You can totally make that!

This week's project has been Rylan and Grant's room. We've made some steady progress and I've had a fun week of creating(actually just stealing other people's ideas).

I made a banner to match their quilts and got some great decorations at Hobby Lobby for 50% off. An old green dresser we got off of craigslist years ago got a new coat of paint and new knobs(also 50% off). I found the old ladder in the barn. My favorite find though, is the cute antique fan. Got it at Joe's in the Old Market for $5.00.

I found an adorable paper airplane mobile on Etsy.com It was made from scrapbook paper. Could I make that? Heck yeah! Maybe not quite identical to the one online, but considering I used scraps of paper I already had in my scrap paper box, I think mine will do just fine.

Etsy: $36.00 for 5 planes

Mine: $0.00 Remember I used scraps I already had? Score!

Rylan has been begging for one of these little "Ugly Dolls" from Land of Nod.

They carry them at a store in the Old Market and he's a little obsessed.

Land of Nod: $19.95

Mine: $0.75

Two squares of felt at 4/$1.00, plus some stuffing.

Also, mine actually matches their room.

Projects

The Fall season has begun and that means it's time to start up house projects again! I haven't really done any projects or decorating since Spring. It was nice to take several months off and just enjoy family time in the Summer, but I'm happy to get going on the house again. Since we found out that we're having another girl we decided to move everyone in to different rooms. That means months of decorating for me....YAY!

Here are a couple of things we've been working on these last two weeks.

I'll start with the worst. This is the girls' room. It's going to be blue/grey and white with some touches of green. I want it to have a very french influence with lots of cute little birds. We started last night by taking down 2 layers of ugly border. By we, I mean my mom. Thanks Mom! The color is not quite correct in the picture but the original wall color is a brown squashy color. We're painting all the trim white because it's so mismatched and pieced together.

The new wall color is a really really light blue. Almost white, actually. I just painted the one wall so far. I want some light brown and white tree silhouettes painted on the biggest wall and it dawned on me last night that I should take advantage of Loyal being here, so I hurriedly put two coats on so he could paint the trees before he leaves. He is a professional artist and travels all over the country with an art company that does insanely huge murals and sculptures for mega churches. Pretty neat stuff. I'm really excited that he can paint the trees for me because I cannot draw a tree to save my life! I'll post pics of the trees tomorrow.

Here's the inspiration for the trees

The steps. Still very much a work in progress. I stripped the tops of the steps of two layers of paint and we've stained a couple. The wall obviously still needs to be sanded and painted and it's a big project but it's coming along. I just sanded the fronts of the steps last week, painted them white and added the numbers.

Our bedroom: Almost done! Repainted everything including the floor. My good friend Leia is coming sometime soon to help me paint the floor with a diamond pattern. It will be greyish blue and white. I cannot wait to see how it turns out!!! As you can see, I also still need to get knobs for a couple of the dresser drawers.

It's been a busy couple of weekends for weddings.

This first bouquet was for Jacob and Becca's wedding, a couple from our church.

And this one was for Andy and Sarah Kate, some friends from "way back when." How lucky for me that I got to do TWO hydrangea weddings in a row! I just love hydrangeas!

A Summery Summary

Here are a few highlights from our busy and super fun summer!

A visit from cousins Caity and Jackson all the way from Oregon! We spent some time downtown at Spaghetti Works and checked out the sights.

SOTO Festival! Two days of extreme fun at an outreach festival Candlewood put on. Lots of people showed up and got to hear the gospel(YAY), testimonies, and some great music from the worship teams. The kids had a wonderful time. Two bounce houses...need I say more?

The police showed up....

We visited the Hot Shops open house. The kids watched a really cool demonstration on some type of water/oil marbleizing. Really beautiful stuff.

Trever and Aubrie's Wedding!

We headed to Kansas to help Trever and Aubrie celebrate their big day. Aaron sang in the wedding, I accompanied him on the piano, and the kids were ring bearer and flower girl. They took their jobs very seriously :) It was a beautiful wedding and a perfect day.

Here are the proud ring bearer and flower girl. They both did marvelously!

Bree & Cousin Calvin, the other ringbearer

Aunt Karrie!

Aaron and I with the beautiful bride and handsome groom.

Aaron did a little work on the front of the house. We got a little landscaping and a new boardwalk put in!

Our water bill was a little high this summer....I think the hose was out almost every day.

We spent some time at the Lake on various occasions.

Elle at the lake, enjoying either cookies or dirt....

Grant with his homie Naldo

Rylan and Uncle Cole

The lake was really high this year, so no sandy beach :( We had to settle for mud.

Summer showers and winter boots

You know Summer is drawing to a close when the school supplies are on sale!

Here are the kids with their new pencil boxes and crayons.

Tried to get a picture of all four at Becca Whitney's grad party last a few weeks ago. No such luck.

The almost finished kitchen

Before:

After: Not quite finished yet. I still need to put some shelves above the bar, make new curtains, and put new pendant lighting in, but it's getting there!

Aaron and I put in a hickory floor, and Adam Sleeper was kind enough to help Aaron build the bar. It's so nice to have that extra counter space and it's beautiful!!!

Cole, the Union Worker

Cole had just enough time to stop over on Sunday and rip out our steps, take a couple of coffee breaks, and leave.

Just kidding! Actually, he got half of the base for the new ones built! Instead of turning at the bottom, the base he built goes straight down. The kids have been slightly confused about this and have several times, out of habit almost fallen off the other way!

Kitchen Phase 1

Phase one of kitchen project - paint cabinets!

Tomorrow we're going to order the flooring. We have to wait 2 weeks for it to come in, because no one in Omaha carries laminate in the color we want. :( I will have to be patient, which is really hard right now, because I'm so excited to get it all done! Phase 3 will be to put in a long wooden countertop with bar stools, on the wall where the pot rack is currently hanging. I'm very much looking forward to having a little more seating. I think it will really come in handy when I start school with Rylan and Bree next month. We will be able to have our school area and eating area separate. Shelves will go above the counter with plenty of room for all our plates, bowl, pitchers, etc....The top half of the wall will be painted with black chalkboard paint and the bottom will be knotty pine painted white! In the meantime, I'm going to try and get the rest of the walls painted and make some curtains.

Michelle and my aunt Marilyn came over Saturday morning, and we were able to get all the cabinets painted in ONE DAY, thanks to the awesome primer-and-paint-in-one that Stacy recommended to me. Definitely worth the extra 10 bucks! Thanks also go out to Stacy, who after a year and a half of me wishing for a white kitchen, was the only person to say, "who cares if the cabinets are new, paint them anyway!" Stacy, you're the best!