Photo Friday #4

A quick view of what has been going on around our house.

Plant Table in the family room, my seeds are not growing as fast as I would like. :(

I FINALLY got dirt into my planter boxes. Two truck loads! My arms hurt....

The shed, still minus a roof. It's hard to tell but I have painted the siding the color our yellow house will be transformed into. We have had a lot of wind lately as you can see from the tar paper.

Rock Planters where my iris's are slowly peeking through.

I had the yard aerated Wednesday. Hopefully this will help the shape of our backyard. It is in sad sad shape!

New baskets for laundry. One for whites/light colors and one for darks. This way I can carry them up and down the stairs and fill them up with clean clothes to put away.

View of closet with laundry baskets and new baskets on the top of the shelf. Finally a system that will work better and looks better.

Have a wonderful weekend! I get to learn how to shingle this weekend!

Weekly Money Checkup

I am behind today as it is almost Monday evening.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on paint for the shed. $113 to be exact, so not exciting. The hardest part was picking the colors as next year we will paint our house to match. 

2. Today I am thankful that it is cold outside so I don't have to paint. :)

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was drive to my parents and have my mom help me pick the paint colors and get some free flagstone for my landscape projects.

4. I will consider this week a success if I finally go buy dirt and fill my planter boxes. I have a table set up in my living room covered with plants I got on sale or started from seeds, it might help is I had somewhere to plant them.

5. My favorite TV show growing up was ???? Good question? We didn't watch much tv growing up. By the time we got off the school bus in the afternoon most cartoons were over and my mom made us do homework before we could watch tv. We also lived in the country and had maybe 7 stations. My parents didn't have cable until about 5 years ago. I really like to read though due to not watching tv.


Life here has just been busy obviously as I didn't get around to Weekly Money Checkup until now. Go check out My Pretty Pennies to join in.

Happy Easter with a few hiccups

We started out Easter morning with some home cooked breakfast. Courtesy of my husband....he cooked it all! :) Then our hiccups started.....

Our washer broke again. Thankfully we got it working within an hour! That is now at the top of my expensive list of items that need replaced most likely in the next year. Washer (& dryer because the dryer isn't great either), vacuum (cracked and isn't working right because the seal latches are also broken), stove (only two burners work), lawn mower (my husband has rebuilt the 3 year old POS twice already and informed me he wants a new one).

So because I want to cry at all the silly appliances that are barely hanging on I want to share the good things at our house.

Shed as of 4/23/11, we got the flashing (metal trim that goes under the shingles), everything caulked (to prevent leaks), and the windows installed. I also have painted the first coat of paint on the trim. 

8 Jalapeno plants and 2 Big Boy Tomato plants that were 50 cents each. Yeah for watching the sale ads! This was an AWESOME deal!

Side of shed and 2 of my garden boxes minus the soil. It still looks messy but we are getting there!

Next week we are planning on shingling the roof (I have to order the shingles tomorrow) and building the door together. My lone self is going to get the trim all painted and the siding painted as well as dirt in my planters.

Touch Screen Panel

But the best part of our weekend is we got a security system installed. The number of break ins have increased due to the economy but because it is getting warmer they also are increasing. All the homes I have been emailed about from the neighborhood watch have been houses that were obviously cased out. We travel a lot and I know I feel better about having a system but my husband also did as he made the final decision. We can even arm it or disarm it from our phones and it has a touch screen. Because we had a few extras added we spent $200 after the $1600 of equipment they gave us and it will lower our homeowners insurance. I now don't have to be nervous every time we are gone for the weekend with the dogs. Now I am just nervous about figuring the system out.

Back from the Dead

I have had horrible allergies the last few days. :( As excited as I am for spring it is not being kind to me.

 Oregon Sugar Pea Sprouts

 Some other sprouts such as squash, onions, lots of lettuce, and some marigolds.

 Our shed part way finished....my husband has been away on business all week so we haven't got the roof on yet. THANKS to my husbands parents this much happened! THANK YOU!!! If you look to the left I replanted my butterfly bushes, they have roots as big as my arms! Hopefully we didn't kill them digging them up.

And here is the toilet I thought I fixed that still has the same issues after replacing the parts. Right now the water is turned off until my husband gets a chance to look at it.

Not super exciting. Due to my husband being gone all week we are staying home for Easter so he can catch up on paperwork. :( I better check out my recipe box so we have a decent Easter meal. Have a Happy Easter!

Photo Friday #3 with No Photos

So I have No photos to share today. :(

I didn't arrive home until late Tuesday night and have been busy! My house may still not be clean (I confess I tracked all kinds of backyard mess in and out yesterday) but I have done TONS of laundry, all the beds and towels are clean and I have a huge box of clothes etc. to get rid of.

I also started most of my plants for my garden and hopefully will have a picture of the sprouts Monday. That is if they grow. I planted 4 types of lettuce, green onions, acorn squash, butternut squash, sweet peas, and marigolds for the sides of my planters. I have other plants I also want to include but I will buy them. Such as jalapenos, Red Bell Peppers, Orange Bell Peppers, Yellow Bell Peppers and tomatoes. I also am going to plant okra, garlic and horseradish but they will go directly in the soil once it warms up.

