Happy Memorial Day

We're heading into a three day weekend, for many this means bbq's, first camping trips of the season and afternoons at the beach. More than all that this is a time to remember and honor those who lost their lives fighting for our freedom. In honor of this day I wanted to share with you a picture of a couple of my favorite veterans, thank God these two came home alive.

My Uncle Frank and My Dad

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. While you're out and about please think about why you celebrate Memorial Day.

Rhododendrons on Steroids

As you know we spent a few days with my in-laws last week. Where they live they get plenty of rain and sunshine and I have a theory there's something in that rain! Something like steroids. I have always been amazed at how big the flowers get over on the west side of the mountains. We have plenty of Rhododendrons around here but they are never as big as they are in my in-laws neighborhood.

Did you know Rhododendron is Greek for "rose tree"? Now I get it, it's more of a tree than a small flowering shrub. I snapped a few pictures (Tall Man says I went crazy) of the beautiful flowers in my in-laws yard and around their neighborhood. Here are a few.

They are......GINORMOUS!!

And here are some close ups. (This is where I went a little crazy.)

Teacher Appreciation Note Pad

I borrowed this idea from How Does She? and I think it turned out great. My girls and I made these for their AWANA leaders as a thank you for their time and dedication.

Here's a list of what you'll need:
Ream of printer paper (About $4 at Staples, probably much less at Wal-Mart.)
Pens (Dollar Tree)
Markers (already had)
Curling Ribbon (already had)
Candy (a couple bags, around $5)

A local Kinko's or Office Supply store to "pad" the paper. (Cutting and padding cost about $6.00)
Total: $15.00 to make 3 gifts!!!


I picked up my paper at Staples and asked about having them cut and pad it but they were going to have to send it away and it would take about a week. I tend to procrastinate and didn't have a week. So plan B was Kinko's. They were able to cut the paper and pad it in the store, it was ready for me in less than 24 hours and only about $6.00. (For those of you who may not know, "padding" is the soft glue stuff on the one side of note pad.) We brought the note pads home and my girls went to town with some markers. They colored rainbows, crosses, thank you's and Jesus loves you's on the sides. They wrote a personal thank you on the top sheet and we tied ribbon around it with a pretty pen clipped on top.

These look great, but doesn't this look a little better?

Put a note pad and some candy in a gift bag and voila, a personalized thank you for that special leader or teacher.

Blessings.

Linking to: House of Hepworths

Mini-Vacation

Last Wednesday my Tall Man, girlies and I loaded up in our "oh so cool" mini-van and headed West for a little mini-vacation with my favorite in-laws. We picked up Dutch Bros, The Kicker is my summer time fave! Yum!! Anyway, our drive was uneventful until we ran into rain blowing in sideways and gusts that practically pushed us over the line. Then as I'm bragging about having driven the whole way and we're coming in to the first town for at least an hour the check engine and traction control light pop on and this flashes on the dash board. Not exactly what you want to see when you're still two hours from your destination, it's pouring down rain outside and the three little girlies and Pomeranian are getting antsy in the back. Thank goodness we were coming into a town. We googled the message and found that we should definitely find a place to stay for the night and have our car checked out first thing in the morning. So that's exactly what we did.

The next morning Tall Man got up before the rest of us and took the van to a dealership and had things taken care of. Thanks babe! The girls and I stayed back and did some damage on the Holiday Inn's continental breakfast. The coffee was pretty good and let's face it, that's what's important.

We made it to the in-laws and were able to relax. Then my dad and his girlfriend caught up with us and we took my dad to his first professional sports event. A Seattle Mariners Game. It was cold, windy, rainy and they lost. But baseball is the BEST sport ever so we survived. Here are a few shots from the game.

This one speaks for itself, Welcome to Safeco Field!

My dad and I at his first pro game. Happy birthday Dad!

#51 Ich-I-Ro! Ich-I-Ro! Ich-I-Ro!

It was retro Griffey Jr t-shirt night. Here you can see the crowd swinging their shirts to rally against San Diego. Unfortunately it didn't work and the Mariners lost the game.

Even though our van broke down and we didn't see a winning game, it was a pretty fun mini-vacation. My in-laws house is SO relaxing, I love spending time there. It was also nice for my Tall Man to share where he grew up with my family. As fun as vacations are, it's always nice to be home.

