So at Christmas, I got Jake something that didn't end up working, so we returned it and he got to pick what he wanted instead. He came back with an electronic dart board... yep. He did. He planned a date night last weekend and made me supper and then we played darts... yep. We did.
He set up the dart board on the couch thinking he was saving the walls from my horrible aim, however, he didn't realize HOW horrible my aim really was.
Yep... this was mine. Remember the chair rail above the couch? 18 inches above the dart board? That's where my horrible aim took me.
We had so much fun! Jake said we would play 3 games. Best of three won. After I won the first 2 games, he changed it to best of 5. Then I lost the next three... The winning didn't really matter though. We had so much fun just spending time together and laughing at all our crazy aims that I was actually glad he picked this as one of his Christmas presents.
I have had my Christmas silk flower arrangement in the milk can on the patio since well, November. I was long overdo to refresh this old milk can. My husband used to keep used oil in this until I snagged it from him for our front patio decor :)
I chose to go with purples/greens/whites for this spring arrangement. It matches the patio swing and wine barrel tables on our patio.
This rustic milk can was actually used by Jacob's Grandpa when he milked cows!
To make these cute eggs for my nests on the mantel, I took a real egg and stuck a nail in both ends to make a hole. Move the nail around carefully in a circular motion so as not to crack the egg.
Blow on one end to push the egg out. It actually looks really gross!
Make sure your eggs are completely dry before the next step of painting. I grabbed some of my scrapbook paints, a foam paint brush, and toothbrush.
Paint the eggs with the springy blue color and let them dry. I just turned over the egg carton and used that as a drying stand.
After they are dry use the toothbrush to "flick" brown speckles on to the eggs.
This is a super easy, fun, and most of all FREE way to make Spring-y eggs. Now, I just need to make sure they don't fall off the mantle... because they will end up like Humpty Dumpty if they do!
I can't believe I have never tried this before now. Printing on burlap opens a whole new realm of possibilities for me!
First step: Cut freezer paper the size of a regular sheet of printer paper.
Next, put shiny side down onto burlap cut roughly the same size. Iron the freezer paper onto the burlap and trim the edges of the burlap so there won't be any strands getting stuck in your printer. The freezer paper will kind of wrinkle, this is normal.
Then I typed up how I wanted it print to out. Since I wanted to be able to get to letters for the banner out of each sheet, I had to turn the "P" upside down. Then print on regular paper just to make sure you have it right.
I had cut out a template of the banner and traced onto the burlap so I knew where to place the letters on the first one. After that, I traced it on after I printed the letters.
All the letters for "Spring"
Finished product:
I hope this tutorial can open some doors for you to explore working with burlap!
I finally got something done on my mantel this weekend. I haven't had anything on it since Christmas and it has really been bugging me! Part of the reason is I was afraid to put anything up there while we were actually using the fireplace because I have ruined some things since they got too hot.
I just used stuff that I had around the house and threw this together.
I printed the letters on burlap and cut out the banner. I used really small clothespins and jute to complete the banner. This was the first time I printed on burlap and let me tell you, I am hooked! This will not be the last project I do that involves burlap and printing.
I had this lantern outside next to our patio swing all last summer and had a hard time keeping it upright with all the wind here in Kansas, so thought I would bring it inside for now. I took real eggs and pierced the ends so I could blow the egg out and painted them. I had the white metal basket with grass that I have used for centerpieces before.
I just found an old frame and spray painted it white. I had some moss covered rocks that I threw in there.
I had some leftover silk flowers from an outdoor arrangement I did for the patio that I put in this white pitcher. I tied some burlap to it to tie in the banner. I found these fake nests at Hobby Lobby that I thought were so cute!
Our weather has been perfect for spring this week. I am looking forward to more beautiful days! Happy Spring everyone!
Over 6 months ago I had gotten a note card in the mail saying that there was a class action lawsuit against Amway and that since we were dealers during that specific time, we may receive something. I forgot all about it until a couple weeks ago I got a huge heavy box in the mail. Then the next day I got another one. I ended up with 8 jugs of laundry detergent, 6 bottles of fabric softener and 6 bottles of stain remover. Oh, and 3 bottles of echinacea pills. Anyone have any idea what they are for? I've heard of people taking echinacea for allergies, but not sure what the reason is.
Jacob & I spent one evening working on building a tote rack for the basement so I can put all my totes of seasonal decor in an organized place. This is what happens when I leave them randomly on his gun reloading bench or in front of his vet supplies cupboard.
I got to run the impact drill. It was a lot of fun! I thought of many other projects I want to use it for. Can you tell how excited I was?
On Presidents Day Aunt Jannette, Ester, Mom Knobloch, and I went to Wichita to do some shopping. Ester's co-worker had told her about this fun Greek restaurant so we ate there for lunch. You could sign their wall if you wanted to.
We couldn't pronounce, nor did we know what most of the things on the menu was so we ordered an appetizer sampler that had things like hummus, grape leaves, taboulah, kibbeh, kafta, and baba ghannooj.
Yep. Even these country girls can come to town once in a while. Hummus was the only thing we had a clue about. The baba ghannooj was some sort of eggplant dish. If you are interested in knowing what the other things are you can go to their menu .
We followed it up with Tiramisu. It's a dessert made with coffee liqueur, lady fingers, and mascarpone cheese. I have had tiramisu and hummus before. Otherwise, everything else was broadening my horizens. It was delish and I would go back!
We saw this cute natural foods store and took a look around. Their prices scared us, but other than that it was so clean and organized I would have loved to shop there!
You could mix your own trail mix.
Last weekend Kurt, Alex, and Nyla and us went to Washington, IL to see Layne & Heather (Wulf) Steffen. It was so much fun to travel with other people and it was so good to see Layne, Heather, and baby Gabe! Unfortunately I don't have very many pictures, but fortunately for you they are all of Miss Nyla!
Such a sweetie!
Isn't she just a cutie!
This one isn't a very good picture, but I had to throw it in there with her all snuggled in with her baby.
This past weekend was our Invite-A-Guest and we had Todd & Kara Strahm. The weather man was predicting some sleet and snow so most of everyone's guests canceled out. Meaning, Todd & Kara were half of the guests for the weekend. There were a couple college guys that were also brave. So the 144 pieces of fried chicken that I ordered? Yeah, we had 34 people to eat it. I was able to cut it down to 96 pieces so it wasn't quite as bad. But we also had a full roaster of potatoes and a full roaster of green beans that these 34 people needed to eat as well.
So if you know anything about Angry Birds, you must watch this video before I explain the next few pictures.
Todd introduced Nathan to the game Angry Birds. Then he had to play several levels before handing it over to Nathan.
Nathan finally gets it...
30 minutes later...
And I have more pictures just like the above that proves he is now addicted.
Sunday morning we got a phone call that they were going to cancel the meal that afternoon but would still have church due to the weather. The weather did basically nothing (remember, I am an Iowa girl) and we had 4 large spaghetti casseroles, 3 loaves of garlic bread, 6 containers of cottage cheese, and 6 dozen ice cream treats to eat. Hmmm... So we had the young couples (8) and the young group (4) with a total of 12 people to stuff themselves. We didn't get rid of near enough food so needless to say, Jacob has a lot of work to do. Hope you all had a blessed weekend and if anyone knows of a good use for echinacea pills, please let me know!
