A FEW THINGS... IT'S BEEN A WHILE!

Well hello there friends!  I know posts have been scarce here lately.  I feel like it's really been forever since I've had a regular 2-3x/week posting schedule, and I've missed you!  No major explanation other than we've been in an exceptionally busy season of life.  But, in reality, things are probably always this busy, I've just been stopping to smell the roses (or the ranunculus) a bit more and soaking up life away from the computer.

So, I feel like a big catch up is in order!  And believe me, this post is a doozy!  Here's a peek of what's been going on lately- happenings in our family, what projects are in the works, some tips and snapshots of things around the house... basically a huge batch of what's on my camera roll for the past few months!

This year is full of many milestones for us.  Ray & I will celebrate our 25th Anniversary in June, and as we've thought about options of what we wanted to do or where we wanted to go, we realized we likely won't have many more opportunities to take a big trip with just the 4 of us, so we decided to take the kids along with us.  Caleb will graduate from High School in a few weeks and Emily is days away from turning 16, so we're celebrating all the things together!  We kept the plans under wraps and surprised the kids one evening with the news... we're going to Hawaii!

To make sharing the news a bit more fun and eventful, we hit Dollar Tree and Hobby Lobby and gathered up anything Hawaii related we could find, then wrapped it all up for them.

Before dinner we gave them their "present" and let them connect the dots of what all of the items meant.

They deciphered the clues pretty quickly and were excited!

Spring Break had just started, so the next morning we sent them both off on mission trips, one to Santa Crux and one to Phoenix.  Ray and I took a few days away and visited Hill Country in Texas. It was beautiful, quiet, and just what we needed for a few days of R&R.

We did a major clean out and had a garage sale, but I always have several irons in the fire so in the middle of that I had another project brewing...

These barstools have needed a major makeover and I finally committed to painting them, but couldn't decide on the color.  Since they were getting painted anyway I did a sample on each one so I could get a feel for what I liked.  What do you think?  I *might* have already made a decision, and they look 1,000 times better painted than they did before!  Still need to finish recovering the seat and I'll share them soon.

It seems like my only projects these days involve chairs after the big new Dining Room project...  These are the chairs that came with my new dining room table, but I broke up the set and these will be going in the Breakfast Nook.  They desperately needed new foam and fabric, so I worked to get those re-covered.

Here's a peek at what I did with them, I'll share them finished and in their spot soon.

Ikat Malachite Fabric

Other than lightening our cabinets and attic, my goal for the garage sale was to make enough to cover at least one of our plane tickets to Hawaii- those aren't cheap! ;)  I'm happy to say that we came very close to selling out after only one day, this is all we had left.  Some of that was stuff to return to my sister, so off to the thrift store the leftovers went and we didn't even open a second day. And, we made enough to cover 1 1/2 tickets.  Woo hoo!  I wrote all of my tips on how to have a great garage sale here, and our customers always comment on what a good sale it is (not because of the stuff, but the organization).

I was recently a guest on a podcast, and the episode is live! My friend Denise (I’ve shared about her shop The Plaid Pineapple many times) interviewed me and we chat about my blogging journey and experiences, my faith, my background, my family, entertaining... a little bit of everything. Add that to the list of something I never thought I’d do! You can listen by searching your podcast platform for her show “Everyday with Denise”, and I’m Episode 9.

After many years of my daughter asking but we never got around to it, we finally planted tulips.  They bloomed and were glorious, the prettiest coral-red shade.  It was definitely one of those "why didn't we do this sooner" moments!  I wish I had saved the label of what they were called, I just picked them up on major clearance at Home Depot late in the season and we plopped them in the ground.  We'll definitely be planting more this year.

The folks at Plutonium sent me some of their paint to try.  One of their big claims is that their paint dries super fast, so I was excited to try it out.  THEY ARE RIGHT!!  In less than 10 minutes, this guy was dry, ready to handle, not sticky or tacky at all. And, it has the most beautiful smooth, velvety finish.  I'm a fan and will be using it often. Many times when I get a wild hair to paint something I want to be done with it right now, and this paint is a star for quick makeovers!  I believe that it's available in some art stores and maybe hardware stores, or you can find it here. (affiliate links used in this post)

We've been busy taking Senior pictures with my son. Ray snapped this photo the other day while we were in action!

We opted to pass on the formal (expensive!) school announcements and instead created our own personalized announcements.  I worked with Minted to create the custom look we wanted, and although it was my first time to use them, the process could not have been easier.  They walk you through every step and we were able to get exactly what we wanted. The quality is beautiful and they arrived a week sooner than we expected.  I'm so pleased- and more importantly HE'S pleased- with how they turned out.  If you need me in the near future I'll be addressing loads of envelopes!  ;)  Check out Minted for beautiful shower and wedding announcements and any of your personalized greeting card needs as well.

I think I've shared this before, but it bears repeating.  It's Kimberly Queen fern time!  This is my favorite go-to variety.  They're hearty, can take some sun, and will survive even if you forget to water them for a few days.  ;)  I always find them at Lowe's, sometimes Home Depot or Walmart as well.  They will get larger through the Summer and I just love their upright fronds.

Another great thing about them is they can be divided.  I always get one to split in half, right down the middle with a serrated knife, for my window boxes.

I put those together a few days ago. Home Depot had their basic hanging pots on sale for $5 each, so I got a bunch of those to plant.  I divided the geraniums up as well (each plant in the hanging pot easily separates) and got some sweet potato vine to add in.

So, here they are finished!  I've got my thriller (1/2 of a fern), my filler (2 geranium pots divided), and my spiller (sweet potato planted on each end, I tucked them behind the geranium on the ends where they'll fill in, you can't quite see them yet until they get bigger).  I've never done this hot pink/light pink mix before and I'm loving it!  I bought many more of the same geraniums to plant in the beds.  Working on that!

Finally, we had a great weekend celebrating our Risen Savior on Easter!

 Caleb's Suit (A fantastic deal for growing boys, especially tough to fit tall and thin ones, it looks great and won't break the bank!  He also has this one and a black one and we can vouch that they're winners!)  ||  Emily's Dress  ||  My dress- too old to link!  ||  Emily's Sandals  || My Sandals- Similar

We spent the afternoon hosting my family and some friends, the kids had a great time hanging out.

I didn't get this added to my Easter table post from last week because we basically threw it together a few hours before our guests arrived, but this was the "kids" table.  It was super simple- I used some wrapping paper to kind of tie it to the table in the Dining Room, then gathered up a few fun Easter decorations.  Remember those hanging pots I just talked about?  Yes, dropped one of those in my big milk glass punch bowl and covered the plastic pot with eggs for the centerpiece.  I had picked up the white chocolate bunnies for each place at Dollar tree.  I saved the boxes so the kids could take them home, but they somehow disappeared before that happened!  ;)

Alright, you're all caught up with most of what's been happening around here!  And I plan to be here more often again, so see you again soon.

P.S. I just noticed that one of my favorite sales is going on only through tomorrow... extra 50% off of all sale styles!  Here are a few of my picks from the sale- the gingham trench, leopard sweater blazer and gold hinge bracelet are on their way to me.  ;)  The dresses are perfect for showers, brunches, casual summer weddings, or date night and I have a similar white top that's perfect to wear with almost anything. So many good things included in the sale, click on one of the photos for more info. 

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