Hola people!

So, Daniel is going away again this weekend for work.  I know, Easter weekend?!?! *sadface* But it's okay because I've thought about a million or so house projects I can do this weekend while he's away. Cue happy/devious/excited face! And evil laugh muhuhahahaha! teehee The list is endless really so we'll see exactly how many I can tackle.  Tracy will be spending the day with/assisting me on Saturday and she's usually great at keeping me motivated.  Among the multitude of varied ideas I've had (for like every room of the house), I really need/want to:

A. Finish touch up on the front door and attach the kick plate
B. Sand/stain the railing of the stair banister, it's builder-grade honey oak (barf!)
C. Make a Velcro adhered bed skirt for my bed
D. Make lift boxes for the wheels on my bed, so they don't move around and to give much needed height for storage purposes
E. Make a shelf out of some scrap wood I have laying on the side of my house for the space over/behind my washer/dryer
F. Paint an accent wall in the laundry room

I told Daniel about the shelf idea for the laundry room, part of my reasoning to him being "So that nothing falls behind them" to which he replied, "Are we having a big problem with that?" all smart-assy. LOL  It's totally for looks but it'll look so much better.

Well I think that'll pretty much take up all Saturday.  Sunday I have to take a break for obvious reasons, but also because my mom and in-laws are coming over after church for Easter linner (that's lunch/dinner). And I guess at some point I should do some mothering to my boys... ;)

Prolly be posting updates on Monday.  So, until then.... Have a great weekend!  Happy EASTER!!!

Love
Holly

P.S. We made our first loaf of bread the other day with the bread maker Daniel got from his mom for his birthday (yes that's what you get when you're over 30).  It was quite tasty!  Albeit a little dense (anyone got any advice on that?).

Look at that badboy!

Hey there. I'm not down, it's just... ya know... Monday. Meh.

So this weekend was pretty quiet.  Daniel was out of town, in fact he's just on his way home now from up north.  I attended the funeral for my old classmate, Betty on Saturday.  My friend Lynette's husband Mike was gracious enough to watch the boys along with their three kids while we went.  He offered! So sweet of him.  So we went to that which was of course, very sad.  I feel just dreadful for her family, they're obviously devastated.  Her older sister, Ann, gave a beautiful eulogy.   Afterwards we went to the Lazy Dog Cafe in Brea with a handful of old classmates which was really nice.

From Left: Lynette, Mallory, Tanya, Me and Janice-Grace

It was definitely a bittersweet reunion. There were 10 of us in all I think.  It was great to catch up and reminisce.  As our friend John-Michael so eloquently put it, "We need to get together again, when someone isn't dead."  He's right of course.  What a horrible reason to reunite.  Our friend Marcy said she was gonna try to put together a mini-reunion sometime this summer so I'm really hoping that happens.  I told them all that whenever I hear other people talk about High School reunions they're always so negative or hate the people they went to school with and I feel SO grateful to have had classmates that I actually, thoroughly enjoy spending time with.  We're pretty darn lucky.

Other than that I just hung out with Jack and Dylan, played some basketball and watched a movie.  Went to church yesterday and sang with the worship team.  Good times. Oh and I did fool around with my camera in the garden a bit yesterday too.

Chives

Old spoon screwed to a board (tealight holder)

Star Jasmine. You can smell them in the front of the house!

Freesia, which I totally forgot was in that pot until it started to bloom. :)

 I forgot also, on Friday my little Dilly-boo (Dylan) got an award at school for perfect attendance. I'm so proud. lol  He did get a free meal for himself at BJ's tho, which totally gives me an excuse to go there! Yay!

He's was so excited.

Well that's all for now, folks!
Have a great Monday.
Love
Holly

Hi there!
I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was exhausting. We had a very unfortunate experience at the track Saturday. And it was hot as heck too. First of all we were very blessed to have inherited 2 free dirt bikes for the boys. Score! However one had an issue with the throttle sticking and had a flat on the other. Meh.



We were able to get the throttle issue fixed that day and Jack got to ride around the track a couple of times on his new bike so he was happy at least.  The tire is now fixed on the other but we prolly can't go back to the track for a couple of weeks.  We WILL be ready next time tho! haha  Here is a hilarious (to me) video of Dylan trying the new bike for the first time.


