Seven Years!

Seven years ago, on June 30, 2001, my wonderful husband and I were married! The last seven years have been a roller coaster and through it all he has been by my side. God brought me the perfect soulmate and I am eternally grateful.

We had a 4pm Roman Catholic Mass with about eighty people in attendance, followed by a sit-down dinner. I planned our entire wedding myself with little help from anyone and loved doing it! We were blessed in that our family traveled from all across the country to celebrate our marriage. Our wedding took place at my college alma mater which also was where we met during my senior year in college.
I had three bridesmaids and he had three groomsmen and his childhood priest officiated.


This picture of us exiting the chapel doors was put on the cover of a regional wedding magazine.Our wedding was followed-up by a honeymoon to Sandals Dunns River in Jamaica! Ahhh, nothing to do except relax on the beach! My how things have changed!!

I'm going to win this! (I hope...)

Excuse me while I clean the drool off my keyboard. Love this apron--l.o.v.e. it!! Aaaaaannnnnddd--maybe, just maybe, I'll win it!
The Apronista is having a giveaway and the prize is this apron or its equally adorable (but not pink) turquoise and brown counterpart.

Medical Stuff

The past week and a half has been full of medical issues for us. Last week I brought Handsome to the allergist and was expecting to have him diagnosed with seasonal allergies and possibly dust mite allergies. I was *not* expecting him to be diagnosed with all of the above *plus* an allergy to tree nuts (and maybe peanuts...they're not quite sure yet) that requires a medical alert bracelet as well as the need to have an EpiPen Jr on hand!!
Good heavens! We go back again in a few weeks and I have so many questions for the allergist. I'm hoping a blood test (he just had the skin scratch tests, poor baby) can tell us the severity of this allergy. I've never given him nuts for a snack or anything, but I know he's had trace amounts of nuts in foods before since so many things are cross-contaminated with nuts.

I found him a medical alert bracelet that he really likes though--it has trucks on it. The downside is that it is huge on his little two year old wrist. Big and bulky. I was hoping to also buy a traditional metal bracelet, but all of the chains I've found are too big for him. I'll have to keep looking.

As though that wasn't enough, Princess had problems too. Last Thursday we had new carpet installed in our house because of her allergies--the old carpet was original to the house and was almost 15 years old. It still looked okay, but had a lot of dust mites and whatnot trapped in the carpet and padding. So we had everything ripped out and replaced (it was on our "to do" list, but we weren't planning on doing it *now*). I kept her outside the whole day, but I think the fumes from the new carpet still were too much for her once she came inside. Plus she had her first soccer class on Friday.

Anyhow, long story short, on Monday we had to go into the allergist's office for Princess and she was given breathing treatments and started on prednisone to get her asthma under control. We also had a nebulizer delivered to the house. We had some more scary moments (really scary!!) Monday night, but eventually got everything under control. She's still on the prednisone (a steroid) but is responding well to it and hasn't needed the nebulizer in a couple of days. We have soccer again today--hopefully that doesn't cause a flareup.

Hopefully this weekend will be free of sickness for all of us (did I mention I had a major migraine last weekend from the carpet fumes??) and we can enjoy the hot weather that is heading our way.

Homemade Playdough

I made playdough for Princess and Handsome the other day and they thought it was fabulous!! Princess especially was amazed that I could turn flour and salt into glorious playdough! And, as a bonus, when I added the food coloring, we talked about what color the playdough would become--she correctly predicted that yellow and red mixed together would make orange. My little smarty-pants.

Next time I'll have the children help me with this--this time around they were busy eating breakfast while I was making this for them. It was pretty quick and easy to do and not too messy either.

Here is the recipe I used for our homemade playdough:

• 2 cups of flour
• 1 cup of salt
• 2 tsp cream of tartar
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 cups of water
• food coloring

Put everything except the food coloring in a pot and heat it up while stirring constantly. After a little while it will become difficult to stir. Dump it out onto a floured surface and knead the dough. Add your food coloring--and presto! You have playdough! Store it in a tightly covered container or it will dry out.