Grammy's Brag Board

A few weeks ago I was checking out some link parties and came across some different ideas for brag boards. I've had some laptop issues since then and can't remember the exact location of these ideas. =( So I apologize for not being able to link back to those pages. I decided I could wing it on a brag board for my mother-in-law. Here is a picture of the before:Here is a list of what you need:

unfinished board from Michaels $2.99 (I used a 40% off coupon on mine.)

scrapbook paper (already had)

Mod Podge (already had)

clothes pins (I already had mine from the baby game, but picked them up at Target for about $3)

spray paint

hot glue gun

Cricut for the letters, you can also use vinyl or stickers.

embellishments (I already had flowers & buttons so that's what I used)

Grand Total: About $6

I think this project is pretty self explanitory but I'll give you a quick tutorial.
First I spray painted my clothes pins a soft pink color. While those were drying I did the rest of the project. I cut my scrapbook paper of choice to size and Mod Podged it on. Used my Cricut to cut "For You" and Mod Podged that on. I put a thin top coat of Mod Podge over the entire surface for protection. By this time the clothes pins were dry and not so stinky, so I brought them inside and attached the flower and buttons with my hot glue gun. Once those were secured, I hot glued the clothes pins to the board. Here is the final project.

And here is a close up of the clothes pins:

Mother's Day... Late

I know it's been over a week since Mother's Day but it's been a little crazy around here and I'm just now getting to show you my gift from the Tall Man. He actually referred to my Mother's Day Frame post to make my gift. Home made gifts are the best, especially when your husband takes the time to put into words how he feels. So here it isThe sweet handwritten words are:

I love you because....

You are a woman of God.

You are an amazing mother.

You are the woman I adore.

You are the woman of my dreams.

You look hot in a Mariner's jersey.

You are God's greatest blessing to me and I thank Him for you everyday.

Happy Mother's Day. Love Always & Forever, Me

I put this sweet gift on my bedside table, inbetween two pictures of my Tall Man and I. One from our wedding, the other from a trip we took to Ocean Shores, WA a couple summers ago. I am SO blessed to have this man in my life.

Oh My Gosh! I Want to Thank the Academy!

Let me start by saying, I really hope you read the title of this post with a high-pitched, crazy actress voice. =o)

Today I was checking e-mail and discovered something oh so sweet! Nikki over at Nikki's Nifty Knacks awarded me with "The Versatile Blogger" award! Very cool! I've only been at this just over a month and here I am accepting an award. Thank you so much Nikki for stumbling upon my little project at My Northwest Nest and sharing this award with me. Now on to the hard part. This award comes with strings. I'm to share 7 things about myself. If you know me, you'll know I'm terrible at thinking up this stuff. So here we go:

1. I've lived within 40 miles of where I live now for all but 6 months of my life and I have no desire to live anywhere else.
   
2. I knew my Tall Man was "the one" when he offered to help me with my 1 year old who just spit up all over herself and me.


3. I never liked kids before I had my own.


4. I consider my Tall Man and girlies God's greatest blessings in my life.


5. As a child I dreamed of being an actress on the big screen.


6. I feel much older than my 27 years. I blame the Tall Man for this one, he's 8 years older than I. =o)


7. I L-O-V-E baseball!! Go Mariners!!

Now I get to share this fun with 15 blogs I have recently stumbled upon and am loving! So here you go ladies, you're an inspiration!

1. The VG Huis
   
2. Living With Lindsay


3. A Place for Us


4. House of Smiths


5. Just Something I Made


6. Birthday Girl


7. Thrifty Decor Chic


8. Just A Girl


9. U Create


10. How Does She


11. The Phillips Fam


12. Some Day Crafts


13. All Thingz Related


14. Funky Junk Interiors


15. The Shabby Nest

Laundry Room Inspiration

Have you seen my laundry room? (Some of you should be saying "No, I haven't seen your laundry room.") It's not much of a room, it's more of a hallway from the kitchen to the garage. Tiny. One day I would love to have a laundry room like one of these.

I love how bright and airy this one is.
I'm not sure how much of a "room" this is but I love the off whites. It's so fresh, so clean, clean. (If you were a teen in the late 90's, you're welcome for Outkast song that is now stuck in your head.)

