July 3, 2005

This was the day I married my very best friend, the love of my life, Brandon(Beeg). We had our ceremony on Alki Beach in Seattle, WA. It was supposed to be a rainy day, however we lucked out and enjoyed an 80 degree, beautiful day. It was a small wedding with our immediate family and those we chose to have as part of our wedding party! The whole day was relaxing and perfect. We followed the wedding with dinner at Anthony's Homeport on Pier 66 downtown Seattle. The very next weekend we celebrated with all of our friends and family at a casual reception at my Mom's home. Something a lot of people don't know is we had our wedding exactly 2 years after mine and my husbands first date...a fireworks show!

This time of year holds so many wonderful memories for me. The warmth, the beach and fireworks. It's all so heartwarming! I have had six wonderful years of being married to my husband and I feel so lucky to know that for the rest of our lives, we'll get to enjoy this time of the year (and the rest of the year) together! I love you so, so much Beeg. You are my best friend and I am so blessed to be in love with you. Happy Six Year Anniversary. May we be forever in love.

Forget You

So, this is a very quick post! I thought I'd share with you what my boys do while I'm away. I'm so glad my husband is a great entertainer. I love these boys! Enjoy :)

I linked up to:
Little Lucy Lu

Fourth of July Sparklers

{re-post}

I've been trying to upload this all morning, finally blogger is letting me post a picture. So, before I lose you again this is a re-post from last July. Many of you may not have seen this post as I was new to the blogging game and maybe had two followers at the time. So, I thought this would be a good re-post for the Fourth! These were so quick and easy to make. The kids and adults loved them. You can go HERE to read the whole tutorial. I'm wondering if I should make these again since they were so quick and easy or if I should try another fun Fourth of July inspired treat. Please share with me if you're making a Red, White & Blue dessert.

Pop-Its If there is one thing that reminds me of the 4TH of July more than anything, it's Pop-Its! I am absolutely terrified of at-home fireworks, ie. bottle rockets, fire crackers. They just scare me. Pop-Its are just about the only noise makers I can handle. Don't get me wrong, I love a good fireworks show, but only from a distance.

The box of Pop-Its says for kids 12 and up, but even my 4 year old got a little bored after doing these for bit. But, how cute would a box of these wrapped in paper or just as-is be for a party favor?! I should have thought of it when I got married.(our 6 year anniversary is July3rd) Anyways, here is my two year old Easton having a grand ol' time playing with them. I bet he was thinking," I can actually stand here, make a bunch of noise and not get in trouble...YES!"

Staring them down....HMMMM, which one to step on?!
I guess for a two year old, just throwing them down is not as fun. You really have to give them a good stomp.

He was so Happy! I love seeing one of my favorite 4TH Of July memories being carried on through my kids. Makes me Happy!

Star Garland

Finally, I have a new craft project to share with you. I feel like I've been slacking a bit lately. I guess I have an excuse...I have a two and four year old. Sometimes, you just don't have the time. As you can tell, I made over my blog header! Looks a bit more festive for the holiday. These boys already love hearing the random pops of firecrackers in the neighborhood. We are really looking forward to the Fourth of July!!! So, to celebrate, here is a quick tutorial for an easy star garland.
This was incredibly easy. All you need is some twine, hot glue and felt stars.

I picked up the felt stars at JoAnn Fabrics in their dollar section. You could also cut the stars out yourself, but for $2 I would rather have them already cut out and perfect looking.

All you do is space them out evenly, hot glue the twine to the back of the star, let them dry and....

Voila! A simple, festive garland for the Fourth of July.

I hung this one on the window over my couch.

And another on the chalkboard in my kitchen. I'm learning that I love things that are more simple and not so fussy! This was absolutely a simple project. I have more Fourth of July things to share with you all week, so stay tuned!







I linked up:






Embellishing Life





Ladybug Blessings




At Home With K



Homework


Someday Crafts

The Shabby Nest
Fingerprints on the Fridge

Lolly Jane

Happy Friday everyone! I hope it's been a great week for you. Sorry for the lack of posts this week, I've been having some troubles with my computer uploading photos. I'm still here and will be spending all next week sharing some 4Th of July stuff with you!

