Parental Milestones

It's done!! Another parental milestone met.....Our youngest graduated from high school last night!


Some days it's hard to comprehend all the kids are technically grown - at least legally! Hard to believe that there will be no more teacher's conferences, FFA banquets, field trips, Key Club activities, Indian ruins to build, science projects, last minute permission slips, remembering to get lunch money, no more I need money for this or that (always the night b/4), waiting for school to let out, carpooling, rushing from one activity to another, no more missing the bus........................what will I ever do with that free time???????

Tonight is the final ceremony - she has been attending the vocational HS in Natural Resources, focusing in landscape design. They have their graduation ceremony tonight.

And yes, just like with the other two kids, I didn't even get through the processional w/o tearing up.

Baby Rainbows

Do you have a favorite childhood movie that has stuck in your head but you don't know why? I saw Pollyanna as a child. I loved that movie. I don't know why it stuck out over all the other movies I saw. The scene in which she visits the old grumpy man and they take the prisms and hang them up in the window is my favorite.

I don't know why but the window with all the prisms really impressed me. I told myself one day I will have a window of prisms. Well this weekend I started it!

Right now I only have one and when I find more I will add to my window. All I did was put up a tension rod in the window and hung it from the rod with ribbon.

When the suncomes out and it shines through the window, I love to look at all over the room for the baby rainbows..........

BabyRainbows on the floor:

Baby Rainbows on the cabinets:

Baby Rainbows on the Dog:

Baby Rainbows on the girl:

I'd love to hear your stories abt how a childhood movie affected you in your adult life.......jo

Show Us Where You Live Friday

Today is kind of a cheat - somewhat of a repost.
Kelly over at Kelly's Korner -
http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/2009/05/show-us-where-you-live-friday-dining.html
is hosting home tours - today's is the dining room. Please check her blog out - she has the MOST ADORABLE baby, Harper. I found her blog from a friends and have been hooked on watching Harper grow day by day - even my 18yo dtr and hsb have to see her posts daily!

When we bought the house 4 yrs ago all the rooms were painted white over wallpaper. This is the only picture I can find from when we first viewed the house:

I scraped multiple layers off the wall and found writing in pencil on the plaster. I was unable to get a gd picture of it. I did some research at the library and did find that a local wallpaper hanger always signed his name and if there was any memorable events I the news that day he would write that as well.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do in the dining room as far as the paint color - I had the material for the drapes, so I had a general idea, then I found the following ad in a magazine and knew that was perfect for my dining room. I never have been a big red fan, so even for me this was a stretch. Once we painted it I knew it was perfect!

I think we got it pretty close to the ad:

We recently - like a week ago got carpeting - please read my post on my trials and tribulations of flooring!

Birthdays

Do you remember how you would forward to your birthday when you were a kid? How it seemed like the day was magic? Your "special "day. Why does it seem like some years you have that magical feeling and other years you just don't care and wish it was just over? It has nothing to do with what age you are becoming or leaving, it just seems like you really just don't want any fuss made over you. I want to thank my hsb for all the sweet things he did for my birthday, I know how hard you tried to make it special and I truly appreciate what you did and I wish I wasn't so ambivalent about this year. It had nothing to do with what anyone did or didn't do it was just one of those days I just wanted to get threw and get over. I kept asking myself what was wrong that I didn't feel excited - was I depressed abt it? and I've soul searched and just realized no I'm not depressed, it just wasn't important to me this year. Has any one else had these feelings?

Mat Transformation

So being the tightwad - I mean frugal - that I am, I didn't want to spend the $$ on having it matted and framed, so I went to Michael's and looked for a picture/mat/frame in the size I needed. I still paid $40, however a mat alone would've cost me that much, since it was 20x24 size cut for a 16x20 picture

I didn't like the white mat with the picture, so I broke out the acrylic paints, sponges and sponge painted it the color I thought it would look right Because this mat has wood framing the inside I taped it off with painters tape. I then took a piece of a sea sponge and started sponging on the color. I kept putting layer upon layer until I had the coverage I wanted. When I took the tape off the color was a little short of the edge so I painted the color up the the wood.

I still need to attach the hanger so I can hang it on the wall. I wanted to get this posted tonight so I took this picture so you could see how it turned out. Tomorrow I will take a picture of it in it's "home"

So if you can't find the color mat at the store you want, create one with a little bit of paint!

Flooring - Family Room

Part 2 The Family Room

I believe this room actually was the 2nd Parlour or drawing room - we

had it as our bedroom for awhile but it seemed odd to have our bedroom

off the dining room so we decided it would be better as a TV/family room.

AFTER

Flooring!

Part 1 - The Dining Room

WELL, it finally happened.....

......after 4yrs of debating, discussing, and agonizing, we finally got the floors covered in the dining and living room....

BEFORE - note the awful floor - click on photo to enlarge

In the Dining Room looking into the Family room - yes that is a pocket door

I think we changed our minds a bizzillion times- do we refinish the existing wood floors? - not an viable option since the floors are a soft pine and not in the best condition - even thought my heart wanted to keep it original so then hard wood or not hard wood - I found one I fell in love with but after bringing the sample home and seeing what my nails did to the finish we decided that it really wasn't going to be large dog "friendly" - I was sooo disappointed but knew it wouldn't be right, ok so on to carpeting - what color? tan vs., multi vs brown vs green vs gold then - high pile, low pile, frieze or loop? What is the count - is it enough? What is the warranty? To many choices. My head was swarming....Finally we found one we both liked so I bit the bullet put down the deposit and waited for the person to come measure it - of course the first snag aggravation w/ Lowe's not being able to come out to measure in the evening -who ever thought that someone couldn't come out at 7pm to measure? . Back to square one - we started over at Buddy's - the manager was great to work with and walk thru each step with us - even helped find a carpet similar to the one at Lowe's- this was a higher count and better quality for actually less money - ordered it and it's was installed today - after a nerve wrecking installation - didn't like over hearing "it's to short, but it'll be ok "- and it was). I never have liked having people in my house so for me this is a biggie for me - part of why I have put it off.

AFTER

Devon and Emily gave their seal of approval......

I love the carpet! I was so afraid - esp since the swatch was small - it was hard to imagine how it will look in 2 rooms that are huge - esp when I have picked such bold colors for the dining room. I amazes me how it can make such a difference.

See Part 2 the family room...........

Tea Time

I picked the following tea cup and saucer for no special reason. When it came into the store I knew it had to be part of my "collection" I now have tea cups and saucers as well as teapots in my kitchen. I had never seen a footed cup like this - once I had one of course I saw them all over. I loved the colors because they weren't roses and it wasn't pink - not that I don't have pink rose cups....this was just different

This is where she hangs out with her "girlfriends"

Please don't forget to enter my jewelry giveaway

Tea Cup Tuesday

Martha's Tea Cup Tuesday

A Beautiful Day.....

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. We went for lunch then to our local arborteum and walked around.

I'd like to share some of the beauty that surrounded us.......

Have you ever seen a white bleeding heart?

Yup I think I'd like to just sit here awhile and enjoy the beauty.........