New Palm Trees

Our beautiful palm trees didn't make it past our harsh winter this year so we will have to replace them. I decided to not plant the same Washingtonian Palms we had last year, but go with a more hardy palm, the Mediterranean Fan Palm, also known as the European palm.

It can withstand temperatures as low as 10 degrees F. Once, fully established, it can withstand even colder climates.

I'm excited to see new plants around our pool...planting them, not so much.

Rainbowed Pretzels

Here's a sweet and salty treat any kid would love, sprinkled covered pretzels.

All that is needed are some pretzel rods, almond bark or white chocolate and some of your favorite sprinkles.

Melt your almond bark and then coat half the pretzel.

Add your sprinkles. Let it harden and you are done.

A quick and simple treat to give or eat.

Can't wait to share this with the kids.

Rainbow Candy-ka-bobs

If you ask A. what his favorite color is, he will name every color that he knows. I've decided to throw him a rainbow birthday party. Even though, only a few friends and family are invited, I couldn't resist, but still go big with the treats. First up are rainbow candy-ka-bobs.

I went shopping for different colored candy that could be skewered on a stick. I found fruit slices and gumdrops were both colorful and yummy.

I lined up the candy in different combinations, but following the rainbow color sequence.

Then, I used a coffee stick stirrer to skewer the candy.

Voila! A rainbow candy-ka-bob!

Bag it and tie it with a ribbon and you are done.

One done, a dozen to go...

Cute, simple, pretty, and as A. would say, yummmmmy!

New Bed {Show and Tell}

I'm finally done with R.'s new bed and I am in awe. I love how it turned out.

I started with my inspirational bed from PB. That lead to making a look a like head board.

After drawing several different plans for the platform, I came up with this very simple bed frame.

A coat of a colored match stain and some polyurethane later and this is the final product. I am relieved that the bed is finished and now comes the fun part...the decorating. I am unsure if I am keeping the rug or the curtains. I am going to keep the green quilt. That was one of the requests that I got from R. I may spray paint the lamp a more vibrant color or get rid of it all together. I'd also like to bring in a night stand that I have which will need a little revamping before entering the house. There is still a lot to do, but I'm happy that the room is slowly coming together.

Dresser Repurpose

My garage still has a few pieces pieces that didn't sell at the garage sale. I've decided to re-purpose all of them into something else. First up is this unsightly dresser. It's one of the last pieces of furniture that I have that my husband bought before our marriage. It's pretty ugly. However, since it is solid wood with nice dovetail joints, I couldn't just get rid of the thing.

I've decided to turn it into something completely different. I'll let you know what when I actually do it. I'm really excited about it though.

Stained Bed

I am all stained out. I have spent countless hours staining everything lately and after staining a few test colors, I have chosen this mahogany color for the bed. It's a color that I already had.

It wasn't exactly what I originally envisioned. However, nothing that I build ever is. Yet, I love how it turned out and the fact that it only took one coat to get this deep rich color made my day.

The finish is far from done. It will need at least 2 coats of varnish with sanding in between.

I love the building process. I hate the staining and varnishing part. I did see stains that had varnish in them, but none of the colors looked the way they were described in the end. Therefore, I'll take the four step process to achieve the color I want. I can't wait to see it in the room.

Bed Construction Complete

So I finally finished building the bed. Hooray. It took me a lot longer than I anticipated due to my changing mind. I wanted to be completely confident that my bed would be able to withstand all my kids jumping on it. A few adjustments and I am happy with the construction.

I originally wanted a footboard, but after some thought, I decided against it because the room would feel larger without it. I also like the fact that my kids can sit at the edge of the bed like they do on my bed. Should I decide later on to build a foot board, this design could easily accommodate that.

The question that lies now is what color stain. Here are my options.

Find out what I end up staining the bed with.

House Revamped

When I saw my house for the first time, I fell in love with the wrap around porch and the cedar columns and railing. My previous home was all brick so it was nearly maintenance free as far as exterior upkeep. This house, however, needed a face lift. After nearly four years, everything needed to be re-stained. I had ordered stain a few months back, but the weather had not been so cooperative until this weekend.

Up on the rooftop I went to paint my shutters. I am grateful I had a nice roof landing to stand on. Getting on and off the ladder to paint the columns were exhausting enough. In the end, it was worth the effort.

