Flashback Friday

The big house project is DONE!!! The entire outside is painted and the deck is finished - Hooray! We think it looks great - here is a look at the changes our backyard has made over the last 6 years. Here is part of the back of the house - BEFORE:

and AFTER:

Here is our little helper on Tuesday as we were finally finishing up painting the house - doesn't she look cool ;-)

Can you tell what we've done over the last six years? Well, first of all, you may notice the tree is gone - that came down shortly after moving in. It was a crab apple tree, and it was rubbing the roof and causing damage to the shingles. Plus, Brianna was just one year old when we moved in, and she loved to pick up the dropped apples, which were sometimes rotten, so it had to go! I really didn't want to lose the only shade we had in our back yard, but I was glad to get rid of the mess. Here are the girls helping David remove the tree - they loved getting rides in the wheel barrow:

In the summer of 2008 we installed this adjustable awning from Sunsetter which added some much needed shade in the summer time.

In the summer of 2006 we re-did the deck. Here is the half under the tree - before we bought the house:

There was a step down here and this part of the deck sloped towards the house, plus the gutters didn't drain away from the house properly, so that had to be fixed. We made the deck all one level which seemed to increase the size of our deck - David added benches which has been great for extra seating. I don't have pictures from 2006 when we first did it, but here it is this week, which is pretty much what it looked like when we first fixed it. David did a minor update to the far right corner and we had to repaint the entire thing this year.

Also in 2006, on the other side of the deck, he built an extension for the grill so it doesn't take up extra space on the deck. He also added this privacy wall with lattice. There is some sort of plant that continually climbs and grows nicely on it - I just wish I knew what it was! I used to think it was ivy but a friend of mine set me straight. Are there any plant experts out there that want to help me put a name to it? Right now it's not completely filled out yet, but by the end of the summer it will cover the wall. This wall is where the poor birds built their nest - can you see how it was probably easy for a predator to access?

And here is our back fence - I still don't get the windows in the fence - and unfortunately, they are still there ;-P

When we fixed the deck in 2006 we also built a little spot for the tramp as you can see in the picture below. This is a common view from our backyard - the hot air balloons often land in the field behind our house - it's fun to watch.

Thanks for joining me on another flashback - stay tuned to see the rest of the house! I still have the basement, and the front of the house to share!

Another Peek - and Blog Candy!

I showed you this little peek last week...

...would you like to see some more? I hope I'm not spoiling it too much, but here are some shots of some of my favorites parts of my 'top secret' project! Any guesses what it is?

Blog Candy Info: I am cleaning up my craft room and have a stash of goodies for one lucky winner who comments on this post. Plus a little something extra to the first person who correctly guesses the most (or all) CTMH products used in these pictures (paper pack, stamp sets, accessories, etc). I will draw a winner on June 12th - good luck!

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Flashback Friday

This week's flashback is one of our other bedrooms - this one has always been our 'baby' room since it's the smallest. Here it is before:

And then after a quick coat of paint:

Then we personalized it for Brianna:

And then my mom made these fun window treatments which inspired the ones that I made for our Master Bedroom. This isn't a very good picture but it's the only one I could find!

Then just before Brailee was born, we painted it again, just in case we had a boy. So it was Brailee's room, and now it's Trysten's room.

Thanks for joining me on another Flashback! If you missed my past House Project posts and want to see what else we have done, just click on the following links:
Upstairs Bathrooms
Bedroom 1
Kitchen/Dining Room

Living Room
Master Bedroom

End of Year Gifts plus a Sneak Peek!

So much to do, so little time! I am so glad it's summer, though! We're looking forward to our daily bike rides and playing in the water. It's finally warm and feeling like summer - we had quite a few cold days over the last couple of weeks, but lots of needed moisture, so we can't complain. We just need a few nice days to finish getting our house painted! Anyway, on to my artwork post for the day...week...month, we'll see how that goes. Plus, I have a new flashback scheduled and ready to post tomorrow, so stay tuned! Hopefully next week we'll have some deck and house flashbacks and updates ready to share!

