks it most night to read before bed.  
• Lastly, I LOVE my new front porch!  We have gotten it cleaned up, killed the few carpenter bee's that threatened to attack it, and have planted some late flowers in my newly unpacked pots.  The hubbie and I have been spending some evenings out there just getting used to the peace and new neighborhood.   Hopefully some time soon some of you can come visit it!  :)
 

Father's Day Cards

Below is the great card that I made over at Shutterfly for the Grandpas in our family for Father's Day!  I love this site because they have great deals and fun designs.  I have a family website created through them and use it to keep our family and friends easily updated on our doings and new monthly photos.  If you ever want to make a family webpage check them out.  Now I'm all set for Father's Day!  :)

Dad Collage Navy Father's Day 5x7 folded card

Modern greeting cards and party invitations by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Too Busy to Craft!?!

Too busy to craft!?!  Yes, it's true...I've been too busy to be crafty lately.  I have been good about keeping up with my favorite crafty blogs, and buying a few crafty projects for the future...but too busy to actually do anything!  I have had the best intentions...I bought plain t-shirts to applique for Emily and a friend, and I have a few baby gifts ready to make for someone who is expecting, but time has been slipping away from me.  I've decided to just give up for now with trying to get them done before the big move and have packed it all away in a few boxes.  It's a bummer since I really wanted to finish these few things, but something has to give when life gets crazy and it's usually the hobbies right! 

In the meantime, I have been getting excited for the new house and decorating Emily's new room.  I have many fun ideas and they keep expanding in my head.  I have found a few great Etsy shops with children's art that I love and want to share: petitcollage, ApplwoodKnoll, amberalexander, and papersparrow.  All of these creative ladies make some beautiful and whimsical pieces that are unique. 

I also wanted to share a new crafty site that I have found is about ready to launch.  It looks like it will be a nice place to find and share projects.  Check it out if you are interested!  Craftsy!

Happy Mother's Day!

The day I became a Mommy to Ms. Emily Ann

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!  I hope you have a great and relaxing day however you choose to spend it!  I got to sleep in and then enjoyed a lovely pancake breakfast cooked up by my wonderful hubby!  Emily helped me open my cards too!  I already enjoyed a week full of shopping for Mom!  But gifts aside, it has been a beautiful warm, sunny weekend and I plan to relax and enjoy this sunny Mother's Day!  Enjoy yours!

Pie Envy

Teresa's Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

This past weekend was a big one for my little family!  We bought our 1st house!  As many of you may not know, my husband, I , and my daughter have been living with my Mother and Father in-law for more than 18 months now.  Whew!  But it is time to fly the nest of sorts and move on to our own first home. After my husband's job merged with another company, his job was moved down to Atlanta from MN.  My father-in-law also had to move for a job with the same company merger, and it became the great migration for us to the South.  We decided to move in as one big happy family for a while to all get out bearings.  Now we have saved and know much more about the area.  We started our home search and this past weekend we found what we think is a great 1st home!  I will post more about all of this as the saga continues!

This past weekend was also Easter!  Happy holiday's to you all and I hope it was a perfect Spring day for all.  We decided to stay home and make a big dinner instead of eating out.  We invited the neighbor and decided to skip the go to ham and do a tenderloin instead.  I'm not the best or knowledgeable cook, but I have been perfecting my tenderloin dinner.  I like to serve sauteed mushrooms and red wine gravy with the tenderloin and usually twice baked potatoes and some sort of veg.  It was a hot day to be cooking up a storm in the kitchen, but we managed.  I was most envious over my MIL's Strawberry Rhubarb pie though.  It was amazing!  I have never made a pie, at least not yet, but I WILL learn to make some good ones.  I really like the idea of a home cooked pie, and of course it seems like the epitome of a housewife's job...haha!  Teresa found her recipe on all recipes . com and I am going to steal it!  She made it easy on herself and used a pre-made pie dough, but don't judge!  I will most likely always use a pre-made as well.  The dinner turned out delicious!  I hope you all enjoyed your weekend as well!  Happy Easter and Happy Spring!

Bye Bye Bunny! NUM NUM

Spring Pickin'

Hello there!  Sorry I have been MIA lately, but I have found that as the weather warmed up I got so busy!  I suspect that it's because I have been trying to be outside as much as possible and that keeps me away from the indoor things like crafting, computing, and reading etc.  Pretty soon the Georgia sun will be accompanied by the sweltering humidity of summer and then I will be back to more of the indoor hobbies.

What have you been doing outside then you ask?  Well I have been helping around the gardens and yard.  I have helped my in-laws plant new plants like Hydrangeas, Knockout Roses and Azaleas, as well as cut back and clean up the existing yard.  The back porch has been our favorite place to relax in the warm afternoons.  I have been known to read my Nook while Emily naps each afternoon enjoying the outdoors as long as we can.