What a difference a gallon of stain can do. I'd like to re-stain the front door eventually with a darker stain, but I am unsure whether or not to replace it entirely with something a little more rustic. For now, I'm satisfied with the face-lift my home received with a little stain. Up next, will be the fence. I'm sooo not looking forward to that. The front fence where I hand stained looks perfect, but our back fence where it was sprayed on definitely needs a new coat. Therefore, I plan on hand staining our entire fence, but that is certainly not a quick chore. At least I will be burning some extra calories :)

Spring Break To Do's

Spring break has been a great break for all the kiddos since I am letting them each decide what they want to do. So far, we've gone to the movies a bunch of times, gone to the park, ate at their favorite restaurant, gone biking, and ate breakfast for dinner (they love that). Great spring break so far, isn't it?

As for me, I have been doing so much around the house. I have started to organize my garage, ordering some above the garage shelving. I've been staining our house. The before pics look horrible, doesn't it?

6 columns, 1 shutter, and the entire wrap around porch railing is finally stained. I only have 2 more columns and 3 shutters to go. Since I can only work on it an hour or so a day, progress has been rather slow. While the kids are playing outside, I've managed to start building R.'s bed frame.

It's all slowly coming together. So many projects started, but none that I can say are completely finished. My goal is to get all the staining and bed done today. Of course, that will be after spending the day doing what the kids want. It's so hard juggling my to do list and being a mom at the same time, but I'm loving it.

Mattress Ordered

After debating with myself whether or not I should build the bed frame or buy the standard one with a box spring, I finally made a decision to just build the frame so that I could eliminate the dreaded dust ruffle debacle. I tested out mattresses and finally chose and ordered one last night. That means, I really need to get my groove moving and finish building this bed before it arrives.

I got dimensions from the sales person, BUT they don't match the dimensions published online. Hmmm...who do I believe? I wanted the bed a certain height so knowing the correct height of the mattress is oober important. Do I wait until the mattress to come in, or do I risk building a bed a little too high? I could wait, but I'm pretty impatient.

I plan on purchasing the wood today for the frame so that I can at least get that checked off my list of things to do. Wish me luck!

Glasses for everyone

Do you like my new shades?

I've had 20/15 for the past 10 years, thanks to Lasik. That, however has now all come to an end as my astigmatism is back, causing me to see 20/25. I know, not that big of a deal, right, but when I sit at the computer all day to do my work, I start to notice the little variance. Therefore, I now have a prescription. I took E. into the doctor's office to get his eyes checked out and low and behold, he also has 20/25 so he will also have to wear glasses. Pretty soon everyone will be wearing glasses in my family.

After not really loving my eyeglass frames I chose, I decided to splurge and get some prescription sunglasses that I fell in love with. Alas, I'll have to wait a week before I can sport the new look. I can't wait to get them.

I'm working on a few projects during this week so I hope to post them up soon. Sorry for the lack of creativity going on in this blog. I'm working on it. :)

Boat Picnic Table

This past weekend, I spent my hours cleaning the garage. We had to stop mid-way because all my trashcans and recycle containers were all filled. I tend to buy a lot of things out of season because it saves me money. A couple of months ago, my husband calls me to ask me if I wanted to buy the kids a picnic table. We had 2 for the kids already. I built this one last summer.

I was hesitant about buying any furniture that we didn't need. However, after I heard the price, I told him to go for it because I could definitely resell it if it wasn't used. I sold one of the picnic tables we had for the kids during the garage sale. It was pretty ugly, but it did the job. While I was cleaning my garage this morning, I decided to put the boat picnic table together and just store it in the kids playroom. I had just recently torn down their play house so there was plenty of room.

I'll put it outside when we get some swimming weather. Until then, we have had a blast playing restaurant. I love it. We all can fit comfortably so it is great.

It will be perfect near our lagoonish pool. Total price tag on the boat picnic table was $99 (because they were clearancing out all of their summer outdoor furniture)!!! I can't build this for that price so it was a great deal. My hubby did me proud with his bargain hunting. We had to store it and wait months before we we'll get to use it, but it was worth it for the great price.

Simply can't wait for summer.