This is from HGTV's 2009 Dream Home.Loving the beachy feel of this room.And lastly a laundry room from This Old House. All I can say is "Yes please!"

You may be wondering why I have an interest in all these fabulous laundry rooms. Well a few weeks ago my Tall Man stopped by Habitat for Humanity and surprised be with some cabinets for our laundry room. I am SO over the plastic coated wire shelf thingies they put in houses now. So I'm on a mission to redo our laundry room. Let me be upfront with you from the beginning. There is absoutely NO WAY my space will look anything like the ones above. But a girl can dream, right?

Happy Birthday Neighbor

My neighbors birthday was a couple weeks ago and I wanted to put a little something together for her. I didn't have a lot of time or money at the moment but I wanted her to know I was thinking of her. So I took my 40% off coupon to Michael's and picked up a letter "S" for her last name, along with a bunch of foam brushes and one 2 inch paint brush for her to use with her own little can of polycrylic. She was using a brush with "good cook" on the handle.I have a thing for jars so we have quite a few on hand at my house, I prefer jars over vases, any day. I grabbed a small jar and filled it with a bouquet of brushes, tied a ribbon around for a little something pretty, and painted the once white S with a satin black spray paint. Obviously this is one of those "practical not pretty" kind of gifts but my neighbor loved it all the same. Thank goodness she's a "it's the thought that counts" kind of neighbor. Maybe you could fancy this one up a bit and give your neighbor a bouquet of her own.

Mother's Day Frame

Mother's Day is this weekend! Can you believe it? It seems like Easter was just last weekend!
I put these frames together for all the Mom's, Grandma's, Noanie's and Grammy's in our life. Between my husband and I our girls have five Grandma's and one Great-Grandma. Wowza!

All you need is:
wooden frame (from Michael's $1)
Mod Podge
Scrapbook paper
embellishments of your choice

I realize we're cutting it really close to Mother's Day and this is a great home made gift for those last minute ladies. You can make this cute frame in an afternoon with no problem. First I used white craft paint to paint the edges of the frame to give it a little more finished look. After the paint dried, I traced the frame onto my scrapbook paper and cut it out. Next apply the paper with Mod Podge, wait to dry, sand the edges, apply another thin coat of Mod Podge. Lastly I applied my flowers & buttons with a little hot glue and "love" with just a little more Mod Podge. And here they are!

Where I Come From

If you're a country music fan you should hear Kenny Chesney singing in your head right now. You're welcome.
Last weekend my family and I drove out to the ranch I grew up on. It would have been ten years next month since I had been out there. I grew up out in the sticks about a mile and a half up a dirt road on a 160 acre piece of land. It was incredible, of course I didn't realize that until I moved to town. I remember waking up in the morning to cows in our front yard. In the spring I'd sit in a field and wait for all the colts to come sniff my hair, it was my job to make sure they were used to people. During the summer months I'd grab my horse from the field and take off for hours riding the trails. In December we'd trek through the woods, sometimes on horseback, to cut our Christmas tree. It was a lot of work for my family but as a young girl it was heaven.
On Sunday Tall Man and my three daughters got to see where all my childhood memories took place. It was incredible. Here are a few pictures I snapped while we were there.

We didn't have pigs growing up but now they do and my girls loved feeding them.
Anaya's favorite part of the day was the piggy snorting on her arm.
Tall Man and my girls with the horses, Norwegian Fjords. And a few random pictures from the property.

It was so special to go back for an afternoon. My two older girls have said several times that they want to go back. I think we'll definitely be planning another afternoon at the ranch in the near future.

Baby Shower Done!

Saturday at 3 o'clock about twenty people piled into my friends living room to celebrate the upcoming arrival of a precious baby girl. The baby shower was great, lots of friends, food & cute little outfits. Here are just a few pictures from the celebration. (My camera batteries died that morning so I was working with my friends camera.)

There was so much yummy food, thanks to Grandma!

I think Mommy counted 30 new outfits in these cute gift bags!Big sister and Mommy!

I told my friend back in February that every baby deserves a party and I think this little girl had a great party! The tissue paper poms are going to be reused for big sister's spa birthday party in June. I'm happy I was able to put this together and help with the birthday party scheduled just days before baby is due.