Two Summery Projects

Hey all!  In the last few weeks I have actually found pockets of time to do not one but TWO crafty things that were on my crafty to-do list.  I KNOW. How this happened I have no clue but I’ve learned to take those pockets of time and just run with them because with two little people around, you just never know then it’s gonna happen again! 

First up was the front door wreath.  This was the wreath, remember, that I decked out for fall, left brown and dead over Christmas, then decorated for Valentine’s day…for four months.  LOVELY.  That’s what being very pregnant and then having a newborn will do for you! ha!

 

 

I realllly wanted to deck her out for the patriotic holidays over the next few summer months.  I have been loving the combo of sky blue and coral lately, so when my amazing husband sent me off for Mother’s Day with money in my pocket and the day off without kiddos, I headed to Hobby Lobby (of course!) and picked up some felt.  4 for a dollar – gotta love it! 

I love making these rosettes.  They are SO easy with felt! 

Seriously just trace circles of different sizes….cut in a spiral…then twist the spiral in on itself and secure with hot glue.  Trim any sharp corners.  I like to double up the flowers (nestle a small inside a big) for some depth. 

   

Voila! 

I’m really, really happy with how it turned out!  It makes me smile every time I look at my door.  Maybe someday we will replace that door with a lovely Craftsman-style one, but we’re not in the position of life right now to replace things simply because don’t like them.  They have to break or die first.  (So…anyone want to come split my door down the middle with an ax?  Kidding!  Sorta.)

Anyway, on to craft project number 2!

I found this simple little tray ages ago for 99 cents at Goodwill.  I’d been saving it to use for Olivia’s room, but I decided I wanted it for the kitchen island instead (is your island a drop-zone for everything, too?!) 

   

 

I followed the tutorial on Shanty 2 Chic about distressing with Vaseline and I love the results! 

Cheap brown acrylic paint…brush on the sides and edges…let dry, then rub with Vaseline…rub it in WELL (very important, I learned the hard way!)…then spray paint with desired color.  Distress with sanding block once dry. 

 

 

I’ve had this spray-paint for a while and I have to admit it came out a lot brighter than I was expecting.  It kinda screams “HI I AM A SUMMER COLOR!” but I do think it works for the summer months.  It’s definitely bright and happy.  :) (And NO I did not actually drink all that wine!  It’s mostly filler from Target coupled with wine corks my brother saved me from the catering company he works for.  lol) And the flowers are from a lovely friend last week when I was sick.  Thank you Amy!!

 

 

 

And to show you how bad I am at keeping non-human objects alive, here is my mother’s day pansy (MY FAVORITE FLOWER, TOO) from Luke.  It was on the counter but is now replaced by the living other flowers. 

 

It had a good run, it really did.  We enjoyed it for a while.  And then it got leggy and….I also forgot to water it.  Whooopsie!  lol

At least this one from preschool is still kickin’! 

 

{Have you seen this from Pinterest?  Story.of.my.life.}

 

Hopefully this weekend I’ll pull down all my summer decor from the attic – I’ll be sure and update when I’ve dressed my little house for the summer months! 

See ya!

 

Linking up with:

Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest

Weekend Wrap-Up @ Tatertots and Jello

Strut Your Stuff Saturday @ Six Sisters’ Stuff

Meeting Other Bloggers IRL–Have You Done It?

{Thank you to all those who were a part of praying for my daughter’s heart surgery!  She is alive and thriving right now – I’m not ready to process it all on the blog, especially since I’ve been documenting it all on her Facebook page, but maybe I will someday soon.  So for today, just a fun post.}

Meeting other bloggers in real life is something I’d probably never tell my mom I’ve done, because I’m pretty sure she’d be a nervous wreck, bless her heart!  haha! I have to admit, it DOES sound pretty shady to meet people you’ve only ever chatted with on the internet, but two of my “blogging friends” have turned into actual, real-life friends that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know their kids and homes. 

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The first was Abby, back in 2011.  Abby and her husband used to be a military family and they ended up getting stationed only about an hour from my house.  I can’t remember how I found Abby’s blog, but I think it was through a project linky.  We had used the same wall color on our living rooms, I think, and then of course I totally acted like a stalker read through like every one of her past posts and decided that she was someone whose blog I wanted to follow.  {Tell me you do a little screening process like that too?!  I take my blog reading very seriously!  haha}

 

{Hanging out one last time, a few weeks before she moved back to Oklahoma. I look like I haven’t slept in 37 days but at least you can see a picture of us. ha!}

When I first met Abby in person, my first thought was, “she looks so cute!”  I have a freaky almost-photographic memory for certain things, so I can still remember what she was wearing!  (So that I can creep out the whole internet, it was a cute denim chambray-style shirt and riding boots.  Abby you still want to be friends?!  lol)  She was SO soft-spoken, which made me nervous at first because I am pretty much the definition of an extrovert and when I meet quiet people I start to launch into verbal-diarrhea mode.  Quiet people scare me.  There, I said it.  lol 

But she is a total sweetheart AND she is Southern (didn’t realize until I met her that Oklahoma is a Southern state?).  She says y’all and if you’ve been reading here at all you know that I’m a little obsessed with the South and if they ever figure out how I can simultaneously live in Georgia and New England, I’m all over that. 

