Family Pictures

Since our oldest child was born we have always gone to the photography studios that supplied instant gratification! We schedule an appointment, take some pictures and walk out 1 hour later with photos in hand to disperse to various family members.
A family friend recently started doing photography and I was so excited to try her out. Though it was nice in the past to have pictures taken and receive the prints the same afternoon, I was tired of the same old poses and backgrounds. Our family friend was willing to meet us anywhere we chose to do outdoor shots. We chose a local park, where the kids could run around and play. Though it took us about 2 hours to get all of the shots that we wanted, it was a lot less stressful for me not having to hold the kids down screaming and crying to take a picture in a blank white room. Without further adieu, here are our family portraits all courtesy of Lynn at Portraits by Lynn.

A totally impromptu moment where Reese grabbed Aidan in a big hug!


Randy and I looking at each other with googly eyes.


Family portrait


Love, love, love this one!


Pretty as a princess.


My handsome little prince.


There are so many more, I don't know how I am ever going to choose!

Freebie dresser and a fail

We have had my cheapie college dresser in Reese's room since she was born. It was a perfect fit flanked by several matching shelves to give her open closet a built in look. A little girls dream closet!

When we moved into our current house, the dresser was really starting to fall apart (I don't know why, it was only 8 years old!). Though we had glued and screwed it back together, the drawer fronts continued to pull off when you opened the drawer.
I had been trolling Craigslist and found a white Ikea Hemnes 8 drawer dresser listed for $100. It was too good to be true! Even though I contacted the seller immediately, I never heard back. Unfortunately, someone must have beat me to it!

Recently, my neighbor asked if I knew anyone that would be interested in a dresser. She was trying to clean out her garage and she was willing to give it away to get rid of it. I jumped on the opportunity and snatched it right up. I cleaned it up and drug it upstairs to my daughter's room. It fits perfectly on the wall by her closet and provides so much more storage.

My neighbor thought that I should paint it, but the chips in the paint add to the shabby chic feel that goes perfectly with the rest of the furniture in the room. I do plan to add some different pulls eventually, hopefully some dainty glass knobs to dress it up a little bit.

The old dresser found a new home hidden in her closet. It houses clothing that is out of season and therefore is not used as much.

I had added some cork board to the changing table/dresser in my daughter's room to make it functional for displaying artwork.

Unfortunately, the adhesive included with the cork board was not strong enough and the cork fell of within a few days. I reattached the cork using an adhesive spray that I had on hand and again, the cork fell of within a few days. I have not gotten around to replacing the cork, but hopefully some gorilla glue or other adhesive will be effective in keeping it in place because it is looking pretty ugly now!


On a positive note, roofing and siding has started on our house and we should be ready for a reveal in about 2 weeks! It is looking so good, I cannot wait to share!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

Things sure have been busy in our neck of the woods, and they are not about to slow down, even after the 4th of July holiday weekend. In the past two weeks I have worked on several small projects between spending lots of time with my family. You might want to have a snack or something to drink, this could be a long one!

I put our summer to do list up on our chalkboard (like Andi's from Jane of all Crafts) so that we could keep track of all of the things that we want to do/have done this summer. Since I am able to stay home during the summer months I want to spend some quality time doing things with the kids that we usually don't have time/don't make time for. The items on our list are also great opportunities for learning about and exploring our surroundings. The John Deere Expo in Moline, IL was a huge hit with the kids! They spent about an hour climbing on and off of all of the tractors on display. It was the perfect activity for a rainy day because most of the tractor models are displayed indoors and it is completely free, unless you walk into the gift shop full of toy tractors and John Deere paraphernalia.

We also purchased a membership to and visited our local zoo for the first time.


The vinyl that I purchased for my living room photo wall was a complete fail. The vinyl did not stick well at all on our textured walls. I was able to save the quote by covering over it with mod podge. The decorative scrolls simply kept falling off of the wall even with the addition of mod podge. So I attached the vinyl to a paper shopping bag and cut it out using a craft knife. I then traced the shape onto the wall and hand painted the scrolls.



After fixing the vinyl in the living room, we did a little bit of relaxing by the pool.


We are so fortunate that my in-laws have a pool in their backyard. It is so convenient and nice to have a private quiet place to cool off and relax without fighting the crowds.

After a refreshing swim, I worked on updating our kitchen by giving several items a coat of glossy black spray paint. We received the spice rack, knife block, cup holder, paper towel holder and utensil container for our wedding almost a decade ago.


I was tired of the wood tones and decided to paint them all black.



Did you see all of those little white plastic squares on my kitchen countertops? No they are not the latest kitchen design trend, rather they are to try to control a little problem that we have in our house every summer: ANTS! No matter how obsessively I clean and try to keep the kids eating and drinking only at the table, we have had a problem with ants both of the years we have lived in this house. Our neighbor recommended a pest control company which I called and had do a fumigation. Unfortunately, the fumigation was not as effective as I would have hoped. They told me in advance that ants come in the house to find a dry enviroment, but it has not rained here in about 2 weeks. Do any of you have any ideas for getting rid of ants?

