Mario and swords

Over Memorial Day weekend, we went with my family to the coast. One morning when I came down the stairs, this was my view. These kids love their gaming devices and Super Mario.
Notice, instead of a DS, Rusty has a sword. He brought that all the way from home. Todd told them to pack their own 'activity bags' which contained things like video games, pillows, stuffed animals, markers, coloring books; and apparently, for Rusty, a sword. You never know when you are going to need a sword.

Contractor Todd

Todd has built the girls a fabulous chicken coop. He has really upped his game with this coop that I might have him start to build me some furniture. He really did such a great job. It isn't totally finished, but the girls have been living in it for awhile and so far, no complaints.

Here is some artwork for the interior of the coop courtesy of Blynn and Rusty.

And look at how big the girls are getting.

You are making fun of me now, but wait until I bring you fresh eggs.

Hydrangea success

April

May

June

My mom gave this hydrangea to me for Mother's Day last year in one of those foil wrapped single bloom tubs from the grocery store. I love hydrangeas but they are very fragile in our hot climate. I researched this online and saw people saying that the foil wrapped hydrangeas won't grow beyond the bloom you got. I took that as a challenge. And with my fabulous compost and well chose location, I had a great result this year. This hydrangea brings me a lot of joy. Can you tell?

Our garden this year

Oh this is very exciting for me. I really like having a garden but have never been terribly successful. But I came across this book recommended by Todd's aunt who is the best gardener that I personally know. So my little dirt diggers and I went out to work this out in our space. Square Foot Gardening recommends 4x4 square foot raised beds, but we have this great planter bed that runs the full length of our house. When I was growing up, this planter had many rose bushes that my Grandma loved and tended to. About 5 of them are still there and I wonder how old they are. Anyway, instead of constructing something totally new, we just worked with what we already had. So this is the spot we chose. Notice, Todd is doing the majority of the work.

Here it is about a month later. Todd also built me a trellis for the climbers.

And another month later.

It is so pretty right now and we have already eaten yellow squash, herbs, carrots, and radish from our little garden. Every year, I feel like I get better at this.

Paint swatch sample artwork

This is not going to be the permanent resting place for this art work I made for Rusty's room, but I haven't figured out where the perfect place for it is yet.


My kids have a thing for getting paint cards when we go to the hardware stores. We've bought plenty of things from these stores so I go with it. I had purchased a ribba frame from Ikea and Todd modified it so I could hang it horizontally.


Then I printed out the letters in the font and size I needed, held it over the paint swatch and cut.

Then I mounted them on white card stock.

I tried to cut them towards the left of the swatch so you could see the names of the paint colors still.

And then I put them in the already cut matting that came with the ribba.

This project was so easy. And I like it. Now to find the perfect place for it.

A work in progress

I continue to work on Rusty's room. I still haven't quite gotten it converted from a nursery to a completed boy's room. There are so many things I'd still like to do, but this is what we have so far.

Ikea platform bed and expedits.

Please excuse the quality of this picture. The 'mother ship' landing outside the window makes my lighting adjustments difficult. But, nevertheless, look at the mid-century modern desk I scored from a great friend. For free! Well not really, because it meant that my friend was moving to the east coast, so the cost is the presence of my friend.

Here's a closer look. Are you jealous? You should be :)

And for the non modern side of the room. I like to blend styles. Not really, I just have to work with what I've got. But would you please look closely at the art.

Those are paint swatch samples. I'll post about those later. And another one of my recent projects is on Rusty's door.

So there you go. His room makes me very happy right now.

Rusty right now

Why do they insist on eating from the middle of the sandwich?

Man I like this picture. Rusty has been looking older to me lately. I think he may have had a growth spurt but I can't be bothered to actually measure him and see. He has also been a bit of a pill. Disobedient, likes to say 'no', energetic (which is just a word disguise for 'hyper'), intent on hurting his sisters feelings, cannot wear shorts with pockets. Apparently his skin has gotten very sensitive because, all of a sudden, pockets bother him. He likes those elastic waisted cotton borderline pajama shorts. I feel like my motto this summer is going to be, "choose your battles". Eating healthy is a battle worth arguing, but I don't feel like winning a battle over cargo shorts just because they would be nicer looking for church. Because I would really like to wear my yoga pants to church too. In fact, I think I will. I'll have to wear my dress yoga pants instead of my everyday yoga pants. (Yep, that's how you know you've arrived)

Do you see the ornery in that face?
I have decided that children are just the annoying characteristics of your spouse or yourself magnified in the form of a child. Sassy, stubborn, opinionated, clumsy, and mean spirited. I'll leave you to decide which of these are mine and which are Todd's.