His Turn.....

As I've mentioned more than once, Preston loves basketball! In January our school/church was holding a free throw contest. It was broken down by age group. The kids got 25 shots and the best scores would advance to the next round. Preston and his friend and teammate Colby tied for first and had to shoot 15 more baskets to break the tie. They were both exhausted. Preston ended up with a higher score and went onto the next round. Two rounds later it was championship time. Preston came out on top! I was so proud of him! Free throws and three pointers are his basketball strengths. He got the nickname "P.T. for Three" this season. Now P.T. needs to work on dribbling and his ball handling skills.

  

Good job, Buddy!

Winner!

This big win is bitter sweet. Parker has been playing basketball for two years, Preston for three. For Preston basketball is life. He plays constantly, practices, works with coaches, goes to camps, you name it. Anything he can do to play, practice, have fun and get better he'll do. Parker just goes out and plays for fun. This year Parker's team went undefeated the entire season and won the championship. I loved watching him every step of the way, and I was so excited when they won. However, it was heartbreaking watching Preston. He wants it more, he works harder than his brother, and he is truly passionate about it. He was a good sport about it, but I could see how hard it was for him. I am proud of them both!

Thankfully this is the team trophy that will be displayed in the school. I don't want this thing sitting around needing to be dusted!

Our Trip & DIY Disney Shirts!

Finally! I'm sure you were all thinking we didn't really go to Disneyland! Well, we really did. We went on our usual trip flying out the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The weather was absolutely perfect, and we had a great time! The boys wanted Grandma Chickie to come with us this year so we brought her along. They had a blast! I don't think that most kids have hip Grannies that will ride all the rides with them. By far the highlight of our trip was Cars Land. Since we skipped going last year it was the first time we had seen it. We all fell in love with it and spent a lot of time there.

CARS LAND......

This was our first ride on Radiator Springs Racers. I think the picture tells you how much we loved it!

I made the shirts that the boys are wearing in this picture, but not mine or Travis's.

Heading into Disneyland. There is nothing like the feeling you get on Main Street, especially when it's decked out for Christmas!

These are some of the Disney shirts that I made for our trip and these are my favorites. I love the old original Disneyland sign from my childhood. If anyone is wondering, I made the design in PhotoShop, cut it out of freezer paper with my Silhouette Cameo then used Tulip fabric paint to paint them. Very easy!

I made these hoodies as well. Same process as the tee shirts I just used more paint colors.

I made these as well. Parker loves the writing on the back.

I love this picture. Seeing Goofy is always a highlight!

Tower of Terror is by far one of our favorite rides. We go on it countless times every time we are there.

We made the boys ride It's a Small World twice. They were dying! Totally not their thing. However, their mother loves it at Christmas so they had to suck it up!

More DIY Disney tee shirts.

Our last picture as we are getting ready to leave the park.
See ya next time Disneyland!

Snow (sorta) boys!

Love these ski boys! There has not been a lot of snow this year, but the boys are trying to make the best of it before it's all melted away. The weather is pretty much perfect spring skiing conditions. The problem? It's January!

P.S. I will try to get Disney pictures up one of these days. :)

Happy Halloween 2013!

Oh, Shed!

My dad rocks! My dad is retired and extremely bored. I was joking with him over the winter that since he built my sisters dog a dog house that he should build us a shed. I kept telling him it was the exact same thing he just needed to make it way bigger. He called us one day and said to meet him at Home Depot, a.k.a. my second happy place, to buy the wood. His boredom overtook him and he was ready for a project!

The happy builders! 

We had a few arguments over the windows. He didn't want windows, I did. Once I bought the windows he wanted them on the ends (north/south) so the shed would get better ventilation. Yes, that is probably true, I was just trying to make it cute. So windows on the front, the colors I wanted, and we were good to go!

As a joke my dad put that moon on the door thinking it would bug me and I'd "squak" about it. I love it! I totally ruined his day when I left the moon up and told him I was going to paint it yellow. Besides saving us a bunch of money by building a shed rather than buying one, it kept  my dad busy for a few months. See, my dad rocks! Now I just need him to get bored enough to build us a chicken coop. My angle is going to be it's bigger than a dog house, but smaller than a shed!

Mini Front Porch Re-do

I have had these purple chairs for years and I've been sick of the purple for a while now.