During the weekend of the 4th of July, we spent a lot of time on the good ol' muddy Mississppi. We have had about as many boats as we have had houses, but since purchasing our pontoon boat, we have spent even more time on the river and especially at the local beach.




Finally, I created button bracelets for my daughter and I, using buttons that I had on hand.

The buttons are simply sewn onto a piece of elastic. The possibilities for these are absolutely endless!

Whew! I am tired, but I just realized today that school supplies are filling the store shelves, which means that summer is coming to a close. I only have about 6 weeks left to enjoy being a stay at home mommy before going back to work for the school year. So there will be no rest for the weary and we will be hitting the to do list hard and creating lots of fun family memories!

Guest Blogging

I am over at HOH today guest blogging while Allison and her family are taking a crazy long road trip! My husband and I about divorced after a family trip from Iowa to Florida with a 1 & 2 year old last year, so staycations are the way to go for us, at least a little while longer!

I am so thankful to Allison for allowing me to show off a few of my crafty undertakings. While I created my blog to chronicle all of the changes that we made to our current (and hopefully last) home, I have lots of interests and hobbies besides home decor. Some of these things, such as photography, beading and sewing make it onto my blog on occassion.

I hope that you will take some time to check out Allison's wonderful blog while you are there! Thanks for taking the time to stop by!

Rainy Day Project- Edible Playdough

Do your kids love playdough? Do they also love to eat it? Maybe that is just my kids then! Guess that doesn't say much about my cooking!
Well, with black clouds covering the sky this morning, I knew that it would be a perfect day for playing inside with playdough. What could be better than playing with playdough? How about making your own and having it be edible?

All you need for edible playdough is peanut butter, honey, powdered milk and cocoa. My recipe, which I stole from my mom (we used to make it as kids), did not have any measurements, so please bear with my guesstimates. I put about 1 cup of peanut butter in a large bowl. Then added 1 teaspoon of honey. Finally, stir in small amounts of powdered milk until the peanut butter becomes doughy and less sticky. You can add cocoa to taste for a chocolate flavor, but I did not find this step necessary as the kids enjoyed the peanut butter taste.

Then get out some placemats and utensils and start creating!


The playdough was still a but sticky and stuck to the kids hands! Even better for licking and tasting that yummy peanut butter dough I say!

When we were finished, I put the leftovers in the refrigerator. Because the kids are playing with it with their hands, I would not keep it for more than a day or two. I also would not use it with the tools and accessories that they use with their real playdough!
Hopefully, I have not further confused my kids (or anyone elses') as far as not eating playdough and not playing with your food! Enjoy your next rainy day!

Holy mustard walls batman!

Our dining room was a neutral khaki/tan color when we moved in and was not high on my priority list for paint. That hunter green carpet though, that was one of the first things on my to-do list. Can you blame me?

I found some valances on clearance at JCPenney before we moved in that I thought looked very Tuscan/Italian with red, green and gold stripes. The fruit themed decor that I had accumulated over the years also fit the Tuscan/Italian theme with the rich jewel tones.

I had planned on painting the room a golden yellow like that found in my valances and dining room decor. Well, on a recent trip to WalMart, I found a gallon of oops paint in a beautiful mustard yellow that I thought would be perfect for the dining room. I wasn't sure what my husband would think, so I left it and a quart of 1/2 price chalkboard paint behind. A few days later, I could not get the paint out of my mind and returned to the store. I was so excited to see that the mustard paint was still there, but alas, somebody had snatched up the chalkboard paint. My husband was not digging the mustard color, but I assured him that it would be fine. At $7.50 for the gallon, the worst thing that would happen would be that I would have to repaint the room if we didn't like it.
I finally got to painting the dining room the other night and the difference is incredible. The mustard color really accentuates the beautiful color of the wood trim, floors and furniture. It makes the room feel so cozy and warm.



Replacing the tile in the fireplace surround has also been on my to do list, but with the new paint it seems to blend so much better.

The paint does seem a bit bright and is kind of overwhelming on all four walls! I am thinking about doing a wash or a faux painting technique to give the walls more of a weathered look like the walls of a Tuscan villa. For now though, I am ecstatic to have banished another neutralized room for something that better fits our style!

Duct tape and diaper wipes wallet

While cleaning out my beach bag recently, I found an empty plastic diaper wipes case. I was about to throw it away when I thought that it could make a cute wallet!


I have been dying to find a use for the zebra print duct tape since Allison from House of Hepworths showed off the adorable storage containers she made for her daughters room.
I ran straight to my local WalMart and purchased a roll of the zebra print duct tape. First I cut out a piece of paper to cover up the Huggies label. Then I simply cut strips long enough to go across the case lengthwise and fold under the edge, overlapping them slightly. When finished with the outside, I used some black electrical tape on the inside to cover up the uneven edges of the zebra tape. I also inserted a ribbon for a closure as the tape prevented the case from closing completely.


My 4 year old daughter saw the wallet and immediately wanted it for her own! My husband on the other hand, had this to say, "Congratulations, you are now the owner of a duct tape, diaper case wallet."


I think that it looks cute with my purse and therefore I like it!

I am linking this project to Hooking up with HOH.