You wouldn't know from my above ranting about the beautiful weather that I have been dealing with some really horrible allergies these last few weeks as well.  It's our 2nd year down here in the South and I was literally surprised to wake up one morning feeling like I was going to die from my allergies.  I got right on the new Allegra craze and suffered through a week of going through kleenex box after box while in an allergy daze.  Even poor Emily had to be put on toddler Allegra because her little red eyes and running nose was too much to bear.  BUT, the pollen snows of the April spring are subsiding now and we are more than ready to be well!

I'll end my post by telling you all about our recent fun activity.  The time is perfect here in GA for the strawberries and we indulged these last few weeks stocking up.  We went out to Adam's Farms, in Fayetteville, GA, and picked buckets full! 

I found that going out into the sweet smelling strawberry field on a nice cool morning seemed to sum up spring for all the senses.  They were so red and all screamed take me home!

These strawberries are the most beautiful and sweet things in the world!  Even better is that these guys are only $1.72 or so a lbs. and we went to town pickin' em'. 

We took over 25 lbs. of them home that day and cleaned and froze the whole load to save for summer indulging!  (Well...we did use a small amount that night though to make a fabulous batch of strawberry shortcake.)  Teresa and I laughed because later that day Emily got up from her nap and came down to find the whole kitchen counter full of washed and drying strawberries.  She was so excited and demanded a snack of them.  She continued to steal strawberries all afternoon from the counter as she ran around.

If you have a local farm or farmer's market near by, I highly suggest you go out and indulge in the locally grown treasure!  In a few weeks Adam's Farm will have blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries to pick and take home.  Can you say Blueberry Cobbler! ;)

Adorable Applique!

    I spent this past rainy weekend sewing another project.  I decided to try my hand at some applique.   I found a great link on the Cottage Momma's blog - The Cottage Home.  She was making appliqued onesies as part of a baby gift and they were so sweet.  Of course, her project had a little more detail than mine with frills and ribbons etc., but I used the general steps she had to create an easier 1st time project for myself.  I had left over fabric from the burp cloths and I found some more that would match my design ideas.  I used 2 different brands and sizes of the onsies, and ended up liking the Circo brand ones I picked up Target best.  They were not as stretchy as the Gerber brand, so they were easier to sew.  I also found a great new tool for sewing - fusible interfacing!  I love this stuff!  While I was using it I had like a million ideas for its future use in T-shirts, aprons, tote bags...great stuff! 

These cuties are going to go with the burp cloths I made a few weeks back.  They are for a boy and I had fun using more blues and boy themed fabrics.  I'm sure if the recipient reads my blog she will now know what is coming her way for their lil' guy, but hopefully she will appreciate its handmade! :)

    This is a joint gift and my MIL Teresa also made something to go with the bundle.  She found some new deliciously soft yarn and decided to knit him a newborn blanket.  It is in some fun bright colors and is so cute.  Maybe I can get her to knit me a blankie from this yarn too!  :)

Photogenic Savannah

Sorry no posts for a while...I've been finding myself pretty busy.  I enjoyed a wonderful weekend trip away with my husband to Savannah.  We had been wanting to visit since before we moved down here and finally found the time to go.  We enjoyed tours, good food, beautiful spring colors and weather, as well as some shopping!  While there I found some exciting crafty shops, but I will go into those in a soon to come blog.
I enjoyed taking photos around Savannah.  It was so photogenic for a city with ornate homes, colorful squares, and haunting trees!  One place we made a stop at was Bonaventure Cemetery that was in the book "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil".  We also were out to Tybee Island for part of a day. I played with photos and the editing once I got home.  Below are my favorite photos from our trip!  Enjoy!

Weekend Craftiness!

So a little catch-up from my weekend past...

I found some new fabric at Joanne Fabric.  I had to take a trip since it was coupon madness and I did have a mad amount of coupons to use on sewing supplies. I found some great patterns, some of which have already become a new pillowcase for Emily (I'll post more on that later), and the others I will find something to do with them.  I especially love the cherries print! I ordered a few sewing books that should be coming soon and I want to find something in there a little more complicated to try.

I also enjoyed the weather this past weekend.  I ran around with my daughter in the back yard and played a little with the camera.  She is always so photogenic and I could take millions of pictures of her. 

My husband was crafty in his own way.  He made some of his famous ribs and BBQ sauce.  YUM!





 Lastly, my in-laws were also crafting it up.  My father-in-law has been making a beautiful small wooden rocking chair in his shop for weekends now.  Photos of that to come once it's finished.  My mother-in-law finished her re-furbishing project.  She recently picked up an old sewing basket at an antique shop and repainted it.  She now embroidered a design from Aimee Ray's book Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection onto fabric which she cushioned and affixed to the top.  I love the colorful design and the lacy rick-rack she lined it with.  Well done Teresa!  :)