Bathing Cuties

Finished Object.... Tuesday?? Ok, so I'm a leeetle late. 

As soon as I saw Jenny's  adorable bathroom art, I knew I had to make some of my own! I get that reaction with pretty much everything she posts.... Some people just get all the creativity and talent, I tell ya. 

(Hi, Jenny!) 

So, I got out the trusty camera, and took a few shots of my little guys.

They needed a bath anyway. 

Shoot, little boys *always* need a bath...

 They actually cooperated reasonably well. For once. 

(For some reason this one makes me think of a

 fabric softener ad - LOL!)

 I found me some cheap black frames for them, and hung them up in the guys' bathroom, which also happens to be the laundry room.

What could be easier than that?! Thanks for another brilliant idea, Jenny!

Linking up with Chari's Finished Object Friday.  ;)

The little monkey is ONE!

 It's SO hard to believe my little guy is already a year old! 

Thank you Jeannie for the ADORABLE birthday shirt and the darling little party hat! We tried absolutely everything to get a piccy of him in the hat. They *all* looked exactly like this:

So he's not into hats, obviously. 

At one point he yanked it off his head and crammed it onto the monkey's head and then gave us a "take that" kind of look.

He has definitely developed some rather strong opinions in his first year. 

 I think this age is my favorite! He's so much fun. Yes, he's into *everything* and you can't leave him alone for even a split second... but it's still my favorite. It's so fun to watch him learn new things, try to do things for himself, hearing all those first words, and watching that little personalty shine through. He's no longer a little helpless newborn, but a miniature little person with his own personality. He provides a huge amount of entertainment around the old parsonage!

 On the day of his party, the weather decided to climb up to a scorching 101 degrees. Let me just tell ya, that's not exactly good for cakes. Before very long it starting to lean toward the left, so we had to hurry up and eat it!

  It *would* have been a very fun cake to make, had my heating element not decided to conk out right in the middle of it! Out of desperation, I ended up cooking the smaller round layers in my toaster oven, and I don't recommend it. It actually tasted just fine, in spite of it all. 

 He had a hay day with that smash cake. I think he liked the smashing more than the eating! 

We ended up hosing him down with the water hose when he was all done and putting him in his swimming pool. ;)

Happy Birthday little monkey, Mommy loves you!

 

The Ugly Lamp Blues

Yep - it's another lamp redo! 

I had some pitiful little scrawny candlestick style lamps in the living room, and I've been wanting something a bit chunkier, but didn't want to bust the budget. That always kinda limits the options, don't it?! Thank the Good Lord for the Thrift Store - It came through for me again! I found a matching pair of these ugly country blue numbers for a decent price. Bless their hearts, they even threw in the bulbs! What a deal.

I thought maybe I could resurrect them with a good healthy dose of white paint. Well wadda ya know, it worked! 

Score! 

Now I just need to find enough time to finish the other one...

Linking up with Chari's Finished Object Friday!

Happy Weekend Y'all =)

Virtual Makeover

I recently met a new friend and fellow blogger, Jeannie, and she asked me for some decorating advice. I was only too happy to take on a decorating challenge! She is in a temporary home, so she didn't want to spend a ton of money, but she wanted to make it pretty until they build their new home in the future. I said bring it on. She emailed me some pics of her bedroom, and I put together a few idea boards on polyvore to give her some fresh ideas. Here's her current bedroom.

One thing going for her, is she has really awesome furniture already. All she needs is some paint and a few carefully selected accessories. 

 I virtually made over her room using gray blue wall colors, and lots of white and tan accessories to brighten things up.

 Then when I found out she liked red and aqua, I put together a second option just for fun, using some red and aqua trimmings. I kinda dig those colors myself . So fun!

Her headboard is really tall, which doesn't leave room over the top of the bed for much decor. So my suggestion was to get a $5 wall mirror from Walmart, turn it sideways, and make a fun bunting to hang on it. Cheap and easy!

And then here's the other side of her bedroom. Isn't that just the coolest dresser??

I tried to come up with some inexpensive ways to makeover the space. It's amazing the difference paint colors, and lighter curtains can make! Just a few simple changes can make a big difference, and she won't bust her budget in the process. She's already been finding things at thrift shops and garage sales to repurpose for her new room. I can't wait to see what she comes up with!

