toy box

I bought this bench from Marcy from church about 3 months ago and I thought it would be perfect as a home for Tucker's toys. I thought it would be an easy paint job that would maybe take a week. Wrong. This was truly a labor of love and I am so glad it is finally done!


First I lightly sanded it and primed.

Even though I primed it I still need 3 coats of each color. And of course to add a little uniqueness I added some stripes on the spokes. This all took about a month to paint each coat, let dry, tape, paint, repeat...

Then, because I thought it needed more work, I painted some letters I found at Michael's.


I sealed the whole thing, let dry, added toys!


Finally done and it is already full of toys!

wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

26.2

We had a great time at Grandma's Marathon! This was Matt's second marathon and Lindsey's first and they decided to run it together. We traveled up to Kettle River, MN population 180 to our friends Dawn & Troys parent's house where we stayed for the weekend. Our drive was uneventful besides being stuck in traffic forever. After about 45 minutes of stop and go construction traffic we thought we were in the clear when we started going the speed limit again and a camper went in the ditch (no one was injured) about 4 cars ahead of us. We were stopped for another 45 minutes while the tow trucks were doing their best to get the camper out of the way. The worst part was that we could SEE our exit! We were so close to the accident that the tow truck had to turn around right in front of us. Everyone was getting out of their cars, walking their dogs, bonding with the other travelers.


This guy was quite content watching himself in the mirror. Laughing.


After we escaped the traffic we found ourselves headed down a dirt road toward the Homstad's Homestead!


We made it!




Matt and Lindsey had to run to Duluth for the expo and to pick up their race packets. Lucy and I got to ride a horse. It was lovely.



My favorite newly born horsey yet to be named.


The next morning we made it to the marathon to watch Matt and Lindsey run by us and finish the race!


After the race we met up with some friends and Matt got his 4th tattoo! Fun times.



We headed back to Kettle River and enjoyed a night of good food, great views, and fun conversation.


Hopefully one day I will be motivated to run some long race. Maybe next year at this time I will be conditioned to run the Grandma's half but don't hold me to that!

today I choose sunshine & joy!

Auntie Britt and Uncle Jonny came to visit last weekend and we had tons.O.fun! Britt and I snuck in a little project while the guys were frisbee golfing (Matt& Jonny's favorite pastime). Britt found THIS on Etsy for $55! I convinced her that we could totally make it ourselves. So we did.



There's not too much entailed, paint, stencils, canvas or wood.


Britt's final product!



My final product!

wordless wednesday

the easy.peasy desk chair

Dad made me a desk while I was in college and my desk chair is a little too big for our current guest bedroom (tiniest guest bedroom in history). I found this chair at a thrift store for $6 and thought I could fix it up a bit to match my desk. I realize this is the worst before picture in history but it's the only one I took. Sad face.




Yuck.


I sanded it down. Note to self: sanding is messy, wear junk clothes.


Stained.


Stain on my Rainbows. poop.



After the stain dried I sealed it and had a little mishap. Good thing for dads!




I re-covered the seat with simple green fabric that I love.


It matches my desk perfectly! Yay!

wordless wednesday

seven months!

Tucker is 7 months!
Some fun details about the past month:
rolling everywhere
grabbing everything
likes: apples, oats, peas, & sweet potatoes
dislikes: bananas, avocado
napkins are the new form of entertainment

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I take hundreds of pictures of Tucker, currently I have 933 photos on my camera roll on my phone-yes I am that mom :) Mostly, I love taking a picture on the 2nd of each month to track his growth and how he changes. Meg and I made these pillows the last time we were together and I wanted to use it in one of his monthly pics. Here are some of the outtakes from our 7 month photo session.

We started with this shirt but it was drenched in drool so we changed :)

I don't want to take pictures, I want to roll!

Get a picture of me like this!

Can Doug be in the picture with me?

Ok, I'm done. Bye!

flowers, plants & a potluck

My mom came to visit her grandson for a few days so I thought we could get some good gardening done. We are renting our house and the perennials the owner has planted look like a jungle. Thankfully, the owner allowed us to plant on one side of the garden, yay! We thought it would be best to plant flowering shrubs because we were planting flowers in other planters.

First things first.

The beautiful before picture.

We dug our holes for the shrubs and surprise-there was another layer of lawn fabric and white rocks. It took us a good half hour to dig one hole. Good thing we only did 2 shrubs!

Dropped our shrubs in and put down lawn paper for those pesky weeds.

Added a little mulch.

Voila! Simple but much better!

Next, we moved on to my whiskey barrel-a lovely birthday present from the hubs!

Our secret: adding a styrofoam cooler to take up space and allow for drainage.

Pretty! Makes me happy.

Coincidentally, same day as planting day, there was a plant exchange and potluck hosted by our neighborhood association in the park across the street.

Plants and flowers to exchange.

The flower we brought.

Fun at the park!

I found this little idea on Pinterest! I received this colander as a wedding gift 4 years ago. It just started to get a little rust around the edge which made me so sad because I love it so much and did not want to throw it away. I was SO happy when I found this idea on Pinterest!

I just added a little lawn fabric between the soil and the colander for a little security.

Come & sit with me a while.

Evidence of a good day with mom!