A Few of our Projects

Remember my love for burlap... well I keep finding more and more ways to use it around my house... look what I put together this week.  I originally was going to use these frames for a project I found on pinterest but of course... my clumsy self broke the glass in the frame. I am glad I didnt just throw it away... this is so cute! I am thinking of attaching soemthing to this maybe a white fabric heart in the middle... maybe with something stitched into the heart... like M + L... hmmm that sounds cute... maybe I will have to sleep on it! Anyway here are some pictures I took of my burlap cuteness

Look at these cute little flowers... I just love them...

Now for the more serious project in out home right now! For the past year or so we have been in the process of making a laundry and bathroom in the back part of our garage. We already had a laundry area there,,, you know... washer and dryer on the cold dirty cement with bugs and all sorts of nasty things creeping around... anyway we had a friend come and frame up the whole space, raised up the floor and gave us a general feel of how the whole area would be, we waited to frame up the interior walls that would divide the bathroom from the laundry area and the hallway because I had no idea how I wanted things to be arranged, where plumbing and electrical would go etc...

Last week we had the actual rooms framed in.. I am so excited! We are a LONG way from finishing this space but It is so fun seeing the project moving along!

This is taken from where the door we use to enter our garage off our dining room is... when finished the door will be taken off and there will be a hallway off our dining room. The room on the right is the new bathroom with a pocket door to save space. On the other side of the bathroom is the laundry room, We decided that it would make more sense to jsut leave that room open, no doors that way it will feel bigger. Plus it will serve as a storage space and our pantry will be in there.

This is a view from the other side... that door goes into our dining room.

Don't judge... it is a disgusting mess, I know... but it is a work in progress. There will be a storage cubby unit above the washer and dryer, and cabinetry filling the rest of the space. Hallelujah for storage!

Now were looking into the bathroom through its doorway.. to the left will be a floor to ceiling cupboard for linens. the vanity will also be on that wall, the toilet will be on the other side of the window ( when you're looking at this pic it will be on the right) and then a tub will also be along that wall ( I am hoping for a vintage claw foot tub) :)

This is taken from where the vanity will be... where the shoe storage thing is that will be where my amazing and beautiful tub will be. I cant wait to say goodbye to this mess! Just look at the ridiculous pantry we have...

I am so thankful for my husband who has such a neat vision for how this space will be, he is such a wonderful man... and so good to me! I love you Micah!

I Love to bake!!!

Everyone who knows me knows that I love to bake... seriously love it! lately I have been a lot more adventurous  and trying new things like breads and different types of meals, thanks in huge part to pinterest! Last week my sweet boys were going on and on about how they wanted a doughnut from our favorite doughnut store, as most moms with more than one child know it is extremely stressful to take two kids into the grocery store by myself, seriously my stress level goes thru the roof! I turn into a stressed, and not very nice mommy! Instead of going to the doughnut store ( as its called in our house) I decided it may be fun to try and make their favorite treats at home. I found a recipe for cake doughnuts on -line and the fun began...  I even had a very important helper...

Noah saying "cheese"

Noah making his " gross face"

Noah helped cut out the inside holes in the doughnuts, we used a pop bottle because I didn't have a small enough cutter. It worked perfectly, and actually it was easier for Noah to help

a bit of an "artsy" shot

the dough before Noah cut his holes

look at these sweet babies... just waiting to be fried into a delicious treat

There they go...

yum... good thing I prefer the yeast doughnuts over the cake ones... this would be a terrible thing for my waist line...

A Little bit of Randomness

I have for you a post filled with all of the randomness that we have been up to... trust me it is TOTALLY random! Valentines Day was so wonderful! Micah got to pick whatever he wanted me to cook, and I was totally excited thinking that he would pick something new for me to try... but of course, of all things he picked tacos! Random, I know! He worked late that day so we had a late dinner, poor guy was so tired from his long day. Then he gave me my gift... anyone heard of Pajama gram??? Well let me just say that it is the coolest gift ever! It came in this cute box and had two pairs of PJ's in it. He is so thoughtful! I love him so...

I have had some old stained ratty throw pillows sitting in my garage for what seems like years, I have been wanting to make slipcovers for them so that way  I could take them off and throw them in the wash whenever one of my kids gets something gross on them ( pretty much happens every day)

I finally got around to doing it and they were so easy!

I found this fabric at the thrift store for .99! There was like 2 yards of it! Score!!!!!

This fabric was found in my mother in laws sewing room, she had used it and had just enough left for me to use! Thank you Sherry, it is PERFECT in our home!

I think they work well together, don't you?

This is how I found my baby Joshua the other night... he is such a silly boy!

Love of my Life...

I am sure like most every woman on the planet that Valentines day is one of my favorite days of the year. It is usually nothing special in our home just a nice meal and time together... we usually don't even have the money to go out... but I love it just the way it is. I am also sure, like most women that I sometimes tend to get carried away with the whole romance of it all... our culture puts so much emphasis on romance and passion and yadda yadda yadda... This usually leads to a major let down when I don't feel like my husband really cares because he doesn't surprise me with some giant romantic gesture like an airplane writing a message in the sky.. no of course I don't remember that every morning he makes coffee for me before he goes to work, or that I will come home from my zumba class to a clean kitchen, or that he has made a habit of leaving me simple love notes ( I especially love that one)

This year, year 7 has been the hardest for us, but it in some ways has been the best. God has used the hard times to grow us closer to him and closer to each other. I love Micah more than ever, he is a good man, husband and father. My love for him is completely unconditional, not based on how I feel but on a promise I made to him. He is the only one for me and  I feel lucky to be his wife. I hope this valentines day he knows how much I love him.