After I finish my jewelry orders I am headed back outside to shovel some rock and remove another blue tarp from our planting beds (please note if you ever think using a tarp instead of weed fabric like the last homeowners of our house, it is a VERY bad idea!). Tomorrow we are starting the framing of our shed with some help from my husbands parents. Yeah for help!

And I promise I will take LOTS of pictures so I actually have something to share!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Absentee

Sorry I skipped out on Photo Friday and Weekly Money Checkup. We were on vacation! But sadly we are back home. :( My poor husband left before 6:30 this morning because he couldn't sleep knowing he had lots to catch up on at work.

So here is the rundown. We visited a salt mine museum 650 feet below the surface of the earth. Super cool and interesting. We got to see my husbands family, see our new nephew, and play with the other one. That little rascal has too much energy! We also left early enough so we could stop and be tourists on the way home. We stopped and looked at antiques and had lunch with some friends. It was a nice trip and we are sad it is over. :(

So I am doing laundry, trying to clean and am in the mood to de-clutter. I also need to get a few orders that I got for purity bracelets made and sent out. I am planning on going and getting a load of dirt to start filling my garden beds if I can. If not I will start tomorrow, I have a LOT of work to get done this week.

I have a feeling that I wont see much of my husband as he most likely will stay late at work. And next week he will be gone all week for training in Kansas City. I am hoping I can get his garage all organized while he is gone as a surprise. Hope you had a wonderful last few days!

What are you up to today?

Facts of today at my house.

My house is not messy right now, that is everything is put away but it is dirty. I seriously need to vacuum and mop. Right now I wish I had a cleaning lady, it is bad!

The state of our garage is a worse. It is messy and dirty and full of supplies for the shed we are building. I haven't been able to park on my side in over a month and the supplies are on the other side. I can't wait until our shed is done.

I have been sewing a lot. Between baby bibs, custom house items, alterations, and now two different types of custom baby quilts my sewing machines are getting tired.

I miss making jewelry as I have been sewing. Scratch that, I miss intricate beading. I wish it was easier to sell for the time I put into it. I feel like my jewelry has lost its flare because I make now things to sell, not what I love. If I ever get done sewing I am going to make something fun.

So right now it is 8:01am Mountain time and I am not starting work until 9am so I can have some breakfast, coffee, and a shower. My sewing machine better look out because it has lots of work to do today.

I love my life even if today it revolves around sewing and cleaning. I get to do the things I excel at and pretty much have total creative freedom with most of my custom orders (I love that). Next week I will try and spend some time working in our yard which is also currently a mess due to me. Yet I look back on what I just wrote and am so glad it is my life, the mess and all. Hope you have a wonderful day!

Weekly Money Checkup

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on $46 on a fried chicken lunch for our concrete helpers this weekend.

2. Today I am thankful that it is cold and wet outside so I don't have to do any yard work. My body is tired!

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was watch my husband get our concrete pad for our shed built. I also FINALLY got my garden boxes in place, now they just need soil.

4. I will consider this week a success if I get all my orders out and more baby sets made. Everyone is having babies right now and I am having a hard time keeping up with the local demand for my handmade baby gifts.

5. The last dream I had ....I never remember my dreams. I have nightmares but my husband wont tell me when I have them anymore because he thinks I have them more often when he tells me. I guess I am lucky I don't remember them. I do day dream all the time though....:)




Best part since my last post is I got to enjoy my husbands company ALL weekend! He says he should have gone into work but we just hung out, got our yard work done and watched tv together. It was wonderful! Have a wonderful week!

Photo Friday #2

It's photo Friday again. :) I thought I would share the few changes to our master, some birthday gifts, and a yard update. I haven't hemmed my bridesmaid dress yet so I haven't taken a photo to share that yet.

Master Bedroom, its hard to see but I made new covers for the accent pillows and bought lamps. It is so nice for each of us to have our own lamp. I don't know why I didn't buy them years ago. Here is a picture of it before.

Front angle, the gray is kind of overwhelming in this picture. :(

Lamps with fabric shades that have blue flowers.

Decorative self with some blue ware that I put on it.

The 3 reasons I added the blue. The blue plate was brought from Scotland by my Great Great Grandmother (we have the same birthday and this plate is one of 2 that survived coming to the U.S.) I need to buy a plant for the large pot. My Mamo gave me the pot's and I have been trying to use them all over but they just didn't work, now they do. :)

Close up of the blue plate

Update on the yard. We have a little work to do underneath the tarp but we are almost there. Cement comes tomorrow at 9:30am. Finally! Next week I am getting to work on my landscaping. :)

I know this picture looks trashy, hence all the work we are doing but look how green the grass is. Yea!

Yesterday was my husbands birthday, I decided to give him some gifts instead of just a cake. One was this nice work light I put together and the other was a gift card for itunes so he can get some music. He also got a bonus gift as we had a new nephew born yesterday morning.

My plastic garden box full of seed packets and all the seed packets/bulbs I have been hording for the backyard. All of this will get started by the 15th of April. I can't wait!

Have a wonderful Weekend!