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So I've mentioned before that I'm quite the procrastinator. This next project just confirms that ;-P The girls' last day of school was last Friday - I started this project on Thursday! Luckily it was a quick and easy one so they were able to take them to their teachers Friday morning - at least I did better than last year! So Thursday I had no idea what I was going to create - I went through my craft stash and found two wooden stars that I thought would be fun to alter. The ideas started flowing and I got started. Then I went online looking for a fun quote or poem for teachers and found this Starfish Poem that I'd seen before and just thought it was perfect since I already had the star theme going.

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Can you tell the Splendor paper pack is my favorite - it's the only one I've played with so far! Here is the star I made for Brianna's teacher. Brianna's favorite color is blue, so I used a lot of the blues from this paper pack. I used a fun chipboard door from the new A-Door-Ables collection, I just used my brayer to color it with Moonstruck ink - then I added some fun dots of Glitz™ Stardust Glitter Glue to the Stickease and frame.

I added her school picture and she wrote her name and school year inside the flap.

Here is the one I made for Kaylee's teacher - Kaylee's favorite color is green, so I used a lot of the Topiary from the Splendor kit.

I used the Glitz™ Stardust Glitter Glue again to accent the Stickease butterfly and the stem to make it stand out from the rest of the green. I accidentally messed up the top as I was stapling the hanging ribbon to the back (I didn't exercise any patience and let it dry enough before I turned it over) but I fixed it before we gave it to the teacher.

Brailee had a pajama party with her little friends on the last day of school - they had popcorn, watched a movie and played a little. We made the following goodie bags for her friends. We made little coloring booklets using the Playday stamp set, and we made new crayons out of our old broken crayons using mini muffin tins. I recently bought a Crayola Crayon maker that the older girls used to make lots of fun crayons for their classes, but I loved these heart ones that we have made many times before.

And now for my sneak peek if you've stuck with me this long - you may remember a top secret project that I was working on at the end of May. I had a deadline of May 21st to get it done, which I did - barely! I worked on it after the kids went to bed at night until 1 in the morning - I started the night of the 19th (didn't I mention before that I'm the worst procrastinator) and got it done the next night. I had a couple of months to think about it, so it's only my own fault that it took me so long to get it started. I actually had a lot of fun with it and I'm super pleased with how it turned out - I can't wait to share it all with you! Here is a little peek - any guesses what it is? I will post a few more peeks before I reveal it all. Can you see I've used another door from the A-Door-Ables? Those things are so much fun!

Bye-bye birdies!

For those who were actually looking forward to my flashback last week - sorry I just totally spaced it! I had been super busy with a major project deadline (which I will share later, I promise - right now it's top secret) and Friday completely got away from me! This is the last week of school for the girls, so maybe I'll post a new flashback this week - if I get a chance!

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Do you remember last year and our feathered friends? You can check them out here - here - and here. Well, the birds came back again this year - luckily (for us) they didn't build their nest on our porch light like they did last year. Instead they built it on our privacy 'wall' on our deck - which was probably a bad idea (for them - you'll see why later). We were anxious to see them leave so we could finish our deck and painting our house (as you can tell by our pictures below, it needs major work!), but we didn't want to see them gone so soon!

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April 22nd - as they are building the nest

May 2nd - we see eggs!

May 13th - we see another nest in the tree in our front yard. Unfortunately they are a lot higher up and hard to watch. This is a bad pic because the only way I could take a picture was through the window.

May 20th - we first notice baby birds!

We had fun watching them for a couple of days. As we worked outside on Saturday we would see them being fed - and sometimes when we would walk out onto our deck when the momma bird was gone, the babies would poke their heads up. Sadly, Sunday after church, we came home to find a sad scene. We're not exactly sure what happened, but there are no more birdies and we found lots of carnage at the scene. We suspect a cat was able to climb up there and get to them - this is why we think the wall was a poor choice. We're sad that we won't get to watch these ones grow up like we did last year, but I guess now we can move on with our house work - as long as the weather will cooperate!

Weekend Activities

Brianna did a terrific job at her dance recital this weekend. Kaylee missed it and wants to do it again next year, and of course now that Brailee is 3, she is excited that she is old enough to start, too! I enjoyed this year knowing that next year could be crazy with 3 girls dancing!

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Here is her ballet costume - they danced to a song called "Candle on the Water"

And here she is in her tap costume with her BFF Aubrey. Unfortunately they are not in the same class, but they had fun together during the recital. Brianna's class danced to a song called "My Guy" and Aubrey's class did "Brass Monkey"

My favorite dance of the night (besides Brianna, of course) was the all-boy group that danced to "Move It, Move It!" It was a hit!
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Thanks for looking!