She has two super cute little boys and we share a mutual love of thrift-store and yard-sale shopping.  She and her family recently decided that they are going to adopt a little GIRL from Ethiopia!  It has been so, so fun to follow their journey to bring home their precious girl.  I try not to be jealous that she gets to adopt before me.  ;)

Abby blogs over at Eat, Run, Teach if you want to read all about her life like I do!  :)

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The second blog friend I’ve met is Sarah.  Kelly from Kelly’s Korner once did a moms link-up of some kind and she had you list where you were from.  I participated, and so did Sarah, and we found out that I was living right near her hometown!  (This was in PA).  She ended up moving back to PA from Indianapolis only a few months after I moved from PA back to my home state of CT.  I will forever be sad that we never got a chance to live in the same state at the same time! 

 

{First time to meet – Fall 2012}

I got to meet Sarah this past fall on one of my trips back home to visit Chris’s family.  My first thought when I met her was, “Oh my gosh, she is so tiny!”  (I mean, I was also pregnant at the time, so that didn’t help!  lol).  To meet Sarah you would never ever know that she has had two kiddos! She is in great shape and super petite to boot.  She also has an adorable sense of style.  She knows how to put clothes together really well.  I joke that if I didn’t like Sarah so much, I’d have to hate her – she’s seriously a little Martha Stewart!  She is good at EVERYTHING.  She runs her own baking/catering company called Pink Balloon, she has a super cute house, she knows how to sew and applique and sent me THE CUTEST gifts for Olivia when she was born, she is an awesome photographer…the list goes on. 

Sarah is someone I can talk to for hours upon hours.  Actually, the first time we met, we met at a frozen yogurt shop.  We still had so much to talk about after the first two hours or so that we moved on to Starbucks to continue talking.  After another hour or two at Starbucks, our husbands – we had both informed them where we were, obviously – called within a few minutes of each other to make sure we were okay and not like, in the back of a van on the way to Mexico or something.  haha!  It was really cute.  Time just got away from us! 

 

{Livi and Sarah’s daughter Lucy – soon enough they’ll be playing dolls together!}

Our boys have some similar eating issues so it’s been so nice to have someone who can commiserate with that since it’s not too common.  (And, ironically, we both are passionate about healthy eating – Sarah actually has a degree in nutrition!)  And it’s fun that she has a boy and girl just like me.  I LOVE spending time with this girl and I’m thankful that at least I might get to see her once or twice a year on trips back to PA! 

Sarah blogs over at Growing on Gettysburg, if you want to hate her for being so talented and sweet check her out!  ;)

 

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What about you?  Have you ever gotten a chance to meet a blogging friend in real life?  It’s definitely scary to bridge that gap between the internet world and reality, but I’m so glad I did it in both cases!  I treasure Abby and Sarah and I’m thankful for their friendships! 

Or if you haven’t met anyone from the blogging world yet, who would you like to meet?  I have a lot of favorite blogs, but I have to admit that some of my favorite blogs aren’t necessarily people I’d most want to meet!  lol  (I feel rude to say that, but mostly it’s because I follow a lot of home design blogs for house inspiration.)

Of the “famous” bloggers, here are some I would LOVE to meet:

Kelly from Kelly’s Korner (I literally think I would faint if I met her – plus she’s Southern)
Sandy from Reluctant Entertainer
The Nester from Nesting Place (Southern)
Edie from Life in Grace (Southern)
Melissa from 320 Sycamore
Sarah from Clover Lane
Shannon from Bless Our Nest (Southern)

And some“regular” - but still fantastic!! - mom bloggers like me:

Clarita from Skies of Parchment (just found her blog and I LOVE it!)
Amy from The Blessed Mom (New England girl transplanted to Texas)
Lauren from Only from Scratch (Southern)
Kelly from Joyful Adorations (Southern)
Sarah from Through the Picture Window (New England mommy)

And that’s just a few of my favorites off the top of my head (please don’t be offended if I didn’t include you – I have total mom brain right now!!)

P.S. - Notice a trend in my favorite blogs?? lol