kitchen update… color

during all the wedding crazyness i decided to paint the kitchen… well the whole house, but the kitchen is as far as i got…

we went from blah…

to ahhh… i love this blue (the pictures don’t do it justice) and i love it with the red and orange accents that i already had.

 

the best part?  the wall that is half chalkboard for boy.  my honey thought i was crazy when he saw me painting half the wall black… but we have all had fun with it.

boy even thinks it is fun to clean it!

my kitchen is fresh and clean and bright… watch out living room the paint cans are calling. 

gardening

it’s still a work in progress, but we have more variety than last year!  my motto was just to get it in the ground and see what happened… how else do you learn right?

squash or pumpkin blooms… i think these are pumpkin?     (you know, i didn’t even plant pumpkin? they volunteered from pumpkins i threw over the fence last fall…)

pretty little tomatoes… yum

kale for soups (what else do you do with kale?)

lettuce which has now bolted… too hot

crooked little carrots…

potatoes… in a stack of tires?  apparently that is a good way to grow them? 

apples… on the tree that i have no idea what to do with. i know it needs pruned and i don’t know how to treat it for bugs… but they are really yummy eating apples…       (anyone have any advise?)

sister’s wedding

 

some of my favorite pictures from sister’s wedding… she once again had me playing photographer… one day she will learn.

sister made a beautiful vintage bride…

boy was the cutest ring bearer ever…

she arrived at the church in a 1920s mercedes

 

we took pictures all around downtown fayetteville…

somebody was like a little boy with his nose pressed against the window of the candy store…

they make such a beautiful family…

(so glad that’s over, whew!)

april crazy-ness brings may weddings

april was spent in the chaos of preparing for two weddings in may.

my honey's baby brother was marrying his sweet sarah. sarah had a lot of family coming in from west texas so we were going to have house guests we had never met which is always interesting to prepare for.

then sister and her honey were getting married the following weekend. both weddings were being planned long distance which meant we were taking care of a lot of the preparations.

sewing was left to the last minute... shocking! but boy and sister's little lady looked awful cute in their custom made attire! (and of course little lady will not stand so you can't really see her frock)

new addtitions

i have wanted chickens for YEARS... but my sweet honey never was real big on the idea. then last year he started talking like yeah, one day we would put together a little coop and i could have a few chickens... WELL, that was all i needed to hear so while sister was here for spring break, before a coop was in existence or even planned, i picked up some cute little baby chicks...

and now they look like this... i have started anticipating fresh eggs in the next several weeks...

we have 9 all together, gertie (short for gertrude) the lady in charge, claire our sweet banty hen, berniece our red, and the three sisters that we can't really tell apart so they are the three sisters, and the boys darell and his other brother darell... the banty roosters that think they can crow and it cracks me up!

oh, my honey also picked up a game hen and two babies (a boy and a girl) that roost in the trees and won't let you anywhere near them... he has the chicken bug too now... i am expecting 100 baby quail any day now, 20 or so will stay with us and the rest will go live with the neighbors. oh and my dear father-in-law built me the cutest coop from spare lumber and windows... now if i could just finish painting it!

playing catch up

it has been busy, busy, and it is definitely time to catch up with sharing all that has been going on... so over the next few posts i'll share the last few months.

sister and the little lady came to visit for spring break and we had lots of fun... her honey flew up for the weekend and i pretended like i was a photographer and took their engagement photos. i think they turned out really well considering i had no idea what i was doing... and they really capture sister's personality...

hotel room crafting: hooded towels

hooded towels, cause boy is too big for his baby towels and thinks he needs to be completely wrapped up after a bath...
large bath towel, hand towel (both on clearance) cute flannel fabric (half off)...

cut the hand towel in half, cut a section of flannel about 1/2 inch bigger than hand towel...

fold fabric in half...

sew a seam across one short end...

sew a seam down the cut end of the hand towel...

turn the hand towel right side out (the sewn seam inside) put the fabric inside the hand towel hood...

turn up the fabric and pin all the way around (except the bottom!)...

sew a top stitch 1/8th of an inch from edge of fabric... make sure you don't sew the last 1/2 inch or so of both edges... or if you do like i did rip your stitches out! (see below for picture)

see, this is the part you shouldn't sew... instead fold over and under to "mieder" the corner... did i just make that up?

fold raw edge of fabric under edge of towel and pin... make sure to pin to center of bath towel, too!

once pinned sew a straight stitch across hand towel...

next cut two sections of fabric about two inches longer than the edges of the bath towel, and as wide as you would like... the strips for this towel were about 3 inches wide... for the second towel i made they were about 5 inches...

iron over the edge...

pin ironed over edge to edge of towel, you should have about 1 inch hang over on each end...

sew with a straight stitch...

turn towel over, iron down other side of fabric...

fold fabric over edge of towel and pin... when you get to the end fold excess fabric over...

then fold fabric over to "mieder" the corner...

sew a straight stitch all the way around the edge of the fabric...

and there you have it...

for the second towel i gave the hood a rounded edge instead of a point... after cutting the hand towel in half and cutting the fabric, i folded the hand towel in half and marked it with a rounded edge on the fold...

then cut it and the fabric (also folded in half)...

these are pretty big towels and the hood is good size, so boy shouldn't outgrow them any time soon...