Over the Rainbow

I can't believe how long it's been since I've shared something NEW and made of actual paper! I think Studio J may just become my new best friend this summer to make me feel like I'm creating something and not getting behind in my scrapbooking!

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This was the free Make & Take card I created for my Open House, which was last week. Actually, I can't say I created it, because I didn't even get my sample done before people started showing up! Yikes! I had it all in my head - paper pack to use, stamp set, ink colors needed, Wishes pattern to use, etc, and I was going to throw it all together after I set things up for my Open House and waited for people to show up. Well, as I was setting up, the Census man showed up - now he didn't take too long, but it was just enough to throw me off. And then just before my Open House was scheduled to start, I get a call from the girls' school - Kaylee had fallen and banged up her leg and head pretty bad coming in from recess. She was okay (at the moment) but they just wanted to let me know so I could keep an eye on her that night. So, Open House begins and it started off hopping - plus I had a couple ladies that I told could come early, so I didn't get a chance to pop out my card. But I did cut all the pieces for them and showed them what I had in mind and just let them do what they wanted. It was fun to see what they came up with! Then about 30 minutes later I get another call from the school - now they want Kaylee to come home, so I had to leave my Open House to pick her up. Thanks to my awesome ladies who were there and were so understanding and stuck around while I picked up Kaylee, especially since I had just put Trysten down for his nap. BTW - she was fine, just a little sore - she came home and rested for a few hours and ended up playing at their last soccer game that night! Anyway, it was just a busy day and I didn't even make my card until after my Open House, before I put everything away! Okay, enough jabber, here is my card!

And then since I had leftover pieces and another idea, I made another one - this time I flipped the pattern.

Products Used - all CTMH: Wishes Pattern - Simple Expression, NEW Splendor paper pack, NEW Over the Rainbow stamp set, Summer and Winter Brads, Colonial White ricrac, Goldrush, Heavenly Blue, Moonstruck, Bamboo, and Topiary inks, Edge Distressor.

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Thanks for looking!

Flashback Friday

Are you sick of seeing pictures of our house yet? If you're wanting to see some paper projects, check back tomorrow as I will be posting something new - gasp!

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This week's flashback is our Master Bedroom. Here it is before...


And here it is shortly after we moved in - we painted the walls a pretty green color - which David never liked, but he lived with it ;-)


Then Fall of 2008 we repainted our room this pretty brown color - I would call it Desert Sand for all you CTMH fans ;-) And last month we re-textured all the walls and painted it the same color and took our old fan from our Living Room and installed it in our bedroom. I never thought I would like a fan in the bedroom, but the few warm nights we've had, it's been pretty nice so far!

And here is our new bed - I love all the storage! Before, we had 3 mismatched dressers to hold all of our clothes and our room was always cluttered and not very pretty. We purchased this storage bed and matching dresser and it fits everything perfectly. We really like our room now!

Thanks for looking!

Flashback Friday

This week's flashback is our upstairs Living Room. Here is the fireplace BEFORE (look how little Brianna was!):

David sanded and re-stained the mantle, and we painted the bookshelves...

And here is the fireplace AFTER:

And some cute little kids playing IN the bookshelf ;-)

Here is the wall and the door going out to the backyard - BEFORE:

I don't have a picture of the door and wall before we painted it red, but you can kind of see it in the picture above with the fireplace. Here it is after we painted it red in the Fall of 2005:

And then in the Fall of 2009, David replaced our sliding door - this new one has blinds INSIDE the window - I LOVE it! This door faces West, so when the sun sets, it's nice to be able to keep out the glare. Plus this door is SO much easier to open and we finally have a screen again. I just have to be careful because sometimes even Trysten can get it open!

And here are the stairs BEFORE - the ballisters (sp?) were a major safety hazard - wide enough for a kid to fit through!

So David ripped them out and put in new ones, sanded down the pole...

...and re-stained it all. Here it is AFTER:

Thanks for joining me on another Flashback! If you missed my past House Project posts and want to see what else we have done, just click on the following links:

Upstairs Bathrooms

Bedroom 1

Kitchen/Dining Room

Thanks for looking!