 In exchange for my decorating advice, she made some ADORABLE shirts for my 3 little guys. I told her I definitely got the best end of the bargain! 

Aren't they the cutest things? 

She also made this houndstooth shirt for Weston. I just love it! Duh. You know how much I love me some houndstooth! 

By the way....Weston is now 11 months old - this was last months piccy. I can. not. believe. he's about to be ONE! Where has the time gone...

It's been a very fun "business" deal, and I'm looking forward to helping her out with some other areas of her home, too! 

Bring on Sweet Summer Time!

The Easter egg decor just wasn't cutting it anymore. Yeah...I'm thinking it was time to update things a little bit! And loving summer time like I do, I was excited to bring in a touch of summer. 

Nothing says summer like some sand and seashells.

 Love 'em love 'em!

Some sweet beachy photos were the finishing touch. I had to bring the beach to the parsonage since that's probably as close to the white sandy shore as I'll get this year.  

Happy Summer Y'all!

Master Bedroom Updates...

I've been doing a little tinkering in the master bedroom trying to update it smidge. 

I looked high and low for some pillows. I didn't really want gray, but not too blue either. I was looking for something like the wall color, and was really hoping to find something stripey. 

Then it hit me. Why not just *use* the wall color? Why not make some white pillows and paint those babies?! So that's what I did. Dug out some leftover wall paint, taped on some stripes, and brushed it on there. Easy peasy! They're a touch crunchy, but they're just up there to look at anyway, it's not like we actually use them. So it's all good. 

The next project was to make a burlap and linen banner to go over the over the bed. That was a super quick and easy project and I love how it turned out! The no sew part made it really good. I just cut out triangles, and hot glued them onto some twine. My crafting is pretty willy nilly - I didn't even measure anything. 

The preacher spotted these old doors sometime ago, and drug them home, making me very very happy. I roughed up 2 of them and propped them up in the corners of the room like so. Yes, I really need some bigger wreaths, those look kinda silly, don't they?! 

I'm linking up with Chari's Finished Object Friday!

Brick by Brick...

Little by little, we're getting the old parsonage all slicked up!

  Our latest project was to tackle the old crumbling (and slightly hazardous) sidewalk pavers and build a new brick sidewalk. Sound like fun? It sounded pretty easy...

But it took a lot longer than we'd anticipated!

First, to dig up all the old pavers...

 And make sure to get you some good help!

(Actually, I believe the only time they touched the shovels was to pose for the piccy. Good help is just so hard to find these days...)

 This little guy was the official sand taste tester. He thought it was good. He "helped" Daddy lay all those bricks!

Tada!

SO much better!

I think it's beautiful, especially considering this was the preacher's first shot at brick laying. I'm seriously starting to wonder if there's anything he couldn't do ;) With Google and a little ambition, we've learned how to do all sorts of things!

 I thought I'd throw in the waaaay back there before pic, just to encourage myself with how far things have come...

 It really has come a long way, baby!

Spring!

WooHoo!!! It looks like old man winter is gone for good. That t-totally fills up my happy tank. These beautiful warm days have inspired me to (finally...) take down the Valentine's decor (Ouch!) and spread some Springtime! 

Of course, Pinterest helped get me going, too. I swiped some dogwood branches from my Mom's tree, and those blooms lasted exactly one day. (I'm pretty sure I've told you about my black thumb of death. It hasn't changed any.) I plan to glue on some faux blooms now that these have all died. 

I used this tutorial to make some cute Robin eggs from plastic Easter eggs. Fun project! Cheap too.

I added some springy touches in the kitchen and dining room...

 And I've always wanted to try growing some wheat grass, so I sweet talked the preacher into making me this  super cool box. It's perfect!  I got some inspiration from this pin.

This piccy was taken about 6 days after I planted the seeds. That stuff is fast! So far, this is the only thing I've not killed, so I'm now all about wheat grass! It is SO my friend.

The big news at the Parsonage is, the little man is now on the move. Which means, so are all the rest of us ;) Life has just gotten even more interesting!

He's growing up so fast. So hard to believe he'll be 9 months old this week!