Above are seriously just a few of the letters Micah has written to me over our 10 years together... remember for two of those years he was away in California in college so alot of our communication was via letter writing... its such a shame that more people don't write these days,  i will cherish these letters for the rest of my life... they tell our love story. Gosh I remember how excited i would be when the mail would come and I would see a letter from him... I seriously got butterflies...I love him so much! I plan on going thru some of the boxes in our garage, I am sure there are tons more letters in there! Maybe I will put them in a book, although I kind of like them all tied together like this. 

In the words of one of my favorite songs lately... " I don't want the whole world, the sun and moon and all its light... I just want to be the only girl, you love all your life..." 

I now that I am the only girl he will love all of the rest of his life...

Happy Valentines Day!

For my heart mommy friend...

I vividly remember when the Melum family started attending our church. We were still meeting in the gym of an elementary school nearby. I remember someone, I'm not sure if it was our pastor during the service or if it was someone else during Sunday school, anyway someone told us that Eli had had to under go open heart surgery, ( he was seriously just a few days/ or weeks old.) Obviously I don't remember all of the details vividly but I remember exactly how I was feeling. I was so scared for this precious little baby and his family. I couldn't imagine how terrified his mommy and daddy must be. To have this precious new life that you have waited to meet finally here with you, and then the unthinkable... Your sweet baby had something terribly wrong. All we could do as a church family was pray for them. Pray for the doctors and especially for little Eli. I honestly know very little about what Eli suffers from.. He has congenital heart disease. I am inspired by women who deal with things like eli's mommy has delt with, they are in a position where they can do nothing but cling to the promises of god, for he alone is the great physician. Yesterday Angela gave me a little gift with one little job attached to it... To share on my blog. Here are some things I learned about Chd from angela's gift. Congenital heart disease is a defect of the heart muscle 2 million Americans are living with Chd Each year 40,000 more US babies are born with Chd... 8,000 of them won't live to see their first birthday Here is the big one for me... Chd is the most common and most lethal birth defect world wide! Thank you Angela, Jenn, and all of the moms out there that deal with illnesses with your children... I can't imagine what you go through on a daily basis. You are an encouragement to all of us.

My Sweet Boys

I love these two so very much! I couldn't believe I caught them actually being nice to each other! This was a rare moment in our home! They were cuddled up on my comfy chair watching a movie.. sweet brothers...

Valentines around our home...

This year Noah picked Kung Fu Panda for the valentines he was going to give to his friends at school... he was so excited! he picked a special card for each one of his friends... of course I could only get him to write his name on a few!

This is totally blurry but I had to share... look at those blue eyes! He has Mommy's eyes for sure!

My centerpiece for valentines season on my table... I just love ... love!

one of the hearts hanging from the branches!

Valentines banquet

 Every year our church has a valentines banquet... well this year my dear friend Jennie was putting the event on and she was so sweet and let me help her! As you know I love to create and be crafty... so of course I asked if I could do the decor for the event. I instantly had an idea I wanted to do and was so excited about... then about a week later I got another idea... even better and I could NOT get it out of my head! I was really hoping Jennie would let me change the decor and that she liked my new idea... She DID! Thank you Jennie for putting up with my sometimes crazy creativity... it always comes together even if I sound crazy. If people could only see what goes on inside my head... its a web of crazy I tell you! Anyway, of course since I was helping run the event and I cooked ( successfully made soup for 80!) I didn't get many pictures... I did manage to get a few so I will share them!

 Remember that beautiful burlap I shared with you all last week... well that was my inspiration for the centerpieces! I didn't want to share the finished product until after the banquet. They turned out so much better than I thought... I used some really tall branches which made quite a statement! I also got my design idea from the logo that my husband made for the event... It was a tree that had hearts where there was supposed to be leaves... I like to make things very theme-y when doing something like this. everything has to be unified in my mind... well not all of the time, but especially when doing big events like this

 We had name cards for everyone... I love anything made with sheet music!

 This was actually my original theme... I was going to make one of these frames for each table and at the end of the night they could duke it out to see which one they got to take home. I still got to make them... just not quite as many... I made a few that we gave away as prizes for the games we played. Can you believe that I didn't get around to making one for myself... ridiculous! I guess I have another project!

 here is a closeup of the heart embellishments on the branches... let me tell you... waaaaayyyyyyy more work than I thought it would be. It was well worth it tho.

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Our theme was Unfailing Love... 

It was a great night, and it went perfectly... Thank you Jennie for letting me help!

Valentines Day Craftiness...

Anyone who knows me  knows that I love to be crafty! I love to create, decorate, do anything that makes things beautiful. Life is too short to look at boring decor... I love to change things up a bit, to do things a little differently. Usually I am very happy with the results, even if my hubby gives me a strange look when I try to describe my vision. The past few weeks I have been working on some decor for our Church Valentines Banquet which will take place next week. I will share the end result once the event is over, but here is a taste of what I have been playing with.

While figuring what look I wanted to go with I discovered something very important. I have a feeling this is going to play a huge role in my life from here on out. I am forever changed. As I wandered thru the aisles at my local Joann's... ( boy I could spend hours... and tons of money there) I came to the realization that I LOVE BURLAP!  It's simplicity is beautiful... by adding simple touches it can become something beautiful... although like I said it is already beautiful. I have so many plans for this wonderful product... I cant wait! My only complaint is that it frays too easily, will someone please discover a burlap that doesn't fray... pretty please!