Fourth of July Recap

We had a GREAT fourth of July! I absolutely love my family :)

Flags and Flowers for the Fourth!

Fourth of July weekend is here! This is the first time in as long as I can remember that my whole extended family has not gone to Wisconsin for the holiday. I am missing them dearly! Instead, we are hanging out at home and enjoying the nice cool weather (it is in the mid-70s, my favorite!) Our plans are to work outside in the yard (as you can see from the pictures below, our hedges need trimming but our hydrangeas are looking beautiful!), go for lots of family walks, relax, and celebrate with friends! Should be a very nice weekend!

Hope you have a great time celebrating! 

Weekend Craft: Valentine's Day Wreath

We are SNOWED IN!! It just keeps coming and coming. Being less than two weeks away from my due date, I've been slightly panicked I'll go into labor because even though the hospital is 5-miles from our house, it would probably take 2 hours to get there in this white-out!! I can just imagine myself delivering the baby in a snowbank. AHH!

Anyway, I wanted something hands on to do this weekend.. Usually for me that means cleaning, but the house is already spotless and 100% organized, so I decided to see what I had lying around the house to make a craft out of. Here is what I found:

• Leftover Christmas Ribbon
• Tacky Glue
• Burlap
• A piece of styrofoam obtained from a package we had shipped

Thus, the idea for a heart shaped wreath for Valentine' s day was born!

Since I can't draw anything freehand, I used a plate to trace the soft edges of the heart.

Then I used a piece of wood to draw the straight lines (Don't mind my outfit.. Like I said, 38-weeks pregnant! You wear whatever feels good!)

Voila!!

I then cut it out using a kitchen knife... As you can see, I also ended up cutting out a little handle at the top so I could hang it from my wreath hanger.

And just to warn you, little white bits of styrofoam go EVERYWHERE! Have your vacuum handy!

I then cut the ribbon into different sized triangles. To be more efficient, I put glue on multiple pieces at a time and then stuck them all to the foam at once. The tacky glue worked extremely well at holding the ribbon and the styrofoam together.

When it came to the sides, I just cut one long strip and wrapped it along the edge. It gave it a more clean look and let's be real, saved me a ton of time ;)

I then wrapped the top edge with burlap (at first I wrapped that section with red too, but it looked more like a shield and less like a heart, so I went back and re-wrapped with the burlap). I also tied a bow out of burlap as an accent piece.

 And ta da!!! The finished product!! Maybe not my best craft (it definitely looks better from a distance!), but I love that it brings a little V-day flare to our house, kept me happily occupied for 2-hours, and was free :)

Happy Easter!

I was supposed to have 9 people coming into town this weekend to celebrate Easter, and I was soo looking forward to it.. But unfortunately, the cold/flu virus had other plans! So many of us were sick (including myself) that we ended up having to cancel :(

BUT, my house still looked really cute for the holiday regardless! Here are some pics :)

Hope you all had a blessed Easter!

Thanksgiving Recap!! Full, Happy, & Thankful :)

This has been one of my favorite days of the year :) I LOVE Thanksgiving!

This year we celebrated with my family at my parent's house. 

Me & Tucker - I love this pup :)

We've been playing lots of Scrabble (and drinking lots of wine!)

The boys (brother Brian & husband Evan) have been enjoying their football games. Go Packers!

We had an AMAZING meal - yum :)

Food coma time... 

And now I'm off to have some pie :) 

Hope you all had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!

Christmas List!

Ah, the title of this post is very misleading. I bet you clicked on the link thinking I'd have all the beautiful & sparkly things I hope to get for Christmas, but nope - this is my official:

 TO-DO by Christmas List!

Ever since we've moved in, I've had Christmas in the back of my mind as the date to have this HUUGE list of items done in the house. I'm happy to say, we've got the majority of them done! Just a handful of things left to do ourselves and our house will feel more like a HOME and less like a work-in-progress. Here it is:

- Paint all the trim in the house white
- Paint mudroom lockers white (halfway there!)
- Install beadboard in the master bathroom
- Reconfigure bookshelves in the addition to fit our TV (halfway there!)
- Get a coffee table for the addition
- Install new carpet in addition (Once all construction and painting is complete)
- Get a desk for my office
- Redo 1/2 bath including: Paint, install new mirror, new lighting, new towel holder, new hand towels and rug.

Oh, and decorate the house for CHRISTMAS! inside and out. I'm getting excited already. I'm even looking forward to snow! (Although please don't quote me on that later!)

Here were my decorations in our old apartment:

There are also a few other things our to-do short list, but they don't necessarily have to be done by Christmas in my book... (But definitely in the next 6 months!) This includes the FULL master bath renovation and installation of slate floors in the entry and the mudroom. I'm still trying to decide whether I want to try to do the tile work myself (aka have Evan do it!) or hire someone to do it. Have you tried tiling yourself? Any tips and tricks? If you have posted about tiling on your own blog, send me the link!

Happy (Almost!) Halloween!

Evan and I had a GREAT weekend celebrating Halloween with our friends :)

A group of us decided to embrace "Batman" as our theme for the evening. I was Poison Ivy.. then there was the Riddler, the Penguin, Cat Woman, Robin (Evan!), and of course Batman. It was fun :)

There was an AMAZING spread of treats!

 And every single person who went to the party dressed up!

And I couldn't resist including a pic of my friends recent laundry-room renovation. Beautiful!