Tea & Lights

I was at Meijer recently when I was shopping for essentials that I can't get at Aldis.

I walked by the small appliance section when I was stopped in my tracks.

I saw this-

It is an electric tea kettle. It is beautiful.
I have a tea kettle. It is stainless steel and okay looking, but not pretty. I use my tea kettle for lots of different things and so it sits out on my counter all the time. I have no complaints about how mine works. It works great. But it doesn't look like this. So very pretty.

I did some searching online and found another one. I'm not sure which one I like better. I think the flowery one.

I've also been searching for a light fixture for our dining room. I've seen plenty that are okay. But nothing that feels just right. Until I found these.

via

Too bad the prices aren't in our budget right now. I'm not sure what size or color I would want. I think the blue one.

Then I wondered, Could I make a bushel light of my own? 

I found a few who have tried.

Here is this one from Design Sponge-

  Pretty, right?

And then this one from Etsy-

A little rustic, but I like it. I think I may try it. I'm not sure if I would use a real bushel basket or build something with wood slats to make it look like a bushel basket. And maybe this light would be better in our entryway instead of our dining room. I'm just not sure yet. 

Apple season is right around the corner though! (along with school :/)

Second-Hand Purchases

I had the perfect shopping day on Saturday. Almost.

The boys all went to travel baseball tryouts. Almost all. When we got there it was pretty chilly. My littlest was under-dressed for the cold front that was moving through. He didn't want to stay.

So he came with me. I got to visit a lot of my favorite places. I did spend a small portion of my birthday stash.
I got this-




I kind of liked it as is- but I bought it with the intention of reusing it.
I found another lamp hopeful. It definitely has potential.




Time for another makeover!
I wasn't as productive as I hoped to be on the weekend. This is how the craft/school room is coming along.




Still lots of sorting and organizing to go.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Progress

I have been making some progress. The garage has gone from this-

To this-

 Better. But still a little ways to go. We are hoping to fix that fridge and resell it. It is annoyingly taking up a huge amount of needed space right now.

I also rearranged the living room furniture. I haven't been fond of the layout since we moved in. Here is how it used to be.

This is how it looks now-

You may have noticed I finally hung my curtains. I found the hardware! Now I'm rethinking those white curtains that were from our previous house.  I need to do something to them to bring in a little color. Not sure what yet.

I also moved in the trunk my mom gave to me. It is a temporary coffee table for now. I am also rethinking those yellow lamps. I would rather have a green or blue color. Maybe somewhere in between- like a teal. My flowered chair we eventually get reupholstered or slip-covered. Someday.

This is the state of my craft/school room and what I will be tackling this weekend.

Wowwee. What a mess. I've got my hands full.

Have a great weekend!

The Great Outdoors

I walked around my yard taking pictures about a month ago.

My point was to blog about all the changes I wanted to make to our landscaping. But my focus changed while taking those pictures. Let me explain.

For instance:

I'm not sure what to do about that humongous bush next to our driveway. Trim or remove?
I'd like to remove all those weeds that grew in the loose dirt where a barn used to be before we moved in. I'd like to put our trampoline there.

 

 I'd like to get rid of that hideous wooden structure and dig a large, round fire pit there. I'd also like to get rid of that first pine tree. I really don't like pine trees.

 

There is so much overgrown yuckiness surrounding my shed. I'd like to remove all of it along with those ugly pine trees.

This monstrosity is a rose bush of some kind. It is actually growing up under the eaves of the house. I need to remove it all. It's huge.

I actually have weeds and trees growing out from my house. I'm not very good at weeding.

Those overgrown and ugly pine trees must go also. Along with the gigantic weeds and newly sprouting trees next to my shed.

On the other side of the pine trees is where I would like my future garden.

Oh, look. Here comes my youngest running to me in the distance.

What's that JJ? Oh, you need to go potty? Sure, just go right here in the weeds.

Evidently peeing outside is not something we have gone over yet. He left his waistband partially pulled up so his little weenie was pointing straight up. He started peeing all over his arm, shirt, shorts, and face. Yes. His face. And once he started he couldn't stop. All I could do was watch and wait until he was done. He wasn't happy. I had my camera turned on and in my hand. So I did what probably no other mother would do.

I took his picture. I tried to stifle my giggle. He saw me laughing and so he started laughing too. Eventually. We went inside to clean up and he bragged about it to his brothers. Crazy boy.

(This photo has been censored with a black box)

Staircase Plans

Our stairs have been unfinished since we moved into our house. They aren't really that high on the priority list. But I use them daily and am annoyed at the state they are in every time I use them.

So I did a little painting. When we primed and painted our walls there was still some old, stinky carpet covering the staircase. I removed it shortly after that. This left a gap where the sides of the stairs were not painted.
Here is the history of our staircase in photos.

Here are my plans:

Prime and paint along the sides of stairs- white
Buy pine stair treads- stain, seal(same as floors) and install
Either buy stair risers or try to use existing plywood- paint an hombre effect

Like this and a very similar color.

Also-
Paint hand rail black (same color as doors)
And try to do a family photo like this. (but smaller)

So far I've only worked on some of the painting. Lots to do!
Thanks for looking!

Weekend Warrior

I thought this title was appropriate for the content of this post but it is also ironic.

We had our last baseball tournament this weekend. (Woohoo!)



Next year we will be separating from the Lakeshore Storm which we just merged with at the beginning of this year. It wasn't the right fit for a few different reasons. Next year we will be the Warriors.

I had a warrior of my own this weekend. My youngest was a magnet for trouble. He fell on his face in the dugout, fell down the wooden bleachers and then fell off a skateboard at our team party. Also, he almost got hit with a foul ball.

Here he is after his first fall. It was a long day and so so hot. He crashed on me which made me doubly hot.



I tried to catch a few pictures of his wounds but he was not having any of it.

Here are my attempts.

This is a good one of his face.


This one I almost caught all of his shoulder wound along with the one on his knee.


This is his other shoulder.


Here is a blurry one that shows the struggle it took to get these.



He is much more cooperative when he's sleeping!

We are happy for a break from baseball and look forward to what next year will bring.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

This Week

This week has been active.

I've been feeling more energetic and making progress here at the homestead.

I don't have any great 'after' shots to show yet, but here is what I've been doing this week.

I've been tackling the painting of the doors upstairs.

 I obviously have many more coats to go.

 And a sticker to remove first.

 I have been diving head first into this chaotic mess.
I can't wait until it is cleaned up! I've made progress and can't wait to show the results.

 I've also been watching this guy a little. It's nice to have an excuse to take a break and slow down a little.

I also took some 2 1/2 year pictures of Miss Adelaide that I will be sharing next week.

 We have our last baseball tournament this weekend! Yaaaaaay! I'm so happy to be focusing on family time and having the weekends to do some fun stuff. Not that baseball isn't fun.

Have a great weekend!