flee market creation

 

Last weekend there was a small flee market in town.  I found a few great things and this old, empty window frame was one of them. I scored it for $10! oh ya I knew that I wanted to make it into a bulletin board for our office.  I have seen similar things in Pottery Barn and such for upwards of $150 dollars! What!?!

 

Our Walmart carries a 4 pack of 12 X 12 cork tiles (Surprisingly it is hard to find cork board loose; as in not already made into a bulletin board)  I started by cutting out a thick poster board to the size I needed to cover the back of the window.  Then using spray adhesive I glued the pieces of cork board to the poster board, cutting (not prettily I might add) the cork to fit. 

Note: It didn't matter how the cork looked because it was going to be covered any way!

Last I bought burlap at my local fabric store and covered the cork board using a staple gun, (Thanks A... he did that part) and then attached a metal wire across the back to be able to hand it.

Ta Da!  I love it!  Anna informed me that it was ugly and we needed to paint it. I explained to her the reason it was love at first sight when I spotted her, was because of her old, rustic, peeling paint. Go figure!  

Grand total: $21.00

may

 May was such a wonderful month. It was Aaron's first full month after busy season and we are loving how much he is home.  He was home every night for dinner by 5:15, and off by noon every Friday. Heaven!  The weather has been slowly... very slowly warming up.  It is funny when 60 degrees feels so warm.  We've been able to spend more and more time outside which has been great.  Aaron build the dog a great dog house for outside and I found this gem, written by Anna, near it.  The ironic thing is that she really is a stinker of a dog.  

I'm trying to like her. (The dog that is)

 With the arrival of warmer weather came the much anticipated garden.  I have been so anxious to get started as I love to garden and be outdoors, and we've never lived in a place where we had the space.  Aaron thought the garden was a little big but... bring it! We planted potatoes, corn, beans, peas, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, chives, basil, cilantro and the most highly anticipated .... RASPBERRIES!  I can't begin to tell you how excited I am to be able to go out to my backyard and pick fresh raspberries.  We also planted about 45 lilac bushed along our back fence. They are going to look and smell beautiful!

 Mom came down to help out

 Brooklyn had a field trip to the local zoo for Preschool and Carter and I decided to tag along.  The zoo was tiny compared to the Columbus and Portland zoo we are used to, but what can you expect in a smaller town. We still had a great time and enjoyed the Sunshine.

 Carter and Clark; of coarse Clark had to come along. Brooklyn said he liked the Monkey exhibit the best..... naturally

 Brooklyn and her pal Ava

 May also brought Brooklyn's preschool graduation and end of the year play. She was a narrator in the "Little Red Hen," and did great. She insisted on having her hair curled and was just adorable.  One of the best parts was that even though it was in the morning, dad was able to come. Another perk of the job here!

 Brooklyn and Mrs. D

On Monday we decided to take a pre-family night walk because it was such a gorgeous night. 

 Our neighbors have these adorable miniature ponies named Spirit and Buster.  Their owners said we could come over any time and feed them Carrots so that's what we do!  The girls were a bit apprehensive at first about feeding them but caught on quickly.

 Look at those teeth.

The owners of the ponies have this amazing barn they restored. I wish I could say that it was ours.  I love where we live. There are things about a big city I'll always miss but I love living in a place where people still wave when you drive by, and the kids can run in the open space and see moose and wild turkey when you are driving to church.  Did I mention we have a guest room?

the digs

The kitchen...and the mama! 

We had so many help us get our house ready to move in.  We decided to paint everything (Except the bathrooms) before we moved in. I have never really painted before but boy, it was not fun. We had Aaron and I, Alain, Gary and Lynette (in-laws), mom, and Jenn my sister in-law helping watch kids. We painted pretty much for two days straight. I am so glad though that we decided to paint.  The color before was a mushroom-y color with pink undertones.

Yuck!

We painted a color called Autumn Haze and I love it.  It is bright and beaufiul and looks great contrasted with white.

This is in the basement.  We tried to have the girls at the house as little as possible because they were to eager to "help."  Aaron designated one small spot where they were allowed to help paint.  My sweet mother in law spend hours cutting in pretty much the entire house.  She is amazing!

You can see the difference in the paint there

This is the family room that you see when you walk in the front door. The stairs are on the left to go down to the basement.  It isn't a huge space and we are planning on getting a sofa, chair and ottoman to fill this space soon. Right now our old sofa and love seat are up there and it is just a bit too crowded. They'll move downstairs when the new set arrives

(That is the before color) 

oh, I love to see a man multi-tasking!

Girls room before. Purple changed to a soft vanilla pink

My handy men, Alain and Gary. They worked so so long.

Carter's room was pink and changed to a grey/blue that matched his crib bedding.

This is our office that is just as you walk in the front door to the right. 

I can't believe that I am posting this picture.

Does an air mattress count as furniture?

Super fun dad set up a tent also.  The room is so large. I have no clue how I am going to divide it and make it into the most useful space I can.  Any ideas?

I love our mud room. It is off the garage and connects to a door that goes to the back yard.  We bought a new washer and dryer when we moved in and I love them. We got the H.E. Top loader and I couldn't be happier. After a lot of research they were a  much better for us than the front loader, which is what I thought I wanted. 

I also have big plans for this mudroom in the future. One is removing that bar and behind it putting one of these beauties

(pottery barn)

 Isn't it pretty?  (and functional I have to add, just for Aaron.)

I would also love to add bead board and a bench seat under the hooks. Good thing my man is so handy!

Behind this door just may be the most exciting thing in the house for me

 Are you ready? What could it be?

Wait for it....

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Ahhhhhh.... A cold storage/food storage room.

Did you hear angels sing? I did :)

A little lame that I am so excited over it but what can I say?

Here is Aaron's favorite part, even though it doesn't look very impressive in this shot.

An over-sized 3 car garage.

Woo-hoo. Those of you who don't live in snow country can't appreciate the awesome-ness of not having to clean off your car after a snow storm. Ahh, the little pleasures.

(We had just moved our stuff over from the storage unit)

I am a little hesitant to post these or anymore pictures because things still seem so chaotic and out of place. (There were a few nagging to see pictures..... ya, you know who you are :)

 When Aaron is finally done with busy season we'll really be able to dive into projects/decorating/organizing.  I'll post more "after" pictures when I feel more done!

I {heart} my backyard... and my cows!

ok ok.... they're not really my cows, but I love to watch them out my back window.  I love watching the farmer pull up and toss the bales of hay off to the herd. They all come mozy-ing over. I love it.  I heard from a neighbor that in the summer they can get a little noisy with their moo-ing but I don't care.

This picture gives a little better idea of how big our backyard is. We're on an acre and can't wait for Spring to utilize it to its full potential. I picture our garden, backyard BBQ's, slip and slides, pool playing, baseball hitting, volleyball playing, and just good old running around.

Now if this snow would just melt!