I finally got around to repainting them. They are going to stay this color forever since they were a pain the ass to paint! My favorite part is the pillows. I had it in my pea brain that I wanted lime green pillows with birds on them. Of course, I could not find them anywhere. I finally found these lime green cushion covers at IKEA for cheap and painted/stenciled the birds on.

Now I just need to get around to pulling out that dead tree that's right smack in the middle of the pictures!

Hose Reel Post

Travis and I have this ongoing argument with the hoses. When I use a hose, I leave it laying on the ground where I used it. Ok. I know that is not what you are supposed to do, but I do it anyway. I don't care if it's on the grass, in the dirt, wherever. I leave it there until I use it again then I drag it to that location and leave it there. It drives Travis NUTS!

This is how Travis does it. He rolls it up in a nice coil and sits it on the dirt. He does this each and every time he uses the hose. Yes this is what you should do, but I don't. I should note, this is exactly opposite of how we do everything else. I am the total OCD person and keep things neat and tidy. Travis not so much.

At the old house we had these cheap plastic hose reels that you rolled up the hose on. When we moved two of them got a crack and we threw them out. I decided we needed a more permanent reel. I saw one in our neighborhood that was posted on 2x4's and my wheels started turning. I headed off to my second happy place, Home Depot, and decided this is what I wanted.

 

I love how it turned out. We bought a 4x4x8 post and cut it in half. Travis cemented it in the ground about 15". When it dried I painted the posts, then Travis attached the hose reel. It is so easy to use and I actually roll the hose up now. We have two more to put in. Until then...those hoses are laying on the grass.  hee hee.

Refinishing More Furniture!

Let's see....it's been how many months since I've posted on here?!?! It took me several tries to remember my password.

I've been busy with just the usual life stuff, and having fun refinishing some furniture. I have had a few people ask me for pictures of this desk, so I figured this was the easiest way to do it. Well, easiest once I remembered my password! :-)

Parker has a little plastic Little Tykes desk that he loves. He will sit there for hours drawing pictures. I figured that he would love a bigger desk. As usual I was wrong. He still sits at his little desk. Oh well. I had fun refinishing it. If he doesn't use it I will put it on KSL and sell it.

 

Before. I picked this desk up for $15.00 so I'm not out much if he never uses it. I had my dad tighten everything up, then I removed the handles and sanded away. It looks like it was originally painted pea green with several layers of cheap, poorly done white paint over it. I had to sand and sand to get it ready.

And after. I really like the color. I used Rustoleum Lagoon spray paint then glazed it in black. I bought new handles at my go-to place, Hobby Lobby. I also took a small rock and hammer and beat the wood up a bit to make it look older. My last step is to go thrifting and find him a chair. One of these days I'll get around to it.

I've also refinished a headboard for my mom, and I'm currently working on a nightstand and my porch chairs. I'll post more pictures when I get them done. That is if I can remember my password again.

Framing Mirrors with Molding

When we were building our house, one of the things I wanted to do was have our bathroom mirrors framed. The day I was ordering the mirrors I sat and looked at the different frame styles and colors and I could not make up my mind. Mirrors was one of the final things I had to pick out, and honestly I was so sick of looking at things, and picking things out, that I just didn't care. I ended up ordering just plain ole mirrors and left the place. I am so thankful that I did. To have them framed at the same time we ordered the mirrors it was $400.00-$500.00 per mirror, depending on size. On various blogs and home improvement sites, I've seen people frame their mirrors with molding and decided that I could do that. I started with our small bathroom in the mud room as my practice.

I bought my molding and corner pieces at Home Depot (my home away from home), and sprayed them with Rustoleum paint. I used the molding that is the "fake" wood since it is lighter, cheaper and already primed. I cut my pieces to fit before I painted them so all I would have to do is glue them on the mirror.

Before shot. The pieces are painted and ready to be glued on. I started by gluing the bottom piece on first. You can not start at the top or you are stuck at the bottom with no wiggle room if you need it.

During. I used painters tape to prevent slipping while the glue was still wet.

After! I think for my first practice mirror it looks fine.  Best of all...making them myself saves about $1,500.00. Yea!

Cost for one bathroom:

Molding & corner pieces $14.00
Paint $4.00
(I used Liquid Nails glue that I had on hand)

Total $18.00 YEA!

I have three mirrors to go still. I have the wood but it is too cold to paint right now. It needs to be at least 50-60 degrees to paint, and we have not been above 20 for weeks. Burrr......

