Mother's Day Flowers

I saw an arrangement similar to this online when I was looking for flowers to send to my mother-in-law but decided the hefty price of $60.00 was ridiculous.  I told myself I could do it, I mean I did work in a flower shop for 2 years in high school... haha.  I bought the flowers for $12.00 and a basket for $5 and a few supplies for another $5.  So, twenty bucks and 20 minutes later here is what you have:

My MIL is/was a vet tech and loves animals so I had to put the puppy in the mix.  Hopefully you can use your imagination and see Fido.

A close up of Fido.

Mr. Wonderful's Birthday & House Tour

First of all, it's next to impossible to get a good picture of this 31 year old.  He always says, "Old enough to know better, but still too young to care."  He had quite an eventful birthday.  There aren't too many people in our area that can say it snowed on their birthday in May.  Yes, we had snow.  There aren't too many people that can say they fought a house fire in the snow on their birthday either. 

Finally!!!!  He cooperated!

I asked him what he wanted for supper... "I don't care.  Suprise me!"  Ummm...  I do that 364 days of the year and for ONCE I would just like you to tell me what to make.  Thank you.  So he decided on REAL biscuits (you mean no frozen pillsbury! gasp!) and sausage gravy.  I did add some cream cheese to the gravy and it turned out awesome!  So creamy!

OUTSIDE HOUSE TOUR

I bought 2 wine barrels from Home Depot to use as side tables next to our porch swing.  The porch swing was a wedding gift from Jacob's siblings that they made.  I am looking for a taller lantern to put on the table because I am not 100% happy with this one.  It was one that I just had around the house.

For anyone who has not been to our house within the last year you may remember the old outdated yellow siding...  let me reveal to you the updated brick/siding job done by Jake & his dad.

I fell in love with this garage door when we were looking to replace our other one (ahem... due to 1 too many times of trying to back out of the garage without first raising the door)  On the right side of the garage is going to be a dinner bell.  I am in the process of painting it.  It will be black.  It was one that Grandma had way back when they lived on the farm and she used it when she needed Grandpa for something.  I've used it a few times when I would sound the "10 minutes until supper is on the table and you better be cleaned up and sitting down" warning.

Notice the 2 different colors of concrete.  They had to redo the steps and porch area so you can really see the newer concrete towards the back.  We plan to stain the concrete all one color as well as the garage floor this summer.  We do have the stain already it is just a matter of finding 3 good days to work on it.

Jake built these planters for me out of our old barn wood.  I have mums planted in there right now.  I shopped around for some planters but oh my!  The prices on these things are outrageous.  I decided I could build my own for way cheaper.  Jake didn't trust me and ended up doing it himself.  (Actually he is just way more particular than I am and didn't want to have to look at something that wasn't perfect for the next 10 years.)  I do plan to stain these the same color that we stained the swing.

The west side of the house.  Our projects this summer are going to be staining the patio concrete and working on our landscaping.  We have kind of started here.

Yep.  Pretty much blah back here.  We have lots of ideas but need lots more time to do them!