So here we go, another edition of Friday Favorites. This week has a theme, PINK. It's a color that doesn't make it's way into this household much(I live with 3 boys) so I just love seeing any project with the color PINK. These ones are fabulous! Enjoy.

Check out what Mimi did with this old shutter, some chalk paint and clay pots! This is so clever and turned out fantastic in this bright, pink color. I love it! Head over to MESSY MIMI and take a look.

Next up is this Shabby Chic lamp made by Camilla @ 1st Lady of The House
How adorable is this?! If I had a girl, I would absolutely attempt making a cute lamp like this. Great job Camilla!

Finally, Leanne @ Organize And Decorate Everything created this tray out of a frame! So, so creative. I love this idea and I might just have to make one for myself. It turned out great. Go visit Leanne and see how she made it.

I hope you enjoyed all of these projects as much as I did. Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

Driftwood and Shells...more Summer decor

A few weeks ago, these cute boys and I went for a walk down by the Snake River! Just because you don't live by the Sea doesn't mean you can't find some driftwood. And you know me, always trying to find FREE stuff to decorate with.
The things I can get my husband to do for me...he's such a trooper!

I found this cute galvanized container at a local dollar store and added our found driftwood. A whole dollar to decorate the coffee table!

I also added a piece to our SUMMER MANTLE DECOR. I love it next to the SALT DOUGH STARFISH.



Now, there is a few things that you'll never find at the river...white sand and seashells. However, Walmart had these shells and sand that I got last Summer for pretty cheap. Better yet, I can use them year after year.

I love how simple this is to put together.

It looks cute with my TWINE WRAPPED CANDLE HOLDER.

Wishing everyone a Happy First Day of Summer.

I linked up:

Someday Crafts

Under The Table And Dreaming

Bedside Table Makeover

I've had this bedside table since before my husband and I were even together. Probably about 13 years now. I would say it was time to give it a makeover. It just didn't match anything in our room. This is the first of 3 painting projects we'll be doing for our room this Summer. This was so quick and easy. The next two painting projects might take some time, so hang with me.
First thing first, we decided to remove the pull down drawer for good! Not my style.

I have to give my husband a big THANK YOU for doing most of the work for this project. We did get to do all the painting together. I love doing projects with him! Here he is above giving the whole table a good sanding.

Here it is with one coat of paint. We used an off-white color that we got from a miss-tinted section of a paint store. That made this project super cheap. Like four dollars cheap! Love it.

Here it is all finished! I think it looks so much better. White always makes everything so fresh and clean looking.

I put just a tiny bit of distressing on it. I didn't want it too rustic looking.


We have a ton more painting projects we'll be working on this Summer and I can't wait to get them started. Stay tuned!





I linked up:




Embellishing Life



At Home With K


Homework

Domestically Speaking
Someday Crafts

Happy Dad's Day

This post is in honor of the most important Dad's in my life! You have made our family what it is today. Happy Father's Day to all of you. I love you!

Papa

My Dad! You've taught me how to be a loving, caring , creative person. You encouraged me to share my creativity with others. Every time I do a Holiday project, I think of you! I feel like my heart is always open and more understanding because of you. I love you Dad.

Grandpa

You are my Dad-in-law. You've taught me a certain calm I never knew before and how to be more aware of the choices we make as a family. Thank you for raising the wonderful man I call my husband.

Dad

My husband and the Father to my boys! The boys and I love you more than you'll ever know. You are the center, the rock, the strength, the provider of our family. I couldn't be luckier to be your wife and our boys are lucky to have you as their Dad. We love you!

If you are just joining my blog, starting two weeks ago I began featuring my Friday Favorites. Every Friday I will feature 3 of my favorite things I've found from either bloggers that I follow or things I've found on linky parties. Week by week I am inspired by so many creative bloggers and I just have to share some of the great things that I come across! Here is to week 3 of my Friday Favorites...Enjoy!


Don't sprinkles just make everything so much better?! These are so simple, yet gives plain ol' sugar cookies a little bit of cuteness. Head over to Jamie's blog TWO PLUS JILLY and see how she made these fun cookies.

I am absolutely going to make these sometime this Summer. You will not believe what this sweet corn on the cob is made of! Go check them out at I'M A MOM NOT A PROFESSIONAL.