He did so great! He just freaks himself out and decides to rev it! *smh*

Saturday, before we hit the track, we took the boys to breakfast at La Unica which is this great Mexican place in town.  Dan had to run to the church for a few hours to help with some makeover projects they're doing to the building.  So after breakfast I took them to find a Geocache nearby but we couldn't find it. :(  Geocaching is a worldwide scavenger hunt. http://www.geocaching.com/   It's so much fun... well, when you find the one you're looking for.  We've found 1 so far but haven't looked for too many.  The boys love it.  It's a great, FREE way to have fun with the kids.  So after our failed attempt to find a Geocache we decided to do some trespassing at the lake. (Nobody's gots to know about it) ;)  I parked on the side of the road and we hoofed it down to the water to stick our feet in.  It was fun.  Nothing like a little adventure time with my boys. <3


That night I threw a bunch of ingredients in a casserole dish and decided it's called a Bacon Cheeseburger Pasta Bake. Made from whatever was left in my pantry, which wasn't much.  I took some vegetable pasta cooked it as directed.  Browned the ground turkey I had left in my freezer which was approximately 1 1/2 lbs.  Cooked 4 pieces of turkey bacon. Threw the three things in a casserole dish with half a block of Velveeta (cubed), salt, pepper, garlic powder (to taste) and a quarter of an onion, diced.  I also put about half a can of diced tomatoes.  Tossed it all up and put it in the oven at 350 till the cheese was melted.  Stirred once again and served.  It was overly cheesy in Daniel's opinion but me and the boys loved it.  It tasted less cheesy when reheated the next day and it made a whole bunch too.  We still have some for the boys dinner tonight.  Give it a whirl and let me know if you like it or any tweaks you make that I may wanna try.


On a sad note, I learned Sunday night that a schoolmate I went to Elementary through High School with passed away.  Though we weren't close, Betty and I had always had good interactions and I knew she was a very nice and very smart girl.  She was one of our 5 valedictorians in High School.  From the pictures posted by her close friends and family it appeared she had a real lust for life. So many pictures of her smiling and playful.  And man did she get to travel the world!  It's such a tragedy.

Through a conversation regarding that horrible event, I discovered from my friend Mallory that an old Jr. High friend we shared had passed away back in October too!  Ugh! That one was such a shock, I can't believe I didn't even know about it.  Liz was soooo funny and bubbly and I literally don't think she ever stopped smiling.  She moved away after Jr. High but we were still friends on Facebook and chatted occasionally.  But I'll always hold a special place in my heart for her and I'll NEVER hear the Rubber Ducky song without thinking about her. <3

It just reminds me again that we have to count each day as a precious gift from God and hold our loved ones close.  No day is guaranteed so squeeze as much love, laughter and praise as you can into it.

God's blessings to all of you!
Love
Holly

Hola!  So, I noticed quite recently that people have been posting old pics on Facebook with the caption: Throwback Thursday!  I had never heard of such a thing but what the heck... I'll buy in.   Here is my throwback pic for today:


Awwwe, first day of school August 2012.  Those are my nephews (Daniels' sister's boys) on the left that just went back to live with their mom (long story).  They lived with us for 10 whole months! Talk about a madhouse, but their going back is so bittersweet.  I miss those crazy kids!  It's been 2 weeks today that they went back.  It's so weird having just the 4 of us in the house.  It's definitely a lot more quiet, that's fo sho. haha

But enough about that, I did my planting yesterday!  I'm in love with the new look of my front porch.  I could only find one old pic of the front door... Talk about scary! ;)





 But here's what I did yesterday after work:

Yay, nearly finished product!

I'm so happy with the results thus far.  Just need to do some paint touch ups and spray a sealant on the door so I can add the kick plate.

Adios for now!
Holly

Happy hump day y'all!
     OMG the weather was so nice yesterday and here I was cooped up in an office all day. *sadface*  Anyhoo, I went to Home Depot after work and picked up some supplies for my next small project which involves more front door appeal addition with the following items:







I'm gonna do the planting tonight.  I can't wait to get that Charlie Brown lookin' Ficus outta there.  Don't worry though, we'll be planting it in the backyard.  Jack and Dylan were so concerned for Charlie Brown.  I never realized they were so attached! lol  I told Jack (7) my plan in the car and mentioned the re-planting and he said, "Phew. I thought you were going to just get rid of the tree and throw it out and kill it." Awwwwwe.  I'll be sure to post the pics after I'm finished.  Ooh, I forgot to take a pic of the sweet kick-plate I got for the door. Well you'll see it in the "after" pic.