I split my dough in half and colored half blue and half orange. I used food coloring to color my dough but I know some people use kool-aid packets. I've never bought kool-aid in my life so I didn't have any of that on hand.

What is in bloom?

It is "Talk About Tuesday" over on The Lazy Organizer and I'm talking about my garden!

Summer has arrived and my garden...well...it barely is blooming! It has been so rainy and cool here...my Endless Summer Hydrangeas have been poised to bloom for weeks and weeks--and yet I have just ONE bloom on my bushes--and I have five or six bushes!! Finally at the end of this week we'll be getting some nice warm weather and SUNSHINE so hopefully things will start blooming soon!

My first daisy is blooming--I can't wait until the black-eye susans follow suit. I love those flowers!


I'm trying not to spend much money on annuals and instead invest that money into perennials...but I couldn't resist these Wave Petunias.

Balloon flowers are a new addition to my garden this year. I just couldn't resist them and the name is perfect for the bloom. Don't you just want to reach over and pop the flower?!

My planter boxes and porch pots are filled with red geraniums and white alyssum--looks pretty with my blue house!

Here is my one lonely hydrangea bloom--and yet look at all the hydrangea bushes I have! There are two more in this row of bushes that aren't in the picture. Oh well, at least I'll eventually have a lot of blooms--last year I had ZERO blooms from these bushes due to some overzealous pruning the year before. They've come back better than ever this year though, so all that pruning did pay off in the long run.

Stripey Pillows

We lived in our house for a year before purchasing furniture for our "formal" living room. I still remember the first Halloween we lived here, one little boy came to the door, took one look in our formal living room and walked right into the house and said "Wow, you guys must be rich!!" His eyes were as round as saucers as he looked around at our empty room.

I guess it all is a matter of perspective! Anyhow, a year after we moved in, we ordered furniture for the living room. We decided to break away from our usual neutral color palette and "be brave" and go for colored furniture--so we chose a deep blue color for our sofa and two chairs. When we ordered the furniture, I told my husband that I could envision crisp blue and yellow pillows on the furniture in the summertime.

Well, I bought some plush red throw pillows for those couches for Christmas decor...and never took them off! I kept spotting pillows that I loved (especially in the Pottery Barn catalogue) but the price never was right. I do have a sewing machine, but I'm not the greatest at using it.

A month or so ago I spotted a great little throw pillow tutorial over at Cottage Magpie. She actually made it all look so easy!! Easy is GOOD! Then a few weeks ago I spotted the perfect blue and yellow stripe fabric in the clearance section at Jo-Ann Fabrics. Nautica brand fabric, at that. I loved it and knew it was just right for my new pillows. I picked up the matching plaid fabric on a return trip to the fabric store.



And, as if that weren't enough, when I opened up my sewing machine box, I found this little piece of paper that gave instructions for threading the machine--instructions that are *totally* different from the instructions in the manual. How I've overlooked this little piece of paper for 4+ years is beyond me, but it made a WORLD of difference in my sewing. Wow!

I'm really happy with the look of the pillows and they really brighten up the room. I'm happy with how the living room is coming together. Give me your thoughts on the plaid table topper I made though--although I love the splash of color it gives me, I'm not convinced it's the right fabric for a table topper. What do you think?

Does it look too much like a picnic blanket?

A Tisket, A Tasket, A Tassel!

I treated myself a couple of weeks ago and bought a tassel from The Nester. It arrived last week in all its fluffy loveliness and is adorable! (Gosh, I sure talk about Nester and her blog a lot!)

Anyhow, here is my cute new tassel. I love it! I've tried it hanging from the knob of my computer armoire as well as from one of my black lamps. I think I like the lamp location better...at least for now! It is in my living room to try to keep it semi-safe from curious little fingers. The little ones still go in the living room but there aren't toys in there so it isn't as fun a location for them as the family room.

MeMe

I've been tagged by Jill at Forever and Ever House for a MeMe! My first time being tagged--woohoo! Go check out her blog and look at the cute bedding she picked out for her daughter's "apple blossom pink" bedroom. It is adorable!