My oh my, does this look amazing or what? This is inspired by one of my favorites...The Twix Bar, YUM! You have to check this recipe out at THE SWEET DETAILS.
Alright, I must have been hungry for sweets this week when looking through all the great projects. I hope you enjoy checking out all of these delicious features. Happy Friday everyone!

I'm having troubles uploading pictures to a blog post :( I'll be back maybe later tonight or tomorrow with a post. Sorry for the delay!

Easy Summer-y Candle Holder

This seriously takes 10 minutes from start to finish. All you need is a mason jar, some twine and hot glue. I had all of these things on hand, so this was a FREE project for me. FREE is my favorite! I was trying to come up with some easy Summer-y accessories and this is how I made a cute candle holder.
Unroll your twine a bit...


Put a small amount of hot glue on the jar and stick on the piece of twine. Let if dry for about two minutes before you start wrapping the jar.

Wrap the twine around the jar adding some glue in a few spots to keep the twine from falling off the jar.

Keep wrapping till you get to the top and that's it! Easy, right?!

I added a little sand to the bottom and a tea light! I think it turned out really cute. I combined it to some other containers holding sand and shells. I'll share those with you tomorrow.

Before you go out and buy Summer accessories for your home, check your cupboards and drawers to see what you can make for FREE. Come back and share them with me!

I linked up to:

Lolly Jane

Mom's Potato Salad

My Mom's potato salad is my FAVORITE potato salad ever! It's something my siblings and I look forward to having at least one time per year. We had a BBQ this past Friday with our neighbors and I thought this would be the perfect time to make it. I could not wait to eat it. Here is my version of my Mom's Potato Salad. Thanks for letting me share it Mom...Love you!

We always make sure that we'll have leftovers for the next day, so I started out with a 5 lb. bag of red potatoes. Boil them whole in some salted water just until you can easily stick a fork through them. You don't want them too soft or you'll have mashed potato salad. I did this the night before. I let them cool on the counter then put them in the fridge to cool overnight. This makes for easy cutting the next day.

Friday morning, I made some bacon! YUMMM. We bake ours in the oven by laying the bacon on baking sheets and cooking them on 400 degrees for about 20 min or until crispy! I just happened to make some extra for breakfast. You can't make bacon for a dish and not want to eat some right then and there!

While the bacon was in the oven, I cubed up the potatoes that have cooled overnight in the fridge. I added about a tablespoon of pepper and kosher salt. When the bacon was done and cooled a bit, I crumbled about 8 slices right into the potatoes. And, if you wanna get a little indulgent, haha...poor some of the rendered bacon grease over the potatoes. Yep, this is why we don't make this all the time. I didn't say this was going to be healthy, but its oh so good!

Next up, you can't have a potato salad without some pickles.

Cut into small pieces and add them in. I also add in about an 1/8 cup of pickle juice. I love that hint of vinegar taste in a potato salad. I added about 3 large pickles.

Olives....you either love them or hate them. Our family loves them. I find it's cheaper to buy the whole ones then chop them up. I used about 15 large olives.

I'm not gonna lie, I just had to put a whole one on my finger and eat it. My boys did too.

What potato salad would be complete without Mayo?! I add about 3/4 of a cup and if that's not enough after stirring it in, I'll add small amounts till I get the right consistency! Just don't over do it. Nothing worse than tasting all Mayo.

Now, this is where I differ from my Mom. I really don't like raw onion taste. She usually adds in green onion. I'll either add in sauteed onions or onion powder like I did this time. Add in about 2 teaspoons of onion powder.

I thought I was done, but nope! After mixing it all together, I tasted it and it was a bit bland. So I added a dash more pepper, a little more salt and just a little bit of yellow mustard. This made it perfect!

Finally, put it in a clean bowl for serving and add a sprinkle of paprika to the top or you can garnish it with some parsley. There you have it. Sorry, I did not take a staged picture in a cute bowl. We were so ready to dig into this at dinner time I totally forgot to take a snapshot of my plate.

This is my all-time favorite BBQ side dish. I can't ever go a whole Summer without having it at least once. Thanks Mom for sharing this recipe with me so I can in turn share it with my kids.

I linked up:

Centsational Girl