Our Yard

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My wonderful husband has been working hard on our yard to make it an oasis for us and our family. He'd do a little and then change a few things and add some more. We still are trying to decide on whether or not to get a fence, but I think we have it the way we want it....at least for now!

I so wish we had some before pics to show you. There was nothing in the back yard and only holly bushes in the front. I need to take some more pics once everything is in bloom, but I wanted to brag on my hubby a little now for all his hard work!

The front:

We plant pansies in the fall and begonias in the spring. These look a little beat down from all the rain we've been getting!

The Back deck and yard:

My new patio set !! I picture a lot of summer dinners out here!



He alternated knock out rose bushes with a small evergreen around the deck.


A close up of the knock out roses in the back yard.


Before long, these will bloom into my favorite flower- hydrangea!!! I can't wait to cut some of those babies and bring them inside! We lined the back of the house with these.

My Zebra Chair

I have been reading up on my favorite decorating blogs and getting really inspired to craft. I love love love to take someone else's junk and turn into my treasure!! I have a few projects that I am chomping at the bit to get started on, but I thought I would post one of my last redos. It's a chair that I bought at a thrift store for $10. I restained it and recovered the seat cushion with $10 more worth of fabric. The worst part of the makeover was stripping off the awful, smelly gold velour!! It was worth it, though and I think it turned out quite nicely!! What do you think?

Before:

After:

Lemons?...Make Lemonade!

Okay, this is probably the first blog post ever without pics. I guess I just think people probably aren't that interested in our day to day life and would rather see pics! When something funny or interesting does happen, I usually don't think about posting it! Anyway, this is something clever my wonderful husband came up with and I just had to share. We, like a lot of people live on a budget. We always want to live within our means and be able to give and save, so this means, we limit ourselves on how much we spend in many areas. Eating out is one of them! We were running low in our dining out money for the week but we really wanted to go out to eat after church Sunday. So, we had two "kids eat free" coupons for a certain restaurant and we thought that if we all got water, we could keep our bill to $20 or less. Well, we did just that. Our kids weren't too excited about the water idea (drinks weren't included in their free meal), but they went with it. Well, Kris asked for lemons for his water. Then, he got the great idea of making lemonade. For one regular glass of water, squeeze the juice of 3 lemons. Then, along with the lemons, add 2-3 packs of sweetener (we used splenda). It's really good and it's free!!! I will definitely use this trick again. The kids loved it! Our bil ended up being about $17 including the tip. Not too bad!! We could have saved even more if Kris and I had shared a plate, but we didn't skimp that much!! If you have any money saving tips, post them! I'd love to hear your ideas!

Football....already

Alot of our time has been spent lately at the ball field. Kris is coaching Konnor's flag football team. Here's a clip from the 2nd game.

Father/Daughter Dance

Kris and Emma went to the Father/Daughter dance at the local rec center last Saturday night. Emma was so excited. She picked out a dress (it had to be one that would twirl, of course!). We also did her hair and just a tiny bit of makeup. She wanted Daddy to wear a suit. Kris said that it was a great night! When they got there, they had their pictures made. Before Emma got out on the dance floor, she wanted to eat cookies. Imagine that! So they spent the first 30 minutes there, eating cookies. They danced and even had a lead-out. She enjoyed her date with Daddy!!

Before and After: Our progress so far on our house...

Living room before

After

Kris built these panels to frame out the television and give some interest to the long wall.

We needed a small desk for the kitchen. Being on a budget, I found this one at a thrift store for $15.

After a little paint, stain and drawer pulls, it is perfect for our laptop!

Kitchen before

After
There used to be a flush mount light fixture over the island. We found a fixture we really liked at a Home Improvement store. After looking around for some other things, we found this fixture that was very similar to the other one but 1/4 the price! The only problem is, it was cream and we wanted a black one. A can of spray paint later, we had this and loved it more than the original one we'd picked out. The chandelier over the table was originally in our dining room, minus the shades.

Master Bedroom before

After

I made the curtain panels in our master bedroom from this light blue antique satin that cost less than $1 a yard. I matched the paint to the panels. It is such a soothing room!

Dining Room before

After

In the dining room, we had wainscoting put up and a chair rail with the chocolate paint on top. It is perfect with the teal silk drapes. Kris changed out the chandelier and built the columns in the entryway.


Besides paint, we added crown molding to the entire bottom floor. Kris and I have had fun making our house a home! We have a lot more to do. I'll post more pictures as we finish more rooms.

Thinking of our Friends...

Last night, I made Chinese food and it really made us miss our friends who just left for China. So, I'm adding these pictures of the kids eating their Chinese food especially for them! Emma and Kris are the only ones who really ate with chopsticks! We miss you guys!