So, about me...

1. What were you doing ten years ago?
Ten years ago it was the summer between my junior year and senior year of college. I was spending my fourth summer working as an intern in the customer service department of our local public utility district. It was a GREAT job that paid well and looked good on a resume. My boss was super nice too. I also was getting ready for my senior year of college--I was the senior class president of my college and had a lot to do to prepare for our senior year!

2. Five things on my to-do list today...um, how about I tell you five things I've already done--I've been very busy this morning because today is the first day of our two day carpet installation!
*cleaned master bathroom top to bottom
*pulled all of the clothes and shoes out of the master closet and piled them on my bed
*three loads of laundry washed
*vacuumed downstairs of house
*diapered, dressed, and fed two children (well, only the two year old is in diapers)

3. What are your favorite snacks?
Here is where I'm supposed to say hummus and carrot sticks with a glass of ice water, right? (See, Jill and I think alike on this one--we *know* what the "right" answer is...our real answers just aren't quite so healthy!) Truthfully my favorite snack is more like reduced-fat Cheezits and Coke Zero. Oh and some chocolate. Chocolate is a food group, you know!

4. Places I have lived
*Mermaid Beach, Queensland, Australia
*Kirkland, Washington
*Marysville, Washington
*South Hadley, Massachusetts
*Hamilton, New York
*Groton, Connecticut
*and now I live in another place :)

5. Five things I would do if I were a billionaire
*Donate huge amounts to cancer research, especially breast cancer and prostate cancer
*Set aside a chunk of money to fund our retirement
*Set up college funds for my children, my niece and nephew, and my cousins' children (who I view as nieces and nephews)
*Pay off our house and car
*Pay off my mom's house and car
*Establish a scholarship fund at my college alma mater
*Donate to my church

Ooops, that was more than five things--I started to get carried away by my new-found wealth.

Now it is my turn to tag someone...so I tag *YOU*! Let me know if you accept the tag and do a MeMe so that I can come over and read your post!

Mirror Before and After

Yesterday I posted this lovely picture (ha!) of my laundry drying racks in my "formal" dining room and mentioned that I was planning on painting my dining room mirror and candleholders.


Well, yesterday we finally had nice weather (today it is back to rain...ugh!) so during naptime I brought the mirror and candleholders outside and spray-painted them black. Woohoo! The paint job isn't perfect, but it works just fine for me--and I *love* the change!


Now I need to get small white pillar candles to replace the cream ones. That will really pop and make it look better with my shades on the dining room light fixture. I am a million-and-one times happier with this look than I was with the blech oak framed mirror.


Someday I'll be able to replace the table and chairs too, but not now. For now this table does just fine--especially since it mostly is used for craft projects and puzzles!

See what other people are talking about for Talk About Tuesday over on the Lazy Organizer.

Imperfection

The Nester is hosting a linkfest with links to imperfect rooms...here is my submission! Some would call it a formal dining room...but it often is used as the laundry drying room in my house! My laundry room is a small space that also is used to access the garage and doubles as a powder room. There is NO room in there to put clothes to dry. We don't have a basement...so that leaves me with the dining room! :) Hey, it works! I line-dry almost all of Princess, Handsome, and my clothes, so the dining room has clothes racks in in 3/4 of the time. I took this picture last night, as a matter of fact!


As an aside, I think I'm going to paint the mirror frame and candle holders black and see if I like that better. I'm so over the oak framed mirror. Blech! I bought black spray paint at Home Depot over the weekend to try out. Oh, and I'm in love with my centerpiece. I just did that last week and I'm quite happy with it. I like the color it brings to the room--because when the room is empty of laundry (ha!) it needs that pop of color. The table and chairs aren't especially formal--they were in our kitchen at our old home--but they're what we have for now.

Usually I am all about having things neat and orderly--whether it is my walls, my fridge, or the rest of my home. However life isn't always neat and orderly...sometimes I need to relax my standards a bit and let loose! (Says she who got up at 5:45am to make sure the family room was clean...I'm still working on that let loose thing...)