Meanwhile! Check out the rad wooden bowl I snagged at the REstore!  God, I love that store.  This baby cost me $2.50. Our fruit has never looked better. ;)




And finally, my Pinteresting find of the day!  I'd seen on Pinterest that you could just flip your toaster on it's side to do grilled cheese or whatever.  Welp, I tried it out on my garlic toast to melt the butter and seasonings together and it worked like a charm. :D


Now I realize this could also be accomplished with a toaster oven but we were sick of looking at ours so it's away in the pantry and kind of a pain in the butt to get in and out of there. #lazypeopleproblems

Have a great rest of your week people!
Love ya!
Holly

Just a quick post. So I've seen on Pinterest (natch) that if you have accessories around your house that you're not in love with, one way to update is to spray paint them. So upon scanning my home for said items, I came across some candles that are not particularly nice to look at and I had another idea other than spray painting them. I'm happy with how one of them came out so that's what I'll share. Lol Posting an entry from my phone is tricky so here are the pics but I can't put captions so I'll put my thought process here: I have some burlap so I covered the ugly wax parts first. Eh, better, but I know I can do more... Twine! Haha So I added some to the little candle and I'm happy with the results. The Pumpkin candle... Not so much. It needs something. I'm thinking a big piece of lace or fabric with twine on top. I'll keep ya posted on that one. ;) Hope y'all had a good, relaxing weekend!
Holly

P.S. I tossed the corks in the white candle just to keep them somewhere. The candle is in direct sunlight so the wax melted and sucked those corks right in. Haha So that's where they live now.

I love spray adhesive!

Don't worry, the spray eventually dried.

                                                 UPDATE! Here's my ottoman after I tufted it!

Happy FRIDAY y'all!
     I swear I'm not really this chipper usually. Okay, maybe I am. ;) Soooo, I mentioned some surprises I had waiting for my hubby yesterday.  Well let me just say, first of all, he loved them!!! Yay me!  He was gone for 5 whole days and while he was away I finally put my big-girl panties on and finished the ottoman!!!  With the help of my partner in all things Pinteresty, Miss Tracy Blanchard of course.  OMG, let me tell you that in the weeks that my ottoman was left unfinished, my dog Presley (a black lab puppy) decided to shred some of the foam that I had adhered to the table.  I was able to piece it back together, thankfully.  I was hung up on the sewing issue as I mentioned previously.  It was not easy to line up the chevron pattern of the fabric (sidebar: Thank God I decided not to re-cover the wingback chair with this fabric) and I knew where I wanted the seam to be but knowing and actually figuring out how to get the seam there are 2 very different things. LOL We eventually figured it out though. Phew!  We had to do the seams because the fabric was long enough, but not wide enough so we had to sew 2 panels to it to cover the sides.  I'm so happy with the results.

Damn dog...

Again, damn dog, but able to put the puzzle back together.

After we got the foam all back on and batting wrapped around nicely.

Nice little pocket fold that Tracy did.

Model Dylan (my 5 year old)

Look at that bad boy! Beautiful seam, by Tracy.

TADA!!!

I still need to tuft so I'll be posting an update later.  Hopefully I can tackle that this weekend.  I needed a long crafting needle which my mother in law was so kind to have now provided me with.

The day after the ottoman was finished I also painted our very sad looking front door.  It was white-ish...  Old hardware marks/holes, chipped paint revealing a robin's egg blue that it once was... just sad.   I decided to go with a navy blue for no particular reason.  Our house is a cookie-cutter peachy color so I didn't want anything in that family and the navy just came out great.  It makes the door look so rich, in my opinion.  I'm in love.

First coat, boy was I nervous. lol

Voila! I LOVE it!!!

Daniel was home last night so it wasn't a surprise but I also made a curtain with the chevron fabric for the window next to the front door.  Some creepy guy came to the door on Wednesday night which inspired the project. lol  I'm sure he was very nice and obviously nothing happened to us but it just got me thinking that anyone of a mind to could watch me cooking or whatever through said window so it was time to cover it.  I love it also, natch. ;)

Need to add the rod to the bottom still but didn't have time.

Made a dandy tie too!  Tracy is not a fan of the raw edge on the burlap, but I like the rustic look of it so there! haha

Tracy was nice enough to swing by last night (while her friend waited in the car for fear of children, random I know) to help me sew the top of this curtain but we could not for the life of us get the machine to work on the bottom!  So frustrating, but thankfully I have fabric glue so that took care of that. 

I'm really happy with all my projects and I can't wait to tackle more.  Daniel will be gone for several weeks a month through at least May so my goal is to have a minimum of one project done each week he's gone.  Gotta get some fabric for that wingback chair!  That should be interesting. LOL

Have a great weekend!
Holly

Howdy!

    Why am I excited, you ask?  Well, my hubby, Daniel is almost home from a business trip up in Northern California and I can't wait for him to see the surprise projects I've completed while he was away!  Which means I can almost reveal them to you too!  For now, enjoy a post about my lunch. lol  Pinterest inspired, natch.

It's kinda blurry, and once again could not get the image to stay horizontal, but it's a whole wheat tortilla with roasted garlic hummus, baby spinach, avocado, edamame (green soy beans) and a little bit of leftover chicken I had.  O.M.G. can you say, delicious????  I'm hooked now.  I may have to make one for dinner too. ;) 

Have a happy Thursday and I'll prolly be posting my surprises tomorrow.
Bye for now!
Holly