Merry Late Christmas 2012!

If anyone is still out there, Merry Late Christmas! I have been been a total blog slacker lately. As I've said many times, I'm sick of my blog and it feels like work lately. Thanks for the emails checking up on me, all is well.

I can not believe we are at the end of December - man time really flies! I still feel like I am running two weeks behind in life and trying to get everything caught up. Thanks to all for the well wishes for us, especially Travis and his family on the passing of his mom. It certainly was not unexpected, but the timing around the holidays threw us all off. However, we have to chuckle at her timing. She hated the holidays, so getting out of one last season had to be in her plans. :)

Preston was really sick on Santa picture day. At first I was ok with it, thinking he's too old anyway. But when I got there with only Parker and there were lots of older kids around, I was missing him. Getting the pictures back without him in it, and setting up my Santa picture table, I decided it really sucked. 

I will make sure my then 12 year old son's Santa picture makes it on the Santa picture table next year.

Bug up my.......

For some reason about a month ago I got a bug up my butt that I wanted to refinish furniture. I am not entirely sure why. I have never refinished furniture in my life. My aunt did some cute tables a while back, and I've seen a few cute pieces on various blogs, but at the time it didn't hit me. It hit me when I was out shopping at various thrift shops in October looking for Halloween costumes. Anyway, I saw this little hutch/secretary thing one day for $10 and for some reason I put it in my cart and left without buying any Halloween costume stuff. This is what it looked like to start out with:

Plain and boring. 

And after. 

I think for my first refinish it turned out fine. I chose the color from a blog called All Things Thrifty that I was reading and the girl used this color to refinish end tables. They looked very cool. Well, hers looks way better than mine. I am not really sure why I even did this, besides that bug up my butt, because I have no place to use this and the color matches nothing in my house. Right now it is sitting in my mud room. I will say that I would like to refinish a dresser, something we actually need. If I find one cheap I'll give it a try.

It aint no Disneyland!

This spring we had a decision to make.We could either put our backyard in or go on vacation. Honestly, it was a tough decision. We talked to the boys and Parker instantly said he wanted the yard in. Preston at first said the yard, but then halfway though spending the money on the yard changed his mind to vacation. Yea, too late dude. So it really sucked not going on vacation, which for us always means Disneyland, but at least the yard is mostly done. We were able to do sprinklers, grass, most of the fence, and put in the forms for the basketball court and the patio. The major lacking we have is cement. We eventually need to pour cement for the patio and the basketball court. The amount of money we need for these two things equals a new car.  I don't see it happening....ever! It is so nice to have the grass in! Our yard was always either a dust bowl or a mud hole. So just having everything cleaner made it totally worth it. The thing that Travis and I are happy about is that we did all of the work ourselves. For one, we love to do yard work, and two, if we had to hire it out we would not have gotten very far. It is so expensive to hire it done. The heat was a killer this year so that made it so hard. Travis would work all day then come home and install sprinklers until bedtime. I would go out after dark and move dirt around, back-fill trenches, remove rocks, etc.  I can't handle the sun or the heat so nighttime was my time to get things done. Next summer we are kicking back....Yea, right!

This is how the yard looked not long after we moved in.

This is first thing this spring. The trampoline is in, the patio formed, and the garden in. Oh, and the weeds are happily growing.

Digging for sprinklers. ZZZzzzzzzzzzz.....boring!

 Sprinklers in and dirt sorta back in place.

 On the right side of the picture is the someday basketball court.

 Ready for hydro seed. Anyone out there looking for lawn, do hydro seed. The cost is very low and you get much better grass than you do buying sod. Our entire back yard cost 1/4 of what our tiny front yard cost in sod. The back is thick, even and a good color. The front where we did sod is the exact opposite. I hear people say they don't want to wait for the grass to grow so they spend thousands getting sod. It took ours 2-3 weeks to be walkable and about 4-5 weeks for it to be thick and useable. Personally, I can wait 4-5 weeks to save that much money. 

Ready for seed.

I took this right after the guy finished spraying the seed on. I took the picture with my iPhone so not great color

Drum roll please...we have a lawn! The dirt at the bottom of the picture will be the fire-pit someday. This picture is taken from the west looking east.

This picture is from the east looking west. 

Again, it aint no Disneyland but it's mostly done!